Description: At the very center of the mysterious island south of Japan, the very final battle to determine humanity rages. Goenitz, the one who forged the fell alliance between the Guardians who turned their back to humanity and those who their predecessors gave so much to banish forever from humanity, invites the King of Fighters - the team erected from the terrorist organization Shadaloo's finest - invites them to a final battle in welcoming the seemingly inevitable opening of Hell's Gate. With the collected power the Guardians entrusted towards being the key to opening the prison that contains Orochi and so much more, everything hangs in the balance. One young man's destiny would draw him to this place, unaware of the true importance of his presence as the final battle for humanity goes underway. Is it too late to halt the judgment of humanity by the mythical God, Orochi?
It takes a few moments for Juri to notice the ruckus going on above her head. The two fighters on the verge of pounding each other while hanging onto a helicopter is quite a sight. She can only imagine the thoughts going through the pilot's head, trying to keep the craft steady enough while those two fools throw their weight around. Quite literally, as it turns out. Her lips spread into a cold grin. Well, whatever. Let the two idiots take a tumble from the helicopter. After they're done, she'll happily enjoy breaking what's left of them to break. There's still the revenge for the two idiots manhandling her while she was tied up for transport.
Oh yes, Juri does so enjoy her revenge.
What wipes that grin from her face though is a cold wind. Not to say that the cold wind physically wipes the smile from her features, or that the wind alone is what causes her sudden loss of good humor. It is instead the feeling that follows the wind. A feeling of foreboding. Something that tickles that missing place within her mind and soul, that part of her that once knew how to fear. She feels no fear now...
But the fact she thinks she should feel afraid is disturbing enough.
Juri stands quietly as the helicopter over head has its rotors stop in mid-spin, and the engine destroys itself from the sudden stop. It drops from the sky like a stone, and kicks up enough dust to partially consume Juri and obscure her vision!
But it's only for a moment, as the figure of a tall man walks forward and through the spreading dust. Juri's eyes narrow considerably, her lips drawn into a thin, pale line on her face. She doesn't even acknowledge Adon or Bison anymore. They're merely distractions to what is going on around her. The real target is here, before her eyes. The true revenge she has been craving so long. She is sure of it.
So sure that she doesn't need the confirmation of the man using the wind to eject Adon and Bison, and the ruins of the wrecked helicopter, from the battle arena. Nor does she need the mans name accompanied with a polite bow.
"Goenitz." She repeats in a cool tone, "The most humble servant of Orochi." Her lips twist briefly into a sneer, before it fades away. One gloved hand reaches up to brush its fingers through her hair. The raven black strands flow freely over her shoulders, bruised and bloody as they are. There is a faint glow though: A slight purple sheen throughout her body as she allows her own psycho power to flow through her. Slowly bruises vanishes, cuts stop bleeding and begin to close. Before long she will be almost pristine... save for the more major internal injuries that she can ignore. At least, until she drops dead from them.
"I doubt you need an introduction from me at this point, but... why the Hell not?" She laughs, a cold mechanical thing, before continuing, "My name is Juri Han. Codename, The Spider. S.I.N. Division of Shadaloo. Of course, all of this is very top-secret information. I can't let anyone leave this island alive, knowing that." Her lips quirk into a cruel smile, "Not that I ever had the intention of letting anyone leave alive."
The man before Juri - if he even truly can be considered a mere man - calmly rises up straight as the wind howls loudly around them. Ordinary people would not be standing out here, let alone still on their feet in such proximity to this power. The red clouds above swirl violently around that unnatural light in the sky.
Where Juri is animated and more than eager to continue her personal craft... Goenitz is stiff, sans the constant smirk he allows himself as if to show reassurance.
The reassurance that one has no assurance, at all.
"In any other circumstance... Juri Han," Goenitz speaks as he raises his head, letting his eyes meet hers. Unwavering. Piercing - and, one may swear, an odd serpentine quality to them, "the followers of my Lord would have spared no expense to your extermination. To remove those of your... kind. That you, in any other circumstance, would have nothing to contribute and everything to take." Does he need to elaborate upon one of the great differences that sets Juri apart from most of humanity? From most fighters? Perhaps even... most who use her power?
His right hand rises, fingers curling inwards as he looks to the skies above. "But here you stand, the... King of Fighters. Quite an accomplishment. I wholly accept and congratulate your success, Juri Han. That it may very well be, in the end, even the most appropriate outcome..."
His eyes close briefly as he lets the wind flow around himself, blue cloth rippling about with a controlled ferocity that contrasts against the wild, uncontrolled winds tearing about the very center of this place of great interest, before he lowers his arm - and his gaze - down to the enthusiastically ready Juri Han.
"If only you knew how appropriate your words were! Hm, hm. Do you not feel it, Juri Han? The very Gates of Hell creaking open? If not," he gestures outward towards her with the same right arm, fingers once again gesturing to come hither.
"This hour of judgment has just come. If you care to a final, vain struggle... then I shall recite the eulogy of all humanity in your final moments!!"
Psycho Power.
It is truly the power of the self. Not at all taken from the larger world, but instead pulled from reserves deep within your own mind and soul. It is a reflection of who you are, and as such has both negative and positive aspects. Psycho power can heal as well as it can destroy. Though its disruptive effect on chi, and the users of chi, are well noted. Much like how the chi has such a disruptive effect on psi users themselves.
Not that Juri cares. Not at all. Instead she is now practically doubled over with laughter, her entire body shaking and quivering with delight. Finally her back arches and she shares her laughter with the sky! Then all at once it stops like it has never been. Not trailing off like usual laughter, but just stopping immediately.
