Description: On the main floor of the G-King Arena, thoughtfully redubbed the 'Thriller Throwdown Dome' for the Halloween event, Mothma (HONOKA) is attacking a 1/50th scale replica of Southtown, addled by dark spirits and the fallout from the containment breach in a nearby nuclear power plant. Fans will be wowed by the multicolored pyrotechnic effects accompanying the destruction of the city, though the city's heroic defenders, Killasaurus Lex (ALEXIS) and a megazord-sized Karin Kanzuki (SAKURA) will be sure to save the day!
The builders of Southtown's G-King Arena remain elusive as ever. The facility was completed just at the beginning of the year, and yet it is already starting to show its age. The "All Hallows Eve" event from the G-King's rivals, the Professional Fighting Worldwide Group, seemed to be the shot in the arm the facility needed to keep from falling even further into disrepair. One would never know that a mere month prior, a fine layer of dust had settled over the walls and floors of the fighting facility.
Not that you could see the dust now, had it existed: the major attractions provide only a few scarce islands of light in a sea of vast, inky darkness, broken up only by the luminescent raver necklaces and wristbands upon the teen crowds populating the venue.
Normally, kids aren't even allowed in here. The elusive G-King organization must be clenching cavities into their teeth.
The younger kids are enjoying themselves in the depths of the labyrinthine "Haunted Maze" set up in the waiting area -- PFW had to make use of the movable partitions somehow or another. And the older kids are loving the in-house entertainment provided for the night.
But in the main arena, the light from an artificial moon falls upon a 1/50-scale replica of Southtown, eclipsed only briefly by the wings of a moth, fluttering by. The multitude of video screens present the image to those gathered in the lobby, but the cameras are being deliberately coy about the spectacle presented. One would need to enter the arena to learn more...
COMBATSYS: Honoka has started a fight here on the right meter side.
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|======-\-------\0 Honoka
When she heard she was going to be going to Saturday Night Fights in her Karin Kanzuki costume--and that she was supposed to be a giant robot Karin Kanzuki--she knew what she had to do. She made a few adjustments to her costume, with the help of the Taiyo drama club. So when she shows up at the arena, she shows up looking appropriate.
That is to say, she looks like she's dressed like Karin Kanzuki, and she is--but there's some additions. Namely, she has a foamcore chest piece that makes her look like a barrel-chested robot in the style of Gigantor. And... she has two big screwhead earpieces. (One is made to look like it's only loosely screwed in.) And there's a voicebox attached to a collar around her neck, with a wire leading to a button in the palm of her right hand. When she presses it?
A mechanically altered 'o~ho~ho~ho~ho~' laugh sounds, like it were passed through a synthesizer and made even more artificial.
Unsurprisingly, Sakura is justifiably proud of this costume, even if absolutely NO ONE in the crowd will get it unless they go to Taiyo and know Sakura and/or Karin.
The turn-out to Killasaurus Orphanage's live Halloween dance party gig has been a pretty solid one so far, and as usual, it's because most of the people there are there to see something else. Taking place in a slightly smaller room backing onto the main arena, the dance party is mostly populated by the teens aglow with assorted ravewear. Killasaurus Orphanage, for their part, have opted for the unified theme of 'zombie punk rock band' in their costumes: Matt is dressed as a mohawked zombie drummer, Benny the lead guitarist has dressed as zombie biker Elvis, and Kim is zombie Kim, while Alexis is sporting her purple leather zombie outfit from the week before.
The setlist has mostly been covers, particularly theme songs from various 'spooky' television series, an up-tempo version of the theme from Halloween, and of course a rendition of Thriller. And to wrap it all up, the finale is a cover of a cover: the band is playing the classic Misfits cover of the Monster Mash.
o/~ Then you can mash!
Then you can Monster Mash!
The Monster Mash!
And do my graveyard smash!
Then you can mash!
You'll catch on in a flash!
Then you can mash!
Then you can monster mash! o/~
As the final chords are slammed down by the band on the stage, dry ice fog starts to rise around them. A screen behind the band lights up, showing the city displayed on the main stage with the ominous fluttering of moth-wings in the background, while ominous pre-recorded music starts to flow from the speakers.
"Oh no! Is that Mothma attacking South Town?" Matt reads in the dark off of the scripted line taped to his drum kit. At least one out-of-it raver actually looks up at the sky in confusion.
"Wait, what? Oh! I mean... it is! Somebody has to do something!" Kim's voice calls out from inside the fog, shifting from sincerity to overwrought acting.
"I think I may have wet my pants," Benny's voice trembles in the darkness.
"Wait, that wasn't in the script, Benny," Kim stage-whispers into her microphone.
"I know," Benny replies gravely.
Suddenly, a booming, Japanese voice resounds through the space. "DINO BABY NURSERY! It is time to save South Town from the evil Mothma! WE NOW SUMMON... ROBO-KANZUKI!"
Instantly, a sentai-style metal theme starts playing over the speakers as the screen zooms in on Sakura in her Robo-Karin costume as she laughs.
"AND... KILLASAURUS LEX!"
Emerging on a motorized platform from below the stage, Alexis has undergone a dramatic change in costume. Now she's clad in a giant green tyrannosaurus suit with glowing red lights for eyes, only the lower half of her freshly-de-makeup'd face visible in the T-rex's gaping maw. A back harness with what looks like a pair of rocket launchers attached to it is strapped to her shoulders - although, on closer look, they're actually plastic toys, with light-up barrels that emit rocket launcher noises as she steps away from the platform. Stomping up toward the city, she takes in a deep breath, and then, as the theme song hits its climactic finale...
"ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRR!"
Between her lung capacity, the headset microphone sending her voice through the arena's speaker system and her manipulation of sonic energy, it's actually loud enough to be felt as well as heard, in the audience.
"Killasaurus Alexis, go!" the rest of the band chant in unison at the conclusion of the track.
COMBATSYS: Alexis has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Honoka
Almost precisely one year ago, Godzilla was wreaking havoc on an equally-scaled-down version of Metro City. And Honoka vowed to never again put on such a poorly-articulated costume again. Not only were the shoes terrible (You can't say 'cruggs' without voicing an 'ugh'!) but even twisting from side to side was a chore, with the awkward weights of a foam-rubber tail and a gargantuan carnivore head to contend with, let alone doing anything remotely interesting like 'jump' or 'flip'. By the time the fight was over the costume was in a shambles, well beyond the point that the circus' poor seamstresses could repair it.
No, never again. This time, the acrobatic juggler would be flying.
With a wingspan nearly matching her height, the Twilight Star performer could easily prove to be a safety hazard to others -- even twisting from one side to another could provide navigational difficulties through the plywood city below. But that'd only be if the juggler was to fight on the ground. No, as the juggler's costume occludes the artificial moonlight once again -- perfectly timed to the announcer's cry of the 'evil Mothma' -- her wardrobe choice becomes a bit clear. Her arms and legs can move freely, though they are styled to look like insectoid appendages, the extra two limbs suspended marionette-style from her wrists. The wings at her back flap languidly as she hovers above Killasaurus Lex and Mecha-Kanzuki, suspended by overhead wires operated by her fully competent circus staff. No more trusting of people -not- on the Twilight Star payroll, after the debacle in Arizona...
Two compound eyes are propped upon Honoka's head like hair buns. The performer's face is left free of prosthetics this time, though it is tinted blue to match the purple-and-blue Mothma scheme. Though she opens her mouth, she leaves it to the sound crew to cue up the trilling roar that's popularly associated with the sound of a massively powerful moth.
