Description: Wait, is Mars attacking, or are we attacking Mars? Hm. Good question. But grand space opera is beyond such petty details! This week, SNF goes beyond the FINAL FRONTIER! To SPACE! Witness the epic battle between our plucky heroine, and the evil alien monster from Mars! Who, er, you know, look an awful lot like Acacia and Hotaru in costume, but that's so not the point. (Winner: Acacia)
SNF has been in many places. Many many places indeed. The great fighting event has spanned the world, battles being broadcast from all over the globe. Truly, it is the most amazing television programme ever, with a genuine international audience! ALL THE WORLD IS A BATTLEFIELD!
AND THIS!
IS!
SNF!
Of course, all that aside, with the runaway success of the SNF programme over the past few years, organizers have had to get /increasingly creative/ with match venues. Over the seasons, SNF contestants have traded blows in the depths of the rainforest, in the middle of the ocean, in vast arid deserts, even in the chill wastes of the arctic circle. What's left?
Well.
The Final Frontier, of course.
Or a close approximation, anyway. Geese Howard has a lot of money, and SNF has a weekly budget that makes the GDP of some countries look like spare change. But even for SNF, the kind of cash it takes to actually send folks into space is a weeeeeee bit of a stretch. Just a little bit.
'course, that doesn't mean Howard Enterprises ain't negotiating with the Russians for use of Baikonur Cosmodrome and the wee little thing called a rocket launch pad...
But all that's in the future.
For /today/, we're getting the next closest thing.
SNF is going to MARS!
Well, okay, actually Canada. Close enough, anyway.
Actually, it's a film set in a Canadian studio, nicely done up to resemble the surface of the Red Planet - or at least the surface of the Red Planet as viewed through a classical pulp sci-fi lens, all vast red dunes and open sky, complete with scantily clad space babes with...
...uh, maybe not. This /is/ a family programme.
But there's a couple of space babes anyway! Not scantily clad, though. Sadly.
Heavy footfalls cross the sand, kicking up dusty plumes. The sound of mechanical breathing fills the air, a budget sound effect resembling more an asthma patient than a notorious dark lord. Over one of the dunes comes a slim feminine figure, clad in a silvery costume - a stylized spacesuit, glittering under the spotlights of the sound stage. Chunky boots dig into the red sand as the girl makes her way into the scene...before pausing. The tinted bubble helmet shakes back and forth, gloved fingers scraping clumsily at the plastic dome.
"Aaarrgh," comes an irate voice from inside, "my neck ITCHES!"
The intrepid if a bit uncomfortable galactic pioneer isn't going to explore the sovereignty of the Red Planet without some opposition. Most of the space babes are props. Extras paid to stand idly in the background to add 'atmosphere'. It's not unlike a Todoh appearance, except it's actually planned as opposed to, well...
One of the natives stands atop a small metal platform. Green spot lights in the flooring illuminate the petite female occupying the middle of the elevated staging. The green light is almost superfluous, however, as her entire outfit is the same color. An emerald leotard with viridian tights and elbow length skin tight gloves. The neck of the leotard is decorated with a number of long, thin, dangling cloth tentacle with just enough tensile strength to be somewhat springy as she moves. A couple of the tentacles have plastic laser guns attached, complete with the silvery half-sphere 'ray emitters' on the ends of them.
The figure breaths in then exhales, the sound of a sigh audible behind the alian mask... helmet... vision-concealment-device atop her head. It's a little oversized. This particular alien is kind of used to that by now. It causes the mask to slant to the side. Like maybe this Martian has a crick in her neck from a poor night's sleep. Then again, with a head like that, trying to sleep without twisting her neck would have be a marvel to behold in the first place.
"I really would have preferred to stick with just the antennae headband!" the uncomfortable participant calls. From the sound of things, she's calling back over her shoulder. With the way the lopsided mask continues to face forward, one would be hard pressed to tell.
"Yeah, yeah," comes a muffled retort from the other girl - the one in the silvery space-suit - "complain, complain. Wanna trade?"
She lifts a glove-clad finger, poking awkwardly at the panel of plastic buttons over her chest. Her heavy boots clomp over the faux-Martian surface as she approaches the center of the stage. The space explorer tugs at her suit collar again - to no avail, the ring being locked tight. Her face is barely visible beneath the smoky grey plastic of the bubble helmet, but her expression is a pure sweat-laced grimace.
