Description: The lord of Shadaloo is seeking out Sagat, and the monk Sokaku is the only one who knows where Sagat is. But Sokaku wants Vega to be blown apart as bad as Vega wants to kill Sagat! It's the natural world against the inner power of Vega, and no matter who wins, it's sure to be epic!
It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining high in the sky, the clouds are floating past lazily, and the lake near the shrine is still as can be, reflecting the picturesque blue sky off its clear surface. Here a fish jumps and breaks the stillness, there a frog leaps in, but on a whole, it's a tranquil, silent place.
Sokaku is asleep.
Or at least, that's what it would appear to the foolish or unwary. Yes, the old monk is relaxing next to his staff - a string hanging off it, blocked between two rocks, a makeshift fishing lure - and yes, the old monk's hat is pulled even lower than normal, but he's certainly not sleeping. No, Sokaku is aware - he's communing with the land, feeling the fish jump, the frog leap, the water break, the clouds float by. He's also, every once in a while, nudging a shogi piece on his cheap travel-set board in a new position, generally plotting strategies and enjoying himself.
As much as he ever enjoyed himself, at least. Evil still roams the world, and he can never truly rest until it is extinguished. And these beautiful sites were growing rarer and rarer - the new world had rejected the old one, and the pantheons of Fighters were the gods of this new age of steel. He would appreciate this place while it lasted.
A fish tugs on his line, sending the prayer rings into a jingle, but Sokaku remains still, quiet. It wasn't a strong enough bite to warrant him moving.
Sokaku nudges his king on the Shogi board into a new position, then resumes his hands-across-his lap. Tranquility - it was so hard to find.
hard to find - harder still to keep.
Sadly for Sokaku, he'll probably be able to detect a disturbance, long before the actual disturbance arrives. Such is the power of Vega's psychic aura, antithesis of the 'natural' flow of the world that it creates a hole, a void where he stands. The unseen aura, uncoalesced, spreads out before him like awave, slowly insinuating itself in to the very fabric of 'what is' and malodiously changes it, taints it. It certainly isn't doing anything good for the fish.
Eventually, Vega finds himself within eyesight of the 'sleeping' monk. He stops far enough away that a trained fighter could not easily close the distance to strike - a determined one could, but from what he'd been told, there was no determination here, only idiocy. He's not /expecting/ a battle, but one can never be too sure. It's far too easy to misjudge what makes a warrior in this world, and oddities of power crop up in the unlikliest of places.
"I've been looking for you, old man. You have information I require." A gutteral voice, dragged through gravel and words spit as if trying to cross the distance with force alone, he addresses the monk. His arms folded against his chest, cape flowing lightly in the gentle breeze. Blank white eyes stare imppassively, as he waits to be recognized, to be addressed. He expects insolence, and inside, his twisted heart hopes for fear. He is, after all, Vega.
Lord of Shadaloo.
Sokaku would show him no fear, would show him no response for a few moments. His staff springs, tugging downwards, and he sits up to pull the huge bass from the water, examining it as it flops between his hands. After a few moments, the flopping creature dies, and he folds his shogi board in half, returning it to his pouch.
The old man stands, picking up his staff - the fish still hanging from the line - and turns to face Vega. Yes, he could sense it, see it as though it were shown through his own eyes - he was evil, evil beyond belief, purged of all that makes a man a man and left with nothing but a monster. Sokaku raises the staff, lowering it three times; each crash of the staff and the ground meeting, a ringing sound, a holy bell echoing from the six prayer rings crashing together. It sings a song of holiness, as if to counteract everything that the Shadaloo master was, is, and could ever be.
"Do I," he says calmly, "I, too, have been seeking you, Vega of the Shadows."
The old man's hand sinks into his pouch, clenching about one of his sorcerous scrolls. "I have a question for you, as well. Perhaps, if you answer mine, I will answer yours, before I scour your existence from this world."
"Ah. The 'threats' part of the conversation. Go on, old man. Tell me about how you will scour me from this world, and then ask your question. Do your worst. In the end, it matters very little - I'll have my answers from the inside of your brain after I sift my fingers through it." Alright, so it's a little melodramatic for Vega, but Sokaku started it. After all, it's not really often that he gets told he'll be scoured! His fierce blank stare turns to something of amusement, condescencion for the old man before him. His fingers unfold from his arms, and he rests them at his sides, simply watching for a long moment, and then..
And then...
