Description: Round two... fight! This second round of the Strolheim exhibition matches pits the rhythmatic capoeirista Aranha against the agile gymnast known as 'Angel Papillion'. The upside is that it's a fast paced match, where if you blink you'll miss some of the action! The downside is that it seems someone else knows her secret. Now Alexis is left with the decision on whether to actually be herself in the tournament, or continue on as the masked fighter. (Winner: Aranha)
When Aranha was informed that he would be fighting Angel Papillion, he started doing research. Starting with the fights against Domino and the single fight against Hurricane Hime he paid attention to the highlights. When he looked over the footage on FightTube he couldn't help but notice that there was something a bit familiar about it until he checked on a few more fights and stumbled upon the Miss Southtown pageant and that's when it all fell into place.
It took a bit for the capoeirista to stop laughing in amusement when he finally realizes who his opponent really is and after that he makes a few calls to start arranging the fight logistics such as location and time. With that taken care of, he throws himself into his last bits of training before the fight.
When the actual fight day comes, Aranha's labors bear fruit. He chose to have the fight in Pacific High's gymnasium, giving home field advantage to Alexis/Angel. As a further addition he also arranged for gymnastic equipment to surround the fighting area. As for what Aranha is doing, he's actually practicing flares on the pommel horse as he waits for Angel to make her appearance before bringing himself into a single handed handstand before dismounting. Now he's sufficiently warmed up as well.
From the border between Canada and the United States to... school?
Color Alexis surprised when she gets the notice that the next part of the Strolheim exhibition is to take place in her gymnasium. A weird location for such a prestigious event, right? Right. So, why would the match be set up here of all places? From what she knows, her opponent is too old to be going to school here... so it's not like she's fighting another student from Pacific. Mulling this over as she prepares for the match, the only conclusion she can come up with is that the school is using this venue as a great way to garner publicity and thus more students.
That is, her thoughts are specifically that until she reaches the gymnasium and sees the equipment. Either her trainer has forgotten to put away the school's equipment or someone has figured her out.
Sigh.
Might as well make the most of it either way. Rushing into the gym, she bounces off of a vault, does a double flip in the air and lands upon the balance beam with grace and agility. Her butterfly wing cape billows behind her, the lights of the gym reflecting off of the facemask she's wearing. Were she Hurricane Hime, she would likely start things off with 'MMMmmmmortals!' or 'Citizen Aranha!'. Since she's not the bookworm-turned-fighter, she just strikes a pose for a moment before whisking the cape off her shoulders and settling it upon the edge of the beam.
When the masked fighter makes her appearance his lips curl up into a smile and then he looks the fighter over. Same height, as when he met her as Alexis, about the same build, yup he was definitely right.
He seems relatively laid back as he puts forth the question, "Angel Papillion is it?" And then he reaches into his pocket for his shades. Of course, the last time Aranha was at Pacific, his Oakley Thumps were destroyed beyond repair. Whether or not these shades will fare much better is a ligitimate question.
After the shades are on he extends a hand out towards the masked fighter before going into his dance waiting for her to come to him.
COMBATSYS: Aranha has started a fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-------|
Everyone has their gimmick. For Alexis, it's a mask and a ribbon. For Aranha, it appears to be a pair of sunglasses. Each obviously works for the fighters in different ways, but even so the little gymnast has her reservations in regards to this particular match up. Aranha /is/ one of the people she's kept an eye on, after all, since they did meet under rather normal circumstances.
From her perch atop the balance beam, she watches as he begins his dance. Hard to calculate his movements. Difficult to determine where her in might be. So instead of leaping forward and lashing out with a flip, she drops herself backward on the beam into a handstand.
Walking across the length of the beam on her hands, she reaches one hand into the cape and extracts a blue and seafoam colored ribbon on a stick. Flipping herself upright once more, she twists about taking four backward steps as the ribbon comes to life in front of her. A horizontal snake of movement sways back and forth as she commands the ribbon in its graceful motions. Her body twirls as she leaps off of the beam toward Aranha, the ribbon snapping forward while a burst of watery chi ripples along its edges coming to two points at the very end. Points which act like a serpent's teeth, attempting to bite into the capoeristas flesh.
COMBATSYS: Alexis has joined the fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Alexis
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Alexis' Serpent de L'eau.
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Aranha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Alexis
Aranha had definitely been doing his pre fight homework and that was one of the particular attack he devoted plenty of time to study and when that ribbon comes in he delays his evasion until the last possible moment before he leaps up and over the chi and ribbon made snake in the form of a one handed round-off before slipping to her flank to perform a scissor leg take down on her.
