Description: SNF! Contender Belt on the line! Zach puts up a stellar effort, but ultimately fails to generate much of an offense against Horatio, whose star seems to be rising rapidly in the fighting world. (Winner: Horatio)
The National Gallery of Victoria is home to some beautiful works of art. Not to mention some very amazing stained glass work.
So natural, obvious even, that Howard Entertainment pits the two fighters that are present today.
Zach looks around uncomfortably, his right arm in a sling underneath the red sleeveless jacket. Bad enough he was having to fight with a bit of an Igniz-induced handycap, worse still that he need to fight surrounded by things Zach did not want to see wrecked.
Horatio may not give Zach much of a choice; the last time they fought, the Justice High student pushed Zach incredibly hard, and Zach still lost that fight.
Sadly, one of the last things on Horatio's mind was his fight today. Or anything that could be broken by collateral damage. In fact, he'd been in the Museum for quite some time. Geese had spared no expense for the drooling mouthes of his 'adoring public' to witness first hand televised brutality. In fact, the instant the challenge had gone out, Horatio accepted, for no other reason than the hope that he'd get a chance to meet Geese himself. Unfortunately for him that didn't take place. Instead, he was shunted about from department to department, offered an SNF T-shirt and was asked to sign waiver after waiver form releasing Geese's holdings from all liability should he be seriously injured or anything be seriously damaged. After that, it was a simple thing of packing up a weeks worth of clothing, a couple costumes and his Digital Motion Tourist Pix 2000 camera, brought to you by those fine people at Metro City Electronics.
The ammenities that fighting in SNF had for it's fighters was a little awe inspiring for Horatio. Never had he been in such a well funded tournament as to be able to afford to pay for the airfare of the fighters involved. And the hotel stay. Granted, it was no 5 star hotel, and the flight wasn't first class as he was no Ryu or Terry, or any other top billing fighter, he was thankful for it anyway. The flight was fairly alright, the stewardesses in coach were nice enough, and his hotel room was clean, neat and on a decent floor so he could see everything. It even came with a Koala plushie on the couch. So, being in a new city, Melbourne, in a new country, Australia, he'd been out all morning taking pictures, eating at restaurants and basically spending up all of those traveling checks he'd been given for comfort's sake.
As the fight drew nearer, he'd made his way over to the Museum to check out everything he'd seen in the pamphlet. So far he had a camera full of pictures to take back home and show to Master Imawano and he showed no signs of stopping until the pre-paid Cellular Phone he'd been handed by one of the SNF fight coordinators rang... And obligingly he answered. It was time.
Flipping the phone closed and stuffing his gear back inside of his bag, he trots past a couple of security guards and back to the main foyer, ignoring the camera crews that began to circulate to instead walk -directly- into the men's room. With his duffel bag.
Zach did not spot Horatio, instead simply stretching what he could while waiting for the young man to make an appearance. In fact the Champion is grateful for the extra time to figure out how to fight this fight with a broken arm.
He is still thinking about it as he continues his stretching. The right arm, and some of the techniques he likes to use with that arm may as well be sealed off to him, or adapted for lefty uses.
Admittedly, he should have phoned in some kind of cancellation after he woke up from that brawl at Seijyun. But it's not like he planned any of that, and he wasn't certain he'd be allowed to back out of it in the first place.
Truthfully enough, fighting with broken limbs was probably going to be a problem for Zach. But in all fairness, it would probably be a problem for Horatio too. As the men's room door swings open once again, outsteps the orange haired young fighter... and he wasn't at all dressed the way he was the last time he and Zach met. Not even remotely close in fact. Today, he'd done something fairly different with his attire. But it wouldn't be hard for anyone to realize who he was dressed as today... Perhaps in some small homage or exhertion of fanboyish obnoxiousness, Horatio Alexander marches proudly from the bathroom doors in red Hakama and a white Gi top. A long black belt was tied snugly around his middle, and on each wrist and forearm he wore equally red cloth bracers. Everything about him, right down to the socks on his feet with the partitioned big toe screamed Geese Howard. -- Except for the fact that Horatio was in no way a large man.
