Description: Vanessa has been looking for the Ikaris for a while, off and on. Now, with NESTS on the rise and Whip missing, the redhead heads further afield than usual, heading into the jungles of Vietnam to hopefully locate the mercenaries she has been indirectly working with. And oh, does she find them.
Vietnam. More specifically, one of the rural villages dotting the landscape of that country, and truthfully much of mainland Asia. But with powers like "R" and Shadaloo running weapons through any area it can, it's inevitable that some of these villages will have little watering holes - local bars, little more than oversized huts with some liquor and the equipment to take money from whatever strangers may wander through town. No questions asked. No answers given.
And in such an establishment now, hunched over the bar and nursing some vile local concoction that could peel the plastic surgery off of a major celebrity, is Vanessa. She's not drinking to excess - she can't afford to be drunk, doing things like she's doing right now.
Trying to hunt down the Ikaris is hard work, even for someone like her, who has connections via her mercenary work.
The Ikari intelligence network is one of the best in the world. It doesn't take long for the Ikaris to find out that someone is looking for them -- and paranoia is something of a hot commodity in the sort of things that they get mixed up in. Heidern tries to keep his to a minimum, but even so, that eerie methodicalness pervades nearly all his actions. As such, when he hears about a woman searching out the Ikaris in Vietnam, he's the first person tracking her.
He might even be in the room with her /right now/, watching her. (In the least creepy way imaginable, of course.) There are numerous dark corners, shadowy places, in the bar. Lots of rough characters, too -- a man with an eyepatch or a scar barely registers here; he'd be easy to overlook, in his coat.
For now, he keeps watching Vanessa drink, rather than immediately starting a dust-up. That time wil come, but that time isn't now -- she has to be expecting it just a /little/ less. She seems like someone who needs to learn a little about a thing called CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
Heidern may find his initial concerns not quite as well-founded as he suspects. Vanessa has trained for YEARS at the hands of the same quasi-Ikari group Seth is a member of, the same group Vanessa eventually pulled Ramon into. Particularly directed at the destruction of NESTS, its members are separate from the Ikari, but with most of the members of that group currently too busy to be contacted, Vanessa is now seeking out the Ikari. She has been for months - and who knows, perhaps the rumors that reached Heidern's ears were planted by Vanessa, to draw the Ikari mastermind out of hiding.
But she's not searching particularly hard, tonight. She scrutinizes new entrants to the bar, and occasionally looks back across the room, but she has yet to ping on Heidern, and inevitably turns back to her drink, thoughtfully.
Her training at the hands of the Not-Ikaris was intensive and just plain old intense; waiting for her to let her guard down /completely/ may end up as an exercise in futility.
She has good posture, and sits properly for what he knows of her style, Heidern notes, to himself. She could go to attack position in an instant and start tearing things up. This is an improvement on what he was expecting; all that leaves, one would suppose, is a need to actually go over there and introduce himself. The tall man gets up from his seat, walks toward Vanessa, and indeed, almost walks past her. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
He puts one hand on her shoulder, firmly. Still nothing wrong -- but if Vanessa's instincts are good and her senses sharp, she'll notice something seems a little off about the feeling of his hand. "Vanessa, yes?" he asks, shortly before applying a lot of pressure with that hand and then suddenly pulling away.
If Vanessa wasn't careful, she'll find out what felt so off: the hidden blades along the length of his gloves. Whoops!!
COMBATSYS: Heidern has started a fight here.
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Heidern 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Vanessa has joined the fight here.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Heidern
COMBATSYS: Vanessa fails to counter Jab Punch from Heidern with Parrying Puncher.
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Vanessa 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Heidern
Indeed she could.
Vanessa doesn't look up, at first. Someone leaving - can't go look at /everyone/, or she'll be completely blindingly obvious. She doesn't really /know/ what to look for. Ling informed her, once, of how to catch the eye of the Ikari if she should need to. But she wasn't told how she'd know she'd been found.
