Description: What terrible chain of events could bring Tenma Kiryuu and Momo Karuizawa face to face atop Hoover Dam? What even more terrible things could happen, once they finally do? Within: A tragic story of one-sided revenge, oblivious tennis stars, and somebody getting hit right in the nuts. (Winner: Tenma)
Exactly what part about having a pair of fighters, one of whom has been described as being a volitile explosive, duke it out on top of the Hoover Dam is a smart idea has yet to be determined. But Saturday Night Fight isn't known for being smart, it's known for being awesome, so hopefully the land downstream from here has been evacuated.
Upon the farthest of the pillars jutting into the artificial lake formed by the dam is a figure clad in pink and white throwing small rocks into the water. Momo has no idea that her fight against Tenma is a grudge match, harboring no ill will towards the Gedo student (indeed, she couldn't even be bothered to remember his face) and thinking instead that this is merely yet another chance to show off for all of her adoring fans!
...and hopefully not get horribly beaten again. She's got a bad habit of that, it's almost like people ENJOY hitting small, adorible little girls.
Hell yeah people enjoy hitting small, adorable little girls. And the people who watch Saturday Night Fight don't watch it for happy socialisation or tea parties, THEY WATCH FOR BLOOOOOOOOD.
So it's a lucky thing for them Tenma Kiryuu is fighting, blood is more than just guaranteed with him around. So here he is, also on Hoover Dam, and he can't resist the urge to spit over the side of the pillar platform, watching it tumble an impressive distance to the man-made lake below. But it's really just something to satisfy a fleeting, momentary curiousity. The bulk of his attention is focused on the end of the platform, where that little pink and white clad monstrosity awaits. Finally, at long last, he gets his chance, and even better Marisol won't get the opportunity before he does!
Having already created the chi link between himself and his bokken, Tenma stands with that slightly curved wooden sword slanted against his shoulder, the blade enveloped in a misty red aura of bloody chi, and as his eyes fall on Momo, a wolfish grin crosses his face.
"Hey, midget!!" the Gedo swordsman calls out. "Time to pay the piper, huh?"
Momo perks as she hears someone talking at her. He certainly couldn't have been talking TO her, not with that much rudeness! But, then again, Tenma IS a Gedo student, and they hate everyone because they're ugly and unpopular and illiterate. "Momo is not a midget!" the Taiyo student says as she hops to her feet. "She is petite! Not like you, big ugly huge guy!"
The girl points her finger at Tenma melodramatically, while her other hand draws her racquet. "Prepare to see the true power of Momo!" she declares in an equally corny fashion. It's pretty cute, although it's doubtful that Tenma is affected by such things with that basty ol' bloodlust of his.
COMBATSYS: Momo has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Momo 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tenma has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Momo
It's true, under other circumstances Tenma would probably be all for the usual pre-fight posturing and boasting and stuff; that's just how fighting works, right? But today isn't about the usual thing, it's not about glory or money or even fun and excitement. Today is about simple, old-fashioned revenge. So as the diminutive fighter talks, the taller Gedo gang member hitches his weapon slightly on his shoulder, and rolls his neck.
And once he's been threatened with the 'true power of Momo?' "You done talkin'?" Tenma wonders, before he rushes forward at the smaller fighter, closing the distance between them ideally before the Taiyo student is even really ready, slashing down with his chi-empowered bokken in a quick, strong motion; at the 'bottom' of the slash, Tenma suddenly twists his bokken and reverses the 'edge', slashing back upwards in a shallow v-shape, striking out with solid wood and probably really gross mingled blood and energy. "Just settle down an' take your beating!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Momo with Ungyou.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Momo
"What?" Momo asks, taken aback ever so slightly by the sudden cutoff of her pre-battle banter. "H-hey, what're you--" she manages to get off as Tenma rushes her with the nasty blood-chi-covered bokken before being pummeled. "Owwie, owwie!" is her cry as she falls back, ducking down and raising her tennis raquet to block any further incoming attacks. "That's not how this is supposed to work! Momo yells at you and you yell at Momo, and then we fight!"
