Unholy Genesis - [UG:Extra] Catharsis

Description: Dr. Tessitore has moved her operation to one of the newly-condemned buildings in downtown Metro. But she's about to get served with an eviction notice of sorts.



Metro City has been left awash in ruin. Despite the expertise of Jedah Dohma in bending reality, structural engineers have found that several of the metropolis' buildings have been riddled with hairline fissures and stress fractures as a result of their transdimensional warpage, leading a handful of the buildings to be condemned and vacated. That's to say nothing of the blood spilled in in Metro Square, the actual Sincerity Investments Building which actually -collapsed-, or the buildings ravaged by the amalgamation of corpses that slammed its way into several buildings overlooking Metro River.

Suffice to say, there's better places to do business at than downtown Metro City. The city blocks have been practically vacant ever since their return to the Earth realm -- few business owners have seen fit to do anything but extricate their stuff from the condemned sites during the day, and only a few crews have been brave enough to tackle the sites at night, from the risk of darkstalker attacks.

But one moron has set up shop in complete defiance of the MCPD's blockade -- garish green lights are on for the entire 24th story of a building near the Sincerity Investments building. Aranha and Eunha might remember it as the building they were carried to.

And silhouetted in the windows are signs of supernatural beings. Werewolf fur, locust wings, and most tellingly, spider legs can be seen at seemingly random intervals.

On the floor itself, the story might be a bit more clear: Oversized locusts with large halberd-like weapons are patrolling the perimeter of the floor on foot. Large vats of green chemicals are present in the middle of the floor, with some vaguely humanoid shapes inside. Medical gurneys are arrayed around the green vats. And a macabre network of spiderwebs connect everything together, with silken, misshapen lumps at irregular intervals throughout. Dr. Tessitore can be seen studying the results of one monitor with scientific curiosity -- though, to get any closer, it'd probably be necessary to have an invite. Or deal with the locusts.

As he was led to the their ultimate destination in handcuffs, Aranha was surprised that the Crimson-Permanente Insurance still maintained enough structural integrity to remain standing. That being said, he could still see pieces of the building on the ground. Aranha did not want to relive the moment of having to fight on shaky structure like this nor did he want to relive the moment where he had to rescue a police officer. Part of him felt dirty about that.

He can see the lights on, and he raises an eyebrow. The spider legs cause instant recognition. He can't help himself. He turns to Juri as he lets his voice go into an impersonation of Foghorn Leghorn, "Ah say, ah say. Smart girl but doesn't have any common sense."

He takes a deep breath and gets ready to go in. He doesn't have an invite but he doesn't need one since he's the ticket into this shindig.


Settled back on her haunches the taekwondoka crouched at Aranha's feet is likewise casting her gaze upwards. She couldn't fault the man's logic in diverting to check out the green light. Like a beacon in the desolate skyline and it really did look like the doctor might be in, if she was this easy to find its small wonder she even needed to have done anything but wait for Aranha to find her, at which point levelling the building would probably be the most efficient answer to the spider problem. The buzzing and presence of locust winged guards occasionally taking flight meant that part of the rouse was already in effect.

Aranha was already in the cuffs, that were the most important part of the ploy and it had been just a little bit amusing to do since she wasn't allowed to do it, which might've been fun. Now unfortunately she was carrying all his toys in a plain black and unmarked draw string backpack slung across her back, he might just have been getting the better end of the arrangement thus far since she was playing mule with all his crap.

The building itself looked like shit, 'Hack Job' was certainly mad for setting up-She turns her head to peer back over her shoulder with a baffled look, It's no small surprise or a half-way decent guess they don't have foghorn leghorn where she's from. She doesn't get the reference at all nor really understand why it was spoken as such.

"She's not doing a good job of hiding."

Agreeing with the strangely voiced sentiment she concludes her awkward staring and returns her attentions to the building and activity inside. Both the state of the building and the presence of that light which could be seen for miles, it's a wonder one of those Hinds hadn't come back and levelled the building. It's how she would have done it maybe, explosions and all.

The pair of them had made good time through the city and made a couple of stops. This new open all hours aspect of downtown Metro let her shop on the fly, a new heavier jacket and some snacks tucked away in Aranhas gear covered all her immediate needs. Dressing up for dinner and a show, but really just something that was warmer and appealed to her a the time.

"Guess we're on then!"

If he had any regrets or changes to make to his initial plan they were long past the point of elaboration or rethinking it, at least on her end. She stands and tangles her fingers up in his shirt, she lets the moment last while he's face to face with her and then drags the pair of them out into plain view.

She not all that certain that the Doc had bothered informing her guards about their little arrangement, nowhere near the same amount of confidence she had she could get him through to Tessitore without incident that she'd led Aranha to believe she could.

Everything hinged on how much the good doctor wanted him in one piece, Juri was betting on that.


The Air Force and the Navy have Metro City on lockdown now -- the notion of paramiltary corporations having their run of the place was a precision-planned window of opportunity that will not reproduce itself any time soon. But the building is not as heavily defended: the caution tape is easily bypassed, the doors are unlocked. If it weren't for the four locust guards blocking the elevator, it might have been too easy.

But crowding four of the oversized guards into the elevator would've been too crowded. After some radio communications and a LOT of chittering, the guards are eventually convinced that Juri and her prisoner are allowed into the elevator. Unsupervised -- from the look of things -- though as Juri and Aranha will find out, it's because the elevator buttons are unlit and unoperational. So once they step in, the elevator won't stop till the 24th floor. Express elevator.

As the doors slide open, the reason for the lack of security downstairs will be obvious: the cubicles have been disassembled and shoved into one corner of the floor, while only the structural pillars exist to block the view of the macabre surroundings. And the roughly fifty locust guards arrayed around the elevator. They are motionless, as if in a state of rest, but it'd be hard to tell for sure: a subtle, but ever present threat.

Dr. Tessitore is standing roughly 50 feet away. She looks up from her clipboard to the new arrivals, as an assistant with the torso of a snake looks onward. With a few whispered words to the snake-lady, Tess smiles, her eyes twinkling back at Aranha. And then Juri. "Well, look what we have heeeeere."

She peers at the bindings, adjusting her eyeglasses. "Excellent, you've done your work! Now... prove to me that he's been secured. Would hate to have the guards impale him after you've gone to such lengths to bring him back to me." She pauses for a moment, then adds, "Feel free to demonstrate this security to the best of your ability? I know you -love- violence."


One of the many surprises Aranha didn't expect. When he originally left this building, pieces of the building were falling, wires were hanging. This place was a complete wreck. It still was a complete wreck but it was a wreck with working elevator and working power. Clearly, Tessitore had been busy at least getting this wreck in working order. That being said, Aranha did not want to spend any more time than he needed to here. And that was before the various macabre results of weird science were accounted for.

Aranha allows Juri to drag him on to the elevator and Aranha starts getting flashbacks of how the magically enhanced elevator he was riding ripped completely to shreds. His stomach turns and then they arrive. The moment he sees Tessitore, he doesn't need to act enraged. He is. He growls.

"Wait! You're working for this bitch!?!?"

He starts working on the handcuffs behind his back with the lockpicks he had stored in a small hidden pocket of his pants.

"This fucking hack job needs to eat a fucking foot."

He stops picking at the lock just long enough to give a token appearrance of a struggle.


A smirk twists her features as Juri hooks one of Aranha's legs out from under him, dropping him to the ground. The same leg lashing out to them step onto the side of his face even as she leans her bodyweight into that front foot. Pushing his face into the floor rather than letting him continue to object. Eating a fucking foot! indeed, an act that should appeal to Tessitore. Juri's not really that heavy, a big strong man who already has some facial scarring and a crooked nose should be able to endure it or maybe even derive a little pleasure from it. She certainly was enjoying inflicting it.

"I was curious, what kind of man could send an army of monsters running scared! Turns out this isn't the first time we've met. He's saved my life before like he was some kind of hero."

Still gazing down at Aranha She twists her foot side to side just slightly, appearing to be grinding her foot down without inflicting any real damage. It's not hardly a caress, too firm for that and she sells it.

"I'm not a fan of heroes, they tend to do exceptionally stupid things for other people. Bound his hands, took his tools and lead him here without giving me any trouble. By my standards he's almost a sap, I told you I'd show you how to catch a man!"

That first line coincides with a surge in the strength and pressure she was applying; she was indeed not a fan of anyone who was fighting for justice and seems to relish communicating that to both Aranha and her audience. But the message in her spiel she intended for him to take away was that he was 'almost a sap' for having trusted her.

"And I kind of like that about him, imagine what I could and would enjoy doing to someone I didn't like playing with so much?"

Her gaze lifts to Tessitore and she doesn't even bother acknowledging the presence of the guards openly. She lifts her foot and settles on the ground, legs crossed and one arm set on her hip while the other dangles loose, relaxed and slouching her lean more because of the weight of the backpack than out of a sense of insolence.

She swings the bag off her shoulder and rips it open, pulling out a crinkly and loud foil bag of spicy chips and bottle of water. She didn't look like she gave much of a shit what the outcome was for Aranha.

