Description: Upon an island south of Japan, the eastern plant life grows ill, its life collected and sapped away for some greater purpose. Yet, the land remains very much alive for what appears to be a lack of it, its nutrients being absorbed for a specific purpose. Three highly motivated individuals push through the uninviting landscape for answers. Rooted to her cause in every conceivable way, Tomoko Kimura stands ready to prune humanity so a new world flowers in their stead. What occurs cannot be prevented; what occurs is destiny.
This place of great interest does not apply to just those of the means and strength to come here... but also the underlying energies of the world. Maybe one should not call them 'underlying' when the influence can be felt all around... and they sure as hell aren't lying down! Let us say the power flowing through the Earth is now overstanding up.
To the east, the twisted remains of a forest are all around, a strong breeze coupled with easily among the stormiest weather on the island. Perhaps, in the past, this was a place of great solace and peace.
It is so not, if the barren trees, the rotted stumps, and the splintered, fractured husks of wood all about alone did not communicate the very idea that something has gone terribly wrong. (If not here, there are plenty of other hints all around such as, oh, the sky, the world-wide horrible weather, that incredible instinctual disquiet nearly every human being has...)
Yet an intact temple, endowed with ancient, long-dead and rotting vines awaits around the winding path frought with death. It may very well be held together entirely by the dead, rotted wood that had once penetrated and ingrained itself inside this shrine, as though it were its home, a single green vibrant orb resting in the very center. There's a sensation of it being... alive, somehow, that it might still be growing. Thriving.
Its sole occupant is a tall young woman of Japanese descent, whom has since taken on some of the very qualities of trees themselves. Pulsating veins appear through her body. Wilted, hollow, deteriorating brown leaves poke out where they even rupture outside of her body, and yet - she appears so terribly peaceful despite something that should be of absolutely immense pain.
Is this an effect of being this close to Orochi, while so close to something of clear, palpable power? Her feet have since rooted themselves to this very spot, as if plenty keen on simply staying where she is while the tiny cracks of light to come in from outside serve as a sort of reassurance, if not nourishment.
It is not long before everything comes to a head. Lest everyone finds the idea of being an unmoving, stationary reminder of a time since gone by, this little twisted Garden of Eden must be intruded upon...
But are there any heroes left in man?
To hear Aranha tell it, he's no hero. But in the recent events that have shaken the world, he has consistantly aligned himself with the heroes for a variety of reasons. He'd either mention reckless endangerment of children, (un?)enlightened self-interest of wanting to survive and see tomorrow, or the fact that the heroic types were just plain less likely to push him around than the more villainous types. Ayame, his enemy has hit upon one of the other reasons he might not publically admit but it's there all the same and it's one of the reasons for their current temporary truce. He will do damn near anything, kill damn near anyone, and even sacrifice himself if he has to in order to make sure his last remaining sister remains safe and sound.
He's been doing some investigative work lately, and while things had been quiet for the most part, he's finally found all the pieces he needed to seek Tomoko out and to end this once and for all. When he gets there, his jaws drop wide open as he not only sees a youthful Tomoko, that has gained some weird properties that end up turning the young capoeirista's stomach. Aranha would disbelieve but he has seen and felt way too much in these recent years to disregard this as nothing but illusions or a figment of his imagination even if in the grand scheme of things he is relatively young. But he's not exactly sure that this is really Tomoko.
Regardless, Aranha even with chi manipulation and sensing not being his forte, he can feel enough to know that either way, he better bring his A game. He's fighting not only for his own life but the right for his sister to exist in this world.
Zach looked around with more than a touch of concern; this place was hella creepy. On top of that, he had been seperated from his teammates. Antoine felt pulled to the south, and Zach's gut yelled at him to go east. Asking Rust to keep an eye on the young kung-fu fighter, the Mountain Lions went seperate ways. The psion found that ignoring his gut was rarely a good idea, but he is having a hard time figuring out /why/ he should be heading this way and not with his friends.
He doesn't really consider himself a hero, never really had aims in such a direction. Zach would tell you he is just a man who, while uncertain of his degree of freedom, did follow his beliefs as best as he could. What was going on here, with these four fiends, was wrong. Abhorrent. Not to mention unspeakably destructive, and there were comparatively few people who were able (and inclined) to prevent it.
