Description: Momoko finds out what it means to fight Bushin-ryuu! (Winner: Kyle)
Jinchuu's boat has made brief port, and Kyle Travers intends to finally get off the boat and use that time for all it's worth; after all, it's been a long time since he really got to stretch his legs. And in spite of the fact that he's got a little bit of sea legs, he's made arrangements to do something that'll really stretch his legs a little: a Neo League Fight, right here on the Sound Beach!
In truth, looking out at the water bothers Kyle a little; the last time he looked straight down into the waves, having avoided it for a while now, he watched his brother fall from the Suiryuu, helpless to do anything. He knows Cody's going to survive, instinctively -- that's what it's all about in the Travers household, after all -- but that doesn't mean it isn't any less bothersome to think about how close he was to finding his brother.
Trying to shake the cobwebs out a little by doing some shadow-boxing while he waits, the younger Travers keeps his eyes oh-so-slightly pointed toward the shore.
Momoko knows nothing of Kyle or his brother -- in fact, the only two people on the Suiryuu she even remotely 'knows' are Arika and Naerose. There's no Athena there, so what's the big fuss, really?
Momoko does need to get out and get a Neo League battle in every now and again though -- and it just so happens they had a willing opponent ready for her!
He's facing the shore, though, so he might not see the diminutive capoeirista approaching from the direction of the city. She's barefoot, and walks quietly, after all. And even if he -did- hear her, she might not hear him, as her iPod Shuffle, clipped to her her lapel, is currently belting out a new Brazilian single she'd downloaded just before the fight. With the little earbud headphones thumping away, the short twelve-year-old walks up to Kyle, twiddling her fingers in greeting as she gets within speaking distance.
The cameras are ready -- and judging from her smile as she lowers the volume on her headphones, so is Momoko. The question is... is Kyle ready to deal with someone half his size and just over half his age?
COMBATSYS: Momoko has started a fight here.
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Momoko 0/-------/-------|
Headphones? Cute, Kyle thinks -- they seem like they're becoming kind of trendy for fighters, he's noticed in recent days. Still, the use of music to focus is an interesting one;
Headphones? Cute, Kyle thinks -- they seem like they're becoming kind of trendy for fighters, he's noticed in recent days. Still, the use of music to focus is an interesting one; it seems so counterintuitive to Kyle, since it's more distractions and seems also like it's a little against-instinct. Still, his is most assuredly not to reason why, especially in this instance -- after all, he has more pressing matters to worry about.
Once Momoko's /very/ close, close enough that hopefully she'll be able to hear him if he yells, he calls to her, "Hey! You're my opponent, right?!" After all, she does look a little young to be what he expected. ... on the other hand, she does seem vaguely familiar, and the Athena fangirl /has/ made a couple other appearances in major sanctioned fighting. Kinda weird, he thinks, that they let a little girl like that fight -- but on the other hand, they seem to have a /lot/ of little girls in the fighting circuits these days. Signs of the times, one'd guess. Taking up his usual low stance, he says, "Well, show me what you've got!"
COMBATSYS: Kyle has joined the fight here.
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Momoko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kyle
For many fighters, music may be a distraction, but for a capoeirista like Momoko, there would be no fight without the rhythm. The power of the beat is unmistakeable to Momoko -- it gives the body something to follow, a simple suggestion of motions for it to follow, and most importantly, a sense of timing. It amplifies the spirit, gives the soul a method to express itself in ways words can't. But perhaps most importantly, Momoko's grown used to it, and can no longer fight without hearing some minute trace of a rhythm. Without the headphones, she could fall prey to losing sync... but with them, the risk is minimal.
This is all communicated in the young girl's optimistic smile as she nods in reply to Kyle, her bead bobbing about not just twice to indicate assent, but several times in succession as she follows the beat of her song. "Yes! My name's Momoko..." A deliberate pause for the song to catch up, and then a pleasant curtsy.
Righting herself, she glances over to the fight official, just moving into position.
A simple exchange of nods takes place, and then the word 'FIGHT!' is shouted.
At which point Momoko lurches forward. Her capoeira teacher would call this a Rasteira: the back of her heel rocketing forward and around to slam into the streetwise brawler's ankle, and possibly knock him over. Momoko doesn't call it anything; she just shouts, "Yaaaaa!"
COMBATSYS: Kyle counters Medium Kick from Momoko with Stepping Kick.
