Match of the Millennium

Description: Piranha Mendez is sent by Stray to recover the Tooth of Yehindi, seized by Detective Brandon Malone on behalf of Metro Police. This dangerous artifact is sought after by the Stray Cat, but Brandon knows, and the police suspect, that it is far more dangerous than the mere mundane presence that such an antique would imply.

[BRANDON]
After acquiring The Tooth of Yehindi(the dagger taken from Dr. Brandt), Brandon spent many nights trying to devise a way that the dagger could be examined by the lab techs without getting possessed by the weapon. Enchanting the latex gloves themselves were out since anything he did would contaminate the gloves and throw any findings into question. He could put a working on the box carrying it but it already had its protections and it would do nothing once it came out. He also had to eliminate disenchanting the dagger itself because every kill the dagger had made it stronger and it was the point where in order for Brandon to destroy it, he'd have to tap into his power directly and practically destroy himself. Not an option.

The solution Brandon came up with was to create a working on the box that links the box and a ribbon that he would tie around the handle. The box would act as a portable battery charger for the ribbon with a working on it enabling it to temporarily bind the dark enchantment on the dagger long enough for the lab techs to handle it and gather evidence before putting the dagger back into the box which would enable the box to recharge the ribbon as well as protecting the carrier from the dagger thanks to Brandt's own works.

With box in hand, he has a short walk through the shoveled pathways of Metro City to the police station. Thankfully the trip was only 5 blocks. The cold was brutal.

[STRAY]
The Stray Cat was tempted by an enchantment of this power, seeing its dark uses. It could be given to an innocent man or woman, perhaps even one guilty in the eyes of Stray (a debtor, a snitch, a cad) and used to turn them into a murderer, or even used to create a fire and forget assassin with the knife left in the proper place. Dr. Brandt was against the use of the blade, but Dr. Brandt was merely an employee in Stray's eyes. It was all merely a means to an end, like a tool or a game or a pet. A tool was used to solve problems. A game taught skills that could be applied to life. A pet gave one companionship, while being ultimately disposable to the heavy heart of an owner. And Stray was a master of all three of these means, with ends seen far in Stray's quiet dreams at night. A place where his parents would be honored again, instead of forcing a brilliant child into the hardship of the post-Soviet world inside Russia.

Stray had selected an operative to purloin the blade, a skilled car thief capable of stealing an entire munitions convoy from a military depot. 'Piranha' Mendez was a Mexican-American car thief that dropped out of the military's mechanics pool after an incident involving a joint in view of an officer. Always too rebellious for the military and its strict rules, he was a natural fit in Skull Cross. Standing five foot seven, with lean muscle beneath tanned, tattooed skill, he wore his hair in a choppy black cut and wore aviator sunglasses, the type soldiers and police wore in his native Mexico. He had dressed warm for this attack, dressed in a green military bomber jacket with a black cotton sweater beneath it, and a pair of drab olive fatigues tucked into brown boots.

The assault required a stolen car, hence Piranha's hand in the action. A snow plow rumbled along the road, yellow lights flashing as it turned snow to the side of the banks. And then, as it passed Brandon, it swerved to the side, surging into the snowbank and shoving the snow, and the truck itself, into Brandon's path on the sidewalk, trapping him between the bank to one side and the building front to the other side. Brandon could see Piranha's face, grinning at him through the window of the truck, as the driver shifted into park.

[BRANDON]
What tips off the private eye at first isn't what he sees but what he hears. For some reason the sound of the vehicle behind him was moving laterally closer and closer. Awareness kicks in, and he realizes that the vehicle would cross on to the curb and right into his path. He suddenly stops and he sees the plow cross right in front of him.

The detective is now forced to take mental inventory of what's wrong with this picture.

1: It hadn't snowed today or yesterday. There was a heavy snow storm not too long ago but it didn't have a chance to melt. Yet, there was a snow plow right in front of him.
2: That grin. That sadistic grin. It wasn't the look of someone who had one too many and hence had trouble staying on the road.

Those both allowed him to come up with the result of 'It's an ambush!'

Now it was information gathering time. First, Metro City vehicles had to have license plates both on rear and front bumper. One of the good things about the angle the Piranha took in cutting him off, it allowed him to see the plate when normally the plow would block his view of it. Then the phone just seemed to appear in his hand. He knew he had as much as it would take for his assailant to open the door and go around and the obstacle created for him, open the door and climb over the hood to get to him, or climb out through the passenger side to get to him, each of which would take some time.

