Description: In the midst of the LLK invasion, Adelheid seeks to capitalize on the chaos by robbing a military base already comandeered by Shadaloo. Their guards are no contest: the Killer Bee proves otherwise, nearly bringing an impressive trophy back to Vega in the form of one battered Bernstein boy.
The little graphite wheels of a pair of bulky red skahtes have been carrying Shadaloo's Killer Bee back and forth through the streets of Southtown following she and Cracker Jack's campaign at Gedo High. From time to time, she has had her nose buried in the pages of a little A-Z guide to the animals of the African Savannah while travelling, but mostly her head has been lifted and her eyes alert and searching. She's been wearing a heavy brown parka with white fur trim over her Shadaloo-issued uniform, its hood pulled up over her braids and garrison cap, and if it weren't for the wholly inappropriate climes, it might actually do a better job than it does of keeping her from sticking out overmuch. As it is, it at least prevents the even more jarring image of a tiny army girl skating around the city; if anything, she just looks... fashion confused, now.
There's a little walkie-talkie hanging from the waist of her uniform, and while the coat is concealing it, it can but muffle the occasional crackles and garbled messages of Shadaloo's communications lines; it is rare that she actually deigns to reach for and speak into it herself, and mainly it is only to note that the object of her desire, such as it is, has yet to be spotted.
Most citizens of Southtown were pleasantly ignorant to the seedier side of the world's economy, the crimelords and syndicates that ran even their very own, shining city. Until this 'invasion', most had never seen an actual soldier doing a terrifying job, a checkpoint meant for anything besides checking for drunk drivers or fugitives, or had trouble getting water, electricity, or basic food and medicine: at least beyond the periodic blackout or waterline malfunction. No, much of the city is now gripped in fear by something they don't understand, most of its youth either fighting desperately or hiding out.
Adelheid Bernstein has lived with these operations his whole life. Overseen arms deals gone awry. Tracked down clients who dared to cheat his organization. Plotted so many covert ops that no one, no one outside his father's organization ever noticed. He was part of the assault on the Suiryuu the previous year, part of the screeching halt which truncated Jinchuu's finale and nearly ended with the death of Rugal himself. It was there he was captured, there he met Seishirou Ryouhara, and there his path finally became clear. The operation enacted now is not for R, not to support or disable the invasion - which in Adel's view, is bad and worse bleeding one another, and aside from the collateral damage, quite fine with him. No, he is stocking his own fledgling organization, hitting a lightly guarded military base on the very outskirts of the city, several trucks being loaded with medicines, rations, and arms as the Shadaloo skeleton guard force lies unconscious and bound nearby.
The snippets of frenzied communications accompanying the disabling of this particular base is what pulls Cammy away from her searching. Adelheid Bernstein could no doubt wait a while as incompetents are shored up, and anyway, there's a particular treatise on baseball somewhere within her temporary quartering at this particular base that she could do with having along once the search is continued. It's a tactically sound plan all around, really.
The rumbling trucks being filled with Shadaloo's supplies are spotted first, and once they are she smoothly turns into aa a little security shack to give her a vantage from which to get a better look of things. She counts up the guards tied up not so far from the scene of the heist once they are spotted, confirming to herself that indeed, she will have to take care of things all by herself; not that she particularly minds, of course, but it's the sort of thing that's good to /know/.
The situation assessed, Doll Zero exhales softly, glances to the little TV playing its reruns of the Honeymooners at a corner of the shack's table, and then she bursts from its entrance, skating along the ground at incredible speeds. Her skates are as bulky as they are to help them in standing up to the stresses that being worn by a woman whose muscles are superior to normal humans' can exert, and similarly, while the wheels are largely graphite... there are other, less conventional substances in the mix as well. They are, thus, sturdy enough to allow her to blur from the shack to the supply building being robbed, and all the while she is doing what she can to stick to shadows and cover to allow her to be rendered as little more than a barely glimpsed blur of brown and red to as many of Adelheid's men as possible.
Shelves will rattle, ammunition will be sent skating along the floor in all directions, pills will shower and crates will burst on contact with hard ground and harder fists as she weaves from man to man to quell the robbery in process, and all the while her eyes are darting about for some sign of the person responsible.
There's a reason Adelheid stays behind to observe the operation personally, and it goes beyond habit, the early days when guarding these sorts of things was all he did aside from training. The stores are important, and the likelihood that Shadaloo will send an operative of greater importance than these mooks? Pretty damn good, in the platinum blonde's estimation. He doesn't have to wait long, the operation disrupted by the speedy Cammy and her rather potent strength. This one. Rugal's files come in handy, his R history giving him a unique insight into the operations of several of the world's other cartels. In this case? A distaste for the project that produced the Killer Bee.
