Description: A lonely, destroyed road circles Huangyan, where the destruction is greatest. Four silver streaks travel it, four souls throw into combat for their own individual reasons. Brawler and psychic, Sage and agent. Not all the secrets in Taizhou are of a ninja's making. Some of those who compete for the prize brought plenty of their own secrets with them...
It's dark here.
The fight was to take place in the evening, or perhaps the night, of the highway construction zone. Nahid got there early, for a change - instead of slacking around like she normally does. This is because she wanted to see the bikes. She has a good appreciation for motorcycles.
Nahid pokes and prods this one for several moments but fails to make it do anything at all except sit there, as they're cued to start when all of them do. After several more moments of poking, she gets it to broadcast its warning, though nothing else. "Lame," she grumbles, before sitting down on it and waiting for the others to both get there and join in.
Her feet swing occasionally. Despite the 'I'm bored' she's practically radiating, it's a lie - she's looking forward to this. She came here for a fight. This promises to be an exciting one.
Great. Just. Great.
The Einherjar Agent is stuck with the idiot Zach for some time. This doesn't make the agent very happy at the least. Nevertheless, the figure did not really say anything to the guy. Only thing that Ullr decided to do was to continue his travel. The mission was simple:
Investigate Jinchuu's Motives.
Adelheid was not exactly pleased with the betrayal. That and to discover about Alma.
The figure appears in a black kelvar-like armor. He would almost be seen as a footsoldier by some. The insignia of Einherjar is noted. The helmet blocks any features of the face, only a glass-like field. While approaching one of the motorcycles, the figure places his hand onto the tool before taking a seat.
"<<You are currently seated on a production model revision of the Kurotora...>>"
While the soundboard ives the rest of the warning, the figure huffs before he looks ahead. "...Figures." His eyes drift over towards Nahid.
Zach wasn't exactly thrilled with the team selection himself. He woke up on the beach apparently several hours after the attempted beaching action. How, exactly, he got to shore was something of a mystery, but one for later.
The psyker had procured a PDA after a day of exploration, and that was how he knew where to go and when to be there. He rubbed at the half-gauntlet his dad had given him. The weight was fairly uncomfortable, and the... presence? (Zach wasn't certain how else to put it really) made it hard to draw readily on his store of energy.
He didn't know Ullr from Adam, really. Had no idea who the man in the military kit was. However, the people in charge made the pair a team. One more mystery stacked upon a heap of them, to go with what had happened to Alma.
Zach doesn't wait for a dramatic moment to remove the handweight, sliding the gauntlet into his backpack. He blinks at his left hand for a moment with surprise. What /else/ hadn't he been told about his family? "Screw it," Zach mutters as he climbs aboard the bike. "Let's get this done."
The front gate got broken down, and Frei and Vanessa went their separate ways. Into the city he walked down the Yongtaiwen, passing the continued destruction and wreckage... but the closer he got into the Sealed Zone, the less of it there needed to be, apparently. Eventually what felt like a full day of walking took him to Sanctum, which was in and of itself, a very different experience than the rest of Taizhou. The... futuristic safeness of it all in the midst of all that destruction. For a long time he could only stand outside the building and stare at it, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach grinding away at him. But eventually night came, and disquiet or no, safety was an important concern, and inside he went.
He awoke sleeping on a couch, to the sound of his cell phone going off, and a text message with the description of his first official Jinchuu fight. For some time he stared at it, sitting there. 'Ullr'... and Zach. Nahid, another name he doesn't recognize, but his designated 'partner' for this tournament, apparently. And the fight to take place in Huangyan, the area most devastated by the destruction that took place in Taizhou years ago, still not quite recovered from the toll it took.
He decided to walk.
It takes the better part of the day to get there at Frei's pace, because he wanted to drink this in: the destruction, everything that happened here, and the additional kick of knowing it happened 'for a reason' in its own way, or so he assumes. Ayame's words were enough; whatever's going on here has been long in the planning. By the time he makes it to the designated location, everyone's already here. He walks in from a distance, carrying his wooden sword in one hand and letting it swing alongside with his arms as he walks, until he gets close enough to take everyone in. His eyes flicker to Zach for a moment, then to Nahid, and then finally to the individual in the uniform.
