Description: At the beginning of the fight, the containers will be organized like a gigantic rat maze, with three entrances equally spaced around the edge of the rectangular cargo bay. Audience members will have the advantage of bleachers on all four sides of the cargo bay, and they'll be able to look down into the bay as if it were a miniature, seaworthy Colosseum. But the competitors can forget trying to memorize the layout of the fight beforehand: after the fighters have been moved to their individual waiting areas, Crane 1 and Crane 2 are in perfect position to move the empty containers around, shuffling their positions to minimize the chance that any one fighter can get a clear line-of-sight to any of the other. Cranes will be moving the containers around all throughout the fight, so fighters will need to take care to adjust their strategies accordingly!
Welcome to the Mighty Lucky Dragon. Hope you like boxes!
There are really a thoroughly unnecessary number of cargo containers ranging from small to large here, mostly empty. They're built into piles, forming obstacles to jump on if they're low or walls to be pushed up against if they're high. Sometimes they're moved around by operating cranes. The whole thing is entirely mazelike, and while the crowd - mostly set above the cargo bay - gets to see down into it, the participants don't.
Tabitha doesn't like this sort of a gimmick match. Strange combat conditions, sure; unusual numbers of opposition, or the need to team up, definitely all right. But a maze? She isn't actually all that good at mazes. She tends to get lost, especially when it's moving around her.
Still, she's here - because there's no way to get better at it than to do it. She is already warming up in her entrance, the aft starboard; punching the air, weaving left and right, she looks like a practicing boxer. There's a reason for that.
Back to Saturday Night Fights for Cracker Jack, now a belt holding champion and a major entertainment draw for professional fighting. And he gets to make money on the side with his endorsement deals, which sweetens it for the Vegas-native. Cracker Jack is in the fore entrance, peering out over the maze of cargo containers and grinning. He taps his baseball bat in his gloveless left hand, feeling the smooth and trusty wood slide across his dry palm. He looks up at the crowd, nodding at the turnout, before he steps into the maze. He looks upwards at the moving containers, watching the crane closest to him. The easiest way to get through a maze? Cheat. As a crane moves its magnetic clamp near him, he has his opportunity.
Jack leaps into the air and grabs onto the side of a cargo container as the magnetic clamp engages onto it's painted aluminum surface, and Cracker scrambles aboard. He waves to the audience as he's lofted into the air over the arena, watching for the other two fighters he knows are starting at the opposite end of the ship. He takes a moment to adjust his hat with his left hand, pushing it down over his eyes. Time to rumble.
Charity gigs are no new business for Killasaurus Orphanage. In fact, a good number of their shows have been played for free, and that hasn't always been because nobody bought tickets. For the rest of the band, the boat trip aboard the Mighty Lucky Dragon has practically been a free cruise - in fact, rumour has it that they offered to play a show, but were actually paid not to.
It's not so much a free ride for lead singer Alexis "Killasaurus Lex" Lovell, however. The Canadian teen was quick to volunteer for a match for the charity benefit, especially given the opportunity to visit a new locale. Of course, this means competing in the cargo bay maze - and while it's not the first time that the girl has fought in a maze, her last experience had fairly traumatic results. This time, she's come prepared.
Dressed in her usual Catholic schoolgirl-esque stage and fighting outfit, the young Canadian brushes her hair back behind her ear. Standing in her point of the fighters' triangle, she doesn't really have a view of Tabitha or Jack as the cranes start to shift the containers around. On the other hand, the spectators overhead do.
"Alright, Kim. Tell me what you see?" Alexis murmurs under her breath.
*chhzz* "I see... boxes?"
Alexis' hand moves up to her forehead as she lets out an exasperated sigh.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha has started a fight here on the left meter side.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cracker Jack
COMBATSYS: Alexis has joined the fight here in the center.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|-------
Tabitha gets immediately irritated by the presence of cargo containers when she makes a left turn into a dead end.
"Who /designed/ this match?" she asks herself, as she turns right back around - just in time for the bell to sound. Apparently she doesn't have to find the middle before they get right down to brass tacks. Or brawling, as the case may be.