"Vega's mindless superweapon." Adel muses, dropping off the roof of one of the covered trucks, in direct line of sight to Cammy, as the agents of his own that are able quickly clear the area, giving room to the leader, and the deadly interloper, "I'll never understand the prediliction to forging tools out of young girls." It's distasteful in the extreme, and Vega's dolls don't even seem to be the only ones, "So I'm just going to chalk it up to your master's regret over not being able to grow up a pretty, pretty princess and leave it at that."
He's seen Cammy in action... he knows how lethal she can be... he knows that Vega is literally /god/ to these drones. It seems like the quickest way for the calculating Prince of War to get her attention, his alertness already high, muscles tensed and ready to move, even as his stance remains loose; fluid, "You know you don't have to do this. That you are just being used. That it can only end one way for you."
COMBATSYS: Adelheid has started a fight here.
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Adelheid 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Cammy has joined the fight here.
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Adelheid 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Cammy
"Yes," the Killer Bee flatly utters as her wheels cease spinning and a soldier held up by his collar is dropped.
"But you will not be a heavy burden for me to bear to Masterful Lord Vega."
Her hand, protected as it is by its massive red bracer/glove combination, goes to the neck of her coat to undo a tie there. If she is surprised at actually encountering Adelheid /here/ instead of somewhere /else/ on the streets of Southtown, she does not show it in the slightest as the coat is cast aside in one fluid motion to land atop a fallen soldier.
"You speak blasphemy, Adelheid Bernstein. Do you know that?" Her chin rises so that her eyes are able to meet his as her hands are pulled up into readied fists before herself. "Blasphemy, and of things you couldn't possibly understand."
COMBATSYS: Cammy calculates her next move.
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Adelheid 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Cammy
"I understand these things better than you can possibly imagine." Adelheid responds, a wry sort of smirk spreading across his face as he paraphrases Cammy's words right back at her, "Or did they cut your imagination out to make for a better soldier?" He makes a little motion near his head, imitating a scalpel with his finger, still pushing her, as well as probing the response to such stimuli. So far it seems to be rather thorough corporate line-spouting... not that the prodigal Bernstein is surprised.
Adelheid turns to face the Zero Doll as she readies herself, aligning a foot perpendicularly as he meets her gaze solidly, "Your 'Lord' is no different from any other tyrant placing their own ambitions over all else, even the welfare of the innocent, or the young." No different from Rugal... perhaps even a little bit -crazier-. The Prince of War narrows his eyes slightly, sizing up his opponent as well, "At any rate. You may find me a heavier burden than you anticipate."
The lithe Bernstein springs into motion, corded muscle tensing in an instant as his back leg is whipped around, conjuring up a tumult of silvery energy in its wake, a spouting wave ripping a swift course along the loading dock, back down the long, aisled warehouse straight for Cammy, the waist-high edge erratic, full of chaotic edges and tremendous swells.
COMBATSYS: Cammy dodges Adelheid's Reppukyaku.
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Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cammy
Rugal's files were, one would imagine, quite thorough, as they must be when detailing possible allies in the shadowy world of secret organizations and underground armies. Those on the Doll Project, and particularly on the test subject whose years of genetic(and psychic) tampering paved the way for the twelve that followed would have surely informed any who happened to avail himself of them that in addition to being stronger than her 5'5, barely over 100 pound frame would suggest, Cammy is quick.
Well. Perhaps 'sudden' is more like it. Because 'suddenly', Cammy is perched on one of the supply racks that the Reppukyaku wave sent wobbling in its wake, grinding along the edge of its upper shelf before leaping to the next in the line, and the next, and the next after that on her roller skates.
"Adelheid Bernstein," she says aloud as she continues down the line, "my imagination is very much intact. I would be much less valuable to His Most High Potentate Lord Vega if I could not imagine." She does not mention the bare few crayon drawings expertly crafted in her free time and hanging from the walls of her room; there's hardly a need to do so.
That said, she vaults away from grinding to skate towards Bernstein the Younger's left side, seeking to slip behind him and wrap both arms around his waist so that he can be carried along with her stored momentum before it all comes to a halt in a thunderous back suplex.
"We will see how heavy you are," she notes as her arms reach.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid blocks Cammy's Hooligan Suplex.
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Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Cammy
Fast. He'd anticipated as much, but the speed with which she's on him after remains a surprise... but adapting to surprise is half the merit in his style. She darts in, and it's pretty clear that the ex-R Lieutenant has her attention fully.... so he doesn't debate the point further. This is going to take all of his focus, and then some. Her arms grapple in, and the platinum blonde is hurtled up, up, and abruptly -down-.... but all is not perfect in Shadaloo city. Heavy boots kick out, and the black uniformed Bernstein throws his momentum -into- the landing, coming down in a tumble of his own, far more controlled variety as he lurches out of Cammy's grip moments too early.