Humanity must be preserved, a stand had to be taken. Zach Glen found himself in the unenviable position of having the means to take that stand. His emerald eyes narrow at Tomoko in mild disbelief. He'd seen some things in his travels, and seeing Young Tomoko as opposed to Old Tomoko came as now surprise. The plant motif, however, that was just plain wierd.
"That..." Zach says with speculative concern, "...that can/not/ feel good."
Vanessa has contacted Kyo. They had a lovely, productive discussion, or maybe possibly beat the crap out of each other. Either way, really.
The fact remains: She comes. She's dressed in the slacks and shirt she always wears, with a suit slipped on over it. It keeps her mind on business. There's no time to pretend this is anything less. Vanessa may not be the most /traditional/ of heros, but...nothing about her story has been the tradition. There's someone trying to tear the world down around her ears. Vanessa has set things in motion to make sure that one of the heads is cut. She will do another. Alone, if she has to. Vanessa's never been afraid of that.
Others arive with her, at least, or perhaps of their own accord. She didn't call them, anyway. The older woman thumbs her nose with a gloved hand, snorting. She's seen these two. Well...
"Looks like we're the only ones who came to the party, boys," she chirps, plodding up the temple steps, hands in her pockets. Her eyes narrow, shaking her head. Tsk. "That's just not right," she mutters.
"Oh, my. Visitors at this hour...?" Though it is the voice of a young, healthy woman... the word choice seems more befitting to one of many accumulated years. "Help yourselves... there's not much left, you see. That you have your own company... hum. I suggest you all cherish it."
Rooted as she is to her spot, she has a perfect view of all three who have arrived to meet her. "I wouldn't call it a party, dear," she informs Vanessa matter-of-factly. "More of a... wake, if you will..."
"Zach," she says, "how nice it is to see you again... hm. I would imagine you would have spent these last few days in peace, to contemplate everything you've said, everything you've done... ah, you shouldn't worry about me..."
Though rooted, she is still plenty capable of moving her upper bdoy about, the shifting of dead and rotting leaves about her as she peers out behind the two of them. "Oh, you were with that spritely young lady. Why so shy now, hm?" Oh, she knows why he's so shy, considering how their previous encounter went. She smiles a little at this joke.
"You all know it's the end now, do you not? I'm sorry it's so sudden... but everyone has their time, you see. I would mind not if you wished to wait it quietly with me."
Zach nods politely to Aranha and Vanessa. "I suspect, ma'am," Zach says politely to the boxer, "That there are other parties to go to. I mean, Kimura-san and her associates are clearly up to something large with the energy they are trying to build up, which means that there is likely some kind of dark ritual taking place as we speak. And something on that scale is just as likely going to need multiple, I dunno call them points, up and running at the same time." Zach shrugs. "I wouldn't take it personally," he finishes with a slight shrug and weak grin. He's not feeling super confident, for all his talk with Rust earlier. This thing is way huge.
"Not so much contemplation as, well, janitorial work," Zach says. "Lots of seperate messes to clean up." Zach adjusts his stance a bit, getting ready for what is likely an inevitable fight. "This here," he says as he gestures to the area around him, "Being the last one on the list." He adjusts the sword at his hip carefully. Zach is trying to get a feel for the situation before it devolves into a brawl.
Hopefully someone else will come up with the typical hero rhetoric; Zach's not feeling it just yet.
It's all that's needed to confirm that Tomoko as youthful, leafy, and veiny, as she is, is indeed Tomoko. The up to now quiet capoeirista finally speaks up after letting his lips form into a frown. "It would never work out. We can't stand each other, don't trust each other, and the only thing we agree on, is that I should break my foot so far up your ass that you'll get that hunched over walk that you used to have back at Stonehenge."
He pauses for a second, "Unless you mean the crazy witch. She's probably is just trying to con her way into someone else's refridgerator or into an all you can eat buffet. Or something..." He lets his neck roll letting out a loud but not quite Rust quality crack and then stands up straight.
The Dancing Spider realizes that he doesn't exactly know how much experience with Tomoko they have so he then turns to the other two. "Watch yourselves in close range with her. She's fast and awfully fond of counter striking... She's probably even faster now than she was before."
