Description: The eternal battle. A clash of wills between Riko and Aislinn. One fighting for her supermarket trolley, the other for her underwear. No. Really.
Ah, sunny morning in Southtown. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, birds are chirping. There isn't even much traffic on the street, wonders of wonders. The roads are remarkably clear, an unusual occurance for downtown. All in all, a very nice day.
Of course, due to the gross inquities of the Japanese system, most students still have class, and most adults work, albeit only for a half-day. But...
...there are always exceptions.
"GEERRRONNIIMMMOOOOO!"
Case in point.
Shrieking at the top of her lungs, Riko hurtles down the street, speeding downhill in a renegade supermarket trolley. The wheels screech against the pavement as it hits a bump, sending Riko and her ride into the air. Crashing back to earth with a bone-jarring shock, it teeters on two wheels before righting itself, knocking over a trash can in the process. And a salaryman as well, his morning commute interrupted by a sudden shower of garbage. He'd probably be annoyed, save for the fact he's now passed out on the sidewalk with a lid bent around his head.
The trolley approaches the corner...and begins to /turn/, amazingly enough...but then, this is no ordinary supermarket cart. Not with the roaring lawnmower engine bolted to the underside, and an RC aerial sticking out. Riko clutches the matching remote control in her hands, spinning the joysticks with a look of -intense- concentration, eyes focused behind the oversized aviator's goggles sitting over her face. Perched cross-legged on the driver's seat, a big black trash bag with strips of duct-tape, sitting in the bed of the supermarket trolley.
She's wearing a t-shirt. It reads: TEST PILOT.
Pushing the throttle wide open, Riko SKIDS round the corner...
[OOC] Aislinn says, "oh shits, crazy ninja."
[OOC] Edge says, "....ahahaha, awesome."
It IS a nice, sunny morning in Southtown. With Spring in bloom, the snow's disappeared, and it's started to warm up. Birds are chirping, the air, even in the city, is beginning to fill with the rich scent of life. Even the grass is greener...
Not that Ai cares. She prefers the urban anyways; it is more familiar to her, more comforting... more controlled. But, she would have to admit, even objectively... it's not a bad day at all.
Oh, uh, class. Right. Well, Aislinn thought about it, but she concluded that at least for today, classes were simply not on her agenda. She had errands to run, the little things that get in the way of... enjoying life? Living it, at least. And well, she's just about to turn that corner... the corner of fate... when here comes Riko.
Aislinn doesn't even -think- about it; she reacts as any trained martial artist would do. She... well, no, she doesn't dodge. In a matter of nanoseconds, she's been alerted to the incoming threat, has considered the variables, processed the information, and made her decision. She drops her bag of things--a small bag, but her things, nonetheless--and snaps her hands out, grabbing the front of the cart and neatly redirecting its path... straight for the nearest big pile of trash that hasn't been picked up yet.
She didn't even notice the driver. But she did notice that a stray wire on the cart snagged her bag of things and now the bag is in the trash... in the worst part... and it's opened to reveal pairs of new (utilitarian) underthings such as any normal girl might wear.
Hey, NESTS may be super awesome at science, but they don't understand comfort at all. And clothes (battlesuits and feathered capes aside) aren't in the budget.
"WA-YAAAHHHH---!"
A belated yelp of indignation escapes Riko's lips, as she flips through the air, rather ignobly thrown from her vehicle. With a terrible clatter, the motorized supermarket trolley crashes noisily into the pile of garbage bags, before slamming to a halt against a dumpster, upside down. The lawnmower engine on its undercarriage continues buzzing noisily, forcing the wheels to spin crazily, vibrating wildly. Interestingly, the trash bag that was actually /in/ the shopping trolley...still is. Seemingly duct-taped to the trolley bed, tightly fastened, not falling out to join its brethren on the ground.
Or, y'know, Aislinn's underwear.
Riko, though? She twists in mid-flight. She hits a wall - feet first, sneaker soles absorbing the impact, her legs flexing at the ankles and knees. Then she bounces off, flips again, and lands right in front of Aislinn, waving her remote control in the other girl's face, under Aislinn's nose.
"HEY," Riko yells, "what's the big idea, huh, huh?"
