Description: Eve and The Hound clash with one of Shadaloo's Heavenly Kings as both sides' forces wage war over NESTS' flipped transport.
A NESTS armored transporter met the Invincible Tiger on a busy highway; the Invincible Tiger won.
Taking out the transport was just one part of the vicious attack unfolding tonight. The transport met Mike Bison before it met Sagat; the former world champion succeeded in killing its cloned guard while Shadaloo's air support exchanged rockets with the other vehicles accompanying it. The rest of the convoy is little more than a line of flaming wrecks marking a trail that ends at the capsized ATV now. Nameless' - or is it Jason's? - body is sprawled somewhere among the wreckage, short one head and one arm; Bison is embedded in a camper that's still somehow chugging along down the highway.
A purple VTOL craft touches down near the crash, disgorging men in hazard suits with welding equipment, assault rifles, and everything else they might need to clear the vehicle for capture. Maybe a few dozen yards away from the crash, there are a few more twisted, broken vehicles and bodies; somewhere between the two piles of carnage, Sagat is slowly pulling himself up to his full height and shaking out his right arm as if it'll help the feeling of having just punched an ATV fade.
He glances towards the progress near the transport from time to time, but doesn't make a move towards it; the men /should/ be capable of doing their jobs, after all. His is simply to keep an eye on them and wait; it's highly unlikely that one attack is all it took to break NESTS back, and he's already received word of incoming hostiles...
The urban jungle is not the most ideal place for laying ambush. Sure, it has alleys and culdesacs, abandoned buildings and dusty warehouses where few tread without great need, but the overall majority of a city and its suburbs is too crowd and open to provide a hunter with the proper environment necessary to waylay unsuspecting prey.
As always, the Hound simply has to improvise to deal with these difficulties. Smoke billows in thick acrid clouds from the ruined corpses of the wrecked vehicles casting a heavy blanket of black fog over what would otherwise have been open road. It's not a perfect screen for her approach but combined with the speed of her inhuman reflexes it is enough.
A small squat shape slinks on twisted legs towards the recovery team, moving in short silent bursts up the road. The smell of burning rubber and metal invades her nostrils as she draws near to her targets but behind it is the unmistakable odor of cooking meat and sizzling fat. To a human knowing that this smell was created by the burning corpses of another person would likely be revolting; to her, it just makes her more eager to sink her teeth into the flesh of her enemies.
This would be her first real mission beyond the training fields and the relatively tame environment of the highschools where NESTS had initiated their charade. Her performance here would likely be scrutinized closely and the desire to please her masters is yet more enticing that the thought of tasting warm blood. The tiny vials implanted into the device on the back of her neck gurgle softly as her heartrate increases, struggling to feed the necessary chemicals into her system to keep her mind from descending into raw animalistic frenzy. It burns her from the inside out, setting her blood on fire, and when she finally draws within range of the first haz-mat suited worker, she can barely contain the primal glee as she leaps out of the darkness to clamp her shark-like teeth down on his neck.
The unfortunate man attempts to scream but his voice merely comes out as a wet gurgle. Blood and bile spill in a thick gush onto the asphalt and then he's gone, dragged into the smoke and wreckage, leaving only a dark stain to mark his passing.
The moment there had been trouble with the transport of their precious cargo, NESTS rapidly deployed more agents on the field to stop the potential threat to it before it would be too late.
Amongst those agents, Franziska and Eve have been sent there to prevent whoever did this from obtaining the content of the cargo.
Clad in her dark magenta leather armor, Eve arrives with a small squad of NESTS agent on the field. Those agents are equipped with assault rifles, elite troopers, most likely.
"Secure the transporter!" Eve shouts to the men that are with her. She possesses a special headset that allows her to hear the commands of headquarters, but also allows them to have a visual on the scene, to better guide her. Considering her slender frame, she definately stood out amongst the other agents that were quickly rushing through the debris to approach the vehicule.
As for Eve? She's the artillery. While the agents exchange fire with the others they see, Eve, herself, is looking for potential bigger threat she could deal with, or a good occassion to offer special cover fire.
The other men don't really notice one of their number just vanishing, no matter /how/ hard he kicks and screams as he's dragged into the smoke; they forget about breaking into the transport as soon as Eve's squad opens fire on them, though. Complicating matters further, the one escort vehicle that managed to avoid being blown up by Shadaloo chooses now to do a sharp, swervy turn back towards the crash site to commence spraying it with bullets. A couple of men and white go down in moments, but the rest are able to find cover behind the transport, as well as part of one of the damaged escort vehicles; soon enough, they begin returning fire.
All in all, there are more than enough reasons for Sagat to interfere, so after giving his arm one last shake, he walks for a few steps, then /darts towards edge of the crash site, using the smoke and carnage as a cover for his massive frame as he stalks towards the NESTS unit's flank. He doesn't know about the Hound yet; the smoke is as good for her as it is for him, after all, and she's in a much better position to take advantage of it to boot.
Well before getting in striking distance, he spies a body in white laid out not too far away, and instead of pressing his luck further, he decides to put the man to use for his cause one last time: keeping his head low, he dashes out of the smoke, snags the dead agent's ankle, then /hurls/ him towards some of the NESTS squad.
"How many more of your people must die tonight, before you relent?!" he roars, throwing his arms wide as he straightens up. "HOW MANY OF YOUR LIVES IS THIS CARGO WORTH?!"
That oughtta draw at least a /little/ bit of the heat away from the hazmat team, or so Sagat hopes.
The suppression fire from the friendly transport draws the attention of the recovery crew away from the far side of the road as they all dart and dive for cover behind the wreckage. The Hound doesn't stop to savor the taste of death as she makes her first kill, leaving the body of the dead man lying in the street as she circles around behind one of the fallen vehicles where her prey has taken shelter.
Heedless of the bullets flying wildly through the air, the creature clambers atop the smoking mass of metal and looms above the oblivious men like a perched vulture for a brief moment. Then she dives down onto them, her horrible claws rending and tearing.