"'s a furnace in here," she mutters.
She lifts her helmeted head, squinting at the bright lights shining down from the ceiling of the studio, apparently simulating the harsh Martian sun. Or something. All she knows is...those lights are /hot/. And while her silver costume is certainly reflective, it's not reflective /enough/ to make up for the fact the fabric is...above all... /thick/. And form-fitting enough to be uncomfortable...while still being /just/ baggy enough to hinder movement in all the wrong places.
Houston, we definitely have a problem.
The undaunted alien commander walks to the edge of her landing platform. She has been wondering why it is that she has a landing platform when it's her own planet the stage is set as, but 60's sci-fi never made much sense anyway. A green gloved hand presses a button on a raised control panel and from the edge of the raised metal staging a smooth ramp begins to descend, bridging the all of three feet of distance between the platform and the dusty red surface.
Her other hand fishes through the dozon or so tentacles until she comes up with one that has a ray gun velcroed to it. Time for the Martian to descend to deal with this human interloper that defiles her nice planet with such clunky boots! The girl takes a step onto the ramp. And then another step after. Only - the ramp siezed up halfway, leaving her next step coming down on nothing but air. If she wasn't wearing a mask such a mechanical failure would have been obvious beforehand.
As is, she ends up falling forward right into the dirt, sending up a small red cloud of dust, one hand still gripping the phaser-tentacle as she waves it around. Fortunately, aside from the mask, her own outfit is far less hindering and the alien gets back to her feet quickly enough, free hand lifting to shift the head covering mask back into position. "Ahem, right then." Her left hand is lifted up, fingers seperated to form the famous Vulcan 'V'. "We come in prosper. No, wait, that's not it." Lines have never been her strong point.
The sound of velcro ripping cuts the air, as the spaceman...well, spacewoman...space-something, anyway, draws her own weapon. The ray gun flies free from her hip holster in a quick draw that would make Clint Eastwood turn in his grave. Well, if he were actually dead, that is. As it stands, he might well /wish/ he were dead, after that absolutely tragic display. It's a simple matter of logistics, really. Hands clad in large bulky gloves aren't too well equipped for handling props at high speed. To her credit, she doesn't actually -drop- the ray gun, though there's a few awkward moments of fumbling before she gets the ends correctly sorted out and the right bit pointed towards the scary Martian creature.
Pause.
The intrepid space explorer curses under her breath, a muffled bit of profanity reaching the microphones.
It's another second or two before she gets her overly padded index finger through the gun's trigger guard.
The muzzle of the ray gun lights up with a cheerful whine, flashing a nice electronic blue. The spacewoman levels this deadly weapon at the Martian, and, in a loud voice, declares a dire threat:
"ET GO HOME!"
The fact that they're already on Mars seems to escape her notice.
Awh, look, they're communicating. With the universal language of violence and vague, somewhat confusing threats. It's the way every great solar alliance gets started. And this one is off to a good start. The phaser-tentacle droops, the weapon pointed decidedly toward the ground. The mask slumps forward a little as if to observe the ineffective aim of the weapon. Or maybe it's just fallen out of place again. That's a very depressed looking alien.
"I'll owe you one if you get this mask off me ASAP," comes the soft spoken plea, kept just quiet as to be a muffled squeaky alien noise as far as the mics are concerned.
And with that the green clad figure inhales deeply. Time to accelerate negotiations with a decisive show of force! Twirling the gun-tentacle around a few times, the Martian finally whips it forward, sending the plastic gun flying through the air toward the pesky human. The threat of impact seems far more threatening than the beeping laser noises the gun is making as it spins rapidly through the air toward the Earth Invader.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has started a fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Acacia has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Acacia
COMBATSYS: Acacia fails to interrupt Thrown Object from Hotaru with Quick Punch.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Acacia
Bits of plastic, some beeping, most not, go flying -everywhere- as the plastic weapon smashes into the spacewoman's fishbowl helmet. This promptly sends her reeling, staggering over the sand dunes. Well, at least, staggering somewhat more than she was earlier. Admittedly, it's sorta difficult to tell. The round helmet lifts, as the girl inside squints through the cracked surface at her alien counterpart.
"Deal," she hisses.
Now that things have started off in the way they always seem to when two alien species come together it's time to kick things up a notch. The deadly ray gun launched, the tentacle is dropped... or, well, released. It sort've stays sticking out, the springy wire beneath the green cloth. The girl tries patting it down a little, but gives up after a moment with a huff.
