Match of the Millennium

Description: At one of the facilities, Chun-Li and Rose are simply captured foes lined up in the horrible secret laboratory slash prison. While lab techs prepare Chun-Li for brainwashing and subsequent transportation to the secret Shadaloo base at the Mexico City Train Station, the seemingly unconscious Rose manages to reach out to her and to psionically disrupt the process. The mind control efforts of Shadaloo are overwhelming, but a single figure in Chun-Li's mind manages to challenge her: Her former sifu, Gen.

[CHUN-LI]
X DAYS AGO

The word spread like wildfire through the dregs of Baja California: kill an Interpol officer, earn enough money to feed a family for years to come; no repercussions.

Save that that Interpol officer is Chun-Li Xiang, no repercussions at all.

Like everything else about them, their numbers vary from session to session. Chun-Li gave up counting in anything more than generalities after the first dozen sessions, but intuiting the difference between 'a lot' and 'a few' murderous scumbags was a natural - necessary - instinct to develop, especially once blindfolding came into play. Sometimes they were armed; sometimes they weren't. Weirdly, she sometimes, dimly observed, Shadaloo didn't seem to like equipping them: occasionally, there were bits of sleek, branded tech sprinkled throughout the throng, but most of them were making do with what they happened to have on hand when they boarded cartel vehicles in search of their pay day.

Initial attempts at reprogramming proved inefficient in the immediate aftermath of her capture at the hands of V1. Short of intervention of Vega himself, the woman's hate for Shadaloo ran too deep to be effectively nulled or redirected within a reasonable timeframe, leaving the techs overseeing her to turn to more low-tech means of weakening her resolve.

Thus the truckloads of mercenaries fighting for a bounty that nobody but them expects to ever be paid out.

It's been a while since Chun-Li stopped counting sessions, too-- or so she figures. At most, she marks time in terms of the stretches between them, in achingly long minutes-- hours-- days? spent alone in dark cells with nothing but bruises and broken bones to keep her company. Even her meals arrive without human intervention, dispensed through slots in alarmingly kick-resistant doors at irregular rhythms.

X + Y DAYS AGO

"Why is it, do you think," a needle-like man wonders while tapping his chin, "that your oh-so-special task force has seen so much attrition, Ms. Xiang?" Studying the woman shackled to a chair on the other side of his desk, Dr. Miralles leans back against the edge and patiently waits for an answer. Five seconds of dazed, distant staring later, the doctor clucks his tongue and reaches forward to stroke a few locks of hair, prompting her to jerk her head away and sharpen her gaze into a glare.

"Do you have any idea how /long/ this has all been in the making?" he continues, smiling thinly while drawing his hand back to rest beside him. "You're not a stupid woman, Ms. Xiang. Do you really think that after this much time, anyone's coming? That there's anyone left /to/ come? Surely, you've considered--"

"... stop," she whispers. "Please-- /please/, just-- just stop."

"Of course, Ms. Xiang," the doctor murmurs, abruptly contrite, "of course! I certainly don't want to /upset/ you. Despite the-- /unpleasantness/ you insist on injecting into our meetings, you are my patient. I've been assigned to help you, to the best of my--"

"My God," she exhales while rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. "Oh my God. Oh my /God/, just shut. /Up/! /Jesus/! Some teenaged girl almost broke my shin with a pipe the other day, and I-- Jesus Christ, I wish I was /there/, right now. That's what I spend most of my time considering, doctor:" the woman's glare rolls down to lock onto him, "that I would literally - /literally/ - rather spend the next thirty minutes, or an hour, or, ugh, God, however long these-- /sessions/-- are having my shin almost broken than have to put up with this-- /this/. This is so, so-- just get it over with, already. Okay? Everything is hopeless; nobody is coming." A slight pause as she swallows and sags, already flagging after her momentary burst of vitality. "I'm going to die here, alone."

"Just shut the fuck up and let me /die/, you tedious hack," she softly seethes.

X + Z DAYS AGO

"I'd like for you to meet someone," Dr. Miralles evenly announces via PA as a reinforced door opens to admit a pair of operatives dragging a cuffed, struggling, and terrified man towards Chun-Li. Arm coiled around her aching ribs, the officer props herself up against a metal wall and turns her glare from a speaker to the trio navigating broken ruffians. "His name is Tomas, age 19. Tomas currently attends school in Sunshine City, and I believe he's recently settled into an Art History major...? I admit, the details are a little fuzzy; I did quite a few interviews today, you understand."

"Tomas is an incentive, you see."

After shoving Tomas forward, one of the operatives draws a sidearm. Chun-Li's eyes widen--

"It's become abundantly clear that the people we've outsourced the delicate work of assisting in your care are not being properly motivated to achieve results."

*BANG!*

"NO!" Chun-Li screams, lunging just in time to tackle the operative while the smoke curls from the barrel.

"Further incentives will be collected and deployed as necessary, to encourage your success and growth for as long as it takes to help you accept inevitability."

To her credit, the battered officer manages to dehelmet and concuss one operative with a few wrathful punches before the a steel toe across the jaw sends blood spraying across the floor and knocks her for a loop.

"Just remember that this is all for /you/, Ms. Xiang. Shadaloo cares so very, very much for you; it'll be so much /easier/ once you understand that."

NOW

Grimy with old sweat, blood, and dirt, Chun-Li aches in the darkness. As is often the case - preceding session permitting - the door bears a few dents while her legs bear a worrying share of the agony load; the rest of her is alight with cuts, bruises, and taser burns, but the reverberating reminder that there's something the World's Strongest Woman can't demolish hurts worst of all. Maybe because it's grown so familiar after so many-- days? Weeks?

Months?

A small part of her thinks, bitterly, that it's a blessing she won't know how long it's been when she's finally granted her wish.

[ROSE]
Once upon a time, an arrogant woman beyond the age of good sense or any real hope for improvement went to Mexico to try and find some missing children. Her only real lead was a keychain and a few general notes of location. She encountered another woman, named Juri Han, and the rest was brutal, jaw-cracking history.

Rose had lost consciousness then, and she has, for the most part, not regained it... in the last however-long-it-has-been.

How, one might fairly ask, has this been accomplished? Was she simply thrown into a broom closet? If only it were that simple. No: from a medical perspective, Rose is in a position of relative comfort, in that she is not being brutalized and tormented in a physical sense.

No, no, not at all.

She has been kept in what can be called a medically induced coma. But medically induced comas are usually temporary - done in hospital bed. The woman called Rose rests in a saltwater tank the size of a king-size bed, yes, but it is six feet deep. 'Theraputic' drugs and the necessary supplies are fed in, and when necessary, out through tubes - mostly in a clear plastic face mask, over mouth (but not nose). Her eyes are coated with sheets of opaque material that provides not even pressure; her nose intubated but otherwise sealed. The high-tech body massage suit she wears will be a revolution in physical therapy in fifteen or twenty years, if the world is spared total devastation to go along with the dominance of Shadoloo.

If.

If is a funny word. The purpose of this entire procedure, of course, is no doubt to make this woman available for the purposes of the man up top. It does not take a great insight to realize that he would want someone like this, even if the anesthesiologist in charge of monitoring "Patient R" doesn't think of matters in quite that way.

The sensory deprivation and induced coma is, of course, neccessary... because you can't take chances with the psychic sorts.

-=-=-=-

Rose floats in the amniotic caul of her failure.

Time has passed. Time has moved slowly. Here there is nothing, just a blank gray flatness. The sensation of floating, the absolute neutrality, has already led her through several layers of hallucination, but the damnedest thing for Rose - to even her surprise - is that she has been watching them with a certain detachment. Normally, this sort of dissociation is perhaps protective but in the same way that cicatriced scars are protective.

But Rose has known other bodies than her own.

Rose knows that whatever makes a person a 'person' - what you could call a Soul, for want of a clearer, more concise term - is not the brain... though the brain may inform it.

No.

Rose is not just here, although she is here, in a tank, in Mexico, stuffed to the gills (if not the uriens - they were careful to balance potassium) with anesthetics and barbituate-analogues.

Rose is on a couch somewhere, where Menat is napping with an arm thrown casually over her face.

Rose is in front of an easel where Alma Towazu paints without a shirt.

Rose is in a sixteen-dimensional glyphic pattern of motion throughout the world.

Rose is sliding her fingers through a tarot deck.

A tarot deck.

A tarot deck.

Somewhere in Italy, a piece of malachite, polished and set in a necklace like chunk jewelry but with far more to it than that, sparkles... rolls... and falls off the night stand.

Which startles a worker... who had been here to repair the tile in Rose's sybaritic bathtub. He bends over to pick the jewel up - and says, "What the FUCK?" as he sees what is written underneath the bed.

"Yeah, this house is weird," agrees his comrade from outside. "Did you find her--"

-=-=-=-

"Chun-li," says someone. There is nobody else in Chun-li's cell.

It is probably a woman. It seems to be speaking perfect Chinese in a vaguely high-class way.

"You are caught in the fist of a monster wearing the shape of a man. He squeezes you through his tentacles of vice and corruption, thinking you a mere nut. I know, however, that as bitter as the feeling that fills you is now - you are a woman who cannot, will not break. Take heart. This will end SOON. I have foreseen it."

There is a pause.

"You seek to breach a door. The answer is in the other direction."

Another pause.

"I am approximately nine meters from your current position... or rather, my body is. There is a concrete wall behind you - then, a space through which Shadoloo has run pipes, as any mundane organization would, and sound absorbing materials, to muffle the call of justice - and then another wall of the same thickness. Through there - I am - and I can say little more than that."

"My survival is a matter of no moment," Rose concludes. "But whether you waken me or slay my body, your future runs through that road. Be careful of the anesthesiologist."

The presence seems to fade - or does it? /A/ presence remains...

[GEN]
How much of it is real, this reality? The process of breaking down, of brainwashing, how much of it is nightmare? Even in her scant hours of rest, Chun-Li finds no respite. Visions haunt her mind to the point that sleep and waking doom are all but indistinguishable except by the identities of their actors.

In her nightmares, in those hallucinations, Vega does take direct and immediate interest in her. Her father is torn asunder repeatedly, in a myriad of ways echoing both the reality and the impact of his actual demise, Grandpa Gen informs her that she is weak, that she is unprepared, that she MUST give in. For her own sake, for the sake of anyone she's ever cared about; there is no fighting this. She -is- a big fool. Gen has told her this many times.

