Description: Escaped, but for how long? Free, but how far? Two projects from the formidable cartel's pass are presented with judgement and sentence and forced to question how far their freedom has simply been all part of a tyrant's master plan... (Old Scene long overdue for posting)
It would not be surprising to either Kula or K' that Sunshine City has also gained the attention of the NESTS cartel. The Renegade Clone would receieve information gathered from the myriad sources he , Whip and Maxima have carefully established. They have just created a new facility in a basic warehouse on the very edge of the city; surrounded by endless grass and empty lots, the looming brick and mortar of the industrial district seguing towards the skyscrapers far to the horizon. However, there was also a cryptic statement. That someone 'very high' on NESTS' hierarchy would be there. Alone. There is really only one operative who is publicly active. Zero -- hardly the sort of individual one would wish to tackle alone, although the time sensitive nature would prevent K' from gaining any more allies then the former assassin. With Maxima and Whip not near, he can either make the attack now... or allow the unknown administrator to leave, and destroy the facility more safely after. And everyone knows how much K' puts stock in safety.
There are two wandering men dressed as warehouse workers, within the chain link enclosure of the marked facility. A simple analysis with chi confirms both are genetically bolstered. Definite peons of the insidious cartel. Yet within the small building, nothing else can be sensed. Either the unknown figure has cloaked himself, or perhaps already left. There is likely only one way to be sure...
"Oh, that's a hell of a lot of notice." Great, a valuable target passing through a sensitive facility with scarce amounts of notice. K' may not value /safety/ as much as some, but he values /survival/, and charging solo into mysterious and likely deadly circumstances? That's /way/ over the line of what's kept him alive to set NESTS' shit on fire so far. He speaks into a mobile phone, with ample discontent, "Yea. I know. But then we'll never know. Get here as fast as you fucking can." K' doesn't wait for the arguments, audible even as the handset is lowered, right up until the Beast of Flame just hangs up on his partner.
What little time he has is spent rolling, rather than riding, a motorcycle away from the dive bar down the road, one of the only businesses even /operating/ within a mile or three. K' doesn't seem too concerned about enduring resale value, melting off security features as they become an obstacle, and not even bothering to /try/ to start the vehicle. Instead, he shoves it right around the corner from that targetted warehouse, in a very vacant, overgrown lot.
K' then removes and shreds his button up shirt into one long, single strip of haphazardly ragged cloth. This is twirled up and dunked deep into the motorcycle's gas tank; luckily, it's just about full. A lick of flame fluttering from his fingertip, the fairly lengthy fuse is ignited at the far end, left to burn up, up, and in, ever closer to those escaping, explosive fumes. K' does his best to sprint back the way he came, taking a block back around to come at the warehouse from the /opposite/ side, intent on slipping the perimeter, and finding a way in - perhaps through the roof - about the same time there's a tremendous explosive blast from, well, just around the corner!
It's a very subtle way to distract the patrols without starting a fight right off, and see if he can't get closer to see what's /actually/ happening. Violent, yes. Stupid? Fuck you.
Intelligence never ceases to circle the globe. Even before communications took on a global nature with modern sciences, intel was an ever flowing, always changing resource. The value of such knowledge was variable - some information was as useless as knowing who would become the next leader in some democratic country or other. But other information was beyond priceless. Such as a rumor circulating the intelligence networks. A rumor about where a certain individual may or may not be. A figure that almost no one had ever heard of and even fewer still even knew for sure he existed. A spectre, a boogyman, a shadow. Such information would already stand out to a precious few... it would come their attention even faster were that information to be deliberately leaked.
That's how Kula came to know. The window of opportunity was limited. In hours, the data would be stale and the chance to act gone. Chances like this usually only come once. She isn't sure how K' found out the same thing she knows. But she's sure that he's there. The explosion out in front of the newly built facility is perhaps the least subtle clue in the world. But the truth of it is made clear by blood, by the way her aura thrums in synch with her polar opposite.
Infiltration was one of the many weapons NESTS had made sure their pet killer had mastered. Even if K' hadn't drawn away attention by way of beautiful combustion, she would have been able to slip through perimeter security with a little effort. That he's done so makes it actually too easy.
K' is near, she knows, having landed from a leap atop a metal cargo bin. She could try to find him by way of a game of 'hot and cold' based on what she sensed, but that would take too long and wasn't the most important thing. They were both here for the same person. They would find each other eventually, she was sure.
From her crouch, the lithe stalker slips down to the ground level and strides toward the back of the building. There is an open stretch between it and the cargo bins she had been lurking among thus far, a clearing one has no choice but to pass through. But this close? Let them see her approach, she doesn't care. The pebbles that could try get in her way now would have no hope of stopping Kula now.
The massive explosion rings into the air, bright glow and plume of smoke hanging above the nearby buildings. The two NESTS-placed operatives rush over to peer with hands over their eyes, completely abandoning their observation of the rear. The building is rather simple and straightforward. Windows are over a story up, and unable to be opened unless shattered. There are two massive sliding doors for unloading and loading semi truck cargo bins, and small doors for employee access. The roof may or may not have anything useful, but even then, it's doubtlessly going to require brute force to enter. Yet something seems to finally be happening. Both NESTS projects would feel some kind of chi resonance just inside, opposite the back wall. And they could both immediately confirm it is neither Krizalid or Zero. Only Kula might feel the deepest, most distant pang of... nostalgia.
That icy tingle, the counterpoint to K''s fiery spirit casting an intense chill to his very core, it brings an immediate, dour frown to the Beast of Flame's features. The fuck is she doing here? He recognizes it instantly, even this long removed... the little sister he never asked for, designed to destroy him (or bring him back?). Kula's come a long way in finding her own path since then, perhaps; but that doesn't change the ample unease in discovering her /here/. Vaulting over the top of the roof, K' uses his own training to shadow Kula, though neither operative is fool enough to believe they're unrevealed to the other; likely not to that massive chi signature warming itself in the warehouse, either.
The rogue prototype's eyes narrow behind crimson shades.. it's been some time since Kula Diamond was actively his enemy, so why does her presence here ring so /off/ to the Beast of Flame? Teeth grit, wheels spin; did we mention that K' isn't stupid? Still, Kula is swift, skilled, and determined - to the doorway in the time it takes K' to come to the conclusion he does. He's too late, but it doesn't stop him from trying to warn her from overhead, looking down at her approach. "Dumbass! It's a tr...."
Crossing the open space, the girl is fearless. Her hair is its natural strawberry-blonde hue, not having taken on the icy chill associated with being fully combat ready, when her body has to actively counteract the very threat of freezing herself solid. Her attire is old looking and worn - the protective leather jacket and leg-covering chaps that NESTS engineered for her... While scientists within Einherjar have tried to duplicate the material used to make her uniform, they haven't quite found the right formula or process to reproduce such a perfect blend of durability and light-weight ease of mobility of Kula's jacket.
As such, she still uses it to this day when entering dangerous situations and the wear and tear of countless fights is visible in the cuts, scuffs, and holes carved into the worn out looking attire. Each hand is fitted with a yellow glove - those two a product of NESTS engineering, designed to protect the girl from energy so cold that sustained exposure to it would freeze even her highly cold-resistant flesh.
The closer she gets to the building, the stronger the resonant chi is sensed from within. It's familiar even if she can't place it. A confused look crosses her features for a moment before her focus returns. She's getting inside. The windows above are observed and she makes plans to enter one. Creating her own frozen hand holds on any surface makes scaling walls trivial, and no glass pane will keep her from breaking in. But she might not get that far. A familiar voice calls out behind her and Kula hesitates for a second-
Both fighters will suddenly feel the slightest hum in the ground, a feel of suffusing chi like static electricity. Before the entire world turns into bright cerulean. It is oddly soundless; even as the very concrete and steel that K' remains perched upon can be felt splitting and allowing him to fall, not giving him even the support needed to try to leap away. Huge, looming debris flies past Kula from the annihilated area. There is no longer a need for a back entrance, given that all of it is now bared open. Yet despite it all, there is no damage, no sense of heat... even as sound whooshes back, a roaring crescendo of heavy brick and broken iron crashing against the myriad large storage containers.
There is a sharp sound in the air, a light whistle. K' would likely get his vision back in the midst of a freefall as a broad bolas of cabled material is splayed wide, four tendrils total. Intent on wrapping him up, from the arms to the legs. It is made of the same versatile material of Whip's weapon, and is almost entirely immune to even the Kusanagi's stolen flame.
Within, that faint blue light continues to shine outwards. There is nothing remarkable of the ruined interior. It is simply support struts and stacked boxes, many of which have been tumbled to the ground. A man of average height walks forward, enshrouded by a voluminous black cloak. The broad hood completely covers his face, silver lining trailing the edges. Arms are placed together before him as if in prayer, head appearing slightly bowed.
He seems to be a great font of cerulean chi, brightening the surroundings from the darkness of falling night. It feels... exubrant. Invigorating. Like a warm wind suffusing one's very body, gentle and kind. Soft footsteps take him past the edge of the wall, and only then does he pause to look up.
"My children... It has been too long."
Arms spread, and suddenly the force of Igniz's energy rushes forth even stronger. It is difficult to look at directly, seeming to create a faint impression of a halo and grandiose wings for just a moment. His hood and upper cloak flutters backwards, revealing an advanced body-contoured suit. Four spear-like silver points flex and shift like serpents around his legs, connected by broad expanses of the same fine black cloth that give his lower cloak a life of it's own. Small stones and rocks begin to float into the air for meters around, leaving the surly bonds of the earth. A light, resonating hum thrums out from the head of the Cartel, visible pulses kicking up gently rolling plumes of dust to paff against the crates and fighters present.
Handsome features smile broad and genuine, expression soft and nearly loving. Silver-blond hair whirls and dances lightly around his features. "Since your father has come to visit."
There's a facet to warehouse construction that K' may or may not have been aware of when going up on the roof, initially. As hardened as the outer walls may be, as reinforced as the double doors and metal portals are, the /roof/ of a warehouse is decidedly vulnerable to penetration. It's likely K' would choose to simply blast his way in by fist or fire, should the prototype decide entry is in his best interests. Sadly, someone else makes that decision /for/ him, illustrating the weak point in the building's structure as it's the first to crumble out from under him, even as the hardened concrete shell below is blasted outwards around Kula; as K' himself falls.