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Momoko 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Kyle
"Kyle Travers," the scruffy-looking man says, with a little smile on his face and a nod of his head in response to her curtsy; he doesn't know /why/ he's been stuck in the 'ring' with so many little girls lately, but he's starting to take it in stride. After all, it could be worse -- he could have to throw himself at Kain Heinlein a few dozen times, like that Tran guy had to. Kyle wouldn't take /that/ gig if they paid him a million dollars, and from that perspective, little girls don't seem nearly so bad.
The second Kyle hears 'Fight!', his default reflexes come into play and he takes a hard step forward, shouldering right into the capoeirista's forward lurch and preventing her attack from getting off the ground before it even becomes a threat -- a quick, gut choice, but Kyle's instincts seem to serve him well here.
He then sets about putting that momentary unbalancing to good, solid use, snapping a leg up and hopping forward a little in a move not unlike one used by some Tae Kwon Do masters under the name 'Shakka Shuu.' His raised leg whips out toward Momoko's stomach, striking her directly in the stomach in that split-second that Kyle's fully opened her guard.
Well... maybe that shoulder, and the sudden kick that follows, will unsettle the girl to the point that she loses her beat. She's certainy /stunned/ for a moment, fully repulsed from the blow and knocked derriere-first to the beach, a plume of sand erupting from the impact crater.
%t... No, actually. Her head's still bobbing to the beat as the sand clears. She coughs a little bit, but despite the quite significant pain going throug her system, the girl's determined to shrug it off! And she does this by planting her hand in the sand, legs spinning about in something of a breakdance, her whirling feet intended to spin up momentum for her next attack. Kyle may have expected the girl to cry after a blow like that, but she's still smiling!
Right until the point at which she suddenly /stops/ spinning her feet about herself, twisting herself forward into a reverse handstand, and slamming one heel after another into his face! "Ya! Ya!"
COMBATSYS: Kyle blocks Momoko's Bananeira Dois Golpes.
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Momoko 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Kyle
When Momoko comes in this time, the somewhat-overextended Kyle realizes he doesn't have the time to just plow through her attack again; he then decides that it'd be best to hunker down the way his brother does and just let it come in, throwing his hands up in front of his face. Those heels kick into his arms again, but those arms are well-braced, and Travers stands his ground on that sandy beach, giving the young lady a little grin of his own, matching Momoko's smile.
The man takes a step back, to a slightly lower part of the beach; there are a few tricks that are unique to beaches, and one of them is one of the Travers family's favorites. It's a little on the dirty side, but this /is/ a league fight, and sanctioned fighting is how Kyle makes his living. Every now and then, that means playing a little dirty.
Digging his foot into the beach sand, Kyle tries to judge the moment that Momoko will spring back to a full standing position; he then does something that is, at /best/, a little mean. With a loud "Yah!", Travers kicks his leg up, sending a wide spray of sand at Momoko in hopes of throwing off her aim a little!
COMBATSYS: Momoko fails to interrupt Sudden Fling from Kyle with Peach Ataque.
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Momoko 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Kyle
Momoko's kick seems to do... something! This at least gives the girl some hope, as she lets her legs fall to the side afterward, cartwheeling back to her feet.
Dirty tactics? But this is supposed to be a clean fight! Momoko's a bit naive about this, and starts continuing with the slightly-diverted momentum she'd built up just now, reversing herself as she approaches backwards. But when she turns around to look and ensure she's still going to hit Travers... well, that's when she gets a facefull of sand to the face. It really should just be sand, but at the velocity Kyle sends it at her, it's enough to hurt! There's a reason sandblasting is used to smooth off rough surfaces...
"Kyaa!" shouts Momoko, staggering backwards with her arms over her eyes. Oooh yeah that was dirty! Coughing up more sand, she manages to chirp out, "Meanie!"
Not that it'll deter the young girl's fighting spirit for long...
For a second, Kyle almost feels bad -- he tends to figure that everything is fair game in a fight like this, so when she takes exception, he can't help but have a split second reaction of 'oh, oops.' However, it doesn't last very long, and after a brief, "Hey, sorry," he's got his head fully back in the fight. One of the downsides of being from a rough-and-tumble place like Metro City: for you, /everything/ is rough-and-tumble.
Deciding to keep the pressure on Momoko, the second she stops coughing and staggering /too/ much, Travers advances in and tries for a fairly simple, straightforward maneuver. It's one of the staples of his tactics, but not refined enough or specific enough to really be called anything more than a familiar combo. Aiming his fist for the capoeirista's face, he snaps two quick punches with the same hand, followed by a forceful upward swing of his fist, letting out a low grunt with each swing.