Screw you, got mine?

COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore has started a fight here on the right meter side.

COMBATSYS: Aranha has joined the fight here on the left meter side.

COMBATSYS: Juri has joined the fight here on the left meter side.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Aranha           0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


Dr. Tessitore hands her clipboard to the snake-lady, who slithers back and away. "My, my, what -manners-. Is this sort of foul mouth common to Americans, or just something in the water?" The young woman starts striding purposely towards Aranha and Juri -- and it becomes clear that the spider-Italian's changed into a short one-piece dress, rather than her more conservative outfit from previous meetings.

Again, Tess smirks at the notion that the army is -scared- of Aranha, when the truth is anything but. Indeed, the mark of a good army is one that's had fear indoctrinated out of them. The idea that the legion of locusts has a brain cell to spare on being -afraid- of one man is laughable, to say the least.

What -does- raise an eyebrow from the good doctor is the notion that Aranha saved the taekwondoka's life. This complicates things somewhat -- until she sees the traceur get leveraged down to the floor.

She actually stops for a moment, her heart beating rapidly, as she watches Aranha be tortured about. Nibbling on her lip, she nods as Juri explains in intricate detail all the things Juri mentions. "Interesting..." Was... Juri talking to -her- when she mentioned torture?

Then again, Juri is all that, with a bag of chips and a small beverage. Perhaps she can be allowed a moment to prove her allegiance -- that's what guards are for. "Oh, if you want more water, go ahead and get some from the cooler! This'll only take a moment!"

Tessitore has not ruled out the possibility that this is a ruse. She does not leave things like this to chance. And that is why she reaches sideways, tugging upon the intricate network of webs she has there. And with one pull of her hand, a "net" of webwork slides across the floor and threatens to sweep Aranha back into the elevator. But Tessitore opposes that gesture with the webs streaming from her left sleeve (all fingers but her middle and ring splayed outward). The net effect: Aranha will be caught between her wrist-webs and her floor-webs, locked up fully within a cocoon in instants.

Tessitore can only smile, as the proverbial trap begins to slam shut, under the watchful eye of her locust guards. "Enjoy the show!"

COMBATSYS: Aranha slows Connective Tissue from Dr. Tessitore with Web Shot EX.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


Aranha's eyes bulge wide open as his legs are suddenly taken from under him and he goes down the ground. Though unexpected, his reaction is fast. He turns his face so his nose doesn't hit the ground and then the foot presses down on his face. While not a caress, he knows that at the very least, she capable of more. It's why he doesn't suddenly abort.

When she grinds her foot on his face he sells it with the grunt meanwhile he's taking advantage of the fact that eyes are on Juri and what she's doing to his face to finish picking the locks on his handcuffs.

Aranha sees the webs and then quickly identifies where each of the webs are going to pull him and he has to make a decision on where to fling his own web to control where he goes. He chooses the ones that are pulling him to the elevator and breaks the connection with his blue glowing chi webs which then essentially leads to getting pulled towards Tessitore dragging him face first towards Tessitore.

He rises to his feet dangling the handcuffs on his finger tips.


Juri stalls in her forcing her way out of the encircling guards with Tessitore's words to her, so that's what it took to get some water around here was it? Play the role of a good little pet and you got fed and watered, fuck that. She brought her own snacks to this show. She could have used a drink of water though. Shouldering her way through the guards, the stupid things were in the way of the show and she might get caught up in it if she stuck around in close proximity.

She sizes up the room and in moments is throwing herself up the side of one of the pillars in a fast clamour and one arm pressed to her side carrying her dinner. She claims a spot overlooking the fight sitting on a half cracked and dislocated pillar right on a teeny narrow ledge where there's hardly enough room for her for her to perch. The bottle she sets and grips between her thighs even as she pops the packet of chips open and settles in to watch.

Warm spicy aroma she seems to be enjoying even as she pops the first chips into her mouth with a crisp crunch, the show was already underway! For her it's beginning with Aranha rising to his feet dangling those cuffs, just as he said he would. her moth twitches into a smile even while eating.

Ahaha-ha what a showman! He had said he'd do it just like that.


Dr. Tessitore has already informed the guards of the possibility of things going sour. And her creations are much too important to Lord Dohma's plans to have anything -less- than his retinue of guards defending them during their defenseless neophyte stage -- not to mention, the 'doctor' crazy enough AND talented enough to create them.

As Tessitore keeps applying gentle pressure on Aranha via the webs adhered upon his face, she can tell that the ruse has begun to fall through. She could be expected to show anger at the betrayal -- but her smile suggests she's actually -pleased-. "'Hack job...' that -almost- hurt my feelings..." She pulls back on her wrist, retracting the webbing sharply as she leaps forward, aiming to kick -past- the arisen Aranha's head. "Milena... begin treatment twelve!" she chirps in a sing-song voice, as she flies through the air, aiming to scissor both her bare legs onto either side of the traceur. And if she completes the grapple, she'd suddenly shift her momentum into a backflip, using her webbing to hold Aranha secure as she effectively frankensteins him into the web-covered floor behind her.

Milena, the snake-lady assistant from before, takes on the tongue of the locust guards, chittering out some commands to them. Some of the guards seem to focus on Aranha and Tessitore, lowering their halberds into a wary attack position -- though others stand at attention a fair distance away. It's hard to tell which direction their compound eyes are looking -- possibly -all- directions. If Juri is content to watch, it's suggested by the guard's actions that she might be able to do so...for now?!

COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Dr. Tessitore's Power Throw.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


The Dancing Spider watches the Psuedo Doctor Spider launches herself feet first right at him and he's forced to make a decision. Does he stay and take advantage of open season on a crotch shot or focus on getting away. For a moment there, he bends his knees, faces downward as if about to launch himself forehead first right between the legs. His instinct kicks in telling, no screaming at him that it was a bad idea.

At the last possible moment he dips downward and spins to the side bringing him completely out of the way and lets her land on the ground. His lips curl into a smirk. "If you're going to perform upskirts like that, I'm going to have to request that you don't smell like badussy and toxic waste down there." He insists on performing a little razzing, hoping he can get in her head. Even though it breaks his usual rules of no talking during a serious fight, he is attempting to serve a purpose with his banter.

He then reaches for the ground with one hand and whips himself over in a flip as he brings down a heel upon her.


Switching hands, Juri is engaged with unscrewing the cap on her drink with one hand, balancing the crisps in her lap and biting another chip in before popping the remainder into her mouth. Still riveted to the fight and enjoying the banter. She doesn't much pay attention to what the snake lady is doing, she's not near the fun part of the room.

Reaching into her jacket she hooks a fingernail into a seam and tears open the lining. Slowly withdrawing a length of the cotton and stuffing while all the fighting is going on. While appearing completely nonchalant about it.

The fight was pretty entertaining thus far, the head height scissor takedown in that one-piece dress had impressed, that was more than a little daring than she had thought the good doctor would be. Though Aranha's banter was once again confusing, she didn't get the terminology but maybe the sentiment. Was he trying to provoke her into making mistakes maybe?

Blast! She'd maybe overfilled the bottle, raising it to her lips she tips a mouthful back, it burns almost enough to sting her eye and clog her throat and nose with fumes as she raises the cloth to her face and spits the content of her mouth into the fabric where it soaks through. Setting and tipping the bottle across the top of her thighs as she presses the fabric into the open neck of the bottle with her thumb while continuing to eat, more so to get the taste out of her mouth, and she did actually like the spicy chips.

Still focused intently on the fight, it's why she was here after all, to watch the dance of move and countermove. But just keeping her hands busy and trying not to cough after sipping away on the Vodka Molotov, that 'drink' in the glass water bottle sitting in her lap.

COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore blocks Aranha's Change-Up Kick.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


If Juri hasn't really been paying attention to the snake lady, then she probably wouldn't notice that Milena has been taking a roundabout path towards her. Ducking and sliding as necessary to avoid the webbed fibers, it seems the snake lady is flexible enough to make her way over without making much of a sound at all. So Juri's first hint that the assistant has moved might be noticing the snake lady slithering up beside her -- a fair distance away, poised with her snakelike torso nearly fully extended -- giving her a ten-foot height. And Milena has her arms crossed, staring at the taekwondoka. "... You like living dangerously," she comments quietly.

Tessitore -had- left herself open -- but really, it was meant to test Aranha's moral code more than anything. If he's truly a 'hero' as Juri has accused him, then he wouldn't take advantage!

Of course, he might not have -said- what he had, either. Tess's cheeks stain a dark red as she rolls to safety, severing the webs that don't seem to be to her advantage, and using her spider appendages to bring her back to her feet. Rattled, she retorts: "N-noted! Your nose will be the -first- thing I rectify." But while she's retorting, she's also using one of her spider appendages to nudge her glasses back onto her eyes, carefully gauging Aranha's posture and attempting to notice any tells he might be dropping. But -- surprise -- she can only tell that he's flipping himself over to drop a heel on her head.

Thankfully, that's something her spider legs can help with: she ducks, throwing both arms over her head, but it's her spider legs that catch the heel and keep it from crushing the diminutive biochemist.

