Description: A destined clash between father and son. Rock's been here before; and now it's time to see just how much further he's come since the last time he has to face his father. Has he progressed? Or will Geese show him just how foolish his actions are...? ALSO: Rock is revealed to be GEESE'S FATHER?!?! The answer might shock you, if it was in this log or any other log at all and not just made up on the fly!! (Winner: Geese)
The Howard name carries with it a certain prestige amongst the citizens of the world. They are renowned for their tenacity. They are respected for their fighting spirit. They are winners. Successful leaders of men. The sort of people who the entire world both looks up to and secretly despises. Silver spoon-fed titans of every industry they enter. Blood-brothers with the Strolheim family, the warrior gods of many centuries. But if there is one thing above all of it that characterizes a Howard it is that they are stubborn.
Rock Howard has been here before. And before that. And before that time too. He's gone down this road almost a dozen times. Be it in Howard Arena, in front of the lights, or in the more docile rooftop dojo his father spends the majority of his time. He's fought that man, lost to that man, been humiliated and brutalized by that man. And yet... Here he is. Geese Tower. His old home.
Just being in the building is making Rock nervous. You never know when some Southsynd goon like Yamazaki will pop out of the rafters and knife you in the gut. But Rock does his best to hide his nerves, pacing around the perimeter of the dojo with his hands jammed into the pockets of his red leather coat. He's wearing a familiar red Trucker Hat to purposefully antagonize his father, avoiding conversation with any of the aides and other onlookers to get himself mentally prepared. He knows his father will make him wait as long as SNF regulations allow -- just because he can. He'll want Rock to overthink this, like usual, and make a stupid mistake.
The Howard name. It's a legacy that Geese knows well.
After all, he built it himself from the dirt up.
Just like this tower. Geese Tower, a shining paradigm of Southtown, standing out like a Babel tower amidst the lesser structures surrounding it. It's a legacy. And returned to its confines is the black sheep of that great legacy it stands for.
"Feels like deja vu, doesn't it?"
The question is posed from the opposite end of the dojo as one single, familiar form approaches. Wearing the familiar clothes of white gi and red hakama, Geese Howard stares upon his wayward son with a look of disappointment mingled with a certain sense of sadness. Slowly, he rolls either wrist, focusing his pale blue gaze entirely upon the red hat that Rock has chosen to adorn.
"Ah, still taking whatever little jabs you can no matter how bad the sense of fashion might be, I see," Howard notes blandly as he steps down to the arena floor proper, heaving a sigh as he lifts one hand to rub his temples. "Honestly. It's like you want to kill me from exhasperation." Geese scans the floor around him slowly, before he looks back to Rock, his expression stern. "I see he's not here to cheer you on, eh? Maybe he's too busy to see to his prize pupil. That's a pity. But that's just the difference between that bum and me, Rock." Howard's stance lowers, adopting the classic defensive Hakyokusaken position as his fists clench.
"I'm never too busy to teach you an important lesson."
Rock watches his father's arrival very intensely. He files every twitch of muscle and shift of movement in his steps into his mind, trying to immediately find some sort of weakness -- no matter how miniscule. Of course, there are none. This is Geese Howard. He's the King of Kings. But even trying to put up a strong facade of being in control of his emotions, Rock's jaw visible clenches tighter when Geese immediately adopts the defensive stance.
So he wants to make this quick?
"Yeah? What lesson is that, Geese?" Rock spits out, voice petulant and snide. He calls him Geese as a further sign of disrespect. "How to be a pretentious asshole? And seriously -- " Rock gestures with a black gloved hand at Geese's general direction. "A Gi? In 2008? And you're mocking my /fashion/ sense? You're so old you look like raisen wrapped in a marshmellow in that thing."
Banter thrown, Rock takes his trucker hat off and sets it next to his duffle bag. He rolls his shoulders, tightens a glove, and then looks at Geese. "You ready?"
