Respect

I frowned as I saw some Tyger Claws messing around with Malcom and Ichi. Lying on the truck and generally being a problem. "Hey, what are you guys bothering my chooms for?"

"Bothering? We were just checking out these weird gonks idling in our garage. Who are you?" One of them said with a sneer. Thinking that just because he wore those colors, he was invincible. Annoying how they could have no idea who I was while Scavs could target my home. Everything about the past few days had been annoying.

I tried not to let it get to me, however. "They were helping us move in, to the twenty-seventh floor." Hopefully they'd get the message, they knew who that floor belonged to.

The leader of the group pulled away from my boys to look me over carefully. "You don't look like the type to live on that floor." Great, so they did know, but didn't believe me.

I could name-drop, rely on Fujimura's name. It'd probably get them to back off. If they believed me. They didn't about the floor I was moving to, so would they really if said his name aloud too? Maybe it would take longer, but it might have a better chance of ending things without escalation if I did that. Just use his rep instead of mine. The man who hit me. Ordered me around. Acted like he owned my brother.

Fuck that.

"Doesn't matter what I look like, that's how it is. Now stop harassing my friends."

The others jeered at me, and the leader bristled. "I think you're lying. And I don't appreciate a lying little cunt trying to tell us to leave OUR turf."

"Back off, or you won't like what happens next." They really didn't deserve that warning but I wanted to wait until they threw the first punch.

I didn't have to wait long, as he turned back as if to talk to his chooms. "Can you believe this-" before spinning back to launch a hook punch at my face. Even without Danger sense, I would have seen it coming a mile away. Ducking under the blow, I punched into his gut with my right fist and followed through with an uppercut from my left as he wheezed back, knocking him flat on his face.

The others scrambled, caught off guard by the sudden reversal of violence. The girl with her legs dangling off the hood was the closest and most off balance of the bunch, so I hit her with a spinning back kick straight into her solar plexus, knocking her back into the truck and gasping for breath. Two more tried to rush me. One I side-stepped, slicing her arm up with a knife I'd drawn (though making sure not to cut too deep across it). The other swung a meety fist at me that I met with my own. Chrome met flesh and bone, and chrome won, sending him crumpling to the ground, clutching his broken hand.

The last of them was fumbling with a gun he had 'holstered' in the back of his pants. Before he could finish leveling it at me, I threw my blade, the knife cutting across his knuckles and the pain causing him to drop it with a curse. He moved towards it before I said "Stop." And he did. So did everyone, in fact, even Malcom and Ichi, who had been midway through getting out of the van. This was less because of my words and more because of the Burya I'd drawn, pointing squarely at the young man reaching for his weapon.

"Get out of here. Final warning." The man glared, but backed away, his chooms regrouping. The leader couldn't help throwing out a final taunt before he left, however.

"You're gonna be sorry you did that! When we tell our boss-"

"Why don't you pass on another message too, along with your whining. Tell Fujimara 'Motoko doesn't appreciate being harassed in her new home.' A relationship is supposed to be built off mutual respect, afterall, and I'm not feeling too respected here." That got them to blanch a bit more and scurry off.

"Whoa. Motoko, are you going to be ok? They're..." Malcom trailed off, looking worried.

"It's fine, it's fine." I waved him off. "Those were two bit grunts that apparently couldn't even be bothered to check who was moving in to 'their' building beforehand. If Fujimura has a problem, he should have instructed them better" It might cause future Motoko problems... but it wasn't like bowing and scraping was making them disappear either.

A/N:

Just to be clear, I do get why Motoko did what she did in story, but it's really frustrating to read, especially given that this was supposed to be a very safe, well set-up place for them. It's just another example of how disorganized and disrespectful the TCs are to her. So when this plot bunny came to me, I thought it'd be nice to see what happened if she showed her displeasure a bit more openly in an omake.