Description: Dr. Tran, fresh out from his pulse-quickening adventures in Thailand, pays a visit to the lovely yet deadly Elle Belmounte, mercenary princess! A daring dance of death ensues, as our hero once again reminds her that he's no pushover!
Well, after a long stint in Thailand, it's always nice to come back home to a dusty old warehouse in the middle of Southtown. There's a lot to take stock in, and a whole lot more to investigate, cheif amongst these things a large tablet and the skeleton parts that she managed to retrieve from two irate monster robot zombie things. Her life is full of these kinds of surprises, that Elle.
Working at her own pace again, it's good to just kick back with a ledger and a moment to herself as she sips at a soda and peruses her latest figures from the Thailand Job. Having done a lot of the security and tactical work that Vega's less than creative brainwashed generals couldn't do nets you a ton of cash. Theortically, nobody will have to work for a while.
Theoretically. Elle's not the kind of person that enjoys sitting around and splurging money. Cash is already being ferried about through bank accounts and being funneled into various investments in the 'business' of running a mercenary guild. If this keeps up, she'll be the last word in mercenary business. She leans back in her chair, feet propped up on the makeshift table as dull brown eyes glance over more numbers.
Who loves the cash money? Dr. Tran loves the cash money, that's who. Technically speaking, he is a paragon of fiscal irresponsibility. If he were acting as an accountant instead of a lawyer, it's probably a good bet that Blackjack would find all of its assets turned into a flying battle-fortress, cruising about the world and generally being awesome. HINT HINT.
But no. At the very least, Tran and Elle both know that he's not going near any money except what he earns, through regular wage and the occasional bonus for a mission well done. And, speaking of such a mission, Tran's come back to Southtown to give Elle a quick report, and maybe take a breather for a day or two. Thailand's a stressful place right now. Walking into the warehouse with a mild grin on his face, Tran raises a hand at waves.
"Yo, Elle. Just got back from the shithole I was hanging around in, and you'll never guess who I ran into." She might have already heard a report from someone, but there's nothing like getting it first hand, from the guy who had to do all the work.
Having been neck deep in financial figures for the past three hours, Elle is less than aware of the goings-on of her faction partners. Tran's approach is met with her usual dispassionate stare, and her eyebrow raises a tad when he mentions that he met up with someone. "Surprise me," she says, pushing the word aside to sit properly in the chair. There's about fifty thousand people Tran could have 'run into' lately, and almost all of them are people that Tran hates.
Not that she can really blame him. Most people around her seem to be mentally challenged nitwits. The fact that Tran wants to beat on them is no surprise to her. She pick sup the skull of the dead monster and tosses it from hand to hand, awaiting this little comminique from her right hand man and Asian Trading Card Battle Monster.
"Just like everybody else in the goddamn world, Hotaru showed up in Thailand, all perky and full of an unfocused drive to do unspecified acts of random goodness." Tran moves as he talks, heading toward the minifridge where the drinks are. "You should have seen it, it would have been adorable if it wasn't completely retarded. She was so intent when she was kicking the crap out of the soliders who were hanging around."
Popping open a beer, Tran leans back against a wall and takes a good, hard chug. Belching with satisfaction afterward, he finishes, "So anyway, I told her why she was retarded and fended her off long enough to get her to run. So anyway, remind me, why didn't we just give her away to the pound when we had the chance?"
"I don't have anything against the kid. She does what she thinks she has to do. I don't have a good reason for kicking people in the face and messing up their lives for money other than the fact that a real job sucks and pays worse," Elle says with a shrug. "Marise wanted to talk to her. I figure she scared the everloving shit out of the kid and sent her on her way. I haven't seen her since, and she's steered clear of all the local activity here. Her being in Thailand's a little bit of a snag, but I doubt she'll be there for much longer. They way I set up that region, it could go either way. Depends on if Vega's troops can hold formation like I told 'em to."
