Description: Saturday Night Fight? On a Ghost Train to nowhere?? Shenwoo possesed by a true God of Battle?!?!? FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT INSIDE!! (Winner: Sakura)
Steam pours from the smoke stack of the infernal engine as it charges through the sky on rails unseen, a trail of cloudy, white vapor that stretches back over cars and marks it's passing. Possibly this is the origin of chemtrails, damned souls fed into the hateful flames of the locomotive's hateful engine and spewed out across the heavens, penence served. It has been a lonely ride, nothing but the click-clack of wheels traveling over ethereal rails to distract the mind. Nothing, noone, alone, empty. But not for long.
A few cars ahead, there is a loud roar, beastial and savage. It is followed by the crash and clamour of a door being smashed open, battered from it's track and rendered into splinters. A name is shouted.
"DIAOCHAN!"
Footfalls thunder ever closer, another animalistic roar that implies that whoever this is, isn't stopping for silly things like opening doors. There is a crash, a shattering, a impact...the door leading from the car before this one is breached, a heartbeat afterwards, the door to Sakura's car is sundered, a eruption of dust and wood rendered into kindly hides the perpetrator for a moment long, a figure is seen hunched down in the cloud of dust and debris. It stirs, shrugging off the rubble of what was the front of the car before it raises, tall, powerful. It's breath comes in a ragged heave as it steps forward and emerges...
Shen Woo, the monster-brawler of Shanghai, God Of Battle... one of the last people you want to meet in a confined space. With pupils like pinpricks, he sets his eyes squarely on Sakura, lips peeling back into a vicious snarl. "DIAOCHAN!?" he demands in a voice that might not be his own. His fists ball, knuckles protrude like battering rams.
What the hell's a Diaochan?!
Sakura was not expecting this. She takes the ghost train in with... remarkable aplomb, considering that she's now on a moving thing several hundred feet off the ground. "Man, the SFX guys are -really- on the ball," she remarks, to herself. Like, *really* on the ball. That the train is essentially empty except for her and her opponent doesn't really faze her--just means more room to work in. Some fighters might not really worry about bystanders, but Sakura was raised better than that. Plenty of cameras to capture the action, too.
Now, the oncoming thunder of Shenwoo's arrival, that -does- concern her--as in, curiosity and, as it becomes clear what's going on, with a sense of alarm. Sakura's eyes widen when the door explodes and the near-demonic form of Shenwoo appears. *That* wasn't in the brochure, she remarks to herself.
Inwardly, she's shaking a bit--worried, of course, as any smart fighter is, when they get into a fight--but outwardly she tightens her gloves, settles her headband, and says, as calmly as she can, "I uh, I dunno who Diaochan is, but uh... I don't think that's me--but I think I need to stop you before you crash this train." Looking at him, she's entirely sure that this being, whom or whatever he is, is entirely capable of that.
It puts just a little more risk on the line, doesn't it? Should be exciting... for the viewers.
COMBATSYS: Sakura has started a fight here.
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Sakura 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo has joined the fight here.
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Shenwoo 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Sakura
Shen Woo's chest heaves with his labored breathing, mouth hanging open as he draws in deep breaths. He seems to struggle as if under a heavy weight, heels grinding into the carpet, muscles drawing taut beneath the skin, sweat beading across his brow. "THIS... body!" he strains, "Such power.... RAW POWER! I can't- I can't...!" He tenses, strains, lowering his head and clenching his jaw, "I have to-!" he grates through his teeth, attention snapping up at last, locking upon Sakura once more, "DIAOCHAN!?" she spoke the name, it was like a trigger, what control he had managed to manifest slipped away in the raging river that was flowing through the host. His lips parted once more and he bellowed, "HRRAAAGH!!" before charging like a mad bull.
Long legs stretched out, eating up the space between in starving, greedy gulps. He would be upon her in a heart beat, a fist reeled back cocking like the firing pin of a revolver, locked back past his ear as his body twisted back. There was a thrust, a surge, his fist flew forward and his entire body seemed to be drug along behind it, he was not propelling his arm, it was carrying him in it's wake. A face-seeking fist-missile rocketing right towards Sakura's pretty nose.
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo successfully hits Sakura with Gekiken.