With fingers used to both operating at speeds of quicker than most eyes can see, he brings up one of the police officers on his cellphone and takes a picture of Piranha with view of a store front in the picture(shutter sounds silenced in his settings) before dictating a text on his phone. "I'm being ambushed, send officers as soon as possible."

As his other hand sweeps downward, hiding the actions of unbuttoning his trench coat, he reveals black button up shirt, white vest, white tie and most importantly at this moment, a leather pouch with his deck in it. He hopes that the picture was enough to clue the officers in on where he was located.

[STRAY]
An identity report is relayed to Brandon, identifying 'Joachim Mendez', alias Piranha, as having been the culprit in the theft of missiles from a local National Guard armory that saw action during the Majigen incident. Nearby, in an apartment used as a stash house for Mad Gear, a lines hacker picks up the report, and confirms with Piranha via a Bluetooth cellphone clip in his ear. The snow plow truck door opens, and Mendez steps out, rolling his shoulders as he continues to grin at Brandon with that toothy, violent expression. A butterfly knife is manipulated open and then shut in the blade out position in his right hand, and he walks slowly towards the occultist detective, tilting his chin upwards.

"Hey, man. You want an easy thousand bucks? Just turn over that box. I'll punch you in the nose, you tell the cops you were jumped, then you get your cash in a bank account. Nothing's worth getting sliced up over a pretty knife."

COMBATSYS: Brandon has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Brandon          0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Piranha has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Brandon          0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Piranha

[BRANDON]
A report that Brandon doesn't have time to read. He only had time to send that one text.

As he eyes the Mexican American, he tries to listen out for more assailants. He then turns his focus on his breathing as he goes into a modified Hitman aka. Philly Shell Boxing stance with palms open and fingers close together. He can feel the bite of the cold and the bitter wind hitting his chest. Uncomfortable yes, but a sacrifice required if he wanted to get to his cards.

"The box is evidence in a murder investigation. Though if you knew enough about me to know where I was headed, you already knew enough to know I wasn't going to take that deal."

With his assailant already having drawn a knife, he already has enough to plead self-defense if it came down to it. When his finger brushes the leather pouch on his belt, he goes into action bringing up a glowing tarot card up in front of him, it appearing as if by magic before it releases tightly compact ball of light right at the hand holding the butterfly knife.

COMBATSYS: Brandon has left the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Piranha          0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Brandon has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Brandon          0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Piranha

COMBATSYS: Brandon has left the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Piranha          0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Brandon has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Brandon          0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Piranha

COMBATSYS: Piranha blocks Brandon's I - The Magician.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Brandon          0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Piranha

[STRAY]
Piranha Mendez smirks at Brandon, his lips pressing together to end the insipid grin. "Si, ese. I got it. We all gotta eat, right?" he rolls his right shoulder up into his tilting head to limber up for the blade fight, fingers extending and closing along the base of the knife, as he moves into a blade fighter position. As Brandon enters the Hitman stance, Piranha adopts a Spanish blade fighter stance, although the tightness of his conditioning and training indicates he was originally taught to fight as a soldier. He watches the mage adept from behind his shades, his mouth becoming a tight, serious line, before the card is thrown at him.

Piranha snaps his blade out to the side, slashing through the card and allowing it to burst over his hand in a rupturing bloom of chi. It burns his hand and slithers up his arm with its environmental energy, as he walks forward through it, grunting in mild annoyance but nonetheless forcing him to grip the knife too tight.

Piranha lifts his arm and brings the blade down to his left with a diagonal slash, before lifting and slashing down to the right across both of their personal space once more. He slashes rapidly and quickly, with melody in his movements that balance with his mincing feet in his boots upon the snow-encrusted pavement.

COMBATSYS: Brandon dodges Piranha's Lightning Flurry.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Brandon          0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Piranha

[BRANDON]
As quickly as the Magician card appeared in the arcane private eye's hand, it vanishes from sight only for another card to sudden slide out of the sleeve of his trench coat. Energy leaps from the card to his hands a moment before that card slides back down his sleeve.

With fists engulfed in a pale yellow light, he swings out two flicker jabs, a punch known more for speed and harassment ability than actual damage before he steps forward to deliver a chi enhanced straight to the chest.

