Description: An artistic battle, which ends with an anticlimax? (Winner: Krizalid)
"I wanna take you for a ride, da-da, da-da-da da-da-da-da~"
The figure in the coat has an iPod on, and it's blaring music directly into his brain. Every beat suffuses his being with mindless music, a track on an endless loop as if he'd pirated a game and it caused the main theme music to repeat endlessly.
"I wanna take you for a ride, da-da, da-da-da da-da-da-da~"
It's night, it's dark. Do you know where your children are? The vice-vice president of NESTS sure doesn't, but then, he's not entirely sure if he's fathered any; his memories are clouded at best. Clad within his coat, he dances in the massive lights that hang from behind the stage of the fight. It's the Neo League. It's the money of Masters. The sky's the limit.
And in this case, it SHOULD have been a backdrop of the sky. A simple platform, long and narrow, hangs from two cranes several stories up. The fight has an element of danger; the fall will hurt even the most skilled of fighters, even if it's no drop off of Geese Tower. The fight also has an artistic flare, from the massive lights that serve as the backdrop instead.
To the viewers at home, the fight will be little more than two silhouettes doing battle. It's an attempt to lure in a new demographic, the artsy crowd. It will likely fail, but there's an art in violence.
"I wanna take you for a ride, da-da, da-da-da da-da-da-da~"
And drawing back and forth on the platform, the dancing Krizalid knows that art very well.
Rose sighs to herself as she sees her challenger in this battle of the Neo League dance... and dance... and dance. She is riding upwards on a cherry picker, steering it herself because the controls ARE quite elementary. This keeps her from wagging her finger as well as shaking her head. This, most likely, is just as well.
"Hello, Krizalid," she says as the cherry picker reaches the appropriate end of the platform; she steps off, pushing aside the greasy belt of tool pouches which some attendant had left there from its previous use. "I am glad to see..."
She pauses, tilting her head back slightly as she considers the man's dancing. She then says, with a gracious smile, "I am glad to see that you are enjoying yourself!" She unwraps the scarf from its fashionable pose around her neck, shaking it out for a moment and then wrapping it loosely around her shoulders. "This is a very chic way to fight..."
Her attention goes briefly up towards the ropes supporting the platform. Hopefully, she thinks, they are very strong.
Chances are good that the ropes will support them for a while, but just how long? This has all the markings of a match between two heavyweights, or so the headlines say. Two practitioners of very different arts, with not a whole lot known about either! Mystery, intrigue, violence! Masters must be rolling in a pile of money already.
But despite the gracious platitudes of Rose, the dancing NESTS Operative fails to respond. He just keeps on dancing. Could it be that the music is simply so loud that he does not hear her, or is he being rude?!
Knowing Krizalid, it's probably some mysterious third aspect, like a comet trailing across the sky, or swamp gas in the atmosphere. He acts of his own accord, with no rhyme or reason. But an eye opens, beady and staring at Rose from amidst those macabre markings that trail across both sockets.
And he winks at her. Some might take it as a blink.
Putting up his dukes, he gestures for her to 'bring it' in time honored fashion, not bothering to remove the buds in each ear yet. The director for the fight announces that all is in readiness and that they can begin.
COMBATSYS: Krizalid has started a fight here.
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Krizalid 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Rose has joined the fight here.
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Krizalid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Rose
Rose has heard that this is a power of the iPod. It can compel you, even in strange and unusual circumstances, to get up and dance; to dance like a fool, without a care in the world, the power of recorded music in digital format on a well designed proprietary MP3 player washing over your very soul.
Rose only has one, and it was a present. She steps forwards, brow furrowing slightly as Krizalid seems, to some extent, to still be dancing! But, really, he might be feeling the heart of the music, and can a man be blamed for that?
Rose doesn't advance beyond that step or so, meant perhaps to put her a little distance away from the far end of the platform. She breathes in and out, listening for the hints of music that Krizalid is listening to. It has hints to his actions in it, if he's that into it, and perhaps if she knows his rhythm...
She moves her lips, but doesn't make any sound as she mouths, 'So, what are you listening to, then?'
COMBATSYS: Rose focuses on her next action.
