Chun-Li - The Village at the End of the World
[Toggle Names]Description: Chun-Li and Ambrosia cross paths as they both look to investigate the strange happenings surrounding the ruins of a secluded village-- and they aren't alone.
[CHUN-LI]
Several weeks ago, a storm erupted above a small stretch of rural Japan near the foot of Mt. Fuji.
There are witnesses who swear the thunder which rumbled through the forest was the product of a crackling, blue giant's footsteps; others claim to have caught distant, distorted glimpses of a dark man with wild, red hair and a black gi conducting the lightning itself with his gestures. Most seem to agree, though: the greatest casualty of the storm was the four story shrine poking out of the trees, the one obvious sign of civilization marking what-- /was/-- otherwise a hidden enclave; somewhere amidst elemental chaos, the temple was annihilated, reducing a towering tribute to the gods to a heap of smoking, smoldering ruin.
On a certain level, this is only natural: after all, the village SURROUNDING the temple is populated exclusively with ghosts and lingering terror, these days. Several years ago, during the Gear Crisis which saw the rise of Justice and the Command Gear Dizzy's explosive assault upon Mt. Fuji, Heihachi Mishima led a PMC army to the village, slaughtering every man, woman, and child who crossed his path. Populated by peaceful Gears and other supernatural beings who wished to live secluded from the madness of the outside world, the village ultimately succumbed to cruel reality, becoming a footnote in Mishima's ambitions. As if that wasn't enough, the village more recently played host to-- a dark man with wild, red hair and a black gi, seen wandering the region extensively in the days leading up to a brawl with the infamous street fighting punk Richard 'Crock' Hensley; by the time their business concluded, Hensley was left crucified against the temple's walls while the dark man wandered onwards-- only to return in time to greet a temple-shattering storm.
All of this has brought Chun-Li to see the village for herself and seek clues-- a pursuit which felt fraught at best in the first moments after her arrival, greeted by nothing but cold, dead ruin.
"-- wait--"
Fraught at best until she draws close enough to torii-marked path to confirm:
The glimpses of venerable, towering wooden architecture she spotted through dense foliage coverage were not an illusion. The eyewitnesses agreed that no matter WHAT truly happened when the storm fell upon the village of the dead, the village's temple did not survive. And yet--
"-- what the /fuck/--" Chun-Li exhales, eyes narrowed warily as they scan up four immaculate stories of sky temple.
Eyewitnesses agreed; so did satellite images gathered in the days following the events. So did the drone footage. So did the diviner on Sec. Goldlewis' payroll.
The pause before she crosses the torii and approaches the temple is less a thing of hesitation than it is girding.
[AMBROSIA]
A young woman, Ambrosia was also making her way toward the village, the temple. Dressed in a black summer dress, which contrasts her red hair quite heavily. Her light green eyes and her delicate body add to the contrast. She is not trying to hide her presence, neither is she making ton of noises to show she is. She is simply whistling. A little eerie tune by normal standards, one would say. Is she here to meet someone? Signs point to yes. Why would she be there after all if not to meet with someone?
As luck, or something else would have it, Chun-li made it first. Ambrosia got close enough to hear a 'Fuck'. It made her pause into her walking, but not in the little tune she has been whistling so far. If she was trying to surprise anyone, that was a bust for sure.
In the end, instead of making her way closer, she sits herself on the ground right where she is crosslegged and with her hands in her laps. If anything she looks like she is meditating right there on the spot. Except she's not stopping her whistling.
[CHUN-LI]
There is an entire unit on Interpol training on Dealing With Creepy Bullshit. Being wary of the ethereal whispers of an unseen girl or woman is a rule of thumb; it has been drilled into Chun-Li from her earliest days as a law-enforcement officer, and even now, a few years removed from regular duty, the shiver that rolls down her spine -- the little hairs which stand at attention -- they jerk her right back to a brighter, more innocent time when she was just a wide-eyed newbie trying to look hard while her instructor played spooky mp3s at her.
A step past the torii, she releases a held breath, slowly. Hooded chestnut eyes sweep the village, fully expecting to be met with nothing--
What the fuck.
Chun-Li stares at the young woman seated near the trees, eyes narrowing into dubious slits. They linger--
-- she ponders--
-- and ultimately, she puts on a taut smile as she settles on approaching, slowly.
Carefully.
It's important to be /careful/ when approaching what is quite possibly the ghost of a dead Gear villager, after all. She figures they must spook easily.
"Am I gonna have to exorcise you...?" she quietly wonders once she's close enough to be heard, practically standing over Ambrosia.
[AMBROSIA]
When Chun-Li checks on her, first from afar, Ambrosia does not react. Or perhaps she doesn't even know she is being watched right now.
As Chun-Li approaches her, Ambrosia definitely knows she's around. Yet, she still doesn't react. She simply whistles and looks straight ahead.
Even when Chun-Li is practically standing on top of her, Ambrosia doesn't react. It's only once she speaks that finally she acknowledge her.
"Why would a ghost want to exorcise me? Shouldn't I exorcise you?" She looks up at her as she speaks.
In truth, Ambrosia knows full well Chun-Li is not a ghost, but it was fun. She gives her a mysterious smiles then proceeds to stand up.
"I am so surprised at seeing you here. Are you the delivery? That was pretty fast."
Yes, apparently Ambrosia was mocking Chun-Li. She will probably pay the price later on for this, but hopefully for her, it's all part of a plan.
