The Bell Tolls - TBT Act 1 - Wheels of Fate

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Description: Abigail is a nice guy, if a bit rough around the edges, and a bit unpredictable. He might not draw a lot of attention, except for the simple matter that he is a World Warrior tier fighter, and a -very- dangerous neutral force. The kind of wild card that would disrupt Interpol, Syndicate, or even Shadaloo operations. And the Illuminati agent who arrives stealthily at Abigail's workshop is well aware of these points. The target? Abigail's newly-acquired muscle car. Siren uses her wiles to not only get Abigail's car stolen, but to try and convince him that one of the three factions are behind it, to direct the World Warrior's rage into this war.



[SIREN]
Things have been quiet in Metro City for quite some time now. Ever since the horrifying invasion of the vampire lord Jedah a few years ago the city seems to have gotten a reprieve from its usual doses of misfortune. Perhaps all of its bad luck had come at once for the time being, leaving its citizens to go about their daily lives in relative peace.

The dawn of another quiet day breaks as morning comes to pass, brilliant sunlight extruding long thin rays between the textured horizon of countless skyscrapers as it climbs dutifully towards the sky. The cloudy air glows like a canopy of liquid gold against the picturesque scenery of the metropolis as it too rouses to life, its streets beginning to flood with the hurried movement of its residents as they set about their daily business.

The beauty of the scene is rather lost on Siren. While she is most certainly an avid fan of the arts and such a sight would no doubt have been something quite pleasant to behold, her attention is currently absorbed by the task of wrestling with the bundle of wires sitting in her lap.

"Hurry up, would you? It's morning already."

Siren's gaze shifts sideways to regard the speaker from her lofty perch, giving him a look like a queen sneering down at an unruly subject. She sits on the edge of a massive cushioned seat in the driver's side of an even more monsterous vehicle. Calling it a car would be an injustice. The thing is more like a small tank with wheels instead of treads and she has no doubt it has nearly the same capacity for running things over that happen to get in its way. It is a pretty typical display of American design philosophy, big, noisy, and brutish - and she is going to steal it.

"Don't rush me, Shinji. This isn't like hotwiring your mother's sedan for a joyride."

Shinji, a young Asian man in his early twenties by appearance, frowns at this but the chortling from his companion makes him bite back whatever scathing response he might have had, instead turning to glare at her. The second figure is likewise of Asian descent and even younger than him, her youthful features placing her somewhere in the late teens, though it's pretty hard to guess accurately sometimes when it comes to people from that part of the world.

"What?" She asks, smirking back at him when he turns his accusing gaze her way. "It's not like it was a secret."

"Children, children," Siren coos at them in a sing-song voice. "Less bickering, more watching for the big bad man that will step on us if he catches us, hmm?"

With a sigh, both of them nod and turn away, droning in tandem, "Yes, Akari."

'Akari' gives them a pleased smile and then turns back to her work, slowly peeling the rubber cover away from another wire. The task she has been given is a rather simple one as her job usually go: sneak in to some old gargage in the States, steal a car, and relocate it somewhere inconvenient for a particular person. That was the easy part. The challenge was in making sure that she gets caught so that the owner of the car is set down the path to recovering it from said person and making rather unpleasant assumptions about why they have it.

Pretty standard spy stuff as things go. Planting evidence to incriminate someone else is an old trick but one that usually works. The problem for a normal operative would be trying to explain how some woman with skin as white as porcelain was operating on behalf of the Japanese mafia, who are about as friendly to outsiders playing in their pool as hungry sharks. Fortunately, she has the answer to that problem.

The woman sitting on Abigail's driver seat is not the long-haired blonde beauty of international fame but a gruff-looking Japanese woman with short black hair and a long scar tracing a path over her left eye. It is not Siren's face but the one that she has chosen to wear today, one belonging to one of the gangsters operating as middle management within Dahlia's organization. Getting enough information on the woman to pose as Akari was hardly any trouble at all for someone of her skills and connections and convincing this pair of entry-level wanna-be goons to tag along was even easier.

Now all that remains is to make sure she delays long enough for their guest to arrive and catch them in the act. She's managed to stall for several minutes now but she'd been led to believe that Abigail was a work-o-holic, the sort of person who hops out of bed and into their work clothes before they've even finished wiping the sleep from their eyes. Yet he has not appeared yet. This calls for a bit of improvisation.

"Hrm, maybe if I cross these wires..."

Siren mutters her thoughts out loud as she pulls two of the stripped wires out of the bundle and presses them together. A loud spark snaps at the air as they make contact followed immediately by an ear-molesting blare of noise when the vehicle's horn goes off. She winces at the sheer intensity of it, boggling at precisely how its driver is supposed to withstand that sort of cacophany, but holds the wires together for several seconds before finally letting them fall from her hands.

"What the /fuck/?!"

Both of the youngsters rise up from the ground having fallen over in their surprise, directing a pair of angry glares up at her. Siren blinks and looks down at the wires and then up at the entrance to the garage, her own shocked expression fading to a grim thin-lipped scowl.

"Well... shit."

[ABIGAIL]
The blaring sound of the horn has the additional effects of functioning as a semi-transporter room because the figure that appears, framed in shadow no less, appears -so- quickly in the garage entrance that he -had- to have simply teleported in or moved with such haste that one should be expecting a sonic boom to go off at any minute.

