Description: Those who came here to the site of the final battle for humanity were but a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the population as a whole - and it was through them that the world rested on their shoulders. Did their boldness earn them absolution, or were they found in further need for damnation? The conclusion of King of Fighters 2011 rests inside...
AND NOW, THE THRILLING(?) CONCLUSION(!) OF THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2011 PLOT...
As the Guardians all fall one by one, the escape - for those that have made it - are all exceedingly narrow as the utmost wrath of the elements they fought against nip at their heels. It is as though the world itself were eager to spill the blood of even the victors, to wring out the last of their life force they could gather.
From the fiery south, Farah's resolve sees her team of heroes onto a boat whose ferryman she convinces to come back. Antoine breathes a sigh of relief as he escapes the heat, while a badly-scalded Rust grumbles over how he's going to have to pay to replace the boat /he/ rented.
From the perilous west, Maki and Ken find themselves with no immediate escape to deal with. All hope of rescue appears entirely lost as jagged spikes of metal nip at their heels, having seemingly already claimed one of their brave number.
From the wooded east, Vanessa leads her group to the final pickup outside, narrowly evading the wooden trees closing in upon all of them - Zach close behind, his power helping to make a path. As they make it to the helicopter, Aranha narrowly catches rescue from a pilot ready to take off ASAP, as he hangs onto the skids for dear life.
From the flooded north, Carmine and Elias remain silent in their blessings of their good fortune. Carmine laments that a man had to die by his own hands... but as the stolen hovercraft drifts towards the southwest, a chance arises to save at least two - a chance taken immediately.
The boat, hovercraft, and helicopter all soon converge together if only for confirmation of everyone's safety. Aranha, energy spent, decides to let go and crashes onto the boat to catch his breath - which alarms the more health-minded, as he curses the older among them (getting a sour look from Rust).
"I see we are in good spirits," Antoine says gladly.
From the hovercraft, Carmine cracks a grin as he fights the pit in his stomach as a mentally exhausted Ken and a still sassy Maki stow away. "/Here's/ a motley crew."
Vanessa, from the helicopter, spies for those gathered with her binoculars. It becomes a little more hurried when she realizes she doesn't see Kyo, bringing her view back over to the island...
----
A great explosion of Psycho Power is the only illumination for... as far as the eye can see? Miles? ...Forever? So far removed from light and any sort of familiar geography - in fact, there is none, a complete mystery as to how or why anybody can still find any sort of footing to stand tall in - those three seen on the island stand in audience to the power above.
Audience to a power that frightens, impresses, /exists/ on an instinctual level, even for something that would not come off as terribly threatening if one were to take a photograph of the fractured-looking entity behind a crumbling screen door that separates this world from whatever lies beyond... if such concepts haven't already merged entirely.
For being at the epicenter of a truly overwhelming blast of Psycho Power, Goenitz somehow manages to continue to draw breath a ways away (a disturbing thought - is there even any oxygen here?), blood seeping down the side of his mouth. His robes do a most wonderful job of hiding whatever hideous wounds were inflicted in that final blast. He legitimately struggles to even find his footing, and yet, most infuriatingly...
He smiles.
"Welcome, my Lord," he wheezes out in a slightly higher pitched voice than normal. "It is a... it is a most glorious day."
There is no voice on the onset to reply to this. Vega, for whatever reason, is nowhere to be seen - did he fully expend himself in that great blast? Or... perhaps he simply wasn't welcome in this place, whatever or wherever it may be?
One would imagine there are far bigger problems awaiting Kyo and Juri in the aftermath of that grand display of strength by the Shadaloo leader as the... thing looms from above.
Power on a scale that should not exist.
To Juri, Vega is everything a monster can be. A being of incredible strength unhindered by any sort of moral restraint, whose sole desire was dominance or death. Incredible strength. Incredible power. Incredible psycho power: An energy so dark within his hands that its very corruptive touch seemed to try and scour away your will to resist, or perhaps even your very soul.
Earlier, Juri VERY WISELY decided that it was wise to get out of the way of Vega, filled to bursting with psycho power as he was. She now comes to a stop, turns, and looks skyward as the last few wards holding closed that door to another dimension. Keeping this world safe from what lurks beyond. And then suddenly she screams!
Not a scream of fear, or in rage, but in searing agony. In her left field of vision the Feng Shui Engine sends warning after warning: Unhandled exception, chi reading overload, danger, error, error, error! Energy surges from the mechanical eye, and it feels very much like she has a hot glowing coal stuffed into her eyesocket. In desperation, Juri reaches into a pocket of her frayed pants and pulls an odd bit of metal reinforced black fabric on a bit of string.
An eyepatch, as it turns out... not some sort of extra-scandalous string bikini. (Though with Juri, who can tell? She looks skyward again, this time with the black eyepatch obscuring her left eye from view. "What on Earth?" She mumurs this to herself while approaching where Kyo is standing. "I can feel it, even without the Feng Shui Engine I can feel its power. Hm." The Taekwondoka spares a brief scanning glance across the battlefield. She laughs dryly, "I wonder if he ate That Man. How annoying. Just when I thought I'd get a choke him with that stupid hat of his."
Juri's good eye, her right eye, glances toward the Kusanagi heir. "Well I don't intend to die." Juri smirks, and licks her pale lips before continuing, "So don't get in my way flailing about as you do, scrawny man." So sayeth the diminuitive Korean woman.
Much as he would probably /rather/ have gotten out of the way, the option wasn't really available to Kyo Kusanagi - or, at least, that's what he'd like to tell himself.
Kicking Goenitz in the gonads was certainly viscerally satisfying, but it doesn't seem to have completely stopped whatever it was the maniacal priest was actually up to, nor has the tremendous power put out by Vega, who is now nowhere to be seen. That's kind of freaky in and of itself, but it's not something the Kusanagi heir has time to worry about at the moment, having larger, more pressing and potentially apocalyptic concerns.