[CHUN-LI]
At no point during the down-then-up scan does Chun-Li's smile falter, but a canny eye might note the increased tension straining against her closely-fitted blue and gold outfit.
"You really shouldn't be here-- it's /dangerous/. There's been a /lot/ of strange activity in the area, lately: freak storms; giants... it's not really a place for for gothing around."
She fixes her gaze to Ambrosia's and extends a hand towards the young woman.
"Or making weird-ass jokes-- look, I can get you out of here, make sure you make it to somewhere safe," she offers, soft and deliberate. "Your friends -- god, your PARENTS -- they'd probably be terrified if they knew you were here."
A beat; a brief wrinkling of her nose.
"... or concerned, anyway," she allows. "At LEAST; god forbid Crock Hensley, or some other asshole comes stumbling back through to tear the place up even more. What're you even DOING here?"
[AMBROSIA]
"It's dangerous everywhere. Cross the street, get hit by a car. Cross the forest, get hit by a moose." She sighs as before she continues. "Anyway, yes it's dangerous, so why are you here?" She says with an accusatory tone. It is as if Chun-Li is trespassing or something.
Then she sees Chun-Li's hand extend toward her. "Oh you want a reading." She frowns. "The length at which people will go to get a free reading." Instead of shaking said hand, she traces a finger on it. "Good life line. You live long life."
After that little display, direspecting a woman she really shouldn't, Ambrosia gets more serious. "Ever the hero, trying to get me out of here. You're worried and want to keep me safe. My mother might be wondering what the plan is in my head, but she certainly wouldn't be terrified because I am here." She takes a long look up and down Chun-Li before she continues. "Are you terrified? Because I might be here for you or it's a really strange coincidence. Which one would you rather?"
After all that speech, she closes her eyes, not saying anything else for the moment.
[CHUN-LI]
"My boss is an asshole," Chun-Li promptly retorts to the accusation, "and he figured that sending me here would make up for it, somehow."
The smile persists.
The smile /spreads/ like a knife fully extending from its housing.
"You didn't--"
Ambrosia touches her palm.
Ambrosia reads her future.
Ambrosia darkens and weirdens.
None of this is on schedule, because none of this could possibly have been planned for. None of this was on the test; Defense Against Creepy Shit is more art than science, according to the Interpol method. There is an unnerved moment where Chun-Li stiffens and retracts half an inch while confusion flashes over her features--
-- and then Ambrosia's captured at the wrist thanks to a deft twist of Chun-Li's hand.
"... who the fuck are you?" she exhales, low and vibrating.
[RYU HAYABUSA]
Partly cloudy. Winds calm. The storm has, purportedly, passed. Those attuned to such things remain oft unsettled, wary; perhaps even /terrified/, as a rule. The gusts are silent; but not absent. The energy around them roils. The mountains themselves scream in voiceless intensity from the depths below.
The flow of chi, the boundaries of worlds, the omnipresent, background hum of a loving cosmos is uttery drowned out here by a maelstrom of preternatural, all but invisible stormfront. As the two confront one another, their own power playing against the cacophonic symphony ringing behind one's own ears, lightning strikes from a stormless sky.
Once, twice, thrice-- a quartet of white-hot bolts from on high reverberate into each of the lightning rods above the temple roof in turn, crackling angrily towards the shared ground as metal superheats with the conduction.
Immediately, the tremulous roar of thunder echoes each strike; as if that storm, that hurricane which does not exist, swirled all around the pair. The hairs on one's neck may stand at attention, one's heart burdened by the looming dread, the ominous certainty... of being watched.
By Something.
Is it Glorious... or is it Terrible?
[AMBROSIA]
Ambrosia is having fun. At least somewhat. If you can't have fun with work, you're not where you should be. She gives a smile to Chun-Li. At least until she grabs her wrist.
The smile turns into a frown a bit. "Who the fuck am I? That's rude. I am Ambrosia"
She lifts her hand and pokes Chun-Li's nose with her index finger. It happens just as the first white-hot bolt reverberates. It might look planned. Is Ambrosia not alone. Or is she the one doing this even? No truth be told, Ambrosia is as surprised. She simply goes with the flow and doesn't show it on her face. Whatever was coming would be part of her plan one way or another. There is no sense in getting scared until she knows what it is. Then once she knows, she will turn it to her avantage.
"Oooooh, already here." She tells Chun-Li for good measure, not trying to escape her grip. At least not yet.
[CHUN-LI]
The heavens shudder and Chun-Li feels eyes burning through the back of her soul. She whips her head towards the tower -- away from Ambrosia's intrusive finger -- in time for the second and third strokes of fury.
Her breath rate spikes for a couple heartbeats before she manages to reign it in with a deep inhalation.
"'Ambrosia'..." she then exhales before turning her attention back to the redhaired young woman.
Her glaring, furrowed attention.
"You should probably know:"
Dirt crunches beneath the steady slide of Chun-Li's sneaker as she settles into her fighting stance.
"I don't have even a LITTLE bit of hesitation about kicking a spooky child's ass," she huffs, stretching her arm towards Ambrosia with splayed fingers. "I know you're not gonna DO it, but just the same: we can let this be your warning to get outta my sight while I figure out why giants, and Orochi rock stars, and fucking /Akuma/ keep coming here; you, I can work my way up to."
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li has started a fight here.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Ambrosia has joined the fight here.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Ambrosia
[AMBROSIA]
Chun-Li seems nervous about those bolts. At least for a couple of seconds. Ambrosia does not comment on it. She simply notices it and keeps it in a spot in her mind.