Either that or he was already en route, and just running a few minutes behind, and the timing just worked out that way. Still, building a teleporter is probably not outside of the realm of things Abigail might attempt one day if he thinks it'll mod a car up that much better. He's been asked to do wierder before...

That's neither here nor now though as the colossus just stares, wide eyed, at the scene infront of him. For his part he's half dressed, towel slung over his shoulders, goggles around his beefy barrel of a neck, hair a mess and usual death-metal face paint missing and replaced by oil streaks criss crossing his face and portions of his exposed upper body and strained and ripping slacks. Recently returned from an SNF match, the behemoth just jumped right into work, probably fell asleep in another part of the massive warehouse turned repair shop/modding shop/junkyard, and was making his way towards his morning routine when all of this happened. A happening that has him turning his gaze upon each of the perpertators with the weighty impact of an angry volcanic caldera just rumbling its intensity and waiting to blow at any second.

"What th'hell is GOING ON!?" he finally booms. Voice shaking the windows of the warehouse and billowing across the room with force equal to that of the horn that just sounded off. Oh so -that's- why it's so loud...

"YOU SKULLCROSS GANG MAGGOTS!" Ooops! "I told you I'd GROUND YOU INTO PASTE if you kept HASSLIN' ME!"

With that he begins stalking forward, each unrestrained step actually rumbling the ground and rupturing the surface of the floor. Did we mention Abigail is very, very, very strong?

"I'll FOLD you punks INTO that car before I let you run off and make a fool outta me!!"

So he's already got them confused for another local gang, assuming the worst due to past interactions and local Metro City politics within the slums and ghettos. Things could go better, yes.

[SIREN]
All three of the gang members brace themselves against the bellow of outrage, their hair whipping in the foul wind of the giant's morning breath. The young girl stares wide-eyed at the mountain of rippling muscle lumbering towards her like a deer caught in headlights and her fellow thug doesn't look much better, his face pale and jaw hanging open.

"F-Fuck me...!"

The leader of this little rag tag group is much more composed. Gritting her teeth in apparent resolve, she quickly fumbles around with the wires in her lap, tapping two of them together repeatedly until the engine grumbles to life with a loud roar. Shoving the wires back into the bulkhead, Siren nimbly dismounts from the towering monster truck and slaps both of her minions on the back of the head, pointing up at the now vacant seat when they turn to stare at her in alarm.

"Get the fuck in and drive, you idiots! I'll hold him off!"

Their eyes shift back to Abigail then down to the cracked pavement beneath his feet. They need no further urging than that, the girl scrambling up first to scoot over into the passenger seat followed quickly by Shinji, who heaves the massive door closed with some obvious effort.

"Drive, drive!"%r "Shut up, Mitsuko, I'm trying!"

There's a loud grinding sound as he fiddles with the gear shift, his hands shaking too hard to properly manipulate it, but after a couple of seconds the lever pops into place and the miniature tank flies backwards towards the far wall of the garage, building up speed as it careens through the scattered bits of machinery and toolboxes strewn about the place. It looks like the thug might be planning to just plow through the back wall and considering the size of the vehicle, he just might manage it.

Siren watches the giant truck peel away for a couple of seconds over her shoulder then turns her face back to the threat at hand, scowling darkly. Well, crap, this isn't going quite as planned. The dope jumped to a conclusion alright but not the one she wanted him to. That means she'll have to use her back-up plan and smack him over the head with some different ideas. Which means she'll have to tangle with this overgrown gorrilla for a minute or two.

Reaching up to her neck, 'Akari' loosens the tie holding her business shirt closed and tosses it aside; no need to give the enemy any extra weapons to use against her. That's about all the time for preparation she has before the angry giant is on her. Rather than attempt to stand in the way of a charging rhinocerus, the gangster swings neatly to the side and aims a kick at the lumbering beast's knee, attempting to stagger him long enough for her accomplishes to escape. She mocks him in English but her voice is heavily laden with a thick Japanese accent.

"Hah! Skullcross? You think your pathetic American gangs are anything like me? Guess again, meathead!"

COMBATSYS: Siren has started a fight here.

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Siren            0/-------/-------|


COMBATSYS: Abigail has joined the fight here.

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Siren            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Abigail


COMBATSYS: Abigail auto-guards Siren's Thrust Kick.

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Siren            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
There are some who might claim Abigail is harmless and not scary at all. Sure he might be so huge he makes the biggest of the Andore's look anemic next to him and sure he might be so strong that even the strongest of world warriors are like playthings, hence his lack of a truly refined style and his reliance on brute strength and improvised street brawling enabled him to earn a spot in the top 16 of World Warrior...but..then he opens his mouth and suddenly he's pretending to be a jeep or a monster truck. Not exactly intimidating. Bizarre, perhaps, but not intimidating.

This, however, is not one of those times. The giants body turns beet red and if anything it looks like he's getting bigger. His muscles popping out and blowing out in size as if he were being inflated like a balloon. "COME BACK HERE WITH MY VROOM!!" he bellows, starting to charge forward with full intention of literally getting right behind the monster truck to dare to let it slam into him. He..probably would be able to stop it.

But Siren intervenes and her kick launches out like the crack of a whip at his knee. A common tactic used against giants like himself. If he had a dollar for each time someone went for his knees he wouldn't need to be running a business..