It's almost enough to ring as legitimate-- except the old man has never once insisted she surrender, has he? Not since the first days of their reintroduction, seeing if he could badger the young woman into forsaking her quest, into abandoning her lofty and dangerous ideals. Since then, it was an effort to hone what the old master saw as a dull edge into something capable of surviving the course she had set for herself, idiotic though it may be. Of doubling and redoubling exercises both martial and mundane to hone not only body, but spirit into something harder, something more defiant, something capable of withstanding what she is in store for.

And here she is, harried in the physical world to surrender, to fall. Harried in the spiritual realm to fold, to fail. But the aged assassin would not abandon her, would he? Would never tell her to give up, he would tell her to stand up, to fight, to die fighting if she must.

There's no one in either cell, but there is a presence. It's subtle, almost intangible, if not for its familiarity and quiet magnitude. A wind whistling through a seemingly bottomless canyon, a whisper from the depths, murmured in tones few can hear; music few even know to listen for. It's how a man like Gen lives so thoroughly beneath the radar, so much of the time.

To look at him, one would dismiss him. To sense his inner strength, the intensity of the elder master's control of chi, mastery of form, even the most acute might dismiss that might as minor. It's always the quiet ones. << Focus. >> It's in her head, absent from Chun-Li's presence, as surely as Rose's more eloquent and definitive urgings.

It's no less irritable, no less derisive of the situation than the visions she's been cursed with, the entities eating at her will, but it's still worlds away from any of their urgings. << Stand up. >> Now. Immediately. Yesterday. << You are not dead. You //will// fight, foolish girl. You will //not// waste my time. >> Not waste her promise. Not waste her potential. Not curl up and die before the foe she swore she would defeat; it's distasteful, frustrating, -STUPID-.

<< Death does not WAIT for you to be READY. Death is neither considerate, nor fair. You now face death, you have sought it, and you shall /face/ it. >> The whispering wind is louder, and somehow all the more distant. Far away, so close. Ear-shattering, head-splitting, a murmur of absolute focus, of absolute power. A murmur of mastery of the same strength now demanded of Chun-Li.

As few others could, her past and present master understands the nature of her plight... the terrible decimation of the application of terror, the devastation of will. She must face it, she must overcome it, otherwise live or die... Chun-Li will be useless to every ideal she has ever held.

[CHUN-LI]
A prison is only as good as its weakest wall.

Chun-Li's nightmares do their part to rob her of what little respite Shadaloo otherwise allows. Her father's torments are endless: sometimes he's merely murdered in a variety of grisly ways while she watches; at others, it's when he's watching her graduate, or when they're celebrating her joining Interpol, or at the hospital as her first child is born. Sometimes it's her - glassy-eyed and freed of all burdens but one - plunging a hand into his chest with all the reverence of a woman pulling the innards out of a pig.

Sometimes it's Interpol, forced to take him down as he puts his skills as an investigator and fighter to work for the case that broke him.

How much of it is real? How much does it /matter/ when there's no escaping these midnight realities?

Gen is every bit as ubiquitous, reflecting and nurturing the tiny, black germ of doubt that's festered in her heart, her mind, her Soul - whatever makes her 'her' - since Duke toyed with her and Yamazaki escaped to do God knows what to God knows who. That his words aren't taunts, but statements spun from the wisdom of a man who knows enough to give it makes them sting like a ladle to undefended flesh. That they're so familiar, so similar to the rot eating away at her in waking hours helps them burrow in deep and stick.

That he's so /insistent/ on surrender is the only flaw, the one discordant note in Shadaloo's symphony of deconstruction, the weakest wall. Paradoxically, the contrast stands out so starkly as to mitigate the rest-- enough to drag her from her cot and will her body to protect her through the sessions that follow, anyway.

If his demands to surrender aren't real, what else isn't?

Bringing /waking/ visions into the mix is a new trick. So is bringing a woman in, for that matter; those girls in the tactical bathing suits Vega seems weirdly insistent on are as close as Chun-Li's seen otherwise. Seated on a cot with her knees as near to her chest as she can manage, the officer looks up from trying to conserve energy, squints futilely at a corner of the cell, then drops her head with a tight, mirthless smile.

"If you aren't a hallucination, or someone screwing with me," she whispers, "tell me--"

Gen joins the psychic party line.

"T--" Brown eyes dart through the darkness. "Tell me something about yourself." She begins to twist as they find nothing, until she's locked onto the wall behind her. Slowly, so as not to aggravate her ribs, she exhales. "Tell me something nice, or interesting-- I don't care." The walls are reinforced, but plumbing and soundproofing mean a gap in their construction.

"Just tell me who you /are/."

Which means that all she has to do is punch through a few inches of concrete and make a new friend. Or break her hand because she's hallucinating, or Miralles has gotten cleverer. Who can say which it'll be until she's tried? Twisting until she can splay her fingers across the wall, she closes her eyes and takes another deep breath. Ephemeral elegance and spectral sobriety melt into sharply thrumming murmurs while her heartbeat briefly falls in sync with the world's. Keenly honed ears fill with water rushing through copper and she climbs to her feet, edging off of the cot then shoving it aside with an aching leg. Her eyes open, she sinks into a low stance--

SOME TIME AGO

"The WINNER," 'Damaging' Dan Clevins, host of Metro City's number three rated morning radio show announces, "and NEW champion of Metro Motor Mayhem: Chun! Li! Xiang!" Short and pudgy, the DJ is pretty nimble as he jogs from his booth to the panting, bloody-knuckled teenager leaning against the crushed, smoking ruins of a sedan.

NOW

-- and she does what she usually does in the face of the unbreakable: dares it for proof.

*KRAK!*

Flesh smacks concrete, bones crunch uncomfortably, and a soft rumble spreads through the wall. Shadaloo had the luxury of adjusting the doors as each new session gave them a better sense of what she was capable of, ensuring that the most obvious weakness would always remain outside of her tortured grasp. The walls are a different matter, though: most of the cells she's been cycled through has had at least one side softened by plumbing and insulation, and renovating /those/ around one prisoner would be a bridge too far. The odds of her locating - then finding a way to breach - the right wall in any given cell were determined to be minute at best-- and indeed, left entirely to her own devices, it may have been quite a long time before Chun-Li resorted to punching walls.

But she isn't alone, is she?

*KRAK!*

So punch she does,

*KRAK!*

until either the wall gives

*KRAK!*

or she does.

COMBATSYS: Rose has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Rose             0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Dakota brings her battle systems online.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Dakota

[ROSE]
The presence struggles to return. It is distinct from that which Gen presses outwards. "Oh - please excuse me," comes the voice, with a sound that's something like a cultured chuckle. "My name is"

c
r
a
c
k

IN THE LAB

DAKOTA, battle anesthesiologist, is reclining in a comfortable chair and playing Candy Crush on her phone. DAKOTA is a woman in her late thirties who has been physically mostly-rejuvenated by the benefit of Shadoloo's dark technologies, in exchange for serving as medical staff - she also gets paid and so on and so forth, but she is definitively not one of those people who is placed into a situation where she has to save her family or her loved ones from the threat of the syndicate. No: Though her parents still live somewhere in Boston or Wyoming or wherever, as do three or four ex-boyfriends who she might occasionally see, she is alone in the world.

And alone in the lab with a tank containing some woman.

krak

Dakota looks over at the rubber-wrapped form of Rose. "You say something?" she sneers, before going back to her phone.

krak!

Dakota looks up at the waveform readouts suspiciously. She knows this person is a psion - some kind of tournament woman - but there's nothing THERE. "Must be construction," Dakota tells herself.

krak!!

Dakota wrinkles her nose. "What the fuck?" She gets up then, moving over to check the outlet tubes. "Did you," she addresses Rose, her back to the wall that has accumulated a worrying sort of crack, before

K R A K

The wall gives way and through it comes Chun-Li Xiang. Dakota the jumped-up anesthesiologist and human-trafficking facilitator is strong enough to wrestle a muscular young man and squeeze out the juices of resistance: she is also not really guarded.

Chun-Li strikes Dakota the criminal in the back flank hard enough that she is sent flying forwards, spiralling her arms as she smashes through the double doors leading into this monitoring room and, based on several loud slams elsewhere, landing without much comfort somewhere else in this...

Clinic? It sort of looks like a clinic? It's hard to tell. There are medical appurtenances but the closest thing to a heartwarming, morale-increasing decorative gesture is the inevitable logo put up on a wall, where one might expect a piece of soothing natural art or a picture of Jesus H. Christ.

Dakota's passage rips out the side of the sensory isolation tank and with a heroic splashing, all the salt water comes washing out, carrying with it a woman wrapped up in a faintly green-tinted suit of thick, confining rubber. Fortunately there is no sign of anything other than medical efficiency in this garment, nary a high heel nor a cat-ear to go with the brutal efficiency of the mask sheath and the mask itself. Rose washes forwards and comes to rest against the far side of the room, staying there as the water pours out of the monitoring room.

One trembling hand comes up to paw loose tube and mask. Rose spits out /something/ and coughs. As she begins to pull the tube /from/ her nose, she says in a very rusty voice, "Forgive me - you moved faster than I expected... as I was saying my name is Rose - It's a pleasure to meet you, Chun-Li. Can you - hrrrgh - help me up? I'm going to need to get my feet under me."

In the eventual proof of things, Rose actually has to struggle. The weird rubber massage-booties in this piece of Shadoloo dark technology do not have grip soles and she's standing on a tile floor.

Which is why...

Rose cannot do more than mutter "look out" when Dakota comes surging back in through the swinging doors, both feet aimed dead-ass at Chun-Li's head.

Dakota's input to Chun-Li is thus: "YOU SMELL LIKE A FUCKING GYM CLASS! DIE, TRAITOR!" Traitor? From the look in the woman's already-beady eyes, she may have been... encouraged, or given herself encouragement of a pharmaceutical nature.

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Chun-Li          0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Rose             0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Dakota's Spiral Arrow.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Rose             0/-------/-------|

[GEN]
What is reality but the interpretation of electrical signals and energetic frequencies by the subjective processes of the notoriously remarkable yet lazy human brain? Sometimes, it's a spiritual question-- a door to infinite ponderings of the soul and the material world. Of late? It's a loophole, an exploit manipulated by the worst in that allegedly real reality to superimpose their own mandate of truth atop it, one way... or another.

~~~

"Tch. The unbreakable has simply not yet met its match." He corrects his student's assertion on the impossible laid before her. Unlike some of Gen's less accomplished students, largely relegated to duties in the Genhanten kitchen and waitstaff, Chun-Li has been gifted by the old master's knowledge of the higher arts for some time, now.

She had long since mastered breaking multiple wooden planks, before she ever came to him. A car, a cinder block, a sturdy door-- all already established within Chun-Li's wheelhouse. What Gen had charged her with was the face of a mountain, an implacable and ancient adversary, hewn of rock and petrified elements. She was to make a new door to its concealed, cavernous depths.

It's a deep metaphor, below the impossibility-- the hollowed out places and weak points within the largest, strongest object imaginable. It's a lesson Chun-Li delved strongly, but in the end, had no time for. No time for such meaningless pursuits next to the vital mission she hefted on her own shoulders long ago. A mission she nearly made meaningless through that priority-- life is full of irony.