COMBATSYS: Piranha fails to counter Power Strike from Brandon with Dagger Riposte.
-* CRITICAL FAIL! *-

[STRAY]
Piranha finds his blade strokes not finding flesh, before he's countered by the jabs. He swivels the knife about in his deft fingers, attempting to do an upward stroke with his knife held down in his hands and cut across Brandon's face. He fails in this pursuit, instead finding himself punched twice in the face and shocked out of his counter. The chi straight to his chest slams him off his feet with a crunch of a rib suffering a hairline fracture. His knife falls to the ground beside him as he falls onto his back, laid out and wheezing. His neck tenses as he lays on the ground, shuddering.

[BRANDON]
Brandon, with a couple of steps back avoids the two initial slashes before using head movement and deft footwork to bob and weave while staying inside his own punching range. Each slash dangerously close to connecting including one that slices his tie off just under the windsor knot on it.

As quickly as the Magician card appeared in the arcane private eye's hand, it vanishes from sight only for another card to sudden slide out of the sleeve of his trench coat. Energy leaps from the card to his hands a moment before that card slides back down his sleeve.

With fists engulfed in a pale yellow light, he swings out two flicker jabs, a punch known more for speed and harassment ability than actual damage before he steps forward to deliver a chi enhanced straight to the chest.

Jackpot!

The Mystical Investigator smiled to himself as he connected with the first shot and based on how the would be assailant reacted, it was a doozy. He was not about to let the knife wielder recover. His first move is kick the knife away. The second move is to tackle Piranha before he can get back up to his feet. If he can manage that, he holds up a card that summons a sword of light that in turn descends downward towards Piranha's chest.

"You said you were gonna slice me, right?"

COMBATSYS: Brandon successfully hits Piranha with XI - Justice.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Brandon          0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0          Piranha

[STRAY]
Piranha coughs up blood as the chi blast slams into his chest after the tackle, his body bucking beneath Brandon. His head lolls about as he dizzies and his sunglasses skew, struggling with left-right violent squirms beneath the detective. "Bastardo!" he screams, now pushed into a helpless situation on what should have been an easy job. He wasn't informed that the occultist was a fighter of this caliber, and his arrogance now finds him in a fight for his future.

Piranha's hands grab at Brandon's elbows, attempting to grasp them and force his arms upwards. He rocks forwards, before he attempts to turn to the side and wrench the straddling legs off him, putting Brandon under him long enough for a fist punch to the jaw. "I'm going to fucking kill you!" he screams at the top of his lungs, his glasses flying off his face.

COMBATSYS: Piranha successfully hits Brandon with Medium Throw.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Brandon          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0          Piranha

[BRANDON]
To be fair to the people briefing Piranha, they probably based his capability on his early exit out of the King of Fighters tournament or his fight with Lee Chaolan and didn't really pay attention his Killer Instinct fights.

Unfortunately, Brandon's groundwork leaves a lot to be desired. He attempts to get to side control to keep the ex military knife wielder from turning the grapple against him but he wasn't quite fast enough and so he ends up on his back.

While no longer in a superior position, he's still in relatively close proximity and so he lets his hand brush the pouch on his belt before making a card appear in his palm just before making an attempt to connect with a palm strike and the subsequent burst of light.

COMBATSYS: Piranha just-defends Brandon's VIII - Strength!

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Brandon          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0          Piranha

[STRAY]
Piranha thrusts backwards with both hands on Brandon's chest, the palm strike driving him backwards along with the spring to his feet. He slips a knife out of his sleeve, a slim dirk, the chi thrust at him fading out around his shoulders in long wisps. He rolls his head around on his shoulders, blood on his teeth, and after giving Brandon a moment to recover from his position on his back (merely for ease of his goal), he charges forward, stabbing with wrenching thrusts, over and over again, underhanded knife blows aimed at Brandon's gut as he keeps his shoulders up and his head forward, using his uppermost body as a piston to push Brandon backwards.

COMBATSYS: Brandon dodges Piranha's Talon Flurry.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////              ]
Brandon          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0          Piranha

[BRANDON]
Once again, the detective bobs and weaves like a slick, infighting boxer, utilizing footwork as he twists and turns and leans out of the way of the stabs, his skin, other than the bruise forming on his side mostly pristine though at this point, his trench coat, his vest, and his tie are horribly sliced up.

Both hands brush up against the leather pouch and two tarot cards appear in his hands as he violently slashes out at the hired thug with energized cards wielding them as if they were bladed weapons before following up with a kick to the stomach to double him over. If he can land that, the cards will disappear long enough for him to grab him by the back of the head and drive him face down into a snowbank.