Now with a bit of space between himself and Goenitz, Kyo cracks his neck twice, apparently limbering up to do something completely amazing, and generally looks unimpressed, or perhaps even a little offended, by the way Leopold Goenitz continues to smile after all of that.
Slowly, Kyo's eyes track up to the sky.
"That's pretty fucked up," the World Warrior champion notes.
His eyes track back down to Goenitz.
Whatever smart remark Kyo might've had to say next is actually forestalled by Juri Han, who is revealed to be less scandalous than might have been hoped by the viewing audience, and addresses him in the manner he is most accustomed - insults. Turning his attention towards her, Kyo just gives her the biggest, shit eatingest grin he can manage. "You are one angry twelve year old," Kusanagi says.
Looking back to Goenitz, Kyo lets out a slow exhalation and lifts his right hand, the sacred Ever-Burning Flames of the Kusanagi raging in his palm. "You know what a glorious day always calls for? Barbecue."
----
Back over to the collected forces of good outside the island, Maki seems to bring up a hard truth maybe a little too late as it is eventually brought to attention the bizarre and unsettling light - as well as the coming darkness. "Sagat's still there, but it's too dangerous to go back..."
"Shit, someone left behind?" Carmine asks, feeling a desire - criminal or no, if Sagat fought to save the world...
"Who knows what he might have in store for us!" Maki flippantly disregards Sagat's seeming sacrifice in her worries about his true allegiances.
"The hell?!" Rust yells up angrily, wincing from injury. "That... that freakin' Sagat? You're probably, probably still alive 'cause of him!"
"There isn't much to be done," Antoine says solemnly, "Sagat... is a warrior who knows what he does."
There is some protest from thsoe who want to go save him. Farah's resolve to see that no one else dies, to her sadness, may be met with this one exception by all appearances - and the heads up that Sagat's not the only one leftbehind.
----
"Ah... such humor even in... even in the face of oblivion?" Goenitz works up a chortle, even if it is increasingly more difficult to come off as menacing in tone when your voice has gone up an octave thanks to, er, incredibly recent events. "Does it... escape your comprehension?"
Many things here escape comprehension out in this void - a feeling like no other, a feeling that nobody else in the world will ever get to truly experience for themselves. To be on the cusp of non-existence, of complete oblivion. Nothingness. It may very well be growing incredibly chilly for those whose adrenaline has started to fade - assuming, of course, they are unmoved by their very predicament.
It is all incredibly unnatural and surreal that, perhaps, it would be wrong to describe the sensation any further when these three individuals would be the ones to set the standard as to the human condition against the incredible - the only bits of color and life to be found within this realm.
If the lot of them are, indeed, still alive to begin with.
The great white circle, fractured and barely obscured behind cracks of black that serve as the single, flimsy net that holds him back, peers down. For lacking clear eyes, the gaze is intent. Scrutinizing. As if looking well beyond the bodies, well beyond the soul. As if looking into the fundamental principle of these things /existing/ before them.
"FALLACIOUS CHILD OF MANKIND." It speaks to Juri.
"MY OWN BLOOD." It speaks to Goenitz.
"KUSANAGI." Maybe it's speaking to Vega, of all people? ...Nah.
"IT HAS BEEN MANY YEARS. WHAT DO I AWAKEN TO...? WHAT DO I SEE...?"
Goenitz, having decided his work his done, falls to a kneel in servitude. "Should it not be obvious, my Lord? To what you see before you... the final judgment of the human race...!" He coughs once. "We all have long awaited your... your return."
Who's going to let Goenitz speak for the lot of them?
What is there left, for a woman who has had almost all of her humanity burnt out of her?
Left a hollowed out husk, locked away in a cell at the bottom of a mad man's research institute.
Burned away all ability to fear. Only the dull imitation of waryness to replace it. And she's abolutely wary as fuck right now. Though in the face of such utter power, such incredible strength, such unscalable danger you have two options:
You cry, which Juri cannot do.
Or you laugh, which Juri can do all too well.
Her reaction to Kyo calling her a 'angry twelve year old' is a mixture between a smirk, and a scowl. She then states in that menacing purr of hers, "Later, I'll show you just what this angry 'twelve year old' can do." A cross between seductive allure and menacing threat of violence. "Later." She says again, this time looking back toward Goenitz.
"Tsk. Why don't you hurry up and bleed out alre--"
'FALLACIOUS CHILD OF MANKIND.'
Goosebumps crawl across Juri's flesh. She doesn't know where that voice came from exactly, or even how she knows it is talking to her. But she knows just the same. She grits her teeth and is quiet for a change, listening to whatever this being has to say. When it is finished it is indeed Goenitz who speaks up first. Worshipfully, respectfully.
She isn't having any of that.
While he is in the middle of prostrating himself before his Lord, Juri will attempt to walk right up to Goenitz and kick him in the back of the head. "I told you to die already!" Afterwards, successful or not, she will look up at the Hole Between Worlds overhead and rest her hands on her hips. Raven black ponytail swaying in the wind, right eye seeming to glow as much as her left eye does on occasion.
"What do you see? What do I care. Whoever you are. Whatever you are. I don't really care. Whatever hole you've crawled out of to 'return', you can just go. the fuck. /back/!"
Of course, Kyo being Kyo, in response to Juri's threat his shit-eating grin turns into a sweet smile, the smile of an innocent and blameless angel that would never do anyone any harm, whose very existence spreads peace and joy to the world around them and soothes the lives of every individual they meet.
How could anyone ever want to do something bad to Kyo Kusanagi?!
"Preteens today," Kyo says despairingly, as though he weren't staring into the face of a horrible genocidal deity that might actually have a grudge against him, personally. "With their Justin Bieber and their Tae Kwon Do." He shrugs, palms up, as though helpless to do anything about the state of the world and its younger members and their questionable taste in music and martial arts. What would Kim Kap Hwan say? /What would Kim Kap Hwan say/?!
Of course, then there's Orochi, talking right at him in what is a voice in the same way that the Pacific is a drop of water.
