Description: Freeman has been enjoying the ambient atmosphere of Sunshine City, and decides to play with a girl he finds walking through the night. It just so happens to be Lynn, who is far from an easy target. Does he get what he wants from the unwilling woman?
The life of a Dojo Master, movies would have you believe, is a glamorous one. One with days filled with meditating on a secluded cliffside facing the sunset, with dedicated fighters out searching for you in order to learn exclusively from you. Followed by days of fun abuse to teach a covert lesson so the student will not be simply given their realization.
Sadly, the reality is much more mundane. Perhaps Lee Song's days back in China were like that, but for the Dojo's heir, one Lynn Baker, her days are often filled with nights like these: carrying several canvas bags of groceries on each arm, sighing as she walked back toward the Dojo. Even Inner Sunshine isn't exactly safe at night, she knows, but considering how busy her mornings and afternoons are, evenings are the only time she can get this done, especially with her parents out of town for the week.
"I knew I shouldn't have offered to run a picnic this Sunday," she mutters to herself. Not that she couldn't carry the entirety of her groceries, strung over her arms as they are. Just...she really wonders if grandpa's days were this tedious before she was born. Or before the Lees.
Of course, there is also the very real fact that Lynn is amongst the strongest on the planet. There are relatively few in the city who would be a threat to her, and in fact, not many in the entire nation. That can make one complacent with risks... knowing that an errant thug or mugger would be quickly disposed of with a single kick. Which is precisely why Freeman has found so many of his victims caught entirely off guard.
A short distance ahead of Lynn, a lithe figure steps from an alley. The motion is rather distracted, although it is unlikely to be a coincidence. Dressed in a loose tan trenchcoat, Freeman spreads his arms and cants his face towards the darkened skies. "It is a wonderful evening." he offers. Assumably to Lynn; there's nobody else visible on the streets. "The sun has tucked away, allowing the essence of night to take over. Twinkling stars... fluttering moths... and other creatures..." Even a rudimentary ability to assess chi would pick up on something sinister and entirely not mundane. "But the scents. It stinks of the city..."
Distracted as she mentally lists off all the things that'll need to be done tonight and all through tomorrow, Lynn is not prepared for anyone to just...walk out of an alleyway and approach her like that. A sudden stop sends all the bags on her arms swinging forward, swaying like pendulums until the young Ms. Baker tucks her arms in and halts them with her sides. Brow furrowed, she turns her head up toward the stranger in the trenchcoat.
"Ok..." she frowns, throughly creeped out already. As if a stranger in a trenchcoat at night wasn't enough, the creepy soiliquy made her more on edge. It also makes her focus enough on the stranger to feel some REALLY bad vibrations coming off of him. "You....who are you?" she says lowly, arms lowered and prepared to drop her bags as she narrows her eyes toward the stranger.
He felt dark. He felt like Death.
Slowly, Freeman turns towards Lynn, pressing a large hand to his face. Obscuring features already veiled by crimson bangs, which would doubtlessly be attractive to most in a gaunt, haunting fashion. One eye peers between two fingers. "This city. There is... something to it. A darkness, lurking behind everything. It is... enchanting. Like a perfume that one gets addicted to. I am... almost at ease." The hand slides up, brushing through his hair before an almost drugged look is given to Lynn. "In fact..." One footstep is taken towards the grocery-laden girl. "It makes me feel..." Another follows. "Almost playful...!!" Slowly, a smile creases across thin lips, parting open with a tremble. "Would you... play with me...?"
Ok. That tore it. This guy was a creep. And what
Ok. That tore it. This guy was a creep. And what's more, Lynn could tell he was a DANGEROUS creep. Three bags were dropped down to each side of the young instructor as they were eased to the street off her arms. Swinging her arms out to let her qipao sleeves flow fully, she dropped back as he came closer toward him. "I don't know who you are, but I already know enough about this city without you romanticizing about it," she says."
"And I certainly don't want to play with you, now get away or you're going to get hurt." A palm was extended out, hand rigid, her other hand raised to chin level near her face as she dropped into her stance. She wasn't taking any chances: this was no common mugger, she could smell it on him.
