Description: It's said that experience and cunning will beat youth every time. Ari Abraham is a veteran of Israel's intelligence services, and now an agent of "R". They call him 'The Spider'. And then there's Riko Koganei, a girl in a raincoat and skates, who isn't known by anything at all. Of course, in the world of fighters, appearances aren't everything. (Winner: Riko)
They say Ari "The Spider" Abraham is a feared intelligence operative. Spy, assassin, and agent. Which would make, perhaps, his presence in a commercial fighting circuit unusual. But it's clear that the rules, such as they are, for the so-called Neo League are nebulous at best.
And so.
It's broad daylight in Southtown. A sunny afternoon. In a public area. Wide open. Nothing shady or illegal, nothing whatsoever. It's a suburban shopping street on the outskirts of the city, a tree-lined pedestrian avenue with small cafes, little boutiques, bookstores, and other establishments on both sides. It being just after school and work hours, there's a great deal of traffic here, as people pass through...
All in all, no sign of anything untoward. No sign of anything unusual.
Save for the small figure sitting primly on one of the benches along the street. A figure in a yellow raincoat, with the hood thrown up and over to shield the wearer's face. Odd, that, considering there's not a rain cloud in sight.
There's a small cardboard sign clutched in slim hands, reading:
S P I D E R
And then a crude drawing of a Neo League crest.
Nothing else.
The Spider is used to bigger venues than this, and thus when he arrives on his Harley, he's shocked to see a lack of crowds or cameras. Not wearing a helmet and smoking an Israeli high tar cigarette, he rolls through the Mall, his loud motorcycle revving as he stops before Riko. He squints at the sign from behind mirrored aviator sunglasses, kicking the stand out on his bike and cutting the engine. "Hey. I'm the Spider. You Riko?" he asks in a flat voice, raising an eyebrow at the young girl.
The hooded teenager gives a small tsk'ing noise. She lifts her head, just enough to glance from beneath the folds of fabric. A slender hand pulls the hood back, such that she meets the Israeli's eyes.
"Poor tradecraft," Riko says, mildly, "Mister Spider. Isn't a man of your reputation supposed to do something dashing and super-spy-ish?"
The sign goes under her arm as she stands, getting off the bench. Her feet touch the paved ground of the street, with the distinct rapping sound of in-line skates meeting concrete.
The Spider's grizzled face frowns as he sucks on his cigarette, taking a long drag, before tossing it away. "Real spies are the type of guy that blends in, not James Bond," he shares, pushing his shades up his nose. "Let's just do this, okay?" He glares at the young girl as he balls his hands into fists and steps away from his Harley.
COMBATSYS: Spider has started a fight here.
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Spider 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Riko has joined the fight here.
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Riko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Spider
"Mmm," Riko muses, pursing her lips. She keeps the cardboard sign under her arm, tucked into the crook of her bent limb, near the elbow. "I'm sure Mister Fleming would be appaled to hear you say that."
She rolls back a step, moving away from the bench. Her body language, unlike the older fighter's, is quite relaxed. The girl looks like any other teenager on the street, in her coat, t-shirt, shorts and skates...plus her faint smirk and body language. Either she isn't taking this seriously...
...or she's deliberately trying to provoke him.
Of course, there's always the third option.
COMBATSYS: Riko takes no action.
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Riko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Spider
The Spider snorts, not finding that remark funny. He rarely finds anything funny, however. Without another word, he stalks forward, walking towards Riko with no effort at defense. His hand suddenly flashes out as he sweeps low, attempting to grab her by the ankle, then pull it to him and spin about, tossing her to the ground.
COMBATSYS: Spider successfully hits Riko with Hymn of Solomon.
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Riko 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Spider
That's when the crowd finally clues in that /something's/ going on. There's a few shouts of alarm, pedestrians backing off at the sudden outbreak of unexpected violence.
On Riko's part, she hits the ground, the Israeli fighter's hand round one of her skate boots. Her shoulder and side slam painfully against the paving stones, taking the brunt of the impact.
She doesn't, though, make a sound.
Instead, she lifts the cardboard sign she's still carrying.
And flicks it at Spider.
Now, a piece of cardboard, however /hard/ it's thrown...shouldn't hurt that much. Shouldn't, not really.
Of course, if there's a thin throwing knife inserted between it, that's a different matter entirely.