But Tabitha still doesn't see anyone else. She turns a corner, finds a branching route, and picks one at random. She's looking around; it doesn't occur to her to look up and find Cracker Jack, because she doesn't cheat and assumes her opponents are playing it straight too. Nor does she have anyone in the audience feeding her directions, even poorly.
So, left to herself, she keeps up her constant movement. She's alert, and she's on edge; she's ready to spring out as soon as a target presents itself, even if she's not quite taking the initiative yet. Mostly because she hasn't found anyone else.
Should she have brought bread crumbs? Or - no, wait, that's just for getting out...
COMBATSYS: Tabitha focuses on her next action.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|-------
When the bell sounds out to announce the start of the match, Alexis starts to move tentatively forward into the maze of cargo containers. She keeps her hands raised in a defensive guard, fists tight as she takes an action entirely antithetical to her nature: she tries to keep quiet.
"Alright. Which way do I need to go?" she whispers quietly, the earbud she's wearing relaying her question to her friend, bassist and (today) dyed redhead, Kim Steele.
"Which way do you -want- to go?" Kim asks as she peers over the edge of the bleacher sections.
"I want to know which way to the nearest other person down here," Alexis growls softly.
"Oh. Let's see - take two lefts, then a right, then another left, and you'll run into the boxer girl?"
"Thanks, Kim." Alexis exhales in relief and hurries forward, taking the next left - and runs into a dead end. "What the hell, Kim? This is a dead end."
"Oh. I meant /my/ left, durr. Why don't you just climb up on one of those boxes so you can see for yourself, like that guy with the baseball bat?"
"Wha...?" Alexis' attention is drawn upward in time to spot the container that Cracker Jack is standing on. It's likely she's in full view of the batter as well - and so she decides to act quickly. All subtlety forgotten, she unslings the wireless red electric guitar over her shoulder and flicks the power switch on it, instantly filling the crate maze will a faint hum.
"Hey, cheater! Eat this!"
As Alexis strums a single power chord, the air in front of her seems to distort with the sound, sending a forceful ripple of sonic chi energy toward the suspended crate that Cracker Jack is standing on.
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack fails to reflect Power Chord from Alexis with Batting Hero.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|-------
Cracker Jack raises his arms over his head at the fans in the bleachers, baseball bat being hefted aloft with either hand as he grins. He loves the limelight, his reason for being a professional fighter (besides all that sweet cash). As the crane continues to move the container, he gives a thumbs up to the man operating the crane, eliciting an eye roll from the dock worker. Then, like all the plans of mice and men, he comes undone. He hears the amping on of an electric guitar, recognizing the fighting style from his research as Alexis' calling card. He looks down into the maze of containers, searching for her, but too late as a wave of sonic chi comes for him. He squints and tries to see it, but he can only hear it stinging towards him. He swings his bat, once, but he aims too high, and gets taken out at the feet. He goes toppling off the cargo container, to the ground below. He lands on his back in the maze of containers, his baseball bat hitting the ground near him with a *CLONK CLONK CLONK*. It rolls away from him as he reaches for it, stretched out on the ground, a bit of blood coming from the side of his mouth. He breathes in, wheezing, having taken a shot to the ribs with that hit. That's definitely a bruise.
Tabitha figures out which way she wants to go soon enough, after finding just one more dead end.
It helps that she can /hear/ a fight starting. Alexis isn't exactly subtle when she gets going, and Cracker Jack isn't much better. Especially when she hears the clonking of the baseball bat as she starts to get closer, picking up into a jog.
Tabitha comes out of basically nowhere (a very small side gap between the boxes that she has to squeeze through just to fit). She finds herself very close to Alexis' flank, and she takes advantage of that, letting loose with a hard punch that's at least as much a shove as anything else, so she can finish pulling herself through the gap.
Once she's through, she tries to shadow Alexis, staying at least partially behind her. This both keeps her out of her easy view (and reach) and also lets her use Alexis as cover against Cracker Jack, at least for a few moments - when he gets up from that hit, anyway. It didn't sound fun.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha successfully hits Alexis with Blindside Step.
