Match of the Millennium

Description: When something strange is in the neighborhood - don't call Potemkin if it's Zappa as the clash of the supernatural against the premier agent of Zepp results in what could be seen as a mini-natural-disaster.

[ZAPPA]
Dear Diary,
It wasn't supposed to be like this! With all of the monsters and terrors in Southtown I had heard of, it was supposed to be easy enough to find someone who would be able to cure me! Of these terrible fainting spells, the frightening dizziness, and this terrible lack of love! Instead, everyone looks at me like a monster! I've even began to notice bad press about me... could it be that someone has a vendetta? I've had a few kids put paper seals on my face, and at least one lady wave me away from her dumpling store with her broom! There's no way that I truly could be haunted.... c-could I?

Another day, another attempt to find the source of his woes. Striding along like a normal human being, as a simply normal human would be, Zappa's hands are cradled together in concern, idly moving to dig into pockets afterwards. The looks from the various people around the town are starting to grown colder, practically arctic, in the chill. Black cats have seemingly even began to give him berth! "Just remember..." He mumbles a bit to himself, "They've had a hard time and ... well it's customs!" The little book that he keeps that isn't his diary is one of the various customs of the world. Even now, he flips through it idly.

'Haunted' See possessed... "So they also mean that here?" The man asks, rubbing his head a bit. Oh, he's been getting quite the large amount of dizzy spells lately! Randomly waking up all over, on top of it. It must be the air. Or the atmosphere. Something to do with the magic and weapons used around? R-Right... but every doctor is turning him down, too! Wasn't that one specialized in dark arts!? Snapping the book closed in his right hand, he'd pocket it once more and stride towards a shopkeep.

"Uhm... Konnichiwa!" He declares, "I would li-" The shop keep turns pale and thrusts forth some food at random, "Oh?! Is this a sample!? T-Thank you! Ar-rigato!" He declares, bowing his head, hands teepling into a temple top as his head swings down low. As well as turning away.

The shopkeep lets out a breath - and also may hit their smart phone to report on a B class bounty that just decided not to reduce them to a gibbering state! Zappa, munching on the impaled rice ball, feels the day has gotten slightly better.

Zappa is near the middle of the street, the wooden shop built into the side of the road nearby it - as limited traffic goes back and forth down it. Highways, after all, are right there. Yet there seems to be a growing backup due to a cause of 'supernatural traffic jams' that have begun to plague the poor populace.

[POTEMKIN]
"A Class B Bounty, you say? Hmm..this is the same as that Maxima individual except even higher in value. Which implies greater potential danger.."

"Yessir. Should we wait to see if NOL will respond?"

"...No. I will investigate. I suppose I have something to prove after Maxima managed to get away. I'm also sure NOL received the alert as well as any other bounty hunters. We should move swiftly so an inexperienced team or someone with less then pure motives gets involved."

"Understood."

"I will report findings back to President Gabriel first, as always. Potemkin out."

It doesn't take long does it. Once the alert went out, at least one nearby warrior, already in Southtown due to visiting NOL headquarters, has opted to respond and now he observes Zappa from atop a tall building that is currently unoccupied due to renovations and construction ongoing in the aftermath of the war. As Zappa makes his way down the empty streets Potemkin rumbles, "Target sighted. Moving to engage"

He then steps forward and drops his vast body down from the building roof, plummeting like an incoming asteroid to slam into the earth with a heavy rumbling *TOOOM* accompanying his arrival. For his part, Potemkin is not exactly 'normal' himself, being the comparable in size to some transport vehicles and that size pretty much all muscle and as he straightens up, his vast shadow spreads across the roads to engulf the hapless Zappa as the man draws near.

"You there. Halt!"

[ZAPPA]
The riceball wasn't halfway into his mouth before Zappa, completely unaware of the giant stalker, is startled by the nigh earthquake that arrives. Almost flailing, Zappa does drop the other half of the riceball, stick impaled halfway into the ground as Zappa holds up his hands in fear! "Aiee! M-monster!? C-Could it be...!?" He whirls about, frightened despite his muscular stature, and extends both hands - framing the heart upon his chest! "M-Me!? You want me!? Oh thank goodness... this is about protection, right? I know I'm a foreigner, but it's for a good cause that I'm here... I've had so much bad luck and... I'm sure someone here can cure it! There's got to be!"