Frown. Frown big! Except not. Now she'll have to go buy new ones... but that'll have to wait, as the rider of that thing is now coming up to her, after an amazing jumping landing, and is now... getting in her face. Were she Jiro, she'd 'e.e'.
"I chose to redirect your path rather than accept the impact. Had you been piloting properly you would not have ended up in the trash bin." It's said with a cold sort of matter-of-factness, Ai's expression carefully neutral, even with the girl right in her face.
"I expect repayment for the loss of my purchases."
"Oh -reeaaaalllly-," Riko shoots back, drawing out the word with a long sarcastic twist. She pokes Aislinn with the remote-control antenna, lightly tapping the other girl's nose with the tip.
"What about TROLLEY-KUN? -YOU- damaged him!"
Huffing, Riko points at the upturned supermarket trolley, its engine still running, wheels rotating wildly in empty air. "So -I'm- just s'posed to like repay you when MISTER TROLLEY-KUN GOT HURT?"
Oh... oh, no... no, she didn't. But she did. The reaction isn't as severe as if Riko had actually -laid a hand on her-, but nonetheless... Aislinn doesn't take well to the nose-tap. Her hand snaps out to... remove the remote control from the equation, and if she gets it, she will toss it into the garbage.
"Yes," she replies, "Since you are at fault you are expected to pay damages."
"H-HEY!"
Riko yells, once again, as her remote control is forcefully yanked from her hand and sent flying. Eyes wide behind her pilot goggles, Riko jumps in a dive that would do any goalkeeper proud, just barely snagging the remote out of the air before crashing into the garbage pile. Wrinkling her nose, Riko hauls herself back to her feet, waving a trembling fist at Aislinn.
"...you...you're just MEAN!"
Riko sticks her tongue out. "I'm not payin' ya a thing! Whadda ya gonna do about it, huh? HUH?"
Some might say that Ai's had her revenge, what with the second garbage dive for the ninja, and the 'hurt' trolley. But really... she needs those things, and... it seems there is only one way to get them. But she knows, from the way Riko bailed, that the girl's got some skills. So... there's a hidden bonus to it, too. For to Aislin's knowledge, she's never fought a ninja. Of course, as far as she'll know even after this fight... she's never fought a ninja. After all, the shirt reads 'TEST PILOT', not 'TEST NINJA'.
Back to the matter at hand, however; Aislinn considers the question, then says, as she suddenly breaks into a short dash that closes in with the trolley-riding ninja, "I suppose I am required to 'beat it out of you'."
More verbose than she normally is, but then, Riko's almost as annoying as Jiro. Maybe even more, by the time this is over... anyways, once Aislinn closes in?
Kick. A quick, snapping front kick, aimed for Riko's remote-holding hand. Hand, remote, if she hits either she's good. Doing the world a favor, after all.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn has started a fight here.
COMBATSYS: Riko has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Riko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
COMBATSYS: Aislinn successfully hits Riko with Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Riko 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
Good for Aislinn, maybe. Not good for Riko. The little ninja's face contorts in a wince as Aislinn's foot slams into her forearm. She keeps her grip on the remote, her knuckles whitening, but the impact spins her round, spilling her back. She crashes into the trash bags, then regains her balance, falling into a crouch. Her eyes narrow behind the big round lenses of her aviator goggles, staring daggers at Aislinn.
"Oh yeah? Just TRY, meanie!"
With that, Riko grips the remote securely in one hand, but palms the aerial with the other. Then she PULLS. And accelerates, lunging into the air, throwing herself at Aislinn, moving like a missile. But if the other girl doesn't do a thing against her course...her flight'd take her -past- the Gedo student, over her shoulder...
See, the leap, that's not the attack.
The glittering flash of silver in her wake? That is. A long line of whipcord wire, the RC antenna extending to a /ridiculous/ length... looping round Aislinn, pulling taut...that is.
Never underestimate the TEST NINJA.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn blocks Riko's Houdini.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aislinn
Aislinn almost reacts early; but the morning sun aids her in seeing the wire and so she instead braces herself. Tensing muscles, adopting a wider stance, the wire pulls taut, but finds itself resisted by Ai's own, natural strength--and it'll only be a moment's worth of pain before the wire busts, Riko is forced to let go, or it simply shifts to a position where leverage cannot be applied.
But... before Riko can let go, Aislinn seeks to -grab- the wire in both hands, with the intent of using it against the ninja by arresting her flight and pulling her down to the ground.
