Grievances of Fun (Open)

The bus line was busy today. In fact, most of the people here were on the vehicle for a second or third time. No first time riders were present. If it wasn't for the invention of bus transfers then the charge for the ride would be almost tyrannical. All manners of people boarded. One such person came on the bus heading towards a certain apartment complex. Loud music was the least of worries. The fact that this person had almost no consideration for anybody else and the desire for peace and quiet was a sign that there was bound to be a problem. The song being played was Aqua's "Barbie Girl" and instead of just letting the leader singer sing the song this person decided to give an assist. And boy was this girl loud.

Hips shaking, feet tapping on the floor twice before taking a single step and hair waving from side to side was the opening movements to the bus. It was Reiko again and this time in her happy mindset. She had a new friend. Mr. Hereberry, the teddy bear, was strapped to her back. Her red, yellow, green, blue and white short sleeved tie dye shirt was her favorite. The white leggings and white Chuck Taylors was the finishing combination for her favorite outfit. She had to dress in her best and favorite. She was trying to be happier and therefore dress happier. Reiko finally had an equal. The skies were clear to her even with those black sunglasses on. It was too bad that sound wasn't clearer to her. She had white headphones connected to an I-Pod in her ears. Her voice was like a baby dolphin's eco followed by nails on a chalkboard mixed in with a first beating to the head with a fireman's axe.

"Young lady! Can you please be quiet?" shouted an older woman sitting in the back of the bus. Her plea went on deaf ears. Reiko's I-Pod had a volume so loud that it was shocking that Reiko didn't suffer from deaf ears.

"Hello Barbie let's go party! Ah ah ah yeah!" was the line that this teenager picked to sing. Who would really be surprised to hear Reiko singing this song? She had already caused enough trouble in this town. Now was disturbing the peace with a song that came out when she still believed that Santa Clause was real. She sat down in the nearest seat she could find and rubbed her butt into the cushion over and over again due to her shaking her hips in a dancing motion to the song.

"Help! Someone! Please! He stole my purse!"

She didn't do anything. Reiko's heart sank as the bus began to move. She turned the music off and her angry face appeared. But then she stopped herself as she was about to get up from her seat. She wasn't supposed to be a hero.

By the time Reiko got out of her seat to run for the door after the purse snatcher the door had already been closed and the bus was in motion. She could see the man running towards next to the bus. Now was the time for a split second motion. Reiko almost never used her powers. Not against anyone. She understood how risky the usage of her powers was. If she actually hit someone hard enough she'd kill them. A murder charge isn't something that was exactly going to improve her life in any way. Still, she had to stop this guy and strangely enough using her powers was the only way to do it.

Some say that when someone is in the heat of aggression time appears to slow down. Reiko's eyes moved like the hands of a clock as she turned her body around to face the back seats of the vehicle. Her legs moved. The energy from her body was flowing down into her feet causing her to get a little more spring in her step but she was no faster than usual. The same girl who couldn't make an exceptional mark in college algebra was already calculating the distance, speed and force she'd need to pull this move off.

Her body went flying through the back window. Her left knee was extended. The sound of a skull hitting the asphalt illuminated the small area in sound. Reiko managed to jump out of the back of the bus, perfectly time a flying knee strike to the side of the head and deliver a near fatal blow. People stopped, stared and gasped. Reiko began looking around. Nobody said a word.

She ran. She ran as fast as those feet could carry her. A big part of being a true martial artist was self-control. Reiko hadn't mastered that part of martial arts yet. She nearly killed a man just now. And she only did it because she thought that would be what Joline would want her to do. "I'm so fucking stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! No wonder she doesn't love you Reiko! Who the fuck would love someone who is liable to put them in a hospital at any point?!" were Reiko's thoughts.

Reiko stopped running. She made it to a dark alley. Of course, in this town, dark alleys wasn't the best place to chill for a moment. However, Reiko wasn't exactly street smart. She took refuse inside of a bowling alley. Reiko stopped once she was inside the building and froze when she saw police officers. She had to pay to get in. Reiko took the last bit of money, which was nothing more than a twenty dollar bill, to pay for her entry fee. She reached into her shirt and into her bra to obtain the bill. Once inside the bowling area Reiko didn't bother putting on bowling shoes. She went to the arcade area and went to the Pacman machine to play a game or two until everything blew over.

Mack had set up a base of operations in Florida. It was located in a local bowling alley. In the staff room, a deal was taking place. Mack was just one of the identical men wearing orange jumpsuits. If the gang banger wanted Mack dead, he wouldn't know which one was him. A henchman talked for him while Mack just silently watched. "Alright P-Dog". The goon handed the gang banger the suitcase full of drugs. "Now where's the cash?". The gang banger responded by shooting the goon in the face. Mack's henchmen and the gang bangers pointed their guns at each other, in a Mexican standoff. Mack just stood in the darkness out of sight. He started chuckling and walked out of the shadows, tapping his machete on the wall. "And i thought today was going to be boring"

Well, this was certainly unexpected. Most of the time when trouble started there was a clear sign that there was going to be such problems. However, this was completely out of the blue. Reiko didn't even notice the oncoming bullet onslaught to come. She was completely oblivious with Pacman being to blame. Her eyes were following the screen with victorious intentions. The more she aced the levels the more the situation around her was getting worse and worse by the second. Her mind didn't alert her to the danger but loud shouting gave her a bit of knowledge that she would need at the moment. Her head turned when she heard screaming. Obviously, nobody was going to have guns drawn in broad daylight without the accompanying loose ended witness that so many criminals worked so hard to eradicate.

