Description: Ichiro Oe: Taiyo lacrosse superstar turned experimental test subject for S.I.N. Just now, he had a run-in with contract troublemaker Ayame... but somebody was watching. Someone who has an interest in just how this experiment is going to play out. Deciding to get personally involved, S.I.N's rising superstar decides to evaluate this new living weapon's potential...
"RUN," Ichiro growls as Ayame begins her retreat. "Yes, run," he repeats as she sprints away from him, his raggedly labored breath slowing and growing more steady as the light in his left eye socket starts to die down to the cool golden glow of embers. Glancing back over his shoulder as Ayame flees from his view, shadowy figures seem to dart back into an alleyway a distance away from where the pair had been fighting. Spectators no doubt.
Oe takes a few halting steps towards Ayame's discarded blood-spattered camera bag, pausing to wipe the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his Shadaloo uniform before stooping and picking up the satchel.
"I left her leave..." Ichiro gasps to himself, his previously slowing breath starting to quicken already as he stares at the bag. "WHY DID I LET HER LEAVE?!" the rage-filled young man screams as the fire in his left eye socket redoubles in brightness. "GYAAAAAAAAA!" Oe roars, turning and kicking a public mail box that was unfortunate enough to be next to him across the road sending letters scattering in the breeze, then turning to pull the newspaper vending machine next to it off of its concrete moorings and throwing it through the window of a Taiyo High classroom. The vandalism seems to calm the apparent Shadaloo operative a bit as his breathing calms once more, that is, until he collapses to his knees and vomits a mixture of bile and blood onto the sidewalk.
"Nhhh... won't happen again..." Ichiro promises... someone as he pushes himself back up to his feet with his spear and begins walking down the road in the direction Ayame fled, picking through the broken shards of equipment in her camera bag as he trudges down the street.
Spectators... you could say that.
It's not like Seth stuffed his three captives full of experimental drugs out of some random and extremely weird altruistic impulse. Ichiro, the Futaba girl, and their other companion are test subjects, and that's a fact. S.I.N. is going to get their money's worth out of this, and thus the movements of all three 'enhanced' fighters are being tracked by the research division's mobile surveillance teams. It's no surprise that Ichiro noticed them because frankly, they don't care if they're noticed. Men in dark suits with cameras, sensors, and readouts... all the technical knowhow of Shadaloo in evaluating fighters is at their disposal.
As far as they're concerned, people like Ichiro are disposable tools and nothing more.
But there's one observe who is unnoticed because she chooses to make herself so. That she can hide in plain sight with her blood-red hair and high-heeled boots is in and of itself a testament to her skills at avoiding detection... though from Crimson Viper's point of view, stealth is significantly more about psychology than it is about coloration. Be where people are inclined to look but APPEAR as if you're supposed to be there and nothing's amiss... camouflage has many ways of eixsting. Plus Taiyo's courtyard leaves plenty of places to hide onesself.
A hand comes up to her ear; she's wearing an extremely small and unobtrusive headset to keep in touch with the mobile van. "It's me," she mutters, sotto voce. "Subject Lima Alpha Charlie five five niner got a little antsy with a target." A pause, then she shakes her head. "I'm not going to bring him in. Just want to satisfy my curiosity first... I think there may be some... side effects. Maya out." The hand comes down, and then she steps out from behind the tree that was giving her partial cover, a good few yards down the courtyard from where Ichiro is standing. Bringing her hands up, she starts clapping them slowly, taking measured and confident steps. For the briefest of seconds, green eyes so narrowed as to be almost cat-slit flick to the fluids Ichiro spit onto the sidewalk, before back to the student-cum-experimental fighter. "Not bad, junior," she throws out, waving a hand about a bit before putting it on her hip. "I can tell you're really getting into the job."
Ichiro Oe is used to the sound of applause, but the slow mocking clap that draws his attention as the Crimson Viper steps into view instantly grates on his tender nerves, causing his head to shoot up from his search of Ayame's camera bag and fix his unnerving gaze on the newcomer. "Who the FUCK are you?!" Oe growls, cussing in a manner that would once have been extremely uncharacteristic of him. Ichiro's one remaining natural eye, the one on the right, tracks the attractive agent as she approaches him while the socket in which his left eye used to reside burns with a warm coppery glow of the science experiment's violent energy. Dropping the camera bag full of junk next to his metal-clad boots, Ichiro lets the gore splattered spear tucked under his armpit fall into his right hand as he reaches up to run his left across his now-shaven scalp.
