Description: The culmination of a tiny tiny plot, Ikari Whip -- captured by certain UNIMPORTANT Syndicate girls -- has been tortured and abused by Mister Big. But who comes knocking to make the rescue? World's Biggest Leg Press Chun-Li and Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid' Rock' (K')! Special appearance by the Joker! I mean Yamazaki.
It's been some time since the biggest man of them all has gotten himself tended by a doctor paid almost exclusively by the Syndicate for times just such as that one. Indeed, long hours, many of them, have passed as a bound woman bleeds her life away, unconscious in the locked back room of a pawn shop. The outside of it is as one would expect; there are watches in the windows, covered by protective bars to stop the local riff-raff from breaking and taking. But the local riff-raff also know who this store is a front for.
There's also the rather helpful fact that a rather expensive looking sports car is parked down the side of the pawn shop. There are two entrances; the front, and the back. And there's one henchman standing at each door. Little odd for a pawn shop, isn't it?
Inside, Mister Big sits and smokes. There's a pleasant haze of expensive cigar smoke lingering in the air, as he gambles at a small table with an additional two henchmen. They're losing, most likely deliberately so, but the biggest man of them all is also cheating. "Ooooh, a full house," he declares as he shows his cards, laughing with that broad grin as he drags in the pot. Two of those aces are the same suit. Despite the stitches that adorn the side of his head, he's in good spirits.
And why shouldn't he be? An annoying Ikari Warrior is dying in the next room. The one with the locks.
And while Mr. Big and his henchmen play a heavily-rigged game of cards in the shop, a pair of yellow eyes watch the rear entrance intently from the top of the adjacent building. The owner of those eyes has been there for the past half-hour, prowling a wide circle around the area in order to scout out exactly how strong a Syndicate presence he could expect around here tonight. The answer was, "not very."
Seishirou had been able to tell him exactly where she'd been taken. He'd only been delayed in his arrival by the fact Yamazaki tore a hole in him barely two nights previous. But that delay had bought him a resource, one he isn't sure he'd be able to pull this off without.
She's by him right now. He kinda hopes Chun-Li'll be able to come away from this with some reward for her assistance, but as always his first priority rests solely with his sister.
He'd considered some sort of deception, briefly. He was recognized by most in the Syndicate, due to what Geese made him do in payment for his lessons, and they probably would've let him in the back without too much of a fuss. But right now, K' isn't in the mood for things like 'not too much of a fuss.' And though he's sure he could get in without a fuss, he's pretty sure he wouldn't be able to get out similarly. No-- better to take that guard out early.
He tenses visibly. "That one. I'm gonna take him out now." And he's going to vacate the roof and do just that, unless he's given a good reason why he shouldn't.
At K''s side is the World's Strongest Woman. While months ago they were what she would consider 'enemies,' now, thanks to an odd turn of circumstances, she's the last place she would expect herself to be. Waiting patiently from the rooftop adjacent to the pawn shop front, the woman observes the two guards from behind a pair of binoculars, thin lips pulled tightly over her face. It isn't too heavily guarded--nothing the likes of her AND K' cannot handle.
It's what is INSIDE that worries the former Interpol officer.
When K' speaks, Chun-Li drops the binoculars and pockets them in the back of her jeans, her expression mildly concerned. "I don't know if we should go in so quickly," she muses, glancing briefly to the scene below. But when she looks back, K' is going straight into the heat of battle. "Wa--!!" She can't even get the words out.
Giving her head a light shake, the woman too follows, leaping off the rooftop and landing gracefully on the street below. Pushing immediately off, the Tai Chi Mistress wastes no time in charging the other guard, to make quick work of the hired gun on the Syndicate bill before he can make too much noise. But once the goon has been dealt with, Chun-Li frowns with concern and shoots a gaze to the rouge assassin.
"Don't be reckless, okay? I know you're being guided by feeling right now, but you have to remember--your sister is in there and one wrong move..." She doesn't need to elaborate further. Already she worries; have they made enough noise to stir out the rats, or have they been quiet enough to allow them safe passage and a swift ambush?
It won't take much. Hired goons are just that, low-level hunch men who will fall to a single mighty kick from the World's Strongest Woman, or a simple flick of the sunglasses from whatever other name K' goes by. The pawn shop itself is locked, as one would expect. But with the pair split up (??) it may well be to their detriment.
Only, it's totally not, since there's not enough noise to rouse the men within the building as they start arguing over the previous hand. "You callin' me a fuckin' cheat?" Mister Big demands of his henchman, let's call him Number Two, that deep voice pitching with just enough volume to slice through any objections. And it quiets both henchmen right down, as they consider their options.
"N-no Mister Big, I wouldn't ever call you a ch-cheat!" the henchman backs off on the accusation, hands held up to forestall any potential violence. Mister Big gives the henchman the ol' stink-eye through his shades, before he flicks his cigar into the handy ashtray in front of him. "Damn right you're not," the Syndicate's Steersman responds, a curt nod delivered. "Your deal," he adds, shoving the cards across the table in such a fashion that most fall off, a game of 52 pick-up developing. It's his way of punishing his underling.
It's his way of showing just how much of a pain in the ass he can be. He'll show that further, shortly.
The pawn shop's doors are actually pretty tough. With the local area being none too friendly, it's actually not a simple task to get in, but they're two very strong street fighters; they can enter through guile, if anyone brought a lock pick in a hair bun, or through sheer strength.
Just don't touch the Alfa Romeo in the parking lot.
Naturally, the first thing K' looks at, once he swings back around to the front of the shop to meet up with Chun-Li, is the Alfa Romeo. He stops. He looks. He's forced to admire. And then he realizes whose car that probably is.
A natural sequence of thoughts subsequently percolates through his mind. They probably involve the Southtown River and a brick. He places a mental post-it for later, should he survive the next hour.
He snaps back to reality when he's met with a whispering chide from Chun-Li. Lifting a shoulder in a careless, insouciant shrug, K' cuts a halfhearted smirk at her as he shoves his hands in his pockets. He has developed a talent for putting -inflections- in his slouches, and the one he's affecting right now exudes an air of the very recklessness she's chiding.
For K', deep concern usually translates into taking the fastest route possible from A to B in order to solve the problem bothering him. But when it comes to Whip, he takes no chances. For all his insolent stance, he's forced to admit Chun-Li is right. His smirk is quick to fade away, and his eyes turn to the door.
"Looks like they didn't notice yet," he rasps. His eyes avert, as if to hide from Chun-Li any indication that he might have any feelings at all. "You wanna keep it that way, fine. You got a pick for the lock? Can't find any other entrance that'd be quieter."
The car goes otherwise ignored by Chun-Li. She's already ruined an Aston Martin, and likely doesn't have it in her to destroy another fine car. Plus, it's likely that she doesn't know just who it belongs to; it could be anyone not Syndicate. But then again, who are we kidding? An Alfa Romeo? In this end of town?
Shaking her head, she swiftly follows K''s lead. Leaping off, she handles the other security, dealing with them as swiftly as possible before the pair reconvene at the front of the shop. His response is met with a tiny, barely visible nod, brown eyes drifting to the door shortly after. "Seems so," she replies coolly.
"I think right now, the best course of action is for you to keep as low a profile as possible, considering your...associations with the Syndicate. If you go blazing in, they will wonder and it's possible they'd react far stronger to you than they would someone like me."
Pausing, the Chinese woman's soft features turn thoughtful as she lightly bites at her bottom lip. She's thinking, obviously. If the door is locked as heavily as it likely is, there's no way they'd have time to pick the lock. And even then, who knows what sort of security is inside that could alarm others when they did breach the premises.
A heavy sigh follows her thoughts.
"Okay, stand aside," the woman instructs the rouge NESTS assassin, pointing toward the wall near the door. And once he's out of sight the woman will coil a leg up at her side...before she unleashes a series of rapid kicks onto the door, strike after strike after strike delivered into the door. Heavy, thick steel buckles, groaning on its hinges as the woman does not yield or relent in her strikes. Over and over her leg moves, slamming against its surface before, finally, the door gives way.
...and flies through the threshold and into the center of the room.
"Nihao! Looks like the party is over~!" she chimes, perhaps uncharacteristically.
"Sorry, but I think it's time to shut this operation down!" Maybe if they think it's mere coincidence..?
Truthfully, the front door would have been a better option; it enters into the shop, and not directly into the back room where the biggest man of them all and two his finest henchmen are gambling. But that doesn't matter, particularly not when the first of a rapid series of kicks fly into the metal door. The henchman shuffling the cards sprays them everywhere as he jumps at the first kick, and they all slowly turn their gazes towards the gray, bolted security door as thump after thump impact. Dents start showing. The door begins to crumple.
The hinges give way.
And then the door flies right off its frame, thudding heavily into the room, falling just short of crushing one of the henchmen who scrambles for safety. The other drops his cigarette from an open, gaping mouth, a blonde henchman who may well be from another world entirely.
Unflappable, Mister Big stares at the open door, seeing who stands there in the night. Slowly, he lifts a gloved hand, taking the cigar from between clenched teeth. With perhaps a touch of annoyance he flicks the ash away, as he asks in that voice of his;
"Did someone order Chinese?"
Without missing a beat, he adds, "I mean seriously, who the fuck ordered Chinese? Boys, do yourself a favor and go watch the front." While he'd consider throwing his subordinates to this Asian Lioness, he knows better; they'd be kicked so hard their outies would become innies. Standing to his full height, he lets his coat fall about his calves as his henchmen regain their senses.
One steps forward. "You don't know who you're messing with," he declares to Chun-Li. The other walks by Mister Big, airing the thought, "This guy's the greatest."
Just above his shaded rims, the Sultan of Southtown feels his brow twitching. That felt entirely, entirely too wrong. He makes a mental note to keep the lady's with him at all times. Is Chun-Li alone? His bald senses tell him there's another dynamic entry about to commence.
Low profile. He guesses he can handle that. It makes sense if he thinks about it, anyway; if he shows himself here, interfering in Syndicate business, Geese might well get pissed at him and decide to take it out on Whip. For once, K' is forced to consider somebody's long-term safety... and he's not liking all the thinking involved in that.
Cutting another irritable shrug as Chun-Li regards the door, he backs up into the shadows swathing the ground near the building walls, slinking away when bidden in a disgruntled sort of way. What is she planning to do...?
He's answered pretty quick when she suddenly -kicks- the door in. If he'd been smoking at that precise moment, he might even have dropped his cigarette. Be subtle, eh? Keep a low profile, eh? Sulking visibly, K' scratches annoyedly at his jaw as he peeks a glance into what he can see of the interior without revealing himself.
Mr. Big, as he thought. Two nobodies. Is that all that's here guarding her? This might be easier than he thought. He might have been able to come alone, after all. As it is, he thinks Chun-Li should be able to hold her ground for a few minutes; and so, he circles away and disappears into the dark: gone to prey on the hapless henchmen as soon as they poke their heads out to watch the front door.
With any luck, he might find Whip in the front of the place somewhere, and then this entire endeavor will just become a matter of escaping...
"What--th--they said you was dead!!"
A hand larger than Akimi's entire head grips him, lifting him very slowly and elaborately off the ground, about a foot, until he's eyes-to-eye with the massive beast that Southtown itself produced, a slicked back monstrosity of a yellow blonde and black hairdo raising from sheer force alone, the force that's currently being levelled on Akimi's head. He is examined closely by that one eye, the other swathed in some kind of bandage.
He can hear bone squealing.
"Yeah... they say that a lot," he growls.
"Agh--hey--HEY!! The BIG MAN won't forgive you if you hurt me, I'm _SPEC_-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH...."
Yamazaki never actually notices where Akimi ends up after he pitches him over his shoulder. He only knows that Akimi is yelling for quite awhile before he fades from earshot.
He mutters to himself.
It's been quite some time since he dug himself out of that godforsaken metaphorical hole K' put him in, bleeding and battered beyond all life. Truth was, he was eventually taken to a hospital for his injuries while trying to walk home. Yeah, unfortunately for them. He mutters intensely as he feels the cold steel of the door, talking to himself.
"Fucking knew that skinny bitch wasn't getting any..." See, he had to ask around. K' showing up in the middle of the night and making his fun a little less delicious has been bothering him ever since he regained consciousness. And you know what he found out? Well, for one, K' and Hotaru weren't doing anything interesting at all. Even more insulting, "Little bastard got a new toy, didn't even tell me..." And for three, he smells something on the wind.
Yeah, old blood.
You'd be /amazed/ at how far Yamazaki can track someone based on scent alone.
And because he's easily distracted, and in the neighborhood--
See, there's no prey left for K'.
