Description: Vega, seeking something and/or someone, invades Rose's dreams. This works well, until Rose realizes she's a powerful psychic too!
Rose is a frequent visitor to the offices of the YFCC; partly for the sake of touching base with Alma and the youth of the city, and partly because it is simply a place where she cannot easily be reached. She had finished her weekly column for the Italian newspapers and had been left with little to do, and so she leaned back in the comfortable chair, folded her hands in her lap, and closed her eyes for a short nap. Here, in all places, she should be safe from harm or worry...
Perhaps, perhaps.
Safe. What an .. interesting thought. In reality, safey can be found. The YFCC does have a good track record of not having too many insane things happen at it, after all. But with sleep brings other dangers, /new/ dangers - ones that the fortune teller may not have expected. It may be hard to tell what is a dream and what is not when the dark laughter starts around Rose. It may be difficult to find the laughter's source, but the sound is certainly familair, evil and indolent. With it comes a sense of power, one that she may not have felt in quite some time, but more recently was .. for lack of a better term, 'visible' again. When the laughter dies down, from near where Rose's chair is, someone seems to fade into view, tall and imposing. ".. I should have expected to find you..."
Vega. Lord of Shadaloo. Dead?
Perhaps he is and perhaps he is not.
Rose's head lifts - she is in the middle range of sleep, and so the world seems to resemble a shadow of reality. The dim light reflects what her eyes pick up, the very distant sound of a practice match making its impression on her ears... but overall, it's quite calm.
rShe inhales sharply as her head turns sharply, hearing that laughter. But it comes, it seems, from all directions - until it resolves itself. Her eyes narrow, and she rises, leaving a faint shadow of her 'body' behind.
"I had thought that you might have left something of yourself, behind," she says. "Is this all that remains of you?" Bold words; the faint uncertainty behind them, sadly, is also clear.
Of course she would see it how he truly is - a shade, a shadow of his former self, the mighty will holding his psyche together and nothing more. It is, perhaps, his greatest triumph - living on beyond the destruction of his body in Thailand.
"There is more to me than you will ever understand, Rose. What I am now is simply a... transition." It's the closest that he'll tell her to what actually happened - after all, the rest is .. rather emberassing. 'Oops lol, mistake' is not something he wishes to express, not even to his 'lesser half'. As he slowly circles her, he rubs at his chin. She doesn't seem to have the touch he expected, but she could be hiding it - here, in this world, in her mind - he's certainly not holding any advantage. "... I came here to look for something, Rose - and your mind will hold what I am looking for, I am /very/ certain. I don't expect you to help willingly - feel free to struggle." With that, his hands explode into purple and blue light.
COMBATSYS: Vega has started a fight here.
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Vega 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Rose has joined the fight here.
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Rose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
"A transition on your way to nothingness, perhaps," Rose says solemnly. She steps from around the echo of the desk, narrowing her eyes. She shrugs the scarf from her shoulder, light in her body seeming to brighten.
"Is this," she predicts with only that faint subliminal quaver in her voice, "where you ask me, What have you done with Cammy?"
She crouches slightly in wary preparation herself, before saying, "You are less difficult to read than you think..." And then she advances suddenly, dashing, perhaps foolishly, towards Vega. She puts her not-inconsiderable speed into it, however, twisting at the last moment and sinking to the ground itself, sliding on the frictionless Soul Power-laden surface of her scarf and aiming to spike her heels, viciously, into Vega's shins!
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Rose's Sliding.
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Rose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
"Hah! I do not need that broken tool. She was a failure - her personality, her willfullness.. /pathetic/." No, no, suffice to say, Cammy is not what Vega cares about at all. In fact, the Zero Doll is the farthest thing from his mind. It makes him laugh, though - she's so sure she can read him, but to be /so wrong/...
"This is where you defy me, where you attack - and where I change the rules of the game." As Rose slides towards him, he seems to grow, larger and larger in the room, bulking up until his body has taken the approximate dimension of Hugo or Birdie. Giant men indeed, but nothing to the power of Vega's mind, unfettered by weak flesh. As the psycho-power and heels slam into his feet, his body moves back a half-step, the seeming solidity protecting himsef from much pain, the silver greaves on his feet dented. Odd - he hadn't expected that, but.. she /is/ a powerful psychic in her own right.
