Description: While fighting commences below, things are watched keenly from above. Keeping an eye out for potential threats from less convenient or unexpected places is the deadly Kula Diamond, perfect for the job of keeping unwanted intruders away. However, the rooftops of Gedo High hold a certain value to Guardian Kings’ leader Tenma Kiryuu, who is determined not only to take back the school, but his team's hangout as well. With him in this endeavor is Pás, to see to it that he doesn’t wind up killing himself, and Marisol, who--despite her dislike for the Guardian King--has accompanied her teammate to aid in the fight. But while things MAY seem bleak for NESTS’ Kula and the odds against her, there comes help from a very unlikely and very mysterious fifth player...
The rooftop view affords one the ability to listen to the sounds of violence playing out all about the Gedo campus. From every direction come shouts, cries of pain, the echo of explosions as dangers attacks are exchanged. Exiled students and others sympathetic to their cause have come back to where it all began: Gedo High, the southern district of Southtown. It's come full circle. Last time the forces directed by Igniz swept in from the outside and, by way of deadly force, exercised the students from their school, turning the well constructed campus into the first fotress of war established.
Now the shoes is on the other foot, muses one Kula Diamond, posessing a full 360 view of the campus in order to watch the events play out on it. The NESTS and Shadaloo entrenched forces have reacted in turn, expanding out to each of the entrances and other points of instrusion in order to fight back the resistance fighters. Under the direction of Daigo Kazama, they face not an unruly mob but trained and organized fighters.
Radio chatter screeches in her right ear by means of a small communicator placed there and her long, frosty blue hair whips about her shoulders as she gazes out over the war torn campus and sees exactly what she had expected to find since the night she had gone after Daigo himself. Failure to eliminate the leader was one of the first steps toward the ultimate fall, she had been convinced. The people who gave her orders had no idea what they were up against nor did they have any idea just how far the evicted students would be willing to go to take their school back.
The leather of her clothing is black, seeming to absorb any light just as she distills and diminishes any heat in her vicinity. Her combat level chi manipulation is unsealed; made manifest in the way small ice crystals drift around her in a perpetual swirl of gentle, invisible air currents. Her orders are to be on call and observe. She should be reporting back to the control center desperately trying to coordinate the defenses, but the girl has been silent, crimson eyes gazing over the different battles in the distance with a certain quiet acceptance.
One of the battles will call for reinforcements soon as the tide turns against the different defense groups. And when the call comes, she will not hesitate to act. Dangerous as she is, she could turn any of the fights around. If she acted fast enough, she could probably turn several around. She'll wait for those orders to come along over the chatter-filled radio com though.
Her right hand lifts to brush a length of her hair back over her jacket clad shoulder, gloved fingers lingering just behind her ear. "Give me the status on the battle in the main hall." The one she can't see. The fight where Igniz faces one of the men most responsible for this organized counteroffensive. She falls quiet, waiting for the report on one of the most important altercations to get back to her. On some level she wants to be called in to fight at Igniz's side, to see who falls in the battle between him and the Kazama gang leader. On the other hand, she isn't ready to face that one-eyed visage of Daigo so soon. Her hand drops to her side, closed into a fist. The weeks since the invasion have been chaotic. It seems times are about to change drastically again.
Yes, the view from the roof of Gedo High is pretty good. Commanding, even. If there's anything that spoils it, though... It's that the wrong people are using it, now. And that doesn't sit well with some people.
The last time he was on campus, Tenma Kiryuu was involved in the routing of a Shadaloo supertank, but now the time has come to take back what's rightfully theirs. Elsewhere in the school, he knows, the other Guardian Kings are fighting. Maybe they're fighting by themselves, maybe together. Maybe they're fighting with the Boss, or with some other notable members of the Gedo Gang. What's important, though, is that they're involved in taking back their school. Their territory. Their home. Tenma is no different.
He just... Set his sights a little higher.
Fully healed at last from the injuries he sustained in the initial attack on Gedo, and in the time since then thanks to ghosts from the past and weirdos with masks on, the King of Blood wears his summer Gedo uniform; bluish-grey slacks and a red t-shirt with the Gedo logo emblazoned on the front, a short-sleeved white dress shirt overtop, left untucked and unbuttoned. On his feet he wears a pair of sneakers. Overall, it's a definite contrast to the combat-clad Kula Diamond and her black leather. But there's one thing that's similar, at least: Tenma's own chi is fully unleashed, the tremendous force radiating from him, generating a palpable pressure anyone with the least sensitivity to such things could easily feel. He makes no effort to conceal his presence or his intent for violence.
Of course, he waited to do that until he was standing on the rooftop, behind Kula.
Standing there like it was the most natural thing in the world - because it is - Tenma Kiryuu's left hand is at his side, thumb tucked in his pocket, while his right is raised to his shoulder, slanting his bokken against it, the smoky red aura of blood and chi that radiates from the weapon not affecting him at all. His head is tilted slightly to one side, a lazy, confident smirk on his face, and his entire posture, his entire /being/ speaks of strident defiance, supreme confidence, an utter rejection of the control NESTS and Shadaloo have exerted on his school.
"Hey there, Biker Girl Barbie," Tenma offers cheerily towards Kula, before his expression turns more malicious, and his tone drops. "Get the fuck off my lawn."
Someone sighs against both their peripherals.
Looking much like someone's lazy, spoiled cat, a girl sprawls carelessly along the parapet of one opened window, dangling one long leg down into the empty air. Her bare toes flex contently against the cool breeze.
"Shiuuu..." she says into the night, gazing off into the last remaining lights of Southtown. The city is patchy at this hour, the war disconnecting power to entire blocks, parts of the city left to cool and die in darkness. She tilts her head as she watches the horizon, using one hand to push a moving lock of her dark hair behind an ear. "Look. Is not even that nice of a view. Ufa, you two have fightings over this?"
The girl dares a glance over her shoulder, and offers in a couched voice, "This is not exactly the sexy real estate."
Tenma Kiryuu would recognize that teasing voice. And he has seen that sudden, sharp, Cheshire grin she has pulled many times before.
Dressed all in white, just a slinky tank top and shorts bound with a roped belt, the Brazilian stands out against the dark hour. Feigning a stretch with an inky little yawn, she pulls herself up to her feet, immediately crossing her ankles and leaning lazily against the window. She leans her jaw against the knuckles of her hand, her half-lidded eyes dulled with a sleepy curiousity.
They land on Kula, looking the younger girl over, and the interloper assesses the NESTS' experiment with a widening grin.
"Psiu," she calls over at the girl, bucking her jaw. She asides conspiratorally, "I would listen to him too, yea."
Pás playfully points out Tenma with a gesture of her thumb. "He knows how to treat a lady."
HALFWAY ACROSS TOWN:
Sitting in the dimly lit dormitory of Pacific high, Marisol glares annoyedly at a wall with her arms folded and legs Indian style on her bed. At her side, the other bed is empty, the bed of her dormmate Pás. The look on her face is classic, her brows knit up and her lips pulled into a thin line across her tanned features. Why is she so angry..?
THIRTY MINUTES AGO:
"You're too fat to fight," Pás said. "Ja ja ja ja ja!" Because that's how Brazilians laugh on the internet.
Then she left through their open dorm window, leaving Marisol in stunned silence.
THIRTY MINUTES NOW??:
"Man, fuck that," groused the girl as she shoved her hands into the mattress, pushing her posterior off the bed. She too swiftly exits through the window into the patchy darkness, slinking across town after the dusky Brazilian girl.
"Too fat to fight? I've been keeping up with myself! What does she know!?"
NOW:
Poking her head up on the opposite side of Gedo High's rooftop, the young Pacific Resistance leader watches the scenario before her. There's Tenma, trying to be all cool and awesome with his pretend sword and entirely unintimidating anger. There's that--wait, the ice girl from before? Why is she here? Is she one of them? 'No way!' the girl mouths.
And then there is Pás.
While everyone is being super serious, Marisol is distracted. "TOO FAT?!" the girl calls out, waving an index finger as she ignores everyone (Tenma especially) but Pás. "I knew you were making up dumb excuses! Why are you here in Gedo, anyway? It's not like anyone is going to MISS this place if it burned to the ground or collapsed or whatever!"
Clad comfortably in a pair of jean shorts, sneakers and a white t-shirt with the last panel of http://tinyurl.com/pbr4b2 on it in the center, the redheaded boxer just stops about halfway, near Pás and Tenma. She's still neglecting the fact Pás was alone here with Tenma.
"And another thing, I am not fat! That was a bit RUDE, Pás, and don't you DARE SAY A THING, TENMA I DON'T WANT YOUR OPINION."
The slightest chi manifestation would have caught her attention. The kind of power Tenma is radiating, thus, may as well have been a shout to get her attention before he even speaks up. Words rattle off in her ear. 'Nameless is down. Igniz is injured! Get to the main hall. They need help! Get there now!!' Kula keeps her back to Tenma as she brings her right hand to her ear, applying just a bit of pressure necessary to nudge the com earpiece out and into her palm. Igniz... will have to stand on his own. She has something to deal with here. One last matter of business before the battle endeavor reaches its gruesome conclusion; a finale written in blood from the first moment the invasion forces decided to roll their machines of war into Southtown.
She turns to face Tenma, looking to be unhurried in the controlled, patient way she moves, eyes taking him in, studying his posture and attitude. Her eye is healed from the time they last fought; the girl having had to go around with an eyepatch for a couple of weeks thanks to the injury he inflicted. Her right hand comes up, leather glove creaking as she clenches it in front of her; a small snap announcing the crushing of the com ear piece she had removed in order to remove distractions. "If you've come to take a stand alone," she replies softly, "I hope you put your affairs in order before bothering me." She turns her left shoulder toward him, arms going straight to her sides, the girl standing as tall as she can manage, her hair whipped about her shoulders by agitated, invisible air currents. "Your friends may be fighting a winning war, but if you're here to fight me, you won't be there to see how it ends-"
She cuts herself off as another presence becomes noticed off to the side and Kula risks a surprised glance toward Pas. The girl's voice and accent are new to her and the puzzled look on her face betrays that uncertainty. A friend of the young man, perhaps? On the surface, Kula regrets that this unknown girl will have to see Tenma fall. But there's another part of her mind that weighs this development on another level - that ruthless, killing instinct that calculates how quickly Tenma's confidence would wane if someone else paid the price for his bold approach. "I won't be removed from this location by words alone." Her focus shifts back to Tenma, which has her noticing Marisol poking her head up over the edge of the roof a ways behind him.