'KUSANAGI,' is says; maybe he's just imagining the disapproving tone, but nobody ever says his last name /nicely/. Not even cosmic entities.
"Whoaaa, there," Kyo says, putting a hand to his head. "Mind turning down the volume a little, buddy? I don't mind telling you, I've had a rough day thanks to Vega, Kidz Bop over here and your boy Gonads." Is... Is he /legitimately/ getting the guy's name wrong? Nobody seems to have corrected him about it. It's /possible/ he's making an honest mistake, but again this is Kyo, after all.
Kyo remains, perhaps alarmingly, politely quiet while Juri makes her angry tirade.
"What she said."
----
The darkness expands and spreads from the island, where the whereabouts and state of Sagat's health suddenly take a huge backseat. All prepare to fight and rise again.
Antoine gazes up to the sky, arms guarded as he regains his strength.
Aranha leaps right back up to his feet, his fatigue washing away as survival instinct takes over.
Carmine grits his teeth, ready to make good on what he said to Vladimir - humanity may have to protect itself one last time.
Elias keeps his calm - or at least stays deathly quiet - having left it to God by all appearances.
"Please tell me that... that I didn't just, uh, give up my career... all for nothin'," Rust growls out loud as he struggles to rise up again.
----
Where Goenitz is happy to respectfully speak whatever sort of etiquette is required when dealing with these kinds of eldritch things, Juri and Kyo in turn stand defiant - even joking! - as the former boots the back of Goenitz's head with such strength that he wheezes as his face plants against the... ground?
It feels like nothing is underneath, and yet, here everyone stands (or doesn't suddenly slide out further into the void, in the case of booted-to-the-head Goenitz - is there friction in nothingness?).
"FALLACIOUS CHILD," the voice of Orochi speaks to Juri - heedless of Kyo's request to turn things down a notch. Maybe it simply does not comprehend the idea of an indoor voice, when the concept of 'indoor' and 'outdoor' are, to all appearances, completely null and void in this... void. "IT IS HUMANITY THAT CALLS FOR ME. THE VOICE OF ALL HUMANITY, I CAN HEAR. I REFLECT."
"That is why," Goenitz wheezes, bent over and barely supporting himself with one arm as though entirely motivated by being able to look upon that visage he has worked so hard, manipulated so many, and killed so many more so that he could witness it, "that is why your... your childish insults are... are fruitless!"
"KUSANAGI." It speaks again. "I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN. FOR YEARS, I WAITED. I WAITED FOR THE DAY WHEN HUMANITY'S TRUE WISH FOR DESTRUCTION WOULD BE FULFILLED..."
"It's here, my Lord!" Goenitz picks up volume, coughing up a bit more blood for good measure - blood he is willing to let fly with the culmination of his handiwork. "What you... what you see, what you hear... flippant humanity, the infection of the... the planet. It seeks to consume... even itself. And now..."
"MY OWN BLOOD." Orochi's voice reverberates through the colorless, textureless, featureless void. "YOU HAVE DONE WELL."
Goenitz, at this moment of pride, finds the strength to rise again, arms outstretched. Accepting of the purging of his own mortal shell, to shed away the detestable human shell the blood of Orochi has had to inhabit to continue acting in a world beyond its grasp.
A deathly silence passes (unless, of course, Kyo and Juri have something smart-aleck or defiant to add to this silence). The heaviest seconds of all of humanity progress in absolute tension, to the facing of the inevitable. The glyph-like figure - Orochi's ethereal form, devoid of any classification beyond being a shimmering circle of eight lines - or heads - contemplates whether to the nothingness of silence of the bleating of those who still hold the fire of continued existence within their hearts, for good or for ill.
"I HAVE HEARD THE VOICE OF HUMANITY." Orochi responds.
Goenitz smiles a little wider.
"THEIR STRUGGLES, MOMENTARY IN SCOPE, FEEBLE TO ETERNITY. A BLINK OF AN EYE."
The smile turns into a slightly less dignified, even maniacal grin.
"IF THE HEARTS OF HUMANITY TRULY REFLECT ALL I HAVE SEEN... ALL I HAVE FELT EVEN NOW..."
"Yes, my Lord, it is as you... as you see," Goenitz eagerly ushers his Lord's monologue along, knowing full well the end of it. The final judgment, the full eradication of humanity and its selfish, sinful, destructive ways. Yes, it is too late, even with the Kusanagi heir present...!
"THEIR VOICE IS THAT OF STRENGTH. I AM... MOVED."
Goenitz suddenly stops smiling.
Yes. Even within this strange void, Juri is defiant. Even as that booming voice echoes around her, she remains unbowed. Perhaps it is not the wisest decision to be so, not when you're in the mouth of a beast trying to decide just how hard it should bite down on your throat. Still, she refuses to spare more than a slight wince at the volume of the voice speaking to her.
Any more than that might just feel like surrender.
And yet, astonishingly, Juri is silent once more. Silent while she listens to what the voice has to say, and its conversation with Goenitz. Goenitz is, of course, trying to urge his master to fulfill a promised destiny of extermination. These words, their voices were supposed to be the last pleading gasp of an entire race brought to the precipice of ruin. Goenitz was supposed to be the boot that pushed them over the edge. And then.
Juri can feel her eyes, both eyes, widen a hair over the end of their interaction. That wasn't all that she expected at all. Perhaps a sudden release of power? Something that would grind her way down to the bottoms of her feet? Or maybe a thosand blood red eyes glowing in the darkness before descending upon Kyo and herself with claws lashing. If Juri is anything, she is perplexed... but she can take unadulterated joy from one thing at least:
That wiped Goenitz's smile right off his face.
"You are moved?" Juri states a incredulously. "Of all the..." The Taekwondoka grimaces and turns to look at Kyo. She has absolutely no idea what is going on here, and as much as she hates to admit that... the feeling is plain on her face. It is part of the reason she asks, "Do you get what is going on here?"
