"... Rosemary. I know you can- carry bags if it's your entire mass, but squeezing a small part of yourself to open locks is out of your capabilities."
Giichi blinks for a few moments at Caspian, those words going through her head. Squeezing yourself to open locks. Locks. Without a key, you need a specialist to open locks. A locksmith, a guy who makes keys and picks locks for legal clients. People who prove they own the thing that the locksmith is working on.
A lightbulb sets off in Giichi's head as she walks away from Caspian and Cyan, letting Caspian and the mist handle the vending machine for now. In order to get the vending machine...
... she needed to call someone that knows who to call!
Quade!
"Good idea, Giichi, that sounds like a good plan!" Caspian exclaims. Giichi hears this from the distance, beaming. It WAS a good plan to call Quade!
Grinning widely as she continues to run down the alley. She didn't have enough to buy a new phone and didn't have a phone immediately on her, but what she did have was enough to pay for a call on a payphone. There was one on the other side of the alley, one she managed to glance at while she was on the way home!
And there it is! Payphone! Giichi rummages through her pockets for change, slipping it into the funny little slot that takes coins, then dials Quade's number.
"Wait, hold on, Cyan is... what?"
"Stuck in a vending machine-" Giichi explains, leaning her back against a wall while holding the phone up to her ear. "Apparently crawled through it and all. We're on- Cotton Valley Avenue, between the intersections of Chestnut Street and Orchid Boulevard."
"I- I see, okay. Cotton Valley... alleyway between Orchid and Chestnut- sounds good. I know a locksmith. Mind knocking on the door of the building this machine's at? It's good to get permission from whoever's in there, and-"
Giichi nods idly, hmming. "Alright. Alright. What else?"
Silence.
"...?" Giichi tilts her head. "Uh... Quade?"
"Giichi- you there? You said Caspian was with you?"
"... yeah, he was?" Giichi answers, tilting her head. "I stepped away to call you, and-"
"Uhuh, got it. Just- Stay safe, I'm coming over there right now. Okay? Okay..."
Giichi raises an eyebrow, just... putting the phone back onto the payphone box. What was that? Is something wrong with Caspian? She starts to walk back down the alleyway to check on him, wanting to see if he was alright-
Feeling something tug on her arm and pull her arm in a direction. Giichi looks at her arm moving back, blinking at it for a moment. "O-Oh! Rosemary. You were still back with Caspian, right?"
The arm moves up and down, then continues to be pulled back. Rosemary rarely does this, but she was trying her best to communicate with Giichi and tell her not to go down the alleyway... the best she can do while not possessing Giichi, simply just grabbing Giichi's arm and crossing the fingers on it.
"Ah..." Giichi does get the message, and walks back out of the alley. A worried look is on her face as Rosemary is basically telling her not to check up on Caspian, the girl oblivious to the reasons why. "... well- uhm- hmm." Thinking to herself as she looks around, pointing to the alleyway on the other side of the building. "Here, I'll go this way!"
Giichi then walks into the alleyway, walking deeper into it. Idly thinking to herself how she could check on Caspian, to see if he's alright. She doesn't have a cellphone, nor does she really want to use the payphone again to call anyone else... maybe she can go into a place, use someone else's phone to check on Caspian.
Walking down the alley, she finds a restaurant that might have a phone. Located deep in the alleyway, on the first floor of an entire building crowded in between the surrounding apartment buildings, a noodle restaurant. It appears to be traditional in design, but... it may have a phone.
So, Giichi walks down the stairs and opens the door, looking around for the owner to ask to use his-
"So you're gonna get us the money, geezer, or we're gonna-"
Giichi stands at the open door and overhears this, just idly staring at three shady men in suits surrounding an old Vietnamese man in chef uniform. Blinking her green and yellow eyes, visibly poker faced at this information.
"..."
"..."
The three men immediately draw their guns on Giichi, focus taken off of the old man and now on this random bystander. "You walked into the wrong building," one of them say.
Giichi just processes the scene, looks between all three of them, stares at the old man, and promptly steps to the side. Hands held up, tensely "S... Sorry- I, uhm, I didn't- I-"
Suddenly, out of sheer compulsiveness, a nearby table is promptly thrown at one of the gangsters, cracking in half against the top of his head. Giichi watches in shock as the man remains standing for a few moments after impact, both exchanging looks at each other. A calm and composed look on the gangster's face for a few seconds, before he promptly falls over and collapses like a ragdoll once his brain registers the pain of the table.
Rosemary, the gaseous entity right next to Giichi, reacted rather hastily to the men pointing guns at Giichi. Unbeknownst to Giichi, this table attack was a power move on her end, and the gaseous entity is on the offensive. Shouting at the top of her lungs (or, rather, Giichi's lungs):
"DROP YOUR GUNS OR I WILL DO THAT AGAIN."