Taking in a breath, she exhales softly. Where are all these people coming from all of the sudden? Unlike most of the strike teams hitting the base defenses, she seems to be caught in the midst of the most random of happenstance circumstances. The red-head she recognizes. They had fought in SNFs against and together in what feels like a life time ago. The last fight, the raised killer had provoked a reaction from Vanessa that had almost betrayed her ties then and there. Marisol had gotten dangerously close to learning her true nature before deciding to let it go. It looks as if that is about to change forever. It's too late for regret.
The corner of her mouth flickers, words of another coming to the forefront of her mind as she focuses on Tenma Kiryuu. "Prove your your conviction. But you've been warned." White energy courses over her right forearm, pouring between her closed fingers like liquid ice that fades into cool vapor before quite reaching the roof at her feet. "If they help you, I will not hesitate to use lethal force on them as well."
COMBATSYS: Kula has started a fight here on the right meter side.
> //////////////////////////////]
|-------\-------\0 Kula
COMBATSYS: Marisol has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Marisol 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Kula
COMBATSYS: Tenma has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Marisol 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Pas has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Pas 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Marisol 0/-------/------=|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/-------|
"Could be," Tenma says to Kula's assessment of the lethal odds facing him, shrugging one shoulder. "'course, you're probably pretty worried about your buddies, and that means you're distracted. Me? I'm pretty focused, right about now." Tenma leans forward a little bit, leering at Kula. "I want my roof back."
It seems like a pretty silly thing to go up against a genetically engineered super assassin for, doesn't it? It's just a roof, after all. Kinda sloped funny, and a bit awkward to be standing on. But the thing is... It's /his/ roof. The Guardian Kings' roof. The thing is, Tenma's professed focus goes right out the window when Pás speaks up from the window, making him stumble a little bit. "Dakini," he says towards the Brazilian. "What the hell are you--" He's cut off, of course, by the loud arrival of Marisol O'Connell. Oh come ON. Tenma turns towards his RIVAL!!!, holding up his free hand towards Kula in a gesture that she should wait just a second. "You are lookin' a bit hefty in the hindquarters there, Red," the Guardian King offers regardless. "The hell have you been doin' this whole time, hiding in your room eating bon-bons? Goddamn. Anyway, if you could shut the hell up for like ten seconds, I have to go have a fight to the death with Yuki-Onna over there."
He jerks his thumb, helpfully, towards Kula.
And /then/, Tenma turns back to her. "Hey, sorry 'bout that, I'm just too popular with the ladies for my own good. So, right, you were threatenin' me, blah blah blah... Pretty good technique there, but you gotta work on it a bit, the cute face ruins the whole effect. Maybe if you were a skanky old demon wannabe it'd work better, but then you'd have to make weird 'keh' laughing noises all the time."
What the hell is he talking about?
"Anyway," Tenma continues, but rather than say anything else, the Gedo swordsman just lunges across the distance between himself and Kula, extending his bokken fully, point towards Kula and the energy around it gathering at the tip; if he manages to strike the ice girl, Tenma uses a slight variation on his usual attack of this type. He doesn't bother twisting around to hurl Kula /away/, instead just using the bokken, his chi and his own momentum in an attempt to hurl her right off the roof.
"...I'm gonna have to keep this brief!" Tenma finishes, finally.
The Brazilian girl, briefly winning the attention of both opponents, lifts one hand to offer both a cheery wave. Her lazy body language doesn't seem to promise much, other than the intention of some lazy exotic girl to recline against the rooftop as though she owned the place. Certainly, she doesn't look like a fighter.
And she's hardly acting like one.
If anything were to begin to give Pás away, it's the look in her ambery eyes. There's a lurking threat in them, despite all their bedroom sleepiness, that seems to suggest more than a backseat commentary.
There's also the fact that she seems less than inclined to be going anywhere. Whatever's going to happen, she's officially making herself a party to it.
And she's not alone.
Out of nowhere, Marisol descends on the fray, and Pás turns her eyes when a very familiar voice barks at her ears. She glances across the rooftop at Marisol, looking unbothered by the redhead's furious shouts. In fact, the Brazilian's grin only spreads farther along her lips -- as though she was intending this to happen. What easier way, without receiving any sort of argument, could she have brought Marisol to Gedo High? Of course, the redhead could have been easily convinced, knowing her heart--
Still, it's more fun this way.
"Pou, Marisolas," Pás singsongs back, rather matter-of-factly: "If your mouth was not so much big, you would not need to fill it up with so many food!"
As for her best friend's question of what she's doing here, the Brazilian merely asides back: "--Jes watch."
Tenma moves at Kula, that trademark bokken of his swung out at the strange, blue-haired girl. Pás remains silent for now, her eyes hooded and her mysterious grinning not yet lost. She plays audience to the exchange, though she raises her guard, visibly ready to move in should the tides change.
COMBATSYS: Pas focuses on her next action.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Pas 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Marisol 0/-------/------=|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/-------|
In states of weakness, it is important to protect your more valuable assets during conflicts. Important footholds must be well-guarded, and when manpower is waning...
... sometimes the need arises for outsourcing.
Kula Diamond observes from the rooftop of Gedo in a calm manner, her mind full of thought; but she is not alone. Of course, when one makes a concentrated effort to stay hidden, when one knows the ins and outs of disappearing -- they might as well be a ghost.
Tenma Kiryuu arrives first, making cocky declarations and swaggering as if he owned the place. It might have some merit -- in the past. Distantly, eyes observe from afar, but take no action. Kula Diamond could hand that lone boy without issue. And then arrives the Brazillian. Eyes stop on the strange, poorly-articulated girl for a moment. There is some consideration had... but ultimately no move is made. Just someone who didn't know what she was getting into.
It's only when Marisol arrives that Kula's hidden ally stirs slightly. Three against one -- hardly /fair/ odds, are they?
Not that he's ever cared about 'fair' before.
A faint fog begins to slither outward against the ground of Gedo's ceiling as Marisol continues to shout, spreading from the center outward in a thin, ghastly layer. The fog is chilling to the touch, almost deathly so, but more than that -- it is a distinctive shade of violet. It's about when Tenma launches into attack that the mist suddenly thickens, the chill growing all the more perceptible--
"Leave."
The voice comes -directly- behind Marisol. And if she turns to look... she'll find a seven-foot tall man dressed in black, face painted with a bright white skull and face partially obscured by the tophat he wears. It might look bizarre--
--if one large, bony hand wasn't seeking to grip Marisol by the face.
"... or die."
If the grip is successful, Marisol will be lifted up with an uncomfortable, clenching grasp... before being summarily /tossed/ towards the misty ground beneath her like so much trash. The man says nothing else.
Agwe is not being paid to talk children to death, after all.
That's what he has a cane for.
COMBATSYS: Agwe has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Pas 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Agwe
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Marisol 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Marisol interrupts Quick Throw from Agwe with Snap Wind.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Marisol 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/-------|
There's a cursory look in the girl's gray eyes as she marches past Kula, seemingly ignorant of the icy girl's presence. It is, in fact, very much aware of the NESTS assassin's presence, and within the look is a distant look of disappointment. Really? Her? One of the enemy in all of this mess? She's one of the ones to pin blame on for making the city a living Hell, for ruining so many peoples' lives at the whims of men with power?
Indeed; it's all changed now. Marisol is a little bummed at the fact.
But she hides it well in yelling at the leggy Brazilian.
"Oh don't even smile at me!" the girl barks at Pás, still comically waving her finger about. "Who do you think you are, bailing on me like that without so much as even telling me WHERE you were headed? I thought we were friends!? Friends kick ass together! But noooo, here you are, hanging out with that jackass Kiryuu--" She pauses, shooting the aforementioned Demon Slayer in question a glare, lips pursed tightly. He speaks after she told him not to.
"Can you NOT follow directions?!" Marisol snaps, her face red as he mentions her butt. "And I'll have you two KNOW that I've been out trying to help people in all of this mess. Sorry I don't make a big fuss and scene about it for attention like YOU do, Kiryuu!" Pausing, the girl tosses her head to one side, scoffing. "Jerk." But when Pás mentions food, the girl pales with wide eyes.
"Oh my god!" she cries. "You too!? I thought we were /BFFS/! Traitor!" Tenma says something, but damned if Marisol is (seemingly) paying attention to him. Instead she just waves her hand dismissively at his face. But she has her eyes vaguely focused on Kula. Is he dumb? That girl is dangerous.
"Watch? Why?" Marisol wonders, looking back to the Brazilian. Beneath her feet an odd, violet haze begins to slither about, unnoticed by the half-Spaniard. Only as it begins to grow more abundant--and cold--does the girl glance around, gray eyes peering about. "It's cold, what the hell?" she mutters. Maybe it's Kula and her weird icy presence..? Tenma throws himself foolishly into the fray--
And a voice suddenly comes from RIGHT BEHIND Marisol. Her expression is startled at first.
Then visibly annoyed as she turns, her face startled again. "What the--!!" Grabbed and lifted, the girl struggles a bit, her face vicious beneath the large black hand on her face. Then, suddenly, the girl lashes out, a punch aimed RIGHT for the center of the man's face in an attempt to dislodge herself before she follows up, having to actually LEAP up to deliver a nasty uppercut to the mysterious newcomer's jaw.
"WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS I WAS TALKING HERE OR DID YOU NOT NOTICE?!" she bellows, wide-eyed and furious.
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Kula with Asura.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/------=|
"If you're not worried," Kula exhales, sounding just a little exasperated at Tenma, "You should be." She realizes he's probably not even listening though, glancing back toward Pas then toward Marisol secondly. Talking about eating bon-bons - that sounds good actually - and being hefty in the hindquarters... and the shutting up... What kind of world did these kids grow up in such that they don't understand the risks they're taking?? By the time he points her out with his thumb, she's in the middle of trying to protest being called Yuki-Onna, only to realize that that's a futile argument to have!
Her shoulders slouch when he finally takes notice of her again. "But I-" she stammers as he goes on about some old demon, looking more confused by the second. "...k-keh?"