Translation: Mothma is PISSED.
A spotlight shines onto two tiny figures with their arms raised up to Mothma, and another spotlight shines onto another location upon an adjacent soundstage, revealing two stars from the Twilight Star cast: Mizuho and Reika! They are both dressed in matching classical qi pao outfits, and they are shaking their fists in the direction of Killasaurus Lex and Mecha-Kanzuki!
Reika: "No! No! Mothma is not evil, she is trying to save you from the dark spirits!"
Mizuho: "They are hidden from the non-believers! You must give Mothma time!"
And yet, time is the thing which seems to be imperiling the two newer arrivals, as the beats of Mothma's wings "inadvertently" cause a plywood building to fall over (with the assistance of the stage crew), crashing down not far from Sakura!
Mizuho: "You see there? Bad spirit. If it was a snake it woulda bit 'cha!"
As Alexis makes her entry, band and an all, and Sakura is called out as 'robo-Kanzuki', Sakura makes her 'entrance'. Being slightly hidden by a plywood building, when she's called out she rises from a crouch, trying to make it look like she's rising out of the ground--as if she were coming from an underground facility. As she reaches full height and stretches her arms up to the ceiling, she triggers her vocoder--that metallic, artifical 'o~ho~ho~ho~' issues out, with an obvious pre-recorded 'click' just preceding it. Then, with the vocoder still going, she calls out--and her voice changes again, to a squeaky little kid's voice.
"ROBO-KANZUKI, SANJOU!!!"
Then the plywood building that she just rose up next to falls over and it's all she can do not to flinch away. Yo, watch out, Mothra!! Sakura posts one hand at her hip and points the other at Mothra then switches the vocoder off and grins at Honoka and Alexis, speaking normally and not into her mic.
"Let's -do this-!" she exclaims, as the announcer cuts in over the PA.
"FOLKS, GET READY FOR AN -EPIC- -BATTLE-!!! FIGHTERS, READY.... FIGHT!!!"
'Robo-Kanzuki' doesn't waste any time, charging forward for Mothra, pleased to hear the sound crew doing their job--her footfalls being aided with classic giant robot anime stomping sounds as she closes in and just soccer-ball kicks for Honoka.
COMBATSYS: Sakura has joined the fight here.
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Sakura 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
The footfalls of Killasaurus Lex carry a similar weight to them as those of Robo-Kanzuki as she lumbers torward the moth-impersonating circus performer. All the talk of dark spirits and 'giving Mothma time' from Mizuho and Reika seems to fall on deaf ears - if killasauruses even have ears.
Killasaurus costumes, as it turns out, do not lend themselves to mobility. With Honoka suspended above the city and the fight beginning, Alexis parks her feet near the outskirts, feet straddling an industrial warehouse. With another mighty roar, Killasaurus Lex raises her arms and hunches forward slightly. After a charging sound that rises steadily in pitch, the 'rocket launchers' on her shoulders light up - and it turns out that they aren't rocket launchers at all. Apparently, they're sonic blasters?!
In truth, it's Alexis' developing power over sonic chi that unleashes the attack, which manifests as a blast of sound rippling through the air toward the suspended circus performer.
"SONIC BLASTERS, ACTIVATE!"
Alexis' voice is distorted by her microphone system to sound much deeper and inhuman, as befits a proper Killasaurus.
COMBATSYS: Honoka blocks Alexis' Power Chord.
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Sakura 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Honoka blocks Sakura's Medium Kick.
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Sakura 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Yes, yes, the lack of mobility -- Honoka remembers it will. One camera even gets a shot of the circus star's wry smirk as she notes just how slow and deliberate Alexis' movements are within the costume. Ahh, the memories.
But the juggler is also keenly tracking more than just the Killasaurus lumbering towards her: she's taking careful note of the wings and wire harness strapped to her back, the relative position of the buildings, and of course the opponent from Taiyo. Her smirk turns to a more neutral state as she witnesses the rising energy levels from the Killasaurus costume's shoulders...
Gulp.
With some quick psychic direction to her stage crew, her rig veers sharply to the right, causing Mothma to jink sharply as well. The acrobatic juggler pulls her wings close to her, wrapping them tight about her like a cocoon as she spins, timing the motion to coincide neatly with the sonic chi as it ripples through the air. The velocity of the sound waves flutter the thin metallic wings, dispelling the energy to quite some degree as she finds herself landing near the warehouse.
Widening her stance, Mothma braces for impact, knowing full well that the thin wings won't survive a soccer kick: instead, she brings her leading shin high, shoving back against the mechanical Kanzuki's soccer kick. It'll... probably bruise.
But still, Mothma keeps advancing with the motion, imparting her rotational inertia into slamming her insectoid bracers into Sakura, striking at the neck and shoulders before casting out a silken web at the Taiyo fighter's feet. And if that manages to coil about Kanzuki's leg, she'd jerk backwards to send her falling to the street level!
Cue a shrill sonic emanation of her own. Isn't that what -all- moths sound like?!
COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Honoka's Shitumbe Marapto.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Sakura's costume isn't as confining as Alexis's 'Killsaurus Rex' or even Honoka's stage-team costume, which is.. a big help, because here comes the killer moth. Her arms come up to defend against the strikes to shoulder and neck, crumpling her costume a little--yay 'battle damage'--and she hops to avoid the silken web, jumping backwards a few feet.
As she draws her right hand back, chi builds in the palm of her right hand, forming a small blue-white sphere; it glows even through the stage lights. In her left, she trigges her vocoder.
What comes out of her mouth is *not* the traditional cry of "HADOUKEN", but instead, something quite different. And thematic.
Sakura draws her right palm back, holding it there as the ball of chi expands further, growing to the size of a beach ball--and then she thrusts it forward, launching the projectile towards Mothra. And as she does?
She shouts "KANZUKI BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAMU!!!" Gotta play to the crowd, mang. Public fights are as much about showmanship as skill, after all!
After the anti-air audio assault from Alexis fails to fell the flying fiend, the Killasaurus-costumed Canadian assumes another approach. After all, what are all these tiny towers for if not to provide a launchpad for leaping lizards? Planting her clawed hands on the top of Geese Tower, the young Killasaurus hoists her heavy frame heavenward, ending up in a crouch atop the plywood structure. Obviously, the girl is mixing up her movie references, or she'd be leaving the skyscraper-climbing to the apes.
Luckily, she has the tail attached to the back of her costume for balance - or it would be a lucky thing, if that were the tail's actual function. In actuality it makes standing atop the tower fairly awkward. She doesn't waste much time teetering on the tower-top, though: she instead goes straight into making her best Canadian Geese impression by launching herself from the building, spinning in the air as she tucks both knees in, before aiming a double-footed drop-kick straight at Hon Mothka.
The sonic chi gathered near the girl's feet will be releasing with the sound of a deep D-note if it connects - but if not, Killasaurus Lex will instead be dropping the bass on Southtown, literally!
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Alexis' Strong Kick.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Honoka reflects Medium Hadouken from Sakura with Tokap Chup Kamui.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|=======\===----\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
While the silken strands appear to have missed their mark, nothing Honoka does is placed without deliberate effort: the strands remain stuck to the replica city's streets, awaiting later use, should one of her opponents accidentally misstep into her traps. Indeed, even as the strands miss, the costumed circus star slings what's left of the first 'rope' of silk off to the side, fastening it to a wall so that it's less of a harmless decoration, and more of a safety hazard for later.