"Oh, Rock," Geese utters, shaking his head at his son's words. "Don't you see how much you're hurting me with these little rebellious lash outs of yours? You've taken this little teenaged angst of yours just a step too far, boy." His voice sounds sincere as he speaks, as does the expression he adopts -- one of a poor, pained father witnessing the rebellion of a son he cares so deeply for. It's touching, really. It's sad. And it's certainly good for ratings.
"But if you're done with the name-calling now, maybe today you'll finally see just how much I care about your future." Geese's right hand lifts, clenched tight with convinction as his ice-blue eyes narrow. "Your little friend Terry Bogard is taking you to a road that'll only lead to a dead end. But you already know that, don't you? This is a song and dance we've done so many times before. So let's not waste time."
With one swift sweep, that arm snaps out to Geese's side, his entire stance tense and ready. "Come now. I'll show you -just- how invested I am in seeing you succeed. It's the least I can do..." Geese's frown deepens.
"... for your mother's sake."
COMBATSYS: Geese has started a fight here.
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Geese 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Rock has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Geese 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Rock
Rock's fingers curl tight, the leather of his fingerless gloves straining audibly from the severity of the fists he makes. They visible shake, Rock swallowing deeply as he tries to rain in a sudden surge of hatred and anger. "D-don't..." he says darkly, like someone trying very hard to control their voice. "Don't say her name. You're not allowed."
Face flushing some around the edges, Howard's mind dances. He knows what Geese is doing. He does this /every/ fight. He plays the martyr and he uses the memory of his murdered mother to try and get him to attack recklessly. He'll charge right into Geese's unbeatable defense, find his attack transformed into some backbreaking counter technique nobody has ever seen before, and within fifteen seconds he'll be unconscious and on his way to the hospital. Geese knows how to push his buttons, he knows exactly what he is doing... But he's Rock Howard.
He does it anyway.
With a yell, Rock suddenly springboards forward. His booted feet pound the skyline dojo's hard stone foundation. He tears right past some ridiculous golden statue, barreling towards the double doored entryway and his father's unyielding face. Last time they fought, he tried to hammer him with his best move -- but this time, Rock takes to the air. Momentum channeled into a smooth flip, Rock's leg comes shooting out to a full extension as he completes the arc, trying to hammer-kick right onto the top of Geese's head before he can react.
COMBATSYS: Geese counters Gedan Crack Counter from Rock with Chuudan Atemi Nage.
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Geese 0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Rock
"Lesson one:"
Geese's voice drawls out calmly as Rock's face flushes with that distinctive, all-too-easily used fury. His expression, on the other hand, is all-too calm as he waits out the storm of Rock's anger. He knows what comes next. The younger Howard breaks into a reckless charge. He runs at Geese as fast as he's able. He uses that rage to fuel his advance.
And before that petulant anger can even see the light of day, there is the iron-clad grip of a hand intercepting Rock's leg in mid-air.
"Never let your emotions get the better of you."
One -yank- and Geese will bring Rock down towards the ground, right to the King of Southtown's waiting left hand. That open palm -drives- into Rock's gut, where a sizeable orb of cold blue fire rips into existence against Rock's abdomen. Ferocious and unyielding, it will tear into the young boy before the subsequent explosion intended to knock him backwards, leaving Geese still standing in place.
"If you hadn't run off to try and prove you're such a big man I would have taught you that. Who showed you to run in with blind rage? Was it Terry? Or has your uncle been trying to teach you a thing or two, too?" Howard lowers again, lifting a hand to beckon Rock forward once more.
"You'll never become the fighter you were meant to be if all you're going to do is flail around in impotent rage. It's time to let it go. You have a legacy to live up to, Rock."
Rock is obliterated. He sails back from Geese, over the rooftop, to land in the tranquil fountain in the middle of the roof. His back cracks against the water-spouting statue in the middle of the pond -- a naked woman without arms -- which fortunately stops his momentum enough that he crashes into the water.
