'What the hells? Where'd these white knights come from?,' Draigo thought to himself as he watched Zhen Liu and Zhen Hai go into the alleyway to confront the muggers.
'There's nothing in it for them,' Draigo observed, 'so why?'
~~~~~~~~~~A few minutes ago~~~~~~~~~
"And once we pass through here, we'll end up at the Silver Leaf Bazaar," Alicia explained to the Zhen Clan visitors as they walked down a street called, "Opal Avenue".
Zhen Liu wasn't entirely sure if it was actually called that, due to it being so...thematically blunt, but his brain translated it as such, so he just went with it.
As the five of them, plus Mini, went on their merry way however, Zhen Liu's bracelet(Nepherage) began to act a little off. Namely, growing a lot hotter on his wrist. She wasn't glowing or anything supremely obvious yet, but it was enough to get him concerned. He subtly hid his now heated wrist behind his back and kept walking with the group.
[Nepherage, what's going on?]
[Not..sure...feel like...need to act...,] she answered in a weirdly pained voice. Thankfully, Zhen Liu's brain voice came to the rescue with some clarification.
'What the...'
Zhen Liu began to feel a strange force building up in his left hand, that suddenly caused him to lash out and stumble in the same direction. This unusual activity of his did not escape the notice of the group. Among them, Zhen Hai was the first to react due to being the closest to Zhen Liu, physically.
"Huh? You okay ma-hold up..."
Zhen Hai had initially turned in Zhen Liu's direction due to the latter suddenly spasming, but then something happening a little further pass Zhen Liu caught his eye. Something...distressing.
Noticing his pause, Alicia and Jin Fang both turned to see what had stalled him.
"Oh my."
"Where are the guardsmen at?"
"That ain't right...Zhen Liu, come with me,", Zhen Hai commanded as he steadied Zhen Liu and began to walk forward. Zhen Liu was a bit confused until he saw what Zhen Hai saw.
'Oh...why am I getting a sense of deja vu?,' Zhen Liu thought as he made his way to join Zhen Hai, 'welp...time to put on my game face!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You guys fucking deaf?!," Zhen Hai called out with a fierce voice, "Leave the lady alone."
[Surprisingly...heroic...,] Frosttusk commented.
[Not heroic enough, punch first, save the girl, talk later!,] Nepherage added in a surprisingly out-of-character and agitated voice.
Evidently, there were more to kaijin than what Zhen Liu had initially thought. 'Gonna need an info dump soon...'
"Well why don't you mind your own fu-eh? You two don't look like Stampeders," the weedy man with the knife observed as he let the woman's collar go. She collapsed to the floor with a mix of relief and fear on her face, but she didn't dare to escape. One of the muscle heads still kept a close eye on her.
Evidently, the three ruffians had ignored Zhen Hai the first time around, assuming it was just a bunch of kids trying to act tough. When they were called out again, they finally decided to turn to see who was calling them. Now they looked a bit surprised.
"Hey big bro, these two look like tourists to me," one of the goons commented, "wealthy ones too!"
"Yeah, check out the scrawny one. Look like he got a fine piece of jade on his wrist!"
Zhen Hai immediately threw a look at Zhen Liu when this comment was made, Zhen Liu himself just sorta grimaced.
'Scrawny? I'm more taut than scrawny...'
"Yeah you're right...," the one armed with a knife agreed with a creepy smile, "If you Tiders care so much about this girlie, how about you hand over your stuff instead? Like your shoes and that fancy bracelet." The mugger then pointed the rusty blade at Zhen Liu's wrist, directly at Nepherage's bracelet.
A devious smile formed on Zhen Liu's face when he saw what the muggers wanted, with an equally devious plan in mind to accompany it.
"You want it?," Zhen Hai challenged as he began to step forward, "Then come and ta-"
"Hold up cousin," Zhen Liu proceeded to stick his arm out to stop Zhen Hai from acting aggressively, "Why don't we give them what they want?" After posing this question, Zhen Liu took off the aforementioned bracelet and held it in his other hand.
"What the hell are you doing-"
"Puppet," Zhen Liu suddenly coughed while flinging and arm forward. It was in that moment, Zhen Hai realized what he was doing.
"Oh...then have at it."
"Thank you."
As much as Zhen Hai wanted to get in there and break some faces, even he understood the need to be...clever.
"Here you go," Zhen Liu said cheerfully as he threw the bracelet towards the muggers.
Ugly smiles formed on their faces as they watched their prize sailing in the air towards them. Evidently they were so enamored with their soon-to-be treasure, that they didn't notice the glowing or aether waves coming off it.
"Hah! Thanks for the prize ya fish-"
[Nepherage, sic em, save the girl.]
[FINALLY!]
*BOOM!*
As soon as she was given the order to go, the bracelet exploded in a burst of light and smoke and reformed into the fierce kaijin Nepherage herself. While Zhen Liu couldn't make out her facial(?) expression, he could feel almost manic levels of joy coming off of her.
"WHAT THE F-" *THWACK*
But before the bladed mugger could swear, Nepherage midair roundhouse spin kicked his stupid face into a the alley wall. His two goons were so confused by what was transpiring that they just stood there like deer in headlights. They even failed to react in time as Nepherage rushed pass them and scooped up the woman in a crouching embrace.
"Hold tight," Nepherage whispered.
The woman was a little stunned but did as Nepherage instructed and wrapped her arms around the kaijin's neck.
Aether began to circulate in Nepherage's legs.
"Zhen Hai, get ready to rampage."
"Finally."