Wait, there's yet another joining the fun little roof-top get together. The chill of the encroaching fog has no effect on her but to warn her of another presence. Crimson eyes glance over Tenma's shoulder to take notice of the tallest individual to appear on the roof. A towering man, his height augmented further by the tophat he wears, making a bid to toss Marisol aside.
By the time their exchange has resolved itself, Tenma is already charging her, bokken first. Defenses are slipped past, the charged tip of the weapon digging into her stomach with enough pressure to give him leverage to try and send her flying clean off the roof. Caught, Kula finds herself flung to the side. With a bit more force, it might have been enough to drop her to the courtyard below. But her hand lashes out, gripping a metal beam of the catwalk and slings herself around and back up onto the corner of the building's roof, landing in a low crouch.
Her left hand brushes at her stomach a little, crimson eyes focused exclusively on Tenma now. The figure attacking Marisol appears to be an ally. Must be on the payroll. She's seen all sorts of 'recruits' over the last few months but this one is about ten times more scary than any washed up trash talking luchador or brainwashed teenager! She pays him no further heed, focusing instead on the young swordsman. "If you're in such a hurry, then I'll cut this short," the young assassin grunts, trying to ignore the ache induced by the impact of crimson chi.
Her right hand clenches, a shimmer of white energy coursing over her in a sudden flash, and then she charges him directly in return. That same frozen energy coats both of her hands, the temperature around the girl plummeting with each fleeting step closer. Her right hand swings first, her entire forearm encased with shards of ice as she attempts to drive her fist into his sternum...
It's her left hand that swings secondly, palm open, going for the boy's face as she attempts to get a surprisingly strong, vise-like grip dead center over his nose and mouth, before unleashing enough pristine white chi to potentially blast the young man backward. If she manages to connect with the deadly combination cleanly, it will take but a snap of her fingers to solidify the freezing liquid into brittle, crushing ice, encasing his head and threatening his ability to breath or, more importantly, /speak/.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Tenma with Freeze Compression.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
Yeah, sometimes Tenma's near-constant stream of smacktalk, sass and jokes that only make sense to him can be a little bewildering. It might be a combat tactic, though, judging by how he managed to distract Kula long enough to hit her with his technique... Though he didn't manage to pitch her off the roof, more's the pity. "Heh, should'a figured you wouldn't be taken out that easy, Snow White," the Kiryuu demon hunter remarks, with a rueful shrug of his shoulders. But, what can you do? Gotta work with what you're given. He's fighting an opponent who he /knows/, who he has /very conclusive firsthand experience/ is stronger than him. A great deal stronger than him.
But the idea that he cannot win, that victory is impossible? That doesn't even enter into Tenma's thoughts.
At Kula's sudden charge, Tenma tries to get his bokken in the way to stop her, or deflect her... But he can't manage it. Kula bursts through his half-raised guard, catching him with that punch to the sternum that knocks the breath out of him through sheer physical force, not to mention the searing cold of her chi... And then he gets grabbed by the face, just long enough to get blasted away with icy chi... That hardens on his face and head. That's probably not good.
Staggering, stumbling, Tenma takes a few futile shots at the ice, but he doesn't have the room to build up enough force to really smash it. So... That really doesn't leave him with a lot of options.
He /could/ just suffocate. Or he could hope that Pás or Marisol will help him out. Or he could take matters into his own hands.
Closing his eyes unnecessarily, Tenma focuses on the chi signature of Kula Diamond; it's not hard, it's the single strongest one on the rooftop. He's not like Shurui, he can't 'see' with his extranormal senses; he's no psychic. But he /can/ use his unusually high sensitivity to chi, the very force of life itself, to figure out where Kula is.
And then run right at her.
His plan has no finesse. It has no subtlety. What it does have is his intent on smashing his ice-covered head into Kula's doll-like face, hard enough to shatter the ice suffocating him.
And hell, it might hurt Kula, too.
Happiness breaks out across the Brazilian's face, an eely grin sliding along her lips as she folds her arms, crosses her ankles, and all but reclines to the scene of Tenma's bokken swatting that strangely blue-haired girl across the roof.
Something dares her peripherals, and she turns one brown eye in time to see a flicker of shadow descend on her best friend. But not even Pás has time to call out a warning to Marisol -- because faster than she could say it, the redhead is giving the newcomer the ole O'Connell introduction. The Brazilian pauses, her smile lancing into a smirk as she's reminded that her friend can well take care of herself.
At least for now. It means she can focus on what brought her here in the first place.
Namely, that strange ice girl who all but resurrects from that last hit and is trying to bury Kiryuu's head in ice. Pás' expression, in rare moment, flickers into something that threatens seriousness. Her perpetual smiling falters.
She moves.
Moving tandem with Tenma, Pás crosses the length of the rooftop on sharp, silent steps, looking little more than a blur of her white clothing. She twists into a front flip, descending on Kula, hoping to catch her just an instant after Tenma's attack... when the ice-wielding girl has the potential to be distracted. She lashes out one leg to try to crack her heel at the back of Kula's head... and should the attack connect, it doesn't end there. She inverts in mid-air, attempting to catch the younger girl by the shoulder and simply vault off of her, releasing with a second double-footed strike aimed dead center at her face.
Well, this certainly is an interesting start.
Not that open hostility is something that the tall man behind Marisol didn't expect; but she is certainly far more prepared than Agwe had anticipated. The fist swings up before he can react, cracking against his jaw with enough power behind the blow to, not only snap his jaw upwards in a distasteful WHUD of impact, but also force his grip to release, sending him staggering back. A haggard coat falls down around the man as he grips all the tighter onto his cane. He frowns.
"You are very lively."
The voice is deep, but substantially more quiet than Marisol's booming voice. Agwe stands, his skull-painted face tilting downward to stare at Marisol with baleful eyes. The contrast in tones between her and the large man is almost startling, as if it were the distinct antithesis of whatever passion the angry girl has brought to bear.
"... Let's fix that."
For a long moment, Agwe seems to do nothing. Yet, his actions are all more subtle than overt strikes; mist begins to regather at his feet, and slowly, starts to push upwards in a cloudy, violet column, as if being molded like clay. He lifts a long arm with all the deliberation of the grim reaper, pointing the tip of his cane Marisol's way. Vacant eyes stare on as that mist swirls along the length of that long weapon, accumulating at the tip. Agwe's eyes snap wide--
--and in a single moment, all that mist suddenly, almost literally /screeches/ forward, an abundance of semi-transparent chi rolling into a writhing mass of agony, shaping into a vague semblence of a distorted, pained face. It sprouts sunken eyes, a gaping mouth twisting in torment... all as it screams towards Marisol like an unholy spectre.
COMBATSYS: Agwe successfully hits Marisol with L'inglesou.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
Leaving Pás and Tenma to themselves for the moment, a wide-eyed and rather irritable-looking Marisol just glares, her fist still tightly-clenched and stretched upwards. Who IS this guy? Obviously he's here to help Kula in all of this, she surmises. Is he her teammate or something..?
"OH please," the girl responds to the surprisingly quiet man's words, her arm retreating as she waves it absently about. "I'm just pissed off! My friends are being jerks, that ice princess turned out to be a /bad/ guy and then you come all up in my grill, interrupting my conversation!" Pausing, her gray eyes widen as she cries, "Why WOULDN'T I be?!"
Antithesis of Marisol or no, Agwe just stands there, and Marisol stares back. The cloud of mist gathers as it does, and distantly the girl watches, though her expression suggests impatience and boredom. "You gonna just /stand/ there or are you going to figh--"
Then the ghastly image forms and LAUNCHES itself into the girl.
Blown back, the redhead flies off her feet and hits the rooftop, skidding to a stop on her back. Wincing in pain, she grips at her wounded, aching chest, a fine mist slowly roiling off her clothes, feeling more distantly like acid than anything else. "W-what the hell was that??" she calls, pulling herself to her feet with a slight stagger.
"Goddamn, war just brings out /all/ the freaks from the woodwork."
Breaking into a slight jog, Marisol moves in, despite the swell of pain in her chest, intent on ducking low and weaving, trying to feint the tall, imposing Baron Samedi-like figure before she just drops low, bending her knees slightly before she springs up, head first.
She's trying to headbutt him. "HYARGH!"
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Tenma's Forceful Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Kula with Devil's Crossroads.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
Her horrific combination dealt, Kula draws back, spinning into a half crouch, fingers of her right hand lightly touching the roof, leaving a small trail of icy glaze along the path they traveled before coming to a stop. The results of one of her more dangerous attacks are satisfying partially because for the time being, they keep him from saying anything else at all and that's practically a victory in and of itself. She doesn't look pleased all the same. She understands just a little bit about what it is he's fighting for after her experience exchanging violent attacks with Daigo Kazama.
Fighting to remove the occupying force from his home school is a far more compelling cause than her own and she knows such causes can drive people to excel beyond normal potential... Something the ice-faced Tenma isn't representing with his brazen charge directly for the girl. Without his distracting banter, Kula seems to find him easier to cope with, pushing out of her crouch into a cartwheel to the side, sliding to a spinning stop, still watching Tenma charge on by.
Crimson eyes spare a fleeting glance Marisol's way. The menace from the shadows that has stepped in to intercede looks none too forgiving. His chi manipulation feels like something twisted, unnatural, and his presence is less than comforting even if he is technically helping her. The girl shakes her head, trying to take her mind off the red-head's altercation with Agwe. Chi ripples over the roof at her feet and near her fingers - a small whirl of white energy, potential power waiting to be put to use in another horrific attack.
"If you withdraw," she speaks up, raising her voice, "This matter can be finis-" A jarring blow catches her in the back of her head, causing her to stumble forward, her words cut off with a sharp cry off surprise mingled with pain. Without the protection of her leather body armor, she seems far more vulnerable to the attacks Pas unleashes. Blindsided, she's only barely beginning to realize what happened and brings her arms up in a vain attempt to cover her head.
But she isn't quick enough, and a split second before she would have had her guard ready, her face is used as a spring board by a back flipping Pas, driving Kula back with enough force to almost knock her completely off her feet. Reeling, her vision obscurred by stars for a moment, she blinks, squinting as she catches herself just shy of falling down. Blood seeps from a bump on her lip, only to freeze solid when it contacts her face. "You should have," Kula retorts, wiping her black jacket sleeve across her mouth, "not gotten involved in this."