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Tabitha 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|---====
A wicked grin spreads across Alexis' face as Cracker Jack plummets from view behind a shipping container. The guitar is returned to its position against her back, the strap pulled across her chest, and Alexis takes a moment to flex her fingers.
"Baseball is a dumb sport, anyway," she says smugly as she starts to walk slowly toward the position she last saw Jack in.
"But Lexi, the Blue Jays are doing awesome this year! Don't you like the Blue Jays?" Kim's voice comes through Alexis' earbud radio device.
"Okay, sure, everyone likes when their home team is winning, but watching it is still super bor - hurk!"
The punch catches Alexis off-guard, sending her crashing against the side of a blue shipping crate before toppling to the floor of the cargo bay.
"Fuckin' A, Kim!" Alexis hisses as a hand moves to her ribs. "Where was the warning on that one, eh?"
Picking herself up to her feet quickly, Alexis whirls around, trying to spot her assailant, but Tabitha is already dancing out of her field of vision. Alexis turns her head quickly, catching the copper-haired boxer out of the corner of her eye. "What do you think you're doing?!" she yells as Tabitha keeps on the periphery of her vision and out of reach. Turning to try and keep up with the other girl nearly has Alexis sea-sick after a moment - finally, she snaps back in the other direction and lunges backward, aiming one of her black elbow-pads at the other fighter's upper body. A faint whistling sound accompanies the attack as sonic energy builds around the striking point - whatever her elbow should end up connecting with, a loud 'pong' sound as if from a percussive melodic instrument will result from the discharge of chi.
"Hurgh," is all Cracker Jack can say as he stiffly sits up, adjusting his hat and blinking the stars from the fall away. He staggers to his feet, and stretches his back, wincing as he feels the bruising on his shoulders and spine from the fall. Not that bad, though, he's pretty physically conditioned from his time in Shadaloo. He ambles over to his bat, and scoops it up, setting it on his shoulder. He strolls about to a junction, and spots Alexis fighting Tabitha. Perfect. Tabitha is hiding behind Alexis, but that still leaves Alexis' back open for a revenge strike.
Cracker Jack grunts as he dashes forward, his left hand reaching out for Alexis' hair. If he gets a handhold, he jerks her backwards away from Tabitha, and plants his knee in her lower lumbar, before releasing her. "Surprise surprise!" he shouts, "Daddy's home!" There's some booing from the audience at Cracker Jack attacking an opponent from behind, which seems to pump him up even more. He's a consummate heel, he loves the negative attention! His gaze cuts across the empty air to Tabitha. "And /you/ are next!"
COMBATSYS: Tabitha fails to interrupt Aggressive Strike from Alexis with Rapid Combo.
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Tabitha 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|--=====
Tabitha never stops moving, which probably contributes to that seasickness. She's a boxer, and she moves like one; a lot of rolling evasion, keeping her upper body out of easy reach and her position ready to shift at any point she needs to. "Gotta keep your eyes open," she says to Alexis in response.
It would be sensible to use her position to fade backwards and avoid a counterstrike, but Tabitha has committed to the opening barrage and she's going to see it through. She steps forward, preparing a left-hand flurry to lead up to a stronger right-hand hit, which is where she does better; Tabitha usually fights on the strength of few decisive blows.
Fighting against her best skill lets Alexis make her pay. The sonic blast accompanied with the elbow - or possibly the other way around - impacts Tabitha halfway through her sudden rush, and slams her backwards, right into the gap she just came out from. She's not squeezing this time, so she doesn't fall back through it, but she does have to disentangle herself before she can do much more. And that hurts, too, though not so much that she feels the need to /stop/ fighting.
Jack has Alexis distracted for a moment, which is all to the good, but Tabitha makes an immediate determination: she doesn't like him. He's an asshole. Which is what he wants to look like, but even so. "Come on and try, then," she challenges, pulling herself back out of the gap and bringing her fists up.
COMBATSYS: Alexis blocks Cracker Jack's Cracker Blitz.
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Tabitha 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|=======
Alexis' act of aggression toward Tabitha leaves her exposed to Cracker Jack's rearward assault. She's caught by the hair, and instinctively she throws both hands up to catch the arm holding her and try and pry herself free. One eye manages to spot the impending strike against her lower back as she struggles with the Shadaloo fighter. With a shift of her hips, the blow intended for her spine is intercepted by a softer, but less vital surface. The Canadian falls to the ground on her knees as she's released, and scrambles away quickly.