Juri lets her head drop to her chest, before rolling around so she can stare at Goenitz through her left eye. Her arms rise and cross under her breasts, and that sardonic smirk continues to play over her lips. "King of the Fighters." The tone of her voice belies just how little she considers of the title. "Like I'd care about any of that." She sighs softly and waves in the air with one hand, like she is trying to wave away the air of pretention around the title, "For me it was just an excuse to meet and break new people." A soft, longing sigh escapes her lips, "Oh, how I enjoyed some of the matches." Her waving hand comes to her neck now, feeling where Yamazaki sank his teeth in and ripped so much of her flesh away. It is all smooth skin now, but the memory remains. Oh, yes, that was /fun/.
Her arm rejoins the other as she sniffs softly. Her feet begin to move her around Goenitz now: A lazy circle that she paces, while taking in the man from head to foot. 'Gates of Hell'. 'Eulogy of All Humanity'. Really, this guy thinks pretty highly of himself.
"Sounds like fun." Juri states simply, honestly, "But I really don't think I care for any of that. You see, I have my own plans. I guess you could say I'm not done 'taking' yet." She raises one hand, one finger pointed skyward.
"There is only one thing I want to know though. Only one thing I care about. In Australia, when fighting near some massive dusty rock, someone or some/thing/ was fucking around with my head. Screwing around with my memories." She comes to a stop now, her right eye staring directly into Goenitz's face. Her voice is cold and emotionless, "Was it you. Or was it that boss of yours... Ecchi or erochi or whatever."
Where two stand and puff their chests out in their own ways, the world all around - above, below, around, and in some sense, /beyond/ - is shifting rapidly. Violently. The things Goenitz says about feeling the door cracking may, on some level, be lost to those who do not attune themselves to the underlying power of the world.
The closest approximation to describe the lacking of a sensation in which to truly appreciate - or dread - the goings on around them without being entirely blind to the sense of there being something vast, something awful, would be to compare it to being colorblind.
Goenitz takes Juri's declarations in complete stride, as if expecting - no, having already long since believed - that this psion before him is the most honest embodiment of what it means to be human on this ailing world. No offense can be taken at her laughter at this stage of the game.
It is truly a divine comedy!
And then, the pause that comes with Juri's question as to the only thing she cares about. It is the final hour - Goenitz is under the strong belief there is no stopping what is to come. To humor one of the damned before him... a way to pass the time? He lowers his head from where he stands, the breeze slowing around him as if to recollect.
Suddenly, his fingers snap loudly, arm raised above. "Ahh... yes, Ayer's Rock. Marvelous beauty of nature, that... one of the few places where human respect is not misplaced." His gaze returns more even keel. "You were there that day, weren't you? Hm, your memories, you say..."
There is a puse for him to chortle again.
"Are you looking to blame, or looking to give your thanks, Juri Han? I can claim no personal credit to what such power it holds, even if I did do a little, shall we say, work." His arm gestures out towards the center nearby.
"To channel the energy released by those who have power is no small task," he wastes no time to explain this to a clearly eager and impatient young lady, if with the grudging respect she will soon no longer be able to have such answers, "for me and the Anemoi, made certain to have the power flow through the leylines to this Gate. Their enthusiasm to have helped betray their own original reason for their strength and conviction... even the Guardians of Hell's Gate themselves saw it no longer fit to hold Him back from a disgraced, parasitic, petty humanity."
His hands join together in front of him as his cloak goes still, head bowed briefly in all that appears to be prayer. "You sound most disturbed with what visions it gave you... is that truly what drives you this far, Juri Han? To give to the weaknesses of your kind, to lash out and destroy without regard for the coming oblivion...?"
Once upon the time, Juri knew how to fear someone. Knew how to dread something. Now only the memory of these feelings remain. Shadowy reflections that she can call up and use whenever necessary, but ultimately the actual ability was burnt out of her. A shard of psycho power from Lord Vega himself was used as the implement to burn this part of her away as his scientists tried to supplant his will for her own. It is what awakened her to the power dormant within her...
Or at least that is what she believes.
She seems to be unaware, or perhaps uncaring, of the state of the world around her. Willfully blind perhaps. For now there is only one thing left on her plate, only one thing that she is truly concerned with: Revenge. And she will have her revenge for certain now, all thanks to the willful admission of Goenitz.
She lowers her finger and smiles to him with the only smile of hers that could be confused with being warm. It is a smile of satisfaction though, a smile saying that she just got everything she wanted from the man before her. "That is good to know." Her voice comes as a dull, menacing purr. Juri is about to say something else when suddenly her eyes are drawn downward, to one of the hair bands usually used to put up her hair in the distinctive twin horns she prefers.
As Goenitz continues his monologue, Juri leans down to pick up the band and begins to deftly work with both hands to gather her hair back behind her head. With a few smooth motions what was once a raven black waterfall is now a similarly shaded pony tail. At least this way she won't have to worry about too much hair getting into her eyes.
'You sound most disturbed by what vision it gave you...'
"Those things." Her memories are indeed 'things' to her. "They're not toys for you or anyone else to play with." There is a pause, and she breathes a short sigh while resting her hand on one hip. "But no, that's not my whole reason."
