Match of the Millennium

Description: Once again, the most important holiday of MotM must get representation. Oh, no, it's not Thanksgiving. It's not even GLaDOS Day or the P-Body Birthday Bash; it's Canadian Thanksgiving! With its origins rooted in Martin Frobisher's search for a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean, this matchup is focused on giving thanks for surviving the long journey from England. Deep in the frigid Northwest Territories is hardly the place for a succubus and a fortune-teller to face each other, but the holiday season is about sacrifice, isn't it?

[MENAT]
Welcome... TO HELL.

Though, not really. If you're being particularly literalist; Hell is in Michigan; if you're being a bit more literary about it, Hell is where lost and damned souls go, and there aren't enough people here to count as a crowd.

The actual location is a fighting ring in the back end of the Northwest Territories. It would be picturesque if you didn't have to stand in it; a gently hilly field of snow and ice as far as the eye can see, with no real boundary, only a spot where the cameras of SNF decided to set up (up here, there is no live crowd). It also differs from Hell in one other significant way:

"It's COLD!"

That was Menat. Menat is currently bundled into a coat under another coat with an absurd bobble hat over her hair and a pair of mittens on her hands. Whatever she has decided to actually wear under all of this to fight in is a bit of a mystery. Born in Egypt and living in Italy, Menat does not like the cold.

Truly, Canadian Thanksgiving is a time of sacrifice. Even though Canadian Thanksgiving was also two months ago and she's not entirely sure why SNF has decided to bring it up now.

[LILITH]
This Christmas... a truly special Saturday Night Fight.

(Roll credits and begin theme song: https://youtu.be/EnFc7D0ZoCc )

Menat is the warmest place to hide!

The bundled up Egyptian Soul Power user is standing outside what looks like a series of arctic camp buildings, with a sign nearby bearing the text 'OUTPOST 31' along with the SNF logo. These are prefab warming sheds the SNF staff are using and working out of to house their equipment.

Then, from somewhere off in the distance, there is an eerie, keening wail resounds in the distance, and /something/ begins to bulge up from beneath the snow, at first seeming like a huge /thing/ us burrowing through the snow directly towards Menat--like in Tremors, or maybe Bugs Bunny--

And all of a sudden red tendrils /spears/ outward from where the snow stops just several feet away, all blood red and tipped with... arrowheads? What the!

"Hiiiiii~ How ya doin' there, chocolate girl?! It's time to find out how you taste~" It's Lilith of course, springing up right out of the snow. In her regular outfit. She's not human, she doesn't care about the cold, obviously, unlike all the SNF staff huddled around cameras in a circle around them, also lighting up... flame throwers? uh oh.

COMBATSYS: Lilith has started a fight here on the right meter side.

                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |-------\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
Menat had been ignoring the buildings because she's not allowed in there until the fight's over. Which is LAME, because here she is freezing her toes off and wishing that she owned a pair of sensible boots (she does not; most of hers don't even have toes).

She picked one of the ones that did today, because come on.

Menat is mostly still feeling sorry for herself when the sound starts. She doesn't even look up until the lump of snow is visible, and then she takes a half-step back in concern as she realizes it is coming right for her -

And then what explodes out is 'a girl'. And not even a scary girl, if you ignore all the spiky tendril spear things and also the slightly strange aura that clings to her. So maybe a little worrying.

"Wow, that's rude," Menat says. "I mean, it's really rude! But that's all right; Master says I should be magnanimous when people are... well, you know. So instead we'll just SNF. That's what you're here for, right?" She had better be, because Menat emphasizes this by giving the crystal ball resting next to her foot a little lift with her toes; it flies directly at Lilith with a lot more force than her foot could possibly have given it!

In the same motion, Menat whips off her coat, revealing her usual outfit underneath, all in purple and black - but she has a nice warm purple scarf behind her back instead of the loosely draping cloth. And she still has her toque on. Her ears were cold, okay? She tosses it to the side, using telekinesis to lift it over the heads of the SNF crew, who are - "Hey... are those flamethrowers?"

