Match of the Millennium

Description: The shinobi villages have identified the co-conspirator behind the Mugen Tenshin attacks. In the cover of night, scores of special assassination teams from all over the world infiltrate DOATEC's Hong Kong headquarters, to end the organization from top to bottom and cut the feet out from underneath the real perpetrator. However, what the teams were not suspecting was the arrival of cybernetic and killing assets by the dozens. The DOATEC board has been executed, with extreme prejudice, felling several companies in one fell swoop. Victor Donovan is missing. There are rumors of this occurring all over the world. One man stands at the head of it all, a demon whose fist is stained with blood. The coup has begun.

[KAZUYA]
"Hrmph. Blood not even worth staining my hands..."

There is a lot of blood staining his hands right now. The man -- no, creature -- stalking the DOATEC tower moves amidst the fire and darkened halls like a beast in the jungle, heralded only by the falling body of a broken shinobi, discarded by the devil of Mishima like so much trash.

It would never be reported in the aftereffects of what was to come, every window in the tower in the shadow of Fatal Core, but most of the leadership of DOATEC had already been killed, their escape blocked off, their fates sealed in steel and bone. A blade for every throat -- the cold, ruthless reasoning of machines was something to be admired, so he thought. Right now, the tower was burning from an insurrection started from the lobby up; the Hong Kong headquarters the basis of a three-way war between agents of DOATEC, Ultratech, and a coalition encompassing a majority of the old shinobi secret houses. The ninja -- he noticed the kamon on the shozoku of at least four seperate clans thus far, and those were the ones he could tell apart at a glance.

Blood flew from corporate assets like water as the shadows moved near silently among the skyways and in the seas. While in the distance automatic weapons and explosions ripped through the tower, deep in the bowels of the facility, there were far more esoteric techniques at play, as shinobi jumped across entire floors and threw hailstorms of shuriken, conjured energy blasts from their bare hands, and rode spontaneously-growing trees to encase their enemies in ice and pull out their souls. Or whatever the ants were fond of doing in their particular clans were.

"Bastard...!!" one of the shinobi, probably a relative of one of the ones Kazuya just killed, draws cold steel just outside the uppermost atrium behind him, though the ember-eyed man doesn't even look back for a time, instead pulling at the edge of his fighting gloves until he hear the leather creak.

The truth was, Kazuya could have left the targets to the shinobi, and that likely would have been that. But that wasn't part of the deal. Of course, now he would have to fight his way out. Theoretically, there were less dangerous ways to make his way out of the facility. But it's been a long time. And the mice are so plentiful. A fist dripping with blood lowers to his hip.

"Come," Kazuya Mishima replies, as cold as the winter, "see if you can."
And so the dance begins again.

COMBATSYS: Kazuya has started a fight here as a boss!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                



COMBATSYS: Agents has joined the fight here as a sub-boss!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                




                               AGENTS                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                

COMBATSYS: Noboru has joined the fight here.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Noboru           0/-------/------=|


                               AGENTS                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                

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

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Noboru           0/-------/------=|


                               AGENTS                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                

[NOBORU]
DOATEC HQ was once a statement. A grand tower of glass and steel jutting into the sky like a gleaming obelisk transposed from the near future. Hopeful. Ambitious. A beautiful, crystalline shell hiding innumerable secrets.
But you know what they say about glass houses.
Scene from the outside the tower glows a hellish orange from within, the swirl of smoke and flicker of flame throwing monstrous shadows across the lesser buildings that surround it. From within the affect is worse, magnified by the light of street lamps below so that the glass walls and floor are a dancing tapestry of light and shadow, a funhouse strobe that might shelter danger in one moment before tearing away the veil in the next. And that isn't even mentioning the heat. A slowly rising blanket of stifling warmth that radiates through the glass, not yet hot enough to burn but still enough to turn in closed rooms into saunas, and hallways open to the air into rushing tunnels of wind.
Around the core supports of the building, where floors are glossy marble and the ceilings are held aloft by decorative pillars, the heat is notably lessoned, shadows ominously still in comparison to the chaos around them. These open areas act as perfect arenas in which to ambush prey, pockets of relative sanity in an environment gone mad.
It is through this modern hellscape that Noboru Miyama walks, the Iron Mystic's long golden-brown hair falling in a lank tangle around his face and bare shoulders. Having lost his robe to the fighting along the way, he stalks the halls stripped to the waist, loose grey pants bound at waist and ankles by coils of braided cord. And though the black silk mask that hides his lower face marks him as a ninja, or at the very least a dramatic pretender, the various grey scars that mark his exposed flesh tell a story of survival against brutal injuries. Matched claw marks gouged into a pectoral, a short but deep scar mirrored on his back that marks an impalement. Others besides.
Hemp-bound feet padding silently across the glass, the Mystic steps from the shelter of a shattered pillar and into the shadow of a smaller, quicker figure, passing invisibly through its wake and into the deeper dark of another pillar, his one good eye scanning across the tinted expanse of a dividing wall. Searching for one shape in particular...
No sooner has Kazuya issued his challenge than does the wall to his left explode in a shower of safety glass shards, coming apart like the wind as Noboru's muscular bulk lunges through. Jaw clamped beneath his mask, the Miyama lets out a low, rumbling grunt as his left arm lashes out, attempting to hook the smaller man around the neck and jerk him backwards off of his feet, right knee slamming to earth as he twists to bring the Demon crashing shoulder-first into the floor before him.
That is, if all goes to plan.
Only if he can ground the bloody-handed murderer will the Mystic reach back, fingers of iron latching into the meet of Kazuya's thigh. Grip secured, he will power back to his feet, flinging the smaller man straight up toward the vaulted ceiling with the strength of one arm. Showy, in its way. And yet all this, every move and gesture simply to try an earn a single half moment, a fraction in which he can step back and brace. For the Iron Mystic knows his prey well, and he's going to need every advantage he can get.
Tonight, Noboru Miyama is hunting Demons. And may the gods be on his side.

[RAIZA]
In recent days, Raiza's rogue commission from the God of Thunder had led to the assembly of a trio of unlikely teenage accomplices. She'd arranged to meet with her partners in divinely-endorsed crime on the ground floor of DOATEC's Hong Kong tower, intending for the three to infiltrate the building together.

That was before she'd received the message from her superiors in the Edo clan.

Raiza
Going 2 be a little late. See u ASAP! :D xox

The message was sent from her burner phone to each of her friends moments before the broken body of another shinobi landed with a sickening sound of breaking bone and pulverised flesh next to where the teenage ninja sat cowering against the low wall beneath a crystal electronic display, her knees up against her chest. She thought she heard a sigh rise from the shattered shinobi as his head lolled toward her, his glossy eyes seeming to plead for salvation.

"N-no! Hold on!"

The kunoichi's plaintive voice was muffled by the yellow Pikachu mask that obscured her identity. The burner phone was forgotten as she quickly shuffled on her knees to the shinobi's side. An attempt was made at cardio-pulmonary resuscitation - hands pressed into the chest, only to find themselves sinking into a bloody cavity. Retching and recoiling behind her mask, Raiza stared at the blood on her hands in horror, before looking up above through the chaos of the Hong Kong tower to whence the dying ninja descended, glimpsing what looked like a demon silhouetted for a brief moment in a dozen panes of glass.

Her allies - and her clansmen - were fighting and dying, while she was hiding, scared for her life. She had never faced this kind of violence before - never truly come face to face with death.