"Now, here - show me where you've been, who you know, Rose. Let me get inside your head just a little bit more." That grimace of amusement widens, Vega bringing his hands up and then down at her shoulders - the psychopower is his main effort, an attempt to damage her psyche, to force her mind to remember those she'd seen lately - to help him find what he knows he will see. Or who.
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Rose with Medium Punch.
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Rose 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Vega
Rose tenses, trying to push away, but Vega is more used to manipulating himself - changing, flensing his very essence to meet his goal of the moment. Rose should know this better than anyone, really. But it's that ruthlessness that sends a sharp strike right towards her shoulders - and she flies back in response.
Or does she? Really, she does not move as time starts to spool back. Vega can percieve (see may be the wrong word, for now) the spinning of time, her path out through the YFCC, down the streets of Southtown - home, a fourth-floor apartment in Southtown village - back again... A rather pedestrian week, with dozens of casual nodding encounters. The greatest event, it seems, was doing a reading by telephone for an Italian minister, sometime on Tuesday.
Rose catches herself, stopping to kneel on one knee and look upwards, breathing heavily. Light glows out of her and sinks inwards as she breathes, however pointless it would be. "Reduced to voyeurism, then?" she says, as she slowly rises upwards. "I suppose... such is the fate of those who have turned away from the world."
COMBATSYS: Rose gathers her will.
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Rose 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Vega
Boring. /Pedestrian/. Not what a woman with power should do, given the opportunity and power. No, no - this is lesser things, a pathetic waste of promise - but could he expect anything less from the woman before him? He watches avidly as time rewinds within the dream, his overlarge frame leaving as he loses focus on it, returned to his normal 'appearrance'. For now, at least, he's mortal again. But for how long..?
"You could not hope to understand... hah! I found my way here because of our link - I should have realized this from the start. It was not her.." He catches himself, but far too late, too much said. He denies Cammy, but says that he's searching for 'her'.. The logical question, of who is 'her'.. Well, then - that might take some digging around. "This is not turning away, Rose. This is a returning. If you attempt to interfere, you /will/ be crushed, 'better half' or no." With that, he barrels into her preperations, a bold effort to batter her down, to make her forget that stupid slip he made with a jumping kick aimed at her head!
COMBATSYS: Rose stops Strong Kick from Vega with Soul Reflect.
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Rose 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Vega
That kick flies towards Rose - and it hits her scarf as it twists through the air. The Psycho Power within it is neatly and perfectly reversed, neutralizing the blow - only incompatibility prevents a brutal backlash, or perhaps the sheer implacable WILL of Vega himself. That's the boring part.
The more interesting part is when the fight's background, which had settled into Rose's townhouse, explodes outwards -- the entire area seems to ripple, being replaced, suddenly, by a statueseque series of ruins that Vega may recognize vaguely as being Northern Italian; something out near Turin.
"Hmf," Rose says softly. Her head tilts to the side and she raises one eyebrow - "The other one? I know who you mean, but I'm afraid I haven't seen her in weeks. Is that the answer you're looking for, or have you become a hungry ghost, like the Chinese speak of?"
Further back still, and no sign. Vega's eyes narrow, the grin and grimace on his lips turning to a thin line of anger and frustration - those two elements constant, whether alive or dead. Alwas angry, always raging at some inner or outer perceived torment. Stymied in his attempted hit, feet drawn short by the blazing aura of her soul, he lands awkwardly on one knee. Stopped short for the moment, he regathers his strength, advancing on Rose deliberately.
"You think you know so much, Rose... Enlighten me! /Who/ do I speak of? Who is the Alpha to my Zero, the person I seek beyond the Killer Bee's noncomplicity?" Losing his temper, he brings his hands up and back, drawing blue-black energy from the world itself, hauling it from his twisted soul and throwing it into Rose's face. This should give her something to think about.. should he be fast enough. He's already spent far too much time inside her head.
COMBATSYS: Rose reflects Psycho Wave from Vega with Soul Reflect.
