Description: Juri has been sent to exacerbate China/fighter relations by taking out one of its military's highest-ranking leaders. Vanessa catches wind of the leaked plan and tries to stop it...only to find Shadaloo forces trying to stop the assassination?
Another boring assignment.
That is what Juri thought to herself when she received her orders over the telephone. But no amount of whining would ever get through to THAT MAN. The plane would be ready for her within the hour. Stealth op. Don't do anything stupid. The usual. Juri was only half listening to it because she's heard it so many times and she simply doesn't care: In the end it was all the same. Kill some random suit to scare the shit out of some other suits and make them fall in line, and if she's being sent that means that they want this one's death to be as messy and violent as possible.
All of which happen to be Juri's favorite things.
Her arrival at the military base was uneventful enough. Though dressed as she is: white bikini top, low-cut black pants, and a pair of white pumps with purple toes one would not be remiss in assuming that she was simply some Korean immmigrant reduced to prostitution. Even her ... rather unusual hairstyle doesn't seem to raise an alarm. Everyone needs a hook, even in the trick turning business. So when the strange woman slides up to one of the guards at the gate, and asks in an ever-so-lustful tone to be taken to 'General Guo Boxiong's private quarters' no questions are asked.
"Who the hell are you?!" That's the first question asked after Juri enters the room. Immediately the Chinese soldier that escorted her is alarmed, "You were not expecting her?!" All of this is in Chinese, a language which Juri herself never cared for, so her response is to simply grab the soldier by the face and smash his head against the wall with enough force that it breaks! Both the wall, and the young man's head. Gooey bits of brain and blood are absent mindedly wiped away on the crisp white surface of her top, leaving a bloody smeared hand print, while Juri chuckles to herself softly, "Well... this is easier than I thought it'd be. Sorry to make you wait General. But I assure you that the 'Happy Ending' will more than make up for it."
A rising scream is cut off as Juri slams the door to the room shut and she begins her work.
Immediately, the floor vibrates with the familiar stomping of boots. Even the General's room is on camera, which means that the short exchange is already saved for posterity...and executions. Orders can be heard through the walls: commands, as well as the clicking of metallic sliders and clips. The Black Widow has made a mistake, barging into a military base placed in a country so recently set upon by renegade fighters.
The alert is heightened and a wailing horn sounds over the base. A light next to Juri's head starts to glower with alternating red and white light; surely it has many, many clones throughout the base to help alert the men that there's an issue.
In less than fifteen seconds after the first poor, stupid man's head is crushed, his comrades start pouring through the door. Click, click, click. A dozen barrels stare the would-be assassin in the face, each man trying to get between her and their beloved General. Their uniform shows them to be People's Liberation Army soldiers...as would be expected on their own turf.
SOME TIME AGO
Vanessa is on the train away from Taizhou, arranged for her by Ling. She has her duffle bag (now full mostly of whatever she could grab to erase proof of her presence; it'll be disposed of later) stowed in front of her, and she herself is sipping a glass of some Chinese rice wine she didn't catch the name of, and staring out at the rolling countryside passing by. "Seishirou Ryouhara," she murmurs to herself. "Taizhou. Ayame. Soma. Ikari, Interpol, R, NESTS..." A slow sigh filters out of her lips. "A new era, huh," she murmurs, rolling the glass in her wrists. "Well, I guess they'll still need someone like me--"
Her phone rings. She looks down at the thing, reaching down to quickly pull the smartphone out of her pocket, sliding it up to her ear. "Vanessa," she says.
"Something's going down in China," the voice on the other end says, with no fanfare.
"What, more?" Vanessa prompts.
"There's been some anomalous paperwork moving around near the heart of the PLA's Central Military Commission. We think there's something coming, but--"
About one minute of exposition later, Vanessa abruptly interrupts with, "Guo Boxiong, probably a mid-high level operative. Get me into the building and I'll do the rest."
NOW
Vanessa stands in the security center of the military base, her hair dyed purple (about as close to black as her vibrant red will take) and in her nice suit, a button-up black shirt and purple tie matching her hair beneath. She is toward the back, with guns trained on her, because she is an American and if she takes a poorly-timed breath they will execute her. On the screen in front of her, men stampede into General Guo Boxiong's office. She sighs, leans back against the wall, and sucks on her teeth; she wishes she had a cigarette.
"I give her thirty seconds to take down the whole group," she says, plainly. "Now are you gonna let me do my job or do I just get to watch your men go down like chumps?"
Tch... alarms already? Seriously, people these days. No trust at all. Juri is a bit surprised at how, well, efficient they are. Already pouring into the room and each one of the, to a man, seemingly willing to put their life on the line and save their beloved general. Though she cannot miss the fact that more than one of them have taken an over-long glance at the ruined body of their comrade. The delight she takes from their horror sends shivers through her body. The unnerving stare of the gun barrels, the nervous twitching of their fingers, the frightened wide-eyed stares do nothing but delight the predator within Juri.