Rolling to a crouch, coming up on his feet, the Prince of War wastes no time, "Impressive." is the only audible musing as his legs spring, and he leaps in at her from his low position, seeking to catch her before she can fully recover, and swing a snapping sweep to the side of her knee, clearly intent on compromising her impressive mobility as quickly as he can. The warehouse works to her advantage, it's true.... but his as well. Something she may not realize yet in her rush to underestimation.
COMBATSYS: Cammy blocks Adelheid's Medium Kick.
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Adelheid 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Cammy
Cammy drops her hands from Adelheid to plant them to the ground so that she can pop back up to her feet, and then with a little spin on the skates her hands snap up before herself as her readied stance is reassumed.
She's beginning to crouch for the sake of leaping upon her platinum-haired opponent, and it is at the last moment before she leaves her feet that the incoming kick is spotted; she has just enough time to turn her leg aside to catch some of it on her skate and lessen the impact, saving her the full force of the blow and giving her a new weapon to utilize. Her leg kicks out against Adelheid's as she wonders, "Do you find that this colour suits you, Adelheid?" She then grabs for it before it can get too far. "I suspect that Lord Vega will take issue with your assumptions as to his glorious male virility." If she has managed her grip, there will be wrenching against the foot and ankle as she goes on to note, "You may find yourself dressing differently when you have returned," and then finally, she will flip him wildly towards the roof.
"There may be frills."
COMBATSYS: Cammy successfully hits Adelheid with Improvised Throw.
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Adelheid 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Cammy
His leg is intercepted by the deceptively strong Zero Doll's own defenses, stopped short and with only a measure of its intended force... leaving him with little in the way of options as her hands come in for his extended kick. Adelheid tries to withdraw, spring backwards, but moments too late: his limb is grapppled, and he's launched clear, wheeling heels over head to crash back first into one of the high shelves, the reinforced metal skeleton rattling, bending as he impacts it. Immediately, a hand is planted to the shelf nearest his collision, and the Prince of War vaults right back off, leaping downwards... directly towards his pigtailed adversary.
He lands directly in front of her, and if all goes to plan, his left hand finds her throat. It would be then that the strength in his own, thick arms became apparent, as the lithe Bernstein seeks to lift her bodily off the ground, momentarily choking... for the time it takes his right fist to wheel about in a ferocious straight, aligned with her ribcage, and carrying force enough to launch her clear, right back into the base's once well-ordered stockpiles, "Now that's just crass. You just want to see me in a /thong/." he retorts crisply.
COMBATSYS: Cammy dodges Adelheid's Scorpion Blow.
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Adelheid 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Cammy
Doll Zero ducks low and pushes herself forward, the top of her head grazing the underside of Adelheid's arm and one of her braids whipping gently against his side in passing. It's a short movement and ends abruptly with another crisp little turn that allows her to face him from a few feet away.
"There's hardly anything crass at hand," she notes with the slightest of head cants. "There are a great many thonged uniforms in the Shadaloo wardrobe. They serve to minimize drag and resource costs all; perhaps you should think on it. You are quite fast, but perhaps you would have grabbed me, were you properly dressed."
Her brief lecture on fashion done, she sharply turns and skates away from Adelheid, seeking one of the warehouse's walls and intent on jumping at the last moment and turning so that her skates are running along it. Even the speed she builds up in that short span of time is enough that little grooves are being cut into the bricks by dint of it and the force with which she makes contact, but she won't remain long; it is, after all, just a means to an end.
An end which winds up being an angled aerial assault aimed at Adelheid's neck (alliteratively). She is going with her arm first, seeking to curl it around his throat to aid her in swinging around him so that she can perch on his shoulders, wrap her thighs and calves about his head and neck, and then squeeze with all the pressure that her unnatural musculature can provide.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid dodges Cammy's Flying Neck Hunt.
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Adelheid 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Cammy
Minimizes -drag-. Aside from the obvious pun involved in that, and putting Adelheid in a Doll jumpsuit, there's the factor that it confirms just how INCREDIBLE Shadaloo brainwashing really is. Vega really has the plan, and knows how to execute it. It's one more thing that pushes Shadaloo up nearer to the top of Adelheid's evil hitlist. This Vega character may think himself unstoppable... his followers may agree... but the Prince of War has other plans.
Similarly: He doesn't particularly want his throat crushed. Cammy leaps for his head, but Adelheid is in motion. Similar to the Zero Doll, his alacrity is sudden, forceful: chi wells within him, and he hurls his weight aside, a sudden shift to his momentum as a fervent breeze erupts outwards, whipping through the blonde assassin's hair as Adelheid all but glides to her flank.
With another refocus of his internal power, eyes narrowing as he seeks to get a better picture of just what Cammy is capable of, up close and personal proving very different from the combat data and videotape gathered for study aboard the Black Noah. Still, he is far from out, and proves it by launching himself in a sudden, blurring charge, culminating in the launch of his left elbow for the base of Cammy's own throat, aligned for the vulnerable spot in the dead center of her collarbone.