Sadly he proves strudier then, perhaps, anticipated. Aim for a sequioa's weak spot, sure, it's still a sequioa and Abigail's leg weathers the attack with a sudden defensive bracing and flexing, Siren might as well have tried to kick a major girder of a skyscraper loose.

It does get his attention though. "Huh? What're you talkin' about. You with one of those ninja gangs instead?? Get outta my way!"

He lunges a massive hand for her, intending on taking her and hurtling her aside by means of..sending her flying up towards the high ceiling of the warehouse and back towards the ground again to let gravity do all the work. Essentialy rag dolling her like little more then a plaything. "I need to get my vrooom!"

COMBATSYS: Siren just-defends Abigail's Bay Area Sunrise!

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Siren            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0          Abigail


[SIREN]
"Shit!"

Well, that's not good. The knee trick always works! Then again, she's never tried it on someone with a knee thicker than her torso, so that assumption might have been in error. Now is not a great time for her to be learning this, however.

Abigail's massive hand closes around her like the maw of some giant bear, tossing her into the air almost like an afterthought, a bull swatting an annoying fly aside. Siren flexes her muscles to keep from being crushed by the thick fingers, rapidly inflating the nano-gel under her skin to create a barrier of soft absorbant armor for a couple of seconds.

It works like a charm. The woman flies up towards the ceiling but rather than simply slamming into it, she whirls around in mid-air and lands feet-first on the concrete roof, briefly falling into a three-point crouch as her upwards momentum glues her to the surface. Well, that was exciting, but he's clearly not paying enough attention to her yet.

"Tch. Stupid racist gaijin, not every Japanese person is a ninja!"

Then she proceeds to leap off the roof at him, sorta like a ninja might do. The argument isn't very compelling right at this point. The Yakuza gangster drops on him like a kinetic missile, one leg leading the way as she attempts to introduce her expensive shoe to the back of Abigail's head. Or the front, she's not picky.

What she is, however, is someone who doesn't want to be caught in close quarters with this lumbering idiot. The moment she makes contact Siren attempts to flip away, bouncing off whatever part of the mechanic's body she ends up hitting into an evasive backflip.

COMBATSYS: Abigail interrupts Skinning the Hand from Siren with Red Leaf.
- Power hit! -

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Siren            0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
There's a certain fury here, to Abigail. A boiling rage that is resulting from this..unspeakable sin of stealing his Monster Truck. He forgets, at times, when he lets his workers -borrow- the truck and then beats them senseless when they taunt him about it..but..STEAL it?? If at least he's not sure who took it, he just goes on a random rampage as he desperately searches the streets for it but if -knows- who took it and they are daring the maintain an assault against him....needless to say things aren't necessarily destined to be pretty.

"I aint racist! It's not my fault there's ninja gangs here as well!" She couldn't know that Tremor was also hassling Abigail some months ago. Looks like he's still focused on Metro City.

But he's not so focused that he's not reacting to her with movement that belies his massive size. He speaks. He also acts. His massive limb lurches upwards towards her with a pace that is just several steps higher then what she may have anticipated and she ends up slamming right into his waiting palm with the kick only landing a glancing blow. A boulder sized fist overshadows her as his other arm raises and closes in..

"I said BEAT IT!" he thunders just before releasing her with the one hand and from the other..a single finger flicks out, thundering at her with the force of a sledgehammer and slamming home as if the largest of foes just slugged her and not a simple finger flick from the monsterous mechanic. The force of the bluw sufficient to once again let gravity and momentum do the rest of the work while he his mind wanders once more to preparing to give chase to the truck.

Small wonder they want to set this random earthquake loose out into the mess that's building as a wild card..

[SIREN]
"Oh shi-!"

Too late, she realizes what is about to happen. She'd underestimated the speed at which this towering monster can move, the size of those beefy arms seeming to offer no resistance to how quickly they can be flailed around. The impact as she collides with the upraised knuckles is less than pleasant but it's the follow up that really sends her for a loop, tumbling literally head over heels into the nearby wall as she's flicked away like a popcorn kernel.

Once again the nano-gel comes to her rescue, turning what could have been a messy splat against the wall into a dull thump. The agent groans in pain as she slides to the floor, falling to her knees for a moment as the world spins around at unpleasant speeds. Well, that sucked. Hopefully there will be less of that in the future. Unfortunately, she can't leave yet. She has to make sure the truck gets away and that Abigail believes Dahlia is responsible.

In regards to the former, the loud crash of the monster truck's back end hitting the far wall booms through the garage. The concrete barrier splits and cracks from the impact but manages to hold firm, much to her annoyance. In the distance, she picks up the shrill voices of the two young gangster arguing about how to proceed before the truck lurches forward and then reverses course again, slamming at the weakened wall like a battering ram.

"Just like that, kid...", she mutters. It's not the most elegant solution to theft she's ever been a part of. But then she's not usually trying to get caught in the act. A bit of action and noise is inevitable.

Pushing back to her feet, Siren grits her teeth and takes a long slow breath, brushing the mop of short black hair out of her eyes. Alright, new plan. Glancing around for something heavy, she finds a large barrel, likely full of oil judging by the stains. It'll do. Quickly she moves around behind it, positioning the drum between herself and Abigail and then draws her leg back, cocking it like the hammer of a gun.

"Special delivery!"

The cybernetic leg explodes outwards in a burst of kinetic energy, slamming her fancy shoe into the side of the barrel like a pneumatic piston. The oil-filled container blasts towards Abigail, pinwheeling through the air as dark black gunk sprays from its half-crumpled side, coating everything nearby in a thin layer of slimy filth.

