Match of the Millennium

Description: It's Brit-on-Brit violence at the Metro Skywalk in the latest round of the NFG tournament!

[COCO]
==*== THE DAY BEFORE THE FIGHT ==*==

Constance Coalbridge balanced atop a stack of precariously-piled disused cars in Abigail's scrapyard, trying to find some sort of serenity high above the noise of machinery and mangled metal coming from the main works as she practiced her Bird of Paradise pose. Her face pulled into a bemused expression as she listened to the announcement of her upcoming match.

"Really? Didn't we already /do/ that?"

Well, at least she had an outfit that she could use, since she was still waiting for a new official Team Frost fighting uniform after the disaster that had befallen her last one.

==*== THE DAY OF THE FIGHT ==*==

As Coco finds herself sitting in a sexified suit of white and black Imperial Scout Trooper armour amongst the myriad food stalls and carts that occupy this corner of Metro City's Skywalk Lane, none of which are manned by extraterrestrials (cosplaying or otherwise), she can't help but think that she's got something quite wrong.

"Isn't this supposed to be Skywalker Lane?" she murmurs to herself.

"Oh, we get that all the time," the waitress who's just brought Coco's tea over assures her, by which she means that it's happened maybe once in the past three years that she can remember, she'd be laughing if not for a grace developed over years of working in the hospitality industry, and she'll be sending photos to all her friends on FightBook later with 'LMAO this dumb Brit thought it was Skywalker Lane XD #spacecadet'.

"I mean, you would, wouldn't you?" Coco says as she picks up her drink, peers at it, and frowns. "Oh, right. You put ice in tea, here." She waits for the waitress to walk away before glancing around and surreptitiously pouring the contents of the glass over the side of the Skywalk.

"HEY!" someone shouts from below.

"Oh, sorry!" Coco shouts back, though her lips curve into a Schadenfreudian smile. Serves these bloody Americans right.

Standing up, she leaves her Scout Trooper helmet overturned on the table for her binturong (Captain Morgan, currently dressed as Wicket) to play in. "He's over there," she addresses one of the NFG's animal handlers, who are by now accustomed to looking after the purple-haired Brit's companion during her matches. As Coco sashays imperially over toward the area that has been cordoned off for the upcoming match, a group of middle-aged Mad Gear members who've come to watch start going 'Dun dunn dunnn dun dadunn dun dadunn' to the tune of the Imperial March. A sharp look from the silver-eyed scout trooper puts a stop to it... for all of the time that it takes for her to turn back around.

"Great. I've got a new bloody theme tune," Coco mutters as the power of the dark side grows stronger within her.

[IRIS]
MEANWHILE, AT ULTRATECH HEADQUARTERS, YESTERDAY MORNING:

The object of focus for the camera lies in a long, thin, velvet-lined case, the sort of thing virtuosos use to carry around their instruments. Visible looking down into said case, which the camera sees from the back, is the trademark brown-and-rainbow hair of Iris Osterlund, who nods in satisfaction and honestly, a little bit of awe. "We did it. We actually did it. But that was the easy bit. Now, well..."

Training for a typical martial artist involves repeatedly punching or kicking a dummy, doing lifts or curls or squats or something. A particularly spiritual fighter might chant sutras, practice forming mudra, or something of that nature. How was Iris training? Well.

Cue the montage of her at various public places in Metro City, usually saying something like "Here's good" before extending her hand and concentrating, summoning SOMETHING to her not-in-the-frame hand (often to the shocked gasps of people around her), looking at it, and nodding in satisfaction.

Metro Square. A park. A shopping mall. A grocery store. A famous pedestrian bridge. But critically, every time: the satisfied look.

NOW:

Perhaps thankfully, if temporarily, for Coco, Iris arrives somewhat late, and when she does, realizes she hasn't eaten all day. Thus the Star Wars-ian antics end up being completely missed as Iris walks between food trucks and stalls, sampling snacks from a dozen different ethnicities with pleasure until she finds a stall named, in big red and white letters on a sign with the Union Jack: [BANGERS AND MASH]. This, expectedly, brings her to a complete halt as she stares at it.

A smug-looking white guy sits behind the counter, which is definitely not seeing business. Printed on fake vellum, a piece of paper near the menu discusses the ancient origins of bangers and mash, hearkening back to soldier food eaten by William the Conqueror's men while on the march, and the extensive process that making ~authentic~ versions of the dish requires.

If Iris's stare could set something on fire, the man would be burning to death. As it is, she lets out a deep breath and, halfway across the skywalk from Coco, mutters: "Bloody Americans."

It is in this frame of mind the wizard finds herself in when she arrives to find Constance Coalbridge dressed to either fight, or defeat the Rebellion at beach volleyball. The surprise is evident on her face for a moment, before Iris gives a faint smile and a wave. "Afternoon, former teamie," she says, pleasantly enough. "Nice to meet you properly."

[COCO]
Something about the sound of someone else's voice addressing her in a well-spoken English accent causes Coco to sigh away at least half of the stress that she's currently carrying around in her chest, which she'd been erroneously attributing entirely to the plastic plate that she's squeezed herself into. Lowering her leg out of the Bird of Paradise pose and turning to face Iris directly, Coco beams a smile.

"Hallo, Iris! Lovely to see you again, darling!"

She steps forward instinctively, compelled by ingrained posh person protocol to offer the hands-on-arms air-kiss-on-each-cheek greeting that she would offer one of her superficial friends back in Chelsea, but stops herself short, her hands - already halfway to Iris' biceps - changing their course to instead clasp in front of her thighs for lack of anything better to do, making her look incredibly twee.

"Thank God we're both shot of that Blaze nightmare! I mean, seriously, I can't believe they didn't even tell you where we were all staying. Honestly, you were probably better off. Too bad we aren't on the same team, but I'm so glad to see you. We totally have to find a proper caf afterward."

She swings her clasped hands up to her chest in excitement before stepping back and gesturing to her outfit.

"I thought it would be a lark to wear my Storm Trooper gear, since we're all Skywalkers up here. I mean, it's just a bit of silliness, really. Bit of a clever pun. Not that I actually thought it had anything to do with Star Wars, obviously. So, how are you finding things at Team Metal? Frost is... hey, you lot! Stop chanting already! Frost is an... improvement."

