Description: Yuri finds her way into the tournament grounds of Ultratech, where she's met by an unpleasant surprise. Will Kyokugen come out on top or will technology prevail?
The tournament center in Southtown is impeccably clean, impeccably quiet, and almost too easy to get into. In all reality, convenience stores are harder to get into than this--a clinically sterile one-and-a-half room affair, with nothing but a sign-up sheet, contracts, and a few computers to link the invitation you received to. A single chair dead in the middle of the room is the only concession for comfort. It seems as if the place used to be some sort of manned center--obviously, of the sort co-opted by many tournaments in the past, judging by the utterly empty receptionist's office. However, it seems that when Ultratech gets involved in something, 'the human experience' seems to take a fall by the wayside.
It's that very formal neglect that creates the atmosphere for the signup center. The instructions provided are very simple; read every document provided, then initial and sign on the indicated lines. There seems to be no room for people who need a little bit of extra help--those types didn't get the invite. Of course, it would be pointless to indicate that someone could go and do as they please in here--there's at least one surveillance camera that can be seen in the interior corner of the main room, and the heady weight of many, many more that can't. The intense feeling of being watched pervades every step one takes in the center.
Might be good to make your business in here quick, before you're caught.
So how exactly did Yuri Sakazaki get involved in something like this? Simple, she found an invitation in the Kyokugen Dojo and realized it was supposed to be made out to one of the other masters in the dojo. However, being the sneaky girl she is, as well as wanting to spread the joy of Kyokugen Karate as far as she can, she attempted to cross out the name on the invitation and write her own in. Of course it looks a bit sloppy, but Yuri doesn't care. She's just grinning from ear to ear as she makes her way to the tournament ground.
Of course, once she gets there, her smile starts to fade a little. "What IS this place?" Yuri wonders aloud as she makes her way into the room. She looks around, almost like she's expecting some sort of huge alarm to go off at a moment's notice as she remembers that she shouldn't be here. Granted she did forge her name, but who's going to know? Hopefully she did a good enough job with it, didn't she?
When she finally finds her way to the documents that she has to sign, Yuri browses over them, smirking a little as she does so. "Sounds like this is gonna be a LOT of fun!" Yuri says as she signs her name and initials it too after browsing the documents and seeing what they have to say. She doesn't notice the surveillance camera at all, and that might be her downfall...
Ironically enough, it's probably the invitation itself that was the downfall. More than just a piece of fancy paper, the invitation is a small holographic tablet, with a pressure sensitive screen surface to confirm the signature. The trouble with computers is, unlike a piece of paper, or a pencil, they're by definition multipurpose. You can make them do almost whatever you please, without anyone being the wiser.
That is why tournament authorities are already on their way.
Realistically, nothing overt or untowards happens to Yuri to interrupt her perusal of the provided documentation, though honestly most of it is couched in very vague and politically correct terms. This is contrast to the endlessly exact and confusing legal terminology accompanying most major contracts. You could be signing your house away and not really be any the wiser for it. It seems this whole situation is just a formality. A customary hand-wave. The sort of thing that a company does when considering themselves above reproach.
One clause catches the eye, though.
"All matches are held and all fighters, regardless of status, compete at the sole, complete, and ultimate discretion of the Ultratech Corporation."
Just as your eyes settle on that particular phrasing, a deep bass thump reverberates through the floor as a gunmetal grey machine lands outside. Converting it's forward pectoral plating for anti-personnel suppression, it spins up its autocannons ominously.
The air just above Yuri's head (if she has a cowlick today, it's done for) is filled with roughly 129 rounds a minute of hot lead, reducing the entry glass doors to crumbles at the entryway, ruining the front wall of the entire office, and carving an even line of devastation across the entire tournament center. Only after everything is completely devastated does the unit think to project a warning into the (now open) room.
[ You are _not_ authorized. Surrender immediately for processing. You have fifteen seconds to comply! This is your only warning. ]
Yuri doesn't have a cowlick, that's not the type of thing she does with her hair. But it is definitely going to cut her down to size in more ways than one if it hits her. By the time it's finished firing, Yuri's already tried to find a place to take cover, but it's no use. Thinking quickly, she tries to get out of the way of the unit and crouch down, making herself as small of a target as possible. She's lucky she doesn't get hit by any of the gunfire, but it definitely has caused her heart rate to go up more than doing a hundred jumping jacks to warm up could!
Once the gunfire's stopped and Yuri gets a look at how things have turned out, she realizes that she might have made a bit of a mistake coming here. She's about to head for the door and escape, only to learn that there's a warning being projected into the room and upon looking at it, Yuri's demeanor changes from trying to escape to wanting to prove a point to whoever's behind this whole thing.