COMBATSYS: Menat has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Menat            0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Lilith

COMBATSYS: Lilith blocks Menat's Soul Sphere.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Menat            1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0           Lilith

[LILITH]
"Oh man, that thing is foot-controlled?! Well, it makes sense, given the street fighters going around these days! Everything is feet with you people! Aieee!" Lilith has to reshape her wings-turned-tendrils into huge cartoonish blocky hands to put up in front of her, crossed--like a classic 'oh shit I'm going to be hit by a car' defensive stance! Snow is shredded and thrown up into the air in a sparkling display of sparkles as her boots rip through it--the succubit being pushed back through the snow by the impact! It looks like she doesn't handle impacts too well, given her stature and size! Whoops.

"Stage hazard!" Lilith whips back one of her large blocky red wing-hands and proceeds to attempt to smack Menat with it--fire spewing up around them in intervals as they fight!

COMBATSYS: Lilith successfully hits Menat with Childish Drop.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Menat            1/------=/=======|==-----\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
After Menat throws the orb, it stays out there, hovering. Touching it is a bad plan; it sparks with dangerous Soul Power. But hey, at least it's not moving?

Huh. She's not sensitive enough to detect the Soul Power - or at least she's not talking about it if she is. Menat files that under 'weird; think about later'. She can see enough about her opponent to know she's a little weird.

Spiritually, that is. Though she's apparently a little weird in other ways, too.

"Stage hazard what?" Menat actually checks behind her to make sure she's not about to get hit in the back by a flamethrower, and her guard is *just* a moment late. Rose would not be proud to see Menat swatted by a wing. Hand. Wing-hand. But that's what happens, sending her tumbling end-over-end until she glides to a stop, landing on her feet.

And then she's off again, jumping into the air. She doesn't look like she's going to get anywhere near Lilith, but she air-corrects slightly with a push of sparkling energy, descending in a two-footed stomp toward Lilith while trailing little glimmers of Soul Power!

COMBATSYS: Lilith dodges Menat's Medium Strike.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Menat            1/----===/=======|==-----\-------\0           Lilith

[LILITH]
"Steeerike!" Lilith grins as she watches Menat go tumbling back like that. "Falling head over heels for Lily already? D'aww, I know how it is, I'm just so damned CUTE," Lilith chuckles, before the flamethrowers begin to surge around them again. Apparently they are going in a counter-clockwise motion, and moving in intervals. As Menat begins to take up the space she needs to be in to avoid the flamethrowers... Lilith reaches up, puts a hand up to pinch her nose and dives backwards--booted feet first right down into the snow, disappearing completely! What the heck?? Was the snow really that deep?? Well, it /was/ the Arctic, but...

Suddenly, from out of the snow, one of those blocky wing hands ERUPTS from the snow around Menat's ankles, trying to grab her and pull her off her feet and fling her around!

COMBATSYS: Menat deflects Medium Throw from Lilith with Soul Reflect - Kamal.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Menat            1/---====/=======|=====--\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
"Why are there flamethrowers?!" Menat asks this of a cold, uncaring universe as the SNF staff keep up their pyrotechnic barrage that probably looks very cool on camera. At least it's slightly warmer when they're firing, though that only makes the chill deeper when they're not.

There is no way the snow should be that deep. Menat is standing on it without sinking in anywhere near *that* much. She is beginning to think that Lilith is CHEATING HORRIBLY. (Except not actually cheating at the match, so it's fine. Just cheating physics.)

But Menat can cheat physics too. So there.

Menat makes a hooking gesture with one hand, and the floating sphere returns to her, spinning wildly around her. So wildly, in fact, that it forms a flickering dome-like barrier, and when Lilith('s hand) rises from the snow, it hits a telekinetic field that is being pointed in a whole bunch of directions in a row.

The net effect is that Lilith finds herself being yanked out of the snow by her grabbing hand and thrown wildly away from Menat. Even Menat doesn't know where she's going to end up, so it's extra exciting! "Sorry!" she calls, followed by: "Oh no, is Canada infecting me?"

[LILITH]
Silly Menat. Lilith is a succubus, she /always/ cheats somehow. She's probably not even organic! Mostly!