-=*=- SMASH CUT TO COCO'S TRAILER BEING DESTROYED -=*=-
-=*=- SMASH CUT TO CAPTAIN MORGAN BEING CHASED BY JUNKYARD DOGS -=*=-
-=*=- SMASH CUT TO COCO WASHING DIRT AND ASH OFF IN A COLD RUSTY SHOWER (TASTEFULLY CENSORED) -=*=-

"Sort of."

[IRIS]
FUN FACT #1: Iris's parents and family WERE rich Brits.
FUN FACT #2: They were also nerds.

This means that young Miss Osterlund's summers featured heavily on such high class activities as Let Us Investigate The Arcane Libraries Of Prague, rather than more fun things like Let's Spend A Week On The Beach In Ibiza. So one one level, Coco's abortive 'hello sweetie hello darling' introduction doesn't faze Iris terribly much because she wouldn't have known how to deal with it anyway.

Still, hearing that someone ELSE thinks the round one Team Blaze experience was perhaps the TINIEST bit of a [redacted]show makes her smile in a quite genuine way, and her entire posture and body language quite visibly relax as a result. "I do regret that I didn't really get to meet any of you in a halfway normal context," she admits, especially since despite Hawksley having beat the hell out of her, the magus feels like he would probably have been fun to spend time with, and at the very least, her brief impression of Coco is equally 'entertaining dowmtime situation'. "I won't say I'm all too sad about missing out on the rest of it, though, no."

Coco asks how things are on Team Metal, and for the BRIEFEST of moments, Iris's facial expression freezes in place, as she mentally tracks through the past couple days, including ARIA's big reveal and the gossip in the building about the boss playing Looney Tunes with Greg Ilvich in a transparent elevator. For a moment, her eyes dart to the LifeBand(tm) on her wrist.

But, there are SOME things she can be honest about. "Honestly, the ones I've met have been lovely. Djamila is almost aggressively a ray of sunshine, Kenzo's very earnest. I haven't run into the other two yet, but I'm sure I will soon."

Blue eyes track across the marked-off space to find an NFG handler making a vague swirly motion with one hand, and the Cantabrigian clears her throat. "I think they want us to get this show on the road," she admits, sheepishly. "If you're at all as skilled as everyone else I've fought so far, I'm in for a challenge."

A brief pause, as Iris shakes out her hands and stretches a bit, in absence of a recognizable 'stance' for her to get into. "Also sorry that I didn't get the note about cosplay. I'd have tried to come up with something."

[COCO]
"I think the best bit was the ride to the dojo, really. We took a limo, so it felt a bit cozy and familiar, and it was Morgie's first ride in one," Coco babbles a bit about the Blaze backstory, brushing her hair back behind her ear as she reminisces just a little. "Then we had that gas leak, though, and it all sort of went a bit weird from then on."

Had any of it actually been that bad, though? Mostly she just lumps it in with the wheel of carnage that spun around the axle of her misadventures with a certain Irishman. Frost seemed to be living in even less genteel conditions back in Sunshine. Really, it had been a management issue. Zog had disappeared with Brian Storm to get tacos and never come back, Yuri had been held up in Southtown, she couldn't remember meeting Gouki, and Mitsuru... well, Mitsuru had tried, bless her.

"Oh, yeah. Djamila's not bad. We did yoga once, which was fun, other than Hawksley coming along and getting us barred. And Kenzo was a good sport."

Coco is reminded to limber up her knees by the mention of the ninja, and does so one at a time, lifting them up, then stretching them behind her as the two Brits converse.

"Jay-Dee seems to have a bit of a cheeky streak, but I thought we got along okay in the Rumble."

They'd gotten along rather infamously, in fact, but Coco doesn't dwell on that matter.

"And my match with DJ Supernova was a good night."

Mostly for other reasons, but Coco also doesn't dwell on that.

"Actually, Team Metal's pretty good, isn't it? If I weren't on Frost, I'd probably love being on your team."

As the two are being pressed to commence hostilities, Coco smiles politely, shifting her stance into a kickboxing one, raising both fists and one knee into guard.

"Of course, since I am on Frost, I'm intending to continue my streak of beating Metal members - oh, bollocks!"

Noticing that she's still wearing the plastic-guarded costume boots on her raised foot, Coco reaches down with her gauntleted hands to start tugging it off, hopping back and forth as she does to keep her balance.

"Sorry! One sec!"

The cosplaying Brit manages to wrench one off, exposing black athletic tape wrapped around the arch of an otherwise bare foot, then shifts her single-leg stance to work on removing the other boot. She's still doing it when an electric bell goes from somewhere to signal the match start.

"It's okay! I'll have it off in a moment!" she encourages her opponent.

COMBATSYS: Coco has started a fight here.

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

[IRIS]
The words 'oh yeah, didn't you get kidnapped that one time, too?' die unaired somewhere in Iris's head, as Coco's high-speed recounting of her round 1 NFG social life washes over her like a mildly insane-sounding Instagram tide. How do you get banned from yoga? That question is going to haunt Iris's waking moments for weeks after this and she will almost certainly not get an answer, since the idea of asking Djamila what happened feels like it's going to go somewhere the magus would rather not go.

There's definitely a lot of pleasant, if vacant, smiling and nodding going on from Iris at this. It truly isn't as if Coco isn't personable and friendly -- she is! -- so much as that the entire narrative is being told by vignettes rather than entire stories and the result is a sort of narrative tidal wave: you can either try to surf it, or just let it carry you to shore and hope you don't drown.

Coco stans with 'wardrobe malfunction' on their bingo cards are probably both pleased (square!) and sad (it's boots); Iris blinks in surprise at the sudden dance to remove the boots, but is also dimly aware of how complicated cosplay can be, and so she waits patiently, even curiously, by, while Coco tries to extricate herself. But as this goes on for a bit, the rainbow-haired young lady hmmms to herself idly, then takes her right index finger and draws a little shape on the inside of her left palm, which glows faintly green for a second before Iris closes her fist too quickly for the shape to be seen.

It is only when Coco has very definitely and completely finished removing the boots, and seems to be focused and alert, than Iris looks at her with total seriousness, asking: "You good? Alright."

