Description: Meet the Glens. They're smart. Nice. Neighborly. And about to get a house guest that ends up being more helpful than she could have possibly intended!
Zach Glen had returned to the United States after being unceremoniously thrown out of Japan. Where he effectively fled to after the writting off of Metro City, when you think about it. Zach knew that his next step was to return to Metro to get answers, but he felt a need to touch base with people who would be worried about them. And so, the adventurous psion made a stop to Cleveland, Ohio.
It had been a while since he had talked to his parents. He didn't even /know/ about Wendigo back then.
Zach's father met him at the airport, where the first things that came up was the loss of Zach's left hand. It makes hugs... slightly awkward. Zach hadn't talked about the incident much. He didn't pretend it never happened; that'd be a bit crazy. However, despite everything since then, Zach still wasn't ready to really face the incident either.
The two Glens rode home from the airport in silence, arriving at home in time for Zach to see his mother. She had, like most mothers would, freaked out just a bit. Loss of a body part is pretty major. Zach assured her he was as fine as could be managed, and the three were sitting at the dinner table, catching up on things.
Of course, this was when trouble should occur.
Away from the East Coast of the nation it becomes easier to forget that the world is in a state of catastrophic turmoil. Out here the power still runs, water still flows, the fields are still being harvested by those who have dedicated their lives to the growing of food for the nation.
The storms that ripped Metro City from its foundations and cast the Steel Jungle to the ground before washing it out to the sea do not reach here. The frozen oceans around the globe, the volcanic ash over Japan, the world of nightmare that is France... none of that is felt here. Given where Zach has been and what he has been through, this return to a fully functional part of the world in this time of calamity must feel like a brief reprieve from the relentless destruction he has born witness to. No wonder he stops here to gather his strength before moving on.
But for people like Zach, no place can be a haven from the weight on his shoulders. Comfortable dinner conversation is interrupted by the chime of the doorbell.
At the door waits Ayame. The girl seems to have put some time into appearing less a ruffian since their last encounter in Metro - her long hair has been dolled up with two long pigtails and a long sleeved, white button-up blouse and blue necktie is worn along with a red/white plaid skirt. A backpack rests over her shoulders as she tugs idly on the right shoulder strap, eyes on the clear skies overhead when first noticed.
Zach was in the middle of relating a tale of yet another of Rust's hairpiece fiascos when he sensed it. He stops mid gesture, spreading his arms wide, subconsciously forgetting the absense of his left hand. His dad, almost a second before Zach stops talking, is already looking at the door with a slight frown on his face. Zach scowls, recognizing things for what they are.
"Wait here," Zach says firmly, reaching for the short sword that has not left his side since he left Metro, excepting where airline regulations forced the issue. Clipping it to his belt for ready use draws looks of concern from both Mr. and Mrs. Glen. "I don't /think/ there's trouble, but I'm not about to let my guard down for this person."
Zach opens the door before the first chime dies, and Zach looks at Ayame, his face unreadable as he takes in the outfit. "Huh," Zach says after a moment. He's not entirely sure about the outfit, but it's far more presentable than he would have guessed from the young lady.
"Zach," his father says, just behind the fighter. "Why don't you invite her in?" Zach glances over his shoulder. "You know who she is," Zach says. "Are you sure?" Zach's father, who looks a lot like how Zach might in about twenty years, simply nods. "It's supposed to rain, and it'd be rude to leave her out on the doorstep." The older man regards Ayame for a moment. "Besides, I don't think she's here to start trouble with you." He seems very certain of that, although there's no telling why that'd be.
Zach stands aside, opening the door wider. "Please," Zach says. "Come on in."
At the opening of the door, Ayame looks down from gazing at the sky to take notice of Zach, her expression shifting from contemplative to a distressingly bright, sunny disposition, smile beaming, eyes half-closed as she clasps her hands in front of her cants her head to the side a little, "Good afternoon!" she greets before bowing once quickly.
Her mouth twitches for a moment, lips forming an almost inscrutible smirk, "Hey, don't give me that look! I just wanted to blend in better with this blissfully sheltered hometown of yours better." Brown eyes flick to the older man as he speaks of inviting her in and her smile returns in a flash. "Nn, nn," she nods in firm agreement about being invited in but otherwise remains quiet for the deliberations.
Her eyes widen at the mention of not starting trouble, but it's hard to say if it's a reaction of surprise or amusement with the way she continues with that uncharacteristic smile.
"Don't mind if I do," she replies as Zach steps aside admitting the girl as the discussion ends up resolved in her favor, it seems. As she moves forward, it becomes clear that the backpack she's wearing hangs low, shoulder straps digging into her shoulders. Whatever she's carrying weighs more than she's letting on.
