Description: An after-school visit by Cross + an after-school visit by Fio = Utter Chaos!
Seijyun High, the Fort Knox of High Schools. It's hard to get on campus if you're not specifically invited, and the population of students within is limited by the exorbitant tuition and of course having the required gender to attend an all girl's school. The time is mid-day, roughly lunch hour, though with the varied schedules students here have, that doens't necessarily mean everyone is on lunch break at the same time.
Hotaru is waiting just right in front of the large main building of the school. An elaborate Victorian affair, with all the fancy frills, pillers, etc., one would expect from such architecture. Dressed for class, the pig-tailed girl keeps watch on the wide walkway out to the front gate as if expecting someone.
Her hands are clasped behind her back. On the ground next to her feet is a leather bookbag. She really doesn't like carrying it when she doesn't have to. Master Ryo insists that she pack around flat, lead weights in the bottom of the bag, as if thick books themselves weren't enough. All part of extending the Kyokugen Way into every aspect of her life, it seems!
The person she is waiting for is Fio. The young woman left her name when they last met, and while at the time Hotaru had forgotten that she actually did want to talk to her about a certain vampiric someone that they both have encountered in the past, it did finally occur to her to get in touch with Fio and ask if she could meet her at school during lunch hour. She's already submitted the necessary paperwork to get young soldier through the security gates - though they might take issue to her getting in with anything resembling a /grenade/. Structural damage is expensive! Oh yeah, and the lawsuits!
Fiolina, mercifully, does not necessarily need grenades for /everything/, unlike certain other red-capped former soldiers who will remain nameless; she gets onto campus no problem, with only tonfa. Considering people with swords are regularly on campus, sometimes even /students/ on campus, this is hardly a problem. It's hardly the best thing for her situation, but it's not the worst one, either.
The soldier arrives precisely on time, and after a quick sweep of the area with her eyes, spots Hotaru without a problem; she walks toward the young woman standing at the main building, and gives a wave. "Hey..." she says, still feeling a little weird thanks to her recent excursion into Thailand. /That/ was no fun. "You wanted to talk about that... woman, right?"
Cross, on the other hand, has not submitted any necessary paperwork, and probably wouldn't, even if she knew to do so. The NESTS agent doesn't attend school, after all, and can't quite grasp Aislinn's fascination with the place. However, she's run out of stragglers to pummel on the border of Thailand, so for lack of anything better to do she's decided to pay the other agent a visit at her 'place of business'.
And, of course, she's making a spectacular first impression. As out of uniform as anyone could be, not to mention being there during school hours--and not in school herself!--and with her iPod earbuds in, which is probably breaking some rule. Even if it's not, the lit cigarette in her mouth almost certainly is. You know, on top of all the rules she's breaking just by walking in through the front gate to begin with.
"Meh," Cross mutters, pausing to take a drag of her smoke. "I don't see what Aislinn comes here for. I thought it'd be a real meat-market, but I don't see nothin' but skirts..." Another puff, then her eyes slowly turn in the direction of Hotaru. Huh. There's something about her that seems familiar. Closet raver, maybe?
The other girl there looks kind of familiar, too. Maybe, vaguelly, just a little. The young rocker just shrugs it off and goes back to looking for Aislinn for the moment, though. You don't randomly approach people you recognize from a sleazy rave's bathroom and strike up a conversation, after all.
It isn't a fascination, really. She was assigned here after Gedo. But it -is- educational, in more ways than one. She isn't really concerned with book learning--facts are easy to store. But for someone who was very much a blank slate before she came out of the technological womb, the richness of -life- is very educational. Besides, there's Yurika to contend with... and she will be useful to NESTS, someday. Some day.
Ais knew Cross was on campus--alerted by their superiors, of course--and, even though she knew of Cross's tendency to... make trouble... she could not get away to find the girl that quickly. However, here she is. And yes, Seijyun is an all-girls' school. You want boys, you go to Taiyo. If you want lumbering oxen you go to Gedo.
"Cross," says Aislinn, by way of greeting the other NESTS agent; she doesn't bother reminding her that smoking is not permitted on school grounds, she knows the other wouldn't care. Of course, by chance or by fate, Aislinn has to manuever past Hotaru to get to Cross, and ends up bumping the girl on her way past.
But she doesn't even acknowledge it, really, as she walks up to Cross.
"... why are you here."
As Fio makes her way to the front of the building, Hotaru stays in place rather than coming to meet her half way. Going to greet Fio on the way would mean picking up the bookbag of back-aching doom and Hotaru is perfectly happy to leave it sitting right there on the step where it lies for as long as possible.
"Glad you could make it," Hotaru greets with a smile. But as Fio gets straight to the point, she nods, her smile fading as she sombers up a little, "Yeah. I- I know who she is. I've encountered her a few times before... I wanted to know what she was doing when you found her. Tracking her down is, well, an interest of mine, I guess. You see-"
At that point she gets jostled by Aislinn passing by. "Ooph, sorry," she states as she glances over her shoulder. So caught up in talking with Fio, she isn't sure if she backed into the other student or not, hence the instinct to apologize first. However, looking over her shoulder means her eyes come to rest on the young woman Aislinn is addressing.
The pig-tailed student's expression becomes a bit of a frown as she turns around completely to face the smoking goth directly. Hrm. Finding out more about what sort've rampages Marise is up to is important. But happening upon the rebel girl from last week by happenchance is really hard to pass up on. "Excuse me." Hotaru states, bending down to pick up her heavy bookbag, her arm muscles straining a little at the weight.
Oh sure, she could explain why she's about to go do this to Cross. It may seem entirely unprovoked on face value. For the record, it isn't just for what Cross did to her in the spar she asked the girl to participate in in the first place. There's more to it than that. But to the three individuals that might be about to get dragged into this by surprise, Hotaru's next move may just seem completely out of left field. Lifting her heavy book bag up over her head with both of her thin arms, Hotaru brings it crashing down toward Cross's chest. "YOU!"
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has started a fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Cross has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cross
The comments about having already met this crazy vampire woman, having already dealt with her a few times, and wanting to track her down strike a certain chord with Fio -- she feels the same way, though he's only seen the woman once. She remains quiet, only nodding, until such time as Aislinn bumps into Hotaru -- and then things slowly turn into chaos.