"I don't know what job you're talking about bitch, but I can think of a good one for you," the teen leers as his eyes run over the agent's figure. The former lacrosse star gives the wicked looking solid metal spear a couple of lazy spins before gripping its haft in both hands and lowering it horizontally in front of his own waist. His black Shadaloo-issue uniform, reminiscent of the crimson number worn by Shadaloo's supreme leader (except for the lack of a hat and cape), is somewhat torn and bloody from his battle with Ayame, but that only adds to the teen's feral appearance.
If the woman seems bothered by the somewhat... unnerving combination of leer and threatening posture from a teenaged boy, she doesn't show it. Instead she stops where she is and puts a hand on her hip. The silver knuckle-guards on her otherwise unremarkable black gloves gleam a little in the light of streetlights, catching it at just the right angle to flash for a second before the turn of her wrist and the placement of her hand moves them out of sight. She laughs; it's a mirthless sound, all arrogant sarcasm, and shakes her head a little... it's the sad gesture of someone who feels she's dealing with a complete fool who just doesn't get it. When her face comes back up, her smile has turned from bemused to wicked. "Don't you wish. Sadly, I don't think you could afford even the... 5 minutes? Maybe 2? That you'd need."
The shaved head, the Vega knockoff suit... thinking to herself, Viper notes that Seth has, if nothing else, a truly amusing sense of style. Ichiro Oe, former Taiyo lacrosse star... a tank team covering Seth's acquisition of the Futaba girl picked him and some other loser up, and what the hey: they fit the biogenic profile. So now their systems are packed full of... something. Even Maya, one of SIN's most effective and reliable gatherers of intel, doesn't exactly know. But, her gaze at Ichiro's form and read of his demeanor tells her, whatever it is, it's *drastic*. A berserker... sloppy on the battlefield, useless unless they're the TRULY crazy like that boxer Vega has on the payroll. The man could headbutt a hole in a battleship deck. That's a berserk you can count on.
"As for who I am... hmm. Let's call this your first employee performance evaluation meeting. I'm your duly appointed HR representative." Bringing her hands up, Viper tightens the gloves that are part of her battlesuit technology; the silver leads on her knuckles, as the tight black leather snaps into place, briefly crackle with blue-white sparks of electricity before she adopts a loose stance, a sort of hybrid self-defense stance. "Give me a little of that 'pepper'. Remember," she adds with a grin, "your health benefits may be riding on this."
COMBATSYS: C.Viper has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
C.Viper 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ichiro has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ichiro 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 C.Viper
A foul sneer twists Ichiro's lips as the woman laughs at him, the curl of his lip causing the scar running from his left eyebrow to cheek to pucker grotesquely. "A whore, I knew it!" Oe spits derisively. "Don't worry baby, I got all the money you..." the teen's words fade as a look of confuses passes over his scarred face. /Does/ he have money? It is so hard to remember... Flinching as a flash of pain shoots through the teen's abused brain, Ichiro extends a clawed hand to his scalp and grips at his skull as if he could physically pull the memories from his head given enough effort.
"Oh, so you want a fight bitch?! FINE!" Ichiro barks at the SIN agent. "Just don't ask me to help back your guts back in afterwards!"
Dashing toward Viper with uncanny speed, the embers of energy in the young man's empty eye socket flare and begin to shine brightly, lighting his face an eerie gold in the day's waning light. A few strides from his target, Ichiro leaps into the air off to the woman's side as if he were trying to sail right past her, but the athlete twists his body while airborne and attempts to jam the jagged tip of the metal spear into the meaty flesh of her trapezius muscle.
COMBATSYS: C.Viper blocks Ichiro's Slashing.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 C.Viper
There's a crackling sound, and what looks like voltage spills out from the knuckles on Viper's glove as the spear strike slams into the back of her upraised fist; the charge doesn't carry, but the energy spike of her deflection makes the taser knuckles on those gloves spark. That stung a bit; even the blunt part of a spear carries some weight and Ichiro was strong even before the influence of SIN's experimental drug. The spear's bladed tip shears by the woman's head as she turns it to the side, red braid snaking behind her as she does so. Her eyes, however, are closed... or at least heavy-lidded, and she's still smiling bemusedly. "I'm pretty sure it's in the employee handbook not to call your HR rep a whore," Viper adds, shoving outwards with her hand as her eyes open, pushing Ichiro back and ending the deadlock.