The threatening, pointing tentacle is just going to have to keep on protruding out from her neck for the moment. Because now the alien is mad! The girl in green charges forward, glove-clad hands seeking to get a firm grip on the arm of the human in order to twist her over and down with a simple but oft-times effective Judo styled slam.
Apparently Martians know Kung Fu.
COMBATSYS: Acacia fails to interrupt Quick Throw from Hotaru with Unyielding Stance.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 Acacia
And our dashing space heroine is now flying into a graceful parabolic orbit. Without, sadly, a rocket.
It's also a pretty shallow parabola, too, all things considered, seeing as how she splashes down to earth relatively quickly. Or should that be splashes back to Mars? Actually, there's no splash either, seeing as how it's solid ground she meets, not water.
The spacesuited girl tumbles to an uncomfortable halt, clouds of faux red dust swirling around her previously pristine silver outfit. The blank curve of her helmet's bubble hides her features from view, but one can -almost- picture her wincing. While her friend in the alien suit doesn't seem to have too many problems with moving, it seems this ridiculous spacesuit is hindering /her/ movement to a pretty large degree.
Oh, well.
That's the space programme for you.
"Thought you came in peace," she grumbles.
As much as she wouldn't really want to discuss it, the alien has had far too much practice at costumed fighting and her own outfit is far less restraining as long as she manages to keep the mask on straight enough to at least get glimpses of what's going on. And she's kept her techniques simple thus far too, avoiding anything remotely acrobatic.
"This is my planet!" the alien girl declares triumphantly as the human takes a fall for NASA. But she doesn't advance until her opponent has gotten back up all the same, so she's probably going to get drummed out of a part in the next Aliens movie to come down the pipeline. She's also lacking sufficient black ichor for the role.
But once the girl with the silver lining is on her feet she's immediately beset by another aggressive charge as green, cheap-vinyl boot covered feet are sent kicking at three different targets - shins, stomach, chest, only to be followed by a swift, shoulder level roundhouse in the end. "Ya, ya, KYA!"
COMBATSYS: Acacia fails to interrupt Heavy Kick from Hotaru with Ground Effect.
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Acacia
The spacesuited fighter mutters something under her breath. The words are completely muffled by her big plastic helmet, but that's just as well. Since they're probably not really fit for broadcast. In the face of the alien's onslaught, she sets herself and gathers her true power. In a louder voice, she declares, "Use the Force, Luke."
And that's when the red sand around her boots erupts in a blast of concussive chi.
Our heroine blasts forward, on a collision course with the alien invader...
...and /right into/ the flurry of kicks.
Right.
Smack.
Into.
When the dust settles, the spacesuited girl's voice emerges from a very badly battered helmet, spiderwebbed with cracks.
"...damnit, ben..."
The last kick is delivered and the alien lowers her leg back to the ground, finishing by following the momentum with a complete turn. Now she's facing Acacia again. Or, well, that's what she thinks, anyway. Right now the girl is staring at the back side of the mask as the alien head didn't quite make the turn with her, perhaps borrowing some inspiration from a movie about demonic possession and the exorcism thereof.
"Your friends can't save you now!" comes the declaration, one arm raised proudly in the air, finger pointing upward... Until her other hand lifts up and spins the mask back around to face forward again only to realize she's not even facing the space explorer in the first place. "Hm."
Another turn is made until she's facing the right way again. At this point she can't even see the face behind the cracked 'oxygen containing' helmet. The Martian hesitates for a long moment, maybe feeling reluctant to keep battering on the puny (albeit same size as she is) human. Lifting her hand up from beneath the cape of tentacles, she snaps her fingers. Or, well, tries to, the effect is lost by the fact that she's wearing gloves too lose to really 'snap' exactly. All the same, she seems to have come up with an idea.
A charge forward results in completely brute force attempt at a tackle, aiming to take the other girl down to the ground with a palm press against her stomach, a sweep of her legs for the ankles, and a shoulder shove into the chest to complete the takedown. If she pulls it off, she'll drop down with a knee against the human's sternum, both hands clamping down against the sides of that helmet as she attempts to pull the thing clean off, "Time for a taste of dusty Martian air, Earthling!"
COMBATSYS: Acacia blocks Hotaru's Strong Throw.