~~~

Failure is close, but not at hand. Always there is hope. Always there is a reason to fight, if only to die with honor, true to one's purpose and ideals. Chun-Li proves it even before aid appears, aid she finds in a most remarkable fellow prisoner. They need one another-- but it still may not be enough.

The base mobilizes swiftly, professionally to the rising threat. Alert klaxons fill the hallways, troopers grab high-powered weaponry and form up around their massive sergeant as he sucks down the back half of a cigar, wiping a sheen of sweat from his bulky bald braincase. "We have compromised prisoner containment and an outside assault of indeterminate numbers." He informs the assembling soldiers. "Base defense protocol eta is in effect."

Troopers fan out along the stark corridor leading to the lab and containment cells, and their approach is initially announced by the metallic skitter of spherical explosives along the floor. "Frag out!" several intone. The initial threat might distract one from asking-- wait. Outside assault? But it's hard to forget an instant later.

K R A K!!!!

It's a singular sound, a singular hit, and the outer wall erupts inward in turn. The concrete block doesn't break, it crumbles, it /sunders/. The matter is all but disintegrated in the wake of that strike, a scattering of miniscule debris and an overwhelming cloud of dust the result. Into the wake of that artificial obfuscation steps.... a diminutive little old man, shorter, smaller than either woman, his hands clasped languidly within each sleeve of his ornate purple-and-white changpao behind his back, the red sash about his waist settling fluidly as his forward momentum abates.

Blank white orbs survey Rose, and then settle on Chun-Li, as one gnarled brow, bare but pronounced, arches dramatically. The elder assassin -is- the whispering wind, the impossible canyon, the murmur of power that all but suffuses this place, everywhere but nowhere-- certainly not strength possibly contained within this fellow's deceptive frame.

Of course, both Chun-Li and Rose know better. "Good." It's almost approval. "I did not want to /carry/ you." Behind Gen is evidence of more structural damage, of gore-drenched hallways, the bodies of the dead, the cries of the dying.

This is wartime; this is his time.

COMBATSYS: Gen has joined the fight here on the left meter side.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Rose             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0          Chun-Li

COMBATSYS: Alpha Squad has joined the fight here on the right meter side.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Rose             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Sarge has joined the fight here on the right meter side.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Rose             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Gen              0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Alpha Squad's Parthian Shot.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Rose             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Gen              0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0            Sarge

[CHUN-LI]
!!!

Like the water spilling from Rose's tank, Chun-Li flows from punching to sprinting to capturing Rose shortly after she washes into a wall.

Mustering a smile for the introduction, she begins to respond, "I'm," only to pause mid-word when Rose just says her name, again. "Right," she murmurs. The smile briefly broadens, then she's all determination as she tries to find some purchase on wet floors in cheap sneakers. "Just--"

Rose is-- Rose is heavier than she looks? Or is she just not supporting herself very much--?

"-- need to get you--" Chun-Li groans, shifts to force her shoulder up under the psychic's arm, then twists so that she, too, can use the wall to give them some leverage on the way up.

She sounds rather out of it, actually-- which, after God knows how long in an evil science tank, is reasonable, but makes for awkward standing.

"Are you o"

Dakota probably should've been hit harder, in hindsight, but Chun-Li was aiming for the wall and not expecting the woman.

"SORRY"

Rose is pretty upright by then, at least, so Chun-Li pairs an apology with a quick lunge towards the wall meant to give the psychic one last push of support before she has to contend with a violent drug addict. Turning out of doing her level best to pin Rose into a standing position, she snaps her right forearm out just in time to intercept Dakota's feet and push the battle anesthesiologist past her. Without hesitation, she then does a sharp 180 and takes off running after--

-- alongside the still-spiraling woman, seemingly materializing at her side out of nowhere. Weaving closer, she extends both arms then dives, intent on snagging Dakota's head and neck so they can be violently introduced to Chun-Li's shoulder on the way down.

She is - fortuitously - mid-lunge when grenades tumble in to announce Shadaloo's security forces, leaving them to explode in her wake. A familiar voice draws her eyes from Dakota as the smoke clears, but all she can do is fly and stare agape.

Meanwhile, an unseen clock ticks down to nothing. Deep, bass rumbling melds into crumbling concrete, explosions, and brutalized flesh as a section of the ceiling slides open so that a mechanical arm tipped with a minigun may unfurl itself. Shadaloo regularly deals in dangerous, unpredictable, unwilling test subjects and every lab is accordingly equipped to manage mishaps before they can spread. Rose's tank breach lit a fuse that salt water-kissed machinery couldn't help but accelerate. After a couple seconds spent turning a low hum into a lethal roar, chrome-plated consequences send lead scouring across a lab wall in search of the psychic.

COMBATSYS: Science Chaingun has joined the fight here on the right meter side.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Rose             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Gen              0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Rose fails to reflect Turret Fire from Science Chaingun with Soul Reflect.
- Power fail! -

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Dakota with Power Throw.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0           Dakota
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

[ROSE]
Rose turns her head to look at Gen, who is present now. She has to look down a little given her relative height, even as Chun-Li struggles with her weight, though it becomes less of a factor as she reaches a certain degree of muscular tone again. "Good - morning? Evening? What time is it, sir? I fear I have lost track." She runs her tongue over her lower lip.

She makes a kissy face at the air? What? (Internally Rose thinks: It's astounding. I can't -)

DAKOTA finds, from her perspective, that Chun-li simply moved without occupying intervening space and smashed into her, hard enough that she hit the institituonal linoleum that Shadoloo put down for the medical wing and revealed the underlying physical substrate that sets beneath each and every single such facility in history: a slightly rusty metal industrial catwalk. (Is the entire hallway a catwalk that has yet to be revealed? It's unclear.)

"Wh... h..." Dakota begins to say, before in come the grenades. In the fulness of smoke, Dakota laughs nastily, gets up, and moves - somewhere. It's hard to track her. Because there's a titanic noise coming upwards. Rose twists round and raises an arm towards the Science Chaingun --

And two miracles happen.

One is that Rose's scarf, yellow and glorious, appears out of thin air, snaking around her arm in a resplendent burst of purple and green and blue all in polychromatic sparkling pastel hues! How glorious to see, how wonderful to perceive.

The second miracle is that the hail of lead does not instantly kill her. But then that's probably wise. The raised arm does send some of the hot lead flying... somewhere, but Rose does not score a return hit. Indeed, the force throws her arm to the side, smashing against the wall in an unnaturally flexed way. Not that Rose has some kind of Dhalsim-strength hiding inside of that latex-wrapped form:

No, she just probably hyperflexed her elbow.

"I can't feel my body at all," Rose says aloud. "Please tell me if I bleed too much." Then she lunges forwards, throwing herself into a dive to try to at least make it towards the trail of dead that Gen has forged. The corpses are not pleasant to her eyes, but obviously Gen got in here from somewhere, and Rose has relatively few options this moment.

And behind Chun and Gen: there is a sharp noise.

Of a television coming on... And there is about five seconds of blaring talking head from Fox News as the television is ripped from its wall mounting, which it had been placed at for the convenience exclusively of the nursing staff or for tele-monitoring. The capacitors means that the dire face of T*cker C*rls*n remains present as Dakota, rising from the smoke with faint red lights in her eyes, sweeps it up like a hellacious scoop - aiming for the

"OLD MAN! GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY!!" Dakota shrieks. "I'll kill you! Your blood is gonna buy my way into a desk job! So just lay down and let me kill you! You're old anyway!!"

Gen can, of course, tell that the woman is enhanced. Enhanced enough that even he will have to think fast!

COMBATSYS: Dakota successfully hits Gen with Cracker Blitz.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0           Dakota
[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

[GEN]
Gen's own eyes lock with Chun-Li as she performs her kung-fu. The blank gaze somehow gives the distinct impression he's still a bit impatient with her; why is there still a mess to clean up in this room?!? "Yes, yes. Consider it a boon, in this moment." She'll know she's bled too much when she dies.

The mythic assassin answers Rose's confusion and concern with biting disaffection. "You'll need to fight better than that to survive." Harsh, but fair. It's practically a mantra of the old bastard's, and his evidence is all around them, just now. He's probably talking to Chun-Li, as well. He might want to heed his own advice.

Dakota's sudden, all-out charge seemingly takes the old master off guard, slipping the web of alertness through sheer ignorant tenacity before that monitor is -smashed- across Gen's diminutive frame before he can conclude a deft, stylish side-step. It shatters with the impact, but it's not quite right-- not quite normal. It shatters -around- the old man, as much as into him. It crushes and erupts outwards rather than through as if Dakota had just slammed it around a steel pillar in a sturdy basement.

The old man looks perterbed, more than anything, despite the myriad of minor scrapes evident on his features as he rocks back to an upright stance, and //snaps// all his attention to the combat anaesthesiologist with a sharp(er) scowl. He flows from an anchored stance to a fluid one, surges like the riptide of a river as he coils about himself and becomes, somehow, even smaller. Gen crouches-- naw, flexes inward, stepping sidelong inside Dakota's personal space as his opposite arm reaches across his own body, his fingertips the grabbing talons of a hungry raptor.

Those nigh inhuman digits would clench with force enough to bruise bone should they find their purchase and draw Dakota all the further into her forward momentum as the legendary killer's closer fist cocks and tenses and strikes outwards like an ironclad serpent, led by the penetrating fangs of Gen's own braced knuckles. The blow has force enough to send the assailant flying right back from whence she came as the little old fellow veritably unfolds like freed current against and beyond her.

"Our way out is not clear." Indeed, Rose can hear the tromping of feet as she seeks out the portal behind Gen, troopers mobilizing to cut off their escape-- even as some panic over the state of their desecrated comrades, and others tell them to cut the god damn chatter.

[CHUN-LI]
"Are you--"

Chun-Li doesn't let rolling out of a vintage kung-fu throw stop her from questioning Gen's presence any longer, but the fleeting glimpse she gets of gore and shattered concrete beyond him is another matter. Then again, after her last... ... ... nights? She's running low on trust; after a pause, she slides her attention back to the old man.

