Description: For whatever reason, Vanessa and Soma are making a good team out in Taizhou, but as it turns out, their actual investigation isn't turning up jack. It doesn't help that chi-empowered superbeings keep interrupting them whenever they take five minutes. SEE: Soma learn what that dagger is for! THRILL: to Kain's chi fury! GASP: As Vanessa loses her shirt... again!
Kain R. Heinlein is not a happy man. His investigations in Taizhou have borne some fruit, but ever since the situation in the city began escalating it's been more and more difficult for him to work efficiently. He's a man who has spent years training himself to tap into the ambient chi of an area, drawing it into himself to serve his needs. But even for someone with his skill, there's a problem when the chi starts trying to /force/ its way in. In fact, it's even worse than for someone with no training at all. Pathways have been opened over time to allow more chi to flow... and that's just what it's doing.
Combine the worst parts of a migraine and being both drunk and hungover at the same time and you'll have some idea of what Kain is experiencing at the moment. Some of that is due to the constant effort of holding off the worst effects of the power flowing through him. If he didn't, he'd probably find himself at the center of a good sized crater. But he hasn't found what he's looking for yet, and he's not going to leave until he does.
Taking about Seishirou's toys has taught him a fair bit, but it's not enough. He's got a bigger prize in mind, and it's the location of that which he seeks. And somebody in this city must know something. Even if they don't know they know something. Information has been filtering out through the system used to direct the fighters to their matches, and there are also allies of Seishirou lurking about. /Someone/ will have at least a small clue, if Kain can put together all the information properly. And so he walks the streets, attempting to track down a new quarry.
Vanessa is also unhappy, though for wholly unrelated reasons.
The place is a ghost town. Everyone here has fled into their homes, and only the most foolhardy or arrogant dare venture into the sun. The chi in the area...Vanessa's not that great at chi. She prefers punches over hurricances, but she's got enough of a sense of the flow of things to be able to tell that much. Whatever's happening here...
She split up with Soma - search the city, get information. Try to find...anything. They should hunt down Alan R.B., warn him about Vice, but...that'll have to wait, for now.
So for now, Vanessa is sitting on a bench beside the empty streets, strong arms bare as they're slung across the full length of the bench in either direction. She is dressed in her black halter shirt because Vice vomited blood all over her nice white one, purple tie....
...for some reason she dyed her hair to match the tie. It's a crazy 34-year-old drunken boxing widow thing.
Though it's doubtful you can sneak up on Vanessa, Soma certainly does his best, for the sake of dramatic camera angles. Of course, there's a surprisingly thin wall separating the ICPO detective from the ninja he's here 'hunting' in terms of methodology; Soma's trained in stealth and espionage tactics, so perhaps he does get the jump on her. Either way, though, the punchinating MILF will probably soon feel the slightest amount of pressure on the back of the bench she's sitting on, and if she bothers to look up and around she'll find the black-garbed Indian leaning back against it, just shy of her spread arms, and glancing down at her. He takes in the exhaustion, the annoyance, and just shakes his head. "Lemme guess. You had about as much luck as I did, which is to say you didn't have any at all."
Shaking his head, Soma turns his gaze skyward. Well... Alan R.B. might have had the answers to why Rugal would be interested in this place, but if he got wind that Vice was on his tail, it's wonder that neither Soma nor Vanessa ran into him. As far as the detective is concerned, he almost doesn't blame the thundering boxer; if he could hide from Vice, the ideal place would be somewhere nice and remote. Like the god damned Moon.
"You know," he says at last, pressing his fingertips into his forehead, "I'm not really feeling like I'm very good at my job right now. Maybe I got lazy on the Suiryuu... everybody packed into a little space, it wasn't hard to track down the right people. Here... it's like walking through a reenactment of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." Never mind that there's things preying on his mind, not the least of which is the emerald-green dagger that he's wearing at his back. Now the blade is wrapped in cloth, all the time... after a while the rattling and humming started to unnerve Soma far, far too much. 'Bound,' it was at least less noticeable.
Stepping away from the bench, he stretches his arms over his head and looks around. "Not sure what my next step is. Maybe this 'Sanctum' place... presumably the nerve center would have something worth looking into."