"Woah shiiiiii--" Lilith is uprooted out of the snow and finds herself flung through the air, right into the path of one of the flamethrowers. Hair curls back as she's singed--the blueish purple bat tights perforate and peels back, the sheer material being found quite good by the flame and a flailing, flaming girl is tossed into the snow, extinguished with a mighty hiss of the snow instantly melting to quench the flames!

"Whew, haven't been that hot since the last time I ate at Chipotles! Damn Mexican food!" Lilith stood up and focused her hands together, firing off a green glowing bat projectile at Menat--which was orbited by little diamond like psi-bits!

COMBATSYS: Lilith successfully hits Menat with Soul Flash.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Menat            1/-======/=======|======-\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
"Chipotle," Menat calls back, "isn't even good Mexican food!" Not that she has a lot of experience honestly, but she has at least some.

She'd ask if Lilith was okay, but one, if she can sass she can't be that badly hurt, and two, she's *supposed* to be trying to beat her up, right? Poor outfit, though. Menat's heart goes out to the poor abused tights; she knows how hard it can be to get things just right for a battle and then get them torn up.

So instead she hangs back, and hanging back was a bad idea. The flying bat... thing? Bat soul? Menat can't figure out what it is, but whatever it is it connects with her stomach, sliding her back a step as Menat tries to regain control; she almost drops (mentally) the crystal ball floating just above her fingertips, judging by the way it dips low until she pulls it back up.

"Master said, if nothing else, you should always get the good food. Your body will thank you later!"

With that tip of advice, Menat leaps into the air, hampered only slightly by what is going to be a bruise pretty soon. She leaps toward Lilith; there looks like there's no way she's going to get there, but she uses Soul Power to pull herself forward, literally spinning like a slow-moving drill as she tries to drive both heels into Lilith.

[LILITH]
"Yikes, was afraid that one was gonna break you in half, you're so skinny! You need to eat somethin', girl!" Lilith /prances/ towards Menat, yes, she somehow is prancing on the snow, her boots hovering an inch or so atop it as her wings flutter behind her, now properly formed back into wings again.

"Wuh oh!" As Menat springs up into the air Lilith is caught a bit off-guard by her sudden descent, spinning like a corkscrew with that soul power whirling around her. She's already gotten zapped by that once, she doesn't want to again.

"Tempt--" she crouches down into a ball, before springing up, several feet into the air--all of her clothes... turning into a cloud of green soul bats and fluttering around her!

"Tation!" she tries to intercept the girl's attack, barreling up along her front with an attack of her own!

COMBATSYS: Lilith interrupts Khamun Kick from Menat with Splendor Love.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Menat            1/-======/=======|====---\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
Menat is momentarily thrown (mentally, not physically) by Lilith. So she's slim. What does that have to do with anything? She's not *that* skinny. She just puts it out of her mind. Though to be fair, Menat can put a lot of things out of her mind when she tries. It's a special skill.

Menat was very much not expecting Lilith to meet her halfway, going up and surrounded by a cloud of energy. She expected even less that the energy was made of her clothes. "What!" Menat blurts out, as she is surrounded by soul bats.

A few moments later, Menat falls out of the bat cloud, landing on her back in the snow. Well, that could have gone better. "Isn't that COLD?" she blurts out, as she rises up - less standing the normal way and more using telekinesis to push herself from flat on her back to standing up.

Menat waits for Lilith to fall, too - surely she can't stay up on those wings forever, right? She just tries to catch Lilith as she drops, twirl, and toss her about five feet away. It wouldn't really hurt if Menat hadn't charged her fingers - and, once she grabs Lilith, her - with Soul Power, the raw energy of Menat's psychic power bright and shining.

COMBATSYS: Lilith dodges Menat's Power Throw.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Menat            1/-======/=======|====---\-------\0           Lilith

[LILITH]
Lilith's outfit reforms on her, of course, to preserve the SNF show's rating and appease it's advertisers--and it reforms in one piece, to boot--despite having just been burned! People have heard about wash and wear, but cremate and wear??

She does however wind up getting zapped and thrown back a piece by the soul power, however--it's not as bad as being hit by Chi power for her, luckily. Lilith's run into someone with the same sorta power as herself, this time!