Fire surges to the fore, held in both hands; motorcycle gloves shimmer off in glowing, fluttering ash, another pair amply ruined as that divine spark roars. K' no longer wears his glove, is no longer restrained to summoning the fires from his right hand, lest he be consumed by them.. it's a path that has taken him much effort, and cost him.. and those around him.. more than one nasty burn. The renegade has proven a capable, ironically natural conduit for that solar, holy flame, however; it's bloomed to a mass that seems to be expanding to this day, a fury far beyond what was initially tempered.
Igniz would not have trouble recognizing K''s state, nonetheless: closer to the augmented, technologically focused powers of the more loyal clone.. the progenitor of so many projects growing in mastery of flame beyond what his 'control' copy can manage with his natural wind. All that air combusts, and while those bolas may secure K' for the moment.. at first, the Beast of Flame seems utterly undaunted. Even amused... here at ground zero.
"Don't let him fuck with your mind!" K' barks out to Kula, even as he lands in a heap, already a soaring bonfire that spreads around him, biting at anything combustible nearby. "We can /end it/ here!" It's as much hopeful, as it is demanding, under the ire; beneath the roaring fire. Too long since their father came to visit. "Yea, you sadistic fucker..." He doesn't even bother projecting it for Igniz to hear, K' doesn't care. "If you're anyone's father, you're what patricide was /created/ for." The material may be resistant; but K' is stronger than ever. Not enraged, but focused, intent. /Utterly positive/ that Igniz has little to no chance of stopping the both of them. The would-be deity has finally overstepped, miscalculated!
K' did call out in time if Kula had acted immediately. If she had sprung back the instant his voice was raised in warning, uttered with his usual caustic edge, she would have been well outside the debris field of the unearthly explosion that comes an instant later. But she's torn, a moment of indecision, and instead of being clear of it, she's right in the middle of it, as powderized concrete and construction materials rain down around her, a snow fall of dust that obscures her view for a long moment.
Lowering her hand from over her eyes as the fragments settle, her attention comes to rest on the robed figure stepping forward. He calls them children, a term of endearment she has heard plenty of times in her life even if it had always rung hollow to her ears. But her attention is fixated, her plans of breaking into the building no longer relevant, her thoughts of what she would do once she did - once she had the chance to fight back at the organization that had used her for so long - melting from her mind. The energy surrounding the man is nearly blinding to the chi-sensitive as even the physical environment around him seems to respond to his formidable presence. Invisible currents swirl around him, adding life to his cloak and hair, and even from a short distance Kula can feel the ebb and flow of his influence on the world.
The state of K' is unknown to her for a moment, the other living weapon's immediate circumstances concealed by dust and smoke still rising up in the aftermath of such an explosive entrance. But she can hear him call out. It's when he lands that she finally glances to the side toward him, putting together what must have had to him. He'd see her eyes lock on his, for a moment, weighing his warning carefully. He's right. They /can/ end it here. This is him - the man at the top of the chain, the keystone around which all of NESTS has flourished and functioned in recent years. Remove him and it would come crumbling down!
The girl lifts her hands and takes in a breath, exhaling slowly as she releases inner seals that regulate the flow of chi through her specifically engineered body. A shimmer of white courses over her from toe to head, leaving drifting flakes of ice and a mane of sky blue in its wake. Her eyes scan the remains of the warehouse behind the megalomaniac then come to rest on the face of the mysterious man at the top of NESTS' hierarchy. "Everything was to get us here." she states, seeing the visual evidence of K''s declaration that it was a trap. Did NESTS get tired of having K' attack their facilities at random and decide to settle this once and for all?
K' would indeed find the bondage to be well within his abilities at the start. But once Igniz' chi floods out into the surroundings, those tightly bound fibers suddenly begin to glow. It seems they are some advanced sort of weapon, which is powered by the Ascendant ruler directly. He is still making progress, but he will not be able to hulk out in the few seconds planned. And he understands likely far more then Kula the criticality that even so few could have in a situation such as this.
But Igniz finally frowns out his displeasure, looking at Kula with an almost scolding expression. "You... would raise your hands to me?" His arm raises, and suddenly there's an immense tidal wave of pressure. It is like a great wall of pure weight would collapse upon the frozen prodigy, trying to smother her very senses and distract her from any immediately offensive inclinations. Lesser beings would likely be pressed to the floor, trembling and unable to move, to have such bear upon them.
Despite the fantastical aura in the area, it remains deathly quiet. Gentle clacks of Igniz's footsteps as he begins to approach towards Kula, hand still raised. "What caused you to turn so bitter...? What has corrupted you from your family so?" A curious tilt of the head follows, four spear-like prongs hovering a scant inch off the ground.
"How Diana and Foxy have worried so. Even Angel mopes despondant. It broke them, to hear how you had struck back against them. They even came to me... prostrate. Begging me... to bring you home. I am a compassionate being, Kula. Although you have sinned... it is the petulant confusion of a lesser being. Although I cannot relate... it is within my benevolence to understand..."
Moments. Moments K' doesn't necessarily have - not so much for Kula's capabilities, but for the girl's not-quite-fully-formed mind. Freaking child soldiers are so unpredictable. Not that the Beast of Flame has a great deal of room to talk. He grunts in ample discomfort as those tendrils constrict around him, but the Kusanagi flames only intensify... and constrict. Flashfires spread quietly through the area, but the flames suddenly focus inward, swirling and surging about.. seeking to rip through.. those imbued restraints. For a moment, the prototype doesn't really have breath to yell out to Kula, or at Igniz, teeth gritted and muscles tensed as he unrelentingly flexes outwards.
They won't hold, not for long, the conduits of chi already crackling with escaping energy as more and more pressure is exerted to answer Igniz's. "He... IS... POISON!!" K' manages out in hoarse tones, "Thousands... of TIMES... /STOP HIM/." It's an urgent thing, being able to prevent Igniz from his experiments, his ambitions, the most important thing perhaps, to K'. At least, it was at one point; even if Igniz isn't the only thing on the Beast of Flame's mind, it's still a /core/ priority, not least of all because of all the people Igniz seeks to use... what he's done to K' himself. There's little doubt what the rogue bioweapon intends on doing once those cables -do- give way to his efforts.
The reproach with which Igniz regards her seems to sting more than she ever thought it would. The maelstrom of ice that she can command is significant, rivaled in intensity by very few in the world. One of those rivals is the entangled young man right close to her, burning to explode through the restraints that keep him at bay for the moment.
She flinches in response to his first question and the fervor of her building power seems to take a palpable hit, as if the girl is suffering a blow to her certainty. There are a lot of things her young pysche isn't prepared for - things she was never really supposed to have to deal with - and right now the uncertainty brought on by mere words is every bit as significant as the doubt inflicted by that surge of monumental weight crushing down on her.
He asks what turned her so bitter and she feels compelled to speak to him rather than strike. Doesn't he know? A man such as him? He has to understand, "The things I had to do, I-" She shakes her head, hands lifting with a creak of leather, closed in front of her. "They didn't seem right." It's not the full story, however. The struggle of her slowly budding sense of morales and discerning the difference between right and wrong without proper guidance from those within the cartel was certainly a factor, but there must be more.
He speaks the names of those she had always seen as her family. Diana... Foxy... the two women had never done her wrong that she could remember. Her eyes, crimson contrasting against her light blue hair, blink slowly as she reflects back on her life with them. Angel and her many field trips into the world flash into her mind as well. Was she so unhappy with them? Had those individuals ever done her wrong? She pictures them begging this man that he bring her home... to think that her leaving hurt them so...
"I wanted to..." she pauses as K' shouts, cutting her off, but this time she doesn't glance toward him, Igniz's talons sinking in word by word. "I... I thought that once I completed my purpose, I wouldn't be needed anymore." She's wavering. "I thought that maybe..." It's too awful to say out loud, the fear she had of being discarded if she was ever no longer needed to deal with the rogue NESTS project tangled up at her side. "I wanted to be able to make my own choices." Who wouldn't want that? K' can see it, the doubt in her eyes. That has always been her weakness. It was susceptibility to suggestion that had stayed her hand from killing a few when she had had the chance. It was that vulnerability that had made it possible to convince her to leave NESTS in th eend. And it is that same flaw of youthful inexperience that has her hesitating now. The Firebrand is right - the two of them, they COULD finish this now, but will he get the chance?
K' is being completely ignored by Igniz. Yet there is masterful manipulation to this, beyond simply being callous and ignorant. To spare time to even glance at the struggling clone would mean to give his presence weight. Even Kula is beginning to phase him out, falling fully within the intricate web. Igniz did not get where he is on simple martial power and intelligence. That is something many in the world already have. It is his incredible charisma, which has been the only knife vital to him for many long years. He continues to walk forward, before he comes to stand directly in front of Kula. His aggressive chi continues to whirl around her, distracting and powerful, but also comforting and familiar.
"If you raise your hand at me... I will not forgive you."
There is something gentle to his voice. Disarming. A look in his eye, as if this would hurt him far more then it might Kula. "This unnatural color to your hair... It does not suit you right now." The hand he had used to poise his offensive presence instead brushes at Kula's bangs lightly. His touch soft and comforting, genuinely like a father might do to comfort his uncertain child. The intent to pull the proverbial plug of her battle-ready nature, with all the effectiveness had she instead lay defeated before him.
"Do you think my words mean so little? I call you my child. The child of a God. Does that give you no pride? Does that give you no confidence? Yes... there are many sacrifices in the world you were born. But many, many of those were to let you into this wide world. My other son..." K' is finally reference, but now as something distant, as if he were not battling with all his might to shatter free. "...You think he is the entirety of your being? That he is why so much was done to make you?"
Slowly, the feel of that chi intensifies. Stirring and stroking instincts of vulnerability and dependence, brushing through Kula's very mind. "There is much you cannot understand. But it is your choice. You can trust in Foxy and Diana... and you can trust in me. If you want to leave us, then... it would pain me. But you may."
Arms spread, as if he was preparing to attack. They scissor forward, a blur of crisp motion amplified by whirring machines and complex faux-muscle. And then Kula is pulled upwards and against Igniz's chest, feet left to dangle beneath. A familiar scent flooding out, that she may remember from long ago.