She goes back to her figures, scribbling in the margins as she takes another sip of soda. "We're pretty much done with Thailand now, though," she says offhandedly. "I got some new work for use with NESTS. Apparently one of their agents went rogue on them. She's genetic material on the loose." Elle reaches over and picks out a folder. "Looks like that new operative they have is broken and stopped following orders. Chick calls herself 'Cross'. Cute little thing."
She opens up the folder for Tran. "If you see her, don't stop punching her until she's forced to drink all her meals out of a straw. I need her alive though, so I can drag her candy ass to NESTS."
"Oh, hey, her." It's the chick who stepped in and started punching dudes while Tran tried to keep Naerose and Marise from beating the shit out of each other for no reason. "I kinda hate her." Bad memories. Bad, bad memories. "Good mission. I like it." He looks over the folder, silent for a moment or two.
Naturally, it doesn't last long. He's seen enough, and it's time to move on. "Alright, so, come on. It's time for you to take a break, how long have you been working on this? I know you're a soulless, baby-eating warlock robot, but all work and no play makes Jill have a psychotic episode." He's a doctor, he should know. "So it's your choice, what do you wanna do?"
"This is what I do, Tran," Elle explains for the billionth time. "We're not exactly a huge organization, but we're doing huge things. Do you have any idea how much Rolento would have /killed/ for the contract that we just got done doing?" She downs the last of the soda, and tosses it towards the garbage can across the warehouse, where it bounces off the wall and lands in a pile with the other crumpled soda cans. She's had a lot of caffine.
"And unless you can find me an accountant that moonlights as an accountant, we're a little strapped for support staff. Nobody else around here knows how to make these numbers work. I have crap stretched over three continents and three different currencies and four exchange rates," she says, gesturing to the spreadsheets. "I'm going to be dead before I'm thirty, and if my hair wasn't white already, it'd be turning white now."
She pauses, and pushes the work away. "Alright, you've sold me. I do need a break. I'm breaking," she says, scribbling one last little bit into a small box. "Now what?"
"Oh, I know." Tran understands that Elle has a shitton of crap to do, numbers to crunch, willies to wet, dogs to throw, whatever. He also understands his role here: not only is he muscle, but he's a doctor. It's his job to keep everyone healthy, Elle especially. She's kind of just a little completely crucial, and he meant what he said. Whatever else, Elle's human, and even she gets stressed. "And I'll work on it, how about that? God knows it's so unlikely, there's probably one just hanging out around the corner."
Pushing off the wall and stretching, Tran shrugs and looks kinda helpless. "I, uh. To be honest I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I figured convincing you would take a while, and that I'd have time to figure something out by then."
Well, truth be told, Elle's tired of working constantly, too. It's just that when you're called on to do a job, you have to do the very best you can, otherwise stuff doesn't work out. Between keeping her insane cronies alive and kicking and making sure the financial side doesn't detonate in her face, Elle's job is one that very few do particularly well outside of outright mind control or being some kind of space freak like Igniz.
"Well, you thought wrong," Elle says, standing up and rolling her head. "I was just about to take a breather anyhow and go outside to see if there was any opportunities out there today. Like that ninja accountant." Or anyone else for that matter. Elle needs more people to make her next idea work. Intelligent, people that can actually do things without her having to hold their hands are hard to come by. However, she finds them. Tran, Marise, and even Naerose are a clear sign that they even exist.
"Well, I suppose there's only one thing /to/ do," Elle says, tossing her jacket aside and strapping on her guitar. "I guess I need to try and kick your ass again. You know the rules of the game. So let's get to it."
"It always comes back to it, huh?" There's just no avoiding it. Another day, another fight. "Well, hell, I'm game. C'mon, Elle, let's take it outside and make it a good one, at least." There's shit in here that's kind of important, and according to the rules, Tran can't afford to worry about property damage.
So with that, the doctor finishes his beer, smashes the can on his forehead, chucks it to the side, and then walks out the door. Once he's there, he'll just turn around and wait. Whenever Elle feels like starting things off, he'll be ready.
COMBATSYS: Tran has started a fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|
Well, when you're stuck in a place where fighting is basically /what you do/ there's going to be some difficulty in avoiding inevitable battles. Besides, it's not like Tran should really expect much more out of the woman. It isn't like she knows how to do anything else at this point. Elle emerges out into the open in front of the warehouse. There's going to be a few changes in living arrangement very soon, if things work out right.