But, now that she's close, she presses her advantage, stepping forward to try and take advantage of the capoeirista's inverted position. Even taking her upper spider legs out of the equation, that's still four free limbs to grab onto his arms and legs, and with any luck, sling an off-balance traceur into an adjoining nest of webbing, which would be sure to ensnare him and allow for more invasive attacks to follow. "Don't be -shy-, Mister Mason. Don't forget your friend up there -- let's keep it hot and steamy for her, hmmmmm?"

COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Dr. Tessitore's Improvised Throw.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


Aranha's Au Chibata doesn't come down but if there was anything Aranha is, it's that he's adaptable. With those upper spider legs blocking the attack, he can't quite keep himself stable. He quickly realizes he might not need to. He just needs /her/ to be stable. When she grabs the inverted capoeirista and goes to fling him away, he reaches out and snags the spider woman hybrid's ankle and holds on for dear life in an attempt to keep from getting launched away from her and keep himself from those webs. His arm gives a weird pop. He rises back to his feet and hangs back long enough to do some self inventory. While he doesn't feel injured, he notices that arm is a little numb having hit his 'funny bone' on the landing.

"Seriously. That smell. You should have a doctor check it out..." A pause. "Oh, wait..." Another pause. "Maybe you should get a second opinion."

He knows the banter is having a bit of an effect on her. That rosey red stain on her cheeks is evidence of that.

Jacking his jaws won't put her on the ground though so he launches himself at one of the locust guards surrounding them and rebounds off of the guard to launch himself feet first, right at Tessitore.


Hmm, what was that the doc had said? Treatment twelve? Snakey should be busy with that whatever it was instead of bothering her.

Juri lolls her head to the side and only tears her eye off the fight when her neck is twisted just so, enough to bring her eye into line immediately with 'Snakey' with a just flicker and hint of this being a conspiratorial buddy-buddy conversation between the gals.

"It keeps things interesting. If you interrupt again? -- I'll show you just how dangerous."

That minute pause in the exchange as she stuffs a chip into her mouth and crushes it with dainty white perfect teeth lips pulled back in an all-to threatening smile.

Tess was already deciding what she was planning to do to Aranha, shame.. The crooked nose added some character and probably helped him stand out. If 'Hack Job' followed through on her threats he probably wouldn't like what she fixed him up with, not at all. Not from what she recalled being threatened with anyway.

The fact Tess was sounding flustered was actually cute, Aranha's banter was getting to her! And bringing up the fact Juri was watching and trying to put on a show for their audience? Now that was thoughtful. This was already a pretty good fight, lots of acrobatics with some spicy trash-talk. No real blood flowing yet but the opening barrages and going back and forth kept her on the edge of her seat, that and her seat was an edge to begin with.

She was enjoying herself and the show but it was lessened significantly while listening carefully for any sudden moves from Snakey. The bitch was using her blind side against her again, undoubtedly on purpose and if she did anything about it then it might devolve into some kind of fun! But she certainly wouldn't get to watch the show anymore.

COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore dodges Aranha's Sky's the Limit.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


Tess is starting to get a bit angry. Not only is he mocking her hygiene, he's completely disregarding her own attempts at rattling Aranha! She had to intern at the burn wards, she shouldn't be schooled by this guy with OBVIOUS lack of medical credentials! The only thing that seems to make her feel at least a little happy is seeing his elbow as he hops away.

But this time, she doesn't fall for the baiting. "... You are really -fixated- on that! It sooounds like jealousy~"

Tessitore leaps backwards, taking the cue from the locust guards who are in a holding formation. They budge just a bit once they're used as a springboard, but they otherwise hold position... but Dr. Tessitore is quicker, using her spider legs as leverage to give her an extra boost up, up, and away, as Aranha's telegraphed trajectory comes within inches of tagging her in the toes.

Her lab coat flutters as gravity reasserts itself, bringing her derriere into Juri's view as she readjusts into attack position -- guarded, though, by her spider legs, she's not leaving herself -completely- open. "Diagnosis: blueballs!"

She lands casually back upon the ground, her spider legs tensing. But when her wrists casually lance out afterwards, it seems she's falling back on one of her favored attacks: nerve agents. The green chemicals in those test tubes react suddenly as they fly out towards Aranha, loosing a noxious gas which would be likely to make Aranha choke: the biochemist is not one to be taken lightly!

"So which did you like more, getting heel-ground into the floor, or getting those handcuffs slapped around your wrists?"

COMBATSYS: Aranha parries Dr. Tessitore's Phenomenon Crash!

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Aranha           1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


"Jealous of what?"

Aranha doesn't have time to finish his thought before those chemicals get hurled right at him. He becomes a blur and he reaches out just as she lets go of the vial nudging her hand to the side, redirecting the vials to one of her locust guards. He doesn't bother taunt, at first, considering the fact that right now, getting in the Spider Doctor's face is more valuable. He drops low to the ground, bringing himself into a handstand and he immediately begins raining down kick after kick down upon her dome.

While she's busy dealing with his kicks is when he starts taunting her again.

"Of those stupid looking spider legs? You look like a comic book reject. Marvel called! They want their concept of an eight limbed villain back!"


The counter-taunts thus far on Tessitores hands weren't really that inspired. It was like watching a black belt toying with a white belt when it came to comparing their skills in this department. But now things were escalating and getting good, the Doctor was employing her own strengths and certainly asking the questions everyone needed to know.

Purely scientific inquiry? The diagnosis rendered is enough to amuse her but not interfere with the snack eating, that fluttering lab coat though? Motive for pause and contemplation. Juri appreciates the view but the audience was drawn right in and eagerly anticipating an the answer to the question levelled at Aranha. Which had he enjoyed more?

Aw, another Deflection. Well, that was disappointing but the torturous application of Tessitore's own hurled vials sent spinning to one of her guards was someone of a positive to outweigh the disappointment. Aranha had made it up to her with that little move! What he denied by refusing to answer he gave her back with the wacky arm flailing antics of the choking guard.

"It's getting good, Hitting all the right spots!!"

Tessitore's cuteness in trying to compete verbally, Aranha's domination of said verbal sparring. A fight that seemed to be pretty savage and back and forth plus plenty of acrobatic action as well as one very short dress.

She was feeling the fight, revelling in the battle even as stacked against Aranha as it was with guards, weapons and goofy comic book spider powers.

Huh? that comic book thing was a pretty good observation on his part.

COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Dr. Tessitore with Inverted Flurry EX.
- Power hit! -

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Aranha           1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


Tess blinks with false innocence as two of her guards flail and clutch at their throats, before realizing that... well. The chemicals don't really work on beings of -their- exquisite biology. The locusts aren't her work though: not quite as... fragile. "Why... jealous of the time Miss Han and I spent together, silly! Oh, it was -glorious-, you know, she's great fun to squeeze and torment. The way she struggles is just so adorable! And it makes her--"

It's clear that offering up taunts is taking a bit too much brainpower though, as the 'stupid' spider legs are tardy in warding off the traceur's numerous attacks, rocking her backwards and jacknifing her slender frame. The scientist's lab coat flaps about as the kicks slam into her, tears coming to her eyes from the sheer savagery of the beating. To say nothing of the barbed comments from Aranha.

"She's kind of a lab rat," comments Milena drily, having slithered off to Juri's right. Her snake 'tail' is curled upon another column, ready to strike... but she's continuing to observe the fight, content to watch so long as the taekwondoka does not make a move to interfere. "And kind of, um. Repressed."

Tessitore is slammed into a column, causing the concrete to spiderweb beneath her impact. (Pun SO not intentional, honest). The doctor-wannabe spits up blood, lips curled in distaste from the taste of rust in her mouth, and the pain wracking her body. But those menacing spiderlegs provide her a boost as she leaps backwards, swinging on the pre-existing network of webs to carry her away from Aranha's in-your-facedness. "Do you get -all- your dialogue from bad movies and old sitcoms?" As the web network settles back into its prior state, Dr. Tessitore adjusts her glasses upon the bridge of her nose, squinting back at Aranha. "And what's this 'villain' nonsense? I try to save you and your sister from that goddamn madman and this is how you repay me?"

The locust wings twitch, at that.

COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore calculates her next move.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Aranha           1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


Yup. The wannabe doctor finally got under Aranha's skin. She did it. The Dancing Spider goes absolutely quiet. He takes a deep breath and just stares at Tessitore. He wonders if this spider-woman hybrid just had the audacity to say she was trying to save him and his sister by attack them and damn near killing her?

He slowly releasess that breath. He glances back at Juri. Of all the people, he /didn't/ want hearing about his sister, it was her. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the Italian spiderwoman.

He moves in slowly, carefully, like a predator. The energy has suddenly changed.

His hands shoot out with those handcuffs he was previously wearing and then attempts to lock them on her painfully tight.

COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore counters Kick Combo from Aranha with Scientific Method.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Aranha           1/----===/=======|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


So it would seem that Dr. Tessitore has struck a nerve -- though this time, it was without even trying to. She was unnerved herself, bitter in her backlash -- and for what it's worth, it was a rare monent of lucidity and honesty, as the haze suppressing her morality seems to have cleared for a moment. Was the sister bit supposed to be a secret? Tess does not know, nor does she care -- the secret she'd -wanted- to keep was her motivation behind the genetic manipulation.