The man that she falls onto dies almost instantly, skewered underneath the saurian sword-tips of her feet talons, her incredible bulk driving the man into the road like an insect being pinned to a board. The Shadaloo agents to either side of him literally explode into gore as the trio of scything claws part them in the middle with a single massive swipe and she falls upon the last with her bloody maw, ripping his throat open in a vicious jerk of her head.
All in all, the attack lasts mere seconds. The Hound sits in a pile of viscera that was once a group of men, unable to distinguish which bits belong to which any long, a horrific jigsaw puzzle of her own making. Riding on the burst of adrenaline that only comes from making a fresh kill, she turns her gaze into the street, seeking out fresh prey to slake the unnatural lust for death that has overtaken her.
Instead, Sagat rushes past her in a blur of power and speed, hurling her handiwork against her allies in an insultingly ironic fashion. She growls, blood bubbling in her throat with hot rage, and she turns her attentions to the Tiger.
Taking off in a loping gait, the Hound circles back into the smoke so as to hide her approach, feral instincts overriding her bloodlust. She prowls closer for several seconds keep low and silent, one predator stalking another. And then she leaps, flying across the last half dozen feet with a ferocious growl of challenge. The creature flings herself bodily at the towering man, a grotesque half-reptilian cannonball crashing down on him from above.
COMBATSYS: Franziska has started a fight here.
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Franziska 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Eve has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Franziska 0/???????/???????|-------\-------\0 Sagat
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Eve 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Sagat has joined the fight here as a boss!
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/-------|???????\???????\0 Franziska
It seems like a worthy opponent has shown up. The blonde girl lifts her hand up to her headset and she nods her head slowly, "Affirmative. It shall be done," Eve replies.
Eve waves her arm and shout to the other agents, "Keep pushing foward! We can't let them take the cargo!" She shouts, turning her attention to Sagat. It would be the smallest and frailest looking one of the group, it would seem, that has earned the task of dealing with the massive and imposing man.
The way Eve glares at Sagat though shows she does not seem to fear him. Despite his intimidating physique, Eve knows she has her own special power that will help her overcome this man.
"As many as necessary!" Eve shouts back defiantly at Sagat, "But this slaughter will end here, I will not let it go further,"
When Franziska leaps into the battle and she notices the monstruous girl's frame lunging at Sagat, Eve's smile widens even more with confidence. "If you think this will be easy, you're deeply mistaken," Eve says. The electricity slowly builds up around her, blue arcs of lightning slowly dancing across her body, making her hair rises up above her head.
COMBATSYS: Eve gathers her will.
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/---====|???????\???????\0 Franziska
COMBATSYS: Sagat endures Franziska's Pounce!.
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Franziska
"'Easy'?" Sagat sneers, tilting his head as the electric girl sparks and smiles. "Good; give me your best, your everything! Show me your strength, if you insist on standing your ground! 'Easy' never crossed my mind, girl, but 'inevitable'--"
Before Sagat can finish his response, a solid two hundred pounds of Hound slams into him from above, buckling his knees and drawing a sharp noise of surprise and pain as his spine is unexpectedly compressed and claws battle-hardened, but no less mortal flesh. He staggers forward for a couple of steps with Franziska's weight on him, and after that he twists powerfully around towards the smoke she emerged from.
Obviously, she isn't there because she's too busy /trying to kill him/, but he is hoping that the sharp movement will help dislodge her.
He gropes behind himself with his left hand while he turns, trying to grab a clump of hair, a limb, a piece of clothing, or anything else so that as soon as he plants his feet, he can try utilizing the rest of his inertia to haul her off of him with a faintly savage roar. Beyond that, he isn't going for anything fancy; slamming her into the pavement should suffice.
COMBATSYS: Sagat successfully hits Franziska with Medium Throw.
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Franziska
When the Hound hits the muai thai warrior from behind, she comes down in a ferocious ball of aggression, latching onto him with her smaller human-sized hand while the massive clawed limb raises up as if to slash at him when the chance arises. She manages to cling to him tightly, ripping tiny lines across his muscled shoulders in the process, but his groping hand comes up quickly enough that she cannot escape it and his fingeres sink into the bloody fabric of her tattered shirt.
The creature hits the ground with a dull thud as she is violently cast down. She hisses in pain and anger, massive legs kicking and scrabbling at the pavement as she rolls to the side in an attempt to slide away from any follow up strikes. Her speed proves to be rather formiddable even when so throughly brushed off and she quickly darts into the smoke once more, vanishing into the cover that it provides.
Cloaked once more in the convenient armor of obscurity, the Hound circles patiently, only the faint occasional sound of claws on the asphalt perhaps giving her location away, though underneath the cacophony of gun-fire and screams, it would be a miracle to pick it out. For the moment she waits, eyes narrowed on her prey, looking for the perfect chance to strike without warning yet again.
COMBATSYS: Franziska focuses on her next action.
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Franziska
"That's what we'll see..." Eve says with a grunt, lowering her gaze to focus her energy. As long as Franziska is around Sagat, the blonde girl doesn't want to risk hurting her -- had it been anyone else, or some nameless agent, she would have thrown her electricity at him with all her fury but now...
The blonde girl channels her chi into her arm, causing gales of winds to swirl up around her, kicking up the dust and debris all around of her. The wind finally gathers around Eve's forearm. When Franziska finally scampers off to hide, Eve thrusts her forearm in Sagat's direction, unleashing dozens of oscillating blades of winds in Sagat's direction, a wide spread attack meant to avoidance harder.
The various thin blades of wind come at him with great velocity, and though they might not have much kinetic force should they hit, the true danger of them lies in how they might be able to cut the flesh if they manage to hit at the proper angle.
COMBATSYS: Sagat just-defends Eve's Zephyr's Fury!
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Franziska
Sagat swats at the fresh red lines running down his shoulders after letting go of Fran, then takes a split-second to glower at the drops of blood clinging to his fingers.