"-- real? How are you--"

Brown eyes briefly flick, again.

"Why," she instead questions, "are you here? How-- how did you /know/?"

Which is right about when Dakota manages to smash through his guard. Chun-Li flinches and briefly grimaces, but Gen's taken worse from her own hands and smiled, to say nothing of the mysterious battles of his past. She doesn't surge after the woman harrying her sifu or even cry out in concern for him; to do either would mean offering a degree of mercy that the Shadaloo scientist doesn't deserve by keeping her attention split.

Dakota chose Gen.

So she can /have/ him.

"It will be," she instead swears, low and resolute. Her gaze shifts from he and Dakota towards Rose and the wall as blue and gold threads weave into being around her fists and feet. A brisk wind stirs matted hair and a filthy, ill-fitted uniform taken from /another/ captured agent, courtesy of Shadaloo's generosity once hers was no longer sufficient.

"Rose!"

The fortuneteller's distinct psychic signature renders her a white-hot beacon in the turret's mechanical eye, the woozy object of its obsession. Since she's still moving - still radiant - after hits were registered, it tracks her movement towards incoming security forces then spends a couple seconds delicately framing her in digital reticles.

"You're high on whatever that woman was feeding you, Rose!" Chun-Li shouts. "They might overwhelm you-- get the turret!"

A stream of tightly focused lead punches through the last few words and the persistent whine of a spinning turret that refuses to give up on its purpose lingers afterwards, gradually growing in pitch and intensity. Now and again, a few hot blue worms arc across its surface.

*THOOM!*

Bare moments after the last bullet leaves the chamber, Chun-Li sails past the psychic, twisting into a forward flip that leaves her legs perfectly parallel to the ground when she lands. A few thin cracks spread out from beneath her lead heel while concentric bands of blue chi race from the impact point. Between the sheer force of the initial blow and the couple seconds worth of weaponized spirit coursing towards them, Shadaloo's thugs suddenly find themselves facing the possibility of crushed bones from multiple angles.

COMBATSYS: Gen successfully hits Dakota with Juraku.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=======\====---\1           Dakota
[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Rose blocks Science Chaingun's Power Shot.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/---====|=======\====---\1           Dakota
[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

[ROSE]
Rose lets out a faintly petulant huff even as Gen is assaulted by the Base. The television is breached and when Gen slides backwards with fluid ease, Dakota hurls it aside. She spreads her arms out and says to him with a sickly grin and addled eyes, "Yeah, that's right. It's a shame you came thisf ar just to -"

The blow sends her flying backwards into the wall of the lab space. She crashes in, far enough from where Chun breached the wall to leave a distinctive crackle-pattern of impact. She doesn't fall - nor does she go *through* - but a pipe breaches and water begins to spill out, one that Chun had missed. Thankfully it seems to be fresh water, or at least, not piss.

SHADOLOO INTERIOR PLUMBING: 'at least, not piss'

"Ah, yes," Rose tells Chun-Li aloud, her voice somewhat blaring in force. "I understand - merely compensation for the inevitable aftereffects... I'm going to be sweating bullets for days, aren't I," even as the chain gun focuses towards her. Rose twists her scarf round her arm, raises it upwards, skids a bit on the floor towards one wall - her upraised arm, miraculously enough, blocks the hot lead! Or at least leaves it stymied enough that Rose grunts - probably from the mental effort - rather than, like, dying or bleeding heavily.

Miraculous! Improbable! Uncanny.

It gets better, too. The scarf snaps out as the turret cycles into what is probably a new quantity of ammunition. Chun-Li sails elegantly past Rose, and Rose snaps her fabric forwards - "Soul Spark!" she says, inevitably -

And a glob of pure psionic power, glittering with the explusive/evulsive force of the Soul Power that throbs within Rose, her disciples, and a select few more, sails towards the turret with the leisurely beauty of a ship-killing torpedo!

Speaking of torpedoes:

"hrrRRRAAAAAAAAAAAH PSYCHO DISCHARGE!!!" Dakota shrieks. Her back contorts and she clutches at her chest. "Hot! It's hot!! I'm burning up!!" And indeed a violet flare surrounds her, like unnatural flame - before she surges forwards, aiming to bowl over Gen and crush him beneath sheer malevolence. Can style win out in the face of a psycho-cyber upgraded death agent, laden with hatred and boiled in the dark broth that lurks within the heart of Shadoloo?

COMBATSYS: Dakota successfully hits Gen with Bull Revenger.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Alpha Squad with Hazanshu.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Gen              0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Science Chaingun
                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0            Sarge

[GEN]
"Hmph." Gen intones of Chun-Li's inquiry. "Foolish girl-- just because you chose to run out on your training, does not mean I have less left to impart." Indeed, his presence here seems to speak to that fact, all on its own. He promised Chun-Li answers, but he promised them only on his time. Only as the old master decided she was prepared.

Gen told her she would die if she sought them impulsively; that she would die if he imparted all he knew today. The aged master seemed to take particular glee in the latter-- like it was true on oh so many levels beyond simply the nature of Vega, and the might of Shadaloo. When Rose finds her footing, unleashes her power, Gen's hairless brows arch one after the other, and back again.

"So it -is- you. But not you. Fascinating! Cosmically, I suppose I should hold /you/ at least fractionally responsible for this nonsense, but then you're likely already doing it for the cosmos, aren't you?" And back one more time. Gen allows himself to be distracted by the most intriguing revelation of their previously unknown ally, and then the infamous assassin is swallowed up anew by the drug-crazed violence of the anasthesiologist who he rather expected to back the hell off!

The old man is deceptively quick on his feet-- first appearances are that the diminutive fellow will flow like water around the charge, the psionic energies caving before his focused power... but then she's literally tackling him! Fearless amateurs are dangerous even in sparring matches for a reason, and here, Gen is dealt a truly punishing charge of psycho power.

The impact itself is all but negligible to the sturdy elder, but pain racks his aged frame nonetheless. Once more, his face tightens in a fiercer frown, and his stance shifts from water to rock, his feet planting in a horse stance as every muscle in his body tightens against the grasp. Shifting his weight to his rear-oriented foot, the other axes upwards, the toe of one deceitfully dainty slipper aligned between Dakota's legs. It's nothing so base as groin tactics-- not that Gen is above them, per se. No, the mythical assassin is aiming for her tailbone, with force enough to pulverize vertebrae right up one's unfortunate spine. "BASE FOOL!!" He vocally objects to this impertinent violence; only his violence is acceptable!!

In the meanwhile, Chun-Li crashes in a cascade of leg and energy through the first two charging soldiers, blasting one back, and one right, ricocheting off the wall and crashing to the ground. "TAKE HER DOWN!!" The large Sergeant in their midst insists, and the next two in line charge. One sweeps low, one clotheslines high, and Sarge? The big, bald bruiser launches himself in through the air, whipping one reinforced jackboot for the rising warrior woman's face.

The men behind them take up defensive firing positions; experience tells them it's unlikely to be this easy. Within Chun-Li's cell are bloodstains aplenty-- gore not left by the present passage of her tender grandfather.

COMBATSYS: Rose successfully hits Science Chaingun with Soul Spark.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Gen              0/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\1 Science Chaingun
                                  >  ////////////////////////////  ]
                                  |====---\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li instinctively blocks Alpha Squad's Human Wave Attack EX.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Gen              0/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\1 Science Chaingun
                                  >  ////////////////////////////  ]
                                  |====---\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li parries Sarge's Head Bomber!

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Gen              0/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\1 Science Chaingun
                                  >  ////////////////////////////  ]
                                  |====---\-------\0            Sarge

[CHUN-LI]
The inevitable explodes across Shadaloo's multi-chambered lab equipment in a flickering, rainbow-hued wave. The sheer force of Rose's unleashed Power snaps the turret off its axis so violently that thunder spreads through the structure and pulverized concrete rain into the lab. Severed wires snake out of a newly widened hole while others keep the turret dangling precariously overhead, spinning and clicking harshly.

Near another new hole, a group of Shadaloo operatives - unwittingly or otherwise - pick the exact wrong approach to overwhelming a woman who's been measuring her life in encounters with mobs of killers, of late. With barely a thought, she flows to her feet and thrusts both palms in against an incoming bicep, stopping the clothesline dead. As her arms fall to her sides heavy and stinging, she snaps a foot out to intercept the other man's sweeping leg. Before she can fall back to give herself even a second worth of breathing room, the Sarge surges in, ready to decapitate her in one brutal motion but not ready to have his jackboot met by a thrusting sneaker.

Balanced on one aching, freshly struck leg, Chun-Li pants for a beat while the other holds the Sarge at bay.

"Never," she lowly suggests with a narrow-eyed glare beyond their soles, "give your subordinates an order that you aren't ready to carry out yourself."

Behind them, precarious creaking inevitably give way to further rumbling as the turret tumbles out of its housing. Dozens of wires of varying colors, compositions, and thicknesses ripple out behind it before sprawling out in a tangled mess beneath tortured metal.

Tortured, sparking metal.

Tortured, sparking metal alight with a spectrum of Soul Power, which is already spreading through the sea of wires.

The crash doesn't pull Chun-Li's focus, but pride and relief for Rose's decisive work glows warmly around her. Aggression, too, but it's directed at the man whose foot she sweeps aside with a sharp pivot before filling his world and the next few seconds of his life with dozens of kicks-- if not more. Cutting winds and scintillating chi accompany a tempest of kicks that eventually ends with an explosive thrust towards his chest.

"rrrrrrrrrrr"

Tortured, sparking metal alight with Soul Power groans and stirs.

"rrrrrrrrrrr"

Live wires twitch, spasm, curl-- and clump, drawing together-- further entangling with one another and dragging the ruined turret up along with them. A watchful eye might spot signs of ammo drums, strange sensory equipment, and other parts vital to the functions of a lab-ready machine gun amidst the coiled mass, before the wires knot thickly-- protectively-- around them.

"rrrrrrrrroo"

How long did it spend in its compartment, hidden and watching her through the eyes that madmen built for it? How long did it wait to meet her? To fulfill its purpose?

How could it possibly bear to give up now that it's finally - /finally/ - so close to her?

"oooooooooo"

It takes maybe a handful of seconds for broken barrels and scrap metal to find firm purchase atop the winding mass, for the sensors tucked within to fill themselves with the sight and signature of the only person they've ever really known or cared to know.