Fio doesn't know at all what the weird history behind Cross and Hotaru is -- last she saw the pair, they were on relatively amiable terms punching each other and wedgieing each other in the community center. Needless to say, she's extremely surprised when Hotaru suddenly /goes after her/ -- she seems like such a sweet girl! If it gets more ridiculous, this does mean she's more likely to side with the pigtailed girl than the goth.
SHe does the smart thing; she backs off.
COMBATSYS: Cross dodges Hotaru's Random Weapon.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cross
"Why are /you/ here?" Cross echoes, incredulously. "This place sucks. Total conformity factory. They probably don't even have any music!" The angsty teen removes her cigarette from her mouth for a moment, reaching out to unzip a passing student's bookbag and ash it into it casually without her noticing. Didn't look like a Prada, anyway, so she probably wouldn't mind. "Anyway, I thought I'd visit y--"
There's a break in her speech, as well as her, er, continued localized quantum placement, or something of that sort. No one seems to be really sure how she does that blurring thing, just that when she's done she's generally not where she started. This time around, she's on the opposite side of Hotaru--well away from the bookbag of doom--and leaning one elbow onto the fiesty schoolgirl's shoulder. Cross continues to speak, as if she had been doing so the whole time, even if several seconds worth of dialogue is now missing along with her transition from one point to the other, "--ot expecting to run into her, though. I thought maybe the vampire bitch would follow me back instead. This should be fun!"
Then, without further ado, she throws herself forward in something halfway between a cartwheel and a flip, her legs arcing up over her head. And quite possibly nailing Hotaru in the backside on the way up.
Oh, Aislinn is sure Cross did -something- to provoke Hotaru at a previous point. It is something she is quite good at. Still, she can't just let her fellow NESTS agent be assaulted like this, can she? Hotaru might not expect Aislinn to do what she does. To an outsider, maybe it would look like Aislinn is somehow trying to defend Cross, for whatever reason.
But she knows Cross can defend herself. So many can. The principle is perhaps more absolute--NESTS is not like Shadaloo, full of holes and disloyalty. When someone in NESTS is trouble, then NESTS agents come to their aid. Okay, except for Angel. Who is touched in the head anyways.
Anyways, the end result is going to be that Aislinn's left hand snaps out, as Hotaru passes, and attempts to get a hold of one of the girl's pigtails. Fortunately, even at Seijyun, teachers know not to get involved in the fights. Most students, too. Heck, it might even combo with Cross to get Hotaru into position for the flippy kicky bit. Oh yeah. Cross. "I am here for my own reasons," she replies, just after reaching out for Hotaru's head, "which I am sure you will not understand." However, it's not said with any rancor--in fact it's almost teasing, in her own flat way.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Cross 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Hotaru dodges Cross' I Write Sins Not Tragedies.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Cross 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Aislinn successfully hits Hotaru with Quick Throw.
Glancing Blow
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Cross 0/-------/-------|
The backpack flies through the air, striking nothing. Unable to stop the momentum of the heavy object, Hotaru just lets it go, allowing it to slam to the ground with a THUD. That woulda hurt if it had hit, that's for sure. And then the next moment Cross is leaning against her shoulder from behind. It's really annoying how she /does/ that!
Getting ready to take a step forward, she finds her hair suddenly pulling her in another direction as Aislinn manages to get a grip on one of her pigtails. Realizing that the girl behind her has backed off just a little in order to attac her, Hotaru pulls hard to the side, leaving a few stands of her hair in the other Seiyjun student. Well worth it to avoid getting kicked in the back by Cross though.
Having avoided the worst of that, the girl hesitates for a second. She hadn't expected to deal with two. Then again, she didn't think about this too hard before jumping in, either. "Please stay out of this," she states firmly in Aislinn's direction. "I'm dealing with /her/." she indicates, jerking her thumb Cross's way.
Leaning forward, she attempts to shove Aislinn back some ways, hoping that she'll take the hint and butt out so that she can get back to the goth girl.
Now it's turned into two on one, and against such a sweet girl! Fio's sensibilities are harmed, and for that matter, so is her contact in dealing with this vampire woman! This is a terrible thing that cannot stand, for certain. Even though it probably won't reflect well on her, Fio decides to give Ms. Futaba a hand with her various assailants, pulling out her tonfa.
Just a lunch-hour fight, Fio tells herself. This kind of nonsense happens all the time at Seijyun. No one's going to bat an eye. She has to tell herself this much, of course, to justify getting involved -- though when she does, it is with all the enthusiasm she'd bring anywhere else! And since Hotaru has evidently gotten distracted by someone who might leave after a few seconds, it's up to Ms. Germi to keep Hotaru's actual enemy off her back.
Finally stepping in, she asks, "Just what's the thing between you two, anyway?!" before grabbing at Cross's shoulders, tossing her to the ground if she gets a solid hold, and then doing a hard stomp into her gut. This doesn't feel quite right, but she -does- have to protect her primary contact -- even from little stupid things like schoolyard brawls. She's weird like that.
COMBATSYS: Fio has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cross
COMBATSYS: Aislinn dodges Hotaru's Quick Throw.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cross
COMBATSYS: Cross blocks Fio's Fio Stomp.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Cross
Normally, one might say 'I'm sorry, but I can't do that.' Aislinn gets part of it. Which is to say, Aislinn merely states, "I can't do that." She has no other words to say. Mainly this is because she's busy avoiding Hotaru's pushing hands--how inappropriate for a girl to and touch another girl like that! This is accomplished with the simple expedient of Aislinn's turning to her right and sidestepping in that direction. Thus having accomplished the goal of avoiding Hotaru's attack, she gets back to the business of fighting.
There's precisely 0% chance she'll leave, see, and that becomes evident as she draws herself into a Muay Thai stance as she completes her dodge--twisting and throwing her left leg up in a swift knee attack for Hotaru's stomach.
Normally, Aislinn might actually hesitate, but in her hierarchy, NESTS>all else, so she attacks without a second thought.
"Probably not," Cross concedes to Aislinn, remaining in a split-leg handstand that a gymnast would be proud of for a long moment before continuing on with the motion, bringing her heels back to terra firma to complete her forward tumble. There's something exhibitionistic about it, with the way she's dressed, but she doesn't seem to have noticed. "... I guess if it's always this violent it could be fun, though..."