Then she brings up her left hand and opens her fist, causing the wind rune she scribed there a little bit ago to detonate at close range, hopefully propelling Coco back a bit; the greenish glow flows out of Iris's hand and down, very briefly, to her feet, as well.

COMBATSYS: Iris has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Coco             0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0             Iris

COMBATSYS: Coco blocks Iris' Eihwaz - Storm and Stress.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Coco             0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0             Iris

[COCO]
The other boot does in fact come off with a little more effort, leaving Coco in her usual kickboxing wraps. Placing both feet on the ground, Coco gives her toesies a wiggle now that they can breathe, then, thusly satisfied, brings her knee and gloved fists back up.

"Thanks! I don't like kicking if my toesies can't -"

Coco's relief is short-lived as she suddenly finds herself blown back by the unleashed wind blast. She manages to hit the ground in a roll, taking only a modest bump with the seat of her scout suit before tumbling until she's on her knees.

"Oh, bugger. Another energy user? Gosh, at least you don't use weapons," she groans as she pushes herself up off of the floor and straight into a rush toward Iris, hoping to close the gap before she can pull out another one of those tricks. As she nears, she'll try and pull a move surprisingly similar to how she nearly greeted Iris - reaching for the upper arms to try and establish dominance, though rather than going in for the kiss kiss, she'd feint a knee to try and force a low guard, then pivot forward to send an elbow over Iris' arms and hopefully into her face. If she manages that, she'd follow up by cocking her hips to one side before slamming them into her fellow Brit's legs (she is a bit taller, after all) to try and take them out from under her.

COMBATSYS: Iris parries Coco's Tiki Bongo!

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Coco             0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
'At least you don't use weapons.'

Well, this is gonna go south in a hurry.

Considering Coco's history in the league so far, which -- thanks to Mint's influence and ARIA's meticulous, eternal, panopticon-esque surveillance -- Iris thought to arm herself with BEFORE walking into this fight, the Cantabrigian knew she'd need to be on her toes. Thus, as Coco recovers adroitly from the wind burst, Iris is *already* doing the necessary math in her head for what she's about to do. The question is going to be: can she actually pull it off?

Coco's reaching hands closing on empty air (well, not empty; there's some rainbow sparkles! They feel slightly warm to the touch!) is the answer to that question.

This is because Iris, as is her wont and her fighting style, blinked out of existence and reappeared right behind Coco.

HOWEVER: replay of the VOD will show the magus's face and body in freeze-frame just as Coco utters the word 'weapons'; she was clearly bringing her arm back to summon something to attack with and in that instant the gathering summon dissolves entirely as Iris's face is creased with a rictus smile.

She has to turn the gesture to attack into SOMETHING, now, though; she committed by reappearing so close to her opponent rather than farther away to get some distance, and this might give Coco the opening she needs to turn around and retaliate as Iris makes a grab for her shirt (armor, technically?). If she GETS that grip, though, both young women disappear, then reappear about 3-4' in the air, as Iris maneuvers herself above Coco and basically rides her all the way down to the ground.

That's probably another Bingo square for the folks at home, right?

COMBATSYS: Iris successfully hits Coco with Nauthiz - Ominous Rainfall EX.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Coco             0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0             Iris

[COCO]
While Iris and her mentors may have had the foresight to study Coco's previous fight footage before match day, it's already fairly evident that Coco has no time for such things. Granted, it might have helped if she'd had access to a proper screen, and maybe a desk, and maybe some comfortable seating, and maybe really any of the other things that she would have had if her trailer hadn't been crushed like an empty soda can by her sponsor. She's in for more than a few surprises, and the first one comes in the form of rainbow sparkles.

"Oh. How lovely," a confused Constance Coalbridge comments as she cradles a colourful mote in one of her black-and-white gloves, gazing at it with a mesmerized look.

"Wait, wha-"

There is a cropped black synthetic top with sleeves under the plastic plate on Coco's chest, so there's plenty to grab in that region (which would be an accurate assessment regardless, to be fair) - and though she tries to turn around when she detects the magician girl's grasp, she can't quite wrest herself free or strike out before she finds herself being ridden to the ground from four feet up, as if reality were a video game that was glitching out.

Coco doesn't even play video games.

"Oof!" the purpler of the Brits is forced to exhale as she hits the ground on her back with Iris atop her.

"This feels like you're cheating a bit," she asserts with suspicion in her expression as she struggles to shift Iris from her superior position, before throwing out a hard right-handed punch to try and force Iris to retreat, if not outright knock the rainbow-haired Brit off of herself!

COMBATSYS: Iris fails to interrupt Fierce Punch from Coco with Jera - Festival of Plenty.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Coco             0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
Iris had such big plans, but sadly, Coco is not having any of it. The world's foremost binturong trainer may notice, on the way DOWN, that Iris extends a hand, palm open. Now, had she seen fight footage, this would be a clear giveaway that a weapon summoning is happening, or attempting to anyway; as it is, however, the motion is probably so DEEPLY SUSPICIOUS that it foretells more trickery to come if Coco doesn't do something about it.

On Iris's part, her goal was to call up a whip, which she'd use to yank Coco right into an attack once they'd landed... or, even better, if Coco decides to immediately go for a reprisal, Iris could tangle her up and stay on the offensive!

PROBLEM: the whip appears in her hand just as Coco's fist makes contact with Iris's face.

True facts, Constitution remains a short stat for Wizards, meaning that the blow quite literally lifts the wizard into the air a bit, whip trailing after her. At the last second, Iris seems to come out of the post-punch stun and realize what's happening; lashing out with the whip, she snags the nearest solid object she can get it on and yanks, giving herself a brief window to right herself and land on her feet rather than her face.

PROBLEM: the nearest solid object was the sign for the "BANGERS AND MASH" food truck, which was not prepared to support her weight or that much force, causing it to slam into the ground and instantly break into pieces.

The whip, as with all Iris's summoned weapons, vanishes briefly afterwards, as the magus looks back at the stall and says, voice dripping with RP accent formality, "I'm so *dreadfully* sorry."

Then she turns back to Coco, preparing for whatever comes next. "I suppose you could call it cheating," she admits. "I mean, I AM a wizard. Like, a literal one."

