Description: Aranha runs into an unexpected guest during a visit to one of the local fight clubs. There's some... history between the two, and it's not going to be resolved with a simple scrap. Especially not with a big bruiser on the line with a thirst for blood...
Aranha had a hotel and travel to pay for which meant it was time to scrape knuckles... Or Aranha's particular case, scuff sneakers at the local fight clubs. While he was nomadic he still had his favorite fight clubs. It was grimy, dingy, and dimly lit but it had character and he didn't have to deal with as much bullshit as he would've if he had to go to Vito's fight club, even if they also had a better pay out.
Aranha puts in his buy in and gets ushered in to wait his turn for his fight. As he waits, he rests his feet on the barrier and leans back as he watches some ugly, pudgy guy get repeatedly knocked down by some black guy in a bucket hat only to rise and repeatedly miss with a hook upon getting up. Aranha was clearly bored with this fight. He's just on the edge of falling asleep when the pudgy finally falls down and stays down. The rest crowd shouts and he's shaken from his drowsiness.
That's when he gets ushered into the ring to fight. He then forces himself to focus. Just because the previous fight to him was a borefest doesn't mean that whoever comes next will be boring to fight as well. And if they are... Well Aranha has the tools to end it quickly... Probably.
Spotlights cast an ellipse of light onto the portion of the ring opposite Aranha. At first, there's no figure at all -- just a hush falling over the crowd.
And then the floor begins to shudder. It might be an earthquake -- the rest of the denizens of the underground fight club cast panicked looks to their surroundings. Or it could be the telltale signs that the dark overlord who absconded with the entirety of Metro City almost a year ago is back to settle the score -- no amount of panic will save them in such a case.
A gargantuan hulk of a man lumbers out, proving to be the source of the tremors. With the source revealed, people stop trying to fight their way to the exit, and instead pump their fists into the air.
The man barely looks human, with grayed, leathery skin lapped into thick, heavy wrinkles at the joints. His face is broad, his features expressive... and he seems to be very, very weary. But most of all, his forehead is not flat, but shows signs of a protrusion of some sort. Possibly a horn.
As the first set of spotlights leads the ceratorhine man to the ring, a second set of spotlights snaps into existence, lancing down onto the floor in front of Aranha. The fiery hot beam quivers, their operators still trying valiantly to compensate for the shudders induced by the 350lb-man stomping towards the ring.
And through it all, an Italian woman in the audience purses her lips. Her curled black tresses are reined in by a loose beige headscarf. A decorative black jacket hugs her shoulders, terminating just below the ribcage so as not to distract from the shimmery blue and purple fabric of the exquisitely-designed dress beneath. It would be easy to miss her in the crowd at first, if not for the fact that such a stunning example of financial success isn't in one of the fancy box seats above. No -- she seems to enjoy the leering looks she's getting.
And while her face looks a little different, it would seem that the only object of Fio Tessitore's attention is Aranha, tonight. Her painted lips curl into a broad smile.
When the ground starts shaking, Aranha spreads his weight outwards as he begins looking up to see if anything is falling. With the crowd and his location within the ring itself, getting to the doorframes or tables for protection from falling objects is not an option.
He watches as the spectators begin to file out and then he sees his opponent. A hulking, human rhino, hybrid. The fact that the spectators stop running when the source of the shaking is revealed and the cheering begins raises an eyebrow. After the Majigen incident, there was a high amount of anti-Darkstalker sentiment which made the fact they were still sticking around for this fight as opposed to rioting downright impressive. As he continues to glance around, his eyes catch sight of Fio Tessitore. And then everything begins to make sense.
"Oh hell naw... Oh fucking HELL naw. Oh god fucking dammit."
He takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose as sudden headache occurs. For a few moments and then he's about to turn to leap out the ring and make a b-line right for Tessitore when the announcer chooses that point to start the fight.
He hisses to himself, "My fucking gawd, Tessitore... You mean to tell me that you're still ripping off the comic books?"
These people came here for a fight -- and the notion of pairing Aranha against someone much bigger, much stronger, and much less agile makes for primo entertainment. Plus, with Aranha keeping the monstrosity's attention, it's relatively safe.
You don't want to be the one pitching tomatoes at that guy, really!
"Rocky", the lumbering monstrosity stepping into the ring, smashes his meaty hands together in anticipation. His face spreads into a smile; aside from his horn and his dry skin condition, he looks more human than not. Just... huge! He doesn't have much to say -- but that's mostly because the announcer is already starting the match. Rocky notices the hesitation, but that just smells like an opening to him, as he launches forward with a flurry of overhand strikes, aimed at battering down the nimble traceur's guard right off the bat.