The rocker grrl doesn't seem to have realized a fight has broken out, yet. The situation might be dawning on her a bit when the fourth party becomes involved, however, shoving her to the ground from seemingly out of nowhere. "Eh?" Her dark eyes blink once, her foot immediately coming up to nudge Fio's descending appendage aside from the inside of the ankle. They footsie for a bit, then--Cross reclined and seemingly still somewhat relaxed--her foot bapping kicks aside until finally the soles of their respective footwear meet, locked together with equalized momentum keeping Fio from stomping downward and Cross from kicking upward. "... I dunno. Who are you, anyway?"
Really, she can't be expected to remember every fight she picks with random, mostly harmless young ladies. This one does seem even /more/ violently predisposed, however, so she does what comes naturally: while one of either of their legs is locked up, she uses the other one in an upward-stomping kick directed at the exposed space between Fio's thighs. Not for nothing, but Hotaru should've warned that Cross fights dirty!
COMBATSYS: Hotaru blocks Aislinn's Light Kick.
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Cross
COMBATSYS: Cross successfully hits Fio with Light Kick.
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Cross
Her shove avoided, Hotaru recovers her footing fairly quickly, becoming gradually aware that the extra girl in this fight isn't quite the prissy student she's used to on this campus. Taking a split second to identify the stance, the pig-tailed girl is able to predict the incoming kick with enough speed to raise her own leg to intersect, blocking with her upper shin.
She's also aware that the young soldier has jumped into the fray and is keeping Cross off her back for a second. Huh, well, she hadn't asked for it, but she won't turn down the help! "Because!" she explains as she backs up from Aislinn, "While she was still at the center she dragged a kid off and beat him up in the locker room... When the word got around, half the parents pulled their kids out of my class!" Hotaru explains, her fists clenched. It was SO embarrassing to come in the next day and have the YFCC staffer explain why her self-defense course was missing so many students.
"Careful with her-" Erk, too late. Shaking her head, Hotaru decides to deal with Aislinn first, ramping up a little now that she knows she's dealing with a second capable fighter. Stepping forward quickly, she attempts to grab hold of the lavender haired girl's arms. If she manages to get a grip, she'll use the leverage to run right up the front of her with a series of light kicks before leaping into a backflip off her shoulders.
Fio throws her hands up as she judges the kick to be coming for her chest, but it's for naught -- Cross's kick catches her right between the legs, and she winces in pain. ".. o-oh," she groans, looking like she's about to cry for a second, "owwww..." But that's not enough to keep a good soldier down! Unlike bullets from weird technological things in Africa, kicks are something she evidently can take more than one hit from. "-- I'm Fiolina Germi! I'm... a friend of hers," the young woman forces out, blinking a few times. /Damn/ that hurt.
"And -- you /beat someone up/ after that class?! That's terrible!" /That/ puts Fio in a position where she really does kind of want to punch Cross; needless to say, now that she has a reason other than 'tenuous protection justification,' she puts herself into the fight a lot more forcefully. "Well -- if you're going to be that way, then... then..." Fio sprints forward, trying to bowl Cross over, leaving Aislinn to Hotaru. Under normal circumstances, this would be where she'd throw grenades and run, but she has no grenades on Seijyun campus. As such, she elects to -- if she does indeed knock Cross to the ground -- go for a hard elbow drop, then a forward roll.
COMBATSYS: Cross fails to interrupt K.A.M.I.K.A.Z.E. from Fio with My Way Home is Through You.
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Cross
No one seems to have explained to Cross that the girls are serious. Most likely, she thinks this is all some sort of standard schoolgirl battle type thing they engage in on a regular basis. Thus, she's quite content to remain prone, one elbow braced against the ground with her head propped up on her palm, laying sideways facing toward Fio. Rather irresponsibly, she fishes her iPod out of her cleavage and starts surfing through the music collection.
"Eh...? That?" Cross replies, glancing up toward the charging Fio with a surprised expression. "The wanker grabbed my boob! Besides, she told me to teach 'em how to beat somebody up, so..."
The overly relaxed fighter does begin to swing her legs around, looking to build up momentum for a Capoiera-style sweep or perhaps handstand-kick, but hasn't quite generated enough inertia when Fio decides to pounce onto her and start doing elbow drops on her solar plexus. There's not much she can do at that point but lie back and make 'oof!' and 'hnnugh!' sounds as the overzealous woman nails her to the ground.
"... tch! If you want to start something, I'm still waitin', here."
COMBATSYS: Aislinn fails to counter Shin-Jou Tai from Hotaru with Brutal Hammer.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Cross
Well, ow. Aislinn reacts when Hotaru grabs her arms--but not in the right way. Instead she is kicked several times and flipped off of, and it doesn't make her disposition any better. She really doesn't give a damn about Hotaru's class; she probably would've disrupted it herself, just by her own presence. She did so with Momoko's class, after all... in a manner of speaking.
Aislinn, however, doesn't seem terribly disturbed, as of yet, by the damage she's taken; it hurt a lot more than she was ever willing to let on, but that was a good hit. Well, she'd planned on challenging Hotaru anyways; this is as good a time as any. Clearing her head, Aislinn gets up from where she was dumped on her ass, and just waits. Apparently it's become Hotaru vs. Aislinn and Fio vs. Cross... but that's fine for now.
Landing after her backflip through the air, Hotaru absently brushes her hand against her skirt. She really hates fighting in uniform, even if it is just all girls around. Ditching her blue blazer with a shrug of her shoulders, she tosses it absently aside into the grass. No sense in having that constricting thing on. The girl watches Aislinn the whole time, pondering her a bit further. She's impressed that she was able to stay standing after the barrage of stomping kicks. Just means the girl is tough enough to go all out on, the pigtailed girl decides as she rolls her arm back, bathing her forarm in a glowing blue aura.
"Don't make up stories, I've already had to hear the account of it like a dozon times already!" Hotaru retorts to Cross's excuse. "Che." The blue energy in the palm of her hand coalesces into a shimmering sphere of blue energy. Swinging her arm forward, she lobs the little projectile of force directly for Aislinn. While the build up took a while, the chiball moves fairly swiftly once thrown. "YA!"
As Cross's risky gambit buys Fio a few seconds, she comes out of her roll away and turns back around. The upside of wanting to prove yourself is a limitless well of resolve when the chips are down. The downsie is being easily baited and kind of thick sometimes. "You don't teach someone to beat people up by beating them up -- even if -- and it was a self-defense class! That's not about..." Fio does not parse higher-level thought well, at least not this nonsense, at least not right now. She could probably puzzle it out at a desk.
