Description: Megadeth (2000). Aranha's performance in the arena attracts the attentions of Elle, who sees his Venomous Spider persona as something she might be able to use. Unfortunately, Aranha's performance falls a little short and the Blackjack mercenary hammers him mercilessly, only to reveal that in preparation to condition him to forced servitude, his sister has been kidnapped. The only way to get her back? A return to the Seventh Circle.
Every since Ayame stopped by for a visit Aranha hasn't felt the desire to return. He knows at some point he'll have to come back but for now, he's content to be somewhere else. So he lays back on the bed reading his fairly recent purchase. Trying to distract himself from the people he seems to be making enemies with.
While the book he's reading is good, he just can't seem to find the focus needed to get through the chapter. He puts down the book with a sigh and reaches to phone on the end table and orders room service. Something simple. While he can afford fancier meals on the menu he needs to be in the mood for it to order it in the first place.
Well, if Aranha can't find focus now, life for him is about to get a hell of a lot worse.
Going over the recap film of the arena is one of the things Elle does. She watches a lot of film, usually while working out to keep her cardio up and her strength at it's peak. Since she's quit smoking, things seem to be a lot easier for her now. Her senses are a little sharper, she breathes a little easier. She moves a little faster, and thinks a little clearer.
For someone like Elle, that tiny bit of extra clarity of thought definitely hones an already sharp edge. So when she saw the fight between Ayame and Aranha, her memory was able to recall the boy easily, despite his image being stored in a seldom used part of her psyche.
His beating of Ayame meant nothing. It was a fight. Everyone knows what they're getting into in a battle, even moreso when they enter the Circle. Elle's not here to exact revenger. No, she doesn't really have the capacity for that. Elle may dislike people immensely, but seldom does she have enough ire to strike out against someone in revenge.
But she does have a vested interest in many things. Keeping an eye on the fighters that are in the lower tier is definitely important, and to her mind, Aranha should never have been able to defeat Ayame. She's fought both, knows they're strengths and weaknesses. And what that means is that there's a chance that Aranha got lucky...
Or that she was wrong.
Either way, Elle needs to know for herself. So long ago, Aranha was written off as a joke. She told him that he'd never see her again, because he had no use to her as an operative or as a human being. But now? Now he's interesting.
And so Elle decides to pay him a visit in her own unique way. By crushing his door with a titanium mace.
The weapon crashes through the door like a bowling ball through a soda cracker, and Elle's heavy heeled boot bashes down the rest. Her face completely impassive, her body at the ready as she steps in with a slow and deliberate motion. Though she looks different than the last time Aranha saw her, the unmistakable air of cold indifference is almost palpable.
She doesn't say anything. Not a word. Instead, her hand flicks the mace in a certain manner, and the head of the weapon clangs to the floor, a length of thin chain sliding in after. The mace turned flail is heald steady in her hand. She falls into a stance. The message is quite clear.
If he doesn't react right now? Elle's going to slaughter him where he lay.
And the moment Elle busts in the door Aranha's first reaction is, "God dammit!" He launches himself out of his bed flying up into the air as he quickly moves to close the gap between himself and the door where Elle is. He doesn't take a swing at her first. No this moment is reserved for studying the environment and trying to figure out the best avenues of attack and more importantly, escape routes if all things go to hell like his last fight Elle.
"I take it I'm not so lucky if I'm seeing you again. Anyway how's Reed? I haven't seen him for awhile." He shrugs as he lets his body go into fight or flight mode.
COMBATSYS: Elle has started a fight here.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Aranha has joined the fight here.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
COMBATSYS: Aranha focuses on his next action.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
Rule 1: Always take the first swing at Elle.
The woman doesn't seem interested in chit-chat. never has been, never will be. Elle is more interested in breaking things apart in a fight rather than distractions. If you have time to run your mouth and think about witty things to say, then you're not paying attention to the fight.