The two remaining ones, briefly stunned in shock, are in sheer disbelief at this... and are absolutely seething. The center one calls Rosemary's bluff, gritting his teeth and firing his gun straight at Giichi's head. The trigger was pulled quickly, Giichi unable to dodge in time. In that instance, the bullet hits her forehead, and delivers a lethal blow that kills the girl.
Or, at least, it would have, if bullets were even strong enough to damage her head.
"G-GAH-!" Giichi screams, raising her hands to her forehead. Wincing in agonizing pain as she feels her forehead, the bullet falling to the floor with a clink. The bullets only penetrated down to her skin, unable to make a single dent in her skull. Giichi did feel the bruises on her forehead, but if she could remain relatively unharmed after an 80 MPH car drives into her, bullets weren't going to do the job against her durability either.
The two gangsters stare in shock at this, eyes going wide at the sight.
And then Rosemary lifts up another table and bashes it over the head of who fired. Not even attempting to throw it this time, just simply swinging the table down for a fiercer impact, knocking the man unconscious.
"I WAS NOT KIDDING," Rosemary promptly shouts, and commits to another threat as a third table is raised in the air.
"............" Stunned and in shock at the sights before him, the last remaining and conscious gangster wisely drops his gun and falls to his knees, surrendering.
Giichi- pulls the bullets away from her head, tossing them aside with a tense look on her face. "Hhh..." Rubbing her head in pain, looking around for where the old man went off to. "U-Uhm- a-are you okay?"
"Y... Yes-" the old man answers, visibly shaky as he peeks out from the counter. Phone in hand, currently on the line. "I- I'm calling police..." Before redirecting his attention to the call.
Giichi nods, contently standing in place. Taking a seat at one of the chairs, contently waiting.
Soon, the door opens and Caspian rushes in, tensely breathing as he- looks around to see two unconscious men and a guy tied up in rope.
"... uh-" Caspian noises in confusion- before seeing Giichi and Rosemary sitting on stools, understanding the situation immediately... before shaking his head. "A-Anyway! Giichi, I found you- listen, the police are currently on my tail, you gotta hide me...!"
Giichi blinks a couple of times. "... b-but you don't have a tail..."
"I'm being chased!" Caspian exclaims, glaring at her. "I- I came back just because I was running away, and like- the police are EVERYWHERE! T-They're not gonna stop until they catch me for putting Verness in the vending machine...!"
"Oh! Uhm- well, I don't think hiding here's the best idea," Giichi comments, pointing her thumb at the three suited men. "The old man who owns this place is calling the police on these three gentlemen right now."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're getting locked up along with these guys if we stick here. Miiiight wanna find somewhere else to hide," Rosemary comments, arms crossed as she stares at the gangsters.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"S... Shoot...!" Caspian noises, visibly tense as he runs to the back of the building. Running through the kitchen to head out the back exit, starting to search elsewhere.
Giichi shakes her head. "W-Well, wait for me, I- I'll at least help...!" she calls out, running after Caspian as she passes the old man. "S-Sorry, mister, w-we have to go now...!" Exiting the back door.
The old man just watches the three pass by, actively on the phone with the police. "Wait-"
Immediately startled as the police enter through the front door, the officers in search of Caspian... and seeing three criminals just in the corner of the restaurant.
"..." The old man briefly covers the phone, and smiles. "Speedy arrival... care for some food, officers? Free in 30 minutes..."
One of the officers just- speaks into his radio to report the scene, sighing.
Caspian, only having those officers off of him, just runs and darts around the city and its buildings, aimlessly just looking for a single safe place to hide without the police finding him.
In response, Giichi was trying to follow and pursue him to help as well, but her running speed didn't match his whatsoever. "... h-hold on!" Giichi calls out as she concentrates, her wings extending out of her back. Skeletal in nature, made completely out of bones, defying the laws of physics as Giichi manages to take off with them - starting to fly after the accelerated Caspian.
In trying to keep up with him this way, however, Giichi would have her flight rendered slightly unstable, currently struggling to make every twist and turn that Caspian was making. She holds up for a while, before she ends up flying through a window of an apartment.
"W... What in the..."
Giichi lets out a groan as she lies on the glass-covered floor, tense and worried about whose place she broke into accidentally. Looking around to see several well suited gentlemen, and tensely just- clasping her hands together in apology. "I- I'm sorry! P-Please excuse me!" Heading out their apartment door and opening the window in the hallway to fly out.
The gentlemen in question just stare in bewilderment, as they were in the midst of printing counterfeit money. Also gangsters.