Freeman actually stops when Lynn makes that threat. His attention slowly resettles, taking her in. The combative stance. The strong position. "You are a fighter...?" he suddenly asks, as if this might be something relevant. After a few moments, he then grins even broader. "Beautiful. Perfect! That is just what I am in the mood for!" Arms spread invitingly, before he slowly bends backwards. Only to launch himself forward, hurtling towards Lynn in a front charge. It is completely reckless in a traditional sense... but Lynn might be disturbed to find her lifetime of martial training is defensively no use. It is like she's being attacked by a blank slate; a doll. There is no hint or rhyme to where he might attack, or even how. And, as he unleashes a brutal upwards slash of his hand, causing an eruption of crimson chi towards her face, it seems to do nothing detrimental to his ability to attack!!
COMBATSYS: Freeman has started a fight here.
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Freeman 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Lynn has joined the fight here.
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Freeman 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Lynn
COMBATSYS: Lynn blocks Freeman's Vision of Death.
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Freeman 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Lynn
Oh good grief. This guy really WAS nuts. The fact that he seemed so eager to find a fighter to take on made it that much clearer. "What is wrong with y-" she asks, cut off by her own shriek as she comes forward with no rhym or reason to his body movements. It was only that lifetime of martial arts training that kept her from being cut open, and not from being able to recognize his body movements, so much as steel her own. Her arms came up, and body turning aside to minimize the force of that streaking slash as much as possible.
"You..." she whispers, seeing just how crazy this guy was. That meant no holding back. Brow set, she immediately loosened her stance again, a hard step in and a low rush in as she chambered her right arm back, then thrust it forward into a palm heel strike toward the creeper's stomach.
COMBATSYS: Lynn successfully hits Freeman with Medium Punch.
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Freeman 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Lynn
The follow through of the chi strike is rather exaggerated. He stands up as the punch is leveled towards him, looking at it with interest. No attempt whatsoever is made to evade it -- it strikes into his stomach full force, but he doubles over it, the feel -- peculiar. As if she struck Freeman when he was boneless, the majority of the force absorbed by his lanky frame. "Mmm." he offers, contemplating. "That won't do. That won't do at all." He then twists back upright, spreading his arms once more. "Strike me like you mean it..." His eye widens, something manic beginning to boil forth. His chi starts to surge out, dark and unnatural. That of death. Cold. Fear. Panic. A deep and endless well. "Strike me like your life depends on it!!"
COMBATSYS: Freeman takes no action.
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Freeman 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Lynn
That was...not the kind of feedback Lynn was expecting at all. She was sure she hit that palm strike dead on, but the feeling was like hitting an empty rubber sack. And that manic look simply spoke dangerous volumes. This wasn't a fighter: this was a sadist and masochist. That's the feeling surrouunding him that seems so oppressive to the young keeper of Dragons. And that chi...that energy.. It was positively sickly.
This wasn't a fight she could stop simply by striking hard and running away, nor could she just close up shop and walk away. It might work on bullies like that one woman at the gym who was trying to turn a simple spar into a real fight. Her loose stance becoming a little more tense, Lynn furrowed her brow deeper at the manic sadist, teeth bared as she grit them.
With a sharp turn, her palms rose up into the air, one leg pulled from the ground. It looked like she had no choice but to play his game, but on her terms. Flame-colored chi gathered in each palm before the upraised leg plants itself again. Both palms, side by side, thrust outward toward the lanky stranger, a long streak of energy shot toward him as she shouted "KORYU SHOZAN!"
COMBATSYS: Freeman blocks Lynn's Koryu Shozan.
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Freeman 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Lynn
A few steps backwards are taken when Lynn gathers up her chi. His hand slowly flexes, before a swirl of black and crimson chi gathers and dances like a nest of asps between his fingers. As she launches out the blast of energy, he simply interposes his arm. It collides dead on, but seems to be... corrupted. Twisted and siphoned away, a muffled explosion as if Lynn's own energy struggled to escape before the last of it winks away. Fingers flex, slightly singed from the display. "Tch." Disappointment creases on his features, as he advances once more. He goes low, deceptively low, both hands raised. One strikes out towards Lynn's face, but it is a feint... his other lashes up, flare of crimson energy trailing behind as he tries to slash into her belly. "Boring, boring... I was told this town had fun people..." Told? By who?