Which is, apparently, all the time that the Hound needs to make a break for the smoke. He sees a flash of hair and claws and twisted skin disappearing into the acrid haze, but after that, nothing; his first instinct is to chase her, but he doesn't even manage a step towards the smoke before Eve catches his attention by gathering the air around herself.
A low growl rumbles in his throat as her chi sets what few hairs still linger on the back of his neck on end, and he manages to whip himself towards her in time to see her unleash slicing winds in his direction. There are too many blades coming from too many angles to avoid them all, and forcing his way through the barrage to close in on her would surely leave him bloody; instead, he just stands his ground, breathes in, and proceeds to swiftly throw his knees or forearms into the path of each slashing distortion in the air. Amber chi forms glowing trails in the air behind his intercepting movements, as well as flaring around his limbs before each contact. Even after the last blade is gone, brilliant sparks leap from the ground where he lowers his knee.
"Interesting technique," he observes. That extrasensory flash gave him enough time to steel himself against it, but he's lucky to have come away without bleeding forearms. No further words are offered; he breaks into a locomotive charge towards her instead, right hand snapping out as soon as she's in reach of him. If he gets a hold of her, he'll haul her into him to meet a violently thrown knee.
And then, he'll do it again. And again, and again, before finally letting go or being forced to let go.
COMBATSYS: Sagat has left the fight here.
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Eve 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Franziska
The Tiger is stronger than her, of that much she is certain now. The Hound must be wary to avoid his claws and fight smarter than him. The advantage of numbers is on her side and with the cover of the smoke she can play hit and run with much greater ease.
Unfortunately, that leaves her master at the mercy of the brute. Were it someone more durable like K9999 or the one who named himself 'Jason', she would feel better about allowing them to hold their own, however, Eve is not a frontline fighter. She won't be able to hold out against someone like Sagat for long if left to take his wrath head on.
The moment that the towering muay thai warrior takes off towards the electrical girl, the Hound breaks into a run of her own. She skirts the edge of the battlefield sticking to the smoke where she can and scrambling behind wreckage when it presents itself, always remaining just a few steps behind to try and avoid drawing attention to herself.
A sharp wet sound fills the air, almost like someone hocking up a wad of phlem, and a ball of sticky green goo explodes out of the smoke at the Shadaloo operative's bare backside traveling in a lazy upwards arc like an artillery shell. The pavement sizzles and hisses underneath as fat droplets break away to drip on the street which offers the only warning that this substance might be more than just gross.
The creature breaks cover a moment later diving to the side and into Sagat's peripheral vision, hissing sharply to try and divert his attention away from her master and the incoming acid.
"Face thissss one, warrior!"
COMBATSYS: Eve dodges Sagat's Tiger Rage.
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Franziska
The way the imposing man manages to guard himself against her attack seems to leave the blonde girl dumbfounded for a moment. Her mouth remains agape for a second, but she recovers from the surprise, "It's the first time I see someone manage to defend themselves so flawlessly against such a barrage," Eve replies, narrowing her eyes into a frown.
This man was definately a powerful adversary, and this first prowess of defense is enough to intimidate the young girl somewhat. Sagat's rapid charge at her leaves Eve little choice : if she wants to overcome him, she'll have to give all she has in a quick burst and hope it will be enough.
Using the electricity built up into her, Eve lets it flows through her to enhance her senses and empower her muscles. In a blink of an eye, Eve manages to slip out of Sagat's grasp swiftly, avoiding the incoming kneeshot meant at her by an inch or so merely.
Nothing about Eve could have hinted toward such swiftness and agility, but draining herself like that just gives her borrowed time in this fight.
The diminutive girl definately didn't feel at ease in melee against such a goliath, but she had no choice. She attempts to retaliate with a rapid kick to Sagat's midsection. The kick lacks the strength that Sagat does, but the crackling electricity that dances on her leg and discharges into Sagat if she connects empower it.
COMBATSYS: Sagat Toughs Out Franziska's Pestilence!
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Franziska
COMBATSYS: Sagat blocks Eve's Fierce Kick.
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Franziska
Sagat doesn't really feel the kick itself when he snaps his forearm down to catch Eve's incoming leg, but the electricity eagerly leaps from her body to course through his at the moment of contact. His eye and veins bulge for a searing moment as his muscles lock, and then that moment passes and he's shoving her away with a growl and a look of wide-eyed surprise. A few wisps of smoke continue to curl around his blocking arm as he sharply draws that arm back in a fist, but before he can commit to retaliation, the Hound darts out of the smoke and draws his gaze towards her.
"Hmmm," he rumbles, tracking her burst of movement. "It /speaks/, then, d--"
Something viscous explodes against his back and ribs, turning his mockery into a sharp screan and sending up a *hsssss* as his flesh is immediately singed by the stuff. The pain is relatively minor, but with the way the stuff clings to him, he is all but guaranteed to be dealing with it for a while.
Which might play into his decision to defy the Hound by whipping his head back to Eve and swinging his raised fist around to try and catch her upside the head with a backfist: not only is Eve /right there/, the monstrous but apparently sapient agent seems to be concerned about her, if only a little. That, or she's a very confident warrior indeed.
"Has skulking around made you impatient, beast?!" he sneers as his massive frame twists towards Eve, "Don't worry--your time is coming!"
The Hound's lips peel back in a fierce snarl revealing rows of teeth that would be right at home on a shark or a dinosaur. Thick smears of red blood stain her face and maw giving the creature a rather hellish appearance but her current opponent apparently lacks the fear that usually drives her foes into panicked and exploitable action. It looks like she'll have to be more direct about getting his attention.
Skidding to a halt with a scrape of talons on asphalt, the creature buries her misshapen feet into the road and changes course with the barest pause in her momentum, taking a right-angle turn directly towards Sagat. She scampers like like an animal, bent forward with one hand on the ground while her massive claw mutated claw drags behind her tearing a trio of shallow ruts into the pavement.
Hissing a feral cry of battle, the Hound leaps at him again but this time her body comes down a few feet infront of the warrior rather than on top of him. Riding the momentum of her motion, she spins an almost graceful pirouette and lifts the deadly scythes of her rending claws to strike at his midsection.