Somewhat frightened still, Zappa's intent is not to grow closer. "N...No? If not, then what would you want with," Gulp, "Me? Did I ... break some sort of law? Spare me! I didn't mean to steal, I thought they had just offered me the food!" Hands clasp together as he grovels, even toppling to his knees to grovel better, hands rising upwards.

S-Ko watches on with bemusement. The giant man is likely there for the bounty. Was he one of those god-damn macho men? All business? All honor? A woman not even worthy of glancing towards!? The air would almost grow thick with interference - yet Zappa is not overwhelmed, unaware, still.

[POTEMKIN]
Potemkin turns his head to the side, slightly, as if lending an ear to Zappa's pleas and the flurry of his statements. His expression his hidden within the depths of his helmet but his frown is echoed in the slight narrowing of his glowing eyes. Something..feels off. Wrong. He turns his head back to Zappa and begins to step forward, approaching the man with earth rumbling footsteps and the creaking of his vast physique like the movement of continental plates beneath of his flesh.

"Calm down. There is information concerning strange supernatural occurances that are centered on you. If you are seeking to be cured, and these acts are not malicious then you can be helped. There are places that can be of assistance. One is even here in Southtown. I will take you to them but you must relax."

His Chi becomes disturbed. He can feel the air tensing, growing thick and dark. Unnatural. There is something here, isn't it. But he does not have the eyes to see it.

"I will see to it that you are well treated and protected." He adds, "But first we must make sure you are not a danger to yourself or others by taking you to a secure location."

[ZAPPA]
A step is made. Groveling, Zappa places himself closer to the ground. He can't possibly fight this person! Infact, he would be smashed so far into the ground instantly... he doubts he can fight a small dog at times, much less this behemoth! "Please you must understand! Have mercy!" He declares.

The words calm down - he was being arrested! It was happening! Already, the idea of what comes next floods into his mind. He will be read his rights, tossed away into the jail - the sight of prison bars shutting goes through his mind - and then would the love he found be prison love!? It all shatters at once infront of his eyes! "No! No no NO! It can't be like that..." Hands now clasp his head on the ground as Potemkin talks on. Words are head but not listened to. He must relax. He /must relax/. He. Must. Relax.

Treated. Protected. SECURE. LOCATION.

"I-I'm going to j-j-j-JAIL!?" He proclaims, as S-ko invisibly places her weathered hand atop his skull, pushing into it. Her fingers clench. "No no...NoNOnNoNoNOnOOONOnnO!" The body wrenching on the ground /snaps/, half of his body going in a sudden direction it simply should not, leaving front facing back. Eyes roll backwards, mouth gapes open and it seems like Zappa has perished.

"SENTENCEYOU. PainPAINpainPAIN!!" He gibbers, body rising up on itself, lurching forwards as the man's but a puppet to S-Ko's string, bending over backwards to stare lifelessly at Potemkin. Arms drape forwards. The side-streets begin to close up shop, traffic stuck where it is with people beginning to stare out from the second seats. It's all quite terrifying. It doesn't get better.

The body tenses up, body twitching, once ... then twice. There is no third, the form of Zappa suddenly surging with energy as it throws itself towards Potemkin, S-ko swinging him and holding on as she lets go - though she is entirely invisible. Simply incorporeal. Yet Zappa flies, groaning as he does. Should he make contact with Potemkin, the impact would be hard, but the surging energy around him far more threatening. Yet it would be the sudden growth of his face to thrice its size, grasping with swollen teeth, to grasp and wrench him to the side and over, that would truly seal the deal.

That Potemkin found what he was looking for. "TOUGhgUY!?!"

COMBATSYS: Zappa has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Zappa            0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Potemkin has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Zappa            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0         Potemkin

COMBATSYS: Potemkin blocks Zappa's Charged Combo.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Zappa            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0         Potemkin

[POTEMKIN]
"Wait. No. STOP!"

It all happens rather horrifyingly and horrifyingly fast at that, doesn't it. Potemkin barely gets his words out, trying to interject at Zappa's tirade as the poor man gets grasped hold of by the vengeful ghost who takes his words out of context and reacts as only a spiteful spirit can. Potemkin braces himself, wide eyed at the horrific display and then Zappa is upon him - slamming into his battleship strong torso and causing Potemkin's muscles to flex and bulk up titanically within his suit as he braces himself against the supernatural force of the impact and then brings both of his huge arms up to his sides to grasp for Zappa's enlarged teeth to hold them at bay.