As he's walking along, even through the pounding in his head Kain senses something... odd. He's not sure what it is, and really that alone is enough reason to investigate. And so he heads in that direction. He's no ninja, but Kain is usually capable of making a stealthy entrance when necessary. He's not exactly at his best at the moment, however. Before Kain himself is actually visible, Soma and Vanessa might notice a bit of a chill in the air. And an almost... electric feeling. The city is full of energy, but Kain is like a lightning rod for it.
Heinlein comes around the corner and spots Vanessa and Soma talking. They're clearly not local, which means it's time to see what they know. And so the two of them get to see Kain stalking toward them with a very unhappy look on his face. And an increasing feeling of tension in the air.
Vanessa looks up when Soma shows up, humming an unhappy tune. "Man, at least you have some ideas. I'm used to doing this by hitting the right bars, you know?" She sighs, annoyed, off into the distance. "Now they're all empty, it pretty much sucks."
She rolls her neck, not really moving. "Sanctum, eh," she murmurs. "Sounds like a good goal, sure. If we can manage---"
Eyes narrow. "...something's coming," she mutters. "And if I can feel it--"
We probably don't wanna play nice with it.
There's not a lot of mirth in it, but Soma does laugh at that particular response, waving a hand dismissively. "Don't sell yourself short. Half the time 'some guy in a bar' is the perfect informant, especially since if he's in a bar he's probably drunk off his ass. Wonderful thing, alcohol. Removes all your inhibitions about telling people stuff you... shouldn't..."
He trails off. Wrapped in cloth, the dagger at least doesn't visibly begin to hum and shake, but it's still strapped to the small of Soma's back, and so when it starts getting... well, the word the ICPO agent has used for the situation is 'hungry,' which has its own scary interpretations... he can feel it. It's a bit like having a phone set on vibrate suddenly go off in your pocket. Frowning, the black-haired man reaches behind him and takes the thing out, holding it in front of him before slowly unwrapping the now quite dusty and dirt-stained white cloth from around it. In the air, even Vanessa can tell that it's 'reacting'... shaking slightly now and then, and emitting a tiny hum, like the sound of some electric device powered on in the background of a quiet room. "I wouldn't mind finding out who made this damn thing, either," he adds, after Vanessa indicates some agreement with his plan to infiltrate Sanctum.
There's a pause, and Soma processes that the dagger reacted like this was in the presence of an even-more-crazed-than-normal Vice, and he grits his teeth. Right after he notices that fact, Vanessa provides her warning, and the ICPO detective pauses, concentrating. Normally, empathically detecting people at a distance isn't really a doable trick, but Kain's mental state makes him stand out... that, and the aura of power that clings to him thanks to the unstable air in Taizhou.
Once he comes into view, and becomes an identifiable face that Soma can recognize, things go from bad to worse. Footage of Kain singlehandedly burning his way through teams of lesser fighters in Saturday Night Fights come to mind, and they're not what he'd LIKE to be envisioning right now, that's for sure. "...well this is just super."
Kain looks angry, but at least he's not rushing to the attack. He just strides up to Vanessa and Soma, looking them both over. "Finally, some people who might know something. I don't know how Ryouhara managed to pull all this off, but-" He stops suddenly with a grunt, one hand going to his temple as a jolt of pain shoots through his head. He has to pause for a moment, gritting his teeth. He doesn't like showing weakness in front of people, but there's only so much you can just force through with willpower. Especially if you're trying to have an actual conversation.
Okay Kain, try again. "There's clearly something dangerous going down here, and I intend to get to the bottom of it." Stop it? ...Maybe. "If you've found out anything about Ryouhara's operatio-nngh!" Kain shuts his eyes again. It's getting worse. When he opens his eyes they're looking a bit bloodshot. And his gaze settles on the dagger. Visually, it's not all /that/ interesting. But Kain isn't relying on vision. "...What is that? Where did you get it?"
Vanessa is a little too busy being worried about someone dripping with enough chi that /she/ can sense it pretty readily to sass back about her drinking habits (they aren't habits anymore). Eyes tick over, picking up the sound of that knife's buzzing. "Where'd you get it, anyway?" she asks, pulling her arms in - legs still kicked up in a casual cross, but arms pulling in toward the center, ready to defend.
