Vei Rin-Chapter 3: Equal Footing?
A/N: THANK YOU MILIVOLTS, FOR POINTING THINGS OUT IN THE LAST CHAPTER! I went ahead and fixed things up, just letting you guys know in case some of you didn't. Genos didn't pick up her heart rate or notice any mental processes, or visibly see her running from afar. He just saw an energy level gaining distance from the other energy levels. In chapter one, I fixed a couple spots too but nothing TOO major. Mostly just the rocky-spongebob rip off, monster in the beginning. XD
I like this chapter a bit more! I watched episode eight and half of nine to make things better. ^^
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In the shadows, Rin was hidden in an ally way nearby a couple of people who decided to converse. Her back was against the wall of a building, eavesdropping on a bald man in a yellow outfit and a male on a bicycle. They were on a four way street, hard pouring rain making it difficult to listen in on their conversations but she could make out a little bit. "I just need to know when they're gone, so I can keep going. I hope it's not much further to Z from here..." She stated in her mind and had her head looking off to the side.
"Wait you're...Class C, rank 2." The man on the bike stated and watched the man stare at him in return.
"You a hero too? Have you seen Genos?" The baldy questioned and made Rin squint her gaze at the name.
"Genos...?" Rin's mental question echoed and she inched a bit closer to the corner, attempting to try and hear better. She crouched down, arms now between her legs and her backside resting against the wall. The waiting game was issued and patience was one of her best qualities. The woman was getting soaked by the rain, making her attire stick to her skin. "Honestly, running on the ground would be best at this point. If I were to climb and jump across buildings for shortcuts, I'd slip easily considering the wetness on the surfaces." She added in her mind and closed her eyes, not once stirring in her position. She remained calm, listening to the rain and just for a brief moment, letting her guard down.
"Genos?" The male asked, everything soon became quiet. The white tiger woman herself kept her ears open but her eyes closed. Closing off her vision and lowering her guard, would help her focus more on the sound of their voices.
"This little trick was what my master taught me. Keeping calm, staying quiet, listening in by closing off other things that I need to focus on in order to listen for my enemies while hidden. Even though I asked for him to train me and learn the ways of ninja arts, along side martial arts for offense and defense, he never really questioned why. I'm actually grateful he didn't. Maybe...he knew...I was troub-" Before she got to finish her mental dialogue, a man's voice spoke up and caused her eyes to snap open.
"Sure." The bald male said with a bored tone to it, as he climbed on the back of the rider's bike and headed to a destination. He must have been offered a ride by that man, to go somewhere. Her head lifted up an inch, her guard had risen and she stood back up against the wall again. He held on the back of the rider and rode standing up, eventually gaining speed until he saw the feline herself in the ally. His eyes widened a fraction, watching her green slits follow his frame for a brief moment. He looked ahead, pondered there for a second then decided to ignore her.
Rin just stood there and knowing the man was gone, she quickly peeked around the corner and checked to see if it was any signs of incoming creatures. "No signs of anything, now's my chance." her mental thoughts resonated. Swiftly, she rushed around the corner and took cautious measures. Running at full sprint right through the heavy rain, she knew it'd make it hard to focus on her surroundings so she just normally ran. Though, before she got any further down the street...a clawed hand grasped her green ribbon and caught her. She froze in place,slits thin from shock and a stiffened body.
"Heheheheh...I thought those slits looked familiar! That stupid hero earlier today never had a chance... One smack and he got knocked out, such a little wimp." A low grumbling voice echoed behind her, eyes narrowed and her slits looked in their corners.
"Vei must have ran into him earlier today because, I don't recall this guy. I'm curious now...how did he learn of our eyes when she wears sunglasses?" Mentally asking, she looked over her shoulder and saw a yellow humanoid shaped monster male with sharp rocks for claws and webbing between his fingers. Red eyes gleamed through the darkness, gazing right at her smaller form. "Around seven feet, he shouldn't be hard to take down." She added in her mind and waited until he let go. She could feel hostility towards her, she knew she was stuck there until that monster was either dead or another hero decided to take her place. "At this rate, I won't be able to get to City Z... Too many monsters and people getting in my way." A sweat drop rolled down the side of her head and watched the tall monster let go of her ribbon.
