Rocket’s Red Glare

Considering the sheer absurdity of her current situation, Nikita pondered if she'd struggle to find sympathetic believers of her frantically rambling accounts of the night...or would she be greeted with cocked eyebrows and suggestions to visit the federations psychiatric offices. A paint-gun toting accomplice/scantily dressed agent of chaos. The haunted bowels of a derelict basement warehouse. The fact that anyone opted to partake in her adventuring escapades at this time of night. Not to mention that Nikita was known for weaving tall tales out of short stories when it came to bloviating embellishes about her supposed exploration adventures and pranking escapades. Kinetic chase scenes concocted from light jogs against overweight security guards. Dynamic explosions birthed from fizzled out sparklers...Nikita was beginning to think she'd be branded as the Girl Who Cried Wolf once she actually tells a truthful tale involving all of this night's shenanigans. Irksomely, her paint-splattered pants and the aching blemish on her backside could potentially stand up in court as evidence proving her side of the story to those skeptics out there.

Still, it was a problem she'd love to have considering the alternate sequence of events tonight involved her winding up murdered and buried within a graveyard by a certain ethereal bunny girl...one that she could have sworn she witnessed as she leapt into her crimson haired cohort's arms!!! Sharing in Liv's battle cry as the room became covered in rainbow splotches in Liv's Rambo-esque scattering of paintball bullets until there was nothing else left in the ammo clip. Nikita's vision poking through one eye first before opening her peepers to the prismatic variety of colors straight out of a Jackson Pollock painting. Scanning around the room and noticing they'd hit about everything except the source of her fright as the mouse escaped uncolored. Nikita breathed a sigh of relief with the inward acknowledgement that she should probably omit this particular part of her story whenever she recanted it, but balking when Liv started compounding upon her embarrassment by faux offering her up as a sacrifice to any bunny reapers in the darkness. Nik scowling in a blushing flummox as she punched Liv in the shoulder, afterward folding her arms in a pout.

"Oh HA HA, real funny!!! Of all the shit you coulda remembered from earlier...You know, you'd be just as scared witless as me if you tangled with that bunny-eared freakazoid. And furthermore, I think you should be treatin me with jus a little more respect considering I-WHAAA!!" Nikki's thoroughly justified demands getting disregarded right alongside the rest of her as she was dropped like a bad habit right on her aching backside. Liv scampering over her discarded partner and cuddling the final barrier between her and those beloved fireworks of hers. "GAH, what a day for my ass...Oh no, don't help me up, yah loon..." Nik seethed bitterly with sarcastic inflections towards the end as she arose unaided, massaging her painted posterior with a flinching grimace as she started picking up everything Liv ditched behind her. The sparkling flare obviously being the first object...but she found herself struggling to find the emptied paintgun. Quirked curiosity on her facials as she paced around in a circle with no sign of the armament to be found, scratching the back of her head with her free hand before it was offered to Nikki by Death Bunny's gloved hand from the shadows.

...Nikki appreciatively grasping the paintgun with a polite smile and taking a few steps towards Liv. Until she grew as pale as the spirits she feared. Abject terror on her blankened expression as she spun around to flash the shadows ablaze with her flare to the disconcerting visual of absolutely nothing aside from cracked walls and a few support columns. Nikki backpedaling in jabbering incoherence until her back settled against the wall beside the door Liv cherished, the Bullet Sister shivering with quaking knees and teeth chattering. The emptied paintgun trembling in her hand but pointed outward as if it were capable of shooting anything anyway. "...*gulp*...HumminaHumminaHummina...W-W-W-We should p-p-p-p-p-robably s-s-s-s-tart getting the f-f-f-f-fuck out of here..."

Liv pranced through a desolate wasteland pulled from the set of Mad Max, to the sound of Tiny Tim’s Living in the Sunlight. Behind her a massive shadow cast by the contents of a toy wagon she was pulling whose towered contents of boxes overflowing with high explosives swayed like a tall tree on a windy day. She was basically Santa Claus, cap and all, only instead of being fat she was a smoking 11/10 hottie. She traveled the land shoving blasting caps and bottle rockets down people’s chimneys while they slept. For all the good girls and boys to torment their parents. A thin line of drool dribbled from her lip as she imagined the surprised faces on everyone who received one as they took to the streets to celebrate by hurling molotov cocktails into the neighboring buildings.

