Description: Satsuki is a girl on a mission. Simply get into a secure military installation, and recovers some items. Murder is option, but likely given that said camp is manned by United States Marines. She runs into one major option: Captain Zach Glenn of the 2nd Vanguard.
Every now and then, the Dolls are dispatched not for the long-term plan of 'retrieve psions and those that move in darkness' but rather for much more... short-term enforcement of Lord Vega's will. Every now and then, someone gets too close to the truth of the world, and must be... dealt with.
Or, in this case, /somewhere/ gets too close.
The US Marine Corps is not as thoroughly bought as the Air Force, at least at the moment; things don't quite disappear into a black hole in the same way they do, or at least not as quickly. Sometimes, things have to be made to disappear by force rather than gentle persuasion.
This is the deep-level explanation of what is going on at this particular base; the surface-level explanation, meanwhile, is that someone has made a mad dash for the room where several pieces of evidence under ongoing investigation by the Marine Corps CID have been stored. Two guards lie at the base's entrance, neatly bisected, and one more between the entrance and the building containing said room; there's an obvious trajectory here, and somewhere along it is a brown-haired Japanese youth with a sword in a navy blue uniform.
Captain Zach Glenn, USMC, 2nd Vanguard, only really knew of Shadaloo, Vega, and the Dolls through a batch of not-quite-memories of a life that he didn't really live. Were /that/ to become more public knowledge, Zach might well be a target.
However, he had been scrambled to investigate the apparent loss of this particular station. Apparently, a check-in was missed, and given the nature of what was kept here it required a person of specific skills to handle the matter.
The psion arrives at the gate, and senses it almost as soon as he smells it; something Very Bad has gone down here. Finding the source of the disturbance is not all that difficult. Just follow the bodies. Zach makes a very quick call to his headquarters before taking off after whoever caused this.
Psychic power flows through Zach's body as he races after the assassin. She may or may not know he is coming. He's not being subtle about it.
There are few things that can stop a Doll who has been pointed in a direction. They're like wind-up toys -- crank them up and watch them go, stopping almost exclusively because of mechanical faults. Still, every now and again, there's an unforeseen hitch on their chosen path... like someone wielding Psycho Power, someone filled with the energy of the Self.
Attuned to that energy as she now is, Satsuki whirls her whole body around mid-sprint, attempting to pinpoint the source of that pressure inside herself. She can't discern his exact location yet -- she can tell he's moving toward her, but not quite from where.
Accordingly, she reaches down and draws her blade once again, only this time she doesn't lash out with it immediately as is her usual strategy. Instead, she draws up into a parrying stance, holding it eerily still and closing her eyes. The energy of the world washes away, and only the void -- only the energy of the Self -- remains for Satsuki, as it moves inexorably closer to her.
COMBATSYS: Satsuki has started a fight here.
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Satsuki 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn has joined the fight here.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Satsuki
COMBATSYS: Satsuki focuses on her next action.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Satsuki
Zach however, has no trouble pinpointing Satsuki. Between knowledge of the base (he had been here for an exercise) and knowledge that he was the only psion /authorized/ to be on the base, makes Glenn a dangerous tracker.
There, he thinks, as he approaches. He sees Satsuki, visually, before she sees him. Her eyes are closed, after all. The Marine stops short, as if he had been slapped in the face. He stares at Satsuki for a moment, dumbfounded as memories of another place, another time, another life wash over him.
None of them are really good memories.
Zach growls, and doesn't even shout a warning at the young woman. Part of him knows, bone deep, what kind of a threat Satsuki poses. Zach leaps in, twisting in the torso and hips to bring a combat booted heel directly on Satsuki's head!
COMBATSYS: Satsuki blocks Zach Glenn's Dragon's Tail.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Satsuki
Committed to her blocking posture, Satsuki brings her hands up to meet that forceful heel strike; she staggers back, feeling the bruises already starting to form beneath the gauntlets. Her expression, even when her eyes snap open, betrays no pain, no fear, no worry; there's solely a blank, passive mask there, one that refuses to give the satisfaction of pain.
