Description: In Masters Stadium's White Arena, May Lee and Cherry Aguirre engage in Southtown benefit match before a raucous crowd! The 80s clash as the tokusatsu heroine and every popular high school girl ever born duke it out and go for dinner afterwards. ( Winner: Cherry )
Okay so let's say you're an extremely hot American redhead rich girl exchange student and you're living in Japan, right? So your experience is pretty interesting because you tower over everyone and can scare people on the commuter trains by humming 'Oh no! There goes Tokyo... go go Godzilla!' under your breath. But you are studying theatre and it is a good time and you're also enjoying this professional fighting thing which is kinda cool now and then believe it or not. Rehearsals keep you busy so you don't make it out all that often into the circuit, but you keep up your training and you wait for a nice opportunity like Saturday Night Fights.
Then terrorists show up and take over the city and SUDDENLY: FINAL FIGHT and you are not into that, really. So what do you do? At the first sign of trouble you bail, hitchhike to the nearest town on a rail line, and fly your ass back home to Boise, ID to enjoy some peace and quiet where you will not be shot at.
If you are Cherry Aguirre then this description sums up the past few months for you.
As it stands today, the Fighting Diva has gotten clearance from the US embassy to trek back to Southtown and try to piece together what's left of her belongings and her education. However, international flights are long and difficult to schedule especially into a WAR ZONE so right now, today, Cherry was chilling in the city that's also home to Masters Stadium, waiting for her connecting flight on to Southtown. However, this afternoon found her with a text message on her cell phone from, of all people, the Masters Foundation. Would you be interested in a charity bout to raise money for Southtown?
Hell yes she would.
Cut to the White Arena here at Masters Stadium. The crowd isn't exactly black hole supermassive, BUT Americans are suckers for 1.) pugilism and 2.) using fun things to disguise philanthropy, so there's plenty of people in the stands cheering and waving as the redhead makes her entrance to the ring. However, consider the following conversation that went down, pre-show:
Cherry: "Benefit means 'no money'. Right? Right."
Masters employee: "Uh, that's right."
Cherry: "Then I'd like the following concessions, if you would..."
She starts at the top of the seating, and dual spotlights turn to illuminate the voluptuous fighter as she steps through the open doors at the appointed time. She's apparently decided to go the Dinah Lance route today: she wears a tight leather one-piece in a dark red color combined with fishnets and very short brown suede boots with buccaneer cuffs. Sitting in her flame red hair are bunny ears.
She waves. A disco remix of Tom Jones' "Sexbomb" starts playing as she walks down and ends just as she steps foot in the arena.
The bitch is back.
She being who she is, May Lee didn't move an inch from Southtown throughout the massive conflict that consumed it, though it was not until the tail end of the war when she found herself fighting alongside MC Todoh (aka Daniel Little) against men in berets who may or may not been bombing the Todoh dojo over street beefs that she involved herself in any /direct/ fashion. Previously, she'd been too busy with relief and rebuilding efforts wherever she could find them to indulge in any more overt displays of heroism, but justice is justice, whether it's meted with a hammer and nails or a fist and a ki-ai, right?
Having to watch Master Kim's former student Choi Bounge be dragged away by his questionably supervillainous wife after defeating a ninja-summoned panda samurai mecha(<3 <3 <3) was a little /stranger/, but being that the encounter occured at a staging ground for Shadaloo's Leviathan tanks, there was much to be proud of there. She'd even turned a Shadaloo soldier's life around in the process of getting the location to the place. Her only disappointment rests in her inability to find some way to duplicate the process for the sake of garnering a panda mecha of her very own, dedicated to the cause of Justice, but these things can come in time.
Now, now that the war is over, she is in America. Really, she's in America /again/; she'd been in Metro City to fight with a nice boy on skates for much the same purpose as this one, but that was in a little gymnasium. This is Masters Stadium, and while she's competed in places similar to this before... she did not do so on anywhere near the same magnitude of stage. There were no PPV broadcasts for Taekwando tournaments in her age bracket.
Philantropic as she may be - she would do /more/ of these benefit affairs if given the chance, really - she's still got a love of theatrics that demand she find a scintillating way to enter the arena. It's only fitting, after all, that if people are going to be paying to watch - even if they're paying for a /good cause/ - that they be entertained, and after spending quite a lot of time talking, asking, begging, pleading, and making doe eyes...