The thud of Nikita suddenly beside her snapped her from her daydream, sucking the dangling line of saliva back into her mouth like a piece of disgusting spaghetti. She gave the woman a long hard look with a quirked brow and narrowed eyes. This chick lost it. Liv took her by the shoulder with a hard yank and held the bullet sister face to face with her. Staring into her eyes to find their connection, pursing her lips as she leaned closer…. then slapped her hard across the face perhaps getting a bit more palm bone in there than was strictly necessary. “Jinkies, Junior Mint. Get your shit together. Nobody likes it when the candy has a meltdown. Besides, we have a lot of merchandise to move. Check it…”

She had produced the key card one again from betwixt her bosom. Holding it between two fingers she waved it about as if it were some manner of delectable treat to tempt Nikita with. When she swiped it past the reader beside the door, it buzzed. She had to swipe it a few more times before it gave an electronic chime and the door audibly clicked.

“Behold… the Kingsley bounty. Years of skimmed pyro to cut costs, unused fireworks from past Summer Splashes, and illicit charges bought abroad that fail to meet Japan safety regulations!" Liv eased the door open as automated lights sensing movement flicked on. Shelf after shelf of the long storage room illuminated stretching as far back as they could see. Hazard labels plastered over every box and barrel and colorful foreign text was painted along unopened boxes.

Liv threw an arm around Nikita, dragging the girl close enough their cheeks were pressed together to stare into the bounty they had unearthed. There was a bright warmth in her face that radiated through them into Nikita. This moment felt big… special. “Once we cart all this out of here, I know just how to celebrate.”

Nikita's quivering sensibilities were evident by the flashlight's trembling instability in her hand once she'd backed up to the storeroom's door, pupils dilated with her molars clattering as if the temperature within the subterranean room had become subarctic. Spastically illuminating every corner of the room to the disconcerting unveiling of absolutely no one. The absence of any floppy eared harbingers of death somehow being more anxiety inducing than if she were standing down there with bloodied scythe in hand. Nikita now having to entertain the idea that she was merely delusional or going outright mental having sworn she just had the paintgun offered to her by She Who Must Not Be Named. Suddenly every detail in the room was giving her cause to just bail and make a beeline for the exit. The raven flying by the window. Drops of water leaking from neglected pipework. Creaking doors from-

"Whatha..." Nikita's eyes darting around the room now centered upon the golden iris' of her partner in crime after being swiveled in her direction, whose lush lips were taking it's time in finding her own. The reason for her rapidfire heartbeat becoming replaced with something else altogether as she sensed the danger of the moment with cheeks blushing a crimson shade mirroring Liv's hair color, but being smacked out of her amorous daze and summarily slapped back to her senses. "OW!!! DAMMIT, would you stop freaking hitting me all the time!!!" A frenetic and spastic waving of her hands accompanying her shrill declaration with snarling malice, unaware of its immediate effectiveness in making Nikita cease her petrified state of terror and bring her focus back to the anarchy spreading task at hand. A task coming into full view once Liv eventually opened the locked door after several attempts to unveil a hallowed bastion of stored pyrotechnics.

"WHHHOA BABY...Mother flippin' JACKPOT..." Nikita gawking in wonderment at the rows upon rows of unused stockpile, astounding her to the point she'd be unaware of the nuzzling cuddle between their cheeks and shared warmth between them. A veritable supermarket warehouse's worth of fireworks just collecting dust. Nikki wondering what Liv's grand plan was to make optimum usage of this explosive development~...until another thought came to her. A curious and perplexed expression burgeoning upon her facials as she queried..."Hey, wait a sec. How are we gonna get this stuff out of-"


"HNGH....GRRH..." Nikita lamenting asking such a stupid question knowing full well the answer as she continued shoving the moving cart up the stairs they ascended earlier. The cart overflowing with fireworks, all carefully chosen to be the cream of the explosive crop by Liv when first plucking them off the shelves.

It was only now Liv was starting to feel the burden of leadership, backing up two to three steps higher than the cartoonishly piled cart, having to be the one to lift it up for each painful notch of height difference. While it was true Nikita had the more dangerous job of pushing, where a misstep would send her down the long staircase on the wrong end of a few hundred pounds of high explosives, they both were being made to struggle for their bounty. It had only occurred to the redhead about halfway up that somewhere in the basement was likely a cargo elevator. They had to get it unloaded down there in the first place and she doubted it was by hauling it up the stairs. She could look for it later when Nikita wasn’t tied to her hip whining about scythes and rabbits. For now, she wanted to secure the first big score, in case they were caught getting the rest, this one be secure. “Are you pushing?! It doesn't feel like you are pushing!”


It had taken a great deal of effort and having to restack the cart more than once to get it through doorways but eventually, they were free and clear in the parking lot. It was empty at this hour, a few cars dotting the area which could have belonged to anyone. Tucked alongside the building though was a big white truck with bold green letters along the side reading “Budget”. A moving truck, a rental, one that Liv was very quick to point out when she was directing Nikita to unload the first cart and stack things well. “If the truck explodes, it's your fault... Somehow.”