COMBATSYS: Eve blocks Sagat's Strong Punch.
SAGAT
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Eve 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Franziska
The man's massive physique and his ability to endure the pain her electricity inflicted upon him made Eve doubts about her ability to use her sambo techniques to help her through all of this. Eve twits around on her heels and she lifts her arms up to block Sagat's large fist, to prevent it from smashing her head.
His incredible strength though is enough to knock the petite girl up, easily tossing her three feet away from the massive man. Her forearms hurt and feel literally numb, the adrenaline allowing her to ignore a bit of the pain, but Sagat's powerful backfist might have ended up breaking a bone.
Eve flinches and growls in pain, lifting her gaze up, "Together we will stop you," With Franziska on Sagat, now is Eve's chance to try and use her grappling technique.
The young girl lunges at Sagat, attempting to slip by his side. She reaches out for him, with her powerful shocking grasp, hoping to break his guard long enough to stop any resistance against her grapple. If she manages to get a hold of him, Eve will try to sweep him off his leg and knock down the giant man and slam him down.
COMBATSYS: Sagat blocks Eve's Medium Throw.
SAGAT
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Eve 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Franziska
COMBATSYS: Sagat interrupts Fierce Strike from Franziska with Tiger Uppercut.
*KNOCKED AWAY*
SAGAT
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Eve 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Franziska
"NrrGGGRRH--!"
Sagat's knees bend for stability as more electricity surges through him, and whichever leg Eve tries to sweep buckles more than the other. His entire body twitches in her grasp with each new pulse, but despite the fire running through him, he refuses to be moved, taking advantage of his superior size to resist her efforts by bucking against her until he's finally able to wrench himself free.
He staggers forward for a couple of steps as soon as he does, smoking the whole way and trying to ignore the sharp metallic taste in his mouth. Both the heavy thump and feral cry nearby tell him that he doesn't actually have time to let any lingering ill-effects subside, either; upon turning towards the former noise, he sees Franziska spinning towards him like a savage twister, so without really thinking about it, he sinks nearly to his knees, cocks a fist back, and--
"TIGER UPPERCUT!"
--hurls himself fist first into the shredding tempest, fist angled towards her chin as he rushes into the air.
The resulting explosion of force completely lifts the gangly creature off her twisted legs tossing her several feet into the air to land in a crumpled heap across the mangled corpse of a nearby vehicle. The already cracked bullet-proof windshield caves inwards, spiderweb cracks dancing across its surface as the Hound cannonballs into the surface.
The creature lets loose a very human-sounding cry of pain, her voice high and shrill like a teenaged girl but it quickly turns into the more familiar hissing as her teeth clench tightly. With a great deal of effort, the Hound pries herself out of the divet in the hard glass and rolls onto the street, flopping loosely onto her face with another dull thump. The world becomes a dizzy blur of shifting colors as she opens her eyes, head swimming from the concussive force of the deadly martial blow.
Staggering drunkenly, she tries to rise to her feet only to tumble back down once more, barely catching herself on her massive claw which she uses for a crutch. Looks like it might take her a few moments to get over that one.
COMBATSYS: Franziska gains composure.
SAGAT
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Eve 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Franziska
Eve staggers back a few steps after her failed attempt to throw down Sagat. Fortunately, Franziska manages to get the muay thay champion's attention for a moment, allowing Eve to get her distance between her and Sagat.
The girl winces as she hears the loud cry of pain coming from Franziska and sees her getting knocked away by Sagat's powerful uppercut. The girl glares at Sagat, gritting her teeth. She had the intention of making him pay for the pain he inflicted on her.
Eve moves her arms backward, channelling all the electricity she has left into her into a massive ball of lightning and crackling electricity. With a loud shout, Eve thrusts her hands foward and sends a broad lightning bolt in Sagat's direction.
The arc of lightning moves through the air in a sinusoidal and chaotic pattern, smaller arcs of lightning bursting all around the main blast to hit the concrete, debris and cars around. A loud boom echoes through the battlefield as if the thunder had just struck down right here.
She gives all her energy into this discharge of electricity, leaving her completly spent and panting, devoid of energy.
COMBATSYS: Eve successfully hits Sagat with Lightning Bolt EX.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
SAGAT
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Eve 0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1 Franziska
As soon as Sagat touches down, he commences stalking after the Hound with a bark of laughter. "Was it worth it, creature?!" he thunders before swiping both arms up to urge her to her feet "Get up! Come and finish your meal--the battlefield is not the place for relaxation!"
All the energy that Eve's building up doesn't go unnoticed by the ex-Emperor, who snarls at the insistent prickling sensation suddenly traveling up and down his arms. There's enough time for him to halt his approach, whip around toawrds her, and /see/ the storm she's drawing from within herself for a moment before she hurls it at him; plenty of time from there to brace himself and concentrate on letting the massive, sparking ball crash against his forearms and spirit, singing but not breaking him.
He doesn't do that, though, because after killing a few of NESTS agents and nearly putting another through his car, he's riding a little too high for caution.
"HAH!" he exclaims, throwing his arms wide for a moment as he hunkers down and prepares to push /through/ the lightning instead of waiting for it, "HA HA--"
His seven foot, five inch frame snaps upright when the electricity washes over his body and fills the air with so much violently flashing light that his vigorously twitching form is briefly cast in dark relief amidst it. Mockery becomes a cry of agony as the world is briefly consumed by electric fire, and it doesn't stop until some seconds later, when he finally staggers forward from the impact site and has to catch himself with his hands after nearly falling to his knees.
The moment he's stable, he pushes off into a wild, almost loping charge towards the storm-generator, hell-bent on driving his knee through her sternum without really pausing.
Sagat's taunting echoes dully through the creature's mind as she struggles to regain her senses rebounding off the interior of her skull as if she were down a vary large well. She struggles to make her vision focus and when she looks up there are atleast three very large muscular warriors bearing down on her side by side.