Right hand lifts to her forehead, snapping a two-fingered salute toward the father of the house, "Mr. Glen." She breaths in deeply then exhales, "Smells delicious and decidedly not like the cesspool Metro became. Though I wonder... it's not like that anymore afterall." she considers, glancing between Zach and his father, expression dimming some as she seems to shift to considering the two of them.
Finally she shifts her focus entirely to Zach himself, "What are you even doing here? Don't you have more to get done? I suppose you got those students out before the city went supernova but that doesn't mean you've saved the world yet." She shakes her head, closing her eyes for a moment, "I don't know if we can count on Mister Rust this time, he's too busy trying to get his passport squared away in a country undergoing a bit of a political re-imagining... those I guess you know about that well enough already, don't you."
Zach's eyebrow twitches as Ayame is, well, Ayame. "Please, sit down," Mrs Glen says as she brings out, of all things, tea and cookies. She sets them down as Ayame asks what Zach's doing in Cleveland. Three sets of eyes turn to Zach for an answer.
"Stopover," Zach finally says. "I had heard about Metro's... pheonix impersonation, I guess you could call it, and fingured it might be related to what brought the storms on. "I need to arrange a way to get in, though, the city's still cordoned off the last I had heard."
"
Ayame perks immediately at being invited to sit down, shifting the backpack from her back and putting it down besides the seat, arm stressing for a moment to keep it from thunking hard, swiping a cookie from the plate before it is even completely set down. A bite, chew, and swallow follows, "Hm, hm," she considers contemplatively, offering no further commentary on the proferred dessert as she takes another bite.
Her elbow goes to the table, her cheek propped against her left hand as she watches Zach then. "A Phoenix, eh..." she remarks before taking another bite. Her expression sobers, tone softening slightly. "That might be apt to say if the city had been reborn anew, better and fresher than it had ever been." She taps her cheek with a finger on her left hand. "But if you're really going to go there I believe you'll find what has hatched from that city's rubble is not quite so magestic."
Falling quiet, she glances to the east as if considering the nightmare city born of the tyrant's imagination before glancing back at Zach. "But, yes, you aren't going to just walk in past the 'Welcome to Metro: Sane Population of Zero' to get back in there, that's for sure." She grins faintly then, still tapping her cheek as she studies Zach. "You haven't killed yourself with the toy I left you with last time, I see. So..."
She breaths in then exhales a little, mouth forming a faint, judging frown, "I hope it comes as much a shock to you as it does to me that for once I think you might be right about something. The erasure of the city only to have it surge back in its current form is almost definitely related to the powers behind these worldwide disasters. But even if you are actually right, what are you going to do about it there? You're a bit short handed for being the front liner you always have been in the past."
She quickly lifts her right hand and waves it, having finished the cookie she was holding. "Now, now, I know what you're thinking." She closes her eyes before contininuing, "'Ayame, someone as generous, wonderful, and benevolent as yourself would surely help me out in my endeavor to right all the evils in the world and wrest power out of the hands of whatever inhuman monster commands there...'"
She opens her eyes again and half-shrugs, smiling again, "And normally you wouldbe right, because that certainly sounds like me. But I have other things that need doing that don't involve getting destroyed by whatever monster you're going to run into in there, so you'll have to make due on your own, as hopeless as that undoubtedly is."
Zach's laugh is a short, bitter bark of a laugh. "Because that is /totally/ you," Zach says. He frowns, and sits down across from Ayame, reaching for a cookie. "And yeah, the glider was probably the most fun ride I've ever been on," he says truthfully with a nod by way of thanks. He frowns at the cookie before popping the treat in his mouth.
He then looks down at his hand, and his wrist. He takes a deep breath.
"Two hands or one," he says firmly, "It's still better than none at all. And I can't reach anyone, so I don't." He looks back up at Ayame. "That's where I'm supposed to be," he finally says. "Something tells me that Metro's my place to stand. Call it a hunch. Call it intuition. If can go with people I can trust, great. If not, then I'm still going to go." He takes a cup of tea, and sips.
"I'm still going to ask for you help," he finally says as he stands up. He jerks his head towards the back of the yard. "Though I'll only ask you to go as far as the back yard."
The visitor is quiet as Zach settles across from her and reiterates his intentions. As he speaks, Ayame leans her head back and forth slightly as if silently considering something on her mind. She doesn't react to the comment about the glider with more than a single wave of her right hand as if dismissing the subject all together - thanks doesn't seem to be something she's interested in.
"Hmph," she grunts when he declares he is still going to go to Metro in spite his wounded condition, her cheek still propped on her left hand as she watches him sip at the tea. "Recklessness like that is what got you to where you're at now. There's only so many limbs you can lose before you'll be stuck crawling along the ground in your ridiculous pursuit of self-sacrifice."
Sitting up a bit more straightly, her hand strays to the right breast pocket of her untucked white dress shirt, pauses, then moves away as if changing her mind about something that she's keeping to herself.