"Daddy's home? Seriously? Ugh, what a creep," the teenager growls and spits as she pushes herself up to her feet, one hand rubbing her sore rear end. "Enough with the cheap shots! You think you can beat me at fighting dirty? I'm a fucking Canadian!" There's a momentary pause as Alexis brings both fists up again, and a rising hum starts to resound from the nearby crates as it emanates out from her. Even the audience above the bay are a bit confused by the leap of logic, before the girl adds, "I play HOCKEY!"
The buildup of noise echoing through the bay is obvious even to those not sensitive to the fluctuations of chi as the angry Canadian adopts a challenging stance between the other two fighters.
COMBATSYS: Alexis surges with the power of rock!
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Tabitha 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 1|----===|=======
Cracker Jack grits his teeth as Alexis struggles with him, feeling his knee sink into her before she manages to get loose of his grasp. "Hockey, huh? Hockey is like taking the boring scoring system of soccer, and combining it with the gayness of figure skating!" While he laughs, he shifts his bat to his left hand, and then charges past Alexis towards Tabitha, now that he has an opening. His gloved right hand swings out in a massive punch at her jaw with the full force of his barrelling frame, with enough force that he'll have to skid to a halt for a few feet after he connects, or if he misses. He knows Alexis is building her juice up, a veteran of many brawls with more advanced fighters in Shadaloo's training chambers, so he wants to be closer to Tabitha and not the rockstar Canadian chi wielder. "OOF!" comes a grunt at the follow-through of his punch, squinting at Tabitha with hatred as he draws in near enough for the boxer to see his eyes beneath the brim of his stylish hat.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks Cracker Jack's Fierce Punch.
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Tabitha 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 1|----===|=======
Tabitha clearly doesn't get the joke until Alexis explains it. Fortunately, it wasn't aimed at her, so she doesn't feel too bad about it. Tabitha shakes her head, as much to make sure her hair is not in her eyes as anything else. She's inching around toward the battle, and that makes her a target. There are boxes behind her, she knows that, and a side path; if she wanted to get away and make this a maze run again, she could.
But Tabitha doesn't want to. She'd rather fight head-on.
"Nothing wrong with hockey," she says, as Cracker Jack barrels down on her. She's seen blows like this before - she's /delivered/ blows like this before. This time she doesn't strike back immediately; she brings her arms up, holding her fists up with knuckles out, arms parallel to each other.
The fist smashes into Tabitha's guard. She feels it - it would be impossible not to, because it literally slides her backward several feet, skidding into -
Wait, wasn't there a box there a moment ago?
There is not anymore. One of the cranes picked it up, and so Tabitha slides into now-empty space, lowering her guard as Cracker Jack follows her. Alexis is driving some noise just behind Jack, and it's tempting to throw him into her - but since Jack is in front of her, she goes for him.
It helps that he has the belt. She'd like to show she's as good as he is.
Tabitha clenches her fist. Rainbow-coloured chi starts to build up around it, an aurora-like halo; she strikes just once, mid-body, causing an eruption of rainbow colour and freezing cold energy. "I'm not /that/ easy a target!"
The Canadian fighter's scowl deepens at Cracker Jack's comment, though she hangs back as he barrels past her to clash with Tabitha. The hum continues to linger in the air around her, deep and dull enough that its effect of betraying her position dwindles the more that it fills the space. The background noise causes Alexis to be caught totally off-guard when one of the cranes latches onto the crate behind her with a heavy metallic *CLUNK.*
Seeing an opportunity arising, Alexis quickly hops up and latches her fingers onto the edge of the shipping container, shimmying her way up onto the surface. As her position becomes more elevated, her earbud crackles to life again.
"Hey, Lexi! You might wanna be more careful climbing on boxes in a skirt, everyone can see your -"
Glaring, Alexis yanks the earbud out and tosses it down to the bay floor while she's briefly obscured from view by the stacks. From her vantage point many feet above the ground, she spots Tabitha and Cracker Jack fighting down below. Her eyes lock on the latter as she decides to opt for some revenge.