COMBATSYS: Cammy blocks Adelheid's Medium Punch.
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Adelheid 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Cammy
Twin pigtails go flying once Doll Zero lands, hops, and twirls slightly through the air to keep herself facing Adelheid. He really /is/ fast, which is nice for her in a way; it means that her observations were /right/, which might well mean that she's that much nearer to being blessed with a fond pat on the head by Lord Vega when the traitorous Bernstein has been captured.
First thing's first, though; he really /is/ fast, and that means that she's got to keep an eye on him. Or both eyes. They are flicking wildly about in the split-second between his forward lunge and the elbow screaming for her collarbone, and it winds up being a bit too fast to efficiently dodge; leaning to the side to let the blow graze her long the shoulder ends up being her response, saving her from a broken bone and leaving a bruise instead.
"Adelheid Bernstein," she softly says as she touches her fingers to the ground from her leaning posture. No more strange questions follow once his name is spoken, this time; only wheels aimed for the point of his chin as she suddenly turns her body to fire herself upwards like a little terrorist dart.
"Cannon Spike!"
COMBATSYS: Cammy successfully hits Adelheid with Cannon Spike.
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Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Cammy
Closer... but still no cigar. Cammy is quick, on alert, and with her programming, fully focused on the task of taking Adelheid down. He has other concerns... the operation in the city, the loading of the trucks, the welfare of his people. That can be viewed as a weakness... but the young Bernstein seeks to turn it into further motivation, to find a way to match the Zero Doll's impressive speed. Her defenses stay true, for the moment... and despite the bruising impact, Adelheid finds himself on the worse end of the exchange.
The inverting Doll's foot rockets for him, and a weave to the side doesn't save him from the terror torpedo, the skates crashing painfully into his skull and sending the Prince of War reeling, his footing faltering with the staggering series of steps. He bumps shoulder-first into the nearest shelf, using its mass to steady his own footing. Instead of throwing himself right back into the fray, Adelheid backs away, circling around Cammy's position as much as he can, his attention remaining centered on her.... waiting for any sudden moments. Waiting for his chance.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid focuses on his next action.
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Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Cammy
The Prince of War draws away from the fight, and so, too, does the Killer Bee; her spinning wheels hit the ground smoothly after her upwards surge, and she is moving on them at high speeds to bring her towards some of the still standing shelves. Once again, she leaps to mount and grind along the edges, skipping from shelf to shelf as necessary.
Considering the limited space and the short span of each of her 'platforms', she is still moving at a very appreciable rate, seeking to make herself a scarce target as she watches Adelheid carefully and searches his form for weaknesses, favoured limbs... anything she might turn against him.
COMBATSYS: Cammy calculates her next move.
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Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Cammy
Wait for it, wait for it.... Cammy's acrobatics are much what Adelheid expected... perhaps even hoped for. She keeps her distance, but it's hardly a breather for the young Bernstein: the fight could turn on a dime, but he's fully aware that the Killer Bee is preparing her own destructive offensive. Fortunately... he has a few tricks up his sleeve, yet. Force he has not yet more than hinted at in the struggle with the powerful psi-vessel.
The young Bernstein's hands stretch out to his sides, he turns to track Cammy's momentum, and then, in an instant, the Prince of War summons forth a charge of energy that's several times more forceful than most fighters could manage given all the time in the world to prepare: and it's done in the blink of an eye, his hands slamming forward, crashing together as a tremendous wave of brilliant, silvery chi erupts forth, cleaving the air between himself and the evasive Zero Doll with rather dangerous velocity indeed. The reaving edge is nearly as tall as Adelheid himself, a broad blade of fervently flaring force displacing air in its hurricane-force path towards the pigtailed assassin... threatening to cleave her soundly in twain.
COMBATSYS: Cammy dodges Adelheid's Kaiser Wave.
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Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Cammy
Now is about when a normal seventeen year old girl would be squealing 'Oh my God!' and fleeing to find something convenient and safe to dive beneath as if transplanted back in time to the 50s when a wooden desk is all it took to shield a child from the brunt of a nuclear holocaust.
Cammy, of course, is not a normal seventeen year old girl, so the massive wave of chi draws little more than an brow arched in surprise.
Which, for her, is really quite something,
She leaps free from her shelf as the Kaiser Wave bisects a whole row before her, leaving her to skate along the top of the last rack between she and her former perch. With a sharp intake of air, she leaps high, flips forward, and /just/ clears the top of the blast of chi to come down with a skate on either edge of the bisected racks. There's a lot of wobbling from them as she proceeds forward, but her balanace is maintained throughout until it is finally time to dismount.
Once again, she is going for Bernstein the Younger's upper body, this time by way of attempting to use his shoulders as vault points from which to swing herself around into clutching his torso with her legs and his head and throat with her arms. She is seeking his carotid artery in classic pro wrestling/MMA fashion, and should she get herself cinched in she will lean forward to whisper, "Shh, Adelheid Berenstein; it will be over soon," into his ear.