And all she gets from Aranha is ungrateful pushback. Insults at her hygiene. Insults at her own bizarre modifications. Insults all across the board, and enough expletives to make a sailor blush. And then the insults -stopped-.

And the bloody haze sets in again. Tess's jaw sets hard at the handcuffs sent her way. Her glasses catch the light just so as she grabs the mass of webs to her right, tugging sharply.

And in the blink of an eye, the interweaving lattice of webs moves. The handcuffs latch down onto the moving web instead of her wrist or ankles... wherever he was moving. But what's more important is that the very -floor- moves -- for webs had been criss-crossing the floor as well.

"I guess you didn't notice the others..." comes Tessitore's voice, just barely above a whisper, as the webs rise suddenly, ensnaring Aranha completely. Spider silk has a tensile strength much higher than steel -- overpowering it via tugging strength is difficutl at best, and what most people think of as 'snapping' it is actually shearing it across. But that's much more difficult to do when the webs are entwined into fibrous cords -- and when those cords are strong enough to pull Aranha's wrists and ankles together, effectively hogtying him.

Tessitore's left wrist flicks out, and another cord of spider silk rockets outward, lashing about the traceur's neck, and pulling him towards her. She's lazy about the gesture -- but it provides just enough pressure to communicate that she could pull more tightly at any moment -- at least for the moment. "... You -want- to hate me, I know... It's so much easier when your villains are two-dimensional comic book characters, isn't it?"

Milena silently juggles a small throwing knife in her hand. Where'd she get that from? Hard to tell if one's been paying attention to the fight...

While hog-tied by those webs, Aranha does tug the webs at first. He realizes he doesn't have the strength to break free at least through brute methods. His escape will require a bit of creativity on part.

He thinks back to the beginning of the fight and how he used his chi web to shear the rear web network while he gets pulled in towards the doctor. It gives an idea. The problem is Aranha has never done anything like this before but necessity is the mother of invention. He collects energy into his finger tips focusing on the form he wants the chi to take. He visualizes the chi forming into miniature spider webs and then he takes deep breath as he manipulates and turns his hands. Once his hands are in position, he begins flicking those mini webs at his bonds. He lets the energy chip away at his wrist bonds, little by little.

Eventually, Aranha gets to the point where he can loosen the bonds and free his hands. Before she can actually tighten the web around his neck, he slashes at the web with blue chi engulfed hand and then does the same to the ones around his legs.

After getting rid of his bonds, he rises to feet with glowing hands and uses wild slashes with his hands to clear out a small area around himself both on the ground and all over the place. He cracks his neck, takes a deep breath, then watches and waits.

COMBATSYS: Aranha studies the situation for a moment.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/-------|


COMBATSYS: Milena has joined the fight here on the right meter side.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0           Milena
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Well, that hardly seemed fair, the Doctor was bringing her up. Seemingly making light of time she spent hung by her wrists and ankles. Calling her struggles ...adorable?! Juri wasn't appreciative of being called fun to torment; all this chatter about her was synonymous with playing with something weak, a toy or some harmless animal. Having lost her appetite starts wiping her hand against the baggy leggings brushing off an excess of the spicy red powder dusting her food. The Doctor's assistant slithering around to her side adds her two cents, kind of a lab rat and repressed? Well, a good way to break out of that was to give into all those little impulses. The doctor slams into and bounce off of one of the other pillars.

The fight was still going strong but those words itched and crawled under her skin, treating her like a pet OR something harmless was going to get to her one way or another. She wasn't really paying attention to the dialogue or bantering anymore. Just the sudden binding of webs that had ensnared Aranha wrist and ankle. Fuck this, she'd seen how that ended already.

Taking hold of the neck of the small bottle she juggles it in her palm testing the weight, the heft . She swings bottle around in a tight arc to smash the bottle into the assistances face in a dispassionate and effortless manner. A face full of glass and vodka both would be a harsh reminder of just what Juri had said what would happen if she interrupted. It was a cruel gesture and she was mostly upset with Tessitore, but she was also following through! It was kind of important to follow up on your threats so people knew it wasn't just toothless intimidation or bark.

She did bite.

Centre stage Aranha cuts away at his bonds and extricates himself from the trap, well!! That was a little embarrassing, nice trick and all getting free like that, guess she should have had a bit more patience and not assume that was a wrap. She knew first-hand how strong those webs were, he was out of them in seconds.

"Tch, ..showoff."

It was almost good natured. A little testy sounding but she was fascinated. Too bad she'd already pissed off a ten foot snake.

COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Milena with Light Random Weapon.
- Power hit! -

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0           Milena
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Dr. Tessitore is perfectly content to chat a bit longer while Aranha writhes about. Clearly, she thinks, he's completely at her mercy! "Do you really think that Jedah would have stopped with just Metro Square? He needs souls -- and strong ones. Metro City, by and large, is populated by a bunch of do-nothings with no motivations aside from their boring little lives doing boring little things -- they've got no -ambition!- No... I had the power to make them into something. Make true fighters out of them... fighters that might've been worth keeping around... if all these so-called 'heroes' weren't tossing them off fifty-story-high drops and--"

Rip. Shred. Tessitore had noticed him -moving- a lot, but having been wrapped up (ha) in her own soliloquy, she hadn't noticed until the tension on her arm went slack. Pulling the remnant of the webbed cord back to her, she frowns back at Aranha. "Tch... resourceful to the last!"

But meanwhile, Milena has been rolling her eyes. "That freaking idiot... " she mumbles under her breath. "She isn't even..." For an underling, she really ought to be calling attention to what's patently obvious to -her-. But the truth is, she never really liked Tessitore that much. "Seriously, this is tragi--"

And then a FREAKING BOTTLE smashes into the snake-woman's face, eliciting an ear-piercing shriek! Shards of blood-soaked grass tink onto the floor below as the snake woman claws at her face. "You fucking -bitch!- I--" Milena minces no more words -- it'd be better to mince the taekwondoka instead. With her eyes screwed shut from the pain and the shattered glass, she uncoils from her own perch, lashing out in a wide arc towards the direction Juri was last known to be. Her snake tail coils back up in midair, ready to roll with whatever madness the South Korean might bring to bear upon her in recompense...

Tessitore grimaces as she hears her assistant scream. "I -had- thought about saving you two..." Without further hesitation, she launches herself at Aranha, pirouetting about to stretch her four spider legs out for a whirlwind attack. But should the claws at the tips of those legs catch hold of Aranha, she'd be aiming to snag what's left of the webbing encircling him, and then bash him across the floor! "Perhaps it's more trouble than it's worth, though!"

COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Dr. Tessitore's Combo Throw.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0           Milena
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


While Tessitore is talking, the Dancing Spider had continued to maintain silence. In fact, Aranha had pretty much lost interest in anything the spider doctor had to say, even if he was still filing it away mentally in case something she said becomes useful at a later time.

Then comes the shattered glass and ear piercing shriek. Aranha spares a glance at Milena and Juri and then upon seeing it wasn't Juri getting the worst of it, he returns his attention back to Tessitore which happens to be right on time. He carefully channels his rage letting it give him focus. His adrenaline flows through him letting him move and gather information faster. He watches as the scientist spins, and he cartwheels under the swinging spider limbs and getting back in her face.

When the revolutions are just about to stop, his hand glows blue as he puts his entire body into the pimp slap from hell. If it should connect, the sound it would make would echo throughout the room at high volume. Then, he swings a foot up, right between the legs. Aranha has no compunction about fighting dirty.

COMBATSYS: Juri blocks Milena's Knife Slash.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0           Milena
[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Juri             0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Warding against the hit away with a hastily cobbled together block in a really bad position Juri is slapped off her perch and tumbles downward, amidst a shower of spicy treats she rolls with the landing. She doesn't waste time posing, or antagonizing Milena. Snakey there probably couldn't even see her to appreciate it so she remains sitting there on her haunches once again and taking a second or two to shrug out of that big ol' jacket, She's exposing plenty more bare skin and a tight shirt she really just didn't want to be fighting in her own personal Spicebomb after being rolled through her own treats. That looked like it had to hurt really, even after tasting that crap she'd hate to it in a cut or a face full of it. Like someone else she knew.

"Finally! Some acknowledgement."

That she was too troublesome to save or keep around? Or that she was a bitch? Yeah, Do me a favour and keep thrashing around blindly there, if she tears this column or whole place down it'll just make the fighting all the more dramatic. Her engine was starting to finally turn over, it was something to passively sit back and watch something so thrilling and alluring as a good fight, something else to inflict that kind of punishment yourself and enjoy all the sensations involved.

Juri takes a swift running start, by her third step she's up to speed and the fourth gaining purchase of the surface of the pillar as she launches herself into the air, feet playing footies against the surface more to twist her into an appropriate attack vector during her ascent. Head height she lashes out with a flying kick but intent on following through with others, a second impact and third strike in a brutal can-can off Milenas already injured face.