Now Aranha goes quiet. There are a lot of things that Aranha had learned from Elle Belmounte. Don't waste time talking. It only leads to making mistakes, and don't let them make the first move if you can avoid it. It almost always ends up biting you right in the ass. And then Aranha goes into a dash as he quickly eats up the space between them before taking to the air in a front flip before coming down on Tomoko with a heel drop towards her head. He's not exactly sure he wants to mess with Tomoko in close range but he still needs to get information on how much faster Tomoko is now that she's more youthful looking.
Vanessa flips her wrist, lazily. "I've always been a fan of those memorials where everyone's havin' a good time, you know?" she says, gamely, and reaches to unbutton her jacket with a few practiced flips of her thumb. "You remember the good times, and remember how nice it was to have them. And you look forward to tomorrow."
She reaches up to grab the lapels of her jacket, and adds, "The sun's going to rise again," but her smile never quite hits her eyes. "I've already made sure of that." Somewhat overstating the level of backup she's got ('none, except Kusanagi, somewhere else'), but bluffing is an important skill in this line of work. Her neck cranes to look back at Zach. "Nice guess! It's kind of complicated, but basically they're trying to wake up an evil god that hates us." She turns to glance at Tomoko again, frowning. "Something like that, right? Pulling the life force out of people, corrupting kids..." Her lips set, and she whips the jacket off, sending the thing hurtling off carelessly into the stale air.
"You know I can't forgive you, right?" she says, her joviality fading to zero, balling her fists and hopping back and forth on her feet.
Someone does come up with the typical hero rhetoric, for Zach's sake - it's the fast-acting Aranha, who already knows why he's fighting. Tomoko frowns lightly at this little spry threat, but he is about to provide that single ample example as to why she is so dangerous to fight up close, even now, where it seems some matters of lack of flexibility may appear to be to her hindrance....
As the Dancing Spider brings a heel to her face, the ankle is grabbed with great speed... ferocity. A grip so crushing, so powerful it might be as though it were trying to dig roots right into him - though this gesture is, truly, more a matter of brute force than the subtle precision she has shown in her previous encounters, perhaps to make her point as she releases Aranha with an upward flip of her hand to toss him back.
"Ahh, you've done your homework, have you... you see it, don't you? How uneasy everyone is... how wasteful. Selfish... in all my years, I have seen much beauty, young lady. But I can assure you... it was never from fellow man."
Painful memories flood her. Faint from age, yet painful, she re-centers herself as the dead leaves around her rustle. "I do not ask for forgiveness. None ask, none give... none deserve, you understand, dear. The way you clench your fists, I can see it... the frustration. Yes... just like that young man over there."
She means Zach.
"Have you truly learned from your little adventure, I wonder...?" She beckons with a leafy hand. "Come then... let us see if this last chapter of our lives shows that lesson learned too late."
The whole temple feels like it comes alive. Like roots are moving, like plant life - though dead - still writhes. And yet, there are no aggressive motions.
Aranha has already pointed out her strengths - but the question is, can conviction win out against such a passive, defensive display of power on its own?
Zach doesn't reply to Tomoko's taunting, at least not verbally. "She's going to be very hard to beat if she can keep her footing," Zach advises Vanessa. "From what I can tell, she's almost supreme so long as she can maintain control of her balance." Zach glances at the roots with a visible frown. An idea occurs to him, just beneath the surface of conscious thought.
The psion takes a long, deep breath, allowing his power to well up within him. Yellow light lumines Glen's body as he takes a modified boxing stance of his own. "So... you want to destroy everything because you've given up on people," Zach asks calmly. "That's... kind of sad, actually." He needs to keep Tomoko talking, to keep the woman from truely joining the battle and bringing whatever dark and terrible gifts she has to bear.
"What ever happened to that friend you mentioned to me," Zach asks. "Or was that just a tale you wove to help your plans?"
Vanessa listens to the advice, eyes on Tomoko fully. She addresses the tree lady. "Oh, yes, everyone's upset because you've got an evil spirit punching them in the soul, very clever," she sighs, shaking her head, shrugging exaggeratedly. "You know, you're right? People hurt each other, destroy each other and their lives. But if you say you've never once seen a beautiful thing from another person..."