Yamazaki already threw one.
Then with a cataclysmic crack of mortar, he's already ripped the door off its hinges with one arm and is currently using it to threaten the other two that came up front. His voice can be heard throughout every room and soundproofed(!) timber in the pawn shop. "WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT BIG BALD HEADED BEAUTY? I'll tear him a new ass!!"
You know, it's really hard to tell if Yamazaki means that purely affectionately or not.. He sniffs, looking over his shoulder, holding (what's left of) the door even still. Then, he makes a face.
"--And what the hell is that smell!?"
Henchmen are of no concern to the woman. They're a slight hindrance at best for someone such as K', as well as herself, and only serve to prolong the inevitable. The two men on the other side are given a brief, cursory glance before the woman's almond-brown gaze settles toward the center of the room. And when she spies the big man in charge, the Alfa Romeo outside makes a lot more sense.
His quip earns him a smirk from the Chinese vigilante, her form moving from the doorway and through the threshold into the pawn shop proper. For now, K' is left to his own devices; she's fairly sure that while he's a little emotionally unbalanced at the moment he's smart enough not to endanger Chun-Li or his sister's well-being.
She hopes, anyway. She trusts in the end he'll choose what is right and sound.
Chun-Li has faith in people, after all.
"No, just here to take out the trash," the woman replies with a light smirk. As Mister Big orders his guards to go elsewhere and check the perimeter, the Tai Chi Mistress' gaze hoods, her head tipping lightly to one side as she offers an almost playful smile in response to his men's loyalty. Or what appears to be loyalty.
She says nothing of the orders; instead, her gaze is entirely fixed on Big.
"So, what is this place to you guys? A laundering front? Drug warehouse? A bookie's? Illegal casino?" Taking a step forward, the woman marches over the folded door, the bent and crooked steel groaning in protest against the cheap floor of the shop. "A place to dump stolen goods? Seems that way. It's almost as if you guys aren't trying anymore."
Pausing, the woman's hands rest on her hips as she sighs, head shaking slowly, disappointed as her soft brown eyes fall to the floor. Distantly, though, she hopes this goes as smoothly as she imagined in her head. Surely things will go off without any hitch..?
"I really miss the thrill of the chase and the challenge."
Looking back to the Sultan of Southtown, the woman offers a coy smile.
"So, are you ready to tell me who the head of the Syndicate is? Or do I need to kick it out of you."
Pause.
"Aga--"
Before the thought can even be finished, a sudden, deafening roar of a distantly-familiar voice echoes from the front of the pawn shop. The woman's features pale, her expression startled as she stares in the general direction of the exclamation. Did he intend on bringing back up? Or..?
Curiously, the woman turns her attentions onto Mister Big...
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big has started a fight here on the right meter side.
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|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
COMBATSYS: K' has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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K' 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Chun-Li 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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K' 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
With K' heading around the front, Mister Big may never know that the intrepid World's Strongest Woman has indeed not come alone. Instead he simply watches her as his henchman traipse off to a fate worse than death. From behind those shades, he watches her very closely indeed.
The cigar is lifted, and he contentedly draws a deep drag from the fine imported stick. Having faith in people is overrated, as far as he's concerned; he sent those men away because they're going to get in the way. She exchanges pleasant insults with him, and his mouth opens to respond...
When there's an almighty crash from the front, and a roar that shakes the building to its core. That voice sends a tingle up his spine, and that broad mouth of his drops open into a rather devious looking grin.
"Oooooh, is that you, Yamazaki?" he pitches his voice to be heard in turn, particularly over the screams of the two henchman who do indeed scream and cower in fear. They're not long for this world, in all likelihood, just like their friend who was guarding the front.
"That's the Chinese, it's here. Why don't you come back here and help me eat it, hmmmmmm?" he draws out that last sound, which is actually hard to do at such volumes without sounding like a bee. But this is Mister Big, he can do it. He opts not to respond to Chun-Li's line of questioning for the time being, Yamazaki a convenient excuse for him not to.
Reaching into the big pockets on the outside of his stylish coat, he withdraws his favorite sticks of them all, those long, black shafts that really drive the girl's wild. "And look, I even brought my own chopsticks," he adds, as he kicks the table at Chun-Li, sending chips, cards and more importantly a table flying her way!
K' stops before he even reaches the door.
Something isn't right. He can feel it. And pretty soon, he can hear it, too: a massive roar that shakes the foundations of the shop and blasts some hapless guy straight THROUGH the door and out into the night. K', who had hurriedly skated to one side to allow the thug to open the door for him, peers warily in through the new aperture.
He already knows what he's gonna see.
For the time being, he leaves Chun-Li to handle Big. Yamazaki has to be dealt with before he can get too agitated and start chewing on the woman as well. Notably, K' doesn't even afford any processing power to wonder just how it is Yamazaki LIVED through what K' ended up doing to him. There are enough urban legends about Yamazaki to fill one of those dumb little tourist handbooks, and you don't just up and kill one of those in one night.
No, you have to do it a couple times. And K' certainly seems up to the task of trying.
Yamazaki will be greeted to the engagement by the sudden familiar sensation of K' trying to break his back in half. The young man does this in the form of a sudden leaping kick, a blow driven at Yamazaki's spine with sharp swinging force. "How many fucking lives you -got-, Yamazaki?" he asks, probably rhetorically.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki Toughs Out K''s Minutes Spike!
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K' 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
The screaming is something to be savored.
But see.. Yamazaki? He knows Big is here. That means there's at least two higher priority items on his list than killing today. Well, killing in general, anyway. Fingers embedded in the steel, Yamazaki wags the door at the two new guys like it's not much more than a flyswatter. "Maybe you don't get it... when I ask a question, people /tell/ me the answer. Penalty game is--" He pauses, looking up momentarily, as a deep bass voice rocks the building in tune, not louder than him, but carrying much more intelligibly.
"That you, Big!?" Yamazaki yells back, "Heard you was having a party!" he rages, coincidentally seeming to grow at least twice as large to the two henchmen he has cornered. They're caught inbetween Chun-Li and a very, very hard place. He's not so much yelling in Big's direction, more as directly /at those two/. "That ain't even right!!"
He yanks the other, interior door open.
"What kind of shit is that! You'd better believe you're sharing the wealth--GRK!!!"
Yamazaki realized what that smell was.
K' embeds his leg in his back again--there's a loud crack--
/ooh/.
"..that's nice.."
The mercenary doesn't even move. Looking over his shoulder, the door he wrenched off its hinges is still gripped in his hands. "...Yeah I thought I smelled something," he growls. To Big--"one sec." See. Escape is probably looking good to those two guys he cornered right now. And he isn't even putting up with anything remotely like that. "Fuck my lives--you're letting them get away," he snarls at K'. They never did answer him. He lifts the door.
"That really pisses me off. IT REALLY DOES!"
Then, cackling, he tries to smash K' right underneath the door like it WAS a flyswatter.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li full-parries Mr.Big's Thrown Object!
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K' 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Chun-Li 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
Yamazaki?
Yamazaki?!
The woman's expression is suddenly grim, her soft features swiftly devoid of color as Big replies to the voice calling out angrily for him. Biting absently at her bottom lip, the Chinese vigilante mulls hurriedly over the situation as her eyes stare at the distant wall. Not only is Mister Big here, but now they've got the Syndicate's sociopathic savage on premises as well? That isn't good. Can K' even HANDLE someone as psychotic as Ryuji Yamazaki..?
It's the Sultan's comment that ultimately snaps the World's Strongest Woman from her thoughts, brown eyes sharply narrowed as she fixes her gaze on the imposing Syndicate commander. A light scoff slips past thin lips, fingertips lightly curling against her hips as she glares, a swift and empty smirk edging over her soft face.
"You'd have to be able to catch me first," the woman offers swiftly, a foot sliding back as her arms break away from her hips. Lifting them, the Tai Chi Mistress eases into her familiar stance, one leg slightly crooked as she holds her ground.
"I'll give you a chance to give yourself up and end this peacefully. Otherwise--"
Perhaps unexpected is the sudden kick of the poker table and the sudden wave of paraphernalia associated with it roaring toward her. In an instant the woman's body just moves; flipping into the air heels over head, Chun-Li snaps an arm out and lets her hand suddenly slam down on the table's thin side. With a loud THUD the clunky thing plants vertically against the floor with Chun-Li precariously balanced on its edge in a handstand--with one hand. Brown eyes narrow dangerously as she peers at Mister Big, upside-down. Her legs suddenly split midair.
And then, in a blur of movement, the woman whips herself into action. Bending her arm she springs off that thin edge and leaving the table to clatter noisily to the ground as her body comes down harshly at the Syndicate commander. With her leg outstretched, Chun-Li's intentions are clear: that one leg drives down HARD, attempting to peg the man fiercely anywhere possible on his broad chest. "YAA!!"
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big blocks Chun-Li's Sen'en Shuu EX.
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K' 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Mr.Big
Kicking the table at Chun-Li has a rather unexpected, but delightful, result. He's given a perfect view as she balances one-handedly atop the table, admiring those shapely legs as she performs the handstand with just the one hand. Her monstrous strength aside, it's clear from the way his grin changes that he's enjoying this for an entirely different reason.
The door opens, and Yamazaki's there speaking to him directly now. Shifting slightly, he glances towards his cohort just in time to see the silhouette of K' descend upon Yamazaki from behind. He issues no warning; he knows Yamazaki would rather be taken by surprise.
Just as he is nearly taken by surprise as the athletic and agile Chun-Li descends upon him, that strong leg of hers descends like a guillotine! Throwing his arms up, he blocks the attempt, bracing that leg with crossed forearms. "Oooh, this is making Mister Big's pants tight," he comments in the third, aiming to needle Chun-Li in more ways than one.
Those forearms bracing her leg up so very high suddenly shift, aiming to grab her by that shapely calf -- and rather crudely dispense of her, swinging her right over his shoulder -- and perilously close to the ceiling -- in order to show her why he's the biggest man of them all, by slamming her face-first into the incredibly dirty floor of the pawn shop's back room!
"Hmm, what cuisine do you have out there, Yama?" he questions loudly, curious to see if they're being assailed by two lovely ladies. It's one of his favorite dreams of the wet variety.
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Yamazaki's Random Weapon.
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K' 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
What the fuck is this guy made of?
The question pings around in K''s mind when he perceives that, yet again, his attacks aren't seeming to have exactly the desired effect. Hissing out an annoyed breath, he pushes away just in time to land and brace for Yamazaki's incoming displeasure. K' virtually -catches- the door as it comes hurtling down, stopping a blow that would have flattened those poor henchmen had it come for them.
He stops it-- but isn't entirely uneffected by it. For a few moments, he loses all feeling in his arms from how hard it came down.
Not seeming to find Yamazaki worth much conversation, K' doesn't bother replying the man's mad shouting. Nor does he volunteer any indication of who he is to Big, who'd like as not recognize him in a shot-- even if he wouldn't know K' as the brother of the girl he's got bleeding to death in some locked back room of this place.
No, he doesn't talk at all. He just grits his teeth, slips abruptly out from underneath the door, and with a stomp angles it so its edge points straight up at Yamazaki's throat. Still braced low against the ground, he rises into the sudden shove he -slams- up into the bottom edge of the door. The intent becomes clear very soon; K' is trying to strangle Yamazaki against the wall with his own erstwhile weapon. He certainly doesn't take the pressure off if he can sink that door edge in Yamazaki's throat; he'll just keep applying force, trying to grind the berserker's windpipe shut.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki Toughs Out K''s Knee Strike!
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K' 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Chun-Li 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
"Did I interrupt somethin'...?"
From the sounds of scuffling in the next room, it really does seem like he walked in on Big while he was in the middle of a really rowdy strip show. Look at it like this. Yamazaki came here because of K's scent. As far as he might be aware, K' was coming here to join in on Big's party (man, this kid gets around..). Actually, if Yamazaki ever bothered to pause to think about anything, the strip show would make the most sense. Let's face it. Yamazaki has busted in on Mr. Big in the middle of worse. But no--there's more than one scent at work here. K's, a brand new thing that he's already become intimately familiar with, and then the that sassy Shanghai chick he met at the Mutter. In the end though--
It just didn't. Fucking. Matter.
With two abrupt snaps, Yamazaki is slammed into the wall underneath the iron press of his own improvised weapon, forced in by the blade of the door, the wall cracking beneath his shoulders with the utter force K' levels against his throat, and to tell the truth, it's a little bit of effort for Yamazaki to breath--a rasping choke the only thing heard. He chokes and gasps, his claw fitting around the edge of the heavy thing by his throat, slowly forcing the door away from his windpipe. Though he looks like hell--his head wrapped in bandages that wrap clear around his neck and probably underneath that brand new smoke grey shirt of his--he grins. And when Yamazaki grins, he grins wide.