The Taiyo student lunges forward, twisting her wrists so that her racquet is pointed forward. It's not much of an attack, just a quick jab in the gut, but it ought to be enough to make Tenma lose his breath for a moment and allow the tennis player time to put some distance between them again.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Momo's Quick Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Momo
What is he doing? How could Momo NOT know what he's doing? Do they not teach 'revenge' at pretty princess unicorn girl school? Tenma's feeling of satisfaction fades quickly with that particular realisation, and his expression falls just a little. Except, of course... That just makes him even more mad. The racquet jab at his gut is met with seeming indifference, as the leader of the Guardian Kings takes the blow directly, staggeringly only a little as he forces himself to keep going forward at Momo despite the hit. If that's how she wants to play, fine by him.
"I was on the Suiryuu, midget," Tenma grits out, flipping his weapon in his hand quickly to hold it backfisted. "An' I saw you turn on us, twice. On that crazy aircraft carrier, remember? An' then you turned tail when Guitar Skank Barbie and her posse were rounding us up on the ninja boat." Tenma slashes with his bokken, aiming it right at /Momo's/ gut now, with vicious force. "Guess today's my lucky day!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Momo with Fierce Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Momo
Wow, Momo is really failing today! A bit of water on the pavement behind her goes unnoticed, until the tennis player tries to get footing there and fails. She remains upright, but unfortunately leaves herself wide open to getting hit in the chest and knocked back. A squeal of pain escapes her as she hits the ground hard.
"Momo does not remember all of the people who were on the Suiryuu, there were lots!"
The Taiyo student crabwalks back a few steps before spinning back onto her feet, trying to shake away the pain of a scrap on her palm. "And everybody turned on everybody ever, all at once, even Momo does not know who she was fighting with!" A tennis ball is plucked off of her harness and tossed lightly into the air, the racquet swinging in short order to send it rocketing towards Tenma's forehead. "That was a dumb tournament, and you're a dummy for thinking about it too hard, Dumbdumb McStupidhead!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Momo's Whale Serve.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 Momo
Is Momo failing, or is Tenma just powered by the heavenly might of vengeance? The Gedo High student seems quite unmoved by Momo's adorable plight, instead focused on making it all the worse. He does look, at least for a moment, totally dumbfounded. Dumbdumb McStupidhead? Those insults are almost as feeble as Marisol's! "Oh no, don't even try an' pull that crap with me," Tenma says, warningly. "Talkin' like a toddler an' pretending you couldn't tell what was goin' on. I hope whatever you got paid t' go turncoat covers your hospital bills."
The ball comes his way, and reflexively he swings his wooden sword up to knock it aside, deflecting it enough that it just ricochets off of his head, a grazing blow compared to what it might have been. A little off-balance, Tenma nevertheless keeps after Momo, swinging his bokken back to hide it behind himself, using his free hand to strike out at the tennis star with a series of quick, precision punches, pretty weak individually but calculated to drive her back, as Tenma hopes to put her back against the cement wall, as well as to disrupt the flow of energy through her body. "...Actually, I'm lyin'. I really hope they don't!"
COMBATSYS: Momo interrupts Flow Breaker from Tenma with Giant Swing.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Momo
Momo's bouncy backpeddling is no match Tenma's height and range advantages, and is driven back further and further by the flurry of punches. "Momo is much more eloquent than a toddler," she counters, in a show of vocabulary far beyond her idiom.
Stealing a glance back, the tennis player sees she's far too close to the edge for her comfort. "Not everybody can be a super detective who can know everything by looking at it hard enough," she continues as she... charges forward, into the punches? One hand moves to grab the wrist of the punching hand while the other stows away the racket. Momo's movements after that are surprisingly swift, dropping down quickly to try and drag Tenma down and off balance, and then grab his leg with her now-free hand. She jerks back, with a hand on his wrist and ankle, and pulls him completely off of his feet.
But it doesn't stop there. The tennis player begins to spin, a frightening amount of strength to match that brief glimpse of knowledge being exhibited as centrifugal force pulls Tenma airborne... and inertia sends him flying when she lets go. Whether it's into the pavement or into the water, Momo neither knows nor cares.