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Shenwoo 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Sakura
Even with this.. apparition.. directly in front of her, the speed with which it moves is... it's terrifying. To say that Sakura is caught off-guard doesn't begin to explain it. To her, it'a almost as if Shenwoo teleported--once moment maybe twenty yards away, the next, his fist leading the way into her nose. Flat-footed, she flies backwards picturesquely, her arms flailing from a half-risen guard--she doesn't stop 'til she hits the floor, and then she bounces once. When she rises, she's bleeding from the nose. And she looks all the more concerned. But...
... for all that, she still looks game. No time to play around, though--that's for sure. This isn't going to be a normal fight. Drawing her hands into her body, she concentrates her chi, which responds by forming a blue-white ball between her hands, hovering in space between them. It takes only a moment to build up to about the size of a beach ball, and it's that sphere which Sakura flings at her opponent, her voice ringing out defiantly in the confines of the train. "HA... DOUKEN!!"
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo stops Medium Hadouken from Sakura with Tamaken.
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Shenwoo 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Sakura
The God Of Battle stands where Sakura once was, wisps of vapor wafting away from his fist. He seems stunned, confused, one brow lofting upwards as he brings the hand back, fingers slowly uncurling from the cudgle-like fist, it seems as if it takes a concentrated effort to keep the fingers from curling up once more, "A'animal!" the voice strains. He sets his heels, twisting them to find puchase, anchoring himself in place as he hunkers down and grinds his teeth, fighting against unseen forces.
'HA... DOUKEN!!'
The words rips him from his concentration, the blue-white ball of spiritual flames rushing ever nearer, his eyes go wide, surprise... and then narrow as his face contorts into a horrible scowl. His right hand lifts up and trails back towards his shoulder, fingers bent and crooked as if they were claws. "GET THAT SHIT..." this is not the voice of the man before, it is younger, harsher, less labored. The hadouken nears and The God of Battles arm sweeps around, the back of his hand crashing into the immaterial flame... and sends it crashing through a window, glass shattering outwards as the wind pours in, whipping and howling as it tosses his hair and inexplicably open shirt.
"OUT OF HERE!"
Sakura's had her hadoukens rejected before. Not like that, admittedly, but it's not an experience unknown to her. The experience sets her mouth in a grim line. What could possibly work on this guy? Is there anything at all? Does she have to risk closing the distance with him? She can tell--from his build alone--that he's an impressively strong man. Getting in close might not be advisable...
But she can't stand back and throw her chi at him indefinitely. As prodigious as she is with her chi, both in ability and raw amount, she can't do that. Even as Shenwoo's reaching out to swat the projectile away, Sakura's moving in, steeling herself for what might just be a -very- short fight.
Coming in under the cover of that hadouken, she tries a simpler technique--a swiveling step side kick that, should she be on-target and snappy, will strike Shenwoo right in the breadbasket. Of course, who can tell what kind of damage she can actually do to a guy like him?
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo endures Sakura's Medium Kick.
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Shenwoo 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Sakura
The back of the monsters hand is still sizzling when Sakura comes in. His attention fixes on her, glaring her down with a mad scowl even as she fires off that kick. He makes no moves to avoid it, instead he simply braces, one foot sliding back to bolster his stance when her shoe thumps into the wall of meat that is his torso. He rocks backward, a grunt of 'Rnh!' knocked out past a gritted jaw. That's when things get worse, that's when Shen Woo smiles. It is a broad gash carved acrous his face, a terrible, toothy, mad grin. "I'idiot!" bellows the voice that does not belong, breath hot and... well, he could probably use a mint.
He surges forward, left arm drawn back, fist balled and ready as it comes sweeping in at the side of her head, nothing fancy, just a hard, dirty hook!
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo successfully hits Sakura with Medium Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Shenwoo 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1 Sakura
There's a strangled cry of pain when Sakura gets tagged by that punch. It rings her bells, no doubt about it--she staggers, the side of her head feeling like a wrecking ball just smashed into it, and she coughs, involuntarily, as she crashes into the side of the train. That was even -worse- than the first punch... she's not going to last long under this onslaught. "Gotta toughen up, Kasugano," groans the girl, shaking her head to clear the stars out of her eyes.