COMBATSYS: Lynn blocks Freeman's Strong Punch.
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Freeman 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Lynn
That was...interesting. And not in the fun, talent show way that's grounds for applause and maybe a slot on 'Southtown's Got Talent'. Interesting in the 'what the hell did this guy just do' way. The streak of energy ends up not quite absorbed, but close enough, Lynn seeing the way it was turned and darkened before it could completely plow the creeper over. "What are you talking about," she says flatly, not even in a questioning tone, but an unsteady, anxious tone, gut tightening more and more she was in this man's proximity.
"This isn't a game...who are you?" she asks, struggling to get her focus back again and calm herself. Getting too scared, too angry, too anxious would just make it easier to take advantage. Remember grandpa's teachings. Calm...relaxed...flexible...flow with the movements...easier said than done.
COMBATSYS: Lynn takes no action.
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Freeman 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Lynn
Freeman darts forward, and suddenly summons up a massive swathe of crimson chi. For a split second Lynn might think that she made a terrible mistake in trying to stand down and deliberate with the monster, but he stops in the midst of his swing. Curious, more then anything else. "A game...? It is. In life, sometimes you play a game you do not want to. You can always forefeit... if you'd like...?" Suddenly he darts forward, and his hand flits up in a blur. A brutal snap of chi going straight up, aiming to cut Lynn upon the chest and chin. "Although you have gambled with greater stakes then you might know...!"
COMBATSYS: Lynn blocks Freeman's Quick Punch.
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Freeman 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Lynn
Games of life and death are best left for movies, and even then, they tend to be awful ordeals, the kind that are designed to make audiences uncomfortable and not always with a promise of relief. It's not a surprise that Lynn isn't really a fan of those kinds of movies, and she certainly had no intention of living them either. But here she was, playing such a game with a man who seemed intent on making her play, his words making her chest tighten and her body stiffen up more.
It's only her grandfather's teachings, drilled into her body since childhood back in China, that gives her the necessary technique to stall the sharp snap of the psycho's hand, her extended hand rising up to knock aside the hand, her head turning aside, then under the streak of dark crimson chi that still ends up searing at her cheek. "You're crazy!" she shouts, echoing across the conspicuously sparse street as she tries to slide around and snap her leg out in a hard sweep toward the back of the stranger's knees.
COMBATSYS: Freeman interrupts Medium Kick from Lynn with Nightmare.
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Freeman 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Lynn
Freeman slips backwards, seeming to lean away from Lynn in a peculiar fashion. She strikes him in the side of the knees, and it appears he's about to fall towards the ground. But instead, his one foot shifts and his body goes rigid. In an impossible display of balance, he snaps back like a rubberband. His fingers graze the street in a low assault, leaving a streak of broken asphalt. Before it snaps up, the blow hitting Lynn in the middle of her chest and lifting her clear off the ground. Intimately close, face near her own, as her blood begins to flow in earnest. "Focus, girl. Or you will die..." And then he brutally hurls her away, towards the side of a car. His tongue snakes out, licking a stream of her blood going down his wrist.
The inexplicable style comes to haunt Lynn, as the textbook sweep ends up meeting a terrifying, unconventional strike that gouges the street before it gouges HER. THe strike slams into her chest, impaling her before she's flung off into a car, bouncing off it bonelessly before hitting the street. "Guaaaaaghh!" Clutching her chest with her hand to staunch the wound, she glares at the psycho. Her heartbeat races, knowing for sure that this is a life and death 'game'.