For the scintillating mixture of Soul Power and electricity animating this psychoreactive monstrosity to settle into a darker hued, steadily crackling corona around it.

"ooooozzzzzzzzuuuuuuuh"

Slithering over salt water and debris, the wobbling -- machine -- bears down on Rose with a speed that might register as alarming considering that this is its first experience with movement, period, much less movement by way of cables and wires. Several of those wires lash out at the object of its obsession/desire, eager to test new forms of eradication as its barrels continue spinning uselessly.

COMBATSYS: Science Chaingun has left the fight here.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Rose             0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Gen              0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Shot To The Heart has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Shot To The Heart0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Dakota
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Rose             0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0            Sarge
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/=======|

COMBATSYS: Gen successfully hits Dakota with Strong Kick.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Shot To The Heart0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0           Dakota
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Rose             0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0            Sarge
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              1/------=/=======|

COMBATSYS: Rose blocks Shot To The Heart's Charged Combo.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Shot To The Heart0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0           Dakota
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Rose             1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0            Sarge
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              1/------=/=======|

COMBATSYS: Shot To The Heart has joined the fight here on the right meter side.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Gen              1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0           Dakota
                                  >  ////////////////////////////  ]
                                  |====---\-------\0            Sarge

[ROSE]
DAKOTA narrows her eyes towards Gen as he objects. She bares her teeth and is about to say something. But Gen - ah, Gen. Perhaps he is ill. Perhaps he is fading. Perhaps he is not the new shit, where Dakota is the new shit (stand up and admit). She might have had a bunch of sassy stuff to say.

Gen, however, still has 'it' where 'it' indicates a single shocking kick upwards. As Dakota leans her head forwards there is a sudden lurch and a look of astonishment crosses her face. Something stung in the back of her neck but what. She tries to reach towards Gen and - nothing happens?

No! she thinks. Something in her gut that she used to feel but doesn't now surges to life and she wonders why she can feel 'that' and not her stomach. Purple fire erupts around her hand as she reaches towards Gen but she realizes with a swooning astonishment that she's using the Psycho Power TO move her arm, which means -

Nerve injury? she thinks, before everything goes white.

SHADOLOO OPERATIVE "DAKOTA"...
RETIRED

Dakota's body pitches forwards, her spine having been kicked eighteen inches upwards and having slid itself through her nursely pony tail. It is clear why this happened - metal wires are snaked round the bloody bone. GRISLY!

Rose is momentarily shocked at this.

But then her attention removes towards the falling railgun as it is revealed to have SOMETHING in it. Her lips curl back as she makes herself stagger upright. In a comical echo of Dakota, she herself is using Soul Power to help control anesthetized movements - and so each motion creates the occasional offhand pastel sparkle that highlights on the slick glossy rubber body suit she is wearing. She takes in a breath and -

It's on her!

Wires lash round her as she is overwhelmed by the unbalanced conglomeration of horrors, dragging her back against the wall as she raises up one foot to try and hook her toes on a fire extinguisher - which is, of course, properly situated (Shadoloo respects safety codes) - but instead simply knocking the thing with her and contorting her legs as she's wrapped round. A shock snaps into her and she hisses, "Damn --"

The thing at least is probably cover from the gunmen. But even as the fire extinguisher lands on the inside of her thigh with painful bruising force, Rise tries to develop some kind of a plan.

A scheme. An agenda other than dying! But how can you plan for something like this?

Rose snaps her thighs together and a moment later there is a massive BANG which will no doubt discomfit the thing. Unfortunately for Rose, this is one of the chemical-foam kind of fire suppresants and so the highly pressurized gunge floods outwards, pouring out in ropy tides of suds as Rose exhales with great force.

COMBATSYS: Dakota takes no action.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Gen              1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Dakota has suffered catastrophic damage and fallen offline.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Gen              1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Sarge Toughs Out Chun-Li's Hyakuretsu Kyaku EX!

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0      Alpha Squad
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Gen              1/------=/=======|=======\==-----\1            Sarge

[GEN]
Pieces of the base channel dark energy and attack Rose in tendrils and metallic wrath-- circumstances not withstanding, Gen actually smirks, momentarily. There's something darkly appropriate about the turn of events, even if the old master wishes no ill will to -that- particular piece of the evil entity's soul. Wishes -little- ill will. Only a fraction more than most default to with the elder chef and murderer.

None of his dark amusement would touch Rose's mind-- indeed, for all the old master's power, his signature remains starkly notably by its absence. The aura of chi that normally suffuses such warriors, especially of any note, instead spirals ever inward, at once all but silent and impossibly deep. It's a placid, unending pit that mirrors Gen's mind, his emotions, his stronger thoughts not obscured, but seemingly /absent/.

It's at once a phenomenal anomaly and unnervingly unnatural in how the mythical assassin alters the currents of life itself by his very presence. For a moment, the aged master simply surveys the carnage, and the unfolding of battle still ongoing around him. "Hmph." The old man scoffs as Chun-Li hammers kick after kick into her burly opponent, and Sarge relentlessly tanks forward.

The Shadaloo officer's every muscle is tensed, his hypo-tech pumping substantial musculature full of substantial experimental drugs, his eyes bulging and bloodshot as he lands into Chun-Li's brutal technique, and actually stomps /forward/ as he eats them, driving all the closer to his quarry amidst the swarming flurry of punishing strikes. "OH WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED, PROFLIGATE!!" The Sergeant rages, spitting blood as he reaves a wild right in for Chun-Li's nose.

Two of the men still standing in his squad flank Chun-Li, seeking to violently seize and crank her arms, forcing her to kneel before the resulting onslaught, their CO seeking to kick the World's Strongest Woman in her kidneys, and repeatedly grind his knuckles into her face. "No one's gettin' out of here ali--- Wh--" It's in the ebbing moments of that attack that Gen superimposes himself in the confrontation-- or rather, he passes through its midst, between Sarge and Chun-Li as if a gusting breeze.

"-- th' fuck was..." In his crossing, the legendary assassin drums for the burly man's chest with each fingertip, a precise and percussive quintet of swift thrumming thumps. One of the soldiers not occupied with Chun-Li starts at the diminutive old man's sudden arrival, so swift is his passage.

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li endures Alpha Squad's Pincer Movement.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Chun-Li          1/---====/=======|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li fails to interrupt The Mangler from Sarge with Hazan Tenshou Kyaku EX.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Rose             1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Rose successfully hits Shot To The Heart with Random Weapon.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Rose             1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0            Sarge

[CHUN-LI]
After...

...

...

... this long, Chun-Li refuses to be bound a moment longer than she must be. Soldiers do their very best to seize and twist her, but their successes - painful as they are in the moment - are just preludes to thrashing, elbow-thrusting protest that leaves them stumbling free of her. The pile on abates mere moments after it began, leaving her shoulders searing and her attention split

*KRNCH!*

just long enough for an enormous right to summon it in full. Staggering back a step as blood sprays from her nostrils, she's visibly off-balance as she begins to pivot into a counterblow, a kick aimed squarely at his chin-- enough so to give the man an opening to cut her off early. He pummels her repeatedly, snapping her head around or sending her body into spasms with each blow-- then firm, gentle fingers stop his onslaught cold.

"Gen!" she blurts while falling half a step back and instinctively pressing a hand to her kidney. Brown eyes briefly flick around rubble and blood and dead doctors.

"Wai--"

He'll-- he'll--!

"--..."

--

Whatever's become of the chaingun is far less conflicted.

"rrrrrroooozzzzzuuuh," reverberates from somewhere deep within the thicket of its body, a crackling parody of a voice bubbling simultaneously through the atmosphere and the subtler realm of thought like electrostatic tar. Twisted Soul Power shifts through a minor key version of the rainbow with each new sound, filling the air around it with wicked will o' wisps.

"llllluuuuuuuuuvvvvvvvuuuh"

*BANG!*

The explosion buffets the monster with kinetic force and chemical foam, casting powerful ripples through knots of wires for a second or two before several snap entirely. Foam seeps through a myriad of cracks and crevices, only to gush back out again in wet, intermittent bursts as its body struggles to expunge foreign matter. Electric and psionic energies course wildly over and around its frame through the immediate aftermath of the explosion. The tension in its grasping cables lessens considerably,

"uuuuuuuu"

but that unholy admixture of power continues to boil until it reaches an explosive crescendo. Electricity arcs between the barrels of what passes for its face before becoming the scintillating core of a short-ranged burst of raw psychic energy aimed at punishing the resourceful fortuneteller.

COMBATSYS: Rose fails to reflect Nova from Shot To The Heart with Turquoise Soul Overdrive.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0            Sarge

[ROSE]
Rose is too distracted to perceive any malice detected towards her. Gen's presence is hard for her to read and she would wonder at it more and more emphatically if she was not currently high on drugs and being subjected to the languid delights of being tied up by a machine.

Nonetheless she does feel him; the impression is there, like a flash of shadow from an atomic bomb against the brick walls of the soul. She exhales with force at that 'humph,' even as Rose says in a quiet voice, picking out an irrelevancy from the bellowing of the Shadaloo man: "'profligate'? Really?"

Of course she has little time to concern herself with such matters, because as we established a moment ago, she is being embraced in the manner of the fisherman's wife. Her leg is bent backwards as she hisses, trying to thrust herself forwards as the rupturing fire extinguisher disgorges thick chemical waves all over her and the creature itself bubbles, now more crab than octopus.

The grasp loosens. Rose pulls herself forwards - literally pulls herself, throwing forth one arm and digging her nails into the ground. Nails? No, her arms are gloved too, because whoever managed this project was a completionist. Pulling herself forwards, she can feel the humming within the thing and she snaps her head back, breathing out as that yellow scarf trails around her, darting like an undine or a sorcerous snake. Towards her leg, which she raises up as she reveals a fun little fact:

She can do this with her leg.

"Soul Re-"

Or maybe she can't.

There is a tremendous flash bomb of turquoise light. Soul Power - by some reasonings the inverse of Psycho Power - fills the hallway. Rose herself is flung backwards, free of that grasp but hitting the opposite wall with an 'ungh!' and not immediately rising. Fortunately, at least, she is too juiced-up to feel what might have otherwise been a major spinal injury. It will be slim consolation if she joins the ranks of 'people Chun-Li saw get shot to death by Shadaloo' though!