Vanessa's eyes narrow. "Fan /tastic/," she mutters. She fought this guy once. SNF. That would probably be /her/ Soma is recalling getting beaten stupid by the ridiculous chi-master. And now he's...that's it, isn't it? The strange aura in Taizhou that not even Vanessa can ignore...it's got him messed up. WONDERFUL. Maybe now they stand a chance? Or maybe now he can just kill them all with a stupid ridiculous death ray fist, like those shows she sees when she drops in on Southtown. Vanessa frowns, and tips her chin up. "Well, that makes three of us, sugar," she says, though her tone is less casual than usual. "Anythin' special you've figured out yet? We're still trying to figure out much of anything."
...and then he spots the knife. Eyes dart to Soma. What's he gonna do? Her hands follow down the contour of her body, black gloves gripping the edge of the bench - fit to launch her at Kain, if it comes to that.
Had he been raised in another way, or there were some quirk of personality, Soma Travedi would have made a rather good criminal. He's got the instinct for it, at least... he's suspicious, and suspicion tends to lead to a certain degree of anti-authority bias. Thus when Kain Heinlein -- who with his ultra-Aryan appearance and nice suit and ability to crush all opposition might as well just have a big sign on his forehead reading THE MAN -- waltzes up and demands information, Soma's natural reaction is to step backwards, move the dagger away slightly, and seal his lips shut.
Two things intervene to keep this situation from devolving immediately into a fiery apocalypse. The first is that Vanessa asked him a very similar question, and while he hasn't known her very long, the pugilist has been a big help... a lifesaver, in fact. Without her, it's a very high probability that Vice would have torn Soma apart at the seams and that would be that. This gives him pause, and this pause lets him consider the situation. Soma's eyes turn back to Kain, and he gives this some thought. Kain might know something, and more to the point, the *truth* of the situation is that Soma himself doesn't know much of anything. Hiding it is only going to piss him off, but talking might actually prove useful.
That doesn't mean he walks up and hands it over, however.
"The sea floor," Soma says evenly, extending one hand and pointing the blade of the dagger outwards at a safe distance. It's long, and made of an emerald-green material that seems somewhere between gemstone and glass, with a hilt made of wrapped cloth... and in the chi-saturated air, it continues to hum and rattle. "It washed up on the Chinese shore. Some fisherman trawled it out of the East China Sea, and as improbable as it sounds, that's the honest truth."
Kain winces again, touching his temple once more. The location where it apparently turned up is itself somewhat suspicious, given current circumstances. And then there's the feeling he's getting from it... Unfortunately, he's already wound up making it quite clear that he's interested in it, which would rather hamper any negotiations if Soma wanted to try using it to press Kain. Which would probably be a pretty foolish idea, of course.
Heinlein takes a deep breath, before responding, first to Vanessa. "This isn't meant to be rude, but you wouldn't understand most of what I've found here. Even I'm amazed by some of the things Ryouhara has managed to accomplish with the technology he had at his disposal. And that's why it's so dangerous for this 'ultimate weapon' of his to be left unchecked."
Then Soma extends the dagger toward him, and the reaction is somewhat unexpected. His entire body stiffens, and flickers of blue energy surround his hands for a moment. Then he drops to one knee. Then he takes a deep breath, and seems a bit steadier. Like he was caught by surprise by something.
Prolonged negotiations are not something Kain really wishes to indulge in at this time. He climbs back to a standing position, then shakes his head as if attempting to clear it out. "I'll buy it from you. Name your price." He's got a lot of money, and he doesn't really care about it. He'd be willing to spend quite a lot to finish up his goal here sooner.
"Sea floor?" Vanessa hums, her hands slowly easing up from gripping the bench. Maybe they /can/ just talk? "That's...you're right, sounds pretty out there. Especially if you think it's related to Ryohara. That guy doesn't seem like the type to just /leave/ something like that..." She tips her head, considering. "Or maybe... hm."