COMBATSYS: Kyle successfully hits Momoko with Medium Strike.
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Momoko 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Kyle
What's to feel bad about, Kyle? Bashing the heck out of a little girl? Nah, seriously -- Momoko put herself up to it, and she's determined to hold up her end of the bargain! ... Even if that refers to her half-second delayed attempts to sidestep out of the way of those quick, focused punches falls a little short. Slammed backwards by each blow, the pink dynamo is perfectly set up for the uppercut which follows, hurling her skyward with the greatest of ease!
Windmilling out of control, she hits the ground in an ugly fall, throwing up sand in every direction. She's had better fights, that much is certain! The girl recovers shortly thereafter though, flashing Kyle a determined smile... beneath a nose steadily dripping with blood. Punch a girl in the face and you gotta put up with this kinda stuff, really!
The girl is... oddly undeterred, hands rising into a capoeira stance, feet shuffling about to the beat echoing in her ears. She's lost her momentum... and needs to regain it.
COMBATSYS: Momoko focuses on her next action.
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Momoko 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Kyle
The young girl's bleeding tugs at Kyle's basic human compassion -- he doesn't like to see a little girl bleeding like that, and this does really make him start to wonder if little kids /should/ be allowed to compete in sports like these. After all, they're hardly fully physically developed to deal with this kind of trauma -- though Momoko's pretty fast, he's noticed. If he ever /doesn't/ take her off her balance, she'll probably rip clean through him with a few speedy attacks.
As she re-centers herself, Kyle watches those rhythmic motions, trying to feel out her rhythm. After all, if he can get a sense of that rhythm, he can use it to /his/ advantage. After all, rhythm seems to be everything to the little capoeirista, and working with the gaps in that rhythm could give him a good shot. At least, that's his guess.
It isn't long before, deciding that he's sufficiently got a handle on that rhythm, he comes in yet again; this time, however, he just goes for a quick kick to the gut to throw Momoko off her balance again. The man seems to rely largely on quick, attrition-oriented attacks to try to wear Momoko down slowly.
COMBATSYS: Kyle successfully hits Momoko with Light Kick.
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Momoko 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Kyle
Hands chop downwards, synchronized perfectly with stepping motions. It's pretty easy to pick up her beat, really -- which may explain why Kyle's able to rifle a kick right into the girl's stomach, forcing her to stumble backwards sharply. She's... well, not in a good place, considering. Even if most of Kyle's attacks /are/ decidedly weaker than he's capable of, the fact that Momoko isn't built to /take/ said hits matters more in this instance. Coughing, she doubles over, one hand reaching for the ground... until she finally just falls over -into- the ground.
Or maybe it's actually a tumble, as the capoerista shows off the brilliant pink Psycho Power she's more commonly known for. Rolling at Kyle's feet, the glowing Psycho Soldier-in-training aims to kick Kyle in the shins several times before springing back to safety. Her voice is a bit ragged, but she still manages to shout: "Phoenix... ARROW!"
COMBATSYS: Momoko successfully hits Kyle with Phoenix Arrow.
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Momoko 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kyle
That flare-up of energy surprises Kyle; the brilliant pink light throws off every one of his assumptions, and even though he tries to leap back, he takes shin kick after shin kick with that bright pink energy that rips through his defenses forcefully and sends him sprawling to the ground. "... nice shot," he groans, as he rolls from his stomach to his back. It takes him a few seconds to pull his body back up off the ground, and when he does, he seems to be a little less focused.
This forces him to completely discard his initial ideas about feeling out her rhythm -- that didn't work too hot. He's better as a gut-feeling fighter anyway. "That was a /damn/ good shot," he says, evidently having little care about his language around the girl; she's bound to hear it /somewhere/, after all!
Travers decides to try an approach far removed from the bare-knuckle brawling he's been using up until now, hoping to catch Momoko off guard now that she's started to figure out his tactics; his gut is telling him to meet energy with energy, and so, he rears back his hand. His arm bathes itself in swirling energy of every color for a few short moments, and then suddenly swings forward, expelling that swirling energy in a brilliant white burst.
COMBATSYS: Momoko dodges Kyle's Charge Punch.
