Kula - Day 12 - In Memoriam...

Description: "Dear Diary, They're all dead. All except Snowflake. She isn't so white anymore though, covered with that boy's blood. I tried to clean her but it doesn't seem to be coming out. We're going to pretend that she got mauled in an epic battle against a polar bear that left her scarred for life. K9999 destroyed my room, including the shades I got from K' and everything else I had ever brought home. We tried to have a funeral for them all, but it was difficult to find enough pieces of most of them to have anything to bury. So we just had a moment of silence while the cleaners cleaned out my room. I managed to convince everyone he was just acting crazy for now. But I can tell he knows he's on to something. I might be in a lot of trouble. For now, farewell to Sir Flopsalot the rabbit, Fluffinhiemer the dog, Sebastian the pig, Chancellor Muggs the monkey, Basker the iguana..."



When not being toted around for sanctioned fights, or flown to the far ends of the earth to engage in NESTs operations, Kula Diamond is almost always tucked away at some base or other. Not precisely a prisoner... for unlike the experiences of her flame wielding predecessor, she isn't kept in a cage. No locked door bars her room, and the young thing is free to meander throughout the base. She doesn't know if she could simply walk outside because in the two short years of her life, she has never tried. The thought of leaving has never crossed her mind.

When on a mission she is ruthless, cold, indifferent to those whom she is sent to hunt. But within the confines of the base, the girl is different. Whimsical, stuck entertaining herself for hours in the recreation area or hidden away in her room engaged in lively conversations or faux tea parties with her countless stuffed animals, it could be hard to match the light hearted girl up with the killer some have seen on the outside.

Today isn't terribly different. Morning spent engaged in training exercises under the direction of scientists using the latest fight data from her recent matches to improve her combat algorithms, only to be left alone for the next couple of hours until the afternoon testing will resume. Returning to her room, the violet leather clad agent doesn't walk alone. Tucked under one arm is a medium sized, plushie penguin - blue in the places where he should be black, his beak frozen closed, his eyes forever fixed in a regal stare.

There may be no sun indoors, but that doesn't keep her from having donned the pair of dark black shades the moment she's alone in the hall, where she thinks no one will notice. Too large for her, they stay precariously perched on her nose, ready to slant to the side at the slightest disturbance, but the girl doesn't seem to care in the slightest. Her walk down the hall takes on an almost skipping nature, right up until she comes to a stop outside a solid metal door.

Holding up the penguin in front of her, the girl lowers her face just a little, peeking over the shades back at him, "Well, you can wear them, I suppose. But you have to be willing to share turns with everyone else, okay?" Her hand comes up, drawing the glasses off, only to perch them right on the penguin's beak, eliciting a grin from the long haired youth. "That's a good fit, Baron Pontmercy, but I think they still look better on me."

Her right hand extends, pressing against a panel next to her door, causing the metal barrier to slide to the side with a hydraulic hiss. And with that, she steps into her room - a veritable miniture auditorum of plushed animals lined all around the walls, observing from shelves, dropping down from the ceiling via small hooks, canvasing her bed, or laying seige to her closet doors. Animals of all sizes, colors, and kinds. "Don't be jealous, everyone," Kula remarks as she plants the Baron down on the end of her bed, "Everyone will get a turn," she explains calmly, slipping the shades off his beak to twirl them in her hand idly.

It's been some days. Or maybe it was weeks...K9999 being the detailed kind of individual that he was clearly didn't bother to read the date the report had been made, only knowing that it had been filed long before he'd managed to dredge it up after being informed in passing by one of the lab assistants who'd been responsible for the...painful return of his cloven arm. It had taken sometime to have one regrown, and the process itself by its own nature used K9999's unatural abillity to suddenly reproduce cells in tissue. This time in a controlled setting, no fight. Waking the attribute outside of one had seen several long minutes and hours of experimentation and...howling. K9999 had to be awake for every second of it.
Subconsciously K9999 flexed his fingers within the blue armourlike covering of his right hand. He hated Ryouhara. He hated the fact he'd been unable to destroy him in their meeting-- the fight, what a sham. His loss had been embarrasing, the fact that he'd also had his arm removed from him-- that...that kind of shame was difficult to get rid off. Not only the disparaging looks of his so called comrades in NESTs, but himself. The icing on the cake had been he'd also had his precious motorcycle, perhaps one of the few things the clone treated with care and reverence that bordered on the love a parent might have for a child...brutally massacred in an explosion. It got his attention, and Seishirou had earned K9999's unadultered hate.
The ninja didn't sit at the top of the list, but he was near the top. That number one position was still filled, by that run away experiment...
Back to the present, K9999 was walking down the sterile hallways of the NESTS base, headed for where he knew Kula's room to be. Someone at field testing had mentioned she'd retreated for a break, and it was where she'd likely be. A firm frown fixed itself on the sullen boy's face, crimson eyes glaring at the open area before him. Kula in the report had been assigned to complete retribution for the insult cast at NESTs through K9999's battering, and she had done so successfully where he had failed. Albiet without actually killing Seishirou.
He felt a mixture of emotions about that. He wanted to be the only one to return the pleasure-- but he felt some satisfaction that Kula would have left his body more than just bruised... K9999 was still struggling with this indecision when he broached Kula's open doorway, the youth filling it. "Kula--" No knocking, nothing, he just stepped right on into her personal territory, showing just how well socialised the clone was. He struggled with what could have been the beginning of some kind of belated congratulations, barely winning out over a tirade of her sticking her nose where it didn't belong, when he caught sight of what she was...doing.
Toys. Everywhere...and on the face of one--
He stared. Mouth slightly ajar.