With the Einherjar logo.
"...right," the chi sage says quietly, taking in a breath and slowly releasing it, before walking toward the empty bike next to Nahid and turning to her with a faint smile. "Nice to meet you," he offers, slipping the bokuto into his belt loops as a kind of impromptu scabbard. "Looks like we'll be working together."
"What up," Nahid says to Frei, having looked up the man beforehand. She got a picture! That's what fighting publically will get you: photographed. She looks at the others when they showed up, too. One of them is nothing special, though looking at him gives her a sense of presence she doesn't normally feel, and /that/ is more interesting than Zach's face. The other...
"Seriously," she says. "Are you seriously going to fight in goddamn armour and a helmet? What, afraid you might get a little scratched up? That some girl is going to punch you right in the nose and break your delicate face?"
Nahid laughs, swinging herself over her bike to sit on it properly. Comfortable. Lacks the vibration of a lot of a lot of bikes. "Okay, time to get this party startWHOA"
Either she found the 'go' button or the bikes decided it was time all on their own, because hers tears off ridiculously quickly. It's /quiet/, that's the first thing she notices, and Nahid immediately decides that, if she somehow survives this and so does the bike, that she is going to steal the damn thing once she figures out how to disable its autopilot.
"Ha!" she yells, jacket and hair streaming out behind her. "In your face, slow-asses!" Nahid cannot figure out how to brake this thing, but she /can/ figure out how to swing it in an arc. This is basically entirely so that she can lash out with one foot at the armoured biker, driving her heel directly at his knee to try to make it harder for him to steer. Or break his knee, whichever.
COMBATSYS: Jiro endures Nahid's Heavy Kick.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Zach
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Nahid 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Jiro
The eyes shift over towards Nahid, peering at the woman for a few moments. What a mouth on this one. The stalwart figure of Einherjar merely snorts at her, not really giving her the dignity of a response. As his attention falls over towards the motorcycle, he grabs onto the gears and he pulls the lever. He feels the comfort of this strange bike.
If this was not a bombed bike, he would claim this as his own bike. He'll have to transmit a request for Adelheid to send him some decoder so that he can terminate the explosives on the bike.
He wants one of these.
His eyes shift over at her, then he feels the motorcycle's revving up and it immediately starts to move onward.
There are no breaks to this thing. Well shit.
When she slams her foot over towards him, he actually steers the motorcycle to move in on her, right to a close distance with her. When he gets the nice opportunity, he aims to slam his elbow right towards her face.
Zach blinks as the violence already has started. Seems to be the way of it, he supposes. "Take the brat out first," Zach yells over the roar of the bikes to Ullr, "I can't deal with Frei by myself. No harm in admitting it; it's fact. Zach's gifts seemed ill-suited to dealing with the samurai monk.
Suiting actions to words, the young man raises an empty hand. Psycho power all but screams up to the surface at his mental command. Zach blinks twice at the apparent... eagerness of his power. Zach quickly shapes the energy into a simple sphere, before hurling the globe of energy at Nahid!
It's the insignia. It keeps drawing his eye, especially because there's only so many people that could BE. Ichiro? No, he'd have brought his spear. Adelheid himself is certainly a possibility; he'd want to keep his identity under wraps to the best of his ability too. As for Alma and Jiro... well, there's good reasons why it's not either of them, which leaves Kula -- who's much smaller than that -- and Frei, who it is not. Hmmm.
And then everyone is on motorcycles, accelerating into the distance, even as Frei is straddling his and starting it up. "Right. Okay. Right." Does he LOOK like he knows how to ride a motorcycle?!
The fact that it then starts accelerating into the distance doesn't help.