But Kain pushes things further before Vanessa can trace that line of consideration too far. "Hah," she says. "That's probably true. That chi stuff, little beyond me." She wiggles her fingers, sparks of gold tracing around her knuckles momentarily, but she hums, "And /that/ is about all I can do even with this place's energy feed. You seem to have it nailed down pretty well. We're working to figure it out, but..." She shrugs. "Any lead you can give us would help. I think everyone in this place is thinkin' the same thing, really." Except Ryohara's goons, obviously.
She blinks at the offer to buy it, glancing at Soma. 'Name your price', from Kain 'Uncle Moneybags' Heinlein? But then again...
What good is money in this place, now?
"Think?" Soma says to Vanessa, shaking his head, but he doesn't turn to look at her. He's keeping his eyes on Kain. You don't need psychic powers to tell that something's wrong with Heinlein, but they don't hurt. Something about the blond's demeanor is starting to scrape across Soma's instincts like a file. "I don't think it. We got in touch with oceanographers, traced the currents in that area. The lines point to where the Suiryuu sank. Add to that the fact that where there should be lots of wreckage there's... suspiciously little? Yeah. I *know* it has something to do with the Ryouhara. That's why I'm here in the first place."
But as for selling it? He's not interested in fighting Kain, and hopes it's not going to come to that, but he's also not going to hand the thing over, either. The air around the dagger seems to... distort, a bit, when Soma moves it quickly to slip back into the sheath for it on his belt, hidden in the small of his back. "It's not for sale," he says evenly. "It's my only clue, so it stays with me, sorry."
What he does not say is: and when I find whichever of those ninja bastards is responsible for this, I'm going to return it to them the hard way.
Kain's hand twitches toward the blade as Soma slips it away. That much lack of control would be pretty telling about Kain's mental state to someone who knew him. He grits his teeth and pauses for a moment. He really doesn't want to have to deal with this right now. But he wants that knife. There's a brief flicker of his eyes from Soma to Vanessa and back again. He's got some pretty decent PR going right now... it would be a shame to ruin that. On the other hand, if he /kills/ both of them, who's ever going to know, way out here? Plenty of dangerous stuff happening that could leave someone dead. There are still a few locals around, looters, the other fighters... but it'd be easy enough to dispose of the bodies without being noticed.
But Kain's not entirely sure of himself at the moment. And if one of them were to get away... well, it'd be bad. So, what are his options? He could work with them... but then he might run into a similar problem at the end of the investigation. There is, however, another option. Though it's going to be risky if he wants it to be believable. Still, nothing ventured...
Kain puts his hand to his temple again, taking a deep breath. "Okay... maybe we can work together. If I could-gnh!" Kain drops to one knee again as he starts to purposefully let some of his control slip. He's not in the best decision making frame of mind right now, but he's /pretty/ sure he can handle what he's about to do. Man, having to worry about long term consequences of your actions sucks. Well, let's see if he can slip a bit of the blame onto someone else. And he relaxes the defenses he has up trying to keep out the crushing force of the chi in the area.
The intense feeling to the air suddenly increases drastically, and the windows all along the street shatter. A moment later Kain lets out a scream of pain that is not in any way faked, as waves of brilliant blue energy begin radiating off of his body. Okay time to sell it... "I think... you'd better run..." There's a moments pause, and then Kain lets his defenses slip a little bit more. And explodes. Well, maybe not, but for a moment it's going to be hard for Vanessa and Soma to tell, since Kain's body is completely enveloped in blue white light, which starts expanding extremely rapidly, chewing up the street as it does so. And it keeps going for quite some distance. And it burns like ice.
COMBATSYS: Kain has started a fight here as a boss!
KAIN
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COMBATSYS: Soma has joined the fight here.
KAIN
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Soma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Vanessa has joined the fight here.
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Soma
COMBATSYS: Kain successfully hits Vanessa with Himmlische Seuche.
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Soma
"Now yer talkin'," Vanessa says, tipping a grin. "This damn Ryohara thing's a pain with just the two of us." She dares to briefly hope he's not lying.
And then he goes insane, and Vanessa's whole body tenses. Something's coming. What. Kain's all chi. Shit. Shit!