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Rose 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Vega
That black energy strikes towards Rose and is suddenly impacted by a bolt of pure sunlight yellow. Rose does not even raise her scarf - perhaps here, in the end, she only has to if she wants to. The world unfolds again, spreading outwards by the sheer psychic impact of the intersection of forces; outside, Alma may get a headache from backlash.
On a plain of spiralling sheer energy, Rose stands, tossing her head back. "Why, either you speak of some woman I have never met," she says, "or you are speaking of Ms. Kasugano, and I am certain I cannot approve of your pursuit of a child for your own horrible purposes!"
She snaps her fingers, once: "You should drop your pretenses! You have become nothing but a shade trapped in your own fantasies of power; let yourself go and leave this plane! If you must stay, harm nothing in your journeys; may you see the error of your ways, of your abandonment of compassion, firsthand!" Yack, yack, yack.
She's learning.
Smart and savvy, she's learning.
Vega can't help but be proud, at the same time his energy courses back through him, the feedback causing his eyes to flare from their normal white to an almost 'normal' look. But he recovers quickly, his hands shaking off that brilliant power he's given - instead starting to walk around the woman, who's figured out how to change the battlefield. "You cannot stop me, Rose." He says this with certainty, pushing the sensation crawling up his spine away. Worry has no place here. She's not /that/ good. Not that strong - not strong enough to stand up to Lord Vega. Even with the battlefield in her mind, he is still stronger than she is.
He doesn't attack, however. No, no, he walks around her, taking his time as he watches her, his sneer coming back on his face as he seeks power, trying to leech and steal what he can, to add to his own before she attacks again. "... Well enough, you've figured my plan out. Be proud - and then prepare to lose when you interfere. You always do, Rose. You should learn to stay out of the business of your betters!"
COMBATSYS: Vega gathers his will.
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Rose 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Vega
Rose's lips purse slightly. Her expression grows sterner as she says, "And what shall you do, Vega? Shall you haunt her dreams until we rise to dispel you? Shall you try perhaps to bring your remaining loyal minions together to torment her? Hmf!" She tosses her hair back, folding her arms in front of her.
Light flickers around her once again, sinking back into her body as she narrows her eyes towards Vega. "Your advice," she says, "is well taken - but perhaps you pay yourself too high of a complement in your own mind." Let him, she thinks, figure THAT one out; if he can, it is a first step on the road to...
... something.
COMBATSYS: Rose gathers her will.
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Rose 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Vega
Throwing back his head, Vega laughs at the suggestion. That he would torment the girl, that he would summon others to find Sakura. Hah! As if his machinations were that simple. "You think me a fool, Rose - or simple. This is no simple matter you've stumbled on, no game that we play. No, today is a lead-up to a better world, a better time."
He closes quickly, but his feet seem to be sinking into the ground of the world, causing his body to move slowly, lethargically - like a dream, one might say. It doesn't stop the /force/ of his attack, his foot lashing out for her midsection, an attempt to throw her above his head by simply planting his foot in her gut and lifting. It does, however, cause his body to react more slowly, his assault on her psyche starting to show wear and tear. She is, after all, almost as strong as him.
Almost.
COMBATSYS: Rose blocks Vega's Dead Rise.
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Rose 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Vega
Rose does not move to block the attack once again. Instead, she lets out a sharp, tight cry - and light flashes again, turquoise blue as that foot strikes against SOMETHING in her midsection. The externalized Soul Power is not enough to cut the blow to nothing, however, and she staggers back one pace.
Then her eyes narrow. "A fool? Yes," she says; she is sterner now, less gentle than she had been in the past, btu perhaps it is always easier to be a defiant voice when you are defying that which is not strong. She continues, however. "To throw away compassion and caring, thinking that declaring a world to be 'better' makes it so - Your every action has always spoken of horror!"
Her head tilts back. "And to punctuate your words - to back your actions - you have always, each and every day, had nothing but force and brutality and violation to give! Do you expect me, then, to stand idly by? Do you think you will convince ME, of all people?"
Her head tilts forwards again, and she watches carefully. "It is only out of mercy that I am waiting, here. You may yet learn the proper way of living, and if you do not force me..." What, she will let him go?