"For you are my daughter, and I love you. You can have anything in this world."
"Yea, you're good for other shit, to him." K' notes. He's standing. It almost seems sudden, so thoroughly was the Beast of Flame forgotten, by necessity, to facilitate Igniz's destabilization of Kula. "Once you drag me back to dissect, they can rip you open to compare. Figure out exactly what made -us- what we are." There's a bit of emphasis there, but it doesn't seem conscious; a bond that all the battles and projected venom in the world can't fully hide, to the little killer bred from his DNA.
"Or maybe you'll stay loyal this time, if they'll even risk it, maybe they'll find some way to control you even better." It's an inversion of where he was headed a moment ago, with his freedom, K''s uncontrolled ire fades.. for a moment; if only into controlled hate. "You /know/ what they do, Kula." He actually uses her name, "You /know/ what you've done, what they'd have you do. No. single. person's. happiness. is. worth. /NEEESTS/."
The tendrils lie in charred shrapnel on the floor, the fire is a fiercely contained, controlled sphere of wildfire between clenched fingertips as the shirtless prototype rights his stance fully. Where Igniz does not address his 'son', K' does not address his self-proclaimed 'father'. "Don't let him /use/ you! REMEMBER!" The appeal comes as K' /launches/ himself across the room, a blackened blur of motion seeking to dislodge Igniz's move to embrace his icy sibling by simply, soundly /crashing/ into his flank, fist lurching for his ribcage with alarming force.
"You're my goddamn sister, /way before/ this fucker's daughter, we're nothing but tools for his own ascension. /Help me stop him/!" But if Kula won't? K' intends to.
COMBATSYS: K' has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
K' 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Igniz has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
K' 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Igniz
On matters of manipulation, the man standing before her is a divine prodigy. Few other men in the world can muster the fanatical devotion to his cause that Igniz has managed. Before someone like him, the poor girl's simple mind is easily manipulated, prodded this way and that, turned around, and redirected according to his whims. Night becomes day, black becomes white, and all the hours of sadness she thought she was escaping by setting off to find her own destiny melt away into trivial fragments of thought, easily dismissed as being merely clouded by the fallible nature of the mind.
He draws closer and she doesn't recoil like she should. Her eyes are wide and afraid, focused on him, unable to think about anything other than the words she hears. They don't even seem to come from his mouth, rather they are spoken directly into her mind, his words becoming her thoughts, the things she thinks about and reflects upon directed by his gentle, soothing voice. It becomes so easy to forget the broiling hot furnace gaining power at her side. Those restraints have no pray of containing him much longer!
His hand extends and she doesn't draw back. With his touch against her frozen bangs, he begins to counter the chi engine that powers the formidable weapon, slowing it down by sheer force of will, enforcing his incomprehensible aura against her own. Little by little, her hair loses its frosty blue color - a side effect of the temperature-balancing systems coded into the girl's DNA - and begins to fall damp against her back and shoulders. The swirling flakes of frost around her fade and melt away as the girl is summarily disarmed of her bite in a way no one has ever even dared try before...
A child of a god? How many can make that claim? A different emotion swells in her heart - one she isn't sure she has ever felt before. Is that pride he is infusing her with? He mentions K' and the dazzled girl vaguely remembers him, the envy she felt at his freedom, the way he did whatever the hell he wanted and answered to no one... Isn't that what she wanted too? She remembers her encounters with the mysterious leader of Kagero and how she aspired to be more like him, to have ambition, to have ideals she could uphold as she saw fit.
Once again she wavers. He says it is her choice and she begins to consider it more intensely than anything she had ever done before. It would hurt him, she believes, but she could leave and he would allow it. That's what he said, and the guileless child believes every word of it. K' claims to know better, but his words are heard as if across a great distance - an echo of thought trying to drill through the chi-addled girl's daze. K' is right. She knows what they do. They let SIN hook her up to an experimental engine and use her as a weapon in their war. They-... they...
She's pulled off her feet into the embrace, face turned to the side, her cheek resting against his suit-covered chest, her ear listening to the sound of the technology that augments the god so. It sounds like a heartbeat to her, the beating heart of a man who claims to be her father... how did she think him a monster?
K' shouts for her to remember and Igniz's words echo in her mind. That's right... she /does/ remember. It comes back in a rush. She thinks back then, a moment in time long since forgotten in even her short life. There was a time when she was smaller. Her aging was accelerate to a first stage for preliminary evaluation... there had been so many failed attempts before her, but she didn't know about that. They had to see if she was developing as intended, that she would be the perfect soldier, a replacement for the priceless specimen that had broken free.
Through the mists of faded memory comes a moment of clarity. She remembers now being brought before a man. She was physically tiny, looking as a child of six. Her strawberry-blonde hair had been kept short then, it would be another year before she would require the insulating techniques it afforded her. Diana and Foxy had been the ones to take her to the chamber. They told her to not be afraid, that this was routine, but even as a small thing, Kula had sensed there was more to it than that. She couldn't know then and would never know that her continued existence depended on that evaluation...
She can't remember the chamber clearly, but she remembers a man. She remembers his voice... it's familiar because it's the only voice she can /hear/ right now. He asked her questions and she responded. He spoke with the two scientists that were charged with her development but she couldn't even understand the words they were using...
His focus had turned to her then, extending his hand, a large, circular swirly sucker in his fingers to be offered to the tiny Kula. Diana had frowned, tugging Kula back with a hand on her shoulder; she had said it would affect her development to expose her to something so sweet so early, but the mysterious man did not withdraw his offer. Kula had extended her hand then, fingers reaching for the handle of the sucker, and she was allowed to grip it. His words are an echo in her mind: 'You can have this. For you are my daughter, and I love you.' Kula had brought the confection to her lips and for the first time tasted what sweet was. 'You can have anything in this world.' he had said.
Kula blinks, dangling in Igniz's arm, her eyes once again violet now that she has been disarmed. K' is exploding into action now but Kula can barely hear him. He says something about a sister and something about help, but the girl in the Cartel leader's arms is a limp doll. For right now, this battle belongs to the Beast of Flame launching a fist for Igniz's side.
COMBATSYS: Igniz just-defends K''s Aggressive Strike!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
K' 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Igniz
Igniz simply stands there, a moment that would be touching in a warped manner. Were the emotions not fabricated lies, the manipulations so deep and abhorid. K' would see now more then ever the precise reason that Kula was created in that manner. Her innocence and naive nature were devoid of emotion, a barren wasteland. And Igniz has flooded that in a manner nobody else ever did, washing away the doubts, apprehensions and fears that had grew when she was untended, like a tiny frozen weed. And now... he has turned it into a flower.
The flaming fist roars forward with incredible speed. It truly takes the assistance of the computer to fully pinpoint where he is, where he is going. Suddenly one of the four spear-headed prongs flicks up, and interposes itself against the Prodigal Clone. His fists hits a perfect circle of dark energy. For a long moment they battle, loud crackling heard before with a sharp >CRACK< K' would be pushed backwards, losing the first brush with Igniz. The other three then similar raise, and with a loud popping noise a perfectly round forcefield manifests, shimmering around.
Slowly, he places Kula down. K' may attack more in this moment, but the intricate calculations are still sufficient to continually deflect fists and flames. The shield will fall, but not immediately. That precious time is used to ruffle Kula's hair once more, smile warm. "I will prove to you... that your purpose is more then the punishment of an unruly child."
And then Igniz turns, as the defensive orb drops with a last flicker. But then suddenly, intricate chain-like whips start striking out, dancing and impacting the ground, trying to drive K' backwards yet again. They are not intended to hit... only to let the God speak. "Ah... and you. Truly, you are at that age... Did you also wish for my attention so? Are you jealous of the hand that gifted Kula, but cast you into darkness?"
Igniz frowns, before suddenly a genuine assault flicks forward. The chainsaw-like weapon aiming to impact K' in the chest, and then in a brutal twist send him flying backwards. Almost admonishing, rather then serious. "I am sorry, my son. It is a charade that was needed... Genetics could not fix the flaw of the Kusanagi's divine fire. Only the strength, will, and tenacity of one who's willpower would defy even science...!"
COMBATSYS: Igniz successfully hits K' with Trans-Axial Slice.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Igniz
It hurts, even before the lash is returned. To impact that perfectly aligned armor, the polarized forcefield, not to move Igniz an inch.. but to be driven back. He barely bothers to evade the feints, staying close, the prototype feinting from side to side with nigh intuitive precision... preparing. "Fuck." It's all he really has time to note before that absent blow rips through him. Bare chest is suddenly spattered crimson, on dark, flame-etched skin. He reels back, failing to shift with the blow's momentum and instead of landing on crouched feet.. the Beast of Flame skids to his back, hard.
Booted feet kick upwards, launching the prototype into an abrupt, urgent backflip... he doesn't take his eyes off Igniz for long, narrowing, nigh-invisible amber points behind those crimson lenses. K' frowns. "This is why you left /her/ a child, isn't it? So many erratic experiments, so much you couldn't control..." He doesn't attack again, immediately. The predator circles, eyes the would-be god, sparing only a glance for his icewielding sibling. Despite appearances, it is K' who is cornered, and he knows it. Outmatched, without the support he thought he entered with, and unable to withdraw without simply... leaving Kula to her fate. Exactly as Igniz intended it.
K', however, is -not- half-forged mentally, honed to innocently perform what is asked of him. No, K' isn't buying it, and the Beast of Flame's smirk is outright pitch dark. "Does it make you feel good? Manipulating a girl with hollow lies of love and affection? Does /anything/?" While K' burns hot, it's clear to him... Igniz is ice cold. Uncompromising. The epitome of the out and out selfish evil that K' had anticipated finding at the heart of his crusade against NESTS. "Yea. You can pretend to feel a father's love for us... maybe I'm as desperate as she is for it." He doesn't seem ashamed to consider it, even as the Beast of Flame out and out dismisses it.
