To her perception, the guy was a failure as an information broker, having heard nothing of real value besides that the person Iris was looking for had in fact been on the island. Having heard so mostly from hearsay and not being actually involved with them, that and the bit about them leaving very soon before anyone catches on was about all she had gained from the last night. Of course, lots of people got on ships to come and go, but what other option then to investigate the harbor did she have. Looking for a tall person with wide shoulders was still a wide field of possibilities but better then nothing. Arriving fairly early, after barely sleeping some five hours, her first plan was to eye the schedules for civil transportation ships for today. And of course always hoping someone clearly fitting the criteria cropped up.
What Iris did not expect was, someone putting a hand on her shoulder, as she tried to walk up to the board where the planned departure times for anchoring, publicly available vessels were posted. She spun around to see three men in the typical garb of a marine soldier looking somewhat down on her short stature. Turns out between her swift raid of the station and inelegantly sniffing around they must have picked up some clues. Or mister pin stripes ratted her out after she had left. Or a combination of both. In any case, they were apparently checking up on people who somewhat fit her description. Not that those were so many she could have claimed they had the wrong one. Ultimately, they would probably be convinced they found the person they were looking for when she would refuse to let them have a look in her fairly large baggage. So Iris opted for the irrational thing and just bolted immediately, fast as was possible while dragging a wheeled trunk. And she did not even get to take a look at the time tables. The harbor was definitely a dead end to be chased in, so she figured it's better to head towards the city center again, three soldiers in tow, who were yelling for her to stop and also some indecent cursing.
But as it were, Iris turned out to be faster, she got a bit of a lead on them that eventually enabled her to round corners before her chasers reached them. Having temporarily shaken them however, meant little. If they did not alert their fellows, those were probably at least given a similar instruction and would end up recognizing her, repeating the situation from minutes ago. She had not felt this chased ever and it spurred irrational short-temper decisions, to the point where Iris pretty much ran back into the three men from before, who were searching around the block she managed to shake them off at. As had been the end result of most situations in the last two days, she figured to just take them out instead of playing cat and mouse until the cat got bored, mostly because the cat probably would not get bored or tired anytime soon. The soldiers had obviously undergone the basic training, but their attempts to lock the girl down fell very short of that goal, likely due to hardly ever having to actually do much then arrest petty thieves and such.
Ducking out of the wide-armed grabbing attempt one of them opted to try, the girl was in the perfect position to elbow him in the side of the head from point blank. He was immediately out, but not to worry, his companions were really trying to pick up his slack. They would have been able to easily overpower a normal person, especially a girl, of her stature, but the fact she had herself enhanced really threw the scales right out of the window. Second guy had jumped her from behind while she dealt with the now unconscious one, and managed to bring her and himself to the ground, normally a good position to pin someone for handcuffing, arrest or any other measure. But he didn't expect to be speared right in the crown jewels by a bladed fifth appendage , as he was basically kneeling on Iris' back. That left her with just one immediate threat who, after quickly assessing the situation, decided on the more strategical thing, turned tail and bolted. Most likely for backup. As such, Iris left the two she had taken care of and tried to get some distance from the location as well, making it hopefully much harder to be caught again.
Anticipating to be apprehended for the third time eventually, as she could not quickly leave the city without getting noticed, the short girl decided it best to swap out her gear, preparing to straight up literally punch her way through this mess. At least until she found enough time to board a ship bound to leave. For one thing, if the killer was leaving, so was Iris, and it was not like she could be staying anywhere on this island after the events so far anyway. Of course, being bulked up like that made her easy to spot and probably drew attention from everyone who'd see her, but that was the lesser of two evils, the other being having to confront with soldiers while considerably less armed, figuratively and literally. So back alleys it was. It took almost half an hour of trying to find a quiet route to the harbor until Iris heard what was obviously coordinative yelling of probably a dozen men combing the area. Every time it got too close, the turned back to take another route. But eventually it seemed like their contracting circle of search had worked well enough to trap the girl. So she mentally braced and tried to think up a way to slip out of this. There was none.