"Sorry, can't touch this!" Lilith sticks her tongue out as the image of her flickers--splitting into two as she winds up with a copy of herself on either side of Menat, those spear-like red tendrils of hers--which Menat can see are actually her wings, contorted into such a shape--flaring outward at her!

"Don't worry, you look a little hot in that! Let me air you out--"

COMBATSYS: Menat blocks Lilith's Medium Punch.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Menat            1/-======/=======|====---\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
Menat is momentarily jealous. SHE can't fix clothes like that. It would make her cosplay a lot more reliable if she could!

"I'm just fine, thank you!" If anything, Menat is a little chilly (when the flamethrowers aren't on), and she wishes she had kept, like, mittens as well as her hat. Except then she couldn't manipulate her crystal ball. So maybe not mittens after all. Cold-weather fighting requires more thought than she expected.

Regardless of Menat's temperature situation, she's on point with dealing with the paired Lilith strikes. She whips the ball one way, then the other, deflecting both of them. She has to work at it, and the impacts drive the ball toward Menat every time, but not enough to break the ball or even smack it into Menat.

Menat raises her arm, the ball obediently following her until it's overhead - and then some, because she raises her forward foot so high she has to tilt backwards to stay balanced. "If I was too hot, I wouldn't be able to do this!"

The crystal sphere flies toward Lilith as Menat plants her foot back down, adopting a cats-paw position while Lilith has to deal with the onrushing purple-glowing sphere. She segues quickly into an almost belly-dance-like series of movements, the crystal ball twisting around Lilith and slamming at her with every twitch of Menat's hips - until she finishes it with a kick that sends her upper body craning backwards, to the ground, her foot pointed almost straight up and the ball rising into the sky from underneath Lilith to send her flying!

The ball returns to Menat afterwards. She balances it on her upraised toe for a moment before dropping back into a normal standing position, the ball returning to her hand.

COMBATSYS: Lilith blocks Menat's The Nefertem.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////              ]
Menat            0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0           Lilith

[LILITH]
"Pretty good with them orbs there, aren'tcha!? Lets see if you got fast enough footwork to deal with me!" Lilith grins devilishly as her tendrils are warded back, reforming back into her wings as she continues to get up close and personal with the Egyptian girl. Man, she /was/ far from home up here!

The flamethrower firing squad begins to rotate again, and Lilith is distracted just a bit from the men in the parkas to get caught in the soul orb field combo that Menat throws up!

"Whoo! Woah--low-bridge! Eek!" Lilith is dodging around and /under/ the projectiles, inevitably having to try and grab one of the spheres to block it and gets zapped as she's thrown up.

As she comes down, she aims a kick with one of her 3" heeled red boots, right toward the crown of the Egyptian girl's head!

COMBATSYS: Menat instinctively dodges Lilith's Light Kick.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Menat            0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0           Lilith

[MENAT]
Menat rises up with a smooth gesture, right into the path of the heeled boot! OH NO!

Except Menat is blessed with the gift of foresight, and while she cannot reliably call upon it in combat - it's kind of distracting, if she's being honest - it does occasionally save her bacon.

Like now, when she pivots at the same time she's rising. Lilith's heel brushes down Menat's side as she turns her body away from the blow, making it look a lot easier than it is - if her balance wasn't so good and she wasn't so flexible, she would have strained something or just fallen over attempting that particular trick.

"Just a little too slow!"

Menat twirls. This in and of itself is not dangerous, but what is dangerous is the fact that she thrusts her hand out halfway through, the ball improbably guided and held up by the tips of her fingers and adding significant (psycho)kinetic force to what would normally be a kind of wimpy palm-strike.

COMBATSYS: Menat successfully hits Lilith with Power Strike.
Grazing Hit

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Menat            0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1           Lilith

[LILITH]
Still feeling some of the off-balance and shock from Menat's previous soul sphere attack, Lilith is quite surprised when the Egyptian girl is able to elude their flying drop kick rather... well, instinctively? She must have had training being kicked by girls in stiletto heeled boots, dang--how do you get to be that good?!