Actually, no, she probably cares if he lands on the pavement, because he'll be really angry at her for doing that and she'll have less of a head start to run that way.
Sometimes, you know, being really arrogant? Is kind of a bad thing. Tenma was certain that he had Momo's number, that there was nothing the tiny little freak could do to keep him from handing down what he sees as her just deserts. He wasn't, obviously, anticipating being grabbed by two limbs by Momo, and spun about and ultimately sent flying in a rather unfortunate way. He does hit the pavement, skidding along painfully on his shoulders and neck, and probably getting some road rash, before finally flopping onto his back.
"Ow," he says, aloud.
Too much distance lies between them for Tenma to easily close with Momo and attack her with his bokken, leaving the Gedo student with precious few options; presumably, Momo's started running for it, so he's got to act fast. Quickly fishing something out of his pocket, Tenma's arm blurs a little as he throws whatever it was, hoping to intercept the Taiyo girl with it; it's a kunai, actually. He stole a bunch of them from Seishirou a while back. "Where you think you're goin'?!"
COMBATSYS: Momo blocks Tenma's Thrown Object.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\=====--\1 Momo
Momo glances over her shoulder to see where Tenma's landed, and mumbles an explitive (adoribly(?)) when she sees him so quickly back on his feet... and getting something to throw!? She skids to a stop, unhooking her racquet from her back and spinning around to deflect the incoming kunai with the weapon's edge.
Unfortunately, physics decides now would be a great time to play a cruel joke. Rather than knocking the knife away cleanly, the tip manages to lodge itself between the frame and one of the bolts on the outer edge of the racquet. It rotates, as if on a hinge, for a few degrees before coming loose and continuing along... just long enough to send it straight into the tennis player, hilt-first, right in the collar bone. "Ow!" she yells, rubbing the base of her neck gingerly. "What was that!? That's not supposed to work that way, either!"
But there's no more time for wondering what the universe's deal is, the tennis player lost ground by waiting here for Tenma to approach. She pulls off another tennis ball and lobs it high. It lacks the penetrating force of her normal Whale Serve, but is intended to be more of a distraction than a real attack. That done, she runs behind one of the immense pillar-like outcroppings of the dam. It's a dead end, but the circle around the pillar means that she can loop around. as long as she needs to.
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tenma with Thrown Object.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|=======\=====--\1 Momo
Yeah... Tenma's gonna count that one as a hit. Sure, he didn't draw blood or anything, but there's enough of it around as it is, really. But it gives Tenma more time, at least, to gather himself and start closing with Momo who doesn't really have anywhere to go, with the Gedo student between her and the path to the dam. Of course, the natural response to this is to hit Tenma with a tennis ball. He doesn't even try to avoid or deflect it, instead getting hit right in the head with an undignified sound of textured rubber ball hitting hair and head and bouncing back off, the blow knocking his head back briefly, causing him to stumble. Not Tenma's finest moment.
"Tell you what, midget," Tenma calls aloud, rubbing his head with a glower on his face. "I'll give you two seconds t' get your ass out here an' fight me properly, or else we find out how good you can swim. Sounds fair t' me," he adds, with a brief nod, and of course it sounds fair to him, it's his idea. True to his word, Tenma waits. But what will Momo do about it?!
COMBATSYS: Tenma focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|=======\=====--\1 Momo
What WILL Momo do about it? A question fo the ages, truly. There are all sorts of possible reactions. There's no way to catch Tenma by surprise, not with him waiting for her to come out, though if she comes out flailing enough maybe that'll do the trick... that strategy puts her into melee range, though, which is double-plus ungood.
Alternatively, she could wait here for him to approach, still losing a degree of surprise but making up for it with the fact that he won't be able to see her coming as far in advance. That sounds significantly better to the Taiyo student.
Still, better to not leave him waiting. Pulling out yet another tennis ball, Momo takes a few steps to the side, just enough to get a clear shot around the pillar, and yells, "Momo is not scared of big poo-headed bullies!" A dull *thwack* as she hits another ball in a high arc towards Tenma's head. There's only so much a tennis player can do at a distance, after all!