Rising out of it, his shaggy hair covering half his face, Rock slogs forward. His clothing is wet -- another disadvantage he'll have to overcome -- and he clutches a hand against his chest. A rib is probably already fractured; he can feel something grinding against his lung as he inhales and exhales. "Kain is ten times the man you'll ever be," Rock says, stepping out of the blood bath and back onto the stone foundation. He shakes his hand out, flexing the fingers and sizing Geese back up.
"And if you want me to live up to your /legacy/ so bad, the only thing you need to do --" Rock gives a smarmy grin, wiping his wet hair off his forehead. "Is kill yourself. Then everything will be right in this world, /dad/. I'll be rich, you'll be dead, and I can finally wear that same white kimono you got from the Asian Massage Parlor to all my very important business meetings."
COMBATSYS: Rock focuses on his next action.
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Geese 0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Rock
"You really don't know anything, do you?" Geese asks solemnly of his son, shaking his head in mild disappointment. His cryptic words are left there for Rock to interpret as an insult or otherwise. Standing tall, Howard patiently waits for the young man to drag himself back up out of the fountain, his frown only deepening at the terrible words leveled upon him.
"So this is what my son turns into, a delinquent and a fool." The words don't sound condescending as much as they do sad, as Howard draws back his right hand low to his side, sparks of blue cradled within his harsh grasp. "You're not ready to inherit anything, Rock. I've tried hard to teach you what it means to be a man. I've tried hard to show you how much I care for you. You continue to buck and rampage wildly. Is this really how you want to be? I wonder, what would Marie think if she saw you now?"
By now, that spark has blumed into a volatile sphere of chi, crackling against the palm of Geese's hand. "Don't let it be said I didn't give you a chance to wisen up." One upward swing is all it takes, the roar of flames accompanied by the roar of Geese, strong and proud:
"DOUBLE!"
The fires ignite across the ground beneath him in a hellish roar. But before they can rip across the dojo floor, Geese's left arm swings up, a -second- mass of chi generated by the upward swing and added to the blossoming wall of dark blue before him. An all-too familiar wave of chi as tall as Rock, crackling with pure, cold power, and ripping across hardwood floor on a collision course for the son of the Howard Legacy.
"REPPUKEN!"
COMBATSYS: Geese successfully hits Rock with Double Reppuken.
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Geese 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Rock
Rock is a teenager full of angst and aggression. His mood shifts like the wind; buoyed by whatever the shiniest and brightest object infront of him is. He wants to be a better fighter. He loves fighting, but he wants to be better at it because he wants to beat that man at his own game. But this is still his father -- and no son can ignore the words of their father. Even when they hate them.
Some sort of stark crystallization blossoms on Rock's brow, visible just over the surging flow of the twin Reppuken waves. He doesn't even get out of their way, letting them pulverize him with a tremendous explosion of glowing chi energy. Like a missile, Rock is launched back again, skidding against the floor into the base of one of the Japanese Flag bases dotting the stairs up to the 'throne' chair.
Smoke sizzles off Rock's body, the discharged energy billowing away from around Rock's aura. The kid rolls onto his side and pushes himself up. He knows now, for sure, at least two of those ribs are fractured. He's going to need to spend some time in the hospital. Fuck it.
Peeling his jacket off, Rock tosses the half-charred thing to the side. He spits into his gloved hand, confirming the taste in his mouth is the blood in his throat. He nods, curling that palm tighter into a fist and locking his red eyes onto Geese Howard.
"What /should/ I do, Geese?" Rock demands, taking a hard step forward -- testing his balance to see if he can do what he has planned well enough for it to count. "You've never been a father to me. You've preached and preened and tried to mold me into something you think I should be, but when I think about it, it's all just smoke and mirrors. You put up the expression for the cameras, talk about loving and caring, but you don't know how to be a father. You don't want anything from me -- I'm just a discarded tool to prod your magnificent bastard ego. Just something you think you can keep around to make yourself look better."
