Of freedom and of pleasure (Ch. 4: Day 4, pt. II) [Finale?]

Greens · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:18 pm

Boy, what he wouldn't have given for a chain-link fence on the playing field right now.

He'd have been a fool to stay on the bee-line to a living power plant when it became evident she was ready for him. The very next step he took, Ace bounded off sideways. Putting his often overlooked jumping skills to a substantial, if more horizontal use, he dove, rolled, and used the motion to set himself up again with his eyes set on where the girl last stood. Almost the entire left side of his body had nearly every hair raised to attention, akin to his eyes-- but the problem was that Jam was suddenly somewhere he couldn't see.

"URH!" The second bolt tore at his blindside like a bullwhip on bare skin. His muscles tightened, both instinctively and involuntarily, and the moment he could, he wheeled around to face her. But he didn't make a move after that; rather, opting to slowly shuffle backwards, with his eyes practically locked on her. He looked strangely intense for someone barely moving a muscle.

MuffinUnsane · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:42 pm

The whole thing had gone under. Ember didn't suspect the whole crew to be singing campfire songs and sharing marshmallows, but this. It was like those few years in high school between sports teams. Over-pumped jocks just looking for an excuse.

Also Jam.

Fists clenched, the bird started her way towards Rock. If he hadn't of showed up then maybe faces would be getting punched in. Instead, Rock had popped up with that smug face of his and it reminded her so hard of Seven. Only Rock had a girlfriend to sic on everyone. By the time she reached him, her hand was starting to smolder. It was less a threat and more of being unable to keep it down. It did make for a nice effect though.

Stopping before him, she stammered out, "You ass.." Taking in a deep breath, she continued her barrage.

"What is with you? You and you damn ego and having to just piss off everyone. No, I don't care why Ace is peeved at you and I don't care. But damn I'm starting to think you enjoy just nagging at people till they explode. Hell, starting to wonder how you're even a step up from Seven."

As she ranted on, the flames grew stronger till her own hand was engulfed. Ember no longer tried to keep it down, after all it was a very useful gift.

psikeout · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:10 pm

"You ass. What is—"

Completely without any manner of tell, within a timeframe of less than two tenths of a second, Rock blurred and launched a heavy-handed, lead-knuckled-glove with his whole upper body into a right cross directly at Ember's chin with wildly excessive knockout power. It would have probably been enough to make Flex sit pretty on the canvas in one shot (in the hypothetical universe where he was ever tall enough to reach Flex in that way), but at the moment, Rock couldn't afford wearing kid gloves with anyone, even Ember.

He didn't look proud or pleased with what he did, but truth be told, he really didn't show any sign that he cared she was a girl. He probably didn't care that she was mad at him, either, as he had maybe spoken to her once. He only knew her as Dim Duffel Bag Girl, and maybe had a name attached to her somewhere in the back of his mind that he didn't care to remember. More importantly, she was standing in his way.

In the way of what? Well, Rock had seen Desmond grab for his rifle. In a single flowing motion in the fraction of a second as he withdrew his punch, the primate yanked one of the odd, high-tech-looking grenades off his own belt, tapped a pair of buttons, and hurled the thing in an underhanded, side-arm motion like he was skipping a stone across a lake. The grenade clanked as it went across the floor at about 90MPH, right at Big's stomach (despite a fleeting glance at Shadow instead as it left his hand).

Rock quick-drew his pistol as soon as the grenade left his hand. Meanwhile, the adjustable timer on the Eggman Enterprises-stenciled grenade had been set to explode two seconds after activation. It'd likely go off an instant after bouncing off Big's gut.

Sheff · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:52 pm

A blast of light occurred on the platform at the spot Rock had been frequently glancing over to, Shadow vanishing in a blink of an eye.

As expected, the black figure reappeared only a moment later... right above Rock.

With his expression into one of cold determination, both of the hedgehog's arms slashed downwards, a torrent of energy erupting from his hands as he unleashed it upon Rock. Not even a second later, his shoes flared, preventing him from losing altitude as he hovered for a brief moment.

In a flash of green, Geoff charged past Ace, nearly glancing off the cat's side as he rushed past, eyes dead set on Jam. Geoff had easily heard Ace's quiet request only moments before, there being a number of factors of why the hedgehog wasn't running on in as backup sooner. Ace's evasive maneuver and Jam's feral approach would be included in that group. Now, though, he was taking the offensive, his target being, of course, the electrified primate. In his hands was held a spear of crystal, thick with the rock that he continuously spawned. His lack of range with his ability would at least be compensated somewhat by this self-made weapon (or so he hoped).

