Description: A battle in a collapsing building leaps next door and is fought amongst the ruins. Can anything overcome the sheer force of a blatant 9/11 imagery scenario!? Well it certainly isn't Eunha, who finds to her dismay that her powers of kicking are weak compared to a man who has mastered kicking... and leaning backwards at the same time. At least the vampires were amused. Featuring a Tom Petty cover! (Winner: Aranha)
The Dancing Spider had made his delivery of stolen stone and was spending a little bit of time in Livorno, Italy and then he heard of what happened in Celle Ligure. He was still trying to lay low so he didn't react right away to that. Then sinkhole opened up in Metro City and Aranha flipped out. He thought about how his sister was in Metro. He called her. No answer. He then did what any self respecting, overprotective older brother would do. He bought the first ticket back to Metro City he could get. Forget lying low. He was off in a heartbeat.
This leads to Aranha showing up here at Sincerity Investments for this fight. If he wanted to find his sister, he'd have to play the game. As much as he detested it. It was too eerily similar to situations he had seen in his dreams but it was different enough that his dreams didn't feel prophetic. After the vampires serving as officials explain what the scenario would be he walks through the lobby, past the long abandoned security check in desk, to his respective elevator and then he goes up.
That's when he starts feeling sick to his stomach. The elevator's going way too fast, the building is swaying too much, and he can swear that his stomach performing acrobatics in his stomach while the rest of him is standing still.
The elevator gets to the 35th floor and that is about the point where his stomach decides to empty its contents. By the 40th floor he's finished and is wiping his mouth. By the 42 the elevator is beginning to slow down and he begins reaching for a breath mint. By the 45th floor, all hell breaks loose and the building and the elevator begins to fall apart. A scream can be heard from his car.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...."
Eunha Sin, despite her highly suggestive last name, did not find out about this particular hellhole drop between Metro City and what appears to be literally Hell until she got off a plane from Japan.
Fortunately, sheer density and cussedness have kept her from freaking out over this. There are some people who just don't crack in the face of vampires and wasp men, and Eunha Sin is one of them. She DID take off her jacket, though... which has probably been eaten by a wasp-man, or perhaps kept as a curious relic by one of the vampires.
Somehow, despite everything, the elevator's still playing its music. Standing there, arms folded, glasses firmly pressed up her nose, Eunha Sin watches the elevator lights. They reach 43... 44...
45. "Ting!" says the door. It then immediately shears partway off, as does one side of the system. Eunha looks over, scowling. "What the hell? You! Are you the competitor?" The building makes a suffering sound, like a whale that just got speared by a Japanese ship.
"Were we set up!? Ugh!!" Her attention casts about for one of those wicked, perhaps even /darque/ individuals who seem to be running things...
Aranha's door hadn't so much opened as fell apart and he sees the person who he would be fighting. And then he sees the debris coming down. That's when the vampire call up using bull horns and cutting off his still unfinished profanity.
"You will fight now!"
Aranha's mouth would hang open in shock if not for the fact that he doesn't really have time to be shocked. "Are you crazy!? We're in /free fall!/"
Meanwhile he's eyeing the building across the street. If he can hop scotch girder's and other assorted building material to that building he might be able to stay alive. "This is bullshit."
He's already beginning his leap to the next rock to falling girder.
And all the vampires
Living in the hellmouth
Turn eyes up
Towards plummeting fighters
And it's a bad time
If they just end up splatting
But it's a good time
With glass and broken walls
AND I'M
FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
FALLING yeah I'm
FREE FALLING
Eunha Sin finds herself plummeting downwards. Landing on a particularly large chunk of floor that's only a little collapsed, she says with angry and disdainful astonishment, "Are you just killing us with a building!? Motherfuckers!"
A nearby vampire uncrosses his arms, revealing himself. With a dark chuckle, he says, "This IS an intriguing turn of events, isn't it?"
Eunha wheels on him and attempts a kick, but he raises a hand, catching her heel. "Perhaps we should echo the advice that I believe YOU, Officer Sin, once gave one of OUR childer."
Eunha narrows her eyes. "Childer?"
