The Bell Tolls - TBT Act 1 - A Night on the Town
[Toggle Names]Description: Juri's mission seemed simple enough on paper. One of the cartels is acting a little too uppity under the thumb of Shadaloo. They need a reminder of who is in charge. Juri is to infiltrate the compound of an unruly cartel, bust a few heads, and give the leader such a fright that his loyalty to Shadaloo is guaranteed. Things get a bit more lively, however, when the prince of the night, Demitri Maximoff, sets his own sights on the cartel leader's beautiful daughter! But what will happen when two apex predators set their sights on the same prey?
[JURI]
"She's over there! Fire!"
The brilliant flashes of half a dozen guns spraying automatic fire briefly illuminate the near pitch blackness of the moonless night. The chiseled features of men hardened by a lifetime of conflict and sunlight are cast into stark relief by the staccato bursts of illumination, their grim expressions painted in yellows and oranges for a few brief instants, moving in jerky disjointed motions like an old fashioned camera reel being played out frame by frame.
Ahead of them, a single point of glimmering purple fire dances in the darkness like a willow-the-wisp, mocking their efforts to strike it down with haunting sadistic laughter. The guards spray wildly at the thing, sweeping their weapons back and forth in wild uncontrolled gunfire as they scream with impotent machismo and fury at the taunting apparition as it easily darts back and forth, always one step ahead of their aim.
"Pathetic!"
A husky feminine voice drifts out from the glowing fireball, derision oozing from the word like poison. A moment later the night lights up with a new source of lumiscence as a massive vertical crescent of burning violet power scythes into the row of guards from the side. The first man hit doesn't even get the chance to scream before he's swept up in the crackling tidal wave of power and hurled into the next one in line. Each thug in turn becomes the new leading edge of the battering ram, their bodies stacking up like grocery carts being collected from a parking lot, until at last the entire six-car pile up of bodies hits the nearest wall with a wet crunch.
The unfortunate gangsters don't get much time to worry about the pain that briefly assaults them as their bodies compact at speed well above anything even tangentially related to pleasant. The rippling axe-blade of purple energy collapses upon them a moment later, engulfing the entire crew, and most of the wall, in a violent explosion. Shattered chunks of broken masonry and pulverized wood rain down on the courtyard of the massive mansion, along with what remains of the guards; mostly a few chunks of scorched bone and sticky offal with the odd bit of mangled firearm to spice it up a bit.
The flickering purple flame comes to a halt in its mad dance through the air, flickering amusedly as it gazes upon the smouldering wreckage, and, more importantly, the brand new hole in the wall leading into the mansion's east wing. The soft patter of bare feet on the cold concrete replaces the now crushing silence, a figure slowly striding into the light of the mansion's exterior illumination.
Juri peers into the opening with a bored expression, one delicate hand lifting up to shield her eyes from the sudden change in brightness. The blazing purple fire in her left eye slowly sputters out and fades away as the Feng Shui Engine reverts to stand-by mode, returning the fake organ to its appearance as the twin to her other one.
"Well, that's handy, I guess. Saves me the trouble of knocking."
The sound of distant shouting echoes from somewhere behind her, accompanied by the heavy thuds of several feet stampeding up the road. Reinforcements no doubt. While they pose less than no threat to her, the assassin isn't in the mood to deal with any more distractions, particularly ones that won't give her much fun. Turning to another of the nearby walls, she snaps her foot out with an almost dismissive lack of interest and another crescent of destruction explodes into motion from the tips of her vibrantly painted toenails. A second explosion rocks the compound as she does a bit of remodeling and then a third, leaving three smouldering holes into the mansion's interior instead of one.
"That should slow em down for a while."
The room on the far side of the first hole turns out to be some sort of dining area. A long wooden table takes up the center of the room from end to end, sporting enough chairs to entertain an entire football team at once. Some of the furniture lies tipped over onto its sides or shattered into pieces, bits of wood crunching noisly under her feet as she stalks nonchalantly over the carpet of her own destruction.
