Threat Level 1

Rei fights off some assailants in her neighbourhood.

Date: 12/09/2018	Old East Side Detroit's residential neighborhoods once sprawled out all the way to the Grosse Pointes in the east, almost to the shores of the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. Now acres upon acres are being transformed into "urban prairie" as nature slowly reclaims the lost city. Trees and shrubs accelerate the decay of structures and paved surfaces, and overgrown empty-lot meadows have replaced a number of homes. Of the houses that remain standing, most are abandoned and left to time and arsonists, falling slowly in upon themselves as the years pass. The communities known as Morningside, East English Village and Cornerstone Park are gone, eaten by the spreading wasteland; or, from an alternative viewpoint, returning to a more natural state. Where trees bordered parks and streets, their roots have now buckled the sidewalks to reveal more earth--save for a few sicker specimens which have stifled to death in place, the soil beneath the pavement insufficient or polluted. The further away one travels from Detroit proper, the more significant the transformation. Vacant lots have become sapling nurseries, while here and there non-native landscape plants form their own colonies. Street signs keep lonely sentinel at corners and no one pays attention to the stop signs any longer. Power lines trail off into the distance, seemingly going nowhere.
Cast: Rei Storyteller: Aster
The sun is setting, giving the sky one last burn before sinking into the darkness. The old east side already has its shadows growing long, offering darkness to slink into. This discorporated part of the city doesn't get street lights, and no moon rises into the sky tonight. A roving band walk the streets, uniform in their studded leather jackets and faces so pierced that a good magnet would be their worst enemy. Though they make some pretense of keeping to the shadows, their jingling chains and swaggering stride pronounce their presence. They move as if they own the place -- and at least for these few streets, maybe they do. Their leader's taller and broader, his jacket bulked out, his puffy hair bleached blond. "Now, she's gonna be up in like an hour, and she'll wake up /hungry/, you got me? That's what we're out for, before everyone just scurries into their houses and lock the doors. Get the boss a nice, juicy snack, and you know what might be in it for you." He smirks, his face showing the satisfaction of someone who /knows/ he's in the boss' good graces. Their territory? More like they've strayed into the periphery that Rei patrols to keep a threat neutral buffer zone around the ruins of the Packard Industrial complex. With all of the problems plaguing this city from the shadows one can't be too careful. And so here she is a Japanese women dressed in leather walking through Measure 2 after dark. That gets a few grins. "We-hell, hello there," the blond man says. He steps forwards-- But one of his compatriots, a man with tattoos crawling up his neck, shoulders through to get ahead. "Now what's a cute little thing like you doing out so late? C'mon, stick with us, we'll walk you home." It's all spoken with a smirk behind the words, even if not actually on his face. Rei pauses looking over the group of maladjusted miscreants and registers a Threat Level: 1, not even worth her time. "No thank you, I have no need of company this evening." she replies and starts walking again. Perhaps oddly for a young woman in her situation she does not register even a hint of fear. There's some real jockeying for position. The tattooed man looks like he's about to aggress a bit more actively, but the blond moves in faster, strangely fast. He grips Rei by the upper arm, giving her a hard stare. "Now c'mon, you just need to come with us and talk to the boss. Once you get to know her, you'll /want/ to stick around, I'm sure." Rei's stronger than he expects, for sure... but he's stronger than she expects too, stronger than a Threat Level 1 should be, and he keeps hold of her. Though a bit of a johnny-come-lately, the tattooed man still pushes forwards. He tries to grab for Rei, as if to 'help out', but Rei worms away and keeps herself focused on just the one target. The others all hang back, trying to look tough like the Threat Level 1s she'd initially pegged them for. As Rei and the blond contest with each other, one of the others digs into his coat, coming out with a small club. The blond frowns, trying to re-angle and get a hold of Rei -- but she's much stronger than a woman her size has any right to be, and slips free. Into a situation of two more men, the tattooed one included, bringing more thick, blunt weapons out into the open. Rei does not like being grabbed, it is definitely not on her list of favorite things and she wrenches her arm away from the blond man, only to find herself surrounded. What is a girl to do, she tried to let them go now it's going to get ugly. Really it's amazing the blond thug faired as well as he did with his attempt to grapple Rei, grappling Rei is a terrible idea. Which she promptly demonstrates for him by counter-grabbing his arm in turn as she slips free and hurtling him into a wall with a judo-style twisting over the shoulder