[COCO]
Sometimes, complex problems have straightforward solutions. It's not often the case, but in this instance, 'just punching her' proves to be one for Constance's predicament. She doesn't have a lot of utilitarian tools in her present loadout, but she does have a natural talent for hitting people. The Scout Trooper pushes herself up to her feet and frowns as her gaze follows her fellow Brit's.

"Oh, that's a shame. I was thinking of going there for lunch after."

She turns her attention back to Iris with a smile and shrugs as she brings her fists back up.

"Oh well."

The smile fades to awe as Iris admits to 'cheating,' and, furthmore, to wizardry.

"What, literally? Like, literally literally?"

She may not read the fighter profiles on NewFightingGeneration.com, but she's read enough Harry Potter books to be a little excited at the revelation.

(Okay, let's be honest, she's read the first two chapters then decided to watch the movies instead.)

"Oh, that is /so/ cheating," she declares, though her tone is now more one of reverence and envy than genuine disdain.

If her opponent is going to cheat, then Coco decides that she can hardly be begrudged a bit of cheating of her own. With that in mind, she lowers her guard to make a short run before leaping up into the air, extending her right leg into a flying side kick aimed for Iris' upper body!

Why is that cheating? Because they generally don't use flying side kicks in Muay Thai. However, they are sometimes used by Tae Kwon Do practitioners. Sus indeed.

COMBATSYS: Iris blocks Coco's Diving Kick.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Coco             0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
So far the NFG, Iris's experience has been that people have been reading up on her before the fight, or the announcers doing all the promos have made like 50 low-intensity puns about magic in her intros, or any of a variety of things that have led unequivocably to her starting fights and having people immediately comment on the fact that she is a Literal Wizard. To have Coco respond in something approaching credulous disbelief is both refreshing and confusing.

Also thank god for both of them that only the narrator mentioned Harry Potter. It's a sore spot for British mages everywhere.

Deciding that a shield technically only counts as 'armor' rather than a weapon, as Coco comes leaping in at her, Iris brings up an arm and extends her right hand, which -- in a burst of rainbow light -- is now holding the straps of a small shield that gets interposed into the path of Coco's attack, her foot slamming into it with a dull *WHMP* (must be a wooden shield) and being gently pushed aside. Still stings, and because she's close Coco can almost certainly hear the hiss of pain, but it definitely doesn't hurt as much as getting kicked in the face would.

Her Cantabrigian foe has no intention of letting Coco rest, however; the shield vanishes as Iris instantly pivots on one foot and swings her *other* arm around. This time, rather than a shield, she summons up a spear... but the wide horizontal arc of her swing means Iris isn't attempting to stab her, just whack her with the haft like it was a quarterstaff. Maybe that won't be so bad?

COMBATSYS: Coco blocks Iris' Evasive Strike.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Coco             0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0             Iris

[COCO]
While she hasn't shown herself to be a keen observer so far, Coco is starting to quickly cotton on to Iris' capacity for conjuration. First, there was that whip, which fortunately hadn't turned things too kinky. Next is a shield - which causes Coco to exclaim an 'Ow!' as she lands after connecting with the wooden barrier with her bare foot. If only she'd had some sort of protection on her feet when she'd gone for that, such as, perhaps, an armoured boot. She's hopping backward on one foot as Iris prepares for her next magic trick - giving her a clear view of the spear that the rainbow warrior is wielding.

Coco inhales sharply.

To a large degree, she has gotten over her original fear of being harmed by potentially deadly weapons, because, honestly, it hasn't happened that much. Rather, her immediate fear response is on behalf of her wardrobe. For whatever reason, whenever she gets into fights with these people with their fire and claws and sharp objects, it's always been her outfits (and by extension her dignity) that have suffered.

It even happened in a fight with a staff fighter, somehow.

"Gyah!"

Coco pivots, twisting so that a decorative hip pack hanging from a white belt around her waist catches the brunt of the blunt shaft. She pushes the weapon away, rubbing her sore side, then smiles faintly. There's no rush of cool air on exposed skin, no ripping sound of sundered garments.

"Ha! Silly! You're supposed to use the pointy end, aren't you?" she derides Iris' thoughtfulness as she steps in alongside the spear's reach to throw a jab with her leading left hand before swinging her right leg up in a roundhouse toward Iris' side.

Unfortunately, the designer of Coco's costume apparently decided to skimp on the black fabric of the tights, which have been exposed to salt for several weeks now, thanks to a tumble into the ocean that Coco can blame on a certain Irishman's unconfirmed troll ancestry. This has had an effect of shrinking and weakening the previously-mentioned fabric.

And so, seemingly inexplicably, with a *riiippp*, Coco can suddenly feel the cool breeze on the side of her right hip, causing her to instinctively yell "Dammit, Lucky!" as she's delivering the roundhouse. She can't be sure /how/ Hawksley could be responsible, but somehow, she's absolutely convinced that he is.

COMBATSYS: Iris dodges Coco's Pina Collider.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Coco             0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
As the old saw goes, while yelling during your attacks can feel really good, it also sometimes represents a tactical error. In this case, either the yell, Coco's momentary wardrobe-related distraction, or both help Iris out in that regard. As the purple-haired mistress's leg and foot come scything through the air toward her, the wizard makes a little sound ("eep!", it's adorable) and scrambles backwards. It's not the most elegant defense, but it DOES work, leaving Iris crouched a few feet behind where she was just standing.

Critically, however, the spear she conjured is still in her hand. That's unusual; most of the time when she summons a weapon, it vanishes once she's used it.

"I mean... you said..." Iris starts, genuinely trying to respond to Coco's teasing(?) in an earnest way. This, too, is unlike her; the magus is normally a bit quippier than this. Maybe it's just residual British girl's school trauma? She IS fighting a Popular Girl, after all.

A brief pause. "Well..." Iris says carefully. "She DID say to use the pointy end."

And then she tosses the spear into the air. Not AT Coco, but ABOVE her. This probably seems unwise, all things considered...

...UNTIL Iris teleports up to the spear in midair, grabs it, and attempts to Kain Highwind her way right down onto Coco, with the pointy end.

SHE BROUGHT IT UP YOU ALL SAW IT.

