Description: While Kyo suffers the local cuisine on his own, Vega comes to extract information from him about this cult problem. He's given the choice between the easy way and the hard way. Thankfully, Kyo chooses to be difficult and finds himself in a world of pain for his efforts. However, the boy's hero blood starts to boil and he wards off the malevolent dictator's ill will.
Australia is terrible.
Everything is aggressive and poisonous, and what isn't is merely vicious and fanged; it's like another world, a world in which mortal men were not meant to tread, where each and every other form of life, and even the very elements themselves rebel at the presence of humans, where every step you take you know the earth itself sees you as an invader, and thirsts for your blood. The outback is particularly bad, a vast desert wasteland where the only living things occupy the very worst reaches of Australia's biosphere, and where the closest things to civilisation are hundreds of miles away.
Alice Springs is the closest town to Ayer's Rock, where no doubt the raddest and baddest fight of the King of Fighters tournament is set to go down, and so it's served as a staging area to get the fighters and other necessities down thataway. Among the last of the necessities is one Kyo Kusanagi, the reigning World Warrior champion, who has discovered the true existential horror of the outback.
You can't even get a decent sandwich.
"I don't even know what vegemite /is/," Kyo complains to nobody in particular, as he's wandered off from where the jeeps and trucks are loading up, sitting himself down on a rock with a nice view of the miles of nothing and horror ahead, looking suspiciously down at the 'local delicacy'. He takes an experimental bite, chewing a few times as his expression ranges from perplexed, to confused, and then directly to 'oh god what have I put in my mouth', and he leans over and sticks out his tongue to let the half-chewed mouthful of vegemite sandwich fall out with a sound like 'bluaah'.
Then he spits a few times.
"Well," Kyo says afterwards, irritably. "At least things can't get any worse."
Can't they? Indeed, Australia is a miserable place; a perfect mass of fetid land to wash away the dregs of society upon.
Then again...in hindsight, sending people to such a place can only mean their complete eradication or a lineage of tough-as-nails bastards that not even an army of polar bears could stop them. Indeed, that's even considering the fact that they would have had to swim halfway across the world to lay waste to such a miserable waste of rock and brush.
Still, it's a challenge that must be taken up. From a few meters behind Kyo, the sound of footsteps can be heard. It's not as though the crunch of grit and dirt beneath boots was a slow, riding sound. No, there was nothing, and then they were just /there/. Thick coverings of some sort of hide come to a stop a few seconds later.
"It's hardly something that would fit the tastes of a withering man-child."
Behind the man-child in question, Vega comes to a stop, apparently heedless of whomever may be able to see him. The town is a backwater piss-stop, and despite its temporary fame as a mooring for fighters and filmers, the simple truth is that going outside is /miserable/. It's hot, it's human, and one can swear that the very air bears a sticky skin that clings to everything. Most people are indoors, where they can at least escape direct sunlight. And yet, even now, the Shadaloo Lord is adorned in his best fineries, with shining metal that reflects that very sun, pauldrons that highlight each line and jarring turn of his features. His crimson attire must soak up an incredible amount of heat, and the cloak! For god's sake, a charcoal-colored cloak, dusted from wisps of dirt kicked up by the occasional draft.
"Come," he says, beckoning with one lifted hand. "We need to talk." It is not spoken as though it were a request in any stretch of the imagination.
There's a certain point in a fighter's development, usually somewhere after the ability to punch an Abrams tank inside-out without breaking a sweat but before turning into Oro, where the senses become keen in ways a normal person could never conceive. It's not even about being able to see or hear better, and with some of the people in the professional fighting circuit it thankfully isn't about having a superhuman sense of smell either, it's all about /awareness/. About paying attention to cues a normal person would miss, about being able to feel the flow and pulse of the world around you, being able to feel the slightest change in your 'area'.
So as he's approached from behind, Kyo is actually well aware of what's happening, he just doesn't give any sign of it until he's actually addressed, because putting in that sort of effort is really just contrary to his nature. Instead, he slowly turns to look over his shoulder, giving Vega a look that could best be described as 'dubious'.
And then he lets out a snort.