... she has gotten herself into the rafters of the White Arena, a harness rigged up around her body and a powerful cable attached to that harness. The cable, in turn, is threaded through an arcane series of pulleys and gears, and as soon as Cherry has step foot into the arena, it's May Lee's turn.
Kamen Rider's opening theme is piped through the arena, complete with a far too serious for the subject matter Japanese man singing dramatically - in English - over the brassy tones. When the words 'Rider JUMP!' are half-sung and half-shouted, the Korean heroine does just that, lit up by spotlights as she descends into the arena in tightly controlled fashion.
She is going to be cooking lunches for the next month for a couple of the tech crewmembers, but it's worth it in her mind, because this is almost like flying, and really, /really/, how many opportunities will she have to do /that/?
Her pearly whites are on full display as she is lowered into the arena, and similarly to Cherry, when her feet hit the floor, her fist thrusts triumphantly into the air and she stops. The harness is detached thanks to an emergency ring for just that purpose, and with a little bit of all-over jittering she walks towards her fishnet-wearing opponent to offer a gloved hand for the shaking.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwow.
Watching this display, you can see the conflict on Cherry's face. On the one hand, the harness and the flying in and the acrobatics and stuff, that's all quite neat. As one lover of theatrics to another, the Diva finds this all quite fascinating. Perhaps a little Siegfried and Roy for her taste with the flying around and all, but generally speaking this May Lee individual knows how to make a splash. All that being said...
The redhead's Nerd Alarm is going off at Defcon 5. Even a Star Trek convention only rates a 3!
But Cherry is not a COMPLETE bitch and thus does clap for May Lee's entrance on its technical merits alone, and when the Taekwondo fighter approaches, does indeed shake her hand. "Well, that was..." Beat. Beat. "Dramatic." NERD NERD NERD continues to play in her head like a warning klaxon, as if the Boise Brawler is waiting for May to start shouting in Klingon and brandish one of those fun two handed sword cutter thingies. "I'm Cherry Aguirre. Pleasure to beat you."
As the two step away and get into position, she grins. "Fighter puns, ohoho. Ahem."
Then the bell rings! Deciding to seize the initiative since she rolled higher, the Fighting Diva twists and leaps directly at May in a low horizontal arc, looking to seemingly kick her in the head. However, at the last second Cherry twists, attempting to lock her ankles around May's neck and, shifting her weight, slam the Korean girl into the arena floor instead.
COMBATSYS: Cherry has started a fight here.
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Cherry 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: MayLee has joined the fight here.
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MayLee 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cherry
COMBATSYS: MayLee counters Diva la Revolution from Cherry with Blazing Intercept.
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MayLee 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Cherry
"I'm May Lee, Champion of Justice," is the Korean's breaming response. Her grip is very firm and her handshake is very rapid, perhaps because doing /something/ with her hands will make it a little easier to push her shaking excitement down to a reasonable tremble. She also giggles in genuine appreciation for the pun and chirps, "Well, no matter /how/ it goes, it's all for a good cause, right? That's why I was so excited to hear about this! I've been doing little charity fights off and on, but nothing like /this/, just in gyms or in the rubble and stuff. I've been doing okay at it too, so maybe that's why we're here? And I just had to take advantage o--" in rapid-fire giddy teenage girl fashion before being cut off by the sound of the bell.
"Oh--oh, well, okay, good luck!" she calls out to Cherry before backing off to adopt a loose, readied position. She starts to say something further, but there's a woman leaping to try and mount her shoulders, and generally, that's the kind of thing she's been conditioned to try avoiding. So with a little squeal, she... ducks low and hops forward, /into/ Cherry's arc.
And then she straightens forcefully and thrusts her right leg up to catch her just beneath the chin in order to send the Diva away before she can do any harm.
The heroine's hands go to her hips, and now that she's got a moment to breathe she calls out with a little wince, "I /do/ like puns. You could... almost say I get a kick out of them!"
Big smile. Big, big smile.