So that would be a 'no' in turning the volume down. In fact, Goenitz starts talking louder!
Kyo makes a mental note to get some ibuprofen later.
The interplay between Goenitz and what /seems/ to be Orochi is pretty much what he was expecting, though, blah blah judgement of humanity, harbl harbl have I not done well, my lord; the fact that the situation around it /is/ so very and (literally) earth-shakingly serious is the only thing that prevents Kyo from actually starting to laugh, although he does at one point roll his eyes and make a 'move it along' gesture, one finger circling in the air.
But then...
BUT THEN
Kyo is frankly perplexed when Orochi claims to be 'moved', and he starts to wonder if somehow this ancient cosmic horror hasn't developed a sense of humour during its thousand years of imprisonment, and has decided that its first act upon returning to the realm of mortals would be to play an elaborate prank on the scion of the Kusanagi family, sort of a Punk'd situation.
So when Juri looks to him, Kyo just shrugs.
"Sounds like the wind isn't blowing your way this time, chinstrap," Kyo calls out towards Goenitz, because he just can't help himself.
Where Kyo and Juri both show confusion with this swerve, there is one man who knows, entirely, what those words mean. A frown forms on Goenitz's features, arms lowering slowly as he comes across what he finds to be virtually impossible.
"My Lord... did you not hear the voices of your followers? Even... even those of humanity who fell to their hubris in nihilism..." How many cultists gave their very LIVES for this moment, indeed? Their strength, their lifeblood, their very power, all put towards this very purpose right now.
Kyo's concerns, if voiced, would be worthy of endless discussion - is this a prank by a cosmic horror that has somehow absorbed the concept of humor? The unthinkable adds another layer of incomprehensibility to this very situation. Especially in the presence of /Juri Han/, a woman of barely restrained horror who loves nothing more than to utterly destroy.
"AS THE ENERGY CAME TO THIS SEAL... I FELT IT." Orochi narrates out loud. "HUMANITY'S TRUEST WISHES..."
"No... did they really?" Goenitz mutters aloud, realizing much too late the flaw in his testimony in favor of total annihilation of humanity. His head bows, eyes closed and hand to his chest as he considers what just happened - the tension running through him expressed as the hand to his chest clutches the fabric atop it tightly enough that it's a small wonder it doesn't tear straight off.
Flashes of imagery appear, extremely faint in the darkness - perhaps the equivalent of Orochi himself trying to share badly developed old photos from a scrapbook. They are blurry, faint, fleeting images - but with a squint, one could make them out from the four cardinal directions.
To the south, behind everyone, a young woman pledges for there to be no more sacrifices as she saves a burnt balding man with a weapon of some sort who is, in turn, saving a younger man from a deep fiery abyss with some kind of mystical rope as another figure burns to nothingness.
To the west, a large scarred man with one eye, a frenzied young man with red hair, and someone else of similar appearance (maybe female?) all come together despite their mistakes and harships to take down a mountain-sized monster - even as the large one's strength fades away.
To the east, a tall woman in suspenders, a very short young man with blonde and purple hair, and a highly acrobatic young man of African descent put aside their sorrows and frustrations to strike a decisive blow against a tree-like figure.
To the north, a ways past Orochi and notably a touch more vivid than the rest, a priest nearly sacrifices himself in the name of protecting the future while an officer appears to fire an invisible rifle at a monstrosity made of water.
"THIS IS HUMANITY'S POTENTIAL." So says Orochi, letting the images slowly fade away.
"But... they are so few." Goenitz mutters. "My Lord... I have seen countless more who gave in to weakness, by, by a factor of ten... a hundred. Their insatible desires... for bloodlust, for needless consumption. Does the will of a few outweigh the will of many...?"
"THE FALLACIOUS CHILD OF MAN..." Orochi continues, as if to address Juri personally. "ONE OF SUCH HONESTY. EVEN YOU DO NOT CRAVE THIS FINAL EMBRACE... DO YOU NOT?"
Goenitz looks ready to drop an outright f-bomb. The position of his lips sure signifies it as his posture hunches over, the totality of his injuries catching up to him as what seemed like certainty slips away from his hold by the second!
"KUSANAGI... DO NOT MISTAKE MY WORDS FOR KINDNESS. I AM ETERNAL, AS LONG AS HUMANITY DRAWS BREATH AND WALKS THE EARTH. YOU ARE STILL BUT AS AN INSECT... NO, EVEN SMALLER. A TINY EMBER IN THE DARKNESS..."
Confused. As. Hell.
That is really all Juri can experience at the moment. Wrapped in a dark void, surrounded by people she either loathes or doesn't know enough about to loathe but is pretty sure she would if given the chance. She was expecting something ... more than this. Even Goenitz in his obvious discomfort and hatred for the situation only offers so much amusement.
Though there is still a part of her,,. A small part of her, mind, that thinks this development may not be all bad.
That is when the flickers of images begin to dance through the darkness. She looks around herself at what is collected, and immediately recognizes the four elemental branches of the island. Clearly time did not stand still within the void... or perhaps time just didn't matter here at all? Whichever it is, she is smart enough to understand that these battles are happening, or have happened.
The battle to the South. Well, Juri doesn't seem to recognize these people.
To the West is another story. Juri's right eye widens considerably after squinting. "Sagat." She mutters to herself, and smirks, "I was wondering where that old cyclops ran off to."
To the East, another recognition. Though Juri just rests her hands on her hips and shakes her head, "No surprises that she managed to stick her nose in this." Again, mostly talking to herself. "Too bad for her, I guess."
And then to the North, once again there is no recognition. Though it's clear she didn't look very hard, or was very interested to begin with. Soon she is gazing upon Goenitz and his master.
'Fallacious Child of Man'
There is that name again, and it is certainly starting to feel like an insult. How is she 'false?!' The Taekwondoka tosses her head a bit in irritation, that raven black ponytail moving with the motion. "What the fuck do you think?!" She asks, with not a whit of reverance to the strange, extremely powerful being. "I have no intention of entering this 'final embrace' or whatever. I have things I must do."
