I blinked in astonishment as I stopped stuffing the Lien from the register in order to lean over the counter and stare at the knocked out henchman I had keeping watch outside.
"Hey! That's Jim!" another henchman helpfully supplied as he stopped stuffing small boxes of Dust into his own bag.
I looked back to the destroyed window and who did I find? Jeanette Arc stepping over the now windowless ledge, glaring spitefully at me. I grabbed the rest of the cash and stuffed it into my inventory, placing my free hands on the counter like I owned the place and toggled my aura back on, just in case, "Hello ma'am and welcome to my humble shop! What can I get for you tonight?"
Jeanette didn't find my attempt at humor funny and pulled out her handgun to point it at me, spitefully sneering out, "How about you turn yourselves in, criminal."
"Now you listen here, buttercup," one of my men started as he stalked forward with an ax in hand, intent to get back at the policewoman. He pointed at her, "We ain't gonna let what you did to Jimmy stand!"
"Oh dear god no, you seriously aren't about to do what I think you are, are you?"
I held a hand out to stop him before he regrets it, "Ok, just stop right th-"
I didn't get to finish my sentence as Jeanette slammed the palm of her hand into his weapon hand and knocked it out, quickly following up with a painful looking gut shot and a roundhouse kick that would've made Chuck Norris blush. My goon, unsurprisingly, went down without much of a fight and flew into a shelf near the shop's counter. You'd think this would be where every other goon stopped and thought things through, but instead all of my men got pissed and charged her.
I face palmed and muttered to myself, "Ugh, henchmen should never fight the strong enemies. Most of them even encountered her before..."
Barely a couple of seconds later all of my henchmen flew back into the store, knocking over various shelves and landing painfully. On of the lucky ones simply slammed into the ceiling and fell behind the counter with me. I looked down at my groaning henchman, caught his eye, and said, "How about you let me take this one again. Grab whatever you've already stolen and the other men and head back to base."
"W-What about you boss?" He stuttered and grunted out as I kept an eye on Jeanette.
I cracked my neck and replied, "Gonna keep her busy. If something manages to happen, I'll be back in a couple of days tops. The police can't hold me, and I'll prove it to them."
"If you're sure…" He slowly said as he grabbed the side of his chest and limped off.
He looked unsure about the whole thing, but I've treated them well enough and proven my strength, the least they could do was follow my instructions for a few days before giving up on me. Anyway, when I get back I might have to start giving these guys some combat lessons, if they go down in only a few seconds like that they can't even be called cannon fodder… Cannon fodder is meant to hold the opposition back for a little longer than that.
I put a hand on the store's counter and leapt over it, keeping Melodic Cudgel at the ready as I began my stalling of time. Judging from Jeanette's new level, she seemed to have gained an extra.
The True and the Just
Lv63 Jeanette Arc
And judging from my observe skill her stats seemed like she'd been focusing on increasing her dexterity a bit, not much else changed from her other stats. This was a good choice for her since she couldn't even touch me last time, it still was not even close to my level yet. And damn if I'm not at least proud of that fact.
"Alright little lady, if you wanted to dance with me, you just had to ask," I said as I got into a defensive stance and twirled my cane before pointing the barrel at the policewoman. She didn't say anything as she got into her own ready stance before firing her gun at me and charged forward.
I deftly deflected the bullets and sidestepped the first fist that tried to crash into my jaw, the same fist instead crushed the counter behind me. I leapt away from the glass shrapnel with a lazy flip and returned fire from my cane. It seems she wasn't keen on letting me hit her and jumped away from the blast towards the doorway of the store.
I grunted in frustration and pointed my cane to where she was now, firing more shots in her general direction. Once again she jumped out of the way, the heavy explosive shots from my cane instead hitting racks of magazines and sending paper scattering around the store.
"Stay still!" I said, annoyed at missing the young woman as I spent the next two minutes letting loose a constant barrage of cane shots at where ever she landed. How I haven't managed to hit her yet, despite my much higher dexterity advantage, is anyone's guess. So far it seems that she increasing her dexterity has been a right pain in my ass, she was much more slippery now. And not in the fun way.