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Momoko 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kyle
Maybe that little spin was all the pink dynamo needed to get herself back into the moment! Kyle's retaliation seems to bear no fruit, as the girl's bounding about like a little monkey after that successful series of strikes. Language? Momoko doesn't mind much -- but Kyle won't be catching her responding in kind. Oh no, she's a good little girl! "Thank you!" One leap to the side is all it takes for her to skate past that energy-clad fist and the wave of force it projects -- and it also places her into a low crouch by the Travers brother's feet.
And with that in mind, the twelve-year-old flips forward onto her hands, aiming to tag the brawler in the shoulder. Should that land, she'd spin around with that kick, hands carving circles in the sand as she twists forward to tick away at his defenses with three inverted kicks. A split kick later, she'd be righting herself just long enough to run at him, kick three times in mid-air and quite literally walk right up the front of the brawler, sending herself into a backflip. ... At least that's what she /intends/ to do! "Yaaaaa-ya! Ya-ya-ya! Ya! Hiiii-yaaaaaa!"
COMBATSYS: Momoko successfully hits Kyle with Momokonba.
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Momoko 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Kyle
The twelve-year-old's lengthy chain of kicks lands, each in turn doing quite the number on Kyle; the first few kicks plow through his initial attempt at defense, and those subsequent midair kicks that walk up his front send him straight to the ground. The man's suddenly on the defensive, and that's a place that he doesn't like to be -- he isn't very /good/ at it, to put it lightly.
The young man gives her a wide smile as he pulls himself back up, saying, "I guess you just needed a few minutes to get it together... all right." Travers takes a few deep breaths, trying to restabilize against Momoko's surprising, forceful attacks -- and more importantly, to get back his balance. Now that she's got her rhythm back, she's really got his number... he can't afford that. He needs to take a minute to make sure /he/ knows his number, and more importantly to get her guessing a little -- that's what his gut tells him now. Just aggressing is going to get him more of what he just got.
COMBATSYS: Kyle focuses on his next action.
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Momoko 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Kyle
Momoko smiles wearily, shoulders rolling as the girl transitions from her rushing beat into a calmer, more relaxing refrain in the music. "Thanks! ... I think it might be this song! I haven't heard it before!" Cheerily, she swerves to one side, then the other, arms and legs swinging about to the beat as she stabilizes her position -- and gives Kyle a chance to further cement his. Maybe that wasn't the best tactic, no.
But Momoko... she is about fighting clean! And fair! She thinks that's just part of what's expected! And only now... does she consider leaping in to be a valid tactic.
She starts low, but instead of /striking/ low, she throws her weight into a flip, sending herself springing into the air. Her feet come scything down at Kyle's shoulder... and if her bare feet manage to land, she'd sharply kick off of him and vault into a -second- scything kick, poised to slam him face-down into the sand. "Hiiiiii-haaaaaa!"
COMBATSYS: Kyle counters Medium Kick from Momoko with Bushin Gourai Kyaku.
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Momoko 1/=======/=======|=------\-------\0 Kyle
When Momoko comesin with that springing kick toward Kyle's shoulder, he reacts on gut -- his gut is telling him to knock that aside, and so his arm swings up and out, slamming into that downward scythe and destabilizing her just long enough for him to whirl around -- and strike /again/ with that same arm. Those arm strikes are both just setup, though -- the real pain comes a second later, when Travers rears a leg back.
Anyone who's seen any Bushinryu fighter fight knows what comes from Travers next. He springs up and forward, swinging his leg out and slamming it into Momoko's side, coming down a second later -- only to launch himself forward /again/, and slam that same whirling hurricane kick into the capoeirista again. It comes a third time. A fourth. A fifth.
The man finishes the combo with a quick hop up and a scything kick of his own, slamming Momoko back down to the sandy after that seemingly-eternal juggle of kicks. "You're really good for your age," he says afterward -- perhaps he feels a bit of a compulsion to be nice in spite of, or perhaps because of, that vicious beating.
That's not the most pleasant landing! Momoko gets swatted aside, then kicked again and again and again and again before finally, mercifully, being allowed back into gravity's comforting embrace. Momoko falls back into the sand, sending up a minor cloud of it... but largely, her collapse into the sand is rather anticlimactic compared to the terrible series of kicks she's just been forced to endure.
But... much like before, the twelve-year-old rises from the cloud, a broad smile on her face. "Thank you! You're pretty good for yours!" She doesn't mean this facetiously, of course... she really meant that as a compliment! She's used to fighting people -much- older in her capoeira school, after all.