Then Hotaru comes in with her side of the story, which Fio is much more inclined to believe; she does not respond to it, though, merely noting it for later discussion and then refocusing on Cross. Looking the goth-punk over, she tries for something risky -- a quick jump toward her again, this one with her extending her arms out in a somewhat weird-looking diving punch not unlike one that may or may not be popularized by certain Ikari members.
COMBATSYS: Fio successfully hits Cross with Fierce Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Cross
"Make up stories? Oh, I see how it is! You're running some sort of racket with the community center, covering for young perverts so they can molest innocent ladies without reprecussions!" Cross clucks her tongue, shaking her head slowly. "That's pretty sleazy, girl. You're like some little trauma-pimp!"
Apparently, Cross isn't even paying attention to Fio despite the sustained barrage she's suffered, because when the angry soldier-girl comes down on her like a ton of bricks she looks generally stunned. Her shoulders arch up off the ground and her feet kick straight up in the air as she reflexively tries to bow herself into a bent-double posture around the deeply impacting blow into her abdomen, but remains fairly well pinned to the ground by the weight bearing down on top of her, and ultimately ends up flopping her arms out wide as her feet drop straight back down to the ground with an exaggerate 'ooommfff!'.
"Think that was my spleen," she weazes, reaching up to clap one hand onto the top of Fio's head. "Ah, well. Probably don't need it." Then, seemingly undisturbed (well, at least in the most immediately relevent definition), she tries to bring her other fist around to meet the anxious young woman's face. Nevermind that she hasn't gotten off her back this entire brawl, thus far. That's just fine!
COMBATSYS: Aislinn dodges Hotaru's Hakki Shou.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Cross
Hotaru must be getting confident. Certainly she's upping the ante here. Well, that's alright too; Aislinn does want Hotaru to fight her at her fullest. Cross and Hotaru's little feud is pretty much completely forgotten by Aislinn, by now; she's focused on Hotaru herself and Fio is not likely to bother her yet.
Aislinn provides no vocal opposition to what Hotaru is saying, most likely because she figures it's probably true. Not that Ais cares. The pulsing burst of blue chi is not sidestepped--actually, Aislinn ducks it, lunging forward with a long, loping step and a roll of her shoulders that lets her clear the Hakki Shou quite handily.
And then she's coming up, jabbing her left hand at Hotaru--having switched from Muay Thai to Boxing somewhere in there. Something else has changed too, as her hands are glowing with a red-white electrical aura--evident not only on the left jab but the right cross that follows it.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn successfully hits Hotaru with Medium Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Hotaru 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Cross
As her fireball sails off, Hotaru reaches over with her other hand, clamping it against her forearm as if tempering some hidden burn from doing the attack. Hissing from some unseen source of pain, the blue aura fades back into her arm while she watches the projectile sail harmlessly over Aislinn.
The change in styles appears to throw her off. She's quite the style reader when opponents adopt a stance she recognizes, and switching to a punching attack ends up getting right through her attempt to dodge. The jab strikes her shoulder and the right cross strikes her hard in the face, almost turning her around completely on her feet. "Ow," she gasps, her hand coming up to rub her cheek as she turns back around to face the strong punching girl again.
Thinking to buy herself a little time, she crouches low, sweeping out with her foot for Aislinn's ankles, trying to knock her off her feet or force her to retreat a little.
COMBATSYS: Fio interrupts Strong Punch from Cross with Palm Strike EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Cross
Fio doesn't play that game -- evidently, her instinct when a fist comes at her face is not to avoid it but to rush in headlong. Not knowing what else to do, she does a small hop and comes in with both hands extended out in front of her, and her head turned to the side. Turning her head to the side means the blow glances off her ear rather than catching her dead-on in the face, and advancing in at the same time as Cross does means Cross gets a chest-ful of hard palm strike, which will probably knock her a good ten feet back.
wo or three of these is how she was trained to deal with locked doors. This woman is nuts.
"You're pretty good," Fio says, with a quick roll of her neck in an attempt to get her head back on straight after that punch -- it still hurt, even just glancing off of her. Even if this punk woman is some weirdo who gets her kicks beating people up at a community center and then busts into schools, she's definitely got something going for her.
Probably would knock her ten feet back, if she were standing. However, since she hasn't quite managed to get off her back yet, the blow simply spikes her into the ground once again--pinned between the relatively unmoving object represented by the Earth (Article A) and the not-quite-irresistable force of Fio's palm coming down into the valley between her breasts (Article B)--making a sickening cracking sound as one or two of her ribs give way, with a pained grimace to match.
Cross pants softly, wincing each time doing so makes her chest rise. The last few days haven't gone so easy for her: Elle, Gabriel, Cammy, Naerose, Marise, Tran, Tessa, Katelynn. Maybe there /is/ an upper limit to her endurance, or at least her willingness to fight, because right now she seems to be wearing her wounds much more openly than usual...
"Mmph. I was just gonna take her out for lunch, Christ. I'll make an appointment next time...!" Cross coughs out. Then, if only for a moment, the fight sparks back up in her eyes, and she lashes out with a kick toward the side of Fio's knee meant to bring the woman down into nice, close proximity where she can have words with her without having to get up from the nice, comfy ground she's been half-pummeled into. Or, maybe she just wants to invite some more pain.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn dodges Hotaru's Light Kick.
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Hotaru 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Aislinn
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Fio 0/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Cross
That's interesting. Most people don't injure themselves--or experience pain--from their own chi. Those that do usually have some other reason for it--like the Yagami taint. Hotaru is not, as far as Aislinn knows, one of the Orochi... but perhaps this bears further investigation. DNA samples must be obtained, at least.
Now, of course, Hotaru is attacking Aislinn's ankles--a good idea, given her boxing stance. Boxers don't handle low-targetted attacks well. Fortunately, Aislinn is something of a fighting machine. Effortlessly she clicks from style to style, flowing like water, changing like a Transformer.
The low sweep is jumped, and instantly Aislinn is transitioning from punching to kicking. The low hop gathers her legs under her--and then she's thrusting her legs out at Hotaru's chest. It's a low, almost instant transition to a flying dropkick, targeted for Hotaru's chest.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru interrupts Strong Kick from Aislinn with Hakki Shou EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Fio 0/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Cross
As Aislinn hops over her foot, she may not notice Hotaru's arm flaring blue a second time even as she rises back up into a standing position. No attempt is made to avoid the incoming jump kick. Instead Hotaru slams her hand forward, directly into the other girl, delivering the projectile at point blank range this time. It smashes against the other girl before splashing away, leaving no trace.
