genessia | Put On Your Red Shoes

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Put On Your Red Shoes

WHO: Yang Xiao Long
WHAT: Now that Ruby's feeling better, Yang's cutting loose and enjoying herself hitting all the clubs.
WHEN: December 26, 2013 - Evening
WHERE: Genessia City - Nightclubs

The city was fairly sleepy during the daytime, Yang noticed. Some people went to and from work, and some visited businesses, but all in all it was still pretty quiet. When dark dropped, the lights went up, and the steady bass thump from dance clubs and bars could be heard from about a dozen places ranging from not-so-seedy to downright gross.

Yang aimed for one of the nicer clubs, somewhere that people with cash to spend might want to go for a few drinks and a few dances. She went on foot, as the motorcycle she was working on at Dean's shop still needed some more repairs and a new splash of paint before it'd be ready to take on the streets.

The chill of the winter air was chased away as she stepped into the heat of the club, and she unzipped her jacket. She'd warm herself up plenty soon enough, especially when she hit the dance floor.

Already her heart was beating fast with anticipation. Time to go have some fun!

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He actually makes a little sound of annoyance just before she fires off her shot. He flicks his arm and sends the briefcase skidding along the snow and then ducks under the blast with the same easy, fluid motion he'd dodged her last two blows with.

The next thing she'll see is him right in her face. He won't throw any punches or kicks, but just reach out to grab her arm again and twist. Using the mechanics of the human body and simple physics to swing her around and try to take her feet out from under her.

Guh...! There's no way any person could possibly be this good. Yang grits her teeth in annoyance, the playful and easygoing smile long gong. He's not someone she can play with, nor will she be granted any allowance for fun. If someone like this was involved in grabbing Ruby, then Yang can understand a little better how someone could manage to nab such a fierce and fast warrior.

Yang shuffles her feet trying to keep them out of the way, trying to reverse her grip on the arm that holds hers in order to change the momentum. If it isn't obvious that she's not kidding around anymore, the slight 'fwoosh' that accompanies the subdued blaze of her hair is probably a decent indication.

It's fairly obvious that playtime is over, but then, it never started for him. This had always been a fight for her life, Yang had just caught up to that fact now.

The dance continues for a little while with both of them trying to assert their grip on the other and dodging attempts to trip each other up. Finally though, he just sighs a little and pulls his arm back with all that strength, more than enough to toss Yang through the air like a rag doll and hurl her back toward a brick wall.

"You are getting in way over your head here, kid."

Yang grunts as her shoulders slam into the unyielding bricks, her teeth grit. But when she recovers, her eyes are scarlet. Is she up against someone that can defeat her? Possibly. But as he probably realizes, Yang doesn't care. She pounds her fists together, and her hair blazes.

"You guys crossed a line that should never have been crossed," she snarls, launching herself at her opponent. Instead of barreling straight toward him, she stops just a foot shy, then zips to the right in order to drive her strikes at his side. "Like hell I'll back down! EVER!"

They'd hurt her little sister, threatened her friends, terrorized her home town. Forgiveness would never be granted to them, and neither would mercy.

The change in her eyes gets a bit of a surprised reaction from him, as well as the blast of flame from her hair. This time, when she charges him, he actually brings his hands up to fend off her attack.

And then she dodges sharply to the left and he hisses out a breath, just turning in time to catch her first strike with his metal arm instead of his face. The hell? Where did this come from?

For the first time since the fight started, he's finally on the defensive, just holding his own against the sudden onslaught of explosive attacks, each one driving him back another step.

Finally, now she was getting somewhere. Who says violence never solved anything? They just didn't apply enough of it.

Yang was, though. And she's not letting up, not until she gets the answers she wants...the ones she deserves. M put her sister through hell, and he's going to pay for that. This guy is going to help her make sure of it.