The other girl knows how to kick and is acrobatic. She has to be taken as seriously as any other threat. Immediately, her combat algorithms process the style and movements of the girl from Brazil and establish proper counter measures. The NESTS killer crouches, gathering a bewildering quantity of power to her all at once, before springing up into the air into a high, forward flip, following the trajectory Pas sprung away in, a wake of that blisteringly cold energy trailing behind her as she moves.
It is at the apex of her leap that Kula Diamond unleashes her attack, flipping into a spin to gather up the potential energy into a concentrated mass before driving her leg through it to kick it down at a deceptively lazy angle back down toward Pas. It solidifies on its way down into a giant array of crystaline matter. Countless spines of ice, each laced with thousands of frozen spikes. For a moment it catches the light, reflecting it in a million different angles, looking not unlike a distressingly gigantic snowflake.
But with the way it detonates into a hemisphere of brittle ice-shrapnel upon impact, it's most definitely not to be taken lightly! Kula lands a split second later, wondering if the deadly attack might be enough to encourage her attackers to retreat.
'Ah, hell,' Tenma thinks to himself as momentum carries him past Kula, colliding with the railing at the edge of the roof's catwalk. It stops him, at least, though he's still having that little problem with his body needing oxygen and having no way of getting it... Not, at least, until he hears Kula turning her attention to Pás. Pás, who is here because of him. Pás, who is an enormously complication in his otherwise straightforward life. Tenma's chi flares, and the ice that was frozen to his head simply /explodes/ off, shattering into so much fine ice crystal.
No way is he leaving anyone to fend against that NESTS murderer by themselves, but especially not that dumb Brazilian!
"HEY!! FROSTY THE SNOWBITCH!!" Tenma suddenly yells from behind Kula, taking a pair of running steps closer to that part of the fracas. He swings his bokken in a broad swipe, too far to possibly hit Kula, but it leaves a trail of red energy in its wake... And from that is born a crescent of roiling blood, a quarter-moon of red gore that streaks through the air towards the back of Kula's head. "I ain't DONE with you, yet!"
It's possible, just maybe, that attacking Pás has somehow gotten him angry!
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Pas with Diamond Shoot.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Pas 1/------=/=======|==-----\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
Quick and deft as she took to the air, the Brazilian girl lands lightly to her feet -- which are strangely bare against the rooftop. Pushing to her full height, she turns a slow, slinky step that inserts herself between Kula and Tenma and stubbornly refuses to leave. However, the many colours of hatred and disdain that the young NESTS experiment must have suffered in her years of murdering for the Cartel... seems to miss this teenager entirely, who looks on at Kula with sleepy eyes and the Mona Lisa's timeless, mysterious smiling. On the surface, Pás looks unruffled.
In reality, her right hand is clenching imperceptively when she sees Marisol take a hit out of the corners of her eyes. It takes years of practice for the Brazilian to quell whatever instinct that's rising up in her and keep her grinning intact. She's not sure she has time to go help her friend, not now... she's not even sure if Tenma is having trouble breathing behind her shoulder. She doesn't even have the time to venture a look back on him. The blue-haired girl warrants her full attention.
Or thereabouts.
At Kula Diamond's threat, Pás only looks curious, then strangely agreeable. She thinks it over a moment, then replies conversationally, "Not involved... Sim, sim, that is the smart choice, yea."
She pauses. Then, tossing back some of her long, inky hair, settling her hand to her hip, the Brazilian bites her lip and confesses truthfully, "...But I am not ve-ry smart."
And she has no time to say much more. The NESTS assassin wastes no time to attack; Pás has only a heartbeat to prepare her guard, bringing up her hands as she widens her stance, a gesture that proclaims her choice to claim her space, and protect it. She's not going anywhere. She can feel the collecting energy, a vast pool of it that she's only ever caught rare glimpses of in her entire fighting career, and knows that even if she could try to outstep this attack, it would possibly mean Tenma would be the one receiving it in her stead.
So, the playfulness dying off her face, the Brazilian forces one heel against the ground, her ambery eyes fastened on the icy display as it grows itself rows upon rows of razor edges and gnarled barbs. Her right eye tics, a nervous smirk creasing her mouth. This is going to be...
It RAINS down on the Brazilian, who tries valiantly to hold her ground and pull up both hands to ward off the worst of the attack. She tries to turn shoulder against the brunt of the razory storm, but one shard hits her straight through the thigh and kills her balance. Her guard opens for a second. And that's all Kula's chi needs.
The entire attack seems to occur inside a heartbeat, but it leaves the Brazilian girl nettled and punctured through from those many little spikes, her white clothing stained red. She's quiet now, broken down to sharp, seething breaths, barely holding herself up both both trembling arms. But even though her body is in shambles, one thing hasn't broken. Her grin.
There's something in Marisol's distant shouts and Tenma's sudden snarl that re-energizes her. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Pás finally lifts her head... and five seconds later, she's trying to push herself back forward, moving despite the hundreds of icy shards that needle through her body. Pushing off one leg, the Brazilian makes a suicidal leap, trying to catch Kula off the trajectory of Tenma's attack and grab one long-fingered hand into the girl's collar... where she will attempt to reintroduce herself with a brutal headbutt.
COMBATSYS: Agwe interrupts Headbutt from Marisol with Bacalou EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
Kula and her opponents for the evening go largely unnoticed as the skull-faced Agwe focuses an unhealthy amount of his attention on Marisol. The other two should be able to be handled readily by someone of the ice-users caliber. This one however, is loud, hot-headed. In Agwe's estimation, she'll likely be the easiest to dismantle.
And he didn't come here for his own amusement, after all.
There is no response when Marisol unleashes her tirade upon Agwe. Instead, he waits patiently, standing perfectly in place as the half-Spaniard comes to a rough stop a fair distance across the roof. The mist continues to build up around Agwe, billowing outward and ebbing like the beat of a heart. He continues to stare, silently. Long, dark fingers wrap around the end of his cane. He waits.
Marisol comes to a stand, and the top-hat wearing man only shifts into a subtle stand. Slender fingers clench more tightly along the edge of his cane as Marisol ducks low. She attempts a feint, and he seems to move forward, as if reacting to it. Suddenly, the girl springs--
What occurs, happens within an instant. In one moment, that thick skull makes contact with Agwe's chin with a sickening crack. In the next, there is the glint of metal, the hint of a long, sharp edge. In the next, a blade is sweeping upward in a sudden, diagonal arch, slicing into Marisol's torso as that cloudy chi rushes outward along the blade, tiny, grasping hands of violet mist stretching outward as if grasping onto Marisol and infecting her physical wounds with that unnatural, chilling chi in one powerful blow.
In the aftermath, Agwe snaps his weapon to the side: a slim sword hidden within the cane, blood dripping down the tip. He says nothing.
And he continues to wait.
Oh shit. He brought a sword to a fist fight.
"FFFF--"
The curse never leaves Marisol's lips. Instead, the moment Agwe swings his blade the girl only feels utter PAIN, the burning, chilling violet energy making her wound all the more awful. The force sends her staggering backwards, arms pinwheeling clumsily as she attempts to maintain her balance. Ultimately the half-Spaniard's feet betray her and she falls, hitting the roof with a gasp. The awesome Party Cat shirt she had is now ruined, a nasty splotch of deep brownish red discoloring it.
"G...godDAMN it!" the girl exclaims, wincing visibly before she slowly pushes her body back onto its feet. This guy is not only a freak, but a dangerous one. And now Pás and Tenma are having a hard time against that NESTS girl, and...
"Argh I am so distracted right now it's not even FAIR!" she groans, pushing a hand to her stomach. Come on, focus! Think! Gotta get your head in the game!
So, to help her focus, the girl lets out a loud, guttural cry as she rushes forward, attempting to sock the man in his stomach with a mighty fist, to stun him. And if she can manage THAT she'll grab him by his top-hat wearing head and yank his face down into her knee before she releases and shoves up, following the motion with a kick of her heel to the bottom of his jaw. "NNRRAGH!!"
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Pas' Zidane's Revenge.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Pas 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
COMBATSYS: Kula reflects Dharmapala from Tenma with Counter Shell.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Pas 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-----==/=======|
On her feet, Kula's attention is fixed on Pas. The concentrated mass of explosive ice landed before she did, blocking out her ability to so much as even see the Brazilian through the complete whiteout that results on that entire quarter of the roof for a few seconds. Crystaline rain poors down around her, harmless at range, having lost the vicious edge the shards had at ground zero - where Pas was. A soft exhale through her mouth sends visible vapors of breath swirling about her neckline as more swirls of ice build up around her wrists and ankles - gathered potential to be put to use at a moment's notice.
Her expression is sober, a crimson eyed mask of emotionless intensity that stares toward the trembling girl. Studying her condition, allowing her combat algorithms to gather all the parameters they need to make a clinical estimate of her ability to continue fighting, it isn't until her eyes fall upon the grin at the darker skinned girl's lips that Kula looks surprised. What's there to grin about in a time like this? The rooftop covered with icy debris and spatters of split blood; Marisol slashed by a freaky man's blade... and Tenma, on the verge of suffocating... okay, maybe that last bit is something to grin about.
"Why do you smile like that?" Kula asks pointedly even as the girl collects herself, managing to push herself back to her feet and even back into an attempt to catch her off guard. It's not Tenma's shout that catches her attention next, but rather the surge in chi from his direction. The NESTS experiment whirls on him, stepping into his direction rather than retreating away, ducking into a forward lean as to avoid Pas just as she took to the air in a trajectory that promised some measure of painful impact.
It is with her right hand that she defends herself, sweeping her gloved palm forward, some of the ice and shimmering white energy swirling around her arm slipping free of the limb into a flawless, glass-like mirror of frozen matter. The wake of red splashes against the mirror, what portion of the unusually bloody chi coming in contact with its surface freezing immediately, the rest flying past Kula to splash against the rooftop. The motion is swift as she moves into a second step forward, her left hand reaching out to press against the mirror with her fingers.
The contact is all it takes to shatter it, sending shards of ice, fragments of frozen blood, and blisteringly cold, white chi hurtling back toward Tenma. Kula, for her own part, simply continues to walk toward him at a calm, determined pace. "No. No I don't suppose you are. You don't learn very fast do you."
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Tenma with Reflected Dharmapala.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Pas 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 1/-======/=======|
Sometimes things just don't work out how you plan them.
