Description: By rescuing his sister from her capture by Southsynd, K' broke his compact with Geese Howard. Disenchanted with the Syndicate, he decided to make those actions his resignation. Retaliation is slow to come, but inevitable; and when Geese makes his personal call on K', the execution of his displeasure is quick-- destroying all K' has sought to build and recover-- and the judgment enduring: exile from Southtown, on pain of death.
"Mr. Hunter?"
It's roughly midnight when a distinct knocking overcomes the apartment of one Mr. 'Rick Hunter' and friends. The night air is cool but dead, and the skies are clouded over, the skies blotted out. Festivity comes to this particular apartment block of Southtown in the form of a few lights strung up along the exterior and a festively green and red 'NO HOMELESS ALLOWED' sign sprawled across its entrance.
The holiday spirit is strong in Southtown, indeed.
The knocking persists. The voice is deep, a bit heavy -- as if just laboring to breathe. If Mr. 'Rick Hunter' were to pay attention to such things, he might remember it as the voice of his landlord. If not:
"This is the LANDLORD!" Certainly helps refresh the memory.
The knocking and shouting will continue until satisfied. Occasionally, the heavy-set, balding landlord looks down at the name on his sheet of paper, and squints. He frowns.
"Rick Hunter. ... of TV's 'Hunter'??" But such thoughts are easily shrugged off.
The young man in question is, at the moment of this interruption, actually considering a move. While the plain apartment he shares with the people he treasures most in the world has remained the last place in Southtown where K' feels any security-- due in no small part due to Whip's efforts to fortify the place-- staying in one spot too long is base foolishness when you're a fugitive. Despite the fact he's come to be attached to this little space far more than he's ever been to any other habitation, K' has nonetheless been getting the sense it's time to uproot the lot of them and move somewhere else.
Especially with the kind of people that might be pissed off with them now... and especially now it seems the landlord has decided to take an uncharacteristic interest in their affairs. Fortunately, K' had no idea what a 'Rick Hunter' was when Maxima sagely chose it as the alias for this particular bit of legality, and so when he hears the name called he doesn't have to be troubled by such bothersome things as an urge to laugh.
Pushing a tired hand through his hair, K' warily makes his way over to open the door. Something is prickling his sixth sense about this, because generally the landlord rarely interacts with his tenants and K' can't think of anything -obviously- illegal he might have been doing. Abruptly, he is glad Whip's out and Shurui is working a late shift.
The young man cracks the door, the chain still hooked, and waits to see what the problem is. Already, he is working his way around such that he can try to block the man from seeing or going inside. The young experiment might not be up on Japanese landlord-tenant law, but he definitely knows one thing: the kind of 'redecoration' his sister has done on the apartment's interior probably isn't in their lease. Cutting-edge military arrays rarely are.
Fat fists beat against the door defiantly as K' begrudgingly makes his way to the door. By now, the landlord is getting irate -- though his voice is still a little hesitant, for one reason or another. He doesn't visit this room often; the way he figures, the less he knows, the better. They pay their rent on time, and Mr. 'Dean Learner' is always friendly, but this one...
Suffice to say, it must be important if he's not just out-and-out avoiding the room altogether like he would usually default to. As the door cracks open, the man -- a short, chubby man in his late forties, looking to be of Polish descent (Southtown is about as far from Japanese as you can get while staying in Japan) -- stares blankly back at him. He wipes the sweat off his brow, and parts his lips to speak.
"Uh," he begins heavily, almost awkwardly; as if he doesn't know what to do now that K' has actually deigned to open the door. "I'm here to, uh-- check... your... heating... ...?"
"The excuse wasn't really necessary, but thank you for the... convincing distraction."
The second voice that cuts in is distinct, and one K' should know quite well by now. But before a response can be allowed, there is the heavy sound of something /hard/ striking the door that K' lingers near. Like a thunderclap, metal hinges are ripped free from the sudden and extraordinary force exerted as the door barrels down, threatening to smash into K' and hammer him into the hard floor. The method of battering? A single, polished shoe. It leads to a pair of slacks, and a nice, black, three-piece business suit, all adorning one man who now smiles so amusedly at K', like a father might smile at a child who has just been indulging in eating paste.
"Hello, K'," Geese Howard says smoothly, hands tucked into his pockets.