Some would go so far as to say milquetoast, he didn't have a vast assortment of muscles to flex and show off, nor did he have the steely look of a man with as much power, both physically and politically, as Geese. But, despite his unchanged hair, with those familiar orange streamers running down in front of his ears, he did one damn good Geese impression. Right down to the way he haughtily comes strutting through the foyer, camera crews setting up to film the spectacle as the Cosplay King of Southtown shows his worth. Moving through the museum like a King who'd just stepped from his throne, he marches right up to the spot where the fight was supposed to take place, beneath the vast stained glass ceiling and looks across the wide room at his opponent. And from that distance, he failed to notice the sling.
Doing a very acceptable rendition of Geese, he drops down to his knees in a meditative sit, hands on his knees, "You cannot escape from death!"
Zach looks at Horatio for a moment, blinking slowly before rubbing his face with his left hand. He shakes it off as he settles into a loose stance.
"Noone ever does," Zach says evenly, keeping his right side away from his opponent. Zach tenses up a bit, and summons up a bright display of purple energy that wraps around him protectively. It is really rather beautiful...
COMBATSYS: Zach has started a fight here.
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Zach 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Zach gathers his will.
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Zach 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Horatio has joined the fight here.
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Zach 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Horatio
Getting up to his feet, Horatio calmly falls, for a moment at least, into Geese Howard's stance, spitting out a hard, "Yabo!" At Zach's words. Then, like a mental patient, his track shifts completely, standing up straigth and throwing peace fingers into the air at Zach, "Hey, Zach! ... - Did I fool ya, huh? Pretty good wasn't it? It's okay if it was too much for you to handle, I mean.. I -am- the Cosplay King of Southtown!" It's obvious he's jokingly being over zealous, rendering a smile at the young man he'd fought once before and even helped. "Hey, have you been practicing what we talked about? I hope so..." -- But then he notices the arm, if only for a moment as Zach turns to put his left out in front and guard the right. "Wait- you're hurt?"
Shaking his head, he turns around, "I'm not fighting anybody that's injured," the cameras were already rolling. Without hesitation, one of the SNF fight coordinators steps out from behind a pillar by the entry way with a clipboard in hand, waving it in Horatio's direction off camera, the only thing heard is his voice: "Yes. You are." -- Frowning, obviously disgusted by those words, he opens his mouth to say something back, but then the whole issue with being 'contractually obligated' springs to mind. He couldn't afford to pay Geese Howard, or any of his associates for that matter, the cost of what not fighting this fight would lose him in revenue.. Turning back around to face Zach, he gives him a wide-eyed and apologetic stare.
"... I guess... I am." He slides his left leg back, falls into his own stance this time, most of his weight falling back on his left foot, and lifts his fists, clenching them tightly before him at chest height. "If it helps though... how about this. I won't use my right hand either." With a grin, he slips his arm out of the sleeve of his gi top and folds it against his abdomen, "Does that sound like a plan?"
His own energy begins to charge then, brilliant, wavering bands of orange and goldish yellow that spark and crackle out from him like miniature fireworks explosions. Rushing forward, he charges in on Zach, pounding his feet across the marble floor of the museum's wide open space beneath that stained ceiling, multiple colors of light splashing down over the floor as Horatio nears the benches on Zach's side. Pushing off of the ground, he folds himself in the air, rolling over, only to uncurl as he comes down on one of those benches, springboarding off of the bench table's edge and launching himself towards Zach, his left leg leading, heel aimed to press in on his chest.
COMBATSYS: Zach blocks Horatio's Light Kick.
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Zach 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Horatio
Zach whirls, throwing his left arm in front of the kick to absorb most of the impact. Still, Horatio has a leverage advantage here being significantly taller than Glen, and the shorter man skids back a couple of feet. Zach seems to be grinning a bit.