Forcing air out of his lungs with pure force of will, he just barely manages to scrape out a response to Big in the other room. "It's the boss' pet rat!! NOTHIN. BUT. SOUTHTOWN. CHICKEN!"
His leg whips up until his knee meets his chest. Thigh muscles twisting enough to draw his jeans tight, the mercenary plants a boot against the inside edge of that door. And exerts his own leverage. See, he's a little bigger than K'. And a little heavier.
And in his opinion?
A /lot/ meaner.
He's exerting his strength against the little eel directly, and trying to flatten him underneath the door, using all of his body weight, leveraging with a measure of murderous glee. He's going to pin K' to the fucking floor. And then he's going to stop that door flat until K' is just a little bit thinner. Thinner, like a griddle cake.
"Bleed. Bleed. AND FUCKING BLEED!" he hisses.
It makes sense to him, at least.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Mr.Big's Million Dollar Buster.
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K' 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Mr.Big
While Mister Big may be perversely enjoying the frightening display of grace and flexibility that Chun-Li utilizes in that fateful moment. But soon enough the woman is swiftly capitalizing on that moment, her body whipping viciously downwards, to drive her sneaker's heel straight into the Syndicate commander. But to her distant surprise, the Sultan of Southtown isn't so easily taken by surprise.
"Sh-shut UP!" the woman stammers in response, a look of muted disgust and embarrassment on the Tai Chi Mistress' face, brown eyes hooding sharply. Though she attempts to drive her leg toward the ground, Mister Big has other plans. Snaring her by her meaty leg, she's thrown upwards before she's nearly swung to the floor face-first. But, at the last possible second--
Chun-Li catches her body by the hands, her nose a fraction of a millimeter from the dusty, grimy floor of the pawn shop. It's too damn close for her liking.
With one fierce yank she rips her leg free of his grasp before she tucks and rolls away before she springs back onto her feet. A glance is spared over a single shoulder, toward the open doorway through which both colleagues speak. When Yamazaki gives away his 'meal' for the evening her features falter only somewhat. With hope, they'll only surmise it as mere coincidence. Do they really know the girl held hostage here is his sister..?
Shaking her head discreetly, the woman lets her soft features melt into a muted look of disgust before she turns her attentions back onto the Syndicate commander. She knows K' will be fine, and she cannot let herself worry about him, not when she has a formidable fight ahead of her. Thus do her hands clench into loose fists, soft almond-brown eyes narrowing sharply as she regards Big.
"I think you should worry less about your friend's situation and more about yours--!!"
Before the words carry completely the woman tears forward, covering what distance lay between herself and the Sultan of Southtown. When near she'll suddenly shift her weight and let her body twist, a long, powerful leg suddenly rocketing up from her hip toward Big's jaw, to deliver a nasty, stunning blow right to the face. "HIYAA!!"
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big endures Chun-Li's Medium Kick.
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K' 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Mr.Big
There's an unsatisfying end to the whole 'lift the girl by the leg and slam her into the ground face-first' scenario that Mister Big was running with. She halts the downwards swing, and there's a sour grunt from him as she kicks her leg free. Shaken back three steps, he taps those black sticks of his together as a slow smirk spreads across his face. His attention on what Yamazaki is going through falters though, mostly because Yamazaki's mean and won't talk to him. Why won't you talk to me, Yamazaki?!
Regardless, his attention also snaps to the fore as the buxom beauty before him starts forward, spitting words and a foot as she closes the gap. But the biggest man of them all? He has ideas. He's an ideas man, not that most people would think it of him.
And he sees an opportunity to get real up-close and personal with Chun-Li.
Thus, as she brings that leg up vertically to strike him in the jaw, a distinct 'heh' leaves the mouth of the Syndicate's Steersman as he ducks down slightly, right into the blow. It isn't her foot that strikes him, but rather the inside of her calf, causing a delightful ringing in his ear. He resists the sudden urge to fall over, instead shifting his hands, even with those weapons in each.
With her leg up on his shoulder, he doesn't mess around. His hands grace her body as he seeks to lift her up yet again, effectively having her half-ride his shoulder and/or his bald head. "Ooooh, I bet you've dreamed of having me down here!" he announces, somehow managing to turn this rather heated fight into a heated fight of another variety, if not right onto its head! But he knows the power within her body; he cannot afford to fuck around, not until she's unconscious.
To that end, Mister Big swings her around once more, aiming to slam her right through the closest wall he can find. This just happens to be the wall that leads to...
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki successfully hits K' with Yakiire.
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K' 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Mr.Big
This isn't fucking working.
He needs it. He needs that fire that laces his blood, that makes so many of his blows far more deadly than what they would be otherwise. He can't do this without it. He can't do ANYTHING without it. He can't get past that fucking imperviousness to pain Yamazaki seems to have. And he can't-- afford-- to keep FAILING.
Not with Whip bleeding out somewhere in this very building. Maybe close to dead, maybe already there.
The realization of how useless he is without the power NESTS gave him almost hurts worse than the door does, even when the latter grinds him into the floor. Oh, he's definitely bleeding, but not anywhere Yamazaki would see it-- it's all internal. At least... all internal up until the first hints of red creep past his bared teeth. A few more seconds of this and he's gonna crack in half and drown in his own blood.
K' reacts out of pure frustrated will and self-directed anger. He folds his lower body up in a smashing arc, slamming a blow into the door and cracking it in half. He extricates himself once the pressure is gone, panting shallowly and dripping blood as he circles back like a wolf staring at a god damned BEAR.
He doesn't even know where to fucking start. Oh, he's searching for the fire in his blood, trying to find whatever it was that brought it back out last time. But he can't just do nothing, not if he wants his sister back, and it's that thought that drives him back at Yamazaki. K' scales in a swift pounce onto a table, gaining height such that when he lunges forward-- twisting a rolling 360 in the air to add force and momentum to his spinkick-- he can whirl a heel around at Yamazaki's face in a hook kick hard and sharp enough to crack his head back into the wall.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki interrupts Medium Kick from K' with Bomb Headbutt.
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K' 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Mr.Big
That's exactly what Yamazaki wants. Oh, he's aching for it.
K' bleeding, drowning in his own blood. See, he hasn't forgotten the little party they all had together about two days ago. You remember it, that little excursion Yamazaki took to go settle this whole Jiro business that K' so rudely interrupted right in the middle. The one that left Yamazaki buried in a ruined set of stairs. Then taken outside. And set on fire. Again. And impaled. And beaten...
Two days feels like two months when you're dead..
Yamazaki hasn't forgotten a lot of things, see.
Like their first fight.
K' snaps the door in half like a saltine cracker and slides his way free just as Yamazaki plants enough force down on the lower half of the door to put an imprint in the dingy floor shaped just like it, force enough to knock most of the little assorted trinkets off the shelves, vases that were probably worth quite a bit to some poor woman somewhere shattering on the floor with the act.
The boy leaps on a table just to get vertical against him. His arm, bandaged as it is from being torn all to hell by that last party he had, is shoved into a pocket as he lurches, looking up at K' as he whips through the air--and catches the mad mercenary fight in the face with a--what is that? a size 10? tiny ass Japanese feet--Yamazaki will never be able to tell. Then again, K' might need a whole new shoe.
When Yamazaki's face explodes at him.
"COME ON!!!"
Driving his face right into K's boot with authority and meeting it somewhere along the ridge of his brow, his bandages blow off with intensity as he checks the shock of the kid's whipping leg, Yamazaki looks to just pump his face into the offending limb once, a shockwave emitting somewhere from Yamazaki's /bad eye/ trying to take K' clear out of the air and knock him back through the antique he just vaulted off of.
The white linen has black crust on it as it drifts to the floor, and Yamazaki's face?
Let's not talk about that overlong. This will suffice:
It's half black, skin charred off thuroughly, and burned all the way pretty much all the way in ragged streaks down the neck, giving the man some sort of corpse walking theme. And what's worse? The explosion seems to have cracked the carbonized scorched crust, letting out red foul-smelling steam slowly from that entire half of his face in thick drawn lines. He is missing a /lot/ of his hair.
"Had enough of this pussy shit.." Yamazaki growls ominously, stalking towards K' as his free arm sways in the air, limp like a dead viper, jaws locked in rigor mortis.
"Tell ya this much. You did better with the mitten, kid. But. I came here looking for a party. And you know the thing about all the really good parties?" he asks, his face twisting with the emphasis, causing more skin cracking, "-Everyone's- invited."
One bright green healing eye, serpentine in slit pupil, contracts independently of his other as Yamazaki crosses a beam of light from the window. His free hand opens into a claw, flexing so tightly you can hear the stitching in his gloves pop. His knuckles crack.
"Hope Big and Geese don't mind. I'm gonna tear you in half.."
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Mr.Big's Fierce Strike.
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K' 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Mr.Big
Distantly, Chun-Li pays attention to the harsh and awful sounds coming from the adjacent room. Inwardly she hopes to God that the former NESTS assassin can handle the likes of Ryuji Yamazaki on his own, because damned if she has the capacity to deal with him AND the Sultan of Southtown. Right now, Chun-Li has to focus on keeping HER ass from being laid out. Then, maybe...
Whatever thoughts enter Mister Big's mind are nowhere near the thoughts she has when he ducks and lets her calf strike harshly against the side of his face. In that moment she lets her fierce expression falter somewhat, brown eyes going wide before she tries to hurriedly withdraw her leg. But before she can even do that, the Syndicate commander has his hands on her.
Struggling against, she offers a look of disgust as she's forced to straddle his shoulder, too close for comfort to that bald head of his. The faintest hints of a blush are visible, though her expression swiftly sours, a nasty, angered look on her otherwise soft features as swings her outwards, threatening to slam her into the adjacent wall. It works. Sort of.
The moment when her face SHOULD have smashed into the thin drywall is instead cushioned by her hands. Thrusting her arms outwards and crooking them ever slightly at the elbows for recoil, her palms drive into and THROUGH the wall. Cheap material crumbles almost instantly, the thin, aged drywall falling into pieces, leaving a nice, big gaping hole in Chun-Li's wake.
She supports herself, hanging half-over the hole she's made and gasping for breath. Though her blow was effectively cushioned, it still hurt like HELL, her arms feeling numb and feeble in the aftermath. But she can't let up--she has to persevere, she has to keep going. Thus does the Tai Chi Mistress pull herself off the wall, her head shaking lightly before she rises to her feet completely.
"Don't...flatter yourself," she finally replies, scowling softly. "Trash isn't my type."
Sprinting into action, Chun-Li charges forth once more with her eyes set on Mister Big. Several feet from the man, however, she leaps and flips into the air. Sailing high, she seemingly intends on simply jumping over the man, but such is not the case. Instead, just past his bald cranium both sneakered heels SHOOT outwards like a jackhammer, to drive a nasty and quick blow right into the back of his prone skull.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Mr.Big with Tenshin Shuu Kyaku.
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K' 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Mr.Big
It isn't quite the result that Mister Big was after -- he had hoped to send the Chinese Warrior through the wall entirely, but what he gets instead is... not to his dislike. "Nice view from back here," he quips as he watches the back half of Chun-Li hanging through the hole. In fact, he likes the view so much that he starts forward, rubbing his hands together. He thinks he'll give her a little tap on the ass; she'll like that, he just knows it.
Instead, she extracts herself, quipping in turn that he isn't her type. His big mouth -- the biggest of them all -- opens to offer a response when she comes charging at him one more time, leaping into the air -- and over him! His head twists to watch her path, fully intent on catching the upskirt -- only to have her feet slam down onto his forehead, tipping him backwards and practically folding him in half!
"Shit," he groans as he rapidly gets his legs back under him, pushing back to his feet with a simple push from the ground with one of his hands. He's strong, without a doubt; he thinks it's time he shows her that.
Displaying a charming set of heel marks on his forehead, Mister Big clicks his sticks together in warning. Sparks fly, the feel of chi filling the air. "Yama, I hope you're enjoying your meal out there," he calls over one shoulder, since clearly the two have been talking the entire time despite fighting in different rooms. Clearly! There was never any lull in the conversation, no skimmed-over capitalized letters!
Once more, his gaze fixates on Chun-Li. "And I hope you're enjoying yourself..."