"You talk big. So big, I bet you're all talk. A dog barks loudest when its bite is weak." She sneers defiantly at Goenitz, and shakes her head, "But let's just say you're right. That if you achieve what you want to achieve the world will end. Well that really doesn't work for me." Juri turns away from Goenitz now, looking over the desolate island and out to sea. To the large world stretching away out on the horizon. Juri's voice becomes softer, but no less menacing, as she continues to speak:
"I hate everything. I hate it down to the very core of my being, and the only joy I can feel anymore is the thrill of breaking parts of it." She licks her lips before continuing, glancing back at Goenitz, "So you and your boss wants to break the entire world huh? Send it to oblivion. Well what does that leave me with? What can I break, what can I destroy when it's all gone." A brief shake of her head, and a sigh, "No, revenge isn't all of it." It is a great deal of it, "I'd stand against you regardless. So that there's still something to break in the morning. So that there is still someone to break in the evening. And then when /I/ get tired of it, well, I'll just destroy everything myself. If you'd like you can even take credit for it."
Juri's rebuttal, her defiance, signals her stand against the immediate gratification of the imminent fulfillment of every true nihilist. Oblivion is threatened - and yet, to her stance, to her marking the true line in the sand. To have finally set a boundary, for one who seemed so free of them in her indulgence of her most violent whims...
Goenitz is still, respectfully listening to Juri's own say. Why shouldn't he? She is, as far as he is concerned, the final champion of all of humanity. To hear the final, dying words of a doomed people, to be able to commit what is said to a memory, an epitaph that will be able to be read by absolutely nobody...
Eyes closed at the end of her little offer, he chortles. He holds himself as a man of far too much dignity to break out into maniacal laughter, but instead finds a certain... peace. A solace.
"To go as you have been, Juri Han, will all lead to the same ignoble end! To resist the ultimate fruits of your labor... of humanity's labor, truly laughable! Pitiable... but expected, from the one I would call the most human of them all."
The wind begins to pick up again around Goenitz's clothes, so violently that one must wonder how in blazes they just don't shred to ribbons against whatever force is around him, one hand raised with a bent arm at ninety degrees.
His eyes suddenly widen as a surge of energy runs through the center - the very heart of this island... startled? No, he smiles gently. "Ah, so they have all sacrificed themselves... the last of the power they have gathered from the truly foolish..."
From the east, a great forest encroaches where all are standing, trees and fauna rapidly growing and withering in turn while producing a green sheen.
From the south, a grand chasm splits, threatening to swallow all whole as flame spews forth like a volcano with a red glow.
From the west, jagged veins of unrefined ore and rock thrust through the earth, a veritable field of death with a white luster.
From the north, a high tide rushes to the center, waves threatening to engulf all in its way with a blackened light.
All these forces abruptly halt their rapid expansion, forming in a wide circle surrounding where Goenitz and Juri stand. The various colors that represent the elements all swirl overhead, rising higher and higher to the central light in the sky above them. Juri may have herself a small kindness in her lack of attunement to chi - to anyone of significant sensitivity, the feeling is extremely overpowering.
It is the very energy of the world itself, all having gathered unto this one place - the stage of the truly decisive battle beyond mere celebratory titles and honor. A fight for the future of humanity - the fate of the world as we all know it.
"Through the Guardians, they have spoken the will of our very planet!" Goenitz calls out above beyond gale-force winds that make even yelling a crapshoot in terms of coherence. "If there is a God within you to pray for, Juri Han, now is the time to make your peace...!"
This brief moment of personal intensity fades in his body language as he lowers the arm, bending his knee slightly as he regards Juri Han with those keen, almost serpentine eyes. "Hell's Gate will open... and we will welcome the great Orochi together. The highest honor... you are truly blessed, Juri Han!"
And so, the gauntlet is at last thrown.
The whorl of energies both primal and manifested are making for an incredibly convoluted mess of things. With nature being compelled to wreak its unbridled havoc upon the island, it's nigh-impossible for anything to be gleaned from a distance of anything close to being safe. The winds rip, the ocean churns, and the land itself sees fit to turn itself inside-out. One would have to be suicidal to come near.
That, or ensconced within the bosom of the ocean's watery depths, where the localized catasrophies hold little sway.
Scarcely a quarter of a mile off of the coast, a sleek, thick shell of pitch black runs beneath the water's surface, deep enough for even the bravest shafts of light to be snuffed out by the all-encompassing murk. Her engines are nearly silent, the craft doing its best to remain still. It's difficult enough to tell what the hell is going on on the surface without plowing through yet another swarm of long-toothed bottom-feeders. The radio is useless; any attempts to communicate with the helicopter above have degenerated into a cacophony of static and screeching, leaving the submerged half of the force...well, in the dark.
Well, almost all of them.
In the very heart of the submarine, there's a single, pristine room. Its floors, walls, and ceiling are all made of an immaculately-shined steel. Arrays of monitors are set on the walls and the only seating is an oversized, hard metal throne. Supported by a single shaft of oiled metal, the seat turns as its burden shifts his attention to one side. Whereas previously, there were a number of clear images showing the island from up close, there is, again, only static. Satellites do their best to zoom in and feed the man as much information as they can, but the images are too coarse, too useless beyond showing Nature's fury. Lost, too, is any hope of genuine audio.
Really, now. How terribly rude.
With a heavy grunt, Lord Vega sinks back into his throne. His fingers steeple as they come together, lifted before his exquisite chin, elbows planted on their uncomfortable steel armrests. Now he's going to have to show up personally, without fully knowing just what's going on. It's a situation that he's not at all enamored of. If only there weren't so much damned chi flowing around like some sort of ley line...
For the time being, the dictator stands up from his seat, pulling with him the fresh cloak that had been slung over the back of it. With a snap and a flick of his arm, he's adorned in a clean wrapping of charcoal-colored fabric. The heels of his boots click upon the metal floor as he prepares to wade into the fray...
Meanwhile, in the very Nexus of this disturbance.
The figure of a single young womans stands before the very will of an ancient, God as it stirs from its slumber. While not sensitive to the flows of chi herself that is not to say she completely lacks any ability to detect it. No. The Feng Shui engine takes care of that for her. Not that it does her very much good.