She is almost never visited in her room, almost never checked on. Few throughout the base even consider her human. Many were there when the genetic material was assembled, the splicing completed, the lab-born life created, and haven't come to view her any differently than the experiment that started a few years ago. She shows up when she's supposed to, to the lab, the training facilities, to dinner, and responds to summons outside of her daily schedule with prompt attention. Thus the room the young man steps into has been visited by so very few before.

A soft gasp is heard as Kula whirls around. A blur of motion, then her hands are held behind her back, clutching the distinctive sun glasses anyone who had seen K' in person for long would immediately recognize. Violet eyes stare back at the boy, widened slightly, mouth agape. She recovers quickly, if not convincingly, finally speaking up, "O-oh, ah, did you want to play too?" she asks, stepping over to the side, keeping her back away from him as she attempts to leave the shades on a shelf, hidden behind the leg of a humble, one-eyed sock monkey - having lost the other button eye some time ago.

"Maybe you would like to meet Sebastion," she points out readily, stepping forward to sweep a pink plushie pig off another shelf. Pristine clean and adorned with a red cape draped over his back, the pig stares back at K9999 as Kula holds him out toward the boy in both hands. "Here. I bet you two will get along well!" she declares with confidence.

In sharp contrast to Kula's room, K9999...had little to no decorations in there. He didn't spend his time in his room, he hated it. The four walls was more of a reminder of the jail he was consigned too-- oh, he could leave, he could go where he wanted within the base itself and even beyond. It just reminded him how futile it was to try and do as the fugitives had. Were K9999 to ever try to leave the organisation forever, it would be worse. So much more worse...which only made it more frustrating K''s foolish belief that he had the option of just walking away. That kind of belief, it was enough to drive him into a rage just thinking about it. And not one wall alone showed signs of the clone having lost it, even briefly. The prized posessions of K9999 was out in the garage areas, he barely slept in the room.
Another time K9999 may have gwaked a little longer at the extensive personalisation Kula had gone through to make her little piece of NESTs a reflection of what was stifled within her. Toys treated with love and hopeful friendship, a fantasy of a life she couldn't have parading about in her head as she planned to moved the shades from one to the other... The shades was all he saw beyond the initial glance, that was what robbed the rest of his words.
And utterly upturned his emotions. Just like that.
"What is this?" Spoken so deceptively soft, K9999 wasn't known to speak quietly, but there he had. One had to listen closely to hear it. Looking down at the toy when she scrambled to hide the offending item, his face shadowed. Surely he could tell it was a pink pig, the cape kind of like what he had.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!!" His yell exploding out from nowhere, he lashed the back of his hand out with enough force to send the hapless big careening into a wall, pushing foward forcefully, trying to get past Kula. He'd shove her out of his way if she tried, his sole aim to get at shades on the shelf. Snatching at it, tumbling the sock monkey he whirled like some titan from ages old on the other NESTs experiment. Holding it up like a prize, holding it up like damnation about to befall all before him...his fingers tightened, and the shades strained within his grip. All thought about attempting such a thing as comraderie was gone, there was only the flare of abject hatred in his eyes, his teeth gritted and all of that frustration falling largely on the one who should never have had it.
She had precious seconds to explain.
...An explanation, which honestly wouldn't matter. In his mind, Kula had sold NESTs out to the enemy, in his mind she'd betrayed any trust.
K9999 got upset easily about certain things, see.