The two struggle as such for a moment before Potemkin pivots and swings, lurching Zappa upwards above him and then attempting to slam the man down towards the ground with Potemkin's gigantic hand atop him, in an effort to toss him and restrain him.

"Whatever power if influencing you, you must fight it!" he rumbles, trying to reach whatever distant recesses of Zappa may remain, "I do not wish to hurt you!"

COMBATSYS: Zappa blocks Potemkin's Dismissive Toss.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Zappa            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
'It won't be okay unless he's gone.' Is the declaration. A very clear one, at least, to the man who is carefully cultivated now by the spirit. 'You'll rot away - because a big headed brute of a man decides what will be done. They ALWAYS know best, don't they? Let's show him he knows NOTHING!'

As the enlarged head and teeth gnash and grapple with Potemkin, Potemkin seems to get the better of the two as he lurches Zappa above him, the man being raised upwards in the other man's grasp, a writhing mass of flesh and what /should/ act as bone. It certainly does not feel that way. Slamming against the ground, Potemkin's arm pressing down against him, Zappa's movements are wild and difficult to compress. Even his massive weight behind the forceful toss causes Zappa more to displace than, potentially, hurt the man - but it is clearly displeased at the impact.

"HuRtYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!" Comes the response.

With the hand unable to stop him from writhing free from underneath, Zappa's body rises and topples over - straightening up to face the opposite direction as Potemkin. Hands and arms extend rising up, the man seemingly posing, "NOTHIIIIIIIIIIIIING! NothingATALL! NO KNOW NO KNOW KNO!!!!" Is his decree as three ghosts pop into existence nearby him.

"Hello!" "Hi!" "HOWDY!"

Talkative, even. Zappa's body writhes, twitching into four postures, hands up, body down, body up and limbs bent backwards. All of it inhuman - but the ghosts seem to understand. S-ko gives them orders, they are ... forced to obey. "Here." "We!" "GOOOOOH!" Rolling over each other, bound by belts about their midsections and with wispy tails, they go. One rolls towards Potemkin through the air. Another vanishes, falling from above! The third falls to the ground and just rolls.

Yet the energy around Zappa begins to positively burn, thrumming with the oppressive energy - visibly wounding the man's form. S-ko seems to care not at all of the impact it causes on Zappa, the wounds that are brought from pain. Clearly, he would understand.

COMBATSYS: Potemkin blocks Zappa's Kaette Konaide Kudasai.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Zappa            0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0         Potemkin

[POTEMKIN]
"Darkstalkers, machines, soldiers..heck..even Gears. That's one thing. Ghosts?

Potemkin whips his gaze back and forth between the three spirits as they appear and he recoils backwards by means of a backwards leap which shakes the area violently as he lands. By the time he's straightened back to a combat position, they are upon him but he corrects his stance just in time to turtle up into a defensive block that causes the ghosts to rebound off of him once they impact and the brunt of their supernatural force disperses into his body and back out through it into the ground, leaving the titan shaken but not down for the count.

"You leave me no choice then." Potemkin declares, "I apologize for this but you are not yourself or in control of your actions." He rears back, arcing a huge arm and clenching a fist. A bicep the size of a semi truck cab flexes huge and vast, threatening to tear though his pressure suit. "I apologize but if you are unconscious, perhaps this will all end."

With that he lunges forward and slams his fist into the ground just infront of Zappa with such force the entire city block leaps and seismic detection devices elsewhere in town are triggered. A colorful pillar of chi bursts up around him, expanding rapidly out as well as upwards in an eruption of forceful energy.

COMBATSYS: Zappa interrupts Trishula from Potemkin with Raou.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Zappa            0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
They bounce off. They rebound. "Aie!" "Oh no!" "This is the end!" And they all vanish, poofing from 'existence'. Hanging back, Zappa has clearly made his presence known. In one way or another, at least. Potemkin apologizes - and then a huge arm arcs forwards, the massive arm flexing towards the ground, lunged forwards with such force that the colorful pillar of chi would threaten to overwhelm both Zappa and the ground that he rest atop.

"RooooooAAAUUUuuu!" The man groans out.

The swelling of energy, the pillar of chi that bursts up around Potemkin, would face two difficult barriers despite that. The chi that bursts upwards suddenly fights the force that is around Zappa. S-ko's form interjects, invisibly, hands and body placed directly in the path. To Potemkin, the chi, powerful as it may be, is being weathered slightly better than it should be. Yet energy doesn't work that way. The second...