COMBATSYS: Abigail auto-guards Siren's Large Thrown Object.

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Siren            0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
The garage shakes and shakes, not just from the trucks antics but from Abigail's pounding steps as he begins to run..or is that trundle..as fast as he can, in an attempt to get to the truck before they get a chance to try ramming through the wall again.

"J! TWO-P!" He shouts, trying to rouse the attention of his subordinates but to no avail. There's no help from those quarters as they're not even in yet. He'll have to yell at them later for picking today to not come in early without being asked to.

"The kill switch.. Gotta use the kill switch!" That's right. He's a master savant modder and mechanic. Of course he's got a remote kill switch installed. He turns from the monster trucks antics to sweep his gaze over the workhop and towards his tables - only to have the oil container come hurtling through the air, spraying oil everywhere like a giant can of coke that's been shaken, opened and hurtled across a room.

Reflexively he turns and swats his massive arm out and it explodes into the oil drum violently, sending it flying upwards even higher only to then crash down into the work benches - drowning everything in the slick mass and rendering his visual search for the kill switch an impossibility.

"What--noo!!!" Abigail bellows upon realizing this while putting his oil streaked hands to the top of his head. He then snaps his attention to Siren, like a furious bull dog. one thing is clear now. She's got to go down if he's going to get that truck back and an instant later he's airborne, leaping impossibly high and doing a full on rotation as he flips, clearing the distance between himself and her, and then descending down towards her with a double fisted strike.

COMBATSYS: Siren just-defends Abigail's Giant Flip!

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Siren            0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0          Abigail


[SIREN]
Huh. That... sort of worked out? She's got his attention atleast. Boy, does she have it.

Fortunately, Abigail is the kind of dope that loudly announces his plans to the entire world, thus alerting her to the presence of a killswitch. That could be a problem if it's not kept out of his hands until they can get the truck to safe place and load it onto a plane. It would seem the oily assault has done the job of atleast slowing down such a search but she can't be sure it'll keep him occupied long enough. Which is why she's not running away despite that being the thing a sane person would be doing right now.

The shadow of impending doom grows dark overhead but the grizzled Yakuza veteran merely grits her teeth and stands her ground, waiting until the last moment to act. Her leg snaps up to intercept the descending anvil that is Abigail's punch, catching it on her shin just as she leaps backwards. The bulk of the impact is shunted into the air as she flies away and some subtle use of her wind chi slows her from a ballistic missile crash course with the wall again to a much softer skidding landing on the concrete floor.

"Ha...haha!"

That was a close one! Despite her attempts to stay in character, she can't help but laugh a little at the thrill of it, which she tries to pass off as strained coughing. That strike very well might have flattened her into a pancake or turned her into a jigsaw puzzle with some missing pieces. Adrenaline pumps through her like a fresh shot of caffine and she smirks at the towering mechanic, lifting her hand to gesture at him with the universal 'come get some' motion.

She doesn't wait for him to respond though, fully expecting his outrage to set him into motion. Siren hurls herself forward on a direct collision course for Abigail. As much as she'd love to utilize some of her actual skill here, she's not a famous catburglar or a secret agent right now - she's some nobody gangster with a chip on their shoulder. Overperforming would make it hard to sell the act and even this lunk head might start getting suspicious if she unleashes some of her stronger powers.

So instead, she tries to think like someone who's lived their entire life on the streets and probably watched too many action movies. Normal people don't go kicking holes in the wall or knocking people like Abigail down when they're a quarter his size. What she needs is something believeable. She needs a weapon.

Reaching out to grab the first thing that she can get ahold of from one of the work tables, 'Akari' snatches up a short length of heavy chain. She whirls it around in the air with a snap of her wrist, wrapping the length around her fist like a set of make-shift brass knuckles. This'll do. With a howl of battle, the woman throws herself into the air, leaping up to try and bring herself in range to sock the gibbering ogre right in his stupid face with her new toy.

COMBATSYS: Abigail endures Siren's Improvised Punch.

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Siren            0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
Role to perform or no, it may be a dangerous thing to not bring ones A game against Abigail, especially as the brute adjusts priorities to focus on taking Siren down hard and fast. While the presence of the kill switch may have been announced, its potency and range isn't and so, as noted, if she goes down fast enough and he finds it quickly enough.. it's a done deal. Sadly a disadvantage here -is- being based in the Bay Area. They won't have to far to go if they can escape the Scrap Metal shop and if Abigail can't muster up support from his Mad Gear comrades.

As to the here and now, he takes Siren's punch head on but this is a skull that's been tempered by steel pipes wielded by the likes of Haggar and Cody and thus he weathers the impact with about as much trouble as if he were just splashed in the face with a water balloon.

"Gotta put the pedal to the metal here!" he roars in his usual car speech.. which is to say .. take her down hard and fast.

He leans into her strike and suddenly thrusts his chest out with force usually associated with the impact of a semi truck cab. The wall of flesh that is his torso comes bearing down on her, filling up her field of vision with its immensity. A simple enough attack, despite the fact that the force behind it would be more appropriate being unleashed by some sort of military brigade and not some oily mechanic in the dregs of Metro City.