The forest of stuffed animals, plastic figurines, small trinkets and keychain characters stare back at the invading K9999. The two projects had never gotten along. A fact Kula had not spent much time trying to figure out. All she knew is that the boy seemed always angry, and it always seemed to be her fault whenever they were in the same vicinity. Thus this more calm visit has her caught off guard. Did he come about Seishirou? Did he see those secretive sun glasses she had kept hidden until she thought she was alone? What drew him here? Maybe he was lonely like her and just wanted a friend? She could be that, along with all her 'friends' in the room.

But as she holds out the stuffed pig, hoping that he'll take Sebastian and keep that unusual calm with which he entered. They could be cape-buddies. It would be swell. She doesn't understand his first question. His voice, too low, too soft, unnaturally so for K9999, it doesn't make sense at first. But his potential stuffed pal is sent careening across the room, crashing against the wall then dropping onto another pile of animals. "I can find you another one. Don't be angry!"

The shock in the fellow operative's eyes is impossible to miss as she takes a step backward, hands coming up defensively. He darts forward and she moves to get in his way a moment too late, resulting in her being knocked aside easily as he finishes his charge. The yell leaves her ears ringing, the shove leaves her wincing wincing, eyes closed for a moment before opening slowly to come to rest on the boy, finding him standing there with those sun glasses creaking, near the crushing point in his strong grip.

"Don't-" she protests, hand extending, still glove-clad from her training just minutes before. "Don't break them!" she exclaims, her voice raised, taking a step toward him, a horrified look on her face. "Those are mine! I took them!"

"No they're NOT!" Yelling at the top of his lungs, K9999 snapped back as she protested. He didn't know which one pissed him off more, the fact that the shades belonged to K', the fact that she didn't want them broken-- or the /fact/ that she just /ordered/ him not too. Not exactly a winning combination either way it was looked at. The clone was a veritable reservoire of rage with very little outlet but the fighting he was employed in. No one had bothered to do much to see that the rapidly grown experiment had had a chance to learn other aspects of what it was to be human-- there were very few members of NESTs who would think too. And only one who might have had some modicum of noticable success...
But Kula wasn't her. And she'd done the wrong thing at the wrong time by ordering him to not do what he wanted, to something owned by a man he despised the most.
"They're his, THEY'RE FUCKING HIS!" Refusing to say his name, K9999 like the brat he was threw the shades to the floor where it barely had a chance to hit before he slammed the bottom of his boot on it. The crunch and crack of the frame and lenses shattering was audible in the silence of his roar. Already the tension in the room had rocketed, as did the level of energy building within the boy.
"So this is what you do in here, are you friends of his?" Pointing an accusing finger at Kula, he wasn't thinking clearly, were he the logical sort he could be convinced that she'd beaten him in a fight and claimed it as a prize...Hell, that could have been the real events, but already K9999 was beyond any point of rationalism. Or caring. "Don't /lie/ to me!" He stepped closer, "Are you going to betray NESTs and run away JUST LIKE HE DID?" That...that--
He spun and grabbed a hold of the shelfing, ripping it right off the wall and threw it aside, toys tumbling right before the force of chi smashed into he remains. It shook the air as his signature move reverberated, the poor animals and figures, some tearing before the onslaught as parts went arcing. "You're hiding more, /aren't you/!!" He'd tear her room apart to find it...

COMBATSYS: K9999 has started a fight here.

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K9999            0/-------/-------|


He responds to her request with a yell, causing Kula to recoil, hands coming up to rest over her ears as she bunkers down, looking afraid, reminded of all the times she's seemed to draw his ire without even doing anything that she could think of. There is no anger in the girl, only trepidation, fear at what she's started right here in her room. "No, no," she replies, her voice more quiet now, her tone increasing in desperation, "Don't break them. They're mine!" she repeats again, lowering her hands to step forward, right arm extended.

But the raging youth will have nothing of it, slamming the shades to the floor and ending their existence with a glass crushing stomp that leaves Kula frozen in position, her violet eyes wide, her arm still extended out in vain. Slowly, ever so slowly, she lowers her arm to rest against her side, standing up straight, her mouth frozen in a neutral, tight lipped expression, trembling slightly as she finds herself filled with uncertain emotions regarding this destruction of something important to her. "How could you..." she whispers.