Part of Cherry, in midair, is going: I deserved that. That part is drowned out by a combination of the sound of rushing air, a really quite painful bruise she can feel developing around the throat area, and her ire at having just been kicked in general. Thankfully, they are not enough to keep her from twisting around in midair so that she lands in a crouch, before standing up. And because it is Cherry it is impossible for her to stand up like a normal person; instead she just sort of... unfolds upwards and the process somehow makes it so a hand HAS to come up and run through her red hair in a very Farah sort of way before she gets back into stance. It's not as if she dislikes May Lee. The whole goal of a fight is to hit the other guy and not get hit, after all. But Cherry was, despite not being a 'Heathers' sort of personality, a popular girl in her school.
And part of her just keeps saying: that Power Rangers nerd just kicked you in the face.
But she's all! smiles! for! reals! as she looks back to May Lee. How long can the pun chain keep on? UNTIL ONE OF THESE WOMEN IS DEAD. "Oh, you haven't yet..." the Fighting Diva says cheerily, "but you're about to."
She then practically LAUNCHES herself across the distance at a dead run, stopping just short of May. A practitioner of Meihuazhuang, Cherry's 'dash' is very low to the ground, which helps when her sudden stop also includes a twist and a high angled kick looking to catch the Korean right under *her* jaw. Let's see how you like it, lady.
COMBATSYS: MayLee blocks Cherry's Light Kick.
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MayLee 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Cherry
It's probably for the best that Cherry isn't expressing her indignation; use of the words 'Power Rangers' would /probably/ earn her an extended and indignant lecture that /nobody/ wants to hear. Instead, May Lee is all smiles as she waits for the Fighting Diva to retake her feet. She even looks a little concerned as she is wont to while in the midst of sanctioned fights; that Cherry seems to /appreciate/ her so very much only lends to the desire to not see her too badly injured in what's essentially a friendly spar broadcast worldwide.
She drops into a low, defensive posture when she's dashed towards, of course, and when kicked at she pulls her arms up to block the kick from reaching her throat. Taking it on the forearms is scarcely better, though; as anyone who's ever blocked a punch, or a kick, or an explosive ball of chi with their /arms/ will tell you, it's actually rather uncomfortable and it's something of a miracle that more fighters aren't suffering from major issues as a result.
"Well," she chirps as she drops her hands to try grabbing Cherry's shoulders firmly and pull her down, "it's just a question of rolling with the blows!"
She will try to launch herself across Cherry's back in a short forward roll with that, unfolding to thrust her feet into the former queen of high school's back before rolling away along the ground.
"Right?"
COMBATSYS: Cherry endures MayLee's Swan Circle.
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MayLee 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Cherry
Who was it that said she was trained in avoiding women getting up on her shoulders? And now look at May Lee: climbing all over the Diva's body to get at the creamy filling. Or so she thinks, anyway; at close range it doesn't seem like there's a lot that Cherry's going to be able to do about getting grabbed, and a momentary look of consternation on her face belies that fact, too. Not enough time to run away, probably not even a good choice to turn and try to block that kick. Well, there's only one thing for it:
Bring on the drama.
"Hey!" the redhead shouts, as May indeed gets her grip, goes up and over, and slams both of her feet into the small of Cherry's back, which HURTS LIKE HELL by the way. The problem with this scenario is that said blow should have knocked Cherry forward and/or over so May Lee can duck back, make a Kamen Rider pose, and accept the accolades of the crowd. This is, to put it shortly, exactly what did not happen. INSTEAD Cherry turns *immediately*, making a grab for May Lee's leg before she can retract them both.
"Watch the bunny ears."
If Cherry can get and keep that grip, she shoves the Korean fighter off-balance, but then immediately launches into her guard at point-blank range, delivering a blistering series of palm strikes all across May's front before finishing with a roundhouse kick to knock her clear across the ring. It's a risky maneuver, but that's where the drama is!
COMBATSYS: Cherry successfully hits MayLee with Wild Cherry.
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MayLee 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Cherry
Hanging upside down like a spirited pinata(of JUSTICE), May Lee is at Cherry's mercy as her torso is peppered with palm strikes. Towards the very end, she manages to get her arms pulled up protectively, but they don't do very much; most of the blows fall around them anyway, and her forearms certainly don't keep her from being sent bodily across the arena by that final kick.
Her back thuds off of a glass panel, and she kind of slumps down onto her shoulders and upper back with her legs bent uncomfortably overhead. It's right about now that she's grateful for Master Kim's endless lessons in flexibility, as this would all be a whole lot more painful were she not fairly limber.