But the jump kick was certainly felt and Hotaru stumbles back a couple of steps, her hand coming up to press against her dirtied white blouse where Aislinn's foot connected. The hand that threw the fireball clenches strangely as if it was siezed by some pain for creating the chisphere a second time.
Catching her breath, and feeling a little sick from the crunching kick, Hotaru keeps her focus on Aislinn. She had met to settle a vendetta with Cross, but it seems that's not really going to happen right now.
COMBATSYS: Cross successfully hits Fio with Revolution Deathsquad.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Fio 1/---====/=======|=------\-------\0 Cross
Cross brings Fio down closer to her level, reaching up to grab the woman's shoulders with both hands, staring her eye-to-eye for a moment with a feral grin. "Hey, listen. You gonna pin somebody down and curb-stomp 'em, you better do it right. Lemme give you some pointers."
That's about the time the pain starts. Cross throws her head forward in a headbutt that lacks /any/ proper technique--she probably brained herself as bad or worse as Fio--then another, and another, and another. Then, when she's too dizzy to keep swinging her head straight, she thrusts her knee up into the girl's gut to raise her up a bit. And, while she's up there, swings her elbow across her body to catch her in the side of the head, rolling her off from on top of her with the force.
Cross rolls after her, straddling Fio in the front mount position, and then proceeds to lay into her with a completely random, aimless, artless series of punches, slaps, scratches, elbows, bites, and essentially anything else she can think of. None of them are directed at anything potentially vital; she's not trying to /kill/ Fio, just really, /really/ piss her off.
The blows... don't hurt as much as Fio thought they would, at least at first -- she's hurting, but she's been hurt worse. Getting hit in the head doesn't bother her too much. What does bother her is getting mounted and struck countless times, from every angle imaginable with every/thing/ imaginable -- by that point, all pretext of good sense has gone out the window, and Fio slips into survival mode. Even if Cross isn't trying to kill her, there are certain reflexes one picks up on the battlefield.
One is to wait for the right opportunity. As a brief gap in the 'action,' such as it is, comes, Fio reaches back for a tonfa and swings it up at Cross, trying to knock her off of her; from there things to crazy as -- if this buys her any more time -- she gets the /other/ tonfa, goes for a harder swing, and from there bursts into a similarly artless series of forward strikes designed to both knock away oncoming assaults and leave Cross hurting. "That -- really -- /hurt/!" she says, breathing rather unevenly.
COMBATSYS: Fio successfully hits Cross with Fio Fio Tonfa Takedown!.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Fio 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Cross
"Yeah?! That's how it's /supposed/ to feel! That's right..." Cross grits her teeth against the onslaught as she's battered (even more) senseless by the barrage of bludgeons, her head getting clocked this way and that, body bouncing on the ground constantly as she's layed into. There's probably more than one or two broken ribs, now, not to mention lacerations on her cheeks and chin from where the blows glanced off them, a busted lip and cut eyebrow, and some seriously risky looking lumps on her arms.
... and she doesn't seem to care, much. More than that, she's laughing--a labored, hacking sort of laugh, but definitely laughing--through the descending storm, limbs akimbo at first but tensing after a moment and regaining control. Her hands snap up and grab either side of Fio's head, holding her steady for a moment as the two go nose-to-nose, Cross staring at her with wildly manic eyes, albeit one covered over with blood running from her forehead wound. "That's it!"
The young brawler keeps clawing away until the end, apparently /excited/ now, and having every intention of popping one or more things Fio wants to keep out of their respective sockets or away from some of their more important connective tissues. Like a bobcat, she's savage even in her final throes.
COMBATSYS: Cross can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
Hnn. An interesting use of the technique; Aislinn does very similar things herself, on occasion. Hotaru's command of her chi is quite good. Aislinn is sent flying by the blast--but that's quite alright. She turns what looks like a nasty fall into a skidding three-point landing.
Okay, yeah, that hurt quite a bit. But Aislinn is far from out, and she's long since learned to put the pain away. She'll put the pain away until she can't ignore it any longer--and that's only when her body refuses to move. So far, she's still good. Her lavender eyes--such a soft color, normally--are like crystals, cold and hard, and her lack of expression, even in the face of such good strikes, is unreal.
Slowly she rises to her feet, but she makes no move to approach Hotaru--instead she simply clenches her fists, and concentrates. There's a flow of energy--invisible, spiraling up into her. The excess energy comes as a visual effect, too, a swirling burst of wind that flares briefly around her feet, kicking up some stray leaves and dead leaves of grass.
Cross is down; Aislinn looks to Fio, wondering if the young soldier will jump in here as well. No matter, either way; multiple opponents or single opponents, the fight is a pure thing for her.
COMBATSYS: Aislinn gathers her will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
Panting a little as Aislinn holds her ground, Hotaru is looking pretty winded. Throwing out the chiballs didn't seem to be easy for her, though the power of the attack itself was pretty effective. And eating the punch and kick didn't do the fragile fighter any favors either.
"I didn't really have any business with you," she states to Aislinn, "If you don't want to fight anymore..." Glancing at her side, she watches Fio and Cross obliterate each other with extreme force and pales slightly. She really hadn't intended to instigate anything like /that/. She really should just stick to using words instead of lead weighted backpacks to open conversations with in the future, she chides herself, attention back on the girl that has managed to keep pace with her pretty much hit for hit so far.
"I mean, really, I don't even know who you are," she states, her mouth curling into the faintest of smiles.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Fio blocks Cross' Somewhat Damaged.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/----===|
When Cross gets a hold of her head, Fio recoils -- somewhat painfully, and her pull back results in her head getting a good, solid yank, but ultimately letting her free before Cross can get much more vicious and -- well, and annihilate her, really. She notices the slowing in the other woman's movements, and steps back (forgetting that 'back' leads toward Hotaru and Aislinn), and looks down.
"... I don't want to hurt you anymore... you're done, right?" She says this in that way that's all goodness-and-purity-and-love, and not even facetiously! The heiress-turned-soldier needs a second to catch her breath, too -- and now seems like a /very/ good time.
