Description: Perhaps in an attempt to minimize any collateral damage on the part of one participant, the organizers of Neo League have brought both Cherise Bouchard and Domino out to the Chinese countryside for a dramatic night battle. Though primed for the battle, could Domino ever have anticipated an opponent quite like her? ( Winner: Cherise )
Another episode of Neo League, brought to you by people who thrive on violence.
This time around, the arena has been set in the Orient. Night has fallen on a broad plateu, bordered with several large, flat rocks and a stream nearby. The flickering light of fireflies intermingles with the clear, star-speckled sky above, and the camera crew is doing its best to stay hidden and maintain the little untouched Chinese countryside. Really, the spot is quite beautiful, and there isn't a crowd or anything to appeal to. The only applause any fighter here is likely to receive are the chirps of crickets.
The first to make the scene is Domino, this time entering the fighting zone without his usual robe and whatnot. He's just dressed in the more martial-styled fighting outfit, somewhat casual on his approach. No crowd to really play up here - just the cameras. One of which he spies and flashes a wink before just turning to scan the surroundings for his opponent. Some girl he's never heard of before, let alone met.
Though he may not have heard of her or seen her before, the staff of the Neo League know very well who she is-- and maybe that's why they chose such a serene, out-of-sorts location to have a fight? To have it take place as far from civilization as possible and to avoid the chance of collateral damage. Cherise certainly won't be complaining, she always did love a great view.
The French girl's approach is calm and almost hospitable, even, the ambient light of the night and the artificial arrangements by the crews for the sake of recording shining her silvery-gray hair in a way that's just not captured during the day. She's dressed perhaps the opposite of the young man awaiting her, with a snug black blouse and short-hemmed skirt, her boots laced all the way up her shins. Each step she takes brings her closer... as well as the unerring, almost overwhelming feeling of confidence she has. Coupled with her large, bright eyes and the wide grin turning up the corners of her mouth, Cherise looks more like someone going to a club than a fight.
"Don't worry," she says, her accent still thick, "I will make sure I don't break too many limbs."
Some might be put off by clear confidence, but Domino definitely isn't one of them. He relishes it, in fact. It makes things far more fun and competitive for him. But this girl, now that he can get a decent look at her? She reminds him of another girl. Specifically the hair. It's pretty similar. The eyes are different, though.
Her remark actually gets a soft laugh from Domino, followed with a lighthearted smile. "I'd consider that a favor," he jokes. His right hand then lifts, wagging the index finger airily. "And in return, I'll try not to mess up those pretty looks too much."
But enough of the pleasantries. Now that both fighters have arrived, they're called to proceed. "FIGHT!"
Domino's pleasant smile and demeanor immediately drains to a far more serious stoicism, and he instantly takes the initiative to begin things. The wrestler dashes in close to the gray-haired girl, hands chambering at his sides, only to end in a deep forward stance right in front of her. Both hands rocket out in a double palmheel strike aimed for her stomach, igniting in an explosion of radiant white concussive energy once the arms are fully extended.
COMBATSYS: Drake has started a fight here.
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Drake 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Cherise has joined the fight here.
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Drake 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cherise
COMBATSYS: Drake successfully hits Cherise with Whiteout.
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Drake 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Cherise
"Hoh~? Well, aren't you pretending to be such a gentleman."
The announcer makes the call, and her opponent is off like a shot. Cherise's movements seek to counter, to twist her out of the way of danger... 'cause that energy looks a little fierce, too. Her leg is a little slow in picking up from the ground, and the pair of hands slam into her stomach, causing Cherise to bend forward and stumble backward with a gasp of air.
"Ha ha ha ha~!"
Her legs spread, her weight shifting and her knees bending a bit. Taking only a step forward, her right arm hooks low and sweeps upward, her fingers trailing with paper-thin blades of bright silver energy. Energy that screams toward him with the intent to bite, rip, and tear at him-- blades that don't simply dissipate on contact, either, but blades that will rip clothing and draw blood if given the chance.
"Harder!!"
COMBATSYS: Cherise successfully hits Drake with Argent Claw.