She rolls back to hop to her feet, quickly brushes herself off, then exhales sharply.
"Okay..." she softly says as she presses her fingers gently to the Korean flag buckle of her big white belt.
"Henshin!"
She leaps and twirls a short ways towards Cherry, chi flaring off of the center of her belt and previously hidden crimson scarf coming untucked from beneath the collar of her shirt to spin dramatically with the rotation of her body. She's smiling broadly, confidently, an inner wellspring of confidence brimming forth as she sinks into the posture and mindset of a true heroine. She's having a little trouble breathing now, but that's just an obstacle to be overcome, and overcoming things is what heroes /do/.
Her feet touch the wooden floor, and her scarf continues to flutter on a breeze that just wasn't there before. "I do like your bunny ears," she says as she bends her left leg low, stretches the right out and draws her right hand back with her fingers curled tightly. "I'd get a pair..." she continus as electricity begins to course along her arms, "...but Master Kim would be /shocked/! Lightning Blow!"
She is a blue and white and red streak dashing across the arena with that, body outlined with trails of electricity that she means to channel through the Fighting Diva's body by striking /through/ her with her chi-charged blow.
COMBATSYS: Cherry parries MayLee's May Lee- Lightning Blow!!
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MayLee 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 Cherry
Time to turn up the heat.
It's very tough to be a personality like Cherry's. Generally speaking she actually quite likes people, but the problem is that the Boise Brawler shows her love *all wrong*. Her fight with Rust is probably a good example of this: she actually found the old man quite charming in an Archie Bunker sort of way, and while indeed May Lee strikes Cherry as one of those overenthusiastic cosplay kids who has seen way too much anime and learned to say but not pronounce super dramatic Japanese phrases from DBZ and knows the chargin'-my-laz0r pose for their not-quite Kamehameha, there is something about the Taekwondo practitioner's energy and drive that she can appreciate. But the problem is, she can't appreciate it without mentioning all of those other awful things because she ribs people and that's just what Cherry DOES.
She also really does not want to be punched anymore because so far her punching experiences have been negative. Just saying.
"Hey, explain something to me, Lady Voltron," the redhead says, watching May Lee streak across the floor at her and, frankly, starting to run *right at her in return*. The best defense is a good offense, after all. That chi-laced strike is going to really sting, and for a second it looks like all is lost for Cherry... until she suddenly isn't there anymore. Why? Because she leapt *straight up* and, the blow having harmlessly passed beneath where she was, the Fighting Diva lands ever so lightly *on May Lee's outstretched arm*. How she is standing on it without knocking herself or the Taekwondo Heroine over is anyone's guess.
Conversationally, she finishes her thought: "What's with the shouting of the attack names. I never got that."
Of course she then ruins the effect entirely by hopping upwards again, a short distance, and then twisting to bring her own leg downward in a vicious axe kick right for May Lee's shoulder, Cherry's kicking leg suddenly exploding with an aura of red-gold dragonflame, her own chi coming to join the party.
COMBATSYS: Cherry successfully hits MayLee with Cherry on Top EX.
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MayLee 1/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Cherry
The only thing /really/ shocking about Cherry standing on her arm is that she's doing it without a helmet over her head or a scarf trailing behind her. Otherwise, well, these things /happen/ sometimes. Even if May Lee isn't a kaiju of any kind.
The axe kick is surprising in a much broader sense, in that she unexpectedly finds her shoulder painfully crushed and burning, and moreover is face down on the floor when she earlier was not. She mumbles something in wavering tones before remembering to actually roll forward and spring up to her feet, at which point she swipes blood from her nose and grins towards Cherry as she steps back into the loosest approximation of a martial artist's stance possible.
"May Lee, Champion of Justice," she first corrects. "I /saw/ a mecha once, but I don't /own/ one. I'm hoping to some day, though, and /also/, it's to better focus your chi!" With that, she hops forward, extends her legs out, and tries to scissor them around Cherry's arm while grabbing for her wrist so that she is pulled down. Should she manage it, she'll then roll sideways, against the direction of the elbow to wrench painfully against it before getting back up to her feet.
COMBATSYS: Cherry parries MayLee's Medium Throw!