With takedowns he likes to make them an in-out affair so whether he hits or misses he's going to attempt to pull away from her and try to keep himself from being too vulnerable.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Alexis with Quick Throw.
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Aranha 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Alexis
Ribbon snapping back toward cane after the missed bite attack, Alexis flicks her wrist to force the ribbon to wind itself up so that she can set it down without worrying about becoming entangled in it later on. There is the slightest of frowns upon her face as he evades it, but some people just have a better knack for such things. Totally not going to let it worry her, since the fights are supposed to be fun. When they stop being fun, she may as well have already lost.
Maybe it's time to try another tactic though! As he comes in with the scissor leg, she twists to the side to evade only to find his movement a lot swifter than she remembers it from watching his previous fights. Tumbling to the setup mat, her body splays out for a moment. Laying there, she grins. Bridging herself backward, she throws herself back up to her feet. Cartwheeling toward him, she angles her body in such a way that it looks like she'll be accosting him with a kick or two. The cartwheel ends just in front of him, her body lurching to the side so she can send an elbow toward his chin.
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Quick Punch from Alexis with Short Kick.
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Aranha 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Alexis
As a capoeirista, when he sees someone cartwheel he sees opportunities. When it's a gymnast performing a cartwheel it makes them slightly more obvious. The gymnasts he has seen in class when he was training had a tendency to broadcast their cartwheels by holding their arms up into the air before performing them. They also had a tendency to not guard themselves as they were going into them.
Aranha takes that opportunity to quickly drop lower as she's inverted, angling himself so she's moving right into a headbutt right to the torso. Of course, the downside is in the fact that he still gets clipped by the elbow but all things considered, it's a small price to pay.
Gymnasts do tend to let their moves be known before they perform them. Not all the time, mind you, since Alexis does have a tendency to do handless cartwheels from time to time. In the process of her flip, her torso crashes against his head. It's not exactly the greatest of feelings, that, but she still manages to nail him with her elbow as the wind is knocked out of her. Sent tumbling back against the mat again, Alexis groans. This isn't going to be easy, is it? Here she thought things might be in her favor for a moment, but no.
It's okay though! She kip-ups to her feet, pirouetting as she does so. There's no rhyme or reason for this, other than the fact that the masked girl simply wanted to do it. As she comes out of her spin, she balances on one foot while the other extends behind her. Dropping her body forward so that her hair tickles against the mat, she reaches her hands down to grip at Aranha's ankles. Providing her hands make purchase upon him, she swiftly lifts up in order to yank him off of his feet.
COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Aranha with Needle Scale.
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Aranha 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Alexis
Aranha expected for Alexis to recover from his attack quickly. After all, he didn't put much power into his headbutt. The pirouette wasn't quite expected though but he wasn't exactly position to take advantage of it. The surprise only pales in comparison to the surprise he receives from her getting her hands around his ankles and yanking him off his feet.
"Hmmm... A lot of similarities to one of mine. Interesting," the capoeirista muses to himself as he climbs back up to his feet. He then shoots in after the gymnast with a glowing roundhouse kick followed by, a blue chi spinning jump kick, and then he finishes by turning around so his back is turned to Alexis(though he's still looking under his arm so he can keep an eye on his target) before performing a chi-enhanced backflip kick to drive the kick combo down on her.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Alexis with Aggressive Dance EX.
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Aranha 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Alexis
A lot of similarities? Oh! To be sure! Capoeira and gymnastics utilize the same types of agility and flexibility after all, so why wouldn't a style based solely on what she can do as a gymnast mirror those attacks that are part of an actual fighting style? Alexis nearly takes pride in the fact that she managed to catch him off guard in such a way, and that he's noticing similarities! She did tell him when they first met that she figured there would be some things that were the same, after all.
The similarities end, of course, when there is suddenly a blue glowing kick angling toward her body. It crashes against her while she's in the midst of tumbling out of the way. Sent sprawling, she's pummeled against the mat by the backflip that follows shortly thereafter.
"Owwww," she groans, sweeping her hand up to cover her masked face. But what's fighting without a little pain, right? She's still breathing, and she can still do this! She knows that she can!
Flipping up to her feet again, she twirls about in the hopes of confusing him as to what she's about to do. For this, she really needs the element of surprise and she's counting on getting it, if only for the briefest of moments. With her back toward him, she breaks into a roundoff back handspring. Legs are shot forward as she attempts to latch them around his neck with every intent to grapple-choke him before yanking her body into a sharp twirling twist so that she can launch him toward the pommel horse.
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Alexis' Yurchenko Toss.
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Aranha 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Alexis
Even after the recovery from his backflip kick he's still looking at her from under his armpit watching for her attack. He just didn't have the footing to move out of the way. Such is the price for the aggressive nature of his attack.