Wordlessly, but far from soundlessly, she tosses herself over the side of the crate, aiming to hit Jack with a cross-body from above and behind. Should she manage to collide, a dissonant sound like a distorted chord from an abused guitar would fill the space, and she'd follow up by wrapping around to loop an arm over Jack's head before falling back in what amounts to a sonic-powered Tornado DDT.
COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Cracker Jack with Stage Dive.
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Tabitha 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 1|----===|=======
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack blocks Tabitha's Arctic Blow.
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Tabitha 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 1|----===|=======
Cracker Jack's arm lashes out and his fist clenches between him and Tabitha, the chi-infused blow bouncing off his arm with a meaty thwack. He looks up, eyes first squinting, then widening, as he sees Alexis flying down at him from atop the moving shipping container. He lets out an incoherent cry of rage as he's grabbed into the maneuver, before his head is brought crashing to the ground. His hat is left to fly up into the air as his bat rolls away, ol' Jack looking sidelong as he lays on his stomach. Slowly, but drunkenly, he climbs to his feet, and looks to either side. On one hand, he has Tabitha, who is the better boxer. On the other hand, Alexis seems to be an immature fighter, but her chi is causing him no end of pain. He decides that Alexis' burgeoning power is the larger threat at the split second he's making the decision, and lashes out at the Canadian punk rocker with the back of his fist. Spittle mixed with blood escapes his mouth as he breathes heavily, streams of saliva coming down from either side of his mouth as he rages between them. "I'm just gettin' warmed up!" he growls, his mouth twisting into a warped grin.
Tabitha uses very little chi in her combat style, so if Cracker Jack is worried about that, he's right to pick the other target. Yes, she had a colourful aurora around her fist that time - but now that she's struck, it's gone again, and she doesn't seem about to bring it back.
Tabitha is definitely not running. She's right where she was a moment before, holding her position rather than vanishing into the box maze and forcing others to chase her down; her fists are up as if she expected to hit someone in the next few seconds. "What is it with you guys and climbing? It's a maze! You don't climb the walls of mazes."
Maybe she /does/ expect to hit someone. Nobody is immediately attacking her, and so she has free reign to move around; she does, edging around the 'hall' of shipping containers until she's got the combat zone in reach. When her fist lashes out - a hooked blow - it's aimed at Alexis more from chance than intent; she happened to be on Tabitha's right, and Tabitha is using her right hand, so it's going to hit her rather than Jack. Unfortunately, this means she might get sandwiched between a pair of punches...
COMBATSYS: Alexis endures Cracker Jack's Turn Punch.
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Tabitha 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 2|<<<<<<<|<<<<<<<
COMBATSYS: Alexis interrupts Hook Punch from Tabitha with Beatdown in Three Four.
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Tabitha 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|----===
The Canadian hard rocker finds herself between a rock and a hard place as Cracker Jack comes at her from in front and Tabitha comes at her from behind. Cracker Jack's fist catches Alexis clean in the mouth, splitting her lip and spinning her around on her feet just in time to meet Tabitha's approach. Her dazed aquamarine eyes narrow at the last moment, then scrunch shut as she prepares for the worst.
She doesn't just take the blow, though - she throws herself into it, and into the other female fighter, in fact. Alexis doesn't have a boxer's discipline; she collides with Tabitha bodily, knocking her to the ground to a straddling position. One of the Canadian's eyes is already starting to swell shut as she draws back a fist, that hum rising in pitch as she bellows, punctuating each word with a chi-fuelled blow aimed at the face that reports with a sound like a different musical note.
"I!"
*PING*
"DON'T!"
*POONG?*
"DO!"
*C#*
"THREESOMES!"
She finalizes the incoherent tirade with one last heavy punch, accompanied by a resounding crash. As the energy is released, the entire cargo bay suddenly lurches to one side, several boxes displacing as it does, the lights flickering briefly. Alexis rolls to one side, away from Tabitha, to avoid getting hit by one of the cargo containers. In the chaos, the engagement is almost reset by the maze.