Eve buys her the time she needs to recover. The sharp spike of electricity raises the hairs on her neck as the ambient static causes crackling fingers of blue current to dance across the metal segements of her cybernetic spine. Ozone invades her nostrils in a heady rush and it serves as a form of smelling salts to the dazed Hound as it signals the powerful release of her master's energies. She'll be exhausted after that and at Sagat's mercy.
Shaking her head with a vigorous snarl, the Hound casts off her weakness and bares her teeth at the lumbering titan's retreating backside. She scrambles into motion, claws and talons digging into shattered glass and cracked asphalt, not even bothering to conceal her approach this time. With wild abandon she tears across the battlefield after him and leaps just moments too slow to prevent his assault on Eve. Razor claws a foot in length come tearing into him from behind, attempting to gouge deeply into his hardened flesh rather than simply raking at him with prodding feints.
COMBATSYS: Sagat knocks away Eve with Medium Kick.
! VENGEANCE !
# Disabling hit! #
SAGAT
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Eve 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Franziska
After Eve has discharged all of her electricity, she has a sudden uneasiness. A moment of weakness, as if she barely could stand still. The girl pants loudly, trying to recover her breath and energy. She gave it all she had into her, unleashing all of her energy and yet, this towering man withstood it.
The blonde girl had hoped her lightning bolt would have slowed the ex emperor of Muay Thay long enough for her to recover, but he was no ordinary opponent. In a matter of seconds he was already lunging back at the vulnerable girl.
Eve attempts to move out of the way from Sagat's vengeful knee, but her movements are at best, sluggish. She barely manages to limp to the side some, alas not enough to avoid the onslaught. A loud howl of pain comes from the young girl who almost immediately seems to lose consciousness. Her body is literally knocked away by Sagat's might, hurling her dozens of feet away like some sort of projectile.
The girl's body first hits a nearby ruined vehicule, the impact enough to cause the car to roll to the side, the girl's body flipping in the air a few times before it rolls a few feet behind the car, perhaps out of sight for those who aren't tall enough.
The pain was keen and numbing, enough to make it feel like she lost consciousness a few moments in this. When she comes back to her senses, she hears a loud ringing sound in her ears. Her vision is blurry, clouded by a bit of blood that dripped from her head and into her eyes. Her breathing is heavy, still exhausted from her final blast, but the fatigue is nothing compared to the pain her body feels.
Eve lost her headset in the crash, no longer hearing the orders from headquarters into her, but her instinct tells her to keep on fighting. If only because it meant to live.
As she manages to rise back to her feet, Eve lets a loud scream escape her throat, drawing into her inner reserve all of what she had to build up more electricity.
Her hair raises atop her ahead and the girl growls, her face bloodied after what had happened, her leather armor damaged. The dark leather had one advantage : it made it hard to see the blood and injuries over it.
As she screams, arcs of lightning dances across her body back and forth again, more and more... If the previous discharge wasn't enough, Eve will have to show this man just how fierce her electricity could be, even if it meant harming herself so she could unleash more powerful blasts of electricity.
COMBATSYS: Eve gathers her will.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-------------==|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Eve 1/--=====/=======|=======\=------\1 Franziska
COMBATSYS: Sagat blocks Franziska's Eviscerate.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Eve 1/--=====/=======|=======\===----\1 Franziska
Sagat rumbles along for several more steps after Eve is sent flying, then plants himself in a low, wide stance. His head, and then the rest of his upper body twist towards the left - towards the distinct noise of bestial claws scraping furiously over asphalt and crushed glass that vanished just before his attack.
The movement brings his forearm up /just/ in time to catch the Hound's claws. Blood sprays from the resulting gashes in fine arcs, but doesn't flow quite so freely afterwards; he spares just a moment of flicking his eye down at the wounds before fixing his glare on the engineered monster mere inches away from.
Truth be told, Sagat doesn't care all that much about what's on the transport, but meeting these two has made the evening somewhat more tolerable; he's going to have to see if Vega can find him more monsters to mix it up with.
After dropping back a step so that he can turn the rest of his body towards her, Sagat lunges at the Hound with his right hand aimed squarely for her throat. If he's able to latch onto her, he'll haul her up as high as he can manage while baring his teeth with a snarl of his own and squeezing.
Hard.
COMBATSYS: Sagat successfully hits Franziska with Power Throw.
SAGAT
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|----------=====|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Eve 1/--=====/=======|=======\===----\1 Franziska
Once again the monolithic one-eyed warrior manages to stand firm against the Hound's genetically engineered claws. She twists her wrist upon impact, raking the ragged serrated edges along his flesh but it isn't enough to deter the man from turning his own might upon her in return.
The creature drops to the street as she rebounds from the blow. Her eyes dart to the side as she realizes what he is planning to do but she is caught flat-footed and unable to evade in time. Instead, she brings her less mutated arm up in an attempt to ward off the grasping paw of the Tiger but she is an instant too slow.
A gurgling hiss escapes her throat as the passageway is foricbly squeezed shut while her entire body is hefted up away from the pavement. Mishappen legs kick and rake at Sagat's torso but without any form of leverage she can do little but squirm as the pressure intensifies. Her lips pull back in a weak snarl as she struggles against the impossibly tight grip but she cannot even manage to get a proper angle to try and nip at his fingers in retaliation.
A sharp cracking sound suddenly fills the air like a lightbulb exploding from too much voltage. The Hound's eyes go wide as thick warm fluid runs down the surface of her back burning at her flesh with a thousand needles of ecstasy and pain as the serum vial implanted on the back of her neck shatters from the sudden wrenching pressure.
"N-nooo!", she screeches weakly, her efforts to break free suddenly redoubling. "What... have you done?!"
Finding some inner wellspring of resolve, the Hound suddenly lifts both of her legs and plants them on Sagat's chest. She kicks with enough force to dislodge an armored vehicle and sends herself sprawling backwards onto the street with a ragged gasp of air. Almost before she hits the ground, the mutant turns and glares at Sagat with a look of desperate rage, her expression even more feral and visceral than before.