"Wow. I didn't know you boys were all so hard-up, and eager. Unfortunately I've only been paid up for one so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask all of you to stand aside." Juri takes a slow, deliberate step forward. This almost certainly will result in all them shooting her. All at once. Can you say overkill? A single woman's body up against an overwhelming onslaught of hot lead, with nary a scrap of kevlar in sight. It would certainly kill her if any of those bullets could actually reach her.
Bright purple ripples of psycho power seem to catch the bullets as Juri walks forward slowly, left eye glowing ominously. Those not aimed directly at her will be allowed to slip past and impotently shred the wall and door. Before long all of their weapons are empty and Juri is standing but a few feet from them with a dark grin spread across her lips. "Aaaaahn... blown your wad already, hm? Too bad. Looks like none of you could keep up with me after all. Now..." She reaches up to gesture toward the gathered crowd of soldiers with one hand... "... disappear!" ... and clenches her hand down at her side.
As she does her left eye glows even brighter, and her body begins to emit a swirling nexus of purple psycho power! It grows stronger and stronger around her and then, just about at the thirty second mark, she unleashes the gathered energy in a massive blast that consumes the entire room in swirling energy! Great plumes of it exhaust out into the hall and blow out the windows of the office with enough force to send hundreds of glass shards hundreds of yards away!
The camera fades to static, and when it returns it reveals Juri still standing within the ruined room. The bodies of young men, young soldiers, lay beaten and battered. The lucky ones are dead, the unfortunate ones have their eyes open in unspeakable horror. But Juri still only has eyes for the General: Now likely cowering under his desk.
Some would call it cowering. He, however...the General? He calls it searching. On his hands and knees under the expansive oaken desk, he pulls with a simple click two latches. A short man to begin with, the weapon crate hidden under there had doubled as a footrest for some time. Only when he finally pulls out the device could one ever really fathom how dangerous such a habit is.
As Juri comes closer, the slightly saggy-skinned, well-groomed man actually pops up! Is he crazy? Is he suicid--
It seems that he's carrying under his arm (instead of over the shoulder as is the norm) a long, cylindrical metal tube. It menaces with flashing lights by the upturned handle in his other hand. The mouth of the bazooka is nearly three-quarters of a foot across; the payload of THAT weapon would surely ruin now only the room, but a good portion of the base as well! "Do you think this will end China?! The People's Republic will not bow to you fighter scum!" He screeches the words, belying the steady posture and grip of a seasoned veteran. It would be an excellent farce before more common folk, but that damnable eye shows fraying nerves and restrained panic. After all, what well-thinking man would wield a tank-buster in an office?
Off in Vanessa's part of the base, the guards are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Once the alarm sounds, nobody's let in or out. Those are the rules. However, Vanessa's contact must have had some pull, because over one guard's speaker comes the crackled order to let her in, but to keep their guns trained on her. They may have to fight fire with fire in terms of the assassin, but there's no chance in hell they're going to trust either of them. "Move in, hurry up!" One of the men waves the violet-hued woman in through the gates, after which gigantic steel doors close behind her, thick tire-shredding spikes raising from the pavement like hungry fangs.
Vanessa was, in another life, the person who pulled strings to get field agents into and out of places like this - made the calls, colated the data. Now...
Well, now she doesn't really know how the hell Ling has the pull he does, but she's grateful for it. It makes her job easier. She watches the display of Juri's enormous power through the monitors. "So that's the kind of trick you were hiding, girly?" she mutters, eyes narrowing. "Well, I guess they sent the right dame, anyway..." She sighs, rolls her neck to one side - it cracks a few times, loudly. "Power like that..." Hum. One fist clenches, unclenches, keeping her muscles loose. The message goes through to let her through. "Thank you, gentlemen," she says, in pristine Chinese, and saunters through the gate, fingers finding their way up to the buttons of her coat. She yanks it off rather than undo them, the buttons flying away - revealing the sleeveless halter-top she's wearing, masquerading as a nice business shirt beneath her suit coat. She tosses it aside, unceremoniously, and dashes inward. If they can keep up with her - well, bully for them. She's not slowing down. If she moves at full tilt, she can PROBABLY--!
Vanessa is a high-speed type of boxer, eschewing raw, unbreakable power (though she certainly has plenty of power) for dashes and meanuevers - and she already knows roughly where the General's office is going to be from her preparation for the operation. Their security is good, especially now, but China's iron grip squeezes a lot of information into the black market, if you know where to look. Which is why, right after the general spits his defiance but before Juri can do too much to tear him in half, there is a loud knock, knock, knock on the doorframe, accompanied by a sassy voice quipping, "Knock, knock, knock," out loud.