His pace slowed only slightly as he drew nearer to Jam, intending to at least keep track of her movements. The hedgehog swung the spear in a wide arc, his eyes keeping a close track of the monkey. There wasn't much strength thrown into the attack, Geoff merely using it as an attempt to get closer as he waited for her to shift away from it, trying to determine which way she would move. If things went according to the plan in his head, she would find him darting forward to intercept whatever direction she took, his crystallized weaponry, whether it being fists or spear, ready to leave a mark.

Kazz · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:11 pm

Big put up a tree-trunk-esque arm to protect his face from the blast, as the grenade indeed detonated almost immediately after ricocheting off of his impressive belly. If Desmond was planning on keeping on with using the cat for any sort of protective purposes, Big wasn't going to facilitate it. While he wasn't knocked back very far by any means, and he seemed barely scuffed by the bomb, he was still toppled off of his feet and onto his rotund rump. Perhaps, if he were of more combat-oriented mind, he would thank his sumo-like build, the impenetrable wall of fat that protected him-- that probably could have stopped it if Rock had just up and shot him.

Regardless: assuming that either the grenade or his own loss of balance had dislodged Desmond, he slowly pushed himself to his feet again.
He scratched his belly and gazed about. Almost as though he didn't know what was going on, exactly, he blundered his way closer to the scene of the action, un-shouldering his trusty fishing-pole.

Lord only knew what he was planning to do, or if he was planning a damn thing at all.

Mako (meanwhile) was taking things in-- anything going on around him was much of a blur of light and elements. While he had nowhere near the sort of attentiveness or tension that Rock had just a moment before, he was trying to quickly judge everything around him as best he could in what he felt was limited time.

On one hand: Jam; certain doom.

On the other: Rock; also certain doom.

The surge of light that was Shadow's attack, perhaps, caught his attention. Before he really had time to form a conscious thought, acting entirely on some awakened instinct, the shark flung himself bodily in the direction of Rock. A half-baked thought fragment, involving the words blaze of glory, had time to pass across his mind before he haphazardly closed the distance between himself and the paler primate in the same kind of reckless full-body tackle that he had utilized exactly once before-- versus Seven.
There was decidedly less banshee-scream war-cry this time, though.

Some back part of his mind began to idly wonder something wordless about the chances that this would have any effect whatsoever-- or be taken seriously, for that.
Well, at least he didn't have much to lose.

Mie · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:18 pm

But the very thing that made Sheff the ideal candidate for squaring off with the shocking simian was the same thing that rendered him completely unable to touch her in his current state: He was just too bogged down, and she was too fast. To assume that on landing, Jam would stay still long enough to be glared or charged at was to err.

Her featherlight frame (at least it was in comparison to the geode-encumbered hedgehog) was already in the air again, soaring deftly over his thicker-than-usual head, and getting right back on Ace. Her shield was a frenzied mess of electrical discharge, rapidly ionizing a jagged path between her and the cat, before, without so much of a flick of the wrist, yet another bolt zapped instantaneously from the surface of the shield straight to the feline. ... And another. And another. Incessantly. Visually like a wickedly fast, single-pronged Jacob's ladder, it could have been pretty, if wasn't a means to Ace's suffering. Perhaps just a little spitefully, Jam still thought it was.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:13 am

Rock, pistol in-hand, jerked his head skyward to face the flash of Shadow's overhead appearance. The blast came down from above; in a reddish streak, Rock wheeled his free arm's forearm and fist over his head, as if batting something away. There was a visible clash as chaos energy collided with chaos energy, block with blast, the latter dispersing around the primate down a visible, dome-like distortion in the air over his head. He was pressed down by the force, barely steadying himself into a very low, wide stance with a hastily-shifted foot.

Immediately, he returned fire from his CE pistol.

Both shots were flyers and went several feet off mark, whizzing harmlessly past the hovering black hedgehog as Rock's focus and aim were broken before he could even squeeze the trigger because Mako, of all people, was —"DAMNITMAKO"— crashing into him.

