Description: A Doll goes hunting in *extreme* public in Southtown, and finds her target. Can Gertrude defend herself against the onslaught of a Doll desperate to prove her worthh after multiple failures?
Gertrude has an /apartment/.
It isn't much. Meant for holidays, really, and letted by the week, it is still an improvement - in her mind - to about ninety per cent of the places she has slept in the past six years. Money from terrible movie deals and her fighting career is starting to add up, and it makes her unspeakably happy to be able to rest up in the comfort of her own place, if only for a little while.
But boredom sets in quicker than she'd anticipated. Its been a few days since Raiden redefined her views on electrical safety, and she's feeling fighting fit again. So she has headed out to a coffee shop - one of many in this cultured, pleasant region. After everything she's been through lately, it is nice to just settle down at an overstuffed couch with a large, milky latte, and relax.
Although the glossy magazine she's leafing through gives her pause. Someone attacked Benimaru? That's... an odd, and disturbing, coincidence. There's probably nothing to it though, right? Fighters ... fight, it is right there in the job name, let alone the job description. It isn't like there's a secret organization hunting them down for their own nefarious purposes or something.
Satsuki, meanwhile, does not have an apartment, or indeed much in the way of accommodations beyond a common room, her personal -- smaller -- room and the (admittedly nice) fact that not all of the Dolls retain dreadfully much of a sense of personal space. Likewise, her holidays have been unmemorable, in that she does not really mark them as distinct from any other days.
Satsuki has been tasked with a purpose in the short term -- not something great and terrible and important, like her long-term issue with a certain kunoichi, or otherwise more direct threats to the Dolls or service to Vega's will... but there are still ongoing orders to look into potentially untapped psychic talents.
There is indeed an organization hunting them. Several, in fact.
Walking calmly into the coffee shop, Satsuki clenches her gauntleted fist tightly. Glancing down at the couch, she locks eyes with Gertrude; almost instantly, a sense of psychic dread -- of something far beyond herself -- begins rolling off of her in waves.
"... Identifying. Gertrude Verhangis?" Her tone is almost impossibly flat. Her unclenched hand rests gently on the sword by her side.
Gertrude looks up at the young woman in her strange uniform, and her lips purse faintly. The uniform is definitely odd, and there's something about her... something particularly in the way she holds herself. It brings back uncomfortable memories. She doesn't know why; the Verhangnis family is full, mostly, of dramatic (some might say OVERLY dramatic) personalities whose very bearing sent shivers down the spine. This girl just looks - and sounds - like a robot. But there is something there. Something ineffable which pings at the back of her mind and says 'danger'.
Still, she's been through a lot lately, maybe it is just paranoia.
Standing up, Gertrude towers over Satsuki. She sips her coffee, and looks the young girl in the eye. She tries to place her face, but... she can't, not immediately. Maybe something in the Neo League? "Yeah, that's me." She says, "Look, kid, I'm not really in the mood for a League fight today, okay?" She nods towards the sword, "If you want to set something up, you should call me. Its not nice to bother people when they haven't had their coffee yet."
The teenage Doll shifts her posture almost imperceptibly, blue eyes shading into indigo for a moment as her foot turns. Someone familiar with her style would recognize this as a threat... but at this point, she's the only practitioner, and documentation of her style is almost nonexistent at this point.
"Understood," she says, turning just slightly to one side; there's no malice in her voice, no energy in her stance yet. All she does is stand there for a moment, making tiny adjustments to her bearing, carefully and evenly.
"... Switching to evaluation mode," she says, tone firm and flat as always as she carves through the table in front of Gertrude, kicking it to either side. It gives Gertrude a few moments to adjust to the situation -- which may be Satsuki's plan?
COMBATSYS: Satsuki has started a fight here.
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Satsuki 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Gertrude has joined the fight here.
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Satsuki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Gertrude
"HEY, WATCH IT YOU CRAZY KID!"
The barista is understandably less than impressed by Satsuki's display, and now more people are staring. The girl has a sword! And Gertrude just stares at the flung table. For a few seconds, she is just openly startled, but she's been in enough fights to know when something is about to go down.