Vanessa stands in the doorway, arms crossed, with a little grin as she cocks her hips to one side, leaning some of her weight against the doorframe (doing what she can not to stand on the dead; she has /some/ decency.)
"Sup, sugar?" Vanessa says. "I think you're at the wrong party."
"Oh. Do you really think that's going to work?" Juri's purring voice intones, dripping with all of that sadistic lust, "I mean, nothing else has so far." She chuckles softly, "Well c'mon then. Show me what you got! TRY AND BREAK ME. I hate men who bluff about the size of their..." beat "... abilities." Never let it be said that Juri will give up a good thing when she has it rolling. And so she stands, hand on her cocked hip and watching... and waiting.
Luckily she doesn't have to wait too long. No not for the General to fire, because you see he's a military man and knows just as well as anyone else that trying to fire now would likely kill him as well as anyone else. No, for a familiar face to show up through that door frame. As soon as she arrives, as soon as she knocks on the door, Juri is already turning her head to the right in order to glance at her over her shoulder. Wild glee lights up in her eyes and she laughs! "Oh! RED! It's /you/. Oh wow, I was so disappointed up until now. But to have someone like you show up makes everything so far worthwhile."
Juri turns her back on the General entirely now as she begins to walk toward Vanessa, not minding at all with each step should she end up walking over. They're broken toys to her. Not at all like Vanessa. "Wrong party? Heh. No, you're wrong. You see, now that we're both here it has just become a party." Her tongue wets her lips luxuriously before she continues, "After all, it's not every day that I meet someone..."
The General cuts off Juri's thought when he launches the rocket propelled grenade toward the pair! It seems that Juri is now close enough to Vanessa that /possibly/ he could survive with only near-lethal shrapnel wounds from the explosion. Within moments though Juri's body spins around and her foot catches the RPG! As her kick follows through the RPG, now bent in half, spins end over end and toward the ceiling above the General's head. Juri can be heard screaming in anger, "WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD INTERRUPT, YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT?!"
The mission, Juri...the mission. Go in, kill the guy, leave. She was never told to enter, screw around with some red-(purple?-)headed tarter, and destroy the whole upper half of the administrative wing of the base. One has to wonder if the Widow can even stay focused on her task long enough to do it! For the moment, the General has all the time in the world fo wonder just what in the hell is going on. Who's this new woman? Why are they...they're in cahoots?! Obviously, the two know one another. That's enough reason for him to pull the trigger even if Vanessa's in the line of fire...
However, that line of fire is quickly diverted.
Milliseconds pass as Guo's finger pulls on the trigger. Oiled springs compress and the lever swings. A spark fires off in the belly of the launcher, igniting the tank buster's fuel. The wall behind him is marred in a sea of smoke and sparks in the span of tenths of a second. In that same amount of time, Juri seems to have met her foot with the mouth of the device, sending it spinning, spinning...! Too late is the retaliation to completely stop the rocket. With a shriek of combustion and expelled gasses, the thick slab of metal careens through the fabricated particle-board ceiling. It's when it collides with the floor above that the building is finally rocked with a terrible shudder. The noise of the explosion rings so loud as to deafing any normal person in the area. The General is no exception. Ducking down to the ground with his hands on his ears, squealing in pain, he's in no position to avoid the narrow backdraft of concussive force. Fire and debris sear and tear and bruise, bits of rock and wood burying him under a small pile.
Amazingly, only half of the office that Juri had walked into is damaged. Most of the force was directed upward in a piercing fashion, the weapon meant to tear through inches of solid steel. The explosion is easily seen from the rest of the base, windows cracking on every floor above the Generals and many below as well!
All in all, it could have been worse. Guo is...well, PROBABLY dead down there, but might not be. Better check fast; there's another rousing stomping of booted feet and the clicking of automatic weaponry being readied!
"Oi!" Vanessa yells at the guy. "Don't /shoot/, I'm here to--" KABOOOOOOM
Vanessa's about ready to take action of her own - she has her own ways of handling that situation - but Juri steps in first, and Vanessa watches with some surprise as Juri blurs over and punts the launcher into the sky. But it's not enough, not the right timing - the round goes off, the whole building rumbles, Vanessa's hand snaps out to grab the doorframe while the ceiling rains in. Vanessa is largely unscathed by the explosion, and growls deep in her throat. WELL THAT'LL LOOK GREAT ON HER RESUME!!
She snaps a glare at Juri, mutters something unkind about the quality of her lineage, and then darts in - blurring, actually too fast for the eye to track as she just zooms right up to Juri - and slams her fist into Juri's gut. The smirk is gone from her lips - a sharp glare in her eyes. If he's alive, she's got to help him. Ling wants this man saved. Maybe if she can daze her for a couple seconds, she can check on the general...!