Oh, and just for giggles, Aislinn attempts to put a blast of electrical chi down the wire--looks like red-white lightning that lights up the whipcord.
COMBATSYS: Riko dodges Aislinn's Quick Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aislinn
Riko arches an eyebrow as she lands. As she touches down, she's facing away from Aislinn. But she spins, slides as her sneakers meet the pavement, whirling three hundred and sixty degrees on pure momentum. The electric flare of Aislinn's chi casts a harsh glow on Riko's face, reflecting off her goggles, turning her eyes into discs of mirror light. That makes her expression impossible to judge for a moment, until her mouth curves into a thin smile.
She thumbs the remote, and the antenna parts with a loud SNAP, separating from the control, whipping back on Aislinn with the recoil, a razor edge.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn negates Thrown Object from Riko with Needle Shot.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aislinn
The glint of the wire--gleaming like a shining edge, a sine-wave of promised pain whipcracking back at Aislinn...
Doesn't concern her at all. If anything, she would smile a little bit--and then grip the wire ever tighter, and release another burst of her chi into the wire--this time, enough to just disintegrate it, the thin line bursting into brief, bright flame. Was it worth the expenditure? Possibly--or possibly not. She may have miscalculated.. or it may have been what she wanted to do. No joy of success or sadness of failre shows itself...
But there's something in her attitude that says 'Hmph. Toys.' As if she doesn't think Riko can -really- fight.
If Aislinn had voiced her disdain, Riko'd probably have launched into a strong verbal defense of Seishirou-sama's philosophy, and the concept of tactical victory. But she didn't, and so Riko doesn't. But, behind the lenses covering her eyes, something sparks in Riko's gaze. She /recognises/ the subtle shift in Aislinn's manner, the message behind it.
Riko's still smiling, though.
"Mmm," she muses, as she sticks a hand out, picking a tiny fragment of glowing wire out of the air, as it falls. Then immediately dropping it. "OW! Hot. Huh."
Riko gives Aislinn a speculative look. "Electricity, huh? Pfft..."
She composes one hand into a half-ram seal, two fingers extended, the rest curled, placing it by the side of her remote control. The acrid smell of ozone fills the air, as arcs of -blue- lightning crackle round Riko's hands. Channeling it through the little metal antenna-stub at the end of the remote, a chi-charged makeshift tazer, Riko launches herself at Aislinn, her grin widening to Cheshire proportions.
"Amateur!"
COMBATSYS: Riko successfully hits Aislinn with Chaos Theory.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
It isn't as though it's a particularly -fast- sort of attack that Riko is performing--Aislinn sees it coming, prepares herself to absorb what she can and weaken the electrical nature of the attack...
But she fails, spectacularly, and is tazed hard enough to send her flying backwards... she doesn't quite fall, performing a nifty mid-air flip and landing three-point, with a little skid.
As she rises, there's a shift in her attitude, one of some newfound respect... but that hardly shows. Instead, Aislinn seems to crackle with energy; most of it internal, but some leaking out, externally, tendrils of lightning crackling up and down her arms from elbow to hand, her muscles tightening with the influx of power.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn gathers her will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Aislinn
Posed in the follow-through from her attack, one arm extended with the crackling remote control at its apex, Riko watches this display with a pout. "Hey," she snaps, "I...I could do that too! It'd just be like...wasting chi and stuff! You don't scare me!"
Stamping a foot, Riko shifts position. In the background, the engine bolted to her upended supermarket trolley continues to roar, the rumbling sound forming an audio backdrop to the dramatic confrontation between the two girls. Riko stares Aislinn down...
...then springs into motion, charging towards her. A few feet before she meets the glowing girl, Riko hops into the air, spins...aiming to plant a -foot- securely on Aislinn's upper body, forcing her down, making her eat concrete, while Riko rebounds vertically upward...
...that's the plan, anyway. Because Aislinn MUST be humiliated for DARING such an impressively cool display!
COMBATSYS: Aislinn interrupts Quick Throw from Riko with Whirlwind Lariat.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Aislinn
That foot is about all will get. The impact -feels- right... but instead of 'eating concrete', as it were, Aislinn sinks down with the attack, blunting it... and when Riko rebounds upwards? Aislinn -goes with her-, having turned herself, then launched upwards, arms held out straight, tensed, used as pummels to beat Riko as Aislinn twirls upwards, rotating around three times.