COMBATSYS: Brandon successfully hits Piranha with Charged Combo.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Brandon          0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1          Piranha

[STRAY]
Piranha overextends as Brandon dodges him, and is caught on his flank by the slashes of chi. Blood splashes out of him, before the kick knocks him forward, and then he's driven face first into the snowbank. Shoulders slumping from fatigue and pain, he rolls around onto his back, snowbank behind him, and shoves his foot out at Brandon's knee, trying to knock Brandon to the ground as well, on his face. "Madraputa!" he shouts, his chest falling and rising rapidly in exertion and fear.

COMBATSYS: Brandon counters Strong Kick from Piranha with IX - Hermit.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Brandon          0/-------/-======|=======\=====--\1          Piranha

[BRANDON]
After the face slam, Brandon's already rising to his feet as his hand brushes the leather pouch once more.

That's when the ex-soldier should notice that he's seeing double. The arcane PI splits into two as one of them takes a step back. That step back pulls the leg of the real Brandon out of the way as Piranha kicks through the leg of the chi form illusion. That same illusion drops to one knee as he swings a vicious haymaker right to the chin of the grounded knife wielder. Meanwhile, the real Brandon is unharmed and holding the Hermit tarot card in his hand.

His breaths are becoming shallow as almost gasps out, "Temper, temper..."

[STRAY]
Piranha's head is slapped backwards, as if soft meat being manhandled by a large man's palm slapping it about. But, it is his skull, full of bone and gristle and nerves and his brain. He slowly moves to his feet, his eyes squinted shut from pain and his jaw sagging. His dirk in his hand, he stumbles briefly, watching Brandon as best he can as blood seeps out of the side of his mouth.

Piranha suddenly thrusts forward with clenched teeth, his body summoning a well of hatred and rage as he attempts to thrust his dirk right into the center of Brandon's chest, going for a pig stick to jam the narrow blade into Brandon's ribs for a fast, near-lethal stab.

"HA!"

COMBATSYS: Piranha successfully hits Brandon with Direct Action.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Brandon          1/-======/=======|==-----\-------\0          Piranha

[BRANDON]
Brandon tries to redirect the stab from what looked to him to be headed towards a fatal location. The slight shift he had attempted to make, kept it from being truly fatal but it still was a vicious even in it's simplicity. He coughs up blood as he stumbles backwards and forces himself to focus and clutches his stomach with one hand. His eyes glow yellow and an eerie calm comes over him. He was way calmer than anyone had any right to be after having been stabbed like that.

He looks down at his white vest now soaked in his own blood.

"I'm going to enjoy watching you get booked for interfering in an investigation."

A new tarot card appears and he tosses it at Piranha's feet. Upon touching the ground, it suddenly detonates in a massive ball of light based chi energy.

COMBATSYS: Piranha slows XVI - Tower from Brandon with Phantom Dagger.
- Power hit! -

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

COMBATSYS: Piranha can no longer fight.

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

[STRAY]
Piranha yanks the knife out, craning the knife hand backwards in what resembles a kung fu stance, although it's clearly ripped from television and applied to his fighting strategy in impromptu terms. As the tarot card lands at his feet, he hurls the knife at Brandon, letting it slice past his rival's cheek to mark him for a mob hit later with a nick of flesh. The huge ball of light enscounces him in an umbra of flaming white hot chi, and when it passes, Piranha is on the ground on his back, unconscious and twitching for a few moments, before he falls limp, head falling to his left, along his outstretched arm and softly grasping hand.

Piranha yanks the knife out, craning the knife hand backwards in what resembles a kung fu stance, although it's clearly ripped from television and applied to his fighting strategy in impromptu terms. As the tarot card lands at his feet, he hurls the knife downwards and into the card, somewhat abating the explosion. The huge ball of light enscounces him in an umbra of flaming white hot chi, and when it passes, Piranha is on the ground on his back, unconscious and twitching for a few moments, before he falls limp, head falling to his left, along his outstretched arm and softly grasping hand.

[BRANDON]
Brandon winces as he pulls his cellphone back out which leads to him to see that profile of the man who was laid out before him that he never had a chance to read. He dials the police station and waits for someone to pick up before he speaks.

"Hello? It's Brandon Malone. I took down Mendez and I was stabbed. No! I'm not going to the hospital before I explain how I set up the box. You will learn to believe me if that dagger gets used again!"

This conversation continues until MCPD finally arrives to clean things up.

Log created on 16:48:13 02/14/2017 by Stray, and last modified on 15:06:28 02/27/2017.