Lunging forward, she takes a small stutter-step, then hops, looking to sling her arms around Shenwoo's neck--if she gets that far, she'll use her momentum to swing her weight around him and tighten her grip, to choke him out a few times before slamming the back of his head forward with an elbow, looking to gain some room from behind him, some room to work with.
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo Toughs Out Sakura's Sakura Strangle!
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Shenwoo 0/-------/=======|=======\=====--\1 Sakura
"WEAK!" barks the man driving the beast, "ARE ALL WARRIORS THIS WEAK IN THIS ERA?!" he demands coiling back from the strike, "Even this body is disgusted! Where is your strength, where is your power?! SHOW ME OR DIE!" it demands, stooping to reach for the young woman's throat when she suddenly strikes back. She's smaller, quicker, he cannot catch her before she has her arm looped around his neck and slings herself around. With a choke, "Rk!' he tries to steady himslf, feet spreading wider to compensate for the added weight that now clings to his back. His neck tenses in her untender embrace, jaw tightening as muscles and sinew bulge from beneath the tanned flesh. His fingers reach up and hook around her arm, she has to work quick before she is cast off! She does, tightening her hold around his windpipe, starvbing him of air for a few, breif moments, his growls of anger and protest made mute for the lack of it.
Someone, somewhere mourns the ache that must spring up in her elbow when it crashes against that steel-hard, steel-dense skull of his. His head snapping forward from the impact with a grunt more of surprise than pain.
One hand looses from her arm and cranse backwards to find the back of her collar, the scruff of her neck, or even her hair if that is all he can find, anything to catch ahold of her and then wrench her free before sending her crashing to the ground. "HAH!" his voice is raspy, harsh from her strangulations, "At least you have guts!"
COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Shenwoo's Medium Throw.
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Shenwoo 1/-------/=======|=======\======-\1 Sakura
Sakura doesn't even notice the bruising on her elbow. She's too used to it--injruies like that accumulate easily during a fighting career. She probably won't even feel it until afterwards. She does, however, get grabbed, and there's little she can do to keep Shenwoo--or whoever's possessing the God of Battle--from wrenching her off and hurling her to the ground. She can, however, prepare properly for that--and when she hits, it's not flat on her back, the air driven out of her by pure physics, but with a twist that turns into a roll, gaining her some space and softening the impact.
It still doesn't *do* her any good, but it's something, at least, as she pops back up. Once again she's drawing upon her chi energy, focusing it into an even bigger mass--this one expands twice, forcing her hands apart, before she throws it--a veritable wall of energy, nearly as big as she is tall, though somewhat slower for all that, its bright, actinic glow washing out many visual details from her point of view.
She doesn't bother with the shout this time--might not even be able to hear it over the roar of the train, the hiss of the wind from that broken window, and Shenwoo's own rantings.
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo endures Sakura's Large Hadouken.
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Shenwoo 1/----===/=======|=======\=======\1 Sakura
Quick, she was very quick. Good. Maybe this will not be over so soon after all. Reaching up, Shen Woo, or the spirit that controls him, massages his throat, a look of displeasure working it's way across his face, "Fire... but still weak." he judges. Her new iteration of a fireball is a bit more impressive than the last. Deigning not to just be rid of it, Shen Woo digs in his heels and lowers himself into a stoop, a arm lifted up as a poor, meaty shield against the intense heat of the blaze. With a snarl, he lunges into, and through the rolling fury of Sakura's Hadouken. Eyes narrow as flames lick and sear at his skin, scorching flesh and burning fabric, the leather pants fare a bit better but the smell is unpleasent and the squeak does not abait. His shadow looms within the depths of the flame as it rolls past, he emerges ravaged but whole, a vision of anger and harmful intent.
His charge does not end, he storms forward, tongues of flame burning away here and there as he bends a shoulder forward, his weight fully commited to the charge that is quickly becoming a tackle. He'll bowl her over if he can, going with her, crashing to the ground and then pinning her there where he can rear back up on his knees and work away with a vicious collection of punches to the head and face.
"HRAAAGH!"
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo successfully hits Sakura with Saikouhou-Geki.