He mentions the back yard and Ayame scowls, pressing her hands against the table and shoving herself to her feet. "I'll see about that. Yard work isn't exactly in my career path, ya know."
She pauses to heft the backpack up to her right shoulder before releasing a sigh, the scowl fading as quickly as it had appeared as she looks ready to follow.
This gets a genuine laugh from Zach. "I know what you mean," he says as he shoves the sliding porch door aside, walking out into the yard. "Here's what I want from you," Zach says, "The information that I suspect you were here to give me anyway," Zach's feet slide into a comfortable but ready stance. Ayame might be reminded of earlier encounters with the psion, before he learned how to box.
"The other one, and I'm betting that you'll like this one," he says with a grin. "I want you to try to beat the crap out of me." Golden energy slides over Zach, ruffling his hair slightly as it does so. "Neither of us are really sure I'm up to this."
COMBATSYS: Zach has started a fight here.
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Zach 0/-------/-------|
Ayame moves forward as Zach opens the door out to the backyard, casting a glance over her shoulder toward the young man's parents, giving them a neutral, studying look as if curious about their thoughts on the path their son has taken. After a few seconds of this pause, she looks forward without a word and steps outside. A deep breath is taken then exhaled again. Compared to the stentch of Metro or the suffocating ash of Southtown, this breathable air is perfectly idealic.
She leans her head to the side a bit, hand going to her hip again, "What makes you think I'm here to tell you anything. Maybe I just happened to be in the neighborhood of Nothing-Important-Has-Ever-Happened-Here and thought I would just check in on my dear milquetoast American Friend, Zach Glen."
She stands across from him now, brown backpack slung over the one shoulder, brown eyes studying him more openly now, perhaps already expecting where this is going and making an effort to assess his actual prowess at this point. Take him lightly because of his wound? That remains to be seen.
As he makes his request, Ayame shrugs the backpack off, allowing it to land in the grass with a hearty thunk. "Try? Tch." The girl puts a knee in the grass as she kneels down next to the pack and opens a side pouch. "Very well." she murmurs. A leather bag of half a foot in length is tied to the belt at her waist - her familiar collapsed staff toting pouch. Quietly, she unbuttons her right sleeve and pushes it up to her elbow before fishing a leather and metal contraption that appears to house a now not-so-hidden blade before quietly strapping it on her right forearm, rune-covered blade still retracted.
Another belt is drawn out - this one leather and buckled at the waist - the sheaths dangling from it no doubt housing her metal knives. "At the center of each of the catastrophes were these things some are calling Time Spheres... There was believed to be four of them, but based on current disruptions around the world, it's looking like there might actually be five." Another contraption, this one consisting of a glove and longer wrist guard with a collapsed mini-crossbow, is pulled onto her right hand. Idly she loads it with a single dart, not watching Zach as she fiddles with the assortment of weapons and contraptions she normally has concealed on her person.
Her left sleeve is unbuttoned as Ayame pulls on another black fingerless glove, the wrist guard no where near as long as the one on her right. "The phenomenon in the graveyard of Metro is definitely the result of one of them." She pulls the glove tight with a soft creak of leather and tests the way her fingers move. "I don't know who has it but if you go there, I'm sure you'll find out the hard way."
The girl stands upright then, brown eyes fixed on Zach directly. "But considering what its possessor is doing with it... you should anticipate that it is augmenting their power signficantly. Given the battles that have taken place over these Spheres, it is likely they were already incredibly powerful before they got hold of one."
She pushes her left foot back, digging against the grass.
"Now then -"
Is she going to go easy on him? Not judging by her surge into action without hesitation.
" - I don't intend to get caught in the rain -"
She bolts forward then. After all that prepartion, she doesn't seem to draw a single weapon - for this opening strike it is her body that will serve that purpose, drawing in quickly on Zach, attempting to slide in on his left, bringing her right knee up and trying to dig it hard into his stomach on the side he would be the hardest pressed to defend from!
"So I'll beat you quickly!"
COMBATSYS: Ayame has joined the fight here.
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Zach 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Zach blocks Ayame's Light Kick.
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Zach 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Ayame
Zach slaps down on the incoming knee hard with his right palm, arresting fairly well. "Good," he says. "I ask anyone else, they'd go easy on me out of pity." Zach scowls as he slams his head into Ayame's with extreme force and a hint of Soul Power before throwing a push kick into her abdomen.
Zach uses the opening to draw the Miraitou from its sheath.
"And I can't afford that."
COMBATSYS: Zach equips Violet Miraitou.
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Zach [E] 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Zach's Random Strike.