The second she turns to face Tran, she uncoils the long, weighted wire from around her wrist. Not even bothering to fall into a combat stance, her body flares with electrical power as she sweeps it in a wide arc in an attempt to entagle Tran with it.
If it hits, it'll follow up with a nasty crackling jolt of electrical power as she uses it as a ground for a blue bolt of electricity.
COMBATSYS: Elle has joined the fight here.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tran
COMBATSYS: Tran reflects Powerslave from Elle with Operation - Dr. Tran.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tran
A change in living arrangement? Come ooooon, Flying Fortress! It's really the only way to go, if you think about it.
However, Dr. Tran is not thinking about it at all, both because the topic hasn't actually been brought up, and because he's rather busy dealing with Elle. When she wire-whips at him, he holds a hand up and catches it neatly, just waiting for the electricity to come. It does, and the doctor's own chi is ready, a disc of it appearing around the wire, surrounding it. The shock hits it, vanishes for a moment, and then gets fed directly back into Elle's hand.
Tran releases the wire and steps back, tilting his head. Considering, judging, trying to figure out Elle's next move. While he loves fight banter as much as anyone, there's a time and a place, and it ain't here and now.
Elle immediately releases the wire coil as the blast hits her square. She's pretty much immune to her own attacks while on the defense. The shock hurts, but not so much that she's reeling. In fact, it seems to have actually done very little damage to her. Still, getting your own blast tossed back at you is pretty uncomfortable. With a grimace, she jerks the wire back, coiling it back up on her arm as she tries a different route. Hopefully one Tran will have a worse time accounting for.
Elle immediately starts to increase her speed. The woman charges at Tran with considerably accelleration on her side. When she's a few meters away, she leaps into the air to catch the shorter man's neck in the crook of her arm in a half nelson and swing around so that she's at his back. If she's swift enough, she'll attempt to use her considerable strength to strangle the man before falling back and crushing him into the ground in a backbreaker move.
COMBATSYS: Tran dodges Elle's 17 Crash.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tran
It's a good setup, but Dr. Tran's long since come to the conclusion that when fighting Elle, his best bet is to just stay the hell out of her way. She knows his weakpoints, and she's not afraid to exploit them. He, on the other hand, pretty much just has to punch on through like always. If Elle's on the defensive, well, then he'll just have to punch harder.
Juking to one side, Tran looks like he's going to try to move around Elle, but then he does something unexpected. Ducking down, the doctor charges forward, more or less diving underneath her, skidding a short distance. He's okay, though, and in a fine position to push himself up, and then piston his leg back toward her butt, throwing one hell of a donkey kick.
COMBATSYS: Elle dodges Tran's Heavy Kick.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tran
Unfortunately for Tran, the attack is too slow and telegraphed for Elle to be caught that much off guard, especially this early in a battle when she's still thinking clearly and capable of avoiding the brunt of the nastier attacks. Still, two out of two attacks have failed her thus far, and she's not laiking that particularly much. The only clear choice then is to up the ante a little.
She begins to charge up her chi. Unlike her previous displays, however, there is no lightning. Instead, there's a low rumble, as if someone was severely abusing his bass speakers. The vibrating sensation rolls through the ground, making Elle appear to blur. Apparently sometime between now and then, she's managed to learn how to charge herself up with sonic chi. Imagine that.
COMBATSYS: Elle focuses on her next action.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tran
Well. That's a new one. It seems Elle's picked up a couple of new tricks - Tran isn't about to just let her sit there and charge up all day, though. Especially since he can't quite manage anything comparable to it. Not that he's jealous, or anything, even though jets of steam erupting all around him would be completely badass and god damn it.
Getting up to his feet and turning around, Tran does do the next best thing, however. He whips his arm around and flings a long, wide blade of chi at Elle, slicing through the air at high speed. That's right, he's instigating a fireball war.
Or maybe because Tran is retarded he throws a trash can at Elle instead. There's always a trash can.