COMBATSYS: Cammy successfully hits Adelheid with Choke Hold.
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Adelheid 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Cammy
It's a bad situation. His massive arc of chi cleaves the shelf -beyond- Cammy, as the Shadaloo elite simply skates her way overtop with an impressive display of both speed and dexterity. None of which particularly helps the pushed Bernstein. He tries to realign his stance, defend against her leapy, chokey fanaticism... but to little avail. Arms come up late, outside of Cammy's grappling assault, his airway suddenly cut off, neck painfully constricted as she vaults over and lands behind him, draining away his ability to fight in abrupt, and rather uncomfortable fashion.
He can do little but smack at her grip, ineffectually, and so he throws his weight - and considerable strength - backwards instead, towards the shelf he knows remains directly beyond Cammy. It's not the most effective, debhilitating assault, but the shift is remarkable and sudden, his legs dropping out from under him after the heave. His weight is subject to gravity, but all he has to do is dislodge her grip slightly, for a half second... throwing his head back to aid the process, the Prince of War seeks to twist about, levelling a fierce elbow to the side of the Zero Doll's ribcage.
Her words are ignored... the fight is what matters, and despite the pain in his body, the other, drastically more masculine blonde (and how often does he get to say THAT), has tricks left up his uniformed sleeves. Giving up was never a clear and present option during his training.
COMBATSYS: Cammy just-defends Adelheid's Fierce Punch!
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Adelheid 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Cammy
"Awp!" escapes Cammy's lips when she's suddenly slammed backwards; it's not especially /painful/, but it's incredibly surprising and the sudden loss of breath is jarring, at that. She wriggles kind of ineffectually to get out from between the heir of R and the shelf before something terrible can happen, and it is now that those rolling wheels are truly proving to be a detriment; it is hard to get any kind of bracing or leverage against a series of small footholds when one is wearing rollerblades, apparently.
Her arms are duly dislodged as that powerful elbow strike comes screaming towards her ribs, only to be stopped at the last moment when one of her newly freed hands slips in to cup the ball-like joint firmly and hold it just shy of making any kind of contact.
Straining to pull her knees up against Adelheid's back to take a different approach to slipping free, the Killer Bee hisses, "Adel--Adelheid Bernstein--you never--answered me--about colours..."
She trails off as she gets to the tricky part of her maneuver, which involves trying to sneak her legs up around the Prince of War's head and neck from behind. If she succeeds, she will push off of the shelf with her hands to give herself a little bit of momentum to aid her in swinging her entire body powerfully so that her leg strength can be put to use to flip him over and leave her unmolested.
COMBATSYS: Cammy successfully hits Adelheid with Frankensteiner.
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Adelheid 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Cammy
Damn. The tricky escape foiled, his attack all but absorbed, the crouched Adelheid has no time to right his stance as Cammy once more leaps for his throat - literally. His head crushed between rather lethal thighs, there is nothing particularly pleasant about his sudden upending and trip to the concrete floor, a splintering crack breaking off in all directions from his point of impact. For a moment, he groans... her words reach his ears, but he isn't about to give her the satisfaction. Even if failure -is- becoming a clear and present possibility, they have a number of supplies loaded already... all he has to do is make sure she can't fulfill her orders to bring him back. That wouldn't do at all.
"This... isn't... over." He intones with an icy sort of intensity through gritted teeth, kicking back to his feet with an abrupt, graceful motion, and turning to face the Zero Doll once more, his assault coming in the form of a rising boot, the axeing kick accompanied by a leap that projects all of his weight forward behind the flying heel, which he seeks to plant full-on into the deadly assassin's face. Innocent victim or no, he has no choices left: he has to take her down, or fall himself.
COMBATSYS: Cammy interrupts Strong Kick from Adelheid with Cannon Spike.
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Adelheid 1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1 Cammy
What happens next is not so unlike the classic freeze frame of Rocky and Apollo with their fists in one another's faces, really.
As Adelheid's heel cleaves down towards Cammy's head... the Killer Bee rockets upwards, propelled by artificial muscles and roiling chi. Her skate is again pointed towards Adelheid's chin, but this time as contact is made... his foot smashes into her nose, breaking it with an ugly little pop and sending droplets of blood showering down as she continues to rise. "Cannon Spi--!" is all she gets out in verbally bringing her chi to bear.
Rather than the smooth backwards curling to come in for a landing of the last time around, she is a little package tucked up and rolling along the ground awkwardly, her path having been altered about as one might expect from someone who just had her face smashed in by a boot.
