Having looked at the file, however grueling parts of it were for her, Iris was disappointed. It had a bunch of photos and detailed descriptions on the whole matter. Reading her own death certificate was something she didn't think would happen, let alone many other people got to do. There were a couple pages with pictures of numbered rubble and some explanations or theories, images of the surrounding area, the ground. All annotated, some nonsensical. But the forensics were far better at what they did then Iris had been. Which would also explain why she could not find any decent hints. What little there had been was probably picked up, put in bags and locked up somewhere for some bureaucratic reason. But the most important part, what all the researching and investigation lead to, was very slim and vague. No known good-for-nothing the deed could be traced back to, no unambiguous evidence, no useable finger prints, nothing of immense value. Though sources apparently reported there had been rumors about someone not from the local circles staying for a little visit and likely business. No identity or such either, though.
Luckily at least the report pointed out some of the usual places where thugs and their bosses or partners occasionally met, for further investigation. Which naturally meant Iris would check those out on her own accord. She was, after all, basically outlawed thanks to being officially dead and had no need for reasons or justification to interrogate people, as opposed to how the marines usually did. Having not seen or heard anything from her escapades the night before, she felt fairly safe to do as she pleased, with little fear of getting inspected or questioned when she would end up skulking around dark alleys and disgusting bars soon.
The place she ended up in first, was apparently a well-accepted gathering place for scum, as no one seemed to care about the small punch-up that happened in one of it's benched off corners or even the three men at the center of the room loudly celebrating and trying to split an unclear amount of money into thirds, obviously drunk. Though, what everyone did notice was her arrival. The door had hardly fallen back into the lock behind her and already most of the so called guest's eyes laid on her. It was highly likely that people of her apparent age and build did not stroll in often. Mostly because they were evidently unwelcome. Pirates, thieves, robbers and illegal traders only. As such it was no surprise when the men seated at the table closest to the door got up and draped themselves in a semi-circle around the girl, blocking every way but the door behind her.
With heavily slurred words -either they had a bunch too many drinks each or the were not the brightest candles on the tree- they demanded to know what business a non-regular could have in this place. Especially so a seemingly relatively young girl. The night at the station had empowered Iris' estimation of ability. The tail, rolled up under the hooded cloak right now, worked well for being a foreign limb and if the performance of the normal arms was anything to go by, the legs made more then decent weapons, in case she got stuck between a rock and a hard place. For now, she was just stuck between 3 smelling, fat men, one of em balding, the other a serious case of pig visage. “Just looking for the guy who burned down the villa uphill early last week. If you don't know anything about that, stand aside so I can ask around.” she explained truthfully and self-assured. And yes, that was indeed the plan. Though Iris had already factored in that there would be some manhandling required eventually. But that it would happen this quickly, she hadn't thought. With something along the lines of “Snotty brats don't get anything around here.”, it was not really clear with the guy's apparent speech impediment, the balding one reeled back to deliver a slap that never went anywhere. Iris still had no plans to hurt anybody, but roughing some law breakers up was no real moral issue. Her coat fluttered with movement and the man's palm, halfway on the way to Iris' face, stopped in midair, stabbed clean through. Apparent confusion seemed to overshadow the pain he should have obviously felt. As time seemed to stand for a moment, he looked down his arm and followed it all the way along a segmented limb of metal, which pointed end poked through the back of his hand.
What followed next was classy, almost as if re-enacted right out of a novel. Guy yanked his has free, probably making the wound even worse and stumbled backwards, opening the wall of fat so other guests could see what was going on. Heads turned and his friends had trouble generating sounds that could be seen as acceptable words. “Will I get an answer now?” Iris repeated while the three bullies had apparently turned off entirely and most others were at least looking at whatever was going on at the entrance. Eventually, after maybe a minute of silent pondering all around, the dangerously pork-faced bully, still standing somewhat in her way, lashed out. People such as him and his friends just could not take getting shown up like that. Iris easily ducked below the incoming, very sluggish fist he was throwing, enabling her to elbow him between the ribs from point blank. With her augmented arms, that had about the same effect as if she had used a crowbar or a bat. Whistling, he emptied his lungs and keeled over to roll up on the floor.
This continued demonstration seemed to keep the third at bay, while also opening up the interest of others. Especially of a guy seated not far from the action. He looked intently and threw Iris a very minimal gesture when their eyes met. Assuming no one else wanted to line up before she entered, she finally left her position at the door and walked over to the guys table. “Person who might know hangs out at the far storehouses usually. Number eleven. Takes even worse to strangers then the three piggies, however.” That was not what Iris wanted, but would have to do. Since the guy had already ended the short conversation by returning to the bottom of his glass, she kept her part to a short nod and turned to leave.