The gathering storm of energy grows brighter, more profound, and perhaps 'more' in every possible way. So much so that the instruments of man begin to know their limits. For the Feng Shui engine this comes as a series of 'error' and 'unhandled exception' screens that stream across her left field of vision. She briefly cries out in pain, staggers backwards, and clasps her hand over her left eye. She grits her teeth and practically growls her next words, "Why /you/."
But before she can speak anymore her eyes widen. All around her the world has changed now, in each of the cardinal directions! A lush forest to the East, a fiery field of death to the South, a broken field of earth, metal and death to the west, and a flooded world to the north. The Taekwondoka quickly whips her head from side to side, and for once she looks appropriately startled given the circumstances.
All that leaves is Juri and Goenitz in the center of all this chaos. She pauses, breathes deeply, and regains her composure. "A neat trick." She shakes her head ruefully and grins that sardonic grin of hers. Still she can't help but feel that tickle in the back of her mind. It's that place again, that place that should feel fear. That should feel dread. It tells her in ever so soft a whisper that she is probably going to die. No. She is going to die.
"Whatever."
Flipping her black ponytail back over its shoulder, Juri moves back into her 'ready' stance: One leg held up and the other firmly planted on the ground. An unbalanced looking pose, but one she holds easily. "Enough with all this pointless grandstanding and yammering on. If you're going to kill me to make me part of this god Rocky or whatever, then get on with it already. Unless you're actually planning to talk me to death."
Ah, human apathy. Infuriating, yet amusing all at once, isn't it? Even when she writhes for that instant in the face of so much power...
The skies above turn jet black, clouds swirling about the gathered power that takes its shape as a pulsating black orb where electricity dances across its surface. It casts much of the light to be had here in the site of the single most important moment of the modern day - perhaps the last day, to be more specific. Violent strikes of thunder strike down every so often, drowning out everything in blinding light and deafening sound as resolves clash.
"Hasty enough towards one's own destruction, as per humanity's course," Goenitz smiles as he lifts up his arm, hand raised, "I will not keep you, Juri Han, however..."
His eyes close as he snaps his fingers, a sudden funnel of wind forming instantaneously... ever so strangely, well away from Juri, or even Goenitz himself. A mocking miss? A miscalculation?
"You're over there." He asks in a half-inquiring tone to, by all appearances, absolutely no one at all.
This whole island sucks, and Kyo Kusanagi hates it.
Just setting foot on the place /bothers/ him, on a visceral level he can't properly articulate, and not even his little punch-up with Sagat has really put the reigning World Warrior champion at ease about the place. It's almost as bad as hanging around in Benimaru's apartment, and is only saved by there being less leopard print.
Goenitz' power manifests, a funnel of raging wind whirling around in a seemingly harmless place, where nobody could possibly be. Yes, nobody at all.
Naturally, this is the moment where the figure of an athletic young man, dressed in jeans, a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket, bursts /through/ the whirlwind, landing lightly on his feet now within the vicinity of Goenitz and Juri. Straightening up, he brushes one hand clad in a fingerless glove - marked with yellow-orange stripes and the emblem of a flaring sun- through his dark brown hair, pushing it back out of his face and letting it settle in an artful disarray. It just does it naturally, too.
"I should've known better than to mess with the World Hide and Seek Champion," Kyo Kusanagi retorts, sounding less rueful and more 'incredibly amused with himself, that smug asshole'. "Next time, I'll bring a cardboard box."
"Well, what an underwhelming group of underachievers, come to see the supposed end of the world."
Vega's voice filters through the haze of thunder with impressive clarity. Where once there was naught but the display of lightning and roiling clouds in one location just overhead, a flash of spent electricty leaves in its wake a dark figure, its exact form obscured by its enveloping cloak, as though willed to that very spot by Nature herself. The would-be godling hovers despite the rough air, his pale eyes glowing faintly about the edges with deep violet.
Now that he's finally present, he can see for himself what's going on. However, he can't fully understand it; the man had discarded the usefulness of such things as chi long ago, damned it to obsolescence. One need not be fluent in such things to get the gist of it, though, and seeing the Priest, or Pastor, or whatever the nigh-deified Goetniz had become to his weak-minded cultists finally presents organization's throat. He looks then upon Juri, his lips pulling downward in the most disapproving frown. "Are you waiting for an invitation? Kill him, already."
As Goenitz moves his hand, Juri can see the energy he is gathering through her Feng Shui Engine. She braces herself, gathering what psycho power she can to use as a buffer against whatever power this man can muster. This is it. The result of this next attack will very likely determine the path of the next battle. If only she can...
If only she can figure out why the Hell it went off all the way over there!
The Taekwondoka relaxes from her fighting stance for a bit as she notices what looks like some random hobo coming out through the wind. No, wait. Her eyes narrow a bit, her left eye taking a reading of Kyo's chi energy and comparing it across various samples - Krizalid, K', Saishu... Her lips quirk a bit, and suddenly her body quakes with wild laughter! "So... Kyo Kusanagi." Of course she knows Kyo's first name, don't be silly. "I guess I should have figured this would involve you somehow." Her voice is that menacing purr once more, "Too bad we had to meet under these circumstances. I was looking forward to... 'meeting' a man like you." There are several choice selections for meanings of 'meet' here.
And then suddenly a massive Chin descends upon on high, and Juri's reaction is to give him a cold sneer in return. "And who the fuck invited you?" He orders her to kill. Like she even needs orders, but there is a moment: A scant moment of indecision. Which is more onerous: Resisting the urge to kill just so that you can be difficult for a man you despise, or relishing in your desire for ultra-violence but all at the same time bearing his smug asshole smile.