Laughing, Kyo slaps his knee a few times, before waving at the Shadaloo Lord in a 'no, no, it's cool' sort of way, as if he were interacting with a normal human being and not one of the most dangerous individuals on the entire planet. "Ha ha ha... Hoo, wow," the Kusanagi heir says, with a last chuckle. "You have no idea how ridiculous that looks right now, seriously... Your balls must be /steeping/ in sweat, like... The grossest tea in the world."
Slowly, the perpetual highschooler rises to his feet, and turns to look towards Vega. "You don't even have a white van marked 'Free Candy," Kyo notes, in apparent disappointment.
Ah. This is precisely what Vega was trying to avoid. He had...hoped that his subordinates would be a bit faster in fetching him information. Instead, he has to slink about to this god-forsaken, pitiful excuse of a nation. Instead, he has to talk to people. Instead...he has to deal with the child-like smatterings of a boy that would never grow up.
But that's all right. Through all the insults, Vega smiles--if indeed it can truly be called that. Oh, his lips spread and curve upward at the corners, his exquisitely pearly, straight teeth are clearly shown...but it can't at all be a smile. No, not when the very light seems to want to play tricks on the viewer, shading his brow far more than the snug cap upon his head should offer. And even more, he's silent through it all.
Once the barrage of nonsense seems to have tapered away, the larger man drops one of his hands to his sides. Near his feet, two rocks quiver and then lift upward, depositing them into his palm. When his fingers close, the golf ball-sized items disappear in his grasp, though the occasional creak of grinding rock might scarcely be heard.
It's either this, he knows, or finding more satisfying uses for the fist.
"Then, I'll be brief. This...Tetraphobia group, the /thing/ they serve. The rage that consumes their victims." He draws in a breath, puffing his chest, yet he appears to grow larger all around, the clear outlines of his body starting to grow hazy as though radiating a great heat--despite the expected responses such a vision will provoke. "Tell me everything that you know without this kindergartener's attitude and your affectionate little whore might be spared a night at the hands of my troops."
If there's anything Kyo Kusanagi can be counted on to do, it's run his mouth.
At great length.
You'd think this would actually make him a veritable font of information, but it's important to remember that the Kusanagi heir is also extremely lazy and does his level best to pretend he doesn't give a damn about anything... Not to mention that he's just a little bit obnoxious, a tad abrasive. His manner is prickly at the best of times, except with a bare handful of people around whom he generally tries to pretend to be prickly anyway, and once you get his hackles up, well.
In stark counterpoint to Vega - who, admittedly, does a very good job of looking appropriately dictatorial, with the pseudo-military garb and the skull emblem, which is a nice touch however you slice it - Kyo stands there petty normally, a young man in his early twenties, wearing boots, dark jeans and a charcoal grey t-shirt with the possibly indecipherable logo FLYNN LIVES in a decidedly eighties font. He doesn't look like someone destiny would single out, he doesn't look like someone with the weight of history behind him.
But he also doesn't look /intimidated/.
There's the barest flicker of Kyo's eyelids at the threat, but the Kusanagi heir's mouth pulls into a half-smile, and he shakes his head. "You're really bad at asking for things, huh? All that 'yes, Lord Vega' 'no, Lord Vega, that cape doesn't make you look fat' 'may I pre-chew your dinner for you, Lord Vega' bullshit keeps you from minding your Ps and Qs?"
Kyo pauses.
"It does, by the way," he notes, in conspiratorial stage whisper.
Stepping closer to Vega, Kyo reaches behind himself to pull a pair of gloves from his back pocket, fingerless but elbow-length, wrought of some mysterious material in black, with yellow detailing including the Kusanagi emblem, the outline of a rayed sun. "So, okay. Everything I know. One, I don't know what 'Tetraphobia' is, although it sounds like a wicked name for a band. Two, the rage steroids come from a guy who calls himself the 'Messiah of Orochi,' and I figure he might be /almost/ as far up his own ass as you are, calling himself that. Oh, and three..."
Kyo explodes into forward motion at this point, swinging his right fist in a vicious arc for the mad dictator's face, a flickering trail of flame hanging in the air behind his hand... With more of the sacred Kusanagi flame set to erupt at the point of impact, as the Kusanagi heir gives an exclamation of: "LICK!"