Punch after punch comes in, varied from high to low, from jab to cross-cut. There's even a rustle of fabric as she spins to throw the heel of her boot at his jaw before she pivots and makes to slam him skyward with a rocketing punch meant to lift him clean off his feet.

[Okay, fine, you can have the song.]

Punch after punch rained down and clashed with metal arms, but she's gaining ground. Finally, he gives a yell of his own and throws a crushing punch.

Their fists strike with an explosion and the moment hangs... and then a web of cracks spread down the bionic arm and sparks fly as it blows apart.

"I-impossible--ghrk!" The kick slams into his jaw, snapping his head back and then the punch comes. His eyes bulge and fire explodes from the impact, launching him up into the air to come down hard on the ground.

Impossible? No. Inevitable? Yes.

Her expression is almost downright cold, despite the fiery aura burning all around her, as she plows her opponent into the ground. He was down, but this wasn't over. One boot crunched into the slushy snow on his right side, then on his left, as Yang crouched over him and seized his collar to hoist him up.

"Who are you working for?" she demanded, her eyes fierce. "Who gave you the Dust? Who sent those punks?" Her grip tightened, fabric creaking in her fingers. "Give me answers and I'll let you go!"

There's a grunt when he hauls her up, and he glares right back at her but it doesn't look like he'll be doing any more fighting. His right arm is sparking at his side and he twists his head to spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Is that what that stuff is called?" He gives her a bloody grin. "Dunno, where'd you get yours?"

Yang smiled sweetly...and crammed her knee against his groin, digging in as she kept her grip on his spoiled jacket. "Let's keep in mind who's doing the questioning, loverboy."

She lifted him up just enough to slam him down again, to shake that obnoxious self-satisfied smirk off of his face. "Don't make me ask again. I want a name, and a location! WHO IS IT?"

Oh, that gets his attention. There's a sharp intake of breath and and his teeth grit together.

"I dunno, alright!" He gasped out after getting slammed on the ground again. "Nobody ever sees his face! He comes to us!"

He shook his head, still wincing from that knee.

"And even if we did, it's gonna take a lot more than an asskicking in an alley to get anyone to roll over on him."

"That Dust didn't just materialize out of thin air!" Yang refused to let up, not until she had at least something to go on. "Who gave it to you? Where?"

At least she knew she wasn't the only one who suspected M to be a man, but that still doesn't narrow things down enough to be useful.

That just got a bitter laugh and a shake of his head.

"Some guy. The deal went down in a crap alley on Thistle. Just a handoff, didn't even ask for names." He shrugged. "Those are the rules, kid, and everybody plays by his rules."

Yang narrowed her eyes. It seemed like he was telling the truth. It also seemed like she wasn't going to get anything more out of him; he'd already given up everything he had.

At least she had a new location to check out.

Her grip relaxed at last as she stood to her feet, unstraddling her fallen opponent. "Not everybody." She glanced back over her shoulder with a smirk, before striding forward. Empty shells dropped from her gauntlets as she twisted her wrists, and retracted her gauntlets.

The briefcase he'd dropped was carelessly tossed backward, clattering and skidding to a stop next to the downed thug.

He grunted when she let him go, pushing himself up.

"You think you're gonna take this guy down, huh? I got news for you, kid, you got some moves but--"

A sound cut through the air, a low buzzing almost like a bee passing over Yang's head. A buzz of movement, a sick sound of impact and his parting words stop dead with a quiet thump.

He lay on the ground, eyes staring blankly at the sky, a perfect round hole in the middle of his forehead. Blood pooling beneath him.

A sniper?!

Yang's look of shock was there for only a split second...replaced by sheer, bubbling hot rage. He was hers. She had fought him. She had won. He was her prey, and now someone dared to take that away from her?

At least she had a direction to shoot for. Her boots thudded quick and fast on the pavement as Yang began to run, flinging a fresh pair of clips into the air and thrusting out her arms to catch the reload. As soon as the bullets were back in place, she was throwing incendiary bullets, firing in the direction of the sniper. Maybe she'd have an opportunity to shake down someone a little higher up the chain.