"Oh, what are the odds?" Rosemary asks, contently floating outside of the windowsill and having seen the men with Giichi's eyes. Recognizing a criminal counterfeit operation with men dressed rather similarly to the people who fired guns at Giichi... after Giichi flew out of the building, the gaseous entity promptly and loudly shouts loud for the police on the ground to hear. "Police! Counterfeit operation up here, broken window!"
"... you little-!" one man exclaims as he draws his gun and aims at the cloud, infuriated.
"W-What are you doing?!" one of the other ones exclaim. "Those blokes're now gonna get right on us! We gotta ditch the evidence, quickly!"
Rosemary just floats off to follow Giichi while these gangsters panic with incoming officers. A content smugness in the cloud of gas as she flees the scene.
Caspian has made no attempt to slow down as he was too panicked to stop. Running himself up a multi-story company building, managing to stick himself to the surface of the wall with each step as he runs. Multiple officers now pinpointed on his exact location, with police cars and vans driving through the city to keep up with him, as well as some police helicopters gaining a visual on the individual.
At the same time, Giichi sees Caspian running up the company building and sees that he's possibly going to reach the top and run down after. She starts to fly around the building to follow, wrapping around it and taking a shortcut to keep up.
Rosemary, accompanying Giichi strictly, ends up catching a glimpse of something while Giichi flies around the building and over the sight. Two suited men... exchanging briefcases in the parking lot. Gang deal.
"Police! Poliiiiice!" Rosemary loudly shouts, looking to the police chopper and gaining its attention before pointing down.
"... what in the-" an officer in the helicopter noises, staring down to see the two men... his eyes widening. "H... Hey! A drug deal's going on down there!" he exclaims to the others in the copter.
"Drug deal?!" the helicopter pilot shouts, flying downward to close in on the deal. The police dropping out of the helicopter and intercepting the two men, pilot screaming into the chopper's megaphone system. "Police! Hands up, drop the cases now!"
The two men doing so, absolutely bewildered by this.
This marks the beginning of a trend with these three.
Caspian, currently with no clear destination in mind, running across the city from building to building, street over street, simply utilizing his enhanced and accelerated body to practically flee at alarming speeds from the cops.
Giichi, attempting to follow and fly after him, either accidentally stumbling upon certain buildings or simply just trying to utilize shortcuts to keep up with Caspian.
And by some sheer coincidence, discovering some criminal operation with gangsters on the scene, Rosemary loudly alerts the nearby officers of the criminals and leads to their arrests... out of sheer pettiness.
This repeats over and over again as the three travel throughout the city, police absolutely swamped with arrests upon discovering the gangsters committing various crimes all at once in this short period of time. Hundreds of men taken into custody, Caspian exhausting all of his options one by one as he unknowingly leads Giichi and Rosemary to rat out a crime syndicate.
"B-Breaking news!" a reporter loudly exclaims in a news helicopter. "S-Starveil City's being overrun with gangsters and crime! It started with police in search of an individual suspected of putting a little girl in a vending machine and fleeing at an alarming pace. However, in pursuit of this individual and failing to catch him, the police have intercepted countless criminal gang members being discovered in the act... of crime!"
Broadcast throughout the city, several news reporters were in the midst of recording the arrests live. The three from the restaurant, the four from the money printing apartment, the various people caught tampering with cars and vehicles with illegal explosives, brake cutters and such...
"... you are not going to believe this, dispatch-!" an officer shouts as he and his partner discover two gangsters shoving a man into a vending machine. Effectively having proof of individuals shoving people into vending machines, clearing Caspian's name?
Caspian eventually... decides on the last place he can think of to hide away from the police. Somewhere safe, the very last place he wanted to go.
"Huh. Nyx was just here, now you! Quite the surprise," Papaya says, answering the door.
Caspian stands in front of Apartment 207, just visibly worn out. His legs weak and trembling, his breathing heavy. "D... Don't... care... please... hide... me..." he begs, gritting his teeth hard.
"Alright, but if I let you in and all..." Papaya hmms in thought, smirking. "... we basically need you to act as our little battery! 12V, kinda like a- oh, I dunno, lithium ion battery. Promise?"
"Fine... fine..." Caspian mumbles, groaning as he brushes past Papaya. "Just... let me in- uhghhg..."
Once Caspian was through the door, Papaya chuckles contently and reaches for the man's cup that Nyx brought over. "Alright. That's a deal, then~"
Caspian takes a sip of the drink, gulping it down and replenishing his energy. The residual symptoms of his accelerated body dissipating as he drinks the cup down.
"Want another?" Papaya asks, handing him Giichi's drink. "The soda's diluted, so Giichi probably doesn't want this anymore."