"An archaic form of 'children.' Ehem. How did it go..."
Eunha frowns, wondering when this was. But then it comes to her. High school. The art club who had conflict with their little claque of martial arts enthusiasts. What she'd said, in vicious, sardonic times.
"Ah, it's coming to you," the vampire says. "'Not across the street... but down the road.'"
"That was you?!"
The vampire grins. "Maybe," and then he's hurling Eunha towards the collapsing cloud of junk and garbage. Forced to run, to jump, to leap, she nonetheless comes to a knee-skinning halt on the tarpapered roof of the Crimson-Permanente insurance building, approximately thirty stories tall. She straightens up, breathing heavily.
As she starts wiping her glasses clean, several more vampires uncross their arms. "He should be here shortly," says one.
"And then the games will begin."
"OR WHAT?" Eunha says.
"Or else," say the half-dozen bloodsuckers in chorus.
This does not satisfy Eunha, but it does silence her.
And so in the fullness of time, that neighboring building will once again host Aranha. The vampires are clapping their hands and chanting, "fight, fight," which is only sometimes audible over the sound of a collapsing building.
In spite of the awful din he can hear bits and pieces of the conversation but he's too busy with self-preservation to deal with the conversation that she's having. Kicking off of rocks, launching off girders and muscling up on to ledges via neighboring buildings that are barely maintaining structural integrity.
Even as he works his way to that building he gets a sense that the nearby vampires get a sense of where he's attempting to go. This is soon confirmed when he sees his would be opponent bodily thrown right past him towards the building he was heading to.
He gets that deja vu sensation again as he thinks of a dream of a bombed out city in China and dreams of the environment truly working against him. But that never happened and isn't really happening in this case either just close enough to bring it to mind as he tries to survive.
Eunha does bounce and bound on that particular rooftop he was eventually heading for and arrives first with her vampire assisted flight just barely edging out his experience with scaling buildings. His landing on said rooftop is a bit more graceful, hitting the surface of the roof and redistributing the impact by dropping into a roll and coming back up to his feet.
By now the chants from the vampires can be heard clearly.
He rolls his neck and glances around before saying, "You know, this kinda reminds me of after school in high school. Shall we get started now that we're not falling?"
He glances upwards as he sees chunks of the building, and few chunks from neighboring buildings hit by the collapsing building falling toward this particular roof top.
"For now..."
COMBATSYS: Aranha has started a fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Eunha has joined the fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0 Eunha
Aranha slowly looks up as one falling piece of rebar comes falling down from the building. "Umm... Ummm," Aranha stammers for a bit as that piece of rebar continues to fall closer and closer to the rooftop of Crimson-Permanente insurance. The falling piece of metal is making a B-Line towards Eunha.
"You might want to move."
Maybe he's banking on her not actually believing him. Maybe he was delaying his warning for it to the point where it would be difficult get out of the way. Maybe it was a genuine warning but either way, the piece of rebar is going to nail the Tae Kwon Do practitioner if she move away from her location.
Once the rebar crashes down, Aranha begins his dance, going into ginga.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Eunha with Large Thrown Object.
- Power hit! -
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Aranha 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Eunha
Brushing herself, Eunha seems displeased. This is natural for her, but it's unusually intense. Her lip curls as Aranha speaks up, but it seems that the both of them are no worse for wear.
And then Aranha tries to tell her to move. She rolls her eyes, a hand on her hip, and saying with scorn, "I'm not going to fall for -"
WHUMP. Her shoulder struck, she lurches forwards, staggering foolishly for a pace or two. Sucking in a deep breath afterwards, obviously irate, she rises upwards, her fingers curling into fists as she adopts her own readied stance.
"So," she says as she bobs up and down like a leaf on a stream, "What do you think of all of this?" Behind her there's another huge crack as she feints up with a light kick -- not actually aiming for impact, but rather momentum, whirling around ninety degrees and snapping her /other/ foot forwards, towards Aranha's shin.
It would hurt /and/ sting - it's got force sufficient to bust a cinderblock.
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Eunha's Pothole Buster.
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Aranha 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Eunha
Capoeiristas hate having people kick at their legs. Capoeiristas /hate/ having people kick at their legs.