"But you're not capable of it, and trying to make me think you /wanted/ this, planned for my course?" There's a derisive snort, out and out condescending. "You may be able to sell it to her..." K' casts a disturbed glance towards Kula. Is it really on his shoulders to stop this? /Can/ he? "I'd love to see things from your point of view, but there's no fucking way I can get my head that far up my own ass. I'm not letting you have another minute with /either/ of us, you fucking monster." No more experiments; no more wasted lives.
God knows what he'll even /do/ to the other rogue once she's brought back, secured. K' answers it by pressing on as hard as he can, darting back the other way before lunging in past his feint, to drive a brutal steel toe up for Igniz's groin. Ideally, this would be followed by a full on high-kicking roundhouse delivering bootheel to the tyrant's face.
"What are you going to do!??! Beat me up and let me free, insist it was all part of your plan, use it to prove your compassion and better control /her/?" It disgusts him, the words drip with venom. He'd warn Igniz that she's smarter than that; but he doesn't really want the mastermind preparing for her realization of the trap any more than he already -has-.
It's hard to say how long she would have been content to dangle there in his arms. How often /has/ she been hugged? How often have tender words been spoken to her about how she mattered? How she was loved? She was free, yes, others had helped her earn that and for that she was glad. But loved? That she wasn't sure about. Affection was a foreign concept to her, and this flood of it put forward by the seemingly benevolent god is somewhat enthralling, leaving her already vulnerable wits completely disarmed by the lure of it.
In the end, it is Igniz that has to put the still girl down, Kula stepping backward away from him but not taking her eyes from him. He addresses one of her deepest fears - the threat of becoming obsolete, of losing her purpose and being disposed of. He says she has more than that and that he will prove it... The Ice Princess takes another step back as incredible forces collide in combat. For right now, the prodigal Scion of Flame is on his own, to clash against the living heart of NESTS, the man behind it all.
COMBATSYS: Igniz blocks K''s Medium Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Igniz
Igniz simply stands there when K' gets back to his feet and moves to flank like a wolf. Every bit as ferocious and dangerous. Such is not all the machinations of NESTS; he surpassed the very limitations and failures imposed on him all on his own, and now stands at the forefront of the evolution towards mastering the Kusanagi's god-sealing fire. But history is written by those in power, and one of the largest vulnerabilities of K' being alone is the dominating advantage Igniz has in that regard. A hand raises as if to shield Kula herself from K's rage, allowing just enough sight above his cape-draped arm to continue watching.
"I see. That makes sense." Igniz offers reasonably to everything K' has to offer, which might in some way make it frustrating. Even if everything he says is a complete lie, in Kula's presence it ultimately might not matter. K' is the one being aggressive, attacking, accusing... what manner does he have to break through to the Frozen Disciple? Every second, the brainwashing is going to sink in deeper...
The lower kick swishes out true, but again one of those spearheaded defenses shifts up. It again hits a crackling sphere of darker chi, focused and conduited down to many times the power it normally would. An undeniable benefit of technology applied to combat, at least in such a simple roll. The overhead kick is similarly deflected in exactly the same way. Igniz just stands there, looking concerned with those beautiful features, mimicing emotions with the perfection of a chameleon down to the very feel of his chi.
"You do not trust me. And why should you have faith in a God that cast you from Heaven? Come here..." Igniz hovers towards K' and suddenly tries to snap his arms around him once more. ...Yes. He is trying to aggressively hug the Kusanagi Conduit, to the point of lifting him clear off the ground and explosively compressing. Although it would hurt like hell, creaking bones and compressing organs, as the same humming mechanics that were so gentle with Kula does the exact opposite.
"Let my love reach you...!!"
COMBATSYS: K' fails to interrupt Quick Throw from Igniz with Crow Bite EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Igniz
Of course it makes sense. That's why K' said it! Granted, what Igniz is thinking and what K' is thinking make sense? They may be very different facets of the puzzle. The firebrand isn't particularly keen on Igniz's assessment this time around, either. There's a brutal irony to the entire situation: The Beast of Flame knows he should flee; knows that he's outmatched, and it'll be even worse if Kula decides to protect daddy. He can't, though.. it's just not a choice he has. Why? It would be difficult for even K' to quantify, in the moment. As unfamiliar to the Beast of Flame as it is to Kula Diamond herself.
The ties that he's found in other people, the ideals and goals that he works towards, in his own way... none of it is entirely comfortable for the lone wolf, none of it is entirely familiar, alien as it is to the laboratories and brutal conditioning he 'grew up' with at the hands of Igniz's technicians and scientists. He's not quick enough to avoid Igniz... or he doesn't even try, all but leaping in on the would-be god... to find his arms pinned to his sides, his breath crushed from him, he scarcely has enough time to wheeze "Your breath... smells like.... cock." before voice momentarily leaves him.
Unable to properly project his flames, K' settles for flexing his muscles, centering that power within him, drawing breath back in in blatant defiance of Igniz's crushing grip. He spits at the tyrant's face. "I'll die before going back to your hell. You better... kill me here... before I turn your still-beating heart to fucking ash. I'm not going to let you hurt... any of them... AGAIN."
K' leaps in to attack the man once more as Igniz slides forward. From Kula's angle as a non-participant in the violent exchange, it seems somewhat analogous to the non-violent embrace she found herself caught up in moments before. Of course, K' is squirming and making such shows of gentle, fatherly affection a bit more difficult than she did, so it's understandable that Igniz is having to hug a bit tighter with him, but all in all, the intent is the same, uh... right?
"What if it's true?" she asks, her voice a soft whisper against the storm of power the two are clashing against each other. What if Igniz really did let K' go, to find his way, to be tested, tried, and forged on the anvil of adversity, to find the will to master the Kusanagi flame in the end? Could that have been Igniz's master plan all along? Did he do K' a favor and the fiery tempered youth just can't seem to understand it for what it is?
K' spits it all right back in his face, literally and verbally, his words defying the claims of the charismatic Cartel leader. His charms seem effective on the Ice Child, but K' defies it with every scorching hot breath he takes. At least she shows no signs of defending Igniz either right now.
Igniz simply goes "Shh, shh." while constricting K' for long moments. His own heavy chi is suffusing his armor, further making it difficult to outwardly project the fire that should work even on a self-made God. Although what happens next might be rather shocking to the fake Kyo. He is suddenly let go, and in a violent displacement of air Igniz shoots backwards. Arms lift upwards, as if preparing another of those brutal assaults. Instead, it is an open hand, held in a pausing manner. "It is as your sister says. Can you not even fathom the idea she was made to advance your growth, to measure it, while improving herself?" Looking very concerned, Igniz offers, "Did I hurt you? I am sorry... go ahead and rest. After all, you are my son. Let us talk out our issues reasonably..."
COMBATSYS: Igniz takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Igniz
"Heh." K' drops to the ground, but refuses to take a knee. He simply eyes Igniz with deadly intent as the fires surge back to his grasp. "It's /not/ true, Kula." K' seems quite sure of this. "The only person this fucker loves is himself. If he wanted to /help/ anyone else, he wouldn't be breeding unpredictable, malfunctioning abominations with our DNA, he wouldn't be kidnapping and running genetic and pharmaceutical tests on fucking children, dumbass." There he is.
"Think it through. You've /seen/ the shit, firsthand, even though they tried to shield you from it, to convince you /they/ were the fucking good guys. To keep /you/ from doing what I did; but it didn't work. You did it anyway. You've seen the files, you've fought their forces, you've been there at /ground zero/ when they tried to weaponize you, again and again. Do the people /he/ wants you to kill deserve to die, is your fucking /pride/ that great that you're going to throw away every bit of self you've scavenged from his shitpile to go right back there and pretend, to live that poshly violent /lie/ they made for you?"
Igniz, once more, seems to have lost K''s attention for the moment. "You can't possibly be fucking stupid and docile enough to think this is all part of the /plan/. I am my own man, no matter what NESTS wanted, no matter /what/ they did to me... you're your own, too, and if you can't see that well enough to fight for it... I'm not going to let you fucking throw /your/ life away on the sugar-coated venom of this waste of space." Fiery tendrils encircle one arm, and then the other. Gauntlets of divine fury, the godlike weapon that Igniz covets so direly for himself. Promethean fire, a holy sword to slay gods themselves.
"I... am /not/ your /SON/." K' turns back on Igniz in a flash, as the fiery comets redouble in size, "I /have/ a family."
COMBATSYS: K' charges his next attack!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Igniz
"Listen to him, Kula." Igniz states, as if supportingly. A gesture given to K', once more giving him all the time he desires to state his point. Still smiling, although with only the Burning Prodigy to see it, he would sense a condescending cruelty to it. "Listen well. For I have a question for you." Igniz' heels come together, and his eyes close. Arms lifting at a ninety degree angle, he suddenly erupts into a giant pillar of cerulean energy. It shines bright into the sky, so far that it becomes lost to the darkness. The clouds overhead actually break, creating a wide berth of empty stars. How a man can have such depth of energy regardless of modification is truly staggering. Igniz lifts clear off the ground, hovering almost a meter, quite literally looking down at K'.
"You are not a human. You were never born as one. You are the child of a God. Do not measure yourself by the moralities of those Lesser. Or by those Fallen. You have a right for others to be sacrificed for your strength, just as me. You have a right to kill the Lesser, to advance us. He claims he has a family... and so do you. It is with us.
Eyes narrow, challenging K' in more then one way. "And it is Just."
COMBATSYS: Igniz gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Igniz
"Heh." K' echoes another derisive syllable of smirking laughter as Igniz speaks, and just shakes his head. There's a bit of sorrow in his eyes, for just a moment, though it likely looks like just another shaded glance as he takes a long, lingering look at Kula. Teeth clench, release. Breath is drawn, released. Then, amber eyes burning with inner fire turn back to Igniz. "I could agree with you, fucktard; but that would just make us both full of shit. You tell me not to measure myself by the yardstick of the inferior. Why the fuck do you think I /left/?"
There's a pause, a beat, as K' simply holds his eyes locked to Igniz. "I am K-dash-fucking-PRIME. You made /sure/ the only standard I had was my own, whatever I am... this power, it's /mine.. and I'm sick of seeing bastards sacrificed FOR YOUR WEAKNESS!!!"" It comes as K' all but translocates into the sky with Igniz. He's driven by a gout of flame, waves of fire pouring off either side of his wake as the bioweapon turns himself into a living warhead, a blur of flame and black energy led by a reaving backfist as he tries to, quite literally, plow /through/ Igniz and launch the NESTS overlord abruptly out of the air.