Stepping through the door takes her out into a long hallway. The teenager glances back and forth to get her bearings, trying to place herself on the mental image of the map she'd commited to memory. The cartel leader's daughter should have her room at the end of this hallway. She takes off in that direction, moving at a brisk job just to make sure she stays ahead of the buzzing gnats on her heels.
The hallway takes a sharp turn at the far end of the mansion and as she comes round the bend, she very nearly bounces off the heavily-muscled chest of another pair of guards. Juri recovers almost instantly, her foot whipping out to relieve both men of their heads in a single broad swipe as they stare with dumb-founded looks at the young girl, guns half-raised in confusion. She snorts as their bodies collapse to the ground, stepping over them like a pair of dirty rugs towards the elaborate door they were guarding.
The door swings open quietly as she turns the handle, restraining herself from simply kicking it down on the odd chance someone might hear the noise or her target might be standing on the other side. She isn't here to kill the crime boss's kid, just give him a scare. Turning his only daughter into a smear of red jam on the walls might not be the best way to ensure his loyalty. The threat of it, however, is another matter.
Her eyes narrow as she steps into darkness, the room's interior little more than a collection of shapes shrouded in shadow. The Feng Shui Engine whirrs to life without being told, peeling back the curtain of darkness with its internal sensors as she sweeps it over the room, finding her target after only a few moments.
A young woman lies huddled on her bed, the expensive sheets pulled up over her body and halfway over her face. Her eyes peer out into the darkness from her 'shelter', trying to figure out if the person who has stepped in without announcing themselves is something to be afraid of. The sudden ominous glow of Juri's eye seems to be all the answer she needs. The woman lets out a scream and leaps from the bed, dashing towards the far side of the room where a pair of glass double-doors lead out into a garden.
Rolling her eyes, Juri lets out a disinterested huff and moves to follow, her hands resting on her hips as she stalks after the hysterical woman at a brisk pace.
"No. Stop. Don't run," she intones in a sarcastic monotone. "You might make me use some effort tonight."
[DEMITRI]
The night air in Latin America had a coolness to it that was surprising, given the arid and dry heat the land experienced. Demitri had first come here to pay a visit to the leader of the local Cartel's family, the one that had aligned themselves with these so-called 'Shadaloo', however after arriving, he was distracted by the sounds of combat outside. With his cape wrapped around him, Demitri strides down the corridors from the bedroom area--thankfully the guards had left to deal with the /other/ intruder that had decided to give the estate a visit. Someone rather powerful... and violent, that his senses could detect as they grew closer. He didn't need permission to enter this house, no matter who owned it. He could go where he wished by sheer force of will.
"Hardly any pieces of them left... the blood all charred," Demitri's voice rang out as he materialized in a cloud of bats between the young woman and Juri herself.
"Clearly a fierce and powerful warrior, with a rage that rivals the berserkers of the highlands themselves," he sweeps his cape aside, revealing himself and the red-lined interior of the cloak. "I'd ask what your business is here, but I think you've already displayed your intentions--I have no love for these people or their own, but I'd be lying if I said I did not want to test you, madam..."
Demitri made a courtly bow, his cape draped over his right arm and shoulder.
"Will you allow me to provide you with... entertainment this evening?" there was a flash of a toothy grin.
COMBATSYS: Demitri has started a fight here on the right meter side.
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Demitri
[JURI]
Juri's non-commital walk in the direction of the fleeing woman comes to a halt as the air around her floods with a powerful energy. The Feng Shui Engine beeps a warning to her moments before it happens, alerting her to the presence of someone with a rather impressive amount of spiritual power heading her direction. Her eyebrows lift in surprise at the cloud of bats and then rachet up another couple of notches when the screaching flying rodents turn into a large man dressed like he just walked out for a night on the town a few hundred years ago.
The teenager peers at this new figure in silence for a moment, her eyes narrowing as she takes in his handsome European features and over-sized muscles, like someone had stuffed a few bags of potatoes into an expensive suit. Neither of those things impress her in the slightest. What does impress her, however, is the shimmering aura of golden power wafting off his stout body like wisps of smoke.