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Shenwoo 1/---====/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Sakura
Sakura is once again caught by the God of Battle--it's all she can do to protect her head from the worst of it, and that just leaves her body open. Somewhere in the battering she spits up blood, her body jerking and twitching underneath the onslaught, but something in her keeps working--and she twists, violently, kicking out from under Shenwoo before he can land any further damage to her body. Battered, more than bruised, Sakurs still somehow finds her feet, hissing with pain, bent and broken...
But not unbowed. Drawing upon everything she has, a by-now-familiar blue ball of energy forms within her hands. This one takes longer--she has to concentrate harder, and that's -not- easy with pain flashing and flaring along every nerve--but it pulses in time with her breaths, expanding slightly with each breath.
It doesn't grow to the same -size- as the last one... but it looks somehow more solid, more dangerous, less ethereal. She has no breath to voice with, but the defiance is clear in her eyes as she flings that bolt of chi for Shenwoo's body. This isn't about -winning-, per se. It's about... giving her all. And maybe about surviving.
COMBATSYS: Sakura has reached second wind!
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Shenwoo 1/---====/=======|>>>>>>-\-------\0 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Shenwoo with Shinkuu Hadouken EX.
- Power hit! -
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Shenwoo 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|>>>>>>-\-------\0 Sakura
"S'such... POWER!?" the voice can be heard over the roar he the Shinkuu Hadouken. Shen Woo stands in awe, bathing in the glory and magnificence of Sakura's soul. He gawks, eyes wide and mouth hung open, in his dumbfounded shock, he does not realize that he retreats one, staggering step. "Is this the power of the warriors of this era?!" he wonders aloud.
And then she unleashes her full might upon him. It is unstoppable, unavoidable. He stands firm as it bears down on him, widening his footing, bearing down, "But it does not matter, I will not fall here, I cannot fall to the likes of you, not even with this power!!" he bellows into the storm, arms lifted, crossed, his last defense, "I will not fall, I am Lu-!" his voice is lost in the roar that strips much of the train car away, bearing it to the chill wind and the open sky. What was left of the car infront of her i sno more, just the platform upon which she stand. The same could be said of the next two cars, stripped nearly clean by the force of her soul made manifest. There is no sign of Shen Woo. There is no Sign of the God of Battle...
A hand reaches up from the far end of the car, it reaches up and latches onto the edge, anchored there, a body follows, heaved up and onto the platform slowly. A blonde head of tussled, messy hair, a haggered man, his clothes tattered, torn, and burned. He heaves himself up and stands before her... Smiling, it is the smile of a wolf, broad and toothy. Possessed of a vicious glee, Shen Woo, The Shanghai Brawler, The God of War, grins back at her. "Thanks... that guy in m y head was getting annoying." he shouted over the wind. "But we're still not done!"
What?
Stooping, Shenwoo erupts into another charge, bearing down on Sakura once more, a fist clenched and drawn back. His soul burns, there is a flash of light and then thunder, a thunderous roar as he soars towards her, drawn along behind the soaring punch that closes the rest of the distance.
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo dazes Sakura with Zetsu! Gekiken!
- Power hit! -
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Shenwoo 1/-------/<<<<<<<|>>>>>>>\>>>>---\1 Sakura
Too fast--! The Shinkuu Hadouken is one of Sakura's most powerful techniques--but even it wasn't enough to give Sakura the time she needed. Already battered, the punch lands cleanly, with a sound like an explosion. It kind of feels like someone set off a bomb, too--in Sakura's braincase.
The only thing that keeps her upright is her back slamming against the wall of the train--she slumps against it, but that second impact actually seems to wake her up some. Enough, at least, to marshall another attack. Her legs wobbling, she forces herself forward, putting her all into what is likely to be her final effort--a series of running uppercuts, topped off with one leaping uppercut that, properly performed, would take her right up to the ceiling.
But she'll be wobbly during it, and who can say what will happen...?
COMBATSYS: Sakura has reached third wind!
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Shenwoo 1/-------/<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo interrupts Midare Zakura from Sakura with Tenrenshou.
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Shenwoo 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Sakura
"That's it, keep it up!" he eggs her on when she finds her feet once more, "C'mon!" even as she moves on him, he comes running, barreling ahead to meet her in the middle, he laughs, cackling like a mad man, sdpringing forward from the balls of his feat to close before she would expect him. A punch snaps up and catches him in the jaw, his head whipping away from the impact but not before he managed to burry a fist into her middle, a quick, abrupt punch fired off from his hip that stops her short.