A weight on her shoulder is the answer, and Vanessa doesn't react, at first - not with violence, at least, though her posture stiffens from the unexpected contact. The hand is off, the glove is...loaded? No, not quite, but something--
She hears the voice, and instantly she's turning, her other fist balled tight to drive it right into the solar plexus of the speaker, potentially staggering him and voiding his attempts at attack in the same instant. But her move doesn't account for her enemy being HEIDERN; his hand is already down, and worse, the shift of her shoulder only manages to drive his hand in deeper, forcing her to abort her attack. She doesn't fall, to her credit; she uses the momentum to swing back around, falling into a boxer stance and eyeing up her opponent. Bladed gloves. The man himself!? Or perhaps some "R" punk, or maybe NESTS.
She glares. "And you're who I think you are?" she asks, hopping back and forth on her feet, already ready to engage. If this is Heidern...yes, then she's probably got no chance of winning. But she'll fight anyway. She always does.
The bartender, for half a second, considers telling the two of them to take it outside. Then Heidern takes off his trenchcoat, revealing his crisp Ikari uniform, and removing any doubt as to his identity. The bartender promptly decides, for lack of a better way to put it, "fuck that." Not only is he completely incapable of actually removing either of these people, but more importantly, this is a great show that isn't worth stopping.
"Good to see you face to face, at last," he says, nodding to her as she gets herself ready to engage again after that initial attempt at moving to counter. "I hear you've been looking for the Ikari," he says, tugging his gloves up a little, getting them to fit exactly right for combat. Unfortunately, this is the only break that Vanessa will get the entire fight...
... save for the fact that Heidern doesn't want to completely annihilate her, and as such, all he does is come in for a quick little kick to the side of her head. Things could certainly be a lot worse, though with Heidern, simply getting hit with raw physical force at /all/ is pretty far up there on the list of bad things.
COMBATSYS: Heidern successfully hits Vanessa with Light Kick.
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Vanessa 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Heidern
Vanessa grimaces. Man, Heidern. She hadn't really wanted to end up in the hospital tonight. Oh well. "I am indeed," she offers, nodding and twitching her lips into a sassy grin. "We have quite a bit to discuss, you and I. Good to see you at last." But she doesn't have time to mess around, because Heidern has PRESSED A.
Vanessa's hands snap up, but she's too slow, and she catches the blow square on the temple. "AUGH!" she squawks, and tumbles to the floor, groaning. OK, right, bad. OK! Good to know. "Hit like a damn truck," she mutters. But she doesn't wait long - she shoves herself up, pushing off the ground, and then she shoves off the ground before she's even all the way upright - leaning across the distance in the space of a second, fist leaned back, and then streaking in toward Heidern's chest as she reaches the far end of her dash!
COMBATSYS: Heidern interrupts Dash Puncher from Vanessa with Jab Punch.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Vanessa 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Heidern
Vanessa comes in for Heidern's chest, and he narrows his eyes at her a little. He can see her reach -- even if she turns and increases it a little, she can't hit him /perfectly/ if he catches her with his hand. The man waits for Vanessa to be -just- out of his reach... and then raises a hand to the height of her head, letting her ram herself directly into all those blades.
She comes to a complete stop; her hand just barely brushes against one of the buttons of his uniform, and the young woman may find that they're really cheap plastic buttons. The Ikaris do not spend money on fine uniforms, but then, Vanessa likely already knew this just from her tenuous pseudo-association with the mercenary unit.
Heidern takes a step back, once again taking up his normal tall stance after that ridiculous moment. He smiles at her. "Very close," he says, nodding firmly.
Young? By no means. Vanessa's 34! She just /looks/ like she's 20.
...And a model.
...seriously, what the hell, SNK.
Either way, however, the Boxing Queen snarls, as her face is lacerated by Heidern's bladed palms. He fights /dirty/, but then again, he is Heidern. He has to. Jerk. She skips back for an instant, all but floating to open distance, bobbing back and forth unpredictably as she weighs her options. Then she swings sideways, then in, blurring across the distance, and comes out of the sudden motion with one thing only!
A hard straight punch in the throat!
COMBATSYS: Heidern blocks Vanessa's Medium Punch.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Heidern
Heidern brings his arms up, protecting his throat from pummeling from the young woman. And to him, she /is/ young -- Heidern is in his 50s, and as such almost everyone else in the fighting /world/ is young. Except maybe Raizo. Everyone else, meanwhile, is young. Shaking out his arms a little, he nods to her, saying, "Better." He then takes up his tall stance yet again, looking around the bar. He can't go all-out on Vanessa with his ridiculous speed and crushing power, but he is also the type to give no quarter... what to do?