"Surrender for processing?!" Yuri asks angrily, scowling and clenching her fists. "I'm here to compete, not to be processed for whatever you goons want!" She cracks her knuckles. "If you think I'm gonna surrender, you've got another thing coming! Because I'm Yuri Sakazaki, the princess of Kyokugen Karate!" A smile forms on her face. "And this princess is going to use the awesomeness of Kyokugen Karate to prove that she's not as weak as she might look! So if you want me, come get me!"
The machine--it couldn't be anything else--strides into the tournament center. As it goes, translucent ethereal blades hiss, forming out of a ghostly white exhaust jetting from the creature's wrists. With the full dark grey body armor, this thing is reminescent of some kind of dark knight, but there is nothing human about the way it picks through the fresh glass, adapting only to the contour of the natural ground, and remaining relatively unresponsive to the crunching glass beneath its tread without breaking stride at all.
In machine processing, Yuri's response is stored in an internal memory register, a calculation made that would later be converted into an image for QA purposes, in the form of an angry red reticule and facial recognition patterns flicking over Yuri's face as a red triggerline forms underneath her defiant image. + Subject defiant response pattern recognized. Initializing combat mode. +
The Fulgore unit does not break tread, cutting Yuri off mid-sentence exactly nine seconds in.
[ --You now have five seconds to comply! Four, three, two... ]
That Fulgore machine looks dangerous and nasty... to some maybe. But not to Yuri! Even though it's cut her off mid-sentence, she's not afraid of it. "Or else what are you gonna do to me, huh?" She grins even more, albeit in an evil manner. "I ain't scared of you, you big tin can!" She razzes the Fulgore unit before slapping her buttocks. "You think that I'm afraid of some guy in a metallic suit? Well think again!"
Yuri taps her fists together then assumes a Kyokugen fighting stance. "I'm Yuri Sakazaki, Kyokugen princess, and I'm gonna kick your metallic butt with the awesomeness of Kyokugen Karate! You and your Ultratech fools will have to find someone else to process!" She stares at the unit, obviously not scared of it but thinking it's just some kind of stupid stunt. "Come on, I'm ready when you are!"
COMBATSYS: Yuri has started a fight here.
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Yuri 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: MkI Fulgore brings his battle systems online.
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Yuri
+ All systems nominal. Post operation self test complete. Battle configuration loaded. Command packets received. +
The machine is much larger than Yuri--but that's hardly a first for the micro Kyokugen fighter, is it? What would normally be a dominating presence is just one more would-be attacker of many. Of course, it's not every day Yuri comes up against a fighter in full titanium alloy plate armor sporting wristblades made of plasma that are broader than her waist. Fulgore pointedly does not respond to Yuri's taunting, remaining oblivious to her behavior in the most ruthless manner.
[ Pacification mode. ]
The movement is like an oncoming train. Instead of actually shooting Yuri -- it seems to have done some sort of calculation in its head about the efficacy of that and is currently re-loading its autocannon cycler -- the primitive Fulgore unit pitches forward into a full dash, fire roaring from its ankle-mounted jets to propell it across the expensive tile at speeds that could carve a car in half. It's trying to punch Yuri swuare in the middle with its plasma claw, and latch onto her with a vise-like grip.
COMBATSYS: Yuri blocks MkI Fulgore's Cyberdash.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
MkI Fulgore 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Yuri
Pacification mode? Seems more like murder mode in Yuri's mind!
Nevertheless, even though the Kyokugen fighter's smile has faded, her spirit hasn't. She does her best to assume a defensive stance and plants her feet into the ground, watching as the Fulgore robot comes at her. The claw punches her, but it only gets her defensive styled arm guard, sending her skidding back across the floor but not much else. Aside from having a major cut on her arm of course. "Owwwww... what the HELL are you?!"
Yuri pauses for a moment, then decides not to wait for an answer. "Never mind what you are, I know you are NOT taking me out!" She brings one fist behind her and readies a blast of chi, before shooting it in the form of a fireball.
COMBATSYS: MkI Fulgore blocks Yuri's Ko'ou Ken.
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Yuri
The machine's claws crackle ominously against the flesh, metal caught against skin at just the right angle to avoid the damage. The crackling plasma, even where it does not cut or cauterize, causes the fine hairs of Yuri's skin to stand at attention. The jets slowly abate, slowing the machine's momentum--with the way it moves, it must weigh comparably to a small car.
It only comes to a full stop at point blank range. This close, you can hear the ominous cascade of clicking and whirring that is the machine's internal mechanisms, and its power core thrums with barely restrained force and power. Emotionless, it draws up a thick gauntlet against the flash of chi, its armor glowing along the edges as the energy collides with it and is redirected across the entirety of its plate. A deep pulse emanates from the back of its leg as it drives up a powerful jet-propelled knee towards Yuri's middle in part of a three-step advance program, aiming to cut her offensive short.