The 'aura' around him changes - that strong sense of evil that permeates the tranquil area retreats, recoils, and seems to be sucked into the being standing at the entrance to the shrine. Drawn inwards, internalized, Vega's power hums and thrums around him like a thing alive - this close to him it's like a constant aural 'hum', dark black and purple that outlines who and what he is. It hints at darkness, at the evil things he's done within his life - and the evil he will gladly do as life continues, in his mad quest to avoid what he sees as an ignomious fate. He beckons the man forwards, eager eyes glinting in dangerous warning.
"Come then! Ask your questions - I have many answers for those who are idiotic enough to challenge me! Show me this strength that will wipe me from the world!"
COMBATSYS: Vega has started a fight here.
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Vega 0/-------/-------|
He's almost peaceful as he drives his staff into the ground, picking the fish and line from it and examining it for a moment. "I wish to know," the old monk says, his voice deep and echoing across the empty clearing, "What drives a man to divest himself of the justice in his soul, and hide so deep in the shadows that he loses what it is that makes a man a man. I wish to know - why have you chosen to become a monster?"
The old monk slides his staff up under his arm, holding up his two fingers before him as his feet shift backwards. "I do not threaten, Vega of the Shadows - I speak only the words I mean, and if I do not destroy you today, I will tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. There is no peace for a man of evil, no more than is there peace for a man of good."
"You may ask me what you wish to know as we fight this battle. I have few secrets to hide from a man who is already dead."
COMBATSYS: Sokaku has joined the fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
COMBATSYS: Sokaku focuses on his next action.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
Hah! All that posturing, only to ask him a question as simple as the one Naerose Delphine asked him after his battle with Ryu. Different words, but the same thrust, certainly. He's amused, Vega's eyes curious and casual as he begins to walk towards the man with the walking staff, the obviously mad monk who so brazenly declares Vega's 'eventual' defeat.
"Power. Power enough to change the fate I see whenever I search. I'll give you that answer, though after this is over, I don't believe you'll remember it, much less your own name." Fingers curl into fists, that dark aura subsuming from his body and focusing into his hands, gathered and protected, built up by the growing rage in his body.
"I choose to live as I am, because the alternative of ignomy is worthless. I will carve my mark on this world in more ways than one - and it will remember and fear me!" That said, Vega foregoes his own question, instead seeming to blur in a speedy rush in, body moving fluidly as he throws a series of punches against Sokaku's guard. Testing the man early on, it seems - after all, he's only 'observed' one of the mad monk's battles, and that via third party interrogation!
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Sokaku with Jab Punch.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Vega
Sokaku brings up his staff. The old man doesn't manage to block the blows, but he does roll with the punches, head tilting left and right to absorb the full force of the hits. He spins his staff once, settling it into the ground.
"You have sold your soul for power, and there is nothing left of you that I can save. Therefore, I have no choice - what I cannot purify, I must exterminate, for the good of all mankind."
The old man raises the ringed prayer staff into the sky as he jumps to the side. The rings clink together, jingling a sound of incredible power.
The staff drives down into the ground, and it splits, cracking down the center beneath the staff as the sorceror's chi flows into the earth itself. His incantation begins, a chant of power, a chant of focus.
His prayers are answered. Deep beneath the ground, the lava rises, fire purer and older than the ground upon which they stand leaping to the command of the chi sorceror's 'spell', guided by his presence and his gentle hand. It erupts upwards, a pillar of fire roaring into the sky, screaming from the dragon's mouth and parting a cloud high above them. The water nearby sizzles, the grass lights, and, should it hit Vega, he would feel not simply the power of the flames of the natural world, but the power of the Earth's very soul scoring whatever twisted black existence replaced his own.
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Sokaku's Vortex Inferno.
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Sokaku 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Vega
As Sokaku chants, Vega takes a half-step back, not pressing his attack - at least not yet. Eyes narrow, taking in the 'what' of his actions, but unable to grasp the 'how'. It's a different enough style that Vega cannot intercept or understand it, the manipulation of nature something beyond his own selfish grasp. He knows it for what it is, though - not fakery, trick or deception, but power.
But not enough.
As the pillar of fire comes down, Vega's hand comes up, to intercept the brunt of the attack with his own dark energy, throwing his 'soul' at the world's attempt to influence it, and coming through burned - but only mildly. As steam and fire drips and drops off his frame, his smile grows ever more demonic, ever more manic. "I know what the world can do, old man. You may give it voice, but I've crushed it beneath my heel enough times that I do not fear what you offer. My question is simple.." he starts, then moves into motion.
