Description: Shoma and Roberto finally caught up with each other. After catching up on what's been going on, they decide on a spar to make things interesting and both end up fighting to exhaustion.
It's a rinky-dink hotel in Thailand, more specifically the roof. Shoma, in a black track suit, can be found there, swinging that massive bat of his; there wasn't room in the room and he'll be damned if he slacks on his training just because he is in a country that is under terrorist invasion.
"543...544...555..."
As for Roberto, he's carrying a makeshift soccer ball he made out of rags and twine. He's still wearing his shredded and singed goalie shirt. He would've had a change of clothes but damn Shadaloo had to blow up the ferry that got him here.
Word finally got around to him that Shoma was here and searching for him and so he had to make sure that he got a chance to speak with him incase they ended up in different units.
Roberto respected Shoma's work ethic when it came to training. In fact it was pretty close to Roberto's in his own sport, and that's why he had that 'soccer ball.' He needed to train as well. As he sets foot on that roof he has to smile. "Shoma! It's been too long man. I didn't expect you to follow me here. How's everything." All at once, the ball hits the ground and he begins dribbling closer to his friend.
"557...55-Roberto!" Shoma yells, lowering the bat. He chuckles as he scratches the back of his head, "Could you believe I missed the boat?" He scowls slightly as he walks over to his friend; it'd be kinda dumb to swing that bat as he approaches his friend. "Maaaan...between that Vega dude and the crazy 'shoots blood out of her eyes' chick, it's been pretty insane." He clanks the end of the bat into the roof, and regards his friend, "How about you, man?"
"Other than having no change of clothes because I encountered some freakishly huge tanks that blew up the boat, I'm good," the soccer star had to confess. "Vega has some strange people in his crew. Before I even left for Thailand I had some chick from Shadaloo who hit me with some strange energy and implanted the image of me watching you and Natsu die. Pissed me off something fierce. Rose was there as well since I was supposed to meet up with her when the crazy chick came along."
Shoma nods, "I met Rose. We fought Vega together." His look becomes serious, "I'm going to beat that bastard, and make him undo what he did to Sakura. I won't forgive /anyone/ who messes with people's minds like that," Shoma claims, clenching his fist so hard you can hear the glove leather creak in protest. He blinks once, recalling something, "Rose said something about being able to feed off of emotions like anger and fear. Hafta keep that in mind..." Shoma sounds pretty serious...
"She wasn't as detailed in that aspect when she told me about Vega." He looks down at the ground thinking over the things that had been happening. "She was detailed in other aspects though. Rose told me that Vega was the type of person who wouldn't be satisfied with being in control of the world. He wanted the world in his image."
Roberto keeps silent on how she passed along this information. He's not so sure his friend would buy the whole, 'She told me this in my dreams' statement. Hell Roberto wasn't completely certain he bought it but he was here in Thailand wasn't he? "But if he feeds off of those things, we have to keep our emotions guarded if we're around him."
That's okay, he's not certain Roberto would buy the idea that A) Both Vega and Rose were talking in his brain and B) Vega flew under his own power.
"Yeah," he responds. He's not sure if he can do that; after all, the Burning Taiyo Spirit is what carrried him thus far. How do you cage a fire? "Think we can do this?" Shoma asks.
If Roberto knew the /exact/ thoughts going through Shoma's head, Roberto, would tell him to utilize only specific parts of Taiyo's Burning Spirit and being smart about the applications of it. To focus it into a welding torch of determination and intensity rather than haphazardly setting the fires of rage everywhere. But since he doesn't hear those thoughts, that advice goes unsaid.
"I would rather have Natsu here with us, but I think we could do this. We may not play a huge role in it but we've got to help where we can."
Shoma looks a bit torn when Roberto brings up Natsu, as he looks away from the goalie, "Part of me is glad she's not," the Slugger says in a low voice. He grips the bat tightly, "But you're right! We gotta do what we can!"
"I can understand why you would say that." Roberto doesn't really add anything more to that other than the solemn expression on his face. It just doesn't seem appropriate to say much more than that atleast not now. After a while, he adjusts his visor and looks towards the bat and then to his own makeshift soccer ball and looks up again. "I think we both should get back to practicing. Based on what I've dealt with as far as those tanks and knowing what little I know about Vega, we should prepare ourselves."
Shoma grins as he hefts the bat, "We should! Wanna make it interesting?" Oh man. Shoma has /that/ grin on his face.
This could be trouble.
The thing that makes this even scarier is that Roberto has that same grin on his face. This /definitely/ could be trouble. The soccer star slips into his stance looking like a goalie getting ready for a penalty shot to come in. He bounces on his feet and laughs. "I'm ready when you are, Sawamura."
"That's what I wanted to hear!"
Shoma raises both hands together; somewhere in all of this, a baseball ended up in his hands. He brings the ball down to his chest as he high-kicks, and slings the ball at Roberto. It almost catches fire...