"I thought we could have a bonding moment."
COMBATSYS: Geese has started a fight here.
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Geese 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: K' has joined the fight here.
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Geese 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Geese's Random Weapon.
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Geese 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 K'
K' stares heavily at the hapless landlord, the full brunt of his penetrating gaze brought to bear now that the door's open. The man looks like he's caught between a rock and a hard place, and suspicion starts to bleed into K''s yellow eyes as he watches the man fumble. K' can't be -that- intimidating; something else is wrong. He can tell something isn't quite right here. Past the mingled sweat and fear of the man before him, K' can smell something else. Something really familiar. He just can't figure out--
--oh. Oh fuck.
K' recoils in the next millisecond, eyes widening in sudden fear. Several things transpire in the next few moments. The door slams shut as K' pushes off against it, sliding back across the floor in a low and braced stance; and then it tears entirely free from its hinges, spinning forwards at a decimating speed. It glances off K''s shoulder, which the experiment had so judiciously turned forwards for the express purpose of defense, and then catches him right in the side of the face. The smell of blood floods his own senses.
Turning back forward once the door crashes off into a corner, spitting blood and narrowing eyes up at Geese, K' slowly and warily straightens back upright. "Well, you got a funny way of knocking," K' observes, his tone inflected with a fearlessness he really doesn't feel, as he backs away a few steps in a wary attempt to watch Geese's movements.
He's still thanking God nobody but him was here tonight.
COMBATSYS: K' focuses on his next action.
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Geese 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 K'
Geese Howard enters K''s apartment as calmly and casually as if it were his own. And really, it might as well be; this is his city. He adjusts his tie with an idle sweep of his eyes around the room, giving the decor due consideration.
"What a quaint little home you've made for yourself," he says appreciatively.
"It's too bad you had to go and do something stupid and ruin it, hm?"
Stepping over the shards of wood and metal from his forcible entrance into K''s premises, Howard just smiles dryly at K''s words, lifting his shoulders in a helpless shrug. "That? I'll have to apologize for that. I would have let you known I was coming, but I had a sinking suspicion you might not be a warm host if you knew. I wonder why that would be?"
Another forward step. Geese's right hand slides effortlessly out of its pocket, drifting across the edge of a nearby sofa. "So you'll understand if I wanted to make this a surprise. I didn't want you doing anything /rash./ After all..."
In a sudden surge of motion, Howard vaults forward, like little more than a blur of monochrome hues. Deep blue fires swell in his hand in a blossom of cold power. His hand swings -upwards- and suddenly that small blossom explodes outwards into a full-on blade of broiling sapphire flame, boiling the very air of the apartment as it seeks to carve straight through K''s wary defenses.
"... we have a /lot/ to discuss. On the importance of commitments, for one."
COMBATSYS: K' interrupts Slash-style Reppuken from Geese with Crow Bite EX.
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Geese 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 K'
Coiling back defensively like a unsuspecting snake caught in its hole, K' tensely watches as Geese looks around casually. A sick sort of feeling threatens the back of his throat as Howard intrudes his inspections upon the private life he's tried to make here with his sister. Looking at it through Geese's eyes, it must seem so artificial: the efforts of two experiments to play at being human beings. For a few moments, K' feels foolish... but then, he just gets mad. Anger has worked for him pretty well all these years, and it's what he falls back on now.
It's what makes much of his doubt falls away when Geese accuses him of failing to understand the importance of commitments. His eyes slit, his back steels, and his stance braces at that, stiffening as if from the worst of insults, and he actually throws his weight forwards when Geese comes railing in in an attempt to slit him open on that blade of chi. Heedless of the pain that rushes through him when the attack slams into his torso, K' pushes through on a direct course for Howard. Looks like he did learn something about waiting for the right moment, after all.
K''s right hand isn't gloved. It should be immolating itself in uncontrollable fire. But somehow, it isn't; instead, it's first quiet... and then suddenly lit in twisting flames. The fire moves commensurate with his thought, with a control K' should not have, when the young man twists in a savage movement, slamming both a clawing upwards strike and those impossible flames into Howard. The force behind the attack spins K' in the air in a 360; and when he lands, it's to instantly back up, his malignant voice rasping, "There's nothing to discuss. I picked the commitment I want to keep. There's no value for either of us in any further arrangements."