Juri grits her teeth, almost audible to even Kyo's ears, "I have fought my way back from the destruction of everything I was, and I have no intention of just laying down and dying now. Not after I came so far. Not after I've come in arms reach of my goal." It's somewhat laudable, at least, that will... that desire to live beyond all odds. Beyond all pain.
Perhaps the one thing that Juri has that can be considered 'human'.
Standing with his arms folded, Kyo Kusanagi isn't entirely sure what to make of this situation at all. It seems less like an elaborate prank now, and so it's probably a good thing that Orochi doesn't seem inclined to end the world /right now/ - especially because even the rather arrogant Kusanagi heir wouldn't want to take on /that/ fight without some people he could rely on at his back, and Juri Han is definitely not on that list - but in a weird way part of him feels let down.
That part is, almost certainly, the bloodline of the Kusanagi itself; it's hard to come face to face with the very thing you exist to stop and /not/ get a little excited about doing so.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. And you'll be watching and waiting, and one day you'll be back. Just you remember something, though."
Kyo smirks, snapping the fingers of his right hand to bring forth a spark, that quickly turns into a small blaze raging over his hand, over the back of his forearm. It doesn't actually seem to touch /him/ any, given the curious properties of bloodline flames, but there you go. "A 'tiny ember' can always get bigger when it's got something to burn. So don't mistake my words for gratitude, buddy. It's a pain in the ass, but there's always gonna be Kusanagis around, ready for you." Nevermind that Kyo himself really wasn't, and actually didn't care very much until the tournament started pissing him off, and that he really does need the other two Sacred Treasures with him, and...
Yeah, nevermind any of that.
Goenitz falls silent, into contemplation as he pieces together the loose parts of the puzzle - or perhaps finally putting together where this whole picture went so incredibly, incredibly wrong where a group of... how many, fourteen people total, were able to influence Orochi in such a way. Even with the likes of Vega and Juri, whom by themselves should be the very embodiment of everything Orochi would devour and destroy...!
Never mind him. We have no time for losers.
"I WILL SEE HOW FAR THAT TAKES YOU." Orochi's tone, though loud, booming, omnipresent - does not change in intensity or pitch to Juri's defiant cries. "I WILL SEE WHERE THAT POTENTIAL TAKES YOU. YOU AND THE REST OF HUMANITY..."
The flames of Kusanagi burn bright in Kyo's hand as he gives not only a counterpoint, but a hard truth that the Orochi of many years ago has not since completely lived down.
"OUR DESTINY WILL NEVER BE UNMADE, KUSANAGI," so says Orochi of the out-outdoor voice, as the orange flames bring a greater, clearer light to this very void surrounding them. "THE VERY MOMENT HUMANITY TRULY FALTERS, I WILL HEAR ITS CRIES. I WILL ANSWER THEM..."
"YOU, OF MY BLOOD." Goenitz's head lifts up, disappointment washed away to whatever hanging words Orochi has to give to his most devout disciple. "KNOW THAT THE MOMENT WILL ONE DAY COME. YOU HAVE DONE WELL TO AWAKEN ME... TO ALLOW ME TO SEE THE FACE OF HUMANITY."
"My Lord," Goenitz utters quietly, as if in acceptance.
"FOR NOW," Orochi's voice booms, a great red light enveloping everyone into darkness before columns of light that swallow them...
----
The voice could be heard by all, as those who fought are all brought under the same net of Orochi's final, decisive judgment.
"CHILDREN OF MAN..."
Antoine looks up, face serious and fists tense.
"YOU HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE."
Aranha shows utter confusion, turning to the others and muttering while the voice of Orochi carries out all across the island, to those who have since fled the destructive forces of nature after defeating the Guardians. All nearby can hear it. All are listening.
"I RETURN TO MY SLEEP... I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR WORLD WHEN I AWAKE AGAIN."
Vanessa doesn't seem to really give much of a flip as she leans back in her seat, perhaps too cynical to understand the true depths of what is being said, and by whom.
"IT COULD BE A HUNDRED YEARS... IT COULD BE A THOUSAND YEARS... IT COULD BE TOMORROW."
"So, uh... how are we, are we gonna know?" Asks Rust, scratching head confusedly at wherever the voice is coming from.
"THE DAY YOU CHOOSE OBLIVION... THE DECISION IS NOT MINE TO MAKE. FAREWELL."
"...Thank you," Carmine replies with heartfelt gratitude.
Goenitz, Kyo, and Juri all find themselves deposited out at the very center of the island, where the fateful battle for humanity raged. The skies have cleared up, soft glowing clouds of yellow across a deep blue sky.
The volatile shifts of weather and underlying currents of chi have come to a stop. A brisk breeze passes through all those gathered...
Goenitz falls to a kneel, unable to sustain his injuries for much longer. "You haven't won," he wheezes as he points palms upwards, "a new wind blows... the time will come. I am not retreating... I am not forfeitting... Kusanagi. And you, of such fine upstanding example to humanity."
The wind surrounds him, all but obscuring him from view. "No, I am being called," his voice trails off as his form disappears into the violent breeze that turns to still air but moments later, the only remainder of his presence being a few droplets of blood on the calm earth and his voice on the winds, "to his aid."
Though Kyo and Juri alone know of Goenitz's further assumption that this is over, celebration washes across those among the collected vehicles - even if slightly bitter for some, given Sagat may have left this mortal coil.
"...High five, anyone?" Asks Carmine.
"Tired of living in these kinds of situations," Aranha mutters ever-so pessimistically, having constantly been caught up in things well over his head. Who knows when the next time he'll end up being caught up in something like this?
Rust looks up to the sky as he watches the paper crane that opened his eyes fly away into the distance, back to its original masters... and silently watches it disappear out back towards the world he helped win the future of.