COMBATSYS: Fio gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
"Who said I didn't want to fight?" by necessity, it's got the tone of a question to it, of course, but Aislinn makes sure to ask it as plainly as possible. Oh, she wants introductions? I see. Aislinn muses on this, as the flow of energy cuts off.
"Aislinn Doyle. Sophomore, Seijyun High School." Again, that flat delivery, as if she were reading out of a book or from a teleprompter.
She doesn't mention her fighting name/nickname, though. She isn't that egostistical. Actually, she doesn't think she's egotistical at all, although she is, a little. Those lavender eyes return to their focus--Hotaru--and she murmurs, "Are you afraid...?"
COMBATSYS: Aislinn focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
There's really no polite way of saying it: Cross looks like she just got laid, good and proper. The young fighter's passed out on her back, or doing a good impression of it, with a vacant and extremely pleased grin on her face. There's a moment where she does think to herself, 'Hey, I should just get up and keep going!', but it passes, mostly because she's dimly aware of Fio's statement of ending aggressions. What's the point of getting up if she's not going to be knocked back down?
Of course, as creepily satisfied as she appears, she's also been beaten almost literally into the ground. And drenched in sweat and blood and probably a bit of spittle knocked out of her own mouth or Fio's amidst the frenzy of blows. So, to be fair, she looks like she just had really /good/ sex.
"I- I see." Hotaru replies, leaning her head to the side slightly. As the seconds pass by, she seems to be losing a lot of the vigor that she had at the start of the fight. Her ire was for Cross, not this other student. Then comes the introduction and the pig-tailed girl makes a note of it. Good to know, at least! "I'm Hotaru," she answers succinctly. Long, polite introductions are for when she isn't feeling the way she does right now.
Breathing in a little, she exhales at the question as to whether or not she's afraid, sounding just a tiny bit exasperated. "No, not really. By all means then." she states, straightening up, ditching her fighting stance. The smile she offers Aislinn now is one of mild impatience as she clasps her hands behind her back and bows her head, closing her eyes. "Let's continue."
COMBATSYS: Hotaru takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
As Cross, fortunately, does /not/ get up, Fio turns around and looks toward Hotaru and Aislinn's discussion. This is kind of weird, in her experience -- they just stop and talk mid-fight? That's not the most... normal thing she's seen, to put it delicately. Still, she's foreign. Maybe this is a Japan thing.
"... Do you need a hand?" Fio calls over to Hotaru, before glancing back at Cross and making /totally sure/ she's not going to get back up and grab her by the throat. "I think the girl you -- had a problem with is, uh, done!" That's certainly one way of putting it, she thinks, repressing the urge to laugh at herself.
COMBATSYS: Fio takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
Good. Fear -is- the mindkiller, or so trance artists will have you believe. Something that Aislinn believes, actually. Her eyes narrow, her focus only Hotaru and what little of the world she needs to recognize to continue the fight.
"Good," she replies. And then she realizes... that she's right next to Hotaru's bookbag. She hups it up with her foot, sweeping her right hand around to grab it by the strap... and she starts whirling it around and around and around.
Round and round it goes... where it'll stop, nobody knows! But one thing is for sure. If Aislinn has her way, then its path will be right through Hotaru. Of course, during its trip it might shed a lead weight or two--meaning it won't be hitting as hard as say, if Hotaru had managed to hit Cross with it. But it should be a helluva impact if it goes off.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru interrupts Large Thrown Object from Aislinn with Sou-shou Tenrenge.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/---====|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
Hotaru was definitely intending to just sit there and let Aislinn show her what she can do. With her head bowed and eyes closed, she breathed in then exhaled slowly, expunging the vexation she has with Cross from her mind. She really needs to calm down in general, she muses. People are definitely getting her too wound up lately.
Speaking of getting wound up, she hears the sound of a book flying out of her bag, landing flatly on the grass nearby. Huh? Opening her eyes and lifting her head back up, Hotaru sees that the other girl is swinging her backpack around like a lethal weapon. "H-hey!" she cries out in protest as papers fly out from a side pocket and scatter into the air.
Gritting her teeth, Hotaru pushes herself into a swift sprint, charging for Aislinn to try and stop her from abusing her bookbag anymore. When she lets it go, it strikes Hotaru right in the chest, slowing the girl down just a little, her eyes widening a little. O-ow! Why MUST she carry those lead bars around in there? Sure, Ryo-sensei says it's good for endurance, but did he factor in getting HIT by them?
Still, the girl has already committed to a course of action. Shrugging off the leather bag, she hops at Aislinn, driving her hands into her shoulder and toward the base of her neck. Subsequent blows come afterward, windmilling strikes coming in from different angles, making them difficult to react to, small flashes of chi igniting from her fingertips with each strike.
After several blows, Hotaru leans forward, tackling Aislinn with her shoulder to launch her into the air. At the apex of her own jump, the girl flips into a dive right back down toward her opponent, her body flaring with an aura of chi that will burn briefly on contact before the entire manifestation fades away. Sliding to a stop in a crouching position, Hotaru gasps, coughing as the costs of her last attack catch up with her painfully.
And yet... and yet she -does not fall-. Aislinn is battered and smashed by Hotaru's powerful attack--something she was not expecting, in the least--something which garners her an instant of surprise and of joy. It may seem odd, but it's good to know that such skilled people exist... for Aislinn this is perhaps her only true joy, the joy of battle. Sure, she staggers--she looks beaten, or nearly so. And yet she remains standing, remains on her feet. She's bowed--but not broken. Now she cannot hide the pain, cannot ignore it, hissing as she favors bruised and possibly broken ribs and other bones and assorted.
It was quite a salvo... and now has come time for Aislinn's retaliation. She looks like she's reeling--and then she suddenly isn't, lunging for the Chinese Kenpoist, blurring across the ground as if she were flying, her feet literally not touching the ground...
COMBATSYS: Aislinn successfully hits Hotaru with Momentum Overdrive.
[ < > /////////// ]
Hotaru 1/----===/=======|=====--\-------\0 Aislinn
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Fio 0/-------/-----==|
Aislinn's hands close on Hotaru's shoulders and then the kenpo girl will find herself being thrust backwards, followed by Aislinn, until her back hits a thick tree planted in the Seijyun courtyard. That impact probably isn't so bad--but what comes after...
It's a literal storm of body blows, alternating right and left fists just pounding into Hotaru's delicate body; again and again and again, upwards of thirty times or more she strikes the Kenpoist.
