Description: After having dinner aboard a boat of Ninjas during Jinchuu, Tiffany is ambushed by Ninja-Momo, who shows her some serious Tennis-Justu. Should be subtitled: To Brain a Cheerleader.
Tiffany strides across the ship-deck quietly, yet her footfalls ring abnormally loud in her ears. It comes from hanging around ninjas too long. She hears every noise she makes as if through a loud-speaker. Dressed much more conservatively than people often see her, the girl from Pacific wears a light blue blouse, with clingy white slacks, and red sandles. She's just come up from the dining hall, and even if she didn't expect formal-dress, it was still something to dress nicely for... and she prides herself on making nice look... stunning. Right now, though... it feels loud. She tightens her grip around her handbag and eyes the walls as she approaches her room, "Seriously, just because their ninjas shouldn't mean they haveta go out of their way to make things /uncomfortable./
The hallway is quiet. Abnormally quiet. It seems that Tiffany may be one of the last people turning in tonight, as even the sound of motion in the adjacent rooms is missing. Many of the lights in this hallway are dark, and the ones that are still lit are flickering oddly-- more of the malfunctions that the Suiryuu is rapidly becoming well-known for, undoubtedly. And to top it all off, that unsettling PRESENSE, the feeling that someone or something is watching one's every move, seems unusually strong tonight.
Without warning, though perhaps not unexpectedly, the temperature suddenly drops.
Tiffany pauses by the door to her room, and a shiver goes up her spine, extending even to the geometric whorls of her twisty hairdo. She pauses for a moment... then pouts... then scowls, and straightens up, pulling her hand away from the doorknob. Slowly, deliberately, and some-would say, unladylike, she cracks her knuckles, letting the sound echo through walkways.
*Pop-snap-pop-Pop*
"Like, can I help you?" she asks the darkness almost as pointedly.
The darkness doesn't respond. After all, it's just darkness. But the tension in the air is so thick, it can almost be felt... waiting for something, anything, to happen...
And then something changes. A light flickers for a moment. A flash in the corner of Tiffany's eyes, a metallic gleam in the darkened corridor. Way too far away to strike at, and so entrenched in the darkness to completely mask its form.
Tiffany hmmps softly, and takes a few moments. If the darkness... or whatever's in the darkness, is going to keep her waiting, she's going to make it wait too. She opens her handbag and reaches in for... of all things, a pair of light sparring gloves, a cherry red... taking her time in strapping them over her knuckles, eye-ing the metal sparkle in the shadows. If it lets her do this without attacking... only then, does she approach it... if not... well, she forced the lurker to show itself, and won the contest of wills, or something.
She's just decided she isn't going to let herself be intimidated, is all.
As if courage and bravery will save you from the evil lurking in the darkness. There's no movement as the cheerleader puts on her gloves, no more glints of light as Tiffany approaches. Has her show of bravery managed to frighten off the beast?
The sudden blur of yellow that streaks into the light is proof enough that it has not. Whatever it is, it flies straight for the girl's face at breakneck speed. Should it strike, it'll bounce back and into the darkness, most likely without it's true form being revealed. And should it miss... well, it's a long corridor, and the lights are still on the blink, so it'll still escape into the darkness.
Whatever manner of creature is attacking poor Tiffany, she'll have to fight it blind for now, or drag it into the light.
COMBATSYS: Momo has started a fight here.
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Momo 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tiffany has joined the fight here.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Momo
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tiffany with Whale Serve.
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany learns... first hand, the drawback of her tactic. Sure, she comes off as cool and collected, but if someone's throwing something at her face.... well...
*Whock*
she reels, stumbling back, eyes crossed and staring at stars in front of the red-mark of her forehead. There's a moment when she looks too stunned to do anything... but then, she frowns, and jams one hand into her handbag (the hand that still isn't gloved yet.) She pulls out a compact.... five-pound hand-weight! (What? Doesn't every girl carry her excersise equipment around in her handbag?) Reeling back sharply, she sends the handle'd lump of iron at the darkness, "Get out here, you... you jerk!"