This was starting to get more annoying and troublesome by the minute.
"Having trouble keeping up, old man?" Jeanette taunted me as she once again leapt from where my shots impacted the store. The place has seen better days, I'm pretty sure every wall had at least one hole in it, including the ceiling and floor. I'm just glad that my henchmen managed to somehow traverse this battleground.
"In your dreams kid, I can keep up with you all night," this was starting to sound vaguely sexual to me, at the very least she's legal so I don't feel weird about it. Finally, what else she said registered in my head and I promptly retorted, "And I'm not old, I'm only in my twenties!"
Twenty-four actually, I looked it up on my scroll. Apparently it keeps some basic information about you on it, why my status didn't have that information on it I have no idea. At this point
I'm beginning to feel like it is purposely withholding information from me in order to fuel its own amusement.
[Your intelligence has increased by 1!]
"Oh, fuck off…" I mentally groaned in annoyance, I had to hold back the facepalm as I was in the middle of combat. Then I remembered something important, "Bind!"
I pointed my free hand at Jeanette and rope made of pure aura shot out of my hand and wrapped itself around her. I saw her eyes widen in surprise as the aura construct tightened its hold around her body. I laughed and pointed my cane at her, firing a few shots at her prone body. I can't believe I almost forgot about this skill I just made.
The explosive shots of my cane impacted the policewoman and she yelped in pain as she slammed into a wall. At this point I could almost hear her teeth gnashing in anger, I laughed again and said, "You know, I almost forgot about that move of mine blonde. But I gotta say, I like you much more when you're all tied up."
She growled at me and strained herself against her bonds, "Grr, what the hell is this?! Your semblance or something?"
I pretended to think it over and tapped my cane absently on the ground, I exaggeratingly nodded, "Sure, let's go with that. Now, I believe it is time for me to go. This has been fun and all, but I have things to do. Important things. Things that don't require the meddling of some kid playing hero."
I made to start leaving but stopped when I heard Jeanette mutter, "Like hell I'm letting you away gain!"
I chuckled and turned around, "And how are you going to stop m-"
I was cut off when Jeanette screamed in anger, her body glowed with aura and she thrashed even harder in her bindings. Not even a second later the aura bindings simply tore apart and Jeanette leapt back to her feet and jumped to the side to avoid the shots I fired at her, her body still glowing.
"And now she's a light show," I muttered, figuring this was probably her semblance at work, as I started to fire off yet another shot from my weapon, once again missing her and shattering the store's last window, in response she jumped to the ceiling and kicked off it in order to punch me really hard in the face. Much faster than before, might I add. Naturally, I did not want to be punched hard in the face and backpedaled, getting ready to instead fire into her at point blank. Then I tripped.
Yeah...
I tripped right over a fallen shelf, how I did not notice the piece of broken furniture was something I didn't know. I usually keep a good idea of my surroundings, kinda have to if you want to use your high dexterity to your full advantage. So when my foot snagged the edge of the wooden furniture and I started to fall over, I was caught so completely flat footed by the whole thing I didn't even register Jeanette taking advantage of my momentary lapse by burying her knuckles into my stomach. At least, until the pain hit me that is.
I grunted in pain as my body crushed the shelf below me, I could feel the back of my jacket being shredded by the wooden splinters. Somehow during our fight the buttons of my jacket came undone and my hat flew off my head. All the glowing must be part of some sort of special attack because my aura, that hasn't been drained at all during the fight, dipped below two thirds remaining. That's one hell of a hit.
But that wasn't the real problem, the real problem came by sirens blaring and cars screeching to a full stop before the entrance of the store. Jeanette, still glowing, slammed a boot onto my chest and I could feel her glare bore into my head. I was pinned now, I don't really have the strength necessary to wrestle with her. Normally I'd use Rumble to escape from this situation, but since my ability hasn't told me I'd failed this mission yet, that might mean I'm suppose to get caught. Knowing that, I simply smirked back up at her and flicked the hand holding my weapon, tossing it into my inventory without her knowing.