"Let's just say that you'd do well to not hold back here. Don't worry about the arm," Zach says simply as he leaps forward to close the gap again. Glen opens his good hand, summoning a small sphere of psychic energy before gripping it tightly. The energy flares brightly for a moment before congealing into a brief armored gauntlet that Zach drives for Horatio's midsection with.
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Horatio with Medium Punch.
Glancing Blow
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Zach 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Horatio
The time for lengthy conversation was pretty much over with the closing of distance. What he'd known from his last fight with Zach was that, at this range, Zach didn't give anyone the time to say much of anything, thus it's all left down to the dance of the melee. Rushing in with that foot, he finds the feeling of impact, but it's with a blocking arm. Forced to bounce from it and land down on his feet a couple of feet away, Zach sliding further still, by the time Horatio regains his balance, arms flailing back for a second to do so, he's looking forward after Zach's words at an on coming fist. --
Bringing his left hand up, he swats the burning gauntlet of energy aside, the very edge of Zach's knuckles grazing his cheek and knocking his head aside, the force with which it had impacted literally slicing into his flesh. There's as mall, near imperceptible hairline cut on his cheek, a spurt of blood flying from it as Horatio ducks low, coming under it, his left arm cocking back, clenching into a tight fist.. -- But he steps into it. Right leg extending out to one side of Zach, Horatio uses all of his body weight and strength to throw his balance from one leg to the other, fist rushing in as his arm extends, trying to slam Zach in the ribs with bruising force, a bulldog of a punch.
"If you say so. I won't take it easy on you if that's how you want it... It'd be unfair to you."
COMBATSYS: Horatio successfully hits Zach with Strong Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Zach 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Horatio
Zach reaches for the punching arm, attempting to pull the strike to a place that would help Zach move in for his next strike. However, he cannot recover from the punch in time to bring his good hand back in time. Horatio's punch drives the air out of his lungs sharply as Zach staggers back a pace or two.
But still, he grins. Some of his psycho power is still spinning and weaving through the air around the shorter man. "Good. It'll be good validation this way," Zach states as some of that errant energy seeps into the place that Horatio just struck as he considers the next move.
Zach lunges forward the rest of that airborne energy collecting around the already armored hand and completing the plating all of the way up to the shoulder, thickening the whole piece in the process. A half-second later, and Zach is slamming that armored hand into Horatio's breadbasket.
COMBATSYS: Horatio dodges Zach's Burst Strike.
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Zach 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Horatio
Slinging his right arm back out through the arm of his gi top, the miniature-Geese follows through with his punch, projecting it through Zach as any fighter is trained to do in basic maneuvers. Always aim for a point behind your target and drive through. As he'd thrown his weight onto his right foot, he looks up into Zach's face as he speaks, and only has that much time to prepare himself for the incoming attack. With his right foot anchored, he pushes up to a full standing position on it, and when that armored fist comes rocketing in towards him, he shoves off of his heel, whirling out on the toe of his left foot, bringing himself around to Zach's flank and avoiding the punch all together. Following the mometum, he rushes off of his again placed right after the spin and comes after Zach.
Following after the other young man's attack, Horatio is behind him and gaining ground with but a single hop forward. Pushing into anothe short hop, he turns himself in the air in a shallow aerial pirouette and comes down to land on his left heel, his right foot turning as it comes down from the air, only to stomp the toe against the ground, an arch of orange and golden energy crackling downward into the ground, impregnating it with that odd orange power which shortly there after comes screaming up from beneath Zach in a series of geysers, one after the other, three bursting, upward moving flows of crackling, sizzling orange power, white hot embers sparking off of it like bottle rockets and whirling away into the surrounding area to dissipate entirely as the three geysers, each larger than the one before it, look to juggle Zach in their reach.