Tiffany is hopefully good at tracking tragectory. That serve that hit her was dead on.
COMBATSYS: Momo reflects Thrown Object from Tiffany with Racket Return.
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Momo
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tiffany with Reflected Thrown Object.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Momo
Moments after the hand weight flies into the darkness, it flies right back out, once again aimed at Tiffany's head. It's bound to hurt a lot more than the yellow thing did, that's for sure!
Oddly, along with the rebounding weight, there's a grunt of some kind. It sounds reasonably high-pitched, though with a five pounder heading straight for her, it's up to debate whether the the cheerleader actually manages to catch the sound.
Tiffany's eyes blink wide, like a blue-eyed doe, as her hand-weight comes hurtling back at her. *piku-piku* The impact rings out loudly, as she reels back, clutching her reddened face with a hand. Her other arm twitch-twitches, and clenches, and she lets out an infuriated shriek that has as much to do with a steam-whistle as anything else, "That's it..." she murmurs, and suddenly charges at the darkness, throwing her shoulders back, and her chest forward to firmly that one of the buttons on her blouse pops off. As if using her own breasts as a shield... or a sheild bash, she bum-rushes the darkness, and tries to fill her assailant's vision with angry cleavage.
COMBATSYS: Momo dodges Tiffany's Chest Thrusting.
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Momo
There's really nothing to be said. Tiffany breast-thrusts into the darkness, and runs right out the other side-- whatever she's fighting is either immaterial or a ninja. Or perhaps small enough to sidestep and easily avoid the strike, but really, who would think something like THAT when a violent monster is lurking in the shadows?
Suddenly, something flashes in the darkness again. A number of flashes, like claws swinging, reach out of the darkness and rake at Tiffany's back. Should they bite into her flesh, she'll get the sensation of cold steal cutting deep gouges into her flesh, before the attacker once again retreats into the darkness.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany blocks Momo's Strong Punch.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany does a sudden pivot as she overshoots her target. The movement moves with surprising fluidness into the shuffle of a boxing stance. Her arm comes up, and the single glove she had time to tie on deflects the blow. Instead of gashes across her back, she gets a stinging shock through her arm, and a slightly scoured glove, "Okay, no." she says, before stabbing her free-hand into the darkness after the slashing arm.
"I'm getting rilly, rilly tired of how ninja play." She tries to grab whatevers in there and haul it out into the light... en-route to the floor.
COMBATSYS: Momo dodges Tiffany's Quick Throw.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Momo
The sudden turn grants Tiffany a brief glimpse of whatever is in the darkness. The weapon that lashed out at her, that scuffed her arm...
It was pink.
Something shifts in the shadows of the hallway, and the cheerleader's hand moves through nothing. The form in the darkness takes a few steps back, disappearing once more... before another blast of yellow streaks out, once more aimed for Tiffany's face. Whatever is in there, it seems pretty intent on giving the girl a concussion.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany endures Momo's Whale Serve.
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Tiffany 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany's sandles make loud skidding sounds across the floor of the deck. If nothing else, Tiffany's tenacious, tough, and resiliant. Who else could "block" an incoming whale-serve with her /chest/ and still be looking for more. Her gloved hand pulses with a glow that's almost eldritch and eerie in the dark shadows of the hallway. Gritting her teeth like a feral-girl of the Valley, even before her chest stops bouncing from the aftershocks, she launches herself at that flash of pink with a wild fury of glowing punches!
COMBATSYS: Momo dodges Tiffany's Groovy Knuckle.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Momo
The glowing aura of Tiffany's chi sends the barest of light into the shadows, revealing... something. Whoever the cheerleader's assailaint is, he or she looks to be human, and is either short or keeping low to the ground. In addition, there are two long streams trailing off of its head, which could easily be either tied-back hair or a flowing scarf. And that glinting weapon... it looks like it could be some sort of short hammer, wide on the end with short metal portrusions along the end, those must be the claws that have been giving away the fighter's position.