She's SITTING NEXT TO HIM. /Shit!/
And then he explodes, and Vanessa is plastered against the wall behind her until the wall ruptures inward, sending Vanessa through to the wall behind /that/ one, before she manages to bite out an angry, "Fuck your mother, Heinlein!" because she's on fire and that is bad for her mood. "SOMA!" she adds, hoping he can hear her over the din. "Get that damn thing away from him! I'll..." get pulverized, "hold him off!"
She shoves off, her shadow brightly visible against the brightness as she traces the distance back toward Kain and attempts to lodge her fist an inch into his face, yelling, "PUT A CORK IN IT!"
COMBATSYS: Kain successfully hits Soma with Himmlische Seuche.
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/--=====|=------\-------\0 Soma
He's got a split second to react, but Soma has two things going for him: one, his instincts, that say Kain's probably going to make a grab for the knife. Two, Vanessa's reaction resonates in his head (thank you ESP!) and gives him just that much more time to react. Plus Kain DOES warn them, though rather than looking concerned, the ICPO agent gives Heinlein a somewhat calculating look. But then the world is full of that bright chi and Soma's got to do SOMETHING to not get blown into the side of a building.
His answer is to dive for cover. The bench isn't going to help, but a nearby phone booth might. Kicking off the pavement, Soma dives to get behind the thing and put it between the oncoming wave of chi and himself. It... almost works. He manages to clip the side of the box, but not entirely avoid it. It does have the useful effect of soaking some of the wave, at least, but the fiery, frostbite-like chill seeps into his very skin, causing the ICPO agent to wince.
"Okay..." he says, stepping out from behind the now-ruined phone booth. "That... okay. I can't just leave you here to get stomped by some chi-powered psycho, which by the way, we seem to have really bad luck running into. We'll figure something out." He's got more distance to cover, but Soma looks to time his assault with Vanessa's, driving forward and doing a short hop, looking to bury his foot in Kain's face at the same time as Vanessa's fist.
COMBATSYS: Kain dodges Vanessa's Dash Puncher.
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Soma
COMBATSYS: Soma successfully hits Kain with Light Kick.
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Soma
Now, now. Kain's not foolish enough to just make a grab for the knife. Even if his decision making abilities are somewhat impaired. He wants his story to stick. Actually, they may just be so impaired that he doesn't /think/ of grabbing for the knife. When the light clears Kain /is/ still there, and still on his knees. When Vanessa punches at him he actually avoids it by slumping forward, just barely catching himself with one hand. And there he is, on hands and knees when Soma's foot smacks across his face.
And aside from his head jerking to the side, Kain doesn't really react. And then he raises his head. His eyes appear to be glowing pools of brilliant blue energy. And then he snarls. Kain is not in a good mood. He's dealing with a situation that's already overwhelming his usual carefully composed demeanor, and he rarely lets himself loose. If he /actually/ did, it would be really bad. Really bad. The man has a lot of anger. Even now he's not completely lost it, but he is angry and in pain.
There's a brief moment where Kain just glares with those glowing lights for eyes, and then he lunges for... Vanessa, trailing blue energy behind him. The energy completely covers his hand as he swipes an open palmed blow toward her, fingers hooked like claws. And making wordless, angry shouts. Shouting isn't something Kain usually does, but when you're angry and hurting it comes easily enough.
COMBATSYS: Kain successfully hits Vanessa with Medium Punch.
KAIN
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Vanessa 1/---====/=======|===----\-------\0 Soma
He's angry, in pain, and attempting to kill them, this is really enough reason for Vanessa to pull out all the stops. Nevermind that she didn't really hold back a lot the /last/ time Kain turned her into jelly...
No time to fret. He's coming.
Vanessa swings her arm up, but blocking Kain is like blocking a train; she's /done/ it but that doesn't mean she can do it on /command/. His power smashes her defense to ribbons, and Vanessa screams as the fire blasts through her and right into her. She does not go flying, although now her shirt is on even more fire than it already was. This business where her shirt gets vaporized every fight must be very stressful for the ratings committee.
Vanessa, rather than care about that, spits back in his face, "I was tryin' to be nice, sugar!" as she holds her arm up, specks of gold light forming around before whirling into a full-force gale, which she rears back. "But you shouldn't touch a lady there! HANDS OFF!"
And then she punches Kain Heinlein in the neck with a hurricane.