But that isn't the final blow; she drifts backwards about five yards, then plants her feet, reverses her momentum, and drives forward again, her fists doubled up, firing a final strike into Hotaru's sternum with enough force to bounce her back out that five yards again.
Getting back up to her feet after her last attack is a strenuous affair, her movements labored at this point. She poured a lot into that last attack and the fatigue it created is telling.
When she gets grabbed, her eyes widen with dismay as she gets slammed back against the tree, gasping as she tries to raise her arms to make a defense. But the blows get past the feeble attempt at guarding easily, hitting her ribs, her chest, her side, her stomach - each blow driving her back against the tree, preventing her attempts at escaping the onslaught, tearing her nice fancy shirt.
"A-ah!" she cries out, ready to fall forward as Aislinn backs up for the final double strike. Her eyes widen, the air completely knocked out of her, Hotaru stumbles forward off of the tree, spitting blood from her mouth and coughing. She practically trips into her next attempt to strike Aislinn, attempting to deliver the same attack again, though she really shouldn't have the strength for it by now.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Aislinn 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Fio
COMBATSYS: Aislinn dodges Hotaru's Sou-shou Tenrenge.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Aislinn 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Fio
Missing Aislinn completely, Hotaru stumbles a couple more steps, then falls forward into the grass, her arms out at her sides.
The final outcome is that Aislinn sidesteps Hotaru's stumbling attack--she briefly, in the moments before she moved, considered literally stopping Hotaru, but in the end avoiding it was the easiest option. Now, were this any other sort of battle, Aislinn would simply walk away; however, with her opponent defeated...
She pulls out a cellphone, and dials a number, quickly, as she walks over to Hotaru, checking her pulse, her vital signs. "Yes, this is Aislinn Doyle. Yes, out front at the gates. She should be fine, but please hurry." Is she... calling the medics for Hotaru? Such an oddly compassionate gesture from her...
Fio watches the drama of punch and kick unfold, not intervening -- after all, Hotaru never did say she wanted help. She almost feels sorry for the girl -- after all, it is kind of painful to watch her and Aislinn go at it.
The call for medics, however, surprises her; that's another thing the young lady has never really gotten used to, or had to experience. This is such a different thing from where she went to school... it actually causes her to step back, and not intervene. This is beyond the scope of her experience.
"Hummm," Cross twitches a bit, then suddenly begins to rise. A more paranoid onlooker might mistake her for a zombie, the way she lurches gradually to her feet, arms hanging down limply and chin to her chest. That's the way she remains as she shuffles over toward Aislinn ponderously, without a word.
But then when she's up nice and close she just throws her head back, whipping her hair backward--with a quick sweep of her hand along the curvature of her head to fully slick it down--and gives her fellow NESTS agent a devil-may-care grin. "Tch. I hope you didn't hurt her too bad. I think she might be a little bit retarded, but she's not too bad."
Aislinn looks up at Cross as she approaches, with the briefest quirk of an eyebrow. Retarded? Hmm. But anyways.... Aislinn smoothly pockets... well... -something-... as she stands to face Cross.
"I only did enough to win the fight," she replies, seriously. Well, okay, perhaps she did a lot more than that, but to her mind, anything that wins the fight is just enough to win the fight.
"What is your status, Cross?" she asks, almost absently, while waiting for the school medics to arrive. Oh, and of course Fio. Fio just gets a raised eyebrow from Aislinn. Not too usual to see military girls on campus.
"Pffftt!" Cross holds up one hand, palm out and fingers splayed, as if to freeze Aislinn from further interrogation. "What, you worried? Not like she could kill me unless I let her, you know?"
That probably makes sense in whatever moonspeak that correlates to Cross's addled thought patterns. The gothpunk reaches up to rub at the back of her neck, grinning nervously when she adds, "... besides, the runt was pretty much right. I did sort of pummel and humiliate her in front of some dopey public service class she was giving. Annnd, maybe sort of stuffed one of her students in a locker, too..."
Her thumb flicks across the tip of her nose, and her grin becomes a bit more goofy than normal. When she's really been knocked around, she tends to get extra weird, if strangely lucid. "I figured if I let her scream and punch it out of her system, she'd feel a lot better, right? Don't know what GI Jane's problem is, though..."
"... maybe I should go and just check in with her tomorrow..." Fio says, looking a weird mix of sad and embarassed -- that was pretty much the opposite of what she wanted to happen. "You two -- um -- have a nice talk!" The heiress does not particularly want to be here right this second, considering how crazy things just got. She doesn't even answer Cross's comment. This is like the height of embarassment.
Fio... Fio. Oh yes, she uses guns and stuff. She must have been terribly restrained here. Aislinn gives a quirky grin and a wave to the girl. It's perhaps the most emotion she's displayed the entire night! And then Ais turns for her dorm rooms. She is damned tired and hurt. The only reason she's not coughing up blood is well, nanotechnology.
"If you wish to converse further, then come," she says, to Cross, shortly, before she walks away. In the distance are the medics, well-versed in the art of fixing fighters... Aislinn called them, that's all she needed to do.
It takes a while, but Hotaru finally rolls over onto her side, lifting her arm to wipe it against her mouth, leaving a messy smear of blood on the white long sleeve. She's content to lie there for a long moment, but she doesn't want to get carted off on some gurney or something. Not if she can help it!
Rolling the rest of the way over, she pushes herself up with her arms, coughing a few times, her hair hanging down around her face, sticky with perspiration. She's been listening to the exchange between Cross and Aislinn, her mind wondering at questions like 'What's your status?' Who talks like that?
By the time anyone is coming out to help her, Hotaru has already pushed herself back to her feet, cast a glare at Cross, then staggered over to where her papers and books ended up. Reaching down, her hand snags her bookbag and she drags the heavy (though now lighter) thing behind her as she starts going from book to book to pick it up off the ground.
Truth be told, she figures she probably had what she got coming to her. Picking stupid fights, letting annoying girls like that smoking goth girl get to her. She feels kind of dumb right now. She'll ignore the other two girls as they head off, she's got scattered papers to collect anyway!
Cross glances down at the recovering Hotaru, raising an eyebrow. The young lady's state of mind isn't lost on her, and she can't help but shake her head before briefly turning her attention to Aislinn. "Later. I got something for her, real quick."