Moments later, the first group of men started appearing from one of the directions, and they could not help but notice the person they were looking for taking cover behind a stack of barrels. Once again, they demanded for stop and surrender, which prompted the rest of the team to hurry and appear from the four other pathways just moments later. At least they were apparently interested in an interrogatable relatively unharmed capture, as none of them was using their gun and only some had precautiously pulled out swords, even after she had already proven that wounding some soldiers really didn't scathe Iris much. So, as the first group of four started moving on the offensive, she created a nice diversion by overthrowing the stack of barrels between herself and them, making their advance that much harder. One was outright buried while the rest at least had to make an effort to clear their way or climb over the rolling obstacles. This opened her up for the other groups however, so she only barely escaped a stab by pushing herself off the wall to her side. A swift, iron-footed kick to the face took care of further threat this one might have posed. That still left her with a good handful more, one of which went to copy his comrade's failed attempt, though in contrast, he managed to get a good stab on her lower leg. Little did he know that only locked him to some immediate danger. Namely, getting paid back same for same, Iris stabbed him with her pointy tail, albeit in the arm as it was much easier to reach. Luckily, all he had gotten was the fiber filler that gave her fake leg form, it would leave an ugly mark and had created a little stab hole in her boot, but that was still better then being actually stabbed, she figured. Mostly because she likely did not have the kind of pain resistance to keep fleeing after.
Now that she had him, however, that stab would not be al he was getting. Reacting quickly, she grabbed him by the torso and catapulted his somewhat limped body overhead, into the three men trying to make their way past fallen barrels. Between the pile of groggy men and the barrels, that way was now mostly shut off to her and the other one had a few more men closing in between Iris and a successful escape. But then a flash of genius hit her. As she wanted to escape with the trunk holding her little possession anyway, she might as well use it. And so it came just a brief second later, that she charged down the narrow alley, pushing it in front like a battering ram. Reflexively, the soldiers who would be getting in the way, tried to back aside into different passages or pressed up against the house walls. Which worked out for some, but not all of em. There was definitely some kind of cracking sound and screaming in pain as the black baggage thundered past some of the men. Only one of the one's not entirely out of the way had the presence of mind to try and jump onto the train. From what little glimpse Iris could get in the hectic, that brave man was decorated slightly fancier, not that she had any clue about understanding how rank and decoration actually worked, and was probably some kind of their superior. None the less, she took him with her down the road as far as she could get in about half a minute of arm-assisted sprinting while the marine tried to take swings at her while also putting effort into not falling off. This effectively left the other soldiers in the dust, a bit of an unorthodox plan, but apparently good enough to gain some distance.
As they came to a stop, the brawl was almost immediate. Jumping right off the trunk onto the girl, the last man standing left Iris hardly any time to think or assess the situation. Staggering back, she left herself open for him to pull out his sword in hopes of that giving any kind of advantage and an instant attempt to land an incapacitating hit. Iris was a little startled by the furious assault, but not enough to not see a swinging sword coming. Grabbing his entire arm in one hand, she twisted her hip around and unleashed are sure to land kick to his side. He took it, but not a moment later, the soldier's free hand came at her face, balled into a fist. Head snapping back as if on a rubber, Iris felt the pain reverberating through her skull and down her spine, she had never taken a hit like this as far as she could remember. As such, her reaction was mostly visceral, swinging overhead, she brought her left hand down on the guy in general, at her scale it didn't matter what she aimed for. There it was again, the goosebumps-instilling crunch of bone cracking or splintering but not quite breaking under stress. Her adversary coughed but did not seem willing to pass out. Then again, he was still trapped in a vice from wrist to almost shoulder and only had so much wiggle room. So with little other options left, he once again tried to throw a punch, as that seemed to have some effect. But Iris would not take two of the same, caught his other hand in the same fashion as the first and now had him mostly helpless, bar struggling legs she could easily hold off the ground. Still not really thinking, she knee'd him in the abdomen twice and a third time into the chin as he reeled. Between whatever bones had given out before and any kinds of injuries he had sustained from the last three hits, his coughing grew more intense as the started to spit blood and his eyes clearly started to loose focus. Jus as the cyborg-girl was ready to have another go, the soldier's body went entirely limp, suddenly there was no struggling, no kicking, no tension anymore. With that signal, she dropped the guy, wiped a clearly injured and bleeding nose on her shoulder as best as she could and got moving. Having taken care of the whole group, she probably had at least a small window to make her getaway.
As the short-statued girl reached the harbor, she had cleaned her face up rudimentary and put on more inconspicuous prostethics again. All this action had totally blocked her from observing where a mister tall-with-wide-shoulders could have shown up and the marines were probably not done chasing her either, it was just a matter of a new group finding their beat-up comrades or her. That is why she decided to take the gamble and just get on the transportation bound to leave, which was soon, seeing how the events had pushed the morning hours into noon, where most busywork happened. She managed to go unnoticed as she paid the fare for one child with baggage but only really relaxed after the walkways were pulled in and the feeling of the vessel gliding through the water played against her sense of balance.