A smile replaces her earlier look of boredom, her lips peeling back in a wide flash of white teeth as her eyes sparkle with sadistic glee. Now this is more like it! A proper toy to play with before she finishes her job.
"Hahaha! I was starting to think these losers wouldn't put up any sort of a fight, but I guess they were hiding atleast one person worth my time up their sleeve."
She gestures at Demitri, eyeing his choice of attire with a sidelong glance.
"What's with the get-up anyways? Bit early for Halloween. Seems a bit impractical for fighting too. Me, I prefer to have some flexibility in my wardrobe."
The teenager lifts one leg off the ground, pulling it up behind her back. Her arms stretch down behind her shoulders to grab the upraised foot, holding an almost ballerina-esque pose, her back arched forward in a suggestive manner in order to accomodate the unnatural posture. She smiles coyly at the vampire, her voice becoming soft and suggestive as she gives him bedroom eyes.
"It makes it nice and easy.... to do things... like this!"
COMBATSYS: Juri has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Juri 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Demitri
Releasing her foot, the girl's leg whips forward like the arm of a catapult that's just be freed from its crank, slicing through the air infront of her. She lunges forward as the kick sweeps out, purple fire carving a furrow in the carpeting on its way towards having an intimate meeting with Demitri's angular chin. The assassin smile shifts to a manic grin nearly as fast, betraying a glimpse at the slightly unhinged persona behind it.
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Demitri with Fuharenkyaku.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Demitri
[DEMITRI]
"Charming, quite so," Demitri nearly beams in an encouraging way to Juri--he's run into 'dragon ladies' of the sort before, in the 'orient' as it was at one time popularly known. Though he had not met many in gaiters with twin-tail hairstyles, that part was new.
"Demitri Maximoff, at your service," Demitri however had little time to prepare for the sudden attack from Juri--his upper body and head flying back as he reeled from the psycho power driven attack--droplets of blood flew and painted the estate's floor where his teeth bit down on his mouth and tongue.
"Well then, if that's how we're doing it," Demitri cringed, blood running down his chin and snarled--dashing towards Juri and diving--cloak wrapped around him and warping into wings as he spun--trying to barrel into her!
COMBATSYS: Demitri successfully hits Juri with Demon Cradle.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Demitri
[JURI]
Juri completes her attack by following through with the momentum of her kick, allowing her foot to keep rising up and over, pulling her into a graceful backflip a few feet away. She sneers at the vampire, clearly pleased at his surprise and annoyance with her sudden sneaky strike. Anyone who plays by the rules around her is in for a rude awakening.
"Oh, we're definately going to do it that way!"
The young girl's grin widens as her eye begins to glow with an inner light, a burst of purple energy flaring to life around it as if the entire socket has caught fire. The powerful predictive engine within the machinery silently goes to work, analyzing Demitri's moves, attempting to predict where his sudden furious lunge will take him before he even gets there.
Unfortunately, there are times when the battle computer is catastrophically wrong. The reasons for why have been explained to her several times, usually by a babbling scientist begging for her to rip the other arm off. Most of them are technical but general boil down to 'something went wrong'. This is one of those times.
Juri pushes off the floor, attempting to sidestep out of the way of the spinning immortal. The look of arrogant confidence is smashed right off her face as her evasive action ends up taking her right /into/ the path of the strike, rather than away from it, giving her the unpleasant business end of a vampiric drill made out of out raw muscle. With a cry of pain and surprise, she flies backwards into the wall, slamming against it with a dull thud.
A growl of furious frustration bubbles up inside of the teenager's chest as she turns a hateful gaze up towards Demitri, eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.
"Oh, you are gonna pay for that!"
Turning sideways, Juri plants a foot on the wall and uses it to propel herself directly at the vampire with incredible speed. She lets out a wordless scream of anger as she crashes into him, her body becoming a whirlwind of spinning kicks and psycho power as she vents her annoyance at the Feng Shui Engine's failure on him.
COMBATSYS: Juri knocks away Demitri with Fuharenjin.