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Acacia
The space explorer smashes once again into the harsh Martial soil. But this time, she does it in a controlled fall, her elbows and forearms taking the brunt of the impact, rather than her back and spine. The battered helmet is, though, a victim of the dastardly grasping tentacles, ripped completely free from the ringed collar of the abused spacesuit.
Not that she minds, really. Were this actually the Red Planet, lack of atmosphere might be a problem. But there's plenty of atmosphere here, in this glorified TV set - enough atmosphere to choke on, weighted down with bad acting and equally bad props. Ooh, the humanity.
Or should that be Martianity?
Whatever the case, the helmet's ripped free...revealing a dusky-skinned face, framed by a mop of sweat-slicked silver hair. Acacia Gillespie blinks at the sudden change in light, her eyes narrowing instinctively under the studio lights.
But that doesn't stop her from retaliating. One arm braced against the ground, she pushes herself up - as her other arm whips towards the Martian's big bobbleheaded skull, a furious backhand.
Yeap, she remembers the little mutual agreement they made, before the blows started falling.
These costumes really /are/ awkward.
Though, notably...it's probably too subtle for anyone to notice, save in slow-motion replay. But as the helmet leaves Acacia's head, she screws her face up in the traditional poise of 'person holding their breath'.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru blocks Acacia's Strong Punch.
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Hotaru 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Acacia
The battered, plastic helmet pulled clean off, the Martian chucks it over her shoulder. There. That's one annoyance out of the way. And then up comes the backhand as the poor human struggles to fend off the alien assailant before running out of precious breath!
It'd be impossible to know if the green clad girl even knew the attack was coming because she doesn't seem to do much to get out of the way, simply raising one arm to intersect the incoming blow with just enough force to keep herself from getting bowled completely over by the impact of the strike. Acacia's hand plows right into the plastic mask though, cracking the side of the thing wide open, sending small plastic shards falling to the ground.
The alien stumbles back to her feet, her mask broken and spun to the side, her arms flailing a little as she tries to deal with the clumsy thing, sending her tentacles flapping randomly about her body... And then the alien does what all space creatures do when injured. She morphs. Both hands clap against the side of the mask and the girl hefts it off entirely, dropping it to the dirt at her side.
*sproing* Marian phase 2 looks a lot like Hotaru Futaba. Except with her hair done up in buns covered by reflective metallic buns. With colored, blinking LEDs around the bases of them. And yes, resting on the top of her head is a plastic hair-piece with two springy antennae flapping left and right as she shakes her head back and forth. "Whew," the girl states, taking in a breath of fresh air. This is much better!
Acacia still has to deal with that clumsy suit, but Hotaru is far more liberated now, the girl turning to face the human, her right hand clenched out at her side. Time for some /real/ laserbeams, it would seem. The blue aura around her arm is muted, a lot of it concealed beenath her long glove, but it's definitely not a secret what's coming next. "YA!" exclaims the Defender of Mars, unleashing a spherical ball of pure energy from a forward swing of her arm.
COMBATSYS: Acacia fails to interrupt Hakki Shou from Hotaru with Unyielding Stance.
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Hotaru 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Acacia
Boots digging into the dust, Acacia's once again on her feet, raising her head to meet the incoming blast of cosmic energies. As the alien power rushes towards her, she clenches her teeth and raises her own formidable defenses, anchoring hersel---
Well, okay, see, the plan /was/ to anchor herself firmly to the ground, strengthen her body with chi, and charge straight through the oncoming chi blast.
It was a good plan.
Except execution falls rather short of reality.
The sphere of cerulean light crashes into Acacia, knocking her clean off her feet. It shatters the panel of blinking plastic lights and buttons on the front of her spacesuit, going on to punch into her torso and forcefully expel the air from her lungs. Thrown backwards, she bounces across the sound stage, eventually stopping only when she slams into the broad painted wall of sky that makes up the faux horizon. Flakes of plaster litter her costume, face, and hair as she groans.
"We cannae take much more o'this, cap'n," Acacia mutters, "we dinnae have t'power."
The poor human is blasted right out of the picture by the alien blaster... chiball. Hotaru lowers her arm against her side, clenching and unclenching her hand. Unlike much of the props, costumes, and decorations present on the stage, there was nothing fake about that attack and it shows.