"Take this!"

She'd wasted what was probably a half assed attempt at a proper Molotov, but by the time she picked out a nice batch of possibly flammable chemicals to toss it into it would've had some kind of fun effect, now all she had to play with was the words biggest and angriest fuse.

Fun!

COMBATSYS: Milena interrupts Shikusen from Juri with Trip and Slash.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Aranha           1/-<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Juri             0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore blocks Aranha's Dead Man's Hand.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Juri             0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


The Dancing Spider is quiet -- both good and bad can come of this. The good thing is, Tessitore doesn't need to think of any snappy retorts. She can read Aranha well enough to know that there's a bad thing: he's definitely more focused now than before, playing his cards close to the heart and ensuring that his rage can be channeled to its utmost.

As her pirouette ends, her spidery limbs are still wrapped about her. But the traceur seems to be taking that into account as he slaps her in the face -- something that the scientist is able to ward off by her forearms raised in panic. "Nnnrgh!" If it were -just- a slap, she might have been able to take it without buckling over in agony, but as it is, the blow reverberates through her whole body, forcing her to strafe sideways a few feet just to keep from falling over. Her upper two exoskeletal appendages spread out for balance, but her lower two appendages clasp around her in mimicry of the hand going to her heavily bruised forearm.

When Aranha's kick comes through, it lands against the ghastly apppendages, with the fortitude of sticks of bamboo. This also illustrates how close the bone-like limbs are to snap under duress, groaning and straining from the attack, as hairline fractures begin to form. They don't stop the blow, but they dull its impact so Tess gets a good feeling for just how much it -could- have been -- just enough to make her eyes cross. "Nnngaaah... what the hell kind of..."

Milena's still angry. Very angry. And blood is spurting out of her numerous wounds, with the shattered glass daring to stick to her dampened skin. She is -less- than amused with the taekwondoka -- but really, she's even more pissed that she had an order to -attack- the crazy Han girl. The snake lady throws up her arms to ward off the kicks, her flimsy frame doing little to really -stop- the first attack -- as if it would be possible to gently discourage her from shattering bone. But it's enough of an opening to allow the snake-woman to lash her long reptilian tail around Juri, snagging her out of midair. While the snake-woman falls onto her back, pressing her elbows into the floor for stability, she uses the massive muscles of her beastly aberration to constrict about the taekwondoka attacker, pluck her out of the sky and slam her violently into the concrete. Slam! Slam! Wham! As effective as that may have been, though, Milena's grip falters, and the woman slithers back to her feet, idly plucking bits of glass out of her face. "Bitch..."

Tessitore, meanwhile, swallows down her anger. She could easily give in to her accursed physiology and let the spider take over. But where's the fun in that? While her lower limbs are injured, her upper right limb dips into her pocket, retrieving a small corked vial from her lab coat pocket. The vial is held up so Aranha can see, even as Tessitore advances upon him. "I do hope you're not so rude to your sister. It's a special time... a time of -change-."

She lurches sharply, as if throwing a wild uppercut with her left fist. But the actual attack is for her spider legs to sweep around and catch Aranha from the side, lifting him off the ground and sending him flying into a mass of webbing that's managed to avoid getting torn up till now. Perhaps her words and her physiology can surpass what either alone could not...

COMBATSYS: Aranha parries Dr. Tessitore's Rebound Throw!

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Aranha           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Juri             0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


As Aranha watches Tessitore lurch forwards for what is an apparent uppercut, the Dancing Spider notices the spider limbs coming in from the side to grab him if he attempted to side step or back track. He doesn't. Instead, his body suddenly flares up with blue energy

By the time those limbs get there, they go right through the traceur's afterimage, and he's leaping right over her, right for the spider webs that he can see, illuminated by the glow of his energy. He rebounds off of the web, using her own webs against her, bounding from web to spider doctor to web, over and over. He delivers a multitude of chi enhanced kicks from a variety of angles.

As for the vial and the words, he acknowledges them but he isn't touched by them, he's so focused on dismantling her piece by piece. He's sending Tessitore's words straight to voicemail.

Battered back and forth like an infant's rattle Juri makes sickening fleshy smacking noises when she bonelessly slaps against the concrete one-Slam! two-Slam! three-Wham! She slumps out of the coils towards the ground when released, it's a half-second before vitality returns and she blossoms into a leg extension which she rapidly transitions into a helicopter, whipping her legs around and spinning herself back onto her feet. It was kind of hard on the shirt, rumpling and tugging it askew, she was looking a little worse for wear but sitting there as she does she primarily concerns herself with raising a hand and working at the inside of her ear with her pinkie finger. Her ears were ringing after being slapped around like this, she may have bitten the inside of her cheek; That and a stinging red welt on that same cheek was about the worst of it.

Nausea aside and diagnosis complete she hikes herself back to her feet purely with lower body strength, an upsurge that leaves her upper torso trailing fluidly, relaxedly letting her free arm hang while still picking at her ear. It made sense that the snake think would know how to fight with all than length and bulk. The Doc was fighting with all her weird powers, why not the Snake Nerd Assistant as well? It had to be programmed into them or something, it's not like they were using martial arts styles.

"Bitch? Come on now! Everybody says that I'm to die for..."

Her upper torso lists forward and she half circles a foot back, building a firm root even as the groundswell of malice and cruel delight runs through her, as it manifests around her feet, creeping along the bare skin of her feet and growing in intensity as well as size. She's not like Aranha with his fancy tricks, her power is raw and uncontrolled wihtout a smany useful tricks as he was showcasing. It just needs an outlet, something or someone to have skimmed the cream off the top and exposed the twisted nature beneath.

"They're right! OR-aaaa"

Juri lunges in, spinning into a roundhouse kick that might as well be miles away from her opponent she instead hurls a mass of purple psycho power at Milena-

"Ora - Ora! ORA!!"

Alternating legs she continues a mad spinning flurry of kicks and throwing even more projectiles, wreathed in a corkscrew shaped ascending spiral of purple energy she completes a graceful pirouette only to lash out with a kick and throw the last of the waves of projectiles high as she was intent on juggling Milena into the very worst of it.

COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Dr. Tessitore with Joker's Wild EX.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Aranha           1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0           Milena
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Milena with Fuharenjin.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //                            ]
Aranha           1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\=====--\1           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Tess's extensive network of webs has been a tremendous asset for her, but as her spider limbs connect with nothing, a sick feeling grows in the pit of her stomach. Her legs coil, as she reaches for the nearest web to make her own escape, but it's too late -- Aranha's first kick slams into her shoulder, pinning her to the ground just as she was starting to jump. "Ngyaaaa!" The second kick connects as she's just starting to use her added appendages to get back to her feet, forcing her downward yet again. The third time, the fourth, the fifth are met by successively weakening defense. Blood and tears spatter the floor as she's pummeled repeatedly, skin cut open by the rapid strikes, flesh bruising and bones stressing to unwelcome levels. The lower right spider leg is nearly snapped in half as it attempts to defend against one particularly low blow to the mid-torso.

Needless to say, she drops the vial, which hits the floor on its bowl, the glass container cracking in the process. It doesn't survive its next impact with the ground; judging from the hissing of the viscous, bubbling acid as it touches the floor, perhaps that wasn't the -same- concoction that was injected into Kelly.

"... Y-you're kind of an asshole, you know?!" spits out Tessitore, in equal measure with gobs of blood. She manages to stand -- shakily -- curling her arms about herself as she brushes blood-spattered hair out of her eyes, sparing a glance over towards Juri and Milena.

Milena is... not doing so well, either. She'd managed to slither a fair distance away from Juri after her attack, heading more towards Aranha and Juri. In very subtle fashion, she'd managed to coil herself about a bit, preparing herself to spring out of the way, but when it comes to avoiding a veritable hailstorm of the purple energy that's being hurled her way, the mutated mass is only a liability -- something else for the bursts of energy to splat up against, lancing its way through flesh and sinew to pierce straight through to the bone. It... hurts. Hurts a -lot-, from the gurgled screaming of the half-reptilian woman.

Milena tears her eyes away from Juri, not wanting the masochist to gain the satisfaction of seeing her face for even a moment longer. Turning her back on the taekwondoka might not be the -smartest- thing to do, but considering her imminent collapse, she's not seeing a downside... With narrowed eyes, she begins lurching towards the speedy capoeirista, rasping, "N-never... say I never did anything for you, Tess..." She holds back a moment, gathering as much of her strength as she can before suddenly uncoiling her snake tail, launching at Aranha with her knife outstretched.

Winking back at her not-quite-human-anymore partner, Tess decides to make her move in perfect concert, pulling two ballpoint pens out of her pocket and aiming to hook them around Aranha's shoulders. "I always knew you were good for -something- other than sassing me..." Most men probably wouldn't -mind- the shapely Italian woman cozying up to them, but they might take exception to the blood and bile smeared across Tessitore's lab coat. And maybe also the murderous glint in her eyes.

COMBATSYS: Milena has reached second wind!