Soma rebounds off his kick to Kain's head, but even as it connects he knows that probably barely even registered on Heinlein's radar. As a fighter, Soma has no real glaring weaknesses, but on the flip side, he's not particularly strong in any area either. Add to that Kain's experience level toughening him up but good... well. He has enough time to notice the now glowtastic blond aim a punch square at Vanessa that sends her wailing across the area, and turns back to him with a grimace. A hand slips toward his back, and comes back holding a dagger, but it is his comparatively mundane wire-dagger, made of everyday materials, if ingeniously designed.
"Right. If there's a part of you under the surface that's processing this, you'll understand that your current Human Roman Candle act is why I can't hand the damn thing over to you," the Indian says, adjusting his grip slightly and weighing his options. If he knows Vanessa, then she's going to be--
On cue, here she am. Rock you like a hurricane.
Soma seizes his opportunity to strike. Whipping his arm around, the blade of the dagger detaches from the hilt, connected by very strong but flexible wire. Looking to wind the cable around Kain's arm, Soma does nothing less but attempt to swing Kain bodily into Vanessa's oncoming attack full-force.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Kain with Puncher Finish EX.
Glancing Blow
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Soma
COMBATSYS: Kain dodges Soma's Brihaspati.
KAIN
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Vanessa 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Soma
Kain is starting after Vanessa to follow up on his attack when he's suddenly held back by a length of wire looping around his arm. He tugs against it for a moment, then slowly turns to look at it. Then turns to look at Soma with a snarl. It's hard to read anything in his eyes, what with the blazing light, but his face makes it pretty clear he does not approve. Then the energy surrounding Kain's arm pulses for a moment, and the wire just gets shredded. Heinlein starts toward Soma... but that's when Vanessa comes in.
Kain's head whips around, but the boxer's fist is already en route. He leaps to the side, leaving a trail of blue behind him, but it's not enough to avoid being clipped by the blast in the wake of Vanessa's fist. It sends him spinning, but he manages to land in a crouch. And Vanessa's got his attention again! The raw blue chi surrounding Kain darks, becoming black fire as he sweeps an arm toward Vanessa, sending a wave of black flame shooting toward her.
COMBATSYS: Kain successfully hits Vanessa with Schwarze Flame.
KAIN
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Vanessa 1/----===/=======|====---\-------\0 Soma
Vanessa's fist swings down with all her power, and Kain surges to the side - desperately trying /not/ to get hit, but the hurricane of Vanessa's power just, /just/ knicks him --
And then Vanessa is consumed in black fire. That's all there really is to it - she struggles to get her arm in the way, but Kain's power is absolute, overwhelming fury. The next thing anyone can see of her, Vanessa is naked from the waist up, on fire, and --
"I SAID /FUCK OFF/!!"
Punching Kain in the face.
With ANOTHER HURRICANE.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa can no longer fight.
KAIN
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Soma 0/-------/---====|
This really... is not going the way Soma might have wanted. He snaps the blade of his dagger back into place, cursing that he couldn't help Vanessa more, and just as the cable winds back and the dagger is whole again, he sees the burst of black fire slam into Vanessa, grimacing as the fire consumes her, and looks back at Kain for a moment, the energy clashing across his body. Nothing more can be done for the boxing lady, it would appear, but she kept Vice from effectively eating Soma's still-beating heart, so he has a full-fledged duty to keep Kain from doing something equally bad... and it's not clear that he won't, at this stage.
The dagger -- the OTHER one -- rattles on his back. He looks at Vanessa, sees her summon up all that force, and turns back to Kain. Well, if it's hungry... time to feed, perhaps.
"Alright, you bastard," Soma says quietly, reaching behind him and feeling the cloth-wrapped hilt of the thing. The second he touches it, that disquieting feeling from before surges through his body, but at this point, the psychic detective doesn't really seem to care. Instead, he narrows his eyes at Kain. "You want it so bad..."
Then he vanishes.
Well, it LOOKS like he vanishes, but in reality he's simply amping his natural speed via Psycho Power, moving quick enough that he appears to be in one place one second, and in another place the next. The place he 'reappears' is behind Kain, and the emerald dagger in his hand crackles with silver-black psychic energy as he looks to simply stab it forward into Heinlein's back. The problem, of course, is that the dagger also appears to attract and absorb chi around it... delivering some of THAT into the wound, too. "...then TAKE IT."