The roar of flames all but engulfs K'. He may be flying on a wing and a prayer, but fly he does: a napalm-bearing warhead of directed, volcanic fury. Tendrils of holy fire trace a brilliant path through the air, like the passage of a modified Delorean, as all that fury takes a moment to catch up to the spearhead, to the forceful, singular blow carrying all of K''s weight with it as he seeks anew to stop this nightmare.. to save Kula from them, and herself.
COMBATSYS: Igniz auto-guards K''s Empowered Heat Drive!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Igniz
All four of those spearheaded tentacles flex up in unison, the black fabric between rippling in the air. Both of Igniz' hands similarly raise, before abruptly the column of energy ceases. Instead he glows like a sun, and channels all of his reserves into the suddenly manifested forcefield. K' strikes it, and the immobile object meets the unstoppable force. Loud, sharp cracks and pops ring through the air, as the Kusanagi flame overcharged through K-Dash battle Igniz in the most direct manner possible. Igniz' eyes open and widen, suddenly forced to exert himself with a look of genuine effort. The tendrils begin to get pressed backwards, inch by inch, amidst the massive inferno K' has summoned up.
And then it stops. K''s concentrated assault reaches it's apex, and with a bright flash of energy he'd likely land, once more unable to pierce through the interwoven defenses of Igniz' mastered armor and chi. A moment later the Divine Aegis similarly lands, allowing his lower tendrils to return to where they were. The shock and surprise has once more returned to quiet complacency. Arms spread, as if to show himself fully to K'.
"You cannot reach me... for I am a God. Stand down... kneel before me, and I may forgive you. For the only exchange we can have... is an exchange of words."
COMBATSYS: Igniz takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Igniz
Released from the painful hug, K' is given time to prepare himself by the seemingly magnanimous cartel director. It's a chance to catch his breath but also a chance to try and reason with the manipulated young Diamond. The fiery vitriol coming from K' is a stunning contrast to the soothing encouragements offered by the silver tongued monster. His reasons make sense as he speaks to some of the things she's both seen and done, experiences that had always caused her to wonder at her purpose in life, what she was made for, and what she could become.
Over and over the ice child glances back and forth between the calm, supportive Igniz and the furious, hate-filled fellow experiment. There were the missions, the secret visits in the night to remove a political threat or reporter that knew too much. The jobs had never botherer her, exactly... she had been raised with such a deliberately ambiguous morality and never learned to respect death for the finality it possessed. But it does call to question the nature of the faction Igniz is convincing her to be her true home.
She can't retort to K''s points, as valid as they are. But what can she find out in the world that is not already promised her for going home? She swallows, recoiling away from the scorching heat of fire made flesh as once again K' clashes against the forcefields that protect Igniz so flawlessly. "We can't fight against him anymore," she replies. She had never underdstood what it is they fought against - the magnitude of power possessed by the man who claims to have a father's love for her.
She extends her hands, palms open, "He is giving us a chance, we could go home, it w-would be better-" Her family was always there. It was her that had gone apart, strayed on her own, left them hurt, pleading for Igniz to bring her back... She wasn't abandoned by them. She was the abandoner, and this was her chance to make it right! Water collects at the corners of her eyes. If only K' could see reason! If only he wasn't so angry! Couldn't he see the chance being offered, to forget the damage he had cause and start anew?
It's easy to mistake what drives K' for rage. Often times, he has raged; sometimes, it consumes him so fully red is all he sees, crimson shades or no. Rage, however, is unthinking, all-out aggression with total disregard for the consequences. Lashing out even if it's senseless, useless, ultimately destructive; obviously, it's quite apparant why it's easy to think K' is enraged, lost it entirely, throwing himself at Igniz full bore... defying the NESTS mastermind's apparent mercy. Yes, by all appearances, K' is berserk. It's just what Igniz wants everyone to think. The rogue prototype even /knows/ it.
No, the bioweapon's motions aren't the frenzied abandon of a beast lost to its baser natures. K' wants to be anywhere but here. It's not like the fact that this entire impromptu strike has turned fubar in a flash has escaped his notice. No, K' isn't enraged: but he is very, very angry. What he sees Igniz doing, the many fates he fears for the other augmented agent back in NESTS' hands.. what he /knows/ awaits the world if the tyrant succeeds? It pisses the Beast of Flame right the fuck off, and hard. As mentioned, this makes the tragic exchange all the more ironic.. with Kula identifying the core of love in the only man of the two /not/ acting out of compassion.
Also aforementioned? It's an easy mistake to make. Igniz is a master of manipulation, he engineered Kula to know what to say to her.. and the Ice Assassin is almost certainly having all the same troubles K' did in bonding with.. just about anyone, ever. K' lands with his eyes narrowed, teeth /grinding/ hard. How the fuck did he stop that? He doesn't make the mistake Kula does, though... the prototype feels it, tastes that instant of surprise, that flash of primal fear as Igniz adjusted. K' grins darkly. He almost had him. He's getting closer. It's not going to save him tonight, though, not bloody likely.
K', however? He's apparently is entirely out of fucks to give. "You're no god." There's a moment of clarity, as the brutalized bioweapon makes his decision. Makes his stand; K' spits blood to one side. "In fact you still rely on a fucking crutch. A fucking /body cast/, you useless little bitch. Outside that thing? I'd bend you the fuck /over/." K' suddenly seems to find this realization very, very entertaining.. in a very dark sort of way.
"I used to be that lame." K' laments, glancing to Kula, "Fucking /run/. Think about it /later/. I'm doing this for you, stop being a gullible infant and fucking /think/." The renegade gives Igniz just that moment to fume, just that moment for it to sink in, offers that final, gruff plea to his winterbound counterpart. Then he charges. No hesitation, no regard for his own safety, all K' wants to do is hammer Igniz, as hard as he can. Right down out of the air. A reaving right hook leads into a left uppercut for the midsection that redirects the aerial bioweapon's momentum all on its own. Terry would be proud of the way K' would power dunk the cartel leader brutally into the warehouse floor with the final shotgun of a right.
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Igniz with Fierce Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Igniz
"...what?"
Igniz states this in a sort of idle fashion, as if he had not been paying very close attention until this moment. Having interposed himself slightly before Kula, still as if to protect her from the seeming rage of the other experiment, those eyes finally settle on the rogue with a sharp notice. Those words cause him to slowly frown, and a spark of anger to taint his features. The chi surrounding the trio begins to intensify now. Shifting from the warm glow he had begun with. Cracks of lightning-like energy spark between items, and large crates and piles of debris begin to shudder as more wayward stones and fragments of metal float uwpards.
The incoming punch heads towards a tendril once more, but the split second needed to cement the forcefield is bypassed. There's a loud crash as it breaks, glass like shards remaining manifested for a moment before that fist brutally continues onwards, striking Igniz in the face. His upper body twists away, before the second blow folds the Ascendant nearly in half. Completely open, the last impact sends Igniz shooting like a meteor, crashing upon the concrete of the ground.
But there is no pause. No hesitation. K's knuckles would actually hurt; it is like he punched something unbreakable. Cloth-bound tendrils press down and gently raise Igniz to his feet. It is apparent then the cause. Across his face, a few crackling shimmers of energy struggle before settling once more and vanishing. The suit even affords him a backup defense. Although K' damaged it, he's not yet gotten through to strike prodigal tyrant directly.
"I already said you cannot reach me..." Igniz says this despite another crackle covering him with a momentary sheen of blue. "But I have had enough palaver. He will not see reason. So... I shall dispose of him." One spear tip shifts up, the end aiming towards K'. Before suddenly it unleashes a gout of condensed energy, whirling through the air in a crisp line and attempting to impact K' head on, with the intent of sending him explosively flying backwards. A hand gestures towards Kula, beckoning to the side.
"Stay back, my daughter." Igniz's face becomes stern then, and the divine halo begins to build up. His suit humming and whirring, beginning to draw out, condense, and improve the already gargantuan energy at Igniz's command. "When a God gets angry... his wrath can be indiscriminate."
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Igniz's Divine Arrow - Air.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/----===|=======\===----\1 Igniz
K' says that Igniz is no god even after all the master of divine chi has demonstrated time and time again, with every attempt to strike him, but Kula doesn't look certain one way or another. What she wishes was that K' wasn't fighting so hard, that he wasn't throwing himself at the man who said he had merely been tried for his own good and now it was time to come home. That didn't seem so hard to believe. It was a lot softer on her frozen heart than the thought that everything was as dark as the Beast of Flame insisted it was.
Hands clasp together in front of her, the girl shaking her head. "S-stop fighting!" It was like being stuck on the sidelines as father and son battled out their irreconcilable differences. But it doesn't matter what she says now, K' is driven. He's doing it for her, whether she understands or appreciates the significance of that sacrifice. The firebranded continues to spit insults at the man who claims to have only their best interests in mind... a man who has exhausted his patience on the Scion of Fire and now seems adamant about extinguishing his flames here and now.
Igniz moves between her and K' and she can barely see the ashen-haired rogue from behind the display of forcefields, chi, and continuously disturbed debris and dust. But she can hear his words, their significance cutting deep. He's fighting so hard /for her/ against an impossible foe. He wouldn't be doing that if he didn't care what happened to her. It shakes the girl to her core and as Igniz is sent crashing to the ground, Kula begins to take steps backward. K' said to run, to sort this out, to think about it when not under the powerful influence of the Cartel Tyrant.
And in that moment, she starts to do so. Not with leaping, unstoppable strides of one determined, but the reluctant backsteps of one unsure but leaning in a direction. That is until she feels the swell of Igniz's power building, that presence of chi unlike anything she has ever sensed from another. "N-no-" He tells her to stand back, a warning that the power he is about to unleash could be dangerous even to her if she stayed near. But this isn't what she wants at all! For K' to be destroyed fighting for her? "No, don't kill him!!" she exclaims, gloved hands clenched at her sides, eyes squinted shut, "Don't kill him! I'll come with you!!"