For Aislinn, it seems to move in slow-motion--but it really only takesa matter of moments... and it's in those moments that fights are determined.
"G-g-GAH!"
That spluttered exclamation is about all Riko manages as the repeated blows slam into her hapless form, pounding her narrow frame with the whirling pain of physical trauma. Her eyes bug out, breath wheezes forcefully from her lungs. She flies, not under her own power... but before she goes bouncing, before she arcs away and meets the cold hard pavemenet...she flails weakly at Aislinn, trying to bat away that last spinning strike.
Or that's what it looks like, anyway...
COMBATSYS: Riko successfully hits Aislinn with Ryuuouin EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
So it -seems-.
Riko lands, rather painfully, in an undignified sprawl, scraping against the ground, before her flight is finally arrested by collision with a brick wall, her remote control clattering to the ground beside her.
She gasps, chest heaving, grimacing in pain...
Then smirks, rising on one knee, pointing a finger at Aislinn. Sighting along her arm, holding her hand in the time-honoured tradition of the fake firearm.
On Aislinn's shoulder, at a spot where Riko brushed with her 'weak' attempts at 'fending the attack off'...a disc of blue light glows, morphing into a shimmering symbol. The standard scientific 'power' symbol, actually, a circle with a vertical line.
"Boom," Riko says.
And then, the air around Aislinn -crackles-, as Riko's concentrated knot of chi forcefully -strips the electrons away-, and sends it all crashing inward, through the beacon that is the seal.
Boom.
It is only through sheer will, and clenched teeth, that Aislinn manages -not- to scream in pain as she's blasted with energy that is familiar to her. In this case, however, familiarity is _NOT_ a good thing. Aislinn is literally blasted up and lands on the ground in a similar, undignified sprawl, gasping--she literally can't help that--and smoking, as she rises once more. Unsteady, but still alive... her eyes clear, however, despite the pain, focusing in on Riko with a manner that might remind a pop-culture junkie of the Terminator.
Warnings are going off, clouding her vision somewhat, but she can still fight. And she will prove it.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Riko 0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
Still down on one knee, Riko picks up her fallen remote control, tossing it into the air before catching it in her palm. She idly fiddles with one of the switches...and, a few yards away, her motorized shopping trolley twitches, the sound, the pitch, of its roaring engine changing, spooling into high gear. Over the top of her remote, Riko grins at Aislinn, eyes bright.
COMBATSYS: Riko gathers her will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Riko 1/----===/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
As if snapping off a switch, suddenly, Aislinn's posture changes; her gaze no less intent, suddenly she's lunging forward, speeding straight for Riko, her whole body thrown into the motion... her expression is as unchanging as ever, but the very action is intense, intent, as Aislinn almost literally skims the ground, feet touching only maybe two or three times as she leads with a left fist...
[OOC] Riko sadfaces at the reaction chances.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn successfully hits Riko with Momentum Overdrive.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Riko 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
[OOC] Riko says, "Holy ow."
... and... -contact-. Aislinn digs her feet in, pulling herself to a halt, all that momentum transferred... into her upper body. Suddenly, though she hadn't moved this fast before, she's pummeling Riko with vicious body blows, her arms blurring with the effort, the image to an outsider almost as if Riko were being lifted up by each punch to her midsection... and after one last punch, Ai draws back both hands... then stamps forward and thrusts them out in a palm attack to Riko's chest, to send her flying.
To borrow a quote: BOOM.
Riko has just enough time to squeak...as Aislinn smashes into her like a jackhammer the size of the world, a painful concussive impact blasting into her body with the thundercrack of breaking ribs. Thrown like a rag doll, she tumbles head over heels...
...before -vanishing-, in mid-air, with a crackling FLASH of retina-searing blue.
The clears, and Riko's not where she was. Gone, gone.
Then a wet, hacking cough comes from behind Aislinn.
Riko's crouched on the fire escape of a building, a couple storeys up. She spits phelgm and blood, but her expression remains one of bemused confidence. Albeit, now, with a distinctly maniac edge.
In the intervening time, she's somehow managed to retrieve her shopping cart. She's -carrying- the supermarket trolley, holding it in both hands, as she balances on the fire escape railing. One hand reaching into the big black trash bag taped inside the main cart body.