Out of the corner of her eye, she takes note of the rocker climbing a building. Somewhere in her mind, she takes note that this is -so- not the typical schtick for a tyrannosaur. But to be fair, Killasaurus Lex is her own creation.
Freaking OCs.
The tethers attached to Honoka would be a liability to most, but the circus star has enough practice with the devices to make it look like nothing is attached at all. What also helps: a direct mental connection with the people behind the scenes, so that when she wants to step back, all she has to do is ask.
The Twilight Star performer takes note of the coordination of her opponents, and acts accordingly, having her crew yoke her backwards sharply. Another silken strand flicks out in the process, snapping against another plywood building face. And as she retreats from Alexis' dropkick, her hands are weaving furiously in a circle.
The purpose becomes clear once the Kanzuki Beam smashes into the bundle of silken fibers -- a bundle which rapidly begins to glow a deep crimson red. Mothma's nimble fingers spin the bundle around like a hot potato, and one quick flick of her wrist -- accompanied by a sonic shriek from the moth('s sound crew) -- lobs the superheated silk right back in Sakura's direction!
COMBATSYS: Honoka successfully hits Sakura with Reflected Medium Hadouken.
- Power hit! -
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Sakura 0/-------/--=====|=======\====---\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Oh no! The Kanzuki Beam, defeated!! Sakura reacts with visible shock, which was mostly for showmanship's sake, but it's a case of a little too much showmanship and not enough fighting--because she plants her feet a little too much and thus is unable to react in time. The glowing silk slams into Sakura's chest and explodes, or seems to, flinging Sakura back through another plywood building.
When she rises, her foamcore chestpiece smoking. It just makes the 'battle damage' look all the more realistic, though Sakura's smarting underneath it. She didn't know Honoka could *do* that. Huffing and puffing, the Ansatsuken Flower slides her right foot back, dipping into a bit of a crouch, power swirling around her in a blue-white glow as she focuses most of her attention on building the energies inside her.
Some intrepid soundman cues up a low, rising, uluating 'powering up' sound, that 'bwoooooooOOOO' kind of sound, as the glow brightens and climbs up Sakura's costume-clad body. Alexis will just have to go it alone with Honoka for a moment.
COMBATSYS: Sakura taps into her inner strength!
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Sakura 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Honoka-Mothma's airborne alacrity proves unfortunate both for Killasaurus Lex and for the replicated residential district that ends up getting crushed under her costume's plush-padded posterior as she lands from the dropkick. With the lives of dozens of tiny imaginary families snuffed out, the Canadian Killasaurus decides to snuff out a few more, planting her hands on a pair of plots of land and pushing herself back up to her feet.
They should have known what they were getting into when they summoned a Killasaurus to fight a giant flying moth!
Still determined, Alexis growls, the sound amplified to fill the arena as she plants her feet and crouches. Then, with a thudding hop and leap, she flies off of another building, sending it crashing down in the process as she sails toward Honoka - this time, attempting to wrap her limbs around the mad moth and bring her down to the earth with a simple, straightforward slam - at least, simple and straightforward were it not for the height and the sonic shockwave intended to be released at the point of impact!
COMBATSYS: Honoka blocks Alexis' Power Throw.
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Sakura 1/------=/=======|=======\=====--\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Honoka has watched a few of Sakura's fights before. She has seen the results of the Taiyo teen's power, and being on the receiving end of it is not -really- on her agenda -- so while she may be able to escape the wrath of it for now, she waits standby for the inevitable moment in which she'll have to tell her crew to pull her to safety...
But for now... there's one pissed-off Killasaurus causing mass property damage.
Reika calls out, "No, watch out!"
Mizuho shrieks, "Oh no, all the people! Why do you all have to be fighting now of all times?! The dark spirits are coming!"
For her own part, there's something more pressing than the pretend people: there's a Killasaurus aiming a Killaslam at her! She gives a mental directive to her crew to add some slack to the line, and while her wings dip down a little, she'll have to sacrifice the presentation for her own safety in this case. She leaps backwards under her own power, aiding Alexis in her slam but rolling with the impact to keep it from hurting -quite- so much.
The sound team splices in some interesting sounds to go along with that. And by 'interesting' we mean of course 'hideous...'
Knocked onto the ground in such a fashion, Honoka-Mothma grapples onto Killasaurus Lex, hoping to make the most of a bad situation as she attempts to maneuver herself into a superior position. And by 'superior' position, that just means that Honoka attempts to ram Alexis' costumed back squarely into the building behind her, testing the costume frame to its limits. It just so happens that the juggler's face is presented as a clear target in the process -- but who would hit a circus star in the -face-, anyway?
The first instinct is to use up all the power she's gathered--but Sakura is more canny than that. She lets the visible aura dissipate, while holding that built up power inside her, storing it for later. But it does give her some pep to her step, and she takes a couple of steps before leaping into the air. It'll give Alexis some time to deal with Honoka's attempt to ram her into a building, as Sakura is flying through the air.
"KANZUKI CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASHU!!" she cries as she comes down upon the gymnast-moth's position, doubled-up fists clasped together, up above her head, to be brought down squarely upon the top of Honoka's head in a poleaxing motion. The impact would give Sakura enough momentum to bounce away to land upon another building--breaking it, of course, since it's just a fake plywood structure held together with brads and wood tacks, not any 'real' construction.
From the crowd, a high-pitched girl's voice shouts, in that serendipitous moment of pure silence that just happens sometimes, "IKEEEE, ROBO-KANZUKI!!!!" Seems like Sakura's made a new fan!
COMBATSYS: Honoka successfully hits Alexis with Strong Throw.
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Sakura 1/-------/=======|=======\======-\1 Honoka
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Alexis 0/-------/=======|
Oh, the humanity!
Killasaurus Lex does her best to withstand the force with which she's being driven backward toward the scale skyscraper, and one can only imagine the salarymen inside screaming in terror as the gargantuan lizard's tail plows through the skyline toward the office windows. It's to no avail, though - this is a disaster movie, it would seem, as the tail impales itself into the fake windows and through to the other side. An apparent downside of the prop tail being designed solid enough to be weaponized - and not especially pleasant for the rock'n'roll dinosaur as her tailbone smashes into it along with her shoulders and the back of her dino-head smashing into the building itself. Limbs flail akimbo as the office building teeters, then topples across a main thoroughfare, smashing a parkway in the process. The distressed cry of the Killasaurus no doubt mirrors those of the fictitious families of the salarymen inside both structures.
When Alexis struggles back to her feet, there's an audible 'RIIIIP' picked up by the microphones as the tail is torn free. The girl's eyes go wide as she reaches to the back of her costume, patting the backside in search of the tail, and instead finding a fairly distinct hole in the seat.
"Oh, fuck," the dino-dressed delinquent's deep, distorted voice rings out over the arena, quickly censored for viewers of the broadcast - someone has to think of the children, after all.
Alexis only allows the dino-damage to be a momentary distraction. After all, Killasaurus Lex just lost her tail, and that means she's pissed. It probably really hurts!
"RAAAWWWWRRRRR!"
The beast-babe bellows with rage, the sound echoing in the air around her as she starts to focus the sound and the fury in preparation for her vengeance!
COMBATSYS: Alexis surges with the power of rock!
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Sakura 1/-------/=======|=======\======-\1 Honoka
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Alexis 1/----===/=======|
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Sakura's Sakura Otoshi.