"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?~ Allow me to rip it off for you then!" He laughed, rushed his hand towards her and aimed to grab her face. Before he could even touch her, she vanished and left the guy there pondering on her sudden disappearance. "She disappeared like last time...! Heh, looks like I get to play a little bit after all. My friend the sea king, would be amazed at my catch!" He hollered, laughed out loud and turned around. He saw her crouched down, lower half up in the air with one leg sticking out and upper half close to the ground. She seemed as if she was gonna pounce him like a cat at any minute. "Here kitty kitty!" He laughed, vanished after dashing for her and caused Rin to widen her gaze.
"What...?!" Mentally questioning, his speed was different compared to the other monsters. Turning her head to look above over her shoulder, she saw the very monster descending with his claws extended out. Her slits thinned in shock and vanished, leaving a split second afterimage behind.
He crashed on to the surface, causing chunks of land to rise and dust to fly. "Come on, quite your runnin'..." He mumbled with a grumbling voice and bolted out of the dust cloud. "Sea king always did call me insane, every time I got to catch something that was worth my effort!" He yelled, raced up to her and rammed a fist into her stomach. A loud sound came from his fist and he sent her flying across the wet street.
She bounced like a pebble across water, flailing about with a few grunts escaping her half masked lips. After she skidded to a halt, she laid there on her stomach for a bit to try and grasp her barrings. "He's...fast..." She stood up slowly after stating that in her mind. Astonishment was evident on her features, she managed to snap herself out of her stupor and crouch back down. A hand on her stomach and the other holding herself up off the road. "Looks like I get to sharpen my claws after all, hopefully he'll be easier to take down. That other creature from earlier, the big aquamarine one, my claws, speed and strength hardly affected him." She noted in her head and moved her hand away. Clenching her fist, or at least that's what it looked like, her metallic claws extended out and she held her arm past her backside. Sitting there waiting for the right time to strike, she took notice of a street lamp that held traffic lights on the side. She could use it as leverage, so as he raced up to her she stood to her full height.
Suddenly, he appeared before her with a fist heading down at her from above. Her slits watched carefully and lifted her forearm at a certain angle, letting his punch slid off her arm and away from her. She used his force against him, back flipped away from the guy and disappeared. Up on top of the traffic lights, she sat like a feline and lifted her rear as if to pounce. "Come on, stop running away!" He screamed angrily, vanished before her eyes and reappeared with his sharp rock fingernails aiming to claw at her form. The scene was in slow motion, she hopped over the other side of the lights, fell and clamped her hands on top. It all happened so fast, she was using full speed. An afterimage was there for a second, causing him to hit it instead and punted him with both her feet after she lifted up her legs. "AAH-!" He cried out and flew up into the sky a ways, after the scene picked back up.
Pushing her legs up and making her flip over the lights once more to sit on them, she jumped up into the air as fast as she could. High above the monster, he crossed his forearms but got stabbed by those talons of hers when she descended on to his form. She put all of her weight on the monster, making the male fall down quicker and kept her claws in his forearms. "What the hell!" He hollered, crashed into the ground and off went an arm flying in the air. Blood sprayed out of its gash and landed on the road. "AAAAH!" He screamed, rammed into her body after recovering and pushed her back like some football player on a dummy.
She held on to his one forearm, gritting her teeth in the process from the pain she was feeling. From afar, it looked like a yellow and white blur rushing down the street. He crushed her against a building and went to kick her, when she used her free hand to claw at his foot. "Gah!" His knee got sliced, giving her a chance to act. She kicked him off by pushing him with her feet and monstrously sent him flying backwards. Next, she disappeared and ran at full sprint, jumped into the air then pulled her arms back. The intent to kill was visible in her slits, she had no second thoughts about taking his life. The moment she landed on his chest, was when she stabbed both talons that were on her hands into his cavity. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He cried out bloody murder, it was booming and his irises shrunk from the pain in midst of his backwards rushing pace. Falling down on to his back, water splashed up and he slid swiftly. Not once did she move her metal claws out, she stayed squatted on his chest until they came to a slow stop. They sat like that for a good three minutes, waiting for him to stir in his spot.