K''s main training partner, for ages after he escaped NESTS, was an incredibly mighty, advanced cyborg who was more machine than man. Maxima's chassis? It's Main Battle Tank material, folks, make no fucking mistake about that. It's not the first time K''s fists have slammed into armor that hurts.. not the first time he's beaten himself bloody on harsh edges and resilient barriers. He barely even seems to notice that his knuckles are suddenly red, raw, as angry as the rest of him. K' lands out of the final, launching strike right in the path of the maelstrom. It crashes, harshly, into the prototype's crossed guard, landing in a low and deep crouch he's in the midst of it... but also situated to deflect, defend. Oppose. It's something of a theme with K'.
Cannot reach him.. maybe not. Igniz may be right, but the rogue bioweapon has /plenty/ left to keep the cartel overlord busy... even if it is busy butchering him Tensed arms burn with dissipating energy, the bluish fires shimmering into a dissipating mist as he brushes them aside, the impact leaving skin alternately numb, and aching. It's a feeling the Beast of Flame knows well. The whole thing just makes him smile; but it is clear nothing about the situation amuses K' in the least. It's a deadly thing, a wolf's bared teeth before that final, fight or flight struggle.
Sometimes, in the dead of winter, after all hunting sources are exhausted, a pack of wolves will go after a healthy bear, a fully grown moose. All but inevitably, several members of the pack will be gored, if not killed outright; it enables the survival of many more, those compatriots engaged in the same bloody struggle for survival, and the genetic legacy that comes from that protected pool. While the natural order may be somewhat inverted here, there's just as much value to K' in preserving Kula, in stopping Igniz's experiments, as there is in his own life.. while he might prioritize or approach things sizably differently, were he offered a choice he could accept.
Sadly, for his icy counter's plea, letting Igniz take Kula... is not a choice K' could live with. He doesn't say it, but it's clear in the moment of resignation as he looks past Igniz, to the girl. He barely has a half second to offer it, but it's there, for the split second he dares not stare into the eyes of his enemy. If only it were different; if only she understood. "/Run/, you dipshit!" It's all the glory and grace of Gandalf facing down a demon of the old world on a bridge he cannot relinquish. He has the white hair, right?
"Yea, that's good. Your tech's nice, all the poor schmucks who bled for it, trying to make you better than you are..." There's another snort of humourless derision. There's an undercurrent of fear; it drives him, it makes him that much wilder, feral. Dangerous. Yea, Igniz might kill him; and maybe it's only the first step in an eternity of clashes that will end with Igniz's eradication.. and the prototype's rebirth. Even an experiment can dream; an experiment tied into the divine in a direct, tangible way that K' has suddenly realized Igniz envies. A core truth of his existence, some might say.
"This is what you're after, right? What you know you can't have. What is it, now? One in a thousand? Ten thousand? A million?" As K' speaks, it builds. Crackling energy reaches for him, surges around them, but Igniz's aura suddenly contends with K''s own. It's come to him in torrents that even Kyo Kusanagi might envy, even if he'd no more say it than the firebranded would admit his own jealousy of the ridiculously blessed origin of the genetic conduit melded to his own, to allow him to tap that elemental spark.
It /is/ a weapon fit for a god, Igniz is right about that. There's something almost impenetrable about the simmering heat it gives off, as autumn-hued flames surge in liquid torrents up around K''s feet, his white hair standing on end in the distorted air that surrounds him, Igniz's crackling field arcing violently off the distortions. "Nothing you can fucking do to me changes /that/. I already told you, better finish me now." He keeps pushing, keeps prodding, keeps drawing on seemingly bottomless wells of holy fire. Right hand fills, then left, it rolls back over his arms like a second skin, a flaring, brilliant orange-yellow mass of solar intensity.
The roaring nova flares like the sun, as K' stares nails at the man who made him the man he is today. In that sense, Igniz may be a father; but K' already expressed his fondness for patricide. "I. won't. let. you. hurt. her." Or use her. Or experiment on her. Or him, ever again. It's as much refusal of Kula's terms as it is Igniz's. Truth? From this guy? Sure, it might be nice; K' is keenly aware of how dark the world he lives in is, past the lollipops and axe murders.
COMBATSYS: K' charges his next attack!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1 Igniz
"Enough."
Igniz states this to Kula, with a sharp tone. Displeasure, clear and obvious. Igniz rises fuily to his feet, as his suit continues to build up energy. Further, the bright sun-like glow of cerulean energy grows more omnious. It causes the skin to tingle, an uncomfortable inundation from being saturated by the self-stylized God. His suit's skin-thin forcefield continues to crackle now and then, damaged and knocked out of alignment sufficiently it will require a technician many hours to repair. Assuming it does not recieve any further damage in the first place.
"Do not kill him...? Absurd. I gave him every opportunity to stand down. And you were tasked with destroying him, only to now grovel for mercy on his behalf? After the words he spoke to your father, and of your family? You have been drawn further from the light of God then I had thought, Kula." For the first time, he does not call her by an affectionate moniker. "Stand there quietly and watch."
Suddenly Igniz kicks forward, hovering slightly off the ground as he projects himself forward with that invisible chi. It is the first time he has clearly demonstrated an offensive that did not seem either warding or hesitant. His hand clenches, and with a brutal snap of his arm that length of cutting chain strikes out, trying to strike K' within the shoulders and drive him to his knees! K' is offered no more discourse or deliberation. The end of the fight might be what he prefers... words and actions shall speak, within which one can never truly lie.
COMBATSYS: K' endures Igniz's Strong Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Igniz
Again K' demands she run, his concern reflected in ways that would seem downright incomprehensible to most. And again the girl starts to back away, wide, violet eyes glancing back and forth between Igniz and K'. Nothing about this exchange is like she thought it would be. She had been prepared to fight only to disarmed by a gentle touch, comforting words, and a memory that refused to release its grip on her soul since the moment it resurfaced.
And then the Firebrand's attention is back on the self-proclaimed god, but Kula is still listening now. She had made her plea. She didn't want K' to die at his hands, not now. Even after all the attempts she made on his life, adding to the countless ambushes he received, the attempts to extinguish the Everburning, getting frightfully close at times... She didn't want to see him die now. Igniz insisted her purpose existed beyond K''s life, that whether or not the rogue was eliminated she would continue to be needed, to be loved, but that doesn't mean she's entirely capable of believing it.
K' has delt a solid blow but it doesn't take precision combat analysis algorithms to discern who is the worst off between the two after their exchanges thus far. The rebel with a cause fights as if he has nothing to lose yet, in her mind, he has /everything/ to lose. He was already free. She knew he had others that cared he existed. Why throw it all away now? Was it really for her sake he would fight this unwinnable fight?
Her please go unregarded, however, unwelcome begging from a girl who had strayed too far from the path the God of NESTS had established for her. He tells her to be quiet, to watch. To stand by and do or say nothing while he exercised divine judgment on the one man fighting back against him now. She knew that if she were to join K', to raise her hands against Igniz, there MIGHT be some small chance. But how could she strike him down? How could she use her god-given powers against her own father?
A panicked look washes over her as the emotions between the two explode into an even higher tier of violent intent. She said she would go with Igniz, but that was not enough to get him to stay his hand. Now she's witness to a death she doesn't want to see, being told what to do, where to stand, what to say... it was a flash back to the life she had left behind, an existence that had left her unhappy and alone. Right now she was free, wasn't she? Free to go if she wanted? Igniz said she could. Said he would be disappointed, that those back home would be sad. But he said she could if that was what she wanted.
Right now, she wants nothing more than to be away from this place. Slowly, Kula starts to stride toward K', her steps heavy, reluctant. She wants to do this yet hates the thought of it, and the conflict makes her slow. "Come on! Let's run!" She can't look toward Igniz then. She can't bear thought of his disappointment. But to be away from that crushing aura she feels in his presence, to put an end to this violent exchange of fire, chi, and blood... did she really have any choice?
"That's right, daddy wants to blend his beloved child for not groveling and murdering for his sick streak of dementia." It's as much to Kula as Igniz, again, K''s snap of defiance in the moments before he comes face to face with the raw physical fury the cartel tyrant's augmented might brings to bear. Like an autumn sunset, K' faces it down with molten intensity, determined not to go quiet into that still night. o/` Hey, hey, K''s got something to say. It's better to buuuurn out, than to fade away. If only Maxima were here, it could be blasting from his comrade's onboard stereo.
As it is, all the bioengineered supersoldier has for soundtrack is the crackle of electricity, violent and angry as it clases with heat, with a veritable /wall/ of oppositional chi. Igniz's suit would protect him, weather the outskirts at least, his field keeping the fires at bay.. at least, the ones that swell up in nigh-passive response to K''s focused power, otherworldly and screaming. Refusing to give way for the maniacal overlord, K' has little choice but to kneel. The warehouse's concrete floor can't take it, his knee splits it in eight directions, a near perfect compass point as blades dig deep into his shoulders, driving the bioweapon to his knees.
When his breath heaves a protest in cutoff scream, blood spatters around him anew, it's difficult to say from where all, exactly. There's nothing he'd like better than to heed Kula's words, but her plan is still a child's dream, only a valid play, perhaps, in the initial moments before or when Igniz actually appeared. K' knows it, the augmented overlord will never let them flee, the only option is to make a new way out. He's torn up, and refusing to slow down at all.. no, K' heats it up, instead.
Escalates hostilities, indeed. The problem with a politick of mutually assured destruction is when a party one expects to keep in line through overwhelming force decides launching all warheads is a more viable option than cooperating. K' is knelt, his crimson shades fly off his head, straight for that split concrete. He catches them in one skinned hand, earbands folding together as if he meant to do it all along. A flick of his wrist, and Igniz's forcefield gets the first challenge to its integrity. Just the shades. Whirling, end over end, right at the point between Igniz's eyes.
A secret of stage magicians involves human instinct, the very evolutionary imperative that Igniz stakes his stock in trade around.. has built his alarming base upon. In this case, evolution works against the magnificent bastard, it would encourage his eyes to track that fast moving, sudden object ripping along merrily towards the opposite periphery of his vision while K' doesn't even bother to stand. It's like he wanted to be forced low, relied on it. K' just /lunges/. All his weight is diverted with the force of an elbow, coming in low to high in a reaving blow aligned for the underside of the NESTS mastermind's statuesque jawline.
