Description: Vega returns from the dead and tests his new body out on Juri.
For being run by a dead master, Shadaloo seems to be running fine. Such is the benefit of running one's organization in a military fashion: the arms know what to tell their hands to do, while the fingers dutifully obey their master's word. The assaults on the base haven't yet ended, but the last team of troops had been run off nearly a week ago. It's a lull, time that the 'good guys' are spending in preparation and planning, wondering just how to conquer the base next. It's taking longer than they'd thought, but they know what with Vega dead, it's only a matter of time.
It's odd, then, that Shadaloo's forces still have such high morale, isn't it? Few ever really get to see the boss in person anyway, left with commands over loudspeakers and video. Surely they had heard of their leader's demise? The answer to that is: apparently not, given how so many of them stand at attention and salute their vat-fresh ruler as his creaking boots carry him through the halls. Having emerged from the mixture of amniotic fluid and electrodes not even an hour prior, he still reeks of science. His damp uniform sticks to his newly-grown flesh, but the sight is hidden beneath the furled cloak that he's so often seen in. His first order had been to prepare the training center, to gather a squad of his elites to test himself against. The muscles still feel tight, the sensations of touch and heat distant in his extremities. This will be a good exercise, one that will let him reaquaint himself with the moorings of flesh.
However, it seems that those same elites that he had meant to match up against were already dispatched...for /Juri's/ practice. Considerable foes against any normal man, she should be able to make quick work of them after the hours that 'recalibration' keeps her locked up and tinkered with. Fighting or not, Lord Vega steps through the hydraulic door. Any and all soldiers stop what they're doing to salute...even any that might still be fighting the psychotic little skank.
Juri was not happy, no... not one little bit.
When she was returned from her Ninja Death Island Adventure she was in dire shape indeed. Bones were broken, skin was charred, copious amounts of blood was lost. In truth she should have been dead, in truth she would have been dead were it not for her own potent force of will. The psycho power within her refused to let her die but was all too willing to let her suffer.
When she awoke her wounds were almost entirely healed, and she found herself once again half blind. The damp metallic nest within her left eye socket, meant to hold her precious Feng Shui engine, was hidden from sight by her eyepatch. It wouldn't be long then that the eyepatched woman would end up banging on Seth's door demanding how long it would take for him to fix up her toy. The answer? Not long.
A brief trip to the implantation chamber later and Juri was as good as new once more. Even better, perhaps. Seth used the combat data to upgrade and repair the Feng Shui Engine. The energy flow through her body was smoother than ever before, and this is the only detail she cared about.
Juri was about to leave the research lab when she was stopped and informed that due to the upgrades she would need to report to the training center for calibration. The soldier delivering the message, little more than a recruit, shuddered from the venom in her glare but was otherwise spared. Even with Vega dead, and even with Juri as psychotic as she is, she's not crazy enough to start a fist fight in the middle of the base.
Skipping ahead some, Juri is ruthlessly putting the finishing touches on one of the elites she had been pitted up against! A maniac cackle resounds as she feels the man's sternum crack under the force of her bare foot, pressing him against the padded floor. She speaks softly "Well ... looks like someone is getting a free trip to the infirmary. Hm?"
Before Vega even arrives a cold bead of sweat runs down the side of Juri's face. She feels something familiar. Something that she hasn't felt since, no, it couldn't be! But this ache in her left eye ... this phantom pain of her lost body part. Usually she only feels it when...
"Vega."
She growls that name as the soldiers around her stand to salute their dear leader. Juri offers no such salute, only a hard cold glare and the words, "No fucking way." With a single kick she sends the downed body of the soldier rolling across to the side of the room. "What is this, some kind of joke? Well I ain't laughing. Who the hell are you?" Not that she needs to ask - some part of her knows. She just wants to hear him say it.
"It looks like Seth's done his work well," the great Lord said, his voice rich and deep. It's a voice that seems to ring throughout the room with even the slightest word, and while his men might not have done anything wrong, not a single one of them moves from the position of respect. It's difficult for some to maintain that posture when he comes too close. Booted steps take him around the room's circumference. Pure white eyes make it difficult to see whom exactly he's looking at, but the target /knows/. It's as though just making eye contact is enough to make knees buckle with dread. The wide grin on his face just makes it even worse.