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MayLee 1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Cherry
Perhaps the worst part about what follows is the conversational tone that the Diva keeps up while the entire affair plays out. The key to Cherry's personal style is that she likes to keep in motion; even as May Lee is getting back up, the redhead is circling around her in that crazy way that kung fu fighters use in the movies all the time, legs crossed, arms up. It's very Jackie Chan, like she's going to suddenly shout "YOU KEEL FATHER NOW I KEEL YOU" and stiffarm the Korean in the jaw.
Instead, May Lee comes at her with a complex-looking technique. Going for the gusto, Cherry suddenly whips one leg out as May looks to scissor her arm; for a second, the two kicks meet sole to sole, both stopped dead. "Wait. You've *seen* a mecha?" she asks, genuinely curious and mentally kicking herself for using the term 'mecha'. The grab for the wrists is next, and much as she did with the kick, Cherry suddenly whips out her arm, hand held palm-up and facing inward, and effectively presses her wrist against the Taekwondo Heroine's so that they end up doing something that looks like a secret handshake from an old blaxploitation film. "Worst that's happened to me was someone drove a semi at me mid-fight."
Ah, that fight. Fun times.
Rather than be wistful, however, Cherry keeps on the offensive. She even decides to take May Lee's advice! As her body spins back a few feet, Cherry shouts: "HOUSE!" Landing in a crouch, she tacks on an "OF!" before suddenly and quite unnervingly leaping into a full-bore, Bruce Lee-style flying kick, leg extended, a dragon's head shape of fire twining around her as she looks to watah May Lee right in the face. "NEENJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
COMBATSYS: MayLee blocks Cherry's House of Ninja EX.
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MayLee 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Cherry
For the briefest of moments, as she hangs in the air with her foot pressed to Cherry's and their wrists pressed together, she feels as if they should be lashed together by a strip of torn t-shirt as music plays, leather-clad feet tap rhythmically on pavement, and knives are swiped back and forth in artfully choreographed fashion.
And then they land, and the Korean heroine's deeply seated fascination with Michael Jackson is swallowed for now. He's just so /stylish/.
"It threw a /tank/ at me," she conversationally says as she whips her arm away from Cherry's. "It was a panda with a sword, and--actually, I guess that's kind of like a semi--hey!"
The Red Canary spins away, and indignantly May Lee puts her hands to her hips and begins to chastise her before the shouting begins. She has barely enough time to brace her arm against the back of Cherry's knee to push the extended leg away from her heroic head, teeth gritted painfully as chi burns at her.
A full outward swing is made to free herself of the encroaching limb, and then her palm shoots forward to try catching the Diva upside the head. Her scarf has settled against her back for the moment, and the winds that were bearing it have ceased.
COMBATSYS: Cherry interrupts Medium Punch from MayLee with Strong Punch.
- Power hit! -
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MayLee 1/----===/=======|=======\======-\1 Cherry
It's too good to pass up.
She may be calling May Lee a nerd. She MAY BE DOING IT IN HER HEAD RIGHT NOW. But the truth is that Cherry has lived in Japan for roughly a year now and frankly, she loves bad TV in all its forms. She's watched... a little bit of tokusatsu. JUST A LITTLE. Usually in the morning while she does aerobics because it is fun and her brain is elsewhere. So she knows a little Rider-fu. She understands some Power Rangers. Even a little live action Sailor Moon is in there. The girl in the scarf -- the quite nifty scarf, actually, it's awesome how it catches the motion of her moves like that -- is trying to punch her. Just straight out punch her.
There's only one tokusatsu way to respond.
The problem is that Cherry is still Cherry so she is RUINING IT FOR EVERYBODY by adopting an extremely affected Asian accent... and since she's a half-Irish, half-Basque girl from southeastern Idaho it sounds REALLY AWFUL. But gathering herself, the redhead dives into the fray once more, fist extended, and shouts:
"KOO RAW SOO... COWN TAAAAAAAA!"
They then punch each other in the face.
It seems to be that Cherry comes out on the better end of it, probably due to slightly greater limb length and height. But she still gets punched in the mush herself, and stumbles out of the tableau of CROSS! COUNTER! first, rubbing her nose and grinning at May Lee. "Well of course it's a sword-wielding panda. Why wouldn't it be. Japan number one lucky sexy bonus time EX neo alpha rage panda mecha GO."