The answer comes when he takes a step back, finding the old jukebox that is, in fact, the only thing in the bar that runs on electricity. He hefts the massive piece of sound equipment on his shoulder, rolls his neck, and thinks back to his numerous spars with Takuma Sakazaki. How did this go...
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" he shouts, abruptly, running at Vanessa and looking to ram her into the wall of the bar with that jukebox serving its true purpose in life as a "momentum enhancer." Sure, he's negligibly slower... but he's also roughly quadrupled in weight while carrying the jukebox, and moreover, Vanessa is tiny.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa counters Random Weapon from Heidern with Puncher Vision.
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Vanessa 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Heidern
"I hope so," Vanessa smirks, retracting her hand from the punch and skating back, away from the powerhouse. She wonders what he's going to do next...
...and then he picks the damn jukebox up and Vanessa has just enough time to squawk, "Are you for REAL?" before he's coming at her at full throttle!
But Vanessa, Queen of the Punches, will not be defeated that easily. She balls her fist as tight as she can, and then skates backwards further, opening up some space, and just as the chance presents itself, she moves. Her whole body glides across space in a fraction of a second, and she simply...appears, there, right inside Heidern's guard, her fist already lodged in his sternum, with all the force of a wrecking ball! "SLOW!"
Heidern abruptly drops the ridiculous jukebox, letting it thud on the ground, as Vanessa just nails him in the stomach as hard as is conceivably possible. He doubles over a little for a moment, taking a deep breath, his eye bulging. "... slow," he replies, nodding firmly. That's a choice he's not going to make twice, though -- now that he knows she /can/ dish it out and take it, he can move away from being a completely ridiculous man and go back to being Heidern, Commander of All.
He takes a few steps back, toward the table he was sitting at in the first place. "So what caused you to start looking for me in the first place?" he asks, before swinging one arm out to the side. The glove -- filled with more systems and more tolerance for being used as a chi focus than its initial assaults might have made Vanessa think -- starts to flare up, bursting into a whirlwind of chi flames.
Heidern does not aggress -- not this time. As aggressive as his fighting style can be, he excels most when he plays the waiting game, studies his opponent's openings, calculates out just when to strike... and, as seen here, marshals his considerable resources.
COMBATSYS: Heidern gathers his will.
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Vanessa 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Heidern
Oh yes, she can certainly dish it out. She's incredibly strong, especially for her size and for her place in the fighting pantheon. Though she lacks the incredible, crushing force of Mike Bison, to discount her as a technical boxer whose strength is only so-so would be utter insanity. chec
Vanessa nods, as Heidern acknowledges that he was going slow. Of course, there's no real way for her to keep up with him going at full throttle, so she just has to impress him as best she can before he beats her into a hole. Other fighters may find that kind of an oppressive limitation, but...
...well, Vanessa's always been good at things like this. Normally she might take a moment to gather her bearings, but against Heidern, while he prepares himself like that, she doesn't really have the time. So she carries on as best she can. While Heidern focuses himself, Vanessa says simply, "The leader has gone quiet. My other two associates are busy in Metro. And Igniz is showing up in public!" She slides in, fast, brushing up to Heidern and throwing another strong punch at his chest. "Take a wild guess!"
COMBATSYS: Heidern endures Vanessa's Hook Punch.
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Vanessa 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Heidern
Heidern doesn't even move this time, just letting Vanessa come in at him with the punch; as she throws that hook at his chest, he stays perfectly still and takes it right in the kidneys. "... good point," he says, as he uses the momentum of the punch to launch himself up into the air and sideways a little; this is, incidentally, ideal, and Vanessa will likely know it is if she's seen Heidern fight on the television.
No sooner is he up in the air than he reaches out for Vanessa's throat with those bladed gloves, the massive flames sliding back off of his arm seemingly harmlessly -- perhaps this is not going to be as bad as it could /possibly/ be, even if he /does/ get his hands around that delicate neck of Vanessa's.
Or perhaps...!!!
COMBATSYS: Vanessa counters Neck Rolling Slashes from Heidern with Parrying Puncher EX.
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Vanessa 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\1 Heidern
She sees it, alright - there, that instant. She's seen him in action, knows his methods. There is no question what is coming. There is no doubt in her mind, what it will do.