Not as fast as before, no - this time, Psychopower begets strength, not speed. A brutal movement, a twist of his body that should take him behind the mad monk and bring his head close to Sokaku's, beneath the wide brim of his hat. "I'm looking for a man you met and fought recently. None who remember the fight offered a location to where he was headed - but I certainly believe he may have told /you/ something." Spoken harshly, quickly, Vega tries to hurl the staff-wielder away, using his fearsome power to augument his throw.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku fails to interrupt Psycho Fall from Vega with Lightning Staff.
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Sokaku 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Vega
Sokaku raises his staff to the sky. The clouds darken, the sun blackened out by the old monk's sheer, incredible power as the clouds begin to spin together, a proto-hurricane whirling about the eye of the staff. The rain begins to fall, the sky opening up its tears for the old man who defends it so proudly and wields its might with such respect.
As the storm gathers, the lightning crashes, thunder echoing around the warriors like the primal call of the gods Sokaku represents. The toll of the rings sings out even as the thunderclaps roar, and Sokaku thrusts the staff high in one hand.
It's through this power, this chi, this channel, that the gods of the sky answer. The lightning bolt rips through the air, burning and smoking as if it were the same firey tornado that rose earlier. It strikes Sokaku's staff, channeling through it harmlessly, contained by the sorceror's chi spell. He swings it down, ready to discharge against Vega with the mighty power of the storm.
He misses. As he's hurled backwards, he slams his staff down, and the lightning explodes against the ground, rippling into his sandals harmlessly. The thunderclap echoes in the clearing, threatening both men with deafness - or at least it would, were they not who they were.
"Which man is that?" Sokaku asks calmly as the rain drips off his wide hat.
Darkness, thunder, lightning - the storm is not just Sokaku's weapon - after all, Vega is a creature of 'darkness', isn't he? This weather batters and whips at his cape, but Vega never loses stride as he starts back towards Sokaku, a predator's gait with each step taking him slowly closer to the monk. "Sagat. Come now, you've surely been able to tell this fight wasn't about /you/, old man? This is nothing more than an exercise in dissection, with you as the pitiful animal pinned to the table. Tell me what I want to know. /Where/ is he now?" With that, Vega takes another step forwards.
And another.
As the thunderclaps sound and the lightning strikes the trees around the shrine, Vega's energy begins to spread again, an almost palable effect on the grass and greenery, wilting, fading - overwhelming life with the sheer force of will that is the dictator gone mad. He draws his hands together, and begins to take that energy for his own - not sharing it with the world, like a true 'good' person, but instead infecting other's energy and siphoning it for his own, twisted use.
COMBATSYS: Vega gathers his will.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Vega
Sokaku laughs. He just laughs at that, as though Vega had said something hilariously amusing, as though they were conversing like old friends and the other man had just made a fantastic joke at someone's expense. He leans against his staff for a moment, watching Vega.
"I do not know," he answers, and the honesty in his voice is enough - he isn't lying. "I did not see him as I left the battlefield - I do not know where he departed to. He was in Thailand when last we met."
Sokaku would guide these two men together and let them fight each other - the greater evil would win, and be weakened by the efforts, so that Sokaku could pounce and strike himself.
The old man inhales and exhales peacefully, gathering his will. The soul of the world responds to his thoughts, rising to aid him, and the aura about him burns a little brighter.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku gains composure.
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Sokaku 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Vega
After all this trouble, all this seeking out of the last warrior to fight Sagat - he's being told the man just vanished?! Seven feet tall Muay Thai masters do not just /vanish/. It's an impossibility, an incongruity that makes Vega fume under his breath, the carefully watched temper beginning to shows signs of fraying. He can't believe that is the end all and be all of this meeting. No, there /has/ to be more.
"You're lying. I'll beat the truth from you, and find out why you're protecting him, old man."
With that, Vega rushes in again, stopping short of the monk and swinging his foot in a series of rechambered kicks, knee and then spun up in an attempt to take the hat and monk's head off at the same time. Truly, it's not Sokaku's fault that he's not believed - but Vega has been thirsting for a revenge so long that this anger is .. misplaced. All the more pity for Sokaku for being in its way.
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Sokaku with Strong Kick.
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Sokaku 1/---====/=======|=======\-------\0 Vega
Sokaku continues to laugh as he's knocked back. He skids backwards, using his staff for support, from the force of the blow, but he continues to laugh nonetheless.