Her brows furrow. "I am not a child. At worse, I am a teenager. Pllllease!" She rolls her eyes as she says the please in such a manner. She doesn't seem to care about the spooky part though.
She continues. "You know of the Orochi? Well, you can't have them. You can't have us! So young lady, let's party!" She knows full well in practically all scenarios, she can't one on one this woman. She's not going to say it out loud, however. She gets in a fighting stance of her own and gives a wink.
[CHUN-LI]
"A teenager's just a child that thinks it's grown," Chun-Li groans, rolling her eyes after those stretched out please. She starts to step back from Ambrosia--
'You know of the Orochi?'
"god/damnit/--" rolls beneath her breath. There isn't even a /hint/ of that smile, now, as Chun-Li marches towards the defiantly spooky teenager, fists balled tight. The strings of her blue and gold hoodie bounce wildly with each determined step.
"I am /old enough to be your cool aunt who lets you drink wine/, Ambrosia," Chun-Li hisses. If the girl has ever seen the former officer fight, she'd know that Chun-Li's bouts are always marked by extensive taunts; the World's Strongest Woman loves to use her sharp tongue to further unbalance opponents who may already be struggling with her sheer speed and aggressive style. Here, it's mostly a comfort thing; it's a foot firmly planted in a world she understands while she confronts a petulant representative from one she thoroughly does not.
"And the creepy weirdo act doesn't move me--!"
The declaration gives way to a sudden forward surge. Chun-Li practically blinks across several feet of space, her crouched form abruptly appearing in front of Ambrosia for a final lunge into attempting to haul the girl over her shoulder so she can be /carried/ away from the village for questioning.
"Your mother and I are gonna have /such/ a talk about this when I find her!"
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Ambrosia with Medium Throw.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Ambrosia
[AMBROSIA]
Ambrosia has no time to dodge and really can't block the speed of Chun-Li who grabs her easy and hard. It makes her wince, she can't help it. But she has to speak however. "Oooh an hug. I love you too sweet pie"
She isn't surprised with the start of this 'match.' She's not going to just take it though. She wiggles trying to slide off of Chun-Li. If it works, she grabs her right arm as she falls. She then lets gravity bring her to the ground, aiming her foot at Chun-Li's face. Her foot is glowing red with magical chi.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Ambrosia's Help Me I Am Falling 2.0.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Ambrosia
[RYU HAYABUSA]
The ominous edge to the air remains, the charge of quietly otherworldly energy surging through conduits once working in service of nature all around Chun-Li and Ambrosia... that nigh-tangible oppressive focus of an unseen watcher lingering heavily throughout the potent, once-hallowed ground. Then, another set of physical eyes takes in the fight, perched atop the high roof of the mysterious temple.
Lenses of green-black and red dilate and contract, as if focusing on each fighter and movement in turn; as if analyzing via scan. Mechanized hoses run from the lensed visors to archaic helmets and flowing garb of crimson and black, eight creeping appendages drawn in abstract symmetry along the back of each uniform, grasping around waist and shoulders. Where they move, the light falters, wavers, burns darkly as if distorted by some invisible, unfelt heat.
Then another pair, and a third... and a fourth.
Unnaturally augmented vision centers in on Ambrosia and Chun-Li, the resonance of the temple cries out with corrupting, irrefutable power; and then one after another, the strange and abominable assassins-- or are they creatures?-- vault over the rooftop and rappel down the side without benefit of grapple line, sprinting their descent to the battlefield and launching off in graceful, preternatural precision near the base.
In wordless, practiced tandem, the first two of the descending trio launch towards Chun-Li's right and left flanks, joining the fray with harsh-edged ko-katana. Razor-sharp steel fitted in the motif of the night's darkest arachnids slashes for Chun-Li high and low, at shoulders and at waist, seeking to abruptly open an artery-- and loosen her bowels in the least desirable way. If one wishes to keep them.
They make no sound, they cry no screams of battle, they barely seem to be actually breathing; cybernetic lenses of crimson and emerald pan as if with a mind of their own, each eye moving independently, tracking the killers' surroundings as they strike. One man-- or perhaps one beast-- perches on that overhanging ledge, still, his own lenses surveying their violent intrusion.
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges B.Spider Killteam's Elegy of Lost Opportunity.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|
[CHUN-LI]
Chun-Li catches that encroaching foot against her forearm and immediately jerks the limb back, frowning at the wisps of smoke rising from it.
"Your 'mother'... is she working with the demon Akuma?" Chun-Li hisses as a quick backstep leaves her settling back into her fighting stance. "With the giant-- the, the THING that calls itself Kongou?"
Eyes locked squarely on Ambrosia's, blue-gold energy blooming from her chest to swirl around her hands, she marches forward.
"Why did she send you here--?!"
It isn't the mechanics of the assassin's eyes that Chun-Li hears-- not /exactly/. She's only human, after all. Ask her to explain what EXACTLY prompted her abrupt turn in that moment -- her pivot from the threat taunting her right before her eyes to the arachnid assassins vaulting from the roof, and get a shrug in turn.
'It's just one of those /things/', she'd say.
'Just a /feeling/.'
Ducking, swaying, and leaping clear of those katanas, Chun-Li greets the newcomers with wide-eyed shock and outrage-- fleeting, lasting just as long as it takes to process that there's no time for either. No time for much of /anything/ beyond picking a spot --
-- flipping into it --
-- and launching a barrage of kicks radiant with streaking, shrieking blue and gold wind and lightning meant to catch both assassins while they're still in relatively close proximity to one another.