The fighter emits an annoyed 'tsk' as its silhouette is revealed, the nature of the sound making it gender-neutral, easily weaving out of the way of the glowing fists. Escaping further into the darkness for a moment, the fighter suddenly leaps forward, weapon swinging in an attempt to hook Tiffany around the neck and then slam her into the wall before retreating again. Having to step into the light for a moment for the melee assault, more pink is visible, although she continues to move as fast as she can to avoid being identified.
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tiffany with Throat Racket.
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Tiffany 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany bounces off the deck as the throat-to-racket assault flings her from her feet. The glow coming off the cheerleader is rather decent at this point, easily qualifying for the tradition of the battle-aura they talk so much about. Rather than rolling or sliding, she seems to half kip-up, half bounce to her feet, like a human spring coiled and hurled at that thing in the darkness... that... pink. You can guess what color's leaving Tiff's accessory rotation for the foreseeable future, can't you? She practically wails out, as her fists seem to carry her forward with a pummeling motive force of their own, followed by forceful series of high-kicks, "GROOVY SPECIAL!"
COMBATSYS: Momo blocks Tiffany's Groovy Special.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Momo
Finally, something seems to hit. The weapon comes up as Tiffany barrels into the dark, fists and feet flying. It moves to intercept all of the strikes, kicks striking the handle of the weapon as the wielder braces it with both hands, while the punches are bounced off with the weapon's net. Still, the assault is strong enough to send th--
Wait a minute. NET? What the hell weapon is she wielding?
Regardless, the girl (for it must be a girl to be wearing that much pink) is further illuminated by the battle aura as she's sent back into the darkness. She glances behind her as she's backed towards another light, the safety of the darkness rapidly shrinking away as Tiffany intrudes upon her element with that damn chi of hers. Looks like there's only one way to go.
With a "Hah!" of effort, the pink assailant lunches forward, trying to jab Tiffany in the gut with her weapon. Those steel portrutions on the end, when stabbing instead of slashing, are a lot more blunt, likely to bruise instead of cut.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany blocks Momo's Quick Punch.
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany proves further, that she has more stamina than she has common sense, blocking the strike of the netted weapon and making another grab... roughly where she judges her assailant's neck should be. But it's dark, and shadowy, and Tiffany's more prone to seeing red right now than pink.
Her intent right now is to grab, and do a quick rush-thrust to toss this infuriating foe full into the illumination of the flickering deck-light.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Momo with Quick Throw.
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Momo
The ninja of a girl moves to block the incoming strike, but her net is just a hair too slow. Tiffany's hand strikes true, a yelp of surprise escaping the girl as her throat is grasped, and then thrown bodily into the light. Tumbling head-over-heel for a few yards before rolling to her feet with all the grace of a cat that TOTALLY MEANT TO FALL OFF THE CHAIR, the girl raises her tennis racquet in front of her face-- not that it really does anything to obscure her identity, it's more a defense mechanism than anything else.
"Tssk, I was hoping I could finish this before you saw me," Momo says. Bothered as her words are, she still sounds pouty instead of annoyed. It must be the little girl in her. Her free hand moves to stroke her neck where she was grabbed... but before it gets there, she pulls a tennis ball off of the harness around her bust and launches it at Tiffany's head.
Yeah, the move is getting stale, but enough blows to the face ought to take the big'n'busty cheerleader down eventually!
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tiffany with Whale Serve.
- Power hit! -
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Tiffany 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany tries to weave out of the way of the oncoming tennis-ball, but instead, ends up taking it on the shoulder, knocking her backwards. She goes into something akin to a backflip, landing in a rather groggy-looking couch. From there, she rises... somewhat unsteadily, to her feet, and smiles, "If ya don't stop doin,' that, I'm going to have to give you the kiss of pain..." She lifts the palm of her ungloved hand and puckers her lips, blowing across it... causing chi in the form of hearts to drift from her lips, to encircle and enfold her body, "It's a little like this... but a lot more like a knuckle sandwich!"