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Sakura 1/-------/=======|=======\======-\1 Honoka
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Alexis 1/----===/=======|
As a performer, ruining another performer's costume is pretty poor form. But since the Twilight Star costuming department wasn't responsible for the construction of said costume, well, she isn't -too- distraught from the idea of having 20% less Killasaurus to contend with.
As she's assured of not having a microphone of her own, and Alexis is undoubtedly muted, Honoka can't resist the temptation to quip, "Don't worry, it'll grow back."
But the juggler with the faintly bemused grin won't have time to dwell on the idea, as her earlier prediction proves prescient: she may not have judged Sakura's level of commitment correctly, but the intent, surely! The rigging at her back is tugged sharply, and Mothma flies back with a healthy beat of the wings, carrying her to relative safety and allowing the Ansatsuken Angel to crash into a plywood building instead of a much more squishy target. She flashes a wink back at the Taiyo teen, snapping a quick salute to her just to let her know that she was a lot closer to nailing her than it may have seemed!
But that's not all -- for as she gains the temporary illusion of flight, she also manages to maneuver herself into another strike -- this time aiming to bring both her insect-styled feet crashing into the bellowing beast-asaurus to put a brutal end to that infernal noise! And maybe knock down a few more buildings for a premature end to -even more- innocent imaginary people.
To say nothing of the hideous mothly sound effects they've picked to punctuate the motion...
Sakura misses outright, but a move that leaves her completely defenseless would be pretty useless--she gets her feet underneath her, though that forward momentum means she does take another 'building' down before she can stop. Spinning around, she hurls herself back into the air, leaping with a little more grace than a giant robot would have.
It's special effects, really. She's getting less into the showmanship and more into the fighting--taking it a little more seriously, though hardly 'seriously' the way, say, Ryu would take it seriously. But she's paying more attention now. Her headlong flight seeks to take Honoka right at the point where she'd be contacting Alexis--and whirl her into a modified Hell Wheel, turning a rolling spin in mid-air into throwing Honoka into a building on the ground. She saw Ken do this once and always wanted to try it.
COMBATSYS: Honoka successfully hits Alexis with Heavy Strike.
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Sakura 1/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Honoka
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Alexis 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Killasaurus Lex is ready for the air raid assault from Honomothma. It's pretty clearly telegraphed, especially with the auditory cues - whatever the hell those noises are supposed to be - accompanying it. She plants her feet and raises both arms up, ready to catch the moth in mid-flight.
Mothma's mothy feet sail straight between Alexis' hands and nail her straight in the chest.
Like a green tidal wave of destruction, Killasaurus Lex flies backward, crushing nearly the entire downtown core under her back as she skids along, leaving the Southtown skyline shattered as she sails through it, levelling the miniaturized form of Gedo high as it ends up in her path. At least property values in /that/ area might be going up.
With the bits of plaster clinging to her costume and the exposed seat of her underpants flaking away, Alexis struggles back to her feet. The top of the dinosaur's maw has been pulled back during the journey across the fighting stage, leaving her short, freshly-ruffled brown hair and the grimace below it both exposed, and it takes a dazed moment before she realises what's happened and corrects it, pulling the dino-head down lower over her eyes, in a way that gives a grim cast to her features, for those paying attention to the young woman's face inside the dinosaur's mouth.
"Alright! That's IT!"
Is a Killasaurus supposed to be like a T-Rex or like a velociraptor? Apparently, it's some sort of hybrid, as Killasaurus Lex demonstrates with yet another flying leap through the air, complete with sound effects like a character jumping in an old video game - provided not by the sound crew, but by the sonic energy around her. This time, she's aiming to pounce Mothma into a straddling mount, before drawing back dino-fists one at a time and, over and over, pound them down on the creature's multi-faceted eyes (under which Honoka's head happens to be)!
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Honoka with Power Throw.
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Sakura 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/---<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Honoka reflects Beatdown in Three Four from Alexis with Kamui Atemka.
* Attack Of Opportunity! *
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Sakura 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\-------\1 Honoka
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Alexis 1/-------/<<<<<<<|
The "Twilight Star Challenge" series was fun for Honoka, because it didn't really -matter- who won or lost, so long as the audience enjoyed the performance. And besides, any opportunity to duke it out with another martial artist without having real and ultimate death on the line is a valuable experience.
That said, Alexis kind of angered Honoka. Not that the consummate performer would let that show... well, not really.
( She kind of destroyed Himeko afterwards. Kinda overdid it. Oops. )
So there's the issue of making sure that both Alexis and her little schoolgirl friend know -exactly- the kind of power level they're dealing with here. She can jump, punch, and kick with the best of 'em... but when it comes down to it, Honoka has no small degree of power herself.
So after her kick, Mothma flutters back, held aloft by strong gusts kicked about by her massive wingbeats. The cheers of the audience can be heard throughout the Dome, and she even allows herself to smile -- just a bit.
Until Alexis pulls the T-Rex head back on. Beast mode activated?! Honoka sells the illusion just a bit more, showing a healthy convincing level of fear as her greatest stage asset -- her wings -- also makes her a bit less mobile when she's relying entirely upon it.
But just as Alexis closes in, Honoka's hands splay outward, moving in similar circular patterns, but opposite directions. The very air distorts, tinged a brilliant shade between pink and purple. And the soundwaves accompanying Alexis' flight...?
... It seems they're beginning to betray her. The audience will see the air ripple and distort, as if a small spatial anomaly is erupting. But Alexis herself may feel that the very sound is reflected back directly into her mind, the shrill, shrieking cry of the Moth resounding with enough force to deliver a rather painful headache.
The forward momentum of Alexis' attack is effectively neutralized in the process, and another firm wingbeat ought to be enough to shove Alexis backwards further as the anomaly fades, returning space to its normal state.
Mothma flaps its wings once more, steadying its flight...
But there's one variable Honoka forgot to account for: the fury of a schoolgirl scorned. She'd assumed that sending Robo-Karin into a building was enough to keep her down, but she'd assumed wrong: something she has plenty of time to think about as she's caught in a spiral, and sent rolling along with Mecha-Kanzuki, mowing down building after building like a rogue medicine ball in a dominoes demonstration.
Luckily, she'd thought to cut the harness lines -- Mothma's wings may survive (albeit bent-up), but she won't be flying for the near future.
Mothma picks herself up, spares a moment to bend a wing back into some crude approximation of 'normal', and smirks back at Sakura.
Reika: "Where did all these attackers come from!?"
Mizuho: "We are running out of time!"
Sakura spares a glance at Alexis--that looked painful, even if she couldn't quite see what happened. And Honoka seems quite healthy, while Alexis.. looks like she's hurting. Sakura doesn't really *know* Alexis but she's her teammate for this fight and so Sakura feels compelled to try and help her out somehow--give her time to recover, to get back up.
To that end, she charges back in, pounding down another building as she fights to get to the now-grounded Mothra. Sakura's face shows her concern for her fightmate, clear to Honoka's view as she confronts her opponent. Her stance shifts subtly, widening, lowering her center of gravity slightly, elbows in tight, fists in tight--a boxer's stance, really, as Sakura chooses to focus on throwing some punches.
Left left right, jab jab straight, left right, jab upper, the combination whistling through the air looking to test Honoka's defense--and if she doesn't defend, her chin.
As Honomotha weaves her magic - or whatever one might term the seemingly reality-warping ritual that manifests before the Canadian Killasaurus as she sails toward the other woman - Alexis finds herself in a nightmare world of flapping wings, shrieking, and her own sonic power being driven back into her head. Halting her momentum as she's wracked with pain, the Killasaurus clutches at her head before being blown backward to land sprawling across a row of factories, crippling the Lilliputian Southtown economy and increasing poverty in the region for years to come.