Stepping in, Kyo then aims to strike /again/, a second fiery punch with his left fist mirroring the first, right down to the application of bloodline fire, and a cry of: "MY!"
Kyo will then step in /again/, twisting himself a bit and using body torque for extra power, swing his right fist /up/ in a short, sharp uppercut aimed at the underside of Vega's epic chin, with a third, larger explosion of Kusanagi power at the point of intended impact. "BALLS!!"
COMBATSYS: Kyo has started a fight here.
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Kyo 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Vega has joined the fight here.
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Kyo 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
COMBATSYS: Vega reflects Aragami from Kyo with Psycho Vanish.
-*- DEVASTATING HIT! -*-
*KNOCKED AWAY*
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Kyo 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Vega
Well. The fact that Kyo actually lends some /small/ nugget of wisdom is an amazing thing in and of itself. Again, when he's acused of lacking manners, the edges of his mouth rise up higher. If the boy only knew that, when you're in his position, there is no asking. There is no requesting. No...when you are Vega, you simply command. Those that comply might be spared his wrath.
Unfortunately, the Kusanagi slouch opts for rebellion.
The moment that the fire-endowed fist would come into contact with the Shadaloo master's face, it finds a disarming lack of resistance. The man's image blurs as the swing literally cuts right through it, wisps of violet energy mixing--and yes, consuming the more naturally-colored chi. The whole of the dictator's body dissolves into a gout of that same corrosive power. Like a burst balloon full of malevolence, the 'shell' of Psycho Power stretches, wraps, contorts around the young man from head to toe. Its initial sensation is that of a frozen coating, ice that chills quick to the bone. Pain receptors light up from head to toe, each one threatening to overpower the boy's senses with unfocused, flesh-tearing agony, a palpable manifestation of the glorious leader's pent-up rage.
It must feel like an eternity, those scant few seconds that it takes for the purple coating to travel and pool up Kyo's body, collecting to cover his head, face, and throat. From behind, Vega himself shimmers into being, flesh knitted together across space just as easily as one steps through a door. The streaks of corrosive power sink back into his open hand, which has its fingers spread around the back of Kyo's head. Its thick arm lifts and holds the boy overhead and facing away from him, a show of his superiority.
"Such language from someone whose balls have yet to even drop."
With but a sweep of his arm, Vega tosses Kyo off into the distance beside him. It's with a look of utter disgust that he looks at his own palm, after which he wipes it across his dirtied cloak. "Really... Could you /be/ more worthless?"
Sometimes, things just don't work out the way you saw them going in your head.
Even for somebody like Kyo, Vega's power is nothing to be underestimated; the way the sacred flames are turned aside by the unnerving strangeness of the dictator's Psycho Power is rather definitive, the corrupted energy of Vega's powerful but twisted psyche coursing painfully through the Kusanagi heir, rending at him on an elemental level that very nearly forces the younger man to cry out. But he grits his teeth, he summons up every last bit of stubborn, wrongheaded cussedness he can muster - which is a lot - and he settles for merely getting tossed away, crashing in a painful heap somewhat closer to the tiny town of Alice Springs.
"I really hate that guy," Kyo mutters to himself, as he discovers he's staring up at the wide-open sky over the outback.
Slowly and carefully picking himself up off the ground, Kyo works his shoulders, his neck, making sure everything is still reasonably functional. He's sore, and he's pretty sure he's lost a bit of ease of movement and flexibility - at least until he can get some rest. "I dunno," Kyo muses, finally responding to Vega's (probably rhetorical) question. "I guess I could be a jackass with a big chin, running around in the desert dressed like a Stalin cosplayer." But letting his anger get the better of him, charging in heedlessly at Vega yielded some very bad, no good results, so the Kusanagi heir stands his ground for the moment, raising his right hand with a flame dancing on his gloved palm, raging in the cage formed by his fingers.
"Why so interested, anyway?" the World Warrior champion asks, as the ancestral power of the Kusanagi clan gathers around him, the weight of history drawing ever closer. "Hoping to talk some shop with the guy? Compare notes, see who's got the most swingin'?" After a pause, Kyo suddenly becomes (facetiously) excited. "Oh!! Are you guys going to form the Legion of Doom? Does that make you Solomon Grundy?"