Tenma gets an exasperated look on his face as Kula manages to summarily defeat his attack with her ice powers, hurling her own chi back at him as a consequence; Tenma, being Tenma, tries to push on right through the attack, but to no avail. Frost creeps over his body, staggering him and forcing him to briefly drop to a low crouch, though his attention remains focused on Kula herself, teeth chattering. This is going badly. This is going /really/ badly.
For a brief moment, Tenma's attention flickers over towards Marisol, but she's busy dealing with Kula's backup, whoever that freak is. Which means that the only assistance he can hope for here is from Pás. "Who said anything about learning, Yuki-Onna?" Tenma wonders of the NESTS assassin, shrugging his shoulders helplessly. "I know you're stronger than me. The thing is... That doesn't make any difference."
Tenma lets that hang there as he straightens himself up, mouth pulling into a confident grin, almost a leer. "Oi, Dakini!" Tenma calls out towards the Brazilian, skirting around Kula in order to close with his supposed rival, and all the while he focuses his power, the aura around his bokken intensifying until he seems to be holding a blade of blood. Doesn't learn, huh? Well, why doesn't he show Kula Diamond a new trick. "C'mon," he instructs Pás forcefully, reaching to grab her by the hand and then yank her along towards Kula, twisting around so that what initially starts as him almost seeming to swing the capoeira girl towards the assassin turns into the two of them moving /together/, back to back, once they're within striking distance of Kula...
Tenma swings his bokken in a wide arc as he attacks, whirling around repeatedly to try and catch Kula with repeated slashes of wooden blade and bloody chi, each time his chi tries to strike /through/ the girl, to cut off the very source of her power. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!"
That strange blue-haired girl is frighteningly quick, and even one snakebite-fast swipe of the Brazilian's hand receives no more than thin air. She lets her long-limbed body release its forward momentum into a quick tumble, dropping off one shoulder and landing tightly in a crouch that is no more than two skidding paces away from the edge of the rooftop.
Pás doesn't seem to either mind or notice, the look on her face somewhere between bloody and blase. The question about her smile only incites the very thing to widen along her lips, and silently, the mysterious Brazilian just grins away the double sights of Tenma reeling from his own redirected chi as Marisol bites it bad from that nameless man with the cane. Her lips are twitching slightly at the corners, her grin almost appearing to border madness as she takes it all in...
Slowly, the girl lifts herself back to her full height, reaching absently to wrap her fingers around one offending shard of ice melting out of a puncture hole in her thigh. She rips it out disinterestedly and tosses over her shoulder, flexing the leg to test her weight. Her dark eyes slide back and forth, between Marisol and Tenma, between Kula and Agwe, and as the Brazilian tries to think of what to do-- Tenma does it for her.
Her hand is grabbed.
Pás freezes on the spot, her eyes immediately locking on Tenma. For an instant, her cheeks almost seem to colour... before he gives her arm a commanding tug, and the girl remembers her game face. Her hand clasps back. And she lights up, her eyes narrowing, and her teeth flaring through her sudden wide and willful grinning. The next instant, she's arcing through the air by the swung length of both their arms, attempting to catch Kula square in the jaw with one first swung kick, to ward her off and set her up--
For a storm. Back-to-back they fight, turning endlessly on Kula Diamond as Pás expertly weaves through every one of Tenma's strikes to execute her own. Yet where he simply fights upright, she inverts herself, torrenting kicks and an inevitable shouted response:
"Shiu!" she calls back at Kula, while ducking under one swipe of Tenma's bokken to thrust a leg of her own. "You see... if I did not smile...?"
Pás even briefly uses Tenma's very shoulders as a vault to try to sneak a double-footed kick straight at the side of the Cartel assassin's head. "This might start to get... ha ha ha...!
A wave of that bloody chi simply unleashes toward Kula, and suddenly in behind all that blood, Pás is following it up in a heartbeat, turning inside the air to try to hook one last wicked heel at the girl. Upside-down, the Brazilian's shout breaks through the blood in maniac laughter: "SERIOUS!!"
COMBATSYS: Agwe blocks Marisol's Chain Reaction.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Marisol 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
"If all you can do is die slowly, why is it that you came here?"
The question is posed by the soft but deep tone of Agwe's voice as the strange mercenary stares with blank eyes towards Marisol's fallen form. Slowly, he lifts his sword over his head, a drop of blood splattering over his shoulder. He seems not to notice. "Because that is what is going to happen," he continues on, helpfully.
"You are going to die."
Marisol pulls herself back onto her feet, and yet Agwe does not even bother to move, staying in place as if rooted to the ground itself in that bizarre stance. Sword hanging over his head, he extends a single arm outward, pointing the 'sheath' of his hidden weapon at the half-Spaniard. Vacant eyes stare forward, as if not even looking at Marisol. Forward she rushes, attempting to plow one fist into the towering man's body--
--only to find it striking that sheath with a CRACK of impact. The blow is halted, forward momentum stopped as the fist strike alone sends a stinging wave of pain through Agwe's arm... but he holds his ground.
"Perhaps you do not know your own mortality."
A single knee /shoves/ upwards shortly thereafter, aiming to bury into Marisol's midsection... before that blade swings down, to slash across her torso in an opposite direction than his previous blow. Beauty is in symmetry, after all.
"I will instruct you in it."
COMBATSYS: Agwe successfully hits Marisol with Combo Attack.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Marisol 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
"Die?" the girl wonders momentarily with wide gray eyes, her shoulders rolling a bit. Damn he hurt her with that cut, she grouses privately. She doesn't think it's terribly stunting, but...how the hell is she going to keep up with this guy when she's worried about the Brazilian girl and--
"...ha ha, you're pretty funny," is Marisol's reply.
Once again the girl attacks, and once again the imposing man and his sword seem to stave off her assault. Her fist strikes his arm rather than his stomach, to which the redhead widens her eyes. Immediately her gaze lifts, staring at the man's skull-painted face before she sneers and begins to make a sassy counter-remark.
'Begins,' because he's suddenly kneeing her in the stomach before slashing her.
Again Marisol staggers back, blood splattering on the rooftop from yet another cut. He's now completely ruined her new favorite tee-shirt not only with blood, but now by otherwise attempting to shred it up like some eccentric perv. Despite the angry look on her face, Marisol can't help but feel KIND OF embarrassed about that fact.
"J-jerk..."
Distracted once more, Marisol cannot help but spare a glance toward Tenma and her Brazilian-born BFF. They're--what?? Surprised (and a little jealous) the girl just watches as they make their attack on the NESTS experiment. Things seem pretty bleak for the trio but...
"I think you're seriously underestimating me!" Marisol shouts, rushing in once again with every intent of unleashing a one-two punch right into Agwe's face--or chest, whatever she can manage to reach first.
COMBATSYS: Tenma and Pas successfully hit Kula with Pescador and Dakini.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Marisol 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
Having the backlash of his attack crash into him on the rebound happens exactly as Kula anticipated. In the back of her mind, dozens of combat algorithms calculate his odds of surviving to fight her much longer and put them somewhere close to the 'chance in hell' tier. Well, she muses as she strides toward him carefully. She /did/ warn him. "How can it not make any difference?" she asks, sounding a touch annoyed. Shouldn't that be the determining factor here? If a weaker one goes up against a stronger one, isn't the outcome all but certain? He shrugs and Kula only looks more on edge as a result, pausing in her tracks, letting Tenma rush to the side without interruption.
Whirling to stay facing him, the build up of chi in his bokken reacts strongly with her fearsome aura, alerting her to the severity of the pending next attack. What she hadn't anticipated was the way he would pull the other girl into it. In one smooth trade of momentum, he's suddenly propels them both forward into a combination attack combining both of their talents and in the next moment, NESTS' little princess is forced to defend herself. She's calm at first, eyes widened just slightly in a state of alertness as she weaves around a swipe from Tenma and ducks under a sweeping kick from Pas. In the next instant, her forearm is fending off Pas's shin, a wrist-guard of armor-like ice keeping her protected in the process and she kicks her foot up into the path of Tenma's bokken, letting the sole of her shoe absorb the worst of the impact. With each evasive motion, she's losing ground though, forced to step backward, little by little, the speed of the combined attacks forcing her to dedicate her entire speed to avoiding getting hit.
Her left palm lifts, a barrier of ice intersecting another swing of Tenma's bokken, forcing it into a rebound at the same time Pas inverts herself into a flurry of kicks, catching the girl's elbow with one of the blows. The blow is enough, disrupting her careful, controlled defense. A second kick from Pas catches her in the knee and young Diamond slips at last, suddenly vulnerable to the full severity of the combination attack.
Each bokken swing provokes a soft, pained gasp as even her NESTS engineered leather body armor can only do so much to dull the blows. She's only vaguely aware that there's more to the swings than simple chi infused weapon strikes, focused only on the immediate pain and more obvious physical pain they're causing. For one brief moment, it seems as if she regains control over her defenses, her right hand snapping out, seizing the end of the swordsman's bokken with a thick, protective shell of ice protecting her fingers and palm. For that moment, she meets his eyes, her left arm drawn back, three long blades of ice extending over her knuckles that she will gladly stab through Tenma while keeping his bokken out of position.
But two things happen in unison to keep this plan from transpiring. First, the ice unexpectedly fizzles, collapsing into liquid form, freeing his boken from her grip and depriving her of the knuckle spikes all of the sudden. Secondly, Pas, using Tenma's shoulders as a spring board, catches Kula in the side of the head, knocking her sideways, defenseless for a moment, and open to the final surge of that bloody crimson chi and the laughing girl attacking in its wake. The final two hits connect one after the other, the heel driving Kula to one knee where she catches herself with her hands flat against the rooftop, gasping for breath, blood trickling down the side of her head from where one of the kicks had caught her exceptionally hard.
All around her, the frozen residue of her icy attacks begins to melt away. The frozen vapors that swirled about her limbs perpetually diminsh and fade as the girl's face takes on a certain ashen color as she wrestles with a severe disruption to the very aura that fuels her intense power. "Maybe," she whispers, "That's the difference." Her breaths still unsteady, Kula pushes herself back up to standing, not expecting either to hold back in the slightest. Her right hand extends, palm raised skyward, fingers open, as she begins to pull heavily from the scattered energy lingering in the rooftop. Chi left over both from her own icy attacks as well as crimson elements of that bloody chi splashed over her black leather clothing are gathered in a shimmering sphere over her palm.