Raiden-sama, she thought, must surely have made a mistake in telling her that the fate of the balance rested in her hands.

'Arigato, Raiden-sama. I promise I won't let you down.'

Her own words echoed in her head as she watched the life of a ninja far better trained than her slip away as casually as an exhaled breath.

Rising, she closed her eyes behind her mask and silently repeated her promise to the Kami - to her clan - to her friends.

And with that, she coiled like a tiger and leapt.

==*== PRESENTLY ==*==

Moments after Noboru explodes through the wall to one side of Kazuya, the comparatively diminutive black-clad form of the Pikachu kunoichi flips over the barrier separating the upper atrium from a multi-story drop below, panting behind her mask with the effort of over a dozen wall-jumps as her tabi finally find a horizontal surface upon which to rest.

"You...!"

There's a vague sense of recognition in the tone of the female ninja as she adopts a battle stance, one hand dropping down behind her back as her slit-legged hakama spread and flow into a half-crouch. Where does she know that face from...?

"...heartless... bastard!"

Drawing a steel shuriken from its hiding place in her hakama, she raises it behind her between two fingers, and it begins to crackle and glow with bright blue energy - but she hesitates to loose it into the fracas between Miyama and Mishima just yet.

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

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                

COMBATSYS: Raiza crackles with electricity!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya blocks Noboru's Embrace the Sky.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [  |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------------=                


[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Noboru           0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                

COMBATSYS: Agents successfully hits Kazuya with Gas Fumigators.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [       ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                


[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Noboru           0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------------=                

[KAZUYA]
The battlefield soaks into him. Kazuya Mishima is a vanishingly small detail in the grand scheme -- little but that aforementioned creature stalking in the dark, on a battlefield thick with the glint of steel, the flash of gunfire. A haze of smoke frm both fire and gunfire curls through the facility, wreathing the upper levels in an intractible grey haze. The war was occurring on all levels, with the agents of DOATEC clashing fiercely with the shinobi's organized counterattack. Truthfully, even if that woman hadn't offered him their bargain, it wouldn't have made a difference. But he took every chance to seize upon the opportunity anyway. And in this fashion, he gets to stretch his legs. It's been a very long time.

The exchange is entirely swift, entirely brutal. Kazuya is barely one step towards the nameless shinobi before a shadow blooms in the glas at his side, the atrium wall exploding outward as the Miyama clan bruiser snatches him bodily, ragdolling Mishima into the concrete unawares, cracking it hard enough to spiderweb the glass nearby with the force of the impact. "Kuh!!" The movement is not opposed, and the demon's grip is steeled against the blindsiding shinobi's arm to lock him out of the rear choke, and by the time Miyama tries to break with him to launch him bodily, Mishima is an eel in the air, twisting after the shinobi's attempts to lip free.

Lightning fast -- Kazuya recovers like the wind, and his snap kick is aimed to take Miyama in the throat, branches of light trailing the powerful blade of his bare foot, carrying like a lightning strike after the new shinobi.
There is nothing you do that will not be viciously answered.

By the time Raiza arrives, Kazuya's already dealing with the other shinobi's blade, whom is almost certainly not waiting for him to recover from the Miyama shinobi's brutal attack. Kazuya's shoulder shifts, the constellation of cris-crossing scars over his own bared flesh raising his shoulderblade to absorbing the slicing stroke just long enough that he can slip past, under, through. A second later, his ninja-to is broken in half under Kazuya's palm.

Another moment later, the broken segment of blade is flying for Raiza's head. She will barely see the glint before it is answered.

The blade is smashed out of the air by the ablated throw of the ninja-to's hilt, thrown by the nameless man to counter Mishima, whom almost assuredly had been aiming to kill the child where she stood. The feat of off-balance marksmanship marks the nameless man as at least a jonin of his clan. It also drops his guard. And Kazuya takes full advantage, not punching -at- the nameless ninja, but -through- him, the lightning threads of his power shooting through the man's skull in a stunning blast of power that sends the shinobi sprawling, leaving Mishima to step after him, apparently fully intending to end him there and then, and to systematically move on to the slab of beef, then the girl. This is the nature of war. But he ultimately only gets one last step in.

The corporate response at the shinobi gathering is swift and merciless as a response team arrives to the upper levels. Men in masks and body armor combat-roll from vents around the periphery of the building, their only sound being the sharp warble of radio tweeters. As the soldiers lifting rifles, the pop of canisters can be heard, thick pangs of stinging anaesthetic gas canisters landing, trailing noxious plumes in their wake. The canisters plunk harshly off of Kazuya, causing the man to raise his guard, anger flaring as he disappears in a cloud of gas. The DOATEC response to the situatoon is fully comprehensive -- they are firing at everything that isn't a known asset, and are thurough in laying down blanket suppresion of the dissident shinobi.

COMBATSYS: Noboru blocks Agents' Gas Fumigators.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [          |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                


[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Noboru           0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya successfully hits Noboru with Senshinto.
- Power hit! -

                               KAZUYA                              
  [          |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------=======                


[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Noboru           0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                

[NOBORU]
There is no time for satisfaction or frustration to take hold as Noboru sends Kazuya skyward. Not even a moment to blink before the demon is whirling himself through the air, foot scything toward the hulking man's exposed throat. Just like that the space he was striving for is denied him, the effort twisted into a strike that would be instantly fatal to any normal man.
"THNK!'
The side of the Demon's foot impacts the Mystic square on, the accompanying blast of chi knocking him backward to impact the wall just beside the empty glass panel he arrived through. But where one might have expected cartilage to crumple, limiting or removing his ability to breathe, striking the brute's throat is like kicking a steel beam. Muscles flexed around his vitals, the Iron Mystic impacts the wall hard enough to send cracks through the decorative marble, stone bits cascading noisily to the floor.
"HRRRRRMH."
Chest rumbling with the grunted exhale, the shinobi reaches up, catching one of the oncoming gas canisters out of the air with a SMACK. A dismissive backhanded toss sends it off through the window beside him to bounce along the hall, freeing him to take one untainted breath before the mist rolls over him, clouding sight and stinging his eyes.
And then, he moves. But not with the lumbering rage of the brute he appears to be. Shrugging himself free of his dent in the wall, the Mystic vanishes into the smoke and fog like a ghost.
The flash of lightning through the haze marks the girl's position.
That aura of bloody violence that tickles across his skin marks the Demon.
The flash and crack of rifles cause each of the agents to stand out sharply, allowing a rough count of 10.
But none of these are the Miyama's initial target.
Looming out of the fog to stand over the fallen shinobi, the Mystic ignores the bullets passing through the air around him and plants the flat of his foot against the maroon and black clad assassin's ribs, sending him skidding off across the ground and under the nearby railing to drop out of the fog toward the open levels below. Perhaps not the most polite way to save him, and he'll have to recover or risk falling to his death, but at least he won't pass out or get shot to death in the crossfire.
A bloom of blood spurts from Noboru's hip as a bullet punctures skin before deflecting off of the iron-hard bone beneath, leaving a ragged tear in his belt before humming off to get lost within the haze.
The Iron Mystic doesn't even stagger, wound barely trickling as he vanishes back into the mist...
Only to loom up behind Raiza's much smaller form, sparks of lightning picking out the gleaming blue of his eye as he explodes forward, floor shuttering slightly with the force as he launches himself into a straight dash directly toward the burning aura of Kazuya, the wind of his passage dragging the gas into a whirling tunnel behind him. Hemp wrapped fist pulled back, he twists his shoulder forward, all of his mass and strength piled behind a single half-fisted blow toward the exact center of the demon's chest. One powerful enough that, if it makes contact, the haze will be blown back, funneled through halls and windows to leave them exposed, bullets whining through the space around them.