Therefore, Aranha gets all of no answer. Eyes merely give him a glance, anf flick back and forth with the usual alacrity she brings to a battle. Concentration is almost a background issue for her now. She's already thinking about her move five minutes from now.
But if Aranha wants to get in her face, Elle's going to respond in kind. Normally, Elle has to close the distance. If Aranha wants to make life easier for her, then she's fine and dandy with that. His choice in tactics changes hers, and the mace head slides back into place for a moment as Elle does a short turn.
The motions are clean, smooth, as Elle's heels spin turns into something a little less pleasant. A hand whips around, already clutching a punch dagger in her impact plastic gauntlet. The vicious steel blade whips out to crash towards the parkour practictioner's torso. Going for critical hits is a sucker's game. Besides, as far as Elle's concerned there's very little in life more upsetting than a giant sucking chest wound. The attack comes full force as she tries to ram the thing to the hilt in the kid's sternum.
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Elle's Ace of Spades.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha watches as Elle spins slowly taking in the way she moves. He doesn't quite remember Elle having the punch dagger at his last fight with her and so he's trying to figure out how this changes things. Of course while he does that problem is that there's the bladed weapon heading right for his body, and he rocks back with a forearm raised to protect himself. But while he catches the impact, before it can cause a giant chest wound, the energy flowing through it causes even more pain as he moves away, spinning away and using the momentum of the to carry him upwards as he twists and then comes downwards feet first on Elle's head or shoulders. Whichever he can get his feet on first.
COMBATSYS: Elle endures Aranha's Armada Dupla.
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Elle 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Aranha
Trading one energy type for another, the humming sonic-enhanced blade dissovles into the crackle of electricity as she pulls the weapon back after slamming into Aranha's defenses just in time for Elle to take a few kicks to the head. The crashing blows cause her head to snap back in what looks like a painful impact. Unfortunately, her recovery is too fast for the strike to have possibly been a surprise.
Snapping back up into a firm stance nearly instantatiously, Elle swings the mace arm about in a single rapid motion. The weapon disengages the heavy weight at the end once more, the energy already crackling about the chain.
The apex of the impact is angled such that it will wrap around Aranha's body and deliver a painful shock before she snaps the chain out again, hurling him to the far end of the small hotel room.
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Elle's Powerslave.
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Elle 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha's watch Elle carefully as she first takes the hit. He knows that she only took the hit to gain an advantage. Where most fighters realize when people recover too quickly. There was an instant before the attack landed where Aranha could see something was wrong. The quick recovery was also what confirmed his suspicions of her taking the hit to capitalize on vulnerabilities.
However Aranha had a quicker recovery from the move than he usually does and seeing the electrified chain poised to wrap around him decides he wants no part of it, diving under the chain hoping to prevent further injury but it also sets up his next move where he lands on his hands and supports the side side of his torso on his elbow lashing out with a quick kick to leg before thrusting that same foot out to her ribs.
COMBATSYS: Elle blocks Aranha's Medium Kick.
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Elle 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Aranha
Unfortunately for Aranha, Elle's a little too fast with her reactions to be caught off guard with such an attack, unorthodox as it is. Elle takes the kick to the leg, the foot crashing against her shin painfully. She flinches if just for an instant. Most definitely not enough for her to keep from swatting the other attack at her ribs away with the mace in her left hand. The metal implement throws it wide, keeping her safe for the time being.
But then it comes again. Elle crouches low, the punching dagger angled in a low rising uppercut motion, the hum of sonic power being channeled through the weapon as audible as the trailing afterimages are visible.
The blade shoots straight for the theif's gut, attempting to skewer him through. But that's not the end. if it sinks, she'll raise him high into the air before hurling him into the wall focribly, turning the young man into a theifkabob before letting him drop the the floor.
COMBATSYS: Elle successfully hits Aranha with Chase the Ace.
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Elle 0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1 Aranha
Unfortunately Aranha's recovery wasn't as good as the last time and so as he twists out of the kick combo he's caught just as he moves to stand up and he can't quite get out of the way or evade it and he's caught twisting and painfully writhing from the energy as he's suspended from the air.
