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[img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2524  (+3)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Shinjuku 
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](262/150)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP:  [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](207/100)
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Surrounded by ashes and cops, Jr demanded to know [color=SpringGreen]”What do you mean hands up! We aren't with these guys”[/color] while Rika did the exact opposite of what they were demanding they do and put two hands back on her ‘borrowed’ electrified fishing spear.

Immediately a half-dozen gun barrels turned Rika’s way. “What does that matter?” Jane drawled. “You’ve still committed every act Miss Zhu Yuan listed.” She glanced over at the ashen remains of the thief that the kids had killed after getting robbed on the run from their own theft. “Unless you’re of the perspective that stealing and killing don’t matter when you’re the ones who do it?”

Jr responded with a faltered [color=SpringGreen]”um”[/color] while Rika replied with a slight tilt of the head and the words [color=Aqua]”I mean, yeah?”[/color] said with complete honesty. Then she tilted it back to upright and added [color=Aqua]”Not that you’d get it coz of Galeem and stuff, but we’re diffrent”[/color] as if she’d just got why there was confusion about that.

[color=SpringGreen]”Proooobubly should still do what they say even if they don’t get it”[/color] Jr said to her, as he dropped his makeshift staff. It wasn’t like it was worth anything to him anyway. Neither was the electric fishing spear, which Rika, after sizing up all the guns and glancing at Jr’s not too worried expression, also dropped.

“Smart kids,” Jane remarked smoothly. The Pubsec officers with their weapons trained on Rika relaxed somewhat, less overtly threatening but still vigilant in case of any attempt to break free.

Jr then pointed to Mimi, who was still sitting on his shoulder and who was far more attached to her stick than the kids had been to theirs, and said [color=SpringGreen]”I gotta put her away too right? Seeing as she’s sorta a weapon.”[/color] 

Zhu Yuan nodded, her expression serious. “Yes. According to protocol, we must confiscate all weapons, including your cassette players, and any subordinate creatures.” She did not apologize, but the woman clearly seemed unhappy, not in the sense that she thought what she was doing was wrong, but that it was a shame that two children ended up like this. “You will be held in a juvenile detention facility until your case can be examined. Cooperation will ensure the most lenient treatment possible.”

By that time, the other officers had finished rounding up and cuffing the hollow raiders, including Razor, who barely fit into the cuffs. Looking remorseful, Zhu Yuan herself stepped forward to cuff Junior and Rika. As this happened, Jane used the tip of her tail to poke the cat-eared shieldbearer in the ribs. “Alright Seth, let’s get out of here~”

“U-understood!” Seth turned and beckoned toward a [url=https://i.imgur.com/gjwXCMZ.png]bangboo with body armor[/url], who’d been quietly standing by. When summoned, the little guy ran over, his ears flapping behind him. “Officer Cui, you’re up. Got the latest carrot data?”

Officer Cui nodded. “Nuh-ehn-nah (I’m ready to go).” It turned and tottered off in what seemed like a random direction leading further into the hollow. “Eh-ehn-nah (let’s get out of here!)”

Seth followed along as the cops and robbers began their march. “Alright, everyone! Let’s all get back to base in one piece!”

“And keep an eye out for ethereals,” Zhu Yuan cautioned.

Jr diligently popped off the pokeball, and used a beam to return a concerned Mimi to her ball before clipping it back onto the bandolier on his chest. He then diligently held up his claws towards the approaching officer as Rika looked increasingly concerned.

[color=SpringGreen]”You got me fair and square I guess, take me away”[/color] Jr said, maybe a bit too obvious in the setup for the following [color=SpringGreen]”Psych!”[/color] as he whipped them back and summoned Blodia. Not to punch or to blast, but instead to rise up beneath both him and Rika, the large fingers of the mecha acting briefly as cover before it hurled the two of them high up into the air, over the school building’s wall, and clear across the street where they crashed through the window of a 4th floor apartment.

Glass flew everywhere as the two tumbled across the carpet, but the kid’s supernatural durability ensured that while cut, there wasn’t going to be any risk of them bleeding out in there.

[color=Aqua]”Oh good, you did have a plan”[/color] Rika said as she picked herself up, entirely unperturbed by the fact that that said plan had resulted in her getting hurt a bunch again [color=Aqua]”What’s next?”[/color]

[color=SpringGreen]”Tapes!”[/color] Jr replied, plucking two out of his holdall and tossing one to Rika.