It's difficult to get up again after that one - Alexis may still be full of energy, but her entire body aches inside the costume and it's difficult for her to tell if her head is throbbing because of the pain or if it's just more terrible sound effects. A low groan, rendered even lower by the distortion of her voice to the point of sounding like a genuinely animalistic rumble, fills the area. It looks like extinction may be coming to claim the Killasaurus.
But wait! From above, something descends! A spotlight shines on the mysterious object to reveal... an electric guitar?
It's hanging from a cable, and looks to be dropping down to where it'll be just next to Killasaurus Lex. Where they got a hundred-and-fifty-foot long (in canon) guitar is anyone's guess, but as the signature weapon of Alexis, surely it would be a formidable weapon scaled to the hands of her Killasaurus Lex form.
Unfortunately, the weapon gets tangled in one of the cords previously being used to suspend Mothma, about five feet over the ground. Alexis is forced to jump a few times to try and snag it out of the air, accompanied by booming thudding sound effects every time she lands that only make the situation more ridiculous next to the boxing strikes taking place nearby.
On the third try, though, she manages to latch onto the guitar by the neck. Swinging herself a couple of times, she pulls the instrument of destruction loose and comes sailing at Honoka from above, aiming an overhead swing with the flat of the guitar's body at Mothma's head - apparently intent on squashing her like the bug she is!
COMBATSYS: Honoka blocks Sakura's Strong Punch.
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Sakura 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>------\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Alexis' Tribute to Townshend.
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Sakura 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>------\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
As Mothma spares a glance to the spotlight that suddenly appears, she pauses a moment to gulp. There's things she's planned for, and then there's things which appear completely out of left field. Honoka spends a great deal of time before each match, planning out the major beats of the fight, preparing fallbacks to handle for unforeseen difficulties and contingency plans in case those don't work. But she didn't plan on her own released cables obstructing the plans of her opponent's stage team.
Ebisu, the Japanese god of fishermen and luck, works in mysterious ways. One of the Seven Gods of Fortune, he's often been associated with Japan, and more specifically the Ainu man who saved him as a child. And in many ways, Honoka feels that Ebisu has been keeping an eye out for her, sparing her from the wrath of the worst possible fates, allowing just enough hardship to keep the young woman humble.
Such it is that she has the few moments she needs to deal with Mecha-Kanzuki's onslaught, while a tailless thunder lizard makes a show of reaching for a guitar that's just a smidge too high for her stubby killasaur arms. Wings flap ineffectually as Mothma paces herself backwards, losing ground with each of the pugilistic strikes from the Taiyo teen; punches that are not outright dodged by a backwards lean are met with raised forearms or a fortified shoulder. The final strike that comes forth, though, is intercepted with an open palm.
Honoka's eyes go wide at that one. Robo-Karin was aiming for the -face?- The nerv--
She doesn't have time to expound further on how rude she thinks this is, because Killasaurus Lex is compelled to add El Kabong to the list of 'acts she's aping for this fight', right up there sharing top billing with King Kong.
This is where Ebisu comes into play, as Mecha-Kanzuki's drive has forced her back against a building. Left to chance, Mothma might have been pancaked against one of the many buildings held by the Mishima conglomerate, but as luck smiles upon her, she instead finds a way to leverage that to her own advantage. Backing up, she walks -up- the side of the building, twisting her body hard to the right in such a way to cartwheel herself back and out of harm's way, allowing the wild killasaur's momentum to crash into the plywood building itself. ... Well, actually, part of her lower right wing is snapped off at a hideous angle, but it's not something Honoka the fighter can't live without.
That said, the sound team takes the opportunity to belt out a piteous wail, and Honoka can't help but follow along, selling the sound with a wailing gesture.
By this point, though, Mothra is back on her lower appendages. And while she may not have the power of flight, she still has a few silken strands left, courtesy of a small spring-loaded launcher on her wrists. It will come into play in a moment, as she aims to repay her mechanical opponent with a flurry of blows to match the punch string she was just delivered. Delivering three whirling pi-gua-quan-styled attacks with the flat of her palm, she manages to slip in a quick lash of her silken strands, aiming to entangle Mecha-Kanzuki's leg with the strikes to keep her from escaping. The juggler advances further, aiming the flat of her palm for a strike to the shoulder, following up by slapping her right palm towards her opponent's midsection.
Mothma opens her mouth in time with a high-pitched shrieking sound effect, even though the surge of pink-and-purple energy actually emanates from her palm -- a powerful psychic explosion that might just be enough for Sakura to stop worrying about her partner, and start nursing her own headache instead.
COMBATSYS: Sakura interrupts Seta-pagoat from Honoka with Shou'ou Ken.
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Sakura 1/---<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\===----\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Hey. Sometimes you have to go for the head. It's a valid target! Sakura's been punched in the head so many times it hardly seems like anything new to her, at least. But now it's her turn to defend--deflecting the three palm strikes, one by one, she doesn't notice the strands until it's almost too late. She's been ensnared--no getting out of this one. But that's alright. One lesson Ryu-sensei taught her early on--a lesson she took to heart and made part of her philosophy almost immediately--is that sometimes, you can't go around things, or just wait them out. Sometimes?
Sometimes you just have to go *through* things. Sometimes you just have to pick the right spot, the right time. You have to... guess. And Sakura does guess. Just as that shoulder strike hits, she explodes into motion, planting her entangled foot, twisting her body--making the final, psi-enhanced palm strike into a glancing blow, painful but not debilitating--and focuses her energy into an explosive right uppercut aimed for Honoka's chin, one with enough pure kinetic energy to launch her into the air in a twisting motion, breaking those silk strands as she turns almost completely around in midair before landing.
Abandoning much of the robotic pretense she'd been using, Sakura flashes her trademark grin at her opponent--and borrows a gesture from a star of a different genre, rubbing the ball of her left thumb across her nose before raising her hands back into fighting posture--not the boxer's stance she took before, but her usual modified Ansatsuken stance. Something about it just seems to scream, 'c'mon, let's -go-' to Honoka--and the audience.
Killasaurus Lex suffers the agony and frustration of failure known to all would-be flyswatters in the face of their foes' natural fleetness. The miniature members of the Mishima conglomerate, however, find themselves knowing the much deeper agony of the fly that was not fast enough to get out of the way as their tower is smashed to pieces by the sonic shockwave erupting from the guitar as a distorted, dissonant chord shrieks from the instrument. Her fury spent, aching setting in as adrenaline begins to fade, Alexis takes a moment to survey the destruction as she pants heavily inside her costume.
It seems that, in the war between lizard, robot and moth, no matter who wins, it is the imaginary humans that lose.
The guitar is left abandoned in the Mishima rubble as the Canadian Killasaurus whirls back to face her prey - or predator, it would seem, in this case - and lets out a growl of frustration. Lumbering forward, gathering momentum as she runs and causing the plywood city to shake with each step, Killasaurus Lex charges at Mothma, looking to take advantage of the opening provided by Sakura. With the Killasaurus costume rendering her fairly bottom-heavy even in the absence of its tail, Alexis decides to put her bodacious, curvaceous, and currently cretaceous (?) hips to use, swinging them and aiming to slam them into Mothma. While the force of the physical attack alone might just be enough to knock someone over, it's supplemented by the audile energy accompanying nearly all of the Canadian's attacks - this time, to be unleashed in a mid-range 'pong' sound, for some reason.