Keeping her hand over the wound, she rose back up to her feet, bringing up that outstretched palm again, then hesitantly bringing her hand away from her chest. Her Qipao now had a bloody hole in it, crimson stain spreading over the cream-colored dress. "Focus..." she hisses, seemingly echoing the psycho, but trying to instead recall her teachings. Eyes close for a half-second, before she charges again, thrusing out with the same kind of palm strike as before...except for perhaps the orange energy built up in her hand. The same kind of energy in her other as she immediately thrusts out another palm heel straight toward the creepy's chest.
COMBATSYS: Freeman endures Lynn's Enretsu Ken EX.
> Determined Hit! <
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Freeman 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Lynn
"Do not think of me as a person... I am a monster in the night. A waking nightmare, you need to dispel..." Freeman coos such out in an instructing fashion, fascinated by the smear of red across his hand. A sharp flick spackles the ground, just in time for him to glance up as she rushes forward. He hurls himself forward as Lynn does, and her foot impacts his chest just as expected. Only... his ribcage /gives/. It is not from being broken, but some inhuman display of flexibility stealing away the power of her assault. And then he attempts to grasp her shoulder and flip clean over to the other side, intent on then striking home a knifehand thrust to her back, trying to puncture deep. "Be afraid, or not!! You'll never gain focus on the crossroads!!"
COMBATSYS: Freeman successfully hits Lynn with Morbid Angel.
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Freeman 1/------=/=======|>>>>>>>\>>-----\1 Lynn
Unprepared as she is, the sudden turn aside catches Lynn off guard, the stab straight into her back arching the young Tai Chi girl and etching another gouge into her back. "GAAHHH!!" Stumbling as the hand impaling her yet again guts deep into her back, Lynn feels the aenemic weakness of her body starting to encroach. "Ghhn...guhh....y-you..." she stammers out, trying to keep her body upright despite the two huge bleeding wounds.
Despite herself though, her arms raise back up, pushing her on and forward toward the psycho again. She wasn't about to let herself be killed by some unnamed creep trying to wax poetic about his attempts to murder her. Guiding in low, she tried to come in with a quick feinted kick low, before her body twisted and rose back up. Her right leg thrust out and upward, blazing energy streaking upward with her kick as she flew into the air with a shout of "KORYU KYAKU!"
COMBATSYS: Freeman blocks Lynn's Koryu Kyaku.
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Freeman 1/-----==/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>----\1 Lynn
There's really no indication that the feint did anything. Freeman seems to simply be waiting for something to tangibly react to; a lean backwards at the start, before he strikes out with his forearm and catches the kick cleanlly. Energy snuffs out like a candle in a flicker of black chi, drawing it in with eerie gluttony. "Heh...!!" He then whirls out his offhand, trying to catch Lynn by the face with a rather crazed expression... intending to then begin striking her in the torso with a series of brutal knifehands, until she either manages to escape, or promptly dies. One of those two! "You are starting to give me what I want...!!"
COMBATSYS: Freeman successfully hits Lynn with Strong Throw.
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Freeman 1/----===/=======|=======\==-----\1 Lynn
The black energy wrapping around her leg and snuffing out her own chi sends a fearful shudder down Lynn's spine, her leg caught before she can rise too high with the kick. Pulled back down, she's promptly caught by the face, dragged down to where she's left open to repeated slashes and gouges from the psycho's hands, leaving her qipao a shredded bloody mess, and the flesh beneath not too much better. "IYAAAAHHH!!!" the shriek comes, body rocked repeatedly and violently.
This isn't how Lynn wanted her life to end. Not like this...and damned if she was going to fall like this so easily either. Despite the pain, she wasn't about to just roll over and die. Again, she summoned up the will to fight through the pain, once more trying to rise up and slam a flying kick up into the psycho's jaw. If she's lucky enough to hit him, she'd follow up with a diving kick charged with the same energy to drive him back into the pavement with all force. IF not...
COMBATSYS: Freeman fails to counter Tobi Ryu from Lynn with Creeping Death+.