Whatever distance he has between himself and Chun-Li however is eaten up in his sudden dash forward. He keeps one stick low to the ground, that energy fading in the ruse that it is. Instead he angles upwards, bringing that low stick through in an uppercut aimed to catch Chun-Li right in the torso, to volley her into the air -- so he may follow it up with several further strikes, twisting in a skyward uppercut that may well launch the girl through the ceiling!
Right about the same time Yamazaki intercepts his attack and stomps him straight back into the table, K' is thinking he ought to have killed Yamazaki a couple more times. He ought to have killed him -harder-. He must have missed the heart when he put that sort-of-sharp piece of wood through him, and he must not have set an intense enough fire in the man's flesh...
Yeah, he should have waited until Yamazaki was -ashes-. But by then, Hotaru would probably have been dead.
There's no help for it. Yamazaki's alive, he's recovered (mostly), and he's clearly pissed off over what K' did to him. And tired as he is, injured as he is, missing that which gives him the bulk of his power as he is, K' is finding himself hard-pressed to keep up.
But he has to. If he doesn't, Whip's left in Yamazaki's hands. And really, there's no need to elaborate any further on why that motivates him so damned much.
Sadly, motivation is pretty much all K' has left to carry him. The young man is almost as much a ruin as the antique Yamazaki just rendered to splinters with K''s back. Grunting a disgusted, blood-ridden sound as he flips himself over into a crouch in the wreckage, he bristles close to the ground as Yamazaki advances: for all the world like a wolverine being menaced by a bear.
He stares Yamazaki in the ruined face as the man promises to end him. And K' just bares his teeth, desperation, disgust, and anger vibrating every nerve in his body. You did better with the mitten, Yamazaki spits mockingly. K' twitches visibly, his reaction letting Yamazaki know the mitten's a sore spot even if the gangster has no fucking clue what it's supposed to do.
He doesn't need that glove. He doesn't need it. And really, given the amount of duress he's already under... that conviction is all he needs. His hands, braced against the ground, start smoking as he unconsciously reaches for the flames. He's mad, and his blood's reacting to the anger, and the fire feels closer than it has for days. He'll tear him in two? "Come and -try-."
That he'll say such a thing to Yamazaki, of all people, is probably a mark of how desperate he is for his sister back.
COMBATSYS: K' gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
K' 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Mr.Big
See, Yamazaki's had a hell of a month.
He thinks it started earlier on when his party with the little newbie to the Southtown Syndicate Women's Club got interrupted by that other Chinese Puffnstuff. Jiro punched him in the street sometime before that, but Yamazaki had a little fun and put it on Kasagi's tab. His ass, that is. After that, it's really just been one long line of aggravations getting in the way of his fun, one after the other. He failed to gore that cute little popsicle, then this prick gets inbetween him and the sweetest thing in all of Southtown.
"Yeah, you know, ever since then," Yamazaki grumbles, to no one in particular, "People seem to think it's open season on ruining my fun...." he breathes slowly, methodically. Slaking the prevading spittle from his jaw with a flick of the tongue, his face flakes slightly, bits of errant charbroil long since rendereed pointless crumbling off his flesh. YEah, K' almost did him in pretty good that time.
The agony must be intense.
"But ya know.."
"I think.." he forces the words out, forcing the breath out in forced contractions of his barrel chest, distending his inflections hard. He passes the front desk as he approaches the small smouldering little experiment, his shadow falling across it. "I think what pisses me off the most tho?" he gestures at the door, "--YOU LET EM GET AWAY!!" he roars, spittle flying just over the low clone in a sticky kind of rain. He swings a hand at the open door. The other two guys Big sent up here are just like, gone. Quite possibly they were never here. They never existed. They're a myth. They know better than to stick around between Yamazaki and K'.
"Oh, you bet I'm gonna try it. You bet--see, now? Now, I'm gonna have to party enough for all three of ya!!!!"
Exploding off of his haunches, Yamazaki leaps into the air, his shoulderblades slamming into the ceiling and putting out the dinky overhead light with the act, his other hand still snatched in his pocket, Yamazaki doesn't so much try and jump at K' more as jump /in/ K', the one snakelike hand stabbing out to get ahold of K' by the /scalp/. Tired?
He'd better think of something fast--else--
He ain't even known tired.
This is how it's gonna go down. For every piece or priceless heirloom in the pawn shop, Yamazaki is going to whip K' through it. Vases, boxes of jewelry, katanas, just in one climactic sweep, Yamazaki is going to whip the boy around and slam him into the grimy floor.
Then he's going to run his head across the ground and through the pawn shop desk.
Then the pawn shop desk is going to explode in a massive rupture of rending steel and chi when Yamazaki kicks through the entire counter it to send the mass of steel and chi up chasing after K's body, which preferentially is somewhere inbetween the wall (a hard place) and Yamazaki (whole lotta -rock.-)
Ryuji Yamazaki is well and genuinely out for blood now.
He's going to bury K's body.
Yeah, Yamazaki's definitely had a hell of a month.
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Mr.Big's California Romance.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
K' 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Mr.Big
Snapping her legs out with precision, sneakered heels collide painfully into the Southsynd commander's forehead, his form sent sprawling and reeling backwards as result. Chun-Li, on the other hand, uses the force behind the blow to arch her back somewhat, hitting the ground with her palms before arms give way, bending and guiding her form down onto the ground, shoulders first. Rolling once, she hops back onto her feet, pivoting sharply as she whips around to face the bald man once more.
She observes as Mister Big pulls himself back onto his feet, the sticks clacking ominously in his hand. Swiftly her brown eyes narrow, a sharp look of annoyance briefly seizing her soft features as he calls out to the psychotic mercenary. How dare he not take her seriously. Didn't he learn the last time she shouldn't be taken so lightly..?
Giving her head a ginger shake, Chun-Li's eyes briefly press shut, lips pursed gently together before, slowly, she lifts her head and fixes her attention back onto the Syndicate commander. "I'll enjoy myself once you're out cold, in cuffs and stranded outside of the nearest police station," she replies coolly as her legs shift, arms lifting as she eases into stance once more.
Not a word leaves her as Mister Big comes charging once more, chi rippling along one stick. But it fades, his ruse clear as the other stick sharply cuts upwards to catch her in the ribs. Just before it bites into her stomach Chun-Li violently whips aside, a graceful twirl as she lets the stick sail harmlessly past her. She leaps a short distance forward thereafter, widening the gap that lingers between her body and the Syndicate commander's. But she doesn't attack.
Instead, Chun-Li's brown eyes shift toward the hole in the wall and, namely, K'. Offering a small, lopsided smile, the woman lifts a hand to her mouth as she calls out, "Hey, if you need help just let me know! I've got your back!"
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li assists K'.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
K' 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Mr.Big
And thus, Mister Big fails to hit the woman, instead uppercutting the ceiling by himself! The plasterboard breaks, the false ceiling giving way in a shower of debris. He lands, somewhat powdery thanks to that. A sour grunt leaves his mouth, and he spits his cigar to one side, where it's likely to come into play later; remember that, kids!
There's an equally sour grunt as it becomes apparent that Chun-Li has no intention of retaliating, instead being the noble woman that she is and shouting encouragement.
Is she not taking him seriously? He should make her regret that. Make her regret it, right in her brown eye--s!!
"Hmm, so you think you'll actually achieve anything by that?" he questions her, as he lets his sticks handle from their strings around each wrist. He reaches inside his coat, removing a pre-cut cigar. "Don't you think if the local authorities had anything on me, they'd have made their move by now? You're not that naďve. They'd keep me off the streets for twenty-four hours if they're lucky, and nothing will change.
"Is that your big move then? Do you think there's anything here that will actually incriminate me in any fashion whatsoever? You're no fool, however pleasant a handful you appear."
His free hand gestures rather crudely, a squeezing motion made near his own chest. That broad grin of his is soon filled by the cigar, lit and contentedly puffing away. He exhales a long stream of smoke, relaxing indeed, particularly as he adds;
"You'd do much better to try and crush the Syndicate from the inside, hmmmmm? Seduce one of their handsome commanders, and let him give you a hand or two." Smoke rolls out of his mouth, and that grin broadens. "We could even use those handcuffs you've mentioned."
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
K' 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Mr.Big
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Yamazaki's Guillotine.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
K' 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Mr.Big
K' gets swallowed up in Yamazaki's shadow. The lean, low-slung experiment gets swathed in total, looming darkness for a few moments... and then, a hint of firelight breaks the blackness. A red glimmering throws his bangs into sharp relief, searing across the plane of his jaw, lighting the little hollow between him and the floor. The flames source from his hands, pressed against the floor, and they catch on the splintered remnants of the table. Fire-- real fire, not mere chi-- crawls slowly along the dry but heavy wood, revealing its unnatural characteristics by the fact it's burning anything at all.
The sputtering of fire is frail, for now-- but it strengthens when K' hears Chun-Li's voice. It reminds him that somebody gave enough of a shit to come here with him. And that reminds him that he isn't as worthless as he was always told. If he were, why would so many people, out in the real world, tolerate and accept him the way Chun-Li does? Why would he have survived so long?
He doesn't make a reply to her, but he does shoot a glance at her to give some kind of notice she isn't just shouting at air. His yellow eyes switch instantly back to Yamazaki as the other man advances. His only reply to Yamazaki's howled fury is a red-lined, snarling smirk and a spit of blood to the floor, just before the gangster. The implication is clear enough: shut up and come at him.
And when Yamazaki descends on him, trying to sink claws into his head, K' twists, turns, and angles himself such that Yamazaki claws along his shoulder instead. He slips back before Yamazaki can even get any grip on him. The sudden pain sharpens his senses, reminding him of what Whip's gonna feel tenfold if he doesn't get her out of here. The smell of blood focuses him down into a trance. He forgets about Chun-Li, and Big, and to an extent even Yamazaki, because he can feel the fire in his blood.
Flames unfold down his right arm. And even with a leather glove on, not unlike the type Kyo wears, the type that goes up to the elbow, the pain of it is almost unbearable. But K' ignores it, pushing it back, letting the fire out even further and accepting the mounting burn. This agony is nothing compared to what Whip felt when she helped him seal the fire in the first place. How can he balk from feeling it now, for her sake? To return what she's done for him?
K' doesn't hesitate. He slams back forward right on the heels of his avoidance of Yamazaki's clawing grip, attempting to capitalize on the gangster's continued forward momentum, trying to slam a splitting blow and all that gathered fire straight into the center of Yamazaki's chest.
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Yamazaki with Chain Drive EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
K' 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Mr.Big
That stunning blow, akin to the one K' ruined the back of Yamazaki's neck with a mere few days previous, is only the start. When K' feels it connect, something sparks in him: muscle memory, and the memory of something far less tangible, comes rushing back to the forefront of his mind, taking over his thought and dictating his actions. He doesn't think; he just does.
He attacks with the kind of furious force that can only be mustered in the defense of something well-loved. His hands -gouge- into Yamazaki as if trying to take him apart with each strike. Where Yamazaki earlier sought to lift K' off the ground and crush everything in the room with his body, K' attacks with a far more narrow, pinpoint focus; he tries to ruin Yamazaki with endless, successive, fire-laced strikes, crashing against the gangster in a surge of movement too quick to be followed with the eye.
With a smaller opponent, K' would have played with the body, kicking it up with vicious sweeps, crushing it back down, and repeating the process such that his target never quite fell out of range of his spite. With a guy like Yamazaki... K' just aims all his tearing attacks to try to rip him wide open and leave him to dry. He ends suddenly, not bothering to slow or build towards it; abruptly, he just slams a hand forward, the full force of his shoulder and a whole lot of fire behind it, trying to impale Yamazaki straight through on his arm.
He didn't get to have his party.
That's about the long and short of what comes to Yamazaki's mind as K' evades him--gods willing, Yamazaki tore up something important when he clawed K's shoulder. He hears Chun-li offering help, but it only barely registers within the torrent, the intense desire to inflict the maximum amount of destruction on K' possible almost drowning his eyes, both of which become progressively more bloodshot by the moment. The effect is lost quickly, however, because Yamazaki looks for all the world like a confused dog when that fire eats up the new darkness that he casts, the long and menacing shadow.
The hell?
"BOAARGH!"
Inventing new noises when K' lights into him with that single flaming blow, Yamazaki is crumpled beneath the dizzying juice concentrate of K's unmitigated unfettered /beasthood/ slamming into him, slowly blowing him back, shattering ribs, almost burning through and shattering his weak arm when he tries to defend against it--Yamazaki's inexorable stalking advance is put into check.
Slowly, he backs up.