COMBATSYS: Honoka blocks Alexis' Aggressive Strike.
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Sakura 1/---<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\===----\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Ebisu works in mysterious ways indeed, for while he had granted Honoka the ability to get out of harm's way, his protection was not extended to her final blast landing as intended, or to her avoiding a fist to the face. Mothma is blasted upwards, flattened against a skyscraper owned and operated by one of the local branches of a bank conglomerate. Luckily, the imaginary people are on banker hours and have left for the day, but still, PANDEMONIUM.
As the plywood building splits apart from the sudden duress, Mothma slides down one face of it, roughing up the die-cut metal wings in the process. The costumed performer lands upon her feet in a shaky fashion: she's been rocked harder in a fight before, but all the same it's something she's eager to repeat. With one insect-styled hand going to her forehead to stave off the pain, she takes three quick steps to the side to regain her stability...
Just in time to pay mind to a hip rush from the Killasaurus Lex! Folding her arm up and tightening her jaw, she throws her weight back at the heavier Westerner (if Honoka consumed that much poutine she wouldn't have to work as hard at it), deadening the blow. Hips don't lie, but that isn't to say that they can't lose an argument!
But now... now it seems that Kanzuki is -challenging- her, dropping the mecha pretense and... breaking character?!
Clearly, this is -not- the act of a professional! And it's up to Honoka to preserve what's left of this mockery of the grand tradition of tokusatsu action! Which is to say that Mothma needs to take flight again.
She does so by triangle-jumping off the nearly-devastated building at her back, flying up, over and above the heads of her two opponents, to land...
No! She doesn't land at all! Instead, she has caught hold of the shiny cables which had been detached earlier. From the two cables, the Queen of Moths is able to sail higher and higher, swinging precipitously close to the peak of the simulacrum of Geese Tower.
But while the moth has taken flight again, she's far from idle -- with a cable in each hand, Mothma is concentrating hard, her mothlike form suffused with pink and purple light. Her shrill voice cries out again, resounding a glorious challenge throughout the room, beckoning Maybe-Still-Mecha-Kanzuki and Most-Of-A-Killasaurus Lex to action...
But then the surprise would be revealed as the juggler pendulates closer to ground level once again, as the energy condenses into a brilliant star shape -- and then streams outward at Sakura as one solid column of psychic energy!
Reika and Mizuho clasp each others' hands, leaning close together from their supposed safe spot: "It's Mothma's all-powerful attack... the Starry Heavens!"
COMBATSYS: Honoka issues a challenge!!
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Sakura 1/---<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\===----\1 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Sakura dodges Honoka's Nochiu-o Kando.
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Sakura 1/---<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
Yes, there inevitably comes a point every time Sakura fights that she challenges her opponent. Whether or not it's smart. She is... it's just the way she is. She can't help it. In this case, that challenge bears fruit in the form of a massive, scary projectile, a beam of pure power. 'Starry Heavens'... what Sakura will be going to if that hits!! She watches it come, the glow illuminating her face, fierce and unafraid, and it closes in... and impacts right where Sakura was!
The storm of psychic energy seems to have completely engulfed the Ansatsuken girl, except, when it fades away... Sakura isn't there. Because... she's leapt up and over that spot, coming down in front of it accompanied by a timely slamming sound from the SFX guys.
"NOW IT'S MY TURN!!!" shouts Sakura, using the 'hero kid' vocoder voice, then switching back to the 'giant robot voice', she intones, building the drama--and power, in her hands, both of them, held in front of her, her stance widening.
"CHOU..." The ball of power grows thicker, more tangible, more solid.
"HISSATSU...!" It expands, growing to the size of her chest, a seething ball of power barely contained by Sakura's will.
"KANZAKI BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAMU!!!!" She hasn't broken character completely, apparently, as she -flings- that bolt of power straight on for Honoka--and the SFX guys don't need to do any more than put a directional mic on the ball, as it spits and crackles with its own effects.
With her momentum arrested, the Alexisaurus stumbles backward, bouncing off of Mothma and crushing a bridge underfoot before toppling toward a forested park, flattening Seijyun High under her rear end as she lands. Were Alexis aware of her crime, she would likely claim it to be intentional. She never liked schools, anyway.
A humble soul with a strong sense of self-preservation would likely take the moment to step back and let Mecha Sakurazuki have the spot-light, with the bolt of fiery energy already flying toward Honoka. Killasaurus Lex has neither of those traits. Instead, she sees this as an opportunity to press the attack, perhaps even open Honoka up to the Chou Hissatsu Kanzaki Beamu, or Shinkuu Hadouken, or whatever the attack is actually called. Stepping up to Honoka, the dinosaur aims a dino toe kick laced with sonic chi to the circus performer's gut.
The kick, as is so often the case in professional wrestling, is only a set-up for the real attack, though. Should all go according to plan for Killasaurus Lex, she'll double Mothma over with the attack and quickly pull her into a double underhook with her head between the dinosaur's thighs, potentially exposing her to the incoming projectile, before dropping down and using her hips to drive the moth monster face first into the Geese Howard Arena with a sit-out facebuster!
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Sakura's Shinkuu Hadouken.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Alexis' Drop D.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
It would seem that Mothma and Mecha-Kanzuki each have a healthy appreciation of the other's attacks, as neither wants to get caught with their guard down! Honoka can tell right away that her Starry Heaven has missed its mark, but it takes the stomp before either Reika and Mizuho catch up with the reality of the situation. But Honoka is already in motion, winking one eye back at her opponents as she hooks the carabiner hooks of the support cables back to her harness with a pair of audible snaps. The moth can fly again!
The Honoka of another world is fascinated by the directed manipulation of joints to achieve a mechanical advantage, specifically as it regards to forcing the unwitting victim to submit or risk losing a limb. It's a fairly persuasive negotiation tactic! But while Honoka has an interest in such topics, she can't indulge herself in finding out more while acting on behalf of the Twilight Star Circus, and definitely not while wearing a very fancy Mothma costume. With an Absolute Victory Kanzuki Beam and a Killa Toe Kick her way, the Queen of Moths begins to run in a tangent to the attacks -- giving her stage crew time to jerk upwards on the cables, bringing her sailing overhead!
... Damn shame about the wings, though -- the thin metal is burnt to a crisp and flakes away in the heat of the Kanzuki Beam.
Along with that day care that was about to be dedicated in honor of Alexis' band -- a little in-joke left by the setup crew. The crew had even positioned a tiny camera to capture the smoldering demise of the day care, right down to the killasaurus swingset that gets knocked down by the Killasaurus. Poor kids. Hope they appreciate irony.
As Honoka's stage crew swings her around, she twists around to give a quick whirling kick at said Killasaurus, hoping to repay the favor -- only with a spin kick to the shoulder, owing to the relatively low velocity of her flight.
The screech that accompanies the motion is more of a squelched whine, because the sound team really ran out of ways to keep things fun for themselves.
Honoka is just too fast. And having a stage crew helping her move around isn't making it any easier to hit her. She's landed some hits, but clearly they aren't enough. The city is in danger! Fight, Robo-Kanzuki! For everlasting peace! ... or something like that. Maybe hoping to cut Honoka's wings permanently, Sakura sets herself, then takes a couple of loping steps forward, dropping into a semi-crouch--and then pushing herself into the air.