"Identify," she demands of Zach, voice flat and crisp; there's nothing human in it -- just cold, machined precision that doesn't mesh with the sense of dread and malice that hangs around her like a stormcloud. She clenches her fist tightly around her blade, taking a step in and lashing out with the weapon.
Her movements remain conservative and even, in contrast to Zach's vicious boot; her stance refuses to yield as she comes in for a quick one-two-three swing of her blade before sheathing it again, even though the fight has begun in earnest. "/Identify/," she adds, with a little more force, once the swings finish; it has taken no time at all for the Marine to make himself a person of intereset, it would appear.
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn blocks Satsuki's Psycho Draw.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Satsuki
Zach whips his hands around, slapping each of the strikes away with stinging impact. He scowls as he considers for a moment. What he sees troubles him.
"He really did a number on you," he mutters, "Didn't he?" Part of his mind considers that that is an odd thing to say, another part of him simply knows that this is the case. "No, Doll," he says sternly.
Zach charges once more, taking up a fairly generic looking fighting stance that is nothing of the sort as he does so, and throws a quick left cross at Satsuki's chin!
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn successfully hit Satsuki with Medium Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Satsuki
This man knows. That much is acutely apparent to Satsuki, and the revelation is shocking enough to her that it blows through all of her defenses. When he throws that cross, it practically shatters her jaw; she feels her lip slide against her teeth, and when she looks up again, she's drooling blood.
And yet, her expression stays that empty mask. She has no idea how to respond to his words; they don't match her understanding of herself or the world in the least. There was nothing to 'do a number' on; she has always been herself -- nothing more, nothing less. Her blade stays away, for the moment; she can feel herself overextending, and knows better.
"Target refuses to identify, she murmurs. "Moving to eliminate obstacle." Though part of her eels as though she should move to capture him, there's... not quite pride, but something dimly like it, that makes her hate the feeling of being told 'no.'
Stepping up toward Zach, she grasps him evenly by the shoulders; if she can maintain that hold, she brings her knee up three times for a series of forceful kicks before finally hurling him to the ground.
COMBATSYS: Satsuki successfully hits Zach Glenn with Quick Throw.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Satsuki
Zach isn't quite ready for the rush and grab; he was expecting another sword strike. He grunts explosively as Satsuki pummels his midsection before sending him to the floor. He rolls away quickly, getting back to his feet in a low crouch, with one hand on the ground to support him while...
His right hand holds what appears to be a light of some kind, but no light crafted by man shines a bright yellow tinged with purple. It might press at Satsuki's senses as Glenn throws the globe of psychic force directly at the girl.
He barely finishes his follow-through of the throw before he charges in behind the projectile!
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn successfully hit Satsuki with Blast Punch.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1 Satsuki
Satsuki thinks she has this globe dead to rights -- but she's caught off guard by Zach charging in behind it, and loses the feel of the situation in short order. It catches her squarely, and she's very nearly knocked off her feet by it; she'd been so careful -- but it seems this stranger has her read like a book.
That fact, more than anything else, gets her angry. Her hands clench into tight fists, and energy starts to swirl around her; an indigo light wreaths her arms and legs, and she looks for an instant like she's about to simply explode.
Defaulting to the most generic form of the Dolls' training, and one that she often eschews in favour of her own unique variant thereof, Satsuki hops toward Zach, body exploding into a whirl that /should/ meet him midway. That indigo energy around her collects in her gauntlets as she swings her arm out in a vicious back-knuckle strike; it's about as telegraphed as it gets, especially with all the time that sphere of energy bought the military man, but...
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn endures Satsuki's Heavy Strike!
# Disabling hit! #
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/-<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Satsuki
Captain Glenn sees the attack coming, and takes it squarely on the chin while charging through both the impact and the pain. White pain flashes through his eyes, disrupting his balance slightly. It stops him from planting his feet properly, but it's still enough.
Power, born of the soul, surges through Zach's legs, his torso, and perhaps more importantly, his left fist as he lashes out with a punch that is somewhere between a hook and an uppercut that is aimed squarely at Satsuki's jaw!
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn successfully hit Satsuki with Dynamite Punch.