Frei arrives on the scene a little behind everyone else; apparently the bikes' acceleration is keyed to keep them together, not create a race. He also arrives just in time to see Nahid boot the helmet-wearing 'Ullr' in the face, and then for both of his opponents to team up on his hapless partner. Blinking in surprise at Zach's statement, it is the psychic that nevertheless draws his attention. Pulling up alongside, Frei glances at Zach, saying evenly, "Don't make yourself a target that way, kiddo," before letting go of one of the handlebars and sweeping his arm out, a wave of flame flashing across the distance between the two bikes... but, secondarily, Frei swaps hands and draws the wooden sword too, sweeping it through the fire's handy 'mirage' to add a second strike to the mix.
COMBATSYS: Jiro successfully hits Nahid with Fierce Punch.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Zach
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Nahid 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Jiro
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Nahid with Warning Shot.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Zach
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Nahid 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Jiro
Almost immediately, Nahid comes under attack from two sides - and she's still trying to drive at the same time, not really trusting the autopilot even if she's just going more or less the same direction anyway.
"Who you callin' a brat?" she demands, yanking her bike to the side about as sharply as it can. Jiro's elbow catches her not straight on but instead in the side of her jaw with enough force to rock Nahid; she looks for a moment like she is going to slide off her bike, but stays on. Barely.
The ball of energy surprises her from the other side, and that one she is not able to change the angle of at all; it clips her in the hip as she's pulling herself back up and bursts in an impressive light show. Stings like a bitch too, Nahid notes, though she bites her lip to avoid saying something inadvisable.
She says something else inadvisable anyway. "Come on! You wanna fight, I can take your scrawny ass!" Nahid yells - and then she does a handstand on her handlebars, her feet angled almost exactly straight vertical, her jacket whipping wildly as she lets air pressure hold her shirt up against her belly.
Nahid comes down in a colossal kick with her entire body behind the movement, swinging down in an arc to smash Jiro from the side, hoping she's maneuvered well enough to even get close; she ends up with her feet pressed against the side of her bike for a moment, her body curled, before she pulls herself back into a 'proper' sitting position. It's hard to tell if she's stupid or just nuts.
COMBATSYS: Jiro counters Falling Rock Art from Nahid with Strong-Arm.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Zach
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Nahid 1/-======/=======|====---\-------\0 Jiro
Eghn...
This wench has a mouth on her. The Einherjar agent narrows his eyes at the woman as she decides to put her focus on him. She must really love picking a fight. Inwardly, there is a smile drawing. In a way, she is like the way that he was. But in all honestly, Ullr doesn't even know his own identity anymore. The old one...
No. Must not think of that. She is whipping her bdy up as she performs a handstand with the handle bars.
And when her foot drives forward to meet with Ullr's form, the stranger immediately closes the bike at her direction before he winds his fist back. There is a faint of familiarity upon the stance, even despite of the bike. For anyone that recognizes a familiar figure's signature maneuver.
SEI!
Then, when her body arcs his way, the figure twists and shifts all of his power to the right arm. He is aiming to slam his fist against the stomach.
DO!
The impact is powerful enough to knock her off of her bike if she isn't careful about trying to remain -on- it.
COMBATSYS: Zach dodges Frei's Kagerou.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Zach
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Nahid 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Jiro
Zach leans hard to the left, swerving out of the way of Frei's attack with a slight yelp of surprise. "Can't help it," Zach says. "I'd like to end this ride quickly. Walking away would be a bon-" Zach watches the mounted martial arts display from Ullr and Nahid.
"Damn if I haven't seen that somewhere before," Zach mutters. Glen whips his free hand up and aims further down the road. Three sheets of concentrated psychic energy form directly in Nahid's path.
A quick downward sweep of the hand sends the Pile Smash barreling into where the girl's torso should be when she sets down.
Well, it's little surprise that someone who knows how to ride a motorcycle would be able to avoid that attack; Frei's doing his best but it's hard to both control a vehicle and attack at the same time. "Cloud Strife I'm not," he mutters to himself, pulling away from Zach and more toward the center of the pack for the moment to observe. Never mind that it wasn't that long ago he was attacking Kyo Kusanagi with a fake Buster Sword, yet somehow the stakes in this fight seem a little bit higher than that. He turns to see his partner continuing to get double-teamed for the second time in a row, and frowns. Winning this fight might be his only way to keep digging into the secrets of Nirvana, never mind that his partner's suffering for being perceived as the weak link frustrates him considerably.