Off in the stands, Tessitore simply smiles to herself, answering Aranha but not deigning to raise her voice particularly loud: "Oh, my sweet little test subject... if this were a comic book, you'd be wearing something -much- more revealing than that..."
COMBATSYS: Rocky has started a fight here.
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Rocky 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Aranha has joined the fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0 Rocky
COMBATSYS: Rocky successfully hits Aranha with Fury Swipes.
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Aranha 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Rocky
The Dancing Spider pays for both his hesitation and the distraction created by having Dr. Tessitore in relatively close proximity. As the behemoth lumbers his way towards him Aranha is motionless until right before the first downward swipes comes down upon him and by then it's already too late. His body gets slapped around to and fro before the final blow knocks him down to his knees.
The capoeirista/traceur spins back to his feet and responds to Tessitore even if his eyes are now focused on Rocky with, "Since you want to to focus on my ass so badly, lady, why don't you drop to your knees and kiss it?"
He then launches himself forward at the giant with a blue glowing roundhouse kick, followed by a likewise blue chi imbued jumping roundhouse, and finishing with a chi enhanced back flip kick that drives the foot down on his shoulder.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Rocky with Aggressive Dance.
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Aranha 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Rocky
As the rhinoceros-like humanoid bashes Aranha to the ground, he snorts derisively. "Who you talking to, boy? Pay attention to -me!-" The bulky brute lingers near Aranha, not wanting to sacrifice his hard-fought advantage over the traceur -- though this also proves to be a bad move in the long run as it means he can't really avoid the counterattack. Cerulean energy sears long black trails across the mutant's flimsy shirt -- a poor match for the fortified armor beneath. But even that leathery skin starts to give way under the force of the kick, flesh rippling from the first and second attack that send the man staggering backwards.
The figure grunts back, meeting Aranha in the eye -- he fully intends to leverage Aranha's followup into an attack of his own. But the bulky monstrosity is taken unaware by the angle of attack, as the high-arced flip kick lands right in the spot where the trapezius meets the shoulder joint -- a sensitive nerve ending that was left with much less armor than the extremities. "Hhhrrgh!" grunts the rhinocerous-man as he drops to one knee, irritably.
"Ah, you want to pick things up right where we left off, hmm?" Dr. Tessitore's red-irised eyes twinkle from behind her eyeglasses -- she remembers well that this isn't the -first- time she's received such an invitation from Aranha, after all. "Maybe if you stopped using that vanishing act we could sit down for a drink or something?"
And yet, Rocky is completely oblivious to whatever Tess and Aranha are discussing. Sure, he knows Tess -- just not her history. He just knows that Aranha hurt him -- the wounds are still throbbing with exposure to the capoeirista's blue-tinted chi. And he knows he doesn't get paid unless he finishes the job. He rises from his kneeling posture, aiming to drive his shoulder upwards into Aranha with bone-cracking force!
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Rocky's Mighty Roar.
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Aranha 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Rocky
The capoeirista shifts to the side, practically dancing around his opponent as the shoulder comes in. He catches the impact on his shoulder and spinning with it which achieves two things. It mitigates the damage and it allowed him to move to the massive artificially created Darkstalker's flank.
Multiple responses to Tessitore come to mind. 'How many times do I have to swipe left before you get I'm not interested?' 'I should've known you were into that stuff...' and the like. He however learned a lesson from a world that as far as he knows, never existed. Talking while fighting invites mistakes.
He instead focuses on the hybrid that is out to pummel the living mess out of him and drops low into a crouch with a leg extended forward, slightly bent at the knee with the foot place right in front of Rocky's foot. He then swings the other foot around and locking it in on the back of the knee and twisting over using the leverage to perform a scissor leg takedown which ideally would send him face first into the barrier. Freeing his foot with another full body twist, Aranha will then bring his heel down on Rocky's back.
COMBATSYS: Rocky blocks Aranha's Kick Combo.
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Aranha 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Rocky
Tess presses her lips together with the excitement of seeing her new 'pet' project do battle with the nominal Majigen Series champion. Weeks of reclusive study and experimentation has culminated in a series of successes in less structured grudge matches -- this is the first time her experiment is being put to the test in a fight against anyone of Aranha's caliber. All the better that the fight organizers had chosen Aranha -himself- as Rocky's opponent...