But then he continues, relentless in his accusing, asking if she's a friend of /his/. K''s. The young man she was so carefully engineered to slay. "N-no..." But he steps closer, menacing with his fury alone, and the girl takes a retreating step backward. She shows no signs of striking back, no intent to defend herself, to draw on that power she holds. The thought hasn't even crossed her mind. Her chi is a weapon to be put to use at NESTs beck and call. It isn't something for her to use when she's angry. Even threatened, she is slow to draw upon it unless she absolutely must. But his attacks are only verbal, so far, as he prepares to lash out at her toys instead of her directly, just like a tantruming child might do when they feel they haven't garnered enough attention through loud shouting alone.

He asks if she is going to run away and she begins to shake her head. "No. Never! How could you say that!" she exclaims back, hands tightening, gloves creaking as she clenches her small fists. But he isn't listening. She can't get through now. And then it comes. The most horrifying thing anyone has ever done in her short life time. He rips at the nearest shelf, taking it out of the wall, sending small plastic figurines and models crashing to their demise, shreading stuffed animals with the chi he unleashes in his frenzied attack. Chancellor Muggs is going to have more than a missing button eye to worry about as one of his stuffing filled arms plops against Kula's chest before falling to the ground.

The girl is frozen in place, her face more pale than normal, looking for all intents and purposes to be lost in abject shock. Fluffenhimer's severed plushy dog head crashes into the monocoled face of President Jackaroo - a white bunny in a fancy black vest, taking the rabbit down to the floor into the pile of carnage and thrashed animal parts. Stuffing falls through the air like so much confetti, some of it coming to rest on the petrified Kula's shoulders.

Tears force their way out of the corners of her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as she stands by, leaving the young man free to reign with terror and wind chi in her little empire of animal kind. She just never thought about it before - using that vast power of hers in anger, to enforce what little will she has, or to defend something important to her. She had seen it in others - that defiance, that determination to fend her off from their friends, to protect those important to them even in the face of her horrific attacks. But she had never experienced such a feeling before.

But that changes. And when it does, it comes in an instant. Something snaps inside. Anger, unbridled, her chi demanding to be put to use in defense of her subjects, her only friends in the world, to stop the massacre before it can go any further. A violet blur marks her sudden movement. Her hair, auburn locks an eyeblink ago, now a frosty blue, as she bears in on the young man. "Don't you TOUCH THEM!" she shrieks.

The assault is savage. Both arms coming in swiftly, each hand laced with a sheath of jagged, sharp, armor along her forearms. Three inch long spikes jut out over her knuckles as she swings for the boy's side, deliberately attempting to strike with such savage power as to put a decisive end to this. This stops now. Of that she is determined.

She doesn't even stop with one strike, but rather spins into a frenzy of kicks, attempting to pound K9999 against the wall with the same kind of viciousness she has brought to bear against many an opponent in the past. Attacking him not as an ally but an enemy. Each swing of her hands, each kick or knee is laced with jagged, flesh rending ice, thirsty for blood, eager to be put to use in a way the girl has never fought before in this rare moment of frenzied anger and panic.

COMBATSYS: Kula has joined the fight here.

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Kula             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0            K9999


COMBATSYS: K9999 Toughs Out Kula's Strong Kick!

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Kula             0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0            K9999


The remains of the what had instigated this whole mess lay forgotten and scattered on the floor, now instead bits of stuffing and extreamities from Kula's collection joined it...moments before she snapped. So involved with his search, K9999 almost failed to notice the sudden change in temperament-- and he only /did/ take note because she'd /dared/ to hell back at him instead of taking it! Imagine, in the wrong and strongly denying any responsibility for her actions, the travesty. Still holding onto some beanie, it looked like a seal if K9999 had ever watched descovery channel, a fluffy baby in the grip of a horror, when he turned to see the girl launch herself at him.
He'd seen this before, though the attitude had been different. This, this anger was more like his own, raw, primal, and most definately seeking some sort of retribution. This he understood, not any of that 'friendship' crap from before. The danger was clear, Kula was being serious but that didn't stop K9999, make him pause to take stock of where he'd made a mistake.
This was all her fault. This...was all /HIS/.
The first hit knocked the breath out of K9999, tearing into his shirt straight to flesh, and he hunkered down into himself as the kicks clove into him. Blood already stained his clothing, the slick warmth lost admist the pain exploding into his body as he walled himself in, his arms were up absorbing some of the strikes-- but through his lip curling snarl...he was grinning. Drinking it all in.
"Fuck you," oh yes, he let it all feed into his own emotions, the chi building through out surging into sudden prominance. "and FUCK HIM, I'll KILL YOU ALL!!!" It wouldn't be the same without K9999 threatning as much, but he had more than a bite behind such threats. Throwing himself foward towards Kula, he crushed the beanie baby ruthlessly as a rose-red and white swhirl of energy snapped into existence about the boy, tearing into anything nearby and adding cracks, shearing plaster, metal, any and everything that made up the wall to Kula's room.
Even if she managed to thwart the uncontrolled attack, the objects were helpless to escape. Only adding oil to the fire, K9999 and Kula both were two experiments way past reasoning.
...Outside, the tremors not unlike an earthquake ran through the living quarters.