[RAIZA]
Sparks fly from Raiza's hand in her hesitation, charging the oversized star in her hand with an illuminating blue hue as the electric chi gathers. It's a technique that she's had little practice with - shuriken training is a regimen she's only recently graduated to, delicate and deadly as they can be. The more energy she puts into her attack, though, the more force and speed her weapon will be imbued with, and the more confident she can be of striking her target - and confidence is something she sorely lacks in this moment, divine commission or not.

In that hesitation, she leaves herself open.

She only catches a glinting glimpse of the shattered kissaki flying toward the space between her brown eyes - the bright yellow mouse mask providing an easy target as it's cast in electric blue overtones. It's only the intervention of the more experienced shinobi that saves her from a potential untimely fate.

"Kchh!"

A pained exhalation comes through clenched teeth in anticipation of the attack - then guilt and sympathy for the sword-wielding ninja as his assistance becomes an overextension, a sacrifice to save her - though she doesn't release the tension of her channeling chi.

Was that the price of her hesitation?

It probably was.

Armed agents deploy behind and ahead of her as she stands with shuriken at the ready, and in moments the anaesthetic gas starts to cloud the space, enveloping the demon that she intends to engage until he disappears.

Her brows quiver in frustration and the energy lashes chaotically around the four points of the star in her hand. Time is surely slipping away rapidly before she too becomes a target of the security force and she loses her shot completely.

"Raigeki...!!"

Raiza finds herself closing her eyes behind her mask. They are nearly useless in locating Kazuya by now at any rate - but the aura of the demon in human form is nearly palpable, as bright to the sixth sense as her own energy is to the first right now.

It's an act of faith in the esoteric - and that, at least, isn't something that the kunoichi lacks.

Leaping upward as she spins like a dervish, shuriken arm extending, Raiza is buoyed by unseen forces that propel, then hold her aloft, the air around her seeming to distort as the laws of gravity are momentarily suspended in her favour.

"...SHURIKEN!!"

The sparking star-blade is loosed through the mist, directed with hope toward her intended target - leaving Raiza hanging in space for a few seconds longer... just long enough for the kunoichi to display discomfort with the situation as she starts to flail.

Fortunately, the distortion in the air fades and gravity resumes its normal services just before gunfire erupts from below, and Raiza drops to the ground with only a few bruises to show for the anomaly before rolling away to a hiding place behind a pillar.

COMBATSYS: Noboru successfully hits Kazuya with Fault Line.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---============                


[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Noboru           0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya dodges Raiza's Empowered Lightning Shuriken EX.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|-==============                


[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Noboru           0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya just-defends Agents' Agent with the High Ground!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [               ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|-==============                


[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Noboru           0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                

[KAZUYA]
The soldiers are stacked up rank-on-rank, trails of gas still curling in the air from their rifles. DOATEC's security response is comprehensive -- while the shinobi had raw power and techniques on their side, DOATEC's equipment and training was still top notch. The poisonous gas wasn't intended to kill -- there were very few agents in even the highest of biotech circles that could by themselves defeat a trained fighter, but the gas was only a diversion.

Over the choking cloud, a charge is placed against the glass above, and a bass repeater shudders with hitched sound, shaking the ballistic pane until it seems to be more liquid than solid, responding with processively more and less believable undulating waves until the first crack, which is followed by an explosion. The chunks of tempered glass safety shards rain down into the cloud like glittering starlight, only to be replaced by the sound of high-caliber rifle fire.

"Three targets locked. Devil, titan, pokemon. Vectors and elevations fed to your TS. We have the high ground--God's on our side."

Bass thunder cracks the sky, as the spotter-sniper team above crouch on the glass framework high above the gas cloud, staring levelly into tiny infrared/bioelectric assist rendering scopes, to call out, mark targets and ultimately neutralize them -- first with match grade rounds, then with high-repeat suppressive fire originating from the spotter. The whole enterprise is professional, efficient, and would have sterilized everyone on the level, were their targets not who they are.

The gas is an annoyance, both in limiting vision and in chilling the blood in his veins. But the Mishima devil endures it, letting the poison flow through him. Energy begins to well in the scars of the Mishima's body, a cold, calculated seething filling him like water in a ditch. He knows what he does -- Kazuya makes himself a target for the shinobi, his lethal aura flooding through even the thick roll of fog. Despite being one target lesser for the moment, he felt the skin like iron from that ninjutsu landmass fail to break under his foot. He's going to have to --

The electric flare of that windmill shuriken twirls into view from the fog, only a few inches, a split second from making sharp fall in his eye. The moment slides into view, the devil's eyebrow arcing in a sharp edge of derision. For the attack's flashiness, it was moving entirely too fast. Too fast to capture, too powerful to snap in half. Kazuya twists at the hip, leaning to one side in an extreme pitch, cocking a shoulder out of the way and twisting his entire torso. He needs to, to compensate for the oversize of the blade, whose glowing and erratic edges illuminate his body in blue as he glares at the even steel. So the girl survived...

But in that same moment, the mountain mystic bursts out of the shuriken's erratic shadow, displacing all of the air against him like a wave that churns. The deadly aim of the shuriken was just dangerous enough to get Kazuya's attention, get him to evade, get him to forget what will inevitably come next, with the girl laying his guard open just enough for the banishing blow. The iron fist hits Kazuya dead-on, like a sledgehammer, hard enough that he can feel his heart skip a beat, laying him low and driving his knee into the concrete beneath him. Miyama's fist leaves a wound where it struck, and Kazuya's blood paints the glass beneath him, in long trails as he skids away on bare feet from the pure impact of the hit, a blast whose force was enough to peel away the gas, the toxin. The agents begin their sky-cracking suppression campaign just then. Bullets begin to rain from the sky. And that's when time slows to a standstill for Kazuya.

His left eye flares a lethal red glow as his spite fills it.
"Stack up a thousand of you. And you still won't have enough to challenge me."

Electricity floods the battlefield, thrown off from the edges of Kazuya's upraised fighting glove. Branches flow through the world in whipcracks as fast as light, the sound deep and vicious. Even bullets don't seem to move quite fast enough for all of the Mishima power, leashed and held tightly entirely in his fist. It takes only one step. Two, to reach the mountain. Iron bones, right? Even bullets can't pierce his hide..

You're in my way.
Bullets meant for Kazuya's head are split in twain with his overhand spearing punch. The branches of light dance along his arm, flooding the area between them as he steps into the fully committed strike. The brass casings of spent ammunition shudder and leap as strokes of lightning dance along them, threatening to snap rounds right out of the air in that lead rain. Gathering power beyond even the Mishima blood into his fist, Kazuya guides the thunderbolt of his enmity right down the centerline of that mountain, his resolve to do nothing less than cut Miyama down right where he stands for the indignity of remaining alive after being hit by him.