Running into Rock was a less pleasant experience than Seven because there just wasn't much give, but even still, that much sharky determination and inertia could not be shrugged off, and there came about as a result an awkward, staggering, twisting mess of stumbling as Rock fought to stay upright and got his legs gracelessly tangled up in his tackling attacker's. He ended up shoving away from the plucky shark and break-rolling away into a crouch to the side with a heavy thud and clank.

Nuzlocke Griff · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:57 am

The grenade skidded on the ground at almost impossible speeds, well either that or he hadn't seen such a furious throw of a grenade in a while. Grabbing the large cat by the head he pressed off with the giants chest with his working leg, back flipping in a back to back position with Big. As the effect of the grenade subsided he sort of threw himself off of the big guy, stumbling a bit as he almost lost his balance.

"So you wanna play games huh?" he growled as he plucked his own grenade from the back of his jacket, quite a risky (or stupid) maneuver since being shot in the back during his earlier ordeal could have ended with him exploding in a blaze of glory. Firing two shots at the monkey temporarily downed by Mako, one slightly above him and one directly at him, he tossed the grenade at his female companion in a similar skipping-stone fashion, just not with as much power. The grenade went skidding in the pinker primates direction, hopefully, hitting or taking out her shield.

Kazz · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:01 am

It worked. (For a given value of 'worked', but now was not the time for splitting hairs.)
...
It had worked and he hadn't died.

Even though he was past the point of airing such an incredulous thought, Mako couldn't stop it popping to mind, even as his body all but went numb as he contacted with the monkey, the effect lasting until well after he was shoved away. He tripped a little over his big ol' tail as he stepped backwards, but kept his balance surprisingly well. He let out a deep exhale.
If he had much more hair and no sense of self-preservation, the shark mused inwardly, thinking back to the incident in the bar, he might have fancied another full-body run at Rock. He was not so. ... but he began to rush at the monkey again anyway, without so much as a second thought. Possibly without even a first thought, just acting on that same stupid instinct that drove him to dive at the questionably-stable simian the first time.

Or, he was moving towards Rock again, until Desmond's ammunition-based actions came into play, which resulted in the startled shark gracelessly stumbling and tripping. He caught himself from hitting the floor entirely, down in a kneeling crouch, but he wavered slightly.

"Oh, dammit," he said, low-toned, with a look over in the ferret's general direction.
...
He quickly corrected himself, remembering what he should focus on. He stumbled to his feet very, very quickly, keeping his eye back on Rock, and backing away slowly.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:17 am

By the time Desmond dodged the blast of Rock's own grenade, dropped safely off of Big and stumbled, quipped a one-liner, pulled out his own grenade, and went to sight Rock up with his rifle, circumstances would no longer be the same. Rock was not going to sit there on the ground for that length of time, and probably wouldn't be able to with Shadow there, ready to follow up. Regardless of what happened, he was in motion and back in action no sooner than his roll completed.What that particular "action" entails depends on what Sheff follows up with in his next Shadow post, as Shadow is the one most advantaged to continue attacking Rock at the moment. This post was merely written so that he (or anyone else) wouldn't have to wait to see what happened to Rock before proceeding.

MuffinUnsane · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:12 pm

The punch was more than enough to bowl Ember over. Tumbling back, she laid still for a moment. At first, she felt nothing but it didn't take long for her body to react. Her entire head felt like it had been run over, with the jaw getting most of the pain. A hand shakily felt the spot that hurt the worse. The small crack she had received recently was now larger.

Through the pain, rage flooded through her. Her face. One of the best things she had about herself was ruined. All Ember wanted right now was to fry that monkey.

Pushing herself up, she managed to balance herself on two legs. With the anger came energy.

Not even bothering with words, she rushed the monkey as he moved. Her aim was to knock him off the platform; after all a monkey didn't have wings. Fist in flames, she would pounce on him and aim her lit fist on whichever body part came first.

Greens · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:34 pm

Ace watched with attentive eyes, Jam's restless pursuit of... him. It was around this time that he realized there really was no quarter to be found here, if the tumbled form of Ember was any hint. It sounded odd, but that's what really ticked him off enough to things seriously... for whatever that was worth. When the opponent is all but immune to his usual antics of 'throw crap at it until it stops moving', things got a little dicey.