"He's dead..." Stating in her mind with her nearly monotonous voice, she stood to her full height on his chest and clicked the button on her palms again. Those talons of hers went back under her arm coverings and her hip pushed out when she started to look around. "Where am I? Fighting this odd fish creature, I lost track of my surroundings... Damn." Her slits darted all over the place, until she heard screaming in the distance. Putting a hand to her stomach, she carefully made her way off the dead monster and slowly paced over to where she heard the cries.
She managed to find a large oval looking building, a lot of screaming came from there and a large hole had been smashed open. "There's people in there and-" Before she could finish her mental dialogue, her stomach started to growl again. Her brows knitted behind that mask of hers and shook her head. "Time to eat again. That quick fish meal apparently wasn't enough." Her thoughts echoed as she casually walked over to the said building, with that hand still on her stomach. "Wonder if that place has any food I could grab..." Mumbling in her head, she managed to make it to the building and cautiously jumped up the wall, using some strength in her legs so she wouldn't have to scale it. She had to be careful though, so to not hurt her sore spot.
There was a large sea creature that seemed oddly familiar, she sat there in the hole all crouched with her hands between her legs and gazed at the amazing meal she could have. "I could have cooked fish for months!" Excitement was getting the better of her, she wanted so badly to see what it tasted like and popped out her metallic claws. Upon hearing the brandishing ring of her claws, the sea creature looked over his shoulder and saw the same catwoman from before.
"You... So you finally decided to come back and try again, eh? Disciplining kitties has always been one of my weakest points, because I always seem to crush them... After all, I believe catfish are the same as the ones on land.~" He turned to face her, then noticed her thinned slits and chuckled. "Scared? Hah, you won't know what hit ya, trust me...~" He chuckled once more, until a blur of white zipped past his view and the fin on his ear got sliced off. "Ahh!" He shortly cried out and put a hand to the spot she cut.
Rin was on the floor sitting down and chewing on the fin she cut off. Countless whispers of her appearing and attacking the creature came from the victims in the building, she was just in it for food...sadly. While he was distracted, she vanished and sliced off another fin, this time it was on his back. Back and forth, side to side, at full sprint she cut off fins and held them in her grasp. "STOP THAT YOU ANNOYING LITTLE PEST!" He hollered, swung a fist and she dropped the fins in order to try to block his thrust. She almost cried out, if she hadn't of kept her teeth gritted and shifted his fist away. Once again she had used her opponent's force against them, she was just thankful that her claws were durable...lest they get broken or dented from the impact.
His fist made a huge hole in the floor and made pieces of it fly in the air.
She couldn't use her arms very well now, they were badly damaged but not so much to where they were broken. She wasn't one to scream, she found it embarrassing to do, so she always tends to hold it in the best she can. Another swing from the fish came down and was about to punch her flat to the ground, when a voice echoed high above from the hole. "Are you one of the sea folk?" Rin looked up and the creature did the same only with a questioning sound echoing in return. The woman inched her way towards the dropped fins, cautiously picked them up and put them in her mouth to carry. Quickly she hid in the shadows, kept her slits upon the person who appeared in the hole and sat there against the wall in the far back.
"What if I am?" The creature asked and looked over his shoulder at the person. That cyborg from before dropped down into the building and landed easily in a yellow flash. "You must be another soldier..." He began, only to get interrupted by the demon cyborg.
"I am here to eliminate you." With that, the guy used his mechanisms in his back and bolted up at the creature's face, punting him hard with his hand. The creature cried out and from outside, anyone could see a long beam of flashing light streaming in a long line. It had busted through the building and caused an explosion. He lowered his hand, turned to the people and viewed everyone inside. "Was that the last of them?" He asked, only to earn cheers and screams of joy from the citizens. "They must have been desperate..." he said in his head with a lowered voice.
