Neo League 701 - #706: Arika vs Aranha

Description: In order to promote her band, Arika invites Aranha to her club, the Lost Society for a NL fight. The music's playing and the crowd gets pumped up as the two fighters get ready to beat the crap out of each other.(Winner: Arika)



Lost Society is a buzz of activity. Though the hour is still fairly early for a Wednesday Night opening, the punk rock princess ensured a crowd would be present. Up on the stage, normally set up to allow live bands to play, is a large ring. Boxing, wrestling, it'll work for whatever. She's -normally- got it set up for the fed stuff she's been trying to get going. Not that there's many involved with -that- yet, but a slow start is a good start, in her books.

Today, though, it's been set up for a different purpose. She's been here all day, showing camera crews the best set up locations for lighting and cameras. Once they got everything plotted out, she went to get ready. Even though it's not fed-specific, this particular fight, she's wearing one of the wrestling outfits she cooked up.

There's a steady thrum of music, and the chatter of the crowd in the background. Arika peeks out at it all every so often from backstage, waiting until they signal her to come into the ring and start the match.

And out comes Aranha as he strides to the ring at a relaxed pace and easy going grin on his face as he nods and waves to the crowd as he moves closer. He's dressed in his wrestling outfit although it's slightly modified by the addition of the black bandana with a white spider web on it.

He doesn't use his unofficial theme music, after all that's reserved for when he's fighting Metro City. As a result he has to defer to the club to choose the music he comes out to. Eventually Aranha gets to the ring hopping up on the apron and moves to the turnbuckle. From the turnbuckle Aranha lifts himself into a one handed handstand and swings his free arm around generating enough momentum to spin him around for one revolution before landing gracefully in the ring.

The crowd cheers when the first fighter comes out. Once Aranha is in the ring, the nod is given to the punk princess. Over the speaker-system comes a new Femme Fatale song, and the crowd starts cheering. Who says you can't use Neo League to promote yourself? Sure, it's a dirty, underhanded thing to do, but it's free publicity, right?

Running down in front of the ring, she dances along to show herself off to the crowd. Stopping in the center of the stage she blows kisses out to them and to the camera. Then she sashays her way up to her side of the ring, and slips through between the bottom and middle rope.

Popping her neck side to side, she smirks at her opponent.

"Ready to foight then?"

Aranha cracks his neck as the Femme Fatale song is pumped through the sound system Aranha is silent as she lets her get her moment in the limelight. After she's done blowing kisses to the fans Aranha steps forward to the center as he answers her smirk with a smile of his own.

As an answer to Arika's question, "Oh yeah." After that he steps back letting himself have enough room to sway and dance as he lets her come in.

COMBATSYS: Aranha has started a fight here.

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Aranha           0/-------/-------|


COMBATSYS: Arika has joined the fight here.

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Arika            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Aranha


As they prepare to fight, the music cuts off. Why? Music gives her opponent the advantage. That, and it's much easier for the crowd to enjoy the show if they're not distracted by sound pumping from the speakers.

When the reply to her question comes, a bell dings. *DING-DING*.

And the punk princess is off her feet, running to the center of the ring. Coming close to him, she sends out a quick, poppy jab toward his face.

COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Arika's Jab Punch.

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Arika            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Aranha


Aranha raises his forearm as the fist comes slipping to the side as the fist connects with his scar covered arm instead of his face. The capoeirista then spins around the rock star as she moves to draw back her fist.

With him position right at her side, he slips his leg right behind both of hers as he places his elbow right on her abdomen. Using his elbow for leverage, he pops his hips upwards right under hers and throws her onto her back.

COMBATSYS: Arika blocks Aranha's Quick Throw.

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Arika            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Aranha


The throw goes off without much of a hitch, but as she's about to hit her back she twists herself into a roll to stop it from hurting -too- much. With a grunt of frustration, Arika pushes herself up into a crouched position. Popping her neck to the side again, she grins at him.

"So, thought 'bout the fed at all?"

May as well talk shop while things are off to a slow start.

Springing up from the crouch, she twists her body around in a full circle. It looks as though she's about to kick him, but at the last second she attempts to latch her legs around his midsection and flip him over to the side of the ring.

COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Arika's Medium Throw.

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Arika            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Aranha


Aranha moves quickly upon seeing the Diva about to latch onto him with her legs. Instead of being caught Aranha leaps up and over his opponent landing in a handstand with a smile like the Cheshire Cat plastered on his face as he looks at his opponent. "As I was telling Domino, let me know when it's ready and I'm there."

That's the only moment he gives Arika to breathe since he twists himself around as he drops out of the handstand his heel poised to drop on her head if she doesn't move in time.