They would go on to make a few more trips, one more hellishly filled cart then some more reasonably stacked ones that proved far more manageable. The goal was to fill the rental vehicle and they had done so within an hour or two of hard work and hauling. By the time they had finished, the warehouse room was sizably reduced in its stock, only some of the lamer looking boxes remaining. Liv had strapped the last few sets of rockets to her back after repurposing her paint gun harness and had Nikita carrying a box of blasting charges. She was pretty sure that was the last of what she could fit in the driver’s cab portion of the truck. Just as she was about to close the door she paused. “Oh hey…”

Shoving some of the boxes they had left aside, there it was. A caged cargo elevator. Liv waved Nikita over leaving her to shut the door as Liv wrenched the rusty gate door open and stepped into the elevator. Eyeing the bad she furrowed a brow. It took a key… an actual key, not the card she had. Her lips parted into a wide grin as she crouched down and fished out some of her lockpicking tools. It wouldn't take long for her to crack the lock, having most of it done by the time her guide joined up with her in the spacious elevator. Liv glanced at Nikita, regarding her quietly as she turned the lock and let the elevator hum to life. “You know, after working up a sweat you're kinda hot, Junior Mint.”


The elevator ride was a slow one, filled with the hum of powered machinery and the creaking of an old metal box going up a dusty shaft at a snail's pace. Eventually, they would reach the top where it let out into a darkened loading bay. Shuttered truck delivery doors and storage shelves stacked high. The glow of an exit sign lit the way and provided them an easy escape back to the night air. They found themselves on the far end of the building and were made to wander for a time, but when they reached a small section of private parking out back, something of interest caught her eye. With a wicked grin, she had Nikita pass her the box of charges.


A service ladder had provided easy access to the roof, but climbing it had proven to be a hassle for her with the rockets still strapped to her back. Nikita would have had an easier time, no longer burdened with the explosives now that they had been set up. They were high up, with an impressive view of the Tokyo skyline. No stars due to the light pollution but the horizon was a dazzling display of bright pinprick lights. Liv inched along the side of the roof, looking out for down below until they reached a location with an overview of that private parking section. From here they could see the souped-up golf cart that had its own private parking space with the name “General Manager Maximilian Kingsley'' plastered on a signpost there for the cart and the space next to it, assumed to be reserved for his car when he was here. The golf cart was weighed down a bit by the unpacked box of blasting caps she had set up to hang all over the cart. Unshouldering the rockets to let them spill out across the rooftop she glanced at Nikita. “All work and no play, right… how good is your aim?”

"I'm tellin' ya, it was DEATH BUNNY. She was right there!!! With a flaming pitchfork and bloodied scythe andandand-" Nikita's blathering insistence of witnessing lagomorphic specters back down in the basement continued onward in spite of the herculean efforts she was devoting towards muscling their stolen bounty up the concrete stairs. Liv's eye-rolling skepticism practically going unnoticed at the moment as Nikita was clearly lost in her own delirious world until they'd at least secure this first payload. She balanced the towering mountain of fireworks as best she could and obviously still on an adrenaline high after her brush with death downstairs. Sweating up a storm but knowing she was in too deep to chicken out now as the wheels on their cart clanked from each climbed step and showed notable signs of stress. Appreciating Liv's assistance and noticing this was the first time Liv shared the workload and like...helped her out with stuff. But then she kept running her big mouth. "WHAT?! You're the one who's not pushing!!! If only you had as much muscle in your arms as you do fat in your ass-"


Several repeat trips and Nikita was about ready to keel over, hunched over herself with hands resting on her knees as she breathed laboriously. Feeling a little bad about that ass remark an hour ago but figuring it was best not to bring up spiteful words brought up in the heat of the moment. Liv rearranging the final batch of pyrotechnics inside the rental van that Nikki was impressed she had the foresight to rent anyway. The red-headed firecracker just didn't seem like the type to map out a strategic plan like this with such methodical attention to detail and forethought. Nikki opted to not start doling out compliments though until this entire caper was in the criminal history books. Celebrating and patting eachother on the back in the middle of a heist was a surefire way to invite misfortune. *Wait could I get fired for this-*


Back inside the basement, Nikki lumbered exhaustively with the last of the blast charges having already forgotten whatever she was thinking about earlier. The excitement becoming downright palpable now that they were in the homestretch with security having thankfully waned down considerably now that it was well past midnight. The skeleton crew primarily being here to make lackadaisical strolls around the premises, fall asleep in front of security cameras, play poker and ward off the occasional trespasser. None of whom catching the eagle-eyed Liv seemingly being an expert at sneaking around beer-bellied sentry's. Nikita relieved that this was the last roundtrip for the evening considering her legs felt like wobbled jelly by now...