And then there's Ullr's attack...
Deciding to test the waters on that side of the fight, he guns the motor and rides up toward the man in the Einherjar armor. "Have we... met?" he asks, clenching his fist and then swinging his hand wide, opening his palm as if he were about to fire off a blast of chi, as is his usual modus operandi... but instead he turns the motion downward and, in one swift motion, swings a wooden sword crackling with electricity straight for Ullr's head. Something about that helmet's getting on his nerves.
COMBATSYS: Nahid blocks Zach's Pile Smash.
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Frei 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Zach
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Nahid 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
Ow, ow, and ow.
Nahid doesn't end up pulling herself on the bike - instead she gets planted /across/ it, legs hanging off one side and arms off the other. Both her toes and her fingers come perilously close to the ground as the entire vehicle sways alarmingly with every shift in weight.
Somehow, Nahid manages to roll to her back without falling off the bike; equally surprisingly, she cranes around and gets one foot on the footrest, from there performing a semi-masterful contortionist's act to actually get herself upright again. And if you don't believe /that/ was painful with a giant bruise across her stomach, well.
Zach comes in from the side. She interposes her hand, which has the approximate give of a brick wall. Her elbow doesn't even move, though she feels something flex alarmingly in her arm. Her eyes widen, very slightly. She recognizes that psychic feel... not as anyone's in particular.
"Heeey!" she yells, managing to get some breath in her lungs again. "Motherfucker think you can hit me while I'm down with your fancy-ass powers? I'll show you!" Ignoring Frei and Jiro for a moment - Nahid is perhaps not the best of teammates - she swings the bike toward Zach, steering and holding herself on only with her legs; her fists are going a mile a minute, attempting to literally rain blows from her painfully solid fists on the other psion.
COMBATSYS: Jiro blocks Frei's Feinting Draw.
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Frei 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Zach
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Nahid 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Jiro
Satisfaction.
Jiro had great satisfaction in slamming his fist into that girl's stomach. After all, the young man had found her annoying and had to remind her who the hell she is dealing with. He does not really bother with her now. Instead, he is continuing on until he looks over to see that Frei is joining amongst his side.
When Frei finally moves closer towards the man to ask if they met before...
The voice responds.
"No."
Yet, there is familiarity in the voice. In fact, it is unmistakenable. The hand reaches up towards his side, guarding against the faint slash against the head. The electricity runs through the hand, lingering in pain. Then, Ullr moves the motorcycle close enough to slam his left fist across Frei's face. Should the first strike be successful, he'll aim to grab the head with the gloved hand and slam his face towards the motorcycle's exterior.
COMBATSYS: Nahid successfully hits Zach with Avalanche Fist Cascade.
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Frei 0/-------/----===|=======\=------\1 Zach
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Nahid 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Jiro
Zach's eyes narrow as he sees Nahid close in. He gets absolutely /pummeled/ by the barrage of fists as they strike his head and upper body. "It's not that Nahid's the /weak/ link, really. Frei's just too strong for the psyker. Helping Ullr deal with Nahid so the two can deal with Frei... just makes sense, right?
Right.
"Not bad," Zach says as he wipes a little blood off of his face. He pulls away laterally from Nahid. His empty hand all but crackles with psycho power. A moment later, there is a sphere the size of a yoga ball in the now raised hand. Zach aims. "But I prefer quality to quantity." He aims the ball towards Nahid just before the front end of the sphere bursts, releasing a large beam of the destructive power upon the young lady.
COMBATSYS: Frei interrupts Combo Grapple from Jiro with Shindou EX.
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Frei 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Zach
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Nahid 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Jiro
The voice... and the fighting style, together? There's no mistaking that.
Frei's eyes widen.