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam blocks Chun-Li's Hyakuretsu Kyaku.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|
[AMBROSIA]
"You're good, very good even. Oh what will I ever do to punish you." says Ambrosia. What will she do indeed? Probably nothing impressive at the moment. She doesn't make quick on the moment plans. They take time, they are finely weaved like spider webs.
So she thinks her mother sent her here. That's fine. "Oh if you only knew. At least they want me here. Why are you here?! You're messing up the plan." Yeah, let her think what she does matter, then if she wins, she will think she matters even more.
Then she feels it a presence. Not for her, not currently. Too bad Chun-Li is so quick and ready for them. She is really impressive to look at, as she dodges and then attacks right away those newcomers.
Well it gives her time to plan another attack. So here she comes. Suddenly her feet glow red and she jumps up higher than she would be able to on her own, as the magical energy boosts her. Then the same energy drops her down toward Chun-Li, as she tries to connect her right fist to her head. 5
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Ambrosia's I Believe I Can Fly.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|
[RYU HAYABUSA]
-Is- the plan, in fact, off track? Everything about this place itself seems to crave the violence; to coax it out. Its presence brought predators; or perhaps scavengers; to savor the spoils.
Chun-Li is fast-- but she suddenly finds herself outnumbered, pressed in her maternal ventures by shinobi drawn from a demon, perhaps a mad scientist's canvas. The blades rip through the air where she had stood, the Strongest Woman in the World keeping pace.
Her tremendous flurry of front-kicks meets a disciplined, almost unnaturally honed defense, the gathered chi within the nearest ninja focused into ironclad limbs as the force drives him backwards-- but does not fell the assassin. Ambrosia strikes high, the other swordsman strikes low, lashing in a full rotation in effort to forcibly sweep her legs.
Meanwhile, the enigmatic figure above descends, soaring the span through the air in ever-accelerating, terminal velocity-defying fashion to drive his own ko-katana -through- Chun-Li in short order if she does not maintain that rhythmic aplomb, the razor's edge surging with a sickly, corrupted edge of ragged green chi.
COMBATSYS: Genin Assassin has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam successfully hits Chun-Li with Medium Throw.
- Power hit! -
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Genin Assassin's Driving Strike.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[CHUN-LI]
A swift cartwheel leaves Chun-Li with a couple inches between herself and Ambrosia's fist crashing into the ground-- and precisely in the sweeping swordsman's range. She's on her back before she can move, breathless and blinking furiously.
And looking up at crackling green death--
"You're like /thirteen years old/, kid--"
Blue-gold flares billow from Chun-Li's hands as her palms slam shut around either side of the blade, arresting it a heartbeat from her face. Gentle tremors roll through her arms, intermittently spurred towards violent spasms as infernal chi lashes at her spirit... but rather than simply falter, she holds fast for several seconds before finally twisting towards one side to /shove/ the swordsman away from herself, then rolls back to retake her feet.
"There is /no way/ you have a plan beyond 'being a weird little shit', and I'm over it!" she announces, recovering right into a twist towards the newcomer punctuated with both hands thrust forward, unleashing a crackling filigree of blue chi swirling around a scintillating gold core at his belly.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Genin Assassin with Kikouken.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[AMBROSIA]
Slam the ground with her fist she does as Chun-Li dodges her again. At least she's trying. The top of her dress exposing her right shoulder and forearm as she does. On it is a tattoo of a serpent on vellum. "Oh don't be a Codger." She brings her dress back into position, and cracks the knuckles of her right fist. "Don't lose a limb there pumpkin!" Her 13? That also was insulting, now that she thinks about it, but that was whatever.
The fight in itself was rather fun. A perk of this plan going on. She simply goes this time to Chun-Li and tries to aim a kick at her, even as she moves around alot. She doesn't seem fast enough to really catch her. But you never succeed if you stop trying.
[RYU HAYABUSA]
In an erupting shockwave of blue energy, the lead shinobi is blasted from his feet, through the air, and into a controlled, if still volatile tumble back into a three-point crouch some span away from Chun-Li and her malevolent menagerie.
Cybernetically augmented lenses zoom and pan, centering back in on Chun-Li as the three ninjas nearer to her leap in another tandem technique, two seeking to restrain and pin her arms as another blows an acrid cloud of what feels like raw hot pepper and molten ash directly at the interloper's face; it's a bad time to want one's eyes wide open, honestly.
Still with nary a grunt of pain, the lead assassin surges back to his feet with a sweep of shortened, agile katana, reaving an arc of corrupted green chi from the Earth itself, as it roars forward at Chun-Li in a wave. It's that same instant, blink and you'll miss it, that yet another combatant joins the fray. Another Shinobi. A Serious Problem for Chun-Li?
This ninja, however, arrives clad in sleek, modernized armor of black and dulled silver accents, trails a silken sash of brilliant red, lands behind the squad's leader as if he had simply translocated there; split off from the assassin's own aura. And then the ancient katana, fitted in crimson and brass, comes clear of its saya.
The Dragon Ninja lands in perfectly poised, graceful pirouette, Ryuken's fluid momentum transmuted to sharpest backstab, aligned with the midsection of an enemy who's just -begun- to register this new threat.
COMBATSYS: Ryu Hayabusa has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Ambrosia's Light Kick.