COMBATSYS: Coco blocks Iris' Raido - Solstice Journey.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Coco             1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0             Iris

[COCO]
Hopefully the editors on the NFG corner of Fighterpedia won't start a flame war over whether that combination of Coco's was meant to be called 'Pina Collider' or 'Dammit Lucky.'

As she comes out of her kick and back into her guarded stance, Coco decides to take the time that Iris is using to consider her course to do an assessment of the damage to her own attire. What were previously essentially a pair of black tights with a white synthetic bikini over them are now more of a single-leg synthetic pant-like garment and a long stocking with a bikini between them. All things considered, it's probably worth a few more fashion points, considering that 'distressed' and 'asymmetrical' are on trend.

"I said what?" Coco asks as she suddenly looks up at Iris, then up again at where Iris actually is. "Oh, shit!"

As Iris (now job-swapped from Wizard to Dragoon) plunges toward her, Coco staggers, uncertain of exactly how to guard against an attack from such an unusual angle. She ends up grabbing at the haft at the last minute - but it's not enough to stop the spear (and its wielder) from crashing into her, the shaft plunging straight between her bosoms as she's knocked backward and pinned to the floor.

"Bloody hell! Am I stabbed? Did you stab me?" the purple-haired Brit wheezes poshly.

Fortunately for Coco, her efforts have been just enough that rather than going through the plastic chestplate she's wearing and into her sternum, the pointy end has gotten stuck in the plate, and it's mainly the fall and the pressure of the weight landing on her that Coco has had to contend with.

"Oh, sodding crap," Coco grunts as she tries, with little success, to wrench the spear out of her boob plate. She instead resorts to swiftly unfastening the fixture and holding the spear at bay before sliding out from beneath it. She's left wearing a black long-sleeved crop top that matches the fabric of the tights (pay attention, bingo Stans) with white shoulder pads, elbow guards and gauntlets still attached.

"Okay, so you /do/ know which way the pointy end goes," Coco pants upon kipping up to her feet. "My apologies."

And with that, she throws the gauntlet - literally - lashing out with a right-handed straight at Iris' upper body.

COMBATSYS: Iris just-defends Coco's Medium Punch!

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Coco             1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
Well, the good news on Coco's behalf is that once the technique is over and both fighters have hit the ground, the spear ceases to be a problem, because it simply stops existing in a little burst of light. Because narrative causality is the most powerful force in creation, however, it manages to vanish JUST as she abandons her tity armor for it. Iris, at least, has the good sense to look sheepish when that happens, clearing her throat. "Sorry I should have said."

Then she has to contend with Coco's fist of doom (or, if not doom, then at least Severe Displeasure), however, which is a much bigger problem than potential embarassment. The speed and suddenness of the blow push Iris to desperation, and she holds out both hands and attempts to summon effectively anything that would help defend against this particular attack: a shield, an armored gauntlet, anything.

There is a flash of rainbow light.

Coco's gauntleted fist collides gently with the softest teddy bear imaginable.

There is a brief moment where Iris (and probably Coco) are allowed to simply... stare at this result. It's one of the really good size ones, not the little stuff you get at Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was definitely fluffy enough to stand up to Coco's not-inconsiderable strength, which is saying something.

After the moment passes, Iris points at the teddy bear with her other hand. "This right here? Is why magic isn't cheating."

Then she swings the damn thing at Coco's head. It's got some weight to it, but at least it's plush.

COMBATSYS: Coco instinctively blocks Iris' Weakened Medium Strike.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Coco             1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0             Iris

[COCO]
Thanks to the quick thinking of one of the fight photographers, the crisp and clear image of Coco in full (mostly) scout trooper gear punching the stuffing out of an adorable teddy bear while Iris presumably tries to hold it back will forever live in posterity on Star Wars fan forums as a symbol of Imperial oppression and on fighting fan forums as a symbol of Coco's hypocrisy as an animal rights activist.

"I... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to punch your teddy!" Coco apologizes, apparently far more broken up inside over this result than for any of the violence she's attempted to visit on an actual living, breathing person.

When the teddy retaliates, though, Coco instinctively falls backward onto her ass, punting the plummeting plushie in the process as if she were a world-famous footballer attempting to bicycle kick her way into history. Whatever becomes of the teddy, it ends with a *CRASH*.

"Sorry!" Coco calls out, sounding much more thoughtful than she would if whoever just got attacked by a flying bear were aware that it was the bear she was apologising to.

Pushing herself off the ground with both hands, she thrusts her left foot at Iris' midsection before following up with a quick jab and cross combination in the space she hopes to create with the kick!

"How is being able to make teddies whenever you want /not/ cheating?!" Coco demands to know as she goes back on the assault.

COMBATSYS: Coco successfully hits Iris with Bloody Mary.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Coco             1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1             Iris

[IRIS]
UPSIDE: Teddy is just a mystically-summoned facsimile. Teddy bears aren't real bears, and even by teddy bear standards, THIS teddy bear is barely (bearly?) real to begin with, because magic. Thus Coco's animal lover credit is saved (it's not real) AND there's no chance of the thing accidentally smothering someone in the audience once it's kicked out of Iris's hands, as it vanishes back into the ether from which it came (it's not real).

DOWNSIDE: Iris was watching Teddy's flight and does not turn back to Coco in sufficient time to mount an effective defensive against her cross combination. Thankfully, in the split second as she attempts (and fails) to fade backwards from taking the hit, one of the wizard's hands traces a shape -- a vague Y shape with the branch extending into the upper part -- in the air, which glows a faint silver-gold mix before vanishing. A faint faerie flame of the same color flows around Iris's body for an instant, and Coco can likely feel it adding JUST a bit of resistance to her blows. Not enough to nullify the strikes by any means, but certainly enough to help minimize their (actually quite substantial) threat.

When she staggers back to her feet, wiping her mouth, Iris sizes Coco up just a bit. Coming into this, she knew her fellow Brit would probably be one of the more challenging fights in the NFG she's had, given Coco's record. She wanted to save the big ace up her sleeve for an opportune moment... and it seems like now's the time.

A pause. A breath. "Okay," she says aloud, probably to the crowd -- and likely her opponent's -- confusion. "Let's see if all that practice paid off."