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Drake 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Cherise
Ah, blades. Something Domino didn't see coming. It's just the way it is, there. He's not had much luck there, what with fighting Choi recently. So when the blade energy comes out, amethyst eyes widen and he desperately attempts to get out of the way - it just doesn't work. He's knocked back from the girl off his feet, and blood is definitely drawn from his chest area, tumbling him over a few steps. When he lands, it's in a crouch, eyes narrowed on the gray-haired girl. He stays in his low position for the time being, eyeing the girl intently, studying her.
COMBATSYS: Drake focuses on his next action.
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Drake 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Cherise
When her arm lowers, blood has been spilled. The bright blue eyes through the scattered veil of silver hair are only wider, and her glossy lips. Already, her arms fall to her sides while she strides forward with a roll to her hips, her steps as calm as she is-- despite the appearance of the smile. Cherise's lithe frame tilts forward just a little, with her hands on her hips and arms akimbo. "Do not disappoint me, little boy."
And then it's -her- turn to be off like a shot, running at Drake with arms and legs pumping. Taking a small hop before Drake, her body twists hard in a circle, as if to do a roundhouse kick-- but should her foot come into contact with him, something so much worse will happen instead: A burst of silver energy surges down her leg and projected through her foot like a spike, releasing a painful jolt to the body, like a direct blow to the nerves or the sensation felt when someone is struck by a taser or briefly electrocuted. "Hyah!"
COMBATSYS: Cherise successfully hits Drake with Argent Raid.
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Drake 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Cherise
Appearances certainly are deceptive. Domino initially intended on trying to surprise the girl, but.. well.. she's certainly a cut above some others. When she begins surging forth, Domino raises quickly to his feet and prepares to intercept her - only it goes horribly wrong. She kicks true, and it... well, it hurts.
"GAAUUUU!"
Domino is floored once again by the hit, this time skidding back a short ways. Teeth now gritting, the wrestler pushes himself back up to his feet, slower now. "D-dang, girl... you're good..." He gives his head a quick shake, then rushes for her again. This time, he doesn't present any punches. No. However, his arms attempt to hook around her waist to suddenly yank her in against him, streamlined musculature along his arms attempting to crush the girl's torso against his in an unrelenting bearhug.
COMBATSYS: Cherise interrupts Blackout from Drake with Argent Striker.
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Drake 1/--=====/=======|====---\-------\0 Cherise
While Drake comes running in, Cherise's arm whips around in a smooth circle, effortless and graceful. There's an odd light in the air, flits of silver barely caught in the light of the moon and across the plateau. It swishes gently, and that arm is still exposed, thrown out to the side... in time to have a crushing hug applied to her. The grunt lasts a moment, the look of discomfort becoming one of pure amusement.
"How rude, on the first date."
And then she slips down, all her weight pulling downward at once while she twists and lunges away from the martial artist. The air swishing comes to a climax then, as a binding line of silver comes to wrap around Drake's wrist and clamp down like a vice-- but sliding as it goes, like an indefinite connection that tries to let itself go.
Cherise grabs at the air, at those flitting bits of silver, and the wire leading from the gold bracelet around her wrist to Drake's arm is pulled on -hard-, to bring his arm up and to expose something of a vital area: The ribs, under his arm. Cherise lunges back in there as the wire slides off his wrist and snaps around in the air, but the problem here is the fist-- the fist that slams into his side and releases a large burst of powerful silver energy intent on sending him flying.
"Ha ha ha ha~!"
This girl's -really- something else. That's what Domino's concluded. But he's not going to go and be all lame and give up. Even as his normally fearsome crushing is turned around into something owdangpainful for himself. The wrist-catching has the model confused, and the shot to the ribs? It has him flying back again, hitting the grass and tumbling over a couple times to land on his back.
He's pretty sure he's hurt now. He's kind've having a hard time feeling anything. Either that's from the shock of all the energy she's flinging around, or he has a broken bone somewhere. Either one's pretty likely.
But again, Domino's determined to not be lame. Even if the fans aren't present out here, people are surely watching this at home.