COMBATSYS: Abigail knocks away Siren with Hungabee.
- Power hit! -

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Siren            1/--=====/=======|=====--\-------\0          Abigail


[SIREN]
Siren might be crazy. Her love for riding the red line on the edge of danger has certainly put her life at risk more times than she can remember. A few of them she almost didn't walk away from. But that's what makes it exciting! Seeing just how far she can push before her skill and luck gives out.

It would seem that playing the role of a foolish gangster against a thoroughly aggravated Abigail is riding that line a little harder than she's expected. The punch to the face does about as much as she'd expected it to but she'd hoped for a bit more time to escape a direct hit. As it is, she only barely has time to activate a barrier of wind to protect her against the out-thrust barrel of a chest that slams into her like a freight train. Her automatic defensive systems kick in as well, the nano-gel absorbing some of the bone-crushing force and dispersing it equally over her body, exchanging the threat of cracked ribs with an intense soreness.

The gangster flies away from Abigail yet again, practically taking on the mantle of a human ping-pong ball at this point. She is one more introduced to the wall, becoming thoroughly aquainted with its hard surface and greasy stains for a few seconds before she plops to the floor in a heap. A soft green line of text at the bottom of her vision quickly types out a warning about the integrity of her vitals, indicating the automatic release of stimulants to help keep her from passing out thanks to the pain. Her blurry vision straightens out after a couple of seconds and she pushes back to her feet, wiping the smear of blood trickling from her nose away with the back of her sleeve.

"That all you got, lugnut?"

'Akari' spits on the floor, her saliva mixed with blood and the fresh oil on the ground. Alright, it's time to make this a little less one-sided. She's managed to keep him busy thus far but it looks like the youngsters haven't quite battered their way through the wall yet. It's looking pretty shakey but Jericho hasn't fallen just yet.

Siren starts to stalk towards Abigail, her pace slow at first but steadily gaining speed. By the time she's taken a dozen steps she's broken out into a full run, a grim expression of defiance on her scarred face. Even after the beating she's taken, she's not giving up. Whoever sent these goons must inspire some pretty intense loyalty.

The mad dash at her opponent turns into a flying leap near the end. Siren hurls herself feet-first at the brick wall of a man, spinning like a corkscrew as her legs are enveloped in a glowing cerulean sheath of power. Using chi isn't necessarily a dead give away and she's got to do something more effective than she has been to keep him busy.

COMBATSYS: Abigail blocks Siren's Payline.

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Siren            1/--=====/=======|=====--\-------\0          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
The impact has the sound and effects of a flash grenade. Blue chi spirals in every direction and rushes around the goliath before exploding in a blue-grey mixture of fiery energy, dust and debris as the ground of the warehouse is ripped up into jagged chunks behind the giant..who just stands there, immovable and holding his ground against the assault. His teeth grit furiously as his eyes squint against the burning energy that roars through his body..but he holds, arms spread out and chest thrust out, body braced against the assault.

"..You aint no SKull Cross alright.." Well that much has been accomplished. Abigail knows the local gangs well enough to know this technique can't have possibly originated from among them. He concedes the truth of her words but it does little to mollify his fury. They are still taking his monster truck after all.

"I'm gonna put you to sleep now, little girl." he rumbles menacingly in that thick voice of his that somehow manages to sound like he's from Brooklyn and somewhere in Canada all at the same time.

With that his massive arm reaches down, snatching for her out stretched legs as he twists, turns and spins, attempting to whip her up by the legs and release her once more in a wild direction.

"It's time to bring this race to an end, unless you want to keep pushing it to the redline!"

No sooner has he made this attempt is his attentio snapping back towards the monster truck. It's do or die time if they plan to get away from him.

COMBATSYS: Siren blocks Abigail's Fling.

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Siren            1/=======/=======|======-\-------\0          Abigail


[SIREN]
What the hell is this guy made out of?! She's put holes in brick walls with that attack and he's standing there like it did little more than tickle. Contrary to common sense, her apparent inability to move Abigail only makes her want to try harder. She's not the kind of person to give up becase a task is hard; if anything, she's not actually having fun until things look uncertain and the fate of the mission could come down heads or tails.

Fortunately, her decision to let loose a little had the unintended side-effect of dislodging that annoying assumption he had made earlier from Abigail's meatball of a brain. Now all she has to do is make him think it's the person she wants him to believe is responsible. But first, those retarded kids have to make a clean get away.

A quick glance in their direction shows that they've made little headway in the last minute or so. Bloody useless halfwits. There's half a dozen metal shutters that they could have driven through without any trouble by now but they're too busy pissing themselves at the idea of getting near the mechanic to even try. That's what she gets for relying on amateurs. Right, nothing for it then. Time to take matters into her own hands.

Siren braces as she's grabbed once again, allowing herself to be snatched up and hurled away so that her opponent's attention is diverted elsewhere. As before, however, she interrupts her deadly flight at the wall with a burst of wind and a deft twist of her body, landing lightly on the wall in a crouch.

"Time to make a mess!"

The blue glow of her aura flares to life, neon fire whipping violently around her as she calls forth the power granted to her by the implants in her body. The Japaense Yakuza explodes from her perch on the wall, zipping up into the air above the lumbering giant only to drop down onto him in a vertical dive.

Whirling madly as she falls, Siren summons up a miniature tornado inside of the garage, faint azure winds scything through the enclosed space with predictable results. Everything this isn't nailed down or built into the walls gets swept up into a cyclone of wind and metal making it all but impossible to proceed through it.