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Zach [E] 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Ayame
Once she's in motion, Ayame attacks with her characteristic aggressive speed, relying on reflexes, instincts, and a devotion to mastering her chosen implements of combat to get her by. The opening knee strike was clearly a gambit to get in close and try to keep the psychic fighter guessing at her intent in spite his own gifts in combat arts.
Her bare knee is caught by his right hand, a solid defense against a blow that could have left one a bit winded had it connected cleanly. His agile opponent is already correcting, however, right leg snapping down to plant her foot into the grass, body pivoting, anticipating a counter attack but making herself a moving target with a single-minded goal of not being counter-struck by his sudden, and quite unexpected, attempted headbutting.
"I don't want to see face to face with you on anything," she retorts with a quick breath. Her evasion has, perhaps to surprise, brought her to Zach's left side. Whether it is out of ruthless intent to stick to where she thinks he's the weakest or if she is merely driving in the point of where others will perceive him to be the most vulnerable from is hard to say.
Either way, she's already attacking, using her momentum to reach out, hands still bereft of any of the weapons that she'd readied so far as she tries to get a grip on Zach's left arm.
"What will you do-" she wonders out loud while reaching for his arm. If she gets a good grip with both hands, she'll try pulling him toward her, hoping to get the stalwart fighter off balance enough to trip him to the ground. She would retain that hold on his arm if she manages, prying it up backward as he falls, attempting to apply twisting force to the limb at the same time she's attempting to make him kiss the grass! " - when you find the Sphere's holder?"
COMBATSYS: Zach fails to interrupt Medium Throw from Ayame with Medium Strike.
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Zach [E] 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Ayame
Zach pivots, trying to follow Ayame's movements. She's /fast/, and she's vicious. Zach knew that when he asked for it, and the young woman might be surprised to learn that her motivations for her attack choices didn't matter to Zach. Just the fact that he knew for certain that she wouldn't hold back on him.
Zach's father leans against the railing of the porch, a beer in hand and a steady look on his face. Zach's mother looks concerned, though for whom isn't spoken. She also has what appears to be a first aid kit, if the first aid kit had been given gamma irradiated steriods.
The sword moves with Zach, a short brutal arc that attempts to bring the hilt of the weapon down hard on Ayame's left wrist with bone-crushing force. The strike misses, the girl too fast, and Zach gets up close and personal with the lawn. Any reply the psion would have given is bitten off by a grunt of expelled air.
While the weapons maven's most dangerous techniques have always revolved around her use of the weapons she collects so voraciously, her opening attacks are a reminder that the girl has a handle on the fundamentals of brutal street fighting even if there doesn't seem to be a particular style beyond a certain ruthless aggression that Zach is getting to experience first hand.
He'd see her eye flick when he moves to strike with the hilt of the sword in what would have been a painful impact, but rather than flinching it only forces her to pour on that extra miniscule percentage of speed - just enough to slip past the attack - and get the grip she sought. The hard pull and twist is executed with no effort wasted, driving him to the ground hard and making sure he feels more than a painful impact with that two-handed twist of his arm. Perhaps that was why she hadn't drawn a weapon yet - utilizing these more unarmed techniques in her persistent nature of remaining unpredictable.
"If you find a sucker to fight alongside you," she grunts, crouching a little before taking to the air in a short hop at Zach's side, "I would recommend you have them cover your left!"
Possibly helpful advice shouted as she desconds from her short hop - decidedly less helpful, however, is the way she appears intent on driving her heels into Zach's upper back, attempting to land with a crushing stomp that will keep him grounded if he doesn't recover fast enough. If he escapes, she'll end up just crunching her feet against the ground, having to bend her kneeds to brace from the impact before recovering her stance.
COMBATSYS: Zach interrupts Heavy Kick from Ayame with Soul Flare.
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Zach [E] 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
Zach was waiting for Ayame to add to the armlock. The psion whirls onto his back and swings his left arm around. The arm holds nothing, and might have connected with Ayame in a fairly meaningless flailing strike. However, the arm was just an aiming tool of sorts.
Just as Ayame's feet land on his chest, Zach fires a point-blank burst of Soul Power into Ayame's upper body. He slowly drags himself to his feet, shaking cobwebs loose, recentering himself. He glances quickly at his parents, reading expressions, bearings. Mom's worried. Knowing her, she's worried as much for Ayame as she is for Zach. Dad, however, is either not worried at all, or understands what Zach is doing and why. And waiting to see how it all plays out.
This time his reaction does seem to get the girl to flinch, eyes widening a little as he rolls onto his back. She had hoped to catch him either taking a moment on the ground to recover in a mistaken impression that she would give him any inch of reprieve. Or that he would start to try and get up, making it easy to stomp him back into the ground in the process.
Instead, her feet crack down against his chest at the same time she finds herself at the epicenter of a significant blast of Soul Power. The contest of force does more than enough to mitigate the power behind her stomp and, given her percarious perch in the first place, it's enough to send Ayame staggering back, arms flailing, feet desperately trying to find enough grip against the grass to keep her from falling over all together.