Yang's explosion of anger didn't exactly go unnoticed. Even if it wasn't for the inferno burning down in the alley, the barrage of fireballs absolutely obliterating the top floor of the building across the street would have given her away.

"Yang!" Her first shout is way too quiet compared to the blasting sound from Yang's gauntlets. Blake scowls and moves in, reaching out to snatch her arm when she pulls back for another punch. "Yang! Stop it!"

She's surprised to say the least, instinctively jerking her fist forward to dislodge it from her friend's grip. Not now. She can't be stopped now.

"We have to keep moving!" she insists, unwilling to take her eyes off of that floor any longer than necessary. "We've got a LEAD up there. We can't let them get away, or we'll never find it again!"

She let go when Yang jerked her arm free. Blake doesn't have any illusions, she knows Yang's stronger than her and that if she wants out, she's getting out.

"We have to go!" She pointed a finger up toward the fire already burning across the street. "Look at what you're doing, what do you think you're going to find in that?"

"Answers!" came the quick response. There was a fire escape, probably too high to reach, but the adjacent alleyway could give her a boost if she leaped and kicked off of it. Yang naturally expected that Blake would be close behind. They were friends, and they were partners. They both knew what was at stake, and how important it was to get to M and stop him before he hurt anyone else.

"Come on!" she beckoned, preparing to make the jump.

Blake frowned up at the fire fire and then gave a glance backwards at the corpse, forcing down the natural revulsion at the sight to a sort of detachment. This was the worst situation. At best, they were about to run afoul of Captain Hammer and at worst, they were targets.

But Yang was right. They were partners, and friends, and that meant having each other's backs.

"Fine. Go, but we have to be fast."

Just so long as Blake didn't think Yang was the one who shot him. Yang had no idea how much Blake had seen, but whatever it was, it was fine. She vaulted up, planting her boot against the opposing brick wall with a 'hup!', then launched herself up onto the fire escape. She climbed over the wrought iron railing, then flattened herself to stick her arm through the bars and help Blake up to join her.

Then she was back on her feet, racing up the fire escape as quickly as her long legs could carry her. Whoever fired that shot wasn't allowed to get away, not until Yang had a chance to shake him down for more information.

At the very least, Blake was certain that if Yang had been the one who shoot the guy there would be a lot less left.

She was right behind Yang, bounding up the side of the wall and snagging her arm to use as a boost up into the air. A quick shadow dash and she makes it quickly to the rooftop, rolling to a stop and bringing Gambol Shroud up to sweep across the opposite rooftop.

Nothing. This was starting to look like a wild goose chase.

Edited 2013-12-29 20:08 (UTC)

Yang was right behind her, fists clenched. Her hair swooshed as she looked left, and again when she looked right, her red eyes scouring the rooftops for signs of anyone suspicious.

Impossible. How could someone get away? She was positive her shots hadn't actually hit anyone, so it's not like there was an unconscious body to find.

She was frustrated. It wasn't outwardly obvious, aside from a faint narrowing of her eyes, a slight tightening of her fists. But she kept her anger locked up tight, red fading back to lavender as her gold hair was doused back to normal.

"Looks like he got away. Somehow."

She turned to shrug as if it were no big deal, smiling at Blake. "Guess we better scram, huh?"

Blake straightened, putting Gambol Shroud back into its place on her back. Just as she'd thought, there was nobody to find up here and whoever had taken the shot had vanished just as quickly.

At Yang's smile, Blake just turned and gave her a sharp look. No, she was not buying that at all. She'd seen Yang get frustrated, seen her blow up in a blaze of temper during a fight, but losing it? No.

But that was also not the time. They'd talk about it later.

"Yes. We'd better."

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solar_flare - 2013-12-29 20:47 (UTC) - Expand

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