The acrobatic fighter decides he wants no part of it. Realizing that first kick is only being used for momentum he only takes a step back. However, that cinderblock breaking blow, that's something he does not want to let connect he performs a back tuck flipping backwards over the kick before letting himself hop forward putting him within range to let his long leg reach out and touch her with a spinning back heel kick while he keeps a hand planted on the ground for a little extra stability.
"What do I think?" He says in response to her question.
"I think these creatures are crazy. I think I probably wouldn't have even shown up if not for the fact that I have skin in the game so to speak."
COMBATSYS: Eunha fails to counter Heel Kick from Aranha with Four Way Pileup.
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Aranha 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Eunha
"Crazy?" Eunha says as her dodged kick is twisted around into a guarded crouching stance. "That's an interesting choice of words. I don't know if I'd say 'crazy'. I'd say fucked -"
The snapping heel kick smashes forwards and Eunha advances in an attempt to block it. This is clearly a tight form, well developed, from how quickly her hands move afterwards. If Aranha were upright he would have gotten the business in his face and upper torso regio, but unfortunately for her, /he was leaning over and had a hand on the ground./
She gets kicked in the face. Her glasses nearly fall off.
"Up," she finishes, yielding back a pace and pushing her glasses up her nose. An ugly bruise is forming on her cheekbone now.
"Are they holding someone you know hostage?" A glare at the vampires as if to say 'please jump in so I can kick a stake into you.' "Or is it just the dedication of a patriotic citizen?"
Capoeira has unusual delivery of kicks and it works against more othodox martial arts like Tae Kwon Do. While he did have his hand on the ground for stability, he slowed the delivery enough to make an attempt to intercept it enticing and once that arm moved upward, he just accelerated it just a tiny bit. Just enough to throw off her rhythm allowing his heel to connect. Upon doing so he spins all the way through bringing himself upright in the process.
"I don't know enough to say they kidnapped that someone, but I lost contact with a certain individual when this shit started. For all I know, they could be holed up where the groups of citizen. If I want to know more, I have to play the game."
He dances for a few moments before bringing himself into a handstand and marching his way up to the officer. Once close he swings an arm around generating momentum for a spin as his legs split so that he can slap her a few times on her jaw, carefully avoiding the glasses.
"So what's your stake," he asks while still spinning and upside down.
COMBATSYS: Eunha blocks Aranha's Inverted Tornado.
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Aranha 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Eunha
Unorthodox methods do in fact work pretty well... TO EUNHA'S CHAGRIN. She is at least able to brace herself better as Aranha snaps himself upwards, marching forwards and swinging an arm forwards. The slap on her face - well, it doesn't hit her face.
She manages... a block! A cross-armed catching of those fast strikes, reddening her skin no doubt but not clocking her around again. Grimacing, she says, "My stake?"
Before glancing at the vampires again.
Eunha answers sternly. "I'm a Metro City police officer. Whatever the Hell - literally - is going on here, it's almost certainly a crime. And if, somehow, the courts decide making a giant wasp-filled hole in the center of a city isn't a crime - stranger things have happened -"
Eunha twists in an abrupt arc. It's long and swift, if long enough to give Aranha the opportunity to see it coming-- if it does him any good.
"Then I'm going to make sure this asinine tournament's playing it straight! The Metro City gaming commission's rules /don't stop applying/ just because you sink some fucking buildings!!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Eunha's Roundhouse Kick.
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Aranha 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\0 Eunha
This woman is the type of woman who would irk the living hell out of him back when he was dependent on heist in his constant thievery days. In fact there's a part of him that is irked by her right now. A Metro City cop. He had to be matched up by a Metro City cop who as far as he could see took the job extremely seriously even by cop standards. The Dancing Spider is not pleased.
Having a foot arcing in toward him however, at least for now, forces him to push those feelings of dislike for sharing the same air space as her. He brings up his arm as he tilts with the kick, the motion bringing him into a cartwheel before rising back to his feet and spinning around with a spinning side kick with the objective of shoving her back and off of her feet.