It looks like she just might manage to recover her balance when she finally leans back, right hand dropping, pressing against the ground to keep her from slumping down the rest of the way. Teeth grit as she bites back the flare of pain from the potent psychic blast, her eyes stay fixed on Zach now that he has a chance to recover after their violent exchange.
"Tch," she hisses, finally regaining her breath after the pain numbs enough to focus again. She's on her feet warily, hands slipping down to her belt now. "Guess you still always have that option..." It is a strong equalizer, left hand or no.
The girl closes her eyes for a moment, unusually contemplative, as of weighing her next option for longer than she normally does in any fight. Making up her mind, her hand drops to her staff pouch as her eyes snap open. "No more going easy on you." Knowing her, she wasn't in the slightest, of course. The small pole drawn, a slip of her finger, a small spark of chi, and the staff shoots out to its full six foot length, crimson hued energy coursing along its surface.
Gripping the weapon in both hands, she leans forward, preparing her charge. "It's a good thing your mother has a first aid kit prepared..." She bolts forward then. "You're going to need it!"
From a yard out, she springs into a twirl, the staff whipping around solidly in the process, the rich red energy becoming a soft cherry-blossom pink. If Zach is unprepared, it might catch him in the upper right arm with crushing force. As Ayame's feet touch down, she would spin in the opposite direction - this time the staff is targeting his left thigh. Each impact, if possible, would be accompanied by a burst of that light rose chi.
Finally, she would complete the motion, turning one last time to bring the back of her staff from behind her, up over her head, and crashing down toward the top of Zach's head with enough force that it is audibly heard blasting aside the air on its way down toward him. The final impact would result in the largest explosion of chi out of the combination technique, countless motes of energy sent flying before they begin to drive down around the two fighters, vanishing from sight just before connecting with the green grass.
COMBATSYS: Zach endures Ayame's Requiem For Fallen Blossoms.
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Zach [E] 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
Zach smirks; Ayame's talking a good fight, as well as fighting one. Everyone watching knew she wasn't holding back from the start. She comes in fast with the staff, and Zach pulls a move she's seen at least one other time. Sheathing his body in a layer of psychic energy, Zach steps forward. Into the strikes. Not blocking or dodging a single one, even though the chi burns through each strike. Zach's dad lets out a low whistle while the son gets in close, ducking his head to one side to avoid a concussion blow.
"I'm not the only one she brought it ought for," Zach says as he drives his left arm directly at Ayame's torso. Another explosive lance of pure Soul Fire lights up the afternoon as it slams directly towards Ayame's sternum!
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Ayame with Pile Bunker.
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Zach [E] 0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1 Ayame
Throughout the whirlwind attack it becomes obvious that Zach's defense in this is a bit less reliant on martial prowess and more on that potent energy he can bring to the fight. The first and second strikes connect solidly enough but both the kinetic impact and surge of chi at each point are strongly imitigated by the counter-force his will provides. Still - a braining to the head hurts no matter how you slice it and the experienced fighter is prudent in avoiding that final bash aimed for his skull, leaving the staff to smash hard into the grass, creating a small divot as greenery and sod are sent flying, accompanied by those countless small particles of rose-colored energy scattering in all directions.
Ayame grits her teeth, having already made plans to deal with Zach's aggressive approach to her attack, but no amount of preparation has her prepared for his left arm's forward slam of pure energy. Her weapon is whipped around to an angle in front of her as she tries to brace for what would have been a physical punch had his fist still been attached there. But the metal can do nothing to ward off the blow, Soul Power colliding with her solidly in the first of the two hit combination.
Gritting her teeth, forgoing the option to defend herself when it becomes apparant that she can't stop the strike, she jams the butt of her staff behind her, digging it into the ground in order to serve as a brace to keep from getting blasted away. Just in time, as well, for the second explosive hit to connect with even more power than the first. A sharp cry escapes her lips inspite her will to the contrary, the girl blasted back, her staff tearing a groove back through the grass before she slides to a stop, kept standing only because of being able to use her staff as a lever.
Pushing herself into a more forward lean, polearm held across the front of her at a defensive angle, she glares back at Zach for a long moment before the expression fades into quiet focus. "That was okay," she finally mutters. "But I'm still standing and... do you have anything left? What if you face someone you can't strike down with that power so quickly?"
Her hands slide to the center of her weapon, the girl breathing in again, eyes closing for two seconds, drawing her focus inward.
It's when she opens her eyes that the trap is sprung. From all around Zach, those countless motes of energy that had been scattered by her previous attack spark back to life, shooting up from the ground where they had been preserved, hidden, waiting, kept alive by the girl's precision energy manipulation. There is enough of them to form a swarm of chi that, albeit not as dangerous as the attack he just powered through, still pack enough of a punch to be a threat.