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Elle with Large Thrown Object.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Tran
There's always a trash can, and Elle will always fall for the same dumb trick it would seem. The incoming can strikes her square in the face, leaving her looking pretty stupid, and there's not a whole lot she can do about that. At this point, Tran's fighting circles around her /again/, basically avoiding all her attacks and attacking her with impunity. that said, Elle's not taking a whole lot of damage here. The incoming attacks seem to do very little to slow the woman down.
Again, Elle is shooting forward and trying to loop her arm around the man's neck for a quick take down and body slam. She's going to keep trying it until it works, dammit, and Tran just happens to be the convenient guinea pig to try out her new combat style. Unfortunately for him, she's got a lot more going on than just conventional attacks.
COMBATSYS: Tran blocks Elle's 17 Crash.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Tran
And once again, Tran doesn't quite fall for it. It's a closer thing this time, however, as he stands his ground against Elle. She gets his neck, but he doesn't fall. Instead, he struggles for a few moments, staying on his feet as he gets strangled, before finally breaking away. He coughs once, then grits his teeth and takes a step in toward Elle.
Raising an arm high, he goes for a one-two combo - first, a hop that goes into a downward smash, Tran's entire body twisted around, followed by a driving straight into Elle's sternum.
COMBATSYS: Elle endures Tran's Strong Punch.
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Elle 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Tran
Say what you will about how Elle conducts her fights, but the woman knows how to take a punch. Unlike most woman, who jump around and seem to practically frolic every time a punch comes in, Elle takes it like a man, and Tran's punch bashes straight dead center into her chest. The heavy blow bashes into her and causes a sharp exhalation of breath. Stepping back as she attempts to regain some semblance of equilibrium, she places out a hand to balance herself.
This doesn't last long, though. A notoriously tough person to dizzy or even put down, Elle's immediately closing in on Tran to deliver some pain of her own. Her hand shoots out like a rocket, seeminly assisted by the adrenaline Tran knocked loose. Fingers like iron claws, the woman snatches as the man's collar to lift him up off the ground with a single arm, and /drive/ him face first into the pavement with a single slam.
COMBATSYS: Tran fails to interrupt Strong Throw from Elle with Strong Punch.
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Elle 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Tran
If Elle takes one punch like a man, there's really only one course of action. Make her take ANOTHER punch like a man, and another and another without letting up until she's can't take it like anything other than a quivering pile of flesh! At least, that's the plan. Bringing his arm out to clothesline her, Tran ends up swinging over her head instead as he find himself lifted up and brought back down on a train to paintown. It sounds crunchy.
Face bleeding now, Tran's slow to get up. That took a lot out of him, and make no mistake, he's feeling it, if the low groan is any indication.
Well, Elle's not just going to sit around on her laurels and let Tran lie there and contemplate his suffering and how he's going to get back at Elle. Heavens no. As he lies there, Elle unlimbers her guitar. The weapon is pulled out with an audible snap as buttons are pulled free and the gleaming, armor plated instrument is raised over her head. Instead of swinging, though, elle goes for a short, solid smashing motion as she tries to piledive the weapon into the back of his head.
Not, it's not what youc all a nice move, but then again, Elle's always fought dirty. It's all she knows how to do. After all that attempted training, she always falls back on her roots, and that's to kick a man when he's down, or just bash the back of his head with a steel guitar.
COMBATSYS: Elle successfully hits Tran with Medium Strike.
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Elle 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Tran
WHANG. Right on the noggin. Tran's still a bit too out of it after getting acquainted with the pavement to really even realize the guitar's coming at him, and as a result he's more or less helpless to stop its scream descent toward his precious brain. It slams him down just as he's starting to get back up, sending his head bouncing off the ground again.
This time, at least, Tran has the presence of mind to back the hell off, rolling to the side and pushing himself up in a scrabbling motion, despite the massive headache he's suddenly developed. "Agh...My nobe." Sure enough, some blood is flowing from one nostril. Reaching up for it, Tran tilts his head back and starts to go over his face and neck with his steamy hands, where all of the pain he's received so far has been centered. Time to play doctor.