"USE THE FUCKING /DOOR/, YOU IDIOTS!"

'Akari' screams as loud as she can to be heard over the noise of her own storm and the roar of the engine. For a moment it looks like her message was lost in the chaos but eventually the large truck lurches into forward gear and tears towards the nearest bay door, which probably won't have as much luck as the concrete wall in keeping the monster truck contained.

COMBATSYS: Siren successfully hits Abigail with Windfall.
- Power hit! -
>>> Punitive Hit!!! <<<

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Siren            0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
Things could have not timed any better for them here. Abigail has his back completely turned to Siren and is pounding his way back towards said monster truck in a full on "Vroom Vroom" charge with each foot step shaking the ground more intense then the last as he thunders out, "Boom, Boom, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!!" in time with each of his steps. He readies a massive fist as he bears down on the two thugs and his prized truck. The truck he can fix once he gets ahold of it. The two thieves? Well needless to say he's not to concerned about how well they'll be doing once he reaches the truck and flips it over..

Fortunantely Siren intervenes. He pauses in his charge long enough to look up and then an instant later he's engulfed by the chi laden winds of her furious attack.

"What the hell is this?!" he bellows, attempting to stand his ground against it, but by circumstance, timing and his own weariness of it all, he fails to find a solid enough purchase against the storm. Debris in the form of tables, car parts, and the hulls of some broken down trucks, tumble through the air of the workshop, crashing against him and forcing him away from the Monster Truck while also burying him partially as they pile up and roll across the floor.

An instant later and they've exploded off of him as Abigail's body turns beet red and his King Kong dwarfing proportions begin to enlarge even bigger. "MAXIMUM POWER!" He bellows, holding fast against the fury of the whirlwind but also pushed back enough to give the truck room to manuever if they take the chance.

COMBATSYS: Abigail VROOOOOMS!!!

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Siren            0/-------/----===|=======\===----\1          Abigail


[SIREN]
Her problem momentarily buried in loose debris, Siren alights on the ground and the raging windstorm whirling around her fades and then dies out. She turns and glares at the driver of the truck, jamming her finger at the garage door again for emphasis just as the enraged mechanic bursts from the rubble like some kind of kaiju.

Shinji needs no further encouragement. The pedal hits the floor, tires squealing and engine roaring as he guns it towards the exit. The thin metal shutter offers about as much resistance as tissue paper to the behemoth of a truck, exploding into strips of metal as the vehicle skips the pavement and bounces roughly on the hard ground of the yard.

Unable to fully control the monster in his moment of panic, the truck careens back and forth for a few moments until it hits a wall of old cars lined up along the exterior fence, chewing them up like used bubblegum as it easily ramps into the air and hits the road with a noisy crunch. It takes a second for the two gangsters to recover from that but before long Abigail's precious vroom is blazing a trail of fire down the highway as if the hounds of hell were on its trail.

Siren smirks to herself but her celebration doesn't last long. She's still got to deal with the beast and keep him away from that kill switch just a little longer. Hopefully those two knuckleheads remember where the meeting place was supposed to be and get the thing loaded up in a hurry. She might have surprised Abigail before but she's not particularly optimistic about her chances of keeping him contained for more than another minute or two.

"Oh, too bad. Looks like your precious toy got away."

'Akari' sneers at the mechanic, taunting him further into a rage. She's had a lot of success in dealing with all sorts of characters and manipulating their emotions to her ends has always been one of the most reliable. With him already steaming mad like a boiled crab, sending him into a blind rage shouldn't take much effort.

"The Dahlia thanks you for your kind contribution to the war effort, American pig!"

Such an obvious name drop would raise all sorts of red flags under normal circumstances. Why would she outright tell him who she works for? Is she one of those minions that can't keep their mouth shut or does she simply think him too stupid or incompetant to track the lead down? Either way, the hook has been baited now, all that's left is to hope he bites.

Once more the mobster lunges towards Abigail, apparently uncowed by his terrible display of wrath; but she's crazy, not stupid, remember? Rather than step into easy range of his massive fists, the woman whirls some distance away, swiping her leg at his midsection as fresh energy flares to life around it. A blazing crescent of blue chi lashes at his iron-hard abdomen, searing at his spirit rather than his flesh. She follows this up with a mighty leap that brings her up high enough to drop a hammering axe-kick at the top of his head, another blast of glowing wind accompanying the strike.

And, now that she's poked the angry hornet's nest, it's time to get the hell out of there. Siren delivers one final stomp to the mechanic's face, using it like a springboard to flip away just as she had attempted before. This time she's a lot faster about it though.

COMBATSYS: Siren successfully hits Abigail with Moving the Line.

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Siren            0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
"NOOOOO! My..My VROOOOM!"

Abigail breaks out into a full on panic as the truck bursts free of the garage without his permission, say so, control..pretty much all that and then some. Skin red and steam fuming from it, he's practically on the verge of a full on uncontrollable rampage with his eyes bulging out and his physique expanding bigger and bigger as he grasps both sides of his head in disbelief at this unacceptable turn of events.

He hears the name 'Dahlia' well enough but Dahlia isn't here right now. Siren is. And as Siren's latest assault whirls into him, he turns fully into it, bearing the brunt and force of the chi winds but missing as Siren rebounds backwards seemingly out of reach of the tear stricken giant.