Finally, he comes upon the poor man who'd been so cruelly battered. Vega's grip catches the front of his uniform, making sure that the poor slob's own body weight pulls against broken bones with sharp tips that tear through muscle little by little. The piercing screams tell clearly the sheer pain he's going through, which is even more frightening. Vega's elites /never/ scream, not once. With a simple, seemingly effortless flick of his arm, the poor sod is tossed back toward his prior assailant, discarded in a simple test of new muscles' strength. Not a single solder breaks rank to help him up.
That done, he starts stepping toward Juri, each lifting of his feet slow, imposing. The pads on the floor are crushed audibly beneath his weight. "Had you forgotten who it is that you serve?" he asks rhetorically. The edges of his eyes flare with purple sparks, the entire whites tinted with the light. "No matter what that simple mind of yours wishes to deny, you know that Lord Vega is immortal, beyond the grip of Death." He stops but an arm's reach away, his posture impeccably straight, his guard apparently open. Fearless, he could be described. Elated, perhaps, with how wide he grins, the number of brand new teeth on full display.
"But perhaps, with that eye of yours, you might even succeed where greater men have failed..." His voice trails off, but as if to make up for the lack of intensity, he suddenly swings one arm outward. his cloak billows out, unfurling from around him to reveal the uniform that that the Widow knows so well. "Come at me! Kill me! Show me the pain of your loss and depths of your vengeance!" The extended arm pulls back, bent at the elbow with its hand clenching into a fist. His body glows with the faint outline of violet power, chilling the room around him. Despite that, the soldiers sweat nervously in their salute, every single one backing away as close to the walls as they can...
COMBATSYS: Vega has started a fight here.
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Vega 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Juri has joined the fight here.
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Vega 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Juri
From the field of vision within Juri's left eye, the Feng Shui Engine, readouts begin to click into place. She can see the flow of energy running through his body, and around it. With this device she can confirm what she already knows: The intensity of his psycho power of unmatched, even by someone as mighty as her. When her previous victim is returned to her via casual toss she simply deflects him with a swipe or her hand. She's still scowling, her head tilted to the side and she listens very carefully to the man's voice. Within her mind she is trying to determine: What doesn't match? What doesn't fit? There has to be something. Something somewhere that reveals the lie.
There is nothing.
The S.I.N. Spider's eyes slide close slowly as Vega delivers the last bit of his speech, demanding she come at him and kill him. At first she stands quiet - but then her body begins to quake. Is she shivering with fear? No. Her entire body convulses and suddenly her head jerks back as a loud, uncontrolled laugh shakes her body from her shoulders all the way down to her toes!
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! OH MAN... this has to be a dream." She lowers her head and places her right arm on the hip, the other arm allowed to dangle loosely at her side, as she continues, "After I heard you died I was disappointed. So... /so/ disappointed. But now you're here, again, just for me!" She snaps her head to the right so Vega can only see the profile of her face. Left eye opens, now glowing furiously with garish purple light as a high pitched whine eminates from the Feng Shui Engine. A manic grin spreads across her face, "Don't worry... 'Lord' Vega. I'll send you back to Hell! AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES!"
Her body crouches slightly before she launches herself into the air! She'll use her incredible, sudden momentum to try and take the larger figure by surprise with a powerful kick to his chest! Should this land successfully it'll be followed by an upward rising knee directly to that craggy chin of his to launch him into the air! After that it shall be followed with another kick to the side, followed with a spinning kick to the stomach intent to blast him backwards and against one of the padded walls!
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Vega with Shikusen.
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Vega 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Juri
Indeed, the man before her can be nobody BUT Vega. Who else would dare tread upon his domain so brazenly in the midst of so many guards? It's possible, perhaps, that the eggheads down in the restricted quarters had managed to fashion together a clone, infused it with shreds of Psycho Power to keep the rabble in line. It's a theory that only gains credibility with the way he's suddenly assaulted and not only hit, but thrown around like somebody half his size! There's a rush of forced breath, the clicking of teeth and grunts brought about by violent impact after impact... When he's sent flying toward the wall, only then do some of the soldiers move. Can this really be their invincible master?!
His back to the wall, knees lifted with his ass and feet pressed into the padded floor, his head lowered... Was this really all that the dictator had to offer? A twitch of his finger tells otherwise. There's the clank of metal as he rises up, pushing against the wall behind --no, it's not the wall. The nearest soldier that had ducked aside, one that had let Vega smash into the barrier instead of protecting him with his own body...it's him that he pushes against. With his giant hand wrapped around the poor bastard's neck, he keeps the soldier pinned to the wall as though stapled.
And then he starts to laugh.