"Not so pleasant, hmm?" Adelheid observes, even as he wipes a trail of blood from his own lips. He's bruised, he's battered, wounds both visible and hidden beneath the black and silver of his military-style dress uniform... but he's not giving up. Not by a longshot. Just... reeling, and taking a moment to recover his footing. He spits a red-tinged mass of saliva to the hard floor, and backs away from Cammy momentarily, eyeing the dangerous assassin thoughtfully. He's never fought someone on roller skates, and he's never fought someone with Cammy's particular style and skillset... but he's starting to get a feel for it.
... if he can just hang on, just a few more minutes, long enough for his crew to finish loading their loot and themselves securely into the convoy, long enough to find a weakness in the brutally efficient Shadaloo warrior. He draws a deep breath, and then a second, pacing himself, trying to recover his guard... prepare for the fight that's to come. She may have a decided advantage... but that's nothing new to the other veteran 17-year-old. They have a lot in common, really, if Rugal had telepathically ravaged his mind and left him a programmed assassin, at least. Bet he wishes he had NOW.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid gains composure.
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Adelheid 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Cammy
"It is only blood," Cammy says, her little brow furrowed slightly thanks to the red liquid staining the lower half of her face. "It is only broken cartilege."
Really, it's sort of like being on the other end of her fifth birthday's pinata game; Lord Vega had the best ways of punishing insubordinate instructors and punishing judicious soldiers, even if some of the candy that rained down from the pouches strapped to the poor man's body were poisoned.
Doll Zero, not so coincidentally, developed a very good sense of smell following that day; there are lessons to be learned /everywhere/.
Her eyes do wind up being cast towards the men loading the trucks up, but Adelheid is her first priority, and she can't take her--
Well, perhaps there's /something/ she can do.
Quickly, she breaks away from the warehouse, dust flying in the wake of her skates. She wonders, "What will you break in Magnificent Lord Vega's name when the time comes? In your father's, if He is feeling benificent?" before leaping from the ground to grind along the length of a truck bed's exterior. She's checking people out of her path whenever they are encountered, but her real goal is the gas tank; when it is reached, she jams her skate in to try smashing it through the truck's chassis, and then she leaps across to the vehicle adjacent to make her way back towards the warehouse.
Her eyes are, once again, only for the platinum-haired heir on the return trip.
COMBATSYS: Cammy calculates her next move.
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Adelheid 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Cammy
"Just wait." Adelheid observes, but he can't pursue Cammy fast enough to stop what happens next, as she skates away, past him and out to the loading bay, disabling the half-empty truck rather readily indeed. The gastank pierced through the bed, it begins to spill fuel onto the ground below, rapidly leaking its means of escape. Though really, the trucks were only intended to carry the supplies to a rendevous point for a rather unique airlift, in the first place... not that Cammy needs to know there's a contingency plan in operation. A button is pressed on his belt, and Adelheid issues a decisive order, however, "Get the loaded trucks out of here." Some of his backup starts their engines and roars away with the goods, while he faces down the returning Zero Doll.
His options have been cut down, and most of those tricky antics he was holding to trump her impressive style? Those are used up. But not all of them. He meets her as she leaps back onto the loading dock, looking to make her pay for splitting her focus from him, to the less important (at least in the short run) targets. His palm lashes forward, even with her chest, fingers curled.... but it's not his fingers that would gouge in painfully, it's the eruption of energy that follows the sudden motion, a darkly coruscating disc of greyish energy whirling to the fore... ideally literally -inside- her, conjured and bursting through the psionic vessel's torso, with oppositional force intended to /blast/ her right back off the concrete and metal ledge.
COMBATSYS: Cammy just-defends Adelheid's Dark Barrier!
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Adelheid 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Cammy
The Zero Doll's eyes flick to the palm surging towards her once she has dismounted from the second truck to come in towards Adelheid, and with gritting teeth she thrusts her own hand out to meet it. Fingers lace and interlock, and her head cants slightly to the side as she figures it's just a matter of testing the strength of the two young fighters, seeing who--
Then the disc begins to grow between them. Once again, Cammy is caught by surprise as she feels her grip budged by the grey chi building within it, and once her slightly widened eyes have flicked down to it they come to rest on Adelheid's. They narrow in... concentration? That couldn't be a /glare/, could it? They are, either way, narrowed on his.
"What--what is this?" she hisses as she tries to fight against the pressure, arm beginning to quiver with the strain. "This is not--how it is--meant to--work--is it?"
Adel is not the only one who has had the opportunity to read files on enemy organizations; Cammy, out of necessity, has done much the same, but a deviation such as this one is a bit harder to swallow for her than Cammy's extreme sports might so far be for the Prince of war.
She swallows after that question is asked and recommits herself to /doing/ something about it. There are little purple flares from within Cammy's hand as the reservoir of chi within her manifests in the barest of fashions to clash with the unfolding disc, more a sign of her struggle to break through than an aid in her efforts... though when she finally does succeed and manages to find the strength to drive her hand in hard, snuff the Dark Barrier, and leave her with her palm pressed to Adelheid's it does make for rather a pretty show when the purple psi energy harmlessly bursts out from the meeting of the two warriors' hands.