"...oh hey. Yeah that's definitely an elevator. One we...really coulda used earlier...instead of walking hundreds of pounds of dynamite up some dilapidated staircases..." Nikki muttered the majority of her wearied words underneath her breath while drearily following Liv to the cargo elevator with dragged feet, despondent and sullen at this revelation but at this point accepting that her unfortunate role for this night was to suffer for her passion. She watched Liv seamlessly fidget and jimmy open the lock with what looked like a hairpin or something. The bullet sister acknowledging that she'd been finding different things to admire about Liv as the night progressed, although simultaneously wishing she could be just as skilled, confident, and courageous as the red-headed firestarter who'd by now started up the elevator. A wistful sigh at her own inadequacies upended by Liv's abrupt flirtation. "Wha?! Well I mean that's...I know your just-!!!...I guess you don't look so..." Nikki's blushing babblings and absolute lack of game were thankfully and mercifully interrupted by them arriving at their destination on the elevator.


"...BumBum...BumBumBumBum...BumBum..." At one point in their climbing ascension up the elongated ladder leading to the rooftop Nikki had started mouthing the beats to the Mission Impossible franchise. Something to keep her mind busy when not appreciating the curvaceous view from her thankfully deciding to go second up the ladder. The second she arrived to their destination, the breath of the view brought an overjoyed smile to her face. An elation she couldn't even verbalize as the wintry air wafted through her hair as if the magnitude of their accomplishment was just illuminated upon her. She was brought from her trance by Liv unfurling her shouldered rockets and asking the most important question of the night so far. "...Watch me." Nik unwrapping any lingering packaging and situating a rocket at a precise position on the ceiling with the golf cart-packed with fireworks as her target. Afterward Nik stood next to her cohort who she assumed would have a lighter. Seconds passing with nothing left to do but take in the moment before they let freedom ring. Nikki quirking her head up and matching eyes with Liv, smiling shyly at having forgotten to do something...a little important. "...Uh, my name's Nikita Jackson by the way. And...I had a lot of fun with you tonight."

Liv had made her way across the roof, taking small hops of ankle high piping running along the ground and stepping up onto the raised edge of the roof to survey the area. She seemed unphased by the height even as she stood precariously on a ledge smaller than the length of her boot tread. When she spotted the golf cart she waved Nikita over, letting her know this was exactly where they needed to be. With a small hop back she dropped back to the roof and let the other girl take the lead. She had earned the first and possibly only shot at the cart with all the work she had put in. Liv wasn’t too concerned about not having her own share of fun though, after all, she had a whole truckload of pyrotechnics to enjoy waiting in the parking lot.

“Puh-leeeease as if you needed to even ask Junior Mint.” Liv turned over her hand, producing a thick looking butane lighter. She twirled the device between her fingers before it came to a stop in her hand and she gave a small side switch a flick. The silver top slid back and two long blue flames spiked up with such intensity the air around them wobbled from the heat. She dipped to light the end of the long fuse before twirling the lighter into a close position and tucking it away.

“Nikita… I like that. Sounds exotic.” Light from the sparking fuse danced in her eyes as it slowly burned down. The redhead threw an arm around the other girl's shoulder and pulled her in close in eager anticipation for the boom she was hoping for. “I’m told I can be pretty fun. You’re not so bad yourself. A bit chatty, but I like your face. Also, you’re fun to fuck with.”


The fuse vanished into the back of the rocket, igniting a torrent of fire and sparks to fly wildly from the back jumping all over the roof. The rocket shoots violently before shooting off, spiraling down to the parking area below. The moment it impacted the cart, the bright flash that engulfed the vehicle made Liv squint to watch, the loud resounding thump of the explosion was so rattling that a few distant cars scattered in the parking lot shook and had their alarms triggered. “That’s my girl. Nice shot Nikkie.”

Liv turned to grin down at Nikita, the light of flickering flames playing off her face… though not from the parking lot below. It took a moment to realize something was off but when she did she turned her head towards the other fireworks laying across the roof where she dumped them. Some of the packaging was burning and fuses were lit, probably by the colorful spray of embers and sparks from the first one. “Well, shit.” Liv grabbed Nikita by whatever was most convenient to grab and would hastily drag her back towards the maintenance ladder. It was time to go!


Liv opened the door to her moving truck, hopping up the raised step to the driver seat. She looked back, flashing the other girl a smirk. “I’d give you a ride but it's better if we split up, so they won't catch us both.” The smoking roof of the Friction building was just behind them and the distant sounds of fire trucks were growing closer. “Hit me up though if I am not in jail by next week. If I am, check to see if they do conjugal visits in Japan and hit me up anyhow.” she plopped into the driver seat and slammed the door. The engine roared to life on the rental and the redhead rolled down the window for one last exchange. “Cya later Nikkie, the next date is on you.” and with that, she peeled out of the parking lot in a moving truck full of high explosives. What could go wrong?