He sees stars, the beating he's already taken leaving him weary... but he's just gotten into this fight! The other guy didn't know how to work him, not strong enough to deal with that roaring river that Shen Woo has had under his thumb ever since he was able to walk and fight.
Once again, she tries to summon up that energy of hers. Though denied once, it's served her well enough, the other two times. But... she's fading. Her body's already been battered to the limits--too much more and SNF risks televising a murder live on-screen. And even though waivers were signed, that's not the kind of thing they want to have happen, especially not to a young fighter who's popular.
But they can't -stop- Sakura. She just keeps going until she can't, with the dogged tenaciousness she wields, the relentlessness that drove her to emulate Ryu's fighting style all on her own.
So her chi sputters, and flickers, but she manages to pull up a small amount of it--enough to fling forward, a softball's worth, if that. She's falling, it seems like, even as she throws it...
COMBATSYS: Sakura has reached fourth wind!
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Shenwoo 1/-----==/=======|====---\-------\0 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo endures Sakura's Small Hadouken.
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Shenwoo 1/----===/=======|=====--\-------\0 Sakura
A fireball, another. This one so weak that it flickers in and out of sight. Shen Woo barrels through it, wreckless and wild. It splashes against his chest and sears the flesh. His sight grows dim, it was all that really needed to happen... nbut it wasn't enough to put him down directly.
There is a explosion of chi, raw and untapped, untrained. Primal. It boils out of Shen Woo's skin in the form of red light, seeping from his pores as it radiates outwards, flagging behind him as he closes with Sakura one last time, howling and laughing like a mad man.
He swings, hurling his fists to and fro like a drunken lout, swinging his skull down like his forehead were a hammer and Sakura a nail. He kicks, knees, elbows, smashes, pound. Everything, every last bit of violence that he owns is poured out onto Sakure. It is a monsoon, the rain of blows coming fast and hard... but soon they slow, he tires, it all catches up to him in a sudden wave before, abruptly... he just teeters forward and falls on his face.
COMBATSYS: Shenwoo can no longer fight.
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Sakura 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Sakura dodges Shenwoo's Bakuma Assault.
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Sakura 0/-------/--=====|
There are moments--literal moments, flashes in time--when even the most muddy of consciences attains clarity. By all rights, Sakura should have already fallen--Shenwoo's assault was unrelenting, powerful. Others would have been taken down in the first hit--some hardy individuals might have survived two. The Self-Taught Ansatsuken stylist has taken far more than she should. So perhaps it's just as much luck as it is skill trained into reflex--that the force of throwing her last fireball would begin to propel her backwards.
That her body would, reflexively, sense Shenwoo's final outburst, and--though certainly inelegant and definitely not looking like anything less than a punch-drunk lout herself--Sakura would manage to somehow avoid and evade Shenwoo's brutal fists, the storm of knees and kicks. That she would stumble backwards and skid twice on her butt before gathering herself... and standing up.
Woozy. Damaged. In no condition to fight... but just in enough condition to stand there. To breathe, deeply, tasting the rich air of success, though to her it's simply the sweet taste of survival. As experienced as she is a fighter, Sakura doesn't go toe to toe with Gods of Battle--real or imagined--very often. It's a red-letter day when she survives. If she didn't learn anything about technique, she certainly learned two things today: One, that Shenwoo is never to be trifled with, and two, that the sobriquet 'God of Battle' isn't one he hasn't earned.
Shenwoo lays face down on the floor and he snores, a loud harsh sound. Unconcious and battered, he snores as if he has just bedded down after a long day and is enjoying a very, well deserved rest. He is a hulking brute who will remember Sakura fondly but until then, he is a few hundred pounds of muscle that Sakure will have to figure out how to get off of this demon train.
Fortunately, this demon train is still an SNF demon train. There are people to help with that. People that -weren't there a moment ago-, but they'll gladly take both the snoring Shenwoo and the savaged Sakura off the train for rest and recuperation.
COMBATSYS: Sakura has ended the fight here.
Log created on 15:55:17 08/10/2014 by Sakura, and last modified on 20:44:49 08/10/2014.