The second is that another force threatens to interject.

A crash of lightning roars downwards above Zappa, striking him - yet attaching to the man. "Thou hast called!" Raou declares as the energy about him swells up. "I doth see... HAVE AT THEE, MINE ADVERSARY!" Trailing behind Zappa is a spirit of lightning and energy, crackling with power, as it crashes it's own fist downwards towards the ground, just before Potemkin's. The surge guarantees the detection devices are not simply malfunctioning.

What should be a battle between giants is halted nearly immediately. The surge of energy from Potemkin's fist fights against the interference between S-ko and Raou, the energy whisking towards Zappa and fighting - but being washed away. In a possibly infuriating fashion, Raou's energy, channeling that from Zappa, impacts and overcomes the frightening strike from the giant's fist, a shockwave of this ghastly energy impacting directly into Potemkin. Recoiling, the giant caped manifestation hangs behind Zappa, arms crossing.

The man beneath begins to smolder, twitching more frequently, "NoCHOICEhaveToEND it END IT END IIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" He gibbers.

[POTEMKIN]
"Whouuulf!!" roars Potemkin as the feedback of his strike washes into him and sends him sliding back a few paces, digging huge grooves in the ground the force of his massive feet bracing themselves to keep him upright.

He straightens back up, eyes flickering quickly to see the spirit looming behind Zappa. Another one. And yet another one that he -feels- but can't see. The mastermind? Perhaps. He's not experienced in these matters as others might be. But it's clear that a host of spirits are to blame here. Who knows how many are involved?

"I would gladly face each of you and the worst you have to offer to free this man." Potemkin declares, unafraid and determined. "He sought help. It is you who bring this malice.."

The irony that in order to 'help' Zappa he may have to beat him into submission is not lost on Potemkin but he doesn't dwell on this to long. It's -also- clear Zappa is enormously dangerous. The strike that just pushed Potemkin backwards would anhiliate any civilian that was the brunt of it and with such power at the whim of these spirits..Zappa must be restrained.

He lunges forward, sweeping his massive hand ahead of him, armored gauntlets charging up and opening their coolant systems while reading a cartridge of explosive force. "Heat KNUCKLE--!" rumbles Potemkin while trying to grasp Zappa and lift him aloft. Attempting to push through the resistant forces with the furious power of his brute strength alone. "EXTENDED!" he finishes as, should he grasp Zappa, his hand would squeeze crushingly and then an explosive blast of chi would discharge, attempting to envelop the possessed man and send him hurtling away.

COMBATSYS: Zappa blocks Potemkin's Heat Knuckle Extended.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Zappa            0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
Swinging from side to side, body tensing and then twitching right after, the blank eyed Zappa stares towards Potemkin as those fingers twitch and writhe, arms bent reverse at the joints. It's all the opposite of a pretty picture. Potemkin's words do not reach Zappa.

They certainly reach S-Ko, however, whose eyes, hidden behind such ruined hair, draped over them, still narrow. 'Gladly? The WORST that can be offered?' The voice is but a whisper on the wind, if that, words that seemingly exist only in the mind, fleeting after. Yet the sight is clear. The impact more-so.

The massive hand swings forwards, sweeping forth, as that cartridge of explosive force moves to grasp him. In one hand, Zappa is captured. In the other - with Potemkin lifting him off the ground, the nature of the man in his hands is quite clear - they move to grasp down. Yet he pushes out. Raou, in his last moments, wrenches the man free from the hand as it moves to explode, S-Ko, currently working to ensure he is squashed less with hands holding off the massive Potemkin's might, escapes with him. "You understand not... it is WE who protect HI-" And Raou is banished by the explosion and blast of chi.

With Zappa currently atop Potemkin.

"Face? Face. FAAACE. FACE ME!!! ME. FACE!"

Once more, Zappa's head swells. Yet it keeps swelling. The body below the waist vanishes, becoming the bottom of a skull - and Zappa's face, ballooned in size, 'hops' upwards using his tongue to kick off of Potemkin, before crashing down towards the man once, all face and all headbutt, the energy leaking from every pore, only growing stronger. It's clearly wounding the man, body crackling here and there - twitching, bending. It isn't supposed to do that. Zappa isn't special.