COMBATSYS: Kyo gathers his will.
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Kyo 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Vega
If nothing else, Kyo has spunk!
Unfortunately, it appears to be missing a chromosome or two.
The fact that the boy can get up as easily as he does is impressive. Not to Vega, of course; he knows better. He's not aiming to kill outright, evidenced by the fact that...he laughs. It's a rich, deep-chested thing, a sound that carries further than it really ought to. In the musty down of Alice Springs, a pair of dogs ceases their rough-housing and take to whimpering, both launching themselves under the cheap, stained motel bed that their master is catching a nap on. But scaring two puppies, that's nothing, right? The fact that the wind in the area has come to a dead stop is nothing at all to concern onceself over, either.
"Is it not the duty of a ruler to snuff out fledgling opposition at first chance?" The entirety of Vega's right arm coats itself in an undulating violet haze. The inky color snuffs out sunlight from shining off of his steel bracer, even going so far as to obscure the fist clenched beneath it. "I will find the cretin behind this nonsense and crush him beneath my very heel!" With the declaration, Vega's kees bend and then, he's just...gone. A scan of the horizon will find nothing: in an instant, he's vaulted high, high overhead, his body straight and screaming boots-first at the Kusanagi heir's head. With the speed at which he decends, one has to wonder if the flutter if purple fire swirling about his feet is the promise of more psycho powered-agony, or simply the friction of reentry through this nation's fetid atmosphere.
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Kyo with Somersault Skull Diver.
~ Cruel hit! ~
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Kyo 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Vega
Crushing Kyo into the earth isn't nearly enough. For the insults that he's endured, he's not content to simply beat this man-child. His boots grind into the back of his head, driving his face into the dirt. He steps off, twisting each step to pull at his hair--an insult added to the injury.
And what's more, he kicks him again while he's down. Twice! The Lord himself looks utterly /ecstatic/, grinning like a child with a new toy, his pale eyes alight with overflowing Psycho Power that just continues to swell and compound itself as he revels in his malice and cruelty.
The explanation Kyo receives from Vega as to his interest in finding out about the individual behind recent events is both not entirely surprising - Kyo is pretty genre savvy as a rule, it's a key survival skill in his way of life - and slightly disappointing, because he actually kind of got his hopes up for a Legion of Doom. Oh well, there's always Adelheid Bernstein and his plucky band to root for as the next supervillain squad, right?
There's no opportunity, for once, for Kyo to make a snappy remark or a smug comment or an impenetrable pop culture reference, because Vega just about vanishes after making his statement. Even Kyo has to admit, if only privately, that's a good way to make a dramatic declaration. Now, if only he could actually believe the dictator had actually /left/, right? Glancing around from side to side, Kyo finds a whole lot of nothing, or at least nothing unexpected in this Australian backwater, which is what causes him to look /up/, and thus get an eyeful of Vega dropping his way like a goddamn meteorite.
"Huh," Kyo says.
Swinging his arms up, Kyo tries to intercept Vega, his mass and Psycho Power and terrifying momentum - thanks a /lot/, gravity - but his hastily established guard is blasted clear through, and he's driven to the ground under, quite literally, the dictator's heel, getting all sorts of stepped on in the aftermath. He hurts pretty much from head to toe, every nerve ending telling him, you know what, you might as well just lie down and pass out, but Kyo Kusanagi... He's too stubborn for that. "Frankly, if I had the guy's address," Kyo grits out, pushing himself up and spitting out a gob of bloody saliva onto the arid ground of Alice Springs, dust ground into his jeans and his already pre-stressed t-shirt, but his gloves strangely unmarked. "I'd give it to you right now. If you assholes want to have a punch up and kill each other, no skin off my nose. Shit, if you'd just come up and said, 'Kusanagi, you pusillanimous pustule, tell me what you know about this Orochi fellow', I'd probably just have told you. Catch more flies with honey, you know?"
Finally, Kyo has managed to get back to his feet, though he looks significantly worse for the wear. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed in the morning. "But no, you had to come out all threats. Gotta work on your people skills, Chins."
It's at approximately this point that Kyo bursts into flame.