The air in the room is even more oppressive than it had been merely minutes prior. Despite being kicked and kicked and kicked again, the Shadaloo lord rises and shakes with what /appears/ to be uncontrolled delight! "Ah, yes...!" What? Had death turned him masochistic? He looks upon his failed Doll with a wicked smile, one that he maintains even as, with a jerk of his wrist and a sickening wet crack, he breaks the neck of the man he'd been holding to the wall. "No..." He felt that attack. That was good. But his reflexes are slow. Even now, his nerves fight to tell his brain just what the tips of his fingers are doing. "No. Are you holding back on me?" The grip on the dead man's neck tightens further. His thumb jabs into the flesh, ushering forth a stream of fresh arterial blood. With each step he takes back toward the center of the room, the violet fire grows in intensity, even going so far as to overtake the dragged sack of flesh.
"ARE YOU TOYING WITH ME?!" With a blood-curdling yell, he swings the corpse, alight with corrosive Psycho energy, like one would an oversized club. And again. His motions are brutal, swinging out those metal shinguards to try and catch Juri wherever she may dodge. God help her if he manages to get his other hand on her body, lest she feel what it's like to be a rag doll in the clutches of a frenzied hound, shaken and jarred and thrown across all of creation.
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Juri with Fierce Combo.
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Vega 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\0 Juri
Juri is STILL not happy.
What? Her attack hit after all. And it had that familiar feeling of flesh crumpling against her ruthless heel. However there were no bones cracking, no sinew tearing. It was like hitting a brick shithouse. Still when she lands from her attack she is laughing. A joyless uncontrolled laugh, "Ahhh... is that really it, 'Lord' Vega. At this rate you'll be nothing but a crimson smear on the floor. I really will have to thank Seth for setting this up for me. Even if you are just some two-bit copy."
Soon her eyes will narrow though. She watches as Vega rises and moves very powerfully! Suddenly he is upon her swinging one of his own men as some sort of makeshift club. Unexpected, and without any time to effectively dodge after expending so much energy in her last attack the best she can hope for is block. She raises one leg and then braces that leg with her arms. A formidible defense under most circumstances. MOST circumstances.
This is NOT most circumstances.
Vega's attack violently blows her leg to the side! It wrenches painfully within its socket, and nearly is dislocated from her hip entirely. Not good, her block is blown through and she only has time to look Vega square in the face with a mixture of frustration and anguish before his hand grabs her by the throat as well. A strangled screech is all the sound she makes as she is flung around the padded room like a ragdoll. Searing, fire-like psycho power encapsulates her smaller frame and overwhelms her entirely! The entire world goes dark...
An eternity passes...
Then with a bright flash the world returns! Juri grits her teeth tight as she grabs onto Vega's arm, still clenching her throat within its meaty yet steel-like confines. She steadies herself using her grip, regains some of her balance and waits for the moment to strike ...
NOW!
At the moment Vega's grip is weakest in mid-swing she twists her body and slips from his grip. Then, swinging on his arm, she twists through the air to deliver a painful upwards kick! Her trajectory doesn't stop though and soon her other foot will attempt to connect with his chest. She spins along the ground, sideways, attempting to deliver four painful cartwheel kicks in total before landing. No taunts right now ... no, not with her windpipe so painfully crushed.
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Juri's Senpusha.
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Vega 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Juri
As Vega gives himself up to his violent temper, everything starts to slip into place. The sound of blood hitting the mats, the terrible dull smack of clothing against a tempermental girl. The sounds are as familiar to him as his own voice. Impacts of flesh tell him that his strikes are landing true. The flood of adrenaline spikes his consciousness. For the first time, he can feel the tips of his fingers and the stickiness of blood running over some of them. As he swings his soldier around, small arcs of crimson fly out to leave awful trails on whatever surface they land upon. His men are frozen. One dared to simply /move/, and for his efforts he was rewarded not only with death, but the degrading use as a weapon after his demise. There's no respect for the dead or the weak. The man before them, the one brutalizing the girl that has been so famous for being a ruthless, incredibly effective killer, is nothing but a toy. A warm-up. A test.
"RRRRH!" Vega doesn't appear to even flinch as legs come flying in at him again. The first kick is taken by the aforementioned deceased. He feels like a wet sack, full of broken bones and internal ruptures. Saggy, floppy...now, useless. Throwing the dead man to the ground, his reflexes have seem to have caught up to speed. He was /expecting/ an assault at first. This one is supposed to take him by surprise, to be more effective than the last.
It doesn't fare well at all.