The audience members next to Fio seem to be misreading her intentions. They can tell her heartrate is accelerating, they can read the body language. But as the two audience members begin to make their moves -- each thinking they're the first to take advantage of the young Italian -- each young man instead finds himself clasping the other's hand while Fio casually steps forward. From her left wrist is a long thread of silk, leaving a perfectly clear connection to the silken strands which have abruptly entombed both young men's hands around one another.
"Naughty..." chides the Italian -- though it's not whether she's speaking to the thoughts bouncing around in Aranha's mind, or to the exasperated young men behind her.
As Aranha shifts to the side, the darkstalker is apparently ready for him -- already dropping back to his knee in anticipation. He can't keep up with the capoeirista on speed, that much is sure -- but he makes up for it in bulk. Dropping to one knee means that he can roll around on his own terms. Kicks impact the hide, though instead of an abrupt movement it's treated more as a sumo maneuver to be guided around. He rolls into the barrier, though when Aranha's kick crashes down, it's into an upraised forearm: an impact powerful enough to smash concrete into powder merely sends shockwaves rippling through the ceratorhine darkstalker's leathery hide.
Rocky smiles. "Fast. But not so good," is his tacit response. Words are tough! But violence is easy, as Dr. Tess' creation lumbers forward into a powerful sidearmed punch -- strong enough to blast a metal door off its hinges -- at Aranha's midsection.
"It's okay, Aranha, we'll chat later. You just focus on making Rocky look good!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Strong Punch from Rocky with Dead Man's Hand EX.
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Aranha 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Rocky
Aranha in particular was using the beginning of the fight to gather information. The opponent's movement, the amount power they have, their on the fly judgement and ability to react. Once he has the information he needs, he then uses it to determine how he wants the fight to go.
Aranha grins when Rocky says he's fast but not so good. It was as if the hulking mass of pseudo-humanity was daring him to prove him wrong.
Rocky's side arm punch comes in and Aranha shifts slightly to the side and while he doesn't take the impact full on, it still forces a pained grunt out of the Dancing Spider as chi engulfed pimp slap from hell connects with the jaw of the darkstalker almost simultaneously. The echo from the blow heard clearly above the sounds of cheering to the point where after it's made, the crowd hushes in a moment of a collective wince. Aranha is still quick to follow it up with a side kick to the stomach.
When his foot returns to the ground, he sways to and fro in ginga, swinging hands constantly guarding.
Fio Tessitore frowns, the fabric of her jacket creaking as she folds her arms before her. Make Rocky look good -- that was supposed to be a demoralizing statement, one that would dampen Aranha's spirits.
Instead it seems to have been a call to action, as the capoeirista is able to not only avoid the bruiser's full fury, but deliver a crushing smack to send the oaf hurtling to the floor of the ring. Meaty arms spin out to the sides as Rocky flails for balance and finds none -- and a moment later, the spinning top finds guidance in the form of Aranha's side kick into its stomach. Jacknifing forward, the darkstalker drops to his knees, vomiting out a lumpy mass -- a testament to the recent nausea-rich journey.
Rocky hinges his now-sore jaw shut, gritting his teeth. 'Not so good' seems to have been proven inaccurate. But he's not out yet: surging back to his feet, the lumbering beast rushes forward to snatch Aranha out of his ginga -- a series of gestures he can only interpret as needlessly taunting -- and grab hold of him by the hips. The roaring beast expects that Aranha might slip out of his grasp -- he's actually -counting- on it, in a fashion, as his true aim is to grab Aranha around the leg. Where Rocky's strength is in his body, Aranha's clearly got the better mind -- which is why Rocky is trying to introduce the traceur's head and shoulders to the most convenient surfaces available: the floor, and the barriers surrounding the ring. Bash, bash, bash-bash-bash!
COMBATSYS: Rocky successfully hits Aranha with Primal Fury.
- Power hit! -
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Aranha 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Rocky
As Aranha watches as the mass of pseudo-humanity makes his approach, he knows he wants to get away, the constant movement of ginga was supposed to keep him a moving target however that massive bulk comes with massive reach and there's only so much space that the capoeirista has manuever in before he's pinned in. And that's the point where his legs get grabbed.