"Ooh, don't heart at me!" Momo demands as Tiffany blows a kiss at herself, the littlest tennis player stomping her foot in an ever-so-cute tantrum. But it seems that she's taking the cheerleader's warning to heart, reaching back and stowing her racket on her harness. Then she marches forward... well, maybe it's a little brisk to be a march. Actually, it seems more like she's downright rushing up to Tiffany. And stooping low.
And wrapping her hands around one of the American's girl's ankles. That can't possibly be good.
"Oof!" the tennis player says as she tries to pull Tiffany's foot right out from under her, and then spin her around. Really, Momo has no right to be able to lift up people taller than her like this, but that's never stopped her before, and hopefully it won't stop her now. "No offense," the girl says as she tries to pick up speed in her whirl of doom, "but I need you to get out of here!" It's a good thing this corridor is relatively wide, or Tiffany would be getting some nasty head trauma against the side walls. Instead, she'll get it from the FAR wall, as Momo abruptly lets go in the hope that the blonde will rocket down the hallway and embed herself in the far bulkhead.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany blocks Momo's Giant Swing.
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Tiffany 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Momo
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Tiffany with Kiss of Life.
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Tiffany 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Momo
Tiffany might not be able to last much longer. She's tough... and her healing chi's visibly brought back some of her vigor, but she's been on the recieving end of too much in this fight, while Momo stays out of reach. Nevertheless, when Momo literally lifts her off her feet... against all probability, the cheerleader lashes out with a powerful leg and hooks it around a side-rail conveniently located to keep people steady during stormy weather. The sudden stop sends a stinging shock through her lower-body, but she arcs to covert the worst of it to a new motion, and uses it as momentum to aim a strong punch at the side of Momo's head. It's like swingdancing mixed with hitting people!
COMBATSYS: Momo fails to interrupt Strong Punch from Tiffany with Quick Punch.
-* CRITICAL FAIL! *-
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Tiffany 0/-------/-======|=======\====---\1 Momo
Suddenly, Momo finds her hands holding nothing as Tiffany hooks herself around a pole and is wrenched out of the tennis players grip. She glances around to see where exactly her prey has disappeared to, raising a hand to lash out when she does... only to catch sight of a BIG OL' FIST FLYING STRAIGHT FOR HER FACE.
A great squeal of pain echoes through the halls briefly before it is silenced by the stifling presense of the ship itself as Momo ROCKETS BACKWARDS, the very same stunt she was trying to pull on Tiffany instead being turned on her! She hits the ground once, bounces, hits again, tumbles, skids for a while, and finally comes to a halt. "Rug, burn, rug buuuurn," she moans painfully, not getting up quite yet.
Tiffany now moves to mix her more traditional repitoire back into the the fight. She kicks off from the wall with her leg, does a series of cartwheels, and... just as it looks like she's going to run the girl over like a Wagon-wheel, she rolls out into a knee slide that gets her nice white pants all scuffed up with rug-dirt and sea-salt. Her gloved fist comes forward in a rapid jab, trying to tag Momo across the nose, "That's what you get for trying to tennis against someone without a racket! In the middle of the night! Just after dinner! Even ninjas wouldn't be that tacky!" ... completely ignoring the whole point of ninja-strikes-from-the-shadows.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Momo with Quick Punch.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-======|=======\=======\1 Momo
Ooh, this is rapidly turning bad for Momo! Things were going so well until she lost the element of darkness! She's in the process of slowly getting up, trying not to agitate her rug burn, when Tiffany slides on over and bops her one on the nose. "Owwie!" the tennis player responds, bringing a hand to her face and pulling it away to reveal blood. "...ack! You gave me a bloody nose!" The surprise at her hand gives way to a pouty glare in Tiffany's direction, and the tennis racquet is unslung once more. "Ooh! Momo cannot lose now! Momo needs to sneak into the tournament!" Weapon drawn back, she dashes at Tiffany again. "And to do that, you need to fall down, you big-boobed dummy!"
There's nothing quite like the fury of a Momo scorned. The head of her tennis racquet begins to glow with chi, a bright pink heart pulsing in the middle of the net. It's wielder leaps into the air on her approach, getting the height she needs to SLAM it into the top of Tiffany's head, hopefully sending her crashing down... and into Momo's foot, which kicks her back upright, in time for the girl to land, pivot into a spin on her foot, and slam the American girl as hard as she can with the chi-laden racquet. "Game, set, match!"