Feet and shins collide against his metal bracers time and time again, each impact ringing through his thick arms in irritable vibrations. He doesn't even wait for his plaything to compose herself; the reward for her efforts is the great and terrible ruler's boot coming toward the throat he'd already tenderized. She's seen this move before, and it's only more painful with the wall so close. It just gives him something to pin her against, something to help his foot press and crush before its inevitable hefting. It seems that the man before the little Korean takes great pleasure in throwing her around the room.
"Is that it?! Your sow of a mother put up a better fight than this, little girl!" It's bad enough that he's insulting one of her parents. What makes it worse is that he's /smiling/ through it.
COMBATSYS: Juri dodges Vega's Dead Rise.
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Vega 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Juri
Make no mistake, Juri is pretty screwed up right now. At first she only produces gasping wheezes, but when her throat opens more she produces a wet sounding cough. Blood flows freely between her teeth, past her lips, and down her chin. Heavy internal injuries, indeed. At this rate it'll be a trip to the infirmary for her as well. Blessfully nothing is broken yet, but she seems unable or unwilling to put much weight on her right leg - the very same leg Vega's attack so brutally pushed aside.
What she lacks in words she makes up in glares. Her violet colored eyes smolder with barely contained hatred. When Vega's attack comes for her - that hateful metal boot of his launching toward her poor abused neck it would seem at first that she is a goner!
Then suddenly her left eye flashes, and with a blur she is gone! Or rather she has moved about a meter to the side and has to slide to a stop on all fours. Stopping as it so happens right next to another elite. When she stands she will glance at him over her left shoulder and growl, "Move or die."
He chooses the latter option. Though not as infamous as Vega, Juri's reputation does not lag far behind. Being assigned for one of her calibration sessions had at least a decent likelihood of ending up permanently disappearing from Shadaloo forever - either because you're dead, or all your limbs don't work properly anymore. Make no mistakes: Training Juri was expensive.
"You like talking smack about my parents... huh? I get it. You killed them. Or at least the 'you' you're pretending to be." Her left eye glows dully as it focuses on Vega. More advanced readouts display across her field of vision indicating potential weak points and suggesting courses of action. However for this to work she has to stand still and watch him carefully... "I don't give a fuck about them anymore though. This is between you, and /me/." She would laugh now ... but her throat hurts like Hell so she thinks better of it.
COMBATSYS: Juri focuses on her next action.
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Vega 0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0 Juri
His leg snaps out, shinguards giving a single clank as his foot bends at a ninety degree angle...and remains there. Even after she's disappeared to the far wall, he remains in place, moored by that single, planted foot.
He lowers the other leg slowly, coming to stand on both equally. His arms fold across his gargantuan chest. His expression hadn't changed, though the aura of seething malice around him fades considerably. Before long, the only shreds of visible Psycho Power are seen as fiery wisps at the corners of his eyes. It's a wonder that he can see anything; it's evidence that he's been tampered with. Tinkered. The difference is that his alterations have come about willingly. He can only laugh at Juri's petty attempts to insinuate that he is anyone but himself. The room, once more, rings with his deep-throated laughter. He finds it to be a much more impressive use of acoustics than having to suffer through her high-pitched screeching. Honestly, the troops would just as soon hear neither.
"Deluded child, who but the great Lord Vega put up with such insolence? Your incessant suckling on your dead mother's teat has tempered the flawed teachings your previous masters gave you. It makes you /useful/." As the words spill from his lips, that violet outline returns anew...and it's growing. Tendrils of dark energy creep out from every inch of his body, writhing as if seeking some poor soul stupid enough to come near. His eyes burn so brightly that they appear nearly white once again through the awful energies. The sensors in Juri's artificial eye must surely tell her what folly it is to think him as a mere clone. The glut of power rises, swells, and thrashes about visibly. The room, despite being so far underground, suffers rumblings as though locked in a natural tremor.
"You know... I don't even remember /why/ I killed them. I don't have time to acquaint myself with every pitiful ant that falls beneath my boot."
COMBATSYS: Vega gathers his will.
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Vega 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Juri
Now is the time to fire back with a clever, deep philosophical jab. Or perhaps to let your rage flow out and scream with all your rage, all your fury! Breaking down and crying is another option... but no, Juri just stares at Vega passively and with one eyebrow quirked. One side of her face tugs her lips back, revealing her teeth in a somewhat unsettling looking snear. She says coldly in response, "Whatever."