She lids her eyes, taking a deep breath and remembering-- "Then I'm sorry, that you've been so blind," she says, and sets her foot. Unassailable defense. Normally the way around that is to cheat - switch up the battlefield. But Tomoko has control of the field, and control of the time limit. They've got to take her down. So...what.
Well. Do what she always does, Vanessa decides, and blurs - the gap between her and Tomoko shrinks in an instant, Vanessa skipping the distance so fast it's almost impossible to see her until she's there, already in the field. She bobs, moving quickly, weaving back and forth to make it hard to predict what's coming until her arms snap up, a sharp, testing straight.
The young capoeirista is snatched out of the air with such incredible speed that it's almost hard to believe. To his credit the capoeirista doesn't let himself scream though his mind and body both agree on the desire if not prudence to let the world know of his pain. That exchange gives Aranha a lot of information. She's faster, stronger, and she has discarded precision for outright brute strength.
If it wasn't abundantly clear before, it is now. Aranha wants no part of close ranged combat with this no longer elderly but creepy all the same woman. Not just because he believes continuing to engage from close up is a losing proposition, but as a capoeirista , he /HATES/ when people attack his legs.
He takes some time to work the pain out of his leg. He raises his hand drawing in the ambient chi in the area as a slight wave of nausea comes over him. Even a low level chi sensitive like him can feel how twisted the chi in the area is but as far as he's concerned, he has no choice but to draw on it.
He blinks away the nauseous feeling, stopping to puke will only give her an opening and if what he was feeling was any indicator, even if he stays in long range, he's not going to want to give any type of opening to her.
He lashes his hand outwards whipping out a blue spider web of chi towards her flickering in much the same manner as it did when he was fighting at the abandoned temple in Sunshine City.
"Were you not the same at one point, Zach?" So asks Tomoko. "So willing to take an easy route for power out of panic... to the same ends, to stop it all. I've known so many young men like you, Zach. Even among my own blood..."
Aranha isn't wasting time humoring this crap, because like hell he's going to let this go. He has a sister to protect, to help see her live happily, all of it expressed through the blue spider web of chi that rushes towards her. The very branches and roots nearby above and around Aranha thrust out at him, but his awareness and slipperiness should help serve to keep him out of harm's way... and hey, they may actually prove useful to his movement.
Vanessa's fast movement serves a great purpose - the speed of her hands makes it hard for people to track, to know where to block or move. Wisely on the onset, Tomoko chooses instead to sway, rustling dead leaves flying off with the nearby proximity of the weaving punches until that sharp, testing straight snaps just past her arm and into her shoulder.
Punching this woman does not feel like punching flesh... or even steel, but hard, unyielding, strong, healthy lumber, 'tsk' on Tomoko's face as she brings her thorny, leafy palm up towards Vanessa's solar plexus and tries to give a push - just that little, tiny push, that if any contact is made would send spasms throughout Vanessa's body. "Oh, I know what you refer to, child," she says to Vanessa, "but even /he/... no, he's no longer worth the discussion."
"Now... what was that you were asking me again, young man?" She looks to Zach with a false patient smile. The root-line veins begin to pulsate, suggesting there's something else - something far more wrong - with this woman than first appears. That there is something more being tapped into that she should not be...
"Stop ALL of it?" Zach asks incredulously, "Lady, I'm just one guy. Even if I /wanted/ that, and I don't by the way, ending ALL of it would be way beyond my abilities." Zach has not yet moved to engage. It's only partly from hesitation; he knows that Tomoko and her co-conspirators must be stopped. "And besides, at the end of the day, outside of a pro fight? I'm just worried about protecting myself and those around me. I know better than to think that I can save the whole world with just my fists and a light show."
Speaking of light shows, Zach's outward glow has been slowly, steadily picking up in intensity. Zach usually only displays one speed of build-up and that's 'full.' Not so in this case. Glen is clearly building up towards a complex (for him anyway) working of sime kind. "On the other hand," he says as he adjusts stance once more, "I also will admit that if someone comes after my friends, the gloves come off." The new stance has little to do with boxing at all, and might remind someone of an old samurai show. Zach's right hand opens, and drifts over to the hilt of the blade at his hip.