"But it isn't enough." She closes her hand, absorbing the chi into her limb, allowing it to spread throughout her body, reinvigorating pained and bruised muscles and restoring a degree of order to her fractured aura. The ashen hue drains from her face, replaced with the normal pale complexion she always has.
COMBATSYS: Kula gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Marisol 1/------=/=======|=======\===----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
As the combined assault of Tenma Kiryuu and Pás comes to an end, the Guardian King flashes his usual confident smirk, crouching low with his bokken fully extended to one side, diagonal towards the ground, and his other arm hooked around the Brazilian girl's waist. He breathes a bit raggedly; for all his confidence, that attack took a lot out of him, and the excess energy bleeds off, leaving the aura around his practice blade once more its usual smoky, misty consistency. "See, there's just so much you don't understand, it's really kinda depressing," the Kiryuu heir informs Kula, as though this were a perfectly casual conversation.
"Your strength is just power, an' it's pretty overwhelming, no question there... But there's always ways to use power against its wielder, right?" Tenma shrugs blithely, stating something he sees as completely obvious. 'Overwhelming power' usually seems to be the entirety of his /own/ fighting style, but anyone who's seen enough of him in combat should realise, by now, that there's more to it than that. There's an underpinning level of some kind of tactician - not always the best tactics, but there you go. He's no trickster like Pás, though. She's just scary at it. "Not to mention, we're fightin' with our backs to the ocean, here. This is our home, an' we've got nowhere to go. Maybe compared to you I'm not much, but anybody's dangerous, once you corner 'em."
Talking, always talking; Tenma changes tactics suddenly, moving to actually act. He releases his grip on @emit As the combined assault of Tenma Kiryuu and Pás comes to an end, the Guardian King flashes his usual confident smirk, crouching low with his bokken fully extended to one side, diagonal towards the ground, and his other arm hooked around the Brazilian girl's waist. He breathes a bit raggedly; for all his confidence, that attack took a lot out of him, and the excess energy bleeds off, leaving the aura around his practice blade once more its usual smoky, misty consistency. "See, there's just so much you don't understand, it's really kinda depressing," the Kiryuu heir informs Kula, as though this were a perfectly casual conversation.
"Your strength is just power, an' it's pretty overwhelming, no question there... But there's always ways to use power against its wielder, right?" Tenma shrugs blithely, stating something he sees as completely obvious. 'Overwhelming power' usually seems to be the entirety of his /own/ fighting style, but anyone who's seen enough of him in combat should realise, by now, that there's more to it than that. There's an underpinning level of some kind of tactician - not always the best tactics, but there you go. He's no trickster like Pás, though. She's just scary at it. "Not to mention, we're fightin' with our backs to the ocean, here. This is our home, an' we've got nowhere to go. Maybe compared to you I'm not much, but anybody's dangerous, once you corner 'em."
Talking, talking, always talking; it's time for Tenma Kiryuu to change tracks. Releasing his grip on Pás, the Gedo swordsman rushes at Kula, completely heedless of the continued danger she represents. This has to end, after all. Rather than strike with the sword, though, Tenma lunges in an attempt to grab the Disney princess gone wrong by the forearm, twisting around to get his shoulder under hers, and then just outright flip Kula onto her back.
That's the plan, anyway. Hopefully he gets some backup!
Recovering from that last aerial kick, the twisting Brazilian lands back to the rooftop off one heel, spins on place, and merely just allows herself to fall backward... straight into Tenma's supporting arm. Balanced off her new perch, the toes of her bare feet barely touching the ground beneath her, Pás simply relaxes on the spot, letting a brisk little sigh go.
Her ankles cross comfortably, her eyelids droop in their sleepy way, and she props one elbow up on Kiryuu's shoulder to bide the time. He has quite a promising mouthful to tell the blue-haired assassin, and his Brazilian ally is happy enough to remain silent through the brunt of it. She does, however, use the moment to turn one dark eye and catch the instant Marisol reels back and tries to lay both fists at Agwe's face. Thoughtfulness threatens Pás' face, her lips pursing briefly as she considers her friend's condition. She seems to be all right for now...
Her attention shifts. And not an instant later, Pás' meets Kula Diamond with a good-natured smile and an affectionate wink of her right eye. Following up Tenma's lecture, she merely points a thumb at the Guardian King, and appends, rather anticlimactically, "Euh, what he said."
Her makeshift hammock terminates. Tenma moves, but Pás isn't too far behind, sensitized to his body language at so close a proximity. And she's fought against the Gedo student more than enough times to learn a fluency in what he intends to do. His backup comes just a split-second after his attack on Kula, the Brazilian slipping around dextrously to get around to the Cartel assassin's other side. If Tenma manages to sprawl Kula along the ground, Pás is simultaneously lifting one extended leg straight up into the air, up and up until she's nearly kissing her own ankle bone. Then, in a split second, she releases, slamming the leg down in a brutal axe kick.
COMBATSYS: Agwe endures Marisol's Medium Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Marisol 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
As Marisol recovers from the second bite of Agwe's sword, he watches her with disinterested eyes. Blood gathers at the tip of his blade, welling up into a bulbous half-sphere of glistening red. He closes his eyes, rotating his head in a slow motion, relaxing the muscles there in a series of cracks. He was paid to help maintain guard here -- to deal with intruders. But...
"Maybe you are not worth it, after all," he observes thoughtfully as he slings his blade to the side, errant blood splattering against the ground. Pulling forth a pristine white cloth, he slides it along the blade, gathering and cleaning the deep crimson liquid from the shining metal edge. As Marisol glances toward the side, Agwe slides that blade back into the depths of its cane sheathe. Just as he said --
She's not worth the effort.
Soon after, Marisol charges at Agwe, her fists /crashing/ into that broad chest--
-- the exact same moment the end of that cane thrusts forward, attempting to bury the blunt end of the weapon directly into Marisol's midsection.
The bone-cracking impacts of Marisol's strikes are enough to send Agwe staggering backward, but the message is clear; if he was using the blade... that forward thrust would be much more problematic than it is.
COMBATSYS: Marisol blocks Agwe's Power Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Marisol 1/----===/=======|=======\===----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
Somewhere, down inside of Marisol, the rational part of her is a bit freaked out. Right now, they're all outclassed by the combined forces of the freak with a sword and Kula--who she THOUGHT was pretty cool up until she learned that, you know. She's NESTS and all. She knows first-hand what the ice-manipulating girl can do--and she can see what she's doing to her friend and Tenma. She's a little scared, because hey. She doesn't want them to die, and she doesn't want to die either!
...but she continues to fight, because she has to. She can't give up yet!
Which is why she smiles through it all, offering bravado in the face of seemingly obvious defeat. "I'll make you regret saying that," the girl mumbles in response as she watches his blade closely. Seconds after it's sheathed the girl MOVES, intent on punching the man in his chest. He takes it head on--she thinks she's got him--!
But seconds after her fist connects he lashes out with his sheathed blade. A hand moves quickly, snapping up and intercepting the blunt-end of his sheathed canesword, her face immediately pulling into an offended scowl. "Really, after all that you're going to start beating me to death with your sheathed sword??" she wonders, taking a few steps back as she shakes her hand out.
Her eyes aren't on the intimidating swordsman; instead, her gray-eyed gaze has fallen onto Tenma and Pás, keeping watch on them. They don't look to be doing so well, she privately mulls. This is pretty bad all in all, evident by the way her brows knit. But, for now, the girl doesn't move or assault Agwe. Not yet.
COMBATSYS: Marisol focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Marisol 1/----===/=======|=======\===----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Kula with Quick Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Marisol 1/----===/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Pas' Thrust Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Marisol 1/----===/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
Her breath is recovered slowly as she keeps her distance from Tenma and Pas, crimson eyes studying the both of them, her arms resting against her sides once she has finished re-absorbing the spent chi to renew her strength in a small way. She blinks as he speaks of her not understanding so much, right hand tightening slightly. What's there to understand? He's annoying and she wants to send him packing or leave him dead in a block of ice so thick they'll still be chipping at the thing come August. That seems simple enough in her mind.
But as he continues to lay it out, she tenses. It is their home. That was something she came to understand when facing down the Gedo boss, Daigo. The rules change when fighting for one's own turf. Rules she doesn't quite understand, having never formed an attachment to any particular place. Moved about from place to place with little in the way of attachment, she can't imagine what it must be like to actually put oneself on the line to save one's 'home'. Be that as it may... it's time to put in perspective just how vast the gap in power is between her and the young man who saw fit to dislodge her from /his/ roof.
She hasn't let her guard down, having gotten use to Tenma talking then trying to smack her around with that bokken or a blast of his blood tinged chi. And when he charges forward, she braces, arm raised, expecting another attempted slash that she can intercept with her forearm before counter attacking. She isn't quick enough to interpret his true intention, however, as his hand finds a sure grip on her arm and Tenma twists in closer and quite easily flips the young looking teen flat onto her back.
A surprised exhale escapes her lips but she isn't immobilized long enough to be caught by Pas's swift follow up. Rolling onto her side, she avoids the falling heel by an inch, tumbling up into a crouch to the side then springing back even further until her feet are at the edge of the walkspace the roof has to offer. She takes in a breath, building energy about her as she tenses up, "Maybe so." she replies, hands clenched, her focus redirected into gathering enough chi from the world around her to settle this decisively.
"But a cornered rat is still just a rat." A burst of white flashes up around her, twisting into a tightly wound tornado of chi, sleet, and jagged ice that surrounds her completely. She'll let Tenma see just why she has the reputation she has. Why it is even the NESTS entourage that totes her around from place to place is scared of her. Why it is she was deemed a capable threat to deal with even some of the most powerful fighters around the world.
"And you," she raises her hands over her head, as if basking in the blisteringly cold maelstrom, "Are out of time." Her arms fall, hands stretched out, palms forward, and all of that pent up power is unleashed in a cataclysmic explosion of white that blankets the rooftop with a layer of frost and masks everyone from sight for a split second. And it is within that second Tenma would have to defend himself or be consumed by the blizzard hell-bent on tearing him to pieces as ice falls from the sky like the devil's pitchforks and a mountain of sleet seeks to entomb the young man in a monument of flesh and ice!