COMBATSYS: Vanessa has started a fight here.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Juri has joined the fight here.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Juri
COMBATSYS: Juri dodges Vanessa's Dash Puncher.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Juri
Mission? What Mission? To go and eliminate some random suit for the glory of Lord Vega? Someone who couldn't even remotely cause her the slightest bit of enjoyment in a straight-on fight? THAT mission? Pfft. Stuff that shit. Juri's found someone much more fun to play with. If Vega wants to keep his little psychopath on a chain, he should either buy a better chain or keep her happy.
Which isn't to say that Juri isn't happy right now. No she's quite ecstatic. She hardly even notices the explosion behind her, nor the shrapnel and dust it sends her way! When it's over she is still standing there, still staring at Vanessa, still with that same creepy grin on her face. "See. Now we're alone. Aren't you happy?!" One might wonder what is going on inside of Juri's cracked head.
Whatever it is it doesn't distract her enough for Vanessa to actually hit her. When the boxer comes at her with incredible speed, Juri matches with her own speed... and then some! Leaping upward she flips through the newly opened multi-story ceiling before landing in a crouching posture right beside where the General was earlier. On her face is ... disappointment. She sighs softly, "No. No, that's not enough. You're not there yet." She allows her head to roll limply to the side as she rises; just turning it enough so that she can stare directly at Vanessa with her real eye. "You have to strike me with that anger. With that hate. With that rage. You have to want to kill me with every single blow or else it's pointless." Juri chuckles softly to herself, "But don't worry. I'm here to help you get started." She suddenly STOMPS powerfully on the pile sitting next to her. So much force that the already fragmented rock and wood buckles and splinters under the immense form. Then a sound can be heard from underneath: subtly different. The definite sound of bones cracking, and soon enough blood begins to seep from under the pile.
Juri sighs softly, "So disappointing. I had hoped to see the look in his eyes." For now the sound of boots and footfalls are ignored. Instead Juri absent mindedly brushes away some dust clinging to her black pants while watching Vanessa's face.
COMBATSYS: Juri takes no action.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Juri
The squelching noise of a man being -broken- under sharp and thick rubble is forever captured on closed-circuit television thanks to only /half/ the room being destroyed...and not the one housing the small domed viewport in the wall. Off in the control centers of the base, frenzied men call for support from neighboring squadrons, demanding that MP forces come surround the base and close off all escape routes. Helicopters, tanks, whatever they can spare! It's an attack on a Chinese official, and thus, an attack on China herself! Spare no expense!!
People's Liberation Army troops do their best to surround the building, all manner of vehicles and weaponry aimed at the doorways. The air is alive with radio chatter, but there's no command to enter. Who, then, is stomping up the stairs and through the hallways? Juri would recognize them the instant that those crisp red uniforms come into view. Automatic weaponry swings around the edges of the battered doorway and start firing upon the occupants, heedless of who may be in there. Of course they know WHO is in there...but they too were given orders: if Juri's still playing around, she's fair game as well. If the hail of lead from the doorway wasn't bad enough, there's soon the ear-bursting noise of gunfine coming in from above as well! Kevlar-suited Shadaloo troops tear up floor and walls and furniture, aiming to wipe out anyone causing a problem for dear, innocent China. ...Thankfully for Vanessa, the debris covering the poor General is too thick to be penetrated so easily from stray shots and richochets.
COMBATSYS: Shadaloo Squad has joined the fight here.
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Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Juri
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Vanessa blocks Shadaloo Squad's Bounding Overwatch.
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Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Juri
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Vanessa 0/-------/-----==|
Vanessa lunges in, and Juri's just /fast./ She tries to angle her dash so she can get between Juri and the desk-crushed general and play blocker duty, but Juri nimbly bounds into position /there/, too.
Juri is giving her a big stupid speech. Vanessa sighs, rolling her shoulder, about ready to lunge in and knock her block off (Vanessa knows how these fights go; she's just got to keep Juri moving and eventually the opening will prevent itself and Vanessa will reduce her organs to jelly), but Juri...pulls that.
Vanessa scowls...but doesn't give Juri that look of incensed fury she wants.
"Kid," she says, "how the hell old do you think I am? Do you seriously think you're gonna drive me crazy by stomping on an old man's legs?" She steps forward, one step. "Trash like you isn't ever gonna get a rise outta me. So you can stop with the 'show me your anger' crap." She gives Juri a smug little grin, murmuring, "Kid like you isn't worth a used tampon, let alone my goin' all out."
It's trash talk, of course; Vanessa can tell Juri is a powerful fighter and she's going to have trouble handling her. But if she can get Juri mad at /her/, convinced that hurting the /general/ more isn't going to do anything, then that means Vanessa has less to worry about. She hears troops coming; that'll give her some...wait.