"I was asking about that friend you mentioned to me when we were in the hospital," Zach says by way of reminder. "The one who the choker belonged to originally." He is stalling, just a bit. He simply cannot /say/ as much to Aranha or Vanessa, or else Tomoko will be able to utterly wreck Zach's tenuous plan.
Vanessa gets into an infight with the Queen of Ironbark Fist, swaying and testing her strength. She finally snakes that hit through, but her eyes widen a little. Nothing!? Like hitting a wall...or a tree.
And Tomoko moves fast, sliding that palm in. Vanessa's an infighter. She's near useless outside this range. Let the other two do their best; she'll just have to--
Vanessa emits a weak "HURK" as her shoulders contract, pain racing through her. Holy CRAP! But...she doesn't back off. Instead, while Tomoko's eyes slide to Zach, Vanessa emits a low sound, a growl as she gathers her energies together to swing a quick fist up, "Hhhhhhhheeeeee---" past Tomoko's face - and blazing gold chi follows that traced arc, shimmering in Tomoko's sight for an instant. It glides forward, burning into her even as Vanessa snaps her other fist down, blazing a second trail: "--lllion!!!"
In an instant, Aranha's belief in not stopping to vomit so that he wouldn't present vulnerability to Tomoko is justified. He bobs and weaves away from the branches and dances over and around the offending roots but as slippery and aware as he is, he can't dodge them all especially since some of the roots and branches seem to be herding him in a specific direction. Plus one does manage to jab at his arm eliciting a bit of a hiss from before he moves to another location, hopping from root to branch and swinging from tree to tree until he's standing on a relatively thick branch above Tomoko. He grabs onto the tree and gives it a hard kick sending it to drop upon Tomoko.
At least he's carefully calculated the angle so that it shouldn't hit Vanessa as long as she doesn't try to move to Tomoko's sides to deliver an attack and will probably be able to see it if need be.
Meanwhile, Aranha finds himself cursing. He feels out of his element from outside his kick range but it's all he can think of right now. Where's Kyo when you need him? Anyway, he slides down the tree and lands back on earth of questionable firmness.
"Oh, yes," Tomoko recalls as she wills herself straight while Aranha is swinging around above for dear life and Vanessa fights to keep control of her body (and maybe even her bladder), running a leafy hand through her hair - hair that has since somehow obtained the qualities of both normal, human hair, tree branches, and even leafy matter as Vanessa keeps her pain train rolling, summoning up her strength--
The chi blast of wind is immense, empowered by resolve that one may wonder if Vanessa's Hellion may even snap Tomoko's legs in twain! To say nothing of the large branch that Aranha suddenly thrusts down with a little fancy footwork, heavy enough that /something/ snaps.... it's not the branch.
"Dears," Tomoko sneers as she realizes what's going through her... ah, she couldn't avoid it after all like the rest, such is the price, isn't it? "/Behave/ yourselves!!"
With a powerful thrust of both leafy hands towards Vanessa's form, she looks to try and grasp her by neck and outstretched wrist, to try and paralyze nerves through deeply touching - piercing - maybe even outright destroying the natural flow of that pressure point in some attempt to get some space from Vanessa.
"He was a coward and a /bully/," her eyes take on a most discomforting green hue, veins pulsating, "always looked for power for its sake... to destroy. That was his final attempt before he destroyed himself... and to think about the direction you were taking it, what with that, that spat with that buffoon with that criss-cross scar," she means Takuma, "and what I heard from Carrol!!"
Suddenly, the entire temple shakes, and this is where a dangerous and present threat comes to Aranha - the temple is falling apart. On the ground level, new plantlife thrusts upwards from the very ground, effortlessly smashing through rock structures and who knows what else as that green vibrant orb violently shudders.
Nobody will have steady footing anywhere - especially not when trees and plantlife are growing absolutely everywhere, content to even ensnare feet if one is not careful, as the underlying power of the eastern part of the island rushes well past the fighters and towards the center.
"I'm afraid I have no more time!" Tomoko snarls out, like a grandmother scorned despite her visible age of... 19, maybe? "I am the Guardian of Wood... the Azure Dragon! As my life wanes, be it your hand or the inexorable tide of destiny... the power you give, the blood that you shed, will all be a legacy to the one who will wipe the slate clean!"
"If it's your legacy that humanity deem itself fit - as it never has in my many, many years - then please, dears... go on ahead!!"