So despite what some might call rational logic at this point, Domino pushes himself back to his feet with a tenacious little smile on his face. "What, don't like getting all physical?"
And in rushes the wrestler. The charge is a pure, all-or-nothing one, legs pumping, body angled forward.. and his hands suddenly lash out to CLAMP down on the girl's shoulders.
COMBATSYS: Cherise blocks Drake's Total Eclipse.
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Drake 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Cherise
Hands firmly clutched onto her shoulders, Domino yanks the girl towards him hunched over, locking her neck between his legs. His arms then hook around her stomach, and he hoists her up into the good ol' fashioned piledriver hold.
Only it's not a piledriver. Not at first.
The arms around her midsection suddenly CRUSH inwards, giving her the treatment he'd intended to do with the Blackout.. only holding her upside-down, letting the blood rush to her head. The pressure continues to mount around her abdomen until the arms have cinched down on her as tightly as Domino can possible make them.
But that's just phase one. Phase two begins when he leaps high into the air with the girl, curling over into a series of forward flips. The motion gains speed and momentum as the two climb, and when they're on the return trip with the earth, their bodies blur together in an opaque swirl of motion. The pent-up momentum comes to a shattering end when the girl's head is finally driven against the ground, backed up by the elevation of the jump and their combined bodyweights.
...
Well, that's how it's supposed to go, anyway.
It seems to go to plan-- his sudden movements, the sudden grab and the pull of her arm. Being flipped over and drawn in and the crushing force of the hug. But when they're flying into the air, that's when a tangible energy fills the air and pulls at the back of Cherise's mind. Though she's wincing, her eyes become more alert, focus-- and boy, do they suddenly burn. Moments before impact, there's a bit of sudden, noticable resistance from Cherise Bouchard...
And her feet hit the ground.
Kicking her legs downward and trying to bend, she moves as though she were trying to reverse her journey mid-air, ultimately squeezing out of the deathgrip and landing dead in front of Drake bent forward and flat on her feet, straightening herself up and letting out a sigh.
Bringing her hand up, she's clearly taking a moment to take a break and catch her breath-- standing -right there-, no less-- and brushing the hair off the back of her neck. Letting her hands settle on her hips again, she speaks one more time:
"You could very possibly kill someone like that."
COMBATSYS: Cherise gains composure.
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Drake 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Cherise
"Someone, sure," Domino replies, admittedly aghast at her recovery from an otherwise fight-ending assault. "But -you-? Heck no. You're too tough to go and die from something like that." As evidenced by how the fight's been going so far.
Domino raises to his full height again, and this time, he makes a grab for her right arm. Once caught, he attempts to weave around behind her back and place her in a hammerlock, wrenching the arm around.
"You're just -bleeding- chi, aren't you?," Domino murmurs behind her neck. It's pretty odd for Domino to talk during a serious fight, much less carry a conversation. But this seems worth it.
COMBATSYS: Cherise parries Drake's Fast Throw!
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Drake 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Cherise
He reaches out and grabs her wrist-- and how. But Cherise doesn't seem to be intending on letting Drake twist her arm about this time, instead twisting herself around in time with his pull-- bending backwards and rolling around while standing in place almost like this were some sort of dance move. Pulling her hand away with a swat at the inside of his wrist, Cherise is facing him with a look of absolute giddiness on her face.
"I never checked."
And then she launches forwards, her arm whipping back and away. A small bladed weight at the end of her wire blitzes beyond his face, looking to leave a small cut across his cheek-- and in she comes. She strikes first with a direct punch to the middle of his left thigh, following with a swift punch low on his belly. Next comes a chop to the side, like she were trying to strike into the man's kidneys themselves, even driving her thumb in just a hair below the bottom of the center of his ribs with enough force to make it quite hard to breathe. One more palm thrusts out to strike him in the chest, and then she jumps and arcs to the side with the intent of putting the top of her foot across the side of his head.
While all of those strikes are bad enough on their own, Cherise adds one more zing to the attack-- with each hit, there's also a burst of that same harsh silver energy on contact, intent on doing just as much damage as the strikes themselves.
