Under the cover of Big pa's Rampage Reina slipped out of the situation and into the cover of what remained of the slums. As she left the sound of his rampage could still be heard even blocks away. His laugh surprisingly traveled far and wide, by all rights reina was sort of stunned when she was 3 city blocks away. His fury when uncapped shook the slums up, the ground still trembled with each blow. She stumbled more than a few times during the first few minutes of running, covering her head in fear of the windows around her becoming undone because of the fight.

Slowly the commotion died down and the shaking stopped. She felt tired, her body was heavy. Each step felt like she was wearing weights strapped to her limbs. With no other choice she looked around and found an old warehouse at the southern edge of town. It was the place located just before the seemingly endless desert that made up most of alabasta.

She threw her body into the wooden door and stumbled inside, just barely catching herself in the process. She crawled into a corner and threw herself against the wall. Looking about, she noticed there were needles and other shady substances scattered on the floor. She shook her head at what she saw, what was going on right under her nose and the rest of the marines. She sighed heavily and tried to breathe heavily in order to expel all the tension from her body, filling her lungs to capacity and exhaling her breath, along with her problems. The point of the exercise was to block out all her worries and focus only on her breathing. A technique she was just barely starting to learn a few days before all this mess. She looked up at the cieling and remembered her small group of friends and that stupid curly mustached fuck of a lieutenant. " Will I ever get to see them again? Do they hate me for running off"? she said under her breath, utterly failing her exercise. With nothing else to do she climbed up on one of the oversized crates and cleared punched it open, allowing her to see the insides. The first one she found was empty as she had thought,but it was heavy and well built. Despite the wear and tear from the elements, it was still standing after being abandoned years ago. Without a second thought she dropped into the crate for extra cover and tried her best to get some rest. She could always worry about what she'd do in the morning.

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Depending on your definition of fortunate or unfortunate, she was able to sleep for around four hours before the sound of dogs awoke her. The sun had not even set when her fellow marines started to catch up with her. Inside of her box she could hear the sound of dogs barking outside. Dogs themselves were not the problem,but what was when that barking multiplied in the distance. What started as one was accompanied by several others. She heard the sound of metal clanking against the stone floor, before small explosions rang throughout the place. She held her ears and grimaced with her eyes closed,the sound even from the second story still felt like it tore through her ears.

Without any hesitation she grabbed Old Reliable and began to focus, unleashing her sixth sense(kenboshoku haki). There were 5 bodies below her, not including the mutts. Ferocious little fuckers who were often perpetually snarling at anyone not their masters. Reina waited until she felt them move toward the stairs and backroom of the place before slipping out of the place. As quietly as she could manage, she tried to slide over the edge of the crate and climb down the various crates. Unfortunately her movements were all accompanied by creaks, while small ones resounded through the dead quiet warehouse. That accompanied by the vicious dog's snarls in the background left her no choice but to bolt out of there as quickly as she could. Four bodies converging on the right, two behind her and 3 to the left, she took her chances and fled into the back alleyways. Sure the dogs were onto her,but that mattered little if she was able to use the environment to her advantage.

Constantly for the first hour it was a game of cat and mouse, with random battalions of marines just barely finding her. Unable to stop her just as she was vaulting from fences and using walls to kick from one end to another roof with surprising efficiency. It was not until a few hours passed that they started to get smart, pulling out the big guns. Along side the dogs were low level officers who spent chased her relentlessly. As one tried to slash her with an horizontal swing, she dove under it and picked him up in the process and tossed him off a 3 story roof. The officer wasn't entirely phased, but she didn't stop to see him recover and immediately give chase again. Along side them was her usual commanding officer, Lieutenant Rogers. With a scowl, he pulled his gloves on and headed toward the commotion.

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Rooftops of Alabasta's slums:
The officers unlike the ensigns adapted much quicker, their movements more deliberate and as a result even the rifle squads were starting to threaten her. Before she was able to simply laugh them off and find a new place to run,but now the officers were starting to funnel her into choke points and traps. Which is how she found herself in her current situation, surround by 3 lieutenants, armed with swords and one brass knuckles. She drawed her blade on reflex and exchanged blows with the first rather handily, but each time she tried to turn the tables another stepped forward and swung hit and another swung for her mid section to send her into the man with the brass knuckles. Try as she might, each time she swung he ducked her blow and kept his movements tight.

Each time she tried to recover he'd jab at her face, causing her to block with her sword. This in trun let him go for her gut, usually grazing her but he was getting closer with each strike. Each time she was just about to use her gargantuan strength, another stepped in and kept her at arm's length. The three kept chipping at her and more were starting to close in on her. So without a second thought she began to assault them with more ferocity, instantly channeling her frustration using dragon strike. When one marine tried to approach her, her arm was cocked back as far as she could muster and the moment their blades collided, his weapon was knocked out of his hands. She proceeded to clench his throat and toss him into the other swordsman. Without a second thought she charged the guy with the brass knuckles and slammed into him with her sword. the man stumbled slightly before she used her knee to smash into his gut. Before he could react she used her free arm to grab his shoulder and throw him off the roof after throwing another knee strike to her abdomen. By the time he fell she was already sprinting toward the other end of the roof where she would vault from one building to another and end up in factory through its second story window. Not wasting another moment she bolted off and leaped to the ground floor, where she would eventually barge out onto the busy recovering streets of the slums. Where most were working on clean up after the fire.

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Without even having to scan the area Reina felt danger coming from every direction. The dogs were closing in on her, despite the crowd. They were oddly fixated on her and ignored every other person she was shoving out of the way as she bobbed and weaved through the crowds. The firing squads couldn't use their guns, even the snipers found it hard to get a good shot as she ducked under civilians carrying heavy plywood or sorting through debris. However no matter how well her Haki was, she could not keep up with the amount of pursuers barreling in toward her without powering through them.