COMBATSYS: Noboru endures Agents' Agent with the High Ground.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                      |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------======                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya successfully hits Noboru with Demon God Fist.
~ Cruel hit! ~

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                      |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Noboru           1/---====/=======|=------\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------======                

[NOBORU]
The vibration of impact is still resounding up Noboru's arm when he abruptly shifts sideways, the sniper round meant for the back of his head whistling past his ear to blast a ragged hole in the cement floor between himself and the recovering Mishima. Not a prediction of the future, or even eyes in the back of his head. Just an understanding of how these things work. Many martial artists have a tendency to pause for a fraction of a moment after an impact like that. Give their muscles a chance to finish bleeding off residual force. If Noboru were the one with the rifle, it is exactly when he'd strike.
Sidestep transitioning into a forward stalk, the mystic steps forward to avoid the spray of automatic fire that chases the sniper shot, bullets zipping around him, most sparking off of the floor while at least two strike the hulking shinobi in the back, splatters of blood misting the air in his wake.
He doesn't have time for them. Despite the threat of death from above, the toxic burn in his nostrils, they are merely men.
Ice-blue eye staring into the face of Kazuya, the Iron Mystic witnesses the hate that blossoms there, the demented rage that courses through the demon's veins. Is beholden to the raw power there, and the madness that accompanies it.
With lightning sizzling around them, banishing the dancing shadows that plague their smoky hellscape, Noboru locks eyes with the monster before him and responds, words vibrating up from his chest with grinding impassivity.
"I do so with one."
Brave words. And there is no fear in them. And yet, if bravery and duty could guarantee success, no shinobi would have lost their lives today.
Accelerating forward with grim resolve, Noboru lunges through a world alive with bolts of electricity, molten bullets splattering across his skin. Right hand lifting, he reaches to catch the smaller man by the wrist, to stop the attack dead.
But in this, like so many before him, he fails.
Bone like iron breaks with a crack that overshadows even the snipers above, the force of Kazuya's blow hammering his grasping thumb backward until it snaps. There is only a moment, a fraction of a fraction of a second, but in that flash of time the shinobi reacts, muscles all across his body flexing out to brace before the strike continues down to hammer him square in the chest, a raging storm of power released into his body just above his heart.
Two booms resound through the tower nearly simultaneously. The first is the roar of energy released, lightning raging through the mystic's body to explode out of his left foot, the floor and all clothing beneath his knee reduced to a smoldering mess. The second is the impact of his back with the floor some 2 meters behind him, steel supports flexing the area into a disconcerting bounce as cracks radiate out from the point of impact. Smoke rises from branching patterns of char that cross his flesh, blood trickling from a deep gash in the center of his chest, matting the thick hair. By all rights, that should have killed him.
And yet, muscles trembling from the residual shock, the brute rolls shakily to the side, just missing the double tap sniper round meant to make sure he wouldn't get up again. Back of his head pelted with cement chips, the hulking shinobi flicks a single glance up toward the fire teams, then slams his wounded fist into the ground and rises, staggering unsteadily back to his feet.
With mortality draping its bony arms around his shoulders, the Miyama returns his cool stare to the demon before him. There is a look there. One the monster has seen plenty of times. A look of resignation, and defiance.
"Girl." Noboru grunts, hoarse rumble cutting through the battlefield noise with ease. His eye does not leave Kazuya for a moment, but there is only one person on this floor he could be talking to.
"Do not announce your attacks. I will do what I can to exhaust him. When I fall, you Must finish him."
His last wishes made clear, the brute draws in a single deep breath, pauses for a fraction, then releases it in an explosion of movement, seeming to shoulder reality right out of his damn way as he flashes forward in a full body tackle for Kazuya, aiming to ram his shoulder into the monster and carrying him backward into a shuttering impact with the wall. To drive him through the twisting masses of metal and decoration to emerge into the hallway beyond, before lifting him clear of the ground, left hand grasping a thigh, unwounded fingers of the other hooking the demon's throat. To thrust him high overhead, body impacting the ceiling, before a flex of arms and core brings him whipping down spine-first across the upthrust spike of his knee.
He may not be able to beat the monster, but perhaps he can do this much. Perhaps he can give the girl a fighting chance.

COMBATSYS: Agents successfully hits Raiza with Agent with the High Ground.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                      |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

[RAIZA]
Glass shatters, raining down from above as incapacitating gas billows all around her, the shuriken disappears into the fog, and Raiza silently thanks God and Kami alike for the sheltering pillar that protects her from the shooters below and the falling glass behind her. That is - until she notices a red laser marking her hand as it rests on the floor, drawing her watering brown eyes to the vantage that houses the source of the laser light and, with a sudden sharp inhalation, realises that the sniper has a clear view of her, and that the dot is travelling up her wrist toward her center of mass...!!

"Kudaranai!"

The kunoichi curses as she's forced to emerge from her fleeting haven in a rapid roll, hurling herself bodily as a shot rings out from the sniper's longarm.

*KRAKK*

A spasm runs through Raiza's body as the impact of the bullet with her abdomen registers in overwhelming pain. Suddenly, the world around her starts to fade, the sound becoming muffled and the colour draining before her eyes. She comes out of her roll splayed out across the glass-covered floor - her haplessly prone position mercifully placing her below a solid, low wall that hosts a display of synthetic, life-imitating flora.

"Nnngh..."

A voice reaches her, that of the shinobi, echoing and multitonal as it emerges from the haze that Raiza finds herself in:

'Girl. Do not announce your attacks. I will do what I can to exhaust him. When I fall, you must finish him.'

The voice is telling her... not to announce her attacks? It can't be one of the other Edo-Ryuu ninja, then can it? It's total sensory overload, just like when -

Suddenly, Raiza has an epiphany. She's not a gunshot victim whose senses are collapsing due to organ failure induced by blood loss - this is just what happens when you take too much damage at once from sniper fire. She just needs to take a moment behind the convenient waist-high cover to catch her breath and she'll be good as new.

She could probably be forgiven for her interpretation of the situation. After all, firstly, she's never been shot before, secondly, she's in shock, and thirdly, she's never played a shooting game released before 2007.

The freshly shot shell-shocked she-shinobi shoves herself up against the wall, breathing in before letting her eyes fall down to her side.

Oh. So, that's what a hemhorraging bullet wound looks like.

Pulling her cropped top off over her head to reveal a black sports bra beneath, the kunoichi quickly folds the garment into a belt-like shape, wrapping it around herself to cinch tight.

"Gyah!"

It hurts, more than she expected - enough to pierce the fog in her brain as her senses sharpen and colour returns to her vision.

Just like in video-games, she thinks.

Which means getting shot was just the cut-scene before she gets back to the boss fight.

She snaps up her Pikachu mask from where it fell off on the floor during her dive and pulls it back onto her face, the pain seeming to fade as adrenalin and coagulants pump through her veins. Her focus falls back on the demon in furious fray with her fellow ninja.

"...!!"

A muffled breath from behind her mask signals the Pikachu kunoichi's distress at the sight of freshly-let blood. She needs to close that distance - fast enough to not get grayscreened again by that sniper.

She has just the technique.

Electricity arcs from her head to her feet as she half-crouches - then launches forward and upward, propelled by a thunderous step into the air.

"SUPER... INAZUMA...!!"

Her foot extends forward like a spear as she hangs momentarily in the space above and behind the demonic corporate executive, ignoring both Noboru's command and the laws of Conservation of Ninjutsu as she bolts back into the fray.

"KIIIKKU!"

Her descent, propelled by her lightning chi, is much faster than her ascent, comparable to the flight of an arrow following the draw of a bow, her extended tabi aimed to crash into Kazuya from behind with the added force of her electric energy to support the strike.