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Aranha           1/-------/<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Milena and Dr. Tessitore's Surgical Strike.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Aranha           1/-------/<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


The ex(?)-catburglar glances over when he hears the pained scream. He finds himself wanting to smile. He doesn't though. He doesn't plan on smiling until he's laid out Tessitore and ground her face to the ground and left her in a puddle of blood.

He glances away again to focus on Tessitore once more while still keeping aware of everyone else around. That being said, he was confident that Juri, having committed to kicking the ever-loving crap out of the demi-reptilian, had either taken her out of the fight or at the very least made it so that it would be too difficult for making her way over. It's when Milena speaks up, Aranha's aware of one how wrong he was. When the knife gets extended towards him, he shifts out of the way. He unfortunately has to contend with the fact that the bruised and battered spider hybrid with a sadistic glint in her eyes is trying to hook her ballpoint pens around his shoulders. He tilts under the attempt to hook the shoulders and then propels himself into the air as he performs a Butterfly Twist aka. Mariposa to get a little more space operate in.

He can feel the combination of the required focus needed as well as the demanding amount of acrobatics used to move about avoiding and delivering attacks is taking its toll on him. And he knows that he needs to at least makes sure that one of them have difficulty in coming after him again. He pivots around attempting to move so that Milena is directly between Tessitore and him using her as sort of a barrier. He then skips forward, delivering a side kick right to the throat.

Aranha talks for the first time since the 'doctor' mentioned his sister. "Bitch! You can get it, too!"


Aww, that was almost no fun at all. The scream was a nice touch but there was no palpable sensation of beating the snake woman down, how much damage she'd inflicted. Snake-bitch had to be hurting but she should be screaming more or at least showing Juri her terrified face. But instead she had turned her back and was slithering toward the Doctor, for help?

Juri was tempted to step on end on the tail to prevent such an escape, but that might be about as effective as trying to stop a car by putting her foot on the rear bumper that was a lot of muscle and one hell of a core. She'd look the fool if she fell flat on her ass because she tried it and she wasn't game enough risk doing so in the presence of Aranha and Tessitore both.

Instead she trails the after the snake woman in a slow amble, coyly toying with her belt and appearing to be taking her sweet time, this really was really getting good. BFF's fighting together against all odds! It was heart-warming in a scripted way that never quite touched her heart; she recognized the movements in this drama while at the whole time dismissing it as a familiar tune. Not like the mad glee fizzing and popping inside her.

She stops dead in her tracks as the pair of them lunge after Aranha with a combined assault and he hurls himself into the air, floating like a butterfly as he spins through the air and sails unharmed between the offensive lunges. That was some graceful movement right there, the fact he landers and transitioned into a side kick turning the whole ballet of movement into repositioning against his opponents was just art.

Too cool.

"Uah, I guess I was wrong. There's a better view up close."

She just folds her arms content to watch how it is all playing out despite her recent explosion of sadism and violence, sometimes it was more fun to watch. The fact that this close she could smell the residual fumes of those noxious chemicals, see the sweat glisten and focus on the blood dripping visually and audibly.

Now this... THIS, was the BEST.

COMBATSYS: Juri takes no action.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


COMBATSYS: Milena interrupts Change-Up Kick from Aranha with Knife Slash.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///                           ]
Aranha           1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Tess spins out of the way as soon as it looks like she might not catch hold of the man -- heck, if she didn't, Milena would have slashed -her- across the throat. "... I got it, you're just a -thug-, then." She smiles, pleased at herself for having discovered something in the midst of getting beaten down as much as she had. "Aha! You -enjoyed- that, didn't you? Selfish prick... ahaha, just like your girlfriend there!" Dr. Tessitore glances over to Juri, a devilish smile upon her lips. "Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people could die and it's none of your concern, so long as -you- walk out okay..." Tess's lower appendage -- the one that's not shattered -- rests on her hip while the others shrug in deference. "Aaah, I had you pegged all wrong! You haven't any conscience at all..."

Milena grits her teeth, glaring back at Tessitore as she continues chatterboxing while their opponent is still dancing circles around them. She hisses: "Did you -completely- forget what's at stake here...?!" She slithers close, and as Aranha twists around for a side kick to her throat, the snake lady slips to the side. Flipping the knife around upside-down, she raises her arm sharply, allowing her forearm and the cutting edge of the blade to bite into Aranha's leg as he kicks up at her. His foot does impact her throat, drawing an irritated 'hrrrk!' out of the woman, but with the momentum deadened, it won't do as much as intended. And what's more, she continues to drag the knife's razor edge across Aranha's leg, knocking him down at the floor.

Tess brushes some of the more solid globs of blood off her lab coat. "Pfft, Milena... three dozen locusts..." "Don't worry, sweetcheeks! You and me get s'more special time once this feisty one goes beddy-bye." She lunges in to take advantage of her teammate's success, hoping to stomp her foot onto Aranha's throat and pin him against the floor in a darker reflection of the strike he'd just attempted against Milena -- and counting on the slipperiness of the bloody floor to work to her advantage.

COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Dr. Tessitore's Crushing Throw.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///                           ]
Aranha           1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0           Milena
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////                      ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Aranha receives good news and bad news. The bad news is that Milena manages to get in a knife slash across his leg as she wrestles him down to the ground. Then there's two pieces of good news. The slash while painful, isn't debilitating and that he did clip her throat enough that her breathing would be difficult. That however leads to the second bit of bad news. The good doctor is attempting to stomp a mudhole into his throat. He brings his forearms up to cover his throat gritting his teeth the entire time

With him being pinned under her foot it's a bit difficult but the Dancing Spider manages to struggle his way out and roll back up to his feet. With a bit of a hiss he rubs the pain out of his forearms before launching himself over Milena's head and dropping into a roll which allows himself to face Milena once more. He drops his weight low in a crouch, preparing for lift off, and then propels himself for snake bodied assistant with palms glowing with blue chi reaching out to grasp her. If he should do that, his palms flare up as he pushes the energy into her shoulders before curling his feet up into abdomen and then shoving her away from him with his feet as flips away, high into the air.

All this talk of thuggery -- and lives -- was boring! She'd assumed the man was some kind of thug to begin with by his looks and that evil smile he'd shown her. If anything the plan coming together as it had, his agility and grace and the smarts were more part of the surprise package.

It didn't just look like ingenuity, it had some begrudged levels of style to it.

An eyebrow was most certainly quirked upward at the notion she was the 'girlfriend' in this scenario, standing off to the side with arms folded, Not even mentioned by name! Was this an attempt to dissuade them from killing her or not? She was no fan girl or groupie of the man just -- admiring.

Booo~hooo! People that were already pretty much dead might actually die more. Not a single, solitary, fuck is given; Juri snorts derisively at the prospect she /might/ have even remotely cared. People died every day and she wasn't really invested in any of them... but maybe Aranha was? There was something earlier about a sister in all that prattle which was maybe the first chink she'd seen in that armour.

Oh? the snake and the spider had THAT kind of relationship. What was it she had said to Juri? Unprofessional that was it. The mechanics involved would probably be kind of staggering but given only one of them even had feet, in kind of excess. Maybe she could use some kind of pointers.

"Hmmmmmn, I think you're doing that wrong."

The fact Aranha had his arms up in defence was something of a failure already.

" Let me show you how I'd do it!"

A leap into a spinning back heel Juri passes behind Aranha as he crouches before the spring that sends him flying up and over Milena. Pretty smooth for someone who'd just had their leg slashed with a knife, just noticing! Her attention divided even while attempting to hook the side of Tesitore's face and spin her down face first to the concrete floor. There was just so much going on and all of it stimulating the senses.

She hadn't had a chance to get her hands on the Doctor before and Tess being the sport she was had already dressed up for the occasion.

Seriously though, the snake and the spider thing was going to bug her later.

COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Milena with Hunting Season.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Aranha           1/---====/=======|======-\-------\0           Milena
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////                      ]
Juri             0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore counters Assatsu Kick from Juri with Double Blind.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Aranha           1/---====/=======|======-\-------\0           Milena
[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Juri             0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore


Dr. Tessitore flicks both her wrists towards the floor in frustration as Aranha rolls out of the way. "Nnngh, you won't even stay on the ground where you -belong!-" Tess had thought he'd be such an easy target -- but then she had to go ruin it by taking her sweet-ass time stomping on the traceur, didn't she?

The eyeroll from Milena is practically audible -- but she's got more important things demanding her attention, like Aranha slipping out of her grasp. The snake-lady veers off to the side in an attempt to get herself free, but damage from earlier attacks being what it is, she's not as nimble as she needs to be. She howls with pain as Aranha's chi sears into her shoulders, and then she finds an express route to the nausea bus as the capoeirista kicks her in the abdomen and flips her up, up, and away!

Milena's landing comes to an early end as she's caught in a series of webs, which bend and stretch until she's brought within inches of bowling over a series of locust guards with her considerable girth. The snake woman manages to rasp out an order to one of them, suspended there -- "Attack... them, you idiots..."

Cue much confusion from the guards as they turn to look at one another. And then back at Milena. Much chittering in the locust language ensues as Milena nearly passes out from the stress of battle...