Aranha's head and torso gets swung around like a rag doll in the hands of little girl in the midst of a temper tantrum. He knows that bruising will soon follow and now there's streaming down the side of his face
When he's back on his feet, the capoeirista is not only in a lot of pain, he's livid. Capoeiristas do not like their legs being attacked in anyway. He glances at Tessitore and channels his rage into a series of roundhouse kicks, outside crescent kicks slapping the face with outside edge of his foot, inside crescent kicks slapping with the inside edge of his foot, side kicks, front kicks, spinning back heel kicks as he gives Rocky a blue chi enhanced crash course in the kicks of capoeira culminating in him tilting into a handstand and slapping him in the face with his feet before once more standing on his feet.
COMBATSYS: Rocky fails to interrupt Royal Flush from Aranha with Frothing Combo.
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Aranha 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Rocky can no longer fight.
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Aranha 0/-------/------=|
Dr Tessitore's smile grows larger as her monstrosity manages to unleash its tantrum of rage onto Aranha. She's had difficulty creating a darkstalker that's had anywhere near the tenacity of this "Rocky" experiment -- most of her transformed subjects just lack the mental fortitude to keep continuing against foes as potent and dynamic as Aranha. But with her enjoyment comes more unwanted attention from the audience members -- in the form of a renewed assault on the person who has clearly -demonstrated- her supernatural abilities in front of everyone. Dr. T does not have a good reputation in these parts -- and for a few moments, she disappears beneath a throng of enraged audience members.
Sadly, she's forced to miss the rapid turnaround of events as her monstrosity begins to gloat over Aranha. Blood only excites the unholy creation as he begins a low, rumbling chuckle. Saliva spills from his unnaturally enhanced maw, a look of satisfaction escaping him as his lumbering gait stomps out a slow spiral around Aranha, intending to close off any avenue of attack. "Not so fast... now... huh huh..."
The bigger they are, the harder they fall, though. While Aranha may be cornered, he is still nimble -- and a bit too fast for the monstrosity to grab hold of again. His outstretched arms are swatted away by the first kicks, battered down by the second sequence, and broken at the shoulder by the successive attacks. The increasingly defenseless creature's face is spattered with its own blood, his bulk preventing him from effecting a much-needed withdrawal from the blisteringly fast attacks visited upon him. The gray skin is momentarily lit blue by each blow, leaving only sickly black bruises and crushed bone in their wake -- the leathery hide doing little to stunt the impact of such a concussive barrage.
A rictus of anger spreads upon Rocky's face throughout the onslaught -- though when it finally ends, and Aranha rises back to his feet, Rocky's eyes roll into the back of his head.
The beast topples to his side, unconscious, in a crash that silences the unruly crowd -- both the ones crowing for and against Aranha, and the mass of angry citizens hording around Fio Tessitore. In the ensuing silence, a silvery strand reaches for the ceiling -- and then a heartbeat later, a dozen of the audience members fly upwards, trapped like flies in the spider-woman's webbing.
Tessitore looks to the ring with excitement. Aside from some mussed hair, it doesn't seem anyone was able to inflict grievious harm upon the Italian spider.
Until she looks at her creation, slumbering peacefully on the surface of the ring, with Aranha standing victorious -- and announced thusly by the good men in charge of the event.
"Tch. So he's a work in progress!"
With her immediate vicinity cleared out due to her spiderweb attack -- with twelve audience members struggling helplessly ten feet over her head -- Tess begins striding towards the exit. One man attempts to bar her progress, but with no more than a casual shove in his direction, she sends him flying backwards a good ten feet, bowling over two of his friends like tenpins.
"Congratulations, I suppose," she calls out over the audience, as they begin to start making noise again. "It was a treat to find out you were still kicking."
Aranha he wanted to go after Fio Tessitore but while he wanted to, there multiple very good reasons not to. First there were still too many audience members who still wanted to get a piece of her. Which would likely get in his way. Then there was the behemoth that was stretched out at his feet. Rocky had softened him up a little too much that going after Tessitore was just asking to be another one of her experiments. She pushed Aranha to the limits in both of their previous encounters and as it stood, he was not in condition to fight her. And the last reason was, he wanted his money. It was the weakest of his three reasons at the moment but it was still a legitimate reason.
Aranha glances at Dr. Tessitore, then he glances at the ceiling then back at Tessitore and offhandedly throws a chi web at the connection between the web suspending the spectators in the air and the ceiling letting them drop to the ground once more. Maybe they'll harass her some more or encourage her to make herself scarce.
No matter what happens, Aranha's collecting his winnings. But not without saying one last thing to the good doctor.
"Oh... Fuck off."
COMBATSYS: Aranha has ended the fight here.
Log created on 08:48:00 04/20/2016 by Dr. Tessitore, and last modified on 15:22:04 04/20/2016.