Hmmm. Tactical options... she can rough him up, but the Taiyo lacrosse star has a lot more mileage to give SIN before enough data's been collected. Plus she wants to see just how much this drug is affecting his system, so pummeling Ichiro with powerful attacks is just out of range. "Anyhow, not bad. Let's see what else you got." Bringing up the fist that just a moment ago blocked Ichiro's spear thrust, she flexes her fingers before launching forward in a very fast snap jab, a straight punch right for the throat that should, ideally... piss him off even more, without hurting him. After all, he started it.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro endures C.Viper's Jab Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 C.Viper
Viper's words don't quite register as they try to work their way through to Ichiro's fogged brain. The HR quip doesn't do much more than confuse the violent youth. Confuse and anger. "Shut your mouth and fight!" Ichiro growls even as Viper's fist flies toward his throat. "Fight while you're still aliv-grrk!" The teen's words are cut off by Crimson's fist smashing into his throat as Oe attempts to return the favor by reaching out to try and grab the older woman around the throat with his left hand.
The fire in Ichiro's preternatural left eye redoubles in strength as student's anger builds and a light sheen of sweat breaks out on his forehead. It's happening again; Oe's temperature is rising as his body cannibalizes itself to stoke the fires of the young man's energy. This might be a concerning fact for the former lacrosse player... if he wasn't already blind with rage. If Oe is able to grab ahold of Crimson Viper, he'll lift her by the throat a few inches into the air and brutally jam the spear into her gut.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro successfully hits C.Viper with Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 C.Viper
Quicker than expected... Maya clearly underestimated this young lad, or perhaps she underestimated the drug's affect on him. Either way, she finds herself grabbed by the throat before she can make a sudden jump backwards... and then Ichiro really drives the point home. Literally, in fact; the spear lances into her stomach with surprisingly little in terms of gore, and slides right back out again just as quick. A shame that battlesuit she's wearing isn't body armor, because that's going to seriously sting in the morning, that much is clear. Catching her breath, Viper brings a hand to her now slightly bloodied stomach, and raises an eyebrow at Ichiro.
Killer instinct. He went for the soft targets, right off the bat. For the briefest of moments, Viper wonders if it's going to have this effect on the other two test subjects. The blue-haired girl, with the pigtails, looms in the agent's mind. After all, Hotaru had a very public and televised personal meltdown when it came to using aggression unwisely. The red-haired SIN operative makes a note to test her as well.
But more pressing matters...
"Well, you've clearly got the cutthroat motivation to succeed in this business," Viper says out loud, still expressing impressive sangfroid. She's pretty unruffled for someone who just took a spear to the gut and is looking forward to an evening getting a tetanus booster. "But there's always someone the corporate ladder looking to push you off. A little tip from me to you."
And then she's a bullet, arcing across the distance between herself and Ichiro. The visual effect is a little like a certain Rock Howard's attack: fist extended, body trailing behind it, Viper looks to slam her outstretched, electric-glowing taser fist right into Ichiro's waiting mush. "Shoot!"
COMBATSYS: Ichiro fails to interrupt Thunder Knuckle from C.Viper with Cross Check EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 C.Viper
"HAA!" Ichiro cackles, grinning wolfishly as he pulls his spear out from Viper's stomach, but his celebration doesn't last long. "NO!" the science experiment roars as Viper seems to shrug off his gruesome attack as an afterthought. Panting slightly as the athlete tries to catch his breath, Oe can't help but feel that something is wrong. He's put out way more effort that his in the first 10 minutes of lacrosse practice without losing his breath... that was him right? Or was that someone else? A different person entirely that is trying to share the SIN weapon's brain?
Shaking his head with an annoyed growl, Ichiro right eyelid squints as Viper charges him. Shifting his hold on his spear into a two-handed grip, Oe rushes to meet Crimson head on to loosen her ponytail with a brutal blow to the head, but it is the violent youth that is sent crashing to the courtyard ground instead. The female agent's fist sneaks through his counter attack and crashes right into his face, releasing a powerful electric blast and knocking the berserker off of his feet to twitch on the ground for a moment.