Violence wins every time, naturally.
A violent purple blur is all Juri seems to be as she approaches Goenitz, leaping, spinning around in the air and intending to deliver a painful looking heel kick to his throat! "There!!!" Let's see if he can continue ranting about the end of the world without a windpipe.
"Skulking around in the shadows is unlike you, Kusanagi," the priestly one tsks, "truly, should one of your ilk deserve such a lofty name after your little groups... disgraceful exit from this last spectacle?" Oh, Goenitz is willing to go there. Kyo is a young man of great sarcasm, wit, and spite. Goenitz may yet prove his equal in this specific regard as his eyes flare open again.
A new challenger! The mighty Vega himself having come. Goenitz smirks, though knowing full well the weight of the powerful psion's appearance. "Ahh... it is difficult to notice you here, Vega," he chances a dismissive line of greeting, the very implication that even one of such renown and strength would mean absolutely nothing - though with Vega's orders to Juri, it would seem on some level the perception is entirely mutual.
That he dares look away from Juri should be a sign of weakness as she works on Vega's very order to kill, one hand behind him, the other raised. The hand is not pointing at her to stop.
In a flash and the crisp sound of snapping fingers, wind forms in a tight trio of thin, slashing motions - strong enough to halt Juri's momentum entirely in a best-case scenario... for her.
The more realistic scenario involves horrible, flesh-searing wounding and a still, completely infuriating, standing, and none-the-troubled priest.
"Ah, you would think it this easy to avert fate, would you, Vega? Hm, hm... have you all already made your peace to be so complacent?"
First of all, Kyo hardly looks like a hobo, he isn't even wearing a red denim vest /or/ a baseball cap.
The Kusanagi heir takes in the reactions to his totally well-timed and amazing entrance, turning his attention first to Juri. He tilts his head a bit to one side, looking at her with a curious expression, as though he were trying to figure out just what to make of her, and her laughing, and her generally creepy and off-putting body language, and her unsettling use of the double entendre.
"I get that a lot," Kyo says, putting up his hands in a 'helpless' shrug. "But," he adds, after a momentary pause, "if you want me to sign your boobs, you really ought to get some, first."
Having introduced Juri Han to the legendary Kusanagi charm, a power with nearly as much offensive potential as the sacred flames his bloodline has given him, Kyo turns to regard Goenitz, who seems well skilled in the art of talking smack. "Hey, can't win 'em all, right?" the younger man says, the insults about his team's elimination (by forfeit)(through no fault of Kyo's own, because he got jumped by Vega right beforehand) from the King of Fighters tournament seemingly rolling right off of his back. "Next time, I'm recruiting from a better temp agency."
But then, Vega! (boo) And Juri trying to murderlate Goenitz (yaaaay?) though this doesn't seem to go exceptionally well for her, either.
"So look, Gonads," Kyo says, letting out a faint sigh. "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't want to root for Chin Jong-Il or his Psychopath Barbie here, but in a shocking turn of events, I think I actually have more beef with you. In fact..." Kyo holds up his right hand, flames raging. "...I might just have to help save their stupid asses."
Really... One has to wonder why people of competence like Vega even employ underlings. They're useless! Juri proves this as she heads directly toward the man who, in one stroke, has already shown some mastery over the very winds. What makes her think that a straightforward assault would do anything to one behind such widespread misery?
Kyo, at least in Vega's mind, is less than worth dealing with. Perhaps his'll surprise him; he does appear to enjoy playing the hero, and what better opportunity than to quite literally save the world? For the moment, the dark Lord hovers in his place as though wholly uninterested in joining the fray and even /less/ so in responding to the banter. The brainless man-child seems more than willing to do so on both counts, anyway.
A second later, and he seems to have changed his mind. Whether Juri stops, connects, or flies backward, the Shadaloo master is suddenly before the priest with but a thought and a flicker of Psycho Power. His massive hand comes into existance over Goenitz's face, vicious fingers seeking to grip, the arm reaching out of his closed cloak yearning to lift and throw the pest toward the Kusanagi heir like some sort of meaty medicine ball.
Oh yes, things are not turning out well for one Juri Han.
Still in mid-air with her foot pulled back, Juri is mere moments away from delivering a kick the likes of which would crush rock into dust. But it is not to be. The very air around her coalesces into a vorpal blade, catching her with a lash powerful enough to send her flying back toward the ground away from the strange priest of Orochi.
Juri lands on hands and feet, but only barely. She moves to stand before stopping, wincing, and clutching the fresh wound on her stomach. Sometimes people look down on air as a chi attack, especially when compared with the likes of fire, ice, and lightning. However air pressure, when properly wielded, can become as sharp as any knife and much more difficult to see.
The fan of fresh blood down Juri's stomach and staining her loose white pants are proof positive of that. The Taekwondoka grimaces to herself, rising once more to her feet while holding her hand against the new wound. When she has returned to her full standing height, she removes the hand and holds it up to her face. She smirks slightly, and then luxuriously licks away some of the crimson liquid from her fingers. "Well, and here I was worried it might be boring."
She has just enough time to watch Vega as he appears behind Goenitz with that annoying flickering ability he is so proud of. Body language easily telegraphs for her what he is planning to do, and in a blur of movement she is now within one meter of Kyo. Not quite teleporation though.
Not quite.
She chuckles softly, "Well, for such a scrawny guy you sure got a big ego on you. Well... it still pales in comparison to some people's." A meaningful glance to Goenitz, "So, later."
