"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad!" - Cave Johnson, Portal 2
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Sitting next to the counter, Alexandra's calm gaze surveys the surrounding area, looking at the three men in black ski masks threatening the shopkeeper and yanking clothes off the racks. While looking around, she notices that there's a camera at the corner of the store, as well as a man obviously hiding in the dressing room, evident by the way the shopkeeper keeps looking in its direction while funneling the money.
One of the guards, the one farthest away, keeps looking in her direction, but every time Alexandra looks over to him, he looks away, a detail which could never go unnoticed.
Before the guard could notice the clerk's gazes, she takes his attention away from her.
"Hey. You."
The man points his gun at her.
"If you're gonna hold us hostage, can I at least have a fucking drink? You took my flask."
When she was first taken hostage, they had already searched her and found almost everything.
He looks towards one of his cohorts, who shrugs at the look he gives them, and turns back towards Alexandra, reaching into his pocket and throwing it towards her. She catches it, opening the flask and immediately takes a swig. She may not have her pistol, but this was the next best thing; liquid courage, a dampener of pain and fear, not that she truly needed it. She just wanted a drink.
Sighing, she continues speaking.
"You kno-"
"Stop talking."
She looks up at the man defiantly.
"Just one thing; keep your finger off that damned trigger. Killing a civilian isn't what you want."
He raises his gun towards her head.
"You know nothing about me, bitch."
"It's not about morality, but efficiency. You pull that trigger, everything goes wrong. All it takes is one mistake to-"
He goes to hit her with the rifle's stock, an action of which Alexandra exploits immediately, digging her fingers into the man's hand, causing him to release the gun, which she kicked over towards the counter. By the time Alexandra had gotten it out of his hands, the other two already had their guns trained on her, so she took the man hostage, pouring the alcohol over the man and holding a lighter that was in a hidden pocket of her jacket up to the man.
"Now, let's say we talk, hmm?"
The other two inch closer to her.
"I wouldn't do that. All it takes is one errant twitch, and your friend here goes up in flames. If you sho-"
Alexandra's eyes widen as she dives for the counter in a desperate bid for even the smallest amount of cover, the man who she held hostage lit up with gunfire. Her face scowled in anger, and she went to grab the gun she procured from the now-dead man.
She immediately shoots through the wooden counter towards what she believed was one of the robber's locations, and she hears a grunt of pain and a thud.
The other man, the seemingly indecisive one, shoots through the counter, hitting dangerously close to Alexandra's position. Alexandra counts as each of the bullets fired, hearing 26 rounds go off, and remembering the 5 that he fired earlier, meaning he's most likely out of ammo. Even knowing he has her pistol, she stands up, seeing the man holding it and attempting to pull the trigger.
A click is heard, and he realizes that, in the heat of the moment, he never checked if the chamber was loaded. Alexandra frowned and walked up to him. In a fit of unbridled panic, he went to punch Alexandra, only for her to kick him in the balls, at least, that was what was supposed to happen, feeling seemingly nothing there, and hearing a less-than-manly yelp of pain. As he(?) knelt, she front kicked his chest, sending him careening onto his back. She stomped on both of his arms at the elbow as they flailed around, intent on breaking them, and she pointed the rifle downwards.
She takes a second to think, then kneels down, punching him in the side of the head to knock him out.
After the (surprisingly) untiring bout of combat, Alexandra rolls the man onto their chest, using some clothing nearby to tie their hands in an impromptu knot. Getting up, she walks towards the counter.
"Sorry, but could I ask you to show me where the security room is?"
The shopkeeper, still in a daze, nods, leading Alexandra through a door in the back. While walking there, she grabs a pair of gloves, putting them on.
"Oh, and whoever you are in there, I'd suggest not coming out."
"You don't have to ask me twice" the familiar voice says.
"...Nevermind. Come out and follow me, Jimmy."
"What?! How..." the man says, opening the door and seeing Alexandra.
"It's you?!"
"Seeing as you most likely messaged Michael, you should probably tell him not to come because of the gunfire. Mentioning me as the one who cleaned up the situation may cause him to be slightly suspicious, but He'll have to manage if he doesn't want to deal with thepolice."
Entering the security room, Alexandra walks up to the equipment and starts smashing it to bits.
Eventually finishing her work, she walks back into the shopfront, walking up to the unconcious man and picking them up.
"Jimmy, lead me to your father's car. We have to leave the store, now."
She turns to the shopkeeper.
"Miss, if you could, please tell them that one of the robbers killed the other two and ran off. I'll be taking some of the money to make this story believable, but I'll still leave 50% of it. If I find out you didn't follow my directions, I will personally come back and end your life, even if you're not working here. Do you understand."
The woman, still in a state of shock, vigorously nods her head, and Alexandra takes that as her queue to leave, taking half of the money bag's contents and exiting the store with body on shoulder and Jimmy in tow, hopefully not having to deal with this situation any further.