Fire rages all over him, the Ever-Burning Flames of the Kusanagi clan covering him from head to toe without actually /touching/ him, turning him into some kind of somehow even more smug Human Torch. A single point burns brighter than the rest, focused in the palm of his right hand, as Kyo faces off with the Shadaloo Lord. It's odd; normally even threats to his loved ones roll right off of Kyo's back, or at least he makes it seem such, but lately, since the tournament began... His own temper has been shorter than it once was, if not nearly to the extent of Yagami's. Moments after the flames appear, they shift, and move, as Kyo sweeps his right hand in a wide arc, the fiery power peeling /off/ of the World Warrior champion to create a massive, hellish wave of Kusanagi flame, one that looks to at least remind Vega that he's been in a fight, over here.
COMBATSYS: Vega fails to reflect Orochinagi+ from Kyo with Psycho Vanish.
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Kyo 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Vega
Vega's arms whip out to either side, his cloak thrown back with the dramatic flair due to such a gesture. "But what is the fun in that?! Come, Kusanagi, at least PRETEND to act the part of that man's progeny!" The man is clearly drunk on his own power. His voice booms and echos out across the area, finally drawing some attention from the backwater hillbillies that call this place their home. Every ready to see a fight, a few of them start rushing over.
The crimson-adorned man, however, does not intent to let the boy last long enough to put on such a show.
"Believe me, asking at all was a courtesy of the highest restraint!" His hands clench into fists and he turns to fully face the boy, his shoulders drooping and back tensed, lording over the tinier existence. "Had I so desired, I could have simply rent your soul from your useless carcaess, subjected your mind to a thousand terrors that make your girlfriend's broken, manhandled body the nicest respite you could hope for. I could--"
Well. He pauses, then, as the boy simply ignites. It's about damned time.
Once more, the threat of being engulfed in chi approaches him. The freakish smile on his face never once falters, for once again, his form dissipates into a roiling whorl of negativity and mental might. He obviously seeks to overpower the boy's precious assault, to consume it and turn it back on him just as he did before. He might have underestimated the depths of the Kusanagi's resolve, at least this time. The reddish-orange vs violet tug of war wanes in the former's favor, the flames wholly consuming it, assaulting it in its ravenous grip. From out of the ball comes a familiar hand, reddened but not enough to match the charred-in-places uniform that Lord Vega so adores. A sweep of his hand dissipates the fire, revealing the master himself...and the fact that his smile has completely disappeared. His teeth are still exposed, gritted, but his lips pull down in the deepest, most terrible frown.
While Kyo would certainly never admit to being worried, the fact that he's able to finally land a solid hit on Vega does mollify him at least a little bit... It just took his most powerful attack to do it, no big deal. Even better, it managed to get the smile off of the dictator's face, which just puts one right back on Kyo's, his habitual confident, casual smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. The split lip somehow just makes it even cheekier than usual.
"You are such a drama queen," Kyo says, insouciant as ever, but of course it's exactly what he'd expect: This is Vega we're talking about. Megalomaniacs don't do anything halfway.
Even the Kusanagi heir knows that sometimes you just have to get down to business, and right now playing a delaying game against Vega is playing a /losing/ game. For all of the dictator's bluster, he can still be hurt like anyone else - it's just, you know, /harder/ to do - and dicking around is just asking to give the Psycho Powered tyrant the opportunity to jump on his head again, or something worse.
So, sometimes you gotta throw the dice.
Kyo lunges across the distance between them, reaching with one hand to grab a bunch of that somewhat charred crimson uniform; his intent from there is to follow through with his opposite shoulder, putting all of his weight behind it, a sudden acceleration fueled at least in part by the Kusanagi heir's ability to manipulate his chi but entirely an impact of muscle and bone, to transfer all that kinetic energy over into Vega and hurl him away.
"Hua-!!"
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Kyo's Hatsugane.
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Kyo 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Vega
Kyo did, for a moment, have the advantage. Perhaps it's because of the fact that Vega tends to look down upon his opponents and give them chances to make their defeat that much more exciting. Perhaps it's that toying with them brings him no small amount of delight. To crush a foul-mouthed brat beneath his boot, especially one that's supposed to be the son of one of the most capable fighters in the world, well, he was ecstatic. There's just no other word for it.
And now, that -brat- has gone and grown a spine. This just won't do.