What Iris did not expect was, someone putting a hand on her shoulder, as she tried to walk up to the board where the planned departure times for anchoring, publicly available vessels were posted. She spun around to see three men in the typical garb of a marine soldier looking somewhat down on her short stature. Turns out between her swift raid of the station and inelegantly sniffing around they must have picked up some clues. Or mister pin stripes ratted her out after she had left. Or a combination of both. In any case, they were apparently checking up on people who somewhat fit her description. Not that those were so many she could have claimed they had the wrong one. Ultimately, they would probably be convinced they found the person they were looking for when she would refuse to let them have a look in her fairly large baggage. So Iris opted for the irrational thing and just bolted immediately, fast as was possible while dragging a wheeled trunk. And she did not even get to take a look at the time tables. The harbor was definitely a dead end to be chased in, so she figured it's better to head towards the city center again, three soldiers in tow, who were yelling for her to stop and also some indecent cursing.
But as it were, Iris turned out to be faster, she got a bit of a lead on them that eventually enabled her to round corners before her chasers reached them. Having temporarily shaken them however, meant little. If they did not alert their fellows, those were probably at least given a similar instruction and would end up recognizing her, repeating the situation from minutes ago. She had not felt this chased ever and it spurred irrational short-temper decisions, to the point where Iris pretty much ran back into the three men from before, who were searching around the block she managed to shake them off at. As had been the end result of most situations in the last two days, she figured to just take them out instead of playing cat and mouse until the cat got bored, mostly because the cat probably would not get bored or tired anytime soon. The soldiers had obviously undergone the basic training, but their attempts to lock the girl down fell very short of that goal, likely due to hardly ever having to actually do much then arrest petty thieves and such.
Ducking out of the wide-armed grabbing attempt one of them opted to try, the girl was in the perfect position to elbow him in the side of the head from point blank. He was immediately out, but not to worry, his companions were really trying to pick up his slack. They would have been able to easily overpower a normal person, especially a girl, of her stature, but the fact she had herself enhanced really threw the scales right out of the window. Second guy had jumped her from behind while she dealt with the now unconscious one, and managed to bring her and himself to the ground, normally a good position to pin someone for handcuffing, arrest or any other measure. But he didn't expect to be speared right in the crown jewels by a bladed fifth appendage , as he was basically kneeling on Iris' back. That left her with just one immediate threat who, after quickly assessing the situation, decided on the more strategical thing, turned tail and bolted. Most likely for backup. As such, Iris left the two she had taken care of and tried to get some distance from the location as well, making it hopefully much harder to be caught again.
Anticipating to be apprehended for the third time eventually, as she could not quickly leave the city without getting noticed, the short girl decided it best to swap out her gear, preparing to straight up literally punch her way through this mess. At least until she found enough time to board a ship bound to leave. For one thing, if the killer was leaving, so was Iris, and it was not like she could be staying anywhere on this island after the events so far anyway. Of course, being bulked up like that made her easy to spot and probably drew attention from everyone who'd see her, but that was the lesser of two evils, the other being having to confront with soldiers while considerably less armed, figuratively and literally. So back alleys it was. It took almost half an hour of trying to find a quiet route to the harbor until Iris heard what was obviously coordinative yelling of probably a dozen men combing the area. Every time it got too close, the turned back to take another route. But eventually it seemed like their contracting circle of search had worked well enough to trap the girl. So she mentally braced and tried to think up a way to slip out of this. There was none.