COMBATSYS: Zach blocks Horatio's Rebellious Raven.
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Zach 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Horatio
Zach whirls when he realizes that he has passed Horatio by. Zach slams a foot down, stopping his movement abruptly as he spins to bring that armored forearm around and in front of the blasts. The energy smashes into a barrier of purple willpower in the shape of a round shield realized in the moments before the impact, spraying the orange power widely.
Zach is driven into the air by each blast. Glen hangs there for a moment in the air as he considers. Then he flings the shield at Horatio sharply, the discus swinging wide to smash into Horatio.
COMBATSYS: Horatio dodges Zach's Warning Shot.
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Zach 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Horatio
As each of those geysers blast upward to blinding effect, Horatio squints his eyes against the glare, his brilliant, red hakama billowing back away from the points of ignition, his gi flowing smoothly with the created wind, those hair streamers of his, the long, smooth sideburns that run down to near his torso, fling back over his shoulders as he lifts a hand to defend against the light, crouching down in preparation. as the light fades his eyes are drawn upward, watching Zach in the air as he hurls that discuss of power towards him at an uneven track, "Wow! -- I didn't know you could," he starts, and pushes off of the ground, body bending backwards, only to flatten out in the air, parallel to the ground, rolling over the disk, it missing him entirely as he leaps clear of it, only to land back on his feet, "do that!" --
Then he was off again, rushing in on Zach's point of landing. planting his heels against the ground he slides to a stop, then pivots off of a heel to turn into Zach's defenses, bringing his hand up high and smashing it downward, the heel of his palm coming down to smash in at Zach's chest, trying to thumb him hard enough to make him think twice about his attack strategy, and to keep him moving so he can't mount another large attack offensive as he had before.
COMBATSYS: Zach fails to interrupt Phantom Cutter from Horatio with Third Stance.
- Power fail! -
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Zach 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Horatio
Zach lands, grinning a bit. "It's your fault, in a way," Zach says as he brings that one good arm around, sweeping it up into the air. The burst of energy lances upward, wide as the palm slams into Zach's chest, sending him tumbling down the hallway.
Zach slams into the wall at the intersection, and simply sits against it, gasping for air. "It was good insight," Zach says. "I know what my power means to me now, is all."
Running the length of the hallway, his hakama shifting with each of his long strides, he draws his momentum to a close with a few quick steps, stopping entirely to stare at Zach. His head nonds once, "Right..." At his words. Tilting his head, giving the Zach a moment at the very least as he speaks, he says, "It's a good thing to know yourself and know what you're capable of. I'm glad to see I was of some help to you... -- And maybe.." He says, and suddenly a bright smile breaks out across his face... it was one of those contagious smiles. The type that you see people wear sometimes and it makes you want to smile too, whether you do or not. "You can help me with something after this, then Zach Glenn. Call it a proposition?"
At that, he rushes Zach once again, closing in on him from that decent distance, his weight shifting from side to side as he takes those full, commanding strides, arms pumping at his sides. At the last possible second he reveals what it is he intended to do and not a moment before. Dropping low, he slides across the ground, using those hakama on the smooth floor to make it all the easier, his right leg extending, thrusting hard out towards Zach's chest from his seated position against the glass.
COMBATSYS: Zach dodges Horatio's Heavy Kick.
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Zach 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Horatio
Zach's eyes go wide as Horatio slides in, throwing himself blindly... to his right side. That arm, in a slim cast, goes out instinctively to catch and break his fall. The plaster makes a sharp cracking sound as it slams into ground. Zach hisses sharply as pain lances up his arm.
He slides before getting his feet underneath him, as he keeps his eyes on Horatio. The pain is clear, there, but he'll live, it would seem.
"Sure," Zach says as more of that violet energy bursts forth from around him. "But let's finish this match first."
COMBATSYS: Zach gathers his will.