COMBATSYS: Shoma has started a fight here.
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Shoma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Roberto has joined the fight here.
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Shoma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Roberto
COMBATSYS: Roberto reflects Fast Ball from Shoma with Shining Clutch.
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Shoma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Roberto
When Shoma fires off the pitch, a single red glove clad hand snaps out to catch the baseball with a glow surrounding it. There's a huge grin on his face as he does so too. "Nice try, Shoma," he says as that huge grin continues to maintain its place on his face
He doesn't hold onto it for long. Instead he takes a step forward as he winds his arm back and swings his whole body around to side arm the baseball right back at him. "My turn!"
COMBATSYS: Shoma fails to reflect Reflected Fast Ball from Roberto with Return Swing EX.
-* CRITICAL FAIL! *-
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Shoma 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Roberto
Lead off pitch...Sawamura SWINGS AND MISSES! The youth takes the returned fastball to the midsection, falling to the roof. He rolls away from Roberto, tears welling up in his eyes. He slowly pulls himself to his feet, rubbing his gut. He looks winded from that one...
Roberto quite visibly cringes upon the impact of the baseball with the Baseball player's gut. He didn't expect to throw it /that/ hard. Taiyo's soccer star is so surprised and concerned for his friend, he decides to back off for a bit and let him recover for a bit before he goes back on the attack.
There's a part of him that feels bad about not pressing the attack though since the people that Shoma would probably fight wouldn't hesitate to capitalize on his moment of weakness. But he'll study Shoma for a bit to see what he does.
COMBATSYS: Roberto focuses on his next action.
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Shoma 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Roberto
Shoma chuckles weakly; he had that one coming. He regrips the bat, regarding Roberto for a moment as he tries to breath deeply.
That /stung/ more than just a bit...
COMBATSYS: Shoma gains composure.
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Shoma 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Roberto
Roberto puts his foot on that soccer ball that he brought up with him. He then makes his way to the other sports star dribbling slowly at first with deliberate slowness. When he's closer he suddenly accelerates, darting towards Shoma hoping to trip him up with the change in speed before swinging his foot around the soccer ball and then up high to ideally send the baseball player up into the air.
COMBATSYS: Shoma blocks Roberto's Thrust Kick.
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Shoma 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Roberto
Shoma gets his arms in front of the kick. This proves to be a bit of a mistake, as he's not wearing pads there. He winces as he stops Roberto's move, shaking his arms out a bit to regain sensation in his hands.
"Man! That was a good one!" Shoma dashes forward, trying to grab the lapels of Roberto's shirt.
COMBATSYS: Roberto fails to interrupt Rolling Slam from Shoma with Bicycle Kick.
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Shoma 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Roberto
Shoma pitches forward, causing the pair to roll and tumble across the rooftop for several feet.
This ends when the Slugger slams both feet into Roberto's gut and springboards off of his friend. He lands a bit aways from Roberto with a bit of a grin on his face.
He was able to see Shoma going what was left of the lapels on his goalie shirt. Knowing his friend, and knowing what's to come next, he tries in vain to twist away from the grab and hop backwards to set up a counter offensive. He just couldn't get the distance and so he goes for a ride with Shoma, rolling and rolling and then he's kicked away sliding along the ground before getting back up to his feet and shaking the cobwebs off.
Shoma skips back a couple of paces, gripping some smaller rocks as he does.
"Too slow, Roberto!" Shoma starts flinging the rocks in a somewhat haphazard way, attempting to unbalance the soccer player some more.
Whether or not this succeeds is up for debate...
COMBATSYS: Roberto dodges Shoma's Thrown Object.
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Shoma 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Roberto
It's unfortunate for Shoma that Roberto did manage to clear his head. He's quite able to side step and cut around the rock almost as if he was dribbling the soccer ball around a defender. He still continues to run to the soccer ball he had been thrown away from before.
While on the move Roberto reaches down to scoop up the soccer ball and in the same motion he tries to slam the said soccer ball into Shoma's gut. "This ain't over yet."
COMBATSYS: Shoma interrupts Random Weapon from Roberto with Fishing Swing.
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Shoma 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Roberto
Shoma dashes forward to jam the end of his baseball bat into Roberto's midsection, wincing as the soccer ball tags him in the already weakened arm.
"Neither..." Shoma hefts the goalie into the air, "...am..." Shoma spins once with the burden, spins twice..." "I!!!" Shoma sweeps the bat, sending Roberto across the roof. The slugger slams the end of the bat into the floor, leaning on it a bit.
The soccer star goes flying up... up... He might go over.... And no... Luckily for Roberto he doesn't completely fly off the roof but he does end up getting pretty damn close. This time the soccer star is a bit slower to get up than he was before. "Wow... That hurt a lot."