COMBATSYS: Gen successfully hits Sarge with Zan'ei.
-*- DEVASTATING HIT! -*-

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2            Sarge

COMBATSYS: Gen blocks Alpha Squad's Suppressive Fire EX.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Gen              0/-------/-------|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2            Sarge

[GEN]
Gen does not wait-- he crosses between Chun-Li and her burly opponent in a perfect, precise instant. Each gnarled fingertip finds its mark in swift, nigh-synchronous beats, and the Shadaloo Sergeant is cut off mid-sentence. "Thhffrrhkk!!" he concludes instead, as a spurt of blood erupts from his mouth without warning or prelude.

The carefully selected points Gen struck show marks as if struck an incredibly powerful blow with a quintet of very small knives; perhaps even needles. It's an unassuming wound, but the synergized shockwave sent inward reaved not only tissue and bone, but the man's very life-force, the currents protecting him from harm, particularly amped up in his current adrenaline-and-speed fueled glory.

Instead, his heart does not explode inside its cavity-- the pulsing muscle liquifies, spattered all over the back of its housing as veins and arteries rupture free, and five points on Sarge's back bulge outwards, bursting in a bloody spray of exit wound and viscera. He can't even find the strength to clasp his hands around a grenade as his legs give out beneath him, his vision red, his voice absent as the foundations of life within and throughout him simply cease to be.

The mythical assassin whips blood clear of his fingers as if each were the blooded weapon of a samurai; likely not far from the truth. The squad's morale breaks in alarmed cries and improvised flight, falling back and firing their weapons at Gen and Chun-Li. Gen stands stalwart in the hail of bullets, most of the automatic fire lancing past rather than into him, as one uncanny tensed arm darts high and low to intersect a quartet of other bullets against fist and forearm.

The rounds flatten and fall as they draw angry red welts on the old master's skin where it's revealed by his tunic's flowing sleeve. He arches one ornery brow at the young woman-- he'll what, precisely? "Too slow! Movement is key; you are not a brute to be restrained and lash out! You are the lashing rapids!" Count on the elder assassin to criticize her technique /now/. In all things, a lesson.

Gen inverts in a forceful flip, anchored momentarily against the corridor's ceiling, and then launching himself slipper-first in a heel led descent like a trebuchet round in at the pair of men fleeing down that side of the hallway. Sarge finally finishes falling, faceplanting into the ground motionless amidst a growing pool of his own lifeblood.

COMBATSYS: Sarge takes no action.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Sarge can no longer fight.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Alpha Squad's Suppressive Fire EX.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

[CHUN-LI]
He'll do exactly what Chun-Li watches him do with nary a wince nor a grimace-- just tensing muscles and a sharp intake of air.

He'll do it effortlessly-- obnoxiously so, as is his way.

"... no," she lowly protests, audible amidst the steady *ptng!*s of bullets meeting a hastily snatched, gore-slick helmet.

He'll do it without commenting on it, with nary a thought, as right and natural as breathing or noodle-slinging-- then dare her to follow him. He'll do-- /does/ do it because even with years and countless secrets separating them, she's come to know him well. The rivers of blood flowing from his fingertips add a vivid new dimension to her understanding of him, turning stories and hearsay into bubbling, gushing fact; after...

...

. . . . .

... time spent in Shadaloo's loving embrace, she can't find any revulsion to spare for it.

"No matter how long or strong it is, every river has an end point-- it /has/ to--!" The helmet spins towards one of the soldier's faces in a bid to briefly baffle his aim while Chun-Li breaks into a sprint towards the crumpling Rose. The psychic's tremendous power can't be denied, but Shadaloo's medicine does her few favors indeed. Rose versus a baseful of Shadaloo's finest would likely be a done deal on any other day, but on this one, the fortuneteller's looking increasingly close to becoming another bad memory for Chun-Li to smuggle out of this hell.

But Chun-Li is the rushing rapids, and more. As Gen would know quite well by now, the woman is willful and bleeds subbornness; to call her slow and brutish is to challenge her, just as demanding she surrender was as good as encouraging her to hang on. Bullets fly wide of the darting woman while streams of chi pour in from all over the base to fill a needful vessel, modest and invisible.

"The rapids and the ocean they feed," Chun-Li intones while sliding to a halt in front of Rose. "The cutting wind and the storm-- beyond just strong, just fast--"

Dozens of invisible tributaries converge. The world unsubtly ripples and resyncs around Chun-Li as modest, unseen power pours through the prism of a woman's stubborn refusal to disappoint her master or see another person die because she wasn't strong enough and flares into brilliant existence. She thrusts aching arms out and the curl of her fingers draws the blue and gold banner blazing around her body forward, gathering it-- compressing, compacting it between her hands.

"Boundless," she utters between deep, carefully measured breaths. Brown eyes flick over a shoulder, trying to meet Rose's. "We're leaving here together, I /promise/-- I won't throw away the chance you've given us...!"

The brilliant pearl jittering between her palms pulses in lockstep with every breath. Each cycle of contract and expand is greater than the last: every inhale forces her hands a bit farther apart and her hands tremble more and more with every exhale. Eventually, she's all but hugging a glowing globe of chi and hissing through the strain of trying to keep it contained. Sweat pops across her brow and the trembling has moved through her arms and shoulders to overtake the rest of her as she grits her teeth, focuses--

-- then claps her hands together several seconds later. Nothing - not a glowing mote, a flash of light, or even a sound - escapes them. The trembling continues.

"They're going to regret introducing us to each other," she further promises with a low, strained voice and a wink that would serve as punctuation if not for the pivot and thrust that follows. Before she can even turn her palms all the way out, hypercompressed chi bursts through her parting hands and surrounds she and Rose in a crackling blue dome shot through with golden lightning. It obliterates concrete and metal along its margins as easily as if /it/, not they, is and always was a part of the base's design-- and then it begins to spread, gnawing through matter with abandon. The lab, the man-made corridor teeming with soldiers, the woman-made passage leading back to Chun-Li's cell-- destruction swells through each in turn in a seconds and shows no little sign of being satisfied with them.

Gen's intensely honed senses and advanced understanding of chi give him plenty of space to both anticipate and weather the tempest tearing through the base; most anyone else would be well served by running the hell away from the pseudonatural disaster and hoping it peters out before they do. Some may find such discretion to be more challenging than others, however.

"rrrrrrrrroooooooozzzzzzzzzuuuh"

Some may instead be compelled to not just linger around, but charge headlong /into/ the storm, a darkly radiant blot against two-toned brilliance. Chunks of metal and lashing cables are sheared away from the whole, but nonetheless: the ex-chaingun forces itself forward in an effort to finally seize and crush its obsession-- and anyone foolish enough to stand between it and she.

COMBATSYS: Shot To The Heart endures Chun-Li's Kikoushou.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=======\=====--\1Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Shot To The Heart successfully hits Chun-Li with Bash Rush.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Rose             0/-------/----===|=======\======-\1Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Rose blocks Shot To The Heart's Bash Rush.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1      Alpha Squad
[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Rose             0/-------/---====|=======\=======\1Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

[ROSE]
There is a sense of death in the air, a passage that Rose can feel. She breathes out; she has greater concerns on her mind but it is there. She cannot say it is unwelcome here; it is common in all systems to classify murder as a thing different from war, and they are all, in their ways, fighting in defense of love, in which almost all is permitted.

Love.

Of course, love is a strange thing. See also the conglomeration that has been called to life by Soul Power. Rose wonders about this, though wondering is a bit of a generous thought of what she thinks. Psychotronic circuitry that her Soul Power activated? A building that is an essay in some form of total information awareness - a Psycho Drive-of-things?

One wonders.

And wonders, too, at the strain in Chun-Li. Rose's head turns to look towards her as her back flattens against the wall and when the light comes it makes her wince, but solely and entirely at its brightness. The energy bursts outwards, smashing metal, eroding concrete to alkaline sands - but Rose is untouched. (The rubber outfit she has been strapped into is somewhat eroded, but not critically.) She breathes out afterwards, and she pushes herself upwards, pressed back against the wall as she says to Chun-Li, "They'll regret it, yes, but I regret nothing. And - I think it's starting to wear -"

rrrrooooozzzzuuuuhhhh

"Excuse me," Rose says. The creature lunges forwards and slams itself at Rose, who raises up a hand to catch it by its central drive shaft, sink her fingers down to grip the oiled shaft and let it run through her hands as she tells the thing, "I know this is DIFFICULT but I am not so INTO you -"

A shove to get it loose.

The scarf slithers up her back and round her arm. Leaning her head forwards, Rose's eyes shoot momentarily towards Gen - a sparkling intimation to the assassin that perhaps she intends to get her own side up, that she is something other than a rubber-wrapped middle-aged woman packaged for Vega's pull-tab convenience later.

The Soul Power billows out of her, sending gorgeous coruscations where it interfaces with the passing aftermath of the Kikosho.

The scarf spirals.

"Horaaahh---"

And Rose floats forwards.

Are you familiar, dear reader, with the concept of magnetic levitation - where the action potentials of a magnetic field, whether passive or active, is sufficient to overcome even the seemingly stark and undefeatable bounds of gravity, and where an item is able to slip the surly toils of Earth itself and float free and clear? In some places they make trains using such an effect, singing atop a cushion of air.

What Rose performs is an act of PSYCHOMAGNETIC LEVITATION. As she propels herself forwards, the scarf before her spirals like a wave guide, forming a drill like shape as she aims to smash into the entity. Perhaps she wants to euthanize it before it can get out of control - perhaps she wishes to absorb its spirit - who knows. She passes forwards, the shivering, singing synaesthetic touch of Soul Power making glorious pastel light shine forth in watercolor brilliance whenever it touches vibrant, organic material -

Which includes all the blood.

COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Alpha Squad with Kikoushou.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2      Alpha Squad
[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Rose             0/-------/------=|=======\=======\1Shot To The Heart
[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Gen successfully hits Alpha Squad with Diving Kick.
~ Cruel hit! ~

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2      Alpha Squad
[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Rose             0/-------/------=|=======\=======\1Shot To The Heart
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/----===|

[GEN]
The endless river, the unfathomable storm-- it's a universal synergy, an ascended understanding of nature itself that defines the Ansatsuken styles evolved by Gen. He is, in fact, attuned to that flow, that impossible current fully; it at once subsumes and suffuses him, suppressing focus on all but the shifting momentum of battle. The symphony of life and death.

The legendary assassin takes down the first of the pair of men he pursues in his diagonal descent from the corridor ceiling, driving the unfortunate fellow harshly to the ground under one knee and crushing his skull with a twist of the opposite heel as the old man rises to his full, unassuming height.

Gen cants his head, cocks one brow, and glances back before pursuing the next-- even as the corridor erupts from the lab and consumes the remaining pair of soldiers even as their rifles lower shakily to cover escape.