Cammy is panting softly once that ordeal has ended, but the fight must go on. She shakes her hand free and tries to slip around to the younger Bernstein's back, and after hissing, "You are proving interesting, Adelheid Bernstein," into his ear, she will seek to twist around again so that she is launching backwards from that ledge and dropping her foe onto his head with a vicious suplex.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid just-defends Cammy's Hooligan Suplex!
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Adelheid 1/-----==/=======|=======\==-----\1 Cammy
No, it's certainly -not- how it was supposed to work. Instead of being blasted backwards, Cammy intercepts the blurring strike, deflects the energy of life with her own remarkable will, psycho power tangible at the fore of the collision, setting the hair on Adel's neck standing on end. He can feel the power exchanged, already realizes that his attack has been wholly defeated before the taunt is even spoken. Apparently, angering the Zero Doll was not his best approach. Still, if it even starts to jar anything loose, even if it -is- pure hate, is something. Right?
Still, he proves interesting in a new and redoubled way: he's grappled, hurled back, but this time he's ready for it. He kicks out earlier, and at the apex of the suplex, he's airborne, breaking free of Cammy's dangerous embrace with an impressive surge of force that seems born within him, hurtling upwards like a rocket, into a nigh-perfectly vertical backflip. Coming back around.... his velocity redoubles on the way down, as he crashes to Earth with a knee leading, sheathed in ragged edges of silvery windshear.
Should that flying knee succeed on its crash course for Cammy's skull, rather than hitting the ground as one might expect, Adelheid twists in midair, defying gravity as he whips his heel around for the Killer Bee's temple, a ripping arc of pure energy raggedly coursing along this strike as well, before exploding like a /wave/ over the Shadaloo assassin's upper body with brutal, stormlike ferocity.
COMBATSYS: Cammy blocks Adelheid's Grosse Stob.
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Adelheid 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Cammy
To say that Cammy is rattled by all the blows against her skull and upper-body would be rather an understatement; the Dark Barrier may not have sent her flying as Bernstein the Younger desired, but /that/ was more than enough to get the desired result, if a bit belatedly. Her arms and legs are limp as she flies away from the point of impact(s), more because that is how she's been taught to take such things; she rolls rather roughly along the ground all the same, but she gets control of herself and pops back to her feet sooner than she might have if she'd fallen in a clumsier fashion.
Strangely, she is getting to the point of doing all of the talking between them, and it continues on with two little words spoken as her every muscle tenses and her fists tightly clench:
"Lock on."
No sooner than the last word leaves her lips is she gone, a dizzying blur of psycho powered motion racing /past/ Adelheid to move deeper into the store house. As she has been for the entirety of this encounter, she is making use of all the shelves present for the purposes of acrobatic grinding, but this time... there's never a moment in which she isn't on at least one storage rack, and mostly she seems to be on multiple at a time. It is attributable to the weirdness of psycho powered duplicates being expelled on an instinctual level due to her physics defying speed and incredible, if faintly subtle power output currently.
And then they all converge.
Sometimes, it is the duplicates, striking blows that are only pseudo-real, but mostly, it is Cammy who seeks to zoom in with punches, or kicks, or sudden throws, always darting in and weaving away in short order. For the brief time that the assault named for her persists, she is like unto a little pinball of eight wheeled death, multi-ball primed and seeking the ever elusive extra life that Adelheid's successful capture represents.
COMBATSYS: Cammy successfully hits Adelheid with Killer Bee Assault.
- Power hit! -
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Adelheid 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0 Cammy
Lock on, indeed. Adelheid makes an attempt to defend himself against the onslaught... but in the end,the blur of motion, the unrelenting fury of the assaults, and his overall fatigue conspire against him to rob him of not only his senses, but much of the fight left in him. Brutally battered, the Bernstein youth can barely hold any consciousness at all. Most others would have fallen some time ago. Blood sprays from his mouth, wounds rise on his torso, the uniform rips under the sheer fury of the onslaught, and Adelheid is launched clear with a profound 'OOMPH!' into the shelf nearest, the entire nearly ceiling-high structure falling from the force, with impact enough to take down every single one between it and the wall, a giant set of dominos crashing down with a resounding scream of metal on metal on concrete.
Adelheid is barely able to open his eyes: but they do open. He is barely able to will his limbs to move: but he does move. Barely able to fight... but he does fight. He launches himself off the leaning shelf, and Cammy's new location is the target of a gleaming lance of brilliant chi, summoned up from seemingly endless inner reserves. On that, at the least, he can match her. He can go down fighting, play his final trump cards with all the fury he can muster. His leg whips around, the ragged windshear conjured from the deceptively simple motion, racing once more along the shortest path to the elusive Zero Doll, threatening to hammer into her harshly, blast through her like a terrible, angry ocean wave.
