Apr 18, 2022 10:06:39 GMT -5
Post by Anastasia on Apr 18, 2022 10:06:39 GMT -5
Anastasia cared little for "bounty hunter" work. It was far simpler to get in a pit, fight, and then get paid. As a bounty hunter you needed to... well actually hunt down the damn bounty. It was not her strong suit. Anastasia just wasn't the type to hit the beat and follow 'leads'. She never seemed to know the right questions to ask, so she always found herself at dead ends.
Dead ends like the one she found herself in now.
Anastasia stabbed at her pasta while reading over the bounty notice.
"THIEF TRAVELING ALONG YUCCA RIVER. WITNESSES DESCRIBE THE PERPETRATOR AS SMALL, FAST, WITH BIG BUGGY EYES. BE ON GUARD. IF YOU HAVE FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT TENDO."
There were additional details such as when the bounty was posted and the price for capture of the thief written at the bottom. There was also a crude sketch of something that looked like some sort of withered flea.
As far as Anastasia had been able to determine, the thief would arrive and do drive-bye, smash-and-grab tactics. There would some sort of explosion, a smoke cloud, a flash of something snatching the items in question, and then it was off bounding away before anyone could react. Something that fast wasn't usually strong, more cowardly than anything, picking on the 'normal' people.
Normally she wouldn't have bothered with this kind of work, but she often supplemented her income with amateur street fights when she was on the road. But lately she hadn't been able to find many street fights that would take her any longer. With her power level becoming what it was, a lot of the amateur fighters didn't want to take her on. Even when her strength was suppressed with weights. And smaller towns didn't often have the underbelly needed to support the underground fighting pits that were her main source of income.
Thus, free lance bounty hunting work.
With an internal sigh, Anastasia polished off the last of her meal, and placed cash underneath her plate. Enough to cover her food, and leave a decent tip. Just because her funds were a little tighter than usual didn't mean that she was going to short change a server. Especially if they did good work and were a small business.
Ana slung her bag over her shoulder again, and carefully made sure to suppress her power level to the average human strength and set about patrolling up and down Yucca River. She was carrying an extra heavy load on her bag to make it seem like she had more things worth stealing. Normally Ana carried things in capsules to better economize, but today she kept most of it out, and even strapped some props on the outside of her pack. Said props being a bunch of useless technology that her friend Akira had salvaged from the junk yard. None of it worked, Akira had taken all the parts she wanted, but they at least LOOKED impressive. Well, none of it worked except for the tracking beacon Akira had put in it.
An hour and a half later still found Ana unmolested. She felt like a fisherman out on lake with none of the fishes biting. It was a waiting game, If she hadn't been wearing her weights and using the march like stamina training she would have felt like the whole thing was a huge waste of ti-
A flash and a bang and the area was filled with smoke and dust. Anastasia threw an arm up over her mouth to protect herself as best as she could from the obscuring clouds. She stretched out with her senses trying to detect who was attacking her. No luck, they were suppressing their strength as well, damnit. Ana turned around in the cloud, trying to keep her eyes open for where the thief might strike next.
Something jumped on her back, causing Ana to stumble forward. She put a hand forward to stop herself from falling. There was a sound of tearing and she felt her pack get lighter. Bingo, the thief had taken her bait.
"Yeeeahahahah! What a haul! What a haul!!"
She blinked. What in the world? The voice crowing to the sky was slightly high pitched but very wizened. Practically decrepit. And what sort of thief attacked under the cover of a smoke bomb, suppressed their ki to hide their presence, and then shouted as it ran away? Didn't the shouting do the exact OPPOSITE of sneaking in to grab people's valuables. Anastasia turned towards the sound of the shouting and took off after them, she didn't fly just yet, opting instead to run and keeping her power level suppressed.