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Zach 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Horatio
As he moves forward over the ground towards Zach, he finds himself facing that wall of glass and water, and it's not a pretty sight when you're moving at that speed. Bringing both of his down against the ground, knees cocking upward, he uses his heels to slow himself to a reasonable speed, enough for his feet, slipping from the edge of the platform and out towards the water, to dip inside of the pit where it collets and is thusly recycled or sent away, stopping himself at the last possible second, "Awww!" He whines, rolling backwards before his hakama fall in. Getting to his feet, he shakes each one off, slinging water about before lifting his attention back to Zach, "Okay." He nods.
Rushing out towards him again as he takes this round to go relatively inactive save for what Horatio picks up on in a cursory fashion, of him collecting himself, the orange haired boy barrels in on him at a fairly good clip, his rubber soled socks squeaking with each step before he slides on his feet, turning his flank to Zach, his right leg swinging forward and upward, whipping in a hard, quick windmill upwards, dragging with it that odd orange energy which crackles and sparks to life. Behind it comes his left leg after the right had continued it's track, driving upward, trying to yank Zach off of his feet and into the windmill kicks before he lands back securely on his right foot, the left coming down to anchor him. Spinning on that foot, he slings his right back, leg extending fully to project a kick towards his chest to finish the combination of movements.
COMBATSYS: Zach endures Horatio's Crazy Priestess.
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Zach 1/=======/=======|====---\-------\0 Horatio
Zach catches that first kick, and the second, and the kicks following. He rides the momentum, gaining altitude with each strike. He hangs there for a moment as he throws both hands forward.
A massive armored fist screams into existance, soaring towards Horatio even as it forms. Zach crashes to the floor, and does not rise to his feet. The remaining energy slips into the ether, disappearing into nothingness. Zach seems to be smiling slightly, but he's out cold. He is going to need a new cast on his arm.
COMBATSYS: Zach can no longer fight.
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Horatio 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Horatio dodges Zach's Storm Flare.
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Horatio 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Horatio takes no action.
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Horatio 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Horatio has ended the fight here.
Coming through that last kick, using his entire weight behind it as with all the others, he brings his leg down, turns to face Zach and watches for the return fire.. -- Watching him throw his hands forward, Horatio's eyes dart upward to see the massive fist made entirely of energy, "Wow!" He shouts out, quickly skipping back, hopping once, twice, now at the edge of the fountain, he leaps clear out of the way, rolling aside and coming up on one knee to watch the energy smash into the glass. Wincing as he waits for shards of it to go bursting in every direction.. he thinks the better of it and whips his right arm upward. A rippling wave of orange, sparking energy shoots out from him, rushing in to intercept the fist. It wasn't at all enough to stop it, but it was enough to give it something else to collide against.
Hoping for the best, he watches it for a moment in still-time before his eyes move over to Zach. Getting to his feet, he remembers then his audience... and his costume! -- Oh yeah, that's right. He was Geese Howard. No time for concern, at least not until he'd concluded his performance. Striking that ever confident stance, his motions so readily immitating Geese, he scoffs out that last word, "Die. YABO!" In true Geese fashion. Finally, he crosses his arms over his chest, allowing the cameras to drink in his performance, for the Cosplay King of Southtown had a reputation to keep up as one of the best performers around... he'd mastered the personalities and body language of everyone he had impersonated.. no sense stopping with Geese, right? -- When it's over and done with, he drops the charade and walks over to Zach, kneeling down to rest on his knees beside him, "Zach..."
"Zach Gleee~eeenn... Mr. Glenn, wake up." He shakes the other young man rather roughly. "C'mon... wake up... I gotta question to ask you."
Zach Glen is not waking up this time. He's had a couple of very rough fights in very rapid suggestion. The medics arrive and snap the stretcher open before shifting the short man onto it. On a coordinated count, the two men lift the stretcher and start carrying the youth worker off.
Log created on 17:07:47 05/03/2008 by Zach, and last modified on 15:45:59 05/09/2008.