...no. They'll be waiting for at /least/ another few minutes to send in---.../shit/! She whips around just in time to see the Shadaloo troops, or at least /the troops/, show up. She tries to place the uniforms but she's too busy defending herself to identify them for sure, swinging her arms up and batting bullets away with her bare arms, sore bruises but little in the way of real danger. "Gh, you brought backup, too..." she mutters, and decides to get annoyed, just a little. She blurs - just...suddenly gone.
The next time anyone can find her is when her fist closes around a strip of Juri's shirt, and Vanessa slasms her fist into the girl's face, and uses a twist of her body to HURL the girl away from the General and toward the troops. Defense is a wasted effort, but still, at least this way Vanessa can make sure all her enemies are on one side, rather than in front /and/ behind.
COMBATSYS: Juri endures Shadaloo Squad's Bounding Overwatch.
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Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Juri
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Vanessa 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Juri interrupts Violent Clinching from Vanessa with Senpusha.
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Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Juri
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Vanessa 1/-----==/=======|
Tsk ... so it seems that old fool is luckier than she thought. Well it doesn't matter. Even if he lives, she doesn't give a fuck. She made the decision earlier that Vanessa was her primary target now: And thus she continues to give the older woman a broad, predatory smile.
It's not so much Vanessa's words that amuse her. They're like static flitting over the auditory centers of her brain. Instead what she is interested in is something more primal. Something she can feel inside of Vanessa that the two share. It's a simple emotion really: One that Juri knows all too well. So when Vanessa is done comparing Juri's wealth to a pre-used feminine hygene product she'll find that the insane Taekwondo fighter is cackling madly! "Oh. Is that so? Well. Keep holding back if you want to. See if that doesn't get you and that idiot General killed."
The resounding sound of boot steps out in the hall grow louder now, and suddenly they arrive around the corner! Immediately familiar to Juri, though any look of familiarity is completely smacked away by her confusion. Rage run hot through her mind and she grits her teeth in frustration, "What the fuck is this?! Can't a girl get some peace in this shitty dump!?!" She tsks loudly and turns her head to the side just in time for the barrage of rifle rounds to begin.
Juri doesn't even bother move, nor does she even flinch as each of the bullets impact against her body. One by one each round carves out circular holes within her flesh and leaves large, bleeding wounds. Thankfully due to her training and physical conditioning none of the bullets go particularly deep: her muscle acting as a sort of natural bullet-resistant armor. But still, it hurts.
And it is that pain that sharpens her focus when she feels Vanessa reaching around to grab her by the strap of her top! Her eyes widen as her irises narrow, and her mouth nearly splits her face in two with that manic smile of hers. She moves her head out of the way and the fist just barely grazes her cheek - albeit with enough force that it carves away some of her flesh and draws blood. "NOT ENOUGH!!!" She declares before suddenly wrenching her body away from Vanessa's as to deliver a mighty cartwheel kick! Each foot is wreathed in garish violet psycho power as she spins two times in total, delivering four strikes to Vanessa's chest, neck, and chin.
And when she is done Juri lands in a crouching posture sighing softly, "Not enough." Once again she stands and stares at the violet haired woman, smirking, "How disappointing. I guess I'll wait then. Until you cross it: That thin red line." She then turns her back on Vanessa and the soldiers, totally disregarding the both of them. "You chumps have fun with each other. I think I'm going to go take a shower." Waving one hand as she goes.
If these new troops were REALLY backup...would they also be firing upon Juri? In fact, why were they even there? There was no mention of this. And yet, here they are, dressed in crimson and bearing no discerning finery or decoration that would tell just who they are. They're certainly not Chinese; they're much too big for that just going by form. Visored hoods make it all but impossible to get a good look at them anyway.
"Reload!" Comes a yell from the doorway, followed by sound of half a dozen guns being reloaded in sequence: half on top, half on bottom. Those that don't reload continue to pepper the room with cover fire, apparently trying to keep people from getting closer to the nigh-squashed man under all that debris. "Step away from the General!" can be heard once the din of firepower dies down. No matter what Ling may have convinced the locals to do, these guys don't seem to have any qualms against shooting the little firecracker. Isn't she supposed to be on 'their' side? And for that matter, why do the ones by the door level their weapons at Juri as she comes closer? Surely Vega's own men would know better than to point a weapon at /her/.
"You too, stand back. We've orders to eliminate anyone that threatens the General." So why is...they're just...?
Huh?
COMBATSYS: Shadaloo Squad successfully hit Vanessa with Suppressive Fire.
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Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Juri
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Vanessa 1/--=====/=======|
Vanessa makes good with that strike, but Juri abuses her swings again, her superior agility - Vanessa is /fast/ but Juri has a far superior kind of flexibility that lets her snap back and before Vanessa and react, hammers her with a long series of blows, and Vanessa gurgles and arcs back, managing to recover in midair and hit the ground in a crouch, choking. SHIT that hurt!