Moments later, the first group of men started appearing from one of the directions, and they could not help but notice the person they were looking for taking cover behind a stack of barrels. Once again, they demanded for stop and surrender, which prompted the rest of the team to hurry and appear from the four other pathways just moments later. At least they were apparently interested in an interrogatable relatively unharmed capture, as none of them was using their gun and only some had precautiously pulled out swords, even after she had already proven that wounding some soldiers really didn't scathe Iris much. So, as the first group of four started moving on the offensive, she created a nice diversion by overthrowing the stack of barrels between herself and them, making their advance that much harder. One was outright buried while the rest at least had to make an effort to clear their way or climb over the rolling obstacles. This opened her up for the other groups however, so she only barely escaped a stab by pushing herself off the wall to her side. A swift, iron-footed kick to the face took care of further threat this one might have posed. That still left her with a good handful more, one of which went to copy his comrade's failed attempt, though in contrast, he managed to get a good stab on her lower leg. Little did he know that only locked him to some immediate danger. Namely, getting paid back same for same, Iris stabbed him with her pointy tail, albeit in the arm as it was much easier to reach. Luckily, all he had gotten was the fiber filler that gave her fake leg form, it would leave an ugly mark and had created a little stab hole in her boot, but that was still better then being actually stabbed, she figured. Mostly because she likely did not have the kind of pain resistance to keep fleeing after.
Now that she had him, however, that stab would not be al he was getting. Reacting quickly, she grabbed him by the torso and catapulted his somewhat limped body overhead, into the three men trying to make their way past fallen barrels. Between the pile of groggy men and the barrels, that way was now mostly shut off to her and the other one had a few more men closing in between Iris and a successful escape. But then a flash of genius hit her. As she wanted to escape with the trunk holding her little possession anyway, she might as well use it. And so it came just a brief second later, that she charged down the narrow alley, pushing it in front like a battering ram. Reflexively, the soldiers who would be getting in the way, tried to back aside into different passages or pressed up against the house walls. Which worked out for some, but not all of em. There was definitely some kind of cracking sound and screaming in pain as the black baggage thundered past some of the men. Only one of the one's not entirely out of the way had the presence of mind to try and jump onto the train. From what little glimpse Iris could get in the hectic, that brave man was decorated slightly fancier, not that she had any clue about understanding how rank and decoration actually worked, and was probably some kind of their superior. None the less, she took him with her down the road as far as she could get in about half a minute of arm-assisted sprinting while the marine tried to take swings at her while also putting effort into not falling off. This effectively left the other soldiers in the dust, a bit of an unorthodox plan, but apparently good enough to gain some distance.
As they came to a stop, the brawl was almost immediate. Jumping right off the trunk onto the girl, the last man standing left Iris hardly any time to think or assess the situation. Staggering back, she left herself open for him to pull out his sword in hopes of that giving any kind of advantage and an instant attempt to land an incapacitating hit. Iris was a little startled by the furious assault, but not enough to not see a swinging sword coming. Grabbing his entire arm in one hand, she twisted her hip around and unleashed are sure to land kick to his side. He took it, but not a moment later, the soldier's free hand came at her face, balled into a fist. Head snapping back as if on a rubber, Iris felt the pain reverberating through her skull and down her spine, she had never taken a hit like this as far as she could remember. As such, her reaction was mostly visceral, swinging overhead, she brought her left hand down on the guy in general, at her scale it didn't matter what she aimed for. There it was again, the goosebumps-instilling crunch of bone cracking or splintering but not quite breaking under stress. Her adversary coughed but did not seem willing to pass out. Then again, he was still trapped in a vice from wrist to almost shoulder and only had so much wiggle room. So with little other options left, he once again tried to throw a punch, as that seemed to have some effect. But Iris would not take two of the same, caught his other hand in the same fashion as the first and now had him mostly helpless, bar struggling legs she could easily hold off the ground. Still not really thinking, she knee'd him in the abdomen twice and a third time into the chin as he reeled. Between whatever bones had given out before and any kinds of injuries he had sustained from the last three hits, his coughing grew more intense as the started to spit blood and his eyes clearly started to loose focus. Jus as the cyborg-girl was ready to have another go, the soldier's body went entirely limp, suddenly there was no struggling, no kicking, no tension anymore. With that signal, she dropped the guy, wiped a clearly injured and bleeding nose on her shoulder as best as she could and got moving. Having taken care of the whole group, she probably had at least a small window to make her getaway.
As the short-statued girl reached the harbor, she had cleaned her face up rudimentary and put on more inconspicuous prostethics again. All this action had totally blocked her from observing where a mister tall-with-wide-shoulders could have shown up and the marines were probably not done chasing her either, it was just a matter of a new group finding their beat-up comrades or her. That is why she decided to take the gamble and just get on the transportation bound to leave, which was soon, seeing how the events had pushed the morning hours into noon, where most busywork happened. She managed to go unnoticed as she paid the fare for one child with baggage but only really relaxed after the walkways were pulled in and the feeling of the vessel gliding through the water played against her sense of balance.