"What... the hell?" Alexis wonders as she pants for breath on the cargo bay floor, one gloved hand wiping blood away from her face.
Cracker Jack laughs in satisfaction as his knuckles slam into Alexis' face, feeling the power of the blow ripple up his arm and into his shoulder. He watches Alexis savagely beat Tabitha, then steps in as Alexis rolls aside, steadying himself on the rocking boat. "If this ship is sinking, you two are comin' with me." His hands, right gloved and left bare, reach for Tabitha's shoulders, as he attempts to pull her towards him and up over his head, turning a step to the side, and then slamming her downwards with the force of his falling body into a train container. "Ha ha ha ha!" he ominously laughs, his voice taking on a spooky quality as he deals out damage to both women, one after the other. He's close to winning - now all he needs is one of them to get knocked out of the fight, before he focuses his superior brawn on the remaining, and individually weaker, opponent.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks Cracker Jack's Power Throw.
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Tabitha 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|----===
Alexis is a very... active, instinctive fighter. Unfortunately that works against Tabitha in this case, because Alexis throws herself at Tabitha in exactly the way that Tabitha /wouldn't/. It's too reckless, too dangerous.
It pays off, though.
Alexis bears Tabitha to the ground and starts pummeling. Tabitha twists to try to get away, but in a grapple is where she's at her weakest; she plants her hands and tries to push herself up, but leverage keeps her down where she gets pounded. One, two, three -
On three, Tabitha takes a particularly painful blow, and everything shifts. It takes her a moment to realize that it wasn't just her getting her wits scrambled from the impact; the ship really is rolling, it's not that she's just been punched across the floor.
It does have the advantage that it rolls Tabitha well away from Alexis. She slams into a shipping container, then grabs it, pulling herself up. "The hell did /you/ do?" she accuses Alexis, even as Cracker Jack bears down upon her.
Jack doesn't manage a solid grab on Tabitha. She's already been pulled down once; she doesn't want to let it happen again. She gets grabbed, but she manages to hold onto the containers with her other hand, and he fails to pull her much away from them. "Hands off!" She grunts. Her entire face hurts.
Breaking free of the grip, Tabitha draws her fist back, holding it. Her entire arm tenses - her whole body, really. Muscles in her arm visibly do so - and after holding her fist back for almost three full seconds, Tabitha practically /rockets/ forward, releasing all that force directly for Jack's torso! The blow is staggering - hard enough to dent metal or break planks, sufficient to take out a weak fighter in a single knockout blow.
Jack isn't a weak fighter. But that doesn't mean it hurts much less.
"Hey, that wasn't my fault!" Alexis yells into the cargo maze, her voice echoing through it in response to Tabitha's accusation. It wasn't, right? The teenager's mastery of sonic energy couldn't nearly be great enough to cause a boat that big to rock. Well, at least not in that sense. The entire landscape of the battle has changed, it seems - at least, that's the way that it looks from her perspective in the maze. She's just about got her bearings, she thinks, when the ship rights itself, sending crates sliding back down the floor in the other direction.
"Shit!"
Alexis totters and twists out of the way of a bright orange shipping container as it slides into another one like it. As she does, one of the crates swings overhead as the crane operator struggles to control the machine with the roiling from below. Alexis jumps up to grab onto a couple of bars on the underside of the crate as it rises aimlessly into the air, keeping her eyes peeled toward the space below. Spying Jack and Tabitha once more, she lets herself drop recklessly down from her precarious height, a low hum building as she plunges downward. As fortune would have it, her momentum and direction has her aimed to land on Cracker Jack, hips first - aiming to drive him face-first into the ground with the combination of gravity, her weight, and the force of the dissonant sonic shockwave to be released whereever she should land.
It's bound to be painful for at least one of the parties involved.
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack Toughs Out Tabitha's Impact Knuckle!
>> Decisive Hit!! <<
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Tabitha 1/---====/=======|=======\=======\1 Cracker Jack
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Alexis 0|-------|-----==
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack interrupts Drop D from Alexis with Home Run King.