COMBATSYS: Spider blocks Riko's Sudden Fling.
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Riko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Spider
The Spider eyes the sign, and knocks it aside, seeing the knife fall out. "Interesting," he mutters, as he keeps up the offensive. Since Riko hasn't gotten back up on her feet, he takes advantage of this by leaping forward and attempting to come down on her with a punch. "I thought only I fought with knives," he comments.
COMBATSYS: Riko dodges Spider's Quick Punch.
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Riko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Spider
"Now, now, Mister...Spider," Riko murmurs, giving a sort of bemused emphasis as she uses the man's alias.
Riko still hasn't gotten to her feet, no. In fact, she doesn't even do so when Spider swings his arm at her. Instead, she rolls to one side, her long raincoat twisting as she spins on the paving stones, moving further away from the bench that she was sitting on...and further into the middle of the street proper.
As she evades, Riko whips one leg up, aiming a heavy skate-clad boot at the Israeli's torso - just below the ribs.
COMBATSYS: Spider counters Light Kick from Riko with Star of Zion.
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Riko 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Spider
The Spider's lightning fast hand catches the kick, and his other hand lashes out with a shot at Riko's diaphram, crushing his knuckles into it. He drops her after the move is over, and takes a moment to again adjust his shades, pushing them up his nose. "You're fast, but I'm faster," he murmurs grimly.
She shouldn't be able to speak with a fist to the throat, like that. But she forces air through her abused passageways all the same, and while her voice bears the marks of Spider's last attack, the expression on her /face/ doesn't look pained at all.
"Are you," Riko rasps, with a thin smile, "are you -really-? First you think you have a monopoly on bladed weapons..."
The girl disengages, now, finally rising in a crouch, her raincoat pooling behind her.
"...and now speed? Oh dear, oh dear, Mister Spider. Do you /really/ believe that?"
With the way she's been moving, by now...Spider's between her and the bench she was sitting on.
And now, as Riko flexes her hands, thin lines of wire grow taut. And the whole bench /rips/ off the ground, the bolts holding it to the pavement parting in a screech of metal. Such that the whole structure of wood and metal comes racing at Spider. From behind.
COMBATSYS: Spider endures Riko's Improvised Tactics!
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Riko 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Spider
The bench slams into the Spider, shattering around him in a hail of wood, metal, and splinters. He shrugs it off with a jerk of his neck, and lashes his hand out for the girl. As he tries to get a grip, his iron fingers close around her windpipe. "I'll give you one thing - you're creative."
COMBATSYS: Riko blocks Spider's Quick Throw.
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Riko 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Spider
"Am I?"
His hands find purchase, beginning to squeeze the girl's already injured throat. But his grip isn't /clean/, nowhere near as secure as, surely, he'd like. And before the pressure even really begins to sink in, the lithe teenager's broken the hold, forcing his arm out of line with her own slender forearm. Her strength doesn't match the man's.
But then, with the right leverage, it doesn't need to.
"Or is it a failure of your imagination?"
The girl's voice is still rasping, her throat still injured. But her tone is unmistakably mocking.
"C'mon, Mister Spider. Surely you're better than a /kid/."
As she speaks, the wires trailing from her hand - the one she used to reel the bench in - twitch again. The largest intact chunk of the bench slams into Riko's hand as the lines retract further. And she swings this...all cast iron with splintered wood - at Spider.
COMBATSYS: Spider fails to counter Quick Strike from Riko with Star of Zion.
- Power fail! -
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Riko 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 Spider
The Spider gets brained in the head by the bench portion, his aviator shades breaking and the fighter falling onto the ground with a stupid sort of ragdoll flexibility. He groans as he touches his head, feeling the blood running from the gash on his skull. "I can beat a girl, just give me a second," he growls.
"Mercy, Mister Spider?"
Riko cocks her head to the side, curiously. She's fully on her feet, now, balancing on the wheels of her skates. The twisted wreckage of what once was a bench - or at least half of it - rests in her left hand, trailing on the ground.
By now the pedestrians on the shopping street are giving both combatants a wide berth.
"Or, what, hmm...maybe some kinda honour thing between heroic warriors, lettin' a downed opponent get back up?"
The girl arches an eyebrow.
"You're not James Bond, Mister Spider? Are you?"