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tenma with Thrown Object.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Tenma 1/----===/=======|=======\=====--\1 Momo
Once Momo shows herself of course, Tenma immediately seizes on what he perceives as an advantage, suddenly rushing forward at the tiny girl... And in the process, gets himself pinged in the head with /another/ tennis ball, which is certainly irritating. "Would you STOP THAT!!" Tenma bellows, because yeah, it's getting him riled up all right, and while the impact staggers him for a moment... It's not enough to stop his advance entirely. Both of them seem to have been cost the advantage of surprise here, but who's it worse for?
Still, as Tenma gets closer, or at least tries to, he suddenly changes tactics; there's a visible shift to his posture and stance, as the Gedo swordsman thrusts his chi-empowered bokken forward at Momo's head, trying to jab her with the tip right in the forehead. It might be more embarassing than, you know, actually painful. "You stupid double crossin' little--!"
COMBATSYS: Momo fails to interrupt Weapon Jab from Tenma with Momo Crush.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Tenma 1/---====/=======|===----\-------\0 Momo
Momo takes a deep breath, back against the pillar. She's not at all tired yet, but that bokken of his HURTS, and another good thwack will send her down. She focuses her chi, channeling it into her weapon as the pink heart upon the net begins to glow cheerfully. "You can do it, Momo," the girl says to herself. "He's going to try to finish this. Come in low, swing up, take him out with one good shot before he can react."
She hears the sound of Tenma's footsteps, and from that can figure out which side he's attacking from. She can still get the element of surprise if she rushes out to meet him this late into his charge, it'll be easy. Nothing can go wrong.
Except, of course, a slight miscalculation as to what exactly Tenma is going to do. Momo assumed he was coming in for his own finishing strike, not to poke her really hard. Her attempt to duck under a swinging sword ends up causing her to run right into the jabbing one, giving the tennis player a nasty case of whiplash and causing her to fall flat on her back, the chi glow winking out from her racquet. "Gah!?"
Indeed, had Tenma tried to finish it there... Momo very likely would've succeeded in her plan. But he's a tricksy one at times. As his strike hits home on poor Momo's forehead and knocking her back, that wolfish grin reappears on the tall boy's lean face, though there's a bit of something else to it - he can tell how close he was there to some serious hurt, the energy Momo had gathered not escaping his notice at all. "TOO SLOW, MIDGET!!" Tenma roars triumphantly, not even stopping to give her the chance to get her footing.
Today isn't about fighting fair, or being the bigger man. Today is about payback.
Raised overhead, the glow of blood and chi around his bokken intensifies, fluid crimson completely obscuring the wooden blade, seeming more like a sword of blood than anything else. He focuses, on a single point. On Momo. And, with her presumably still on her back on the cement underfoot, he swings his sword down in a vicious arc, aiming to strike the tennis player while she's still vulnerable. If he hits home, with main force and rushing chi doing the damage, something... Strange happens, as Tenma's chi passes /through/ Momo, suddenly and uncomfortably stopping the flow of chi through her body, stealing her vitality away. "EAT THIS!!"
COMBATSYS: Momo dodges Tenma's The Sealing Sword.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Momo
Momo's eyes widen as she stairs up at Tenma bearing down on her with that huge-ass blood sword of his. Wholey aside from the inherant grodiness of a sword made of bodily fluids, the tennis player can easily see that it'll take her down in one shot. Probably do a lot worse than that, really.
The solution, then, is obvious. GET OUT OF THE WAY. Doing a quick sit-up and pulling forward even more to get herself into a crough, Momo hurls herself forward and between the legs of the rather tall Tenma, letting his bokken hit empty concrete.
She lands hard, impacting the ground on all fours and glancing back to see Tenma's recovery from the strike. He's leaving himself open, just for a moment. It'll take too long to get to her feet herself and strike, so she needs to do something now.
One of Momo's legs is drawn towards her body, then kicked as hard as she can back and up. From this angle, it's going to wind up hitting squarely between his legs, which ought to stun him long enough for her to get the hell out of dodge.