"Fool! Idiot! Ssssimpleton!" She hisses a stream of curses at him, spittle and blood flying freely from her lips. She looks stumped for a moment, sputtering in impotent annoyance then flings out, "...jerk!"
The Hound bares her teeth menacingly, more out of habit than for effect at this point, and rushes at the Shadaloo warrior with reckless abandon. There is little space between them but the agile creature manages to juke not once, but twice, coming at Sagat from the front, then dashing to the left before finally leaping to his other side at the last moment, slashing a wild X at his chest with her claws.
Her previous attack left Eve totally spent : fortunately for her, Franziska offers her a good enough distraction for her to recover from the nasty attack the Muay thay warrior had given her. Panting loudly, Eve powers up and charges her body with as much electricity as she gains, allowing her vision to become less blurred, recovering from her dizziness.
Sagat was a tenacious and resilient fighter, and she would need a lot more than what she threw off if she wanted to stop him. Her body was numb with pain, blood rolled down her head and into her visage. She knew she'd have just one opportunity to strike him down.
Eve leans dowd and manifests a blast of wind under her feat, blasting her foward. She attempts to cover up the distance between her and Sagat as quickly as possible. Once she draws close to him, Eve lets a loud growl escape her throat and she attempts to cling on to his massive back pre-emptively, hopefully before he can react to her presence, if not, she'll try to get a hold of him as quickly as possible.
The moment she does, Eve shouts and releases the electricity built within her. It crackles loudly, but the crackling soon turn into a loud thunder as the electricity she unleashes sends arcs of lightning around of her, a rising column of energy. She tries to keep up for as long as she can, the electricity obviously harming herself in the process as well, curls of smokes rising from her in the last moments.
Hopefully, this should weaken or daze him enough to allow Eve to grapple him, her diminutive frame attempting to destabilize Sagat so she can end up throwing him over her and hurling him away with one last blast of electricity.
COMBATSYS: Sagat blocks Franziska's Gore Cross.
SAGAT
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|---------======|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Eve 0/-------/---====|=======\====---\1 Franziska
COMBATSYS: Sagat interrupts Thunderstorm from Eve with Tiger Genocide+.
*KNOCKED AWAY*
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-----------====
[ < > ///////// ]
Eve 1/-======/=======|=======\====---\1 Franziska
The sound of breaking glass doesn't mean so much at this point, but Sagat definitely notices Franziska's redoubling resistance, and he isn't quite ready for it. The former Emperor stumbles several feet as the tremendous impact over his scar forces him to open his hand and free her; as soon as he catches himself, he clutches the spot where he was kicked with a scowl.
"Released you too soon," he sneers to her in reply as he drags his fingers from those shallow claw marks across the myriad of whorling scorch marks and burns Eve's ball lightning left him with. "What's the matter, creature? You seem... troubled." He sucks in a breath and clenches both fists in front of himself at that point and narrows his eye on the livid young woman.
When she charges, that eye bounces rapidly to try and keep up with her, and when she slips towards his blind spot, his whole body turns with her. Whether she's on the ropes, too furious to function clearly, or some combination of both, her frenetic movement demands that he not let her out of his sight... even if that means giving Eve more uninterrupted, unobserved time to recover. His persistence in tracking her ultimately allows him to meet her cross-slash with crossed forearms that come up just in the nick of time, driving his upper body back a foot or two and giving him another front-row view of the Hound and her many teeth.
It's not a good place to be, even with her claws in his arm instead of his chest; all it'd take is one wrong move, and he could very well end up with a missing nose or ear to go with the eye.
"RRRArgh!" he roars, pushing her away to create some separation. Blood streams freely from gashes both old and new, dripping to the ground from his wrists and hands. "Here is the fight you /begged/ for, creature!" he bellows as he throws his arms out wide. "WHERE IS YOUR RESOLVE N--"
The Towering Tiger's spread arms offer additional handholds for sneaky assassins; he feels her clambering onto her back, but by then, it's too late to do much but try to wrench her free.
Which might have been a little more successful if it weren't for all the electricity. As soon as his hand closes around her upper arm, his whole body locks up thanks to the sudden introduction of high voltage chi to his system. His teeth clench in a bared rictus, his eye bulges, and curls of smoke waft up from his violently shaking form; all of this is accompanied by loud roars of pain and rage.
Despite all this, though, he manages to force his muscles to slooowly comply with his desire to free himself, peeling her off bit by bit until the only point of contact between them is between his hand and her arm.At that point, he hurls her in a short, but high arc then falls to one knee, smoking and panting heavily. Once he's had the luxury of an unencumbered breath or two, he throws himself into a leaping knee strike that intersects brutally with her falling trajectory, bellowing, "TIGER--" as he flies.
As soon as he lands from the attack, he almost drops himself to one knee again while drawing his right fist down hear his hip, then explodes after Eve with a soaring uppercut before she can land. "-- GENOCIDE!"
Despite being thrown back again, the Hound appears to have begun to cast aside whatever reason or logic she was capable of that kept her wary of Sagat's capabilities. She snarls and gnashes her teeth at him as she is pushed away only barely kept from sinking her teeth into his flesh. Instead, she rebounds onto the pavement, nimble as a cat and begins to furiously stalk around him in a circle, preparing to strike again.
The boasting is met with animalistic growls but in the end she has no need to respond to his single-minded attention as Eve takes the chance to strike at him unawares. A fierce grin spreads across her bloody features as the electrical surge washes over the muay thai champion sending him into spasms and convultions. Excellent, she did her job. Now all that remains is to-
Sagat's resolve proves to be greater than either of the NESTS operatives anticipated. As she crouches to leap at him a final time, Eve is cast aside like a doll and the Hound can do nothing but stare in horror as the young girl is smashed upon the bronze pillars of the warrior's muscled limbs.
"M-master!"