His body meets the counter that would have been torn in half with K's head only a moment prior, blocking him off from any further retreat--his shirt is just torn open, the slab of barbecued meat that is his chest absorbing countless blasts of fire and hammer blows from K', his skin blackening even further. Yamazaki's grimace is legendary, a lion who just got a flaming spear thrown at it.
Thrown THROUGH it--K's fist pierces through Yamazaki like a knife through butter, the soft bit at his side spurting blood with the motion, and it is eerily familiar to that scene a few nights ago. Only difference is, it's Yamazaki this time on the receiving end of that massive hole.
When it's all said and done, Yamazaki is a ruined work of gruesome art to put Giger to shame, his claw set into the counter at his side, K's fist through him and his shirt not much more than grey shreds clinging to charred flesh and bloody wounds. His broken arm hangs at his side, limp and twitching.
There is no phlegm in the pure blood that he coughs.
"I was startin to think you got soft on me, Stretch.."
His voice is wet and gravelly, as he comes just shy of choking on one of his own organs.
Still. He grins.
Yamazaki has a knack for noticing these kinds of things. Problem is--K's arm is now stuck in his body. Which means, for a period of time determined solely by Yamazaki, K' kind of belongs to him. What that means is.. when Yamazaki reaches out, K' has only a moment to decide what he wants to do before Yamazaki grabs him by the midsection, the opposite side of the hole he drilled in him a few days prior, with a grip that is strong enough to drive fingertips through leather and flesh all the same.
The Komodo dragon of Indonesia never actually quite hunts its victims. To tell the truth, the 10 foot long lizard is quite lazy. Therefore, hunting for the dragon is usually never really a matter of chasing or really any kind of struggle at all. It simply bites the prey a few times and moves away. You see, the Komodo dragon feeds off of carrion. What that means is the rotting flesh behind its teeth to all manner of bacteria. By itself, the dragon is not venomous. But its saliva is so virulent that a bite from it will result in death from any manner of ugly malaises in a week if left untreated. Septicemia, gangrene. Oftentimes, amputation is the only method of survival. Aggravating this is the fact the difficulty of finding a doctor you'd trust to take your leg off in Indonesia, and you understand why people there build their houses on stilts.
Think about this, when Yamazaki's maw opens.
And those long lines of bloodied drool hanging from his canines.
If K' doesn't find a way around the suction effect from his arm being embedded in Yamazaki's torso in a hurry, Yamazaki's grip is going to cement in his side and K' won't be able to do a whole lot about it short of tear that flesh open getting away from him.
".... Might wanna call your girlfriend, now," he snarls, hot bales of warm and moist air foul licking across the experiment's face. The dim recollection only barely flicks into his mind. Red froth drips from the hang of his jaw as something preeternatural and _savage_ growls from deep within Yamazaki's chest.
Yeah, he didn't get to have his party..
But he can have his cake and eat it too, yeah?
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki successfully hits K' with ...!!.
- Power hit! -
[ \ < > ///////// ]
K' 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Mr.Big
Lifting the boy up off his feet, the mercenary flips him around, to almost snap his spine against that table with the pressure his entire body can exert. See. Yamazaki doesn't quite try to bite K'. No. That sort of undersells the main point...
Yamazaki tries to /eat/ K'.
He starts with the shoulder. Jaws snapping shut, Yamazaki will tear bits and pieces of the young boy, twisting meat with his jaws until it comes free. He will chew. And then, blood spurting form his own wounds and acid falling free, he will swallow.
There is no telling how long Yamazaki will keep at this, but it seems a sure sign Yamazaki intends to grimly pick K' to bits like so much fried chicken.
He always did love sashimi..
The moment K' acknowledges the World's Strongest Woman is when she offers a soft grin in response, nodding her head ever so slightly toward the former NESTS assassin. But just as soon as his gaze settles upon the woman it's off again, focused instead on the dangerous Syndicate mercenary facing him down like a veritable Goliath. Yes, she tells herself. K' will be all right.
Her thoughts are broken as Mister Big speaks up, her almond-brown eyes drawn back to him. Frowning swiftly, she lets her eyes half-lid, her jaw tense before she softly scoffs. "You think far too highly of yourself, Big," she replies with a soft shake of her head. "You aren't as untouchable as you may believe. I'll find a means of incriminating you and getting you off these streets. I have plenty of contacts, after all."
But the more Big speaks, the less inclined she becomes to actually LISTEN to the man. Her serious, determined expression gives way to another look of disgust, brows softly knit as she lightly scowls. A moment later her head merely shakes, eyes pinched shut before she snaps, "Shut up and fight already!" Flustered and annoyed, Chun-Li's eyes open, glaring at the Syndicate commander. "I have better things to do than listen to you talk ab--"
Before the thought even rolls off of Chun-Li's tongue, a sudden ROAR of fire explodes from the adjacent room. Heat rolls in, causing the woman to shrink away from the source and shield her face from the immense strength that burns with each strike. Silently she observes as K' unleashed all his built-up anger and frustrations upon Ryuji Yamazaki with no pity or remorse. A part of her is relieved; the other, still worried. He's pushing himself so much...
Presuming the fight is sealed with K''s strikes, Chun-Li glances back. Her legs tense as she assumes stance once more, her expression as fiercely determined as ever. No smile nor frown lingers upon her soft face, no hesitation in her gaze as she settles it upon Mister Big. She will end this fight as quickly as possible and fix the wrong that has been committed upon an innocent woman.
She begins to move--but stops. SOMETHING behind her halts her step.
It's the sudden, pungent stench of blood. A lot of blood.
Slowly the woman glances over her shoulder, eyeing the situation that unfolds. And when her eyes set sight on K' a horrified look fills her features, her face suddenly pale and devoid of all color as Yamazaki all but cannibalizes the Beast of Prey. For the longest moment the woman finds herself paralyzed with disbelief and horror. The sight alone makes her stomach flip and churn, the urge to all but throw up threatening her throat.
Brown eyes pinch shut, her face shying away from the scene. Focus, Chun-Li, focus! Mister Big is still an incredible threat. If you lose track, you'll blow this for yourself AND K', she tells herself. Focus. FOCUS!
Opening her eyes, the woman lets loose a cry as she charges forward right at Mister Big. Closing in on the Syndicate commander, she raises a fist and attempts to strike the man with an open palm across the jaw, followed by a sharp and swift second strike with the back of her hand.
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big endures Chun-Li's Medium Punch.
[ \ < > ///////// ]
K' 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Mr.Big
Yamazaki says, "and k' and yamazaki together"
Even the biggest pervert of them all finds his libido somewhat stilled by what happens in the adjacent room. He can catch glimpses of it, through the hole in the wall and the door, but he decides very rapidly that it's best he ignore the sounds. From what he can make out, the two in there are going to kill each other. He wonders how Geese will respond to that news.
They can always find new hired guns, but Yamazaki is more than just handy to have around, in an organization such as theirs
What he can smell from the other room makes him wave his cigar in front of him, warding off the stench and the horror from that room in favor of some delightful Cuban smoke instead. He compartmentalizes, keeping his mind in the back room rather than the front, watching as Chun-Li comes to her senses and ambles over to slap him not once, not twice, but--oh just twice.
His initial response, other than correcting the tilt of his head, is to blow smoke in her face.
"I think your friend is in a spot of bother, hmmmmm?" he draws the sound out, lips twitching into that grin. It's somewhat forced this time, but he plays the distraction card anyway. "Sounds like Yama's started on his dish, and here I am still playing with my food."
It's always good to tenderize your meat before you eat it. That way, it won't be so stiff and chewy, and will go down smooth. And Mister Big, he would dearly love to spend a few hours eating Chun-Li.
But first, the tenderizing.
Those sticks twirl back up into his hands with a quick lift of each wrist, the loop around each wrist pulling the weapons into his seductive grasp. His fingers curl around each shaft, and he brings the sticks up in unison, aiming to catch Chun-Li square in the chest, aiming to hit the symbols before he starts with the drum solo.
And what a solo it promises to be, the Sultan of Southtown letting sweat fly from his brow as he starts into a tremendous show of talent, aiming to pummel the World's Strongest Woman down to her knees before him with repeated downward strikes!
"What was that you said just then, Yama?" he calls out during the solo.
It's that taste for revenge that finally gets K' in trouble. That desire to put a fucking hole in Yamazaki, commensurate with the one the mercenary tore in -him-, that gets him into this entire mess. Someday he'll realize vengeance only ever comes back to bite you... but that day is very, very far off.
An attempt to retract gets arrested in a horrific way when Yamazaki shifts forward. With a surge of his odd black chi, K' tries to pull back-- but halfway, his arm STICKS on a broken rib in Yamazaki's chest, the shattered bone piercing his arm and pinning him in place. The sudden unexpected pain pales him, the boy's jaw gritting as he tries to correct for this potentially disastrous turn of events. But by that time, Yamazaki already has his claws in his side and K' only has time to sneer in the vicious manner of a cornered animal. If he had ears like a cat, they'd be laid all the way back right about now.
Slammed down on the table, K' howls an unsettling note of agony-- fitting for the atrocity that's happening-- when Yamazaki's fangs peel several inches of bleeding, steaming flesh from the bone of his shoulder. The unnatural smoking heat of it is explained easily: his fire is still up in his blood, burning out of his torn veins, and the taste of it is sharp and acrid and smoky when Yamazaki bites down again and rips another wet strip of flesh away across half his chest, baring the pale curve of two ribs. Blood hits the opposite wall and scorches marks into the aged paint with its heat.
But the thing about being engineered for the savage world of violence-- built meticulously, gene by gene, to kill and be killed-- is that he isn't -wired- to panic at being -eaten alive-. He's wired, at the most basic level, to -enrage-. To berserk as badly as Yamazaki does 24/7. His mind flatlines to shut out the incredible pain, the animal terror in the back of his brain, and pretty much everything else in the world but Yamazaki: pure, unadulterated fury takes the place of coherent thought.
He's going to fucking kill him again: kill him, and burn him to ash, and make a fucking laundry rack out of his scorched bones.
Of course, desire isn't quite commensurate with the body's ability to carry through. But that doesn't stop K' abruptly slamming up straight into Yamazaki's -face- with a snarling roar and a surge of flames, interrupting what probably isn't even all that good-tasting a meal with a sudden storming rebellion. He wants to scorch the rest of Yamazaki's ruined face off. Clawing around in a blind, wild swipe, he tries to rake across Yamazaki's torso with full intent to catch his fire-laced hand in the hole he made earlier and rip it wide open, and if the first strike doesn't have him ankle-deep in Yamazaki's scorched viscera, he's going to do it -again- until he can smell entrails steaming in the air.
And make no mistake, he knows what that smells like. It's fortunate he does, because by this point he has to -rely- on smell to know if he's hit; he certainly won't be -seeing- much of anything, given the titanic blood loss he's suffered has made his vision practically black out.
COMBATSYS: K' can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////////// ]
|=======\==-----\1 Mr.Big
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki interrupts Heaven Drive from K' with Snake Tamer.
~ Cruel hit! ~
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Chun-Li 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////////// ]
|=======\==-----\1 Mr.Big
You know it's bad when, if even only just for a moment, Mr. Big loses his appetite.
For Yamazaki, it's a little different. Yamazaki was accustomed to feeding on things that most people would find stomach churning. He was an epic hunter by nature. The bigger the animal, the bigger the fight. The more raw, the better. Though one could argue a sophisticated palate given his common accounts and well known face at the most upscale restaurants in Southtown, the simple fact was, Yamazaki wasn't really 'ever' satisfied with his food til it was literally bleeding and crying on the plate. And when K' is caught in that sucking chest wound he punched in him, Yamazaki was about to get his chance.
Yamazaki's blood, mixed irrevocably in his saliva, did a little more than just taint K' when Yamazaki fed. It /burned/. There's something foul and chemical in the mercenary's blood, the same reason why he can walk around for ages with his eye just about hanging out of his head without choking to death from sepsis or some similar malady. His blood boils acidly, matching the fever pitch of Yamazaki's 'taste', to which the charcoaline grit of K's flavor only contributes.
He wanted to ruin something perfect.
He wanted to drink bile.
He wanted to sleep in bones.
To someone like Yamazaki, K' is just /barbecue/.
Jaw working on K' like a mechanical shovel, blood sprays the pawn shop catastrophically. A side of brisket is torn free and at least partically chewed through. In the heat of that moment, there is no doubt. If K' even thought about passing out from shock, Yamazaki would have eaten the chalky teenager alive. Unfortunately for Yamazaki's dinner, K's agony is yet short-lived. Triggering some impulse to rage, that fucking /riot/ almost as intense deep in K's genetic code as it is his, the boy explodes into his jaw, cracking it and sending gruesome flesh flying against the wall with an almost comedically timed wet 'spack' as Yamazaki literally gets the taste slapped out of his mouth.
