Description: Duolon attempts to investigate bodies at the morgue, searching for Ron. A chance meeting with a doctor who's really not a doctor leaves the young man bleeding on the ground. (Warning: Involves crossdressing. Sort of.)
In any large metropolis, facilities must be adequate enough to take care of a massive number of clients. This includes the criminal investigation facilities, and the Southtown Morgue is a large building indeed, a stony edifice down the block from the Police Station and one of the city's many hospitals. Tonight, it had been visited by one of the city's most recent arrivals, a young Hizoku by the name of Duo Lon.
The young man stands before a reception counter, tapping lengthy nails on the hard plastic. A moment passes, and the young lady he's been waiting on returns, shaking her head lightly. "I'm sorry, sir, but we can't let unauthorized individuals into the freezer." This, clearly, does not make him happy. "That's a shame." He shakes his head, turning around, eyes on the ceiling. "There's no way in at all, then?" "No, none. I'm terribly sorry." The expression on his face marks the lie, but she couldn't see that, could she? "Well, I'll just have to try elsewhere. Thank you for the cooperation." With that, the man begins to leave, starting the long walk back to the entrance doors.
Which open with a soft hiss of well oiled joints.
Standing in the doorway is a man not much taller than the lanky Duo Lon, but undeniably more massive. In his guise as Dr. Sine, Zero doesn't do much to hide his features. The dark skin tone does melt away, giving rise to a light caucasian complexion, eyes a deep blue and hair colored a dark brown. In his usual dress of a dark gray business suit with a lab coat tossed over, he seems his usual self, absently polishing wire rim glasses and hurrying down the hallway.
It seems someone has died recently, diagnosed with Holoprosencephaly, a bizzare birth defect that results in an incomplete brain development due to failure in embryonic cell division. In short, he's coming to look at cranially mangled baby corpses. That's perhaps the most gruesome thing he expected to see here tonight. Whatever the case may be, he doesn't give Duolon another glance.
However, to those attuned to such energy, he absolutely reeks of death and decay. Despite the handsome, 'soap opera doctor' exterior, the stench of necromantic and otherworldly power seeps from him like water from a seive, emiting a gold, chilling sensation. Again... chi sensitive types, o those that use similar power could feel it. Everyone else? Blissfully unaware.
For those attuned to such energy. The Hizoku had changed, in recent years. Development started by the rogue Ron had blossomed into a form of combat, and the Hizoku no longer sought the poison blood the older clan had.
Duo Lon knew death. The way it looked, the way it smelled. The way it sunk into a man's face, the way it /twisted/ features to take away the last vestiges of innocence from an otherwise perfectly amiable countenance. Dr. Sine, whoever he might be, absolutely reeked of it. It suffused the air around him, in concentrations that the younger, less experienced Duo Lon may have been blown away by.
Well. Blown away if he hadn't been looking for the one responsible for the majority of death in his life. Now he was immerssed. As the larger man walks past him, obviously on his way to the freezer, Duo Lon stops, back erect, eyes wide. The ninja never gave to surprise or emotion... this was rare enough as is. He collects his wits quickly, however, and just as soon as his eyes had gone wide, they narrow once more.
"...Doctor." Spoken clearly, most certainly loud enough to echo in the narrow corridor they were in. Enough to pull Dr. Sine from his thoughts, whatever they may be. "I understand that we've never met, but there's an urgent matter I must speak with you about. Meet me outside, please?"
With that, the young man makes his way towards the doors Dr. Sine had just closed behind him, and steps outside.
Well, a scientist is inquisitive.
The doctor seems mildly annoyed. A fake emotion well played on the artificial face. It's a ruse for the masses, nothing more and nothing less than that, and he smiles at the desk clerk. She knows he's looking for the bodies, but nonetheless, she smiles warmly at him, and waves slightly. t's easy to get around when you're good looking, even if you're a guy. The notion is conveyed, for her to prep the corpse for him to study while he sees what this odd man wnats of him. Turning about on his heel, the well dressed doctor heads again outside.
