Post by Multiplex on Jul 11, 2018 19:57:11 GMT
Though he might privately have to admit that it was hardly a strong suit, Liu folded his arms, doing his best to appear imposing. His current mood, at the least, served to enhance the effect a bit.
Firstly, he addressed the stammering fellow.
“Whatever you mean, no, we certainly aren’t. And before I forget or you two go anywhere, that means,” he continued, raising his voice a notch and turning back to the glowing miss, “that you ought to ground yourself. Now.”
He certainly didn’t feel up to acknowledging the first answer of “nothing.” What he couldn’t ignore, however, was a lack of immediate compliance.
“I’m not kidding around, if y—”
And then she was both hollering something he didn’t register and sprinting at him, even as someone vaulted past a shelf on his right and up and at him, accompanied by a rustle and a crash.
Some part of him beyond the mind estimated that he had maybe a part of a second before the latter was on him, and perhaps two or three for the first. That was dire news; he had only one mirage ready and near at hand. Direct combat wouldn’t do, too, for he was too close. A warp to the one by the door would be perfect. They wouldn’t understand what had happened. Maybe he could catch them both with his one prepared attack, if he were lucky. He rarely was, but it could happen.
It would be perfect… it could have been perfect. He was already well out of time.
As he stood complacent and belated, however, a few variables proved outliers. The nearest apparent assailant landed next to him, but landed rather clumsily—then he recognized him as the same girl he had just presumably dealt a knockout blow to. She looked worse for wear and rather delirious, but nonetheless she was still standing… were there time, he’d feel quite solidly comfortable in his assertion that she was a Superstar. A professional or no, however, her strike was slow in its windup. Then the second surprise arrived; for as the strike descended, the girl who killed the lights had somehow covered the distance, and more importantly, had wedged herself between Liu and his attacker. And then third and finally, it was she who took the blow—a somewhat alarming thwump across the cheek with…a hammer? No, the head was just hard rubber…
Now once again quite thoroughly perplexed, Liu just sort of stood blinking for a moment, casting looks between the rather vacant-looking attacker and his evidently infuriated impromptu protector. Fortunately, what finally snapped him out of his state of idle observation came then and there, and was something quite simple: the old-as-time instinct of self-preservation, kicking in around the same time that the girl with the glowing arm began glowing in general. The practical thing would have been to just warp to the door, but that option lay forgotten in his rather addled mind as he instead opted to dive aside into a clumsy kind of side-roll, like he might’ve to avoid the blast zone of one of his own mirages.
This detonation, however, was significantly less localized.
The resulting wall of concussive force did more than just knock him out of his evasion attempt—a few long seconds of vague pain later, he found himself lying on his back several paces further than where he would have estimated he’d turn up, surrounded by lots and lots of collateral and also the same stuttering man from before, who now looked more waylaid than ever.
Liu rose to his feet again with a pained grunt, turning back to witness whatever aftershocks of the blast were left unseen. First, he tried to identify where everyone else now was… at the epicenter, the culprit still yet lay prone, who was slowly rolling over onto her back, and the primary receiver of the attack was nowhere in sight. He could only imagine that she was likely in a very similar state, merely now somewhere else in the building as well. Upon turning to check for the cashier, however, he saw nothing but an unoccupied counter and a front door still swinging closed… he reasoned that that was for the best. Secondly, however, he gave the general condition of the store a quick look-over, taking the gloom as a given and keeping his promise to avoid damages in mind. He did, however, quite rapidly avert his eyes, deeming it a lost cause—shelves were knocked down, goods lay scattered about everywhere, a ceiling tile or three seemed nowhere in sight, and more besides.
He sighed tiredly towards no one in particular, grimacing when he noticed a slight blur to his voice and a ring in his ears. Things had gotten a little out of hand.
He checked to make sure his profits were still on his person. It looked like it was high time to hit the road.
Gingerly stepping over clusters of what was now essentially junk, Liu first made his way over to the girl who’d at last maneuvered off of her stomach, noting the current lack of a glowing arm and/or self. Looking down at her (and once again opting to just ignore her attempts at quips), he debated offering her a hand, but imagined that she’d probably promptly fall back down again.
“…Well, I might’ve been able to thank you if I didn’t expect my ears to be bleeding in a minute. Maybe that counts as us being even?” he chuckled once, but then returned to bluntness. “Anyways, though, I’m not quite sure what you were going for, but it’s like I said before: sloppy, not impressive.”
At that, he gestured to the minor desolation that was the gas station’s hottest new look.
“Sorry, but that’s the simple truth of it, especially if you’re drained up now.”