The battlecry is hoarse, but determined... he can still move. So he can still fight. Rugal's first lesson
COMBATSYS: Cammy blocks Adelheid's Reppukyaku.
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Adelheid 1/=======/=======|=------\-------\0 Cammy
Doll Zero banks to a smooth halt not so far from where she began; she could have come down just about anywhere, but it is sheer pride that bids her to act so rashly. Pride and the desire to try instilling fear in the rebellious young Bernstein's heart. Her arm extends wordlessly and her many psychic duplicates rush to join seamlessly with her body; her arm snaps down with that, and then her chin just slightly raises, as if daring Adelheid to be daring enough to actually rise again to lash out against her.
As it turns out, that challenge is actually /answered/; the two young fighters are, after all, similar in ways, and tenacity and hardened will in the face of adversity are among them. The beleagured storeroom is damaged even further when the Platinum Prince's defiance crashes against Cammy's crossed arms, rolling her slowly backwards. At least, it starts slow; by the end, the strain of continuing to fight against the pressure is judged to be too great to be worthwhile, and so she drops her arms and lets the diminished strike collide with her. Once more, she flies in somewhat controlled fashion, taking out a couple of racks all in a row before landing in a seated position.
There is then an explosion of fallen crates due to her bursting through them in order to close the gap once more. There are still little flecks of blood spraying from her nose with each laboured breath, there are bruises all over her upper body in particular, and there is determination etched across her features as she seeks to try finishing the young fighter once and for all.
Once more, she gets low as she maneuvers to try and get behind Adelheid as if to enfold him in yet another not-so-loving embrace, but it never comes. It's never even tried; instead, she banks to a sudden stop and shoots forward, hand reaching for one of his legs to flip him head over heels in passing.
COMBATSYS: Cammy successfully hits Adelheid with Fast Throw.
- Power hit! -
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Adelheid 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Cammy
His inner chi skyrockets. His body is battered, but Adelheid's spirit burns bright. He prepares himself for Cammy's charge, waits for it, but she comes in -so- fast, with such a feint, that he hesitates just a moment... a moment too long. His ankle is grabbed, his legs swept, and he flips skyward in a decidedly uncontrolled fashion. It's an impact he's not going to rise from... but it's certainly not for lack of trying. He flips around in the air, and the Prince of War conjures a last-ditch, impromptu escape plan. If he can't bring Cammy down? He'll force her back, perhaps bring the shelves and part of the building tumbling down -around- her.
His arms stretch out to the sides, Adelheid's splayed palms gathering a tremendous charge of energy to them as he hurtles into the air. It doubles, redoubles in an instant, a thrumming, brilliant black-edged white light coming to his grip. If the Kaiser Wave was a tidal wave, what follows is a tsunami, a massive blast of brilliant energy that dwarfs the fighter himself, burns brightly with icy heat as it bursts forth, Adelheid /slamming/ his hands together in front of him, palms outwards, as the massive maelstrom of energy nearly fills the docking bay door, blasting him back outwards, away from the fray, as the tremendous charge threatens to consume Cammy....
r ....or at least drive her back for the moments he needs to make good on his head start, and get the hell out of dodge.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid can no longer fight.
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Cammy 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Adelheid successfully hits Cammy with Crown Prince.
- Power hit! -
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Cammy 0/-------/-======|
Adelheid sends himself flying away like a teenaged rocket, and Cammy... Cammy bleeds. She is caught at the terminal end of that extreme explosion of chi, and it not only forces her against the ground of the storehouse but /through/ it, causing her to dig out a shallow trench in the concrete as she is blasted backwards. She doesn't stop when she hits the wall; rather, it's just after she has broken through it that she does, at which point she tries... a few times... to get back to her feet.
Her entire back half is riddled with ugly gouges and sticking debris now, which is probably why even when she does resume her feet, she shudders and immediately drops forward to catch herself on the hood of a jeep to be certain that she /stays/ upright.
That technically, she has failed due to Adelheid Bernstein's escape probably contributes to her slacking against the hood almost as much as her physical trauma does. There is in Cammy's quarters a little bird in a cage captured from the Amazon rainforest following the brutal murder of a drug kingpin, and she has tended dutifully to it ever since.
Now, she is steeling herself to face the assumed inevitablity of Lord Vega pulling the little creature from its cage and plucking its feathers one by one before her before having it prepared by chefs so that she can feed it to him while prostrate and begging forgiveness for her failure.
Parts of this, she is kind of looking forward to; others, not so much.
All the same, she at least has a consolation prize in the form of all these goods she'll perhaps prevent from being stolen by skating out at a reduced clip to clobber more guards. She's still got that walkie talkie on her belt, and support to have the stuff secured and moved to a new facility is only a button press away.
COMBATSYS: Cammy has ended the fight here.
Log created on 16:22:54 06/02/2009 by Adelheid, and last modified on 23:19:51 06/04/2009.