COMBATSYS: K9999 successfully hits Kula with Moon....

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Kula             0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0            K9999


She attacks relentlessly, without slowing, until at last she stumbles back a couple of steps, gasping for breath. Normally the air around her is frigid cold when she's broken the seals to unleash the magnitude of chi control needed for fighting, but the intensity within the room, the heated anger all but negates it. It doesn't prevent those glistening streaks on her cheeks from having frozen solid, however, remaining as twin frozen trails of sparkling ice.

That wasn't enough though. She saw his grin, that smirk. He was taking all of her attacks and rather than stopping him, he was being invigorated by them. As if her violent lashing out merely justified, legitimized his actions, fueling him on to retaliate. His words are heard, but the girl doesn't recoil to the shouts this time. The threats draw no reaction from her as she pants for breath, a whirlwind of frigid, white chi swirling about both of her arms.

Only when he moves does she react. She hears nothing, sees only attacks, a boy that must be stopped by any means necessary. She steps forward, intending to meet his charge, but that swirl of thrashing energy unleashed forces her to stop, backing up defensively.

A hand comes up, attempting to stop the assault with a thin barrier of hastily forged ice, but it isn't enough. Sliced clean through, the angry chi cuts into her directly, slashing through her shoulder, shreading the protective leather jacket along the sleeve and smashing her against the wall behind her back. A rent is left from shoulder to hip, at an angle, the girl gaping a little as the risidual pain inflicted by the boy's chi racks her body before she can fight back with her own aura.

Ignoring the thin red trail of blood forming at her carved shoulder, Kula brings her hands up, what few shelves were still standing nearby K9999 cascading to the ground into a shattered pile of debris. Pushing herself off the wall, stepping over the bisected form of Sir Winston, black cat extraordinaire, advancing back on K9999. "Why did you do this..." she whispers, her right hand tightening, arm trembling, the energy churning over it congealing into a sphere of translucent ice encasing her fist; solid as steel yet as fluid as water to her touch.

"They didn't do anything to you... they didn't hurt you..." She draws her hand up, bending at the elbow, holding the sphere aloft for a moment. "But I will!!" The girl leans forward, extending her right arm, the sphere of ice over her fist morphing, the side nearest K9999 transforming into three long lances of ice that slam out, attempting to skewer him through. Each lance varies in length, each one equally deadly. The backlash of energy being manipulated drives her hair out behind her back, blowing off the frozen tears into a trail of diamonds that fall to the floor.

She strikes with the kind of force necessary to punch those spears of ice straight through the wall. And if that means lancing K9999 through in the process, the furious child doesn't seem to mind in the slightest.

COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits K9999 with Critical Ice.

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Kula             0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0            K9999


Kula, oh Kula...she still failed to understand. K9999 didn't care about the toys, he didn't care that they were so precious to her-- possibly the only friends she could envision. They were just clutter in the wrong place and time to be broken, to be stepped on and smashed as an outlet. Give him a choice of her face to beat in, and the toys, he'd have gone for her face. It wasn't personal there...for him, she'd crossed the line first by bringing in one of those /wretched/ man's belongings.
She never did answer him properly, so she'd taken it. Asking him about why the toys was a waste of time. Not when his mind was running wild with theories for her actions-- and none of them were exactly painting her in a positive light. K9999 had a failing of seeing the worst in people and their motivations, the irony was, he wouldn't be neededly paranoid for once. It'd be a case of shepherd calling wolf however, for Kula's never shown any intent to stray.
And he'd very well destroyed evidence to the contrary!
K9999 shook his head, running his fingers through the wild mess as if to clear it from her nonsensical words. "Shut UP ALREADY about the fucking TOYS!" One still in his hand, he glanced at it with a sneer. The one pure white seal was dirtied with dust, and before long it'd add a splash of crimson to that...when Kula lashed out with her sharp literal retort. It took the clone full on in the chest, throwing him back against the wall that was threatning to collapse further in on itself, pieces of it already showing the unsuspecting room beyond it. "AUUGHDGK!!" A gurgle that bubbled up blood from his lips.
He clutched at the lance of blood slicked ice, digging his fingers into its hardened surface. "B-bitch!" Spitting a glob of blood onto the ground. He suddenly wrenched his hands and snapped off the weapon, wresting it out of him as he collapsed to a knee. Emotions were running wild, and though K9999 was losing blood at an alarming rate, he showed no signs of giving up. "I'm right, I KNOW I'M RIGHT!" Lurching upwards, ready for more!