He doesn't stay stationary for long. As a matter of fact he's moving in close before switching into a boxing stance. This might be a bit of a surprise for Shoma since he hasn't spoken with him since he had started training with Heavy D! with the exception of today. When he's nice and close, he snaps out a jab at Shoma's face as sort of a feeler.
COMBATSYS: Shoma endures Roberto's Quick Punch.
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Shoma 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Roberto
Shoma takes the attack across the jaw, "OOF!" recoiling with the hit as he whips his own arms up to grab for Roberto.
He hips into the move, attempting to slam the would-be boxer to the roof. He doesn't mention at all that the hotel offered Pay-Per-View replays of various fight shows, and he's been seeing what he could learn by watching them after practice.
He saw one of the Howards do something like this.
COMBATSYS: Roberto fails to interrupt Quick Throw from Shoma with Quick Punch.
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Shoma 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\1 Roberto
Roberto tries dance back out of the way of Shoma's grabs and he ends up /still/ not being able to get out of the way. Needless to say, Roberto goes flying yet again and lands on the ground. This time he spends a little more time staring up at the sky for a bit while he tries to figure out what just happened. After the time is spent on the ground he gets back up to his feet. "I don't remember you doing that."
Shoma rubs a finger under his nose, "Been watching fights a lot between training. You don't strike out batters with straight fast balls y'know."
Banter aside, Shoma then does a short hop, lashing out with a sturdy looking push kick aimed at Roberto's torso. It's a good thing he's not wearing cleats right now...
COMBATSYS: Roberto blocks Shoma's Heavy Kick.
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Shoma 1/-----==/=======|=======\==-----\1 Roberto
The soccer star nods in agreement and then that kick comes. With his fast hands he's able to grab the foot out of the air eliciting a loud grunt. "Not fast enough Shoma!" His arms hurt from the strain of having to catch that kick. He could only imagine how much it would've hurt if he took the impact full on. Instead, he runs past Shoma with a glancing shoulder charge before running to that soccer ball once again. And performing a quick cut to face Shoma again.
COMBATSYS: Roberto successfully hits Shoma with Quick Punch.
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Shoma 1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Roberto
Shoma jerks a little as Roberto checks him. He staggers back a bit, and grips the bat once more. He grins, his face flush with excitement.
"How about this, then?" Shoma steps in, bat over the shoulder in a familiar stance as it glows golden with energy. "HOMERUN HITTER!!!" Shoma sweeps the bat in a HUGE power swing.
COMBATSYS: Shoma successfully hits Roberto with Homerun Hitter.
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Shoma 0/-------/-------|=======\======-\1 Roberto
When he cut, he expected to position himself to be ready for Shoma's attack. Alas, that was not to be. He could see it coming but with arms brutalized by Shoma's offensive and the attack coming at him too fast to move out of the way, he only had one option. Suck it up and take the hit dead on. And he does... And goes flying away once again.
Of course there's a few ways Roberto can respond to this. He could use his soccer ball but chances are he would destroy the roof. That would be a bad idea. There are other options but Taiyo's Blazing Striker and Golden Goalie chooses to just run up and kick Shoma attempting to turn the other teen into a human soccer ball as he works the give and go with himself.
COMBATSYS: Shoma interrupts Pass and Shoot from Roberto with Grounder Hit.
- Power hit! -
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Shoma 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1 Roberto
Shoma's eyes go wide as he takes the first kick. He staggers, but not enough to prevent him from grabbing the Golden Goalie's shirt and heave him into the air.
"Here's the pitch!" Taiyo's Super Slugger swings, smashing the Blazing Striker across the roof once more. Shoma leans heavily on his bat now; that was a gamble, but it payed off.
Roberto slowly gets back up to his feet. His knees are slightly wobbily as Shoma starts splitting up into two Shomas. He barely has anything else left in him. He just has one charge left and he goes barreling as fast as he can for one of them attempting to knee him airborn and then performing a Bicycle Kick to follow it up only the difference is that his foot will be glowing when he does this.
COMBATSYS: Roberto can no longer fight.
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Shoma 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Shoma fails to reflect Blazing Juggle from Roberto with Return Swing.
-* CRITICAL FAIL! *-
COMBATSYS: Shoma can no longer fight.
Shoma takes the boot right under the jaw, unable to bring the glowing bat to bear one last time. He slams onto the roof with a final-sounding *THUD!* as he kicks up a fair amount of dust and debris.
He slowly raises a single, wobbly fist.
Roberto for his part is face down on the rooftop, hurting like all get out. He's out of breath and he won't be moving for a bit. As a matter of fact, it just hurts to move a muscle. He's groaning in pain and is extremely woozy. At some point one of the people in the hotel will find him and possibly Shoma and take them to their rooms but for now... he's going to let his consciousness go.
Log created on 12:23:47 06/26/2007 by Roberto, and last modified on 23:31:51 06/26/2007.