There is no further gestures or motions to attack on her part, considering the state of the temple and her fighting nature - Aranha and Vanessa together have already suffered the consequences of fighting on her terms. But can the three of them take it all the way?
Can the three of them overcome the encroaching of the end...?
Zach was focusing, waiting for a moment. When the earth around the fighters heaves with sudden plant growth, Zach realizes that searching, waiting for the moment will not do. Sometimes, that moment needs to be /made/.
The psion has had plenty of advice over the years concerning power in general and Soul Power in specific. He remembers, of all people, Ryuuhaku Todoh. One point. Focus your strength on one point. The 'trunk' of the 'tree', just above the ankles. Zach locks his eyes, and his will, upon that point. Zach eases the wakazashi loose in its sheath as he leans forward.
He remembers Horatio. Find that small point in the center. That is where your control is, where everything else builds from. Zach dashes forward, almost gliding on his course on a burst of psionic energy that forces the plants aside in his wake. The sword is pulled free, starting a cutting stroke.
Frei once told Zach Glen that strong power responds to strong will. Surprisingly, that lines up with some of the things Tomoko mentioned. In most of his fights, Zach was allowing his power to control the flow of the fight as he did. Here, now, that power moves along one path, adding strength to the drawing cut technique that he borrowed...
...from Hyo Imawano, who taught him of focus. The blade, hopefully, strikes Tomoko just above where her ankles ought to be. Zach focuses on finishing the strike, complete with following the stroke through, and hopefully break her legs. That would be one way to ruin her balance, allowing Vanessa and Aranha to do work.
Aranha would have trouble dodging branches and newly growing trees like this in the best of times. The capoeirista gets slashed and stabbed roots and branches. His body a bloody mass of future scars. If you wanted to put a picture of agony just take a picture of Aranha at this moment and time and you would have a perfect picture for that definition.
The environment has rebelled to the point where he can no longer keep the fight at range. Out of the corner of his eye he can see what Zach is attempting to do and he aids him and Vanessa by fighting dirty. When the stakes are the continued existance of both himself and his sister, fighting fair is /not/ an option as far as he's concerned... He's close enough to hawk a bloody loogie right in Tomoko's face, as both a blinding tactic and a gesture of utter disrespect for her and everything she stands for. He then glows blue as he rebounds off a tree to deliver the first of many chi enhanced kicks from a variety of angles.
But those kicks also have another objective, he's delivering powerful kicks to the surrounding growth of new trees and interfering branches to clear a path so that Vanessa can get in the final blow.
Vanessa can't help but cry out a shrill sound as Tomoko grabs her. There's power put through her, energy that's supposed to go that just ain't doin' it. "SON of a--" Vanessa grates out, yanking her hands away, darting back. Her feet move like lightning, gliding across the ground, buying her space. She clenches her fists, trying to get that energy flowing again. This is not really her kind of fight, she thinks. Give her a chi-user, she'd tear him up. But this...
Well, all she can do is fight on. She sets her feet, gathers up her chi. They trained her to win any fight, after all. Even this one. "Don't take that tone of voice with me, kid," Vanessa snaps. "I don't care if you're 19 or a hundred ninety! If you're this /stupid/, I'll paddle you just the same!" Flecks of gold light surround her arms. Vanessa can't shoot blasts of chi. Her big trump card is useless against Tomoko (though she wonders if she could bounce that huge ball, if it came to that? Could her technique handle such power?) But in the end...
Zach hobbles her. Aranha lays into her. And Vanessa clenches her fist, as a whirlwind explodes into being around her entire arm, and she /blurs/ in, suddenly just appearing, impossibly, inside Tomoko's guard, and sets her feet, and yells, "Now, /BEND OVER!/" before rounding - all the energy of her body into her shoulder, through her arm, out her fist, and slamming that hurricane-force fist into her chest.
The ground at Vanessa's feet cracks, as the corkscrew force attempts to find somewhere to escape, and it slithers through the holes in her chakras opened by Tomoko. But the majority of that stone-cracking force is seeking out the guardian of Wood's heart.