"BOOOOOOO!!!!" he thunders furiously before turning and reaching down to grasp hold of the hulk of a car that had been intended to be stripped down for parts. The entire thing crumples up and folds like tin foil in the brutes hands. Rusted metal breaking off as he hauls it upwards like a pillow and then squeezes, taking out his full rage on the unfortunante object.

Glass shaters as windows buckle in and the car, engine block and all, is folded and compressed into a boulder like ball of metal in the giants raging grasp. He then hauls back, holding the tonnage in a single arm and curling his titanic form around into a coiled up pose..that then springs forward and releases the object and sends it spiraling through the air violently towards Siren. It reaches the height of the warehouse in the toss, ripping through the roof before hurtling down at her in the giants desperate attempt to flatten her and keep her present.

"You can't get away!" he roars. "You're going to bring me back my vroom!"

COMBATSYS: Siren just-defends Abigail's Large Thrown Object!

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Siren            0/-------/---====|=======\=======\1          Abigail


[SIREN]
As it turns out, getting out of places she wasn't supposed to be in in the first place is kind of a speciality of this particular thief. Normally she doesn't have to dodge flying cars to do so but what's life without a little variety? It's certainly keeping her on her toes!

The Yakuza's eyes widen as the giant crumples up an entire /car/ like a wad of tinfoil but, unlike the spring chickens she brought along as help, she's not frozen in place when said ball of tinfoil is hurled at her like an olympic discus. Siren snaps into motion the moment she realizes what is about to happen, glancing around the nearby area for anything that might aid her in the brand new quest to keep from being crushed into a pastey smear on the pavement. Unfortunately, most of the random crap that was strewn around the garage is now scattered to the four corners thanks her to earlier display, leaving her with no other option than to use her actual skills if she wants to survive.

Gritting her teeth at the incoming meter, the Asian woman lifts one leg, drawing it up close to her stomach as she pivots to the side. Her eyes narrow with focus, aided by the battle-computer implanted into her brain, as she calculates the exact moment necessary to pull of this crazy stunt. Half a second too early or too late could be enough to kill her and yet despite that, the woman is smiling, her eyes sparkling at the prospect of facing down death in a game of chicken.

When the moment arrives, Siren's timing is dead on. Her cybernetically augment leg explodes out to intercept the flying ball of scrap metal, catching it dead in the center of its spherical surface. Blue light infuses the wadded up car from the inside out, a bright neon glow emanating from its interior in a sharp flash as the chi she'd infused into the kick bores to the center and detonates.

The remains of the car explode in a violent blast of shrapnel and wind, jagged bits of metal flying in all directions to imbed themselves into the walls, floor, and ceiling. At the epicenter of the blast, Siren remains untouched by the shotgun blast of destruction, a shimmering barrier of wind engulfing her completely, deflecting the errant bits of dagger-sharp detrius away from her like a forcefield.

Lowering her foot back to the ground, 'Akari' sneers at the mechanic once again, making a rude gesture in his direction.

"Haha, if that's how you treat your stuff, maybe it's better off if my boss has it. Clearly you no one taught you how to behave. Maybe I should give you a spanking and send you to your room!"

High on the adrenline rush, Siren rushes into combat again, this time taking it into close quarters. A quick snap of her foot drives the heel of her shoe towards the front of his knee, but rather than believing the attack will stagger him, she merely uses his craggy muscles for a stepping stone, attempting to leap up and wrap her legs around his tree-trunk of a neck to choke him out.

"Nap time for you!"

COMBATSYS: Abigail interrupts Kick Combo from Siren with Abi Lift.

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Siren            1/------=/=======|=======\=======\1          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
A warning against getting cocky might resound in the back of Siren's mind. This is less playing with fire and more..juggling a few hundred tons of TNT just waiting to go off. Indeed it's Abigail's muddied mind that keeps matters from getting worse as his reaction to her attack is more reflexive then calculated and deliberate.

HIs massive arm hurtling around with a shockwave of force that shatters windows well before it actually impacts against Siren to lift her skywards away from him in a back fisted swat that explodes with a physical impact som emight attribute to being hit by a bus and not a simple back swing from the giant man.

"YOU WANNA KEEP PLAYING!?" he roars, his tears drying and simply leaving his furious gaze with reddened eyes to match the color of his red hot roaring body. Steam billows from his nostrils now as his teeth grit while he resettles back into a combat stance.

"Fine, LET'S KEEP PLAYING! Yer friends may have gotten away but YER NOT LEAVING!"

[SIREN]
Siren mentally tries to figure out what the score is as she sails away on another flying arc. Tennis was never her favorite sport but its seems like an appropriate analogy to her current predicament. It is only the nano-gel in her skin that keeps her from being completely obliterated by such a ridiculous hit, easily the MVP of keeping her alive throughout this foolish confrontation. And people wonder why she prefers to avoid fighting all together.

'Akari' scrapes herself up off the pavement, pausing half way to dedicate a few moments to hacking up one of her lungs. She's definately going to lodge a complaint to whoever decides to assign personnel to missions after this. Someone missed the part where 'infiltration' and 'stealth' were highlighted in her skill set.

"Hah... we'll see about that..."

Siren would very much like to leave right now. She's pretty sure even in her current condition she could make it out the door and then it'd be an easy matter to slip away into the sky when he's not looking. No one would expect some punk gangster to /fly/ away. But she can't. She needs to buy more time - as much as she can, infact, and she isn't quite yet beaten down completely.