There! Up ahead just past the dust. A bounding figure, small, round, over laden with a sack bigger than it was. Shoved into the sack was some of Anastasia's stolen tech. Huh, it was a human. Just a very small, bug-eyed, old man of a human. She couldn't believe that he was able to jump so far and so fast on his tiny little legs. He really did resemble some sort of flee. Unbelievable.
Anastasia put on an extra burst of speed to catch up to the fleeing old man, and it was that extra burst of ki that seemed to alert the old man.
"What the-?" He looked over his shoulder and caught sight of Anastasia, and then let out a surprised squawk of shock. He obviously hadn't expected anyone to keep up with him. He changed tactics and instead of trying to just bound off, dodged into the woods. It seemed he was trying to leverage his smaller frame and high mobility to hide in the trees and underbrush.
He wasn't going to find Anastasia so easily shaken. Finally deciding to no longer hold back, she summoned her ki around her in rolling waves and then flew directly through the woods, the branches and undergrowth snapping and pushed easily out of her way by her ki. The thief didn't have a chance. Anastasia snagged him by the back of his bulging sack, jerked him back, and grabbed him by the throat. She wasn't about to let him squirm free.
"Gwargh!! Hey! Lemme go! Put me down!" he flailed his tiny arms and legs ineffectually as Anastasia hoisted him up. He had zero leverage to try and wiggle free, "How could you do this to an old man!!"
She gave him a flat look, utterly unimpressed by his 'old man' comment. Instead she carefully rose through the tree canopy still hanging on to the flea of a man, and then turned in the direction of the village that she had taken the bounty from. Time to turn this thief in.
"Thank you so much for your help," Tendo smiled and bowed to Anastasia. He was a tall man with long black hair that came down his back, and a bushy mustache with tanned skin. He wore a loose martial arts gi, brown in color with a white belt.
"It was no problem," Anastasia said quietly and looked around the room. She wasn't in a police office or other such government building. Rather she was in some sort of dojo. It didn't seem like a place of law enforcement.
Tendo noticed her observation, "Not what you were expecting is it? No, we may not be police, but we still look out for our little community. We have been trying to catch the thief ourselves, but he had been alluding us. The police of the big cities hadn't really been assisting stated there wasn't much they could do."
Tendo's expression soured in reference to the police. Anastasia nodded understandingly. Places out of the way, little towns and village, were often considered of little importance to the powers at large. So long as the thief was only targeting locals and not big transports, the police probably couldn't be bothered to spend more than the most basic of resources.
"Here, this is for you," Tendo turned towards a cabinet and opened the doors wide. Inside was a display of a small shrine, with a golden orb sitting atop it. Inside the orb, twinkling with an inner-light were a number of small red stars. There were seven by Anastasia's count. She cocked her head, transfixed by the trinket. It seemed to emanate an aura of... grandeur. She couldn't explain it. For some reason she was drawn to it, captivated.
Tendo turned to her holding a box in his hands and saw Ana's eyes fixed on the item sitting atop the shrine, "Ah, I see you admire our Dragon Ball."
Anastasia blinked, brought out of her study of the item by Tendo's words, "Dragon Ball?"
"Yes, the orb you see here on our family shrine," Tendo said nodding at the display, "It is called a Dragon Ball. Supposedly one of seven that can be found spread across the entire world. Legend has it that if some one collects all seven, then they can summon the eternal dragon and make a wish for whatever their heart's desire.
""Hm..." Anastasia hummed quietly her eyes going back to the artifact. It was an interesting story. And normally Anastasia would be inclined to dismiss it as such. Just a story. But there was -something- about the Dragon Ball that just felt so... magical. She couldn't help but believe, at least in part, that maybe the story could be true, "If they're spread out across the world, how is anyone supposed to find them?"
Tendo chuckled and shrugged, holding his hands out, "Apparently there used to be a way to detect them. Some sort of signal that could be caught and followed to their location. But if so, we have no idea how to go about procuring or making something like that. And even if we did, I don't think we would. My family is only charged with protecting this Dragon Ball. We have no need for wishes of the Eternal Dragon. This? This is honor enough."