She glares up at Juri. What is it with kids telling her she's not good enough, not /trying/ enough? Vanessa's frowning at Juri, but it's more anger at her flippant demeanor, than anything. Vanessa is a professional - an ace, one of the best. She knows this. Juri is just trying to get her goose, and Vanessa knows it. It does help her resolve to shove her fist so far up Juri's ass she can taste it, though. She starts to rise, uneasily. Juri's moving to leave. Data snaps through her synapses. Vanessa's not good enough at this to analyze her opponents - too impulsive, too flexible about things to bother with it. But things like that, she can use, is used to using. Juri thinks she can just walk out the door. That means she thinks these guys are on her side. Moreover, they're in different uniforms - not PLA, but...
...Vanessa knows that uniform. The patch is missing, of course, but...no, there's no mistaking it, either. Vanessa grunts, rising. 'They' must have had all kinds of surplus, of course. All kinds of tech that fell out when the group disbanded in Thailand.
No country would spend money to buy surplus uniforms from 'that group.' Not even China. There's just no purpose to having that many - and certainly not to dressing men up like that. As a disguise to hide some foreign agency's operation -- she briefly entertains the idea that this is a Korean-sponsored attack, but the Koreans need China too much to make a move like this, she thinks. Her head hurts. She's dizzy from the psycho power, the blows to the head, but she thinks that's right.
They underestimated Vanessa. Was this a trap for her? Either way.
She holds up her arm, but just isn't fast enough to stop them from /shooting her/ some more, yet she doesn't fall over dead from it; like Juri she seems just...impervious, the bullets falling to the ground harmlessly, ugly welts rising up but no sign of blood. Ugh. She spits, angrily.
"Nice try," she says, suddenly, staggering forward. They really want this guy dead, don't they? "But now I know who's behind all this." She grins, dangerous, holding up on ehand, energy crackling off her hand as the winds begins to gather around her hand. She takes two steps forward, loping. "Only one group has these kinds of resources, operatives like twinkletits here.../and/ those stupid uniforms!" She steps away from the general. He's probably dead, and if he's not dead he's /doomed/, but Vanessa should still nominally do what she can to not make the damage worse. But now, now she has to /get out of here/. This is information too important for her to get killed by some hackass Chinese official trying to make a point, and she's not sure even Ling can stop the Chinese hate machine once it's in motion.
"Am I right? /Shadaloo/!?" she demands, and then lunges, a swing of her arm sending a hurricane burst of wind screaming downrange to pick up both Juri and the men behind her and just BOWL them out of the way - send them flying so Vanessa can get the hell out of here. She can't win this fight. But she can make sure people know the truth.
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Vanessa 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Shadaloo Squad
COMBATSYS: Juri endures Vanessa's Gaia Gear EX.
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Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Juri
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Vanessa 0/-------/---====|
Actually there are many reasons Juri thinks she can just walk out the door. For one, someone here is for all intents and purposes a walking bomb. Two, said walking bomb just took a volley of gunfire without so much as flinching. Three, said walking bomb just kicked the ever-loving crap out of someone -else- who can take a volley of gunfire without curling up and dying. So when the soldiers raise their weapons at the violent Taekwondoka and order her, HER of all people, to stop... well let's suffice to say someone is not happy. "You can't possibly be that stupid. Runts like you aren't even worth my notice. But if truly think you can stop me..." The woman's left eye begins to glow ominously and it seems for a minute that she might just make good her threat.
That is, until Vanessa's voice rises up once more. Initially she doesn't even bother to turn to face the boxer. For all intents and purposes her desire to fight Vanessa have gone from her. She taps her right foot a few times, impatiently, before letting her head tilt to the side as she shudders with a deep, cleansing sigh.
"Out with it already Red, seriously, I'm getting bored." The taunt? Twinkletits? Oh very nice. Again Juri doesn't seem to care. Stupid uniforms? Heh she agrees. Luckily attempts to force her to wear something similar are rare at best.
It is only when Vanessa mentions Shadaloo that it draws a reaction. And even then it is only that Juri's eye draws down into a scowl! The hurricane-force winds of chi slam violently into her body, as Vanessa had intended. Unlike what Vanessa had intended however Juri doesn't move. In fact she barely even stumbles forward when Vanessa's strike hits her!
Not to say it doesn't do damage. No, in fact, it does a great deal. The blades of wind cut at her back and actually draw blood. The straps of her top, already ripped from when she wrested out of Vanessa's grip earlier, tear further until only the very finest threads keep her top from flying away in the storm. But when Vanessa is rushing toward the exit she'll run right into Juri, and right into Juri's elbow aimed directly at her stomach!