"And.. exactly how can I help you, son?" He speaks pretty good Chinese. In fact, the fact that he knows the man speaks Chinese is sort of telling all to itself. Still, maybe he's just good at judging ethnicities. Regardless of that fact, he still seems fairly unassuming, and furthermore rather unaware of th nature of the inquiry.
Or so it would seem.
When not dealing with his own people, Zero is a fantastic liar, and an even better con artist. NESTS was partially built on the back of his near-infamous treachery, and today is no different.
Not that it mattered. Clearly, Duo Lon was having second thoughts the moment the doctor had spoken with him outside, and to that extent, blinked back whatever chink in his armor that might expose. He was /not/ naive! The chi emanations were there! They were /strong/!
And as such, Duo takes a position on the sidewalk, eyeing the bystanders and passerby. "Doctor." This spoken in perfect Chinese, with an accent placing him from the Hebei Province. "You need not lie. I want information, and you reek of foulness. Just as /he/ does. Do you know a man by the name of Ron?!" By the look of his face, he won't be taking no for an answer. His senses had sent him straight into a type of man hunt, the prospect of one with an aura similar to Long's far too promising to pass up.
Whatever doubts Duo Lon may have are pressed into the back of his mind, and the firm tone of voice he takes helps to enforce his own adamant position. While he says nothing more, people are beginning to take notice, emotion and volume drawing a good deal of attention to the both of you. "And, Doctor, understand that I can /tell/ what you've done. The energy I feel from you... is far worse than what I feel around other doctors. I'll expose you for the liar you are if I must."
Ah. An erstwhile one. It had been a while since Zero had faced down someone on a quest before. Nothing new. NESTS did enough damage to economies, people. Lives. Enough to result in the eventual arrival of someonelike Duo Lon to do... whatever. It really intrigued him, these people out to save their odd, archaic way of life. And the Hizoku in particular.
The ancient Chinese assassin clan had been an amusement at first. A scout had found them, promised power, strength. And this Ron spoken of had accepted.
All for naught. The man had proven powerful. Far too powerful. Powerful enough that he was consumed by it, resulting in his own bizzare 'demise'. ather, he existed now in a static state, neither live nor dead because of his necromantic leanings. His half-living body lay in the depest chambers in Foxy's Flesh Menagerie, a failed experiment with a room totally unto himself.
The other freaks found him too... disconcerting.
"That would be quite a feat," the doctor says, pushing the glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Exposing me when there's nothing I'm hiding. However, you do seem like an interesting lad." The tone is light and conversational, a nice baritone, and pleasant to the ear. Bu then his eyes shift from blue to grey, and his voice slips into the dark, sepulchre undertones of his true form.
Zero's voice seems to issue forth from a completely different body, transforming the genial doctor into something far less pleasant. "Normally, I wouldn't even begin to indulge you in the pause you seek. However, you have caught me in a moment where your Hizoku powers will prove more interesting than my observation."
And with that? Zero wastes little time. People watching can only assume that the odd man is assaulting the doctor as he booms out loud, "STAY AWAY!" The man backs up as if approached menacingly, and then lets fly a strong, straight punch to the other man's face.
COMBATSYS: Zero has started a fight here.
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Zero 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Duolon has joined the fight here.
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Duolon 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Zero
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Duolon with Jagai Kusetsu.
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Duolon 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Zero
Well, ninja or no, a hit is a hit. Dr. Sine's attack sends the young man reeling, pushing him from an unassuming stance to reeling backwards, maroon blood blossoming on his face, trickling from his nose to line his chin. Against the otherwise slender, pale contours of his features, it's really not very attractive.
Still speaking in Chinese, now, as he held his nose in his hands, taking on the tone and behavior of a female immigrant. It wasn't like anybody could understand him unless they spoke extremely fluent Chinese... and likely, that was nobody but the good Doctor. "Fighting! I figured you for the type to defend what little you have with fists!" He stands, hand shaking while he wipes the blood from his features. The doctor doesn't look so heroic now, eh?