Vega is not just a man of incredible power, but one of easily great speed. For the dissonance in their attitudes and, often, their ability to even tolerate one another, Vega and Juri hatch an excellent on-the-spot tactic for taking care of two very annoying birds with... well, to be fair, two different stones.
One digresses from the more immediate, imminent topic of Vega clasping his hands around Goenitz. It should be perfectly timed, given the level of commitment to this gesture--
"Slow."
Is the only word able to be heard above a sudden gust of wind as Goenitz fades into the breeze well past Vega. It is difficult to tell if he even laid a hand on cloth or simply grabbed thin air before the movement - one would imagine the two concepts to be indistinguishable.
In Vega's favor regardless, he may be able to feel the movement headed towards that duo. Goenitz may very well be choosing to be introduced to Kyo exactly on his own terms as he reappears before the recently-wounded Juri and the Kusanagi scion. The movement is so quick that it can be left up to wonder as to when, exactly, he appeared in the interim between disappearing from Vega's grasp into a forward swinging motion, a slash of wind followed up by an uppercutting motion with the other, trying to tear the two of them asunder.
"Then carry the ungrateful and unworthy on your shoulders, Kusanagi!" So Goenitz challenges in these slashes.
"...Scrawny...?"
Kyo's feelings are almost hurt a little bit, although he'd probably be more bothered under other circumstances. Instead, he lets out a faint sigh as Juri implies that his ego is less mighty and terrible than Leopold Goenitz's, who then rather promptly decides to appear right in front of them. That's probably not ideal.
The Kusanagi heir's body starts moving before he even gets the chance to think about it, god bless a fighter's reflexes, causing him to dive to one side as those tearing blades of wind slash at him. Blood fans into the air as shallow, but uncomfortable, gouges are dug out of his trailing leg - also putting holes in his jeans, ruining them completely - and Kyo hits the ground in a roll over his shoulders to end up in a low crouch.
"Okay," Kyo says, obligingly. "After all, somebody's gotta, right?"
Springing out of his crouching position, Kyo swings his right fist on a hooking punch for the priest, guttering crimson Kusanagi flames trailing behind the motion of his hand, an explosion of sacred fire aimed to burst at the point of impact... And, of course, the Kusanagi technique keeps /going/, with a second fiery punch to mirror the first, finishing up as Kyo whirls around to swing his heel at the side of Goenitz's head in a surprisingly quick spin kick.
"Let's see how shitty your defense is!!"
Slippery little bastard. Vega stands with his hand still in the air, its fingers slowly closing into a massive fist. That fist was supposed to contain the head of the terrible irritant that's been putting his plans on hold. He should be delighting in the feel of bone giving way to cracks and crevices. There should be, inside that closed fist, the very brain stem of the gas priest.
Instead, he's been ignored. It's a good plan, of course; take out the weak ones so as to not give them a chance to stab you in the back when your attention is diverted. It still enrages him.
Silently seething, the violet trim about his eyes grows even brighter; his fist, encased in that very same energy, wisping up from beneath and licking upward in fiery tendrils. His ire is truly palpable to Juri and Juri alone as the oppression of her boss's psychic energies apparently strive for dominance against the gout of chi massing within the area. While the three letter mortals duke it out, Vega builds and builds, ever drawing upon his near-bottomless mental energies, taxing the very ground beneath his feet with an ever-growing malice that pulses further and further outward...
The Taekwondoka whistles appreciatively as Goenitz manages to avoid Vega's attack. Even only catching it out of the corner of her eye, she still seems to be impressed. It's not often that the Big Man is shown up like that. Though she is far less appreciative when the servant of Orochi decides to bring that tender wind chi love back over in her direction. It would seem that he enjoys using her faster-than-sight movement as well... no surprise really, when you consider that he is a wind user.
And some of that wind comes lashing from the ground skyward, following the path of the man's uppercut! Juri crosses her arms in front of her, emitting a soft mechanical whine from her now-glowing left eye. A field of psycho energy gathers around her arms as she pushes through the attack! It only partially protects her though: Invisible blades cut just as well as real ones, and pass through the psychic barrier she produced to deliver a series of painful looking cuts along her lower arms.
She achieved her true intention though, however, and has now managed to get behind Goenitz. While Kyo is busy keeping his attention with a frontal assault using those inherited crimson flames of his, Juri will crouch down behind. A flash of garish purple light can be seen building behind the tall man's form as the diminuitive Korean fighter delivers a series of kicks.
It begins with a low turning kick, a middle thrust kick followed by a high heel kick aimed at the base of the man's skull. Then there is a low sweep, followed by a spinkick high! What is special about this assault, however, is that there is the swirling, storm-like clouds of psycho power following each kick.
After her attack, win or lose, Juri will pause... her eyes going wide. She'll turn to look over her left shoulder directly at where Vega is standing. Her lips tighten considerably, "Shit. It looks like the boss man is about ready to blow a gasket." Her eyes slide back to Kyo and Goenitz. She flashes both of them a cruel grin, and then quickly tries to get her scrawny Korean ass out of the way!!!
Try as Kyo might, Goenitz's body is not wide open - as the legacy declaration goes with the famous combination passed down his bloodline for many generations. "Aren't you pathetic... what has your previous generations done to prepare you?" So Goenitz asks as the first two punches are launched, a twitch of an eye as he holds the strikes at bay with his forearm.
Goenitz is many things. All three of them have gotten a small taste of what they are standing against - but even as he embodies the wind, he, too, can only account for so much as the three converge upon him.
Juri's ruse works perfectly as she slips right behind himself during his approach, her kicks strike - yes, the true sensation of actually, physically touching him! - and even getting his body's balance to buckle in her direction, if only felt as a flinch rather than a grievous series of injuries inflicted...