Briefly, he considers trying to make a run for his cell to text Whip not to come home under any circumstance... but the idea is quickly scrapped. Geese would catch him long before he could finish, would swiftly catch on to K''s concern over her (if he didn't already know...), and-- most troublingly-- texting Whip wouldn't actually do anything other than make the girl rush home faster.
He knows his dumb sister by now.
There it is. That defiance. Youthful, arrogant and brash.
Geese always did find it tiresome and cliché.
But it comes packing a punch. Crimson flames meet blue in a clash of motion and power as, for a brief moment, K''s powerful thrust overpowers the sweep of Howard's pulse of chi. The mystically impowered, but genetically gifted fire burns into Howard's torso as K' vaults upwards like a corkscrew. The force is enough that, with the rush of hot winds accompanied by those gushing flames, Howard is blasted off his feet. His jacket lights on fire in the midst of his upwards launch through the air, tongues of flame consuming expensive, designer materials. Five seconds later, he strikes the ground shoulder-first, rolling in a tumble that snuffs out the flames. Howard vaults back onto his feet, looks at his smoking jacket, and frowns.
"Just another disappointment to wrack up under your name," he notes blandly.
Shirking the jacket to the side, Geese rolls his neck in an idle motion. "You think it's that simple? Did NESTS pre-programmed you to not have any connection to reality, or is that simply a perk of your own genetics?" As he speaks, Geese rolls up the sleeves of his button-up shirt. The motions are slow, and casual. As if he were taking his sweet time. "Your 'other commitment.' That girl. What is she to you, hm? A girlfriend? A relative?" A brief pause. "It doesn't matter."
Fire once more condenses into both of Geese's palms, forming tense, volatile spheres of cold, crackling blue. Howard frowns; he hardly looks happy. It's not a good sign.
"The second you chose some idiot girl who wasn't even competent enough to protect her own neck over the gracious services I generously provided you, you became worthless to me."
Both hands fling upwards. The right goes first, arching up in a diagonal sweep; blue fire /rips/ across the ground, a gout of deep, dark blue exploding away flooring and carpet. "DOUBLE!" The left follows after, the chi adding to the mass as it is as large as K' is tall, the entire angry gout racing towards K' with untold amounts of force. "REPPUKEN!
"And I had such high hopes for you, too."
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Geese's Double Reppuken.
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Geese 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 K'
Snarling out a heated breath as Geese vaults smoothly back to a stand, K' finds in the next moment that his back has literally hit the wall. There's nowhere else to go. He thinks, briefly, of escaping-- of vaulting out the window and running for it, running the same way he's run from NESTS all these years. But then he pictures Geese-- not pursuing. He pictures Howard waiting there in the apartment. And he pictures Whip or Shurui coming back when he's not there to protect them.
If he stays, if he lets Geese expend all his prodigious temper on him, then maybe Howard will leave afterwards. Maybe he'll be that arrogant. Maybe he'll think beating K'-- even killing him-- should be punishment enough for all of them. Maybe he'll leave the others alone, then.
It's possibly the most unselfish thought K'-- a consummate, ruthless survivor-- has ever had in his life.
It'll be hard to endure, though. And the worst hurts don't come from Geese's physical abuse; they come from what he says. Cruel as Geese was, wrong and criminal and amoral as K' instinctively knew he must be, nonetheless Geese was one of the first people of any real power and influence to have any 'high hopes' for him at all. Even if it was disingenuous, the weeks of training Geese put in had made clear the man truly thought he could be worth grooming and using. To be thrown out again... it does hurt, against all logic.
Geese tallies another disappointment up for him... calling him worthless... discarding him as a letdown, just like Howard's blood son. K''s expression flinches visibly, something between stung resentment and insecurity flickering in his gaze briefly, but when he replies it's sardonic, restrained: "Think you're the first person to tell me that...? I get on regardless." And he says nothing further; he's learned at least that much self-control. It's not until Geese impugns Whip that K' -does- anything... and what he does is lose his temper. Badly.
K' doesn't have to roar for Geese not to talk about her like that. The implication is written loudly in the way the young man abruptly throws himself fire-hand first into the famous surge of chi, an upwards swipe raking a wide swathe of flames to bar the onrush of Geese's attack. He chokes briefly on the pain-- both of the residual chi which hits through his defense, and that caused by the use of his flames-- but he doesn't stop. He just twists around to gather momentum, spinning to throw a kick into his own fire and propel it searingly towards Howard. His copious use of the flames seems almost intentional... as if he wanted to make a point of his bare right hand.