Surprisingly, leave the bar was far easier then entering it and so was Iris able to find this information bastard in the same night. She knew the place he was talking about from walking by mostly. Arriving on the upper end of the road where the warehouses lined up, she decided to play safe and suit up entirely. Going through the procedure to swap arms for weapons from the trunk she had been dragging everywhere, she was ready for whatever might happen not even a minute later. And happen something did. Barely had the girl approached the massive front doors and already two figures rounded the corner of the building, clearly armed and of the shoot first, maybe don't ask questions at all persuasion. Because there was some yelling and then they already lifted their pistols. Luckily, their aim was anything but true and while one of the lead balls zoomed past Iris' head like an exceptionally fat but fast bug, the other deflected off her iron-armored hand with a bright clang noise. That was what actually alerted her to the two men. Finding their shots woefully inefficient they immediately opted for pulling out knives and charging. This guy must really hate to deal with anyone unfamiliar. In any case, in the dark, the henchmen could not foresee that this endeavor was utterly pointless. Their knife-points easily deflected off one arm's broad side, they found themselves stumbling past the small-stature girl in no time flat. Iris did not even bother to try talking, seeing how they chose to go offensive immediately after barely seeing the outline of a person. Of of them had stumbled so badly, he was face first in the dirt. Taking this chance, she quickly stepped over him and with a little bit of wind-up brought a heel down on the inside of one of his knees. He wouldn't get up anytime soon. Or stop to scream in pain, for that matter. Though this gave his coworker the chance to catch his step, turn around and mount a second round of assault. Her punch hit im square in the chest and as if hit by an anvil, he went backwards with it a little before sliding off the metal surface and collapsing into a sharply breathing pile.
As she opened the large sliding door, Iris was greeted by three more drubbers. Probably alerted from the racket outside not even a moment earlier. They too were armed with knives and grinned confidently. Although that quickly diminished as they came to realize their target looked far less human then they anticipated. That not even half second was enough for the girl to take the first step. As with the last guy, a simple right hook took care of one of them easily, as he was in no physical condition to stand against the mass that was hurled at him. In almost the same motion, she had to then leap out of the way of getting stabbed from behind. What followed then was a few moments of Iris swatting away knife stabs while moving about, waiting for a good angle to take care of the guys. Ultimately she ended up showing one of the waist-height boxes into them, trapping one between two of those as he was unable to move either and maybe had some of his below-waist bones broken. That left only one, who got held down with one hand, after managing to faceplant out of the box' way and then tail-stabbed in both knees, much like one of his friends outside.
Being focused on taking out the thugs non-lethally, it really did not matter to Iris if they died later on from injuries, in her mind that had nothing to do with her but the inability of whatever backalley doctor they got to treat them, she missed that a door in the back had opened, and a guy in a fairly nice pin-stripe suit had entered the main room. Carrying multiple guns, he looked far more menacing then the other gun users a couple moment earlier. Him shouting the names of presumably his henchmen or bodyguards was what alerted Iris to his presence. Stupidly enough, she reflexively perked up to look over the various sight-blockers around the warehouse and immediately provoked a gunpowder-fueled bang. For as fast as this guys trigger finger was, his coordination seemed rudimentary at best. Her arms could withstand some bullets easily enough, but her body would probably not cope well with an overdose of them. As pin-stripe slowly circled around the isle of shipping Iris had covered behind, so was she trying to anticipate him and circling the obstacle. Adn so they dance for a moment or two, before the guy grew impatient and leaped on top of the first layer of crates to look down on Iris and get a clear shot. And a clear shot he got. Due to her evading efforts, it was a to her harmless bullet to the leg, but next time she might not get that lucky. In the brief moment the guy was trying to change pistols, she flung herself at him, hoping ot end him the same way two of his underlings met their temporary demise. But, suit man was surprisingly quick, abandoned his attempt to holster his guns to draw the second set and dove to the floor in time.
From his almost lieing down position, he finally managed to swap pistols and took another shot at the girl trying to position herself above him. Though unsuccessfully, a hit he did land. On one of the two lamps illuminating the scene. Immediately everything in one half of the hall turned dark. Between the lowered visibility and the extra second pin-stripe would need to get up, Iris took cover between the crates, preparing to ambush the man and ending this little show. With the advantage of surprise moment, as he stalked around trying to find her, she got to leap at him from the side, practically picking his lanky body up and carrying it against the wall. With his head sticking out between two of the oversized metal fingers of her robotic hands, but the rest of his body being stuck between them and the wall, this was obviously over. “And now, we'll have a talk. If you are the information dealer i've been hearing about, anyway.” He really could not do anything to free himself and being informed that he had the options of either telling her what she wanted to know or his head being popped off his neck like an overripe grape, the information was not hard to extract. Though as was the pattern by now, it really was anything but clear or detailed. Somewhat disappointed, Iris left the lot some seven minutes after having entered it, exchanging prostethics after reaching the wardrobe trunk she left on the street. She would have to investigate the lead she had gained this night after getting at least a few hours of sleep, it was a chase, but it was not that immediate.