The slightly larger girl paces over to where Hotaru is gathering up the contents of her bookbag, watching her for a moment and waiting until she's bent over to pick something up to siddle up behind her and loudly clear her throat. Her arms fold over her chest, and she fixes Hotaru with a surprisingly serious, level-headed stare. "You had something to say about that tramp Marise?"
Bending down to pick up each book is excruciating, forcing bruised muscles and bones to work even though right now she feels like just discarding the whole lot of them and buying all knew stuff. And, with the amount of dirt and blood she's smearing over them, that's probably what she's going to have to do anyway. But she forces herself to keep going to each book or paper, like some sort of self inflicted penance for having lost her temper at Cross.
When the medics come, Hotaru stands up with a grimace, another book held in her hand. Whatever she tells them seems to convince them to back off leave her alone. She doesn't want their attention now, even if she looks like a miserable mess with her bloody mouth, ripped, blood-stained, and dirty shirt. She can walk though, and she didn't feel anything break when Aislinn tore into her. So she'll just keep going until she drops over or makes it home, she figures.
Cross just so happens to come up behind her as she's bent over to grab another book. The throat clearing causes her to stand back up straight, glancing over her shoulder at Cross in time to hear her question. "I know about her." she says, her eyes wary, clearly not comfortable with having been left out here with the one girl she wanted to have words with in the first place. Turning around completely to face the goth girl, Hotaru doesn't say a word, one hand holding the book, the other wrapped around the strap of the bookbag she's been dragging around. Her silent stare implying the question she doesn't lend voice to, 'What's it to you?'
"Thailand," Cross declares, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Right now, she's working under that guitar-toting Frankenstein bitch on Vega's side of the fence. There's at least two more with her, though, not counting the Queen Bitch herself. Not too tough, and one of them might even dime her out in a pinch, but they'd still chew you up and spit you out together..."
The young lady flicks a cigarette halfway from the pack and snags it with her lips, mumbling, "Tiny Asian guy and some crazy witch. That's before you even run the risk of stumbling on one of the Baywatch bimbos or those crazy Tachikoma things they got running rampant all over the place. You could try to sneak in and get her, but between you and me, you don't seem bright enough to pull that off." There's a quick shrug as Cross taps the tip of her index finger to the end of the cigarette, flaring it up. Her tone seems to suggest she doesn't /mean/ to insult Hotaru, for a change.
Cross tucks her smokes back into her jacket's pocket, and leaves her hands there. Okay, so maybe she /isn't/ quite as crappy an agent as she lets on, since apparently she had the presence of mind to gather intel about... practically everything happening in Thailand.
"Tran... Doctor Tran." Hotaru identifies the male partner in crime to Marise. Elle's name? She actually has no idea. But she knows all about that guitar of hers. Slipping the book into the open maw of the bookbag absently, the girl seems to contemplate Cross's details thoughtfully, the doubt about her intelligence entirely unable to get a rise out of the beaten, dispirited girl at this point.
She breaths in and then exhales slowly, sounding pained and annoyed at the same time. "Why are you telling me this? Do you want me to tell you who they are? What they're doing? Why Marise seems to want to suck the life out of anyone she can get her hands on?" Hotaru shrugs a little. "I could answer all that, but I don't know why I would." She rests her free hand at her hip, "Mostly, I'm wondering what you were doing in Thailand in the first place. I bet you know all this stuff because you're one of them. One of those weird girls they send out to attack people for no reason. I've already beaten some of your friends, and I'd do the same to you. You should just go back there and wait for your wretched war to burn itself out." She takes a step back. Not out of fear, just a sign that this discussion is over as far as she's concerned. Another step is taken, then she crouches down to pick up another paper stuck in the grass, a footprint marring the middle of it. Grr. Rewriting this math homework is going to be annoying!
There's a long moment where Cross simply puffs away at her cigarette, staring at Hotaru with that completely dull--even dejected--expression that seems so entirely alien to her features. "They're mercenaries working for Shadaloo. Elle's the broker, the rest are hired muscle." Another long puff as she takes a moment to try and clear her thoughts, trying very hard to ignore the other girl's poutiness. "The vamp, she's a bit of a pill, but she burns like a wickerdoll. Elle's tough as nails, but she thinks she's a lot tougher than she is, so you just gotta hit her with shit she can't shrug off. The midget, he's just dumb as a box of rocks."
There's something about Hotaru's accusation that makes Cross flinch a bit. The goth shakes her head ruefully and turns on her heel so that her back is to Hotaru's own back. "I've got business with them. Elle, I mean, I just beat the shit out of her cronies to get at her. As for what I was doing in Thailand--" 'I put myself between Cammy's loaded gun and some poor schmuck I'd never met before, because I couldn't just stand there and watch him die.' Shyeah, like anyone would really believe that? Even she doesn't entirely believe it. "--I don't see why it matters. I'm not with the Dolls, though. You and your commando friend would be /greased/ if I was, that blonde in the leotard isn't just ten times stronger than you are, she's ten times stronger than you THINK you are. Take my advice, and don't even try it."
Cross shrugs then, and begins to walk off in the other direction. "Or don't. Your funeral, right?"
Even though Hotaru just keeps her back to Cross, she /is/ listening, her motions slowing down as she focuses less on picking up the last few things that look like they probably came out of her bag and shoving them into it. A lot of what is shared Hotaru already knew full well, but there were details. Shadaloo? Dolls? That would explain the attack on the Kyokugen Dojo... or, well, at least the source if not the reason.
It's only after Cross has started to walk off that Hotaru stands back up, turning around to watch her go, her expression somber as she digests the information, pieces of many puzzles coming together, a bigger picture slowly manifesting as each nuance is considered. Mn.
Lifting the bag to her shoulder, the last thing she does is pick her blue blazer off the ground and sling it over her other shoulder. Cutting classes for the rest of the day will be easy. She can play the 'I just got the snot punched out of me' card with the staff at the gate after all. Her next target is the Kyokugen Dojo. She really needs to sit down and tell Master Ryo everything she knows. She never told him of Elle, Marise, and Tran. The one day they held her captive. But he should know, she can't hide things from him forever. Not when it seems like he might be affected as well, in light of the new things Cross told her. All signs point to Thailand, it's just a matter of determining the next move to make.
COMBATSYS: Fio has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Aislinn 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Aislinn has ended the fight here.
Log created on 20:31:56 06/07/2007 by Aislinn, and last modified on 03:32:11 06/10/2007.