So she acts, as she always acts, fast and without a doubt in her mind: He's moving sideways, and frankly he's a damn sight taller than she is, and so she spins on her heels, and drives forward, smashing her fist into Heidern's throat with a sudden, vicious lunge! She sniffs, sharply, as she does, a boxer's sniff that works every bit like a more Asian martial artist's kiai.
Well, that certainly stopped that. Heidern goes falling back to the ground, interrupted right out of his attempt at completely destroying Vanessa; this has not gone so well after that initial frenzy of ass-beating. Perhaps sticking to high-speed assaults is the key to defeating this woman, who is clearly more than she seems.
"You've got good reflexes," he says, nodding; that is, once again, all the (very minimal) respite that Vanessa gets for now. Heidern goes right back on the offensive, looking the woman over and trying to find an optimal option for assault. Amazingly, this does not involve the sort of ridiculous high-impact things he's tried the last few rounds -- it's back to basics for Heidern until he feels out Vanessa's pattern again.
This attack in particular is terribly simple, and takes advantage of his bladed gloves; he does a quick series of advancing open-palm strikes, hoping to leave the younger woman with a series of nasty lacerations.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa blocks Heidern's Medium Punch.
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Vanessa 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Heidern
Vanessa fights people like Heidern rather often. Indeed, she practically specializes in fighting high-rung opponents. That doesn't mean she /wins/ very often, mind, but...often, she finds herself in the ring against Heidern's own peers, and she performs admirably against them.
But she doesn't counter this one. She can't afford to extend herself too far; Heidern is powerful, and as pleasant as it is to put him on the floor every time he tries to attack her, she can't afford the drain of launching attacks like that so frequently. So she allows him to approach, and answers him only with her forearms and fists, blocking Heidern's advance as best she can. It hurts, but not near as much as it could have, and at the end of it, she's in position to do something...
...rather odd, actually, because rather than attack, she skips back and away, hanging there in a weaving boxer's stance, eyeing Heidern very carefully. "I try," she murmurs, grinning. "I've worked hard, to get where I am."
COMBATSYS: Vanessa focuses on her next action.
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Vanessa 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Heidern
Heidern nods. "I can tell," he says, backing off; she's playing the waiting game. That's all right with him; he can play the waiting game too. He's played it once before in the fight, and if Vanessa wants him to play it again, he's perfectly okay with that. Once again, he swings a hand up and out, and once again, it is wreathed in a massive whirlwind of flaming chi, as Heidern marshals all the power he can bring to bear.
"You're a very talented woman -- and the news you bring is very worrisome," he says, giving her a piercing gaze from that one remaining eye of his. "NESTS, operating out in the open? They must be on the verge of something -- they wouldn't risk it otherwise."
COMBATSYS: Heidern gathers his will.
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Vanessa 1/----===/=======|=======\====---\1 Heidern
"Why thank you," Vanessa grins. "I'm very proud of my talents." She winks, as she clenches her fist - energy swirling around her fist, little golden lights gathering around her hand. "And Igniz...he appeared in SNF, but he wasn't really after me. Hasn't Whip reported in, yet? You must've seen it."
The energy around her hands burns brighter and brighter, as she finally dashes toward Heidern. "They're making a move. We've got to be ready!" she calls, and then adds, "HELLION!" as one fist streaks down, and another shoots up, and both are trailed by shimmering, burning golden light!
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Heidern with Forbidden Eagle.
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Vanessa 1/---====/=======|=======\=====--\1 Heidern
Heidern tries to plow right /into/ the Forbidden Eagle, getting into Vanessa's guard; this doesn't work that well, though, and she cuts through his defenses forcefully, putting him on the bare edge of acceptable parameters. Fortunately for Heidern (and unfortunately for Vanessa), this is about the area where Heidern really shines. The tall man shakes his head at Vanessa, explaining, "I haven't heard from her yet. I've been doing my own investigations." Into "R", naturally.
And from there, everything starts to go pear-shaped. Heidern drops to a crouch as he regains his bearings, seemingly getting ready to go on the defensive. If Vanessa falls for this trap,though, it could be her final mistake of the fight, even as solid as she is at the moment... because after a second, he leaps forward much as he did with the attempt at her neck.
But this time, his angle is just a /little/ different...