"You're pretty strong, whore," Ichiro spits as he regains control of his limbs and reaches back near his head to thrust himself to his feet via kip-up. Massaging his jaw with his left hand, the blazing fire in his left eye socket focuses a bit, condensing into a bright torch like flame as the violent athlete attempts to reign in his wild rage and transform it with his well-honed athletic focus.
There's a quick spark of blue as Viper pulls her hand back, shaking it out a bit, and then pulling back a step to slip into stance and observe one more time. A hand gingerly taps at the slice to her stomach... still tender, but fighters heal fast. At this point she's more worried about infection than she is about long-term damage. You don't spend the life of an agent -- or as tester of SIN's battlesuit tech -- without getting your share of bruises. The secret is to moisturize like crazy.
"Oh, I get by," the redhead declares, looking Ichiro over. Mirroring his own internal dialogue, Viper thinks carefully about the pre-drug Ichiro. The dossiers of Taiyo's fighting student body... well. Ichiro himself, but Roberto Miura, Hinata Wakaba, Batsu Ichimonji, their teacher Hayato. She's familiarized herself with them, and if there's one trait these people share, it's that they're about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face. Fair-fighting, hot-blooded, good-natured, sure. Not subtle. But they're *sportsmen*. And what she's seeing in front of her isn't a sportsman.
It's a rabid dog.
Very... interesting.
"You don't look so hot yourself there, though, Champ," she taunts, deciding not to attack for now. That last hit seemed to catch him particularly nastily... the agent is worried about overdoing it. Plus, it gives her a moment to catch her breath, as well as taunt him into the next stage of attack. "I want to be sure you can... perform... up to standards. The warm up is over."
COMBATSYS: C.Viper gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 C.Viper
His face flushed and sweat soaked, Oe looks more like a victim of the flu than someone in the middle of a fight. "I'm doing fucking great, I don't know what you're talking about," Ichiro replies with a sneer, managing to form the longest, most coherent sentence since the agent appeared. Shuddering slightly as his fever sends a chill through his body; Oe seems to have gotten a reign on his rage for the moment, though a maelstrom of anger still roils beneath his focused outer shell.
"Well, I'm glad you're warm," the athlete replies darkly as he reaches into his pocket with his left hand and produces a small steel sphere that is about 1" in diameter. "Catch!" Ichiro growls as he tosses the orb into the air with a lazy arc that should carry it no farther than Viper's feet. "BULLET SHOT!" Ichiro calls out as the orb begins its decent and a wave of golden energy flows down Oe's arm and through the metal spear where the chi builds and launches out toward the metal ball, enveloping the projectile with its golden fire and launching it straight toward Viper's ample chest.
COMBATSYS: C.Viper overcomes Bullet Shot from Ichiro with EX Seismic Hammer.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 C.Viper
There's no anger in Viper. Just clear, cool logic. As far as she's concerned, get an opponent good and angry and they're already beat. In her professional opinion, this experimental drug is probably a waste... at least, depending on the subject. Certainly, it's giving Ichiro's attacks a great degree of speed and bite, and he's got vigor to spare... but that candle's burning fast. She doesn't even need to doctor the report, Maya observes to herself with satisfaction.
"Toasty warm," Viper says casually, watching the big display with the bullet. Chi energy. She knows about it scientifically, and indeed the brighter-than-average lightshow that Ichiro puts out suggests that there's SOMETHING to be salvaged from this particular experiment. That is INDEED off the specs for this young man, and it's more than enough of a clue to what Seth's got in mind for this project of his. "Sadly, I think it's probably time to wrap up this little exercise. I've seen what I came to see, after all."
Plus, he told her to catch it. So she does.
Sort of.
