Oops...

[leekspin]

WHO: Orihime, Axel, Roxas
WHAT: Trying to help someone out lands Orihime in hot water. What to do? Run like crazy!
WHEN: May 29, 2008 - Evening
WHERE: Clairbourn Streets

Comments

[red_travels]

Axel quickly dropped the man he was currently dealing with, driving a knee up into his groin and then an elbow into the back of his head, leaving him with four. Well, until the two that had been sent away earlier returned at the sound of the altercation, kicking him back up to six again. He swore under his breath and his eyes flicked toward the copper-haired girl, who was currently trying her damndest to get away from the two men, and doing a decent job of keeping them occupied. She was...feisty. And Axel was impressed. But there really wasn't time for that at the moment. It seemed that he had gotten in a smidge over his head this time. As he cautiously took a step back, analyzing the situation, he found himself wondering absently if Roxas would be pleased with the fact that he'd stuck his neck out to help a girl in need...or if he'd be pissed that he'd jumped in headfirst without getting a handle on the situation beforehand.

Oh man, Rox...wish you were here, he found himself thinking ruefully. He really coulda used the kid's help right about then. Axel was fast, but he was a bit lacking in the endurance department. He was tall, gangly, almost as if he was stretched a bit too thin on his own bones. It made moving quickly quite easy--he had very little wind resistance, after all--but he tired easily, and after having taken two men down, he was starting to feel it. He wasn't so sure he'd be able to get rid of all of them.

He knew Roxas had followed him on at least one occasion. Maybe he was lucky, and the kid had followed him tonight too, and was waiting for the opportune moment. Wouldn't that have been just like Roxas...?

The six men advanced on him, thin smiles drawn on their faces, two of them with heavy brass knuckles on their hands, one with a knife, one with a gun, two barehanded. Not pleasant odds, in his opinion. His chakrams flickered and smoked at his sides where he held them out to keep them from scorching his sleeves. He took a step back, then cast his eyes around the construction site. If Roxas was afoot, he would likely have been in a high location, watching and waiting for a good time to jump in unannounced. Axel wasn't going to count on it, but if the kid was around, things always worked out better when they worked together, and Axel had half a plan.

Roxas was the other half of it. So if the kid was around, this would be just fine. If not, well...he'd have to improvise.

With a loud cry, Axel reeled back and sent one of the flaming chakrams flying. Thrown at the right angle, the chakrams would actually return to him in something of a boomerang-esque manner, but that wasn't what he was aiming for tonight. Tonight, he was just looking for a distraction.

It worked. The men gasped and scattered, and Axel grinned. Bingo. Snapping one arm up, he made a series of quick hand motions, his arm illuminated by the chakram in his other hand. Then, while the men were distracted following the flames as they seared through the air, Axel spun and bolted, ducking just long enough to press his remaining chakram into the dirt to smother the flames before he vanished into the shadows.

He hoped the girl would be all right. But he knew that at least six of the men would follow him, and with a little luck--and Axel liked to think himself lucky--he would be able to keep them busy long enough to take out the remaining two, nab the girl, and get the hell out of there.

C'mon Rox, he thought, a sort of desperate thrill running through him as he skidded around a corner toward a large vehicle that was parked against one of the buildings. Don't leave me hangin' pal...

Roxas always managed to come through for him, even when he wasn't expecting a hand, and Axel wasn't about to start thinking this would be the time to break the track record.

[punk_of_hearts]

Roxas smirked from where he crouched atop a pile of steel beams that were going to be used as the framework for a building, lowering his gun and nodding once in serious approval as he made out the hand signals. How'd Axel always know when he was around? Unless he was just hoping Roxas was there, and signaling to him just in case.

...Nah.

Meet up. Left. Corner. Two. Right. Great, Axel was going to bolt left and duck around the second corner to his right, and he wanted Roxas to meet him there. It was like he knew where Roxas was already--that pile of steel beams was the second corner on the right. With an excited grin, he watched his friend run, the fire going out, a bunch of idiot thugs chasing him down in the darkness.

Well, none of that. They couldn't have the thugs lurking in the shadows, now could they?

Roxas lifted his gun again, taking careful aim at the leader of the pack following his best friend, and pulled the trigger.

KFF

SPLATT

The guy yelled, arms flailing up to his face, where glow in the dark paint was now splattered in all its eerie greenish-yellow glory. Roxas wasn't a proud paintball sniper for nothing.

CHKK KFF SPLATT

Now two had glowing heads, and the group had sort of stopped in momentary confusion.

CHKK-KFF-SPLATT CHKK-KFF-SPLATT CHKK-KFF-SPLATT

Five down, one to go. They were moving again, and Roxas figured time was more important than a headshot--he'd managed to buy Axel enough to duck unnoticed down his alley at any rate--and so he sniped the sixth guy in the chest and threw his gun back over his shoulder, letting it hang across his back from the shoulder strap.

Man, that paintball shoot-out last weekend sure made for good practice.

His bokken was strapped crossways the other way, and he jumped from the stack of beams and landed with a loud crunch on the gravel, rising to his feet and grinning at his best friend. "Fancy seeing you here," he greeted, reaching out a hand to bonk fists with the redhead. "She got away?" He hadn't really been able to see, since Axel's fire had messed with his night vision.