The tumbling pass is quick and Aranha doesn't have the time to keep the legs from wrapping around him. He just has barely enough time to do damage control and he ends twisting to control his landing on the pommel horse. He hits it hard but still manages to land on his feet.
He breaks into a run, moving from one apparatus to another in his mad dash before eventually moving to the rings, leaping up and then performing an iron cross on the rings before swinging up and out to dismount from the rings landing feet first on the gymnast and then rolling away to preserve his already abused legs.
COMBATSYS: Alexis dodges Aranha's Sky's the Limit.
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Aranha 1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Alexis
Round and round he goes, where he'll stop, nobody knows!
The swift dash atop the different apparatus causes Alexis to just stop everything she was planning, in order to scratch at the side of her head. While she's been known to pull such stunts herself, it's odd to see someone else doing something like this. As he hops from pommel horse, to parallel bars, to beam, she spins herself in a semi-circular pattern in order to keep him in her sights. Once he takes hold of the rings, she grins. There's only two ways he can come off of them, to the front or to the back. Since she's in front of them, it only makes sense that he'll swing down from the front and so she's going to ensure she's not there! Feet leave the ground only a second before he dismounts. Flipping up into the air, she lands herself atop the balance beam narrowly avoiding his pound-attack.
From there, she just can't help herself. She giggles. Though his kicks and such are proving to be difficult to avoid, and are quite painful when then meet up with her, it's almost fun to be matched up against someone who is just as, if not more so, agile as she is.
Upon the balance beam, she walks the length her foot dipping below every foot or so. Springing off of it, she launches toward him in a quick somersault. Her hands lash out to grab him by the waist as she nears him, and flip him with her so that they both wind up down upon the mat.
COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Aranha with Quick Throw.
- Power hit! -
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Aranha 1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0 Alexis
Aranha would much rather not getting tangled up with the very agile gymnast... At least, not in the context of a fight. Tangling up usually means he's forced to stop moving and that concept is not exactly appealing to him.
As a result, he's forced to admit he needs to change the pace of things while they're both on the mat and so he starts out by attempting to wiggle free of her before throwing out a quick kick once he's out(if he can free himself) before scrambling away from her and back to his feet.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Alexis with Light Kick.
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Aranha 1/----===/=======|==-----\-------\0 Alexis
The change of pace might just be what the capoeirista needs to break out of the entanglement, before the gymnast-wrestler type attempts a pin! Or worse, a submission hold. His kick pays off, cracking against her chin and sending her body sliding along the gymnastics mat. It doesn't slide her /far/, but it gets her out of his way so that he's able to scoot back up to his feet and begin his funky no-music dance again.
Before flipping up to her feet, Alexis spins around on the mat. Think, helpless turtle or really bad breakdancing. Either way, it looks completely ridiculous. Until she leans back on her hands, setting herself into a semi-bridge position. Instead of simply using this to kip to her feet, she lifts herself off the ground flying high into the air. On her downward angle, she does her best to land both feet atop Aranha's shoulders so as to push him to the mat again.
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Heavy Kick from Alexis with Joker's Wild.
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Aranha 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Alexis
When Alexis comes down from the air, Aranha decides to go up into the air to meet her as his entire body glows blue he leaps up with feet to meet her. Aranha's long legs have the advantage in the exchange and while he gets caught in the shoulder, his first kick to the bread basket just strikes so much deeper.
After that initial kick, he duplicates that initial run from apparatus to apparatus only this time he launches himself from each of them with glowing blue kicks delivering attacks from a variety of angles as he leaves trails of shadows in his wake.
After the final kick he delivers after launching himself from the rings, he rolls away from her and then crouches in a three point stance. Watching and waiting. After all he'd be a fool to turn his back on her now.
Well... that most certainly did /not/ turn out how she was hoping! Here she is, in her own element. Her own equipment. Her own gym. Yet she's much like an open book at the moment, vulnerable and easy to read. Each time she shifts back from a kick, another is launched toward her. It leaves her with her arms up blocking her face, but other than that she's a perfect little target for those feet.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!," she cries as the kicks bounce her around like a poor little pinball.
When all is said and done, Alexis is left on the mat, cowering behind her hands. She doesn't appear to be getting up all that fast at the moment, the power of those kicks obviously having done a pretty hefty number on her tiny, delicate little frame. Her right hand, however, is touching the tail end of the ribbon that she was using earlier. Using her elbows to push herself half-up, she takes hold of the ribbon and unravels it all with a flick of her wrist. Yanking the cane end back toward her, she tosses it toward Aranha like a boomerang. Should the cane hit the capoeirista, it will shoot forth a wave of watery energy before she draws the ribbon back toward her and sends the cane flying to her hand.