He's got enough time to get the wooden sword back into his belt loops before Ullr is lunging at him, meaning that there isn't a lot of time to do anything special about that first left hook. Grimacing, he steels himself for the blow to connect, but thankfully, Frei's pretty damn resilient... resilient enough, at least, that the blow neither fells him nor dazes him, so that when the helmet-wearing Einherjar tries to grab his head, the suddenly infuriated sage snaps out a hand and grabs the incoming attack, stopping it cold. "Yeah? Then let me tell you, you're an extremely..."
At this point, seizing the initiative, Frei painfully wrenches the man's wrist, shoving backward and hopefully putting him off-balance for a moment. "...poor..."
And that's when Frei's apparent fury takes real form: he reaches over, grabbing *Ullr* by the head in the way he rather intended to do to Frei, and shoves forward as hard as he can, a burst of hazy gold-green light at the point of helmet impact with the frame of the mysterious ninja motorcycle being the only indicator that he added any chi-powered force to the blow at all. "...imitation!"
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Nahid with Burst Stream.
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Frei 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Zach
[ \ < > ///////////////////// ]
Nahid 1/=======/=======|=======\====---\1 Jiro
"Bullshit," Nahid yells back, "look at your lame triple blast thing you did earlier - "
A giant beam of energy. Nahid cannot steer her motorcycle well enough to avoid it; she steers /through/ it instead, the blast nearly enough to pick her up and throw her off the cycle except for her hands locked in place around the handlebars. It scorched the motorcycle, too, though it's hanging on better than Nahid is.
Well, until it inevitably explodes.
Nahid yells, "I know what the hell you are!" before standing up, wobbly, on her bike. She only gets one chance at this, because either way, she's not going to be on the bike much more. Although that's okay; if she gets hit like that again, she's going to fall the hell off anyway.
Nahid leaps off her bike, which continues to drive on all by itself. She somersaults in the air before arcing down directly at Zach's back, attempting to grab on by scissoring his legs around his waist and squeezing the air out of him while simultaneously hitting him in the back of the head until he inevitably manages to get her off. Not that that takes much effort; she's not terribly concious by the time she lands, and is likely to pass out all on her own, though she may remain dead weight if not discarded.
Of course, if she misses, she is about to do the splits in the middle of the road while moving at vehicular speeds, which is probably an excellent way to strain something.
COMBATSYS: Nahid can no longer fight.
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Frei 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Zach
> ///////////////////// ]
|=======\====---\1 Jiro
There is a faint hiss after Frei's hand reaches for the head and slams it against his helmet with the frame. In fact, there is a breakage of the helmet. Parts of the glass section of the helmet is breaking apart, revealing half of the face...
It is Jiro.
"...Tsch..."
The scarlet flames ignite along the hands, then he turns to face Frei, seeking to slam the fist over towards the young man's stomach for a set up.
...Should the first strike hit, there will be a large ball of flames radiating from the other hand as it prepares itself.
"I don't care. Out of the way."
Then, the flames seek to tear Frei asunder as Jiro thrusts the fist towards Frei's face.
COMBATSYS: Zach blocks Nahid's Mountain Force Press.
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Frei 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Zach
> ////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
Zach lowers his head, allowing most of the pummelling to fall about his shoulders. He grunts, then gasps as Nahid starts to fall off of the bike. His hand whips out, snagging the small girl by the front of her shirt. He wanted to beat her, but letting her fall off of the bike could prove fatal at these speeds.
He is adjusting her so that she'll stay on his bike just in time to see a familiar face. He doesn't know Jiro so much as know /of/ him. He grits his teeth, adjusting his course to pull up on Frei's blind side.
Zach winces as Jiro unloads on Frei's face. "Sorry about this," Zach says almost apologetically as he jams his foot towards Frei's midsection. Of course, with Zach it's never just a foot or a fist. That familiar 'sheath' of purple psychic fire accompanies the attack.
COMBATSYS: Frei just-defends Jiro's Scarlet Slaughter!
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Frei 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Zach
> ////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks Zach's Medium Kick.
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Frei 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Zach
> ////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
Nahid is not small, thank you; she's five foot seven.
She is, however, very unconcious, and pressed up against Zach's back. If she was concious, she might have a comment about how he's not going to get any closer than he is now.