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Ambrosia 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks B.Spider Killteam's Threnody of the Sweeping Mists.
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Ambrosia 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Genin Assassin
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Genin Assassin's Crescent Wave.
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Ambrosia 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ryu Hayabusa successfully hits Genin Assassin with Falling Falcon.
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Ambrosia 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-----==|
[CHUN-LI]
Alas: the adrenaline triggered by being surrounded by problems on all sides keeps Chun-Li from slowing down. The moment she lands from one evasive maneuver, Ambrosia sends her twirling into another-- and while this leaves her in prime position to be leapt upon by grappling, toxic spider-ninjas, the World's Strongest Woman has the wherewithal to squeeze her eyes shut and twist away from the corrosive cloud just in time to spare her vision.
"I would enjoy this while it /lasts/, Ambrosia--" she hisses, bucking and straining in the ninjas' grasp until one, then the other set of fingers pop open, allowing her to shove her way free.
"It's gonna be back to you and me before you know it!"
Another cartwheel takes her clear of the Genin's rending wave but doesn't spare her from the ripple of discomfort in the pit of her stomach as it passes her by. It is immediately followed by another rolling leap towards Ambrosia, this time cut with blue-gold sparks which ultimately resolve into a crackling sheath around her foot as the heel of her sneaker screams towards the crown of the teenaged cultist's head.
Chun-Li has yet to register the presence of yet another ninja, but the assassin bleeding out thanks to him is another matter. The lead assassin whirls without regard for the brand new hole in his gut, seeking to counter his fellow ninja with a deadly steel arc aimed at Hayabusa's neck.
COMBATSYS: Ryu Hayabusa counters Arc Slash from Genin Assassin with Mekkyaku - Ryuso.
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Ambrosia 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Ambrosia blocks Chun-Li's Hazanshu EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Ambrosia 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-======|
[AMBROSIA]
"Oh I am enjoying it very much. Everything is going as planned." Granted, that wasn't true, but neither was it false. Ambrosia could adapt on the fly, at least, so she thinks. "Please come at me. Show me what you can do princess!"
Again Chun-Li is dodging and moving around like she is possessed. What a great fighter she is. In different circumstances, it could be different. But now, things are what they are. When it's time for Chun-Li's attack toward her head, Ambrosia reacts quickly to brings her arms up, surround by the red energy she has used this fight. It protects her head and from lethal damage as sparks happen. Yet she definitely feels it in her arms, wincing at the hit. Chun-Li hits are not pleasant. That's a fact.
She backs up a bit after that strong hit and slams her right hand, glowing with red energy, to the ground. If she has her way, the magical enegy travels through the ground toward Chun-Li. It would grab her by the waist and pull her toward Ambrosia quickly. When she is close enough, she then slams her left hand, with magical energy, toward Chun-li's chest. To make her fly back.
Through all this, she has seen the new ninja coming into the fray, but she has not reacted outwardly toward him yet. Perhaps it doesn't matter to her. It was hard to read at the moment.
[RYU HAYABUSA]
The Dragon Sword sings. It's a quiet note, against the concealed cacophony of chi disturbance and violent ritual rumbling beneath the Earth itself, but a tone that carries implications. A melody of causality and consequence; the Balance offered by the Hayabusa Clan is a symphonic pursuit oft demanding brutal artistry.
Ryuken comes free of the Black Spider Genin's back in a bountiful spray of tainted blood and the Dragon Ninja weaves below the blade that seeks to decapitate him with reflexive, deceptively casual grace. The Spider twists one way to strike, and the Peregrine swoops the other to counter, the low twist flowing smoothly into a rising cut of the sacred katana in the Shinobi Prince's grasp.
A spray of Black Spider blood surges skyward beyond the blade's stroke, its momentum further carrying into an abrupt, forceful backflip, one which crashes masterfully armored tabi squarely into the assassin's chest and skull, sending both ninjas airborne; one decidedly more under his own power than the other.
The three techno-ninjas still harrying Chun-Li are, to put it mildly, distracted by this abrupt display-- and with slightly less diligent discipline, their urgent shift to accommodate this new shift in the battle could be described as panicked. Instead, all three close the distance between themselves and their grievously injured commander in instants, the first in line executing a high somersault that carries into a descending jump-kick with textbook acumen, zeroing in on the Dragon Ninja.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Ambrosia's Come To Me. Now Back Off.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/-======|
[CHUN-LI]
The moment her soles hit the ground, Chun-Li's snared by the red tether and jerked inwards. Instinctively, she covers her face; Ambrosia plants her hand against Chun-Li's chest instead, blowing her backwards with a radiant bloom of ruby force. Magical wisps wildly ripple from her soaring body, seeping insidiously inwards until her abrupt crash against the torii brings her to a hard stop.
"'Show you what I can do'," Chun-Li repeats, soft and flat and dragging herself painstakingly to her feet. Several loosed tresses get tossed back with a flick of her head once she's on her feet; she remains hunched in obvious duress otherwise, left arm crossed tightly across her chest.
"This is /actually/ some stupid game to-- I mean, not that I should be SURPRISED," she hisses, meeting Ambrosia's gaze, "given that you are a CHILD--"
'Show me what you can do...'
Chun-Li closes her eyes. She breathes so slow, so deep that the measured flow of oxygen into her body pushes the pain of mounting injuries out to the very edges of her consciousness.