Of course not. People had began to talk, and sides were being taken. Duo Lon plays his part well; ninja weren't just stealthy. Disguise was just as important, and he was well aware of his feminine appearance. "You will tell me where he is!" Shrieking now, just as any scared woman would, the young man rushes forward, seeking to grab at the doctor's arm, and claw his face a few times.
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Duolon's Suishu Shoukou.
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Duolon 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Zero
Zero seems summarily unimpressed. The doctor bats away the clawing hand, and the face of Dr. Sine seems almost mocking. It's nothing Zero feels inside. Rather, the persona of Dr. Sine's pre-programmed reaction to just such a thing. An animate 'mask' if you will, geared to respond and react appropriately to inflict psychological distraction as he closes in. A battle of appearances, perhaps? A shift in speech. "The Yakuza can keep their blood money. I've no interest in your 'services', woman, or your Crimelord's demands."
And now the stage is set. Japanese understand the Yakuza, the Syndicate. Similarly, fighting isn't all that unusual. And with Zero's polished, too-perfect looks and distinguished dress? Guess who looks like the hero here? He falls into a battle stance, mimicking that of a kickboxer. Anyone with formal training would be able to tell it's not a very good stance, but to casual observers? Close enough. Now people peer to watch a battle between Good versus Evil... as opposed to the battle of Zero's greater evil to Duo Lon's ambiguous gray.
Regarless of leanings, one thing's for sure: Zero plays to win. His dark chi that Duo Lon was investigating lets itself be known as the shadows around the younger man dance, writhing with a purple hue before snaking towards him. If successful? They'll root him to the ground, sucking away life as Zero comes in and performs a devestating series of kicks and punches on the Ninja.
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Duolon with Mabukousou.
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Duolon 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Zero
Perhaps it was the fact that he was playing a game he never enjoyed. Disguising himself as a woman, to ward off the potential mobs. Irregardless of who looks the hero, Duo Lon "trips" in the shadows, falling to his knees, and the good doctor rushes in, beating him to the ground with punches, kicks, and a variety of painful, too-similar life-sucking maneuvers. Duo Lon, consequently, becomes furious at the man, and the persona is dropped. Losing this poorly would bring anybody's truer abilities out.
During the /beatdown/, the man's body begins to dissolve, the doctor's hands and feet slapping against bloodslicked muscle, melting flesh, sublimated bones, and finally, provided he's still attacking, the ground itself. Duo Lon's voice, speaking accented Japanese, though the intonation is far deeper, now. "We're only asking for what you borrowed, Doctor. The rest is, as you say, none of our business. Give us what we want, and you can go about your business." When all else fails, tarnish their reputation.
Duo Lon's voice fades, and the ninja reappears a good ten feet above Zero, homing in on the man's back at a 45 degree angle, legs whipping about the other in a parody of Ryu and Ken's Hurricane Kick. If it were to connect, the damage would be significant.
COMBATSYS: Zero dodges Duolon's Genmu Hishou Keikou.
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Duolon 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Zero
Teleportation. That was a trick most people didn't do very often. Luckily for Zero, it's one of those moves that can be defended against fairly easily if you're prepared for it. The gruesome sight doesn't bother the iron-hearted executive. The man has seen far worse on his own operating table. The fact of the matter is, watching Ron writhe in and out of agony is sort of a strange rite of passage for the biomedical staff. Hazing, if you will. Anyone that didn't walk away without severe psychological disorders was considered strong enough to stomach NESTS.
Still, as he disappears, Duo Lon's heat signature explodes behind him, and the massive man seems to move far faster than he should be able to. As he does so, he whips around, grabbing his own lab coat. As he pulls it of, it shimmers for a breif second, the edge of the coat all of a sudden exploding into a series of well defined sawblade edges for a split second, Enough for it to go grinding towards the Ninja's chest and abdomen. Usually that sort of damage was enough to get them to be quiet so that he could concentrate on elimintating them. All Duo Lon gets is an insincere, untrue smirk on Dr. Sine's face.