Fortunately, even her mouth doesn't run in her sleep.
How can he possibly describe his emotions right now?
The last time Frei saw Jiro, the man was exhorting Alma, Kula, and himself to leave a building. Being left behind. Covered in rubble. He never really knew if Adelheid's men managed to retrieve him, nor if his condition was one from which he would ever recover. To Frei, he, Alma, and Jiro create a fundamental triangle of personalities, a trio of forces that keep each other in check while at the same time building on and encouraging the other two. A tripodal balance. For one leg to be taken from him, and then the other... it was too much. His rage attacking 'Ullr' proves it.
To find his friend back from the dead and yet so cold, attacking him as if they never met, is too much.
Frei's green eyes glaze over, and his emotional turmoil turns into something greater in the process, refined through rage and sadness and anxiety into a razor-sharp blade of defensive prowess. He extends a palm outward, catching Jiro's fist almost as a lazy afterthought, the fiery energy building there exploding before dispersing in a swirling torrent of chi, Frei's aura effectively smothering the inferno before it can even be born. He turns to the side with that same zombie-like, dazed expression, and slams his other hand into Zach's kick, deadening the force of that blow, his arms crossed over his chest. When he seems to come to his senses, it's to look at Jiro with a decidedly pained expression. "You... I'll get to you," he says quietly, before turning to Zach, and saying in an almost dreamy tone, "Yeah... me too."
The drawing of the wooden sword takes place with amazing speed, showing that at some fundamental level Frei does understand battoujutsu right into his marrow. It's a clean, horizontal, chest-level slash, the blade humming with a cold, purple-black aura of cold, pure yin chi... intended to, quite frankly, knock the psychic right off his bike.
There isn't much that can be done about the situation. Jiro already knows that for the most part. There is a part of Jiro that is feeling -bad- for putting Frei through the pain, but to Jiro, Frei needs to understand that... Jiro is dead.
Jiro looks over towards Frei, holding his right hand forward.
There is a whine of energy that resonates in his hand.
"...He is dead, you know.."
The flames burst to life, becoming bigger until it grows the size of a beachball. Sparks of smaller red flames orbit around the ball of fire as he says.
"... Just honor his memory as a hero. ...It is all he would had wanted."
...Just don't label him as Jiro.
The young man releases the large ball towards Frei's motorcycle.
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Zach with Ashura Ressenjin.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|=======\======-\1 Zach
> /////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
The sword, and perhaps more importantly the /chi/ slams into Zach's chest. This illicits a pained yell from the psyker, who only barely keeps control of his bike. He needs to stay upright, he tells himself. He can't let the woman, who is surpringly taller than he is now that he looks closer, fall off. She wouldn't be able to control her fall.
"Yeah," Zach gasps. "Just business. We... we should talk. After." For now, though, there's a fight. Zach pulls back his left hand. Psycho power swirls around it, coalescing into a sort of art-deco plate mail. Zach leans back in towards Frei, driving the mailed fist into his opponent!
COMBATSYS: Frei dodges Jiro's Meteor Buster.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Zach
> /////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
COMBATSYS: Frei fails to interrupt Burst Strike from Zach with Reiki.
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Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Zach
> /////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
This is all a little too much for Frei to handle, and it shows. "No he isn't," the sage says with conviction, watching the ball of fire swirl in 'Ullr's hand. Grimacing, he grips the handlebars of the motorcycle tightly and, giving a guess as to what does what, slams the brake as hard as he can. The result is that both Einherjar fighter and his ball of flame suddenly whip ahead of a decelerating Frei, causing the shot to go wild. "Not completely, anyway," he mutters, gunning the gas to catch up. Of course, this problematically leads to Zach having a much more open shot as Frei does his best to catch up. The redhead notices the 'mailed' fist a little too late, extending a hand that is surrounded by an aura of frost, but Zach connects before he can finish whatever he was doing, causing the bike to spin away.
Frowning, Frei forces himself back on the road, looking ahead. Yeah... that's a concrete wall in the distance. This is really not a good thing in any way whatsoever. "Maybe," he murmurs at Zach, perhaps just loud enough to be heard since the motorcycles themselves make no sound. "Maybe not."