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Kain with Puncher Finish.
KAIN
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Soma 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Soma successfully hits Kain with Hikoboshi's Hook.
KAIN
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Soma 0/-------/--=====|
Kain does have a lot of power at hand. But is not 100% on the ball at the moment. He's not entirely /acting/ like he's lost control. When Vanessa goes flying back on fire Kain watches for a moment, then his burning gaze sweeps around toward Soma. Only for his head to jerk back when Vanessa lunges out of the flames... but this time Kain isn't already moving. The boxer's fist slams into Kain's jaw, first knocking his head to one side, then continuing on to blow him clean off his feet. Kain is blasted backwards, hitting the ground rolling and with sparks of blue energy and black flame until he finally comes to a stop.
Heinlein gives another snarl, growing to angry wordless shout as he slams his fist into the street hard enough to shatter the surface, then pulls himself to his feet. His gaze sweeps back and forth for a moment before locking onto Soma. It's hard to tell exactly what he's looking at with the energy pouring from his eyes, but it doesn't seem like he's focused specifically on the dagger. But a moment later he's definitely focusing on the spot where Soma /was/ standing, and that's because Soma is standing behind him and stabbing the dagger into his back.
Now, being in the presence of the dagger was a little bit troublesome for Kain, but he was able to handle it after preparing himself. After all, he wouldn't be able to do much with it if he couldn't even stand to be around it. But now he's got his defenses lowered, and it's /inside/ him. Not good.
The aura around Kain flares up even brighter, light streaming from his eyes and even his mouth when he opens it to scream. This really, really wasn't a good idea, Kain. Flames flicker out all over his body, bursts of raw chi and gouts of black flame shooting out randomly as he falls to his knees, scorching walls or blasting chunks out of them. The question is if Soma is going to hang onto the blade, or just leave it lodged in there.
COMBATSYS: Kain takes no action.
KAIN
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Vanessa stands there for about two seconds, breathing heavily, grinning like a bitch and trying to come up with a sassy remark.
Then she just kind of topples like a sack of improperly balanced potatoes.
He should have seen the reaction coming, but even as Soma feels a bit of satisfaction to have landed a blow on Kain that slows him down for even a nanosecond, he realizes that this probably was not a very good idea after all. Flickers of blue and purple-black illuminate the dusky skin of the Indian's face as, surprisingly, he's transfixed on the spot, hands still gripping the hilt of the dagger and sort of too dazed to move. However, one lick of stray black flame sears the side of his face, and the burst of heat and pain seems to drag him to his senses. Grimacing, he plants his foot and tries to yank the blade out of Kain's body.
In a truly terrifying moment, *it doesn't actually want to leave.*
THAT takes Soma even more by surprise, and licks of errant energy, Kain's incredible ability with chi lashing at the ICPO agent's body with sparks of flame and blue light as Soma brings his other hand forward and, gripping the weapon, all but heaves his entire body backward, yanking the weapon free and sending him hurtling backwards in an ungainly backward roll, one that turns into a three-point crouch once Soma comes to his senses, one hand pressed down to the ground, splay-fingered, to bring him to a stop.
He struggles to get to his feet... while physically he's not that much the worse for wear, the longer this goes on the greater his migraine is getting. Thankfully more or less chi-blind, Soma's empathic abilities are nevertheless giving him the headache of the century now... Vanessa's pain, Kain's clearly altered state, both filter through, causing him to bring one hand up and hold it over his face, his other hand holding the problematic dagger in a sort of boneless way, dangling low. His voice is a raspy growl when he does speak. "Right. Now that that's sorted, I suggest you go somewhere nice away from all this and let the professionals work this out. Then everything will be hunky-dory and I won't have to drive this thing through your eye socket."
COMBATSYS: Soma takes no action.