Meanwhile - even as her jaw is rattled by Cherry's counter punch, /even as her vaguely racist response is heard and partly ignored/ - May Lee is thinking to herself that she has, perhaps, found something of a kindred spirit. Maybe a kindred spirit in the making, anyway; she's a little rough around the edges. She had to /ask/ about shouting /attack names/ out, for heaven's sake! But she 'gets it' all the same. That's /something/.
It's something enough to put a smile on the heroine's face as she draws back and rubs her jaw. Something enough to stir the winds in the arena to blow her scarf about in them, to send chi flaring along the surface of her belt and to send May Lee's hand briskly to her goggles to flick them down over her eyes.
"We should go out to eat later," she brightly says, muffled slightly due to her hand being partially over her mouth. "Or maybe watch DVDs? We should eat and watch DVDs later! Just--just hold on a moment!" She flashes a thumbs up in Cherry's direction with that, and then she does a little backflip to put more distance between them, scarf swirling about her in vertical, crescent fashion. She lands in a crouch, fire chi explodes briefly around her, and then she flips once more, body arched as she ascends far, far higher than the last time.
"Rider..."
Each revolution of her body is a little quicker than the last, and by the end her scarf is moving so quickly that it' a wonder her limbs don't get tangled in it; skill or luck, one of the two. When they finally stop, her body seems to hang motionless in the air, knees drawn up close to her chest and palms open and turned sideways up near her face. Another flare of chi flashes, this time around her right foot.
"KIIIIIIIICK--!"
She is then a blur falling upon the Diva below like a little genki dart, foot poised to strike at--through, really--the woman on the way down. The fire chi that exploded earlier is still hanging in the air around her, invisible as it is woven into a web of sorts to be cast around Cherry should she connect.
On the other side of Cherry, she'll draw upright, circle her right hand slowly around her body, then snap it firmly against her chest; with the utterance of the word 'Bakusai', that netting of chi will explode against every point of the Boise Brawler's body.
COMBATSYS: Cherry fails to interrupt May Lee- The End! from MayLee with Disco Inferno.
- Power fail! -
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MayLee 0/-------/-------|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Cherry
COMBATSYS: Cherry has reached second wind!
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MayLee 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Cherry
Did the invitation stun her? Did it DOOM HER? It must have. Of course the fact is that when ultimate technique meets ultimate technique, there can usually only be one victor. Today... today fortune favored the bold rather than the beautiful. Cherry's grin, as May Lee prepares... THE END!... is manic. Perhaps she's simply glad that THE END! is basically exploding Rider Kick and not a battle with an aging sniper in the wilds of Russia that takes, like, FOUR HOURS to do right.
Maybe if Cherry saved her game and came back to this scene 2 weeks later, May Lee will have died. :|a
REGARDLESS the Fighting Diva poises herself to meet the Rider Kick head-on, a swirling of red-gold dragonflame starting to pick up around her body. Win or lose, it's this sort of conflict that makes fighting all the worthwhile. Of course, it's NICER if you land your sudden rising kick and the two of you cross legs in midair and it's all very Enter the Dragon BUT INSTEAD some jerk knocks Cherry back down to the ground and then explodes her in a very dramatic fashion that sears the wooden floor of the arena and indeed obscures the redhead's body in a cloud of smoke! The crowd cheers! Let's face it, that was fucking sweet pyrotechnics.
The smoke clears.
There is the minor problem of Cherry still standing there, looking seriously beaten but, and this is the key point, *upright*.
One of her bunny ears, in accordance with the narrative laws governing these things, is folded over in front and floppy.
"What else you got?" she asks, trying to sound nonchalant.
May Lee's chi is, at least for now, spent; it's quite a lot of /effort/, propelling oneself that high and moving that quickly and exploding that dramatically. She doesn't have the aid of wires and flashy editing and blasting caps helping her out, and so as hands drop, she is panting quite heavily.
And waving and smiling to the audience as they applaud the display quite loudly. She's even blushing a little at the attention she's sharing in, and--
Oh, wait. Cherry's talking to her and it's not in the uncomfortable, croaky way that people usually do after she's done that.
Huh.
"Well... uh... I..." she fumbles, a little uncertain. Her scarf starts to flag as she tries to figure out what in the hell /else/ to do, and then in a flash, it hits her. Her crimson pennant resurges as she quickly turns and leaps towards the Basque Brawler.