COMBATSYS: Geese blocks K''s Second Shoot.
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Geese 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 K'
"I don't think you have an appreciation for the situation you're in yet, boy," the King of Southtown speaks coldly as he rotates his left shoulder, excess blue flames still crackling ominously around his fingertips. "But don't worry.
"I'm still generous enough to give you one final lesson."
Geese Howard is nothing if not an observant man. The surge of emotions from K', therefor, broadcasts like a burning beacon that can be seen from miles off. It brings amusement to his ice blue eyes. It also gives him a useful degree of information; the level of reaction, the response. K' isn't a man who easily feels things for other people. Whoever the girl is, is close to him.
Maybe he ought to find out how close, when he cares enough.
For now, Howard simply deals with one step at a time. The first step is dealing with the raging surge of flames that suddenly sprout all across the young man's hand. His ungloved hand. Geese squints, and then frowns -- not out of annoyance, but out of thought. "Well now, I'm sure you think you've achieved something amazing with that, don't you? You must feel proud." He brandishes it so obviously. It must be important. It must be--
"But you're still not better than the Kusanagi boy yet, are you?"
The question is punctuated by Geese surging /forward/ to meet K''s own flames. His right hand, still crackling with excess fire, surges forward palm-first. It crashes into the mass of crimson with one solid, decisive thrust. Some of it burns at his palms, licks against his forearms. The rest? Bashed into nothingness, blown off by the sheer strength of Howard's resolve and technique.
He doesn't stop there, though; pivoting on his right heel, Geese suddenly shoves forward to his opposite side. His left hand lashes out like a snake, seeking to smash into K''s head with an open-palm and, if it connects, /smash/ him harshly into the nearby wall and /hold/ him there.
"How does it feel, then, to know that the boy that still needs to use gloves to control his flames, and lounges about in his lazy lap of luxury... is /still/ better than you?
"Have you figured out the grievous little error you made yet? Probably not. Let's continue with the lesson."
COMBATSYS: K' endures Geese's Medium Throw.
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Geese 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 K'
"I appreciate it fine," K' snaps back. And then-- the expression a little out of place under the circumstances-- K' grins. The smirk is bitter. "But I don't think I got a choice here..."
K' realized the stupidity of showing rage about five seconds after it peaked. He'd forced the emotion down quickly after that, and now has managed to quell his anger until it's little more than that continuous burn that always heats his gaze. But it's a struggle to keep it there... especially when Geese turns his attention to his fire. And then, Geese just has to say that name.
K''s eyes widen visibly in mingled outrage and anger. It's the kind of anger that only comes out when a nerve has been deeply hit. He freezes so long that by the time he can react to Geese's sudden assault, there's only one thing he can do.
In a last desperate twitch, K' twists to try to keep himself from being blinded by a hand smashed over his eyes. There's not much time or space for him to work in, however, and he ends up seized by the bottom of his jaw and the top of his throat: a spot equally as painful, and maybe even a little more dangerous. Prepared for it, however, he'd managed to interpose his right hand up to try and guard the delicate area. It's caught now, also, under Geese's grasp... but its outwards pressure is keeping Howard from simply strangling the life out of K'.
"I learned this much without you," K' snarls, his half-crushed voice trying to rasp out around the vice of Geese's grip. "I'll learn the rest. I'll get there myself. I'm tired of answering to people like you and Igniz." People who'd hurt Whip the way they did. "I won't do it just to catch up..."
Abruptly, K' tries to dart his free left hand forward. He tries to fist it, an inch away from Geese's chest. And then, his entire body bracing against the wall and floor, a sudden twist translating explosive power all the way up his lean frame to his shoulder, he lets all that force fire his arm straight forwards. Essentially... K' tries, at point-blank range, to put his fist straight -through- Howard, with force enough to knock even the King of Southtown back.
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Geese with One Inch EX.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Geese 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 K'
"Comparing me to /that/ man?" Geese asks with a mark of wry amusement. "I know we're all a little upset here, 'Kay Dash,' but that was just a low blow."