The creature turns to follow after the fallen body of her caretaker but something draws her short even as her hand reaches out towards Eve. A primal emotion surges through her veins, hot and red, searing away what little rational thought she has left in a blinding explosion of utter fury. The Hound turns slowly, literally shaking with uncontrollable rage as she turns her gaze upon the man responsible for hurting one of the only people to ever treat her with kindness.
A sharp whirring sound becomes audible as the mechanism fused into her spine twists and clicks searching for a replacement to the shattered vial of fluid that once protrudes from its ports in a frantic attempt to level out the flow of mutated toxins surging into her system. It finds nothing but the half shattered remains of an empty vial. There is a hiss and a pop and the tiny empty tube ejects onto the ground, rolling slowly away.
Beyond words or reason, the creature narrows its predatory eyes upon the prey and leaps. There is no subtley this time, no feinting scratches or acrobatic manuevers meant to throw off the truth behind her attack. It is a simple and brutal outpouring of feral instinct fueled by a mixture of anger and hatred and madness. The Hound comes at Sagat in a frenzy of murderous claws, tearing at him with sweeping scythes and shredding teeth. She kicks and gouges, bites and scrapes, slashes and tears; any thing she can do to get at him and make him pay in blood.
COMBATSYS: Sagat endures Franziska's Derange.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ < > ///////// ]
Eve 1/-======/=======|-------\-------\0 Franziska
The man's roar of pain and rage is accompagnied by Eve's own who tries to unleash all her fury and electric might into this one. The high voltage of her thunderstorm is generally enough to stun most of her opponents and fry them literally before they have the chance to retaliate. Unfortunately for her, Sagat's endurance and resolve allows is unlike any she has met before. When Eve notices that he's slowly moving toward her is to try to increase the power of her attack, but alas, it's too little too late.
When Eve is forcefully pried off his back, the girl squirms in an attempt to grasp for something and whimpers. With no more hold on Sagat, her attack disrupted, Sagat is free to act as he pleases now, and he makes her pay dearly for her assault.
Eve attempts to recover mid-flight, but Sagat lunges at her and brutally smacks her soft with his knee. The girl bends almost in half at the power of his might, the wind knocked out of her, letting barely a whimper of pain escape her throat. Her eyes bulge out of their orbit at the keen sensation of pain that goes through her. Her body is already limp at this time, but she doesn't have the luxury to fall to the ground, Sagat lunches her back with a powerful uppercut that literally knocks her in the air, sending her flying.
It was too much for her to bear, she could barely make her body obey to her. A last, yet perhaps vain effort, Eve aims her arms toward the most massive man she can see, channeling what she has left of electricity in her to shoot one last lightning bolt -- a clumsy and desperate attempt at best that might end up blasting the road and the surrounding area perhaps more than Sagat.
Though after this, Eve will fall a few dozens feet away from the main battle scene, into some debris, unconscious and very still.
COMBATSYS: Eve can no longer fight.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Franziska 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Sagat dodges Eve's Lightning Bolt.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Franziska 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Franziska has left the fight here.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
COMBATSYS: Sagat has ended the fight here.
The blackened, bleeding Heavenly King crashes back to the ground with a resounding *THUD!* as Eve flies further and further away. Tremors wrack his body as he crouches and pants and focuses intently on reasserting some control over his muscles; the twitching eventually fades within a few deep, bracing breaths, but the pain still lingers like searing splinters stuck in his body. At least the wounds on his forearms have (mostly) stopped bleeding, though they're still angrily red and a few traces of the stuff are plainly visible around the edges, as if waiting for the right nudge to open the floodgates in full.
He isn't finished yet. He /can't/ be, because /they/ aren't finished: the Hound is still moving, and he could swear that the other one still has a spark of life left in her. With a hand clutching his chest, Sagat pushes himself to his feet just as the Hound reaffixes her gaze to him and draws his lips back into a fierce, humourless smile.
As she leaps, however, the electric twinge he felt from Eve explodes into something far more dangerous--not to mention /visible/. He has just enough time to flick his eye between the two threats and briefly weigh his chances of surviving both before settling on a course of action: snapping his mouth open in a feral roar and meeting the Hound half-way.
As expected, the asphault explodes behind him as lightning rakes across the highway and he enters the Hound's vengeful tempest. He is just as capable as ever of sliding a forearm into the path of the first couple of strikes coming his way, but after her claws catch in one of the gashes and rip his skin wide open with a spray of blood, well.
It occurs to him that maybe, just maybe, he may have pushed the bio-engineered agent a /little/ bit too far.
After that, the most that he can do is turn his body between blows to try and spread the damage out a little; better that he be bleeding from /everywhere/ than have to deal with his intestines hanging out after the fifth consecutive belly slice.
Some seconds into the onslaught, Sagat is pretty much doing this on sheer instinct because he can't quite /see/ Franziska anymore through the impenetrable red haze fogging his vision. The howls of pain he's letting out throughout it all are nearly as bestial as her own chorus of snarls, but if there's any part of the Hound that's even capable of processing such things at this point... it'd be readily apparent that the smug warrior who sought to crush she and her Master has checked out in favor of the Tiger within.
Especially when he abruptly lunges into claws sweeping towards his chest and crouches, earning himself a short, but deep gash across the barely faded scar carved into his chest. Although he roars as the new wound is opened up, it doesn't stop him from trying to take one of the Hound's legs out with a vicious sweep aimed at the side of one of her knees. Nor will it - if he's successful in breaking her momentum - stop him from surging up to his feet to swing his other leg up into a crushing kick towards her torso, even as many the dozens of new cuts criss-crossing his body send blood spurting off of him in liquid arcs. If /that/ hits, he'll sharply twist his whole body into a flying thrust kick pointed directly at her mid-section, traveling for a dozen feet or so before hitting the ground in a kneeling, blood-drenched heap.
Technically, there's a Tiger-themed ki-ai to go along with the maneuver, but good luck picking any actual words out of Sagat's stream of violent shouting.