COMBATSYS: K9999 gathers his will.

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Kula             0/-------/---====|=======\=------\1            K9999


Nothing is going like Kula would like. Even lashing out at K9999 provides her with no amount of grim satisfaction. It's just that she sees no other choice but to attack him with her violent style, no inclination to hold back or soften the ruthless nature of her potentially leathal attacks. She had held back against a few people here and there, avoiding the blades, going for blunt force rather than skewering, razor sharp spikes. But for K9999 there is no holding back. All of the few animals that have yet to suffer the boy's wrath are counting on her now!

He tells her to shut up about the toys but they're all she can think about. Having collected them over the course of her short two years of life, almost every outing would result in a new friend for the party. Occasionally Angel would gift her a 'rare find' when returning from her travels as well. To have all that undone in a single violent tantrum from the other clone leaves the girl blinded, her calm composure replaced with desperation as for the first time in her life someone is attacking something important to /her/ rather than the other way around.

The chi made manifest immediately around her is menacing, a point blank whirlwind of swirling ice, white, freezing cold chi, and snow flakes that scatter to the floor in the wake of her motions. Her hair is tousled by an unseen wind that shouldn't exist so deep underground as Kula clenches her hands at her sides, standing up straight as she glares back at K9999.

"Be quiet!!" she snaps back with unusual vehemence. "You don't know anything at all!" Crimson eyes widen as neither seems to be approaching anything resembling calm or rational conversation as this exchange progresses. When she moves forward, it is with that same blinding speed that she is famous for - a blur of violet and blue that bears in on K9999's position in the limited confines. Both hands go for his neck, aiming to secure a tight, vice like hold. "You shouldn't have done this," she warns as all that power rushes in behind her. "You made me do this!!"

The choke hold may be dangerous, but it pales compared to that energy that rushes in around the girl, threatening to collapse in on K9999 and solidfy into a giant block of solid, translucent ice. Strong as steel and over two feet thick in all dimensions. An icy tomb that denies all movement one trapped within. A claustrophobic's nightmare, being sealed within an environment that permits not even the slightest finger twitch.

And she'll hold the clone there as long as she can. Lock him away. Her hands releasing his neck to be drawn back out, the ice morphing around her limbs like liquid before resolidfying and sealing the chamber entirely. She will sustain the coffin of ice as long as she can before at last relenting, forced to let it collapse as her strength to keep it going eventually reaches its limits.

COMBATSYS: K9999 endures Kula's Ice Coffin.

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Kula             0/-------/--=====|=======\=====--\1            K9999


There was no halfway with K9999. You either gave it your all, or he'd rip you to shreds, literally. He was an individual who committed himself to every fight once he had made up his mind, there was no 'gentle', no bluntness, just sheer violence. It's what NESTs had wanted in the boy, and it's what they got. If they ever desired for the clone to have more social skills, they'd have invested the time to allow for it. Instead, the barest fragment of that was nearly always lost in the gale of wild excess, and without the steadying presence of that particular NESTs agent to calm K9999...this was oft the result.
His own chi was there, though how it made its presence known was more of a thickening blanket in the air, a presence that loomed and threatened at any moment to break free. And with each landed blow of Kula's, it grew steadily to a frightning point. A breaking point that only needed one more chip at its weakened wall to overflow in a torrent of pain. He bared his teeth at her accusations, a snapping enraged wolf. Were he of the mind to think things through, to logistically approach an argument and come up with a reasoning to cast aside hers-- he might have told her. She was only fooling herself, that anger of hers, was all /her/. K9999 could never /make/ her do any of this, it was what she wanted to do. She just needed an excuse, and he'd provided her with one.
Instead, he's too busy trying to hold onto breath with her hands about his neck, a vice closing in. His eyes were ablaze, a gasping hiss barely escaped a split second before he braced for the onslaught of ice. It was so cold...it burned, his chest hurt as his one of his lungs continued to fill with blood steadily, but the ice entoment held. Her dolls were saved from the devils wrath as the demon glared with enough hatred that he may burn holes through the thick seal. It would be too good to be true.
His mouth opened, a silent howling scream, and then the first crack sounded like a whip. K9999, was /changing/...twisting, growing, his arm virtually warping as it pressed against the ice. The seal vanished admist the mass of flesh and cables, metal and snapping bone as all at once the ice shattered in a roar as his scream echoed through the fragmented room. The emboidiment of K9999's lack of control, the surge of chi was tremendous as was the titanic force behind that appendage that exploded towards Kula with all intents of ruining her from the inside /out/.