Vanessa signals to the helicopter pilot to hurry on up and lead 'em off to non-apocalyptic land, tired of all these godhood complexes and other such garbage going on. The helicopter leads everyone else back to the mainland.
Antoine turns not to what is now the present or the past, but the future - and the challenges it brings as he faces away from the gathered to look back out to the mainland, and what awaits when he sets back onto his travels...
As for Kyo and Juri...
Well.
After all of that, Juri is left once again standing on the very center of that barren island they started at. The woman looks around in confusion for a bit, and it's evident she doesn't recognize it at first. Not without that ominous sky overhead. Not with all the changes that the strange chi energy had wrought. It takes her a moment then to reach up and pull off the eyepatch she was wearing over her left eye. She blinks a few times, the Feng Shui Engine having to adjust again after calibrating itself for the darkness. Much like a human eye.
"It's gone." ... "Well, mostly anyway." She admits in a cool tone. Eventually Juri's right eye glances over at Kyo once more, before looking down at Goenitz. He leaves with one last warning, and Juri responds to it in her own way: Finding those last few of droplets on the Earth and stomping on it like it was the cultist's neck!
When she is done with that /very/ brief catharsis, the Taekwondoka sighs. "Well, I guess all that's left to do is kill each other now, that we've been given a reprieve or whatever the fuck this is." She produces a soft laugh, "Nah. Just kidding. I have bigger fish to fry anyway. Just in case Mr. Chin isn't dead, he might be seriously hurt. And, well, I certainly wouldn't want to leave the boss man in the middle of nowhere seriously hurt and without someone to offer a helping hand."
Oh Juri so does love those 'helping hands'.
She will glance over her shoulder then, back at Kyo. If he is still there. "But perhaps we will get a chance to play sometime?"
"What. A. /Dick/," Kyo says out loud, to nobody in particular, once they've been deposited back in what is hopefully conventional reality, and they're not going to find out they've been transported to the future, or to the past, or to the terrible /Planet of the Apes/.
Goenitz's departure doesn't bother the Kusanagi heir too much, the perpetual highschooler having garnered far too much experience in dealing with bad guys, and being far too generally genre savvy, to be surprised when they pull those sorts of tricks. Sighing a little, he shakes his head and lifts his hands in another 'what can you do?' shrug, apparently content with this resolution since it is, however temporarily, a resolution. But then, Juri Han!
"You have serious mental problems," Kyo informs the scrawny Korean, in response to her 'offer'. "Just remember, you try to 'play' with me, I won't hesitate to rearrange your face, huh? I have a lot of psychos in my life, I know better than to play nice." Seriously, he runs into way, way too many crazy people. Usually at the wrong time, like when they for some reason want to make Christmas decorations out of his entrails.
After that, though, the Kusanagi heir turns to leave. He wants to get off of this stupid island.
----
Not too far from the center of the island...
"Amigo!" cries the voice of El Fuerte once he finally comes to his senses a ways away from the action. "These fools may have won, but we know that both the red cyclone and the Hurricane of the Gulf are the true winners!" The excited luchado believes that Wrestlefriends have truely won, but the officials are an evil sort. "We will prove them wrong next time around!"
"Da!" Zangief growls, still sore and barely conscious after doing the unthinkable and outright stupid. "We come this far. Next time. Next time Wrestlefriends become Wrestlekings!" The hulking Russian wrestler rises, his body battered but not his pride as he watches Juri and Kyo part ways. "But for now... hunger!"
As Zangief possibly invites his doom via the invitation to be fed by El Fuerte, in the distance a battered, burnt, and torn blue robe grows still. A young cultist squints, one eye too blackened and bruised to see.
"I... I get it, my Lord," croaks the pathetic young cultist who has suffered so much for nothing, "I, I understand it all... and soon..."
His one eye flares open with rage.
"Your will will be done!" He declares. "Th... they won't mock me any longer, I know how! I know how to be the one to guide humanity to its true end, an--"
Two bodies promptly fall atop him, crushing him underneath two dazed Shadaloo associates who are going to have some 'splaining to do about that there hovercraft that some people ran off with.
----
THANKS TO THOSE WHO FOUGHT, THE WORLD IS SAFE AGAIN.
Vanessa pulls a single, worn picture of a small red-haired child from her tattered jacket, rubbing a gloved thumb over it quietly, then squints out over the sea, silently contemplating her future.
RIGHT? WRONG? NO ONE CAN SAY.
Elias sails on the hovercraft wondering what lies ahead in these dark times. So many evil forces still are working upon this land. He has found some peace for now, but for how long, he does not truly know.
BUT AS LONG AS HUMANS RULE THE WORLD...
Maki, quickly reintegrating herself into the world of organized fighting, stands in front of her fans who applaud to her, taking it all in silent and humble stride as though everything that transpired were just another intermmediate step to her ends.
THE OROCHI AWAKENING IS NOT SO FAR AWAY...
Aranha, among his natural environment of the urban sprawl, leans against something with clear exhaustion and the stare of a man that could span a thousand years of someone who has seen far more than he should have in his time.
SOME WOULD SAY HUMANKIND IS TOO LATE TO AVOID DESTURCTION.
Sagat, the God of Muay Thai's figure is barely visible among the calm of the recently violent activity of the island he fought alongside so many with. A man of such power seems to have finally laid to rest.
THE CRUELTY HUMANITY IS CAPABLE OF IS WELL RECORDED AND UNDERSTOOD.
Rust walks away from the sneers of his co-workers while carrying a cardboard box under his arm. A small pink-colored piece of paper hangs out of said box as a few student figures stand in silence a ways behind the adults.
IS OROCHI MERELY THE MESSENGER OF A HIGHER POWER TO REMIND HUMANS OF THEIR FOLLIES?
Juri's cybernetic eye flashes a sickly, even violet as destruction hovers entirely around herself, the very picture of the destructive urges of her own kind.
ONE COULD SAY THAT THE REAL ENEMY IS NOT OROCHI. THEY WOULD SAY IT IS US...