As the Dancing Spider is thrown his eyes widen in horror before impact with the wall.
It takes a moment for Aranha to slowly rise to his feet but after that, he takes a running leap on to the bed and then uses the bounce to carry him up into the air before going feet first into the Blackjack leader's stomach before making an attempt to push past her and into the hallway.
COMBATSYS: Elle dodges Aranha's Sky's the Limit.
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Elle 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1 Aranha
No dice. Elle's not about to let Aranha dance his way out of this. The less room the theif has to maneuver in, the less likely he'll escape. Deadened eyes behind sunglasses observe the man's condition without a sceond's pity. Elle has some miniscule sense of remorse. However, when you've shown braggadocio to her, it flits away like a dust mote in the wind. Mercy and pity are those that truly don't have a choice.
Right now, Aranha may as well be fighting a machine.
Swinging to one side, Elle isn't about to let them man simply shoot out into the hall. As she whirls by, her hand shoots out like a steel rod, her fingers little more than cold iron claws. Her intent? Grab Aranha by the back of the neck. If successful, she'll not toss him this time. Instead, she'll proceed to crush, fingernails biting into flesh as she tries to turn his neck vertebrea into powder.
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Medium Throw from Elle with Change-Up Kick.
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Elle 0/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Aranha
Aranha knows quite well that the moment Elle swung to the side he knew he was in trouble, as a result he quickly slides to a stop the moment she reaches out for him. He doesn't move to avoid her and instead lets her grab his neck.
Her nails dig in and crush and constrict but he seems to maintain his calm in spite of losing air. That's mostly because of that leg he has lifted and readied to kick her. He thrusts out a side kick slamming it into her rib cage before spinning away once more and continuing his movement to the hallway.
There's a reason Aranha went for the hallway. He knew it was narrow which while it would give him less space to dodge it would make Elle's ability to wield the mace a hardship. He still had the punching dagger to worry about but he was better off worrying about one weapon than two.
Interesting. Looks like he has some kind of fight in him. But just not enough to deter Elle, and certainly not the same level of power he showed when he beat into Ayame. Apparently, Elle's not pushed him far enough to see the killer instict that supposedly haunts the boy's psyche, or perhaps Elle's simply bashed him around way too much. Sometimes her failure is to give an opponent the opportunity to show off what they're capable of simple because she's too damn bust smashing their heads on the ground for her to see their power.
If that's the case, then that won't do. Aranha's hard slam into her ribcage cause sher to exhale sharply, releasing her grip easily. Nevertheless, Elle's very much a long ways from down. And indeed, in the hall, Elle's wide swinging attack arcs have been neutralized.
Is Elle out of toos, however? Rarely.
But there's a matter of letting Aranha show his true colors. As he bolts for the hall, Elle chases after him, allwing him time to contemplate his situation, but not without him realizing what he's going up against. Elle's body flickers, and then sparks with power. The lightning draws from the wall, shorting out wires and causing lights to dim as Elle rips the electrons free from their copper moorings so that it feeds directly into her body. She lights up like a Christmas tree, her steady steps making a horrible cracking sound of electricity as the hobnails on the bottom of her boots send small jolts of electricty into the ground.
The pace is steady, relentless as she closes in with methodical precision, determined to end this little encounter in the next few moments.
COMBATSYS: Elle gathers her will.
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Elle 1/----===/=======|=======\====---\1 Aranha
Aranha looks on in disbelief as Elle begins drawing energy from the walls and makes the lights flicker as she pulls the energy into her body. As he began to wonder what the hell was going on, he began to formulate a plan in his mind. He knew that this was the end game and he had no chance of winning and if that was the case, he'd at least make sure he could hurt her as much as possible before he went down.