"Even this?" Rock gestures at the surroundings. "Even this? This Saturday Night Fight? What's the point. You're right that my mother wouldn't have wanted this. Any of this. Fighting for a living. Fighting you. She hated that you trained me. But it's /all I know!/"
The illustrate the point, Howard breaks into another berseker charge forward. But Geese will recognize it instantly as being more controlled, more refined. There is a rhythm to the dance of his feet forward, an ancient technique as Rock channels his chi. He hits Geese's perimeter like a freight train, a spinning sawblade of punches and kicks flying immediately with lightning fast speed. It all culminates with him slamming his feet to the ground, connecting his forearms at the wrists, and driving them forward to release a pillar of glowing bluish white energy. It's the Howard Family's ultimate technique -- an allegedly flawless combination of moves that can devestate any opponent. So did the man who invented it leave himself an escape?
COMBATSYS: Rock successfully hits Geese with Deadly Rave Neo.
- Power hit! -
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Geese 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Rock
Defiance. It's that look teenagers get when an adult takes away their toy or tells them they can't have something they want. It's impudent, it's childish.
To Geese, it's one of the most disgusting things on the face of this planet.
And there it is in Rock's eyes as he steps up and refuses to give up his fight. That willful defiance in those eyes so much like his mother's. It almost causes Howard to stop in his tracks, coupled by the words leveled upon him. Yet -- he doesn't. His right foot slides gracefully forward, his pale blue stare closing as a deep breath is exhaled from his lungs. "Oh, you're much more than just some discarded tool, Rock. Whether you like it or not, I'm your father." Excess tongues of blue flame lick across Howard's right arm as it thrusts forward in preparation.
"And I care about you the way any father rightfully should."
The rest of Rock's words fall by the wayside as he charges forward once again. It's familiar, and it doesn't take Geese long to discern -exactly- what he's planning. The refined, graceful movements, swaying to an unseen rhythm. Yes -- Geese knows exactly what this is. "... Heh."
Geese only has time to steel his body against the coming impact. In a fraction of a second, Rock has pierced through Geese's guard like a battering ram, a series of fluid kicks and punches brutalizing his body within the span of an instant, battering chest, ribs, stomach, face -- all before it comes to a climax with one massive burst of crackling blue energy. There is no escape. But then...
... there is leeway for a technique that has yet to -truly- be perfected. Geese's body smokes as he is launched bodily through the air, yet, when he lands, he lands -feet- first on the ground. Tabi socks impact with a stagger, but Geese does not fall. A trail of blood trickles down the corner of his lip, but he stands tall only a second after his landing. Unbending. "You've gotten a bit stronger. But you're like an inchworm trying to scale a mountain."
Geese Howard pushes off his right foot as he surges forward in a sudden forward sprint; he closes the distance between himself and his son within an instant, his hands snapping out like the lunge of snakes to grip Rock by the shoulders and then, with frightening speed, /launch/ him head over heels straight over his father and into a nearby statue. "What you /should/ do is stop wasting your potential!"
COMBATSYS: Rock interrupts Medium Throw from Geese with Raging Storm+.
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Geese 1/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Rock
Energy motes fizzle out around Rock Howard's body in the wake of the Deadly Rave Neo's culminating blast. Howard exhales and inhales deep gusts of air, trying desperately to catch his breath in time for his father's follow-up attack. He's astonished that he was even able to execute the entire sequence -- he felt faster, stronger -- than he had any time before. Even back when he was learning the technique, years ago in this solitary dojo in the sky -- he never got the entire sequence off without his father counterattacking.
Rock's confidence suddenly springs forward. Pulling his arms back, he smoothly transitions into his own improvised Hakyokusaken defensive stance. He starts to take a pair of steps back when Geese comes charging at him, his red eyes twisting to track each of the million possible manuevers his father could execute with each shift of his weight.
And just before he strikes for his shoulders, it explodes into the forefront of his mind. He knows what Geese is going to do. Maybe it is muscle memory, maybe it is the instinct of a fighter, maybe it is just dumb luck. But he can see the throw coming and with a sudden flash, Rock steps right into it. His arms clench and he wills his chi, that gifted aura born from his father's blood, to save him; energy swirling around his hands in a sudden surge.