"W-woah woah!" Lilith wounds up with said foot--and leg buried in a huge drift of snow, trying to pull it out as the flamethrowers began to turn again, cycling their position.

"Hnngggh--" Lilith wound up pulling their leg out and turning just as Menat's ball and palm strike drew near--the psycho power from the ball sending a zap through Lilith's left flank--her face making the most /adorable/ expression for the cameras, to be sure.

"YEE-OWWW!"

"Okay Jewel of the Nile, time to walk like an Egyptian--on crunches!" Lilith turned and attempted to grab Menat with her (human) arms, drawing her scandalously close--while her red wings turned into scythe blades behind her--trying to come down in a scissor-like action down against Menat's waist!

COMBATSYS: Lilith successfully hits Menat with Innocent Hug.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Menat            0/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1           Lilith

[MENAT]
Well at least she's being called something better this time. Menat can put up with that.

Menat's continued movement is actually to get out of the way of the flamethrowers, which she can see the staff are moving around to fire differently again. She decided not getting toasted took priority, and she pays for that when Lilith grabs her for... a hug? This is new.

Oh wait, no, it's not a hug.

Menat gets SCYTHED in the BACK which is an almost-new and unpleasant experience; the last time she got scythed a dinosaur was involved, so it's at least less scary than that time. The blades strike her as she tries to pull away - but she's too late to avoid them entirely.

Unable to pull away, Menat just... disappears, apparently pulled into her own crystal ball and leaving a backwash of sparkling Soul Power in her vanishing's wake; if Lilith is fast, she can avoid being blasted away by the pulse. She reappears about ten feet to one side with a pained expression on herself, the ball appearing first before the rest of her pops out of nowhere in a pulse of purple. "Ow ow ow..."

COMBATSYS: Lilith interrupts Left Eye of the Lion from Menat with Luminous Illusion.

[                         \\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Menat            1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0           Lilith

[LILITH]
The hug is probably not new for Menat, (lets be fair, here) but the scythe blades probably are!

"Whew, did I wear you out already, honey?" Lilith looks around, brushing the blood off her face with the back of her hand--just in time for the soul power push to reflect in her eyes. Oh, snap!

"Here we gooo--" Lilith glows and speeds toward Menat--the huge pulse of psycho power burning away the left side of her body! When she reaches Menat--the double of the succubit appears behind Menat and she and her doppelganger begin a sick combo on the Egyptian girl!

[MENAT]
One Lilith is within Menat's capabilities to handle, at least for a while. But two??

Let's not go crazy here.

Menat doesn't know which way to split her attention. She settles on 'both', which is absolutely the wrong call to make; one of the Liliths hit her into the other one, and then back, and then forth, and it's honestly basically all downhill from there.

After an uncomfortably long period of time, Menat lurches out of the Lilithpile, staggers about two steps and falls face-first into the snow with a *paff* sound. That seems to be that... except for her crystal ball, which she dropped somewhere in the scrum and is flying right towards her whether or not Lilith is in the way.

But beyond that, she's done.

COMBATSYS: Menat can no longer fight.

                                  >  /////////                     ]
                                  |====---\-------\0           Lilith

COMBATSYS: Lilith easily escapes Menat's Soul Sphere - Ankh!

                                  >  /////////                     ]
                                  |====---\-------\0           Lilith

[LILITH]
As the fight has gone on for a fair bit, a bundle of dynamite rolls out from one of the nearby storage sheds, winding up right in the path of the two fighters.

"Time for the exciting climax here!" the arc of the flamethrowers reach it just as Menat gives her final attack.

"Uh uh!!"

BOOOM.

When the dust, and snow settles, the entire place is in shambles, several fires still guttering here and there, with Lilith popping up from beneath the snow nearby Menat.

"Guess it's time to find out who's The Thing, huh boys and girls?" she grins maniacally, side of her face and hair charred from Menat's earlier attack, grabbing a bundle of rope as the scene fades out...

An SNF Production. Original story by John W. Campbell Jr. All rights reserved.

Log created on 18:41:50 12/04/2018 by Menat, and last modified on 14:45:57 12/09/2018.