That is when the room starts shaking - it's incredible really. Warning lights flare from within her field of vision as it indicates that the entire room, more or less, is filled with the incredible psychic pressure flowing from Vega! No... maybe more than the entire room! There is no doubt now. "So what if you're the real deal. It doesn't change anything. Just suffer and die already!"
Her voice breaks out into a sudden cackle and within moments she is moving across the room with incredible speed! First across the room, then she flips up into the air and lands on the ceiling. She pushes off from the ceiling and attempts to twist through the air as to deliver a painful looking downward crescent kick directly to the Shadaloo Dictator's face!
"Almost ready!!!"
COMBATSYS: Vega just-defends Juri's Medium Kick!
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Vega 1/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Juri
Once more does Vega's expression fade into an awful scowl. Getting under the girl's skin was ever so delightful! However, to see her slip back into the detached personality that he'd heard about so often is a good thing. It means, to him, that her focus is back, that she's ready to stop playing around.
It seems that he was wrong.
By the time the room starts shaking, even Vega's best-trained men know better than to stick around. Bodies flood through the exit in short order, leaving none but Juri, Vega, and a couple of dead or injured soldiers. The poor bastard...nobody even stopped to pick up the that had been injured for medical treatment. No matter; there are always more people to take his place if he dies, and if he doesn't, it just shows how strong he is.
When the Widow jumps, her supreme master doesn't budge even an inch backward. No, he's actually...rising. Floating off the ground just enough for his feet to hang and dangle over the abused, blood-smeared mat, Vega waits. His face, his eyes, nothing moves after she's sprung into action. By all rights, it looks like he's just waiting to see how much damage this girl can do.
"I am severely disappointed."
...What? How...?! She should have felt her foot connect with his body, and yet he didn't give at all! Fingers curl and grip around Juri's foot, and then the secret is revealed: he'd simply caught it as though it were nothing, like collecting a falling leaf. What's even worse is that he didn't even have to unfold his arms to do it. There's another surge of power on the artificial eye's overlay as massive gouts of energy gather toward the palm he's holding his prey with. The knowledge might be her only chance to escape his grip before she finds herself consumed in a sudden burst of virulent, corroding power. Some have likened it to bathing one's entire nervous system in battery acid, without the benefit of endorphins.
COMBATSYS: Juri dodges Vega's Psycho Wave.
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Vega 0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Juri
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Vega 0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Juri
When her foot connects, everything seems to go wrong. It seems to connect with his palm as gently as the cloth rustling around her legs. Her left eye alights with dangerous energy as she growls loudly, "Why you..." Mere moments before the next blow connects though, Juri vanishes once again! This time she has landed on the ground before Vega. She moved with such incredible speed that one of her 'horns', loose from the earlier attack Vega delivered upon her, fully unfurls in a black cascade down her back. Her left eye glows ominously from behind the pitch waterfall as she hisses through bloody teeth, "Go to Hell."
The first time she says it she merely whispers it. Now it's her turn though: Bright purple energy swirls vibrantly from within her body. The room doesn't shake, rattle, or even vibrate but it is soon domianted by what appears to be a massive violet typhoon! It begins simply enough. A swirling, spining kick alight with psycho power to try and sweep Vega off his feet. She will then push off the floor with her hand in an attempt to rise upward: Hopefully with Vega's body bearing the brunt of the full fury of her whirlwind kick!
"GO TO HELL!!!" She demands: But whether Vega is doomed to this hell will depend on what he does in the next few instants.
COMBATSYS: Vega fails to reflect Kaisen Dankairaku from Juri with Psycho Vanish.
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Vega 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Juri
And lo, it begins.
Up until now, Juri had been restraining all her anger. All her hate. All her rage deep within her body. This dark seed, planted in the fertile soil of anguish and pain blossomed and radiated outwards in massive twining branches of spiked thorns. Unleashed now in all its terrible beauty upon Vega's form as she rises in the air! Air charged with billowing violet psycho power whips around the pair as Juri delivers kick after painful kick - battering Vega's body with all the might her small body can muster.
At the apex of her attack, the Shadaloo Dictator is left floating in mid-air from the inertia of Juri's attack. Vega will then be able to her rising above him - her body wreathed in her unique swirling violet energy as she raises her foot high in the air! This same foot shall be delivered downward with bonecrushing force upon Vega's head and send his much larger frame crashing toward the ground! Impact will be painful.
WOULD be painful.