The people in the world that /wouldn't/ lose the bottom half of their face to just that part of the technique are rare enough, but in this case? Everything K' musters is indeed like assaulting the gates of heaven, Igniz's formidable experience and expertise coupling with those alarmingly efficient chi capacitors to provide him with near-unending power. It's /almost/ approaching the power that the would-be god desires. Still, not only does K' storm those gates, he seeks to blast them, molten, off their stupid, elitist hinges.
Even with that initial, haymaker stroke, it's like a firebomb went off. K' would catch his shades, and all around them, hurricane surges suddenly aside, a flashfire starting that defies even that maelstrom, an inferno that threatens to burn gods themselves to forgotten ash. K' seeks to unload into Igniz, to summon fury the likes of which the NESTS overlord likely never realized the relatively disappointing yet compatible prototype would EVER be able to touch, much less command.
It's firepower the likes of which would have incinerated K' himself years before, divine fervour focused towards a singular purpose... perhaps, in this case, the first steps towards promised execution. If there's one thing that can be relied upon, it is K''s unrelenting fury. The flurry of fists and feet the firebranded seeks to rain down upon this nightmarish demon-in-angel's-clothing are unmatched not in technical precision, but in speed, in strength, in savage instinct. Every fiber of K''s body screams fight, and the prototype does just that. The titan of NESTS may be unbeatable, may be near divine.. almost as near as any human ever gets, by some measures... but K' aims to prove he can bleed.
Knees, elbows, savage strikes for every vulnerable point the hunter sees in his target's advanced, nigh-unstoppable battlesuit. It's not the least of Igniz's worries, though, that would be the veritable airstrike of successive waves of flame, erupting in violent plumes of solar light. If K' manages to smash through to that final combustion, there may be a second missing wall in the warehouse, yet.
K' says, "Er"
COMBATSYS: K' knocks away Igniz with Empowered Chain Drive+.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
K' 0/-------/-------|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Igniz
There's no particular reaction to K's shades. They simply bounce off the forcefield with a loud clicking noise, and an almost imperceptible shimmer. To keep his eyes upon the shades would indicate he believed it was something worth looking at. In that manner, K's technique has failed on the DIvine. However, the assault itself is another matter entirely.
Both of the speared prongs at the base of Igniz' suit rush upwards, but the shimmering field, even condensed into one point, is insufficient. The burning elbow literally explodes forward, shattering it before impacting the God on his jaw. His face is scrunched up, upper body leaning backwards, as his entire body seems to be visually wigging out; that oil-like sheen of cerulean now beginning to short circuit with tendrils of lightning-like chi, and even a few sparks where capacitors and power conduits overload. Were it to stop there, the staggered Igniz would still not have been pierced.
But it does not.
Again and again, waves of scorching fire impact Igniz, staggering him back foot by foot. Miniscule shimmers, as his shield tries to form, are blown away like sand before the lapping waves of the beach. And then he is lost to it all, Igniz sent hurling backwards through the open warehouse. A towering stack of crates is knocked over, before he hits the back wall and the flame erupts outwards. A massive hole easily four meters is knocked free, and as the ground sizzles, it is clear that he has fallen from Heaven... all the way to hell.
The cerulean light that had so thoroughly lingered in the surroundings is gone. Perhaps the battle has concluded.
But slowly, Igniz rises once more. Sharp sparks and cracks of fire are sprouting here and there. Many scorched dents are upon his augmented suit, massive tears and scorches upon his once immaculate clothing. Two of the cable-like tendrils are fully exposed, the surrounding fabric completely gone. But it is the God's hand that is focused on. Wiping his mouth, it comes away... with blood.
"...I cast you down from Heaven."
Between Igniz' hands, a single spark of bright cerulean light is summoned. The flames surrounding him shimmer lightly. Slowly, carefully, as if cradling something fragile, the NESTS Ascendant brings it up to his face. Shifting it to one hand, and then bringing it overhead. Before it surges to life, and begins to grow.
The magnitude of this assault, both those present might have never seen. Both, in fact, might have never known it was possible. It is something different from the concise, unstoppably destructive dark flames of Kain. In one heavy pulse, Igniz now holds a cerulean orb, the surface swirling with licking tendrils as if the surface of a sun. The flames at his feet are nearly suffocated, wind audibly whirling inwards to the apex of his assault. And then it doubles in size, to six feet. A second, stronger roar of wind. The Kusanagi flame is gone, and the cables supporting many of the nearby crates is broken, allowing them to tumble. Again. Twelve feet. Igniz' chest vanishes, as the blinding onslaught grows even further...
A last, final time the gargantuan orb swells outwards. And then the suction becomes absolute. Massive iron pillars from the warehouse buckles towards it, entire crates flying upwards and being instantly annihilated. The entire building sags sideways and collapses, in an almost beautiful nimbus that mildly orbits the huge force at the God's fingertips. Kula and K' themselves would be forcedly pulled in the direction of it, and it would take significant effort simply to hold still and do nothing else. If one looked within the core of that blinding light, it would seem almost a galaxy... tiny globules of bright chi, circulating, dancing, an ecosystem of pure energy.
"BE JUDGED."
And then, Igniz hurls it. In a massive pulse, the remaining walls of the warehouse explode away. The ball is not particularly fast. No. It does not need to be. K' would feel it drawing at him, sucking him, trying to reel him in. It has no need to seek him out, as the will of the Divine is all-consuming. The closer it gets, the harder it would get to escape from... but there is no explosion as a result. After it gouges a perfectly smooth groove upon the concrete ground for dozens of meters, it would begin to slowly shrink, the very ground rumbling and cracking before it collapses into nothing.
A huge burst of kinetic force blows outwards, shattering the ground and breaking windows across the street, sending a chorus of car alarms screaming into Sunshine City's night.
COMBATSYS: Kula has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: K' Toughs Out Igniz's Disintegrational Universe!
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Knelt, injured, K' was in the perfect place to strike at the overlord of NESTS. Underestimated, fueled by a struggle that has revealed itself as fully life and death, a battle with a titanic force of science-focused nature that threatens his imminent existence failure. It's stupid, part of K''s mind criticizes him even as he finally shatters Igniz's nigh-perfect guard, hammers home his own opposite number - a remarkable offensivee enough to finally make his mark on his insane 'father'. Enough to compound the insulting, dismissive tone, the rogue's continued defiance, showing no fear in these final moments of fight. Because fuck flight, that's why. He has instants to consider it, with the battlesuited titan blasted back, but it's only instants.
K' straightens his stance, shaking the slouch out of his shoulders in one of those rare moments he's truly poised at his full height. Instead of running away, Kula flees /towards/ him. Instead of leaving him to delay Igniz and facilitate his own escape, his icy counterpart decides to emulate his stupid, reckless selfishness at all the wrong times. It's hard to be angry at her in this moment, though, and not simply because K' is torn half to shreds, deep gouges apparent all over his body where skin isn't razed raw by rampant chi, or the bite of Igniz's armor back at knuckles that defy it.
In the moment, the prototype can feel that lifeblood leak with every beat of his heart.. the energy, the fury fueling him, it's not something that he is going to be able to sustain, the pace demanded even with an opening left for him takes everything the bioweapon has. In that moment of peace, that single breath, K' drops a newly extinguished, bloodied hand outwards to thwump atop Kula's forehead and absolutely mangle her bangs. "You're.. fucking stupid." He doesn't exactly protest help, but Igniz doesn't give them any time to fly into the sunset. There's just not enough time, K' can feel that power building even before the cartel's commander rises again. That tremendous channeled power of that suit, indeed like unto the heavens themselves, the mightiest of storms; offset by a rampant wildfire.
Prototype versus prototype, genetics versus robotics; the firebranded may be flawed, but the Kusanagi-infused conduit certainly seems determined to go out with a bang. His attention already snapping from Kula to Igniz as the latter charges that massive gravity cannon, K' braces himself only halfway, seeking to shove Kula back and step between her and the blast, a mirror of her self-proclaimed father's motions moments before. It's worth noting, however, that the renegade's version lacks something of the cartel leader's grace and poise.
K' does, however, manage intensely defiant, shades flicked back on over his eyes as flexed muscles suddenly surrender, in the instants before Igniz releases that gravity well of tremendous energy at them both. Its imploding force is alarming, threatening to rip flesh from his skull even at range, drawing violently and painfully at the open wounds left by Igniz's powerful assaults. It only gets worse closer to the center, but K' leaps like a dying ray of light /eager/ for the other side of a black hole, knowing full well how many similar lights the supermassive in question has /already/ snuffed from reality. K' doesn't throw himself into the abyss, however; he skirts its edge.
The cut on his right shoulder is torn open wide as he orbits the massive blast along its border, all but rips through it in a blur of black windshear; through that eminent threat of dismemberment or death, left to the tender mercies of the lovable Igniz. There is no margin for error, and in this moment of instinct and blood, the Beast of Flame makes none. He crests his painful, chi-ravaged orbit coming around the other side of the sphere; there's a single, hanging moment where it's unclear if K' will escape its pull, or be drawn /back/ in for a renewed round of condensed death.
The firebranded, however, is not a lost ray of light, but a damn meteor that explodes in a second charge of blackened energy, his genetic origin's winds now charred, feeding ever-rising fires. They shine in K''s eyes, even as the battered firebrand finds his place, pursuing Igniz, striking out again, "Just..." K' can barely speak, voice choked by pain, by blood, by heat and debris. Whatever he has to get across, as all his strength is redirected into slamming a right fist from zero to rockhammer in a fractional instant, must be important. The weaving lunge is singular, meant to get K' in close to the supercharged overlord, some would say suicidally close.
It lends a great deal of force to that right that ventures forth curious to see if it can get through Igniz's mighty battlesuit, to the cartel commander's cold heart, however. ".. j. just the TIP!" K' is a notorious liar.
COMBATSYS: Igniz auto-guards K''s One Inch!