COMBATSYS: Arika fails to counter Change-Up Kick from Aranha with Diva Allegro.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Arika            0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0           Aranha


A few seconds to breath, and the diva is hitting the ground and kicking back to her feet. Drat. Arika was positive she had that throw. He's quicker than she remembered. Spying him twist around, she prepares to jab him off course. Overshooting her desired target, she drops forward a little and his feet crash right against her head.

"Damnit! Bloody 'ard to 'old a conversation while foightin'... we'll talk after the match..."

Upon landing the heel upon her head Aranha is back in motion performing a back handspring followed by a backflip with a twist to gain some distance and the twist provided the momentum needed for him to perform a spin upon landing all of it culminating with his arm whipping out as it sends a blue spider web of chi right for the diva.

It's important for one to note that he doesn't know whether it'll stick to her or impact against her but either way his has something in mind. And does the fact that he's near the ropes have anything to fdo with it?

COMBATSYS: Arika blocks Aranha's Web Shot.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Arika            0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0           Aranha


It's sad, really, that the diva is doing so poorly in her own ring. She's determined not to take it to heart though. Win or lose, this is definitely going to publicize the club as well as her band. Free publicity is good publicity, even if it's showing her subpar fighting. Besides, things are early yet. There's a chance she can turn them around in her favor, right?

Well, if she's intending on turning things around, she's got to start doing it soon. As such, she gets her arms up in front of face in order to stop the blue webby energy from crashing against her. But it seems to be clingy. It doesn't dissipate like normal energy might, and it leaves a sticky feeling on her arms.

"Okay, ew?"

Gross. Really, really gross.

Rubbing her hands down over her arms, trying to rid herself of the sticky feeling, Arika frowns. What to do. What to... well maybe...

Running toward him, she attempts to take hold of his waistband and flip him up and over her hip to land him on the mat.

COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Quick Throw from Arika with Strong Kick.

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Arika            0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0           Aranha


"Weird," Aranha muses as he watches the punk Rocker's reaction to the energy web and it's stickiness. "It's been doing that a lot lately." It's his only concession to the fact that it wasn't completely expected for that to happen.

As Aranha watches Arika reach for his waist band it becomes very clear that whatever he had in mind to follow the Web Shot wasn't quite going to work out. Aranha, to his credit is capable of adapting to the situation at hand though and he reaches out for the ropes to keep from being thrown like she originally wanted. The strain of resisting is hard on his arms but then he glances down at her grip and the precarious position his pants are in. As a result he swings up a leg with a powerful kick to the chin to encourage her to release his waist band before he gets pantsed on live TV.

"Well make it not do tha--" And her toss doesn't go at all according to plan. He's grabbing ropes, straining his body and slamming a foot into her chin. THWOCK! The force of the kick is hard enough to stagger her backward, causing her to release her hold on him.

He hit. Her face. Arika scowls. She was trying to keep things light. Maybe not playful but at least light. Her bad for not pushing herself to fight her best. Gotta change that.

Feet begin to glide along the mat. Sliding as she works her way back to him. The movements are odd. Not at all normal. Suddenly she twirls herself into a three-sixty, and sends a snappy roundhouse kick toward his stomach.

COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Arika's Rhythmic Roundhouse.

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Arika            0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0           Aranha


Aranha finally releases the rope when she staggers back. He would like to respond to the make it not do that remark but now isn't the time to do so. Especially, with her scowling. It's then he remembers that in the Jinchuu tournament she was particularly sensitive about shots above the neck.

In a way Aranha can understand but there are two things that keep him from truly empathizing. There's the fact that he comes from a fighting style where there's a tendency for kicks to be high and philosophy of if you got kicked in the head it's your own damn fault. Secondly, there's the fact Aranha spent most of his life on the streets where worrying about your face too much got your everything stomped in.

He waits for the kick to come in before he rocks backward with his arm catching the impact of the kick before he spins and pushes back forward with a side kick to the stomach.

COMBATSYS: Arika blocks Aranha's Medium Kick.

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Arika            0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0           Aranha


Hands quickly cross down in front of her, stopping the foot from ramming into her stomach. Mind you, her arms are going to be hellishly bruised after this, but it beats having the damage done to her abdomen.

Once she stops the kick from pushing her back, her arms drop to her sides. There's a second's pause, and she's suddenly hopping backward onto the ropes. Gripping for a nearby turnbuckle, Arika shoots her arms up into the air and then grins. Using the ropes to bounce herself upward, she flips her body over and attempts to crash into him with a splash.

COMBATSYS: Arika successfully hits Aranha with Medium Throw.