Extending her arm, fingers extended parallel to the ground, Iris concentrates, and in a burst of rainbow light, something appears in her outstretched hand. Specifically... a rapier of frankly exquisite make, all told. The blade appears to be made of pure silver, and in fact, at almost any angle it catches light and refracts it into a myriad of colors depending on the angle; it might look reddish one moment, greenish the next, as if it can't decide what color to be.

Later on, a subreddit full of medieval weapon nerds will comment that it appears to be a replica of the blade of Charlemagne, the sword Joyeuse: the joyous blade of shifting colors.

Iris, for her part, looks at it with momentary disbelief, then a smile of pure accomplishment that she turns on Coco, dropping into garde. "What do they say in comic books all the time?" Iris says aloud, being a little showboat-y (she's earned it). "You're a strong enough opponent that I had to break this out?"

Iris's left hand comes up and traces a single rune across the blade: a single vertical line, a | of glowing blue-white, which causes the rapier to suddenly be surrounded in an aura of frost. "En garde!" is all Iris has to say, before she pushes off the ground in a swift lunge at Coco with the rimed blade. The entire thing is smoothly practiced fencing: fleche, a sweeping horizontal displacement, before coming out of that twirl with another swift, forward-striking remise.

COMBATSYS: Coco blocks Iris' Teiwaz - Prism Blade.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Coco             2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1             Iris

[COCO]
Of course, in hindsight, the animated gif of Coco Pele-kicking the teddy off-camera will probably be the more heavily-used meme to be spawned from the incident.

The purple-haired Brit keeps on guard (perhaps out of foresight) as her multi-colour-coiffed counterpart recovers from the cross combo and commences conjuring anew. The gleam of rainbow light reflects in Coco's silver eyes as the rapier of exquisitely Frank make flashes into existence.

On the bright side, Coco's mind tells her, this is, at least, the sort of weapon that she's actually encountered in her everyday whilst growing up, as it is well known that all posh British children take fencing lessons as mandatory curriculum, alongside tennis, polo, and screaming lessons (in case they have to deal with incompetent servants, or they decide to join Parliament). The problem is, that usually involved extra padding, blunted tips, and, well, a sword of her own.

"I don't really read comics," Coco admits as she eyes the sword warily, the awe starting to wear off to be replaced with an unsettled sensation. "Is that from the Beano?"

When the frost-coated weapon suddenly swipes toward her, she decides to put the training of her youth to practice, letting out a pitious scream as the blade's frosted tip glances across her armoured forearm to slice an icy gash across her top, the trail rent quickly swelling into a decolletage as the brittle frosted fabric crackles. As the follow-up strike aims for her ever-more-exposed upper body, Coco snaps out of her panic to slam her wrists together, trapping the blade between the plastic plates protecting them before it can pierce her person. Her teeth clench from the strain, the tension quickly turning to chattering as the sensation of cold starts to spread through her chest and arms.

"Blimey, that's bloody freezing," she announces for the benefit of those who can't actually see what's happening, before locking her silver irises with Iris's irises.

As much as both Coco (and her narrator) likes to go on about how she doesn't have any special tricks up her sleeve, really, that's not entirely true. She does have one.

(Not counting being able to do a full Bird of Paradise).

If Coco can manage to her fellow Brit's gaze with her own, the wizard may feel a sudden psychosomatic sensation of intense cold coursing through her own body, a subtle but powerful pressure compelling her to engage in a staredown as the feeling of a Scandinavian winter would start to set in - a memory recalled by Iris' icy assault, now shared, as Coco keeps her wrists clenched together while slowly twisting her hips and legs into position.

Then, when Coco feels that her prey - I mean, new bestie - has succumbed to her gaze, she'll suddenly uncoil, launching herself up over the blade and spinning sidelong into the air as she delivers a singular blow toward Iris' head with the swiftness, precision, and potentially the potency of a striking cobra.

COMBATSYS: Iris fails to interrupt #Cobra's Fang# from Coco with Isa - Fimbulwinter.
>> Decisive Hit!! <<

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Coco             0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
This entire fight, it is probably obvious to anyone with fighting experience watching that Iris has been doing her damndest to stay on the offensive. As she'd said to Mint and Kenzo, part of her frustration in the NFG has been the feeling that her opponent is always the one controlling the pace of the match, and that the wizard is constantly running to catch up. Thus this deliberate attempt to give no quarter. It's certainly why she was doing all that endurance training: literally sitting in front of a dummy and using small, simple spells over and over again.

So when Iris dives in with her newly-forged blade, she has no plans to simply wait for whatever Coco's counterstrike is going to be. There's a brief second where she has to concentrate, though -- typically the weapons she summons are ephemeral, but THIS one is special and needs to be 'put back' rather than blinking out of existence -- and that just might be what makes this all go so very wrong.

Around both fighters, right as Coco is starting her deadly gaze, a ring of more ice was beginning to form... and as soon as the cobra has its hypnotic gaze on the victim, that dies on the vine, blowing away in the wind. The blue-eyed magus stares forward at nothing for a surprisingly long time.

Right before Coco's followup blow almost sends her over the side of the skywalk.

As it is, Iris goes flying through a table for a nearby food truck before slamming into the guard rail and slumping to the ground, briefly unmoving. The crowd starts to whisper about Iris having just been taken out of the fight entirely.

The truth is that, more than physically, the Cantabrigian is MENTALLY processing everything that just happened. That's maybe the downside of a powerful mental attack: that brief moment of forging a connection. Maybe the result is only an impression, a feeling. But to this point, Iris felt like she had a handle on Coco's personality: maybe a little silly, but a performer at heart. Some sass, perhaps.

The snake's eyes that stared back at her, and the feeling that coursed through her nerves, tell the story of a completely different person. And that knowledge, more than anything, is screaming at Iris -- in her own mind -- to simply stay down and let this be over.

But apparently that part of her psyche lost that fight. The magus hauls herself to her feet and forces herself back to the 'ring', one eye shut, the other balefully trained on Coco.

The fight might not be over, but the time for banter appears to be.