Anastasia hummed in assent. She could respect that dedication to duty. Then again, what dedication? It was only a story...
Word Count: 1,687
Dead ends like the one she found herself in now.
Anastasia stabbed at her pasta while reading over the bounty notice.
"THIEF TRAVELING ALONG YUCCA RIVER. WITNESSES DESCRIBE THE PERPETRATOR AS SMALL, FAST, WITH BIG BUGGY EYES. BE ON GUARD. IF YOU HAVE FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT TENDO."
There were additional details such as when the bounty was posted and the price for capture of the thief written at the bottom. There was also a crude sketch of something that looked like some sort of withered flea.
As far as Anastasia had been able to determine, the thief would arrive and do drive-bye, smash-and-grab tactics. There would some sort of explosion, a smoke cloud, a flash of something snatching the items in question, and then it was off bounding away before anyone could react. Something that fast wasn't usually strong, more cowardly than anything, picking on the 'normal' people.
Normally she wouldn't have bothered with this kind of work, but she often supplemented her income with amateur street fights when she was on the road. But lately she hadn't been able to find many street fights that would take her any longer. With her power level becoming what it was, a lot of the amateur fighters didn't want to take her on. Even when her strength was suppressed with weights. And smaller towns didn't often have the underbelly needed to support the underground fighting pits that were her main source of income.
Thus, free lance bounty hunting work.
With an internal sigh, Anastasia polished off the last of her meal, and placed cash underneath her plate. Enough to cover her food, and leave a decent tip. Just because her funds were a little tighter than usual didn't mean that she was going to short change a server. Especially if they did good work and were a small business.
Ana slung her bag over her shoulder again, and carefully made sure to suppress her power level to the average human strength and set about patrolling up and down Yucca River. She was carrying an extra heavy load on her bag to make it seem like she had more things worth stealing. Normally Ana carried things in capsules to better economize, but today she kept most of it out, and even strapped some props on the outside of her pack. Said props being a bunch of useless technology that her friend Akira had salvaged from the junk yard. None of it worked, Akira had taken all the parts she wanted, but they at least LOOKED impressive. Well, none of it worked except for the tracking beacon Akira had put in it.
An hour and a half later still found Ana unmolested. She felt like a fisherman out on lake with none of the fishes biting. It was a waiting game, If she hadn't been wearing her weights and using the march like stamina training she would have felt like the whole thing was a huge waste of ti-
A flash and a bang and the area was filled with smoke and dust. Anastasia threw an arm up over her mouth to protect herself as best as she could from the obscuring clouds. She stretched out with her senses trying to detect who was attacking her. No luck, they were suppressing their strength as well, damnit. Ana turned around in the cloud, trying to keep her eyes open for where the thief might strike next.
Something jumped on her back, causing Ana to stumble forward. She put a hand forward to stop herself from falling. There was a sound of tearing and she felt her pack get lighter. Bingo, the thief had taken her bait.
"Yeeeahahahah! What a haul! What a haul!!"
She blinked. What in the world? The voice crowing to the sky was slightly high pitched but very wizened. Practically decrepit. And what sort of thief attacked under the cover of a smoke bomb, suppressed their ki to hide their presence, and then shouted as it ran away? Didn't the shouting do the exact OPPOSITE of sneaking in to grab people's valuables. Anastasia turned towards the sound of the shouting and took off after them, she didn't fly just yet, opting instead to run and keeping her power level suppressed.
There! Up ahead just past the dust. A bounding figure, small, round, over laden with a sack bigger than it was. Shoved into the sack was some of Anastasia's stolen tech. Huh, it was a human. Just a very small, bug-eyed, old man of a human. She couldn't believe that he was able to jump so far and so fast on his tiny little legs. He really did resemble some sort of flee. Unbelievable.