Perhaps more obvious than the dynamo's ebullient smile, though, is the brilliant pink aura suffusing her form. Her hands curl close to her stomach, a bright pink energy swirling about there. Some of the energy knits up the bruised muscle, but most flows into the space between her hands. A vortex of positive energy forms, quite different from the energies Kyle had on display earlier -- positive energy formed of Momoko's boundless optimism, her eagerness to make the world a better place.
And she hopes she can share that energy with Kyle, as she extends her open palms at him. The energy expands rapidly, a chaotic and uncontrolled bolt of sheer, unrefined power erupting from her palms as it streaks out toward Kyle. If it hits... well, aside from being suddenly drained of the will to fight he might get visions of happy unicorns or something, WHO KNOWS? "ES-PEEEER!"
COMBATSYS: Momoko successfully hits Kyle with Esper.
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Momoko 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Kyle
Travers takes that massive bolt of energy dead-on on the face, sent flying back; it seemed like he was trying to actually run /through/ it for a few seconds, but he certainly didn't do much of /that/. The fact that he's about thirty feet away, after all, pretty clearly makes that statement. He goes rolling along the beach, momentarily sapped of strength and feeling a brief moment of doubt in his ability to win -- even though he had an initially successful offensive, he's really on the proverbial ropes now.
However, Kyle does what he does every time he starts to get discouraged: he drags himself back up off the ground, grits his teeth, and tries to refocus. "... thanks, I /think/," he says, trying to shake off that strangely demoralized feeling -- and eventually, walks toward Momoko, rearing a hand back.
What he starts off his new assault with doesn't look like much at all. It's not a vicious kick like he started off with, nor something that /seems/ like it should lead into a combo -- it's just one hard, straight punch aimed for the capoeirista's face...
COMBATSYS: Kyle successfully hits Momoko with Final Destruction.
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Momoko 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Kyle
... and then it begins. Kyle whirls his body around, using that initial hard punch's momentum to carry his body forward and around, upon which time he snaps off two quick jabs at Momoko's gut; a hook punch comes in for her face, and using that hooking motion, he spins around /again/, and proceeds to go for another pair of jabs. Another hook comes from the opposite direction, and Kyle once again lets it whirl him around, giving him some added force in a pair of quick punches just like the ones he used before.
And what comes after those two punches is once again the same as what he used before -- a full-force uppercut, aimed right for Momoko's chin and probably sending the little girl a little way into the air.
In what really must be the -largest- case of excessive force thus far, Momoko receives a seemingly never-ending series of punches, just to underscore one very crucial point: Kyle Travers Hits Pretty Darn Hard.
The young girl's body is practically putty to the sledgehammers known as Kyle's fists, bonecrushing impacts sure to keep Momoko down for quite a good while after this fight. She volunteered for it, yes... but that will be of little solace when she's resting in a bed for the next few days. The capoeirista flies backwards, sure to be knocked into the side of the little shack that sells all sorts of beach goodies like water, suntan lotion, and wholesome snacks!
At least... until she disappears in a flash of pink light, never to be seen again.
Unless one happens to look right behind Kyle Travers, where the girl apparently re-materializes, with her hands reaching for the young man's waist. Tearful, she looks up at his back, hoping her last weary action can have some effect on the brawler. "Momoko... never gives up!" she shouts -- and with any luck, she and the brilliant surge of Psycho Power that erupts from her hands will be able to send Kyle flying up into the stratosphere! Or thirty feet, whichever is less.
Either way, Momoko's fall will be much shorter than that, as she only has four feet to fall to the ground. And does so, utterly exhausted and maybe even curling up into a ball, unless Kyle has something to say about that.
COMBATSYS: Momoko can no longer fight.
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Kyle 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kyle dodges Momoko's Ohashi Samaninacchae.
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Kyle 0/-------/-------|
Travers takes a quick step to the side as Momoko reaches for his waist; she almost snags him, and indeed for a second it seems as though she's going to catch him for that vicious toss. However, a quick twist of his waist makes it a little harder to catch him, and like that, he's just out of Momoko's grasp... and when she slumps to the ground, he decides to show that, even if he's a bit of a dick about kicking dirt and sand in people's faces, he's at least a pretty sporting kind of guy.
Hefting the little girl (not too much of a problem), Kyle takes it upon himself to bring her over to the recording team so they can get the medical guys coordinated the way they want; he doesn't exactly know medicine well enough to help too much with that /himself/, but he can at least show a little sportsmanship before heading out.
Log created on 18:51:14 09/27/2007 by Momoko, and last modified on 16:04:16 09/28/2007.