COMBATSYS: Drake dodges Cherise's Vital Striker EX.
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Drake 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Cherise
The deflection and subsequent dodgery actually has Domino.. laughing? Despite the bleeding he's doing and the frigging numbness, the girl's giddiness seems a little contagious. Even as the blade zips towards his face, Domino continues laughing, jerking his body aside to let it glide right past. The thigh punch is evaded with a side-step, and he turns aside from her punch intended for his abdominals. The chop is dodged with a crisp, sudden backflip, which he lands neatly on his feet afterwards. The subsequent palm strike looks as if it's dead on until the last second, as Domino twirls to the side, letting it strike only air. The aerial kick then whizzes just past his head as he tilts it juuust out of the way.
And then Domino turns around to face her with a wry smile, despite himself. "You're just a vicious little thing, huh? Saucy."
And Domino attempts to maneuver in towards her again, but this time, he makes no immediate grab for limbs or anything. Instead, he weaves around her side to emerge behind her back, arms going to hook around her stomach. Once caught, his back bridges to drive her head and shoulders to the ground in a German suplex.
COMBATSYS: Drake successfully hits Cherise with Medium Throw.
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Drake 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Cherise
With each strike avoided, ending in the kick, Cherise lands facing Drake with her grin never faltering, her amusement never ending. His arms hook around her waist, and suddenly she's airborne, arms and legs in the air while the ground meets her head in a most painful way-- jarring to her neck and her shoulders. Cherise's body goes rigid in his grasp, not so much the active twists and writhes to break free of his hold, but a sudden snap before going limp and letting her weight pull him out of his grasp.
Shuffling sideways until she can get back up to her feet, she's briefly reminded of the fight she had with Preston the first time, culminating in a blow across the side of the head that left Cherise walking around for a few seconds after being knocked completely unconscious, like her legs didn't get the message or something. The French girl shakes off the feeling, though-- and then she takes a hopping step back in and whips her leg around in a broad arc with the intent to drive the toe of her boot into the young man's side. "Ha ha ha ha~!"
COMBATSYS: Drake fails to counter Heavy Kick from Cherise with Star Breaker.
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Cherise 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Drake can no longer fight.
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Cherise 1/------=/=======|
Following the German suplex, Domino twists over to get back up to his feet and face her again, standing at the ready. And when the foot comes, he looks to catch it and do horrible, horrible things to Cherise. But the fatigue from the energy he's been sizzled with so far has slowed him down just a bit too much. It hammers him, getting a sharp yelp, and he falls to the ground, clutching at his side.
A few moments of wallowing, one arm on the ribs, Domino trying to bring himself up to his feet... before he finally slumps down. He waves to the ref and shakes his head. Win some, lose some. He'll get better. He has to. Eyes set on the top, after all.
"K.O.! Cherise wins!"
A little lackluster, maybe, what without an audience. But still. A win's a win, right?
"Hey," Domino says, inclining his head to the girl. "Hey, you. ...You're strong. I like that. Wouldn't mind talking to you more." Domino offers a small, pleasant smile again - back to the light side for him.
While his eyes are set on the top, not even God knows what the likes of Cherise Bouchard has her eyes set on. With the satisfying strike, her leg snaps back almost immediately and her arm reels up to throw in one more attack, but... Aww! Watching him on the ground, slumped down like that, Cherise rolls her wrist around and swings her arm in a swift but short arc, the silvery wire screaming around in the air before returning to spool inside her bracelet, the weight making a short *ting!* while the accessory bounces around her wrist.
And just like that, just after the declaration of her victory, the French girl just starts walking away with a bit of a bounce in her step, brushing her short skirt off a bit and adjusting her blouse a little. Nitpicky, even, just trying to get the dirt off and estimating what needs to be dry cleaned.
'Hey you,' he calls her. Lacing her fingers together behind her back, she looks over her shoulder with a flirty grin.
"That's okay. I don't like worthless boys!"
And then she's off, presumably to go shopping.
Log created on 21:10:44 05/28/2008 by Cherise, and last modified on 13:29:35 05/29/2008.