The old monk's bones might creak, were he a lesser man, as he spins the staff. "It is the way of evil," he says, "To believe that all who speak to them lie as much as they themselves would. I have no interest in protecting that man - he is as consumed by his evil as you, but in a different, subtler manner. Go to Thailand, and seek the truth - should you survive this attack."
Once, twice, three times, four. Ring, ring, ring, ring - the bell-rings toll, and Vega need not ask for whom they toll - they toll for him.
The old man's staff rises to the sky on the final bell, and the lightning roars down to meet him. But this time, it does not remain in the staff - it crackles and sizzles, an aura of power forming around Sokaku himself. Sokaku looks up, and Vega can see his eyes for the first time - piercing eyes like lightning falling from the sky as judgement from on high.
The fire leaps up to meet him, and it, too, joins the staff and the man, the Earth and Heavens meeting in a single man, a sorceror of great and terrible power. The lightning encircles his head, a jewel of flame burning where the Monkey King's diadem should rest, and he raises back his staff for the strike.
The staff's aura, and, it seems, the staff itself, elongates - a massive, impossible staff, longer than Vega is tall, longer than a tree, longer and wider than a tower. The Nyoi-Bo Aura falls, the power of the Monkey King born from Earth to equal Heaven falling like a gavel on a judge's bench, ready to pass judgement on Vega, remove him from this Earth as Sokaku had promised. It's terrifying to behold, and how much more terrifying it must be to be beneath that discharge of incredible power.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Vega with Sokaku Splat EX.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1 Vega
Fine. The old man isn't lying. He's demanding Vega return to Thailand, to see Sagat out. Vega hadn't been in Thailand since his 'return' to life, and that was a brief moment indeed. Shadaloo's bases there had been mothballed or destroyed, and his once-roud Throne Room was now recreated in the Russian wastes instead. Return to Thailand? His presence in the country would rove difficult to hide - but in the end so would Sagat's. It's really the only option. To hunt 'closer to home' as it were, to find the warrior and crush him beneath Vega's feet, to bring him back to where he needed to be, at Vega's right hand - with a tight grip around his throat to keep him from straying again.
All this is thought in an instant, as the bells begin to clang and clatter. Vega's caught up in thought, processing what the monk said, and when the act of attack is noticed, it's far too late to do more than attempt to weather the storm. As the impressive pressure bears in on Vega, the Lord of Shadaloo attempts to avoid the blow, but the tower of power crushes him beneath it, driving the mad dictator to his knees. Bent, but unbroken. He slowly regathers his feet afterwards, blood flecking his lips, dirt and torn cloth marring his cap. But still, he rises, his voice a calm, thin line.
"If you speak the truth, there's no reason to keep you alive any longer. No reason to deal with your pitiful attempts to crush me and 'stop' me. You've given me your best, old man - and I still stand. I will stand tomorrow, and every day after, until your decrepit body has fallen by the wayside." With that, he draws into a defensive posture, not pressing any advantage he has - no, at the moment, he's just preparing for what comes next, with a predatory gleam in his blank white gaze...
COMBATSYS: Vega focuses on his next action.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1 Vega
Sokaku spins his staff once more, making an X with his two fingers. The old man rings his staff once, twice more, spinning it along the path of his fingers, a circling, looping X around his body. His chant echoes through the world, seeming to still everything about him as he intones his prayer to the forces of nature to recognize him as their servant and lend them his power.
The old man firmly grabs the staff with both hands, slashing sideways. Fire burns in the wake of the staff, but it is not the fire that Vega should fear, not the oddly-colored fire, but the earth beneath Sokaku's feet leaping through the blaze. It melts, mud pouring away as it's propelled by the force of Sokaku's power, a tiny little effigy of the Monkey King himself - complete with Nyoi-Bo - soaring towards Vega on a cloud of fire, staff held high. The Monkey King swings downwards with that tiny little staff, but it's infused with Sokaku's power, and even a tiny tap wouldn't be something the dictator would want to face - especially not if the old man still has so much power after such an incredible blow.
COMBATSYS: Vega interrupts Dance of Demons from Sokaku with Psycho Crusher.
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Sokaku 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Vega
Lesson one - and possibly the last lesson learned. Do not close in with Vega. Especially after he's said 'I don't think I need anything from you anymore.' It's just considered a bad idea. As Sokaku claims the power from the world about him, Vega focuses internally, tapping the rage that boils over in him from finding out that he's no closer to cathcing Sagat and crushing his spirit /again/ than he was at the start of this meeting. He ignores Sokaku at first, but as the tiny effigy of the Monkey King closes, he abruptly looks up.