COMBATSYS: Duolon fails to interrupt Ouga from Zero with Ouji Tajiuu Genmu Ankei.
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Duolon 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Zero
Whatever happened, Duo Lon landed, unsuccessful in his attempt to kick the Doctor's head. To that extent, the ninja was experiencing yet another set of horrible failures. He had the talent, but there was a decided lack of experience, obviously. Hizoku were not trained, at all, in the art of avoiding sweeping attacks. It just didn't happen, when you were assassinating emperors and presidents. Not the leaders of advanced-tech criminal organizations.
The ninja looks up at the last moment, purplish energies cascading around his form, /something/ about to happen. However, Zero's battle-suit's razors cut through the energies and slice Duo's outfit in several places, lines of blood seeping through the ruined cloth, and stinging the young man significantly. While he doesn't stand to do anything, he's not out of the fight. Just reeling, at the moment.
And Zero takes the moment to observe. The Hizoku arts are a fine fighting style. He has respect for it. However, there's a distinct lack of the same demonic drive that was shown in Ron. Even though Ron's quest failed, the man had shown devestating skill, speed, and prowess up until his accident. The power of necromancy plus the devestating body-warping Hizoku dark arts and poison blood was a combination of destructive force very few could hope to match. This child paled in comparison to Ron. The boy would never reach the man's heights with his lackluster performance, and Zero takes a moment to fall into a battle stance.
"So. Instead of me being the one question, I ask you a question in turn," comes the deep, rattling voice in Chinese, the thin smile dying away to reveal Zero's true, empty countenance. "Do the Hizoku falter much? A crisis of religion perhaps? Their great assassin leader stealing into the night to sell his soul to a devil? The great warrior, Lin, disappearing withotu a trace, leaving the question of the Hizoku pride's veracity heavy upon your minds and hearts? I notice you lack the poison blood. Is it a paradigm shift? Are you all abandoning it for something new, as Ron did? Or are you simply not good enough to weild it, a failure to the Hizoku teachings? Even more, how does your clan reconcile the fact that they send a neophyte, a mere whelp to find and return the two greatest masters of the poison strains to ever walk the planet?"
The words are dark, unsettling. Emotionless. As cold as a surgeon's scalpel. Some may hit true, other's may miss entirely. Zero only looks for expressions and facial cues. The man only seeks knowledge to feed his ever processing mind. After all, there may come a day when the Hizoku must be dealt with again. Even a scowl would be telling.
COMBATSYS: Zero focuses on his next action.
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Duolon 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Zero
Duo Lon, bleeding from his lip, his nose, and a cut in his hairline, somewhere, stands, shakily. He's clearly not doing well, however, the young man possess resolve. Lots of resolve. He knew he was outclassed, but every moment he spent with the /enemy/, he could devote more of the man to memory, and learn more of his fighting style. This was not a fight he was going to win by defeating his opponent. It was one he would win by getting away conscious. Whoever he was fighting against... it was the real deal.
And as to the man's knowledge, a sharp surprise widens the younger man's slanted eyes. Again, this reaction is wiped, quickly, and purple, macabre shades start to suffuse the air around the young ninja's body. Spirits writhing around him, moaning, shuddering. "That is none of your business, Doctor." Even with the blood bubbling on the corner of his mouth, he seems ready to go on the offensive. "As a matter of fact, I'd say you know entirely too much about things a handful could even profess knowledge of the existance of. Whoever you are, you've made it onto my list, and one day, I will find you."
The spirits lurch forwards, tendrils of shadow energy, wraithlike, hateful energy, fly towards Zero, too numerous to count. While he was near the end of his rope... he wasn't out of the fight just yet.
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Duolon's Shiryou Hatsu Seikin.