Hotaru winces a little. Acacia's having to cope with a silly costume and she gets the impression that this isn't a normal feat for the girl, especially since she isn't aware of the laconic Gedo student haven't made a SNF appearance for a long... long... um... ever. Not to say that Neo League matches don't get whacky in their own ways. But yeah. Hotaru was doing back flips as Snow White just a couple months ago. To say that she's gotten used to SNF antics is putting it mildly.
But now Acacia is down and the mean alien is supposed to close in for the kill. Granted, it's hard to look mean with two spring-head-tentacles flopping every which way, but that can all be fixed up in the post-processing to be certain. Back on the offense it seems, the girl walking forward with that slow, decisive, alien plodding that looks out of place on the small fighter. When she draws up close, she lifts her foot up, "And now you see the futilifull... ness...ity... of your resisting, human!" And then down comes a violent stomp for Acacia's stomach. Except not really too violent. It looks a lot meaner on camera.
COMBATSYS: Acacia endures Hotaru's Light Kick.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Acacia
The downed earthling gives a pained hiss, wincing as the green foot digs its way into her stomach, bits of broken spacesuit chestplate grinding beneath the alien's sole. Her eyes snap open, flaring with that most distinctive human quality of all - defiance.
"N...never," she spits, with a rasping cough, "you'll never take my planet!"
With that rallying cry, she drives her own leg up, twisting as she rises from the planetary surface - aiming one heavy spacesuit boot at the horrible tentacled extraterrestrial beast, the red-caked treads racing like a rocket for putrid green skin.
COMBATSYS: Acacia successfully hits Hotaru with Heavy Kick.
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Hotaru 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Acacia
Ooo, yeah, she might have wanted to keep the helmet on. For protection from blows like that. The human's defiance to alien oppression is demonstrated with a solid foot against the side of Hotaru's head - the girl caught in the middle of pulling her foot back and trying to gain a little bit of distance. It gives her a chance to remember that yes, Acacia is capable of dishing out some solid hits when she gets the chance and the Martian's stumble to the side makes it pretty clear that she just got knocked silly.
"Okay, maybe just a little resistence will be permitted," she mumbles, lifting her hand, finger raised to accentuate the point. Her left hand comes up to press against the side of her head as she takes a moment to see more clearly. But she isn't defenseless, and the girl can take a couple knocks like that before she's going to be out of the fight.
Focusing back on the pesky human, she leans forward into another charge, vinyl boots sliding through the red Martian... imported desert sand as she swings out with a swift kick this time, aiming to throw Acacia off with a round house that couldn't possibly reach her... The swath of chi that blasts out in the wake of her kick, however? That stands a fair chance. "KYA!" She meant to make Martian noises. It's hard in the middle of a fight.
COMBATSYS: Acacia blocks Hotaru's Kobi Kyaku.
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Hotaru 1/------=/=======|=======\==-----\1 Acacia
But the true hallmark of an actress is the ability to perform under even the most adverse conditions!
And, y'know, clomping around on a budget film set clad in the most ridiculous costumes known to man /has/ to count as some kinda adverse condition.
Red Martian dust...or more correctly, whatever substitute the studio purchased from local building and gardening suppliers...swirls round Acacia as she blocks the arc of blazing spirit energy. The power slams into her raised forearms, flattening the creased fabric of her spacesuit. More red dust sloughs off the sleeves as she uncrosses her arms, a few flecks getting into her hair and drawing streaks of crimson across her face.
"Glad you approve," Acacia retorts, laconically, "alien..."
Or perhaps not so laconically.
"...SCUM!"
With that exclamation, she punches an arm forward, her gloved hand slamming towards Hotaru's throat, aiming to strike her neck with crushing force, before fingers close like a vice. All's fair in love and war of the worlds.
COMBATSYS: Acacia successfully hits Hotaru with Stronghold.
- Power hit! -
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Hotaru 1/--=====/=======|=======\===----\1 Acacia
Her foot coming out of the swift kick, Hotaru turns around, intending to follow up and keep the pressure on, now that the proverbial gloves are off. But all does is have her stepping right into the grab for her throat. Big, clumsy gloves or not, there's no denying Acacia's strength when it comes to being able to deliver a powerful blow to such a vulnerable location.
The alien's eyes widen - not quite bulging out of her head, though that might be edited in during the special effects pass, but the palor of the blood rushing out of her face makes her look like she might be a little sick. It only gets worse when the grip is tightened. She's lucky Acacia's no bigger than she is - lets her keep her footing in spite the rapidly dwindling strength caused by pain and the inability to breath for a moment.