While a handful of projectiles followed the kids’ sudden departure, the cops were not able to give pursuit. By the time they even got close to the fourth-floor window that the two crashed through, the fugitives would be long gone. All told, though, ‘escape’ wasn’t the right word to describe what they’d done; without a bangboo’s Carrot data of their own to lead them to an exit through this ever-shifting maze, they would be stuck in this non-euclidean space. With no porcelume anti-corruption medicine, they’d be slowly permeated by ether until the worst came to pass.

“Oh, no…” Zhu Yuan put a hand to her head.

Jane stared after the fleeing fugitives ruefully. “Guess we’ll keep an eye out if they plan on coming for our bangboos. Otherwise…”

“We can’t leave them in here!” Seth objected. “They’re just kids.”

“[i]We[/i] don’t have all day,” Jane corrected him. “The more time we spend, the riskier things get. Don’t wanna lose any more suspects or officers to the hollow, ‘kay?”

Though Seth wasn’t the only one with misgivings about the situation, he couldn’t disagree. The cops continued to follow Officer Cui, maneuvering through the urban labyrinth toward a temporary exit.

As they moved, they were shadowed by an unpleasant looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/DepMuNJ.png]head sized plane[/url] that poked its camera around corners and fed their location back to the two kids sneaking around just behind them as well. They’d read up on this place after all (or, really, to be fair, they’d asked their stolen NetNavi Seek to remind them what the deal was) and so knew that they weren't getting out of here without following a bangboo. 

Or following people who were following one themselves. 

The crowd of cops + prisoners weren't exactly a stealthy group, after all, and so finding them again had been entirely doable. Especially because rather than run away, the pair had used a set of tapes that recorded the top and bottom of a [url=https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Flukemon]Flukemon[/url] to squeeze into a hiding spot the much larger cops weren't able to check, let alone suspect they could fit inside.

How they were then going to break past them was a different question, but they’d come to it in time.

The procession moved through the hollow quickly, tracing a circuitous route through the nonsensically arranged streets, overpasses, buildings, and construction sites as fast as little Officer Cui could run. Despite numbering about twenty members of the police force and a little over half as many hollow raiders, they neither wasted time nor lapsed in vigilance, fully aware of just how dangerous these spaces could be. About ten minutes into the trip, the procession reached a city street unremarkable save for the presence of [url=https://i.imgur.com/LS0cGbz.png]ethereals[/url]. A variety of jet-black, crystalline monsters roamed the area, the neon-green insides of their bodies shining with the prismatic light of nebulous ether cores that pulsed within their bodies. Some looked like animals, others plants, and others humanoids, wielding aberrant limbs or makeshift weapons, but all looked dangerous. When Pubsec stopped a safe distance away, Seth double-checked with their guide. “Cui, is this the place?”

“En, en-eh-nah (yes, just through here!)!” the bangboo replied.

Zhu Yuan took a deep breath. “Okay. Men, Unit Three, stand watch around the prisoners here. Officer Cui, you’re with us.” As Seth and Jane stepped forward alongside her, Zhu Yuan gestured for the bangboo to follow. “We’ll handle this.”

“Wuh-tah, wuh-tah (Ready to work)!”

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtvIAY3d_FQ[/youtube][/center]

Together, the four advanced. The ethereals noticed right away and rounded on the officers to attack, but it quickly became clear that these cops knew what they were doing. Seth took point, repelling even the toughest strikes with his shield before numbing his foes with knocks from his electric baton. “I can do this all day!” When given the chance, he turned the tables by inserting the rod into his shield, transforming it into a heavy greatsword that he swung with selfless abandon.