There's no glow of electricity on the gloves this time, but they do have a hazy sort of look to them, like heat shimmer. Chi is mystical, it's power... to Viper, it's so much physics. It may make the shiny ball glow, but it's just a ball. "Break!" Ducking low, the agent slams those battlesuit glove knuckles into the ground at her feet. The result is a rippling shockwave of air and debris exploding outwards in a rough line toward Ichiro's shot. The ball is knocked away on some trajectory, slamming into a nearby tree so hard it literally snaps the trunk in half. The shockwave, meanwhile, continues right on for the drug-enhanced lacrosse star... lessened for the deflection, of course, but still a viable threat.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro dodges C.Viper's EX Seismic Hammer.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 C.Viper
Oe's eye grows wide as the woman's shockwave sends his sphere crashing into a tree. Crouching slightly as the shockwave nears him, Ichiro springs into the air while throwing his weight backwards, doing a back flip away from the billowing dust and landing in a crouch with his spear planted in the ground next to him.
"No, you can't leave! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!" Ichiro roars as his tenuous grip on his temper starts to slide again. Rising from his crouch, the athlete thrusts his hand into his pocket and withdraws a third orb. Lifting the sphere up to his face, a wicked sneer crosses the young man's face as he thrusts the ball into his burning eye socket. ""GYYYYYYYOAH!" the test subject bellows as he clenches his left eye shut and embraces the rage that boils inside. The berserker roars, golden light streaming out from his clenched eyelids as he tries to contain the pressure. "BREAK SHOT!" Ichiro's left eye flies open and the chi-infused orb explodes out of the young man's eye socket and screams straight toward Viper's head.
COMBATSYS: C.Viper dodges Ichiro's Break Shot.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Ichiro 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 C.Viper
An eyebrow goes up at Ichiro's sudden evasion. Maybe there's something to the drug after all... more testing's going to be needed. But that's what the whole point of setting these 'beasts' loose in the first place was. This was just a little... side diversion, that Maya happened to be present for. All things considered, it went pretty well. Plus, Ichiro's ranting gives her a chance to radio back, hand to her ear, though her eyes never leave the berserker lacrosse player's body. "It's me. Prep a first aid kit, I'm heading back to the truck." A pause. "No, everything seems normal. I'll make a full report later."
Then yet more chi, and this really DOES take Viper aback... not that she'd admit it, even under torture. That's WAY over spec. What's Seth going to do with that, other than throw these people out like living bombs? Of course, the agent reminds herself, an experiment is... an experiment. If it goes poorly, who cares? Test subjects are expendable. The finished product would be much more... controlled...
Hmm. She's going to have to slot in time with the Futaba girl sooner rather than later, if Ichiro's any indicator.
"Sorry, boy... I've got a busy schedule. You know how it is. And really... you should get that eye looked at." Then he fires, and the redhead knows when that eye... ball... gets here, she does not want to be. Bringing her hand up, she gives Ichiro a jaunty salute. "Until next time, kiddo." The ball screams toward her, but she's up and out of the way. Emphasis on 'up': trails of white vapor from her heels are indicators of the suit's jump jets going off, putting her vertical leap somewhere up and over the Taiyo wall, gone effectively in an instant and out of range of Ichiro's reprisal, unless he wants to Hulk out on a random wall and pray Viper's behind it.
On the street outside, the agent adjusts her jacket, and produces a PDA from a pocket, tapping away at it and making notes. "Now that's what I call education," she adds to herself, looking up at the looming building of Taiyo High.
"No..." Ichiro gasps as Crimson Viper rocketboots (?!) out of there. "NO! NOT ANOTHER ONE!" Ichiro screams shrilly, clenching his fists into balls as he trembles with rage. "GYYYAAAAAH!" the young man in the Shadaloo uniform bellows as he scrambles over to the fallen tree and bends down to wrap his arms around it's trunk. Straining against the tree's weight, Ichiro manages to shamble backwards while dragging the brunt of broken trunk's weight as he pulls it towards the main entrance to Taiyo High. Sweat pours down the Taiyo High Student's flushed face as he draws even more energy from his life-force to lift most of the trunk off of the ground before flinging the medium-sized arboreal straight through Taiyo High's front doors.
"RRRRRAAAAAAH!" the berserk teen roars as the makeshift battering ram splinters and blows the school's doors inward and off of their hinges. "I'LL BURN THIS FUCKING PLACE TO THE GROUND!" Ichiro screams wildly as his violent anger reaches new depths. Tearing a handful of metal spheres from his pockets, the SIN test subject begins charging the orbs with chi and launching them from his hands and through nearby windows as he methodically climbs the Taiyo High steps.
Log created on 22:33:51 04/07/2009 by C.Viper, and last modified on 12:00:25 04/08/2009.