Ken, in a hospital bed, reads a newspaper about the damages he caused in the throes of the Riot in his extremely violent battle with Yamazaki, knowing full well what it means.
BUT WITHIN EVERY HUMAN BEING, THERE MUST BE VIRTUE.
Among the haze of uncertainty that consumed Southtown prior to the end, Farah stands as the sole splash of vibrant color as she makes her way down the sidewalk, though faint hints of this color shine through the overcast clouds above her, basking her in light.
IT IS THIS VIRTUE THAT KEEPS OROCHI AT BAY...
Carmine tirelessly flips through various MCPD files, paper and electronic, among a large pile surrounding him - more files sit, hard-copy, yet close to his desk, each with one word underlined every time it occurs: 'Doll.'
...BUT IT IS SO MUCH MORE.
A shot of Zach, his aura blazing a vibrant yellow as the violet in his hair and energy fade away - in a way, a new reawakening and a new self.
NO MATTER THE OUTCOME, TO LOSE SIGHT OF THIS WILL SIGNAL OROCHI'S RETURN.
Antoine approaches who he believes to be Quon, outstretching a hand into the darkness and despair that has surrounded them - the invitation to let go of the shadows of his life as he looks to the light that Quon helped bring him back to.
EVEN AS EVIL BEGINS TO MOUNT ANEW IN ITS MANY FORMS...
Vega's silhouette is among many bodies... unconscious? Dead? Merely asleep? His hand raised, some appear to be awakening and even rising, as the flag of China lays limp and tattered behind him.
...SO TOO DOES THOSE OF VIRTUE, IN THE VIOLENT FIGHTING TO COME AGAIN.
The sign of the Kusanagi clan, the outline of the sun, flashes before flames sweep by.
CONGRATURATION ALL CLEAR ! ! !
KING OF FIGHTERS 2011 PLOT PRESENT BY MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM MUCK
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING SEE YOU NEXT GAME ! ! !
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For being a place of great interest, the island drops out of notice quickly. Over the next few days, people move on from talk about bizarre weather patterns and reports of strange lights to more mundane issues. You know. Saturday Night Fights, mostly. Even after the fall of Geese Howard from grace, it seems that the sport he helped make a worldwide sensation just won't fade.
For specific people, the memory of what has transpired in this very place many, many years ago continues even today. The events that took place do not escape notice, as two figures approach the center of the now calmed island underneath a setting sun, the cloak of dusk falling upon the two visitors to this place of great interest.
"This is Hell's Gate," comes the voice of Chizuru, features illuminated by the light above - but perhaps she not need narrate this to her escort as she steps towards the weakened, ruined circle of stones and tattered paper seals that managed to survive the great battle that transpired between Goenitz, Kyo, Vega, and Juri.
"I sense it even now... the door ajar, held in check by the equivalent of a single, rusted, worn chain... and yet, Orochi did not come through. Surely, the demon looked out the cracks and saw those we've sworn to hold them back from...?"
The expression of her retainer is measured and contemplative as he studies the aftermath with more than one set of senses. For all the calm that has returned to his place for now, the world has changed. And no gathering of modern day Yata will be able to restore the work of their ancestors completely.
"Maybe. There's certainly no shortage of other...guests...peeking back at us right now." Hmm. Turning away from the ancient site, he studies the morning seaboard, marvelling at the beautiful - if foreboding - crimson sun breaking through the distant clouds. How did the saying go? Red sky in morning, shepard's warning...
Heh. Shepards.
"I guess the question is what he saw. Passion of all sorts, that's for sure."
Chizuru bows her head, eyes closed as she contemplates her faithful retainer's own theorem. "The Guardians... the current generation, were all slain. As we know, even without a bloodline descendant... they find new heirs. As the Earth's energies pulse, they grant unto their descendants everything. Their power, their clarity of purpose... with such power all brought together at their death... indeed, the demon inside had to have seen it."
Looking up towards the sky, to that vague place that can barely be attributed to a fixed location in angled space, Chizuru cannot help but contemplate as she stares down the most herculean task asked of the Yata descendants, knowing beyond what they perceive... there are many things looking down upon them now.
"I... won't discount the possibility that the wills of those who fought against them to the bitter end may, potentially, have colored these coalesced memories... feelings. Though, I admit I find it hard to believe, maybe even foolishly optimistic, that the wills of those few that day may yet heal the schism between the Guardians and humanity."
Life, death...the cycle of energy that permeates the planet...but maybe there's another take on it. Chizuru is an intelligent woman, one who has performed exceptionally with what life has given her, but there's one thing she hasn't had as much time to contemplate as he has.
"When we're born into this world, we don't have much say in the circumstances. The same is true of Yata and Guardian...chi and psychic." Somewhere, a little girl is very agitated with her daddy for having left her with a babysitter for the last two weeks. His grin betrays his wandering thoughts as he contemplates what he'll have to return to...and the fact that he still can. "So all we can do is make the best of what's around us. The same goes for them. We'll never see eye to eye as long as they believe wiping out humanity is the answer, but that doesn't mean they're wrong about man taking more than it gives back."
Reiji shrugs then, turning back to the gate and giving that indefinite nether a glance of his own. He grins. "So, we'll do what we can for our end of it. Offer others a helping hand along thew way. And maybe someday down the road, our descendants will be more concerned with getting a sunburn playing on the beach over there than this dusty old thing."
Even in deep contemplation, Chizuru allows herself a smile when facing down the flimsy, final barrier between Orochi and the rest of the world. She knows, he knows... they both know that they cannot squander this mercy that Orochi has shown. No... Orochi is not showing mercy. They are waiting.
"Though... until now, we took the burden of protecting humanity on our shoulders. A burden we still carry," even if she is not terribly approving of Saishu's methods of raising the heir to the Kyokugen family, and... let's not get started with Iori, wherever that guy has decided to go off to (maybe Guy has finally returned those rumored feelings?).