The next time her eyes open--
The next time she exhales, she's soaring over the convocation of ninjas, having launched herself off of the torii's post into a high-angled backflip. One of them seems to be fighting with the others-- and while there is an outside chance that this is an Aliens vs Predator situation--
(Another scenario outlined in excruciating detail during Interpol training courses, post-Majigen--)
-- her gut tells her that the newcomer isn't a threat. Nevermind that the helmet looks familiar from Dickinson's files--
"Ryu Hayabusa?"
She waits until her arc and the Dragon Ninja's intersect enough for her to slip her hand into one of his, threading their fingers together, to ask.
"Some asshole with a body pillow and a coffin fetish didn't send you to look for me, did he?"
The question's a quiet one just for him as they approach a landing.
"If not -- or even if so -- I think we oughtta talk about him after we're done disciplining this awful child."
This time, touching down flows into bending at the knees while Chun-Li's eyes lid. The soft exhale of her invitation bleeds into a wordless, drawn-out breath.
Drawn-out breath mingles with the world-- with chi thrumming through the air in invisible currents, seeping from the trees and grass creeping ever inwards, reclaiming the village--
"Open up," she whispers, pitching her senses wholly into the increasingly vibrant reservoir of energy pooling around her. The natural world has plenty to offer, but beset on all sides by witches and assassins wielding corrupted power, it's like she's doing a trust fall with her soul; the tug Hayabusa feels deep in his center's a semi-instinctual effort to bulk up her crash mat and meet this array of threats as one.
"We're in the eye--"
Her next breath out explodes into brilliant blue annihilation, a crackling globe of raw spiritual energy whose manifestation is catalyzed by a barely visible blue field snapping outwards from the center of Chun-Li's chest. One moment, the air is heavy with the lingering malevolence of an unnatural storm; the next, it's alive with searing possibility, pulverizing the ground around Chun-Li and Hayabusa in crushing ripples of force.
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam successfully hits Ryu Hayabusa with Diving Kick.
- Power hit! -
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Ambrosia 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 1/------=/=======|
[RYU HAYABUSA]
It's a resounding, painful crunch that interrupts Hayabusa's graceful backflip, the leaping Black Spider assassin snapping a cybernetically-reinforced boot into the Shinobi Prince's midsection, rattling ribs and sending the Dragon Ninja careening groundwards rather more abruptly than he had intended. Unlike the eerie assailants, Ryu does grunt in pain; but it, even his collision with the ground, is discplined, efficiently regaining control with nary a glimmer of panic or pressure.
As such, Hayabusa is skidding into a three-point crouch as Chun-Li appears by his side, and it's her helping hand that stalls the last of his volatile momentum. A fulcrum by which he presses back to his feet.
Ryuken comes around in a fluid kata held defensively before the flank he covers as he immediately feels the gathering chi that Chun-Li seeks. "I was about to ask you the same thing." Hayabusa muses enigmatically, the non-answer paradoxically telling her much of the situation, if obliquely.
The Dragon Ninja is already possessed of no deficit of such catalyzed might; but that well spikes suddenly, nonetheless. The last scion of the Celestial Dragons murmurs a few ancient words, his own energy intermingling with that of the ancient katana in his grasp, and in tandem so synchronous it /had/ to be practiced, a glimmer of dark blue rings in Hayabusa's own grasp, at the very heart of the Kikoushou.
The raw energy roars outwards, filling the space around them, and the Ninpo invoked by the Shinobi Prince roars from its center, an icy, purifying wind that courses along the spiritual as surely as the material in its path; the hunger of the Land is denied, the mystical will of the Celestial Dragons reinforced; the monsters perhaps more than slain-- Cleansed.
From within the brilliant fireball, reaving edges of windshear rip through rock and earth and flesh alike as if unseen blades as sharp as Ryuken itself were translocating cuts nigh everywhere, all at once, as the Dragon Ninja unerringly rises; even as he proves relentlessly deadly in turn.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li and Ryu Hayabusa successfully hit Ambrosia with Art of the Purifying Breath.
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Ambrosia 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|
[AMBROSIA]
A lot of things have been happening. Ambrosia has been able to keep up, but now Chun-Li and Ryu where teaming up together. Something big was coming. Something that is going to be painful.
All she can do is watch as they unite together for this attack. In a way, she has respect for how they seem to merge their attack together. In another way, they could go hang. All of this into her head as all she can do is prepare to be hit by something nasty. Very nasty indeed.
Then the attack happens, blue spiritual energy, fireball of dragons and a thousand cuts from a phantom katana. At first, Ambrosia wants to dodge it, but there is no where to go. So she steels herself and gets ready to take it. "Whatever you do to me..." She can't complete her sentence yet, as she feels it all. She screams from all the different attack she is getting, yet, her hand starts glowing green, then it grows, until her whole body glows in the green energy. Her dress gets completely destroyed, yet underwears are fine enough to keep her modesty. Her body gets heavily damaged. Yet it also shifts, and closes wounds. She goes silents as the attack is not quite done. And then it passes. Her body is bleeding heavily, and she looks like hell. She is still standing. She is not as damaged as she should be. A touch of luck, a touch of skill, a touch of instinct She speaks again as her hair grows back to full length, and then the green energy leaves her. "You can do your worse. I assure you, I got worse on a deeper level, for much longer.!" She stumbles a moment because even with those words, and still standing after this, it has hurt her deeply. She is feeling it in deep. That attack was very painful.
A grin comes to her face. "Please try to do better now." Her whole body whines in pain as she runs toward Chun-Li and unceremoniously jumps in the air to do a jump kick, leaving blood in her wake.