Just enough footing, in fact, to attempt to break free with an attack. Provoked more from panic than actual tactical planning at this point, Hotaru's hands attempt to clamp over Acacia's vice-like arm and use that leverage to deliver a powerful back flipping kick. The surge of blue hued energy from around her to accompany the kick easily dwarfs the previous chi blasts, forming a literal torrent by which the strength of her strike is increased even further. She would croak out the name of the attack that she seems most famous for, but with the Gedo girl's hold on her neck, there isn't so much as a squeak from the evil space creature.
COMBATSYS: Acacia interrupts Ten-shou Ranki EX from Hotaru with Stonewall.
- Power hit! -
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Hotaru 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Acacia
No squeak from the alien, but our human heroine does give a loud roar, her voice rising high across the sound stage, echoing through the studio. The furious sound of bone against bone cracks through the room as Hotaru's chi-enhanced kick smashes into Acacia's body. But amazingly, Acacia doesn't flinch, doesn't give any sign of the pain she /must/ feel. Her face is a hard mask, betraying nothing.
And even more incredibly...
...her gloved hand is /still/ wrapped round Hotaru's neck.
Which allows Acacia to very swiftly -haul- the other girl in, right into the path of her -other- arm, a solid bar of bone meeting the alien's skull.
Protecting the earth from the scum of the universe.
The flip kick is stopped short in spite all the strength she poured into the attack, leaving Hotaru still gripped by the human that refuses to let mankind down with a loss in this staged battle! And then she finds herself pulled in, the side of her head slammed hard for the second time this fight. And with the way the girl goes limp in the hold, that one might have just been the one to put the foreign hostile entity down for the count.
But those alien types always seem to have a way of coming back for one last attack before they can be dismissed entirely. The warning is brief - a slight shake of the head from the crumbled Martian, a flicker of her eyes opening with a blink...
And then another chi-laced kick, much like before, as she tries to wrest her way free from the grip and put an end to the hero with one more powerful blast of energy. Time is short, she's not got long left. But those aliens are surprisingly resilient!
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Acacia with Kobi Kyaku EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Acacia
A gasp escapes Acacia's lips as the kick crashes into her - with the unstoppable unearthly force of alien technology! Is our heroine done for?
IS
THIS
IT?!!
Not yet.
She staggers, reels, but stays on her feet. -Somehow-. The oversized costume boots pound into the reddish earth as she regains her footing. She looks up, looks straight back at Hotaru. Her vision's blurred. Unsteady. But it's enough. Enough for her to lunge at Hotaru, blasting a fist out in a rapid straight-line punch, a tightly curled fist rocketing towards the alien's midsection.
FIGHT ON, ACACIA!
COMBATSYS: Acacia successfully hits Hotaru with Quick Punch.
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Hotaru 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Acacia
Finally back on her feet, Hotaru staggers backward, hands coming up to grip at her throat. That was a distressingly long time to get held like that and it took two energy laden attacks to get free in the end. Like many great battles for mankind, it might have started out rocky for humanity, but the refusal to surrender seems to have saved the day for Earth once again!
Hotaru takes the straight shot to the stomach as she tries to step out of the way to no avail, crumpling forward and dropping to her knees, one hand clenched in the dirt, her right arm out to her side, beginning to glow brightly as before. "Well done, human, but there will always be more where I came from... And now, a parting gift-"
That fight arm comes up, unleashing one final blast of energy toward Acacia's torso before Hotaru drops forward to the dirt.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru can no longer fight.
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Acacia 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Acacia blocks Hotaru's Hakki Shou.
[ \\\\\ <
Acacia 0/-------/--=====|
A swirl of red smoke spirals round Acacia's body.
She sways, on unsteady legs, her arms crossed in front of her face. Spine curved, her body hunched over...the position with which she blocked Hotaru's final attack. She inhales, breathing in the dust-laced air. And almost immediately coughs, spitting up phlegm. She wipes her mouth with the back of one gloved hand, stumbling forward. She drops slowly to her knees, but remains more or less upright. For a certain value of 'upright', at least.
For a good long moment, she stares at Hotaru's fallen form. Then, slowly, she turns her head towards the nearest camera.
"Please look," Acacia says, succinctly, "directly at the flashing light."
COMBATSYS: Acacia has ended the fight here.
Log created on 11:00:30 11/10/2007 by Acacia, and last modified on 09:38:49 11/18/2007.