Glancing around for another makeshift weapon, she finds a look section of pipe nearby and grabs it, swinging it experimentally through the air a couple of times. An old classic befitting of a Yakuza. Striding forward in a manner that can only be described as swaggering, the woman lets the curved head of the pipe drag on the floor, a grating scraping noise filling the empty space as the metal grinds on the concrete.

"You like baseball, American? How about we test my batting average?!"

Lunging forward suddenly, the mobster swings the pipe up at him, sparks flying from the tip as it drags across the hard ground and up towards his chin. The swing isn't particularly fast but there's clearly a lot of oomph behind it and even Abigail has probably learned to respect the damage one of these things can do in the right hands.

COMBATSYS: Abigail blocks Siren's Random Weapon.

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Siren            1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2          Abigail


[ABIGAIL]
Well .. there's certainly something to be said for dedication. In the face of one who is arguably one of the biggest men alive and easily one of hte strongest, in a world that includes supernatural beings such as Darktalkers and other forces of nature.. to keep up this mission despite his obvious rage is..certainly a mark for being committed to ones work. Especially as the pipe crashes headlong into Abigail's body and he just stiffens, flexes and holds his ground, causing the pipe to warp and bend with a hideous sound of metal in high stress slamming into the meaty *THWACK* sound of beating a giant slab of meat with a bat.

"YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY!" roars Abigail furiously as he slams his massive palm down towards her, dropping it like the falling of a meteor and intending on slamming her into the ground and shaking the entire warehouse in the process o doind so.

Again, she'd be lifted upwards by the giants huge hands, tossed skywards and then both of his massive fists hurtle her way, a series of rolling punches intending on treating her body like a speed punching bag as the behemoth unleashes the full fury of his vast strength on her.

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!" he roars out before swinging out with a huge palm smash that will, again, send her sailing for the rafters should the full power of the assault hit her.

COMBATSYS: Abigail knocks away Siren with Abigail Special.

[                                < >  //////////                    ]
Siren            2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|>>>>---\-------\0          Abigail


[SIREN]
Dedication? Well, it must certainly seem that way from his point of view, which is precisely what she'd wanted to impart. The Dahlia's minions all tend to have a rather unflinching resolve in the face of danger, likely due to the means by which their services are often acquired. She had to make it look legitimate, make the heist feel real; thankfully, she's done that.

Siren had known that this would likely be her final push against the bellowing giant. She is simply too banged up to continue playing this game for much longer, as proven by her failed attempt to avoid being swatted like a fly... by a bulldozer. To say that the beating she takes is a bit overkill would be one of the vast understatements of the century. Her body is all but pulverized by the onslaught of furious punches, her survival once more courtesy of the cybernetic implants laced throughout her body. Even the nano-gel can only do so much. Battered and broken, it takes all of her remaining effort to pool her strength for one final desperate act of defiance.

As the final blow sends her sailing into the roof, Siren activates her emergency medical injector, flooding her blood stream with a cocktail of stimulants. The effects are short lived but they do the job well enough granting her a final burst of power to make good her escape. The agent pivots in mid air, her legs beginning to glow. Rather than slow down as she rises, her upwards ascent actually accelerates as she corkscrews through the air.

The ceiling buckles underneath the power of her windy drill, exploding outwards as the gangster shoots into the open air like bullet. She quickly reasserts control of her spin and flips upright once more, hanging in the air on a cushion of chi as if she were lighter than a balloon. She glances towards the bay, her vision augments zooming in on the location of their rondevous just in time to catch the monster truck vanishing into a large shipping container.

Success. They did it!

A long exhale escapes her lips but almost immediately her vision begins to blur. Shit, time's up. The agent quickly sends a mental command to the radio in her head, broadcasting her distress signal to the crew. That would let them know she's coming. Now all she has to do is get there.

Leaning forward, she starts to glide towards the wharf. The wind rushes up to embrace her, fluttering her hair in a familiar and pleasant fashion. Her eyes start to droop as she sinks into that soft sensation, slowly drifting down and down until everything goes black. She doesn't even feel it when her body hits the roof of the warehouse, nor when she tumbles limply to the ground like a sack of discarded garbage as the others rush towards her, looks of panick and confusion on their faces.

COMBATSYS: Siren calls the ante.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  <
Abigail          0/-------/---<<<<|


COMBATSYS: Siren can no longer fight.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  <
Abigail          0/-------/---<<<<|


[ABIGAIL]
"Well damn."

A moment of clarity hits Abigail as he realizes he might over overdid it there. Not only did he batter his opponent with unthinkable force he ..launched her right out of the warehouse, into the air to God only knows whre.

"Dammit!" he repeats and then rushes out of the garage entrance to scan the skies and the rest of the area for Siren....only to find nothing. Both truck and culprits are gone.

Panic sets in once again as he looks around and then, by sheer reflex, reaches into his pockets to find.. the kill switch, right where it's supposed to be. On his keychain with the keys to the truck.

"Aarrrggggggh..." Abigail groans furiously, hitting the button on the switch a few times in rapid succession before crushing it completely under the pressure of his massive thumbs. Now he's got nothing to go off of. Just a name, Dahlia.. Dahlia. That and they seem to be from..China was it? no. Japan.

Seething, he turns and stalks back into the warehouse. Time to book a flight on another cargo plane.

Log created on 12:52:06 07/06/2018 by Siren, and last modified on 18:57:08 07/07/2018.