COMBATSYS: Genin Assassin endures Chun-Li and Ryu Hayabusa's Art of the Purifying Breath!
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Ambrosia 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam fails to interrupt Kikoushou from Chun-Li with March to the Bitter End EX and is struck by Art of the Purifying Breath from Chun-Li and Ryu Hayabusa.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Ambrosia 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Genin Assassin
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|
[RYU HAYABUSA]
The unleashed fury of two expert combatants with a reputation for excellence under pressure has the intended impact on their demonic enemies. One of the swarming assassins is bisected a phantom blade, torn asunder as the shockwave of blue chi blasts his bits to the far edges of the battlefield, painting gruesome graffiti on the side of the temple. Cybernetic implants short and fail, and foretell a similar fate for their commander.
This red-and-black clad shinobi is all but vaporized by proximity to ground zero, but quakes with silent laughter in the moments preceding his certain doom; and as the chi and wind-blades tear him from this Earth, supercharged, supernatural explosives consume him in a brilliant, green-black burst of angry chi and high end incindiaries.
Suddenly, the eye of the storm becomes the hottest point of a raging inferno, even as the other assailants are driven aside, delayed longer than Ambrosia by bleeding, potentially deadly wounds.
COMBATSYS: Genin Assassin can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Ambrosia
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Ambrosia's Diving Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Ambrosia
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Genin Assassin's Course of History.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Ambrosia
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
COMBATSYS: Ryu Hayabusa dodges Genin Assassin's Course of History.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Ambrosia
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
[CHUN-LI]
"You wanna kick a bunch of corrupt government asses?"
Low as it is, the question's as clear as a bell in the heart of destruction. Chun-Li meets the ninja scion's gaze for a moment stretching towards eternity before the world comes roaring back in to remind her that it's presently trying to kill her.
"We'll talk--"
Priorities.
A brief but /firm/ shove gives Chun-Li a little bit of a boost with which to spring back from the lead assassin; tucked in tight, she flies several feet away from ground zero only to be met with a defiant young woman trying to kick her in the face.
"Bravado won't save you," she warns Ambrosia, standing firm for the beat it takes her to pointedly catch the other woman's eye before cartwheeling aside-- only to catch herself right at the apex of her arc and twist impossibly backwards along it, landing just a foot or so from where she started rather than giving Ambrosia any sort of space.
"You /really/ don't look too good right now, Ambrosia..." she whispers in the spooky teenager's ear. "What could you possibly want from a dead village that's worth whatever's about to happen to you?"
To punctuate her point, Chun-Li whips a hundred and eighty degrees into a roundhouse kick pointed directly across Ambrosia's back, meant to drop the girl to the ground and leave her subdued for questioning.
[RYU HAYABUSA]
Intense orbs of gold-flecked emerald are about the only feature clearly visible behind the Shinobi Prince's full helm and facemask, but they meet Chun-Li's evenly. For just an instant, there's a flash of amusement. "One monster at a time." Technically, it was more like four, arguably five, Hayabusa.
The lead assassin consumes himself in a brilliant fireball, its explosion rippling against the remnant energy of the art exercised in the space moments before, and like Chun-Li-- the Dragon Ninja swiftly vacates. He leaps high, a graceful arc to his somersaulting flight, the bloodstained katana poised with care at his side-- already coiled to strike.
Strike he does on the descent of that powerful leap, twisting a sharp, blurring rotation to bring the artifact's razor edge down upon one of the two remaining Black Spider assassins, threatening to bisect the cyber-ninja in one finishing stroke.
"The girl is not one of these monsters-- but neither is she just a girl. Just /that/ girl." It's a slight clarification, adjusting for lack of certitude. Kind of the Dragon Ninja to not leap to seeking to remove Ambrosia's head-- the jury's out, and the young master only slays demons. Granted, that gets to be a mighty metaphorical debate, if we want to get philosophical; the path the Dragon Ninja walks was never particularly simple.
COMBATSYS: Ambrosia fails to interrupt Strong Kick from Chun-Li with Take Your Medicine.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Ambrosia can no longer fight.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|=======\==-----\1B.Spider Killteam
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Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam endures Ryu Hayabusa's Strong Punch.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|=======\=======\1B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 0/-------/=======|
[AMBROSIA]
She's unable to really damage Chun-Li, and she's not surprised this last attack doesn't touch her at all. She's hurt after all.
She is aware Ryu is around, she totally is, but she doesn't seem to care about him at all. That's not to say he's not a threat too. But for some reason. It's Chun-Li all the way for her. "I am not here for the village. But don't worry, I got what I wanted. " She lets the woman know.
When Chun-Li does her 180 degrees roundhouse toward her back. Ambrosia tries to rub her hands together to send red energy toward her. But she's too slow with it and receives the kick in her back. It makes her go forward and then fall on one knee. She is done for, she can't fight anymore. That fight was too much for her, as expected. No surprise there, Chun-Li and Ryu are formidable opponents. She's a little proud she was able to last this long, however. "Thank you for your hospitality, but I am... done." She says tiredly and in pain.
Then her hand glows white before it takes over her whole body. She closes her eyes and poof, she's not there anymore. Just more blood left behind, from the wounds she got and a leftover of the magic chi she used.