Which gives Kyo that opening to get that clean spinkick to the head, which merely jerks his head to the side like the scornful slap of an angry wife.
He smiles, one eye open as he sees - well, no, feels - Vega's burning power. "Hm... interesting."
Above them, the black pulsating ball of power starts to... crack? No, whatever's going on up there is not following the laws of angled space, beyond the appearance it is taking for mortal (and Vega's) eyes to comprehend the sheer gravity of.
"Ah, he is almost here," Goenitz smiles further as he regards those gathered. The mighty and feared Vega, the man who has pushed the limits of that detestable power of self - and went far beyond.
The violent and unpredictable Juri, a woman so purely driven by her very id towards destruction - and a rather fascinating conversationalist.
Kyo, the young scion of the Kusanagi bloodline, perhaps unaware of the true gravity of why he stands here now... with none of the other heirs in sight, what does he hope to achieve?
"A fine wind blows... I regret that our meeting was so brief. Truly, I would love to savor every last inch of your gathering strength." He bows his head briefly, hands together. A prayer? The very slightest hint of worry, perhaps? Maybe he knows exactly what's coming.
An even greater smile. No, he relishes what he is thinking of.
"Now, allow me to personally invite you," he says as he waves both hands up. From the very center, underneath this cracking black sphere, a great whirlwind forms around himself, "give it your all!! Come at me with your full strength... spare nothing! Give the gift of your truest convictions to my Lord...!"
On one hand, the whirlwind surrounding Goenitz is, to all appearances, not about to expand and engulf the lot of them, even as the gale forces may be tugging them in. It would be near suicide to physically approach, and yet...
Is this going to be the prime moment to stop what's about to happen, or to play into some grand scheme of his? Maybe it has simply become a cosmic dick-measuring contest between himself and Vega.
No matter the reason, perhaps only one true course of action can present itself here.
Whatever might be happening here, it's very clearly not a good thing by any stretch of the imagination; that, of course, was probably obvious from the start, given that these curious circumstances have resulted in Kyo Kusanagi fighting (at least nominally) alongside two people he should by all rights probably be trying to punch inside-out. In fact, this might be the first time he's ever been face to face with Vega without it involving the two of them trying to tear one another limb from limb.
At least so far, anyway.
Goenitz's power is clearly all but overwhelming, even the Kusanagi heir unable to get a strike through the priest's guard at first, and only once he's firmly distracted is he able to at least get the satisfaction of kicking ol' Leopold in the head. Letting out a slow, hissing breath between his teeth, Kyo hardly pays attention as Juri scrambles for what she hopes will be relative safety, as the probability that Vega is going to unleash some sort of ridiculous Psycho Nuke on them climbs to perilous heights. But Kyo, though... Well, much as he'd like to not be here, he's not about to back down. Not from Vega, not from Goenitz, not from anybody.
And don't think that doesn't make him /all sorts/ of cranky.
Bringing up his arms, Kyo fights his way through the growing winds, which pull him inwards and cut at him as he tries to get through to get /at/ Goenitz. There's no time for Kyo himself to gather his power, the sacred fire passed down through the bloodline of the Kusanagi, from generation to generation for a thousand years... The very predecessors Goenitz makes light of. If he had more /time/, he could probably whistle up a whole mess of fire, and then get into the proverbial pissing contest that seems like it might be developing between Vega and Goenitz, but instead... Instead, he thinks back. He remembers the lessons his father taught him, on those rare times Saishu was actually around, and not off being a lunatic and getting into fights with random people (mostly Takuma)...
'Remember, Kyo,' the grizzled head of the Kusanagi clan told him, one of those days. 'When all else fails...'
Kyo Kusanagi, the World Warrior champion, onetime King of Fighters, onetime (undefeated) Saturday Night Fight champion, the heir to the legacy of the Kusanagi clan, wielder of the Ever-Burning Flames that once helped bring down Orochi, fights his way through Goenitz's growing whirlwind...
And then tries to kick him right between the uprights.
"Bonk," Kyo says, although over the wind you probably can't hear it.
Blow a gasket? In a sense. For far too long, Goenitz and his underlings have thrown wrenches in his machinations, interrupted his businesses, and generally been one hell of a lot of distractng nuisances. Now, he has the chance to tie up the loose end and return everything to the way he likes it: under his control. Were he a man of greater patience, he might have enjoyed a bit of back-and-forth, might have tested the priest to see how worthy he was of being under his thumb after having subjected him to his years of torture.
But oh, oh no. No, he just had to be an insufferable prick.
What's worse, he dares to think someone else a god.
"Such a pitiful god you summon, incapable of stepping upon /my/ world under his own power." Vega's teeth grit and the aura of corrosive, malevolent energies swell further. Reaching away from his flesh a foot in any direction, his body is difficult to properly see through the unholy shroud of raw HATE so concentrated that the mortal mind strives to see it as something else. Vega's visage is the very face of Death itself, consumed by a blackness that the inky purple fire surrounding him can't hope to pierce.
Upon the edges of his shroud, visible sparks and flames spring to life, battle, and die out hundreds of times over. Natural forces of chi strive to drown the localized sea of man-made power, clashing time and again against its eternal counterpart.
And then, Goenitz simply...invites it all in? Suicidal fool. Weak-willed simpleton. The very sight draws a bout of deep, horrible laughter. "So willing to die rather than see your /god/ murdered before he can even touch the soil? Pathetic." Though a man of great power he may be, it's in that instant that the priest appears weak. The blind faithful are often so stupid, so easily malleable.
It just makes breaking them all the more fun.