COMBATSYS: Agents focuses on its next action.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                      |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

COMBATSYS: Noboru successfully hits Kazuya with Avalanche.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                    |||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------=======                


[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya just-defends Raiza's Inazuma Kick EX!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------=======                


[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya has joined the fight here as a boss!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|---------------                


[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

COMBATSYS: Agents has ended the fight here.


[KAZUYA]
Kazuya narrows his eyes.
"Tell me more about how well you're standing against me."

The electricity floods the battlefield, flares of deadly light branching throughout the split-second interlude between Kazuya and Noboru, a catastrophic exchange that drives most of the security teams back to regroup and reacquire targets. The suppression teams fall back in the remnants of the scattered smoke, leaving the snipers to fall back from their positions and reload. It's really as expected -- worms even on the level of DOATEC's lackeys would get hurt if Kazuya elected to be a little less discriminating with his attacks. Truthfully, the Mishima killer is darkly impressed. Most of this shinobi trash couldn't handle even a scintilla of his Devil power -- let alone the extent to which he almost split the mountain shinobi's skull in twain. However, his waning sense of sportsman interest is vastly overshadowed by his all-consuming ambition.

An aggravated frown catches the bared fighter at the same time as Noboru's bull charge, Mishima curling legs and setting his feet to the ground to meet the mountain with iron fate. However, the weight and momentum disparity between them is measurable, and the mountain sage's avalanche charge brutally overwhelms Kazuya's check, Mishima's legs locking down tightly with toes squealing against the tile underfoot, his grip nothing to the brute. The bitter, viper-like snap and bite of energy is still live voltage around his body, licking and branching viciously along the mountain's body as he hooks Kazuya violently thrtough the wall, using him as a battering ram, only to drive him up , then spearing him through the ground, a catastrophic blow that leaves the concrete in pieces, and sends the Mishima brawler whirling across and through the shards of glass trailing blood, his stance a spinning scythe chain of semicircles as Kazuya rolls away from the beast to break the seemingly neverending hold, stunned just long enough for a shinobi bee to dart into his view. "Ugh, you--" he manages, barely, just before he's cut off.

She lances into him, the diminutive kunoichi, cutting off his thought, his chance to recover. It would have been a smart play. But for all of her calculation, all of her grit, Mishima was exactly as he'd said.

The electricity between them is a chain reaction, dynamo-fierce and expansive, an atlas of branches spreading from Kazuya as she comes spinning through the caved-in glass of the sky atrium where Noboru put Kazuya's whole body through it. The reaction grows more erratic as she finds Kazuya's guard to flow like water, the lightness on his feet driving him to fall back and away from her all the same as Noboru, a blur of motion as he lands her before him with the scent of scorched air and ozone. The faint scuffing of her impact marring him, the lacerating energy she wreaths her figure with is eaten entirely by his own, leaving cooling talons of neon-bright vapor crackling around his midsection, trailing from his arms. And in that cerulean vapor, Kazuya's eye grows livid, angry red as he stands to his full height to regard them.

"....a good play," he remarks to the both shinobi, the intense, lightning-sharp tone in his voice icy and dispassionate. "Try to kill me while I'm distracted. Likely your only chance."

Kazuya is fast. Almost as fast as the lightning he breeds in his fist. There is nothing personal about his brand of cruelty, no anger, nor rage at being so pressed after easily dispensing with countless ninjas before them. He ruthlessly moves to pounce upon Raiza, the closest and most-distracted target, to brutally knock her to her knees in front of him and the mountain. It only takes an eyeblink to seize a person. One second of weakness, and she'll be immobilized at the neck beneath the vicious lock of his choking grasp, Mishima's grip tight enough for her to feel her bones sing. His authority is unyielding.
"But if you have to rely on others to win, you'll always be looking from across the gulf between our powers."

It only takes a second of distraction.
One second, for Raiza to be lit by the threat of abrading Mishima power.
One instant, to be struck down with a guillotine of an axe hand.

[NOBORU]
Even were his right hand fully operational, it's doubtful Noboru could have kept a grip on Kazuya once the demon begins his rotation. The shinobi's powerful hands leave smears of bloody dust across his opponent as the wily monster twists, tumbling away over the broken ground and directly into the killing zone of Ms. Pikachu.
'KIIIKKU!'
Even as Raiza begins her descent the Mystic starts to rise from his crouch, burnt flesh bursting like bloody seems across his hulking form. Watery blood weeps from the wounds, turning dust to mud before smearing in a runny mess of pasty grey. The pain must be immense.
"HRRRRGHK."
The sound that emerges from Noboru's chest is just this side of a growl, grinding up from a dry throat as he takes his first crunching step over the debris. The near animal noise is joined by a soft, sizzling ticking from the smoking wounds in his back where bullets have imbedded themselves into muscle and bone, blood sheeting down his back to soak the seat of his pants.
He has to reach him. To capitalize on--
And it all goes wrong.
Right before his eyes the Demon manages to roll with his ally's kick, turning what could have been a finishing blow into a death trap. The two lightning auras mingle, and it is clear even to his unenhanced sight who's is the mightier, Kazuya's aura throwing shadows across the walls as the Iron Mystic approaches as if through a sea of molasses.
'CRUNCH.'
His second step. Faster. Bulk accelerating...
The gloved hand reaches for her throat.
'CRUNCH!'
The floor vibrates slightly from the force of the step, wind tugging at the Miyama's filthy hair, opening the many maws of his wounds.
The Demon's hand begins to fall...
Hit or miss, Noboru will not make it in time. He never could have. Try as he might, Raiza is left on her own, with her hulking partner's left fist exploding forward half a second late to try and pound a bone-jarring punch into Kazuya's striking shoulder. A strike meant to have thrown the attack off, now destined to stagger the monster at best so that the hulking brute can lunge forward over the spot Raiza was just moments before and drive his injured hand forward in a single follow up blow, fingers flattening into a spearhead strike meant to crush the arrogant bastard's throat. As he comes, a spray of blood floats in his wake, a gory tribute of his violent passage to splatter wetly across the busted walls.

COMBATSYS: Kazuya successfully hits Raiza with Skull Smash.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                    |||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|--------------=|===============                


[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///                           ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

[RAIZA]
Burning smoke and ozone sizzle off of Raiza's clothes as she lands from her diving kick on the soles of her tabi, leaving a trail through the broken glass as she skids across the cracked tilework to a stop. Blood drips from her side through the stained fabric of her black top, now turned to a bandage for her seeping wound. Heavy breathing can be heard behind the Pikachu mask that obscures the kunoichi's identity.

The state of battle demands that she remain focused and alert, but the loss of blood and the fresh pain of the landing's inertial impact reverberating through her ruptured side turns the flood of sensory input and mental activity into static, a single thought cutting through the noise:

Her kick did nothing to him.

She turns her head to look over her shoulder -

- and suddenly, she's back in the world of white-hot pain that she's only just forced her way out of as she's suddenly smashed in the side and driven down to her knees.

"KYAAAH!--"

The Pikachu kunoichi can't help but cry out as pain rips through her afresh, Kazuya smashing through the window of opportunity presented by the ninja's moment of self-doubt.

"--!"

The sound is cut short as the lock closes around her neck.

Then, the static is severed as the deadly axe-hand blow falls across her head.

*KRAAKK*

The force of the blow sends a shockwave through the air around the kunoichi as her body goes limp - a fracture running down through the mask on her face, snapping the strange juxtaposition of the innocent and hopeful yellow visage in half. Blood runs down Raiza's face from behind her dark brown hair as her eyes become empty and she collapses to the ground.