She doesn't seem to be making any move to attack, though.
She just adjusts her grip on the shattered remains of the bench.
COMBATSYS: Riko gathers her will.
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Riko 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Spider
The Spider climbs back to his feet. "I can kick James Bond's ass, kid. You're showing your inexperience - you should have hit me while I was down." That said, he jukes forward with a powerful shot at Riko's jaw with his fist, his other hand coming up in a guard position as he begins to respect this foe more. Despite her age, she's pretty unpredictable and dangerous.
COMBATSYS: Riko interrupts Strong Punch from Spider with Dragon Seal Blue EX.
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Riko 1/-------/=======|=======\=====--\1 Spider
The fist meets Riko's head, knocking her head to one side, the impact jarring her chin. Her hair falls, covering her eyes.
But the girl's still on her feet, which shouldn't be /possible/ had she taken the full brunt of that punch.
Which she didn't. Not precisely.
Because the wreckage of the iron bench is lifted, now, and held -between- her and the much larger fighter. Keeping Spider almost exactly at arm's length. HIS arm's length, not Riko's much shorter reach.
"Actually," Riko replies, levelly, "I was waiting for you to attack."
The bench glows, as the metal structure crackles with electrical energy...as, for the first time, Riko unleashes her chi powers. She forces energy through her arm, through the wrought iron, and out into Spider's chest.
When Riko lets the bench fall, there's a crackling blue patch of chi left directly on the man's body.
Which then turns him, for a moment, into a human lightning rod.
The Spider stumbles backwards as he's electrocuted by chi, his skeleton briefly visible, as is the style. He falls to a knee as he smokes with energy, narrowing his eyes. "That's /it/," he hisses, before exploding forward and back to his feet. He attempts to grapple with Riko and grab her in a reverse headlock, before his hand blurs as he brings the side of his fingers to her spine.
COMBATSYS: Riko blocks Spider's Masechet.
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Riko 1/------=/=======|==-----\-------\0 Spider
The girl's grabbed, twisted, and immobilized by the Israeli agent. There doesn't seem to be anything she's able to do, as he drives his strike to her vertabrae and the sensitive nerve system running with the bone.
Except, perhaps, twitch her fingers again, the network of wire that's -still- wrapped round her hand dancing with a glittering twirl.
The chunk of smoking bench, twisted metal and bolted-on bits of shattered wood, smouldering from Riko's earlier attack...that /jumps/, such that it falls across Riko's back as an impromptu shield.
It isn't enough to stop the blow completely. Indeed, the force of Spider's attack just punches THROUGH the barrier.
But a significant portion of it is blunted.
In a quiet voice, Riko whispers: "Is it?"
And then, with both of them locked in close contact, Riko's -other- hand, the one not controlling the wire, snaps up.
Attempting to place a small charge of Semtex, the plastic explosive of choice for deniable operations everywhere, directly on Spider's ribs.
COMBATSYS: Riko successfully hits Spider with Chaos Tactics.
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Riko 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Spider
The Spider glances down at the Semtex, recognizing it immediately. "You bi-" he says, but is cut off by the explosion. He falls backwards, onto his backside. Blood spattering his face, he flings his arm up, sending a knife out of his sleeve and flying at Riko, before he falls unconscious.
COMBATSYS: Spider can no longer fight.
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Riko 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Riko dodges Spider's City of God.
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Riko 0/-------/------=|
Riko's eyes widen as the blade blurs towards her. She throws her body to one side, just in time to avoid the knife bisecting her head. As it is, a few strands of hair drift down to land on the street.
The girl inhales, drawing air through her lungs. She straightens, regarding the unconscious agent, considering this for a moment. Finally, satisfied he isn't getting up, at least not immediately, she lets the broken bench drop to the ground, and starts coiling the wire wrapped round her hand. It's somewhat slow going, since her /other/ set of fingers are faintly red from excessive proximity to a point-blank plastic explosive discharge.
Nonetheless, she doesn't really make a sound.
"The trouble is, Mister Spider," Riko says, possibly to herself, possibly to the crowd of stunned onlookers, "experience -is- relative. Even a kid...can be trained since they could walk...to kill people."
COMBATSYS: Riko has ended the fight here.
Log created on 14:45:46 10/22/2008 by Riko, and last modified on 14:09:18 10/23/2008.