KAIN
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After falling to his knees, Kain doesn't seem to be in any particular hurry to get back up. Soma has the dagger... and now he knows that it's an effective weapon against Kain. Under these circumstances, anyway. And Kain is still feeling the aftereffects of being stabbed, and blood loss is the least important of them. If he doesn't dial it back pretty soon, he's going to be in some serious trouble, to the point where the dagger isn't worth the risk. It would be extremely useful to have, but he doesn't /need/ it. So time to try to cut his losses.
Energy continues to flicker out around Kain, and it's going to take him some to bring that under control, but he manages to dial it back enough to let his eyes become visible again. He looks up at Soma, gritting his teeth. "You /really/... need to get out of here! I don't know how long it's going to take for me to get this under control." Cracks race out from the spot where Kain's hand rests on the street, black flames rising up from them. Blowing up Soma is tempting... but Kain is worried that it might well be possible for him to burn himself out if he tries to channel too much power in this state. And this is why Plan B exists, kids.
COMBATSYS: Kain takes no action.
KAIN
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There's a very tense moment as Soma seems to be in a standoff with Kain, staring at the blond and trying to make this make sense. In the end, however, Heinlein speaks up, and Soma is too practical to try to cut the man's face off when he's got a chance to pick up his partner and go. If Kain really wanted to kill/explode/incinerate Soma, he's had plenty of chances by now... the ICPO agent isn't going to bank on seeing how far he can stretch Kain's willpower, especially when his own is failing.
But he doesn't move carelessly. The dagger goes back into its sheath across his back, and Soma doesn't so much run as crabwalk/circle around toward where Vanessa lies, ducking down without turning away. He unties the black jacket from around his waist, and drapes it over one arm, trying to heave Vanessa up with the other, supporting her with his shoulder and, if she's awake enough to do it, easing her into the jacket so she's covered up.
Once that's settled, he starts taking a few steps backward, supporting Vanessa on the one side and drawing his service handgun with the other, pointing the M9 in Kain's direction. The gesture is entirely symbolic; against a real fighter the gun is more annoyance than real weapon, but as far as the ICPO agent is concerned, this says: back the hell off while we duck out of the area, thank you so much. "You alright?" he says sidelong to her, moving away from Kain.
Kain, meanwhile, is quite busy trying to stop the fireworks show that's still going on around him. It's hard enough without the pain in his back from being stabbed, although at least the immediate effects of being stabbed with the dagger are wearing off. There's still the matter of closing the floodgates that he started opening up, though. And if nothing else, he got a very good feel for the energy contained in the dagger when he was stuck with it. Not as useful as having the actual item to study, but it's something.
Vanessa mutters, "He blew up my shirt. /And/ my suspenders. You have any idea how much these things weigh?"
Then, with less bitter sarcasm, adds, "...I'll live. Thanks for the cover. You could've left me, and you didn't." She throws a bloody-faced and more than slightly singed grin at Soma, adding, "And the jacket's a nice plus, too."
Gh. She lets Soma walk her away, grunting for air. "...I gotta get some rest. See to the burns a little. Then we can...do whatever else were gonna do."
"I got lots of jackets," Soma says with a smirk, and once they're a good distance away from Kain, he holsters his weapon and devotes his full energy to supporting Vanessa. Hopefully it shouldn't be too long a walk to the Sanctum infirmary from here, and at least there is considered sufficient 'neutral ground' that nobody's going to try and walk up and kill them before the pugilist agent has had time to heal. "You know, if we get out of this alive, let's have a drink sometime and think of all the body parts we're going to cut off Seishirou someday."
For a moment, he turns his head to look back in Kain's direction and finds that the blond didn't expode into some sort of Akira-style domed explosion, which is a good thing. His memories of yanking that weapon out of Heinlein's back, however, haunt him. He's been using it because he has to, as far as Soma's concerned, but just what IS this thing that came to him from the sea? What does it have to do with this... 'this', he asks himself, looking at the destruction of Taizhou.
"We'll get you patched up. Maybe some rare steak and Guiness, that's how they do it in England. Then, well... I think that's proof enough we should figure out exactly what's up with this thing. No more answering messed up text messages..."
He glances into the distance, at the pristine white, science fiction-looking Sanctum HQ building.
"...we should get it right from the source."
Log created on 18:34:05 05/30/2010 by Soma, and last modified on 14:12:49 05/31/2010.