COMBATSYS: Sagat knocks away Franziska with Tiger Raid.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
[ <
Franziska 0/-------/---====|
If she hears the shift in Sagat's tone or sees the determination welling up in his chisled features the Hound is far beyond being able to care. Even though the vast majority of the blood flying belongs to the Shadaloo warrior she is underneath a different spell than that induced by the pain and ferocity of the Tiger - that of deseperation.
It's been years since the changes that wrought the girl she once was into the monster she has now become. Such memories are so far buried into the darkness of her mind that they might as well be dreams from another time and place. For as long as she can consciously recall she has been and always will be a twisted mockery of human ingenuity and science. However, despite the acceptance she has for this truth, there remains a lingering thread of hope. For all her feral qualities the Hound still possesses a mind and free will, something no common beast can claim. It is the one link to humanity that she has left and she clings to it with all of her being.
Such a prize has its cost. The processes that mutated her physiology beyond all hope of repair never ceased to work their terrible changes upon her. Even now, she fights a constant struggle to keep the bloodthirsty beast within at bay, to prevent herself from descending into the void of total madness. It is only the drugs that allow her to do so. The drugs that Sagat destroyed inadvertantly.
The shift from girl to beast is not one that can happen so quickly. And yet, with no more knowledge than that which is required to keep her docile and obedient, the Hound cannot know this. Only once before was the precious clarity of that foul liquid witheld from her and it was enough to ensure that she would never disobey again.
The Hound's claws rip and tear into Sagat with the kind of fury that can only be fueled by blind emotion; terror at the possibility of becoming the thing she fears most and outrage at the one who has placed that tiny bit of hope in jeopardy. But it isn't enough. Though she rends and claws and bites, peeling flesh and splattering blood across the pavement in fernfrond arcs of brutality, the Tiger refuses to fall to her onslaught.
The two clash one final time and in a contest of pure will the victor is made abundantly clear. Sagat's muscled leg smashes into the digitgrade joint of his foe and the creature lets loose a horrible screech. The Hound falls to the side as the blow topples her, barely managing to catch herself on the massive claw. Her head snaps forward a moment later as another devastating kick explodes violently into her ribs, eyes bulging in stunned surprise. She barely has time to register the fact that the ground has begun to spin around in her vision as she sails through the air before the flying kick drives home against her gut, doubling her over muay thai champion's foot.
The Hound hits the side of a toppled car with a disgusting smack. Blood explodes around the impact site leaving a dark foul-smelling smear on the burnt metal surface when she rolls to the street a moment later. The mutant lies still for several seconds, only the barest hint of a rise and fall in her chest to give away the fact that she is infact still breathing.
When she finally moves, the Hound lethargically pushes herself up, barely managing to pull herself upright. The leg that was kicked out from under her appears to be bent oddly to one side in a rather unpleasant fashion and she favors it heavily as she turns and begins to hobble towards the place where her mistress went tumbling no longer before.
The creature pays little mind to the world around her as she shuffles along, bent over and bleeding from some unseen injury on her head, too dazed to be thinking clearly. Bullets whiz through the air as the personnel of both groups continue to exchange shots nearby, still locked in a heated fire fight, but she ignores these as well, moving directly towards the fallen Eve. She manages to retain enough of her wits to cast a gaze back towards the Tiger once or twice to see if he's following but she continues to scramble as fast as she can regardless of any pursuit, intent on reaching the NESTS operative with what little strength she has left.
"Thisss one will... help you... master..."
COMBATSYS: Franziska takes no action.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
COMBATSYS: Franziska can no longer fight.
SAGAT
[ ||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
The blonde woman barely realizes what is going on around her. Her body was numb with pain, she only saw darkness and all the explosions and gunfire were all mixed into one. Even if Eve wanted to move her body, it wouldn't obey her in the least after she onslaught she had taken. The girl is lying in a pile of debris, her body appears limp. Her dark armor made her harder to spot, though Franziska's heightened sense might allow her to find her with little trouble.
Sagat doesn't follow Franziska because he's too busy bleeding. Bleeding, and trying not to get shot; the hazmat agents' ranks are depleted thanks to Eve's squad, the one remaining escort vehicle, and the Hound herself, but--the tide is turning in their favor.
The escort vehicle has been quiet for a couple of minutes now, ever since its last occupant took a bullet to the head. The squad is dead or dying; the Hound is limping away.
/Killing/ the two agents wasn't really his job; securing the cargo was. As long as they run, there's nothing to be gained from chasing them except, perhaps, for a spinning trip to the asphault once the exertion and blood loss caught up with him. He's woozy as it is now that the veil of blood is being drawn back from his psyche; he would rather not collapse in front of his people(okay, Vega's people) for absolutely nothing.
"Invincible... Tiger... here," he groans, tapping the comm unit in his ear. "The transport... is secure." Swallowing a mouthful of what he knows is blood, he plants a fist against the ground as support for slowly pushing himself upright after that, swaying precariously as soon as he's on his feet.
"Mostly... secure," he amends after a burst of automatic weapons fire and a scream.
COMBATSYS: Sagat has ended the fight here.
Casting another wary glance behind her, the Hound notes with a burst of sudden unexpected elation that she isn't being followed. Ignoring the screaming pain in her head and her aching body, she redoubles her efforts to reach the insensate form lying facedown in the rubble.
"Massster!"
Pitching herself over the mound of smashed concrete that used to be a road divider, the creature scoots up next to Eve and reaches out with her smaller hand to gently shake the girl. She calls out to her several times but when she doesn't immediately respond the look of happiness on her face quickly fades into one of panic again.
"M-master? Master! Get up! We mussst leave!"
There's no answer at the first call, nothing -- it felt like Eve was sleeping soundly there on her pile of rocks. After a moment, Eve's eyes finally open, a groan escape her throat as she sees Franziska. She shakes her head a bit and turns, "Awww... No... It's too early..." She groans.
Alas, despite the angelic look she might have had on her face, the blood that has been running down her face leaves her face mostly covered in her own blood.
Log created on 18:15:27 01/18/2015 by Sagat, and last modified on 12:58:22 01/28/2015.