Chizuru steps forward without further hesitation, even as she speaks, knowing the strength of her steps is of utmost importance for the ritual ahead. "If it was the will of people with no such bindings to fate and history that have ultimately granted us this reprieve today... then the responsibility and the future, and with it, the very power to prevent Orochi's return, and with it the countless others banished beyond the gate..."
One leg crosses in front of another.
"...May instead lie in all of us, regardless of what those of our history possess." Is Chizuru suggesting that, in time, the role of the Three Treasures may become obsolete to the face of a stronger, better humanity that can overcome the follies that have led themselves - and the world at large - to so many disasters and tragedies?
"Now... while we still can, we must perform the ceremon--"
She suddenly goes still, expression stern but clearly frightened as a figure suddenly appears out of seemingly nowhere right in front of her, set to the darkness of a sun disappearing over the horizon.
Reiji barely has any time to bask in the pleasant vision before his master is crumpling before him. What the...how?! Masking itself in the aura of this place maybe? They were careless! "Lady Chizuru, we need to--" No sooner are the words spoken than he knows they're too late.
Teeth bared, he stares down the interloper, even has he begins to suspect he has a snowball's chance in hell of facing off against this menace alone. "What the hell do you think you're DOING?!"
A lilting chuckle, before the ceremony can begin, interrupting the two who stand before Hell's Gate.
Someone, something, has been watching them, all along. Could it be a presence, from beyond the seal, as it keeps hell itself and absolute destruction at bay just barely?
Or is it human?
The answer: A pale, freckle-faced man materializes, atoms of energy gathering and constructing him before their very eyes. His head lifts, and the interloper greets them both with a flippant, lazy wave, uncaring of their condemnation. He is dressed in red - the outfit itself is a peculiar choice - and a thin hand, with long nails of black, upon which are intricate patterns painted, lifts to his face and hair. His smile is enigmatic, but possesses both malice and unabashed amusement...
He has waited ever so long for this moment.
Five years, or perhaps longer.
Ever since he had left the rural countryside of France, and ever since he had set foot in the hole where fighters gather...
In... Southtown.
This years spent waiting have been peppered with pointless fights of grandeur, and his reunion with Elisabeth. The slender man has made friends, allies, and enemies all at once, and over again. He watched the family that had raised him die in a blazing conflagration that consumed their exquisite home, unable (or completely unwilling) to save them...
It has brought him here, to this time, and this place. This island. He has been patient, as humanity faced its own destruction, confident that they would all avoid complete annihilation, watching and discreet, manipulating events where he saw fit... And lean fighter has been rewarded upon its conclusion.
All had begun here, and today, it would truly end. The appropriate ending.
He is ready.
Ash Crimson has been ready always.
To be... Truly an advocate of evil in the eyes of those who live, who wish to continue living, for the greater good.
He seizes a strand of platinum blonde hair, threading it between his fingers, enthralled, almost laughing, before his thin lips part. The azure eyes glitter, flicker, and glow. They are as cold as ice, and then... Red, like blood.
Though he is not far, he proceeds forwards - a menace. Every step closer is a thinly veiled threat, and his immense power is palpable, and suffocating. It nearly strangles the life from himself, much less the other two, hungrily clawing, reaching... /Anticipating/.
"Ash Crimson!?"
His name is uttered by the soft lips of a woman, Chizuru Kagura.
The Frenchman's maniacal grin curls further - a broad slash, twisting with the utmost cruelly. He must be a demon, who finally speaks.
But Ash's tone seems inappropriate: It is a sing-song, saccharine and sweet. "I'm delighted that you remember me, Mademoiselle Kagura. I had thought that you would have forgotten."
She scowls, "What are you doing here? Did you come to break the seal!?"
His pencil-thin eyebrows peak, "Goodness, no. I would never dream of doing such a thing - it's fine, as is. No, my business... Lies solely with you, and not that."
Fingers drift from flaxen strands, his hand passing over her fair face, over the obsidian top of her head, and a strong arm wraps around her, holding Chizuru in a warped embrace. She slumps with the grace of her station against him, consciousness stolen away, with eyes rolling, lids falling closed over blank whites. After a devious giggle, Ash hovers his palm at her breast; he is prepared to strike.
The crimson eyes blaze in their sockets, and Ash regards the apprehensive Reiji with contempt by this point. "Do tell Iori Yagami that he is next. An interesting servant, I am certain he will not bore me."
The other man stiffens.
"Oho, I see that you know your efforts would be wasted here," A gentle nod of understanding, bangs swishing forwards, obscuring half of his face. The flamewielder's tongue passes over his lips, like a predator, "Only a /fool/ throws away his life for no reason."
With relish, in the purest state of ecstasy, his hand plunges into the woman's chest, but there isp With relish, in the purest state of ecstasy, his hand plunges into the woman's chest, but there is no tear of her articles, or spray of essence. It is as though he parts the very fabric of reality, and reaches, searching, into a void. Finally, fingers close over a smooth surface - the sacred treasure.
The Yata Mirror.
Ash relieves Chizuru of the item, clenching it in his hand and withdrawing in triumph. He is also disgusted by the limp form of what can now only be considered 'trash', and casts the woman to the ground with callous disregard. Her dignity has been crushed by red soles of his pristine white shoes. Placing the mirror to his chest, it evaporates through material, skin and bone. Into his very soul, and his aura flares. The Frenchman moans, as if touched by the most sensual of lovers, crimson orbs half-lidded. "'Easy come, easy go', as they say, mais non?"
One last look is spared to the enraged Reiji, and it is telling. He does not approve. "Ahaha~, I never expected you to understand, anyway."
"Now I have gained a new power."
"Adieu!" The flamewielder shimmers, the entirety of his being flickering, blurring, and then vanishing entirely from existence - or at least, from Hell's Gate. Only a parting laugh remains, carried by the wind, ominous and horrid, long after he has faded...
Log created on 17:09:15 08/30/2011 by RedRobot, and last modified on 03:43:41 09/01/2011.