Anastasia put on an extra burst of speed to catch up to the fleeing old man, and it was that extra burst of ki that seemed to alert the old man.
"What the-?" He looked over his shoulder and caught sight of Anastasia, and then let out a surprised squawk of shock. He obviously hadn't expected anyone to keep up with him. He changed tactics and instead of trying to just bound off, dodged into the woods. It seemed he was trying to leverage his smaller frame and high mobility to hide in the trees and underbrush.
He wasn't going to find Anastasia so easily shaken. Finally deciding to no longer hold back, she summoned her ki around her in rolling waves and then flew directly through the woods, the branches and undergrowth snapping and pushed easily out of her way by her ki. The thief didn't have a chance. Anastasia snagged him by the back of his bulging sack, jerked him back, and grabbed him by the throat. She wasn't about to let him squirm free.
"Gwargh!! Hey! Lemme go! Put me down!" he flailed his tiny arms and legs ineffectually as Anastasia hoisted him up. He had zero leverage to try and wiggle free, "How could you do this to an old man!!"
She gave him a flat look, utterly unimpressed by his 'old man' comment. Instead she carefully rose through the tree canopy still hanging on to the flea of a man, and then turned in the direction of the village that she had taken the bounty from. Time to turn this thief in.
"Thank you so much for your help," Tendo smiled and bowed to Anastasia. He was a tall man with long black hair that came down his back, and a bushy mustache with tanned skin. He wore a loose martial arts gi, brown in color with a white belt.
"It was no problem," Anastasia said quietly and looked around the room. She wasn't in a police office or other such government building. Rather she was in some sort of dojo. It didn't seem like a place of law enforcement.
Tendo noticed her observation, "Not what you were expecting is it? No, we may not be police, but we still look out for our little community. We have been trying to catch the thief ourselves, but he had been alluding us. The police of the big cities hadn't really been assisting stated there wasn't much they could do."
Tendo's expression soured in reference to the police. Anastasia nodded understandingly. Places out of the way, little towns and village, were often considered of little importance to the powers at large. So long as the thief was only targeting locals and not big transports, the police probably couldn't be bothered to spend more than the most basic of resources.
"Here, this is for you," Tendo turned towards a cabinet and opened the doors wide. Inside was a display of a small shrine, with a golden orb sitting atop it. Inside the orb, twinkling with an inner-light were a number of small red stars. There were seven by Anastasia's count. She cocked her head, transfixed by the trinket. It seemed to emanate an aura of... grandeur. She couldn't explain it. For some reason she was drawn to it, captivated.
Tendo turned to her holding a box in his hands and saw Ana's eyes fixed on the item sitting atop the shrine, "Ah, I see you admire our Dragon Ball."
Anastasia blinked, brought out of her study of the item by Tendo's words, "Dragon Ball?"
"Yes, the orb you see here on our family shrine," Tendo said nodding at the display, "It is called a Dragon Ball. Supposedly one of seven that can be found spread across the entire world. Legend has it that if some one collects all seven, then they can summon the eternal dragon and make a wish for whatever their heart's desire.
""Hm..." Anastasia hummed quietly her eyes going back to the artifact. It was an interesting story. And normally Anastasia would be inclined to dismiss it as such. Just a story. But there was -something- about the Dragon Ball that just felt so... magical. She couldn't help but believe, at least in part, that maybe the story could be true, "If they're spread out across the world, how is anyone supposed to find them?"
Tendo chuckled and shrugged, holding his hands out, "Apparently there used to be a way to detect them. Some sort of signal that could be caught and followed to their location. But if so, we have no idea how to go about procuring or making something like that. And even if we did, I don't think we would. My family is only charged with protecting this Dragon Ball. We have no need for wishes of the Eternal Dragon. This? This is honor enough."
Anastasia hummed in assent. She could respect that dedication to duty. Then again, what dedication? It was only a story...
Word Count: 1,687