[COCO]
Flakes of frost fall from Coco's wristguards as she lands in a crouch, sucking a breath in through clattering teeth as the exchange ends with Iris kicked halfway across the ring and Coco in need of air. The ice is already melting, but the cold feels infused into her bracers, leading the purple-haired heiress to snap them open and discard them with hasty and quivering fingers. At the same time that her subconscious mind addresses the immediate concern of coldness, her conscious mind confronts another: the nascent technique that she's tried twice before to employ now appears, for the first time, to have actually worked. Unfortunately, it seems to have had some sort of backlash; empathic projection is sometimes a two-way street, and now Coco feels both rather cold and as though she's been kicked in the head a bit. She might even consider, if only briefly, the ethical and moral implications of jamming an unwanted sensation into someone's mind. Especially someone who's mostly been nice to her, other than trying to skewer her like an hors d'oeuvre that one time.

"Sorry," Coco says to her opponent as Iris hauls herself back onto her feet. Usually that word is accompanied by a smile, the equivalent of two fingers without leaving room for polite rebuttal; but, for once, the party princess actually seems sincere. She's even frowning just the tiniest bit.

But, within seconds, the chill and headache start to fade, leaving just the part where her new move actually worked.

"That was pretty epic though, wasn't it? With the sword, and then the flip, and - oh, we should probably carry on, shouldn't we?"

Coco comes back into melee range, feinting with a quick jab before quickly spinning around to try and violently hammer the now-unguarded point of her elbow toward Iris' head!

COMBATSYS: Iris blocks Coco's Aggressive Strike.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Coco             0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
Coco feeling perhaps a degree of genuine regret at the exact same time that Iris has lost any interest in talking it out is probably not the best timing in the world. It really feels like what Coco needs is for someone to tell her that really wasn't SO big a deal, and in the long term it probably isn't, all things considered. But that was a profoundly unsettling experience for Iris, and it is also pretty reasonable that she might Need An Unbothered Minute to process it, too.

Perhaps what we're finding right now is that televised bloodsport where people attempt to knock each other out ISN'T conducive to good mental health hygiene? Who could have predicted.

Iris, at least, does seem to be able to predict Coco's next attack, however; she lets the feint go, and with somewhat more aggression and gruffness than she's shown so far, slams her palm into Coco's oncoming elbow, shoving it aside... but as she demonstrated in her fight against Hawksley, that STILL HURTS, and Iris didn't exactly have a lot in the tank to begin with coming into this exchange.

She says nothing; rather, the free hand that wasn't engaged in actively defending her face comes up and traces another rune in the air, glowing violet-blue... which then causes the air between the two young women to erupt in a single, blinding bolt of actual lightning.

As for Iris, well...

COMBATSYS: Iris keeps on fighting!

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Coco             0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0             Iris

...she might be swaying with ataxic difficulty, but she's still standing. For now.

COMBATSYS: Iris successfully hits Coco with Thurisaz - Mjolnir's Echo.
- CRAZY Hit! -

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Coco             0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1             Iris

[COCO]
Coco's crisis of conscience has more or less come and gone, really. They're a bit like those sunny afternoon showers, where they only last a few minutes, and once they pass it's all rainbows again. Or elbows, in this instance.

Coco's elbow smacks off of Iris' palm, causing her to stagger slightly on the rebound. She's about to try and come in with something else, but out of the corner of her eye, she spots the other fighting femme's free hand tracing another shape in the air. At this point, she's seen enough to realise that when Iris is doing that, it means something's about to get weird. And this time, she's going to be ready for it. She stares at the point in the air, holding her gloves up on guard, poised to defend herself. Her eyes focus like lasers as she prepares to fend off whatever may come, whether it's a teddy bear or a sword or a piano or something. Whatever it is, she'll stop it, as long as she keeps her razor-sharp gaze peeled -

*BZZAAPPP*

Suddenly, Coco is blinded by a flash of light.

"Oh bugger!"

And as she instinctively throws her hands up to her ravaged pupils, she leaves her guard completely open for the bolt of lightning to slam straight into her chest, knocking her flying backward through the air before she ends up skidding along the Skywalk on her backside, a bad case of rugburn soon marring both her bare leg from hip to thigh and the (previously) unsundered leg of her tights as the fraying fabric of her top bursts into tiny flames, her body convulsing all the while from the electricity coursing through it.

"Flaming... ruddy... Nora..." Coco curses, her poshness (and outfit) starting to go up in smoke as the twitches ease, lingo steadily drifting eastward along the Thames until it sounds a bit more Poplar than Chelsea.

When she manages to drag herself up to her feet, her purple hair is looking rather eighties, and what began as more or less 'scout armour minus midriff' really is starting to look like it might be the Imperial Army's official beach volleyball uniform.

Coco starts to raise a knee and get back into her usual kickboxing stance, but a lingering spasm causes her to drop the foot once again for balance before she falls over again, and she stifles a cough that rocks her body with her gloved hand. She gives a couple more before extending a hand to indicate for Iris to wait while she doubles over and rests the other hand on her knee.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, babes. I really really want to keep kicking you, but I need like, two secs, okay? Do we have time outs?"

She pulls out an emergency compact (white, to match the outfit) and flips it open, checking her face. "Bloody hell, my hair has gone absolutely bonkers!" She pulls a face, then relaxes it. "Actually, I sort of like it."

Obviously, there are no time outs, which means Iris has ample opportunity to seize the initiative should she so choose.

COMBATSYS: Coco gains composure.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Coco             0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1             Iris

[IRIS]
Coco's... taking a break? Well. Honestly, Iris could also really use one right now, truthfully. From her point of view -- i.e. someone used to discounting her own tenacity and toughness -- it's a minor miracle that she's on her feet at all. If Coco's not going to leap at her face-first then this seems like a great opportunity to also catch her breath. Tactically, it is almost certainly the right choice.

But some internal voice is saying: get this *over with, now*.

That is probably why the magus bites out "No. We definitely do not," to the question about time outs. With a swing of the arm, Iris throws out a hand, in which a bullwhip appears in a flash of light; the initial swing then becomes followthrough on flinging the whip out at the resting and recovering Coco, attempting to snag... whatever she can. Arm, leg, torso.

Neck, if need be.