The wheels of fate are turning...
It all goes straight to hell. Considering that they are heading towards the wall on a bomb-type motorcycle, it is not a good thing to remain on. They are close to the brink, but it isn't too late to achieve victory. But needless to say, Jiro doesn't really care for the victory, per se. Yet, he does turn to face Frei as he tells him.
Jiro isn't dead...
...not completely.
This draws a pained wince to the young man, gritting his teeth. He may as well be dead. Jiro Kasagi's life is no more. He was last known as a fugitive that was hunted down by Interpol. With him 'dead', well, he is Einherjar's warrior.
As such, he has a mission to deal with.
Jiro turns the motorcycle, steering it over to meet with Frei once more before he whips around. He takes a deep breath, then he lifts his head up, drawing for the scarlet flames to consume his body before it explodes around Frei.
Zach turns, and sees the wall. He glances over his shoulder at the woman at his back. She said she knew 'what the hell he was.' In light of some things that have been going on, that's a scary statement. He winces at Jiro's fireworks display. He might be a little jealous at that.
Zach stays in relatively close, throwing a (relatively) weaker strike with it before it shatters into motes of purple light.
COMBATSYS: Frei dodges Jiro's Defiance.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Zach
> /////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Jiro
COMBATSYS: Frei interrupts Blast Bash from Zach with Hatsuyuki.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|=======\======-\1 Zach
> /////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Jiro
He's determined to see this through, Frei is. Somehow. Jiro and Zach are coming at him both, but this time he's prepared for it. One hand lets go of the handlebars, dropping down to his side and glittering with blue-white frost a second time. "Going to have to have a word with Miss Nahid after this," he murmurs, glancing at his teammate unconscious on the back of Zach's bike. At least Zach isn't the type to just dump her off, which is reassuring. Ullr's fiery blow Frei once again dodges through inspired -- if somewhat accidental -- driving, his motorcycle swinging around in a horizontal arc that brings him right in line with Zach's attack... but even though the psychic-empowered strike slams into his side, it's the side with the hand charged with frost... and Frei brings that hand up, effectively exploding a bomb of frost and ice right in Zach's face.
Righting himself, he faces the wall and drives on. This might be a mistake -- in his condition he's easy fodder for the relatively unharmed Jiro, never mind if Zach pulls some sort of miracle recovery -- but it's all he can do, at this point. Let them come. "Sorry, guys... if progressing in the fight is what I have to do to find out what's going on, that's what I'm going to do."
Zach swerves dangerously on the bike. The miracle recovery may be in how he kept the bike upright. "Need to ask her about something myself," Zach says loudly. He's a wreck, and he's lost a shirt. His backpack is kept on by a single strap and the pressure of Nahid at his back. "So you're not the only one who wants answers around here."
Zach attempts to drive another foot into Frei's flank, this time without the psychic back-up.
Given the cuts, scrapes and bruises, he may be using the energy to recover himself somewhat.
This is....
God damnit.
Jiro is noticing that the motorcycle is going to crash soon. It is ready to crash right to the nearest wall. The chopper is driving forward and he shifts his head over. He immediately grips the handlebars, pushing his hands out.
He immediately springs off of the motorccle, rolling around the ground, landing with a thud before the motorcycle crashes.
When it smashes into the wall, there is an explosion that spreads all across the air. The flames licking through before searing everything in its path.
Getting up to his feet, the helmetted figure shakes his head. "...Figures." He lifts his shoulders with a shrug. "So much for a new bike. For now." He starts to walk away, looking at Zach and Frei.
"...you do that." He grunts, not even sure why he needs a partner for this in the first place.