COMBATSYS: Heidern successfully hits Vanessa with Final Bringer.
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Vanessa 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0 Heidern
... and that makes a lot of difference.
Heidern catches Vanessa's shoulder, then abruptly flips down and drives his hand directly into her breastbone; his glove shreds into her, and he shouts, "Final Bringer!" As he does this, the energy begins to rip right out of her, dissipating into nothingness -- she might pass out just from the sudden drain on her system, as if she's been training for six days without sleep.
A giant ball of chi begins to form above the pair, from the amount riped out of Vanessa; it is much the color of blood, and gives off an eerie light as it hangs in the air. It flows into Heidern momentarily, and then back out; he then shoves Vanessa away with a minimum of fuss, finishing the assault.
She falls for it - falls for it all too easily. She dashes in toward Heidern as he crouches, and then her eyes widen as he moves. She doesn't have time to parry, and doesn't have the strength anyway. She instead shoves her shoulder out, hoping - /praying/, that whatever he does, she can use to her own advantage.
Her prayers go unheeded. She shrieks in horror and pain as Heidern's gloves rip her shirt open and shred the flesh of her chest, as her own energy is torn out of her body and then used to shover her way, throw her aside like some rag doll. He used it all - went in with everything he had.
She snarls, bleeding horribly from the gaping wound in her breast. The fanboys would be crying. But then perhaps they will cheer, because Vanessa doesn't FALL. She lands hard, but on both feet - refusing to kneel or crumble before this man, even as her legs wobble, she stands, and proves that not all of that energy was drawn out of her - a sparkling glimmer of chi forms around her left arm, as she rasps, "Did you think...that'd put me down? You don't know me at all!" and then she's not speaking, saving the air from her potentially punctured lungs, and instead simply swings her arm up - sending a massive hurricane-force gale downrange at Heidern, a tornado of force ripping up dust and debris with enough force to send even him flying across the room!
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Heidern with Gaia Gear.
- Power hit! -
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Vanessa 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Heidern
Vanessa talks an absolutely massive game, and backs it up by staying standing; more importantly, she backs it up by making Heidern fly back as hard as possible /through/ one wall of the bar, thanks to that massive burst of chi. The man gets back up slowly once... twice... and then, for a little while, it seems as though he's staying down. Vanessa no doubt has her mental ten-count going as an experienced boxer.
Unfortunately for Vanessa, Heidern can see that she's on her last legs, /and/ he has a feel for that sort of mental ten-count. On 'seven,' he decides to act; his movements are swift and abrupt, with the sort of superhuman speed and focus typical of men of his talent.
He does not go in for something flashy. The time for that is long past. No, when dealing with an opponent who one does not want to deeply injure who is on their last legs, the ideal way to put them down is quick and clean. Heidern does a quick step in, swinging his arm around his entire body once in what, to the side, would look like a perfect circle. To Vanessa, though, it just looks like a blue-silver slash of chi, aimed right down her middle, at point blank range.
COMBATSYS: Heidern successfully hits Vanessa with Moon Slasher.
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Vanessa 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Heidern
Vanessa's practically holding herself up, one hand braced against a table, the other literally holding some poor bastard by the collar, the fellow afraid to touch her for fear something might come off in his hands. Like her arm, or something she might get a little upset about him touching in the first place.
She doesn't talk as Heidern gets up. She just curls her lip into an angry look as the Ikari leader struggles...and then moves. Vanessa's tired arms push, but the man she's holding onto suddenly stoops, horrified by Heidern's immediate advance, and she has no chance to escape before her body is shattered again, and she falls to the floor, a boneless heap.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa takes no action.
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Heidern 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Vanessa can no longer fight.
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Heidern 0/-------/--=====|
Heidern wastes no time. Once his actual test of Vanessa's capabilities is over, he instantly returns to being all practicality; the first thing he does is go back to where he discarded his trenchcoat, and pull out a small first aid kit. He walks back over to Vanessa, starting to treat her Heidern-related injuries; knowing how to hurt people, at his level of talent, means knowing how to fix those injuries back up. Admittedly, not quite as quickly as certain ridiculous battle-nurses, but certainly fairly effectively.
Log created on 23:05:32 06/07/2008 by Vanessa, and last modified on 14:14:36 06/15/2008.