She begins twirling, but doesn't perform her trademark Shunpuu Kyaku--waiting instead to close in on Honoka before lashing out with a single scything kick. But as she lands she continues her spin and tries to also sweep Honoka's feet out from underneath her, before rising to her feet. She'll try to stay in close instead of fighting a ranged battle.
COMBATSYS: Alexis blocks Honoka's Light Kick.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
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Alexis 0/-------/-----==|
When Alexis' attempt to get into a grapple with her newfound nemesis is stymied by the stage crew's diligence, it leaves her in a rather perilous position - right in the oncoming path of the Shinkuu Hadouken (a.k.a. Kanzuki Beamu)! Not quite as nimble as the other floating-like-a-butterfly fighter, Killasaurus Lex is caught in the crossfire, tucking her upper limbs into the costume's torso and twisting out of the way enough to only partially avoid the catastrophic inferno - the arms and protruding front of the costume are caught in the blast.
Fortunately, it is generally accepted fanon that Killasauruses are immune to the effects of immolation, in addition to irradiation, vacuum, and numerous types of toxic chemicals and poisons.
Unfortunately, Alexis is not a real Killasaurus.
The girl inside the Killasaurus lets out a cry of surprise as her costume bursts into flame. Apparently whatever it was made with is surprisingly flammable! The kick to her shoulder is partially deflected as she whirls about frantically, and the burning sleeve of the costume ends up kicked right off. Trapped in the costume and dizzy with pain, Alexis tries to unzip the costume from inside, but the zipper seems to be stuck. With the fabric rapidly being consumed by the flames, Alexis settles on one final option. She turns to face Honoka, and roars.
A moment later, Killasaurus Lex explodes.
Or at least, her costume does, as a surge of sonic energy blasts the charred fabric apart, sending cinders scattering over Southtown and leaving Alexis down essentially to her dino-print skivvies, only the giant Killasaurus feet still clinging. The blast isn't solely intended to free her from the fiery inferno, though - a ripple from the sonic roar is sent through the air, aiming to knock Honoka out of it.
Then, too pained to stand (or for modesty for that matter), Alexis collapses to her knees...
COMBATSYS: Alexis can no longer fight.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Honoka with Power Chord.
~~ Alluring Hit! ~~
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
Before slumping face down next to a miniature billboard advertising Carly Rae Jepsen.
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Honoka with Medium Kick.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Honoka
With an agile bob and a weave, the nimble Mothma flits away to a safe distance from the mad Killasaurus. It's clear, though, from the flutter of wings as she settles atop a three-story building, that even the Queen of Moths cannot keep flying about forever. Honoka looks weary and exhausted, and might tip over at just any moment...
But even her high vantage point doesn't keep her safe from the athletic leaps of Robo-Kanzuki. The Twilight Star performer raises her arms to deflect the kick, but after the serious number of blows she's swatted away, her arms can't take much more! She staggers backwards from the strike, leaving her open and unsteady for the sweep kick that follows.
Mothma falls onto the building roof, which has the unfortunate side effect of forcing the flimsy building to teeter over sideways...
Right into Killasaurus's SELF-DESTRUCT attack (It's super effective!) Mothma is juggled into the air, head over heels -- though the already-stressed cord frays and snaps from the duress, leaving Mothma at the beck and call of gravity once again.
Mothma's wings get caught up on the Carly Rae Jepsen billboard, the bent metal forming a sharp edge at the angle best suited to cleave the fabric clear away from the billboard -- slowing the circus performer's fall. But as she lands in a low crouch, she notices... Alexis, and not the Killasaurus costume.
Gulp.
With cheeks staining a faint pink, in empathetic embarassment for her fallen opponent,Mothma tears the rest of the billboard fabric free of its supporting frame, pulling it about herself like a cloak in lieu of the useless stubs of wings she has left. And thusly clad, she makes a mad dash at Sakura, spinning around to send the billboard fabric fluttering about her like an umbrella... concealing her exact strike until the very last moment!
COMBATSYS: Sakura parries Honoka's Niwen Horobi!
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Sakura 0/-------/----<<<|====---\-------\0 Honoka
With the aid of the cloth, Mothma charges forward to get a good two-handed grip onto Robo-Kanzuki's front chestplate. The intent would have been to shove her backwards and to the ground... but the move has the added benefit of sending the billboard fabric fluttering over towards Alexis, providing a smidge more decency for the downed punk rocker. This is a family program!
Sakura cannot claim to be psychic. Certainly not like how Honoka is psychic. But battle skill and instinct, honed by countless battles in countless situations, can sometimes substitute. There's something about the whirling distraction that makes Sakura suspect that the -real- attack is yet to come. So she ducks back, waiting... waiting... and when Honoka finally goes for it, Sakura is ready.
Her hands shoot out, deflecting Honoka's arms wide, opening her defenses--maybe--for a critical moment. And somewhere, somewhere within herself, she finds energy welling up. From the shortened distance, Sakura doesn't back off--if anything, she leans in a bit, as that by-now familiar blue-white energy surges into her hands, that glow lighting Honoka up.
At this distance it's almost more of a chi-enhanced palm strike, though she doesn't -touch- Honoka--if she's successful, it will just be her chi reaching across the short distance.
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Sakura's Large Hadouken EX.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----<<|====---\-------\0 Honoka
With Mothma's forelimbs knocked up and out of the way, the followup she'd had a mind to deliver just... wouldn't work at all. For the -true- power of her electric attack, she would need to be able to deliver a shock right into the heart -- and it's clear that the true heart of Japan is quite a bit stronger than the radiation-addled moth's.
Reika and Mizuho chant in unison, "Fight, Mothma, fight! We must end this fight before the city is left in ruins!"
Mothma flicks her antennae back in response, taking careful heed of the wellspring of blue-white energy forming directly in front of her. Without the encumbering wings, the acrobat juggler is able to execute a nimble backflip to carry her safely out of the range of the fiery projectile -- though not without yelping with pain as the flames nip at her heels. That -wasn't- a sound effect, at least!
Landing upon her hands, she twists sharply to the side, allowing the remnants of the (unnamed) Kanzuki Blast to diminish on their own -- hopefully without giving Alexis another heart attack.
While getting -too- far from the Ansatsuken Angel is probably not the wisest choice, getting right up in her grill has proven to come with its own consequences -- Honoka still has a sore jaw, and probably -will- for a few days. But when Mothma comes up out of her flip, she has a wooden 2x4 in her hands -- one left over from the recent carnage, it would seem. The jagged, uneven edges would probably leave one -killer- mark, but out of fairness to her underaged combatant, she's not intending to wield it like a bladed weapon...
Nope. She's going to use what's left of the four-foot-long lumber scrap to give Robo-Kanzuki a mecha-spanking, right on the tail end! So what if she's a month and a half late for the birthday...
COMBATSYS: Sakura fails to interrupt Large Random Weapon from Honoka with EX Shou'ou Ken EX.
-+- CALCULATED HIT -+-
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Sakura 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Honoka
Sakura is getting tired. That is, this fight is testing the limits of her endurance. It's got to end, soon, one way or the other--and Sakura is always interested in being proactive, not reactive. So when Honoka gets that two-by-four and gets ready to swing, Sakura doesn't retreat from the weapon, improvised or not. She charges in. Maybe, she figures, that chunk of wood is just unbalanced enough to make it super-awkward for Honoka to swing. She can get in, deflect the hit, and -end- this. But...
Well, maybe she just miscalculated, or Honoka's stronger than she looks, or something. Her legs giving out a little--not enough to be noticeable but just enough to slow her down that fraction of a second so that her charge, instead of getting her inside Honoka's attack arc, puts her head *right* where it needs to be.