throw. The last mook doesn't seem to have thought to arm himself. He's just too cranky about Rei throwing his buddy. "HEY!" he shouts, charging forward with a haymaker -- which she smoothly steps aside. The goon chases up from the mook, coming in with a swing from a small club. This one manages to land, and a solid hit at that... but still just bounces off Rei's shoulder. He swears from the feeling of force jolting back up his arm. "The fuck is she /wearing/?" The blond man digs into his coat to come out with a knife, sneering with anger. The mook and thug come forward again, swinging -- but Rei's on the move again, and flows about their aggressive moves like robotic water. Rei has had just about enough of this nonsense. Why humans fall to depravity is still something she does not quite understand, what she does know though is that strategically, if she neutralizes the leader the rest may lose morale and scatter. Stepping forward with machine-like precision she torques her waist putting her full strength into punch aimed squarely at the Blond leader's chest. There is a sound like cracking bone as she connects and he is driven back to the wall again by the sheer force of the impact. Cracking bone, a rippling outward shockwave, the man rolling back and only keeping his feet because of the wall behind him -- every one of the others winces with sympathy. The tattooed man swears and dips into his coat, coming out with an escalation measure: a small handgun. But he's not fast enough to attack so soon. The blond man, however... even on his last legs, he blurs forwards, coming up with that knife. It sinks right into Rei's shoulder... to no actual /effect/, given whom we're dealing with. That punch to the group's morale hasn't yet scattered them, and someone's brought a gun into this fistfight. Rei turns her attention to him, but before she can bring her leg up for a kick, he whips the gun up and fires a shot -- which glances off her leg. It would've been barely more than a graze to most people, and Rei herself is not most people. "What the FUCK, fuckin Terminator bitch, now Mark's shootin' people, I'm gettin' the fuck out of here!" That's the sentence running through most of their minds and out of one man's mouth, as the less... /determined/ of the group all turn and run, back the way they'd come. The blond man stumbles as he steps forwards, to slash against her back -- and again, cause her no real harm. Just what is she /made/ of? One of the thugs trips over his own feet in his hurry to escape. Being fancy got her shot in the leg, so Rei forgoes being fancy this time and just straight up lunges a brutal punch straight into the tattooed gunman even as he turns to flee. Her attention has shifted away from the Blond man still trying to stab her and she doesn't quite get out of the way of his knife, but he doesn't manage to do much other than slice up her leather jacket either. Rei confiscates the gun from the wounded and now fleeing tattoed man, before turning her attention back to the Blond man just in time for him to try and stab her again, and again she just shrugs it off, "You're all alone now, I suggest you stop attacking before you suffer further injury." The tattooed man starts off stumbling, struggling to keep his back straight enough that he doesn't feel the burn of those injured muscles. But as he gains in momentum, he recovers, soon going almost as fast as his allies so far beyond him. The blond teeters on his feet but refuses to fall, and sneers at Rei. "Everyone else might give up... but she gave me a /job/ to do. Not done yet. And what, you think I'll believe you'll just let me go?" Well now he had to go and make things interesting, "What is this job and who gave it to you?" Rei asks the injured man before her. With that, he just sneers, his mouth clamping shut. Though she can see it in his eyes, how he kicks himself for having let that much slip. Rei watches him for a few moments and then shrugs, "You should probably go to a hospital. If I catch you around here attempting to prey on others again, I will not hold back. This is your only warning." He's not bleeding. At least, not /ex/ternally. But he feels the mayhem deep in his muscles and bones, and knows he's outmatched. He struggles to his feet. "And when she comes for you, you won't /get/ a warning." With that parting shot, he starts shambling away. "That was a mistake." Rei informs the man attempting to shamble away, "If there is a continued threat then now I can not let you go until you divulge the details. Threats are to be neutralized, should I neutralize you here?" He keeps shuffling, but seems to recover, moving with a surer step. He still can't run, so he talks over his shoulder again. "I'm not the threat you have to worry about. And if you go ahead and 'neutralise' me, you'll just make her angrier." "Correct." Rei agrees with him, "You pose minimal threat. It's fine, once you lead me back to whoever this her is, then the situation will be taken care of if need be." she sounds awfully unconcerned, either she is supremely confident or she is emotionally stunted on par with a robot. Either way she decides to just let him go for now. He snorts. Perhaps he has some more choice words, but for now, he just keeps hobbling away, off into the night.