Now for phase one of this plan he needs to go all out. He performs an outside crescent kick from his front leg which then drops to his rear leg. He shifts back and swings his leg around in a rear leg outside crescent kick which is quickly followed up by a trio of kicks where he touches the ground as he swings the heel of his rear leg towards his opponent's head. On the third of those particular kicks he cuts short and turns his foot as he drops it down on the ground before swinging his other foot at the head in a roundhouse kick-like motion though it's also done with both hands on the ground.
Aranha then shifts his weight over to the side swinging the unplanted foot up and over which though it doesn't hit, it generates momentum for the other foot to come back across. He performs a handstand and performs a series of rapid spinning handstand kicks modified to deal with the hallway. All kicks in this sequence are engulfed in blue chi.
COMBATSYS: Elle blocks Aranha's Royal Flush.
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Elle 1/--=====/=======|=------\-------\0 Aranha
Elle's eyes narrow ever so slightly. Is this it?
The stance she takes is a narrow one, turning her side to the incoming kicks just as the first foot comes in. The crescent doesn't meet it's mark, howeve. Though her ability to use her mace is lessened here, it doesn't mean she can't use it at all, and it's certainly available for her defense. The metal weapon takes the blow, deflecting the first hit.
The the side kicks start to come in. The foot pounds against the length of the weapon, the unyeilding steel defending her in turn. The kicks that come to her head, all swept aside with a short motion as Elle ducks down, swinging the armored punch-daggered gauntlet up to keep her block from getting knocked off.
The final low sweep bangs against sturdily planted legs, her stance shaking a little. Theforce is enough to let two of the spinning head kicks in, the blue energy smashing across her jaw twice. She steps back, eyes momentarily blinded as her sunglsses are kicked off her face, revealing the scars that have been torn across her features, the one cataract-covered eye bearing just a pinprick of a pupil, narrowed to near invisibility as she recovers from the hit.
But Elle's got more than a few tricks up her sleeve yet. Tools are nothing if they can only be used for one thing. Turning her mace to face the theif, the head of the weapon launches like a metal missile, shooting forth from the pommel, the sound of the metal chain trailing behind singing a high pitched sound.
What's worse is the sheer amount of energy following after it. The stench of ozone fills the air as she sends down the line a massive blast of power. Midway into the flight, the head of the mace erupts with barbed spikes.
The mace is now a quite functional industrial strength tazer. If it connects, slamming into Aranha dead center in his chest, Elle will send enough power down the line to run a small house for a few minutes before she yanks him down like a freshly harpooned fish.
COMBATSYS: Elle successfully hits Aranha with Slayer.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha takes a deep breath after he finishes the kick combo realizing that he has made a quite fatal mistake in that he may have acted a touch too hastily. His plans were all for naught and he realizes he's wide open.
Mistake after mistake made in this fight causing him to be backed in the corner.
The mace shoots out and Aranha knows he can't afford to get hit by that and despite his best efforts he can't seem to move out the way. Of course he knew his the chances of escape were slim but the alternatives were just as bad.
Aranha gets pulled to the ground and after all the pain was sent through him he knows damn well he should be out cold but he's still up and so in a fit of frustration and rage he dives at Elle with no regard for his own safety after all this fight is pretty much a lost cause and he attempts to bite down on her arm.
COMBATSYS: Elle dodges Aranha's Random Weapon.
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Elle 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
Rage. Elle knows the emotion well. She sees it a lot. It's one of the reasons people like her always have a job. Anger, for all it's simplicty has a lot of depth to it. Moreso than many think. Although rage can blind or distract, it can be harnessed for spectacular effect. The harnessing of anger and hatred is something Elle knows how to do. Nor for herself; she rarely feels anything anymore. But others that brim with it are easy for her to use.
Aranha has disappointed. The Venomous Spider was something she could have used. It's a balancing act, really. On one hand, Elle feels her initial assumption, that Arnaha was just a scared kid, is correct. However, that means he's not a rabid, angry young man that she can manipulate. Or is he? Elle's not Ayame. She doesn't anger him. If anything, she seems to elicit fear from the boy.