*POW*
The next thing Sakura knows, she's spitting dust out, her head throbbing and warm stickiness flowing from a laceration near her temple. Fortunately not as bloody as some head wounds get, but... it's not good. Grunting, she forces herself to her feet, though her stance is looser, her legs wobbly, and she has to slap her cheeks to get her eyes to focus on her opponent. Still standing... and Sakura is, too, though she maybe should've just stayed down.
Out of reflex, jugglers tend to notice a number of things about something as soon as they pick it up. Weight, strength, and most of all, balance. Sure, the two-by-four was no longer in fully saleable condition, but what's there was undoubtedly solid and consistent -- so balance was not so much of an issue for the Twilight Star performer. What was an issue to her was what how Robo-Kanzuki would deal with it -- would she step out of the way, or attempt to counterattack? By overselling the weight of the board, she had assumed that she could bait her mecha-ringletted opponent into taking action -- and it would appear she'd assumed correctly, allowing her to taking advantage of the committal and speed up in mid-swing.
Reika's eyes go wide. "Oh, -my!- So brutal... How much longer can this go on!?"
Mizuho answers, much more matter-of-factly: "AAA! We need to get the engines started, the dark scourges will be here any moment!" And off the two girls go, running off behind the scenery to some other arcane setpiece...
Honoka does feel a brief tinge of pity about the laceration -- not to mention the disintegrated state of Alexis' costume -- but that's why waivers are signed, after all. But conflict is not what the audience wants to see, she reminds herself, steeling her expression so that she can present a brave, confident front to the audience, slinging the two-by-four off to the side like a discarded baseball bat after a successful homerun hit. Sure, it's a bit harder to hear the onlookers in this dome, but there is definitely a good mix of cheering and booing going on, and it's important to remember that!
<< You're doing great. This will be your moment to shine! >>
It probably sounds like nothing more than a whisper in the crowd, but Honoka is providing a subtle vote of confidence to Sakura -- a reminder of how much the Japanese love the phrase "gambatte," or "try your best."
This confidence will be important, as it's fundamentally opposite from the message that Mothma is attempting to convey by grabbing once again for Robo-Kanzuki's chestplate, with an aim to plant her foot into her stomach and then fall backwards. It'd look exactly like a tomoe nage throw from judo... except for the sudden flare of psychic energy erupting from Mothma's foot, threatening to impale the Taiyo mecha-teen right through the core and make her quite queasy for a while!
COMBATSYS: Honoka successfully hits Sakura with Wakka Pururuse.
[ \\\\ < > /////// ]
Sakura 1/---====/=======|=======\=------\1 Honoka
Yes... her legs are definitely affected. She can feel the tremors in them now, Sakura's knee threatening to buckle. She grits her teeth--Ryu would *never* let it show--and prepares to avoid this next assault. But her leg fails her, or her knee does, and it buckles just as Honoka reaches her, leaving Sakura off-balance and unable to defend against Honoka's psi-enhanced throw. The Mecha-Kanzuki lands hard, throwing up a cloud of dust, and for a moment, just as the dust begins to settle, all is quiet...
And then there's an explosion of motion, as Sakura wildly flails herself into a spinning handstand kick very reminiscent of a capoeira move, twisting it around into a low spinning sweep kick, a pommel-horse like move, blades of that blue energy flaring around her legs as she goes.
And yet the move feels incomplete--or that may just be because just as Sakura really gets going, she fails, sweeping through one more kick before her hands give out and she thumps back down to the ground, dazed if not exactly 'KOed'...
COMBATSYS: Sakura can no longer fight.
> /////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Honoka
COMBATSYS: Honoka dodges Sakura's Haru Ichiban.
> /////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Honoka
While Honoka is used to stage performances that last for really long times, the fact remains that fighting two different people is taking quite a bit out of her! Both Mecha-Karin and Killasaurus Lex each got a few solid hits in despite the best efforts of her and her stage crew. Even maxed out on adrenaline as she is, there's only so much she can take before the Queen of Moths will be grounded for the count...
In this case, though, Mothma is revitalized when her attack lands true. Twisting back to her feet, Mothma stays in a low crouch, manipulating what's left of her bent, broken wings to flap about in anticipation of her opponent's last-ditch effort. Once she sees that Robo-Kanzuki has righted herself, Mothma prepares to leap...
That blue energy again, confound it! She can see it, she can feel the hair rise on the back of her neck, she can smell the burning ozone, and she can even sense the spirit and determination of the person wielding the energy. But she's been able to avoid the purest, distilled form of the energy for so long this fight. The Queen of Moths stands spellbound at the energy as it cascades around her opponent's feet, catalyzing her momentum and energizing her attacks. It's so bright, and so powerful -- what =would= it feel like?
It reminds her of a dream, actually. Or, perhaps more appropriately, a nightmare.
From their spots on the battlefield, hiding behind two of the plywood buildings, Reika and Mizuho both shout, "MOTHMA, LOOK OUT!!!"
The spell is broken, shattered into a million pieces, and Mothma finds her opponent mere centimeters away. The juggler-moth channels all her strength into her legs, flaring with the signature pinks and purples of her energy as she flies upwards, somersaulting into the air, narrowly missing the last few revolutions of the Taiyo teen's advancing stormfront.
Awareness comes flooding back to her in the wake of the adrenaline rush, allowing Mothma to snap out of her somersault. A snap of her knee stops the spin and redirects her momentum, allowing her to land in a three-point stance a good distance away from the mechanized Taiyo student.
Silence persists for a few seconds in the wake of the attacks, as neither fighter rises to full height. The silence is almost, but not quite, broken by Mothma's two companions...
But then darkness descends upon the dome, leaving all in darkness. Two demonic shades drop down from the upper scaffolding of the dome, undulating and wispy in their broadcloth glory; their luminescent purple eyes would be pretty frightening to small children!
But it's not until Mothma herself rises to her full height, spreading her arms and wings to their full extent, that the silence is truly broken. She opens her mouth wide, and the shrill scream of the moth fills the room...
Cue the pyrotechnics, as the broadcloth monstrosities burst into flames; loosed from their riggings, they fall to the floor amidst all its plywood coatings. (Don't worry, fans! This time, the circus crew's on hand to extinguish the flames after a few moments!)
Only now... does Mothma drop to place her hands on her head, dropping to her knees as if in immense pain.
Reika and Mizuho trot out to the lilliputian city, seemingly not caring much about the obvious size differential. Each has a microphone in her hand, as before:
"Mothma, you did it! You defeated the shades of doom!" chirps Reika.
"Now you all won't have to fight any more!" adds Mizuho.
Mothma shakes her head angrily, and another set of sound effects effectively communicates her woeful despair. And if not... well, she gestures dramatically towards her fallen opponents. What about -them?-
"Oh... oh no! You... could have been friends with them, but the evil monstrosities..." Reika runs off to tend to Killasaurus Lex, helping her with her wounds, while Mizuho kneels down beside Robo-Karin, as one of the announcers begins to fill in the rest of the story for the audience.
Honoka smiles faintly, looking over at her opponents, as their mics are cut down low. In a stage whisper, she grins, "Hey you two... great fight...! But I think... I might need to lie down for a bit, ehehe..."
COMBATSYS: Honoka has ended the fight here.
Log created on 20:51:48 10/30/2015 by Honoka, and last modified on 20:53:58 11/04/2015.