In this case, punched.
K's fist scorching through, /melting/ his wounds, the experiment tries to disembowel him, to turn him to ash. And you know. Partially? He succeeds. Yamazaki's stomach is ripped open, embers flying in equal measure to tainted blood as the hulk absorbs the pounding rush of force with an intense fervor.
The word is 'glee.'
"You know, I been waiting for this!!!" Yamazaki roars, a barely referential response somewhere between K' and Big thrown wildly. It makes sense, if you stop to think about it. What do you think someone like Yamazaki would think if Geese picked up and started looking after someone whose style is just pure violence?
Yamazaki--he wasn't like that.
His hand wrenches free of its grip as K's fist withdraws.
Then like a thunderbolt, his bicep twists, flexing. He looks to /cut/ into K's wounded body with pure brute force, blasting the youth away--but /holding/ him there, same as K's fist got stuck in him. But the difference is, between him and K', Yamazaki wants it that way. He's gonna LIFT K' off the ground at the full span of his arm, suspending him there. His own vision dimming, every muscle aching with the force and effort requires to really put K' through his paces, the blood loss finally beginning to register to him, a full body ache as his body starves ever slight for things that his blood can't give just yet. That's the price you pay for tangling with someone like K' up front.
But he's still got that lockjaw grin.
"... I've been wantin to see--just what kinda violent--you really are."
Vengeance?
He wouldn't know shit about that.
His fist will /explode/ open in that wound, his fingers flexing wide like a shotgun blast went off in K's abdomen. And Yamazaki? He'll cackle all the way.
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big successfully hits Chun-Li with Crazy Drum Dram.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Chun-Li 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////////// ]
|=======\====---\1 Mr.Big
For the here and now, Chun-Li has desperately tried to shut her mind off to the adjacent room's happenings. She can't afford to let K''s plight cloud her judgment, not when she still has quite a ways to go with the Syndicate commander. Only then, should her efforts prove fruitful, can she drop her guard and worry terribly for the former NESTS assassin.
But right now, she just cannot think about it all.
Two fierce slap-like strikes are delivered onto Mister Big's face, the sound of flesh on flesh echoing between the two as her palm lands twice. Though she hits, the big man hardly budges; instead, he cranes his neck and blows sweet smoke into her face. Instantly she recoils, coughing lightly with a soured expression on her face.
"Sh-shut up..!" the woman cries, giving her head a swift, harsh shake before she shoots a glare up at the Syndicate commander. Rather than harshly reply or give herself time to dwell on what's going on the room over she merely steps back, cautious and uncertain steps taken before she eases into her stance once more. "...and fight already!"
Just barely do the words slip past her lips when the man suddenly moves. Her response is initially surprise, brown eyes going wide before her arms twitch and try to cross over her chest, to shield her body from the blow of those sticks. But he's quick--and strong; both pierce her defenses, a series of relentless blows delivered that drive the woman toward the ground, her legs giving out from under her. With a cry she hits the floor, gasping for breath as she painfully clutches her aching chest.
Has the big man of the Syndicate felled the World's Strongest Woman..?
Carelessly, perhaps, his attentions turn elsewhere, toward the crazed, deranged Orochi-blooded mercenary. In that moment, Chun-Li seeks to capitalize; beneath her body her long, powerful legs flex, muscles rippling with strength as she sucks a sharp breath through her teeth. Using her crouch, the woman's legs uncoil suddenly, launching her body upwards in a blur of motion. Sharply she twists as she ascends, a leg whipping around to deliver an aerial kick at Big's head with the toe of her sneakered foot. But it doesn't stop at one; instead, her body continues to arc upwards, carrying the man with as her leg whips around, giving her form the momentum she needs to swing the opposite leg around and attempt to catch the man with the back of her heel as she cries, sharply:
"TENSHOU KYAKU!!"
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li successfully hits Mr.Big with Tenshou Kyaku EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Chun-Li 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////// ]
|=======\======-\1 Mr.Big
It's with a sneer of deviant delight that Mister Big makes good on his strike. This agile, top-heavy woman has evaded him time after time, and finally he lands a set of blows precisely where he'd prefer his hands! Well, close enough to. He knocks her down, only to call out to his fellow Syndicate member -- certainly it would be best described as a work associate, rather than a friend. BFFssss!!!
It's the intake of breath that draws the biggest man's attention down towards the prone Chun-Li. Behind those shaded rims, his gaze cuts down, right in time for her sudden ascension. Throwing himself into a defensive posture fails; he braces, but not enough, the man volleyed off the floor by the first kick square into his mouth. His mouth smushes to one side, kind of like--
Suddenly finding himself running on air, the Sultan of Southtown can do little to prevent the follow-up, a vicious heel that crashes into the side of his shining melon. His glasses are knocked down his nose, barely hanging on thanks to the leg over his left ear.
Knocked around, he lands a few paces away, sliding along on one knee as one hand clutches the side of his head. Quickly he straightens his glasses, so the world may never see his beautiful eyes; they just aren't ready.
"Hmmmmm, it sounds as though your friend is in a bit of strife," he sounds over his shoulder, warily watching Chun-Li to see if she's bold enough to strike at him while he's seemingly down. That doesn't last long as he straightens, pulling his sticks back into the biggest hands of them all. "But you know, as fun as it is tangling with you, I've got to wonder; I understand why you're here, but why is the runt?" He gestures with one of those fighting sticks towards one of the openings that have been made into the front room, where those sounds are still coming from.
The gesturing rod comes to rest on his shoulder, idly tapping as he stares down the Chinese Fighter through those rims. For the moment, it seems he's much more curious as to the answer to this -- so much so that he simply eyes Chun-Li, not assailing her for the moment, allowing her a reprieve he's sure to regret.
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Chun-Li 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////// ]
|=======\======-\1 Mr.Big
Yamazaki's blood gets -in- K' when the Orochi mercenary bites down. The rank infection and taint of him mixes straight into K''s blood. K' isn't a Kusanagi, or a Yagami, or any kind of person who has a blood right to the sacred flames... but nonetheless, he's got them grafted into him. He's got real flames running in his blood. A little piece of the holy Kusanagi gift burns in this bastard nobody, and when that hated Orochi miasma touches them, the fires go crazy in a surge of offended, searing heat.
And that's part of why he goes just a little berserk.
K' twists and slithers upright almost bonelessly, slamming forward with a massive clawing swipe that tears Yamazaki open from hip to the base of his ribcage. Forget disease; Yamazaki just injected a minor case of the Riot. A normal Kusanagi would have withstood it. And even in this mistake of engineering, it'll burn out of his blood soon enough, some minor contamination of blood hardly enough to withstand the cleansing burn of the Kusanagi fire. But for now? It keeps K' up, running, and searingly enraged despite the catastrophic damage done to him.
But it doesn't help him get through Yamazaki's counterattack. It doesn't help him fight any better; in fact, it might just hinder him. K' is nothing but a bastard Kusanagi, a knock-off made in a lab from the marriage of some random kid and a bit of extracted fire; he hasn't lived with it like Yamazaki has, doesn't know how to handle it like Yamazaki does, and he can't calculate his rage to synchronize with any kind of exacting movement-- not like Yamazaki can. And soon enough, the assassin proves it, stopping the young man cold in his tracks.
K' is mad enough he almost doesn't notice when Yamazaki impales him through, stopping his subsequent attack. If he were capable of getting a good enough grip through the slippery blood coating them both, he might even have dragged himself further onto that impaling arm just so he could reach Yamazaki's face and rip it off. It's entirely likely Yamazaki can -feel- the kid snarling around his arm, the sound vibrating what's left of K''s torso. The killing fury in his narrowed eyes should be answer enough to Yamazaki's curiosity as to whether K''s touted violence is genuine or not.
Even if he were coherent enough to answer in any language a man might understand, he isn't given time before the mercenary rips his side open with an explosive spurning blast. K' hits the opposite wall and folds instantly to a shuddering crouch, leaving a print of blood where he strikes and another print when he hits the floor. He's done. It's clear he's done, that he simply won't have the strength to throw anything further worth any consequence... and yet he still struggles to stand, infuriated beyond measure.
He's forgotten about Chun-Li, about Mr. Big, and-- save for the merest whisper in the back of his mind-- about Whip. The taint infecting his blood and keeping him awake is killing off every thought that isn't Yamazaki's brutal murder. It's hard to stand when half your torso is gone, however, and so K' doesn't ever get too far.
Ruining his jeans forever, Yamazaki slides his hands into them. He bridges his back, tearing his wounds further, ripping them jaggedly as he thrashes his head around until his skull bounces around in his braincase like a baby's rattle. The gentlemen's way of cleaning your face, he sprays blood and spittle everywhere.
"YEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Yamazaki could just /dance/.
He wasn't this happy because he was still standing. No, Yamazaki isn't sated cus of that. Victory is something measured in strength and right now, Yamazaki doesn't really have a whole lot of that. He's only standing right now because in some ways, Yamazaki is way too dumb to know when to pitch over and call it a day. Now unlike a lot of you kids watching out there in TV land, Yamazaki follows his heart.
The message just gets a little skewed based on how much he's bleeding.
But you can't really discount Yamazaki for that alone. He is far from a dumb animal, and he's lived long enough to see the worst of the streets. He's got the eye for it. And the reason for that is, his control. Though it seems contrary to what most observe from Yamazaki, he's gotten by by being just lucid enough. See--he doesn't need a reason to rage. It's something he feels all the time, a controlled tempest, released in measured amounts like so much spittle spraying across the floor. What that means is, Yamazaki doesn't lose focus when he really gets going. Not in the slightest.
That's what enables him to discern just what it is that's happening to K' when he lifts him on his fist.
As if knocked down by a riot shotgun, the boy slides off the wall in a crouch, leaving his freakish blood prints all over the front of the pawn shop, and Yamazaki can smell it. All manner of viscera easily viewable in the mercenary's body, but he can smell it nonetheless. The kind of /nonsensical/ rage. Stomach churning, blood boiling. He can smell it off K', a comrade in arms.
"You feel it now, doncha..."
It's not a question. Yamazaki steps towards K', bleeding from every possible orifice, stalking towards the crouching youth. See, /he/ knows, because he's forced people to feel it before. "It ain't like burn yourself with a match. That's the real burn. Genuine and pure. You like it? Oh, you do. I think you really do... You know all about real killing, don't you? About losing it..."
"You're a /freak./"
He grins.
"Like me."
He grins wide.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Chun-Li 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////// ]
|=======\======-\1 Mr.Big
One vicious rotation follows another, Chun-Li's infamous legs whipping around like some vicious buzzsaw intent on cutting through the Syndicate commander. He's struck twice, his body rocked into the air before he's ultimately sent flying backwards as result. As for Chun-Li she lets her leg follow the second rotation before she suddenly drops her weight, her form landing in a deep crouch with her arms outstretched for balance. For a moment she holds the pose.
Then, slowly, the woman rises upwards, to stand at full height with a fierce look on her face.
But when Mister Big speaks, that look falters.
Instantly the woman twists, her body half-turning as she cuts her gaze toward the scene beyond the wall. The sight is as gruesome as ever, both men bloodied and battered but with Yamazaki the clear 'victor,' as it were. On his meaty hand the youth writhes in pain, thrashing like some wild animal. It horrifies the Chinese vigilante to no end. How could this be..?
"Tch!" Pinching her eyes shut, Big's words earn him a scoff, her head shaking in defiance before she shoots a quick glance back to the Syndicate commander. "What does it matter??" she snaps, almond-brown eyes hooded dangerously as her shoulders tense. "This operation is through. I'm giving you a chance to tuck your tail and run while you can, Big!"
She prays he'll do that. This situation is getting worse.
But the longer the seconds fly by, the less of a threat he poses. Perhaps foolishly, Chun-Li's gaze drifts back onto the scene beyond the wall, brown eyes worried as she watches K' struggle desperately to stand on his feet. And with every precious second flying by, the Syndicate mercenary, that Orochi-tainted freak, gets closer and closer.
Chun-Li makes her decision then and there: she turns her back to Big.
Exhaling sharply, the woman bolts forward, moving hurriedly across the room toward the large, gaping hole she'd previously made in thin drywall. Leaping through, the woman dives before hitting the floor, tumbling once before she leaps back onto her feet and resumes her charge right at Yamazaki's back. She hopes and prays to God he's distracted enough not to hear her when she suddenly leaps up into the air and flips head over heels...