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Krizalid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Rose
Still swaying there to the music in his ears, it seems that Krizalid is essentially none the wiser as to the so-called start of the match. He continues to dance, the music thumping in his ears, suffusing his being with tunes that run along his bones and through the fiber of every muscle.
But wait, what's this? His opponent is attempting to communicate with him?
"I DON'T READ LIPS, WHY DON'T YOU TRY SPEAKING NORMALLY?" he roars at her, the Irish lilt gone in the face of such volume from him. The platform itself reverberates from his loudness, but he isn't long in following it up with something a little more interesting.
Arms go wide, and he bursts into flames. Still alight, he charges at Rose, booted feet thumping across the platform as the coat gives way to ash, revealing the battle suit he sports beneath it. "AND SINCE I'M OFFENDED BY YOUR INSINUATION I CAN LIP READ, EAT MY FIST!"
That very fist, his right, snaps through the air on a collision course with her face. His left clutches the iPod soundly; Apple knows how to make a flameproof product, it seems!
COMBATSYS: Krizalid successfully hits Rose with Strong Punch.
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Krizalid 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Rose
It's Rose's greatest weakness - fists!
As the glowing man makes his lunge forwards, Rose learns several things. One is that Krizalid can't read lips! Another is that he's pretty angry as well as being borderline Irish. He's also good at moving, and /further/, this situation keeps her from doing much of her usual trickery with the third dimension - sideways! - to avoid harm.
The strike hits her in the shoulder - that most abused of areas!! - instead of right square in her face. If it didn't send her staggering this might have qualified for some kind of a block instead of a half-assed dodge. She doesn't make a reply audibly, although perhaps that sudden glimmering green light around her fist as she slams it up towards Krizalid's midsection is answer enough!
COMBATSYS: Rose successfully hits Krizalid with Medium Punch.
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Krizalid 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Rose
After hitting her in the shoulder instead of the face, Krizalid is hardly appeased -- so much so that he goes after her all the same, closing what little distance is between them... to the point that when she launches that psi-laced fist of hers at him, he simply seeks to absorb the damage and keep on truckin'!
Reality doesn't quite pan out that well though. The fist impacts with his suit, the energy that slams into him causing a backwards slide, boots squeaking against the metal platform. "THAT'S GOT TO BE CHEATING," he declares, although he doesn't really care.
Just look into his eyes. See the deranged darkness there, almost as if no true soul lingered within his mortal coil. A vicious grin tears across his features, as he blurs into motion once more.
"YOU LOOK TIRED, HAG! HAVE A NAP!"
It's those clawed fingers that seek out Rose's delicate neck though; a simply grasp of his glove, and she'll find herself hoisted by considerable strength, only to be buried down into the platform itself!
COMBATSYS: Rose fails to interrupt Chokeslam from Krizalid with Soul Spiral.
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Krizalid 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Rose
"Oh, come now," Rose says as she straightens up, putting a hand on her hip momentarily as the other raises up, the scarf fluttering out with another sparkle of light in preparation for something else. "You cannot say that -"
She is then grabbed by her delicate-/seeming/ neck and thrown down towards the platform with crushing force. Krizalid's own power, and that of the suit, would be enough to decapitate any of the filming crew; it would cripple lesser fighters.
Her skin feels a little slippery beneath Krizalid's glove. The claws seem to slip into the flesh but they don't really cut. With a wriggle of her hips she gets to the side, out of the grasp of that terrible glove, pulling herself up against the railing with a slight faltering halfway up. "You seem - /dreadfully/ confident," she says, and she sounds a little hoarse when saying it.
If the junior vice president of NESTS can tell the difference in the feel of Rose's body, then he's unlikely to comment on it; he's probably never really touched a girl before, outside of punching!
And he's about to do just that when she rolls aside, his free fist slamming down into the platform where her head WAS just a moment before. Scowling after her, Krizalid straightens, a smirk upon his features.
"Confident? Of course I am. Women love a confident man."
His speech, normal. His hearing, impeccable. His finger, on the pause button. Lifting the ear buds out, he rolls the iPod up, seemingly at his ease for the moment. Does he think her no threat? "When you're ready," he tells her, tucking the device behind his belt.