They're crushed by concrete and rampant chi, its currents roaring down the hallway as Gen casually steps back, and shoves his remaining playmate into the tidal wave, his body cracking and malforming with the crushing impact before he falls, still. "Fools." He means Shadaloo, not Chun-Li and Rose this time-- probably. To his senses the fight behind them is all but won, and so Gen stalks on ironclad limbs back through the hole he made into this hallway in the first place.

Beyond it, he steps into the shattered remains of the facility's security control room. Monitors, monitoring devices, computer systems, more or less everything electronic in the room is smashed, trashed, and otherwise hewn as if a very small Hulk had raged through it. The bodies of another squad are, to understate the scene, -everywhere-, along with another commanding officer.

The mythical assassin casually steps over one fallen form to retrieve a flash drive set daintily on a rare, clear section of desktop. Heaving a sigh, the old man tucks it into his robes and turns around, and waits, and waits, tapping his fingertips, poor and put upon soul that he is.

COMBATSYS: Alpha Squad takes no action.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Rose             0/-------/------=|=======\=======\1Shot To The Heart
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Gen              0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0          Chun-Li

COMBATSYS: Alpha Squad can no longer fight.

COMBATSYS: Rose successfully hits Shot To The Heart with Soul Drain ES.
- Power hit! -

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Rose             0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2Shot To The Heart
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Gen              0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0          Chun-Li

[CHUN-LI]
Energy - even the enigmatic puissance of Soul Power - can neither be created nor destroyed. The slithering, writhing approximation of life and love that gradually erodes amidst storm tides of chi carries a portion of something that doesn't - couldn't ever - belong to it and Rose is poised to collect with interest.

But how do psychomagnets work?

Pure Soul Power brushes against a shadow of itself and world erupts with sparks. The wondrous strength contained in the fortuneteller's body and mind(or soul, or-- wherever, exactly, a power like hers flows from) feeds back a heatbeat later and a torrent of psychokinetic energy washes over the pair, straining against Rose's towering will to separate them before blowing beyond to scour deep trenches along the ground and shatter what little is left of the architecture in their immediate vicinity. Pressure builds exponentially as the scarf grinds and grinds and bores and /grinds/ against eroding cables, managing maybe an inch worth of penetration. All it ever wanted was to be fulfilled by and find the meaning of its life in her. To annihilate her. To feel her nearness without the shadow of purpose looming overhead.

Not like this, though.

/Never/ like this, crumbling and trapped; attracted and repulsed.

Gradually, the chaingun slows. Pastel vibrance begins to bleed through a minor key corona, smothering electric worms in its wake. Cables grow sluggish and needful groans echo in Rose's psyche, their semblance of intelligibility fading down to a guttural range. Given a few seconds more, the pressure begins subsiding and sparks flare from the scarf as it not just drills, but almost seems to be getting sucked deeper into the writhing mass. Again and again, knots of cabling are forcibly wrapped around the invasive accessory only to be pulverized and scattered by revolutions that cannot be a denied. The psychokinetic storm folds in on itself-- on Rose and the machine-- and gives the crackling dome of chi a sparkling, rainbow core.

When it eventually fades to leave her merely radiant rather than blinding, she finds herself atop a crumbling hill of limp cabling. The chaingun bounces down one side, dissolving into more and more motes of vivid Power with every rotation. That same Power rises from the heart of the hill in wisps of rainbow smoke that dance around and betwixt the infinite spiral of her scarf, drawn inexorably inwards until it's-- not /gone/, just. Changed.

Reclaimed.

The hill gradually shrinks until it's a few bits of shredded plastic and copper strewn across the ground.

Fucking psychomagnets!

Several seconds later, the Kikoshou finally fades and a panting Chun-Li - sporting half a dozen new cuts and fresh bruises from her meeting with a lovelorn automaton - staggers forward to grip the psychic for a measure of support. Briefly, she squints at the vivid spatter painting ruined walls, floors, and desert.

/There's/ a little of that revulsion she couldn't afford earlier-- albeit cut with relief and forbidden satisfaction.

"Are you alright?" she wonders of the other woman. "How stoned are you right now, from zero to Hawke in Training Day?" A beat as her eyes drift towards the technology littering the earth.

"How stoned was /I/, Jesus... hh. We... should probably find Gen and go."

Shadaloo's secret holding facility now consists of front and rear entrances with a few rooms branching from them and a maze of free-standing walls that look for all the world as if they were built around a big, round atrium before the budget ran out.

It shouldn't be hard to find Gen unless the old man carves his way into a sub-basement.

"Thank you," she adds while picking a direction and carefully proceeding through/over rubble in search of her sifu. "I-I didn't--"

The officer lowers her head and does her best to swallow the self-loathing despair that Shadaloo spent-- -- however long-- isolating and nurturing, spreading a stain across her thoughts.

"-- think I'd meet someone who wanted out as badly as I did," she instead concludes before flashing the fortuneteller a smile. It doesn't reach her eyes, but it does come straight from the heart.

COMBATSYS: Shot To The Heart takes no action.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0             Rose
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/----===|

COMBATSYS: Shot To The Heart can no longer fight.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Chun-Li          0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0             Rose
[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Gen              0/-------/----===|

[ROSE]
How do psycho-magnets work?

I hope you didn't want to hear from a scientist. That girl's head is in the corner, and probably pissed.

As that shadow breaks, mixes, and is reformed in digital droplets that flow up Rose's arms, she can feel the thrilling surge of power within her. The secret is as always in the exchange, the interplay of forces; the two elements marry and form an alloy, stronger than either and with new potentiality. The impossibility of cashmere overcoming copper, to say nothing of iron or steel or gunbarrel-wolfram, is enough.

The lights, gorgeous as they are, fade.

Rose is slumped against a wall, but her posture seems more natural. Earlier she had a vibrant tension to her pose, as if she *Was* being posed - like a doll or a drawing - and that was, in fact, exactly the case, albeit by herself. This is a more authentic Rose. Even as the creature erodes behind her, earning another look from Rose - almost mournful, poignant - she answers Chun-Li.

"I don't think I saw that film," she says, "But on a scale from cinema verite to the finer works of the 1970s, I would say I am solidly in the realm of a giallo film."

Rose spasms quietly. It mostly shows in a faint contortion of her legs, which she dispels with a swift exhale. She smiles at Chun-li. "I would appreciate a hand up to - wait, are we upon the ground level?" Rose looks round, wincing, but does not intrude with the quest of Chun-Li.

She replies to her by thought once more:

'Getting out is only the first step... but without you it would have been impossible. Thank you... Officer!'

Then she narrows her eyes, and leans her head forwards, as if listening for -

-=-=-=-

"That wasn't a cyborg in a sombrero, guey, I know what a cyborg looks like," says Man A - who is riding in Man B's taxi. "I've seen them in the Saturday Night Fights. A cyborg isn't going to have some kind of a skull face unless it's an evil cyborg, and if he was an evil cyborg he would have thrown a shuriken, or the sombrero, at us, and we would be dead. Do I look dead to you?"

Man B looks at his phone where his Google Maps implementation is guiding him to a super-secure job which was phoned in apparently from, against all expectations, Italy. The call was clumsy since the guy on the other end of the phone spoke Castillean spanish, but he'd gotten it across. Three thousand euros! For a ride!

He brought along his friend because he was pretty unsure.

"So," Man B says as they turn onto the penultimate street, "Who do you think that guy in the sombrero was."

"Just some asshole," Man A says. "The dog, I can't explain. - Hey, is that the place? It looks... closed?"

Man B reviews his notes. "Okay... so we toot the horn here and we wait fifteen minutes... if nobody comes out we call back the guy in Italy and he gives us the rest of the money."

"Is this a mafia thing?" asks Man A.

"Probably," Man B says, "but it's Genoa, I checked the number." He starts to toot the horn in a familiar pattern. Shave-and-a-hair-cut--

-=-=-=-=-

*honk honk*

Rose nods to herself. "The ride is here," she calls back towards Chun-Li and perhaps also Gen.

[GEN]
"Good." With the sounding of the horn, Gen all but appears back in the room with Chun-Li and Rose, standing with poised and perfect posture, deadly hands hidden within his sleeves. "You survived." Truly, the old man is warmed to the cockles of his heart, and perhaps even the sub-cockle area. He's clearly focused on Chun-Li, but he probable means Rose, too.

In fact, the psychic draws the mythical assassin's attention yet, and he narrows his eyes, advancing on Rose whilst studying her -intently-. When he gets a yard or two away, he abruptly stops, raises both brows, and chuckles. One hand withdraws from its opposing sleeve and smoothly, swiftly strokes his impressive beard. "Fascinating. It truly is the master of cutting off its nose to spite its face." Gen muses rather enigmatically.

"Were you part of it when..." The old master trails off-- aside from a meaningful look back to Chun-Li. "You would have been lucky if this ended in your death." Gen weightily informs Chun-Li. They both would be. The mythical assassin rarely acts so overtly-- but sometimes it's just plain necessary. Some sacrifices are too high even for making delicious pork buns in peace.

"You will respect my wisdom from this point forward, or I will teach you -none- of the higher arts you require!" It's an odd time for an ultimatum, but the old man does irate rather effectively and takes up little time expressing himself. "I will not contribute power to it's ends!!" The stern scowl is profound, those blank eyes //locked// on Chun-Li.

"Go. Quickly. I will clean up here." A wave of one formidably gnarled hand dismisses Chun-Li and Rose. Perhaps he intends to moonlight as a custodian or contractor, as well? No-- the sound of rotors is audible on rapid approach, a transport gunship bringing in reinforcements; seeking to retain this lab's abundantly valuable contents. Rose and Chun-Li are not prizes any underling of Vega's wants to be held responsible for losing.

"Tell your driver to be quick, like the rabbit." Gen quips drily towards Rose before turning towards the back 'exit' he made coming in, cold eyes turning to regard the women over his shoulder as he waits only long enough to find out if he's heeded. Then, the legendary assassin covers the span to the weakened roof in a single backflip, landing on the very edge thereof and walking it like a beam gracefully towards the sounds of that incoming threat.

[CHUN-LI]
Motes of what was once an abomination against nature and manufacturer's instructions twinkle and fade, leaving Rose in need of a hand up.

Which means a delay for Chun-Li's quest, which is fine by her. Neither would be leaving of it wasn't for the other; extending necessity into courtesy is no big deal. Pulling - supporting - Rose in her efforts to stand, she wrinkles her nose a little, vaguely curious as she replies, "Did he make a movie about cops and PCP too, or...? Mm. Not important."