Howard keeps his fingers gripped tight around K's throat, that hand the only thing keeping him from depriving the NESTS experiment from such precious oxygen. He looks entertained at K''s defiance, his lips pulling into a thin smile as he slowly tilts his head to the side.
"There's a difference between him and me, you know," Geese continues. "He tries to entertain ideas of godliness. Look at you. One of his aborted freak angels that never quite got its wings. Me, I'm just a businessman." The hand grips tighter, as if threatening to just break K''s arm in half. He just smiles.
"I operate a business and I protect my assets. You were an asset, K'. You were like the son I never had," he says, knowing full well he actually has a son. "Where Igniz thought he had some sort of stepping stone to being a ridiculous little man-god in his pseudo-utopian genetic freak-fest, I thought I had a valuable investment. And now, I'm going to have to squash that inve--"
Geese never finishes the thought. Before he knows it, K' is striking his sternum with the force of a battering ram. He can't even think let alone react before the inch of distance is crossed with the resounding force of a thunderbolt, delivering a payload of kinetic energy that just -launches- Geese backwards through the air like naught more than a sack of potatoes. He strikes the north wall, hard enough that plaster cracks inwards into indentations around the shape of his body. He collapses...
... But falls securely on his feet. Frowning now, Howard coughs lightly, dark blood spilling out of the corner of his lip. He wipes it away, stares at it, and frowns even more deeply.
"... And you still have potential," he notes thoughtfully. "But you've burned too many bridges now. Do you understand? I own this city. The only reason you were allowed to enjoy your leisurely little life with your friends here without fear is because I thought you were worth the investment of protecting. You've gotten fat and expectant like a spoiled little child off the expenses I've given to your safety and now you think you can survive off the teat." Howard doesn't move. Energy fluctuates within him, growing stronger; the pressure is almost palpable as tongues of blue flame lift upward along his body.
"Well, now it's time for part two of the lesson."
COMBATSYS: Geese calculates his next move.
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Geese 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 K'
K' falters in Geese's grasp as the crimelord of Southtown reveals just how much he knows of Igniz and NESTS. He goes silent, in no small part due to Geese's casually-vicious strangulation... but also because he has nothing to say. No words to offer. There's no reason for him to DEFEND Igniz from Geese's scathing opinions, after all. For once, Geese is saying things that K' can't argue.
Igniz -is-, in the end, just a madman aspiring for genetic godhood. And K'? K' knows well enough he's just a byproduct of that aspiration... a casualty of Igniz's ambition. Some nobody picked out for the original purpose of becoming one of his angels-- one of his seraphim, wheeled in fire and too brain-wiped to do anything but shout praise-- but who failed monumentally. Who may be failing again now.
It's a testament to just how starved of any paternal figures, any approval, any kind words at all K' is, that when Geese goes so far as to drop the word 'son,' the young man looks momentarily stricken. Momentarily, he almost reaches out to that. And then-- he just looks angry. With himself for being weak enough to let it hit him; with Geese for even SAYING it. The result is several tons of force abruptly discharged into Geese's sternum, in a move that almost surprises even K' with its ferocity.
Dropped free, K' clutches briefly at his right arm as he struggles upright to recover. The limb pulses in pain from having been strained almost to its breaking point. Staring after Geese, watching as Howard shakes off the effect of the blow, K' silently glowers even as he tries to brace to prepare for whatever might come next. Will Geese carry this to the logical conclusion? Will he kill him here?
"I'm not interested in being your 'investment,'" K' hisses raggedly. He offers no further reasons why, the experiment clever enough now to keep his cards close to his chest, but the real reason is not tied to morality or any sense of righteousness: it's simply because it's mechanically impossible for him to remain in the ranks of an organization he's come to realize his sister is sworn to fight. "You can keep this city. But you don't own me..."
With noticeable effort-- apparently his use of the flames is still not fluent-- K' pulls on the fire in his blood, trying to coax it out to prepare for the inevitable. Defiance gleams in his gaze as he wordlessly challenges Geese's sovereignty. It seems clear what he's thinking. There is an entire world beyond Southtown. And Geese doesn't own it.
COMBATSYS: K' gathers his will.
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Geese 0/-------/-======|=======\====---\1 K'
The motives of powerful men aren't entirely hard to discern. There's only one reason a person like Igniz would try to harvest those powerful, mythical flames in others. For power. Godliness. They're all the same.