Before she descends toward him like some bird of prey, arms outstretched and long fingers crooked. She intends to snare the thug by his broad, trunk like neck with both hands, to allow nails to dig fiercely into his bloodied and burned neck for a good grip. Only then will her body suddenly and sharply twist before she drops her legs down toward the floor, using her momentum as leverage to lift all two-hundred and eleven pounds of meat and muscle behind her into the air...before she whips her arms forward, to drive him head-first into the aged, scuffed-up wooden floor at her feet with an angry, piercing cry of:
"ENOUGH!!"
It's the edge of desperation that catches Mister Big's interest, his interpretation of Chun-Li's situation hinting towards intense despair, as per the use of the word desperation. "Hmmmm," he sounds as he watches her leap through the hole in the wall and go on to take care of Yamazaki, or at least attempt to.
Tapping his sticks against his sides, he ambles over to the door, intent on using that like a normal person would; not a crazy Asian who leaps through holes in walls to prove she's related to Jackie Chan.
While there's no door there, he nevertheless finds himself leaning against the door frame, watching as she tumbles on and flies at his fellow Syndicate member, aiming to dispense with him once and for all.
Mister Big, he weighs his very big options.
On the one hand, he wouldn't mind abandoning this operation; it's been bad from the get-go, all thanks to the actions of his subordinates. Capturing an Ikari, really! And it's not as if he managed to get laid with the girl too, who's still busy no doubt bleeding to death in the only other room left in this joint. Now the pawn shop is pretty much ruined, and it's not worth the cost of repairing; better to just blaze the joint and wait for the insurance company to cut a cheque.
A grin settles onto Mister Big's face. He likes that idea.
Rubbing his sticks together, he briefly considers flames; but an electrical fault sounds much better to him. Thus he changes the sudden swell of chi that flows down his arms, an electrical BZZT filling the air as he manifests twin balls of lightning upon the end of each stick. There's no lion face on these balls, as they sizzle, the stench of ozone no match for the overwhelming gore and blood that's filled the front room by now.
"What a fucking mess you've made, Yama," he lightly berates the madman, whether he survives Chun-Li's intervention or not. Thrusting both sticks together, the balls merge -- and one giant streak of ball lightning slams forward, seeking Chun-Li down while striking as much of the room as it can. Electronics within cabinets begin spazzing out, although most are certainly littered across the floor by now instead thanks to the prior fight! Maybe if he paid more attention or was slightly more devious, he'd actually start a fire with this, but chances are much better he's just going to hit Chun-Li right in the back!
Trembling violently, but not yet collapsed into insensibility, K' braces himself in an animalistic four-legged crouch, panting shallowly for breath as he watches Yamazaki advance. His mind is spinning with a nauseating fury, the young man so palpably enraged it comes off him in the form of sick fire. It's easy for Yamazaki to smell the sheer anger off him, the kind of rage that whirls the world until nothing can be focused upon but the subject of his ire. It's probably easy for the other two to see it, as well. Battered as he is, injured as he is, K' still finds the strength to shake in complete impassioned spite.
His expression pulls into a snarl as Yamazaki addresses him. He twitches to the right, trying to limp an angling motion to circle Yamazaki. His jaw twitches visibly when Yamazaki asks if he feels it, his unfocusing eyes snapping back to some form of lucid when the gangster continues. He doesn't reply, but the sudden struggle in his features is all the answer needed.
Yeah, he feels it. He can't even say he doesn't like that anger. He's known precious little in his three years of life save that overwhelming rage, and by now it is a comfort and a familiar presence within him. It drives him when all other motivating forces would long since have burned out. But something else attends this fury, something foreign and strange. It coils and writhes in his stomach, sickening as a dead thing rotting inside him. It's poison, and he recoils from it.
"I know about killing," he finally chokes out, as much blood as words coming out when he trusts himself enough to speak in words instead of screaming howls. When the rage goes down enough he can feel the edge of exhaustion past the madness. "I know how it feels. Losing it." It's happened before. Happened when Whip was hurt. He felt such blinding rage he wanted nothing more than to burn the entire world down. "But I'm not the freak you are."
And as if to illustrate why, his glance travels to Chun-Li: to the person who cared enough to come help him. He watches her emptily as she tries to rob Yamazaki of the last of the mercenary's strength, his own ebbing as the flames start to sear away what boost he got from the tainted Orochi blood.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki endures Chun-Li's Medium Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Chun-Li 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Yamazaki
> //////////// ]
|====---\-------\0 Mr.Big
Mr. Big has left.
"You might not be my kind of freak."
He works his jaw until it cracks, his entire face a mismash of crimson and the black.
"But I know a thing or two about 'em.."
It's true. There were grades. Yamazaki, you didn't need a reference book to tell which kind he was, his bleeding body little more than a twisting shadow moving slow in the darkness of that room beyond the only true 'fight' going on here. See, Yamazaki was kind of a renaissance maniac. Schooled in apocryphal fashion by the Southtown streets, you still couldn't find a will more genuine than his. He steps heavy; his boots thump over the grimy, bloody floorboards as he shuffles towards K'. He stops, impossible tall, over the kid's useless form.
His teeth squeal with his grin.
"And you... are..."
He pauses, trailing off looking to the side as Chun-li explodes into view, her body twisting in the air as she whips her lower half around behind him, driving him towards the ground before counterbalancing him into the earth, his skull planting there with a loud crack followed by the bass boom of the rest of his body hitting the ground in a shower of meat and blood.
He's never given the opportunity to finish.
His attention is turned elsewhere by a new toy.
Ghk.
His boot raises..
And plants into the ground, the killer's body twisting in weird ways even without the help of the searing riot and tricks of the light, his heel somewhere near his ear before he drags himself up. "...Was just getting started mister," he comments, his voice a low growl. He turns to Chun-Li. ".. Thought you'd of had enough at the Mutter .."
A switchblade clicks open.
"I can still play with you a little more.
Indescribably intense, he steps forward, his arm blruring. Despite all the fatigue, all the bleeding, all the /damage/. Yamazaki's still here. He's still alive. And working on a set of rules that don't seem to obey physics, his arm warps space, knife flicking straight out at Chun-li's eye...it's fast, unbelievably fast.
But something is wrong.
With Yamazaki.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Chun-Li 1/----===/=======|====---\-------\0 Mr.Big
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li parries Mr.Big's Blaster Wave!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Chun-Li 1/---====/=======|====---\-------\0 Mr.Big
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li dodges Yamazaki's Snake Tamer.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Chun-Li 1/---====/=======|====---\-------\0 Mr.Big
See, his knife.. never actually gets there.
It chases Chun-li as she moves, seemingly intent on taking a souvenir for Yamazaki's home. Stubborn, and just plain weird, his limb snaps through the air. The point of his knife comes just this close to her pupil, fast enough to disturb the eyelashes.
Without any more 'hard' left in it, his arm is made of jelly as it hangs limp. Yamazaki stands there, shock-still, his arm swaying loose and boneless. His hand is still in his pocket.
His eyeballs are rolled into the back of his head.
And he isn't talking anymore.
With one roar from the Chinese vigilante, Yamazaki goes down hard.
His skull colliding with the wooden floor beneath him, there's a gory mess in the wake of her violence. Blood splatters and sprays, staining dusty, scuffed up and splintered floors as his hulking frame loudly crashes down. Almost instantly do the woman's nails dig themselves out of his neck before she places a foot onto his back, digging her sneaker's sole into his spine. A split-second later she shoves off, flipping into the air and landing several feet away.
In that cursory silence, her eyes shift to K'. "A-are you...going to be o-okay?" she pants, offering a weak smile in response. At least there is no threat of Yamazaki doing any MORE damage to the poor rouge NESTS agent. That brings immense relief to the Chinese woman; however, it's not quite OVER yet.
A hissing crackle draws the woman's attention as Big approaches, her form whipping around on her heels to face him directly. Energy sizzles at the ends of his sticks, and only seems to grow with each step he takes. Closer and closer he draws, putting the Tai Chi Mistress on the defensive before, with one thrust, the energy forms into a large sphere of lightning chi, the likes of which screams right for the woman. With wide eyes, Chun-Li let s her body move by its own accord.
Dropping to the side, Chun-Li's hands burst with soft blue chi, her palms coated with energy. As she weaves aside those hands come outwards, energy redirecting that lightning energy with a gentle shove of her chi-laced hands. The sphere, as result, flies awkwardly to the side, colliding with a distant wall and making another nasty hole where it strikes.
But just as the woman begins to open her mouth and address Mister Big, Yamazaki's growl catches her attention. Glancing over a shoulder, the woman looks at the Orochi mercenary with sheer disbelief. Shouldn't he be DEAD by now? Or at least unconscious? How--?!
She can't reply fast enough; there's a blade in his hands and he's getting ready to use it on her.
With a flick of his rubber-like wrist, his arm snaps out like a serpent, the blade's tip aimed for the woman's vulnerable eye. Her body visibly tenses, shoulders stiff and legs locked as the air before her flutters and hisses with the sound of flesh cutting through the air and steel whipping forward. But just as the blade's tip pierces her eye...it stops. Second later, his arm retreats limp to his side. Like some vile statue, the mercenary goes unconscious. On his feet.
Exhaling loudly, the woman's body relaxes, her feet shuffling as she slowly turns around to face the last remaining Syndicate man. But she doesn't speak to him; instead, without regarding K' direct, she says, calmly, "If you can still move at all...see what you can find." He knows what he's looking for, after all.
"As for you, 'Mister Big,' it ends here and now."
With one sharp, deep breath into her lungs, Chun-Li lets her muscles coil.
And then, with a loud cry, the woman BULLETS forward, intent on closing in on the Syndicate Steersman before she unleashes a leg right into his chest. But rather than simply kick once, she instead kicks over and over and over again, delivering a rapid series of strikes all over the front of his body before, with a swift hop and switch, swaps legs. Doing the same, she kicks again, her sneakered heels driving like a jackhammer into his chest before--AGAIN--she swaps up, another series of seemingly hundreds of blows before, with one last switch up, her leg shoots upwards and high, a side kick aimed for Mister Big's jaw to send him spiraling up into the air!
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big blocks Chun-Li's Houyoku Sen EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Mr.Big
There's a definite twitch to the brow of Mister Big as he watches not only his Syndicate affiliate take the fall, but also as he watches Chun-Li dispatch his great ball of lightning so very easily. This woman infuriates him; she's outmatching him for the second time in as many weeks, and it's almost enough to make him see her as something other than an object of lusty desire. Very nearly, he wants to do more than simply plow the World's Strongest Woman -- he wants to hurt her.
He's just not sure if he can manage that today, especially as Yamazaki seems to go down for the count.
"Shit," he mumbles to himself, fingers twirling those sticks as he considers his options. She indicates that the bell has tolled for him, and he really doesn't like the sound of that.
So when she gives it her all in an attempt to sit him down on his ass, he's ready for it; his defenses are mustered, the adrenalin that courses his veins allowing for a dramatic moment of his own. She kicks with all her might, one set of lightning kicks after the next, but nothing breaches the sudden insurmountable defenses of the world's biggest man.
Seeing with a clarity he rarely does through those shades, he meets every single kick with a successful block, letting her shoes rain into his forearms or simply off of his black sticks. The final kick to his jaw catches both sticks -- and simply sends Mister Big skidding backwards into the back room, where this all began. His loafers slide along the floor, past playing cards and poker chips. "Hmph," he rather smugly sounds as he shakes his forearms, before lifting both arms into a shrug.
"Are you happy now?
"Get a little steam out of your system? Don't tire yourself out too much, my darling, I wouldn't want you to just lie there while I stick it in." Perverse, crude and coarse; introducing Mister Big. The Sultan of Southtown sports that broad grin despite the fact that the odds are rapidly shifting against him. But he's willing to gamble, if not for a little bit longer.
Lifting those sticks over his head, they mysteriously link together and elongate, a staff forming as he takes two quick steps forward and thrusts it at Chun-Li, intent on driving her away from the doorway. They can play this doorway game all day long as far as he's concerned, but right now he'd really just love to knock this girl out so he can add to his menagerie -- or ménage-a-trios as the case may be. Thus, he aims to clip her right in the Chinese forehead!
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li blocks Mr.Big's Medium Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Mr.Big
And while Mister Big no doubt wants to hurt her to no end, Chun-Li hopes to do the same.
...sort of, at least.
With one Syndicate man out of the way, it brings considerable relief and clarity to a mind once clouded by concern for the wounded K' and his predicament. Now, though, she can focus all of her efforts on the Sultan of Southtown and take him out--and find K''s sister. That is her goal now. She has to take Big out.