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Freeman 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Lynn
Suddenly, Freeman's eyes widen. He is grinning like a maniac now, almost trembling with excitement. "Yes... you are against the wall... fighting for your life...!! This is the climax!!" His entire body suddenly exudes blackness. He strides forward, as the surroundings begin to black out for Lynn. Only his pearl white grin, as he reaches out a hand and catches Lynn's foot. For just a moment, she would feel all her strength beginning to drain... but then she explodes into a second onslaught, and strikes him in the chest. Genuine surprise; he had underestimated the danger of the assault, and like a bursted bubble the light of Sunshine City's night rushes forth to greet Lynn. He impacts the ground, creating a crator, blood spraying from his mouth. He does not move to rise. However, his voice comes then, expression frowning. "...you ruined it." Petulant as a child. "...it's gone now... that moment I desired... I don't want to play anymore..."
The shine of streetlights hit Lynn's fading sight as she emerges from the dark hole that this psycho tried to bury her in. Rising up and demonstrating her will, she sent the creeping evil into the street hard enough to crater it. Landing not too far from the embedded killer, Lynn collapsed to a knee. She was still bleeding profusely, but she was still alive....barely. A hand came to try and make some sort of cover for her wounds with the shredded remains of her qipao, breathing raspy as she clung to life.
"You....crazy...." She fell back onto her butt, barely able to push herself back up to a knee again. She tried to steady her already ragged breathing, hoping to calm herself, perhaps all she could to do keep clinging to consciousness rather than pass out from bloodloss.
COMBATSYS: Lynn gains composure.
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Freeman 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Lynn
Slowly, Freeman spreads out his arms. Knees twitch upwards, feet bending unnaturally to either side. In an inhuman flex of strength, he raises fluidly upright, in the exact fashion of some sort of zombie from a slasher film. He lurches forward, a moment later gaining stability. It seems he wasn't lying; there's no longer an ounce of fighting intent left within him. Lynn could press her assault, but that would mean accepting the finality were she to fail. "I'm leaving now..." Wobbling, he then attempts to turn away from Lynn and clambor out of the broken street beneath, intent on heading back towards the shadows.
COMBATSYS: Freeman gains composure.
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Freeman 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Lynn
As tattered as Lynn is, as much as she clung to consciousness and life by threads as frayed as her clothing currently, her eyes remain narrowed and fierce. The man WASN'T invincible after all. But as much as she wanted to give him payback for his attempts to snuff her out for no other reason than the thrill, she just...waited. Waited as he rose back up out of the crater he had been pounded into. The sight was like a ghoul or a zombie, one which will give Lynn fruitless nights of fitful sleep for sure...
But she wasn't about to make good on that wish. Even if she was barely this side of awake, she wasn't the type to push a fight without meaning. She won her fight for life it seems. She wasn't about to pick one for revenge or misguided 'justice'. Not tonight, anyway. The Dragon keeper watches him warily as he takes to the shadows, for sure, just in case he tries to reneg...but unless it's to maintian her survival, she's done tonight.
COMBATSYS: Lynn takes no action.
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Freeman 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Lynn
Freeman pauses as he reaches the sidewalk before an alleyway, and then laughs lightly to himself. "The man was right..." he muses, loud enough to be heard. "There is indeed fun things here... maybe I will stay a bit longer...!!" With that unsettling promise, he steps into the shadows. They seem to immediately embrace him, his form shrouded and hazy. Then, he is gone... back into the night, as mysteriously as he appeared.
COMBATSYS: Freeman has left the fight here.
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Lynn 0/-------/---====|
That...now that worries Lynn. He said something earlier along the same lines, she swears it. That means someone lured or guided this man here for....something. Just who he is will be a question that needs to be answered....later. For now though, the only questions left to answer to night are how she's going to get home...and how badly she's going to be hurt for the days to come. "Uhnnn...."
Question 1 is answered quickly enough as Lynn passes out, falling to her side on the street and staying conscious only long enough to hear a neighbor's cry, recognizing the young Dojo master and rushing to her aid. The second...time will tell. All that can be told tonight is that not even Inner Sunshine is safe anymore. And someone LIKES it that way.
Log created on 20:11:50 06/16/2012 by Freeman, and last modified on 14:52:09 06/25/2012.