"You can just call me Chun-Li," she then offers. There may be more nose-wrinkling if telepathy is involved; it's /weird/ even when it isn't potentially malicious and/or hallucinatory. Afterwards, a string of notes draws her quick, tense look over the officer's shoulder-- oh. Their... ride. Is Rose the /other/ kind of psychic too, or

"Gen!"

Among other things, the old man's training is great for inoculating her against, well, /him/: after the fifth or so time you look up from scrubbing a pot after hours to see a man angling a chopstick towards something vital, you learn to accept that man's eccentricities. There's some tension in her frame, but she turns into a hug rather than start. A tight, but brief hug, after which she takes a step back and folds her arms.

"Where,"

Oh, he's-- being Gen. She scowls and glances aside when he Gens his way back to, murmuring, "It would've /had/ to end that way," she promises. "I wasn't gonna let--"

Relief(?) becomes a rebuke and Chun-Li recoils... then freezes.

Then glares.

"Y--" Brown eyes flick down and up, growing increasingly, angrily incredulous the whole way. "You think I came here on a /lark/," she deliberately utters. "You think I just-- you think I /threw/ myself at him like some kind of--" A sharp exhale, then, "I was /doing/ my /job/, /Gen/!" she explodes. "I was /assigned/ to stop a Shadaloo transport, and--"

Hot air puffs from her nostrils and she twists her gaze from him.

"-- I got caught up in trying to /talk/ to their operative," she bites off, terse but a little more subdued as the indignity of defeat rears its head. "I recognized him from KOF, I-- I thought I could just... snap him /out/ of it. And I couldn't. So:"

A hand snaps away from her chest to sweep broadly over the ruins.

"I can't ignore /all/ of them until you decide I'm ready. Not when they're..." Folding her gesticulating hand back into place, she trails into a sharp sigh, then softens, a little-- tonally, if not otherwise. "You must have heard about the children, Gen. I wasn't going to tell my superiors that I couldn't do something - /anything/ - to curb /that/, just because you're afraid I'll meet /him/... what would be the point of /any/thing if I did? You aren't training a /coward/ anymore than you are a fool."

[GEN]
It's ironic, really, how much less comfortable Gen is with the sudden embrace than with the heartfelt retort that follows it. The old master goes from subtly tense in a different sense than his fighting flexitude to a deceptively relaxed chuckle in moments, once the rebuttal starts. He pauses in his step at the edge of the rubble-strewn hole in the wall to listen, eyeing Chun-Li (halfway) over one shoulder.

"So certain you are, that your will would not be subsumed to Shadaloo's cause." Gen half-observes, half-queries with that likely maddening, subtle amusement. "When it is not even a question of your own will, in the end." The elder assassin has information he has not shared, knowledge he'd just assume not possess, and it colors his perception of this particular operation. "How many children did you save?" The apparently cold old fellow inquires.

Of course, he cares a great deal about that pursuit, doesn't he? No one likely realizes that better than Chun-Li-- on some level. "How succesful were you talking down another of its subversions, despite the ideals, the will /they/ no doubt once possessed?" The quizzical, pronounced brow arches anew, and Gen shakes his head, for a moment almost visibly saddened by the entire affair. He doesn't ask it to be cruel, painful as the reality before them may be.

"I am not suggesting what you did was not your duty. I am not suggesting what you did was not morally 'right'." Gen frowns, pensive, but scarcely misses a beat explaining himself. "But what does -any- of that matter if -this- were the end of your road?" It's Gen's turn to indicate the facility in sweeping gesture.

"Duty, honor, bravery-- perhaps they have value to your legacy, to the songs they might sing of your courageous and stalwart death or state pre-corruption and distortion-- but I was led to believe you had a purpose, a mission to /accomplish/. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is nothing, to turn away from a fight you feel obligated to engage -because- the goal is something greater, something that could stop -all- of this at the source. No..." Gen sighs deeply, as the rotorblades above only grow nearer.

"It's not a question of whether you engage Vega or not. The resources you chip away at are vast, and meaningless to it. It is a struggle you are not prepared for, not personally, and not purposefully. You do not /understand/ your foe, and so you play into their hands. The -best- you could hope for is to succeed in a meaningful strike, to draw the ire instead of the dismissal of the creature you hate. Succeed at that, and even if I have the power to engage Vega directly--" And Gen does, demonstrating it today far more starkly than anything Chun-Li has seen from the old master before.

"-- You would only doom yourself. And me. And the others. Everything you've worked for, everyone you care about torn asunder by Shadaloo's impossible resources and unwavering malevolence. Doing the right thing, dear girl, is not enough in this fight. Dorai never understood that, either." The regret of that is clear in the dulcet tones, along with the weight of it.

Gen -does- care, but it's scarcely that simple. "Your sense of duty would have led you to destruction, and perhaps carried many others there with it even -if- you had not failed. Tell me, where is the great wisdom in that righteous conviction?" Gen waves a hand, dismissively. "You need to hurry." He reiterates, more softly.

[CHUN-LI]
How many children did Chun-Li save?

The falling eyes and tightening arms say it just fine. The only mercy is in the rare thing Gen might /not/ know, the logical follow-up question:

'How many children did you watch them murder because you weren't strong enough?'

The other questions aren't much better, of course. The answers - at least, what answers she can drag from her battered mind just now - are painful enough to stoke a fire in her belly and behind her eyes as...

...

...

... some interval's worth of impotent, tightly gathered rage is summoned to the fore. But who is there to be angry with, really? The calculatedly smug, infuriatingly wise old man who had to save her after she failed at her job? The stimmed-out thugs and twisted 'doctor' either strewn about or fleeing from Shadaloo's sliver of Hell? The former champion made to forsake all wants but Vega's?

"Someone /has/ to be there to fight for those who can't. To stand between the world's worst and the world's least...
"... and it isn't me," Chun-Li lowly admits, eyes lidded in bruising thought despite the beating of rotors.

"Not /yet/... but it /will/ be."

Brown eyes fix and narrow upon endless white after a heavy breath.

"Because you're /going/ to teach me."

Because she's every bit as stubborn now as she was when Dorai finally crumbled and let his insistent daughter trade Tai Chi for Hongquan. Because Dorai didn't die just so he could get a breather before his daughter saw him again.

Because finally, for the first time in... ... a long time, Gen is telling her to fight /better/, smarter-- that some battles matter more than others, rather than not at all, and there's no doubting the truth of his words, harsh though they may be.

"Sorry, Rose." A glance towards her new friend.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

[ROSE]
Rose shifts herself off of the wall, with effort. She has heard the discourse between the two others - but it has been a matter that is not for her to enter. SHe does not follow Gen's path; perhaps she should. But that's a problem for the future.

A future that hasn't closed, after all.

"You know," she tells Chun-Li, "I will not accept your apology." She smiles at her with a wan sort of energy. "Make it to me in Genoa in a week or two. Bring some wine. Nothing too ridiculous. I prefer white to red."

She puts one foot in front of the other -

Then another -

and moves into...

-=-=-=-

"Hey, is that the lady he told you about?" says Man B, pointing towards the woman in a battered green rubber suit staggering into the light and wincing like a vampire.

"In that outfit? I'm not so sure we should say l-"

Rose speaks from inside of the car (apparently). "Pull forwards? I'm not sure if we shall have two or three. Do you two like Saturday Night Fight?"

Mans A and B look at each other. It is Man A who finally hazards: "Yes?"

"I'll get you some tickets, as a special thank-you."

"Does that mean we don't get p" "she said IN ADDITION" "you heard that? I didn't"

Rose slumps forwards, effort expended, JUST as the car pulls up. Man A is the one who opens the door for her, and perhaps for others.

[GEN]
"That is what I have been telling you." Gen replies tersely. To all counts: Training, stakes, the costs of being ill-prepared when choosing to slay this particular dragon. Someone has to do it-- likely more than one someone. Gen is deceptively eager to fulfill his part in making that happen; but the cost of losing more to a madman weighs heavily on his own heart, as well. Even if it's very, very difficult to tell without reading between some fairly tightly drawn lines.

There's a nod of satisfaction as Chun-Li and Rose //finally// move to heed his latest advice, after what has to have been a near-eternity, and the old master exits out the back. As the warrior women make their way to the getaway vehicle, Gen flips a singular, graceful rotation to the somewhat destabilized rooftops on light, deadly feet. The rotors cut air, thrumming ever closer, as the pair's unnerved chauffers take an amateur's timeframe actually getting into motion.

It's a delay that ends with alarmed shouts and squealing tires as a chaingun mounted to the black transport helicopter begins to tear a ragged, shredding line through the ground towards the car. Despite the execution of egress, all appearances are that it's too late-- the rounds close in, gaining ground as the chopper roars in low, several soldiers gripping rappeling lines as they prepare to disembark and take in their quarry anew.

Then, a diminutive, robed missile launches from the building, smashing in the front of the chopper and sending it lurching sidelong through the air. The mythical assassin all but dances up the hull, folding himself in low beneath the rotors and -slamming- a sledgehammer fist down over the cockpit, collapsing it in a crunching mass of metal and shredding, reinforced glass.

The chopper lurches back the other way, unbalanced first one direction, then the other, and dumping two of its soldiers to a brutal, bloody impact with the ground below. Already, the transport seems to be going down, and hard-- but Gen does not stop there. Both feet plant to the crumpled hull, and the little old man kicks off full force, sailing through the air in a gracefully arcing, backwards leap. Gen is carried towards the opposite end of the poorly-kept road leading to this nefarious facility, and the chopper?

It hurtles, its downwards momentum redoubled, directly into the suffering structure. Its payload erupts with the violent impact, triggering weapon caches and combustible chemicals within in a sequence of explosive blooms, lighting the sky behind the speeding car in a tremendous show of fireballs reaching for the sky, as chunks of concrete and shredded machinery sail in all directions. The lab is left little more than a smouldering shell, black smoke rising into the clouds in one of the world's most universal signals of distress and demolition.

Once he lands, Gen calmly approaches each wounded squadmate and grants them a swift, sudden end. Better than Shadaloo's operatives deserve, in the aged master's estimation. Dark pupils return to his eyes as gnarled fingers stroke through his beard, and he looks after the shrinking vehicle. A smile, a -pleased- smile, graces his mouth subtly... and briefly. Rose had the right of it: Escape is only the beginning, and scarcely even that. The war ahead is an almost overwhelming one.

Log created on 20:42:13 10/27/2018 by Chun-Li, and last modified on 14:54:17 11/19/2018.