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Arika            0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0           Aranha


For someone who lives and dies by utilizing movements like that, one would think Aranha would be able to avoid something like that. Nope. Aranha is caught flat-footed off of his side kick and is splashed upon bringing him crashing to the mat with a mighty and meaty thud.

Aranha doesn't return the favor though. He's too busy pulling himself out of the tangle of bodies to attack right away though when he's free he stares at the rocker looking for opportunities.

COMBATSYS: Aranha focuses on his next action.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Arika            0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0           Aranha


Rolling to the side as he starts to draw out of the body-splash, Arika smirks. Even if she doesn't turn things around, she at least got one decent hit in. While it doesn't leave her feeling -great-, it at least leaves her with the feeling that she hasn't lost the fight entirely.

With him busy staring at her, the punk princess pulls herself up to her feet. A hand drops back to rub at her shoulder, making herself look vulnerable. It doesn't last long, however. Lunging at him, she tries to crack him on the chin with a double-fisted uppercut.

COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Arika's Medium Punch.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arika            0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0           Aranha


Aranha does not for one moment buy the whole vulnerable act. Especially since she has already beaten him in the past. No, he plans on going all out during this fight.

First Aranha has to deal with the Punk Princess' attack. While confident in his ability to avoid the attack, Aranha plays it safe, deciding to cross his forearms in front of the pair of fists instead. Aranha dances backwards for just a few moments before he leaps forward in a rapid spin, a kick could lash out at any moment while he's in the air.

COMBATSYS: Arika dodges Aranha's Colossal Kick.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arika            0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1           Aranha


But the kick from the air never comes. Instead he lands on the ground out of the spin before twisting himself in the opposite direction to whip around a spinning back heel kick to the side of the head. Realizing mid kick that she didn't quite react the way he was expecting her to.

The fact that her reaction was so surprising is a good thing. Why? Because it means she's not as predictable as some might have her believe. One or two tricks up her sleeve (or lack there of) still. And so it is that the punk princess manages to duck out of the way of the rapid spin-kick that was intended for her head.

From her oddly ducked position, Arika watches him. Her head stays low, in case he decides to aim another kick at her, but she utilizes the position to her advantage. Twisting to the side, she drops her shoulder down a bit. Throwing herself toward him, she angles her shoulder for his midsection and then immediately attempts to grab him about the waist, flip him upside down and drop him on his head. A somewhat modified version of a piledriver? Well she's not really sure what one would call it, but she's executing it regardless.

COMBATSYS: Aranha fails to interrupt Strong Throw from Arika with Malicia.
- Power fail! -

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Arika            1/-------/=======|=======\===----\1           Aranha


Aranha had something else planned when she came forward and grabbed him. Unfortunately the diva was too quick for him and instead of lashing out with a glowing blue kick on the top of her dome like he originally planned he only manages ineffectual flailing with blurs of blue chi engulfed feet before getting driven hard into the ground. In fact, his flailing might've made it worse.

Oh, thank -GOD- she avoided the energized feet. The punk princess has enough trouble with his feet normally, without the added power of chi. Since he's down on the mat, Arika just waits.

A second passes.

Two.

Her foot lashes out toward his ribs. Nothing special or glitzy about the kick, just a straightforward kick, the type any frustrated child is wont to make when they want ice cream and are told no. Though... Arika's kick likely has a little bit more power behind it than a spoiled child's...

COMBATSYS: Arika successfully hits Aranha with Light Kick.

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Arika            1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1           Aranha


Aranha's too disoriented from the impact of the grappling move to do anything about it. Not roll out of the way or take it to set a move up or to block it for that matter. The kick causes him to roll over before he slowly rises to his feet.

His lips curl into a smile and then all of a sudden he darts forward and lets his kicks go.

If Arika was concerned about those glowing feet before, then she really has a reason to be worried. Aranha whips spinning kick after spinning kick each engulfed with blue chi as he attempts to bombard the Punk Princess with attacks and then tilting over into a handstand to finish with a series of spinning handstand kicks likewise lit with blue glowing energy.

COMBATSYS: Arika fails to counter Royal Flush from Aranha with Dominant Diva.
- Power fail! -

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Arika            0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Aranha


Arika is still concerned about those glowing feet. It's not that she hates the use of energy, per se, but she definitely dislikes it being used on -her-. That being said, she attempts to skirt behind him and lock him up for her abdominal claw.

Just as she's about to get behind him, she's hit with the first of his kicks. The first one knocks her back a step, and before she can prepare for any successive kicks there's another coming at her, then another. These finally wind up pushing her clear across the ring. Thankfully this means out of range, but he looks like he's done hammering his feet against her body.