Should that connect, there will be more.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Shadaloo Squad with Gaia Gear EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shadaloo Squad 1/-----==/=======|==-----\-------\0 Juri
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vanessa 0/-------/---====|
The poor soldiers really are no match for such a terrible force as a woman scorned. Worse yet, a redhead facing off against a taekwan-ho that's permanently on the rag. They get credit for being brave enough to level their weapons at Juri, surely...but slaughtering them is a joy stripped from the cyclops in the form of shearing winds! Debris kicks up and whirls about in the torrent of shredding air. The walls, already ruined, bear fresh marks, slanted cuts. But those Shadaloo men, the fare even worse than Juri's tenacious garment, which doesn't exactly say much for their caliber...
Mask-muffled screams fight to be heard over the winds as they're sent spinning and smashed against (and sometimes through) the corridor walls behind them. Frenzied grips send gunfire spraying everywhere. An errant finger brings about the dull, bass-heavy thump of a grenade firing from its tube, bouncing off of the doorway and into one of the far walls behind Vanessa. Its resulting explosion is small and fairly contained; the windows behind the General's desk shatter further and send a fresh plume of fire and smoke outside, visible to the actual Chinese troops below.
As for the men on the floor above, they're far more lucky. They may have lost half of their squad, but there are no angry women facing THEM, and apparently, radio chatter brings to their attention something about 'blackouts' and 'blindness'. After everything is over with, investigators will find shrapnel and slugs buried in the shaded half-dome covering the room's camera.
"Fire two, fire two!" The apparent leader of the squad barks out behind his full-visored helmet, prompting the last remaining men to lift their weapons and flip switches on the side. This time, the barrage of incendiaries and explosives is on purpose. Now that there's no camera to prove otherwise, the soldiers can do their best to blow Vanessa AND the General up.
Why? Well...hey, those fighters started it. Such monsters, they are.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa endures Shadaloo Squad's Scorched Earth EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Juri
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Vanessa 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Vanessa fails to reflect Feng Shui Engine from Juri with Parrying Puncher.
~~ Alluring Hit! ~~
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shadaloo Squad 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Juri
[ <
Vanessa 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Vanessa can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Shadaloo Squad
Vanessa's got a rough idea of how to run this. She can't save the general. The forces involved here are just...she can't. She's got to clear a path and just book it. She knows something important and she can finger the real culprit. Now, if anyone will BELIEVE her is another story entirely, but...
She didn't expect this kind of force. And she's not really sure how Juri is moving that fast - Vanessa's a speedster, isn't she? What the hell is--
No time. They're opening fire. Vanessa holds her ground for as long as she can - standing in the way to take as much damage as she possibly can, but then she has to go, finally committing to her course. She rides a shockwave from a grenade, propelled off her feet. Juri's still standing there. Dammit, she's still /there/!? Vanessa sent her flying! Or...should have! Ugh!
No choice. She can see, sort of - see the outlines of power gathering in Juri's body, the outflowing of energy in preparation for her next assault. She hits the ground - clenches fist, ready to ram it through that gathering psycho-field and ram the whole thing right down Juri's throat. She surges in--!
"HRK!" she chokes. When the hell did she even get her arm there!?
COMBATSYS: Shadaloo Squad successfully hit Juri with Scorched Earth EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Juri 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Shadaloo Squad
When her elbow connects, Juri feels a shiver of delight. The sensation of soft flesh tearing against rigid bone, certainly bruising organs and causing internal bleeding. A sensational feast: And one she can all take in. For as her left eye glows bright violet in color a thin veil of psycho power draws itself across her entire body and time seems to slow down for her. She attempts to use Vanessa's body to shield her from the brunt of the explosives and rifle rounds being fired throughout the room. It offers no barrier, and already Juri can feel more of her body being shredded by bullets, pierced by shrapnel, and buffeted by powerful shockwaves!
And yet she pays them no heed.
Before Vanessa even has time to stagger backward from the vicious attack against her uterus (feeling a mite bit vengeful are we, Juri?) she'll find Juri's ragged body spinning around before her! Her foot will impact against the top of her head, the stout heel of one of her pumps digging in, before the knee of her other leg comes up to impact heavily against the boxer's face! Both figures rise into the air from the force of the blow, and moving as a blur Juri spins around to deliver a forceful kick directly to Vanessa's chest with enough force to send her streaking backwards! Juri seems to vanish out of thin air then. Well... mostly. The shredded remains of her top have been left behind - the incredible and sudden acceleration being too much for the poor garment! Now in spins impotently in the air before landing on the ground.
Speaking of streaking... Juri STREAKS across the room with enough speed that she catches Vanessa before she crashes into the wall. Juri will wrap her arm around her neck and pull the older woman back against her own body. The fact that they are so close together is compounded by the fact that Juri is half naked, a fact that she doesn't seem to have noticed or, at least, doesn't seem to care about. She whispers into Vanessa's ear softly, "Did that feel good, Red?" Juri heated breath washes over the other woman's skin, "... it's too bad... you were almost there."