- Power hit! -
! VENGEANCE !
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Demitri
[DEMITRI]
"Your kick is worse than Morrigan's--and she wears 5" stilettos," Demitri spat blood, coming out of the flying spin tackle he'd just delivered to the Korean tawkwondo fighter. "Curious device embedded into your eye socket, It feels... destructive, somehow," Demitri then is taken by surprise /again/, rather tragically, as Juri and her whirlwind of kicks comes flying toward him. Really, it's like being hit by a flying brick wall--made out of her powerful kicks and blows. The Psycho Power burns like acid, at the moment, feeling comparatively worse than the bite of the sun that he'd felt the past week in Greece. He is propelled through the wall of the mansion separating it from the garden, collapsing the wall and door entirely as all the glass around the impact shatters.
Perhaps expecting Juri to follow him--Demitri lies in wait in the darkness outside--reforming into a cloud of bats and trying to grab Juri unawares--his visage cruelly twisting as fangs are bared--trying to bring them down into her nape with resounding force!
COMBATSYS: Juri just-defends Demitri's Negative Stolen EX!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Demitri
[JURI]
Juri falls to the ground once her vengence has expended itself, vanishing almost as quickly as it had come, like mist evaporating off a leaf. She huffs a few times, her shoulders hunched like a cave man that just beat something to death with their bare hands, glaring at the hole in the wall that used to be Demitri.
Eventually, she takes a long deep breath and lets it out, snorting at him derisively. "How's that for destructive?" The teenager stalks across the room, ignoring the wide-eyed woman that she had been sent here for, who is currently curled up in the fetal position underneath a piano trying desperately to pretend like she's having a bad dream.
The cool air of the night hits Juri in the face, fluttering her bangs a little as she glances around to find the large man, only to discover that he has disappeared. Pretty quick for a guy that size, though she can't say she's not disappointed.
"Run away, did y-?"
Her mocking call it cut short as the Feng Shui Engine blares a warning into her mind like the klaxons aboard a warship bridge. She spins around in an instant, eyes going wide as the cloud of bats descends upon her from a shadowy nook that she hadn't noticed yet. The blob of flying rodents reforms around her into the massive body of her assailant, the vampire's meaty arms clutching her in a tight bear hug.
Reacting with her only option available, the teenager grits her teeth and draws her head back, snapping it forward to slam her forehead against Demitri's own when he leans down to try and take a bite out of her. The impact is enough to deflect his first attempt, leaving her with a precious couple of seconds to figure out what to do.
Acting on the first thought that comes to her, Juri lifts both of her legs and plants them on the massive barrel-like chest of her captor, attempting to leverage herself free of his grip. It quickly becomes obvious that pitting her raw physical strength against his is a futile effort. Instead, she hops off his washboard abs, swinging outwards as far as she can before driving her heels into his groin, going on the assumption that his junk is still a soft spot.
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Demitri with Change-Up Kick.
~ Cruel hit! ~
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/------=|=======\==-----\1 Demitri
[DEMITRI]
This is quite a fierce fight--one that Demitri has not experienced since his brief duel with Akuma. Demitri had his arms around her and descended for the bite--only to reel back with the front of his snarling face crushed in, looking quite bruised and bloodied. There is a rather human cry of pain and snarl as Demitri puts some distance back between the two, Juri doing a flip off his chest and then driving her feet into his lower pelvic region. His eyes go white, looking like they've rolled completely into the back of his head. The truth is he's actually reacting in a state of shock--eyes just looking cataract due to his more demonic visage showing itself.
The vampire lord doubles over and retched--nothing coming out as he tried to regain his composure--bringing up his arm in a cruel haymaker aimed for the side of Juri's twin-tailed head!
COMBATSYS: Demitri successfully hits Juri with Medium Punch.
# Disabling hit! #
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/----===|=======\====---\1 Demitri
[JURI]
Freed from the fate of being squished into jelly all over the vampire's impressive pectorals, Juri drops to her ass on the ground with a thud, wincing at her poor landing. She'd given it about a 50/50 chance of that actually working; it's not like she's an expert on vampires and undead anatomy. Fortunately, it seems that even the mighty immortals can be laid low with a strategically placed kick.