The instant he should take his attention off Ayame to respond to the multitude of chi sparks his opponent is there. Her staff has been split in two at the center, forming two three-foot long sections, each one ablaze with flaring, angry, crimson-hued chi. One blow after another will be delivered in an attempt to crush Zach into the ground. Sometimes she's aiming to hit with the staff segments themselves. Othertimes, the energy concentrates to one end, forming a psuedo-solid weight that adds bone crunching force to the impacts. Twelve strikes in all, six from each side, will be unleashed on the Psychic Hero as the girl attempts to leave him smoldering in the grass!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Zach with Final Solstice.
-+- CALCULATED HIT -+-
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Zach [E] 1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Ayame
Zach's eyes go wide in that 'hey that's cool' way when he sees Ayame break out the three sectioned staff. "Okay," he says, "That's pretty cool!" He's clearly impressed by the gadget she has. Zach tries, in the meanwhile, to block the incoming attack. But there's just too many attack vectors. The chi strikes, the staff blows. Even if Zach had had two additional, fully functional arms, it's not likely he would have been able to prevent the vast majority of the strikes to connect.
Zach's dad sets the beer down. Mom starts to open up the kit, prepared for bruises and burns it seems. Zach wobbles on unsteady feet for a moment, trying to marshal his resources.
Zach reaches for the front of Ayame's shirt with his left arm.
COMBATSYS: Zach can no longer fight.
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Ayame 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Ayame stops Meteor Shoot from Zach with Midsummer Fantasy.
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Ayame 0/-------/------=|
Her assault is relentless, the combination of twelve precision strikes each aimed at reducing her opponent's ability to fight in a decisive manner. When it's finished, the energy coursing along her staff fragments has waned, flickered, and faded, the metal weapons no longer imbued with the steady flow of blood red typically identified with her techniques.
Ayame is breathless, her adrenaline fueled assault having run its course. For all her talk it's beyond obvious that she can't keep this up for much longer herself - the short, brutal fight between the two of them has taken its toll and even as she finishes the last swing, there is a stagger in her step, a slump of her shoulder as she looks close to toppling forward herself. Whether there is satisfaction in the success of her attack would be impossible to read - a rare flash of raw determination breaks through her emotional mask.
"Nn... not bad."
He can feel it coming - that twist of emotion so precisely controlled as to be dialed in on demand by the strawberry blonde. The smirk.
"For a cripple."
His hand launches forward, the young man exhibition the resolve to take her out along with him as his ability to continue fighting also wanes. But as his hand slams forward, she releases the hold on both of her right staff fragment, slamming her own hand forward to meet his. There is a surge of rose hued chi as Ayame pulls from her reserves of energy to execute one final defense against his defiant attack.
The pink chi expands into a shimmering, flat discus; fine crimson runes ensorceled over its surface just in time for Zach's hand to crash against it at the same time both of the metal staff halves thunk against the grass. Ayame pushes her hand forward, the disk of defensive energy collapsing over her hand, forming a sheath by which she grips his forearm. The exchange isn't painful - simply a firm hold on the end of Zach's arm, just above where his hand belonged before the fated encounter with the madman.
"I think... you'll be fine." she murmurs, maintaining that hold as his ability to stand ebbs rapidly. Her left hand darts to the right breast pocket of her shirt to whip out a small, sealed envelope which she tucks uncerimoniously into Zach's collar before finally releasing her hold and pushing away as she states quietly, her tone somber for a change. "You'll find coordinates inside. If the end comes, make sure to be there before it's too late."
Crouching, Ayame picks up her discarded staff segments and restores them to the full lengthed configuration. "Otherwise... mn... If you get your hands one a Time Sphere, be careful. The effect they can have on anyone, even the strong of will... well, I'd rather you didn't get a turn at being the monster. It would be disappointing." She backs up to the pack left on the grass and begins to disarm the weapons she had strapped on for their fierce exchange, stowing them back into the pack one at a time.
"If you do get one, well," the corner of her mouth flicks into a faint but reserved smirk, "I have to come take it from you."
Hefting the backpack up to her shoulder, she turns toward Zach's parents, lifting her right hand to her forehead to offer them both a two-fingered salute. From her left pocket she pulls out another cookie that she secured at some point before leaving the table and takes a victory bite. "These cookies were deemed to be of excellent quality. Thank you for the hospitality."
Zach's dad raise his bottle in salute to Ayame. Zach's mom, however, bars Ayame's path out of the yard. "Sit," she says in the tone of a doctor who is not taking any crap. She brings the kit to bear, pulling out some cold packs. "Jack, dear," she says to her husband. "Get some bananas and a pitcher of water, please." Jack does as he's asked; his wife is in doctor mode, and he's not about to mess with her on this. "Here," she says, plying the readied cold packs, "Put these where he hit you. It should help."