If Juri had any intention of letting him hit the ground so easily. Instead he will soon be able to see Juri streaking by out of the corner of his eye. Using the ceiling she has leaped down faster than he was falling, and a few scant seconds earlier than his own crash landing she sticks her own. On all fours she slides across the ground from the pure momentum she had built up. Then, without a moment to waste, she stands and spins on her heel to deliver a painful upwards kick!
The heel of her foot lovingly bends Vega's spine over itself while Juri maintains a vertical standing split. After all of this, Vega will be able to see Juri out of the corner of his left eye - her own left eye still glowing with bright lavender light. She chuckles to herself as she carresses that mighty chin of his, "Now... disappear!" With that she will spin on her heel again, but this time to deliver Vega over and downward head-and-neck first into the padded floor below!
Tch. Vega's impressive display of excess energy simply leaks away from his new shell, useless against his nimble underling. However, that's twice now that she's slipped from his grasp. Perhaps SIN needs a little motivation to perfect its technology, but her natural fleetness is terribly impressive. His hand, now empty, closes into a balled fist, his gaze set upon it. "Perhaps there's hope aft--"
It's not the display of energy Juri has at her command that stops his tongue, no matter what an achievement it may be. It's a typhoon that he sees coming, after all. His body, already engulfed in an excess of visible power, contracts and coats from him head to toe in brilliant bright light. In a moment, he'll simply be standing somewhere else, unharmed and ready to punish her for this mistake.
Imagine his surprise when his body doesn't move.
It's his turn to be battered and thrown about. His sturdiness from earlier seems like such a lie now, so easily is he hefted and smashed about. Loud grunts and glutteral noises that might /remotely/ resemble pain come with each crushing blow. A gurgle escapes him once he's found himself bent over the girl's foot. So much force does she put upon the object on her hatred that the very floor breaks beneath her victim, thick slabs of concrete cracking and lifting up in a wide circle around the point of impact.
For a moment, he remains still...and then, as though an /extremely/ delayed reaction, he disappears, blinking out of existance. The terrible presence winks into reality far behind the SIN toy, his uniform ripped and torn in various places, often over bloody scrapes. His cap is gone, having been lost somewhere in the whirlwind of pain. Boots are spread at shoulder-length, half-hidden by the cape that flutters down after being pulled through space. Again, his arm is out, fist clenched. He stares at it instead of Juri, flexing and curling the digits twice. Now he's getting it... He bears a look of mild contemplation...and then he looks up. Despite being smashed so thoroughly, put through an assault that would break almost any man, he's still standing with an overjoyed, but somehow mocking sneer on his lips.
"Has the illusion of victory taken your memory? You forget, I'VE BEEN THERE!" He bellows loudly, deeply, the mats doing an impressive job of stifling any booming echoes.
DISAPPEAR she ordered. DISAPPEAR he did. But there is no satisfaction yet. Juri's foot is lowered and she turns her head to look over her shoulder. From the back Vega will be able to see half of a spider. Its four legs are torn and ragged, with large contusions forming where Juri was earlier tossed around like a doll. Vega might know, or might not have cared, that Juri developed a fascination with spiders soon after she was dropped from the Doll program. Should one invade her cell she would watch them endlessly enraptured. One time a cell mate crushed the spider she was watching.
And Juri crushed her cell mate.
From the past and back into the present we arrive: Juri and Vega standing now at opposite ends of the room. "Ahaha..." She laughs, slow at first, "...HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Rising into an uncontrolled cackle that shakes her entire form! Her body turns so that her left side is facing Vega as she raises her left foot to gently shake it off. The same foot Vega's spine was curled around just moments earlier. "I don't know why I let myself get distracted with such /weaklings/." She finishes insincerely, "'Lord' Vega."
She swaggers toward him now with one hand pressed against her hip and the other held loose. Her head is cocked slightly as she speaks, "You know. I've been to Hell too. You sent me there." Brief flashbacks of memories of the Doll project, of her time in S.I.N.. She hisses through her teeth, "And I've never, ever been able to thank you properly. But this." Her left hand raises to point at her dully glowing eye, "This has changed everything." The eye flashes, and within an instant she is just a few scant feet from Vega, wind whipping her pants leg as she attempts to thrust her leg and foot directly into Vega's stomach and force him back against the wall!
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Juri's Thrust Kick.
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Vega 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Juri
What of it? Juri didn't make the cut. Vega made sure that she knew it, too. If not him, though, somebody else. He'd gone through a lot of guards while she were still in her cell... It would have been easier to simply brainwash her into an obedient little girl. Then again, had he done so, he wouldn't have such an /entertaining/ subordinate.