Caspian accepts the drink, chugs down the drink and absorbs even more water. Letting out a deep sigh into the cup, making sure the water vapor is contained to the cup. "Ahhh... so much better-" Caspian mumbles to himself, idly stretching. "Thank you, now- ... actually, wait, that was Giichi's? You... you have the drinks?"
"Yeah. Well, Nyx came here with the tacos that Giichi agreed to get us," Papaya says, picking up her half-eaten taco from the table and taking another bite out of it. "She did come without Giichi, who has been gone for hours, so I kiiiinda thought something was up," Papaya answers, chuckling. "We've been checking up on your little situation and all!"
Peritzal sits up and lets out a yawn, a flying drone currently holding a burrito and a half melted milkshake. "Yes. Your name was cleared a mere five minutes ago. You no longer have a reason to take shelter in this apartment, Caspian."
"I mean, totally stick around, you did just promise to be our battery," Papaya answers, smirking. "Got pleeeeenty of water if you get tired and all."
Caspian... groans lightly, arms crossed and sighing. "I... did promise to do that, yes..."
Papaya pats Caspian on the shoulder, and smiles. "Don't worry, we won't be taking long..." Gesturing him over to the corner of the room. "Peri, is the thing that needs a battery done yet?"
Peritzal shakes her head, directing Caspian's attention to the project they were working on this entire time: a tiny, miniature dancing cactus.
"..." Caspian squints his eyes at it. "I... I'm sorry, how am I going to power this?"
"Concentrate electricity into your finger," Peritzal responds. "We'll measure the voltage appropriately, separate the finger from your body and use it for the time being..."
Caspian lets out another sigh... "Why the hell am I friends with you people...?"
And thus, as a now innocent Caspian agrees to be the battery, and while Nyx continues her ruse as Quade while he takes a nap...
"... where- did- he- go...????"
Giichi, exhausted while standing on top of a ferris wheel at the Starveil Boardwalk, heavily wheezing after having flown around the entire city for Caspian. Her breath extremely heavy, clouds of red mist spreading outward...
----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location...
A man currently in a suit, sitting in his dimly lit office. Receiving the news of the police seizing countless criminal operations, facing away from the men giving him the news.
"... you're... telling me, and- and I need you two's to repeat yourselves, in case my hearing's going bad..." the man speaks, his deep voice a heavy weight to these criminals. "... that over two hundred men have been apprehended by the police, simultaneously all at once, because of some exclamatory voice ratting you all out...?"
"Y... Yes, boss," the gangster speaks, looking down at the floor. "That is what happened."
The man, the boss, head of the syndicate that had its members arrested, takes a moment to slowly turn his chair to the men, leaning forward and placing his hands on the desk. His eyes staring at the gangsters before him, a look of bubbling irritation on his face, ready to burst. "I see. And are any of you men responsible for this? Have you brought me the head of the person that could have caused this?"
"No, sir. We have come simply to... deliver the news to you, to... to inform you of it. Currently, we're trying to figure out who could have done this..."
"So you have not brought me the head of the person that caused almost the entirety of the Blackbird Syndicate to be arrested. I see."
In that very instant, the boss raises his hands in the air, takes a deep breath, clenches his fists, concentrates all of his might into his vocal chords, and lets out a resounding...
"GOD-!" Slamming his fists down with all of his might, violent fury unleashed from his mouth. "(BLEEP)ING DAMN IT! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE AND FIND THE BUMBLING DEAD MAN, NOW!"
"R... Right away, boss!" the gangster shouts, as all of them promptly leave the room.
The boss just remains slumped over his desk, trembling and shaking. Starting to violently caw as he continues to release his pent up anger. A murderous look in his eyes, trying to visualize the person in question.
The boss's phone begins to ring, and he reaches for it. Clenching his chest and falling back into his seat, hyperventilating as his rage was blinding him and making him cease to function...
... and the crow takes off, flying to the cabinet in the corner and carrying a bottle of pills to the man, popping some into his mouth. The man reaches for the pitcher of water and the glass cup, pours the water out, and takes a deep gulp of water... taking a calm breath as the medication works its wonders, and he answers.
"Hello?"
"Sir," a voice speaks on the other end. "I have gotten into contact with Joey. He and the others are in custody, and... he has described the individual that has been responsible."
"I see... I see. Scare," the man speaks, looking to the crow and whistling him over. The crow promptly flying and putting a notepad and pencil on his desk, the man preparing to draw. "Please go ahead and describe her."
"Alright, so it's a girl with brown hair..." the gangster begins to describe Giichi.
"I have a pencil," the boss interrupts.
"A girl with hair..."