A shockwave of energy rockets out from Howard's core as he slams his body towards the ground. The wooden and stone foundation of the rooftop dojo shakes as Rock explodes -- lighting up the Southtown sky -- to send his father blasting away from him.
"... Pathetic," Rock quips, with a good Geese inflection to his voice, shaking his hand loose through the air like he just punched a steel wall. "You're getting old, Geese. I like you better this way."
It's dramatic. It's poignant. Two of the mightiest of Howard's techniques used in rapid succession against him. Some might call it a dramatic turn.
And it certainly looks good on the cameras.
Before Geese even knows what hits him, blue flames roar to life around Rock's body, engulfing him and then subsequently Geese in a torrential pillar of whipping, undulating claws. Geese's iron grip clenches tight against Rock in a most painful way, he can feel it -- but it all slips away within one second.
Pure power rips Geese from his son, tearing into the white of his gi and burning at his skin. But for all the power that Rock puts out in that one tremendous storm, it only nets him so much distance. Flung through the air like a ragdoll, the King of Southtown twists deftly, blue flames dying out all around him as he is rocketed backwards. He lands with a skid, tabi'd feet dragging across the floor for a solid foot before he stops, body smoking -- but standing with a grin.
"Is it any wonder that the only way you can even remotely gather that confidence of yours is when you're using the techniques /I/ taught you?"
The question stings sharply as Howard stands, rolling his neck as he considers his son with a thoughtful stare. "But before you start getting up enough ego to talk so tough, you should consider your situation." Calmly, Howard lowers his body, one arm extending and beckoning Rock towards him.
"Again.
"Or can't you keep that pace up?"
COMBATSYS: Geese calculates his next move.
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Geese 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Rock
Rock squints at Geese. He has never seen his father defeated. The closest to the edge he ever saw the man was when he and his best bud Roy Bromwell stormed this very Tower to try and kick Geese's ass. And, looking at his father across the dojo from him, he doesn't see that same edge behind Geese's eyes. This is all still a damn game. That infuriates Rock.
"Damn you," he says across the small gap between them, hardly hiding his anger. But he also never denied that his father's techniques and unique fighting style wasn't both powerful and strong. Rock never had a problem cribbing moves from his old man -- but he also liked to do his own thing. It's why he uses a fusion of styles. He's crafting his own technique, slowly, like that alluded to inchworm. Maybe in twenty years he'll have mastered it and some blond-eyed SNK protagonist will take on his moveset and save Southtown from --
"-- Then teach me something new, Geese. Teach me how NOT to hate you!"
Rock takes a strong half-step forward, planting his toe into the ground. And then he mirrors one of Geese's movements from earlier in their fight, cutting his right arm upward through the air. Blue-white chi curls off the arm as it cuts upward, a sizzling slice of chi ripping across the ground to the familiar call of, "REPPUKEN!"
COMBATSYS: Geese overcomes Reppuken from Rock with Shippuken.
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Geese 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Rock
COMBATSYS: Rock blocks Geese's Shippuken.
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Geese 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Rock
He can see it. It isn't hard to; Geese knows what Rock's next move is going to be, likely before even Rock does. The poor boy's already expended so much effort to get this far, and the toll on his body is clear. Thus Geese takes the fight in stride, calmly waiting out the next move --
--and it comes with one hateful and defiant roar. Pale blue eyes look up towards Rock as he shouts, a frown slipping across his lips as he lifts both hands into the air. "I wish I could, Rock. I really do. But you won't listen to a word I have to say, will you? That's fine." The blossom of blue and white rips across the earth, and instantly Geese leaps -backwards- to gain distance in a surge of white and red cloth.
"I can beat the truth into you just as well. SHIPPUKEN!"
With that bellowing roar, Geese's hands -snap- together, a spherical mass of blue and white fire generating like a miniature star in the palms of his hand. It fires off, crashing -through- Rock's wall of energy and dispersing it to the winds as that concentrated mass of broiling blue flames continues to tear on in a deadly path, straight for Rock.