"Choooooppu!" is shouted as she draws her right hand up and tries to bring it down forcefully upon Cherry's shoulder. Her scarf is rigid and flapping stiffly as long as the word is held.
COMBATSYS: Cherry dodges MayLee's May Lee- Chop!.
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MayLee 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Cherry
Now she is powered by sheer, stupid drama. DURING a fight, Cherry is almost always powered by sheer stupid bravado, doing things she shouldn't, pissing off people she shouldn't, making comments she shouldn't KIND OF LIKE THE RACIST PIDGIN ENGLISH, _CHERRY_. However, she has this amazing ability to bounce back from damage that would keep most people groaning on the floor and demanding a can of Bactine and some gauze. Certainly, May Lee's THE! END! is one of those attacks; it hit like the aforementioned semi truck though probably not as hard as the panda mecha. But when she gets up from those attacks, it's not because Cherry is superhumanly tough. Her body is built for speed and striking force, not durability.
It's because the show must go on. And it's going to go on WITH HER IN IT.
Senses sharpened to surprising heights by her sudden reversal of fortune (and by the predictable, Smash Bros.-esque gasping of the crowd), the Fighting Diva pivots around May Lee's powerful chop and, at the same time, drives right back in, looking to ram her elbow into the girl's solar plexus and then straight her fist out, Bruce Lee-style, for a backfist to the chin. "The thing about Cherry is that the flavor lasts and lasts, baby."
Even now, someone's putting that and fanart of Cherry's face on a shirt at CafePress.
COMBATSYS: Cherry successfully hits MayLee with Combo Attack.
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MayLee 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Cherry
May Lee spins all the way around on her feet when struck by that backfist, scarf twirling 'round with her until she falls to her butt and the strip of cloth flops up and forward to drape itself over her face. Now she has /two/ bruises thanks to Cherry punching her, and her back is even achier than it was before.
She doesn't let it get to her, though; when she blows a little puff of air to knock the scarf out from in front of her face - and it /catches the wind to flutter gracefully above her head, then out behind her/ - she's still smiling brightly, even if there's blood pooling in some of the spaces between her teeth. She's so very, very close, and and she can't give up /now/.
In one smooth motion, she hops to her feet and lashes out with her left fist in a jab pointed towards the Diva's chin. As she hops back, she chirps, "It's true; I've been eating a lot of canned cherries, because they keep so well, and I'm really enjoying--"
A pause, a little scratching against her chin as she turns her eyes up thoughtfully. Suddenly, she wonders if she's misspoken, but surely not; who doesn't love a good cherry, after all?
She flashes another thumbs up.
COMBATSYS: Cherry blocks MayLee's Quick Punch.
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MayLee 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Cherry
As May Lee has already helpfully described, blocking stuff on your forearm looks all cool in martial arts movies but when you actually do it in real life it really kind of stings. Case in point when the Korean's jab is met with the Diva's upraised left arm, the redhead can't help but grit her teeth at that particular feeling. It stings KINDA SORTA but, and here is the critical point, it does not sting as much as getting punched in the freakin' jaw would for example. And hasn't there been enough of that here today? Really?
As the two are locked in tableau, Cherry listens to May Lee say that she has been eating cherries for a while now. And how she's enjoying them. In her rich, American alto, she simply says, as deadpan as possible: "And thus a thousand fanfic sits were born."
She punctuates this by doing things the AMERICAN WAY: she tries to headbutt May Lee at point-blank range. It is not elegant, but it has the nice effect of making her long red hair whip around and make her look like a slightly Playboy'ed up version of Pat Benatar, which to Cherry is high praise indeed.
COMBATSYS: MayLee blocks Cherry's Strong Punch.
[ \\\\\ < > //// ]
MayLee 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Cherry
The headbutt makes it hard for May Lee to stay upright... but she does. Something about 'fanfic' is bouncing around dull-ly in her brain, alongside thoughts of how dizzy she's feeling right now, and it is all that she can do to offer a wobbly thumbs up as she staggers on her feet and fights to keep herself standing.
"I--I hope! It's--it'd be nice... having... y'know..." She swallows a little as her scarf wraps around her neck in something like a hug. "More... fans."