"Very good," she cries, "my eternal nemesis! But you shall now face my wrath! TROLLEY-KUN, SANJO!"
She -pulls- something, and there's a loud cacophony of scraping metal. And then the lawnmower engine attached to the trolley's wheels...-detatches-, blown off in a flash of smoke. It doesn't drop, though. Instead, it rockets on a straight line towards Aislinn, trailing smoke and flame, the engine block crackling with the blue light of Riko's electrical chi.
"TRROOOLLLEEEY BUSTER!"
[OOC] Riko says, "Oh, come on. You KNEW I was gonna do that."
[OOC] Riko says, "Don't complain."
[OOC] Aislinn says, "Yeah, I saw that coming."
[OOC] Aislinn says, "I have e.e chances."
[OOC] Riko says, "NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FELT."
[OOC] Aislinn says, "Indeed."
COMBATSYS: Riko successfully hits Aislinn with One Girl Riot EX.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Riko 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
The Momentum Overdrive--objectively, Aislinn's most powerful attack--also comes with a drawback. It takes time to recover from it. Add to that Ai's battered state of being and it doesn't end up well. Well... how it ends up is a big chunk of electrified engine block slamming Ai right in the chest. Definite owies there--Aislinn gasps, as much from the impact as the pain, and staggers. But she's not done -just- yet.
With the last of her energy and with her wavering consciousness, she plunges forward, almost blindly simply trying to shoulder-ram Riko. If there's any chi discharge, it's incidental, a product of training and instinct rather than conscious effort. Ai's tired. And she has to go buy new underwear now. It was bad enough buying it the -first- time.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Riko 0/-------/=======|
[OOC] Aislinn says, "Man. -1% health. :)"
COMBATSYS: Riko blocks Aislinn's Jab Punch.
[ \\\\\\\ <
Riko 0/-------/=======|
[OOC] Riko says, "1% health."
[OOC] Riko says, "Symmetry."
Given she's standing balanced on a fire escape railing, a couple storeys above the ground...Riko wasn't expecting such a retaliation. That's quite a last-ditch charge on Aislinn's part. Riko blinks, -hard-...just as the leaping girl -crashes into her-, throwing her back onto the fire-escape landing in a discharge of chi. Riko just manages to roll with the blow, diffusing the impact. She blinks again, wiping away a trickle of blood and spittle from her chin with the back of her hand. And regards Aislinn. With both girls now resting on the fire escape, in close proximity.
(Down below, Trolley-kun, dropped by Riko in the collision, lands on the street, bouncing on its wheels.)
"So, uhhhhh," Riko hazards, waving a hand vaguely, "truce?"
Aislinn is nothing if not determined. Fire escapes, two story buildings... NESTS didn't build her to give up. But give up, for now, she must... she looks at Riko, lips pursed... and without a reply, puts her hands on the fire escape and pushes off, dropping down the two stories and landing with a heavy *thud*, her legs left with just enough to actually absorb the impact. The air of 'don't mess with me' that she is now exuding is enough to part any early morning crowds as she walks back the way she came.... seeming almost... resigned. And making a mental note to take a different route back home.
Riko blinks once, twice, three times, then taps her chin with a finger, looking thoughtful. All in all, that wasn't actually a -bad- field test. The basic concept was proven sound, though a far less self-destructive assault mode is probably in order. She makes a mental note of that, for her later report to Seishirou-sama.
Swinging off the fire escape, she drops as well, though somewhat more gracefully than Aislinn. Landing inside her trolley. Some fumbling in the bag produces a smaller backup motor, which she fires to life. Trolley-kun slowly trundles out the alley, chugging away.
No, not a bad test at all. It was quite worthwhile. And that other girl was very interesting. Very interesting indeed. Riko's quite pleased, really.
She'd have to apologise later. Sometime in the future, when the other girl's not so angry. Find out more about her. The data could be useful.
Maybe offer new underwear as a peace offering.
Yes.
[OOC] Riko =D
[OOC] Aislinn laughs.
[OOC] Riko says, "Don't laugh. SHE WILL DO THAT."
COMBATSYS: Riko has ended the fight here.
Log created by Riko, and last modified on 04:51:45 06/12/2006.