What Kyo finds when he tries to shoulder-ram the larger man away is that Vega's bulk is not just for show. Smashing into his body is not unlike a normal man assaulting the very earth. He does not slide; he does not budge. The bulk of the force is absorbed by his enormous hand, caught between his chest and the boy. Unfortunately, being able to grip Vega means that you're also within HIS reach, and the Lord does not take an affront such as daring to grasp him lightly.
The militant leader's free hand strives to wrap itself around Kyo's wrist, the very one that's dared to hold his seared clothing. Once more, that awful, light-sucking energy manifests, his grip so tight that it causes bones to creak and joints to rub against one another. As if that weren't enough, the great diety rears his head back, teeth clenched as he seeks to drive that MAGNIFICENT chin right into the bridge of the boy's nose! He is, it seems, beyond words.
COMBATSYS: Kyo counters Aggressive Strike from Vega with Nue Tsumi EX.
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Kyo 0/-------/-----==|=======\=------\1 Vega
"Hnn," Kyo mutters as his attempt to hella shoulder block Vega proves to be less than entirely fruitful. The dictator's large frame seems resistant to getting knocked around easily, which is problematic from the Kusanagi heir's point of view, particularly as it leaves him in something of a vulnerable situation, because he's right in front of Vega, and Vega is capable of doing any number of very uncomfortable things to him up this close. It certainly looks like things are going to go that way, when the dictator's mighty paw grabs him by the wrist, and...
...Oh, hell naw.
Kyo suddenly wrenches his hand back, snaking it painfully out of Vega's grip as the dictator's Psycho Power and epic-tier chin come barreling down towards the Kusanagi heir's face. There's not enough time to get out of the way, especially since he's already injured; attempting to block or deflect Vega's attacks so far has proven to be less than entirely successful. So, what's a guy to do under the situation?
Kyo's fist smashes right into the side of Vega's jaw with thunderous force, a sudden, tremendous explosion of sacred Kusanagi flame accompanying the brute physical impact, as Kyo uses his own attack to push himself out of the way of what would doubtlessly have been a painful and embarassing assault, putting some space between himself and the psionic madman in the process.
"Yikes, that was scary," Kusanagi says. "You /really/ need a breath mint, damn."
A /howl/ tears through the short distance between Vega and Kyo. Just scant moments ago, he was tossing him around like some newborn babe. Now? His body aches with burns, patches of flesh raw and red through scorched holes in his attire. His cloak has all but burnt up completely, mere tattered shreds of cotton dangling from pauldrons that have found themselves dulled by soot. He's hunched over, both of his arms clutching at himself. Oddly, only his hat seems to have evaded abuse, still pristine and sitting snug upon his head.
"THAT. IS. ENOUGH!"
The very earth shudders as Vega's sheer rage rips through the area in psychic waves. The brave jackasses stupid enough to have started to run over stumble in their drunken excitement, now holding onto the soil for dear life. The air grows heavy with a deadly chill, the already-terrible atmosphere now making it uncomfortable just to breath it, so thick that lesser man would choke just by standing next to him. All about his body, that same coating of Psycho Power forms once more. This time, it's thicker, an ever-writhing mass of palpable hatred. So thoroughly does it suck in the light that his eyes are seen clearly, shining with their violet-white sheen though the rest of his features are completely obscured.
And this is what it is to get under a god's skin. There is no thought of Orochi at the moment. No need to compare might. Gone is the pretense of playing with Kyo and making him beg for mercy. No, the only thing that may quell his rage is the boy's broken form, throat crushed within his fist, his skin flayed and pockmarked from the hungry gnashes of his superior power.
In an instant, Vega's mass, for it can no longer be called just a body, screams head-on toward Kyo, his Psycho Power bleeding out about him in all directions, swirling as a drill does as it bores into its prey.
COMBATSYS: Kyo just-defends Vega's Final Psycho Crusher+!
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Kyo 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Vega
Clearly, that hat is the source of Vega's malign powers. How else could it stay in such perfect condition throughout the sort of havoc that results when forces such as these are being thrown about?