Raiza's world tilts into a kaleidoscope as she rolls on her back to see the still-standing shinobi stepping into the space where she stood moments before. Dispatched, nothing more than an afterthought, she slumps slack against the floor as her vision brightens blindingly.

'Is this... the end?'

Her own voice echoes in the white void that her mind has become.

'At least... I tried.'

Then, in her mind's eye, or perhaps a waking death dream, the whiteness melts and darkens into stormy clouds, warm rain falling on her face from above as she stares at what she knows is the winter sky over Mount Fuji. The words of Raiden echo in her head.

'You are my messenger. Where you go, I will watch and I will listen. You will face great tests, but like the storm, you must not fear.'

She feels electricity coursing painlessly but violently through her, kick-starting her heart in some sort of self-defibrillation. The sound of air drawing into her lungs fills Raiza's ears as the clouds in her mind begin to part, giving way to silhouettes of man and demon struggling against each other above her, and she knows that she can still breathe.

And if she can still breathe, then she can still fight.

'Now go.'

Staggering up to her feet, half of her bisected mask clinging to her face, Raiza unslings one of the blunted sickles of her dual-headed kusarigama and starts to swing it in a rapid vertical circle.

"I wasn't trying to kill you..." the kunoichi's voice comes plainly through without a mask to muffle it in the same moment she hurls the hook, trying to catch Kazuya and somehow find the strength to reel him by the chain into a sidelong grapple that resemble a hug more than any attempt at an offensive maneuver. Should she succeed, she would turn an eye up toward him, past her blood-matted bangs, the brown iris filled with a reflection of a blue storm cloud.

In her other hand, a cheap umbrella would appear, springing open in flagrant contravention of traditional superstition regarding the opening of umbrellas indoors.

"...I just wanted to stop you."

And with a silent prayer to the God of Thunder, the Technique of Last Resort of the Edo Clan would be invoked, a bolt of thunder piercing the sky and descending through the chaos to strike the kunoichi's location - sure to send her flying should it connect, even if it's only a fraction of the kami's true power.

COMBATSYS: Raiza prepares to take her last stand against Kazuya!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                    |||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|--------------=|===============                


[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|----===========                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya dodges Agents' Tactical Team Surrounds And Attacks.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                    |||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|-----------====|===============                


[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|-----==========                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya just-defends Raiza's Spark of Romance!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|-----------====|===============                


[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|-----==========                

COMBATSYS: Kazuya just-defends Noboru's Bones of the Earth!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                               ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|-----------====|===============                


[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-------|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|-----==========                



[KAZUYA]
His scything blow decides the affair in an instant.
Fragments of the Pikachu mask skip across the ground in slow motion, shortly followed by a blank-eyed kunoichi. Kazuya's face never changes; there is no remorse in what he does, no break in his resolve, the hawkish ugliness of his ruined eye and his sharp features taking a grim mien in the swirling tumult, as her and he are drenched in shadow, the effect of an oncoming train smashing into him. The blow is fearsome, the weight crushing, the fist of the mountain catching him in his shoulder. It drives him from bringing her down, from fi9nishing her off where she stands. That sage hits him so hard, he can absently feel it in his teeth. But his body flexes, pressing into the blow, less ragdolling off of Noboru's spearing attack and catching his knifehand in the collar instead of the neck. Kazuya pushes off of the titan's strike, blood coating Noboru's hands. The blow would have been lethal, had Kazuya stood still. Instead, the Mishima demon launches from it, lazily flipping end-over-end in the air to bleed force. His bare feet hit the ground, skidding Kazuya low and away from the two inside the atrium space, leaving him to skid all the way to the very endand edge of the upper levels. His heel knocks bits of fractured railing aside, leaving them to twist and fall away into the dark.

t gives them the chance to recover. Kazuya frowns as the sound of bootfall fills the halls. The secondary sort team arrives to take advantage of the weakened fighters, men with taser nightsticks and garrotte loops in full body armor filling the atrium and the surrounding walkways, in short semicircles around Kazuya and his opponents. The gesture draws a ragged, derisive growl from the Mishima genius, the whites of his teeth showing plainly as the last of the momentum from that titan's blow settles into his feet and his lion-footed stance, the fighter dragging slowly on the wrists of his gloves. "Annoying," he growls to the men surrounding him. "Trash should know its place."

He looks ahead, as the lightning crackles from the atrium, energy crawling from the risen kunoichi -- a side effect of Kazuya not being able to seal her fate and keep her down. His attention drifts from the first agent -- for just a moment, and the agent takes the opening, a baton brought to bear directly down the centerline of his skull. The tactical team surges into the spaces that the fighters' temporary peace leave, trying to lock down the shinobi before they can get any further with their assault -- trying to loop great chains around the behemoth's neck, trying to pummel and capture the kunoichi in chokeholds.

The baton, at the least, never lands.

The lightning crawling from the kunoichi's umbrella tears through atrium glass like a knife through paper, the bolt emanating directly from the sky. Branches and force of light shear off of that parasol's rim like a waterfall off of the river cropping, branches of light and force tearing through the agents close enough to test their mettle on the two, running long blades of light through them, scattering men like paper, and threading long fingers into the air long beyond. Kazuya's skin feels numb in the aftermath of the blast, even in full motion. Trying to hit the Mishima devil is like trying to hit a ghost, and more men fall to the chaotic blast than actually manage to see him, let alone make contact with. Energy seethes all around Kazuya, driving him along the flaying lines of force generated by the kunoichi's incredible blast.

"If you're not trying to kill me..."

The devil whirls brutally, wheeling through the agent's ranks, the blasts of light twining with his own demonic force, borne entirely in his evil eye, the dark suggestion that licks along the edges of the atrium, and branching loose from him, fomenting a second disaster. He cannot be seen, low amidst his myriad of attackers, amidst the people trying to take advantage of their score. His body, his blood boils. And then it erupts.

"THEN NO ONE WILL REMEMBER YOUR NAMES!!"

It's a fraction of acsecond before Kazuya strikes, his aim to absolutely lay waste to everyone within a certain radius of his uppercut, the blast of his electric force mating with her own, and moving to clear -everyone- away that lay between him and the two shinobi, an absolute ruin of a haymaker leaving a field of white hellish force in his wake. Whether friend, or foe, or anything inbetween, Kazuya does not recognize anyone as his ally. Necks will fold and crack, and bodies will be shot through with arrows of pure vicious light.

For Mishima, there is only him.
And then the corpses.