COMBATSYS: K9999 successfully hits Kula with Power... losing control!... YAH!.

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Kula             1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0            K9999


For a moment, there is silence. For a moment, Kula has sealed K9999 behind a thick block of diamond strong ice that, given the choice, she might not ever let him out of. She stares back at him through that translucent surface as mist coils down along its frozen surface to curl along the floor at her feet. Her mouth closed in a tight lipped expression, the angry girl keeps her hands planted against the surface, channeling more and more strength into it to keep it going as long as possible.

A subtle cracking noise hints of the collapse to come. The Ice Coffin is a fearsomely strong technique, but it isn't everlasting. Gradually it becomes clear that she isn't going to be able to keep the noisy boy locked away forver. Small chips and flakes fall away as cracks and fissures appear along the otherwise pristine surface. Her breaths come in pants, the girl pushed to a level of anger she has never felt before. How dare he come in here, destroy things important to her. Toys... K''s shades... Gritting her teeth, she doesn't back away from the block of ice even as it approaches the breaking point. She wants K9999 to stay in it as long as possible, even if that means staying next to it until the end.

When it comes, the end is distressingly fast. Ice shatters in all directions, surrendering to the power behind that mutated mass of biomatter, cables, and metallic reinforcements. The entirety of it crushes into the featherweight, plowing her back instantly into the wall leading out into the hallway with enough force to crush through the metal barrier and slam her against the opposite wall. For the first time in a battle, the normally quiet girl unleashes a scream. A shriek of pain and horror at the disgusting abomination that is the mutated, fleshy, bulbous appendate that is K9999's arm. To even try to imagine what scientists were thinking when they devised such a thing - it forces one to beg the question as to how much of it was intention and how much of it was by accident; unintended side effects of K9999's rapid aging.

Gloved hands pry at the crushing mass, trying to pull herself free from the wall, but the force pushing against her is far more than Kula can muster in such a difficult position. As it turns out, however, she needn't free herself to strike back. The glare K9999 gets in return as Kula plants her hands on the wall behind her might be the only warning he gets. All that pent up energy swirling around her begins to disappear into the metal wall. Someone paying careful attention would sense it - the build up of energy along the walls, ceiling, and floor of her room's interior.

But even if they sensed it, they might not be able to do anything about it as Kula attacks back in that violent way that only to immature, rapidly aged, super powerful science experiments can. The room explodes with spires of ice from all directions. Some from the floor, attempting to rip K9999 off his feet while others slam out from the walls on his sides, threatening to simply hold him in place, while yet more descend from above like stalactites from a frozen hell.

Each ice spire errupts into existing with a shower of ice flying through the air, the entire room in shambles and ruin. Stuffing flies through the air, stirred up anew by the catastrophic retaliation. "Get OUT!" she exclaims, wishing even now for the obnoxious clone to be gone from what remains of her ruined room. "Get out!!"

COMBATSYS: K9999 endures Kula's Diamond Edge.

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Kula             0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0            K9999