She doesn't recognize Satsuki's strange stance, though, and she adjusts her thick-framed glasses. Looking the girl up and down, she does her best to get a quick assessment; Satsuki is obviously a weapons-based fighter, but the strange and mechanical tone...
"She could be a robot." She mumbles to herself, "... No, that's ridiculous. Who would build a robot that looks like a teenager? And I do sense... something. Military? But what sort of military uses kids?"
She's talking to herself, but she's also taking up her own stance. Preparing herself for whatever this 'evaluation mode' might entail. Then, she speaks to Satsuki.
"You want to see what I can do, huh?"
COMBATSYS: Gertrude calculates her next move.
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Satsuki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Gertrude
When Gertrude backs off rather than going in immediately, Satsuki makes note of it; she isn't sure /why/ she isn't responding forcefully to an immediate threat and it worries her a little bit, but she's not going to /ask/. Her goal here is simply to collect -- data, for sure, and perhaps something more entirely.
Deciding to keep her distance from the Verhangis scion just slightly, Satsuki affirms, "Goal is assessment of target abilities." She ignores the comments from the barista pointedly, shutting out all distractions and obstacles. There is no room for such things in the path she has chosen.
Eyes narrowing, Satsuki steps up -- she doesn't get /quite/ close enough to Gertrude to strike, even with her blade. Then, all at once, she brings the weapon up in a forceful arc, wreathed with indigo energy -- indeed, wreathed with /enough/ indigo energy that it extends a good two feet past the reach of the blade, hopefully pressing Gertrude squarely back into her seat.
COMBATSYS: Gertrude blocks Satsuki's Psycho Slash.
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Satsuki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Gertrude
Gertrude has a great deal of experience with this kind of power. Not using it herself of course, but in a strange way, the fact that Satsuki's strength is a familiar sort, is comforting. She might not know anything about who this strange girl is working for, but she's confident - in the instant that she feels Satsuki's power manifest - that she knows how to deal with it.
Both hands come forward, and she summons her will into the blow. The blocked power dissipates, splashing from her guard, and whilst it stings, Gertrude believes she has the measure of her opponent now. That power... it is subtly different to the energy that the Verhangnis family wields, but it is close enough!
Gertrude rolls forwards all at once, and as she comes up out of the roll, her hand leads the way. "Be careful what you wish for!" She shouts, "KIYAH!" And, swinging her palm around, she aims to smash home right between the point where Satsuki's left shoulder meets her neck, hoping that she can make the girl just a little bit slower off the draw.
COMBATSYS: Satsuki just-defends Gertrude's Sublime Comet!
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Satsuki 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Gertrude
Satsuki is, indeed, left-handed; however, she is perfectly comfortable temporarily holding her blade in her off hand, and that is what saves her from Gertrude's confident, efficient assault, ultimately. Her arm comes up, bright red gauntlets meeting that palm as it swings inward; the Doll uses that moment of freedom to improve her position just slightly, weaving back to the perfect distance for her blade, while simultaneously sheathing it.
"Target psychic potential... low, but techniques effective," she murmurs, letting that hand loosen up for a moment and gripping her blade with it again. "Adjustment will improve target combat capability more than 40 percent."
Satisfied with this assessment, Satsuki finally comes back in toward Gertrude, doing her best to press her advantage while she has it. Having already gotten to the perfect position, Satsuki skips the usual first step of one of her more defensive techniques, simply drawing her blade again for a series of forceful slashes before sheathing it once more.
For a moment, she considders an alternative path through this encounter... but or the moment, she evaluates it as low-probability.
COMBATSYS: Satsuki successfully hits Gertrude with Psycho Draw.
- Power hit! -
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Satsuki 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Gertrude
"I've been hearing that my whole life."
Gertrude's response is pained. The girl had neatly picked apart her attack, and then slashed her side before she could even blink. Several deep wounds are evident, but she's far from done just yet - indeed, the anger she feels at the description just pushes her further. Part of her wants to let loose, to show this girl just what she's made of...