Ayame may or may not recognize the first aid methods, which are not at all different from treating someone who has been tasered.
Turning to make for the fence and let herself out, Ayame finds her path stopped by the woman who will not be denied. "Tch, out of the way, I have to-" she begins to retort at the obstruction only to stop short, eyes widening at the order given, "t-to get going..." she mumbles out a lot less defiantly as she slumps down into a seated position, shrugging the heavy pack off to her side, looking just a touch sulky.
She takes the proffered ice pack with a surprised blink, "No, no, really I'm fine," she protests even as she does exactly as she's told to the letter. That doesn't mean she isn't going to glower about it though. Because she's definitely glowering.
After a solid minute of these attentions, the forlorn visitor finally casts a glance toward Zach with an expression that can only be interpreted as a conflicted blend of petulance and a desperate cry for help: DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!
Jack comes out with the bananas, a pitcher full of ice water, and an empty glass. The glass is filled with cold water, and handed to Ayame before Jack takes a banana off of the bunch. "You're going to have to excuse Zach," Jack says politely, "He really gets into his work." He hands the banana to Ayame, "Eat up. The electrolytes will help."
Zach, meanwhile, starts to get up off of his back with a slow wince. He sits up just in time to see Ayame in the closest thing to panic mode he's ever seen her. There's a faint grin on his face as he tries to gather his legs under him. He sheathes the sword still in his right hand. How he managed to keep his grip on the weapon may defy explanation. After a long moment, the psion finally stands on his own two feet. He slowly walks over to the porch when his mom guides him firmly to the other lawn chair, breaking out more ice packs and some bandages. She goes to work as soon as Zach has his shirt off. The young man knows the drill. Scars run across his upper body and upper arms. One notable scar, a fist-sized mass of scar tissue lies dead center of his chest. It's promiment among them, but perhaps a bit faded with time and distance.
He smiles faintly at Ayame, "You might as well let them help. You're going to need your strength as much as I need mine. Besides, I had a question for you. Didn't get a chance to ask before." He pulls the piece of paper out of the envelope and reads it quickly.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has ended the fight here.
Ayame takes the proffered banana and begins eating it dourly, not moving from where she's sitting only shifting her focus from the unwanted but probably needed attentions to watch Zach as he moves to the other chair and settles down nearby. She's quiet as the young man receives attentions from the caring woman, eyes glancing over his muscled and scarred body with a certain detatched tone of analysis, as if memorizing where every lasting wound is located as if to exploit it someday in the future.
At his smile, however, she looks away with a faint scowl yet shows no signs of barging out either. The paper he studies indicates a pair of cooridinates, likely longitude and latitude, and nothing else. "Don't lose it," she remarks idly while looking away, likely having deduced what he was doing by sound alone.
She's quiet when he mentions having another question that their short but brutal fight left no room to get out in the slightest. "Nn," is the only acknowledgement he gets after several long seconds, an invitation to continue his thread of thought, perhaps.
Zach is still as the cold packs go down over the worst of the chi burns while he commits the coordinates to memory. "Are you still working for Ryouhara?" he asks after a moment. "I think he might be interested in what's going on in Japan. It... fits what he tries to do." He takes a glass of water for himself and sips at it.
"The whole 'uplift through turmoil' thing, I mean." Zach frowns, thinking back to the conversation at the airport. "Or at least that's what 'Empress Honoka' thinks she's after. I'm not entirely certain. She certainly /thinks/ that's what she's trying to do, anyway."
At his first question, Ayame doesn't look back toward him, still staring off to the side, face elevated slightly, enjoying perhaps the view of skies not yet ravaged by the storms or ash of the other places she's had work to do as of late. He mentions Japan and the upheavel rocking the nation to its very foundations.
"Is it?" Ayame asks, picking up on the reference easily enough - China still bears the scars of the Second Jinchuu to this day in spite efforts to whitewash the event from history, leaving the first question unaddressed. "How many did he kill, I wonder..."
She shifts in the seat a little. The lawn chair, while comfortable, isn't exactly the most dignified circumstances to conduct dialogue of any merit, in her mind, but it also beats trying to stand back up.
"Empress Honoka. Hah." Ayame sounds amused at that. "Who cares what she does? Ants fighting over crumbs while gods are shattering the world." She finally looks at Zach more directly, studying him for a long moment, leaning against the arm rest of the chair. "Truth is, I'm surprised she ejected you so easily. How many did /she/ kill, I wonder... aiming to be history's vindicator. Who is she uplifting, exactly? A government takeover is always fueled by someone's blood - does that blood not cry out for vengeance in return? No... I do not think he would be interested in the spineless surrender taking place. No worthwhile change will come from that."