Should Iris get the grip, she sets her back foot and HAULS with all her strength, using the whip to fling Coco into the air. The whip then vanishes and is instantly replaced by the return of the spear from before, which former track and field javelin thrower Iris lines up with Ms. Coalbridge before letting it fly into the air at her... and then teleporting up AFTER it, making for potentially a *second* attempt by Iris to ride the purple-haired kickboxer right back down onto the skyway.

Post-fight analysis by commentators will mention how unwise a choice this is. Coco is in prime position to defend herself, and Iris's exhaustion -- from both fatigue and pain -- is evident. Clearly, it isn't fueled by tactical smarts.

What the commentators will then go on to SAY about this emotionally-driven decision remains to be seen.

COMBATSYS: Coco endures Iris' Ansuz - Gungnir ES.

[                      \\\\\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Coco             0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0             Iris

[COCO]
Coco is having a lot of things to come to terms with. Iris has been making her believe in magic, and the tone is now starting to shift from Lovin' Spoonful to Mick Smiley. Especially when that whip wraps around her neck, causing Coco to reflexively grasp at it as she quickly discovers one type of play that she is definitely not interested in and another that she'll probably have to revisit in the future to make up her mind about. Her mind races as oxygen is steadily denied to her. How does this work? Do wizards have safewords? What would they be?

"Abracagghhk," is all Coco can manage to gasp out before gagging as she's thrown up into the air by the neck. It's all she can do to try and twist as she senses /something/ approaching - and then the *CRACK* of splitting plastic rings out as the tip smashes through the satchel on her hip, followed by the *THUNK* of the spear embedding itself in her outer thigh.

Ow, Coco has time to think, before she's being ridden down to the skyway once again by Iris, apparently now the star attraction of an ever-so-slightly Freudian circus.

*CRUNCH*

Feeling quite dazed and possibly a little delirious from this turn of events, Coco forces her eyes to focus up on the woman on top of her.

She takes in a sharp breath, then utters, "Let's get sexy, shall we?"

Apparently, she hasn't been paying very close attention.

If Iris has, though, she may be prepared for what comes next - the swinging up of Coco's legs to try and trap Iris around the waist, followed by a backflip - in this case, more of a side roll - to slam her opponent down onto the ground and reverse the dominant position. Then, if she's managed to go that far, she'll pull off both gloves and toss them aside before raining down punches left and right at Iris' upper body while she has her pinned.

COMBATSYS: Coco successfully hits Iris with S.O.T.B..
- Power hit! -

[                       \\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Coco             0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0             Iris

[IRIS]
Iris truly just doesn't have it in her and it shows. Coco comes at her, certainly bruised but still the picture of health, and the magus simply cannot keep up. Her attempt at a dodge is token at best, a bit of a step in one direction, but she's barely taken it when Coco grabs her, bears her to the ground, and beats the ever-loving fuck out of her.

There is a moment, a brief moment, where a now quite bruised and bloodied Iris simply lies there, under Coco, with her eyes shut. It truly seems as if she has been thoroughly KOed...

Until those eyes open, for just a moment.

The blue-eyed gaze locks with Coco's, just as the purple-haired warrior's did with her own before. A hand shakily comes up, with such agonizing slowness that Coco has plenty of time to defend herself. But if she doesn't, Iris's hand -- with far more strength than it seems she should have in this deplorable state, owing to... whatever is fueling the sudden fire in her gaze -- erupts with frost, gripping Coco by the arm and HEAVING her away, letting the seed of ice become a wave of chill that will ripple over Ms. Coalbridge's body in the process.

But then... well. Even tenacity can take you only so far. At that point, Iris becomes still. Not dead, but certainly and unequivocably out of the fight.

COMBATSYS: Iris can no longer fight.

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

COMBATSYS: Coco blocks Iris' Inguz - Druid's Ritual.

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

[COCO]
When Iris stops resisting, Coco takes it as her cue to stop punching, having apparently learned her lesson from certain past battles. She sits back on Iris' legs and lets her head lean back to breathe out a sigh of relief, wiping the back of her hand against her forehead and inadvertently leaving a streak of blood across her brow (as for whose, it's probably a toss-up).

"God, that was sooo scary! I thought swords were bad, but swords -and- magic? Blimey!"

Apparently Coco hasn't learned every lesson there is to learn, though, as her inattention gives Iris that opening to grab her by the arm. She's caught off-guard, and before she knows it, she's being sent hurtling away, an icy blast washing over her mostly-exposed skin. She closes her eyes tightly, her natural instinct combining with her recently-unboxed latent psychic ability. She doesn't have the capacity some do to create true psychokinetic barriers, but she does have an uncanny (if mostly unconscious) capability of controlling her own body state. It's this power that her mind reaches for, recalling the heat of Ibiza in the summer, the sweltering jungles of Thailand, that one day of the year where Britain gets a bit warm. And as she thinks warm thoughts, the cold washes over and around her, freezing what remains of her outfit practically to ice, but her body, somehow, remains blissfully warm.

At least, till she bounces along the ground.

"Ow! Fuck!"

Fortunately, what remains of her shoulderpads and upper-arm guards absorb some of the impact, though they clatter off of her brittle sleeves as they crackle away, and she finishes her tumble in an aching pile. Groaning, she pushes herself up onto skinned knees, having lost the pads protecting them in the final fall, and sways unsteadily up to her feet.

At that point, the bell rings, and the announcement comes that Coco has won.

"I... oh. It's finished?"

Coco lets out a whoop and starts to bounce with joy - after all, it marks an unblemished singles record for the season, and a hard-fought one at that - but as the rush of adrenalin fades, it's replaced by a sharp pain in her outer thigh, and the psychically-induced warmth starts to relent to the chill of what essentially feels like a bikini that's been sitting in an icebox, and Coco's celebratory mood quickly turns.

"Umm, can anyone please bring me a large plaster? And a warm blanket?" she calls out, one hand on her wound, the other wrapping around herself as she starts to shiver violently -

"And a hot water bottle?"

- then collapses to her knees -

"And my mum?"

- and finally keels sidelong, curling into the fetal position.

COMBATSYS: Coco takes no action.

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

COMBATSYS: Coco has ended the fight here.

Log created on 14:33:33 10/05/2023 by Iris, and last modified on 09:04:02 10/08/2023.