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Zach Glenn 1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\=====--\1 Satsuki
Shot after shot to the face has rendered Satsuki's lips a bloody, reddened mess; this one nearly sends the Doll flying, and it's all she can do to stay standing. Even the stormcloud of her presence isn't enough to save her, here -- Zach simply has her outpaced entirely. That's not to say that there's nothing she can do, though.
Even though she's been hit in the face so much that her whole body aches, even though something inside her wants this to stop -- she can only move forward, only keep going into those blows time and time again. It's not pride and it's not willpower; it's the utter absence of both.
Desperation starts to set in, and Satsuki presses the one advantage she can see. Hand still wreathed in indigo light, the Doll springs toward Zach with her hand open, aiming to grab him and hurl him a blade's length away, hopefully opening his guard up. For many, this would be the totality of an attack -- but for Satsuki, here and now...
... this might just be the beginning.
Her lip twitches, almost imperceptibly.
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn blocks Satsuki's GW.
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Zach Glenn 1/-----<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Satsuki
Zach reacts to the shove with one of his own, staggering back before regaining his balance. His eyes narrow as he considers the situation. The girl is taking a beating, but she refuses to go down.
Perhaps he can speed that along.
The psion reaches deep, taking down carefully constructed mental walls that he maintains with barely a thought anymore. He keeps his eyes on the Doll as he focuses his will. This may be the opening she needs.
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn focuses on his next action.
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Zach Glenn 1/-----<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Satsuki
Satsuki sees her chance evaporate entirely amid that counter-shove; she's not going to get that perfect distance like this, and she knows it. The energy around her fists stops dead, and she feels resignation start to set in -- but even so, she keeps right on fighting. Her stance shifts lower as Zach backs off, at least partially because she simply can't retain that tall, proud offense anymore -- not while she's suffering like this.
All she can really do, at this point, is hope for a mistake on his part -- nothing short of total perfection will give her a victory based on anything she does, and her keen, analytical mind knows it. Accordingly, she drops low and lunges forward, drawing her blade in the middle of that forward spring.
Her body goes into a high-speed forward twirl, blade outstretched; it threatens to pierce through Zach's legs like a drill, as Satsuki commits everything she has left to a single assault.
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn interrupts Spiral Slasher from Satsuki with Claw Spiker EX.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Satsuki
Memories Zach never experienced cascade through his soul as Satsuki starts her charge. Memory, soul deep, takes over as Zach drops into a stance that Satsuki might recognize save for one important detail. The psion slides his left foot back even as his left hand goes to his hip as if to clutch the sheath of a sword. His right hand moves as if to hover over the hilt of such a weapon.
However, Captain Glenn holds no sword at all.
Glenn steps forward as Satsuki's blade rakes across his left flank, drawing a spray of blood even as Zach's right hand closes around air that shimmer purple, then brilliant gold as a soul powered blade rips into existance and slashes across and /through/ Satsuki's midsection with almost thunderous force!
Satsuki never comes out of that forceful leap -- at least, not under her own power. That psionic blade crashes against her with enough force to very nearly plant her on a barracks roof -- though she comes just short, and hits the ground hard instead. There is a split second where she thinks she can continue the fight, thinks she might be able to somehow press forward and retrieve the item...
... but then fatigue washes over her in waves, smothering the dread and the fury and the void in simple agony. Drawing herself back up to her feet weakly, Satsuki takes one final moment to assess the situation...
... and promptly leaves, using all of the energy left in her body to sprint as far as she can back away, all the while chastising herself for her failure in her head.
COMBATSYS: Satsuki takes no action.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Satsuki can no longer fight.
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Zach Glenn 0/-------/----===|
Zach Glenn sees Satsuki take off at a run. He is fairly certain that did for her, but still... The psion pulls himself upright to give chase when another spray of blood from the open cut in his side causes him to wobble dangerously before collapsing to one knee. He lets out a gasp of pain even as he hears alarm sirens to start blaring.
A Corpsman, in Navy blues, comes running in with a large bag slung over one side. She drops to one knee at Zach's side, setting the bag down. "Easy, sir," she murmurs quietly, "I got you."
Zach nods once, before slumping all the way to the floor, exhausted.
COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:46:47 12/21/2014 by Zach Glenn, and last modified on 11:05:17 12/22/2014.