Bloated fools that don't know the /true/ meaning of power.
The amount of pressure exerted from Geese's concentration is tremendous. His chi channels inward, and then begins to flow -outward-, the control he has over it pinpoint. Masterful. Perfect. Broiling blue fire pulsates in heavy waves, the cold flames lifting upwards through the air. It is ominous.
This is Geese when he does not feel like indulging in giving such things as a 'fighting chance.'
"You accepted the terms," Howard notes blandly, his voice clean dry of even a hint of amusement. "And like the little brat you are you thought you could pretend they didn't exist when they weren't convenient for you. You knew full-well what you signed into. And then like a selfish runt you only cared about the terms when reality intruded on your little fantasy." Howard's right hand extends outward to his side, then his left. Flames wrap around them like serpents.
"This world doesn't have any place for ignorant little saps like you. RAGING!"
In one fluid movement, Geese Howard ducks down. His hands snap towards the ground, SMASHING fists with such tremendous strength into the floor that wood and concrete explodes outwards in shards through the air. Every ounce of that chi swelling up inside of Geese is released. It is unfathomable what comes next, but K' should know it well; the claws of dark blue, wreathed in coronas of sickening violet, snapping and whipping around Geese like a cage. Tendrils lash out in thick masses of flame, burning away at everything in their path, destroying everything within the cramped apartment room. It is a testament to Geese's skill that the roof, that the flooring, that /everything/ simply does not cave in on them. It is tremendous, furious like a force of nature, but controlled. Destructive and horrible, like a--
"STORM!!"
COMBATSYS: Geese successfully hits K' with Raging Storm+.
+ Epic Hit! +
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Geese 0/-------/-----==|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 K'
Compared to the complete mastery Geese exercises over his internal energy, K''s struggles to control his flames must seem pathetic. And K' is aware of that difference. But though he knows full well how feeble his efforts are against what is sure to come next, K' doesn't stop. He doesn't give in. He doesn't shed his defiance. That's the difference between him and the bulk of the experiments NESTS puts out. K' can't be stopped until he physically can no longer move.
That might be very soon.
K' isn't even given a chance to reply those scathing words before all that energy snaps outwards in a surge of tightly-controlled, ravaging power. It breaks easily through whatever defenses K' tried to muster, the ex-experiment too slow to properly shield himself when all that savage force slams into him and tears him wide open against the wall. What parts of him aren't ripped open to bleed are burned, flash-seared in an instant. And when the attack recoils, its retreat as controlled as its advance, K' slumps forward bonelessly against the torn-up floor. For a long half-minute, the only part of him that moves is his blood.
Eventually, finally, K' twitches. Painfully and slowly pulling himself out of the gathering pool of sticky red, struggling even to make it halfway to a stand, K' snarls in that infuriating open defiance that still has yet to be wiped from his face. He's choking on his own blood, drowning in it, but a reply is mandatory. Once he's able to lift his head, he forces himself to speak. "Terms from a criminal don't mean shit. You'd break them as fast as I would..." K' spits a mouthful of blood to the ruined floor. He talks a little easier after that, his mouth coiling in a horrible facsimile of a smile. The expression lacks amusement. "I just shot first."
Ruthless selfishness personified. It becomes clear with those words why K' didn't bother to argue Geese's claim he's a selfish brat; it was true. It seems Geese inked a deal with a young man nearly as ruthless as him... and perhaps that's why he felt more resonance with the young man, initially, than he did with his own blood.
K' should have been done just from the effort of speaking. But impossibly, he's still moving. Driven by a blind sort of rage, he not only stands straighter, but starts to advance. In a last-ditch expenditure of strength, he suddenly lunges forwards, fire bursting about his arm as he attempts to throw himself in a headlong strike at Geese, as fast as his broken frame possibly can. Perhaps he's desperate to hurt Howard enough to force the man to retreat, just so those who might be returning to this place will be safe a little while longer.
COMBATSYS: K' can no longer fight.
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Geese 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Geese counters Heat Drive EX from K' with Gedan Atemi Nage.
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Geese 0/-------/------=|
In the aftermath of the storm, papers, food, blaster and wood all whip about, falling to the ground. There is very little left of the room itself to describe; practically everything has been decimated. The apartment is so overcharged with energy that traces of excess chi still occasionally crackle through the air, faint whisps of ghostly blue flames hinting at the source of the devastation rendered here. It is the ground zero of a hurricane. The devastation of a bomb going off in the middle of a peaceful village.