The girl shrugs slightly, sinking back into the chair, losing the brief vigor that spurred her response. "Burning down relics like a tantruming child is hardly the best resume builder for a benevolent ruler; but a tyrant...? Perhaps."
Zach shrugs, getting a light slap on the top of the head and an order to stay still from his mother while she tends to his injuries. Zach blushes slightly at this, but stays still. "I was already on my way out of the country," he replies. "I had heard about Metro's... return, as it were. Knew that was where I had to be." Zach snorts.
"She as much as gave me her blessing at the airport," he says, in a tone of dry amusement that he may be borrowing from Ayame, "Probably because it would be one less person with 'pure fighting talent' in the country to oppose her. Which makes sense. SouthTown's going to give her fits."
Zach nods once, "And yeah, I think that's what he tries to do with these Jinchuu things. Nothing else really fits. Look at where he held both of those incidents. Nothing to gain, in terms of resources or territories. He was gone from both of them /well/ before they ended, almost as if he got what he wanted out of them. And he always seems to drag the newer talents into these things, as if he wants to test them out or something."
Zach is generally an energetic, passionate man, willing to charge headlong into the most dire of situations. It doesn't mean he's stupid, just a bit less than sane. Or heroic, depending on your outlook.
"I see," Ayame replies regarding Zach's departure, motivations, and parting interaction with the new wouldbe Empress, her tone bearing no particular bias toward judgement or accepting of it in the slightest - just an observation that she heard him.
He tries to reason out the First and Second Jinchuu and Ayame remains quiet. The first she only knows of from the writeups, reports, rumors, and some data mining done after the fact, but as to the full story, she doubts not even those who were actually there know everything behind it besides those who planned it in the first place.
Ayame kicks to her feet suddenly, crouching down to heft the heavy backpack to her shoulder. "Yes, so would seem," she remarks after a moment, responding to Zach's observation. "Is that the same progress you see in the new Empress of Ezo? Or is she back to calling it Japan now?" The girl shrugs, adjusting the shoulder strap on her right and pulling up the shoulder strap into place on her left before grunting.
"Hard to keep such small details straight. You already know it doesn't matter compared to the path you are already on." She pauses, head canting to the side slightly, eyebrow raised just a notch as if to see if there was anything else on Zach's mind.
Ayame gets no protests from any of the Glens when she starts to prepare to leave. Zach nods, "Without knowing how things started out for Ryouhara, I can't really compare the two. She's still consolidating things. I think, with the Jinchuu tournaments, Ryouhara already had his sphere of control in place." Zach's mother backs off with a slightly exasperated sigh as Zach stands to face Ayame.
"And clearly, I knew. It's why I didn't throw down with her right there in the airport. Hard to stop the end of the world from the inside of a prison cell. Or a grave." He heaves a sigh, and extends his right hand toward Ayame. "But we both should be about things. Godspeed, Ayame."
Ayame regards Zach quietly as he stands up out of the seat. It seems he's recovered quickly, she observes, though she didn't expect any less, especially with the experienced help of a mother that seems to know something about getting people through a rough scrap.
It's only when he extends his hand that he gets a reaction from the girl besides quiet staring, Ayame flinching at the gesture to the point of almost recoiling, eyes on his hand - expecting some kind of attack? Or just not really sure what to do with the sporting gesture of good will?
She side glances toward Zach's parents before eying his hand again, then rubs her right hand against her skirt as if just idly brushing at it but really seems to be stalling for time. "Ah, right," she murmurs awkwardly, finally darting her hand to grip Zach's and quickly shake it once before retracting it as if his grip was some kind of death touch.
Her hand withdrawn, she runs it through her hair once, rubbing the side of her head as she nods toward Zach's parents one last time, "Well then," she mumbles, turning, shifting the backpack one last time, then makes for the fence to get back to whatever work has her so occupied!
Zach's grip is sure, firm, but does not try to prevent Ayame from pulling back. He mostly offered the hand because A) it's the polite thing to do and B) Zach wanted to see how she'd react to it.
Noone prevents Ayame from leaving. Basic first aid having been administered, Kate Glen had no good reason to make her stay. Plus Zach mentioned they both had business to attend to, and she had to respect that. Jack Glen leans back against the porch rail, watching Ayame leave with calmly analytical eyes. "There's a girl not used to trusting anyone," he comments before taking a pull of his beer. "I wonder why she trusts you."
Zach snorts, grabbing a beer from the cooler his father brought out. "She trusts me to screw things up, maybe," he says irritably as he opens his bottle. Jack just laughs as Zach takes a sip of his beer, the younger man glaring at his father. Kate cleans up the mess from the bandages, cold packs, and bananas with a bit of a smile on her face.
Log created on 13:35:42 09/27/2014 by Ayame, and last modified on 23:22:24 09/27/2014.