Once this is completed, however, she just falls back upon the mat and groans. Definitely has at least one bruised rib and a very battered body.
COMBATSYS: Alexis can no longer fight.
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Aranha 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Aranha with Boomerang Throw.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Aranha 0/-------/=======|
This is exactly why Aranha would've been a fool to turn his back on her and Alexis wings the cane end of the ribbon right at the capoeirista. Aranha takes the riskiest option (which all things considered was fairly safe) of trying to leap up and over the cane to safety. He knew that even if he got hit, there was a low chance of him getting knocked out and it would absolutely take a fluke for it to happen.
The problem is that on the mat there was a slightly loose piece of velcro used to hold the mat sections together. As the fight continued that velcro kept getting more and more loose. Aranha was aware of it but he wasn't aware of how much worse the problem had gotten until he catches his foot on the velcro and actually trips head first into it. Impact of the stick, plus the burst of watery chi then sends the capoeirista flying backwards in an embarrassing roll before he ends up staring face up to the ceiling, muttering in pain.
Slowly Aranha rises to his and shakes out the cobwebs, and inspite of nearly being taken out by circumstance raises his hand in victory. This pair of Oakley Thumps will live to see another day.
He's down, but... not out? Looks like Alexis will have to find someone to work with her on creating more force with her chi so that she can actually become a formidable opponent! She did have someone she could work with, then things got awkward, then they just got /weird/. Now? She doesn't even know if said person has returned to school or not. If he has, he's definitely not in any classes with her and--
-- why is she thinking of that right now?
Giving her head a shake, she waits for her opponent to finish with his little victory pose and for the cameras to be shut off. Those cameras being shut off are the important thing really, and once the cameraman calls things a wrap and starts to recap the lens, and unhook the camera from the tripod, she can breathe easy.
Not /literally/ easy, she's still injured here. Figuratively though.
"So, I'm like, guessing you figured out who I am..."
COMBATSYS: Aranha has ended the fight here.
The cameras are off and the crew is packing their things. Aranha himself is walking a bit gingerly, now that the adrenaline has worn off and he's free to feel the pain that had accumululated during the course of the fight in full.
When Alexis asks the question, he turns towards her and nods. "I did... It wasn't exactly hard either." He pauses to help his opponent back to her feet if she chooses to accept the assistance. "The pageant was what basically blew your cover. Plus if I had any doubts before, your opening move against me in this fight removed them."
Alexis is a girl who's never refused help. Taking the hand, she pulls herself to her feet and exhales a heavy, pained sigh. She's not broken to bits like in some instances, nor has she been impaled by flying rosette stilettos. Doesn't mean she's not hurting though.
"Thanks," she says, offering a weakish smile.
"I knew it was coming to this... was hoping it wouldn't be this /soon/..." Pausing to let her breathing catch up with her words, she holds up a finger in a 'one sec' motion. Fingers of the other hand ruffle through her hair and she sighs again. "... guess this means people other than you will figure it out soon enough..."
Lucas is going to /kill/ her for entering this tournament. Worse yet? He'll likely tell their mother. This is /so/ not good.
"Well..." Aranha shrugs at a loss for words. "The only thing left to do is to hope that whoever you're trying to hide your identity from aren't avid fight fans, or at least not very observant." He then slips his shades into his pocket and turns around before looking back over his shoulder. "If you see Mr. Rust, let him know that I said, 'Hi.'"
A pause... "You don't have to tell him how we met up just in case he not an avid fight fan either." Of course he doesn't know whether or not he is a fighter, after all he just didn't have enough information to make any assumptions one way or the other.
After his message is passed along, he makes his way out of the gym and eventually home.
Hope. Yes, Alexis can /hope/ that Lucas doesn't find out and doesn't fill their parents in... but... she also isn't dumb. Her brother is here for a reason beyond moving closer to Tokyo where their parents can keep an eye on them both from a distance. What she can't figure out just yet is /why/ he's here. "Yeah, I guess one can hope!"
Nodding her head and offering Aranha a smile she adds, "Sure thing! I'll let Mister Rust know soon as I see him!" Which will be long after she makes a pitstop at the nurses office so that she can get her ribs bandaged up again.
There's only one last thing the little gymnast has to say before the capoeirista leaves the gym. "Good luck in the tournament!" Hey, he may have been an opponent but that doesn't mean they'll be going head-to-head once the tournament actually starts, right? 'sides, it's better to put all that good karma stuff out there. Might help in the long run.
Log created on 10:27:20 10/06/2008 by Alexis, and last modified on 14:31:10 10/06/2008.