The crazed overgrowth of his arm may look painful, and in truth it was. K9999 never went through that transformation without some kind of repercusion, but by the time his body is pushed to that state, he was too in the moment to care about what else he had to suffer. The pain and anguish of his opponent was all that mattered at that point, nothing in his eyes remained that had the sense of humanity-- mercy, conscience...consequences. The only consequence the experiment had learned, was the suffering of failure, and his NESTs teachers had /taught/ that all too well. There were only results.
Still, his body had its limits, no matter how obscene it may appear to those who never set foot in a fighting ring, and he was near the brink of it. His chest heaved with each breath, his skin paled and slicked with cold sweat from where his heart raced to pump the blood where he had lost already. And then, there was the agonising reversion of his arm, gritting his teeth as it forced itself back into the normal shape, down to the blue glove-like covering. He stood with a wide-stance, still having managed to held onto up until now, that blood drenched plushie that had vanished in the midst of the horrific arm.
It was there. And it was obvious. K9999 could feel it, but yes, it mattered for naught. "Come on..." Grounding out, he took a step foward, his expression a wreckage of abandon. Taunting an already over the edge Kula. "K''s little bitch--" it was everywhere. And K9999 accepted it all, steeling himself for the repercussion he so welcomed. Results...K9999 knew what failure brought. And Kula brought it.
The room was suddenly turned into a massive interlacing network of wickedly pointed spires of ice, erupting every which direction with K9999 at the center of it. Rocked back and up by those that appeared below him, his body was gored not once, not twice...but several times by her revenge. Trapped and pinned like a butterfly with his feet off the ground, once the chill mist had cleared and fluttering of snowy flakes...K9999, moved. Struggling to bring a hand to that which held him.
"...That it?" A rakish whisper, he laughed once, coughing up blood. "Pathetic." Seeming for all the world about to tear himself free inspite of the inordinate amount of damage done to his body. Till the life went out of him, and he closed his blood-red eyes, his body drenched and limp. From his hand tumbled what was possibly the lone survivor of the massacre, the baby seal bounced once and lay on the ground. Peace at last, the youth almost reflected this on his features, unconscious, not dead. Atlast K9999 was silenced, but Kula would have to worry now-- there was someone who knew /something/.
And K9999 was quite possibly the worse one out of NESTs to even begin suspecting.

COMBATSYS: K9999 takes no action.

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Kula             0/-------/-------|


COMBATSYS: K9999 can no longer fight.

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Kula             0/-------/-------|


As his arm retracts, Kula slips to the floor of the hall, no longer pinned in place by the horrific attack. She lands seated, hands planted against the floor, staring back at the boy she has caught in a web of painful spikes. His taunting was cut short by having her room transformed into the tooth lined maw of some hideous beast, but it seems to have just been cause for pause rather than actually stopping him.

He calls her technique pathetic before collapsing onto her floot as all around him the spires begin to melt and fracture, spilling over the floor of her quarters in a giant, wet mess. And then things are silent once again as Kula remains seated in the hallway staring in through the gaping hole she was smashed through next to her door. Slowly she rises, stepping forward, her expression drained of the anger of moments prior as she now appears to mostly be in shock. Stepping back in through the hole as the last of the ice spires collapses into a mound of glittering diamonds in the corner, her toe kicks against a monocle - knocked off of poor Sir Flopsalot just before he got bisected by one of K9999's violent assaults.

She doesn't notice, simply moving forward still, leaning forward to brush aside the severed head of Fluffinhiemer the now very dead dog so that she can pluck the lone survivor of the massacre, a very bloodied, previously all white baby seal. Hugging him in her arms, the girl surveys the room for any other survivors but it seems to be a total wash. Stuffed animals torn asunder, plastic figurines shattered to pieces, dishes from a tea set pulverized. Everyting she had collected over her two years of living utterly destroyed.

The girl bends down to inspect the location the one object that sparked the entire incident was smashed, but it is practically impossible to find the crushed shades in the midst of all the wreckage. "There, there," the girl states, her voice distant, her eyes unfocused as she brushes the head of the damp, bloody seal with her hand, "It will be okay Snowflake, I have you now."

Rising back up to standing, the girl turns to face the fallen boy. The accusations he made, the shouts, the anger. This isn't going to end just like that. She's going to have to explain all this as the only one still conscious betwen the two. It will be easy to slant the truth - a simple account of trying to hand K9999 a caped, pink pig somehow set him off on an animal slaying rampage. She doesn't know why. Given the boy's temperment, it will be believed easily enough. After all, why not trust Kula? She's as calm and domesticated and submissive as a pet weapon could possibly be. Surely her account will seem logical enough lacking evidence to the contrary.

Of the lost toys, she'll receive a patronizing pat on the head and told that they can be replaced over time. A few will mutter that they didn't realize she was so attached to a bunch of stuffed animals to begin with and just shake their heads. Others will wonder if that emotional attachment merits further research and study, to see what else the girl actually finds 'worth fighting for', but the idea gets lost in the daily paper work shuffle and shelved before long.

Turning, the girl strides slowly out into the hall, her own leather armor scraped and cut open in various places; the wound in her shoulder bleeding profusely. "I think," she continues, closing her eyes as she waits for the hall to be filled with people curious as to the sound of so much destruction deep within the NESTs base, "We will have to have a funeral," she states matter of factly to her lone surviving charge.

COMBATSYS: Kula has ended the fight here.

Log created on 20:40:11 08/23/2008 by Kula, and last modified on 23:10:37 09/01/2008.