It's Geese smashing to pieces the reality that K' so desperately tried to build.
"Oh, don't get me wrong," Geese says slowly as he lifts up from his crouched position. Fires die from his arms as he levels condescending blue eyes at K', a fresh trail of blood oozing from the corner of his lip from that single punch of earlier. "Even despite your selfishness and your disregard for the deal, I don't care about -that-. That shows initiative, something I couldn't say for most of the idiots who scurry around pretending they know something. But you -- you're even worse than them."
K' defiantly stands up, and Geese's response? Is to smile. Smile like a man looking down on a child. Smile like someone taking pity on the disenfranchized or a dreg of society. But the smile is belied by the seething contempt in his eyes as K' surges forward. "Selfishness and deviousness I can appreciate." K''s flaming fist flings forward--
-- and finds an iron grip stopping it before it can even come close to what he wants to strike.
"Blatant stupidity, though, that's something that I just cannot tolerate."
Geese holds K' in hand. He stares down at the ungloved, flaming fist. "You thought this entitled you to just brazenly break the rules? To do it with no subtlety, in a way that I'd find out about with so little effort it made me want to vomit? This is what I think of your 'progress,' K'."
And then he wrenches his hand forward, to shatter K''s wrist like a twig.
The reason is two-fold; one, because Geese is a dick. And two, tying into reason one, he wants K' conscious. And nothing can accomplish that like a sharp bout of pain. "Let me be perfectly clear: I am a businessman. I appreciate shrewdness and quality. What you did was make a hammer, smashed it into a wall, and like an inbred fool thought that made you some sort of god. Idiocy is bad for business." As Geese speaks, he grips K' solidly by his broke wrist, beginning to drag him outwards towards a nearby window. He smashes past destroyed furniture, appliances, everything and anything; stampeding across the ruins that was K''s life. Once he gets to that window, he will grip K' suddenly by his face, and lift him high into the air.
"I am no longer offering protection to you. Your investment is far too costly to keep up. If I ever see you in Southtown again, if I ever /hear/ about you being here, I will kill you. And then I'll kill the girl. And then I'll kill anyone else who you actually give the time of day, because I am a vindictive man." Geese's grip tightens. He smiles.
It's not pleasant.
"Consider this your eviction notice."
And, with one solid push, Geese will shove K' straight out that window with the shatter of glass, to let him fall to the ground below.
Stopped, K' strains briefly to complete the movement. The attempt dies quickly, K' soon attaining the dreamlike, swaying lack of awareness of somebody who can barely perceive what is happening around him anymore. He makes no response to Geese's explanations, though he hears them. The words slip away before they can be processed sufficiently for him to even think of responding.
He's almost in danger of passing out in the middle of Geese's speech, in fact, up until the sudden pain of his main weapon snapping in two rouses him back to consciousness with a strangled, spasming whimper. It kills him to hear the sound out of his throat, his prodigious will finally threatening to break... but Geese's final threats, ironically, are what stops that from happening. Hearing the threat leveled outright against his sister freezes whatever blood is left in him.
Hatred starts to pool in the empty places of his mind, a hatred that focuses his blank eyes for him and fixes his gaze: even when Geese strangles off his ability to breathe with that grasp on his face. The emotion burns steadily in the poisonous yellow eyes just barely visible now. It's unreasoning, all-consuming, overpowering -hate-. The same sort of hate he might remember seeing from the eyes of his own blood son.
Seems Geese has a good track record as a father.
That hatred persists up until the very instant Geese lets go. It endures even through the impact that crumples most of the rest of the bones in him, leaving him to bleed out in the street. It may be the last time Southtown feels his blood.
If it were just him threatened, if he were the only one who'd die if he broke those mandates, they would mean nothing to him. But the fact Whip was threatened? It's unlikely Geese will have ever seen K' more obedient. A brother first, it's not likely he'll be able to bring himself to take any risk that might kill her.
That only leaves one logical solution. "Not if... I kill you first," K' tells the air, before his eyes shut.
Log created on 20:25:30 12/22/2008 by K', and last modified on 23:01:10 01/03/2009.