COMBATSYS: Rose focuses on her next action.
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Rose 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Vega
Never as strong as him - he can see the wear on her features as he batters her. If she doesn't have it, his mind puts it there, imposing his own view of reality on the fight. He's lurching ahead, and she will fall. She's given him all the information he needs - the rest of this mucking about in her mind is /personal/. He barks out a laugh as she attempts to become the stern taskmistress, rejecting her words with a mocking yacking motion of his hand - the ultimate insult as he ignores the grains of wisdom that are in her words. Does he taunt her just to provoke the reaction? Perhaps if he never involved her, she would be willing to walk away.
Nah.
"If I do not force you, you'll attack me from behind, and try to smash me with your own power. I choose otherwise. You are a threat, Rose - but be assured.. You are /not/ a threat I cannot deal with." With that, he walks into her preperations, the focus in her eyes seeming to slow him further. He won't mention it, but the fact that he cannot seem to move /has/ to be obvious to the woman before him now.
At the last second, he braces and jumps upwards, his legs spinning around in air, his knees aimed at her shoulders, an attempt to knock her down into the ground as well, to suck some of the wind from /her/ sails. At the very least, he intends to batter at her guard, to push it away. She can't hold him back forever...
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Rose with Double Knee Press.
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Rose 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Vega
"Nonsense," Rose says; "but, then, rationality is not your strong suit, not now..." Of course, then the man does not stop. Out in the real world, her body jerks in sympathetic reaction, those legs striking into her like swinging logs sliding through the air with titanic force! She spins, in the dream/imaginary/astral world, staggering...
And then she steps off the ground and turns, floating, to face Vega. As she raises her head, her eyes are glowing - it is not fire but rather mere light, limning them rather than covering them up. "A threat, perhaps," she says as her arms fold with a faint jingle of bracelets beneath her breasts, "to you, and to your desires for cruelty."
"But," she says as she raises one hand, pressing her fingers together as if about to snap them, "There is something that you would do well to keep in mind - you have intruded in this world of mine, and when you are an uninvited guest..."
She reaches up suddenly towards herself, that hand curving around, in order to slap herself, sharply, across the cheek with a flash of light! How shall Vega respond!?
She's onto him. She's able to realize that this is a dream, and what is more, that it is /her/ dream. Vega's movements are stifled further, his feet seemingly sunk into the swirls that make up the 'floor' of her mind. As he growls in impotent rage, he's unable to do more than watch her bring her hand up and around. He throws his head back, and his aura starts to surround him. It's not going to be enough, not going to keep him inside her head as he lurches towards her.
Not even with any pressure, no - his launched attack is almost caught in stillness, like the power that be in a dream, when you simply see something barely moving. She'll get to see his eyes, pure white - surrounded by purple and blue and black psychic energy - he's trying to fight through that awareness, to strike deep inside her brain.
But he is so /slow/... Moving as if each second is a year.
COMBATSYS: Rose endures Rose's Jab Punch.
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Rose 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Vega
COMBATSYS: Rose stops Psycho Crusher from Vega with Soul Reflect.
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Rose 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Vega
The strike hits Rose, and in the real world, the slap rings out in the empty office - and Rose's cheek reddens.
Rose herself begins to glow and fade, phasing out of this reality; there will be nothing left once her mind shifts, and Vega will be well advised to depart. He has doubtless encountered this problem before -- or he may have overlooked such things in his quest for raw destructive Psycho Power.
Even so, for this moment of escape, Rose is intensely powerful - she swats the incoming strike away with another turquoise-blue blow of the hand, and turns herself around. She says one single word --
"Ciao!"
And then sits bolt upright in her chair, a little drool on her lips. She stares at the wall for a moment, then shakes her head loose of the cobwebs.
And in the distance of her mind, a howl of rage as Vega finds his way free - but is then ineffective, a ghost to her. Someday, someday soon, there will be a reckoning!
COMBATSYS: Vega has left the fight here.
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Rose 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Rose has ended the fight here.
Log created on 20:43:21 10/26/2007 by Vega, and last modified on 17:33:25 10/31/2007.