In another time, another era, men would've written epics about the sort of conflicts that occur between individuals like Kyo Kusanagi and Vega; the sort of stories that are passed down through the centuries, fading into myth and legend, and then eventually becoming Hollywood blockbusters. The sort of battles where the writer can do little but hurl superlatives at both combatants, their respective abilities just that far outside of the ken of ordinary men.
Nowadays, though, the best they can hope for is to end up on Youtube.
With the room he's put between himself and Vega, Kyo can at least see /what/ the psionic conqueror is in the process of doing, which is building up a terrifying amount of Psycho Power, and then hurling himself forward like an airborne drill, with the sole intention of boring right through the Kusanagi heir in a quite possibly fatal manner. This is, as it happens, something Kyo would rather not have happen, as he is rather attached to both himself and to being alive, so he summons up every scrap of power he can, getting his arms in the way of the incoming Vega and throwing up a brief, flaring barrier of flame. The Kusanagi heir is pushed back the whole way, until Vega's attack plays itself out... But never once is he actually /touched/ by the other man, or by his terrifying Psycho Power.
In fact, Kyo feels pretty amazing, right about now.
"I couldn't agree more," Kyo says... From somewhere up /above/ Vega.
Dropping out of the sky, the World Warrior champion is twisted sideways, one leg tucked in and the other extended so that his foot traces the outer edge of a parabola as he falls like a comet towards the top of the Shadaloo Lord's head.
COMBATSYS: Vega auto-guards Kyo's RED Kick!
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Kyo 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Vega
That's one thing about Psycho Power...or at least, Vega's mastery over it. The more you piss him off, the more he wants you dead, the stronger he becomes. Being held at bay by such a crude, INFERIOR force insults him deeper than anything out of the lad's mouth. After all, the weak often bark all they can, thinking that it makes a difference. True power is in action.
When the man is finally brought to a stop, when his feet touch the ground, his murderous shell doesn't completely dissipate. It shrinks, but he is still a thing wrapped in psionic terror. Acting less on his body's ability to react, he feels the presence of the enraging maggot coming down toward him from above. Vega's arm lifts, his hand catching the kick with a splash of violet mass spilling out around the point of impact like a roaring fire snuffed out. The grip on Kyo's foot is firm, fingers wrapped tightly around... If he can't wriggle his way free, then the full extent of Psycho Power masking his body will rush up in a psyche-crushing torrent, an assault of emotions that would overwhelm all but the most well-grounded minds.
COMBATSYS: Vega successfully hits Kyo with Psycho Wave.
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Kyo 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Vega
Getting caught in the middle of a technique like that is usually pretty bad, because 'I'm in midair' is seldom a position where it's easy to defend yourself... Especially not 'I'm in midair with a lunatic with superpowers grabbing my foot'. It's just a bad situation all around, really.
Kyo is left pretty well exposed as Vega's power assaults his very psyche, energy washing over him and /through/ him in a decidedly unpleasant way that the Kusanagi heir would rather not have ever happened at all, the sheer power of it very nearly overwhelming him, very nearly pushing him over the brink into unconsciousness; only sheer stubbornness keeps him awake, keeps him going. Only the will to keep fighting keeps his limbs moving.
Twisting around, Kyo falls generally groundwards, in what looks like it might be his final descent towards the arid, much-abused ground of Alice Springs, but at the last moment he lands on his feet, getting his balance just long enough to whirl around, throwing out one leg to put all his momentum into a vicious heel kick aimed right at the side of Vega's head, pretty much around ear level. So out of sorts is he after that attack that, in a rare occurrance, Kyo Kusanagi doesn't have a smartassed remark to make.
COMBATSYS: Vega interrupts Strong Kick from Kyo with Somersault Skull Diver.
[ \\\\\ < > //////// ]
Kyo 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Vega
Once that sheer...glut of power has its way with Kyo's senses, after it soaks into his flesh to set his every nerve alight with agony...it's gone. That should bring some small amount of relief, seeing Vega, the mortal, in his suit of flesh instead of Vega the I'm-Going-To-Murder-You-With-Your-Girlfriend and his overcoat of malice. In this state, he looks sort of human. In this state, he looks fallible.