Yet it does. Oh, how it would hurt. If he would ever /feel it/.

COMBATSYS: Zappa successfully hits Potemkin with Fierce Punch.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Zappa            0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0         Potemkin

[POTEMKIN]
The force of the assault drives Potemkin down to his knees and kicks off a crater that crackles wildly through the area. Windows shatter, buildings tremble and Potemkin grunts loudly, his vast physique threatening to buckle as it holds Zappa at bay and bears the brunt of the forceful attack.

Even in all of that, the words whispered in his mind and implied by the other spirit before it is banished away are not lost on him. But neither is the threat Zappa possesses.

"Urgh. Class B..indeed. Very well. The time for gentleness is gone.." His monstrous arms splay out to the side, attempting to force Zappa off of him and hurtle him backwards with the force of his strength. His pressure suit unleashes a gout of steam, coolant systems firing up as Potemkin's body bulks up, pressing the entirety of his physique to its limits. Chi burns and bursts off of him in a violent display of power before he suddenly lunges after Zappa, barreling the distance with his huge body twisting and massive arm arcing back.

His gauntlets charge up, reading four shells of super charged chi-tek which erupt in a fireball of an explosion around Potemkin's fist as he attempts to bring the gargantuan punch around and then down in a hammer like blast for Zappa. One that sends shockwaves racing out with hurricane force wind even before the impact itself lands.

COMBATSYS: Potemkin successfully hits Zappa with Judge Gauntlet.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Zappa            1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
The form of Zappa's head rebounds, almost like putty, as it reforms to a far smaller, far less hairy and malformed skull. Toppling back and over, falling to the ground like a bee that has delivered his sting, Zappa twitches and writhes - smoke and energy billowing off of him. It finally ceases, leaving the man's form once more in a position to recover. Yet the question is - will he from Potemkin's next assault!?

Infact, Potemkin helps Zappa off, the energy that had been so oppressive ceasing for a bit, allowing him the ability to do so! the unleashing of steam, the swelling of energy, all of it is a pointless tell to Zappa - as he knows not what occurs. S-ko, however, once more positions herself before the man.

If it was a tell before that there was 'another', it is so very obvious now.

Potemkin's body lunges towards Zappa and impacts an area before Zappa by feet. S-ko's limited interference is exactly that, the spirit forced into Zappa's form moments before the massive fist and fireball impact into Zappa directly, hammering into him, shockwaves causing his body to twist and writhe in ways that should label him as clinically dead. It is not to be, however. Even as the hammer like blast impacts his eyeless face. For a moment, you may almost see the eyes roll so far around they are staring at Potemkin once more, before they roll entirely back once more in his head.

"UWAREMUNAEBDOUATTU!!!!"

The displeasure is clear as the form of Zappa goes rolling, tumbling, writhing through a car and slamming into a truck - and out the back. It clearly is over. It must be. The truck is cleaved in half, energy spiking as a blade, severed in the middle, twists free. Zappa pulls himself 'up', body reforming under him into legs instead of standing as he begins to crawl and clatter towards Potemkin, hands and feet mechanically the same in their movements.

The blade is gone, though.

A dark, shadowy dog, stands atop the heart on Zappa's stomach as he closes the distance - and suddenly vomits his entire skeleton, skull and all, towards Potemkin!

The sudden pop-out may almost be amusingly cute with how small the dog gets, yet the dog is clearly a manifestation of Zappa's energy, and that 'cute' dog is anything but harmless, the dinosaur sized dog skeleton erupting towards Potemkin's form!

COMBATSYS: Zappa successfully hits Potemkin with Dog Attack.
-+- CALCULATED HIT -+-

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Zappa            1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[POTEMKIN]
"There you are.." rumbles Potemkin to himself. He felt that pressure alright. Something is there. Something more then then these other spirits that continue to appear.

Potemkin rebounds, almost riding the shockwaves caused by his own attack but he becomes uncertain. Something is there but certainly Zappa himself is a mere normal man and these assaults..the sheer energy boiling through him... Surely he cannot continue to weather them and keep coming without there being consequences?

And yet still the man comes and Potemkin grimaces. "I feel you spirit!" he says, addressing the force that has not yet shown itself to him.

"You are tormenting this man. Stop this foolish combat!"

His eyes lock ono the dog when it appears - and when that skeleton emerges and lunges at him, Potemkin waits a split second to late to properly push back against it and is instead forced backwards as the skeleton blasts into him with its supernatural presence and immense size.