He still maintains a conversational tone as he asks,"I see. What's your thoughts on tournament so far? Are they playing it straight?" No point in pissing the cop off and painting a target on his chest.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Eunha with Medium Throw.
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Aranha 1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1 Eunha
Eunha attempts another cross block as Aranha's attempt to smash inwards and smash HER off of her own personal feet send her stumbling back. Grasping hastily onto the side of the un-guardrailed rooftop, Eunha looks down into the yawning blackness for a moment --
Dizzying. She feels cold sweat down her back. But Aranha asked her a question.
Regaining her feet, she looks towards the collapsing building behind them - well, behind Aranha now.
She crouches down on the balls of her feet. "No," she says, and advances forwards, nearer to Aranha.
She's staying low, almost in a crouch. It makes her seem slightly absurd as she takes a couple of steps that half-swivel. She rises upright, to the balls of her feet, and back down again. But the air's thickening. One of the vampires smiles, perhaps feeling a little bit of what's going on.
Eunha rises upwards. This time it is different. She throws herself into a twist and there is a blurring of unnatural levels of momentum. Unnatural? No; it's simply something built up, developed. Rising upwards, her foot extends, and she proceeds upwards. A simple, if brutal kick --
With enough force behind it to kick open the lesser grade of bank vaults. Eunha may have, perhaps, estimated things a little poorly when she aimed it UP - where it might launch Aranha...
But maybe she recognized the face of a perp!!
COMBATSYS: Eunha successfully hits Aranha with Sine Wave Annihilation Kick.
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Aranha 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Eunha
*CRACK!*
That single brutal kick connects with the capoeirista's chin freeing him temporarily from gravity's hold upon him. If he were to describe the sensation, it would be agony concentrated on a single point on his chin followed by a sensation of his body hanging in the air for a few moments before his body hits the ground.
Debris from falling buildings surrounding them continue to fall upon the roof. He barely regains awareness in time to roll out of the way of an I-beam embedding itself in the rooftop, he flips away from a chunk of concrete that cracks the the surface. A shard of glass from a broken window hits the ground next to and more chunks of concrete land on the rooftop.
Realization that he needs to pick up the pace sets in. If he doesn't end this fight soon, this building or some other neighboring building could be next and they could be caught up in it.
Aranha's body glows blue as he breaks into a run. He leaves a trail of after images as he bounds off of that embedded I-Beam to deliver a chi empowered kick and bounds off of her in the direction of one of those chunks of concrete and launching off of that to deliver another kick and launching off of another piece of concrete bouncing around the rooftop like a sentient ball of flubber in total command of where he bounces as he delivers chi enhanced kicks from every imaginable angle and then finally rolling away as the energy dissipates.
COMBATSYS: Eunha full-parries Aranha's Joker's Wild!!
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Aranha 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Eunha
A veritable building storm is coming down. It's almost enough to make you want to invade Qurac! (Too soon? Too soon.)
Eunha's eyes widen in dismay even as Aranha makes his move. An I-beam already landing into the top of THIS roof - is this building going to collapse too? It seems older, sturdier, but that could hide the rot within...
But he comes! He comes hard and he comes fast. Eunha is already straightening up from her brutal sine wave kick, and a downward posture means that when Aranha's initial kick comes near her, she pushes DOWN - and there's a huge rush of air and a sense of momentum, possibly derailing him entirely.
Even as he moves, Eunha puts her hand down on a piece of concrete rubble and snaps to the side, aiming three hard kicks in flurrying succession at his gut as he continues. This may comprehensively mess up his plan - but at least she doesn't seem to have more to say.
For now!!
(The vampires applaud politely.)
COMBATSYS: Eunha successfully hits Aranha with T-Bone EX.
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Aranha 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Eunha
Aranha's jaw drops wide open in shock as she dips completely under his kick but yet he continued bouncing around as he attempts to gain position. Unfortunately her response is a little too quick for him recover. He barely rises to his feet before those three kicks rapidly smash into ribs and chest and send him stumbling backwards with a groan. He rubs the pain out, just a bit.
He takes a deep breath as can feel the adrenaline coursing through his body. He becomes more alert, his body feels lighter to him.