Pushing to her feet, Juri takes a step forward to take advantage of the nobleman's temporary state only to get a solid punch upside the head for her efforts. The fist crashes into her temple with a swiftness she hadn't expected, sending her reeling to the side like a drunken sailor, her vision pitching back and forth in a stormy sea of funny colors.
"Fucking... grrr!"
Whirling around to face Demitri again, and nearly toppling over in the process, the teenager narrows her eyes on all three of him and lunges in the general direction. Her body turns into a flying pinwheel, long legs spinning madly as she ejects psycho power into the air like a fireworks display. The addition of circular motion to her already disoriented mind doesn't help her aim much but she'll be damned if that stops her.
COMBATSYS: Demitri dodges Juri's Senpusha.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Demitri
[DEMITRI]
"Tenacious, are you not--" Demitri sounds like he's been sucking helium for a moment, thanks to the rather cruel full-force double-kick he's just taken to the groin not a moment ago. Time begins to slow down as Juri Han pinwheels through the air and comes down on him an eruption of psycho power. This is it, the moment he gets splattered by the impressive display of Psycho energy--though the lord of the night is not going to go down without more of a fight. The girl spins through the air, even as she comes down--Demitri moves faster than lightning.
"How about... we try... this--" prismatic power flows upward through Demitri's body and through his arm--racing up to where he tries to... touch Juri Han, grabbing her by the ankle out of the air as she begins to descend--arcane magical power attempting to take hold!
COMBATSYS: Juri endures Demitri's #Midnight Bliss EX#.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Demitri
[JURI]
With the world still swaying unpleasantly infront of her, Juri's in little position to defend herself against the sudden swiftness of her undead opponent. She had been largely counting on the impact of running into him to provide her with some sort of point of reference to tell where the ground is; instead, she just keeps on cartwheeling past him until his hand lashes out to snag her by the foot.
"Bwah?!"
Her forward motion suddenly halted, the teenager sways helplessly upside-down in Demitri's grip, swinging back and forth like a monkey caught by the tail. Her expression seems to indicate she's about as pissed off as the monkey might be in such a scenario, her lips pulled back into a snarl.
"Let me go, you oversized onion!"
That proves, unsurprisingly, to not be what the vampire has planned for her. Bizarre energies flood into the assassin as Demitri's psychodelic power flashes like a kaleidoscope around them both. An incredibly odd sensation washes over her, her skin practically crawling around on her flesh like a living carpet in an effort to detach itself from the rest of her. The blood rushing to her head, both from fury and from being held up by her ankle, doesn't help matters much.
The feeling passes after a couple of seconds, leaving the girl with an odd tingling sensation like her spine got licked by a lightning bolt. Cautiously, she looks down, or up as the case might be, at herself to inspect the aftermath and finds herself boggling at an entirely new wardrobe.
In place of her usual skimpy lingerie top and poofy pants, Juri's torso is wrapped in some sort of skin-tight leotard, the bright-red fabric very nearly matching the color of her face at this point. Thin blue stocking hug her legs from the hips on down to a pair of red boots, dark bat-like shapes scattered across their surface. A large pair of wings protrude from her lower back, splayed open as if she might simply take flight at any moment.
"What the fuck?! Do I look like some doll you can dress up for your perverted feti-aaaaagh!?"
Her shouted complaints are cut short by as all of the blood in her body suddenly attempts to flee out of the convenient passageway of her open mouth. A stream of vibrant red liquid explodes from between her teeth, painting her lips with wild strokes of color as it flows into the vampire's hungry maw, seemingly happy to take up new residence in his stomach.
After a couple of seconds of this, Juri manages to force her mouth shut with some considerable effort, her aura flaring up brilliantly like a freshly lit bonfire to push the vampire's power away. That skin-crawling sensation washes over her again as her clothes revert back to normal but she ignores it, instead focusing all of her intense outrage on the figure infront of her.
