Stained Hearts

The name of the place was Stained Hearts. Back in the sixties, it was marketed as a rock-n-roll bar, Chicago's very own Hard Rock Cafe, though it never quite hit the same level of popularity. From there it transitioned from pop bar to strip club to, briefly, a Denny's, but no establishment lasted long until it was bought by its current owner, who returned it to its former name and palette. But instead of a rock bar, it was instead a skeezy dive bar, which just so happened to be visited by the criminal elite.

”Coincidence, my ass.”

Kubi had no problem with an honest criminal, someone who robbed only people who fight back, or who could afford it. It was harder, certainly, but if being a criminal was easy, the jails wouldn't be so full. A criminal with a sense of honour, or morality or integrity was a rare breed in this country, but the few Kubi met were deserving of respect. There were no criminals like that here. Well-off men robbing those who couldn't afford bread, rapists and pedophiles sharing a tab with arsonists … it truly was a slimepit. Unfortunately, sometimes, you need to immerse yourself in the darkness. So he drunk their whiskey, sat on their bar chairs, and listened to their music until someone who seemed to know what the hell was going on walked in.

She drew the eye immediately, a small little thing standing out, even among the descriptive characters sitting among the bar (the kid with the bright green peacock certainly drew the eye.) She was pretty - beautiful, even - though way too young for him. She carried with her a swagger, an unalienable confidence, as if she could do anything she set her mind too. As soon as Kubi saw her walk in, a grin lit up his face; he didn't even care that he was staring like a letch (but he wasn't the only one). She called for a waitress, and after a second of derision, the waitress led her to a backroom, where they both disappeared.

”Who the hell was that?”

”No idea, but if she's meeting with those three, she ain't up to no good. I'd stay away. Even for this place, they're trouble.”

This made Kubi laugh, for some reason, and the bartender harumphed and vowed to not serve the large man anymore. But Kubi didn't need to pretend to drink anymore; he found what he was here for. Now to see if they knew anything. There was a rather large man guarding the door, trying to act like he was just a clean cut, suspiciously bulky person hanging out in front of a door. Kubi couldn't help but shake his head at how amateur that was. Then a second later, the guard was hoisted from behind and thrown head first through the door.

”What's up? I, uh … coulda knocked, but, you know … didn’ wanna.” His grin was wide enough now to be menacing, the cold smile not quite reaching his eyes. He stepped over the remains of the door - crushing it more in the process - and eyes roaming over the assembled. ”An’ unless y’ wanna end up like this - heh - quote unquote guard, you'll answer any question I got for ya. Understand?” Despite the lighthearted and almost playful tones of his words, his eyes were deadly serious. The eyes of a killer.

The last thing Kubi expected when he kicked the door down was for a person to be in the way.

Actually, scratch that. The last thing he expected to find was a short girl - kinda hot, in a librarian-slash-prison-warden way - singlehandedly pinning down two rather burly men, hardened criminals each. Honestly he shouldn't be surprised; in this world they live in, there's girls who can destroy buildings with a misplaced word and guys who can freeze entire oceans. Super strength is a very common ability, and logically it can equally affect both genders. But she's just so unassuming, like a healer from a video game. Super strength is just not one of the things that would be easily discovered, so she had that going for her at least.

There was a seconds pause as Kubi, framed by the noise and light of the bar as he stood in the doorway, tried to piece together exactly what the hell he walked on. First point of business: the woman beating the crap out of the men he came here to beat the crap out of. He wasn't sure whether to feel irritated or turned on. He tried to do both, but he ended up scolding his groin, so that was weird. Second point of business: These men had no powers! What the hell! Or at least if they did, they weren't using them. A profound sense of disappointment permeated him. These weren't the assholes he was looking for. However, they were assholes and deserved to be dealt with accordingly.

Of course that would have to wait, because suddenly he found himself ripped forward at quite the impressive speed. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the door reverse itself, settling itself back into the grooves. But that's not the part that got his attention; he was a pretty chill guy, able to roll with the punches in more than the literal way. No, the part that caused his eyebrow to cock.

”Woah, who th’ d’ya think I am? I ain't part of these assholes. I came t’ do what yer doin’. Ain't my fault y’ beat me to it. Calm yer tits, li’l librarian. I ain't here to do whatever th’ eff y’all think I am.”

. o O ( I changed the way her actions and words are in her posts cause I enjoy how the plum looks better than the white. Hope that's okay. )

Naomi listened to him speak, and held up a finger to indicate she needed one more moment to handle this situation.

"Look. I don't care who you sell the drugs to or who you buy them from first. You either work for me and I control twenty-five percent of your assets, or I pummel you and hang you out to dry." She said, her small figure standing over the two men with a ferocity that was seemingly impossible to come from such a petite girl as herself.

She then turned her light brown irises over toward the newest intruder on the conversation.

"Calm my tits? Who the hell do you think you are? Have you never met a lady before?" She let the man stand on his own two feet, the purple energy no longer surrounding Kubi and holding him still.