She swallows, shakes her head quickly, and steadies herself enough to throw a quick kick at Cherry's leg, seeking to distract her somewhat for the real blow: her heel being thrust towards her chip after a quick hop backwards, in a mirror of her first blow struck.
COMBATSYS: Cherry dodges MayLee's Lightning Needle.
[ \\\\ < > //// ]
MayLee 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Cherry
It is obvious that both of these fighters SHOULD have just stopped moving a long time ago. Even the banter's starting to get a little... odd. But slowing down or not, Cherry really does not plan on taking any more boots to the head this day, and so when May Lee comes at her with a kick, intending to bring it FULL CIRCLE, the redhead skips back a step, hands up in a defensive posture, the kick slicing through the air between the two as the Fighting Diva stares at her opponent blankly. The 'Nerd' claxon has thankfully stopped ringing. It is now replaced by the soothing, Majel Barret-like future alarm voice intoning 'Warning: Culturally Clueless. Warning: Culturally Clueless.'
"For the sake of your career," Cherry says in a guarded tone, "please be kidding."
How is she going to put May Lee down?! She's used almost everything in her arsenal... except for one thing. Inspired by all this talk of FANFICTION in which these two LADIES will probably appear as LESBIANS on 4CHAN, Cherry brings her hand up. "But if you're not, well... let me fan the flames for you." In an exaggerated gesture, Cherry kisses her fingertips. However, when she pulls her hand away, the place where she kissed suddenly erupts in a ball of red-gold fire, which hovers there as she pulls her hand away, then slams it into the ball, palm outward. The sphere leaps across the distance between herself and May Lee, travelling in an erratic arc and looking to give her hot lips she'll never forget.
COMBATSYS: MayLee fails to interrupt Burning Love Breakdown from Cherry with Blazing Intercept.
- Power fail! -
[ < > // ]
MayLee 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Cherry
COMBATSYS: MayLee can no longer fight.
[ \\ <
Cherry 1/------=/=======|
"Kidding? Wh--why would--I've read plenty of fan-fiction." Beat. "I've even /written/--"
May Lee's leg comes down as she speaks, but she's caught wholly off-guard by the projectile blazing towards her. She tries to pull her arms up and bat it away so that she can catch Cherry off-guard with another kick, but instead it just kind of smacks her in the face, causes her to wobble one more time on her feet, then crumple to the ground with a groan.
"Whaddyou--wanna--do--after?" is gasped after a few seconds of silent panting and burning and writhing.
Written.
Despite the crowd cheering, the Fighting Diva is left... sort of... staring at May Lee for a second. Of course she HAPPENS to be breathing heavily since this fight has exhausted her entirely and it's taking all she's got left just to stay upright. But she is trying to process this young woman. A woman of actually quite phenomenal fighting talent, with a clear instinct for theatrics and drama. A pleasant enough person. She's clearly got a future in this business.
The question on Cherry's mind, because she is a hypocrite, is why the fighting world seems to be full of such *lunatics*.
"Uh." Oh man. Now they have to hang out. A whole stadium of people. A. Whole. Stadium. Of. People. She is going to get in so much trouble! And May Lee is going to want to watch crazy hero shows and all sorts of other awful things! Things man was not meant to see sober! Oh god!
Dignity kicks in. She extends a hand to help her opponent up.
"What are your feelings," she says experimentally, "about the movie 'Galaxy Quest'."
Compromise: It's a good thing.
The hand up is taken, and with one eye swollen shut beneath her miraculously undamaged goggles, May Lee looks up at Cherry with a lopsided grin and a thumbs up. Those goggles are pushed up with an unsteady hand once she has regained her feet, and as she then tries to wrap her arms around one of Cherry's for some kind of support(because it isn't as if Cherry wasn't nearly rendered unconscious or anything) she mumbles, "I coul' watch that..."
It only takes her a short time spent thinking and hurting before she goes on to begin speaking of food options. She can cook, and she has things at her hotel room, or there are plenty of restaurants, like a little Chinese one, a burger place, a place with a dancing foam rubber tilapia outside, one with red and white checkered tablecloths, and more, all of which she'll be sure to present as options to the Fighting Diva.
May Lee and Cherry Aguirre, clearly new friends brought together by the art of fighting.
Log created on 13:07:58 06/09/2009 by MayLee, and last modified on 23:20:47 06/09/2009.