Clearly, Elle's going to have to do more than what she's managed now in order to put Tran down for the count. However, she's not quite done testing herself first. The woman cracks her knuckles as she once again charges up her chi. The thurmming sound of the bass rumbling through the atmosphere and feeing her aura with extra energy is almost ominious, and Elle's body seems to blur slightly as the power feeds into her. If everything works out right, it won't really matter if Tran is going to fix his nose.
Elle's still got a few new tricks up her sleeve. Let's see if she can manage any of them before Tran takes her down.
COMBATSYS: Elle gathers her will.
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Elle 1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Tran
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Tran with Dr. Tran - Hot Lovin.
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Elle 1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Tran
After a few moments, Tran's effectively stopped the bleeding, and managed to make his throat feel like someone only half-heartedly tried to strangle it. It's good enough for now. Taking a step or two back from Elle's latest impressive display, Tran raises a hand and lets steam rise from it, light wisps of vapor trailing through the air. "This is gonna be a good one, I'm thinking." What exactly constitutes good is anyone's guess.
Whatever it is, Tran resumes hostilities by whipping his hand around, sending a blade of chi flying toward Elle, for real this time. It is not secretly a trash can at all.
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Elle with American Hero Cutter.
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Elle 1/-======/=======|=======\===----\1 Tran
Well, sometimes the odds are with you, and sometimes they're not. For all intents and purposes, there's no reason Elle shouldn't have been able to absorb the slow-moving blast of steam. Nevertheless, she manages to get hit square in the chest by the scalding hot burst of steam energy. The billows of smoke cause her to take pause for a moment, and she lets out a cough as she tries to wave away the heat and steam that gets in her eyes and makes life supremely uncomfortable.
Then, she bursts from the clouds of smoke and steam, arms outstretched.
Swooping towards Tran, her fingers come down on him like talons to take him for an extremely unpleasant ride. Should she manage to get a hold of him, she'll grab him for a body slam. Upon landing him into the ground, she'll let off an electrical burst. And another. And another as she slams him about like a rag doll before hurling him away from her.
COMBATSYS: Tran reflects Slayer from Elle with -Q- is for Dr. Tran.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Tran
Tran almost feels bad, but them's the rules - no holding back. He knows something big's coming up, and that means he really only has one choice - deal with it like only a steam-blasting secret agent doctor can. When Elle goes to grab Tran, she'll notice a huge-ass buildup of steam around his feet. When she grabs him, it won't quite work right. Instead of being body slammed, Tran grabs back, swinging them both around so that while they both end up on the ground, the doctor doesn't have all that harsh of a landing. And then, just as the chi comes...boom.
A geyser erupts all around Tran, absorbing and redirecting Elle's electricity, mostly upward, but some of it probably gets back to her. All in all, it's more of a shield than anything else - after all, that much power on Elle's end is hard to deal with. Hard, but not impossible.
"Alright, Tran," Elle says as she recovers from having her attack thrown back into her face. "I'm frankly pretty sick of losing to you. So I'm kjust going to strangle you until you stop moving, and I don't really give a damn how you feel about that." With that, Elle begins her approach, and attempt to do exactly what she said she'd set out to to do. The woman's hand thrusts forward to apply an insane amount of pressure on Tran's adam's apple to the point where if it was anyone else, it would just simply shatter into a disgusting mess.
No more tricks. no more flashy chi. No more tossing people around like she knows what she's doing. No. She's sick of this. Sick of losing to people she knows she should be able to beat. People that like to take all kinds of inordinate risks while she's punished for playing it safe and staying reserved? Elle's done with all of that. Now she's just going to go and strangle him. It doesn't really look like she cares if he dies, either.
COMBATSYS: Tran blocks Elle's Medium Throw.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Tran
"You didn't do too badly last time, as I remember it." And it's true. Tran ended up just as beat up and unable to fight as Elle did. She still hasn't won, but if she considers anything that's not a win as a loss, well...that's not Tran's problem. Besides, she's the one who keeps asking for these fights.