The girl's leg snaps out even as she tumbles to the ground, sending a wave of boiling violet fire smashing towards Demitri at point-blank range, her furious yell seeming to propel it with even greater vehemence than usual.
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Demitri with Fuhajin.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Juri 0/-------/--=====|>>-----\-------\0 Demitri
[DEMITRI]
"That... oddly works for you," Demitri is at first stunned by Lilith DLC Costume Juri, though he is quick to grip the squirming twin-tailed girl and begin draining out the massive reserves of energy from her--removing it more than taking it into himself--and he knows as he lets her go that she will not stay weak for very long. He has to act now--
The violet projectile smashes into his front, scorching him and burning him with violet wrathful fire--and yet, somehow, he lives.
The more human and blue-suit garbed form of Demitri has given away to his dark and leathern looking demonic form, long bat wings and claws--raising his massively hooked-looking clawed hands to deliver a fiery red projectile back of his own--eyes glowing red!
COMBATSYS: Demitri successfully hits Juri with Chaos Spin.
[ \ < > /////// ]
Juri 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Demitri
[JURI]
Juri hits the ground in a messy pile but she's not stupid enough to linger on the ground, despite her injuries. She whirls around to face the demonic creature's true form, gritting her teeth as the blast of hellish flame careens towards her. The purple aura flares up around her, attempting to deflect the projectile away or atleast ward off the worst of it, but she's not fast enough. The blast of fel energy crashes into her like a battering ram, sending the assassin sprawling several feet away in the grass.
Groaning in pain, Juri attempts to rise to her feet, hatred fueling the glow in her eyes as much as the mechanical device. A sudden fit of coughing interrupts the effort as she pushes up to one foot, falling back to her knees in order to vomit a dark pool of blood onto the ground. Wiping her mouth off with the back of a hand, she looks at the sticky mess and clenches her fist in frustration, apparently realizing that she has no choice but to leave.
"I'll... I'll remember this!"
Growling the promise of vegence at the vampire, the teenager manages to muster up enough strength to unleash one final blast of power. It sails through the air, not at Demitri himself, but the edge of the roof hanging above him. An explosion rocks the house yet again and an avalanche of shattered masonry and busted shingles rain down upon him from above, attempting to bury him under a mountain of rubble. Even if it doesn't smash him into paste, it should buy her enough time to escape!
Not waiting around to see which result ends up being the case, the girl turns and runs for the edge of the complex, vaulting over the high security fence and vanishing into the darkness.
COMBATSYS: Juri can no longer fight.
> /////// ]
|===----\-------\0 Demitri
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Demitri with Huge Thrown Object.
> // ]
|======-\-------\0 Demitri
[DEMITRI]
Demitri blinks in his demonic form as Juri turns into the Korean version of the frickin' road runner (with extra Korean BBQ flavor?) and scatters--dusting him adn leaving him in the remains of that side of the collapsing manor house. Demitri turns and proceeds to try and limp after her when what from above comes crashing down...?
A chandelier.
SPLAT.
"Oww..." a heavily distorted and still somewhat high-pitched voice echoes in the darkness of the ruined manor room, one clawed hand and leathern wing twitching beneath a massive pile of rubble and a brass chandelier which has been cruelly mangled.
Overhead, the moon continues to give off it's eerie glow.
COMBATSYS: Demitri takes no action.
> //////// ]
|======-\-------\0 Demitri
COMBATSYS: Demitri has reached second wind!
> //////// ]
|======-\-------\0 Demitri
After a short time, what might have seemed like hours in the dead of the night--the pile of rubble begins to shake and the large heavy chandelier clangs to the side. Demitri is back, again in his blue suit and cape though he looks quite a bit worse for wear, brushing rubble and dust off his royal blue suit.
"And I'll see you again, twin-tails," he remarks to no one in particular--his body twisting into the shape of a bat before flying away into the light of the moon.
COMBATSYS: Demitri has ended the fight here.
Log created on 19:10:04 07/10/2018 by Juri, and last modified on 13:19:33 07/11/2018.