*KNOCKED AWAY*
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Tabitha 1/---====/=======|===----\-------\0 Cracker Jack
[ ]
Alexis 1|---====|=======
Cracker Jack releases Tabitha as she struggles with him, and goes sliding backwards across the shifting deck, sidestepping a container that comes plummetting to the ground after the crane hauling it loses its grip. As Tabitha comes surging at him, he grits his teeth and thrusts his chest out, the punch sinking into his chest and turning into iron as she clobbers him. He pushes her aside and picks up his bat as it rolls nearby, just in time for Alexis to fall at him from above. Breathing heavily and sweating profusely, the crowd is too busy screaming at the rocking ship to cheer at the apex of the fight, but the people at home are certainly entertained! He grips the bat with both hands and gives it a mighty upward golf swing at Alexis as he turns around, the bat moving to meet Alexis' head and slamming her dive aside. There's a brief moment to catch his brief, as he loosens his tie and runs his left hand through his hair, wondering where his hat got off to. Luckily, he's got a few spares in his various safehouses and haunts. "Who's next?!" he shouts at the crowd, the cargo ship shifting again as his immense outflow of power disturbs whatever's beneath the ocean and causes havoc for the innards of the ship, particularly in the arena where they're fighting. A cargo container slides into another behind Jack, the metal crates slamming into each other with a scream of twisted metal. "WOOOO! YOU JUST GOT JACKED, BITCH!"
Tabitha draws back after her killer punch. She does not immediately follow it up with another; it's an effort to strike as hard as she just did, and she's prone to trying to end her fights with one big hit. She would have gone for the head if she had thought she could have landed it.
She's pushed slightly off-balance by Jack - not enough that she falls over, though it comes close. Especially when Jack delivers another one of those killer baseball-bat swings - and the entire ship shifts again. She has to shift her balance just to stay up, and she ends up taking a couple stumbling steps forward, lacking a convenient cargo container to grab for balance.
The crowd seems to like it once they realize the ship is going to right itself afterwards, though. There's a lot of cheering, and a bit of chaos around one end, where someone is trying to move out.
It's honestly more chaotic where all the boxes are. One of the cranes is moving some around at the time, and the whole thing swaying means that a stack threatens to fall. Tabitha clears out of that in a hurry, pacing Jack. She's not sure Alexis is going to get up after that. Which means she's all on her own.
Fine by her. Tabitha feels more energized just by having to do it herself. This, she thinks, ought to be fun. The Western Pro belt holder and her? Yeah. That's a challenge worth fighting.
"You want to know who's next?" Tabitha demands, as she delivers a right cross, still aimed at Jack's midsection - she seems to be trying to pummel the air out of him while she waits for a good opportunity for a knockout blow. "I'm next! Come on, 'champ'!"
It could perhaps be considered karmic that, after her dismissal of baseball as a sport earlier, Alexis finds herself experiencing what it's like to actually be a baseball after a line drive. The Canadian is sent hurtling away by the force of the bat, tumbling head over heels and carries even further amongst the boxes as the ship heaves once more to one side. At some point, her guitar has come loose of its strap, and right after the girl ends up crashing to a stop against a wall of cargo holders and slumps to a seated position, the instrument collides with the container beside her. Her head is still ringing as she turns it to look at the guitar.
Several seconds later, the sound of a brief, heavy guitar riff rips through the cargo bay. Like a wave crashing through the tunnels created by the shipping containers, raw sonic energy ripples toward where Tabitha and Cracker Jack are about to meet. A single distant, yet defiant phrase accompanies the blast as it cuts toward Cracker Jack's back:
"You can't stop me, motherfucker, 'cause I'm on a boat!"
COMBATSYS: Alexis can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Tabitha 1/---====/=======|===----\-------\0 Cracker Jack
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack dodges Alexis' Shredding Solo.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Tabitha 1/---====/=======|===----\-------\0 Cracker Jack
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack fails to deflect Body Blow from Tabitha with Batting Hero.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Tabitha 1/---====/=======|=====--\-------\0 Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack turns to face Tabitha now that Alexis has been dealt with, grinning at her as his sweaty hair musses itself up in his eyes. As she rushes toward him, he moves his bat into the ready position beside his head, his hands wringing over the taped grip. Then, of course, he hears the scream of an electric guitar from behind him, turning about and gaping. He breaks his batter's stance and stumbles sideways, the wave of sonic chi passing him and slamming into a container full of pillows that erupt in a flurry of goose down feathers everywhere. He turns back to face Tabitha, just in time to get a sucker shot to his stomach. He crumples over Tabitha's fist, dropping his bat and falling to his knees at her feet, puking on her shoes. He's in a vulnerable position to her now, drained of energy and open to anything Tabitha desires. If she wastes this moment, it may be curtains for her!