By now, her body is feeling the effects of the fight. It's been a difficult one, but she's not giving up yet. Panting, she sets her hands to her knees and takes deep gasps of air.

The glow of energy fades from the Dancing Spider's feet as he tilts out of the handstand. Landing gracefully on the ground the capoeirista begins to sway and weave to the beat of a song that only he can hear.

That short moment is only respite Aranha is allowing for the Diva to have before he's on the offensive again hopping forward as he thrusts a front kick at her abdomen before leaning into a back bridge and then throwing his hips up over his shoulders before flipping over at a distance from her.

COMBATSYS: Arika dodges Aranha's Medium Kick.

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Arika            0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Aranha


The short moment of respite is all she needs. He hops forward to thrust the kick at her and she's busily dropping herself to the mat to avoid the foot. From her position on the mat, she looks out at the crowd. And she smiles. No clue how much longer she'll be able to avoid the Capoeirista's attacks, but damned if she's not going to try her best.

The crowd is cheering like crazy at the fight, not seeming to care who wins, just enjoying the brutality of certain moves. Leave it to the crowd, right?

Arika picks herself up off of the mat, rushing at Aranha again. This time, she sends a quick jab for his chin. As the hand is drawn back toward her, her left hand is already beginning to glow with a bright violet hue. Energy engulfs her hand and arm as she shoots it forward in a palmheel strike designed to hit him in the stomach, hopefully with enough force to push him against the ropes.

COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Arika's Diva Allegro.

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Arika            0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Aranha


As the glowing palm heel strike makes a b-line for Aranha's torso the capoeirista tilts into a cartwheel that not only takes him out of the path of the attack it places him right at Arika's flank.

When he touches the ground he all of a sudden, drops to all fours and hooks his heel upwards swinging it up at the back of her head with a kick that would remind a person of a scorpion's tail striking at person.

COMBATSYS: Arika blocks Aranha's Light Kick.

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Arika            0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Aranha


Shades of violet simmer to a dull glowing purple and finally fizzle out completely when the capoeirista manages to flip out of the way of her attack.

The cartwheel gets a noticeable grumble from Arika. Come on! She knows she can hit people! She's good at hitting people! It's what she trains to do in her spare time! Alas, she'll just have to concede that some people are harder to hit than others.

Despite the fact that he's aiming a scorpion-sting type kick to the back of her head, she manages to twirl about in time in order to take it to the forearm instead. Yet another bruise to add to her collection from this fight.

Since her arm is already up, she swings it down and around in an attempt to angle a good hook-punch at him and perhaps knock him toward a turnbuckle.

COMBATSYS: Arika successfully hits Aranha with Medium Punch.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Arika            0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0           Aranha


Aranha is little more than a hapless victim. As he raises head, Arika's fist comes right down upon it smashing him face first into the mat.

He slowly pulls his face off the ground leaving a pool of blood where his face was. He flashes Arika a bloodied smile and then he does something that ought to be familiar to her. He pulls himself into a handstand whirling around like a helicopter. Difference is that there are no kicks as a precursor to this series, and no blue chi coming from them. Of course if one should still hit, Arika's going to end up joining him on the ground when he finally collapses out of the move.

COMBATSYS: Aranha can no longer fight.

[                       \\\\\\\  <
Arika            0/-------/=======|


COMBATSYS: Arika dodges Aranha's Inverted Tornado.

[                       \\\\\\\  <
Arika            0/-------/=======|


Oh... snap.

The punch was thrown hard, Arika's aware, but she wasn't expecting to put -that- much force behind it. Then again, it -is- her ring, and while she's not exactly all about the winning she does want to make a good show of it.

She'll have to apologize off-camera later though.

The weird handstand gives away his move, kind of. She's not precisely sure what he's intending, but the punk princess knows enough to know that when he pulls up like that it means feet, and usually very punishing and unforgiving kicks are on their way.

So she dives out of the way. Sure it's cowardly, in a sense. Then again, she's trying to survive.

When he collapses, she scrambles back to her feet. After nudging him with a boot to make sure he's staying down, she walks toward the ropes at the front of the ring, and thrusts her fists up into the air. She did it!

Blowing another kiss out toward the crowd, she waves and the stage curtains drop.

It's not much in the way of a spectacular victory claim, but the cameras got what they needed. Really, someone needs to come up into the ring and mop up the blood before it seeps into the mat too.

Otherwise... ew.

COMBATSYS: Arika has ended the fight here.

Log created on 20:01:26 06/11/2008 by Aranha, and last modified on 01:39:45 06/13/2008.