It is something he attempts to use against it. His massive body recoils and recovers, despite the shock of pain and weariness, and huge hands grip at the skeleton with crushing force. He falls back, twisting at the hip to try and swing it around and perhaps Zappa with it, attempting to slam it down to the ground opposite him, and then swing it again, this time for the other side, and then to end with a toss towards a distant wall.

COMBATSYS: Zappa fails to interrupt Repeated Slams from Potemkin with Kowai yo....
- Power fail! -

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Zappa            0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
While the others seemingly are used by Zappa, it is S-ko that uses him. A puppet master of an apparent puppeteer.

The skeleton did something very important. It set up a perfect space that Zappa, crawling on hands and feet, makes use of. He veers off. He veers entirely off towards Potemkin, zigging and zagging in uncertain uneven strides, going sideways and lengthways. "FEEEL. TORMENT!" Potemkin claims that this combat should be stopped - and there is a sick, equally invisible smile, that comes from the woman. A grin that stretches far too long and wide.

The fist comes downwards, grasping at the dog's skeleton. Rooted atop Zappa this time, it seemingly works! The man swings it towards the ground opposite, Zappa and dog, man and best friend, tumbling through the air. Zappa would swing past Potemkin's form, and probably harmlessly bump off of Potemkin. It isn't quite that easy. The swing that pulls Zappa along is fortuitous to S-ko, and she lets it happen so freely. The body bends mid-air, wrenching about to try to slide against his form and slow the swing down. An annoyance.

Yet that annoyance becomes so much more if he is not quick. Even if he does not, no matter how powerful the man before Zappa is, his mind may not be strong enough to resist the sudden spike. A heartbeat. Colors invert, Zappa's form simply erupts, the 'heart' birthing a woman with hair so grudged and skin so weathered that it seems she had been left in a ditch for far too long.

A single hand is reached out towards Potemkin.

"End. It." The voice proclaims. Mouthing it with glee.

Yet the grasp is swung with enough force that Zappa's arms /cannot/ hold on. The heartbeat ends. The woman simply is gone. Normal colors return - and Zappa slams, face first, into the ground. A muffled groan and moan as his body bends and twists over from the impacts that come once, twice, perhaps even thrice. He bends and snaps, but yet refuses to break.

[POTEMKIN]
Now ..yes..that was a sight.

Potemkin falls back a few paces after having witnessed that vision of horrors. Uncertainty wavers in his eyes now. Is this truly, again, more than he can handle? The supernatural has never been his forte but this man's condition seems to be on a level wholly unique unto itself.

And still Zappa gets refuses to stay down even after all that.

Dropping to his knees, Potemkin takes aim by lifting an arm up and bracing it with his other arm. A fist clenches, taking Zappa in its 'sight's as the other man recovers.

"Stay down." He rumbles, "If these spirits meant you no harm done they'd not be subjecting you to this. Stay down."

With that his finger flicks. A loud *BOOM* rockets through the air as the air pressure bullet, thrown by the brute strength of a simple finger click, rockets out at Zappa, tearing through the space between the giant and the possessed man.

COMBATSYS: Zappa blocks Potemkin's F.D.B..

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Zappa            0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
The last sight that Potemkin was supposed to see for the entirely of the fight - the last sight that S-ko potentially wanted Potemkin to see ever. The simple grasp forwards was exactly what Zappa had seen, frozen in fear, before he became a walking barging bin for possessions. Time has not been kind to him after. S-ko adding another and another wayward ghost, spirit, possessed object and growing her collection. Zappa would like nothing more than to stay down.

S-ko's strings are of blood and sinew, flesh and bone. Even worse, the wounds before are not quite as bad as before. As Zappa rises from the puddle like state he was in, S-ko's hands slide over his form. Marked by blood and dirt, some of wounds now are only visibly caked with blood and dirt. Strains, cracked bones, ripped flesh. As hands pass over, they begin to reform. S-ko doesn't simply break the toys that she likes.

Potemkin, after all, was being quite persistent.

The hand clicks forwards, massive as it is, and S-ko once again glares towards Potemkin's way - but now in frustration as well. He should have been in her hands, shorn apart, flooded with the pain, the suffering that she has endured. The vengeance she has been denied. The revenge that she so craved. It wasn't the case, now. It wasn't the case at all. Walking through Zappa, the form is once more sent toppling by the bullet - the ghost's face slowing it down as she is sent head over heels back into the man. It hurt. It hurt so very much.