[RYU HAYABUSA]
Ryuken strikes clean between the assassin's augmented eyes, splitting skull and torso as the ninja falls limply aside, quite deceased. The last in line seems unbreakable, relentlessly striking out at the Dragon Ninja high and low with his ko-katana, a desperate rush that sees the fiendish shinobi bleeding profusely from a deep cut running from hip to opposite shoulder.
Onward he presses, as if victory is but a heartbeat away; as if discipline and sacrifice can save the last of his squad from the deadly skill of the last scion of the Hayabusa royal family, and the wrathful justice of the Rogue Agent and Strongest Woman in the World.
One. more. cut. There is only mantra in action, trying desperately-- nay, diligently, without hesitation-- to strike Hayabusa Ryu a fatal blow.
[CHUN-LI]
Lunging through the space left in Ambrosia's wake leaves Chun-Li hunched and doubled over, gasping for a couple precious moments of recovery before she straightens with a scowl.
"Can you-- I don't know, track her?!" she shouts to Hayabusa, whipping her head his way. That he's /this/ close to having a blade buried in his body does nothing to modulate her tone or concerns; according to the files, this is a regular occurrence for the Dragon Ninja. "With ninjutsu, or ninja magic, or--"
The World's Strongest Woman releases the World's Most Annoyed sigh, banishing her frantic need for answers long enough to focus on the question of who would win in a fight between the scion of an ancient legacy of monster hunters and one arachni-boi.
"Dickinson HIMSELF is probably fine," is shared soft and low a split-second later and one series of wheeling flips later, as Chun-Li steadies herself in a crouch behind the remaining assassin. "But he's NAIVE-- looping him in about THIS is fine, but otherwise...?"
A steel-corded network of taut muscles explodes into scything fury as Chun-Li pivots so violently that she twists her body upside down and becomes a whirling storm of chi-infused violence.
"Let him find out about the REAL monster hunting in his own time!"
COMBATSYS: Ryu Hayabusa blocks B.Spider Killteam's Gravestone of Final Acts.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits B.Spider Killteam with Spinning Bird Kick EX.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|=======\====---\1B.Spider Killteam
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ryu Hayabusa 1/------=/=======|
[RYU HAYABUSA]
The assassin's shortsword rings off the Dragon Ninja's armored gauntlets, driving Hayabusa back at a steady, measured, patient pace in the face of relentless flurry. Ryuken is held in reverse grip, precise retreat and an impressive series of deflections and weaves leave Ryu with only a few shallow cuts in its wake; painful, but far from imminently threatening. Then, Chun-Li hurtles all but -through- the last of the Black Spiders, the shinobi's body crumpling as bones crack in protest under the Rogue Agent's onslaught. It's arguable mercy, then, when Hayabusa calmly finishes the foe, driving his katana through the augmented warrior's throat and brainstem.
"You've given this a lot of thought." It's quietly bemused, despite the situation; but not derogatory. Hayabusa lacks a certain frame of reference with regard to the corruption of officials and agencies; it doesn't get a lot more secluded than growing up in Castle Hayabusa training to fight monsters, tournaments and entanglements notwithstanding. "Trying to dissuade that girl has already led to violence." Hayabusa observes with similar stoic analysis. "And while she is a powerful mage touched by the infernal... she is not subsumed by it."
Ambrosia does not, to Ryu, ring as a monster; at least not yet. "She is not the problem here... though like too many others, she may be here to heedlessly delve the truth, or seek to twist twisted power farther, to their own ends." The anger this stirs is a quiet thing; a shrapnel of ice on a gusting breeze. "Come with me-- it is unwise for /you/ to come here as well, but if it is a path you must walk, there is a great deal you must know, in time that is far too limited." Despite being metaphorically infinite.
Fiend-tainted, oil-touched blood is shaken from Ryuken with a sharp swipe, the blade wiped with a ceremonial cloth held carefully within the Shinobi Prince's black belt, and then the artifact is sheathed. And Ryu Hayabusa strides evenly, with purpose, back towards a secluded animal trail into the mountains hidden beyond the enigmatic shrine. In the distance, lightning summons thunder anew.
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Ryu Hayabusa 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Chun-Li
COMBATSYS: B.Spider Killteam can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Ryu Hayabusa 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Chun-Li
COMBATSYS: Ryu Hayabusa has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|
[CHUN-LI]
"I've had a lot of time to /think/."
It doesn't get much more secluded than a castle segregated from society where there's nothing to stand between a boy and his journey towards destined duty.
It doesn't get much lonelier than a life spent among monsters and shadows with naught but rivals to break the monotony.
But a room beneath the desert barely big enough to fit a woman and her regrets--
Days marked by nothing more than spurts of violence and tragedy--
Cold nights bleeding beneath the accumulated guilt of being too fucking stubborn or stupid to stand down--
The darkness settling over Chun-Li's features as fading adrenaline gives way to thought suggests a kindred heart-- a sister in suffering seclusion for the sin of being born just so.
"We HAVE to find her, Hayabusa," comes out much louder than the last -- at near-conversational levels -- as she draws out of her crouch. "She's just a child," Chun-Li states.
As if either of them needs the reminder.
"She can be pulled back."
As to the question of whether /she'll/ walk or not -- whether she's wise enough to avoid the dangerous of thrusting herself into a mystery far beyond her understanding --
Chun-Li answers, but doesn't speak: the lightning flare of her gaze doesn't leave his until he turns towards that trail.
For now, at least, they can be united in seclusion.
Log created on 16:48:41 05/10/2022 by Chun-Li, and last modified on 11:34:34 05/24/2022.