Vega is no fool, no matter how lead by his emotions he may be. He doesn't rush in blindly. He doesn't chance the winds and their might, so concentrated close to the man's body. Vega and his mass of power lift upward once more, boots tilting downward as gravity's law is rendered impotent. He climbs quickly, coming to a stop overhead, away from that birthing maelstrom. The interference is stronger here, the sight of chi and Psycho Power clashing far more potently. The ley lines of power threaten to batter and dash Vega like a ship lost in churning seas, but he maintains the aura about him. No, in fact...it grows further! Swelling out about him as the Psycho Master lets loose a mighty bellow, his mortal frame is invisible beneath the violet flames as they swirl and spin. Sparks continue to fly off of the rotating shell as a drill boring through steel, and then there's just...motion.
In an instant, the Shadaloo Lord screams down at Goenitz from above, willing his deadly energies to explode in a massive display of overkill.
Really, it's like he's not even /thinking/ of saving anything for Orochi himself. Perhaps it's the thought that Kyo isn't already getting out of the way that makes him not even care.
Backing down?
Juri isn't the type to back down from anyone either. Though she, more than anyone else here, is able to feel the kind of power radiating from Vega's body at this moment. Though she is able to produce fearsome amounts of psycho power in her own right, this... /this/ is several orders of magnitude greater.
Running away?
You're damn right she's running away in the face of the coming onslaught. She has experienced first hand the fearsome power of a truly pissed off Vega, and while she does not know fear she does know wariness. And she has every right to be wary of this man and the kind of damage he can produce.
Even so, even running away at full speed it's unlikely that Juri will fully escape the descending vortex of psycho power as it crashes down upon Goenitz and into the very earth itself, unleashing a wave of its oppressive energies! She holds up one arm to cover her eyes as it washes over her, her own psycho power forming a protective barrier to buffer her from its ill effects.
But when its over even Juri seems to be a bit unsteady on her feet. She sits, or rather, drops down onto the ground and winces to herself. The internal injuries she had suffered earlier are giving her a bit more trouble than she thought. "Well, that's that then."
"I guess I'll give the survivors a chance to play with each other for a bit before coming to mop up. Who knows. At this rate, those two will kill each other." She pauses to consider this, and frowns. That would be less than ideal after all. If there is to be anyone to kill Vega, it should be her. So with grim determination the Taekwondoka returns to her feet and walks slowly closer back to the scene of the impact to survey the damage.
Not to mention offer a helping hand to any of the survivors.
Perhaps even two helping hands, should their necks be stout enough.
What is Goenitz doing? To seem ready to fully accept the power of all who would dare stand against Orochi?
To Vega's declaration, Goenitz keeps his knowing smile even as the very wind he summons threatens to turn against and slice him up. Even he would admit what he is doing borders upon juvenile impatience...
"Juri Han is correct," Goenitz utters out through the wind, voice muffled by his own power, "my ego does truly pale in... comparison, hm hm--"
That is the last of the laughter where the true expression of hatred bores down upon the wind tunnel, his face going remarkably even keel. Dangerously neutral, arms shuddering as though they themselves were fighitng hard not to get blown away.
Lord Vega comes bearing down upon Goenitz, hoping to cross into him with minimal interference from those horrible winds - no, not hoping. /Willing/.
Vega's will is terrible. Powerful. Relentless. Unyielding. Yet, before him stands one of the extremely few who could possibly overcome it. The point of impact promises to be nothing short of spectacular, of what happens when two of the greatest wielders - if not THE greatest wielders - of opposing powers collide.
Goenitz pumps up the intensity of the maelstrom even more to try and keep Vega at bay, but more than that... he yells above it all.
"The power you expend with me now... all of it shall go towards the opening of Hell's Gate. It is no mere foolish sacrifice! It is not one of weakness, Vega..."
There is Kyo. Kyo Kusnagi. Kyo is a young man of incredible talent and potential, burdened with a terrible destiny that he cannot escape. To the mundane world, he is an academic slacker of unmatched ability... or lack thereof. A socially distant person, only able to express himself bluntly and without care or regard for others' feelings and opinions.
who, despite it all, is a champion who refuses utterly to back down when faced with both of them... /at once/. He may be the only man in the history of this world who has the backbone - the sheer cussedness - to do it.
It?
"Our powers together, between this vulgar display and the purity of His will through this humble servant," Goenitz continues, "shall rend the final barrier asunder!"
Has Kyo stumbled upon a moment of brilliance? Many of his fathers' peers are of the full belief that his father has done a truly laughable job of properly raising his son. If they were all here now, to see and truly grasp what was going on at this single moment...
They would see why Kyo has the right not only to his family's legacy.
They would also see the true genius of Saishu's sparse lessons to Kyo, as he contributes to these great clashing powers in a single, decisive strike.
Bonk.
Kyo's immediate reward is the classic, the unthinkable look of Goenitz breaking that calm at last, eyes bulging widely and teeth bared with what might be the barely audible hint of a higher-pitched grunt, no, squeak of pain.
Goenitz's concentration broken, Vega's will wins out at last, a grand explosion of Psycho Power at point blank.
The sphere above fractures, and their whole world turns black, outlines of bodies fading to pure white.
Above them all, they can all feel it. They cannot see it. They cannot hear it - merely feel it, in the form of what apperas to be a pure white circle of eight long lines. Its presence is indescribable, but it appears... scrambled. As if obscured by flimsy plastic blinds.
Orochi looks through the bars of its prison window, the perceived appearance fluctuating rapidly as it, after so many years, now has a peeping hole into this very world.
TO BE CONCLUDED...
Log created on 15:12:47 08/06/2011 by Goenitz, and last modified on 18:02:07 08/09/2011.