Luckily at least the report pointed out some of the usual places where thugs and their bosses or partners occasionally met, for further investigation. Which naturally meant Iris would check those out on her own accord. She was, after all, basically outlawed thanks to being officially dead and had no need for reasons or justification to interrogate people, as opposed to how the marines usually did. Having not seen or heard anything from her escapades the night before, she felt fairly safe to do as she pleased, with little fear of getting inspected or questioned when she would end up skulking around dark alleys and disgusting bars soon.
The place she ended up in first, was apparently a well-accepted gathering place for scum, as no one seemed to care about the small punch-up that happened in one of it's benched off corners or even the three men at the center of the room loudly celebrating and trying to split an unclear amount of money into thirds, obviously drunk. Though, what everyone did notice was her arrival. The door had hardly fallen back into the lock behind her and already most of the so called guest's eyes laid on her. It was highly likely that people of her apparent age and build did not stroll in often. Mostly because they were evidently unwelcome. Pirates, thieves, robbers and illegal traders only. As such it was no surprise when the men seated at the table closest to the door got up and draped themselves in a semi-circle around the girl, blocking every way but the door behind her.
With heavily slurred words -either they had a bunch too many drinks each or the were not the brightest candles on the tree- they demanded to know what business a non-regular could have in this place. Especially so a seemingly relatively young girl. The night at the station had empowered Iris' estimation of ability. The tail, rolled up under the hooded cloak right now, worked well for being a foreign limb and if the performance of the normal arms was anything to go by, the legs made more then decent weapons, in case she got stuck between a rock and a hard place. For now, she was just stuck between 3 smelling, fat men, one of em balding, the other a serious case of pig visage. “Just looking for the guy who burned down the villa uphill early last week. If you don't know anything about that, stand aside so I can ask around.” she explained truthfully and self-assured. And yes, that was indeed the plan. Though Iris had already factored in that there would be some manhandling required eventually. But that it would happen this quickly, she hadn't thought. With something along the lines of “Snotty brats don't get anything around here.”, it was not really clear with the guy's apparent speech impediment, the balding one reeled back to deliver a slap that never went anywhere. Iris still had no plans to hurt anybody, but roughing some law breakers up was no real moral issue. Her coat fluttered with movement and the man's palm, halfway on the way to Iris' face, stopped in midair, stabbed clean through. Apparent confusion seemed to overshadow the pain he should have obviously felt. As time seemed to stand for a moment, he looked down his arm and followed it all the way along a segmented limb of metal, which pointed end poked through the back of his hand.
What followed next was classy, almost as if re-enacted right out of a novel. Guy yanked his has free, probably making the wound even worse and stumbled backwards, opening the wall of fat so other guests could see what was going on. Heads turned and his friends had trouble generating sounds that could be seen as acceptable words. “Will I get an answer now?” Iris repeated while the three bullies had apparently turned off entirely and most others were at least looking at whatever was going on at the entrance. Eventually, after maybe a minute of silent pondering all around, the dangerously pork-faced bully, still standing somewhat in her way, lashed out. People such as him and his friends just could not take getting shown up like that. Iris easily ducked below the incoming, very sluggish fist he was throwing, enabling her to elbow him between the ribs from point blank. With her augmented arms, that had about the same effect as if she had used a crowbar or a bat. Whistling, he emptied his lungs and keeled over to roll up on the floor.
This continued demonstration seemed to keep the third at bay, while also opening up the interest of others. Especially of a guy seated not far from the action. He looked intently and threw Iris a very minimal gesture when their eyes met. Assuming no one else wanted to line up before she entered, she finally left her position at the door and walked over to the guys table. “Person who might know hangs out at the far storehouses usually. Number eleven. Takes even worse to strangers then the three piggies, however.” That was not what Iris wanted, but would have to do. Since the guy had already ended the short conversation by returning to the bottom of his glass, she kept her part to a short nod and turned to leave.
