"Now everybody listen up! Nobody moves and nobody gets hurt! All we want is the cash you kind folks have and we'll be on our way, real nice and quiet like!" Draped in tattered fabrics from head to toe and an old style black cowboy-hat, the man who spoke seemed less intimidating to Gene than anything he'd ever seen before but the way he'd spoke was like that of a dignified professional crook. More surprising was the fact that this frail looking lunatic had been able to hoist the pub owner up by the collar and had him pint over the counter when Gene knew for a fact that the old man was a lot stronger and smarter than what this guy had to offer. It wasn't until his gaze followed a swift line of movement to his right that he realized the customers were being held either at knife point or being strapped down with rope and explosive tags.
Shit there was a lot of these guys! If he had to guess, Gene reasoned that over half of the pubs population consisted of these bandits while the other half were being held hostage. So far, no one had noticed his entrance which gave him a little bit of time to spring into action. As quickly and silently as he could, Gene drifted off to the left only to be hammered with punches from one mammoth of a man sending him crashing to the floor. "Look like we got ourselves a sneaky-dinky bastard!" Shouted the overgrown ogre, the situation had just gone from bad to worse in all of five seconds. "Well tie that sucker up and strap a bomb to his chest! Keh-keh-keh-keh!" Yeah, like fucking hell. As the man bent down to pick him up Gene sent his left foot rocketing into his groin which caused the man to keel over releasing a sound that he hadn't quite heard before. As the man was falling, Gene rose with a swift open palmed thrust to the ogre's throat and stepped out of the way to watch the show.
TIMBER!
That son of a bitch went down and Gene doubted he'd be getting back up any time soon. Problem was, that was just ONE guy and immediately after watching this display the remaining guards got with the program and didn't even try to take on our Silver-haired hero. Instead, they'd directed their attention to the hostages. Ah, ah, ah! That will be enough outta you! Make one more move and I'm gonna blow this whole goddamn building sky high along with all these kind folks here." Now this was bad, where the hell were all the Shinobi that usually came here? Weren't they supposed to be on point at a time like this?! No sooner had he thought about it did Gene realize that among the hostages were several Shinobi that he'd recognized in passing, they were tied up as well with some kind of blue tag that was different from the paper bombs strapped to everyone else's rope. Were they being suppressed somehow? One thing was for sure and two things were for certain; he couldn't risk the lives of others by trying to play the macho role but more than that, he needed to figure out just how the hell these crooks who seemed dumber than a box of rocks, got their hands on something like an explosive tag to begin with. Had someone stolen from a vendor?
Damn it! If it were just himself then he would not have given a damn about going toe to toe with these crooks but the expressions of the many frightened women in attendance as well as the inebriated shinobi forced him to accept the reality that this wasn't going to be a cake walk scenario. He would have to think on his toes and quickly before this really got out of hand (not that it wasn't already out of fucking hand) . "Fine." Despite his surrender, Gene shot the man seemingly in charge a look that said "if I figure out how, I'm going to tear your fucking head off." Causing the man twice his age to jump back several feet; "Well what're you waitin' for?! Tie his ass up!" Gene huffed, captured by a low life - what were the odds?
Bound and secured with two Ninjutsu sealing tags as well as a paper bomb, Gene found his place among the other hostages with great disdain. The ropes were not hard to get out of but the fact that all of the 'guards' were pretty much trained to his position made doing anything impossible. If only he could get some kind of distraction....
The Konoholic in distress!:A group of bandits have overtaken the Konoholic and in the process, captured Hidden Leaf Shinobi Mitsurugi, Gene and several others. Your task is to help free the hostages and clear the bandits out without causing the death of any of them. The front door has been boarded shut and the guards are stationed all throughout the building with a clear line of sigh of one another; in the rear, there are two small windows that are unlocked but make a lot of noise when opened. There is also a chimney for the fire place but it hasn't been cleaned out in ages and is extremely narrow (characters 5'8, 5'9 and 6'0 won't be able to fit). Time is running out!