In any case, while the doctor may enjoy playing things fast and wild, he's a far cry from someone who just does the most retarded things he can think of just because they're retarded. That last exchange? It was risky, sure, but Tran planned for it, set it up so that he had a prayer.
"Still..." While Tran might like to keep talking, once again violence interrupts him. Elle gets a clean grab on his throat, squeezing the life out of him for a moment or two, before he reaches up, grabs her wrist, and more or less rips himself out of her grasping hands. It's painful, but it would've been worse if he had stayed there. Evidently, it also killed his will to talk, because Tran's wordless when he retaliates with what is really nothing more than a quick kick to the shin.
COMBATSYS: Elle blocks Tran's Light Kick.
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Elle 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Tran
Clearly not interested, Elle knocks the foot away with a hand, a small frown set on her face. It's not really a matter of winning or losing per se. It's the fact that he's the only one that she hasn't been able to beat. While it's not entirely logical that being able to subjegate your teammates results in a win, Elle's not always entirely logical. As much as she tries to supress it, there's a part of her that's still a human being, and in part of that humanity festers an ego that's practically starving.
Elle normally never takes victory as a badge of honor. It's usually just another tickmark on her clipboard. Every successful mission is just another pile of numbers that represent money. It's a passionless, almost droning existance, really. There's nothing around to take out the gradually building hatred, anger and frustrations on.
Then Tran had to interrupt her work. So he just happens to be the target. She'd have attempted to heap the same amount of pain on marise or Naerose. Especially Naerose.
Again, Elle tries to go for Tran's head and shoulders area. This time, however, she does try to do something a little fancier. Her hands reach out, and she goes to grab Tran by the head and twist viciously, as if trying to rip his head from his shoulders.
COMBATSYS: Tran dodges Elle's 17 Crash.
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Elle 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Tran
Once again, when Elle leaps at his head, Tran gets dodgy. Nimbly sidestepping, her fingers brush at the side of his head, tauntingly close. At this point, there's no time for Tran to speak, however much he wants to - again, the rules. No holding back. If it weren't for that, he'd be tempted to just throw it - really get retarded, and no doubt get his ass handed to him. He can take that, and heaven knows Elle is probably only getting more stressed by the minute, which is kind of against the whole point. Despite this, Tran doesn't know what he can do, except move forward and try to beat the shit out of her.
Raising one leg high, he tenses briefly and then brings it crashing down toward Elle's shoulder, essentially trying to pound her into the ground like a giant tent peg.
COMBATSYS: Elle dodges Tran's Heavy Kick.
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Elle 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Tran
Elle's eyes narrow as the foot comes in, and she neatly sidesteps the attack. It's that, or get destroyed by the incoming assault, and she's frankly not too keep on getting annihilated right now. Not before she's managed to land one good clean solid hit on the man. As she does so, the air around her is already buzzing, and this time, a few sparks crackle around her as well as she reverts slightly into her older techniques. The elemental energy causes a slight static charge in the air as she attempts to draw power from the air aound her and charge her up for a more solid hit.
Making room for the inevitable assault, Elle pulls her guitar from it's holster, brandishing it like a club as she readies herself for the next incoming assault.
COMBATSYS: Elle gains composure.
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Elle 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Tran
He's not going to let up. Dr. Tran is, at this point, comitted. No doubt if he and Elle were talking, there would be the potential for mushy interpersonal connection. It's not happening, and the tension in the air is palpable. It's not just the weird feeling from Elle's electricity, either.
As she draws her guitar, Tran pauses, some stray thought in his brain triggering. It'll have to wait, though, because once again the doctor is rushing forward, fist raised, to just straight up punch Elle in the boob. Girl puncher rides again!
COMBATSYS: Elle blocks Tran's Quick Punch.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Tran
The Guitar deftly knocks the fist away, avoiding the brunt of the damage but twisting her wrist at an odd angle. The weapon is excellent as an offensive tool, but she hasn't quite mastered the skill of using it defensively yet. Instead, Elle allows her chi to continue to incrtease in power, the thrumming noise and the occasional spark or electricity dancing across her features as she simply stares at Tran. What precisely she has instore isn't very easy to figure out right now, but odds are if she manages to actually land a successful hit, she'll be satisfied. As it is, all she can do is sit and wait for the right conditions she needs with wich to strike.