COMBATSYS: Agents successfully hits Noboru with Tactical Team Surrounds And Attacks.
- Power hit! -

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                        |||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                


[                       \\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/----===|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|===============                

COMBATSYS: Agents successfully hits Noboru with Tactical Team Surrounds And Attacks.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                        |||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                


[                           \\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                               AGENTS                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|----------=====|===============                





[NOBORU]
There is no crunch of cartilage beneath the iron thrust of his fingers, no last gurgle of impending suffocation to mark the end of this hellish Tyrant. Only a jarring thud as his final strike glances off of the smaller man's collarbone, thrusting him away even as a wave of fatigue rushes forth to drag at Noboru's limbs. Mind awash with pain, dizzy with blood loss, the hulking mystic manages another step before crashing heavily to one knee, hunched like a blood-stained boulder amidst the rubble of the once grand atrium. Chest working to draw air through his filthy mask, he reaches gropingly across his body, fumbling thick fingers around the thumb of his injured hand.
'Crack.'
'BOOM!'
The sharp bite of new pain lances through the Shinobi's mind as he jerks the digit back into alignment, bringing a measure of focus back into his good eye. The world has devolved into light and thunder, Raiza's initial blast still echoing in his ears. Perhaps that is why he does not hear the footsteps. Or, perhaps he is simply nearing his limit. Whatever the case, the mountainous ninja is half way to his feet when the first chain drops around his neck, muscles flexing instinctively as three mean haul sharply at the other end. Leaning into the force, he finishes standing and begins to lift his good hand toward the noose, only for a second chain to snag his wrist. With two men on his arm and three on his neck, the security heave in opposite directions, hoping to stretch the brute out and rob him of any leverage or momentum. Not to strangle him, but to hold him long enough for two more men to rush forth, metal batons sparking as they bring them around in one, two, three battering swings to the Shinobi's unprotected back and side.
Throwing his head forward, Noboru bares his teeth in a bloody grimace as his muscles attempt to lock against the jolts of electricity sparking across his form. However, compared to the voltage Kazuya has put through him this is mere child's play, and the Security should know better. Lashing out with one foot, the brute sweeps the legs out from the attacker to his left, before thrusting the same leg straight back into the stomach of the man hammering at his back. Toes that can crush gravel knot themselves in the tactical webbing, giving him the hold he needs to jerk the unfortunate agent off of his feet and drag him flailing along the ground, tossing him sliding along beneath the line of his arm chain to crash into the agents holding it. At the same moment he jerks every muscle taught, tugging them forward to trip over their companion and give him enough slack to wheel about and rush the final three holding his leash.
Or that was the plan, right up until his icy gaze sweeps past his kneeling companion toward the agents swarming up from behind. Altering course, the bleeding hulk grunts a labored breath through his teeth and lowers his matted head, all 6 of the agents attached to his chains jerked off their feet to tumble across the rubble in his wake.
He will not fail this girl a second time.
Through smoke and blackened char the Mystic lunges, bloody, exhausted, heart thundering in his ears. Wounded limb sweeping up, he catches Raiza square in the chest with the back of his heavy forearm, launching her roughly aside to meet the first of the descending batons head-on.
There is a sound like a metal bat striking a cinder block, a crack of discharge, and Noboru crashes back to earth. In less than a moment the agents have abandoned Raiza, swarming in to bring blow after blow raining down upon the shuddering Miyama. A short ways off the agents that had been attached to his chains regain their feet and move in to join the others, intent on their own brand of revenge.
And then they are gone. Once men reduced to flying bodies and broken limbs, hurled skyward upon the force of a mad Demon's fury.
Upon the ground, Noboru's left hand begins to clinch, knuckles grinding into the grit as he slowly, against all the laws of god and man, begins to push himself up to hand and knees. Chains clanking across the rubble, he draws in a slow, grinding breath, spirit opening fully to the raw pain of the world as his head turns, bad eye glinting through the haze to stare right through the demon.

COMBATSYS: Noboru focuses on his next action.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                        |||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                


[                         \\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                             AGENTS-35                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|----------=====|===============                

COMBATSYS: Noboru keeps on fighting!

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                        |||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|------------===                


[                         \\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|>>>>---\-------\0            Raiza


                             AGENTS-35                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|----------=====|===============                

[RAIZA]
Arcs of electricity remain dancing in the air in the aftermath of Raiza's appeal to the Kami for intercession, igniting and burning away clouds of powdered plaster and concrete that hang in the air in flashes of light. The glimpses of illumination reveal that the devil has survived all her prayers and efforts, still standing with murderous intent. They also reveal the glint of raised weapons as the security force closes in on their position. Caught between the demon and the encroaching army, Raiza finds herself on the verge of being surrounded.

This is the kind of situation that a true shinobi would be able to escape with ease. After all, there's only one of her, and what feels like an infinite supply of heavy armed soldiers. According to the Laws of Conservation of Ninjutsu, she should have an overwhelming advantage. A simple vanishing jutsu could confound the entire squad, leaving her to disappear into a conveniently placed air duct. The right combination of maneuvers could dispatch half the DOATEC agents in a matter of seconds, leaving the rest bewildered and scattering to be finished off at will. A powerful fireball jutsu could achieve much the same end in half the time.

It could be that the plethora of options available to her has led to choice paralysis as she turns dumbfounded to the approaching guards, her chains hanging inert at her sides.

The unfortunate truth, though, is that Raiza doesn't know how to do any of that. She isn't a true shinobi, she's just an upjumped genin with a head injury who's somehow found herself on an S-Rank mission. 'What Would Ryu Do?' won't help her here. She's not Ryu.

As the futility of the situation bears down on her with batons at the ready, it's all that Raiza can do to stare with a single blood-rimmed eye at the oncoming assault, blood pounding in her head - until she's suddenly thrown backward, pushed aside as the real shinobi here steps forward to take the brunt of the assault. Her ninjitsu math was wrong after all - she isn't alone.

Raising her bloody head to see Kazuya standing over her -

'THEN NO ONE WILL REMEMBER YOUR NAMES!!'

- she feels as though she might as well be, as the demon's words echo in her ears and security officers scatter like so many toy soldiers before the hellish might of his fist.

A wellspring of fresh foreboding rises up in her, cutting through the pain-numbing adrenalin that sustains her consciousness as Kazuya's words sink in. If she falls now, will she die here, unremembered?

She thinks of her family back home in Sunshine City. She thinks of Hina-chan's face lighting up at being invited to the Lucky Chloe concert. She thinks of the blond boy she rescued, causing her hand to throb where the ninja star punctured it. She thinks of Hisashi and Hiroko-sama.

Most of all, she thinks of Daisuke and Lucky Chloe waiting for her somewhere far below, the friends who still have no idea what danger she's put herself in.

"You're wrong..." Raiza gasps out through trickling blood and the broken half of her sundered Pikachu mask as she rises to a crouch, a low hum filling the air as she starts to buzz, her bloodstained bangs standing on end as a weight within lifts. "...They'll remember."

With that, she flips over onto her hands, then thrusts her tabi out in a mule kick aimed at the superior warrior's midsection in an attempt to knock him backward toward one of the barriers leading to the plummeting drop below. The attempt would be swiftly followed by the kunoichi throwing herself after the demon, attempting to catch him and drive him down headfirst into the pit in the most traditional of ninja maneuvers, lightning enveloping her.

"SAIKURONDORAIBA!!"

COMBATSYS: Kazuya endures Raiza's Cyclone Driver.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                                 ||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------=======                


[                         \\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0            Raiza


                             AGENTS-35                              
  [     ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|----------=====|===============                



COMBATSYS: Agents-35 blocks Kazuya's Lightning Screw Uppercut.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                                 ||||||||||| ]
                 0|---------------|--------=======                


[                         \\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0            Raiza


                             AGENTS-35                              
  [                |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|----===========|===============                

COMBATSYS: Agents-35 successfully hits Kazuya with Electric Baton Agents.

                               KAZUYA                              
  [                                                             ]
                 0|---------------|---============                


[                         \\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0            Raiza


                             AGENTS-35                              
  [                   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|--=============|===============                

[KAZUYA]
The smell of charred ozone coats the air like soot sticks to the skin.