A gloved hand lifts, a flame cast into existence from his outstretched fingers. He snuffs it out a moment later, the smirk on his face deepening as he stares her down.
COMBATSYS: Krizalid focuses on his next action.
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Krizalid 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Rose
Rose raises an eyebrow slightly at the news. "Oh, of course," she says with a slight nod. "They do indeed love confidence... but I am not so certain that women these days cannot tell confidence from arrogance."
That might have been a burn, but language got in the way. When she sees that little flame, though, she smiles, raising her scarf to make a flippant gesture that's cast in ten times' relief against the wall. "An excellent technique!"
She draws the scarf back and then snaps it forwards, light coming down her arm with a shimmering glow that translates, once it gets to the end of the scarf, into a glowing ball of light. /This/ doesn't cast much of a shadow, instead seeming, really, more like a disruption in light levels against the wall as it streaks towards Krizalid.
Rose adds, afterwards, "Excuse me - technology!"
COMBATSYS: Krizalid fails to reflect Soul Spark from Rose with Typhon's Rage - Reflect.
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Krizalid 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Rose
If it's a burn, well, chances are that the flame-wielding Krizalid is well aware of it. Or perhaps flame retardant is the best phrase to use! He simply smirks, waiting for the upcoming assault. It's only a matter of time, and... there it is! The ball of light is summoned, coming for him -- and the look on the Agent's face only grows more confident with every moment it nears him!
His hands lift, the feel of chi rising in the air as he prepares to retaliate against the upcoming projectile -- but then Rose says those words!
Winds rise, but falter a moment later. The ball of light strikes him square on, knocking him well back -- right off the end of the platform itself! Only a set of claws sunken into the edge of the metal structure stops him from a demise most foul, and he's quick to pull himself back up.
"Hmm, it seems you know things," he laments, meant to be heard as his suit feeds him data on the energy he was just struck with. Yes... she's one of THOSE, isn't she? "How interestin', that ya know things," Krizalid adds, those beady eyes rising to lock onto her again as the most deranged of smiles takes his features. Combined with his Irish lilt... he may well alarm.
"I only suspected," Rose says modestly, "but I suppose that is no longer the case."
She tosses her head back for a moment and folds her arms beneath her breasts, looking rather serious. "You see, I have seen a suit like yours before, and it was used by one named Zero? I believe he was making use of it as equipment, not merely a fashion statement."
Her head tilts back forwards, and she smiles at Krizalid. "But I don't think that's all you have; it is a helper, like a weapon, not all the essentials. I should address you by your name, not the model number of your suit!" She then breathes in, deeply, and back out; light shimmers around her. It flares and then fades, sinking into her body.
Then the smile goes away. "I suspect somehow that you do not have a very warm or friendly attitude about this." Must be that whole 'psychic' thing.
COMBATSYS: Rose gathers her will.
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Krizalid 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Rose
"Ah, so you've been around the block a few times, have ya now, sunshine?" the Irishman queries, not going quite so far into the stereotype as to sport green and wave a shillelagh. He brushes a hand through his short white hair, those tanned features pausing thereafter before he laughs at her.
"If you weren't so mannish, I'd ask you out! Ya candor is refreshin', amidst all the arsekissin' I see."
Still, now's hardly the time to be arranging a coffee date. Watching her, seeing what she's doing through the suit's guidance, he considers showing her just what he truly is... but that will have to wait, just a little longer. "Tell me, hag; you think me a violent Neanderthal simply due to talk of my suit?
"Then I shan't disappoint ye!"
Leaping at her, he lands just short and slides, his hands out in front and seeking to grab her with his kung-fu grip -- or his genetically enhanced muscle, either way! A quick pull will follow, if he's successful; a lure to send her stumbling past him, only to follow it up with a tremendous fist, a horizontal thrust of his arm with the full might of the Irish behind it!
COMBATSYS: Rose blocks Krizalid's Desperate Moment.