The moment he saw her get airborne, he knew what he wanted to do, and he knew he wouldn't like it-- the mark where he'd been zapped on his back was still only now winnowing off its last breaths of smoke, and from the way his teeth grit and his brows twitched, it was already clear he wasn't feeling much better than the hoodie he was wearing. All the same, Ace knew that if he wanted a chance of him getting out of this looking like the pre-cooked bacon he'd eaten this morning, he couldn't spend the fight just standing there and taking it. With that in mind, he launched himself on an intercepting path, diving head-first into the foray of sparks and shocks, and reached out for whatever appendage he could grab on her. Arm, leg, her monkey tail... even the little banana-shaped prongs on her head. And if he managed, every ounce of strength would be put into making her less airborne than she was, and hurl her into the ground where he once stood. He knew about inevitable double jump-- he'd just have to be ready for it.

Sheff · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:39 pm

Rock would only find Shadow rocketing straight towards him, having returned to the floor in pursuit of the monkey. He showed plenty of perseverance in the attempts to take care of his current target, the little emotion that was typically held in his eyes showing that much. Chaos energy glowed around his clenched fists now, and with another swipe of his arm, a wave of the energy slashed through the air towards Rock. However the primate reacted, he would only find the hedgehog flanking him by (you guessed it) teleporting, the flashes of light only separated by a second's notice, Shadow easily traversing the empty space.

A fierce punch would soon make a jab at the gun-toting monkey's jaw, the movement precise and quick.

Geoff was, to put it simply, absolutely failing with his intentions. He was too cumbersome to even get within a foot of Jam, but in order to keep pace with her, he would have to shed his armor... except that would only lead to the complication of being introduce to a literal lightning storm. A proper conundrum that was.

Yet he was forced to watch with an amazed stare as Ace pretty much just threw himself into the thing he probably be best avoiding. The room for failure was disappointing, but Geoff could at least credit the serval for having the proper amount of guts to volunteer his own self to the plights of an electrical field. Perhaps this thought was just enough to have the hedgehog move on forward towards the two, and depending on Ace's success or failure, the former would result in the hedgehog trying to make his own pounce on the pink monkey.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:43 pm

Rock was the kind of guy who would willingly take a hit to make a hit, or just plain get control of a situation. So, when Ember came running in, even with her fiery fist, Rock didn't move to avoid it. He stepped right into her attack and extended his huge hand (his free left one) in the strike's way to grab at the side of her head.

*Paff.* The fiery punch hit Rock's cheek anyway and singed it with a reddened and sooty scuff, but even Ember's full weight running into him didn't budge him. He just yanked to pull her directly into the path of Shadow's energy blast.

*Pow.* Shadow's punch then immediately struck Rock in the side of the face just as planned. No sell. He grimaced with pain, but his neck was so rigid his head jolted only the barest distance. Frankly, the sensation of punching Rock was about like that of throwing fists at a tree trunk wrapped in a layer of rawhide. He was a soldier and a boxer, and while he did not have the arm strength of titans, he was a solid oak from neck to waist.

Rock's instantaneous reply to Shadow was a quick, backhanded pistol whip, which he rotated into and used the same motion to try to shove Ember away again, before—

Gone.

In a flash Shadow would find familiar, Rock disappeared. With Nocturnus warp belt activated, he reappeared instantly — that is, completely and totally without warning — near the top of the stairs a good thirty meters away in a streaking lunge at Desmond that ended in an utterly concussive, chaos-energy-bolstered, ramming, charging, double-fisted overhead strike, like he was genuinely trying to cave the lightweight, demure sniper's skull in. It was the sort of hit that, if it connected with all of its force, had the capacity to send a grown man bouncing off the metal floor.

NPC · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:13 pm

Meanwhile, outside the shield, and far far below, a mysterious lump on the floor twitched.

... Eggman's head snapped up with a start.

"Hckh!"

He was face-down on the floor, where Rock had left him after Seven did whatever awful thing it was he had done. The doctor pushed himself up onto his knees with spidery arms and looked around with spastic jerks.

"... Hmph! They thought they could justaahhhhh, AAH, ow..." He gently nursed a sore spot on the side of his chrome-dome head with a couple knobby, white-gloved fingertips. "Hff. That little... wait. What— No!"

His bearings came back all at once and he leapt to his feet, staring upward at the great tower, and its yellow-energy-shielded topside perimeter.

"Ohhh, no you don't, you little...!"

He went running off with great intent.

Of freedom and of pleasure (Ch. 4: Day 4, pt. II) [Finale?]

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