Still, however, she dares to call him weak. To belittle his might, his place in the universe! It's enraging...so much that his emotions spill over into unbridled joy. "The pawn thinks itself a Queen!" There is no other way for him to look at her but the crying little thing he'd picked up so many years ago. In his mind, she never had a chance. These...wounds, if he would ever lower himself to call them such, could never be attributed to any real weakness on his behalf.
But then, he'd thought the same before, when he was well and truly killed.
In an instant, his mocking smile fades into a stern expression. His eyes grow cold and pure white again, unmarred by any leaking of excess energy. The light in the room returns to its previous brightness, no longer shadowed by a pervasive will. He stands rock-steady, lifting an arm to meet the incoming kick. His freshly-grown bones creak with the impact, muscle and blood vessels compressed. He'll have a bruise there, but nothing more serious. Without a single word, without even opening his mouth to mock her efforts, he retaliates in a simple, swift strike with the other arm, his fingers bent at the second knuckles as they try to crush the pest's irritatingly boisterous throat once again.
COMBATSYS: Juri blocks Vega's Aggressive Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Vega 1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0 Juri
Regretfully her kick doesn't strike home ... but she'll make damn sure that Vega's fist meets a similar fate! And so when he lashes out at her, his strike is swiftly met by her open hand gripping his fist and stopping it mere inches from her face! The flaring black psycho energy from Vega's attack leaks from between her fingers as she laughs gleefully! "And you're nothing, just a shadow of a nightmare." She cocks her head to the left as she sneers, the black waterfall of her loose hair flowing free over her shoulder. "A broken piece that thinks it can still play." Her psycho power flares as she grips the fist as tight as she can manage... though she sheer mass of Vega's hand makes it nearly impossible. "But I like the sound of that ... a Queen."
Juri's voice laughs again as she releases Vega's fist. But she isn't quite done yet. Soon her foot will rise above the dictator's head. She'll attempt to snag Vega with her foot and pull him down to her level, and then lower by stomping her foot down atop his unadorned head. If successful she'll drive him into the floor, and deliver even more punishment...
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Vega with Assatsu Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vega 1/---====/=======|=------\-------\0 Juri
"ON!
The first stomp delivers his face into the ground.
"YOUR!"
The second stomp will be delivered to his upper back.
"KNEES!"
With a loud cackle she delivers one final mighty stomp to Vega's lower back. So much force is put behind that final kick that she is able to leap up and away from the dictator's downed body. She glances at him over her shoulder, "Now... kneel before me, weakling!"
It's humiliating, that's what this is. Sure, he'd intended to just give his new body a test. The scientests told him that he'd need more testing done, to make sure that his soul (hah!) had properly integrated. His difficulty with teleporting earlier told that he DID need more work. It's just a difficult thing to admit, him being imperfect. Despite having to suffer the humility of death once, it's hard for one's personality to change so simply.
Because, really, that's all death is. It's a simple inconvenience. Kill him, shred him, spread his ashes to the winds... It's simply postponing the inevitable.
Still, Lord Vega's patience has its limits. His body feels sluggish as he tries to position himself advantageously, to evade the simplistic, straight-forward assault. Though he can see it coming, the flesh can't keep up. Barely a single word can leave his lips before his face in smashed into the already-ruined flood. Both palms press into the mats, lifting his head from the rubble.
"...Kill you, you are NOTH--"
Crushed anew, smears of blood can be seen on the floor whenever he lifts himself. And yet he just keeps doing it. It's painful--incredibly so. It shows that the nerve endings work as they should; an unnecessary work on the doctors' behalf. Right now, that's not important. No... No. This PEON has the audacity to command him to kneel, to grind his face in the floor like some sort of commoner.
Once again, the air feels chill. The lights not only dim, but flicker and die completely. The emergency lights keep the room bathed in a dull red light that's almost entirely overtaken by the bright violent maelstrom of lightning and fire that gathers along every inch of Vega's body...
COMBATSYS: Vega knocks away Juri with Final Psycho Crusher+!
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Vega 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 Juri
"ENOUGH!"
Once again, the very room starts to shake. The sheer amount of Psycho power flooding from the great Lord's body is just...immeasurable, even to Juri's Shadaloo-designed devices. The air feels so heavy and thick as to choke mortal men, to strip away their breath and leave their legs weak and useless. So much hate and wrath courses through Vega's body that it's palable. His eyes are so bright that the rest of his body looks black beneath the outline of virulent power. Try as she might, there's no way to hold him down. There's no way to KEEP him down. He lifts himself as though he were getting out of bed...only he'd just woken up from a bad dream and is /supremely/ pissed off.