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Krizalid 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Rose
Rose's brow furrows as she frowns slightly. Her face DOES have that sort of mannish look to it even if the rest of her body is pretty clearly female, doesn't it? "I am not certain if I should be flattered or offended," she asks, watching carefully as the man moves. The energy settles in her but not immediately -
She opens her mouth to answer, but it's an IRISH conversation now! She raises one fist up, giving Krizalid something to grab on. This might seem like a trap, and when she brings her other arm up, wrapped in shimmering cloth, it may be a relief. At least she didn't hit back!
However, while the energized scarf buffers the strike, it still jerks her arm nearly out of the socket and sends her staggering - if on the far end now. Krizalid may notice those shiny tools if he's THAT SORT of fighter.
"Besides," Rose says as she twists the scarf around to serve as something close to a whip, arcing forwards towards Krizalid from the side, "I have read the neanderthals had excellent brains, if perhaps bad throats! Do not speak ill of the dead, they may be about to hear."
COMBATSYS: Krizalid endures Rose's Aura Scarf.
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Krizalid 1/=======/=======|=======\===----\1 Rose
And with something to hold onto, Krizalid is all about the grab! But that scarf gets in the way, and it almost seems to cushion the blow like some kind of sponge. "Interesting," he notes, there in her face... but what is it that she goes on to use the scarf for? Some kind of--
"Whip."
A statement of fact, as the beast from NESTS simply stands there and takes the strike! It lashes into his side, carving into the suit and into his flesh beneath. There's a hiss of pain from the Agent, but he simply smiles down at the shorter woman who's right there in front of him.
"You wanted to see my real nature, aye?"
With a sudden swell of chi, the Irishman bursts into flames right there in front of her! A pillar of it rises into the air, and as it descends, a fiery wing extends from each shoulder blade as he stares down at her. His body, still alight with flame, suddenly shifts as he attempts to seize her once more -- and then start forcing her back!
Will he succeed?!
COMBATSYS: Rose fails to reflect End of Eden from Krizalid with Soul Reflect.
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Krizalid 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Rose can no longer fight.
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Krizalid 0/-------/---====|
And with Rose in hand, he starts forcing her backwards! He does not step -- he flows forward, he glides, he flies with those fiery wings behind him! Drawing on all of his reserves, he lets out a guttural roar as he begins unleashing one burst after another of chi into the air about his unwilling victim!
The chi manifests, and it manifests violently. Like a Kusanagi flame, there's one little pillar after another to surround her, to buffet her and set her alight, to simply HURT her with all the violence that the genetically modified beast can muster!
"Stop speaking nonsense, hag!" the Irishman roars in her face as he ends his thrust, the railing at the far end of the platform the station for Rose to get off at -- if not be thrown through!
"This is a fight, not a séance!"
Rose brings her scarf in front of her - but then the Irishman punches through it with the alcoholic rage common to all his people, sending the comparatively less pugnacious if still essentially irrational Italian woman flying backwards! She hits the railing - and goes through!?
She doesn't fall like a heap, however. Her head tilts back and she seems to realize her difficulty quite promptly, turning around and bringing the scarf down to point /at/ the ground. Silly woman; you can't parry the ground!
She doesn't try, but there IS an enormous burst of Soul Power, with resultant sunlight-yellow flares of light, a moment before she hits the ground. Thanks to the miracles of physics, and the generous donation of part of Metro City's expensive, precious pavement, this makes the impact merely 'very painful' rather than 'oh god the agony' when it happens half a second later.
Rose doesn't get up from the smashed pavement right away.
Standing at the edge of the platform, Krizalid stares down at the fallen figure of his victim. Panting from his exertions, he seems on the verge of collapsing but... his suit won't allow it, not with the power that courses through it and into him, to keep him upright. Taking a few steadying breaths, he imparts words of wisdoms.
"And that's why you don't play tricks on an Irishman."
And since his prey isn't quick in getting up, it seems that he decides that the fight must be over. Turning on a foot, he steps off towards the other end of the platform. The viewers at home see the silhouette walk away alone, mysteriously becoming coated again halfway along the walk... and then he begins to fade away, until the viewers see nothing but light.
Krizalid disappears into fat air.
Log created on 23:41:37 08/31/2007 by Rose, and last modified on 09:13:57 09/01/2007.