Out from the shadows an officer came barreling in toward her, unsheathing his sword expertly with incredible speed. Reina in response was only able to parry toe blow because of her sixth sense warning her before hand. The man moved quicker than she could really kept up, throwing kicks toward her gut and throwing quick thrusts of his short sword aimed for her vitals. With no choice she dive toward him with her blade held to her side. The officer believed she was suiciding for a moment and in the instant that he tried to stab her, she raised her leg and kick it out of his hand using a Feint.The man stumbled only to be slammed into a nearby wall. The chasing marines caught up to her rather quickly, the order to aim came out. So she literally ran for a nearby alleyway using him as a human shield. The half conscious man could only stammer as he pleaded for the firing squad not to fire. Upon escaping she slammed his face into the dirt and moved on.

Upon reaching the end of the alleyway she sensed 3 dogs incoming, leaving her no choice but to duck the moment she left enter the street to avoid their maws. Two of them broke into a fight and the third gave chase without hesistation. When it tried to bite her, she used her iron heel to smash its face in, using the moment to make sure it couldn't react in time. With her boot in its jaw, she stamped continued to run off. Things became quiet, perhaps a little too quiet. She could no longer feel anything for a few moments. In fact there wasn't much of anything anywhere for that matter. That is until out of nowhere a bullet came streaming into her consciousness, just barely grazing her cheek. During the shock she felt a whole swath of people come from all directions out of nowhere. There were commanders and being launched by sheer strength of other marines outside of her haki range. One after the other landed near her, each attempting to cut her on the way down. Until a total of ten people surrounded her. " Yer not the only one who can use haki woman".

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As the dust settled, she was able to take in the faces of the people who pursued her. Most of em were not officers she recognized,but one came into the forefront instantly. " Rogers", she whispered under her breath. He approached her as the eleventh man in the group, pistol cocked and aimed for her. " Marianna brinewood, she was the woman you were dragging along that day. Do you have nothing to say for yourself woman"? Reina was a bit put off by his remark, for he had never addressed her as anything but miss sassy pants. With that the commanders started their assault, each one cornering her and making sure she couldn't move an inch. With no other choice she activated her color of arms and charged into the fray. With similar tactics to the others three kept her in check, making preliminary slashes just to make her back off. Reina however would not be having any of that, as she invoked, Executioner's calling. The first one commander who got to close lost his sword under the force of her swing. Unlike the lower tiered officers he did not panic, fully expecting this he backed off as another officer took his place ring around the rosies. With nowhere to go she tried to use dragon strike to break through the blockcade,but each time she tried to run a bullet came flying out.Although the men would falter, they were backed up rifle men who kept just grazing her due to her haki. It was thanks to its early warning that she could keep this up,but the situation was starting to become hopeless. The commanders picking up on this started to become more deliberate. Their blockcade now expanded to 5, each one maintaining a hexagon formation around her. Rogers meanwhile kept his gun steady, his eye affixed upon her as she parried each strike successive strike with less successful.

She grimaced, with each strike becoming far more potent on their end and less on hers. She had nowhere to take advantage of environmental wise, as she was on a flat street far from any buildings or obstacles. She kept frantically trying to think of a way to escape. Her second dragon strike broke on on the commander's blade like water to a dam. He threw her away, this time she became the one to fumble back as the commanders broke formation. Reina's panic set in, only to be alerted late by her sixth sense. A cannon ball came barreling in from the sky, with no other choice she blocked the blow with her arms. Just barely surviving thanks to the color of arms,but now she lied there in the dirt, unable to stand. Ears ringing and head spinning, her past two days were starting to catch up with her.

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Reina felt the strength rush from her body, the cannon ball feeling like it split her in half. Blood running down her forehead and her breathing labored. She tried to push herself up to a standing position,but being on all fours was the most she could manage. Rogers came up to her,but she felt no danger emanating from him. Though his gun was cocked, the barreling kissing the nape of her neck. " You dog...trash, fucking bumpkin. Do you know what hell you've caused"? Reina spit at his shoe, " fuck off". Rogers grabbed her hair and lifted her head up so that she could look him in the eye. His scowl deep, wrinkling much of what usually is a soft face. His conviction shown this his eyes, whose focus was the lone woman's gaze. She however did not show even the slightest bit of fear or remorse.

" Do you even know what you've done? Do you have no shame? No remorse for that woman who died for nothing"? he roared, his grip now wrapped around her neck. Reina did not budge, simply hanging limply from his grip, eyes starting to glaze over when oxygen deficiency started to kick in. He growled and slammed her back into a nearby brick wall, placing the gun into her forehead. "Afterall I've done for you. Afterall all we've done for you. Afterall she did for you on your first day. This is how you pay your respects to the dead"?

Reina did not budge, nor did she make a move to do so. Her gaze did not break with his own,but neither did her usual fire or conviction show through. Her only defiance came in the form of her never letting go of Old reliable, which was for all intensive purposes cracked and on the verse of falling apart. " It's because I merely did what I wanted sir. Iceheart gave me a second chance. That kid who has probably grown up a worse life than me, deserved one too".

Roger's started to give off more bloodthirst at that moment, his gun now shaking as she seethed with rage. Two commanders stepped in at that point, each placing one arm under his own to prevent him from moving. He fired the shots from his pistol wildly, flailing and cursing reina all the while. " What of her? Where's her second chance? Where's my subordinate back Miss Sassy pants"!?

Reina couldn't move at that point, she slumped against the wall and smiled at the usual insult. " Sorry sir". With the last bit of strength she had, she saluted him before the world went black.

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