COMBATSYS: Momo successfully hits Tenma with Heavy Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Momo
...And hit empty concrete Tenma's bokken does, the wooden weapon and its payload of delicious bloody chi hitting the ground hard, sending cracks through it and kicking up chips of concrete; actual, for reals blood spatters /everywhere/, the focus and power of the attack leaving Tenma, unfortunately, wide open. In every sense of the word, as he then gets kicked in the balls despite his best efforts, and as tiny as Momo is? That still hurts something fierce.
"Oh you're dead now," Tenma gasps out, fighting past the pain, fighting /through/ the pain to force himself to lunge forward after the escaping Momo. He's not going to try anything fancy, lunging as far as he can and slashing from the elbow, right at the back of Momo's neck!
You'd almost think someone in the SNF venue department had a cruel sense of humor. Or, through some wild and crazy twist of fate itself, there are two setups this week in the same state.
Or, maybe, they're just running out of ideas?
But you can bet your bottom dollar when she found out this particular, crucial fact, a certain girl from Pacific High hopped the next bus out of Vegas and straight to Hoover Dam. She wouldn't miss this for the WORLD, she wouldn't.
"And here you can see Lake Mead, named after Elwood Mead, the man who was essentially in charge of this here dam." A small group of tourists, led by an older man in a tacky hat, wanders along, despite the scheduled fight going on. In fact, a few tourists not only snap shots of the large man-made lake. Some, however, snap photos of the two fighters exchanging blows. Because, hey. That's more interesting than some stupid dam, right?
In the group, one young woman looks particularly out of place. Tanned features look irritable, long arms folded tightly across her chest as those gray eyes watch the fight. Across her face, full lips are pulled into a very tight line across her face, the tiniest hints of tooth against her bottom lip, idly biting it.
As the fight draws on, those fingers practically dig into her arms.
She can hardly contain herself at this point. And so, without hesitating, a shrill voice barks out across the top of the dam for all to hear:
"Goddamnit Kiryuu! Can't you beat up ONE little girl!? It's A LITTLE GIRL! IF YOU LOSE I SWEAR TO GOD--!!"
She doesn't finish it; instead, the girl just seems so positively frustrated she stomps a foot and thrusts a finger toward the two fighters, her face red with anger. All she has to offer is a bark-like noise of anger!
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Momo with Light Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Momo
There's really very little to say. Momo tries to scramble to her feet, the blood-slicked concrete providing little in the way of traction, but seems to have made another underestimation regarding Tenma's tenacity. Rather than keeling over like a good little boy who's been kicked in the nards, he turns around and strikes her right in the neck, ending any hope of escape for the girl. But there's still some fight left in little Momo, if only a little, and she'll be damned if she doesn't get the last word in.
Dragging herself up onto her elbow, she tries to glance back to see where she's aiming, but a shooting pain in her neck discourages the action. No matter, she'll just have to aim blind: her racquet is swung back as hard as possible, hopefully in the direction of Tenma's kneecap, and waved back and forth a few times as she tries to find her target by braile.
And afterwards? Her strength gives out, and she drops back to the concrete. "Owwies..." moans Momo.
COMBATSYS: Momo can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Tenma dodges Momo's Flip Flap Racket.
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
Getting hit in the balls can only produce two reactions: Either the one hit is crippled and unable to continue doing much of anything, or it awakens their rage and stirs them on to Herculean feats. Today, it's more to the latter. Somehow, somewhere, Tenma finds the wherewithal to get out of the way of Momo's last attempt to take him out with her, keeping back out of the rage of that desperately flailing racquet. Once Momo finally gives up, though, if she looks up she'll see Tenma glowering down at her, black hair falling almost in his face. "Next time, try not switchin' sides where anybody can see you, midget," he says, with a disdainful sneer. "Better hope I don't see you around again," he adds in a dark tone, straightening up and swiping his bokken through the empty air.
With a sound like a slowly exhaling breath, the aura around the weapon dissipates, and Tenma rests the apparently normal wooden practice blade against his shoulder, turning to walk off.
Well, it's actually more of a waddle, which ruins the coolness of his exit. His nuts hurt!
COMBATSYS: Tenma has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:37:22 11/24/2007 by Tenma, and last modified on 13:43:05 11/26/2007.