"/Dammit!/" shouts Tessitore, as webs spray from her sleeves onto the floor, an angry and possibly undesired side effect of the neo-human's mutations. "You locust idiots, what does it take before you jump in?!" She lashes out, with overwrought melodrama: "AAAAIEEE, HELP ME?" ... There's probably no need for melodrama with actual blood smeared all over her, but that's just how irritable she is.

And then Juri's gotta anger her by giving tips. "Excuse /me!/" she screams out, eyes narrowing as she turns to Juri with a flicked wrist, snapping her fingers with a great deal of authority! The sassy gesture also carries the corded strands of web with it, though, and as she extends her hand, it's the spider silk that absorbs the impact from Juri's leg, rather than her blood-spattered face -- which is now grinning.

"Or..." she continues from before. The fresh, sticky silk bonds instantly with the fabric sheathing Juri's leg, and when Tess tugs violently away from Juri, the leg acts as a lever by which to fling the taekwondoka around and into a hammock-like mess of webbing, still tethered to the cords at Tess's feet. "... you could just step into my web now. Either way!"

Tess strides towards Juri, adding more fuel to the fire by flicking more strands of webbing at the fighter's wrist, binding her to the hammock-like mass. Juri may have thought the doctor may have been flirting with Milena, but her eyes were on the South Korean when she'd spoken...

Satisfied that Juri is bound, at least for the moment, she takes a moment to hazard a glance back to Aranha. Winking back to him -- a show of bravado despite the obvious fatigue pulling her eyelids down -- she states, "Note that there are at -least- thirty guards with sharp pointy things, hmm? Do the math."

COMBATSYS: Milena takes no action.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Aranha           1/---====/=======|======-\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/------=|


COMBATSYS: Milena can no longer fight.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Aranha           1/---====/=======|======-\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/------=|


When he hears that howl of pain, it becomes clear to the capoeirista that Milena probably was not a fighter before she had what procedure it was done to her. She's probably never really had take many hits and so when both Juri and Aranha hit her she just didn't know how to roll with it. With the combination of fatigue and injuries plaguing her, he knew that he no longer had to worry about her.

That only left Tessitore to deal with. He turns back towards the woman spider just in time to see Juri flung into the web hammock. She then moves towards Juri and webs her wrists to the web. The capoeirista can't help but get a sense of deja vu seeing the taekwondoka getting bound like that.

As she soon as she glances over to him to remind him that there are still guards to tend with, he suddenly eats up the space between them in a matter of two strides before violently swinging a roundhouse kick right for her head.

"I have done the math..."

He then swings that foot viciously in the other direction, hooking a back heel kick behind her neck and then yanking her face-first down to the ground.

"You've failed to account for a few variables."


Poised still with her leg in the air and straining against the tensile strength of the webbing Juri has time enough for a shocked blink of that one expressive violet eye and then the whipping motion tears her off her standing foot and slings her heavily into the web with a bouncing sway even though she sticks in place, lesson learnt this time she tucks her free arms and leg in close in to her torso to avoid tangling any limbs in the-

One wrist is suddenly pinned before she can, Further webshots trigger a response where she curls her legs up to shield her body as well as her one remaining free arm Turtling up behind something of a block while being pasted into a ball of webbing that should keep her occupied for a time, if not completely trapped. That was one narcissistic woman if she couldn't even handle a little critique of her technique. It wasn't entirely unappealing but the spray of webbing sure was.

Piercing the veil with her scratched up and formerly red lacquered fingernails Juri parts a tiny seam in the webbing with one free arm, go with the grain or whatever webbing had! It doesn't have to be a big hole. A forearm emerges and she forces that arm free and out into the light, through with the shoulder next and the back of her head burst free in rapid succession; Her hair was not going so well with being tugged fitfully with each attempt to free herself; it's Leaving a few strands and picking up some translucent white threading where it tries to stick and tear free from her scalp. Bitch had to get it in her hair.

With Tessitore looking back toward Aranha, Juri is hard at work grasping for a hand hold and twisting her body around; seizing some of the thicker threads to use as and for leverage she emerges from the smallest of openings, her pinned arm and especially the trapped leg were proving difficult.

Climbing the face of the web wall with bare hands, moving in a tight semicircle upwards that eventually drags her leg free, enough force in the right directions; a little more twisting and she could get her arm out. You don't try tearing free of this crap unless you were willing to lose skin or fabric fighting it, she was willing to lose a little of both but in the easiest and most successful way possible, you just slip through wherever you can find a gap. Her svelte figure and flexibility was working out for her, as well as having being compacted into a tight enough space she could work all that muscle in tight confines against her restraints.

The cocoon itself does a superb job of masking the ripping and tearing of her fabric that obviously took place inside. Hanging as she is, she performs a behind the head pull up and rolls her whole body backward to set the soles of her feet on the supporting cable of web from which she was dangling turning herself right side up like any spider themed hero should.

Material around one of her legs was completely gone, shredded and torn away, her shirt was and stretched and had torn in places where she had forced it while it was still caught in the sticky webbing, only one gauntlet. Ragged cloth wafting around her she silently unfurls into a wide stance, stabilizing her position and distributing her weight now she is finished disentangling herself.The adhesive nature of the web had ripped at her skin as well at her cloth, pink welts and a bloody patch on her leg where it'd taken enough skin off to draw blood, old and new marks on the same wrist. That wasn't fun at all.

Perched like a spider in her web and hungrily watching Juri's pride was a little injured and NOW she owed that bitch back doubly so now for a second time wrapping her up in fucking webs. That's twice she'd been bound against her will in ways that were no fun at all.

Worse still also missing the show and had no idea what was going on.

COMBATSYS: Juri focuses on her next action.

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Aranha           0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0    Dr. Tessitore
[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/------=|


COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore fails to counter Face Down from Aranha with Metastasis.

COMBATSYS: Dr. Tessitore can no longer fight.

[                     \\\\\\\\\  <
Aranha           0/-------/--=====|
[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/------=|


Tessitore has clearly had better days. The last time she looked in the mirror -- which is to say, about an hour ago -- she considered herself fabulous as always, her freshly-bleached lab coat pristine and white, in sharp contrast to the designer strapless dress with the fancy Italian fabrics. Sure, it's a bit pretentious to be cutting patients open with a dress so glamorous, but with a body like hers, the narcissist couldn't bear to wear anything -less- opulent.

Now... even with dark crimson streaks running down her face and lab coat, one of her spider arms cracked just as surely as her designer eyewear, Tessitore manages to catch a glimpse of herself reflected from one of the scattered pieces of medical equipment. Self-consciously primping a loose tress back into position, she reassures herself: Still got it! A pity that only Juri and Milena seem to appreciate the effort she puts into her appearance...

Why does Tessitore feel like she has the time to fiddle with her hair? Because Aranha's taking a similar attack vector to the one Juri just took -- and one column of web is still extended from her arm, ready and primed to strike. A trained fighter would know better than to counterattack with the exact same method -- and so, Tessitore avoids doing so, pirouetting out of the way. Aranha's got a bit more force and intent behind his blows, so she knows she can't just twang him off her silken cords; she would actually have to move. But one thing she did -not- count on was the slipperiness of the floor. One of many variables, as Aranha succinctly states. A moment's hesitation is all it takes for his foot to gain purchase, preventing Tess from swinging clear and yoking her back. She makes some unintelligible noise as she's yanked forward, her lower torso's momentum carrying it out of the way as she's slammed into the floor. Her column of web collapses, falling atop the grad student.

Spider legs twitching, she manages to push back up onto her side -- but that's about all, as she looks up at Aranha, her view of the traceur inverted. Peering upside-down at him through fractured lenses, blackness nearly claiming the periphery of her vision, she emits a low groan of agony, before her ribs shudder with a wracking cough. "... Let me... guess. 'Nightwolf,' again?" A sly grin crosses her lips, but her eyes are rapidly losing the ability to focus.

Milena, likewise, falls unconscious within the hold of the webs. But her orders were effectively conveyed, as the entirety of the locust guard has lowered their blades into attack position. And they move as one, as a swarm damn well ought to, with their intent being to perforate Aranha and the newly-threadbare Juri both with enough holes to make swiss cheese jealous. "M-m-master Dohma will en-n-njoy y-your c-c-corpses" comes the stuttered response of creatures unaccustomed to speaking English -- and the chittering tide begins to move upon the pair.


"First of all, you underestimated my desire to see you in a puddle of blood after seeing 'her' in a puddle of blood thanks to you. How the fuck do you save someone by perforating their fucking chest? Second you failed to realize that she," he tilts his head towards Juri before continuing, "wasn't the type of person you could strong arm into doing your dirty work. Third you assumed I was dumb enough to come here without an escape plan."

Aranha then turns towards Juri, and does a poor imitation of Bugs Bunny, "She don't know us very well, do she?"

He takes advantage of the fact that she's lying on her side and swings a hard kick right to her bosom and then following it up with two stomps on her head.