His ginga looks bouncy, his lips curl into a predatory grin and then all of a sudden he takes off, launching up off a large pile of rubble as his hands glow a bright blue and attempt grab her by her shoulders pushing his chi into her body and then curls his body up and plants his feet on her stomach and then pushes her towards the I-Beam as he flips backwards and lands on his feet.
The pressure is on!
COMBATSYS: Eunha fails to counter Hunting Season from Aranha with Four Way Pileup.
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Aranha 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Eunha
Eunha lunges inwards again, her right arm coming up to try and sweep that incoming glowing grab - but she's been favoring that maneuver, and it suffers here. "Son of a!" she says as she's flipped around, pushed with a burst of blue towards the I-Beam -
She slams into it, her back twitching with a loud POP as she slumps down, landing in a heap on the ground. Her glasses fall off her face.
But Eunha picks them up. She rises to her feet - if with difficulty. "Hnf. Capoeira's tricky... or maybe I'm getting thrown off by the ambiance," she mutters to herself, before glaring at the vampires. (They smile in unison. Eerie.)
"Actually," he says as he calmly walks closer to her, until he's just outside of the range of her kicks. "That last move wasn't capoeira."
He lips curl into a grin that seems to say he wasn't inclined to explain what he meant by that without him needing to verbalize it. He takes a moment to study his opponent. He rubs his chin, as he thought about how he could still feel that kick there from earlier. He'll probably still feel it a couple days from now. The police officer gave him a rough time.
He'd offer her a chance to surrender at least so that they could get off of this roof safely. He doesn't know for certain, but his gut is telling him... No. His gut is screaming at him that she probably would refuse it. As more chunks rubble continue to hit the roof, a sense of urgency builds up in the traceur/capoeirista.
He launches himself forward, extending his leg out as he attempts to lash out with a blue chi enhanced roundhouse kick right across the the jaw, letting it flow into a likewise chi enhanced jumping roundhouse with the momentum carrying him to the point where he lands with his back towards her as he looks under his armpit using it to spot her before flips backwards and brings down one final blue chi kick down upon the top of her skull. "This... However is capoeira!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Eunha with Aggressive Dance.
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Aranha 1/---====/=======|=======\===----\1 Eunha
AND SO IT IS. This time, Eunha is smashed in the side of the head even as she raises herself upwards. Her glasses fly loose for the last and final time, rebounding off the block of rebar in front of her, rising up in the air with a heartbreaking sparkle...
And sailing off the side of the building.
"Guh!!" Eunha says, sinking to her hands and knees. She swallows several times, staring intently at the ground -- Aranha can doubtless recognize someone who is trying not to scream, throw up, pass out, &c. -- the victory is clearly his.
Now he just has to worry about the vampires!
COMBATSYS: Eunha takes no action.
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Aranha 1/---====/=======|
COMBATSYS: Eunha can no longer fight.
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Aranha 1/---====/=======|
The Dancing Spider curses under his breath as he watches those glasses fly off the ledge. There's no way in hell those things are going to survive the fall. Aranha has to work fast the building is starting to wobble a bit and another nearby building is beginning to crumble as a sort of domino effect takes place in the vicinity.
He throws Eunha on his back piggyback style and uses her handcuffs to secure her to him so he can have his hands free. It was the first time he's done a run with this much extra weight but it was a must. If she somehow died, he'd probably get the blame for it. And that was the last thing he needed. He was doing something heroic for one of the most unheroic reasons.
He dashed down the stairs dodging wiring and fallen pieces of building materials as he made his way down.
It was a horrifying trip but he eventually made it down with the cop and he leaves via the main entrance to see the cloud of darkstalker locusts coming down from above carrying Eunha's glasses. A confused look appears on the traceur's face but he shrugs it off not needing to know the whys. He pockets the glasses and goes to the nearest location that humanity has holed up.
After he confirms that the police officer is safe and has her belongings returned, he's gone. He does not want to spend any more time near that cop than he needs to.
Log created on 19:17:37 04/10/2015 by Eunha, and last modified on 06:33:32 04/15/2015.