And night closes in.
That aura of Vega's literally /explodes/ through the area, darkness swelling up in a blaze of black, purple and blue. He launches himself towards the effigy, blasting through and past it like it were nothing more than the howling of an ineffectual wind. It's painful, ripping at his spirit and psyche both - but the force of his will overcomes it, carrying him into Sokaku afterwards, a blaze of dark energy and evil will, battering at Sokaku's emotions, trying to force him to admit the truth - that Vega still stands, no matter what the monk can bring to bear today.
"I said, I am /through with you/, OLD MAN!"
Sokaku stumbles backwards, flying. Sokaku coughs, a grin spreading over his face as blood falls out of his lips.
That blood is no mere blood, for Sokaku is the master of all the natural elements...including the natural elements of his own body. The blood fused with chi pours down his arms, over his cheeks, down his chest - unnatural signs praising the gods of old rolling about his skin, glowing with power, unwashed away by the still-pounding rain. The ground, slick with mud, trembles beneath his feet as Sokaku grins.
"Sky!" He shouts, thrusting the staff once more into the heavens. "Grant me the power to purify this evil! Grant me the might of the Gods of Heaven! Lend me your might!"
And the sky opens. One, two, three, four, five, six, six bolts of lightning, six cracks of thunder, meet the upraised staff, spreading the prayer rings apart through some force perhaps even Sokaku himself doesn't understand.
"Feel the Sky God's wrath!" He roars, and the old sorceror thrusts the staff into the ground.
The lightning erupts outwards, a dragon of pure electricity coiling at Vega, scratching and slashing, a roar of deafening proportions ripping from its jaws as it bites and cries with its holy fury.
By the time the dragon is coiling back up into the sky, the old monk has vanished into parts unknown - even the mud, slicked by the rain, refuses to betray the old man's secrets. The water continues to pour down, beating against Vega as if the gods themselves were crying for his evil, and somewhere, perhaps, they are.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku can no longer fight.
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Vega 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Vega interrupts Thunder God from Sokaku with Final Psycho Crusher+.
+ Epic Hit! +
*KNOCKED AWAY*
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Vega 0/-------/---====|
As he lands, Vega is nowhere near close enough to crush Sokaku beneath his hands. That pleasure will have to wait for another day. That joy will be savored another time. Today, now - Vega has merely to watch as the monk calls to the heavens and earth itself to crush Vega beneath its power. 'Feel the Sky God's wrath!' indeed. The forming lightning is something more than just electricity, the 'spirit' strong enough to lash at him, to threaten his existence.
But this is just another challenge.
Another fate to face, another future that theoretically involves in his demise. He can see it, psychic that he is - the consequences for not throwing himself into battle to the hilt. He holds his hands up above him - and then, as the raging dragon drops down to engulf him, Vega throws his hands high, and screams out in mad fury. "I SAID... ENOUGH!!"
Vega leaps upwards, into the 'dragon's maw. Surrounded by nature's frenzy, he stays in the eye of the storm for one second, and then two - and then /explodes/ into a powerful display of his evil aura. Psycho power against the world - Vega's will imposed on what surrounds him.. It never really stood a chance.
The construct is ripped apart bodily by Vega's dark aura, torn and tattered and returned to whence it came - he lingers there in midair for a moment or two, as if scaring nature enough that gravity took a few seconds to politely ask him 'Do you mind if I affect you again, Lord Vega?'. He returns to the ground, bleeding and bent, bowed but not broken - and in the end, still standing strong, even after the serpent's strike.
But alone - Sokaku has run off..
But even so, from the dragon's shredding head as it returns to the sky it so belongs, a small paper charm falls, fluttering down purposefully to attach itself to Vega's head. Written in blood, elegant, scrawling kanji reads simply - 'Someday'.
Vega reaches up to remove the charm, fingers idly twisting it this way and that as if to try and suss a deeper meaning from its words. After a moment or two, he chuckles under his breath and turns on his heel, to return to the 'new world' - crushing the charm beneath his fingers, throwing it down, and being certain to step on it on his way towards the VTOL. Time enough for 'someday' later.
Log created on 22:52:26 11/10/2008 by Sokaku, and last modified on 01:09:25 11/11/2008.