Surprisingly, leave the bar was far easier then entering it and so was Iris able to find this information bastard in the same night. She knew the place he was talking about from walking by mostly. Arriving on the upper end of the road where the warehouses lined up, she decided to play safe and suit up entirely. Going through the procedure to swap arms for weapons from the trunk she had been dragging everywhere, she was ready for whatever might happen not even a minute later. And happen something did. Barely had the girl approached the massive front doors and already two figures rounded the corner of the building, clearly armed and of the shoot first, maybe don't ask questions at all persuasion. Because there was some yelling and then they already lifted their pistols. Luckily, their aim was anything but true and while one of the lead balls zoomed past Iris' head like an exceptionally fat but fast bug, the other deflected off her iron-armored hand with a bright clang noise. That was what actually alerted her to the two men. Finding their shots woefully inefficient they immediately opted for pulling out knives and charging. This guy must really hate to deal with anyone unfamiliar. In any case, in the dark, the henchmen could not foresee that this endeavor was utterly pointless. Their knife-points easily deflected off one arm's broad side, they found themselves stumbling past the small-stature girl in no time flat. Iris did not even bother to try talking, seeing how they chose to go offensive immediately after barely seeing the outline of a person. Of of them had stumbled so badly, he was face first in the dirt. Taking this chance, she quickly stepped over him and with a little bit of wind-up brought a heel down on the inside of one of his knees. He wouldn't get up anytime soon. Or stop to scream in pain, for that matter. Though this gave his coworker the chance to catch his step, turn around and mount a second round of assault. Her punch hit im square in the chest and as if hit by an anvil, he went backwards with it a little before sliding off the metal surface and collapsing into a sharply breathing pile.
As she opened the large sliding door, Iris was greeted by three more drubbers. Probably alerted from the racket outside not even a moment earlier. They too were armed with knives and grinned confidently. Although that quickly diminished as they came to realize their target looked far less human then they anticipated. That not even half second was enough for the girl to take the first step. As with the last guy, a simple right hook took care of one of them easily, as he was in no physical condition to stand against the mass that was hurled at him. In almost the same motion, she had to then leap out of the way of getting stabbed from behind. What followed then was a few moments of Iris swatting away knife stabs while moving about, waiting for a good angle to take care of the guys. Ultimately she ended up showing one of the waist-height boxes into them, trapping one between two of those as he was unable to move either and maybe had some of his below-waist bones broken. That left only one, who got held down with one hand, after managing to faceplant out of the box' way and then tail-stabbed in both knees, much like one of his friends outside.
Being focused on taking out the thugs non-lethally, it really did not matter to Iris if they died later on from injuries, in her mind that had nothing to do with her but the inability of whatever backalley doctor they got to treat them, she missed that a door in the back had opened, and a guy in a fairly nice pin-stripe suit had entered the main room. Carrying multiple guns, he looked far more menacing then the other gun users a couple moment earlier. Him shouting the names of presumably his henchmen or bodyguards was what alerted Iris to his presence. Stupidly enough, she reflexively perked up to look over the various sight-blockers around the warehouse and immediately provoked a gunpowder-fueled bang. For as fast as this guys trigger finger was, his coordination seemed rudimentary at best. Her arms could withstand some bullets easily enough, but her body would probably not cope well with an overdose of them. As pin-stripe slowly circled around the isle of shipping Iris had covered behind, so was she trying to anticipate him and circling the obstacle. Adn so they dance for a moment or two, before the guy grew impatient and leaped on top of the first layer of crates to look down on Iris and get a clear shot. And a clear shot he got. Due to her evading efforts, it was a to her harmless bullet to the leg, but next time she might not get that lucky. In the brief moment the guy was trying to change pistols, she flung herself at him, hoping ot end him the same way two of his underlings met their temporary demise. But, suit man was surprisingly quick, abandoned his attempt to holster his guns to draw the second set and dove to the floor in time.
From his almost lieing down position, he finally managed to swap pistols and took another shot at the girl trying to position herself above him. Though unsuccessfully, a hit he did land. On one of the two lamps illuminating the scene. Immediately everything in one half of the hall turned dark. Between the lowered visibility and the extra second pin-stripe would need to get up, Iris took cover between the crates, preparing to ambush the man and ending this little show. With the advantage of surprise moment, as he stalked around trying to find her, she got to leap at him from the side, practically picking his lanky body up and carrying it against the wall. With his head sticking out between two of the oversized metal fingers of her robotic hands, but the rest of his body being stuck between them and the wall, this was obviously over. “And now, we'll have a talk. If you are the information dealer i've been hearing about, anyway.” He really could not do anything to free himself and being informed that he had the options of either telling her what she wanted to know or his head being popped off his neck like an overripe grape, the information was not hard to extract. Though as was the pattern by now, it really was anything but clear or detailed. Somewhat disappointed, Iris left the lot some seven minutes after having entered it, exchanging prostethics after reaching the wardrobe trunk she left on the street. She would have to investigate the lead she had gained this night after getting at least a few hours of sleep, it was a chase, but it was not that immediate.