"Well, well, well," I started as she practically grinded me under her foot. "I didn't know a kid like you was into the kinky stuff so early. Gonna read me my rights before you ravage me?"
She sneered down at me as she pressed down with her boot with much more force, keeping me from speaking further, "Silence, criminal, you're under arrest."
Out of the corner of my eye I could see police officers flood into the building, taking stock of what the state of the store was. I had a good six circling me, all with some sort of automatic rifles. While I'm certain I'm tough enough to withstand those for a short period of time, I'd rather not risk death and instead remained still. Guns do a respectable amount of damage to aura, granted it's a set amount because guns don't normally increase their power with training. Enough bullets would chew through my aura, and I haven't increased it enough just yet.
So I just kept my hands around my head until Jeanette decided it was time to forcibly flip me onto my stomach and handcuff me. While she was reading me my rights and handcuffing me I looked in front of me to see a police officer grab my hat and hand it over to someone else, likely to be used as evidence or something. I mentally shrugged, not a big loss.
"Hey, Jeanette," one of the officer's examining the store said, scratching his head.
"What is it?" the girl asked, looking over at the guy speaking.
"Where's this guy's weapon? It was suppose to be a cane or something?"
Jeanette looked around the store confused, "I was sure he had it before I handcuffed him…" She turned and glared down at me, displeased at not being able to keep my weapon from me. "Where is your weapon, criminal?"
I smirked up at her and winked, "The only weapon I have is the one in my pants." I gave her my best seductive look and purred, "You wanna frisk me, officer?"
She matched my seduction with an unwavering glare and didn't bother to even give a comeback, spoilsport. She looked back at the officer that spoke up, "Keep searching the store, it might've flown off when I hit him into the ground."
I just laughed as the officer went snooping around the store, Jeanette yanked me to my feet and shoved me forward. I complied and willfully started to walk out of the store, as slowly as possible of course. I heard the young woman growl in frustration at my antics before she jabbed me in the back with her baton, "Walk faster, criminal. You can't delay justice for much longer."
I looked over my shoulder at her, "Now, I can certainly try right? What's justice ever done for me, eh?"
She didn't say anything else, I felt a tad disappointed at that as I was practically being dragged into the back of an armoured van. The doors to the back closed as Jeanette took her place across from me and crossed her arms, making sure her gaze never wavered from me. I winked and said, "See something you like?"
"You wish," was her bland reply.
I laughed as I felt the van start moving, "Now don't be like that, we've got some time to ourselves before we reach our destination. How's about some fun?" I waggled my eyebrows at her.
She just rolled her eyes and didn't respond.
I was pushed through the doors of the police station by Jeanette, she had decided that she had enough of my slow walking and grabbed me by the back of my jacket. "You know, I have two perfectly working legs under me. I can walk myself."
"I know, but those two perfectly working legs aren't working fast enough. You're just stalling."
I sniffed in indignation as I was practically dragged through the whole police station. Most of the police there stopped what they were doing and stared at the two of us, pointing and muttering. I eyed a group of them who seemed to give Jeanette the evil eye, noting the fact they were some of the ones on the payroll of Walter.
"Popular, aren't you?" I said as we turned a corner away from prying eyes. I smirked at her twitching eyebrow, "The 'Justice of Vale' not liking someone such as yourself? Maybe they just don't like the fact you're interrupting their payments."
Suddenly we stopped and I was slammed into the wall of the police station, she glared into my eyes and said, "I will stop at nothing in order to tear away the injustice and criminal acts that plague this city. I will not stop until corruption is gone and the people of the city don't have to fear criminal mongrels like yourself or corrupt officers of the law."
I looked back at her, "So, you admit your little posse here is corrupt?"
She sneered, "Do I look like an idiot to you? Of course I know, but that just makes me want to fight harder. I will not give up."