Juri cackles loudly as she releases Vanessa and kicks her away! Assuming all things being equal, she'll likely land right next to the wreckage pile the general is under. Juri sighs softly to herself, "And now..." Her glare is leveled toward the remaining soldiers. Her left eye is still glowing - perhaps even moreso than before. "You insects, get THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!" The half-naked, fully-insane Taekwondoka launches herself into a flurry of kicks: Each one composed of searing violet energy. The end result, the end desire, is to fully scatter the forces so she, like Vanessa attempted earlier, can move past them.
Vanessa is not analytical enough to track the individual blows at this point. She gets hammered in the gut, and gets only a vicious glare in at Juri before Juri uncorks the whirlwind - Crown, jaw, arcing into the air - a blast in the chest and screaming toward the far wall, but Juri is THERE, already, and Vanessa ends up half-conscious and clutched against Juri's body. She growls, distastefully, at the feel of Juri's breath against her skin. Vanessa does not like it that rough. She emits a raspy, defiant sound, which is the only thing she gets out before Juri launches her back across the room, and Vanessa, feeling like her organs have been pulverized, rolls to a stop next to the general's desk.
...bin...go?? She slams one fist into the ground. She can't fight anymore, but...if she can move fast enough...while Juri's busy taking out her anger on these Shadaloo goons--
She tries to see if she can get the General out. She can't fight anymore, no; if the desk isn't shattered enough, though, she might be able to hobble him to safety.
Either way: By the time Juri is done with the soldiers, Vanessa will be gone from the room. Whether she has company or not is up to the whims of fate.
COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Shadaloo Squad with Fuharenjin.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Juri 0/-------/-------|=======\======-\1 Shadaloo Squad
No matter how much lead they fire upon the duo down below, no amount of traditional weaponry seems to hold a candle to the fighters' mettle! It's impressive, really, how shredded the room gets, how scorched the paint and carpet get. It's a wonder that the floor even holds up enough to hold /anything/, let alone people jumping and kicking and punching about.
But hold it does, amazingly. With the rear half of the squad blown into oblivion by the redhead earlier and Juri consumed with seething hatred for the red of their comrades, there's nothing stopping Vanessa from running away. Pulling the General out of the pile would be tricky at least, what with Juri standing right next to him and slinging her legs around with that terrible might. Then there's having to dig him out of the debris; she can't just pull on his leg, who's to say it's even still fully attached? Only the occasional pained groan might have once made its way to compassionate ears, but there's no way they can be heard through the combat. Not with the sound of men dying and falling through the hole in the ceiling to add to the pile of man-crushing waste.
However! Just outside of the building, there are lots of soldiers willing to help, right? Surely, they're willing to come to Vanessa's aid and risk all to help their most esteemed leader. However, the sight of crimson makes the impossibility of such hope immediately obvious. The men inside weren't the full force. Olive drab stands next to deep, all hands holding some manner of weaponry. Some of them sit in tanks, their enormous cannons levelled at the only normal entrance--and exit. And yet, there's nobody blocking her way out. In fact, there's a clear shot to the surrounding forests. Perhaps they know that the woman was just trying to help. Perhaps they just wish to cut their losses and let the dangerous 'fighters' free until they can get more support. Either way, it's unusual.
COMBATSYS: Shadaloo Squad takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Juri 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Shadaloo Squad can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Juri 0/-------/-------|
Ally, enemy, these things matter very little to Juri. All that matters is who is an obstacle, and how is not. The soldiers had made themselves an obstacle to the woman and now they'll suffer for it! The unrelenting barrage of swirling, chaotic purple energy first tears through their numbers and then through the shattered remains of the windows! Once again an expulsion of the strange psycho power marks Juri's work.
One might almost be forgiven then that amongst the flashing light they'd miss the diminuitive figure of a Korean woman dashing away from the scene of the crime. Her black pants are shredded, many shallow bullt wounds bleed freely, and she is still, regretfully, missing any sort of top with which to hide her shame.
From here on out Juri has no real desire to kill any more Chinese soldiers, and so it will become a case of live and let live. And sometime later when she is standing in the nearby forest she'll be heard talking angrily on a cellphone while digging out one of the (many) bullets embedded in her stomach.
"... no you listen, asshole. I don't have a shirt." ... "What the fuck is so funny?! First off, no one told briefed me on the operation. And not only that, but the guys they sent were piss weak. So not only am I not being read in, but someone's insulting me behind my back while they're at it!" ... "YES! I'm sure the fucker is dead. Even if they dig his saggy ass out of that debris pile he'll just die on the operating table. Dumb shit. Anyway, are you sending a helicopter to pick me up or what?"
...
Sometime later, a hiker finds the broken and scattered remains of a cellphone scattered in the woods. Let's just leave it at that.
COMBATSYS: Juri has ended the fight here.
Log created on 18:01:35 08/15/2010 by Vega, and last modified on 10:19:44 11/08/2010.