COMBATSYS: Marisol endures Kula's Freeze Execution.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ < > /////////// ]
Marisol 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/----===|
With her eye on the girl, Marisol isn't about to let the dangerous NESTS experiment out of her sights--not when she's cornered like that. Not when her friend is there fighting against her. The power she possesses is strong, and no doubt lethal. The half-Spaniard girl is almost positive the SNFs she's seen her in and the public face she put on were just her holding herself back. This is the real deal now.
And she can't let her friends down.
There's a tell-tale swirl suddenly moving around her, icy energy coming to life as she draws upon her chi energy. What is she going to do, the redhead wonders--and who is she going to attack. She focuses on Tenma. Him? Well, he is a sassy bastard. Part of her thinks he has it coming. But, well. Pás likes him or something, doesn't she? And why else would she be here, if she wasn't going to try and help him. Or protect his weak ass.
Marisol can't help but offer a faint smirk to herself. He needs all the help he can get.
The girl raises her arms--and that is the cue Marisol takes. A cursory glance is spared, gray eyes shifting to Agwe before she turns away and sprints toward the pair, just as Kula begins to drop her hands. "MOVE IT!" the half-Spaniard shouts, shoulder-checking Tenma harshly and intent on knocking him completely out of the way just as a furious blast of unforgiving ice and snow wash over the rooftop. The maelstrom finds itself with a new target.
It hurts. It hurts a lot, ice slashing at her bare arms and cutting through cloth and skin, shards of ice lodging themselves into her body all over, portions of her body caking with layers of frost and ice. But, somehow, Marisol maintains her footing, going so far as to try and walk THROUGH the hellacious snowstorm--right toward Kula. She moves slowly, sliding back a few times and staggering, almost falling once or twice. But the girl just forces her body to move, damn it MOVE.
"I-It su-sucks," the girl murmurs, whether Kula can hear it or not. "I...thought y-you were...a-awesome, but...d-damn it." There's a frown visible through the blizzard as the freezing young woman pushes through as best she can. "I d-didn't want to do it, b-but you hurt...my friends and p-picked on that wuss Tenma--"
She forces her body more than ever then, muscles fighting the biting cold as she flexes her arms, trying to break the ice as slides a foot back. "T-that is MY job!"
And with that the girl musters the last of her strength to break through the storm of cutting ice and freezing temperature to try and punch Kula in the face with four nasty hook punches before she draws her fist back. Knuckles curl painfully tight, forming a bloody, pale-white fist before she lets out a loud, guttural scream and attempts to drive her fist like a piston straight into Kula's chest.
"GET OUT OF HERE!"
It's all or nothing--and she's giving all she has left.
COMBATSYS: Marisol can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Kula
Thing of it is, Tenma already knows why she has the reputation she has; he witnessed her power firsthand on the day Gedo High fell, and if it hadn't been for the timely intervention of Daigo Kazama, well, there might be a lot less of Tenma around today. "A rat?" Tenma repeats, looking bemused. "Now you're gonna hurt my feelings." He senses the gathering power from Kula even before it becomes so physically obvious, and he knows what's coming, having faced it once before. His confident grin pulls into one of anticipation, as the Gedo swordsman readies himself to do something possibly really stupid in the hopes of driving the NESTS agents out of his territory entirely, focusing completely on Kula....
So he doesn't even see Marisol coming.
There's a harsh 'wuff' of air escaping Tenma's lungs as, looking extraordinarily perplexed, the Guardian King gets shoulder blocked by Marisol and getting knocked out of the way of Kula's powerful attack, hitting the catwalk with a metallic clatter. What the hell just happened?!
Turning, Tenma looks up to see the aftermath of Kula's attack, and a rather frozen Marisol standing where he was, aiming that deadly punch right for the smaller girl's chest. "Oh, you dumb bitch!!" Tenma calls once he gets his voice back, hopping back into a crouch and then charging on in. Like he's going to just let Marisol do something stupid like that so later she can be all 'oh boo hoo hoo, look how I saved you Tenma Kiryuu, you are weak and p.s. I barely qualify as a woman, now I'm going to go to the monster truck rally'. Tenma, of course, has no intentions of letting Kula get her momentum back, whether or not Marisol manages to hit her with that desperate last mighty attack, so he does the most sensible thing he can under the circumstances.
He swings up one leg and aims to kick her right in her cute little head.
Missing Kula Diamond by hairs, the Brazilian's heel powders the rooftop, denting in mortar and reducing a half-foot crater into sand. Turning sharply, her dark hair winging past her shoulders, her two braids lashing wildly, Pás' face flickers into something threatening seriousness as her dark eyes try to follow the movement coursing around her. She's conditioned for close-range combat, but even with multiple opponents, she can make mistakes. And too many of them...
She whirls in time to see Kula Diamond center herself and face Kiryuu head on--
--and then red. But it's not blood. It's not even Tenma's strange chi. It's hair. It's--
Pás' eyes widen. "MARISOL!" she cries out, helpless to do anything but watch as her best friend shoulders Tenma out of the way to take the hit solidly. She didn't even have time to defend herself. All of that lazy play rots off the Brazilian's face, her mask shredded by a look of horror. Her face pales, her jaw steeling shut, and she only allows herself one moment more to feel the sicky clenching of her heart before she forces herself to move. It's by a miracle that Marisol is still standing, though her skin is burnt with that killing ice... and now it's her job, as both a teammate, and a friend, to ensure it.
Racing forward, Pás skids to a halt at Marisol's other side, swiftly cutting between her wounded teammate and Agwe, as a turn of her head acknowledges that Tenma and Marisol both are focused on Kula. Finally, for the first time since the fight began, she turns her full attention on Agwe, her head tilting as she looks him slowly up and down. Despite the worried set of her eyes, the Brazilian's usual grin props up her mouth.
"Putz... and I don't even get paid for this."
She leaps suddenly at him, pushing off one leg and spiralling horizontally through the air. Her other leg snaps out, trying to ram the sole of her foot into his teeth.
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Agwe with Spin Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Kula
This should all be well in hand. Kula's power seems sufficient enough to dismantle the Brazilian and her bokken-wielding friend. This one is proving to be little threat. In fact, even as Marisol deftly defends against the skull-faced man's powerful forward thrust, he seems unimpressed -- especially when she fails to follow up the movement with a continued offensive.
"It won't do you any good," he notes dryly. "Thinking. Humans are just animals." The cane twists.
"And an animal that can't use its instinct properly is just 'food'--"
But before Agwe can finish, Marisol is leaping. He goes on the defensive -- but her target isn't /him/. Blinking in a rare moment of surprise, the top hat-clad man watches in mild disbelief as Marisol shoves one of the other combatants out of the way... and takes a blow clearly meant for /him/ full on. He watches on, wide eyes narrowing into deadened slits.
"...As I said."
Without an ounce of compassion for Marisol's heroic sacrifice, he moves forward, intent to capitalize on weakness the moment that Marisol makes one last-ditched attack on Kula. The man's hidden blade edges out several inches as he advances--
--only to be set off-course by a single kick to the face.
With a meaty CRACK of impact, blood flies from the impact of sole to face. Agwe staggers backwards, the tinge of iron on the tip of his tongue as blood streams from his lips. He comes to a stop, his expression as emotionless as ever. He looks upward, staring at his assailant -- the Brazilian.
"... hn," Agwe grunts as his head twists to the side. He spits, a single, bloodied tooth rocketing out, hitting the ground with a soft clatter. He looks back toward Pás.
"Then you will die for nothing."
Without any preamble, the tall man's cane impacts against the ground. Violet mist-like chi gathers upward, suddenly EXPLODING around Pás en masse, spiraling columns of screaming skull's heads twisting around her. Each column seeks to knock the girl into the air, higher and higher, misty teeth chattering as if trying to eat her alive in a mass of chilling, howling energy.
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Kula with Random Strike.
Glancing Blow
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Kula
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Marisol's Atom Smasher.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Kula
She had her target picked out. The guy who smacked her in the eye when they first fought. The jerk that keeps giving her sass. She'll put him down and then... well, she isn't sure what she'll do after that. She was only interested in hurting Pas so much as it provoked the reaction she wanted from Tenma. And she had shown zero aggression toward Marisol in spite realizing that she needed to figure out how to deal with her at some point...
Which is why, once she's unleashed a literal tidal wave of brutal ice, chi, and frozen blades directly for Tenma, it isn't the bokken user that she strikes at all, but rather Marisol. She saw the last second shove, the way the red-head found herself caught in the path of so much freezing destruction. And there's nothing she can do about it. The die was cast the moment she extended her hands to take down Tenma and now the boxer will take the fall.
A look of icy determination is replaced with a bewildered astonishment, her eyes widening slightly, mouth agape. "I didn't-" She didn't mean to do that. She cuts herself off as Marisol speaks. Even more astonishing is the other girl's determination to force her way through the brutal assault. "It's his fault!" she exclaims back over the cacophony of swirling ice and bitter wind. "I told him to go away, told him to leave me alone!" How is this her fault?!
She has two of them attacking her at once. Marisol, breaking through the storm of chi and sleet at last, and Tenma, coming in from an undefended angle. She brings her arms up, ice into play, intersecting Marisol's strikes with a barrier that is powderized by the second hit. Another barrier is created with second sweep of her hand, but the girl punches clean through it, forcing the girl back a little. Kula ducks, Tenma's foot grazing the top of her head rather than ringing her bell with a more direct hit, but the reaction leaves her unable to deflect Marisol's final blow with anything better than simply crossing her arms and getting sent reeling backward before coming to a stop and dropping her guard.
"No, I-" She glances back toward Tenma, then spares a moment to make sure Pas isn't swinging in to land a hit as well in her state of confusion. How did she get to be the bad guy here? It's that Tenma jerk and his stubborn friends that are to blame for this! Speaking of Tenma, he's close and punchable, as demonstrated by the way Kula draws back her right hand and then slams it forward for his face with a pristine-white imbued knuckle sandwich as pay back for all the times he's hit her in the head!
COMBATSYS: Tenma interrupts Strong Punch from Kula with Intercepting Strike.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Tenma 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Kula
"You should've left when you had the chance," Tenma informs Kula, and it's his turn to be filled with cold certainty. There's been all this talk about 'killing' today, and Tenma, at least, has been a killer before - or, so he and a lot of other people thought, for a long time. That Marise didn't actually die doesn't change what the Kiryuu heir had to deal with, nor the fact that he managed to come to grips with the idea of ending a life, tainted and evil though it was. Maybe he wouldn't do it again, not here against Kula Diamond, but the fact is this: There's no hesitation from Tenma whatsoever.