To stop something like this would be, again, out of the realm of possibility according to most who knew her personally. However, the interference she'd show would stem from her wanting to teach these guys a lesson more so than just stopping this kind of stuff. Reiko didn't give a care if someone wanted to kill another person. This deal that went bad was just so cliche and so seemingly staged to the point where she got a headache from just viewing this horrible transaction gone south. Her mind was already working on a plan to level the playing field. These men had guns. What some of them didn't have was Reiko's knowledge of urban combat and close quarters leveling. She understood the environment she found herself an occupant of. She understood how to equalize guns.

She went to work. Reiko crouched down and sneaked out of the arcade portion of the bowling alley. Her little hands slowly pulled the steel door closed that served as both the entry way and the exit. The emergency exit was in the back but her plan was for these thugs to never make it to there. The steel doors were easily explainable. As Reiko's experience with the purse snatcher earlier proved this wasn't the greatest of areas in terms of crime suppression a door with this sort of fortitude made sense. Not to mention that Reiko's movement into the back area was also sensible if she wanted to eliminate the accuracy of firearms. Upon entry into the back room a confrontation was made.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be back he-" The worker in the back never got a chance to finish that sentence. Reiko delivered a swift elbow strike to the side of the head which might seem obsessive to take down one man when many other moves would have sufficed and gave much less head trauma. But she needed to be sure that this man wouldn't be a thorn in her side. Reiko peeked out of the door and pulled her cell phone out. The device was placed into camera mode. She took a couple of pictures of the scene. This was a psychological weapon more so than anything else. Some may see this as pointless but it would make sense later. She cut the lights off. Now it was time to strike.


All of that shouting was coming from her. Strike after strike and blow after blow was established. She used the cover of darkness as her ally. It didn't make sense that she was able to see all of the people she was hitting. Oh, remember that snapshot she took with her phone? That was the reason for this. The disadvantage of a Mexican styled standoff was the standoff itself. People stood still and didn't move for fear that a sudden movement would trigger a premature trigger squeeze. So, a still photograph made sense if she wanted to know where the right people had to be in order to hit them in the order she planned to hit them in. At the same time, once she started hitting people some of the men began firing their weapons wildly in panic. Reiko wouldn't have to do all the work. She'd let the fools do the heavy lifting for her.

The lights came back on. Another worker applied those lights. Reiko sighed. This wasn't helpful. But at least she managed to eliminate all of the bad guys with the exception of one. "I really hope you have something better than a machete," she warned. Reiko was referring to the lone thug left holding the melee weapon.

Ms. Elena Vexus had arrived on the scene with her trusty sidekick Helena Vexus carrying her faithful Ring Blade. The lights had gone out in the bowling alley leaving one spot light on Elena, her long, bright pink hair looking as magnificent as usual. She was standing at the top of a small staircase that lead down to the main area where Mack and his new friend were playing. Each step she took one light turned off, and the other turned on as if they were walking with her.
"I had just decided to pay a visit to my new friend Mack here. These little business deals of his reflect poorly on my organization..." Elena then directed her attention to the girl who seemed to have gotten caught in the middle of Mack's business. Vexus then turned the lights back on but only in the area where the three of them stood.
"I must apologize for my subordinate's actions, he's new to say the least..."
The police cars outside had gone away whether the two of them had noticed or not. Vexus had told the authorities that the suspect had been captured. She effortlessly hacked their police systems and put the individual into the computer as if they already had her in custody. Of course they would find out sooner or later, but by that time they would be long gone.
"Now then, Mack if you would leave the nice lady alone we shall be on our way. Also... This had better be the last dealing of its kind. We are watching you know..."
Vexus then walked up to the girl with Helena close behind.
"Darling Reiko, I do hope this unfortunate individual hasn't hurt you at all..." she said in a calm caring voice that still yet had a hint of poison to it. No matter how hard she tried, Vexus could never shake the dark undertone that she had to her voice.

Now, at least the guy with the machete was entertaining. Reiko found people like the woman she was now witnessing the presence of to be the utter ridiculousness that plagued the Earth. It was one thing to interfere with what was potentially going to be a throw down. But there was a completely different issue when it came to being cocky about it. The more she wanted to just walk away the more the urge to just punch this woman in the face and make this same person swallow their teeth was a very strong urge indeed. There could have been a degree of gratitude given to the person trying to stop this person from making firing range silhouettes out of innocent bystanders in this bowling alley. It was just the way this woman did work that bothered Reiko. Something about it was so insincere and so wrong.

"Look, sweetheart, I didn't want, desire and especially didn't ask for your help. Shoo fly. Don't bother me," she said. That was a rather nasty insult for someone trying to help Reiko. But by taking such actions Reiko made the assumption that this was just another person who believed that she couldn't take care of herself. She had the situation under control. This woman had to step in. There were not many times where Reiko felt the sweet feeling of having the upper hand. Now, that feeling had been stolen from her. She wanted it back. If she had to bash someone's head in to get that feeling back then so be it. There was no need to sugar coat things. She didn't do too well with people helping her and especially those who had the appearance of being shady characters.

Her eyes were then focused on this gangster whose face could easily be imagined becoming nothing more than a grape to a steel toed boot. He needed to be squashed. Reiko planned on being the battering ram to teach this man a lesson. Or at least that would be the attempt. "And believe me sweet lips when I say that I won't tell you that again," she added.