Against ethereals, Jane showed off a side of her that the Koopa Kids hadn’t seen. Her daggers carved through the monsters’ stony exteriors like butter, leaving behind yellow wounds. When any one foe built up enough, an Assault anomaly was triggered, finishing off any weaker enemy in an instant as they shattered like glass. “Want some more?” As Jane dodged her enemies’ attacks, she built up Passion that eventually ignited, turning her orange energy bright red. At that point, even the heavier enemies began to crack under the weight of her multi-hitting flips and spins that quickly built up Assault. For her, this wasn’t a fight; it was playtime, and these ethereals were just toys to her. “Don’t worry, this’ll be painless,” she told a four-legged Hati ethereal as it lunged at her, only to cleave its exposed core in half. “Psych~”

Unlike the others, Zhu Yuan kept her distance and fired at the ethereals with her strange gun. As she fought, the reason for the strange adornments all across her person became clear; each was a modular weapon part, which she attached to her sidearm as needed to make it a bigger, badder weapon. In quick succession it became a shotgun, then a grenade launcher, giving the ethereals a taste of their own medicine with weaponized ether. “We’re halfway there,” she told the others. “Keep up the pressure!” Officer Cui remained at her side to give her a hand with any ethereals that got too close, popping tiny, razor sharp claws out of his arms to tear their armor apart.

Soon, there was only one ethereal left, which Seth was softening up as he kept it occupied: a knight-like [url=https://i.imgur.com/xYCT3Cf.png]Dullahan[/url], with a blade and crystalline tower shield of its own. Being a couple feet taller than Seth, the thiren was stuck on the defensive until Zhu Yuan and Jane stepped in. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensued, with the Dullahan vying to slash apart the catboy’s softer seniors while he strove to place himself -and his shield- in its way. After a few tense moments, Zhu Yuan sprang off his shield to kick the Dullahan in the core, which was enough to leave it dizzy.

Seth surged forward first, battering it with a shield bash before plugging in his baton to bring down a leaping crescent slash. “You may remain silent!”

The next second, Jane darted in to follow up. “Hah, how d’you like me now” She disappeared in a blur, a tornado of slashing streaks ripping into the monster’s body.

Officer Cui jumped in next, barking like a mad dog. He threw himself at the Dullahan’s ankles on all fours, slashing again and again as he pushed his foe back. Finally, Zhu Yuan assembled her full weapon, unloading every missile it had at once. “Justice always prevails!”

The final blast demolished the ethereal, leaving only a spirit behind. Ashe she disassembled her weapon for travel, Zhu Yuan gestured for the other officers to bring the prisoners. Together, the full procession hastened after Cui toward a small fissure in an unremarkable corner of the street, visible only when they got within a certain distance.

Just before the battle finished, there was a click as Rika successfully recorded the Dullahan onto their platinum tape, having already burnt through one of the regular ones trying to catch its recording while the squad was going at it. 

[color=Aqua]”You were right, she really was going easy on us”[/color] She said a few moments later once she’d snuck back to Jr, who replied[color=SpringGreen]”Mmm hmm. Seems like she’s smart too. Didn’t scratch us, or let herself get scratched. It was like she knew what’d happen”[/color]

She nodded as she passed him the new tape and said in concerned tones [color=Aqua]”and now we have to get past them?”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Yup. But just past. They’ve probably got more people on the other side n stuff, but trust me, we just need a liiiiitle bit of space and we’ll be free”[/color] Jr replied, being perhaps a bit more confident than Rika given she was the only one who had seen the fight itself thanks to her drone. Either way, the pair continued following soon after, creeping closer and closer to the exit.

First the regular cops moved out, then the prisoners, and then as the team of four moved to exit without looking back Jr and Rika came blasting round a corner, armory retrieved paintbrushes pressed to concrete letting them sail across the street at nautical speeds, blazing towards the exit while Jr called out [color=SpringGreen]”Make way!”[/color] at the cops.

When she turned to look, Jane did not seem surprised. “Ah, there you are. Too bad this can only end one way.”

Zhu Yuan took a deep breath and took aim with her sidearm. In quick succession she fired off an ether shot at Junior, then Rika, trying to graze them both. It wasn’t much damage, but it was enough to trigger their aggression response. Or so she thought. Anticipating a final showdown, the trio spread out and readied themselves for battle.

[color=SpringGreen]”Owww!”[/color] Jr whined as his scales took the shot, before really hamming it up as he cried out [color=SpringGreen]”You shot meeee! Now you're gonna get it! You're gonna pay! We’re gonna fight to the death now there’s no stopping it!”[/color] only to go [color=SpringGreen]”Psych again!”[/color] as he swerved off course from what had been made it look like an attack vector and went straight for the exit, chain magma rushing forwards.

[color=Aqua]”Told you we were diffrent”[/color] Rika added matter of factly after Jr’s taunt, before stringing bullet jumps to also accelerate towards freedom.