Yet she had been hurt before. She simply could not die from such assaults. A benefit to being already dead. Yet the puppet - she aims to protect. One that is given more time, a warning, as the bullet roars through the spiritual interference. One that she grasps as she topples over, to bend all the way over backwards for to better weather it. It works. The form of Zappa tilts backwards, curling in on itself to better weather the massive bullet, the impact causing him to scramble against the ground, rolling and bounding to a stop. The head bites down on the ground, stopping the skid, as arms and legs flex and claw back upwards.

"DOWN. STAY. SIT. No No NO! GO GO GO! HUAHHEH!" He belts out.

The form kicks off from the ground, shoulder first swinging down towards Potemkin. If it only stayed that way. All of his limbs begin to rotate about him, spinning rapidly, whipping down towards him with that searing energy around those strikes. Far less fearsome in physical - save for the way the body shouldn't move that way - but the aura eminating from it is unmistakable.

COMBATSYS: Potemkin just-defends Zappa's Fierce Kick!

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Zappa            0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[POTEMKIN]
It is pointless to argue with this thing. This much is clear now. Potemkin is out of his league in regards to being able to actually calm or restrain or remove what torments Zappa and grants the supernatural power capable of going toe to toe with Zepp's elite warrior and one of the strongest men on the planet. There is no reasoning here. Potemkins' mind is flashing through potential candidates to call for back up but Zappa is upon him once again and Potemkin has rightfully and truly had enough.

He straightens, pressing his massive chest outward, squaring his shoulders and rooting his body in place. His full strength and immensity bared as his pressure suit groans to restrain and redirect the force he applies against it, to keep this act from cratering the entire area around both warriors just from the behemoths pure pressure.

Instead, Potemkin becomes virtually immovable. Zappa slams into him and, windows shatter around them both, and Potemkin barely blinks and moves not an inch.%rInstead his gigantic hands hurtle around, each bigger then Zappa torso, attempting to clasp the man between them and violently put an end to this.

"I am sorry." Intones the juggernaut, "But I must end this now."

COMBATSYS: Potemkin successfully hits Zappa with Crushing Grasp.

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Zappa            1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[ZAPPA]
The form of Zappa attempts to writhe, attempts to wriggle free of the assault that Potemkin has put forth. Unmovable, Zappa crashes against him almost harmlessly before the man aims to squeeze him between them, to smash him and everything involving him. The man attempts, of all things, to writhe out. To wriggle from between those fingers. No defense is made, no attempt at preventing the assault is claimed. Instead, Zappa's form crushes quite nicely between those fists.

A violent end for a violent man.

"SoooRYYSORRRYYYYYYYYY!" He cries out, though it is not truly how he feels. "NOT. SORRY! YOU WILL BE. YOUwillBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE." The man groans out as the energy once more swells about him from between the fists. For a moment, there is a surge like before. The giant knight of metal and electricity once more stands behind Zappa, rather attached to the man. "This time... you shall be washed away from minest power! HAVE AT THEE!"

Both hands raise towards the sky and come crashing down towards Potemkin, the spirit's arms swinging downwards in a massive arc, the blade of energy just as massive, trails of energy arcing off of it as it is swung downwards. The swing is rather obvious, as well as the strike - but if Potemkin isn't able to withstand it, it may simply manage to end the battle then and there itself. The energy sears with such power that it pulls along bits and pieces that it passes by, incorporeal as it may be.

COMBATSYS: Zappa successfully hits Potemkin with Bellows Malice.
-* WILD HIT! *-

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Zappa            0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0         Potemkin

[POTEMKIN]
At the last possible instant, Potemkin releases Zappa and drags his massive arms to the side, bracing his body and widening his stance just before the sword strikes and the surge of spiritual energy and fury erupts around him in a biblical like explosion of force. Street lights blow out, the power up and down several city blocks is disrupted and Potemkin is briefly washed from sight by the glow that fills the immediate vicinity.

Potemkin does not falter nor fall. His body takes the punishment as a force of adamant and he burst through the whirlin explosion, this time reaching his massive arms out for both spirit and Zappa. "The power you possess is to dangerous!" he thunders while grabbing for the duo and rippling his massive arms in an attempt to straddle Zappa upon his shoulders.