COMBATSYS: Elle gathers her will.
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Elle 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Tran
Well, if Elle wants an opening, then who is Tran to deny her? It's not going to be a freebie, though, not exactly. Taking a step or two back, Tran lets Elle take her time chargin' her laser. He needs a moment, anyway, to prep. Elle's brought her guitar out, and Tran would respond in kind, except since he's a total klutz with his, he doesn't bring it everywhere he goes. He's going to need a temporary replacement.
Luckily, this is the harbor, so there are crates everywhere. Moving up to a large one, Tran drives his fist into it with a spliter of wood, rips a plank out, and then wastes no time in dashing toward Elle, arm upraised, ready to bring his wood crashing down on her. It even has a nail in it, because chicks love piercings. Wait, what?
COMBATSYS: Elle endures Tran's Random Weapon.
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Elle 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Tran
Elle watches the incoming attack, and could easily batter the attack aside. But there's no sense in doing that now. After all, she's managed to avoid enough in this fight, and that's being liberal with the word 'avoidance'. Most of the attacks were simply just so slow that it'd almost be impossible not to manage an escape. The boad hits her on the shoulder, the nail tearing through her skin and nearly making her fall onto her knees. She manages to stay up though, and locks both her legs in place so that she doesn't simply keel over.
In response, she reaches out and grabs at Tran's face. The action is a simple one: palm the man's head with calloused guitarist's hands. Then she'll blast a few thousand volts into it. Shifting all her focus on delivering a huge burst of electrical energy, elle knows she's just about had it. She either hits with this, or she's got nothing this fight.
COMBATSYS: Elle successfully hits Tran with Slayer.
[ \\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Elle 0/-------/------=|=======\=====--\1 Tran
And that, there, ladies and gentlemen, would be a whole new world. Of pain. It's quite nice in the summer, Tran is enjoying himself because the local beer is excellent and the chicks are nice and busty. Except wait, wait, no. That's more a hallucination brought on by the intense pain he is feeling at this very moment, as Elle more or less directly fries his brain.
Falling back a step or two, afterward, it looks like Tran is dead on his feet. His eyes look kind of glassy. It takes a moment or two before they snap into focus, and then Tran is going and he's not stopping, moving forward toward Elle and dropping into a crouch at her. That's not all, of course, as a few moments later, another massive geyser rapes upward around Tran, this time much more focused on the criminal rocker chick.
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Elle with -Q- is for Dr. Tran.
[ \ < > ///////// ]
Elle 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tran
Charbroiled by a blast of steam, Elle's not able to take any more damage after her getting crushed by a board. So rather than deftly avoid the incoming attack like she had hoped, she manages to get obliterated by the superheated rush of steam. Lost again. But at least she managed to land her solid hit. Perhaps next fight she won't faily in attacking tran so miserably that he avoids her more solid attacks. Honestly, what he manages to avoid and what he manages to get hit by is inexplicable.
Elle manages one last attack, however. Whipping the electrical wire about, she attempts to tag Tran with a final burst of power before falling over, unconcious.
COMBATSYS: Elle can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tran 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Tran blocks Elle's Powerslave.
[ \\\\\\ <
Tran 0/-------/=======|
Once again, Tran raises a hand to catch the wire. It yanks him off-balance and then jolts him, but he's prepared enough to manage to diffuse some of it by concentrating his own natural aura there. It's just barely enough to keep him standing, but he is standing, make no mistake.
Exhaling heavily as he looks down at Elle, he sits down, to catch his breath. After a moment, he'll grab her, hoist her up, and bring her back into the warehouse. Odds are pretty good he won't be there when she comes to - he needs to rest after this, and he'd rather do it at the apartment than here.
COMBATSYS: Tran has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:56:31 06/18/2007 by Tran, and last modified on 17:59:05 06/19/2007.