"That hate just makes you sloppy doesn't give you /fuel/. All it does... is make you sloppy!"
Rock's eyes light up as his Reppuken is overcome back the surge of chi from his father. He doesn't have time to think of a way to get out of its way; reacting instead on pure natural instinct. Bracing his feet into the ground, Rock rips a little from Grant's playbook and wills his aura out infront of him while crossing his arms over his chest.
The Shippuken explodes around Rock, lighting up the rooftop briefly. Wind whips across Howard's body from the impact, his black tank top swirling behind him. But it fades quickly, Rock's arms stinging as he drops them, one hand falling to his knee to brace himself as he nearly collapses.
"Heh," it is Rock's turn to bitter-laugh. He exhales a deep breath. "I don't know if I can beat you," he says, staring at the ground. "But they're going to have to drag me out of here -- alive or dead!"
To prove a point, Rock suddenly breaks forward. If Geese thinks it is only the techniques he's learned from him that matter, he'll prove him otherwise. Each step gives Rock a little more speed and strength, until he's hitting Geese like an inverted tornado. Chi suddenly blossoms off his fist, a familiar sensation for the man who has fought Terry Bogard so many times. With a final surge, Rock tries to drive his fist right into the sternum of his father, transition through the blow, and then drive the same arm's elbow right into his chest.
COMBATSYS: Geese counters Shine Knuckle from Rock with Joudan Atemi Nage.
# Disabling hit! #
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Geese 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Rock
Ah, Terry's move.
And now it's time to prove a point.
Throughout this fight, Rock has used techniques that rely on the knowledge Geese has taught him. He's excelled. Geese is actually bleeding, even if he stands tall and proud still. But he arranged this match for one very specific reason. To prove a point. And now Rock brings that point straight to Geese.
"You're still thinking too simply! Terry must have addled your brain with his nonsense. 'Alive or dead'-- sounds like the kind of extremist idiocy that man would spout." The Shine Knuckle surges forward, so similar to that move that made the scar that is branded across the King of Southtown's chest. Rock builds momentum until he is like a getaway train, barreling at his own father with a single fist. For a second, Geese's chest aches where the Buster Wolf so painfully ruined his life. And his response is simple.
He stops it dead cold.
One hand surges forward, gripping Rock by his leading wrist. Like a bolt of lightning, everything is over in less than a second. Rock's own terrifying momentum is used against him as Geese fluidly and utterly denies the maneuver inspired by the Lone Wolf. Rock surges past, and Geese's left hand shoves into Rock's midsection, launching him straight off the air with a helpful push and sending him surging through the air in a flipping toss at disorienting speeds, intending to let Rock crash right next to a statue of Geese Howard himself.
Because yes, he really is that egotistical.
"Techniques like that are useless, Rock. Do you see that yet? Your threats against me, your attempts to beat me -- they're all useless. Maybe I would have taken you seriously once. Now? You've lost your edge. You've lost your path. It's sad.
"And all because some crazed bum with an irrational vendetta played on your hate and made you think you could be king."
COMBATSYS: Rock takes no action.
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Geese 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Rock can no longer fight.
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Geese 1/------=/=======|
That didn't work. Rock gets brutalized. There's that brief moment where a fist is bludgeoning into his solar plexus and he's suspended in mid-air with Geese's knuckles grinding towards his heart -- and then he's on his back, sprawled with his spine bent over a beautiful Geese Howard marble pectoral muscle on the statue.
Consciousness winks in and out. Rock can feel his brain wanting to turn off from damage. When you've been KO'd as many times as he has, you learn to feel it coming on. He could fight it, maybe stay awake. But he hears Geese lecturing some more and you know what? Screw that. He'll wake up in about ten minutes.
Geese base jumps off his tower in victory while drinking a whole bottle of vodka because that's just how much of a man he is, /deal with it/
Log created on 19:24:36 09/21/2008 by Geese, and last modified on 13:27:43 10/11/2008.