COMBATSYS: MkI Fulgore successfully hit Yuri with Fierce Strike.
Grazing Hit
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Yuri
The closer it gets, the more nervous Yuri starts to feel, and the hairs on her skin start to stand up definitely. Her eyes widen a little, yet all the same her scowl still remains. It's almost as though she's remaining quite defiant about this whole thing. "You won't get me that easily!" Yuri exclaims, watching as the strange robot continues to advance on her without showing any signs of slowing down. Of course, when it absorbs her projectile, and then goes at her with its knee, Yuri starts to feel a little freaked out. "What the hell? That's so totally not fair!" She tries to leap out of the way, but her timing is a little off.
Yuri gets kneed in the side, and goes spinning onto the grouund, only to roll onto her feet again, although she's looking a little in pain from that last hit. "That was cheap!" Yuri says, not caring if the robot can hear her or not. "You think you're all that because you're a huge tin can! Well I'm not afraid of you! Kyokugen is awesome and can overcome anything!" She rushes in and attempts to deliver a sweeping kick. Of course, against something like that, it might hurt Yuri more than it hurts Fulgore!
COMBATSYS: Yuri successfully hits MkI Fulgore with Medium Kick.
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Yuri
Fulgore continues to fixate on the tiny Kyokugen, tracking her movements in soulless red eyes even after she crashes into the ground, his motion complete as he slams a boot into the ground, turning his shoulder after her to execute a slash after her--missing, just narrowly so. The three step attack is aborted only moments later, as Yuri's sneaker crashes into the assemblage of struts that forms the machine's left leg.
As should be expected, it's a little bit like kicking a tank.
The machine buckles--but only just so, subroutines interrupted by the force of Yuri's kick and forcing it's interal gyroscopic balancers to compensate for the sudden loss in stability, twisting its body at an unnatural angle until its CG is stabilized and it can get its leg underneath it again. [ Battle ability upgraded, ] it comments heartlessly.
Rotating its torso back, Fulgore steps cleanly into the next blow--a crushing downward plasma-bladed punch that is meant to flatten Yuri to the ground while she's underneath a standing horizon slash.
COMBATSYS: Yuri interrupts Gravity Strike from MkI Fulgore with Yuri Chou Upper.
? Strange Hit! ?
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Yuri
As soon as Yuri hits the leg, she hops back onto her foot and then holds the other foot as she hops up and down, yelling in pain. An occasional curse word is dropped too, but hopefully the Fulgore MkI can't understand what she's saying. Namely because if it knew, then she'd know she's cursing its creators and their mothers. But Yuri's attention on her foot is averted when she looks at Fulgore again and does a double-take. "Oh NO!"
Putting the pain in her foot on hold for a few moments, Yuri drops down and attempts to launch into her signature attack, the Yuri Chou Upper! She attempts to deliver a rushing attack that culminates with her throwing her own personal variation of the Dragon Punch at Fulgore. She connects... and so does Fulgore. She gets hit on the head as the blow connects, and she drops to the ground, seeing quite a few stars for a few moments. She shakes her head, trying to get them out as she pushes herself back up. "Whoa, where did that train come from?" She babbles.
The Mark I has so much armor plating that it makes it difficult to force the machine to flinch in the face of physical damage. Even when struck directly by the sort of rising uppercut that would put most high school bullies and even a couple drunks down for the count nigh instantly, the machine has a far less pleasing response. Internal suspension systems hiss to absorb the shock, pneumatic cylinders cushioning the blow to its metal plated jaw. Overall, the blow sends it exactly one step backwards.
It lacks the responses of a normal, emotional, rational human. While most people would shy away from the source of the damage, the step back Fulgore takes is only a concession to some internal parameter that requires it to take the appropriate actions to keep its cg within a certain tolerance radius from its physical center. Its core thrums powerfully within its chest, and as it straightens its neck alignment, the machine's mask emits visible jets, coolant condensation building on its facemask. [ Overdrive mode. ]
The core within it thrums powerfully, causing the machine's arms to light up with crackling power, eyes burning brightly. Leaning forward, its claws snap and hiss, plasma bolts ejecting from the ports, sending multiple gaseous cutting blades after Sakazaki's downed body. No Mercy.
COMBATSYS: Yuri fails to reflect Tri Laser Storm from MkI Fulgore with Saiha.