COMBATSYS: Tiffany endures Momo's Momo Crush.
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Tiffany 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Momo
There's a split moment when you can see Tiffany's eyes flash with anxiety, then narrow with determination. *WHAM!*
The racket Smashes Tiffany square in the head. This blasts her down to meet Momo's foot, which in turn, lifts her up into the air... to be SLAMMED! by Momo's powerful chi-blazing serve. But something funny happens at that point. Momo doesn't see the cheerleader from the U.S. of A. go flying. Instead, she feels a sudden intense tug on the enormous racket.
If Momo looks down, she'll see Tiffany's ungloved hand, red from the impact... curled around the racket's handle. The blonde's face is pressed so firm against the racket that she'll probably have griddle-face for weeks. That just shows her commitment to fighting, especially considering how fashionable she likes to be. Her left knee and right foot are pressed firm enough into the floor to splinter (or dent) it slightly. She pulls her face out of the racket, grimacing as she keeps ahold of the handle, "Sorry... sweetie." she murmurs, with a pained smile, "Even if you win, it totally wouldn't be fair if I didn't make you earn it. No offense."
With that, she thrusts upward with her feet, flipping over backwards, and thrusting a leg out and up so powerfully its more like a blur of tightened tendon and honed, shaped muscle than anything else. A Wonderful Kick. At close range. Aimed at Momo's chin.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Momo with Wonderful Kick.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Momo
That is NOT how Momo Crush is supposed to work! Momo hits you, and you die horribly, one does not simply tank it with their face! Needless to say, as the tennis player's expectations are blown out of the water, she's stunned at the turn of events just long enough to be kicked in the chin. The force and speed of the blow sends her flying straight into the ceiling, making a great dent that rings through the hallway for a few seconds. Her impact with the ground is not nearly so dramatic, merely a dull thud.
The tennis player may be down, and she may be out, but she'll be damned if she doesn't take Tiffany with her. She stumbles back to her feet, blood flowing freely from her nose, while a great bruise on her head (and a matching concussion for it) stays hidden from view."
You... it... erg," she stutters, trying to put a coherant thought together. The effort fails, and she finally settles on yelling, "DAAAAAAAAAH!" at the top of her lungs as she bum rushes the American, racquet lowered. And as she reaches the taller girl, she swings it straight up, as hard as she can, aiming to send Tiffany into the ceiling and relativistic speed just as she herself just was. The force is just too much for her to take, though, and her body is helpless to fight against the inertia of her swing. Tipping over backwards, Momo collapses, not quite able to pull herself up a second time.
COMBATSYS: Momo can no longer fight.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tiffany dodges Momo's Rocket Return.
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|
Tiffany bobs and weaves uncertainly to her feet... reeling as if she's had a few dozen too many of those martinis she's not old enough to drink yet. She took Momo's final attack... but only just -barely.- Her vision blurrs as Momo falls from the imprint in the ceiling, swims as Momo struggles to her feet and rushes forward in a final charge. She has a moment's time to mutter, wonderingly,
"This girl's crazy."
Fortunately, Tiffany's no stranger to being punch drunk. Some of her friends joke that's why she's got such a bubbly, fizzy personality. She stumbles sidewise, and Momo's wild uppercut comes to naught. She lists back toward the girl and moves to try and slip an arm under her to catch her as she falls, "Come on, kid." she says, not unkindly, "Like, collapsed unconscious on the deck of a ninja ship while a totally sanctioned knife-weilding crazy roams around free is no place for a chick to be. Fer shure." With that, she moves to bring Momo to the relative safety of her bunkroom, "I'll prolly tie you up there and figure out what to do with ya laters. Cool with you?" she moves to make Momo's head flop in a faux nod, "Cool."
Log created on 19:56:34 09/06/2007 by Tiffany, and last modified on 05:57:41 09/07/2007.