She argued back and forth with the two men, and the third one was getting up and reaching for a gun, struggling to decide who to shoot. He decided on Naomi.

The bullet came racing and hit her square in the arm, digging into and through her bone. She let out a shrill yelp and cursed, her eyes snapping over to the gun. Once it did, her powers illuminated the weapon and turned it around on the man who fired it.

"That was not very nice... you asshole." She let go of the men she was standing on, a remnant of her grip holding up their shirts as if her energy was a shadow of her physical hands. She rubbed her arm, seething as tears welled up in her eyes.

She was not immune to bullets. She found that out the hard way.

Well, he was on his feet now. That was a good thing. He didn’t have much time to celebrate that, though; the abrasive sound of a gunfire send his hackles raising and like slow motion he turned to the noise, only to immediately turn around as the librarian chick gave out a cry. Did- did he just- the smirk slid from Kubi’s face faster than ink. Oh. Hell. No. He shoved the anger down - he was going to use it - but for now this chick needed to tourniquet it. Even a flesh wound could get infected. Quickly he stripped his shirt off, tearing it down the middle. He didn’t need to disinfect it or anything, they weren’t stuck in the wilderness. Besides, a girl like that? She probably has a healing of some kind. This was more a gesture of goodwill from the giant. The tears on her face, however … that brought the anger welling from inside him like a raging fire, burning away his reason. Gently, he handed her the strips of cloth; he would have bound them, but it would be incredibly rude to touch her.

Suddenly and quicker than their eyes could see, the heavy table in the middle of the room was lifted and brought down heavily on the offenders head; that gun would never get a chance to fire. This wasn’t like something out of a comic book, the giant didn’t hold back. The force of the table sent the man through the floor, unrecognizable as a human being. The table splintered under the force, but he wasted no time in acting. His ham-like fists grabbed the colors of the two men and hefted them even higher than Naomi’s telekineis. And this wasn’t a friendly warning. There was a warning in the dark brown eyes, a dark, suppressed evil in that rugged face.

”Now. Yer gonna give th’ nice lady what she wants. Yer gonna give her money t’ pay fer the hospital bill. Yer gonna apologize. Then yer gonna crawl back into whatever fuckin’ cave scum like you spawn outta. If y’ don’t, you’ll be joining yer friend.” He looked down at the hole; he had been sent clear through the floor, the basement, and ten feet of foundation before finding coming to a bloody rest. The grin he gave them was close to manic. ”Now I hope y’ make the right choice. Cuz if y’ don’, I’m gonna see how close I c’n get t’ china with yer skulls.”

OOC: Alright, late reply doesn’t even cover it. I’m … not entirely sure what the context of this thread was. Hope this was okay. I’ve been told I tend to control other peoples characters. If I did, oops.

”Well, ya janky lookin’ motherfucker, you got one option.”

Kubi had been sitting there, letting the librarian chi- uh, the chick do the intimidation. She seemed pretty good at it, she managed to pin him down, and besides she was the one who got shot - which he was still pissed about - so she should be the ones to put the boots on the guy. But the second the words left this fuckers mouth, like a roused bear he moved, his hands like trash can lids clapping over his head. And then he lifted, plucking him off the ground like one would pluck a grape. The smell didn’t disturb him; this was something he was used to, this intimidation. Shit, it was a fact of life in Akai Mizu that people piss themselves when they’re scared. Happened all the time, they had a dedicated room in their torture chambers for people with weak bladders.

But now Kubi was pissed. He had come here for one reason, to find the man who murdered his wife. He had traced him here, to Chicago, but then the trail went cold - literally. There were no fire incidents for months, a rarity for such a big city. So he had to think, someone was running this town on the underground, keeping any metas under his thumb. Had to be Big Nick. And as this thought ran through his head, Kubi flexed his hand. Instant concussion. He wouldn’t die, if he got immediate medical attention, but the swift kick Kubi sent into his ribs (and subsequently sending him towards the unfortunately very solid wall) might do the trick. And now the very pissed off giant turned towards the two remaining gangsters.

”Or I guess you could say, you fucks got one option.”

He cracked his knuckles; still no smile graced his usual jovial expression. He was this close to finding the fucker that murdered his only reason to live, and now this chick was dragged into it, she was shot, and now they were his only things keeping him from finding their employer. Obstacles in his path. Well … if they didn’t get the fuck out of his way, he’d show them what he did to fucking obstacles.

”Pray to every fucking god you know that I got mercy, because if you don’t tell me where the fuck to find Big Nick, I won’t just fuckin’ kill you. I will hunt down every single fuckin’ person and thing you care about, tie them the fuck down, and burn them alive. Are we fuckin’ clear?!”

His eyes were manic, crazed, and beneath the surface emotion was nothing but a void. The blank eyes of a murderer.

Trashed. Kubi gets XP. I get 0.