[red_travels]

Axel let out a silent whoop when he heard the unmistakable sound of a paintball hitting someone in the face. It was unmistakable...because he'd spent most of the weekend hearing it, and a huge grin split his face as he dove around a corner and propped his palms on his knees, panting.

Thank goodness for best friends...

He turned over his shoulder when there was a loud crunch of gravel, and a chuckle lilted out of him as Roxas extended a hand to bonk his fist against Axel's. Damn, the kid really was a ninja.

Then the blond asked about the girl, and Axel's smile faded somewhat. "No, two of 'em have still got her," he said, still catching his breath. "One of 'em has a knife, too, but I figured it'd be best to get rid of most of them before trying to help her out." He straightened. "We can take out two guys no problem," he reasoned, his eyes flashing impishly; "but six is a little much to handle extempore, wouldn't you say?"

He gestured behind them, toward the large vehicle he'd been running for. "You know what that is, hype?" he asked, his smile turning wicked.

It was a cement mixer--of course Roxas knew what it was. The point was that Axel had stumbled across it earlier, and the poured cement foundation on the lot was still quite wet. If they could just lure these simpletons into the right fallen shadow, they could make sure they didn't bother anybody for a while...

[leekspin]

Orihime was not having an easy time with this. The knife she managed to send spinning, and the hands that gripped her arms loosened when her head of granite connected with the man's jaw. Axel was darting away, and Orihime thought that sounded like a pretty good idea to her too. She moved to lurch after him, but only made it two steps before a heavy body collided against her back, arms like an iron vice crossing over her shoulders to grab her, crushing her against the thug's chest with one calloused hand closed over her mouth.

She fought furiously, twisting to get free with both legs kicking. He swung her around to throw her off balance, then dropped, bringing both of them to their knees. Orihime's fingers scrabbled over those thick arms, but the sleeves of his jacket prevented him from being scratched. He squeezed, hard, bowing her forward with his chest to subdue the girl.

The man who'd held the knife caught her wrists, then clamped them together in one hand. She protested in alarm when she saw the malevolent look of anger on his face, his shoulders heaving as he panted for breath. "I liked that knife," he growled, twisting at her wrists painfully. "But no matter. Don't need it right now...I'll find it when we're done with you."

Bright spots exploded across Orihime's vision as his fist impacted with the side of her face, stunning her. She felt herself slumping for a moment, her ears ringing. Frantically she shook her head (as best she could), fighting to stay conscious. Things were blurred, feelings bleeding together into an indistinguishable mass. She heard ripping cloth, felt cold air against her skin. He was saying something...to her? No, to the other... She wasn't sure what.

Then she felt something hard against her back. Was she on the ground? She started to fight again, then felt fingers digging into her jaw and cheek, holding her head down. Another blow pounded into her temple, and her vision spun violently to the left. Close your eyes...don't close your eyes...her fingers curled into a fist, but she couldn't move her arm.

She hoped that other guy managed to get away, before darkness swallowed her consciousness whole.

[punk_of_hearts]

"No, I've been living under a rock my whole life," Roxas griped as Axel gestured at the cement mixer, his mind flickering forward along Axel's train of thought, eyes darting around, spotting the recently poured foundation before them, a convenient pile of gravel just past it. "You know how to work it?" he inquired, running for the machine and wondering if there was any cement left inside to dump over the foundation just in case the thugs didn't sink like they ought to.

An instant later, he realized no construction worker worth his salt (why were people worth salt anyway? Must have been an ancient Roman thing) would leave wet cement in a mixer overnight. No matter--that giant pile of gravel would work just as well... "C'mon, we climb that hill; you think the chick's okay?" He paused for a moment, glancing from the foundation to the gravel to the mixer to Axel to the group of glowing folk just turning the corner and following them. "Maybe you should check on her--I'm not hearing any fight and that could be bad." Roxas was just as capable of a lure on his own as with Axel there, though he had no idea how he was going to launch a huge pile of gravel--

"Oh holy hell; if the keys are in that thing then we're gold." Roxas had, by the way, just spotted the bulldozer behind the hill of gravel, which was quite literally parked just behind it, holding the gravel in place. A tiny push from that thing and it all would go tumbling down on the wet foundation and, hopefully, the glowing conglomeration of thugs chasing after them.

[red_travels]

Axel rolled his eyes. "Oh, no you haven't, don't you lie to me," he griped back, tousling Roxas's hair fondly. Then he rubbed his chin in thought and frowned. "I doubt it's hard to work," he admitted, "but if the mixer ain't turning, there's prolly no cement in it..." He figured Roxas already knew that, though.

When Roxas spotted the bulldozer, Axel nodded. "It's prolly not locked--in the movies the keys are always behind the sun visor, you know?" he said with a grin. "Who the hell would steal a bulldozer, right?" He clapped the younger boy on the shoulder. "Go check it out--I'll go check on the girl. You're right, it's a little too Raph quiet." He turned, then paused and frowned over his shoulder. "Two of them have brass knuckles, one has a knife, and one has a pistol," he informed the boy, in case he wasn't aware. "I dunno if any of them are concealing anything else; be careful, okay? I'll go drop the two who were harassing the girl and I'll be right back, so don't do anything stupid like I would, you hear me?"

He figured Roxas heard him just fine, and didn't bother waiting for a response, instead slipping into the shadows and moving silently around the foundation site to head back to where he'd left the girl.