With his effort spent, the Dark Lord seems to have calmed down, if just a bit. He still bears an awful scowl, but he's no longer the ravenous beast he was scant seconds before. Nor is he charging in, blind with rage. Indeed, his entire posture betrays his body's health, the searing heat of Kusanagi flames having sapped his muscles' stamina more than he would ever admit. "Pathetic, being pressed by such an unimportant worm." He seethes with the knowledge that he's having to struggle against what he sees as such an easy target, especially since said prey was on his last legs while he was in the prime of health. "Not that it matters," he adds, lifting a hand to brush soot from his pauldron.
Yet he doesn't get the chance to finish his throat, as the boy's foot crashes into the side of his brick-like face. It's quite remarkable how high and how far he's launched--too much so, in fact.
Vega is not a man to adhere to mortal limits such as 'gravity'. At the arm of his flight, his body simply lurches back as though pulled with a giant rope, his body flipping end over end. While he appears to tumble helplessly, he twists at the last moment, a violet-coated fist slamming into the boy's already well-abused head. The Psycho Master lands on his feet, his shoulders pulled back and fists clenched, arms at his sides. He's obviously /daring/ him to resist further.
Really, if Vega spends so much time jumping on people's heads, that explains an awful lot about Mike Bison. And possibly some of the other Shadaloo thugs. Head injuries can do all sorts of things to people!
Kyo's bell is quite solidly rung when Vega lands on his head again, eyes going wide with surprise as he's borne to the ground face-first with a powerful impact, while the dictator himself lands on his feet. Kyo's attempt to rise comes more slowly this time, and he slips and nearly falls again once, putting a hand to his head as if to steady himself. Things seem awfully far away, and there's enough coherent thought still running through Kyo's much-abused head to realise that's a bad thing. He looks up, focusing his attention on the Psycho Powered conqueror, and then pushes himself into a low run, surging forward off-balance and thrusting one elbow out towards Vega's sternum, aiming to drive it in there just hard enough to stagger the larger man, so he can keep /going/, twisting around to push his other hand towards his assailant's collar... With actually enough force to, in theory, lift Vega right up off the ground.
"/Burn/," is Kyo's only instruction.
At which point, if all goes according to plan, an enormous explosion of orange-red Kusanagi flames will envelop Vega and his poor uniform.
COMBATSYS: Kyo prepares to take his last stand against Vega!
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Kyo 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Vega
COMBATSYS: Kyo successfully hits Vega with Koto Moon Positive EX.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Kyo 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Vega
For all of his bravado, Vega doesn't once move as Kyo comes rushing back toward him. He knows the limits of this inferior body; its fragileness, its capacity, its conductivity for his all-but-eternal well of power... The limit that he's pressed leaves him silent but furious. His eyes glow with the might that yearns to conquer, to ravage, to decimate, held impotent by such a simple thing as physical endurance.
His massive chest is plowed into, a single step taken backward to keep him from falling. Even if he's to suffer the embarassment of being unable to squash this single man, he will not topple. He may be lifted, however, as Kusanagi's flames spark to life anew. His passive form ignites all too readily, flesh and fabric all ground away by fiery rage, literally shredding away from his feet up. Even so, he finds reason to smile as he shimmers away in a mixing of violet light and warping of space. So long as he has Alice trapped within his shadow, his eventual omnipotence is inevitable.
COMBATSYS: Vega takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Kyo 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Vega can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Kyo 1/------=/=======|
"Hah... Yeah, that's right," Kyo says, as it becomes quickly apparent that he set Vega on fire /so bad/, he actually /vanished/. "You better run."
The Kusanagi heir knows better, though... It's just that sometimes, a little bit of bluster makes you feel better. He looks a wreck, bloodied and battered but ultimately unbowed, and as he turns back to Alice Springs he gives a bit of a dark look to the still-assembled onlookers, apparently unaware that there's any Frenchmen among them, and pushes his way through the crowd towards where the tournament crew is still waiting. He needs to get patched up, he needs to get in the jeep. He can nap on the way to Ayers Rock.
A lot of people, after that encounter, wouldn't be too jazzed about fighting Vega's whole team in the tournament match, but Kyo?
Kyo finds he just wants to kick their asses even more.
COMBATSYS: Kyo has ended the fight here.
Log created on 17:58:48 04/13/2011 by Vega, and last modified on 08:53:20 04/19/2011.