The shinobi start helping eachother. They were going to need it, if they wanted to survive at all, let alone with most of their limbs intact. Somewhere distant, an explosion rips through the undercurrent of the building, a deep, bassy sound rippling through the feet. It's nothing, compared to the tree of suffering Kazuya unleashes on the trash standing between him and his targets, whirling like a thrown spear through the crowd. Emanating from his fist, spears of lightning cut through the agents, some blown aside, others scattering and scrambling to make their narrow escape. It was a numbers game -- either you're dead, or you're not, in Kazuya's eyes. The boiling blood is all that matters.

In the background, the wall of agents scattered around are tractored across the floor by the surging mass of muscle that is the mountain sage, the shinobi powering through the grouping currently failing at containing him to scatter men like tenpins, throwing men bodily in every direction and plowing them out of the way. Plowing the field, the man recovers, and as the giant moves to rise, he is confronted with the fruits of his labor: For a sick, vertiginous moment, both shinobi find themselves face-to-face with Mishima's devil, at the end of the trail of energy that the little one so helpfully laid out for him. The killer's hands raise, tightening to fists in seething, deadly focus.

The partitions of the next second are vital. Less than a hare's breath remains between success or death. The toll of striking or being struck. Kazuya is brutal, fast, efficient, with no weakness left in his toned, powerful frame, and there will not be a second chance. Everything that's happened is to this point, the light from Kazuya's fist already being channelled into a heaven-splitting blow that would reap the kunoichi into two separate halves. 'You're wrong,' she says, as Kazuya is already killing her. 'They'll remember.'

But that guillotine never finds her neck.

She pinwheels, explosively launching into his middle with all of her weight. Compared to the beast, or even the titan, her featherweight is small, diminutive, pitiful. But a cannonball need only weigh twelve pounds to tear a man to pieces. She spears into his middle, throwing him off-balance. An honest, powerful attack, even by his standards, his abdominal muscles contracting sharply with the wind that was unexpectedly knocked out of him. One step in front of the other, Mishima tries to regain his balance, but the killer runs out of floor before that can happen. A shatter, a crash sends the man careening into the air. Power rills down his spine, forcing the 'gene' to awaken within him, his power coursing through his body. Even this, is not going to be enough -- if they just take the ground from him, the lion will just become a hawk, and kill them from the air.

It takes her continuing onward, gripping onto his body in a wild corkscrew to knock him off-balance, to twist his senses around until he doesn't know which end is up. And then, that diminutive kunoichi sends him spinning down into the abyss, careening through and plowing through at least three floors of concrete before he finds ground strong enough to hold up against his frame. "KUH!!"

Blood stains his vision, blinding him. It doesn't matter. He doesn't have anyone he needs here. No one deserves to live in this rotting mausoleum. The energy is flagging in his limbs, the acid burn through his muscles enraging him. No. This isn't... "FOOLS!" he spits venomously. "I HAVE ALREADY WON!"

Immediately, Kazuya's temple is introduced to the back of a DOATEC agent's baton, flooding stars across his vision. Another thrusts a white-hot electric prod into the middle of his back. Another tries to club him, before the bleeding, defeated Mishima grabs and snaps the baton in half in a short, savage blow. His dead eye flares sharp, bright, vicious light, even through the haze of his own blood. Bitterly, as savage as the animals, he forces his dead limbs alive.

"I WILL BE THE ONE!"

The sound of unrelenting, savage violence boils up from the floors below. The sound of the DOATEC agent radios calls for backup. The sound of boots can be heard. The sound of Kazuya's angry roar. Blows landing. Gunfire. Screaming as people are thrown into open air, through windows, and slammed into the ground. Even some of the agents on Noboru's level attach cables to the edge of the upper floor, leaping down. It takes -several- minutes for the sounds to quiet below, for the dogpiling to cease.

COMBATSYS: Kazuya can no longer fight.

[                         \\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Noboru           0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0            Raiza


                             AGENTS-35                              
  [                   ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
                 1|--=============|===============                

[NOBORU]
In the Iron Mystic's sight, the world has devolved into a raging maelstrom of intersecting powers. The living heart of the world blazes below him, casting the bones of the building as skeletal shade against the immensity of the light. The sky throbs with it, individual fighters glow like fire flies against the dead backdrop of human construction. The demon before him, burns.
Little more than a spark of potential against the world, Raiza throws herself into that blaze, and wins.
Broken tile grinding beneath him, Noboru drags a leg up and braces to crouch, a titanic shrug of his shoulders forcing his chains to clatter free. Head spinning, he watches that spark force the inferno out into space. Watches them begin the long spiral down...
"HRRRRRGH."
Powering forward, the Iron Mystic lunges into two quick steps and leaps, flinging himself out into the yawning void. Arms held wide, he dives across the open atrium, scything down toward the shapes as they begin to separate, the solid bulk of his shoulder colliding with Raiza's center mass. Driving her clear of the plummeting demon, he forces them into a slow tumble, his broad back smashing through the banister 2 floors down from where they started as they crash heavily onto the relative safety of the opposite floor.
"HRMPH."
Hulking form still oozing blood from chest and back, smeared with plaster gone muddy and wet from gore and sweat, the mountainous shinobi uncurls the cage of his limbs from about his partner's form and plants a big hand against her side, pushing her off of his chest and onto the dirty floor beside him. He seems, tired. Exhausted even. But despite that he is already beginning the laborious process of clambering to his feet, good eye staring straight ahead with fixed focus.
"I do not know your name, young ally," he rumbles aside to the girl, bracing his injured hand against the wall to finish shoving himself upright. "But know you have made a friend of the Miyama clan tonight."
Shooting a look up through the solid floor above him, off into a distance only his mystical sight can see, the brute checks something, body gone briefly still.
"Perhaps we will live long enough for this to matter. Hurry. It is not long before impact. Lead our escape. I will follow."

[RAIZA]
Carrying Kazuya on her kamikaze mission toward the bottom floors of the tower, Raiza had consigned herself to space and the oblivion waiting below, content in the hope that she would be remembered, regardless of her fate, even just a little. Sure, they might not remember her for what happened here, but in a way, maybe that would be better.

As she closes her eyes, though, she suddenly feels a second mass slam into her from the side, causing her to release the demon Mishima like a bomber releasing its payload. She's carried to a crash landing on one of the middle floors, and she's soon left to roll onto the floor on her back, staring up through the half-Pikachu mask and her own blood-streaked face toward the ceiling. She hears Noboru's voice as if through a pool of water, and pushes herself up from the floor, her arm shaking with the effort of lifting herself from the dirt. She turns her face to the side and looks up to Noboru, a smile curling at the corner of her lips until her expression strangely matches that of the half-mask she's wearing, a bright, sunny contradiction of the pallor that's seizing her face as the blood that coloured her cheeks from within now stains them from without. "Call me Raiza!" she introduces herself warmly.

Then, she collapses onto her front as the lights go out.

"Raiza-chan!"

A voice cuts through the clouds of debris that fill the air as a figure emerges from them - an older male Japanese youth with long hair wearing the sleeveless garb of a shinobi, the lower half of his face concealed by a wrap, a pair of swords sheathed in an X across his back.

The ninja kneels down next to Raiza, turning her over carefully, expressioning darkening as he sees what's wrong with her - beyond the obvious head injury.

"She's been shot," he says grimly. "The tourniquet won't work for long. Let's go - I have an exit strategy."

COMBATSYS: Noboru has left the fight here.

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COMBATSYS: Raiza has left the fight here.



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Log created on 20:07:12 08/14/2022 by Raiza, and last modified on 18:54:39 05/30/2023.