Aranha, despite leading a life of extreme caution and skirting the rules where capable and possible, bets it all. He bets it all, slapping the chips down in the form of spit in an increasingly irate Tomoko's face as a precursor to his many wave of kicks. He may get a sadistic glee of revenge as her arms reach out widely to poke and grasp at what she keeps missing with every blow. Uncoordinated, disoriented, and plenty disgusted, the breaking of calm ruins what perfect execution and perception she has in usually stopping such blatant, flagrant, thoughtless assaults as a clear path is cut by those legs...
Zach brings his lessons over the years to bear from various men of all different sorts of walks in life. Of so many different ideologies, of so many ideas that he has learned to try and incorporate into himself... to be a part of himself, in perfecting the hold of the power he awakened to, as he chooses the single point to lend his power. To be the definition of the power, not let the power be the definition of himself, as he makes use of Aranha's opening to reach forth and cut right at the root, severing Tomoko free with a high-pitched scream, only able to keep herself upright with her arms thrust down to support her - all to merely stand. Devoid of the power underneath her, her body rapidly ages.
"The seeds have already been planted...!!" She hisses out as Vanessa, finally, steps up to the plate to finish the job by that single, final punch to Tomoko's chest. So powerful, so solid it is despite a lack of real traction that Vanessa's fist goes all the way through.
It is bloodless. Vanessa can, instead, feel the very life of Tomoko fade away in a most disturbing display. Tomoko withers back to her original age in a manner of seconds impaled through Vanessa's arm, eyes looing up to her... tired, long tired eyes.
"Oh... if only all that went wrong with our lives could... be solved that waaaay~~" her voice trails off as her body ages well beyond what is humanly possible, rotting away to... not a human skeleton, but a vaguely skeelton-shaped rotting wooden log of some make, and crumbles entirely into dust, freeing Vanessa's arm.
While they were all able to clear away enough to reach Tomoko through the chaos, the erupting forests everywhere makes it especially dangerous. The temple crumbles all around them. Any and every step is precarious... their only option, now, is to get out alive.
Alive to a world that will hopefully still be there!
Zach lets out a loud breath as he sheathes the blade. Again, Tomoko is making with the villainous dialogue: "It can't be stopped." "Life is not that simple." Zach watches the old woman die, regret in his eyes. There is no anger there, no rage, no frustration. Those things do not drive his actions or inform his motivations. "It shouldn't have come to this," Zach says quietly. "In life, there is opportunity to change, to grow." He looks tiredly at Vanessa and Aranha before things go even further to shit.
"We need to leave," Zach opines before suiting his actions to his advice. He turns and starts leaping from clear place to shrinking clear place, using the Miraitou to cut offending greenery in his path. The psion blazes a trail, cutting a path for Vanessa and Aranha to follow (or not) as he fights his way free from the sudden forest. Hopefully, he'll find Antoine and Rust before the whole of the island goes to pot.
"Ewww..." Says the guy who had just spat a blood filled loogie right in Tomoko's face. Even still the horrifying display gives the Dancing Spider pause. Considering he's gone face to face with Marise on multiple occasions this is saying a lot.
He turns towards Tomoko's dust and shakes his head. After Zach states the obvious, Aranha turns to Zach. "You don't have to tell me twice. I refuse to be the black guy that gets killed off in this one." He smirks finding it necessary to make jokes now that the fight is over. And then he's off bounding off of roots, trunks, and branches as he makes his escape from the forest that's gone completely to hell.
Vanessa's hurricane haymaker slams into and /through/ Tomoko's body, and she can /feel/ the life force draining out of the woman while her fist is lodged in her.
Their eyes meet. Tomoko is tired. Vanessa is stern.
"No," she says, quietly. "It can't all be solved by killing." She tugs, tearing her arm free of that petrified skeleton-log, hastening its destruction. "But...I don't think you'll be the last person I send on ahead, either," she says, and turns on her heels, walking sedately over to grab her jacket off the wood. She shakes it out, twice.
Vanessa takes one last look back as the world explodes around her. "...she needs a world to live in, after all," she sighs, and slides the jacket back across her shoulders.
And runs. Vanessa can run very fast, even as the halls and temple collapse behind her. Feet hit the floor, one after the other, sliding around upraised roots.
Her ride is waiting.
Log created on 10:39:48 08/06/2011 by Tomoko, and last modified on 16:12:13 08/09/2011.