We were silent for a few moments until I finally broke the silence, "It's commendable, you wanting to tear away the rot that infects this city. But unlike you, I have more realistic thoughts to this whole thing. You can't get rid of the rot, it's embedded into the very nature of humans and faunus. The most you can do is slow it down. Even if you manage to become chief and crack down on crime, when you step down someone else will take your place, and who's to say they won't let the rot spread again? It's a nice fairytale you're thinking of, but in the end it's just a fairytale."
"We'll see about that," was her only reply as she pulled me from the wall and led me into a bright room with measurement lines running across the wall. Ah, this must be when Roman was suppose to get his mug shot.
"How's my hair?" I asked Jeanette as she shoved the large identification card into my hands.
"Ratty and unkempt, just like you," she said as she pushed me forward. She pointed at a spot on the ground marked with white tape in front of a camera, "Now, stand there, hold the card up, and face the camera."
I did as she said, no point in ruining my personal mugshot. Once she left the room I gave my best smirk at the camera and held my large identification card up. A bright light flashed and a voice over the intercom said, "Now, turn your head."
The basic parts of the booking process went by quickly and it was time for me to be held in my own personal holding cell while they process me in the system and wait for whatever judgment is needed. I didn't really plan on being here long enough for that to matter. Also, I think I figured out why I tripped during my little tussle with Jeanette back at the store.
I came across this realization just as I sat down on a bench attached to the wall of the holding cell I was in, I had nothing to do but think. I'm pretty sure that embarrassing moment, one I'm glad my men weren't around to see, was caused by the extreme differences in luck between me and Jeanette.
Seriously, she had over eighty luck, I was still sitting at the measly eleven I started out with when I first came into this world. I rested my cheek in my hand as I gazed at the status screen in front of me, eyeing the low luck stat. Tentatively I raised a single gloved finger and pushed it onto the stat.
[This is your luck stat! It is a very important factor in everyone's life as it determines what kind of fate you'll have. Normally people have around 10 luck, this means their luck in life is rather average, they could just as easily live until old age or die in a messy Grimm attack. Someone under that threshold will probably not live very long, or if they do it's not very pleasant. People over that threshold will have more good things happen to them and less bad. It also helps in everything you do in small ways.
Due to your unique ability, the LUK stat also increases drops from Grimm. The higher, the better the chance of getting rare, unique, or legendary drops. A must have!
Due to your unique ability, the stat affects critical hit chances on non-vital parts of your foe's body.]
So, I feel like a right idiot for not even bothering to increase my luck at all during my time so far in Remnant. I was almost tempted to put the five stat points I hadn't bothered to put into any stats yet into my luck stat, but held off. It would be better if I held off on doing anything with those points until I increase luck through mundane means. The beginnings of a plan of increasing luck was already forming inside my head, I just needed a lot of dice.
But that is to be put on hold for now, since I still hadn't failed the story mission it meant I still had something I needed to do. And I'm pretty sure that meant escaping from the police before they send me off to jail. I don't really have time to get my hat, but it's not like I don't have like five of them in my inventory anyway...
(A/N) Next chapter is the breakout. Sounds fun, right?
Name: Roman Torchwick
Class: The Gamer
Level: 37 (Next Level: 51,720/70,300)
Title: Up and Coming Kingpin
Bounty: 28,000 Lien
HP: 2,494
MP: 4,261 [3,278 + 163.9(5%) + 819.5(25%)]
STR: 49 [Base 35 + 10.5(30%) + 3.5(10%)]
VIT: 64.4 [Base 46 + 13.8(30%) + 4.6(10%)]
DEX: 164 [Base 80 + 12(15%) + 24(30%) + 8(10%) + 40(50%)]
INT: 142.8 [Base 102 + 30.6(30%) + 10.2(10%)]
WIS: 56 [Base 40 + 12(30%) + 4(10%)]
LUK: 11
Elemental Affinity: Earth (10)
Attribute Points: 5
Lien: 3,603,690
Status Effects: Inactive Aura(Toggled Off)