"You know nothing of true power. You cling to technology given by ME. Without me, you would be worth even LESS than you are now." Only know must he truly look dangerous. Mats melt against the power that bleeds off of him as he steps closer. He exhudes malice and dread...and the only exit, currently, is behind him.
"Pathetic child." The already disgusting glut of force building in his body further swells. Is there no limit to how much Psycho Power he holds within his body?! Can one ever see into the bottomless well of might he wields?! She's but seconds to ponder such things before his form lurches forward, propelled as though shot from a rocket already in flight. His right hand presses into her stomach with such force that it could leave its imprint upon iron. Luckily for him, she is merely flesh, and the wall behind her concrete.
But even that can not stop Lord Vega when he's truly incensed.
For all of her ruining of his floor, he continues to press and push. Concrete gives way, feet of thick slabs hard enough to protect the base from the deepest shellings. As he drills the 'delicate' body, spinning, through the earth, the fact that stone gives way to roots and dirt must be an incredible respite...and all of a sudden, there's no resistance whatsoever. The light of day is scarcely seen on the jungle floor as the man bursts out from underground, slowing himself just before piercing through the thick canopy of foliage.
As for the 'Widow', well... Good luck with the landing.
Over-confidence... that is Juri's one true enemy. And once again it proves to be her undoing. Her eyes widen as warning after warning after warning flashes over her left viewpoint. Impossible! His body is nearly failing and yet he's simply growing stronger? How could it be unless ... no... no she knew this from the very beginning. All of her knew this to be true. From the very first cold bead of sweat until the final moment before Vega unleashes his might upon her. Juri only has enough time to turn and fully face her doom.
"VEGA!!!"
This is the last thing she can say before the very air is sucked out of her lungs by the thick miasma of psycho power. And then he launches himself at her! No way... no where to dodge to in this small room. Block? As if it were possible, you might as well be dreaming. No she can only grit her teeth and try to endure this much. There is nothing left for her to do.
Absolutely useless.
Juri's back is the first thing to see the light of day outside the fortress, and following that is a massive explosion of concrete, metal, dirt and overwhelming psycho power! Trees weakly rooted to the ground are pushed over on their side, branches both sturdy and thin are snapped and sent swirling away! And what of Juri?
Juri's small crumpled frame is blasted into the air where it spins wildly. Her clothing is reduced to tatters, and her mind fares little better. She feels as if every inch of her form has swallowed razor blades - a veritable river of razor blades that ran through her from head to foot rupturing every cell, every membrane of her body. Everything hurts and she can see the warning lights flickering from her left eye informing her of a power overflow malfunction.
Just great, she thinks to herself as she begins her descent. The remaining branches of nearby trees buffet her limp form as she returns to the earth with all the unrelenting force of gravity! And there she lay, her body completely and totally drained of energy now. Without the Feng Shui Engine to support her there is no way for her to even get up and attempt one last retaliation.
All she can do is scream. And scream. And scream. She doesn't stop screaming until finally the lack of oxygen catches up with her and she passes out from exertion. Those that were in the jungle and heard her scream would be haunted by it for many many days and weeks to come: Contained within that scream was all the agony, all the sorrow, all rage of a fallen woman. A monster of Shadaloo.
COMBATSYS: Juri takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Vega 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Juri can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Vega 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Vega has ended the fight here.
Unforgivable. Just...the /nerve/ of the woman, to try and belittle him so. Little by little, the haze of hatred eases down. His beacon of purple power ebbs further and further, gradually soaking back into his nearly-ruined uniform. His hair is filthy and dishevelled, his skin scuffed and scraped and littered with pebbles and dirt. His nose, bleeding and broken. The latter is easy enough to fix: he simply reaches up and, with a sickening crunch, realigns the abused cartilage. Instead of going to collect his deadly harlot, he looks at the resulting damage around him...and pulls a small earpiece from deep within one of his sturdier pockets.
"Get a recovery team up for that irritating worm. Everyone else, commence relocation. This base of operations is compromised." Not in the mood to hear any sort of response--even good--he lowers the headset and crushes it within his fist. Really...this miscreant has made him ruin the base he'd had for so long. Then again, it only means pushing his plan forward just a little bit...
Log created on 18:18:57 07/21/2010 by Vega, and last modified on 10:18:20 11/08/2010.