But that would be playing into whatever sick game is going on here. For all her faults, Gertrude isn't stupid enough to do that. No matter how tempting it might be.
Instead, she springs back into action. Throwing herself forwards, her sneaker-clad heel leads the way, aiming to slam home into Satsuki's jaw. If she connects, she'll spring off, and bring her other foot around too, aiming to smash the Doll backwards with enough force to bounce her off the counter of the coffee shop.
"Low Potential. Tch."
COMBATSYS: Satsuki just-defends Gertrude's Double Spin Heel EX!
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Satsuki 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Gertrude
The high physicality of Gertrude's offense puts Satsuki deeply on the defensive -- and a very deliberate defense is where Satsuki excels. This time, though, it's her blade that comes up; she brings it up forcefully in a quick draw-and-parry that meets that heel dead-on, pushing Gertrude gently aside. This time, as she weaves around, she steps up onto half of the table that she previously cut, adjusting her stance accordingly.
"... Adjustments can be made to improve target psychic potential," she notes, canting her head to the side slightly. "Anger misplaced." Her sword still burns with that indigo energy, though it's starting to diminish; breathing in and out, she considers her next play.
Hopping off of the table-half, Satsuki sends her body into a high-speed spin, transferring her blade to a one-handed grip. A pulse of indigo runs across it as her arm swings out to full extension, trying to keep Gertrude as far away from her as possible with a half-slash, half-thrust at the blade's maximum length.
When she finishes the spinning hop, one of her feet remains squarely on the table, as if ready to help her spring right back away at any moment; perhaps she's more scared of the Verhangis girl than she's letting on...
COMBATSYS: Gertrude interrupts Axle Spin Thrust from Satsuki with Rising Knuckle.
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Satsuki 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Gertrude
Gertrude is an experienced fighter; through hundreds of professional matches over the years, she has honed her instincts for battle. Sure, almost all of it is sports fighting and not life-or-death, but she knows someone who relies on a strong defense when she sees it, and she knows how to deal with it, too.
Keeping on Satsuki as she retreats, the taller fighter closes the distance even as Satsuki works to keep her back. The slash cuts into her shoulder, and she simply leans into the blow, accepting a little more cut there to take the strength out of the thrust...
And as Satsuki tries to hop, Gertrude's other arm comes hammering upwards. The powerful upwards blow smashes her knuckles as hard as she can into Satsuki's jaw, coupled with an upwards leap of her own to knock the girl from her perch, and come down herself on the coffee table.
Of course... Gertrude is far, far bigger than Satsuki, and the poor table does not withstand the impact of her feet upon it, but her eyes are blazing with a fierce indignation.
"If I want that power." She states, harshly, "I need only reach out and take it. I don't. Not... any more. I don't need it. Now leave, before I lose my temper!"
"YOU SHOULD BOTH LEAVE!" Shouts the manager, cowering behind the counter, "G-Get out and never come back!"
The forceful knuckle plows straight into Satsuki's mouth, sending her up into the sky; she doesn't have a glass jaw, but it's not exactly solid, either. She hits the floor of the establishment harshly, and for a moment, doesn't get up; she's visibly pained by the whole exchange -- a rare moment of human emotion crossing her face in earnest.
Gauntleted hands still gripping her blade, Satsuki looks up toward Gertrude as she makes her declaration. So this is the true power -- and force -- behind this woman; it's not something Satsuki can take lightly.
Glancing over to the manager for just a moment as she's snapped out of a sense of awe that even penetrates through her programming, she says, "... Negative. Must continue assessment," giving the manager an empty stare.
Turning her attention to Gertrude once more, she finally gets back up, locking her eyes on the other woman. "... Understood," she says, calmly. "Switching to assault mode." She steps in, considering her options for just a short moment -- and then reaches out toward Gertrude with her left hand to pull her in, and drawing her blade with the right. Drawing forward rather than upward, she aims the hilt squarely for the other girl's solar plexus -- after which she hurls her into the couch she'd sat in previously, if she can get and maintain that hold!