"If you want to take any pot shots, make it quick." He points to one fire exit. "That exit has shitloads of debris that she may not have had the foresight to clear out before setting up this lab. And I don't know about that one. If you're lucky, that one might be clear. Or you can take the debris filled escape up to the rooftop, and try to make your way down via one of the other buildings. I have my own escape route."

He then moves to one of the windows and kicks through the glass. With defiant middle finger raised to the locust swarm he shouts, "Jedah Dohma can kiss my caramel colored kiester."

He steps out of the window and edges around the corner on the ledge. And then he's gone.

COMBATSYS: Aranha has left the fight here.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Juri             0/-------/------=|


Juri appreciated the effort at least, the dress Tessitore wore had definite appeal, it was just the complete and utter lack of interest in being experimented on further, or bound against her will and treated like she was a plaything.

Hoarse screaming of her own voice as she fought against restraints and men only dressed like orderlies in sterile scrubs. Heavy, beefy men that didn't belong in that kind of setting at all and were having a much easier time restraining a girl and trained fighter at that deep in the midst of panic and rage induced strength, more than real orderlies should be able to handle. Bright lights and the faint smell of alchohol.

That was then! The scowl twisting her face remains constant, like it's the default expression. Right here and now! The Doctor was grooming herself and Aranha was lunging in with something similar to what she had just tried to do to herself. The fact that in her response she slips isn't lost on the home audience, slipping heel coincides with an eccentric quirk of Juri's head for a better view. The doctor being caught and driven into the ground, her own webbing falling on top of her was something of an insult, a cosmic rimshot at her expense. It wasn't Juri's doing but that was pretty close to her moves, those were his move as well? Well, it must be humiliating for Tessitore! The way she was staying down and twitching it looked like it was over.

Loosening up now Juri commences lounging about up there, arms crossed and resting across the back of her knees with legs and feet together, tension was fading now the brains of the outfit was down, unfortunately that also happens to coincide with a clownish threat from one of her underlings and the raising of halberds in a movement that was a little less so.

Another lame joke she didn't really get from Aranha? He starts going off about his reasons for vengeance, unfortunately they were suitably cliche and boring ones some girl. The fact he was crying over the fate of 'some girl' was a serious red flag, being willing to visit harm on another by doing the same to her wasn't entirely lame. There were no heroes here.

In response to Arnaha's vicious blows Juri leaps out of her ceiling spot and rolls with the dive to come up close to Tessitore. Getting her licks in on the doctor while she was down and in whatever state of consciousness? It left a bad taste in her mouth, what would even be the point? ..fuck it, maybe she would have had more fun if she had just handed him over.

Pinching with her fingers she lifts the glasses by the bar, clear of the Italian's face carefully; A flick of the wrist folds them up and she sets them down on the floor. A shame, for a lot of reasons but the vicious and brutal nature of Aranha's attack had proved his point maybe and left Juri feeling wanting, not her kind of fun. Tess wasn't in any state to appreciate anything Juri wanted to do to her, and.. she had company so there was no time.

"Sorry lovely, no time left to play."

She stands and skips over Tessitore to make her own way to the window Aranha had used. Having to drop to her knees and slide under a cleaving swing that might have biforcated her neatly and comes up running into the triangle jump off of one chitinous locust soldier to better avoid a thrust and near impaling of one of its comrades by another. Was there chance she could see what Nightwolf was? Escaping out onto a ledge to avoid things that could fly didn't seem like a smart move, it's probably the fall that would get you if you were lucky.

Scooting out onto the edge herself it's already apparent he's gone, walking fast to the corner there's no sign of him, she missed her shot. Worse still, she was the asshole who'd trapped herself out on the ledge in following him.

"Well, shit. Think fast Juri or you're lining the bottom of a petri dish after this fall."

It was a nasty drop, the architecture however wasn't entirely without merits to work with. Twisting over the edge with a controlled fall she nabs the base of the ledge at the same time she puts her feet through a pane of glass and flows down into a three pointed couch inside the room below, there was the front door out of this room

MOVE

The hum and buzz of locust wings in flight all around her she is running into the corridor with a shoulder opening a door in what was probably wedged tight into its frame, or locked. Drunkenly stumbles and recovers into a fast sprint and jump; Driving her knee into a fragile looking section of the floor on landing she descends amidst a rain of shattered lumber and waterfall and cloud of plaster. Two stories down now as she smashes through, Twenty-two more to go!

All she had to do was confuse them as to which floor she was really on and that would divide them. Unfortunate, but she was going to have to thin their ranks before she made it to street level anyway, just one set of eyes following her when she made an escape and it could get ugly real fast.

Bursting into the central stairwell she vaults up onto the railing and just drops down to the next below her, she slows her fall against the railing but continues to the next, continuing for four more floors further down where she crumples up against the railing causing it to groan and bend ominously with the impact and all that picked up momentum.

Back pressed to the door she opens it out into an empty corridor. Good luck finding her in here now, that's got to be the equivalent of a few city blocks to search through for her, rooms stacked one on top of the other for them to search for her and flying would help jack shit with that, while she was quiet and dangerous, they were loud and obvious when flying and didn't look like the best fighters in anything but numbers. Trick would be finishing 'em quick -- if the numbers thinned out this should hardly be a problem at all.

Back pressed to the door in the stairwell she cracks open the door slowly, peering out cautiously and listening. Nothing so far, she creepes into the darkened hallway and tries a couple of doors before finding a room she can enter, somewhere to rest and wait for the first of many opportunities to thin the herd.

Come to think of it, Aranha had 'rescued' her from a hive and so abandoned her in a much nastier one, things were pretty squared up at this point between them. Not as much fun as it could have been she'd have given him a mediocre star rating in terms of scoring their date. Dinner and a show was involved, the Doc probably scored higher as she dressed up for the occasion.


"I... I -planned- on -those-..." is Tessitore's insistent protest to the variables being shoved in her face. It's true -- she -had- expected Aranha to strike back, and she thought she was ready. She -had- expected Juri to rebel, and again, she was sure she could handle it. And third, if Aranha were unconscious, his escape plan wouldn't work -- she'd done more research on their last fight than he might have realized.

Tessitore's last, fleeting moment of consciousness was spent reeling in agony over having been kicked right in the chest: the delicate Italian fabric does nothing at all to hamper the intensity of Aranha's blow. A low whimper escapes her lips, at that -- but with her injured state already so advanced, the first jackhammering of her head into the floor is enough to knock her out. The second isn't even felt by the unconscious Tess, a near-guaranteed concussion to ensure Tess will be feeling it when she wakes up.

The locust army is angry. They stab their halberds rapidly -- but despite his wounds, the traceur is able to escape them with ease. They swing their halberds wildly in the air as he eludes their grasp, but without Milena to help coordinate them, they are in utter disarray by the unusual escape patterns. As Aranha kicks through the glass, the locust swarm is still desperately trying to catch up with the skilled capoeirista -- to no avail.

Juri fares only a little better. It would seem that Tessitore has given the locust swarm conflicting orders in the past; sometimes, even in the open of the chamber, she'd rather maintain some sort of patient-doctor confidentiality. Which means that Juri's tender gesture of removing her glasses means that the locusts would be in -trouble- if they struck her, and they're not willing to hazard that.

As soon as Juri moves away, though, it's game on -- and the locust swarm is about as effective as stopping her as they were Aranha. But unlike Aranha... there's no instant escape for the taekwondoka once she finds herself on the ledge -- and the swarm is -determined- to block her escape.

The swarm is also fooled, fluttering off into the air, and utterly unable to find her on the upper levels, the thought of searching for her on the lower levels is a thought that doesn't occur to the uncoordinated swarm.

Twenty minutes later...

Tessitore draws in breath suddenly, as Milena draws a damp washcloth to her face. Looking back at the reflection of herself, bruised, beaten, with cracked bones and limb is enough to bring fresh tears to her eyes. "... do you think she and I..."

Milena's too angry to really give anything other than a dismissive shake of her head in response to that.

Meanwhile...

Nothing?

What pursuit there was... wasn't really getting any closer, impatient after all this time dawdling Juri risks another quick burst descending the stairs where possible and only really impeded by damage to the building itself. Gaping holes in the exterior walls on one facing of the building, significant cracks and structural damage that had opened up passage certain ways and blocked others.

"Some guard dogs she has there. I could maybe have just walked out"

If she hadn't hopped out on a damn fool ledge. This was way easier than she had thought it would be, not that she was going to complain, easy was just faster. Making her way to the rear side of the building, off the street. The doctor might still have guards in the lobby or keeping watch out front, they didn't seem real hard to lose but they might just be a little slow or REALLY single minded in purpose.

She pries a window open and drops the last three floors to the ground like it was nothing. One dingy dark alleyway, courtesy of Metro City; A scene perfect for escaping some heat orbeing mugged, if the most pressing concern you had wasn't being torn apart by human sized monsters.

She had a long walk ahead of her and now maybe a little more 'shopping' for some clothes was in order since these were pretty ratty and ragged, she acknowledged it and the night /was/ still young.

COMBATSYS: Juri has ended the fight here.

Log created on 20:38:58 05/16/2015 by Dr. Tessitore, and last modified on 07:13:00 05/22/2015.