But for all of Chun-Li's considerable effort, Mister Big proves himself to be no pushover. With precision and incredible skill every lightning quick strike meets the well-polished wood of his sticks, his body more or less shielded from her relentless strikes. Even the last, spear-like kick at his jaw is met with by those damnable sticks, sending the man skidding back along the dusty floor. Chun-Li, meanwhile, gasps for breath. The effort took a lot out of her, yes...but she's not done yet.
"Shut up!!" the woman barks in response, meeting Mister Big's lewd comments with an angered expression. Wide-eyed, the woman takes a confident step forward before she again slides into stance, her arms raised. "I'm not even close to finished, and I'm beginning to wonder just how much longer it'll be before you can't keep up anymore."
Proving that he's not quite out of the game yet by linking the sticks and thrusting them forward, the woman's hands drop, long arms folding as she takes the brunt of the blow on her forearms. It drives her back a few steps, feet scuffing against the floor and pushing her just beyond the threshold with a soft grunt. Gritting her teeth, Chun-Li drops her arms the moment his newfound staff withdraws. Then she lunges forward.
Seeking to take advantage of any opening, a hand lashes out and attempts to grab the man's broad shoulder. Giving it a sharp pull, her knee will rise in tandem, to fiercely drive it upwards into his stomach before she releases the shoulder and, shooting her leg up, attempts to drive her heel into his jaw and send him crashing up into the ceiling. "YAA!!"
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big interrupts Kirin Shuu from Chun-Li with Staff Thrust.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Mr.Big
Yes, just how much longer can the world's biggest man keep this up for? While his stamina may be legendary, he's fighting an inhuman monster of a woman right now; he hates to admit it, but he's rapidly circling the drain. Grimacing for but a moment as she musters her defenses to his thrust, the Sultan of Southtown reassesses his situation once more; fight, or flight?
It seems that they're both eyeing each other off, waiting for that mystical opening with which to thrust an attack into. And boy, does Mister Big know how to look for gaps to thrust into.
They spot one at the same moment. His, in a slight shift to his shoulders; hers, when she moves to take that gap he left open deliberately. Even as her hand graces his shoulder and that knee rises, he's bringing that staff down from overhead.
So while she connects with the knee, which certainly comes close to doubling him over, the woman's attempt to send her leg thundering up into his jaw comes a little short of success as he instead cleaves downwards with the staff, aiming to buckle her knees before him once more.
Stumbling backwards from the impact to his stomach though, a grimace of disgust crosses the face of Mister Big. "You're gonna make me throw up those ribs I had earlier," he notes, rubbing his stomach as he maintains a weary guard. This isn't going well for him.
He's rapidly considering the flight option; a lighter is pulled from his coat, a Zippo that's rapidly flicked back and set alight.
"This ain't proceeding how either of us had planned... why don't we just call it a draw and be on our merry ways? You won't pin any of this on me, and you know it."
Bargaining, then flight.
Yamazaki, on the other hand.
Just when Chun-Li thinks she has everything at the tip of her fingers...
As her hand grips and her knee drives upwards and into the stomach of the Syndicate commander, there's an unexpected drop of the staff he'd created previously. She doesn't even see it coming; instead, she feels it, the sudden crash of hard wood cracking into her skull with startling force. Almost instantly the woman offers a startled cry, her form twisting awkwardly and her kick cut short before her legs merely give way.
Pinching her eyes shut, Chun-Li keeps her body held up by her arms, palms flat on the cracked floor beneath her as she gasps for breath. His words fall upon deaf ears as she shakes her head, her ears ringing painfully from the blow she'd taken to the head. Things aren't going too well for Chun-Li either. Can she really do this..?
But then he offers quite the bargain. Call it a draw? Let him GO?
Without a word, the woman moves from the floor, her body shaking as she struggles to get back on her feet. Her face is drawn in a cold expression, her almond-brown eyes fixed on Mister Big's bespectacled gaze without flinching. With her jaw squared and hands pulled into fists, she offers an unyielding, fiercely determined sort of look. Will she really back down and accept his offer?
Inwardly, it's a struggle for the Chinese vigilante. She wants to keep fighting and take him out so she can have swift justice for not only K', but the woman he wants to save. But if she keeps stubbornly fighting, there's a chance what small edge she has will slip out of her grasp, leaving him the victor and only making their troubles worse. Should she accept the bargain and save the kidnapped woman? Or should she keep the pressure on him?
Her gaze drops, along with her posture, Chun-Li's body going lax as she sighs heavily. Unable to look at the man, she says, perhaps, the unthinkable:
"Fine. Get out of here."
Lips twitch, eyes pinching shut. It almost pains her to let the Syndicate commander have his way and run off, but she can't think of only herself here. She has to think about K' and his sister, and how she promised to help him rescue her from Syndicate clutches. With this, she can guarantee they will be able to save her.
Reluctantly, Chun-Li's eyes lift from the ground, settling on the man before her. Untrusting of him and possibly betraying the 'bargain' they've made, she watches him with incredible scrutiny. "Get out, and don't look back. If you know what is good for you, you'll leave NOW while I am still partial to the idea of letting you run away again."
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Chun-Li 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Mr.Big
K' looks a mess. But somehow, he doesn't seem to be feeling the injuries that riddle his body. Each breath he pushes out past his teeth growls with the remnants of that distinct, unnatural fury, his narrowed eyes blazing with the effects of the tainted Orochi blood infecting his raw injuries.
Chun-Li asks if he's all right and he makes no immediate reply. He just cuts a sudden, animal stare over at her, not seeming to see her, a vicious breath hissing out of him. For a moment, he almost seems prone to attack her for robbing him of the chance to strike Yamazaki one more time, all his sanity robbed by the burn of the Riot that lives in the mercenary's disgusting blood. His body certainly tenses like he wants to.
And then Chun-Li reminds him of his sister. K''s eyes widen-- and then, some semblance of cognizance finally enters them. When Chun-Li gives Mr. Big his chance to cut and run, K' isn't even there anymore to hear it. He's dragged himself upright, driven by pure will, and he is heading for the only door left intact in the entire shop.
It's probably a heavy door. It's probably massively reinforced. Neither means much to an angry, anxious brother with his blood up. K' slams into it, mindlessly attempting to break it through much the same way Chun-Li did earlier. And should there be any place he can get purchase on any edge of the doorway, anything he can firmly grasp, he's even mad enough to try and physically tear it off its hinges: even grievously injured as he is.
He knows his sister is in there. He doesn't know how, but he does.
While he offers the suggestion, it seems that Mister Big knows precisely how to ensure that Chun-Li doesn't opt to reneg on the agreement as well. The moment she agrees, that wolfish grin appears on te biggest face of them all, and he casually throws the lighter into the closest flammable substance he can find; several bottles of alcohol, having been spilled in the earlier fighting.
The true flammable content of the liquor need not be argued; they ignite anyway, rapidly spreading flames up the closest wall. Unless Chun-Li decides to become a firefighter, it seems that the Sultan will ensure that no evidence is left to incriminate either the Syndicate or more importantly himself.
"Oops, guess you've left me with a severe case of butter fingers," he announces as if it were all an accident, sidestepping around Chun-Li and towards the front of the store. He'll use the door, thank you; climbing through holes is the pursuit of Asian's. And with the dead walking, case in point K' shambling along missing god only knows how much of his body at this stage, the Glittering Chrome Dome is more intent on getting Yamazaki and then getting the hell out of here.
As long as the World's Strongest Woman doesn't interfere or take retaliation for setting the place ablaze, Mister Big aims to make good on gathering the sleeping-dead Yamazaki and... On second thought, as he inspects his associate, he decides to call in some of his other underlings from across the street to rescue the insane Syndicate assailant.
"Ahh, I'm sure you'll be alright either way, Yama," he sounds as he sidesteps the mostly-dead Yamazaki. Two rather squeamish henchmen, as there's a never-ending supply of them, enter with due haste to extract Ryuji.
Casually, Mister Big will slip out the destroyed front door, and walk over to his car around the side -- and drive off at 88 miles per hour-----!!
COMBATSYS: Mr.Big has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Chun-Li 0/-------/--=====|
Locks snap in half. It doesn't take much; even the most reinforced of doors can't hold a candle to genetically-manipulated desperation.
It slams open, and light slants into a small, dark, contained room. It is hard to see inside through the pervasive black, but he is immediately hit by the thick, sharp smell of blood that is already going stale. It's starting to become that stink of blood that's been fermenting for hours; like smelling a steak that's been left out in the sun.
As light reaches farther into the room, it exposes the peripherals of an old table, now flipped and careened against one wall, with a chair similarly tossed aimlessly aside. Pieces of a broken dinner plate, strewn utensils, pieces of food, and errant shards of glass debris the floor. And amidst the mess, a trail of something is gleaming darkly.
If one were to follow that drying path to its source, it's revealed to be a pool of blood that anoints the fallen, strewn body of a young woman dressed only in a bloodsoaked silk robe. She looks as though she were once half-propped against the wall and had simply collapsed over to one side and given up, one side of her face pressed against the floor and her features unable to be read, masked by a hideous layer of bruising and blood. She's unconscious and unmoving. Her right arm extends out from the rest of her, her hand left opened. A simple dinner knife gleams against the ground an inch away.
It takes a few seconds, but finally K' tears through the door. It comes off first at the hinges-- hinges are the weakest part-- and then, still enraged, K' folds most of the locks on the other side in half as well. The door slants crazily out of the way, crashing to the floor, and K' is through the ruined aperture and hunting through the dark room in the next instant.
The smell of blood is the first thing to hit his senses. And once he sees the evidence of it upon the floor, he stops noticing anything else about the room. Rushing past the strewn and broken remnants littering the room, he beelines for the source of all that blood.
It's his sister.
The bloodlust induced by Yamazaki's infectious Riot finally peaks at the sight. He virtually crushes the chair out of his way as he rushes towards her, pitching it into the opposite wall: an erratic and half-controlled blaze catching the splintered wood and setting it alight. The young man doesn't notice when its remains hit the wall and start to burn in earnest: he's so choked with rage he can barely see straight when he leans down by his sister's side.
But with no target to expend that anger on-- Whip is inviolate-- it eventually, swiftly, drains away. K' quiets visibly, kneeling next to his sister, pushing her bloodied hair from her face with an uncharacteristic tenderness. Gathering her up, trying to ignore the incredible pain of his injuries and the fact he feels like he's going to collapse under the burden, K' tries to make his way back out to find Chun-Li and escape this burning husk. Stumbling along blindly, the battered twins must look a pathetic sight.
Someday, when he's got enough blood feeding his mind to have it occur to him, he'll probably wonder aloud at Chun-Li as to why she let Mr. Big go. To give her a chance to get him was part of the purpose of all this, after all. Unfamiliar with altruism as he is, he doesn't realize that the woman just gave up a goal of hers to ensure their lives and safety.
A part of Chun-Li regrets her decision the moment Mister Big's broad form vanishes through the nearest doorway. She was so close--again--and he got away from her. She was so close to having one of the biggest men within the Syndicate in her grasp, but due to situation and circumstance, he's free to roam the streets and cause trouble. Inwardly she curses herself for that. She could have kept the fight going and she could have beaten him. But she didn't.
However, when Chun-Li's tired gaze falls upon the bloodied and battered up K' with his equally-battered and bruised sister, she reconsiders her decision. Self-loathing vanishes, instantly replaced with concern for the two in the midst of a burning building. She moves, jogging forward just as the young man passes the threshold of the beaten-in door, eyes wide as she gives the young man a looking-over.
"Let me help you--please," she insists, offering the young man a hand upon his shoulder. Eyes settle upon the unconscious young woman before she looks back, a tired smile resting upon her soft, thin lips. "Let me carry her--you need to save your strength. We need to get the both of you out of here and somewhere safe." Her lips swiftly pull, eyes narrowed in concern as she adds, quickly, "Please don't argue, either. You are in no condition to do so!"
Pausing, she spares a glance to the room that hurriedly ignites around them before her gaze shifts to the open doorway several feet from the trio. There's not much time left for argument...
Looking back, the woman offers a soft frown. "We should get to the hospital. If not for you, then your sister. After that, we can go to my place if you like. You two should be safest there, if you're concerned about that. But for now, let's go. We don't have much time."
COMBATSYS: Chun-Li has ended the fight here.
Chun-Li says, "oh you kids"
K' LOL
Log created on 22:39:24 10/11/2008 by Mr.Big, and last modified on 01:45:02 12/13/2008.