COMBATSYS: Satsuki successfully hits Gertrude with Medium Throw.
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Satsuki 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Gertrude
Assault mode seems to be roughly as effective as the other mode. Satsuki comes in, and Gertrude can't get away before she's being hit and hurled into the couch. The thump took a lot of the breath out of her, but she's not going to let something like that keep her down for long. She's pissed! This girl's stubborn refusal to back off is aggravating enough, let alone her strangely robotic attitude.
Gertrude's pride won't let her back down - even winded, she just gives it the best she's got.
"KIYAH!"
Leaping back at Satsuki, Gertrude springs from the couch, completing a graceful arc upwards, and brings her hand swinging down in a far more powerful chop. This time, she just aims to connect with the top of her opponent's skull, hoping that she can get her point across with a hammerblow, even as sweat starts to bead on her brow. She's really pushing herself to the limit, here; she's not going to let this little brat make a fool of her!
... and she doesn't care how much property damage she has to inflict to make that point!
COMBATSYS: Satsuki just-defends Gertrude's Utopian Crusher!
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Satsuki 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Gertrude
The blade continues up from its initial draw to knock the wind out of Gertrude, up to meet her opponent's chop flat-first; Satsuki's eyes glint purple in the light of the cafe, and she pushes away from her opponent again. Her blocks are always by the narrowest margins -- both exposing her to significant danger /and/ keeping her wastelessly safe. It's a fine line, and today, Satsuki walks it well.
"Target resistance... continuing despite attempts to weaken," she murmurs to herself, making note of the sheer stamina Gertrude shows; it's rare for her to encounter someone who can just keep going with everything they've got well into the fight. /Satsuki/ sure can't, under most circumstances.
Stepping up toward Gertrude, Satsuki attempts something that she keeps in her proverbial pocket for rare cases, sheathing her blade. At first, it looks like she's going to shoulder cleanly into her... and all at once, she dashes completely around the woman, showing a split-second supernatural burst of speed.
Pressing her belly into Gertrude's back, the Doll shifts slightly to place herself between Gertrude and that damaged table before wrapping her arms around the Verhangis scion and bending backward into a bridge, suplexing her opponent through it if she's not careful!
COMBATSYS: Satsuki successfully hits Gertrude with German Suplex.
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Satsuki 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Gertrude
Oh, Gertrude SHOULDN'T be going on like this, there's no doubt about that. She's pushing herself far too fast and far too hard, but she's frustrated. Satsuki's ability to continually redirect her attacks is almost like she's being mocked; Gertrude has met fighters who can turn her attacks against her, and fighters who can stay one step ahead. She's even been totally outclassed before. More than she'd like to admit, in fact!
But she's never met all that, with a bland, neutral personality backing it up. It is almost like the Doll is mocking her, which ... aggravates her.
Sweat pours from her body as she slams her hands together, "Resistance continuing? I'll SHOW you resistance!"
Hurling herself back into the fray, Gertrude gives a terrifying roar of defiance, and her overhead chop leads the way. She's determined not to let this continue; to blow through the guard through overwhelming force. The chop leads smoothly into a spinning heel, then a second, a third, the momentum brings her low to the ground - shaking, quivering, panting for breath...
The older woman is actually shaking before she finishes it off with a devastating roar, and a powerful upwards knuckle, coupled with the determined shout:
"UNITY! DRIVE!"
COMBATSYS: Gertrude successfully hits Satsuki with Unity Drive.
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Satsuki 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Gertrude
Gertrude gets a /tremendously/ satisfying blow on Satsuki; the older woman's overhand chop is too fast for the girl this time, piercing clean through her defenses and /shattering/ them. Skin grinds into orbital bone, and blood streams down Satsuki's face, sullying Gertrude's heels as she plows through her guard with them over and over again.
That final roaring uppercut sends her a tiny bit through the ceiling, hitting a support beam before she falls squarely back to the ground. She's got a bleeder for sure -- crimson to match her gauntlets runs over her eye, which she screws shut in the hopes of avoiding the worst of it.