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Duolon 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Zero
"Really now?"
He spreads his arms, as if welcoming the writhing, vengeful spirits. The ghostly faces on thing tendrils shriek towards him with the howl of the dead that can only be slaked by the tasts of the blood of the living. As they approach him, however, the wraithlike faces seem wracked in terror and pain as they're unceremoniously snuffed from existance as a soft, purple glow seems to encase the man's frame. Apparently, they don't have a taste for people better versed in the arts than a young Hizoku Ninja. The wails of anger shrivel into gurgles and howls of pain as the souls try to draw power from him. To their credit, some manage to pound into him, but not enough to really bother him overmuch. The amount of soul the man has to eat is minimal, having long sold it away for power.
Despite the lack of soul, however, he can certainly dance.
As the spiritual assault dies down, Zero looks untouched, his grim specter of a face seeping through the face of Dr. Sine, and the grey eyes show nothing even remotely human left within. Just a cold, dead machine, that the Hizoku boy has no business bothering. NESTS is a juggernaut constructed to destroy relics like the Hizoku. And with that, the next action is made clear.
Whipping forward, he seems to move with impossible speed, and he streaks by Duo Lon, heavy body ramming against him. As he does so, his body ripples concealing the undulating serrated edges that saw through flesh amd could easily rip through bone at the right angle, sending up a devestating spray of blood as Zero ends up behind the boy.
If it hits, that is.
COMBATSYS: Duolon dodges Zero's Satsuma.
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Duolon 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Zero
He teleported.
No blood this time, no bone fragments on the ground, no fainting women. Zero's display, his speed, his /coup de grace/... all for nothing. As soon as the man winds up behind the boy, the boy reappears behind the man, idly wiping blood from his chin. "We can't have you getting too excited now, can we?" A deep chuckle, and Duo Lon immediately explodes into action, dropping to his knees, one long leg sweeping out into a low roundhouse kick, the followup attack, irregardless of Zero's being hit or not, a second, higher roundhouse that will knock him backwards.
This entire fight had practically been decided, and Duo Lon knew it. His new goal was to /get away/, however, at the current rate, that likely wouldn't be happening. What he had to do, of course, was get Zero far, far away, and then vanish. Like any good Hizoku would.
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Duolon's Fuuka Tenshi Combo.
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Duolon 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Zero
If Zero was a man prone to such, this is when he would laugh dimissively. But the cyborg knows full well that every combat sortie was a serious, deadly, and dire matter to attend to. He never makes jokes, jibes. The most he does? Assessments. And even those come rarely to his foes. The last thing he wants to do is give them pointers. Even when really emotional, the worst he comes up with are short, one word phrases. Weak. Fool. Things that are sharp and stabbing.
Duolon doesn't really come down to that. Rather, he's targeted again with narrowed eyes, and he whips about again on far too nimble feet. He's loathe to open up with his most devestating abilities in public like this. Duo Lon doesn't seem to warant them, though. This cloaking of his power does use up more energy. Nonetheless, the fight must end with him as a winner. Charging up a power field, he creates a shimmering disc that relfects the boy's features. It grows to a wide, broad arc, and immeditely the man is swooping towards him, the energy field crackling to blast into Duo Lon like an electric shock.
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Duolon with Forcefield.
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Duolon 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Zero
If Duo Lon cared enough to finish this fight, Zero would certainly be the winner. However, he understood what defeat was, and he understood the consequences. In this case... potentially waking up in a laboratory. Doctors were doctors after all, and this one looked decidedly lawless. The young man takes the hit well enough, the sheet of energy crackling into his face and sending him to the ground. Well enough, in this case, is the only term that could be applied, and Duo lies on the ground for a moment.
Faking unconsciousness. His body slows in breathing, and flesh melts away, blood spilling onto the road, falling between the cracks, and ultimately draining away, followed by his muscles, bones... everything.
The boy does not reappear.
Log created by Duolon, and last modified on 21:43:04 08/12/2005.