COMBATSYS: Jiro takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Frei 1/-----==/=======|=======\==-----\1 Zach
> ///////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Jiro
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Frei with Strong Kick.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Frei 1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Zach
> ///////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Jiro
Distracted is bad. Frei just... watches Jiro abandon his bike, and the fight, and sending it careening into the wall. His greatest regret apparently is that he doesn't get to steal the bike. "Jiro..." Frei murmurs, watching him go, stupidly heedless of his own bike, the fight, the wall, and everything else. This... is sort of silly, because it means when he turns, he finds Zach looking to boot him in the god damned head, which he pretty much succeeds in doing; not expecting the attack, and having little time to react, Frei's turn of the head actually sends his entire carriage slamming forward into the motorcycle body, bouncing off it. When he sits back up, a trickle of blood runs from the corner of his mouth.
For a moment, he glances at Zach, then back at the wall. Zach is an earnest enough kid, but some part of the sage tells him that earnest as he is, he's got a long trial ahead of him if he plans to pursue this further. He holds out his hand, palm up, and looks at the psychic with a wan smile. "Good luck to you. But... well. Consider this a taste of the kind of things that might be in store for you, here." A ball of energy appears in his hand, a swirling sphere of clear blue water.
Closing his eyes a moment, Frei presses the sphere into his chest, palm down; the watery energy spills out and around him as an aura, streamers of icy water dancing around his form. He opens his eyes, looking at Zach. "If you can survive it, then we'll meet again later."
A hand comes to the carved 'hilt' of his bokuto, and Frei's voice resounds through the area. "O serpent-lord who dwells in the depths... black-scaled beast who swims the seas. Honor our pact and appear before me!"
The watery aura stops its dance, coalescing into a blue-white aura that surrounds Frei's wooden sword. Just before the bike hits the wall, he peels around, braking to a complete stop, standing between certain explosive death and the approaching Zach. Drawing the bokuto, he holds it above his head. "Icy hoarfrost, bind my enemies! Genbu!" Driving the blade into the ground, the icy aura explodes outwards around Frei's body, taking the shape of a serpent-twined about a massive dragon-like tortoise for a moment, before the entire thing becomes a massive pillar of ice crystals reaching toward the sky. If Zach isn't quick, he'll be frozen in its clutches... but at least he'll be safe from the wall.
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Zach with Shinra Banshou.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Frei 0/-------/----===|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Zach
> ///////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Jiro
When the ice clears away -- as it must, soon after, being chi-created -- Frei himself is nowhere to be seen, though the wreckage of his Kurotora production model motorbike lies at the foot of the wall, ruined beyond repair.
Zach's eyes narrow. He knows things are... suboptimal for him here. However, he survived the first Jinchuu with less experience. He survived the invasion of Southtown, as well. This will suck, but kill him? Zach's made of sterner stuff. He gives Nahid a short shove to throw her clear of what's about to come.
That said, the aura does exactly as Frei intends it to, encasing the psychic in a massive block of ice. The bikes explode against the wall. Zach is trapped for a while before a faint glimmer of purple refracts through it. That glimmer brightens before intensifying to an insane degree.
Half a second later, there is an explosion of psychic energy that shatters the block Zach was trapped in. The psychic collapses to the road, gasping and coughing for air. He's in no condition to fight, which is just as well. He's all alone out here. He doesn't realize that Jiro's abandoned him. The asshole.
COMBATSYS: Zach takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1 Jiro
COMBATSYS: Zach can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1 Jiro
Nahid hits the ground and rolls without ever fully regaining conciousness; her body twists as she tucks in, making it quite some distance across the battered road.
She ends up on her back, half-awake despite even more bruising and battering; Nahid grunts, says one particularly naughty word, attempts to sit up and fails miserably. She'll just sit here and watch the flashing lights for a little while longer, thanks.
Sigh. How annoying.
Jiro is turning to face the fire works. Or ice works. As Frei encases Zach in the ice, the young man collapse onto the ground, which leaves him lying there. His eyes drift towards Zach, approaching him before scooping the fallen warrior over his shoulder. Jiro has no time for ands, ifs, or buts.
He'll drop Zach somewhere to recover while he reports for a new damn helmet.
"...Whatever you're searching for. Good luck." That is all that Jiro mentions to Frei, before he is preparing to leave.
Log created on 19:03:20 04/17/2010 by Frei, and last modified on 22:55:25 04/27/2010.