When she staggers back to her feet, she brings one of those gauntlets -- the right -- up to her head, clutching it in clear agony. "... Unit... compromised," she breathes raggedly. Once again -- just as when she was up against 'Miko Kobayashi' -- she starts to "want it;" the battle stops being a mission and starts being a /fight/.
Her whole body wreathed in bright energy, she /finally/ favors Gertrude with words that sound like they could, conceptually, come out of a human being. "... Significant power without tapping any part of your gift... My Lord would show you how to use that power better than you could ever have hoped for! CEASE RESISTANCE!" Sheathing her blade, she leaps up into the air, aiming her foot squarely for Gertrude's face with absolutely everything she has.
And yet, for all of her bellowing, all of her redoubling of her efforts... her expression remains that blank mask.
COMBATSYS: Satsuki successfully hits Gertrude with Cannon Slasher.
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Satsuki 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Gertrude
Even though it's her feet she starts her offense with, it's sure not her feet that keep it up. Normally, she'd immediately draw her sword here -- but it doesn't occur to her; her emotions have finally bubbled to the surface, and all she wants is to start hurting.
Accordingly, those heavy gauntlets are what meets Gertrude's face, as she follows up with a hopping, spinning fist; now that she's /in/, two quick knees to the stomach join it, followed by another uppercut from that still-clenched fist.
Only then does she draw her sword, crackling with the indigo storm that rages in her heart; she brings it toward Gertrude's midsection with a step /back/, using the energy ahead of it rather than the blade itself to slash away.
... and still, nothing shows on her face.
Gertrude feels a dark satisfaction that Satsuki has been made to bleed. It is a part of her she doesn't like very much, but the fact that she's finally managed to land some solid hits on the girl brings a smile to her lips. That smile only fades when the Doll comes back at her with everything she's got.
The solid impact whips Gertrude's head around, and in the next few moments, Satsuki subjects her to a brutal series of blows. There's a grunt from the German woman, and she stumbles - in her exhausted state, she's barely able to keep a guard up at all, let alone mitigate the impacts to any great degree. The roaring slash of power finishes her off - she knows that. She's been knocked out enough times to know when it is inevitable.
But still, she's not going to give up.
"Screw, you, little... brat!"
The panted, exhausted exclamation is coupled with a step forwards, and her body goes through the last motions. It'd been the cornerstone of the only moves that had made a connection; perhaps it isn't surprising that she innately goes in for a twist, her knuckles powering upwards just as forcefully as the first time - though the wobbling steps she takes to get towards the Doll make it that much easier to guess where she's coming from.
And then she falls over, face down on the floor.
COMBATSYS: Gertrude can no longer fight.
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Satsuki 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Satsuki dodges Gertrude's Rising Knuckle.
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Satsuki 0/-------/------=|
Though Gertrude's final effort is a valiant one, Satsuki is ready for it; she rocks back from that rising fist, missing it by a centimeter. She breathes a sigh of relief when the woman falls to the ground... and in what might be the most ominous moment of Gertrude's life, Satsuki begins to pick her up.
It is about then that the sirens start. Satsuki gives the manager of the establishment, huddled behind the counter, a much sharper stare than most of her historically blank gazes; she knows what happened, and she's upset. She /could/ carry Gertrude away... but the proposition becomes much dicier. She's no god striding the earth like her master; the threat of 'bullets from a gun' is a very real one, and even if /she/ escaped, she could well lose the woman she's considering as a prize.
Alone, though... alone, she's still in good enough shape to weave out of their way. Accordingly, she leaves Gertrude atop the coffee shop's counter. As she darts for the door, she says something just loud enough for Gertrude and the manager -- and no one else -- to hear, and them only barely.
It sounds... just slightly... like she says, with no more emotion than she'd shown all fight, "... do not hold her accountable for the damages."
COMBATSYS: Satsuki has ended the fight here.
Log created on 00:03:05 10/30/2014 by Satsuki, and last modified on 07:46:00 12/30/2014.