Maybe she can't write him off yet, but there's more to this than meets the eye, and Elle intends to explore all her options, as she always does.
The metal plates embedded in her gauntlets start to spark as she easily moves har arm away from the boy's chomping mouth, and her fingertips dance with electricity. As Elle focuses, that electrical power shimmers. With a short, deliberate motion, she presses a single finger against Aranha's forehead, and transforms the electrical power into a short sonic burst. The effect is a lot like getting hit between the eyes with a baseball, except it's accompanied by a horrendous guitar-riff screech guaranteed to hurt the ears at the very least.
COMBATSYS: Elle successfully hits Aranha with Weapon Jab.
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Elle 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Aranha
As the chomp meets nothing but air he growls in frustration. It's as if Elle has his number. The combination of physical impact of that finger and the sonic energy sends him to the ground. By itself it wouldn't hurt that much but once you take into account the other attacks that landed then it was simple to take him out of the fight.
Where Elle is reading him as scared, Aranha isn't scared. He was quite willing to mouth off to Rugal Berenstein knowing full well about his reputation. What Aranha is feeling now is confusion. He isn't quite able to figure this particular fighter out while on the second go around with Ayame he was able to enact a strategy and it worked.
Here Aranha has no equipment to work with and so he just charges her head first before leaping up at her feet first, bouncing off walls and doors to deliver kicks from a multitude of angles until he's too damn tired to do anything else. "Why are you here? I thought you were done with me."
COMBATSYS: Aranha can no longer fight.
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Elle 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Elle interrupts Joker's Wild from Aranha with Wrathchilde.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|
Tactics work on fighters that have a pattern of attack. Elle doesn't . She just learns the patterns of others, and sets out a course of action specifically for her opponent. That's why every action has a methodical, deliberate motion to it. In short, Elle knows what she's going to do a few steps ahead of her opponent, and that makes the difference.
Aranha may not fear Elle. However, unlike Rugal, she's not prone to being ridiculous. Megalomania only speaks softly in Elle's ear, and it's usually in the form of Marise. No, for her, there's nothing else other than cold, clinical tactical analysis, balancing tests, risk management, investments and numbers. Everything to her is a resource to be used up and disposed.
That's why when the flurry of punches comes in, Elle retracts the forgotten tazer/flail, the chain ripping through the air with the sound of tearing silk. Just as one kick smashes clean into her side, the hardened steel flail head cracks into Aranha's body on it's wat back in, reeling into the pommel of the amce before clicking softly into place.
"You got interesting again," she says flatly, kneeling to pick up her sunglasses. The eyewear is slipped back into place with a simple motion. "But it's pretty clear that your little Marquis de Sade act is just that: an act. I was hoping you had grown up a little, but you're every bit the pathetic poseur I thought you were when I saw you the first time. Now you're just being retarded. not only are you still a stupid, but now you're annoying and stupid."
The woman snaps the mace back into it's holding place on her guitar, as well as the katar. "Imagine for a second that I work for Rugal. And for all you know, I do today. Now imagine that he sent me to kill you. Guess which one of us would be dead right now? Here's a teensy hint," she says, lifting one hand to hold fingers less than a millimeter apart, "not me."
The hand drops to one side. "Now listen carefully. I told you to get out of the business. You're not a fighter. You're a dumb kid with delusions of granduer. if you want risks, try tax evasion, or landmine testing. All this 'Venomous Spider' nonsense is going to get you and your sister killed."
"Speaking of which, she's probably being picked up right about..." she checks her watch idly. "Hm. Ten minutes ago. So much for dramatic effect. At any rate, something about high pressure, vats of acid... and.. you know what? I never listen to a damn word Marise says past the important details. You got a week. Bring a friend down to the Circle if you want your kid sister back, or I'm sure the mistress of ceremonies will be sucking her retinas out like olive pimentos."
COMBATSYS: Elle has ended the fight here.
Log created on 00:32:48 11/30/2007 by Elle, and last modified on 05:57:19 11/30/2007.