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
There's little grace and civility within Igniz at the moment. He looks... mildly unhappy, and perhaps a touch grumpy. None of the fighters present would realize the sheer extent of emotional expression that entails, however. Zero's suit would manifest a monocle just for the opportunity to expel it at supersonic speeds had he been present, and even Krizalid would be halfway to the airport, booking a plane to Thailand's densest cluster of little boys. There is something dark that can be felt now, an opressive gravity much like that incredible blast of chi that leveled an entire building, broken or not. Kula was in no true danger; she had the capacity to escape it without any particular risk to her. That much the second project would be certain of. Igniz had no intention of hitting her with that... but K'? He is another matter at hand.
Although right now, Igniz is panting. All of his suit has visibly shut down; both of his tendrils are limp and unmoving, the cerulean shine completely absent, a dullness to the black mechanical armor. This is an opportunity that will likely never be present again. The God has lost the Aegis of his divine technology, and stands exhausted before K' in the midst of all his rage.
K' had said before how much of a crutch Igniz' suit was. That it was simply a shell that made him what he was. Decisive proof to the contrary is finally offered. Standing regal and tall in the moment before the Anti-NESTS clone finishes hurtling in his direction, one hand opens. The fist impacts it dead on, and the feel of kinetic force channeling through it is all but visible. The artificial muscles in the suit split, and one seam cracks open, exposing the inner workings. But an intense well of chi remains, focused through the true limb beneath... and K' cannot break through.
Pushing backwards as the violent clash ends, Igniz exhales slowly and lifts his arms. A series of loud beeps and mechanical buzzes herald the suit rebooting. The current of air-like energy washes out once more, as tendrils and remnants of tattered fabric boil up and begin their graceful dance anew.
Igniz suddenly hurtles forward, attempting to impact K' with a shoulder. A sheer juggernaut of force, every single nuance of his cybernetic and physical augmentations leveled into overpowering him and knocking him off his feet...
COMBATSYS: K' interrupts #Brutal God Project+# from Igniz with Crow Bite EX.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Igniz
COMBATSYS: K' can no longer fight.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Igniz
Mildly unhappy?!? Why, Igniz's agitation is so far removed from K''s intentions that the prototype is bound to get all choked up about it. Exhausted or no, the rampant power the cartel kingpin has left is too formidable to leave many branching paths before K'. Particularly with Kula indecisive, and Igniz charged, primed to attack, and murderously pissed at his prodigal creation. Igniz goes wordless, and K' returns the favor, those last moments of brutal conflict played out in oppositional impact. The firebranded warned his project's benefactor to go ahead and end it, that if he got a chance to destroy the master of NESTS... he would. He takes that chance, the renegade prototype slamming his own shoulder into the charging overlord, battle damaged suit meeting bloodied body with a resounding crash.
Bone bruises, cracks. Flesh pulverizes, opposing metal and blade, but K' rips into Igniz one final time. His right arm surges with fire, superheated solar flares erupting from a hand that's as much clawed as it is clenched, a ripping right that tears a canyon of its own, melting circuitry, fusing wires, even those resilient coiled conduits glow white molten hot, momentarily pushed to the bring by that alarming, reaving arc. All of the bioweapon's weight, all his remaining strength, are driven in meeting Igniz blow for blow... but as of the cartel kingpin's very next strike, the Beast of Flame finds his own limit, even out here on the ragged edge. He lands haphazard, on one knee, breathing heavily and bloodied, with barely enough time to look up before Igniz is on him again...
That blow rains true. Although the brutal charge was circumvented, and the impact to his face causes Igniz' entire body to twist away in a likely very satisfying spray of blood, he had kept a massive reserve of power within his suit just for this moment. Suddenly, the air seems to detonate with a massive influx of energy. Every line and seam in the cybernetic suit glows out almost blindingly, as Igniz turns towards K' as he crashes back to the ground. Before darting forward, one hand grasping him by the face and dragging him along across the ground.
Kula would be afforded a moment's breath to react, before K's body is /slammed/ into the crates only a couple meters to her side. Leaping backwards, Igniz hovers lightly before his four spear-like protrusions suddenly lurch into active. Dozens of chi-imbued blows rain down on the defiled experiment, ripping open his clothing and causing sprays of blood. This continues for a full three seconds, before suddenly they stop, and all four in tandem shift up, settled in a perfect square with the tattered fabric billowing between.
K' is not allowed to fall. That would be enough to defeat him, but not enough for Igniz' rage. In a seething crash, those four conduits let out a massive cerulean eruption of energy, blackening the ground and melting the crates behind the Second Kusanagi, leaving him momentarily lost in the whirlwind of chi. Not divine, but in such cases, unimportant.
One hand levels itself then, and his suit goes dark. Every last remaining ounce of his energy surges through his arm, gathering at his palm. Suddenly, a massive orb of energy erupts outwards, completely encompassing K' and the crates. It is much like the disintegrational assault leveled just below, but much more concise. It pulses in five massive eruptions, each growing bigger and bigger, shaking the ground and likely sending Kula staggering away from the kinetic force. The last finally would expel K' away, a wave of force similarly annihilating the destroyed steel crates and raining splinters over the area for dozens of meters behind.
Standing before the blackened crator he just created, etched with red cracks where steel and stone nearly melted, Igniz slowly turns to Kula. The chest of his suit is spattered with blood, spear-like tentacles dripping, a single sharp line across beautiful features that is not his own. He has no more power. Not a single ounce of chi left. But still, he looks directly at the young frost prodigy with the same eerie kindness from the onset.
"Do you see...? Your purpose fulfilled. The Fallen from God's kingdom cast down. And yet you still stand." A hand slowly extends towards her, fingers curling in a beckon. "It is time to come home..."
There is a moment where the two are close - Kula trying to help the broken weapon in a matter of seconds that seems to stretch on for far longer as Igniz builds a doomsday weapon of chi. K' already looks nearly dead after the meatgrinder he's been put through. Visible cuts and tears on his body slowly paint the ground beneath him in crimson but the engineered assassin has never balked at the sight of blood. A trembling arm reaches out to try and pull him to his feet, crouching at his side. She still thinks they can run, that it isn't too late to escape. It was her fault he was in this condition, the girl feeling as if she had failed bith the angered god and the firebrand.
There's no time to argue with him, she just tries to tug him. His hand, cooled in his own leaking blood, brushes against her, bangs sticking together as it passes, leaving a strike across her forehead. They never had the time they should have had - a chance to build bonds like true family could. But in this moment, she feels a modicum of what it might have felt like. He calls her stupid. "I know." she murmurs. "I'm sorry."
And then Igniz gives the world a taste of what it will be like in the end, when all creation has run its course and all that is left is the final, last wimpering of matter before the eradicating finale. Of course she can feel the chi building, the same way an ant can feel the scorch of magnified sun focused through a child's lens. But that doesn't mean there's anything she can do about it.
K's desperate, sacrificing shove sends the girl flying backward, stumbling into a seated fall against the ground. And from there, violet eyes wide open, body paralized with overwhelming fear and wonder, she watches the final exchange play out. There is a moment of false hope when K' strikes out, fighting to his last breath, facing certain destruction beneath incomprehensible devastation. But there seems to be no end to the power coursing through the living conduit as Igniz launches into a relentless combination of attacks. There will be nothing left, Kula is certain. Nothing more than lingering ashes of the extinguished Beast of Flame.
Steel and concrete melt and deform as Wrath From On High. Is he not a god? Kula stares, unblinking, at the ruin left in the aftermath of Igniz's onslaught. Has he not created life like a god? Has he not also taken it like a god? Is not the desolation left - the smoldering, twisted metal, the splintered concrete - are these not ruination brought about by a being far beyond mortal man? What else could it take to prove his divinity?
He turns to her with a beckoning gesture and Kula slowly, unsteadily pushes herself back to her feet. The only blemishes on her body are the smear of blood on her forehead left by K''s hand and the layers of powderized concrete dust that have settled on her throughout the destruction.
She stares back at Igniz then. He learned of her secret fear - of having no purpose once K' was no more - and yet here he stands, having proven her fear was for nought. Why then does she feel such emptiness inside? There is nowhere to go but forward now. If she is his daughter, then she is a goddess, and she has a destiny to follow. Careful but deliberate steps forward are taken toward the waiting Igniz.
"I see that now..."
Her steps take her closer, eyes on his face - bleeding and bruised as it might be, it is still the face of the man from her memory. There was no denying it now, she tells herself.
"...father."
It wasn't enough to defeat him. Close, but handgrenades would be a downgrade, much less horseshoes, and even with the ample projection of incinerating, holy fire.. close just doesn't cut it here. K' is consumed in a maelstrom of debris and cutting bolts of energy, the rending tumult carving many new slices in the prototype... costing K' more blood as he is hammered from sight, consumed in dust and falling matter. He's defiant to the end, actually managing to bat aside several bolts; though only a fraction of the firepower that comes in at him. In the end, it just adds a deeper, wide gash or three across each hand and forearm, as K' is driven into rubble, and then blasted /through/ the shrapnel in a final catachlysm of eradicating chi.
The multitude of injuries, the overwhelming pain, they collude to replace his determination with unconsciousness, the image of the endangered Kula's half realization washed away in dark tides of agony that blot out the sudden pang of loss, unseeable amidst the debris where K' lands. Blackness is already swarming his vision by the time he crashes in a trench dug into a cloud of concrete dust, as shelving units previously bent asunder fall inwards, joining the ample junkpile around and atop the firebranded bioweapon.
The buckling warehouse continues to collapse in on itself even in the aftermath of this apocalyptic event, leverage a slower worker when compared to Igniz's fury.. but diligent, nonetheless. It's almost peaceful, the whining screech of bending, stressed steel; the periodic crash of shattering block. Buried, but quite alive, the only sign to that effect from the battered, bloodied Beast of Flame is a near-silent groan of shallow breath, survival instincts holding him together.. if not the least bit alert.
At the epicenter of the last few exchanges, right now K' can barely hear anything but a ringing in his ears, distant white noise obliterating the ambient death of the warehouse around him, alongside another chunk of Kula Diamond's innocence; that, and somewhere, a large truck upshifting. Breath moves grey, choking dust.. and only just barely; they're wrong to underestimate the firebranded fugitive, but not by much. Close never does quite cut it, in their world.
COMBATSYS: Kula has left the fight here.
[ \\\ <
Igniz 0/-------/-----==|
Log created on 19:02:51 06/30/2012 by Kula, and last modified on 18:49:56 05/18/2013.