The guitar riff reminds Tabitha that she's not /quite/ alone, but she's glad that the sonic blast wasn't directed at her. It's hard to parry those; she's never been quite sure how you stop sound, though at least the ripple would give her some ideas.
But she's pretty sure that even if Alexis is still fighting (and she's not sure if she can), she's at a distance. Tabitha has a few seconds alone with Cracker Jack. She doesn't normally go for the sucker shots quite as much; it was at least partially an accident. She definitely didn't want him to throw up on her - though she's glad he dropped the bat.
Rather than draw this out any more, Tabitha focuses. She draws back one fist, chambering it, and if she was tense before, this time she is impossibly so. He's vulnerable for an instant, but she's delaying it as long as she dares, letting the force build and build and build -
Tabitha delivers. Just one punch. This time she /is/ going for the knockout, and the impact - if she hits cleanly - is enough to send her opponent flying. Air blasts away from the impact zone, a wave rippling outward, less chi and more sheer force. She lets out a "Haaah!" as she does it, putting her voice into it, letting the pleasant rush of a good hard fight wash through her.
And then she just has to hope that's enough!
COMBATSYS: Tabitha successfully hits Cracker Jack with Final Impact.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Tabitha 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack is lifted off his feet as he feels the blow connect to his face, his body going rigidly straight before spasming into a backwards arch, his jaw at the pinnacle of the bodywide expression of pain. He's sent flying across the arena into a cargo container, slamming into it hard enough to dent it and bouncing like a ragdoll to the ground before it. He lays there, on his face, feeling the ocean churn beneath the boat and his head spin with pain. Squinting through the blood that flows freely past his left eye, he slowly stands up, first on his knee, then on his feet, his shaking hands clenching into fists. He goes running like Frankenstein's monster, shambling rapidly, at Tabitha, his left hand stretching out as the fist opens into a claw. As he closes in, chasing her down with manic determination, he attempts to grab her head by the side with the left hand, before repeatedly pounding it for the right. He exhausts his entire effort this way, finally collapsing to his knees, dazed and bloody, his arms going slack as if they're about to drop off his torso.
COMBATSYS: Cracker Jack can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tabitha 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks Cracker Jack's Lazy Buffalo.
[ \\\\\\\ <
Tabitha 0/-------/-----==|
/Nice/, Tabitha thinks to herself. Best punch in months.
She's still grinning. It looks a little lopsided because her lip is split on one side and her cheek is bruised, but Tabitha is really, truly enjoying herself right now - rocking boat, stupid maze and all. She makes a come-get-me gesture as Cracker Jack rises, but can't keep doing it because he's going to get back here any moment now.
Tabitha is ready for it. The shambling run is telegraphed, and though she's not sure what he's going to do at the end of it at first she is sure that he's going to do something. She's not disappointed either.
Rather than grab her head, though, he grabs her interposed arm. She struggles to keep the blows away from her face; she's a lot lighter than Cracker Jack and several inches shorter, but she's tough. There's a reason she's such a defensive boxer; she can take a beating and keep on going.
She does that now. Eventually, Cracker Jack collapses. Tabitha does not follow up but rolls her now-battered arm at the shoulder, trying to work some feeling back into it. She has an eye on him to make sure he's not going to rise, than shoots a glance down part of the maze.
But that, as they say, seems to be that. And after a few moments of Tabitha looking strong, the bell rings, and Tabitha herself plants both hands on her knees, hunching down to catch her breath, before she raises her (less beaten-up) arm in a fist of victory.
Log created on 15:28:40 10/18/2015 by Tabitha, and last modified on 20:15:50 10/23/2015.