Rin hadn't moved an inch from her hiding spot, too busy eating to really care right now. She was chewing on the fins and was already almost done. She had one left to go and each time she'd eat one, the sound of crunching would resonate in the air. The cyborg examined the people, spotting her in the corner eating..one of deep sea king's fins and his gaze widened a little. "This stuff is amazing! So juicy, so raw and crunchy!" She cooed over its taste and blushed a bit, closing her eyes in content. Though something made her stop eating, she could feel her food source charging in to attack just by feeling the threat closing in! She quickly got up from her spot, disappeared and reappeared next the cyborg. Her leg kicked out and being diagonal in mid air, she spun and hit him in the shoulder. He was sent flying and crashed into the wall. It was so fast, during that period when she kicked him away, she got punched on the side of her ribs and got sent crashing out the other side of the building. She just saved his rear...sadly the same couldn't be said for his arm. Apparently when she hit him, she broke some of the connection to his arm and it was left dangling like a dislocated limb. Why did she save him from a fatal blow, though? It was because she didn't want her food to be 'badly damaged, to where it couldn't be eaten... Yes, she got selfish and wanted that sea creature for herself.
She regretted it actually, laying out in the rain on her back with a fractured rib wasn't the plan she had in mind. She heard a lot of thunderous sounds and some clashes in and out of the building; She guessed her kicking him to the curb didn't last long... She knew though, since everyone was so busy with the monster and such, she could take a small nap. The agonizing pain in her ribs remained but she decided to try and nap it off. "Vei's not g-going to be happy with me..." She mumbled, for once she actually talked and yet no one was around to hear it.
A good twenty minutes, she heard a faint voice growing a bit more noticeable by each second. Her eyes fluttered open, the rain had stopped and in her vision was a young man with short green hair. "Hey, you ok?" He asked, blinked and had a very worried feature to his face. He watched her widen her eyes, rush to get up and crawl away with a hand on her stomach. "Stay still, you're hurt!" With that, he looked around and saw ambulances in the distance. The young man was a civilian, he wanted to help her so badly considering she tried to 'help' fight off the deep sea king and 'saved' the demon cyborg from a fatal blow. He believed she took the hit for him but, what he doesn't know was that she did it out of greed.
"W-Where...is my food...?" She mentally questioned and ignored the boy, limping her way down the paved ground. She'd make small grunts with each step but ignored it the best she could. It was rare to find decent fish around and that creature's fins were a delicacy. "In all the years I've hunted fish and other animals at night, before I came to cope with humans, not once have I tasted something so delicious..." She added, tried her best to reach the fish man but got stopped by civilians who surrounded her.
"She tried to save the demon cyborg!" A woman exclaimed, smiled and looked over at the green haired male who tried stopping her before.
"Why isn't she on the hero list then?!" A man questioned in the crowd and formed a puzzled expression.
"Maybe she's not a hero, maybe she's a villain who decided to attack while she had the chance! If she was a hero, she'd be on the list!" An elder woman in the group shouted angrily and scowled.
"Yeah, she's right!" Someone else exclaimed, soon the entire crowd surrounded her even more and it annoyed the woman greatly.
"I don't have time for this..." Mumbling in her mind, she turned back around and brushed past the babbling people, that only assumed she was a villain.
"Yeah, go away! No one wants you here!" A young woman shouted and tossed something towards her back. She caught it easily without needing to even look, by stepping to the side a bit and lifting a hand. That lady must have not known what she thrown because Rin held a fin from that sea king. A smile graced her lips and she just bit down into it, gasping everyone. "SHE ATE IT?! THAT'S DISGUSTING!" The same lady yelled and watched the woman chew as she fled the area.
Rin had picked up her pace, trying to head back home before morning came. It worked, she did make it back home and it took her almost an hour to do so. Walking through the small home and into the living room, she took notice of the tiny television sitting on a coffee table before a couch. Her slits noticed the program that played, apparently sponge bob was playing.. Her stare was straight and almost empty, until she clicked the red button to turn it off. It was dramatic though, she pointed the remote to the T.V as if it were a gun and red light gleamed; As soon as she had clicked it, the scene changed to a casual position of her turning it off. Twas only for dramatic effects.~ "I really disliked that annoying sponge monster... Hm, Vei must have left the T.V on yesterday before she went out and bought the rifle. Figures, she can be forgetful sometimes." Mumbling her words, she limped her way down the hall and into the bedroom.
Undressing and getting back into Vei's clothes, Rin put her costume away in a specific spot with the other clothing and walked over to the desk. She flipped over Vei's note and wrote her own down saying, 'Sorry, our ribs got fractured... Don't hurt yourself, rest a while.' With that, she sighed and laid down to sleep the rest of the night away.