If he grabs, he leaps, lunging into the sky and leaving the cratered and scorched earth behind him before thundering back down towads the ground in an epic slam with Zappa and spirit straddled across his shoulder to bear the force of his slam.

COMBATSYS: Zappa fails to interrupt Potemkin Buster from Potemkin with Konnichiwa Sanbiki no Mukade.

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

COMBATSYS: Zappa can no longer fight.

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

[ZAPPA]
The last possible instant, Potemkin releases Zappa - yet it's certainly too late. The forceful explosion that tears across the battlefield is one that wracks the street - yet it is one that is contained only by Potemkin's frm in the middle. His body takes the punishment, but those arms once more reach for Zappa. They grasp about him, tight, and aims to straddle Zappa upon those shoulders of his. The grasp is made, Zappa writhing within it all the same - and then attempts to pull away. Not the normal way, that is.

"UWAAAAAAH."

The body that is held by Potemkin erupts around him, three centipedes of energy tearing between flesh, eyes and claws and teeth among all of them. They in a brief moment, flash out to interrupt the horrific assault that is likely to befall Zappa. S-ko doesn't seem to have a plan from this point on, simply having Zappa lash out as best he can - as if swinging the strings randomly about him.

It doesn't work. The energy once more flares to life and dies out, as Zappa is slammed into the ground, the impact from Potemkin enough to cause Zappa to go prone, perhaps, once and for all.

[POTEMKIN]
There is no true pride in this victory. This man is a victim as far as Potemkin can tell and that he had to exercise such force against him is..not something he is pleased with. Not by a long shot.

As soon as it seems that Zappa is unconscious he releases him and looms overhead, and then crouches to a knee to check the man over. The status of his body is paramount here. The spirits were manipulating him in ways that are impossible for a normal man to move. To endure. Now that they are gone, Potemkin fears the worst could happen, especially in regards to the damage he himself dealt to Zappa when in that state.

"I must contact the NOL.." he rumbles, tone tight and full of concern, "I pray they prove trust worthy and true to their word.."

COMBATSYS: Potemkin has ended the fight here.


[ZAPPA]
The form of the body may be looked at, but the knowledge that it was, of course, a bounty hunt - troubling. After Potemkin looms overhead to check the man out, beginning to contact the NOL, it happens.

The body misforms in one terrible motion, throwing itself forwards off the ground, lurching, before beginning to roll. Not side to side, but like a wheel.

On the main road of all things, as well.

Energy is rapidly peeling away from the man as he does this, S-ko's limited influence as it peters away managing to keep the man rolling and zig-zagging into alleyways and away from pursuit, if at all possible. Dizzy is one thing that Zappa is getting. The very next is 'abused'.

Once far enough away from Potemkin, Zappa would collapse - in a dumpster, perhaps - and find himself awake - his body pained in new and excrutiating ways. "W-Where am I?! ... It smells... and it's all metal!? ... DID I GO TO PRISON!?" The man belts out, rising up as he could to slam his head against the roof. Wait. Roof? Rubbing it, he looks up and peels it away.

Freedom! If a dumpster... could be that.

[POTEMKIN]
Small favors. Unbeknownst to Potemkin and the rest of the world - she -might- have actually rescued Zappa from a fate even more unfortunate then herself... But that's another story to be possibly pursued at another time.

As of this present time, Potemkin is caught off guard, frustrated and furious as either the NOL or Sacred Order were the only options he was considering and of the two only one is nearby.

"No!" he roars, getting up to his feet to try and make pursuit. He leaps, lunging through the air to thunder to the ground just behind the fleeing Zappa --

Only to collapse. Falling to one knee as his own injuries make themselves clearly known to him.

"Ugh! I'm a fool. I did not escape that unscathed!" His massive body trembles as the full force of the injuries he was staving off wracks him and by the time he staggers back to his feet..Zappa is long gone.

"Another bounty through my fingers ..and truthfully he as far more dangerous then Maxima was. I will have to be sure they are on full alert for this poor man. Blast! Again, my strength was not enough!" he pauses, considering options and then rumbles, "..Perhaps the Korean Tuner may need to be contacted as well.."

He shakes his head and just waits as the sirens and sounds of NOL approaching finally do begin to fill the air even though his quarry is long gone.

Log created on 20:51:19 02/15/2018 by Potemkin, and last modified on 22:25:02 02/16/2018.