Not even when Kula strikes again.
He slips slightly to one side, the NESTS agent's icy fist grazing against his cheekbone, frozen chi drawing a thin bloody line along his skin, but at the same precise moment, Tenma's knee comes up and buries itself in Kula's gut, before he pulls back to give himself a bit more room, and whips his chi-emanating bokken down in a vicious diagonal slash across the ice-wielder's leather-clad torso. "You don't want to be here," Tenma says, dark blue eyes hooding. "So get lost."
Meanwhile, Marisol has passed out on the rooftop so will never see how awesome that was.
COMBATSYS: Pas blocks Agwe's Kalfu EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Tenma 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Kula
Landing in a tight crouch, the Brazilian smoothly rises to her full height. Her dark eyes are locked on Agwe, looking up and up and fastened on the man's strangely-painted face with an expression that borders disinterest and humour. But her body language does not quite match the own mask she wears, one not made of paint but of something else -- something just as concealing. She shifts her weight from ankle to ankle, tense with nervous energy and positively unwilling to expose the back of her fallen friend.
Pás remains where she is, and as she is. Grinning.
Her eyes follow the ricochet bounce of that lost tooth, and amused, glances back on Agwe to meet his last terminal promise. Bending a little at the waist, the Brazilian girl plants the knuckles of her hand to her belted hip as she deeply ruminates on those words. "Noth-ing?" she echoes, sounding thoughtful. "Jes that? Euh... worse things to die for."
Her smiling widens.
Then his cane slams into the roof with all the finality of an executioner's axe. Chi smokes up from the ground, and the sleepy-eyed Brazilian girl only gets a second to prepare herself. She spends that single heartbeat planting her feet and opening the fingers of her hands.
She glances quickly, wildly around herself, following the rising columns of chi as they tower above her, her stance shifting to try to keep them within her peripherals. The misty wind pulls through her long hair, and the last glimpse the world sees of Pás are the sparking embers of her own chi as it burns abruptly at her fingers. There's an /explosion/ -- and she gets swallowed from sight.
There's no time to even think. But Pás has always been loathe to do that. She simply reacts, trying to predict the chaotic movements of those chi columns and move with them, until at the last movement they descend on her, mutating into the twisted empty sockets and razory teeth of human skulls. Her eyes widen, taken aback, then her arms move, bracing with one forearm and opened, chi-heated hand to deflect the brunt of the attack. It pushes her backwards along the rooftop. She has to turn shoulder on the next one, unable to defend herself except to feed those chattering skulls an unnecessary part of her body, as her shoulder and opposite upper arm get torn bloodily apart...
She tries her hardest, above all, to keep her balance and suffer the strikes, which want to pull her savagely off the rooftop. The last one does in a vicious wave, but a quick twist of the Brazilian's body makes her catch ground just at the rooftop's edge, and she foregoes grace to pump off one leg and land in a bloody mess along the ground, hurt but still alive.
If not a mess. Pás' white clothes are now stained red. The only thing untouched about her, the only certainty that dares remain... is her smile.
"...ha ha ha," she's panting as she braces her weight on her bleeding arms. The Brazilian's left eye twitches as she pushes against the roof to pull herself back up... but she does. Her stance widens with its same threat. And between the drooling beads of blood that roll from her opened temple, her dark eyes find Agwe. And she tells him, matter-of-factly, "S-shiu... Casco... you have the-- the real issues. Big issue. I-- I think you should get a kitten."
Her bloodsmeared grin sharpens, and she uses one arm to help /push/ herself towards Agwe, clearing the rooftop in steps and seconds. As she lunges closer to that tall man, that crazed, gleeful madness seems to eclipse in her ambery eyes, before she merely pushes herself into the air, attempting to invite herself with one foot kicked up on Agwe's hip to gain more height. There, the tricky Brazilian tries to dart through his guard, immediately inverting herself with a whip-twist of her spin and one circling leg. Her foot seems to promise to spike down on him with her aimed heel, though should he receive the attack, it's a little too slow, a little too precise--
A little too trying to distract him long enough for Pás to try to slam her elbow straight at Agwe's throat.
COMBATSYS: Agwe dodges Pas' Eshu's Hat.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Pas 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Agwe
[ \\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Tenma 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Kula
This is no longer going as well as planned.
The second the misty spirals of chi erupt from the ground, Agwe knows something is wrong; the skull-faced man narrows his eyes, lips pulling into a deep and grim frown. He continues to observe his surroundings; the red-haired girl has fallen even if she hasn't been /completely/ taken care of. But the other one, the one with the wooden sword, seems to be pushing on -- even against impossible odds.
"...People who do not understand the gravity of dying are worthless," he ultimately decides.
It is as these words slip from the mercenary's lips that the Brazilian collapses upon the ground, as if on cue -- hurt, but still alive. His frown deepens as his eyes rotate back to Pás as she comes to a stop. Fingertips twitch, tapping against that sturdy cane. 'I think you should get a kitten.'
"Hn."
Pás ricochets off the ground a second later, bloodied body still moving strong. As she moves, the tall man braces himself, left leg sweeping backward and pressing into the gravel-decorated rooftop. The Brazilian pushes herself into the air, far faster than should be normal. She is a blur of momentum, velocity and force compelling one foot forward--
--to jam into nothing more than air.
In a swirl of dark fabric and whisper of that mist-like chi, Agwe is suddenly leaping as well, /over/ Pás. Dead eyes stare directly at hers as the considerably taller man flips upward. His tophat dislodges, flip-flopping through the air. He lands in a crouch shortly thereafter, dark, torn-up rustling vaguely. Pushing into a stand, his hand lifts-- and that top hat falls directly into his waiting grasp.
"..." Slowly, Agwe looks around him. Tenma makes one final push, one last stand... and manages to remain standing. The Brazilian is still to be considered, as well. And despite however skilled Agwe might be...
"... Useless." He has no interest in continuing a job that has clearly had its final gasp of life.
Volumnous amounts of mist suddenly /surges/ upward, enveloping Agwe entirely. It's time to cut his losses; chi continues to build up, like a thick, obscuring vortex of fog.
By the time it's faded, the man simply known as Agwe is gone.
COMBATSYS: Agwe has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Pas 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/---====|
She swings, her gloved knuckles grazing the sides of Tenma's face rather than striking him cleanly and in that moment she realizes she's left herself way too open in her eagerness to deal him a punishing strike just because he was so damn /annoying/. His evasion spares him the worst of it by a long shot and his counter attack comes before she can even start to draw herself back to avoid harm.
Managing to land an attack before she can create a single barrier or so much as move her arm into to an intersecting path reveals how fragile the fighter can ultimately be behind all of those defensive techniques of hers. The knee to the stomach forces the wind from her lungs with a pained gasp as she starts to crumple, legs losing their strength. The chi imbued smack of the bokken to follow drives her back completely off her feet, forcing her into a landing roll ending in a crouch, her teeth gritted as she struggles to regain her breath.
Her left hand rests at her stomach, her right hand clenched, imbued with a growing field of white that promises of violent retaliation. But the girl pauses. Crimson eyes flick toward the fallen Marisol then Pas and the suddenly...not-present Agwe then back to Tenma. She told him he should have left while he could. Now it's his turn for his words to echo in her ears. Slowly her breath is regained as she shows no signs of striking back just yet, remaining crouched, tensed, and seemingly prepared to spring at the first to get too close.
He's right about one thing. She doesn't want to be here nearly as bad as he does. This is his school, his turf, whereas it's just a collection of buildings, concrete, and some place her scattered cartel called a base for a while. She tightens her right hand and the energy flickering over her fingers is re-absorbed, conserved to be put to use for the purposes of escape rather than fighting.
"I didn't see it before," she gasps once she can breath. "That side of you." She hunches down a little lower, both hands pressing against the roof. "I wonder," she closes her eyes, taking in her breath one more time. The base will fall. She knew that. The outcome was inevitable the moment she failed to kill Daigo Kazama. "How often you can let it out before you can't hide it." But she doesn't need to stay and watch it happen. There's a fallback point. She has the strength to make it. Let the school belong to the students.
She pushes off into a backward spring that takes her into an arc clean off of the building to the courtyard below where she lands lightly but with magnitudes orders less grace than she would have managed at peak health. One last glance is cast over the courtyard, taking in the sounds of shouts, gunfire, explosions, and an army put into a state of complete disarray. Closing her eyes, she shakes her head before bolting and away from any of the other fights taking place. Let the others rise or fall according to their own ability. Her work here is done.
COMBATSYS: Kula takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Pas 0/-------/-----==|
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Kula can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Pas 0/-------/-----==|
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/---====|
Nothing about this is going to have an ameliorating effect on Tenma's ego, you realise.
With Kula unable to keep fighting, the Gedo swordsman doesn't press the issue, instead watching the NESTS agent as she gathers herself, preparing to do something... Which Tenma seriously hopes is make her escape. He's not going to argue that one with her. The girl's words, though, are a different story, and Tenma straightens up, resting his bokken against his shoulder casually, his other hand at his side, thumb hooking into his pants pocket. His whole posture radiates confidence and casual defiance, like a lion on a hill, except in this case the hill is the curving roof of Gedo High.
/His/ roof.
"Dumbass," Tenma replies, voice strident as ever. "I'll stay in control of it. If it gets stronger, I'll just have to stay strong enough to kick it in line." It's Tenma's philosophy that he's capable of anything, of overcoming any obstacle or defeating any enemy, no matter how insurmountable, or how much stronger they are than him; many times, his complete unwillingness to acknowledge any limitations on himself is his greatest strength, moreso than the techniques of his family's fighting style, or his prodigious chi abilities.
So he's not going to lose to a little thing like 'himself.'
Making no effort to stop Kula's escape, Tenma relaxes subtly once the girl is gone, turning his attention to Pás. "Dakini, we've gotta check on Red," he says, which is probably the last thing anybody ever expected him to say in the history of ever. But, hey, he's not going to let that idiot get herself killed, especially not protecting /him/.
So don't confuse it for /gratitude/.
COMBATSYS: Tenma has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Pas 0/-------/-----==|
Log created on 22:53:14 05/15/2009 by Marisol, and last modified on 02:53:50 06/12/2009.