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Yuri
Yuri finds herself on the ground and finding herself being targeted by laser beams. Beams that look really dangerous. Yet they could also be reflected back with a well timed counter, right? Well, Yuri's not thinking straight apparently, and the attempt to deflect them fails. She's hit by the laser beams... and they hurt like hell. But they don't cut her into pieces. Because while the shield doesn't get the lasers, the chi seems to flow into her body and keep her from being cut into pieces. She's left bleeding badly and in a lot of pain. But she's still alive.
"Unnngh..." Yuri thinks to herself as the pain surges through her body. "Dammit, this is worse than doing a thousand knuckle push-ups!" She mutters, wishing this pain would go away.
The energy blasts overpower the young Kyokugen princess's defense, as calculated. One thing that may factor into Yuri's missteps is that there is nothing innately spiritual about what the machine is doing. It's not chi. There's nothing deeper about what the machine is doing. Its energy output is just that high. Its technology.. is that advanced.
Its machine core pulsing in overdrive, the Mark I is casting a pretty big shadow over Sakazaki right now. It recharges its claws, energy cycler thrumming to regenerate the plasma blades. Almost absently, the machine flexes a hand, as if to test its functioning parameters, or perhaps to bleed off excess power not otherwise being routed elsewhere.
[ Core functioning at overcharge capacity, ] the machine notes. [ Entering capture mode. ]
Red eyes glaring in the dark, the machine fires a high-wattage red energy beam from its eyes into the tile. Light reflecting from every angle from the polished surface, the machine's laserbeam is almost dazzling as it moves up towards Yuri. The bright, reflected red light washes out the color in Yuri's gi as the laser approaches. It will cut into her, but it will only be of minor damage. More or less, it's only to cut away fabric and gain direct skin contact. More importantly, the machine's eyelasers are creating an ionized channel in the air.
So the nonlethal electric blast it discharges from its armor an instant later knows exactly where to go.
It's a little bit like getting hit with a small lightning bolt.
COMBATSYS: MkI Fulgore successfully hit Yuri with Eyelaser.
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MkI Fulgore 0/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Yuri
As Yuri starts to get up, there's a bolt of lightning coming at her... or something similar to that. Unfortunately, there's nowhere else for it to go but into Yuri's body. She tries to absorb it, but there's no defending it at all. She's shocked by the blast, and her body is stunned for a moment. Her eyes are wide, and then her body starts to convulse. Yet within those convulsions there's an effort made to try to break out of it. And Yuri does break out of it, at least long enough to summon her chi for one last ditch effort at making a counterattack against Fulgore!
"You haven't won that easily!" Yuri calls out as she brings her hands behind her back and then sends forth several large fireballs at Fulgore. Each one comes in rapid succession. Unfortunately, the chi is doubling as her reserve strength. Once she's used it up, she's going to drop to the ground and pass out. And possibly be taken away for processing or something similar...
COMBATSYS: Yuri can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
MkI Fulgore 0/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: MkI Fulgore fails to reflect Denjin Haoh Sho Ko Ken from Yuri with Electroflect.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
MkI Fulgore 1/------=/=======|
It's a stun blast. Now that Yuri's vital signs are flagging, it's trying to put Yuri down for the count. And worse yet, it seems to be charging up for another blast. To that respect, when Yuri recovers, it registers no surprise, instead moving slightly, grudgingly, with the more dramatic changes occurring in its power grid. Full power is redirected away from its laser optics and lightning emitters to its recharging plasma claws, bringing the magnetic containment online and restarting the blade jets to fill it quickly.
The machine lurches back, drawing its plasma blades wide into the heiress attack. Between the two sets of blades on either arm, lightning energy crawls between them, the cascading blasts of chi slamming into the crackling field and expanding, several blasts joining together in an aurora of clashing energy containment. For a moment, it seems that the machine has it--that it will harmlessly dissipate the energy.
That is when its core crashes.
The energy output of the machine dropping to zero, even for a second, is enough for force the blast to explode in the machine's face, literally and figuratively. The blast is enough to send even the not insignificant weight of Fulgore skidding across the battlefield. When the light clears, the machine's facemask is partially gone, revealing a rictus grin of exposed servomotors and alien, exposed strutwork. One eye is completely cracked, but both lenses are dim, leaving the machine still and immobile as a statue. Impotent, it stands there over Yuri, neutralized.
.. until it reboots.
Slowly, the machine's core powers back online, causing a single angry red eye to flare brightly in the dark again. Resuming session. It scans Yuri's body for signs of life. When it finds them, it resumes its prior program, reaching down with an iron grip, silently taking Yuri by the leg, and jetting off out of the tournament center, issuing a report to central command.
Soon, a cleanup crew will be dispatched. Everything will be repaired, put back in its place. And no one will know that anything untoward happened here...
Log created on 20:21:31 08/20/2015 by Yuri, and last modified on 08:08:25 08/21/2015.