That's Me in the Corner (Ch. 4 Ending) [Ace]

NPC · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:48 am

The command center looked like a warzone. A big section of floor was charred, warped and sagging, as if partially turned to slag. Smoke was billowing up through the glowing, yellow, cylinder-shaped isolation field, which flickered occasionally, but dutifully hummed along, doing its job for at least a little while longer.

Ugly as it was, living bodies rained off the tower-like command center platform, propelled out of the isolation field by the blast. They plummeted to the distant metal floor below. Seven's bomb in that comparatively small area was overkill, no question. The power was so much that even his own cover didn't protect him fully; the black-clad troublemaker lay under a bent, shredded, fully-blown-out computer terminal, which appeared to have been torn out of the floor and knocked over atop him, partially pinning him down.

Seven sat up tenderly, clutching at an arm, grimacing, and looking entirely worse for wear in every possible way. He nonetheless lifted the console enough to pull his leg out from under it, rolled over face-down, and pushed himself up onto his knees with considerable effort. He appeared to be experiencing some mix of pain and satisfaction, and coughed every time he started to laugh, and winced behind his grins.

"... Biometric analysis interface ready," said the computer's voice. The system was somehow still operable. A probe-like structure with a single, glassy-looking lens on the underside extended from the distant ceiling above, and began projecting a circle of blue, grid-lined light that encompassed the command chair and a space of twenty-five feet around it on all sides. "Please approach the center of the platform."

Across the platform, by the simple fortune of already being knocked flat after his brutal, shrapnel-filled, explosive run-in with Desmond's friendly-fire grenade, much of the sheer force of the blast passed over Ace. More than insult to injury, it was just plain injury to injury, as it had quaked the floor, blasted intense flames across his body, rolled and skidded him, and ultimately propelled him to the platform's edge, only to leave him mere inches from the isolation field.

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Greens · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 8:14 pm

"...ugh."

There came a noise amongst the wreckage. Weak. Almost not even there. But it persisted.

"...uurrnhngh."

Ace was a crumpled up little ball of foul, burnt smelling fur, tattered clothes, and wounds that were almost certain to leave a few impressive scars. He was charred, and bloody, beaten and battered. It was a wonder he could even stay awake... let alone grip his fist tight enough to shake it.

"...hhrrrrrrhh...!"

The first sign he actually felt of his own consciousness was the gnashing of his own teeth. Not long after, he was writhing, even squirming on his stomach, forcing his own body to wake the Hell up.

"RRRRAAAAAAAUUUHHH!"

Suddenly, Ace's fist slammed itself on the floor beneath him, and the rest of his body soon rose on his fist and knee. Suddenly, he felt like his blood was emptied from his body, and replaced with liquid steel. He felt like he could stand up straight, and he felt like he could carry a medium-sized car in each hand. He felt his footsteps slamming into the floor beneath him. He felt his eyes bore into Seven's forehead. But more than anything else?

He felt mad.

NPC · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:08 pm

Seven jumped upright and ready only to fall backward and start scrambling in reverse, away from Ace with a look of surprise. One hand clutched his stomach while the other drew the machinepistol hanging from his thigh holster and leveled it at the cat.

He squeezed the trigger. The muzzle flashed and flared as a volley of pistol rounds were blurted out in fully-automatic fire.

Greens · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:49 pm

But before the boy could even steady his aim quickly enough to land a steady shot, up whipped the hand of Ace, who would have none of it. It didn't even seem to be the average card so much as it was a flash of blue-white sliver at Seven's hand. But it wasn't effortless-- his posture was hunched over and struggling. He may have even stumbled slightly as he did it. Even so, the cat's bright blue eyes glowered at him from a dark place as he raised his hand... and beckoned to him.

"Get up," he said simply.

NPC · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:54 pm

The gun flew from Seven's hand with the harsh, jarring shock of impact of the energized card, and he winced.

With one arm not really cooperating, Seven had to roll to his good arm's side to heave himself back up to his feet. As soon as he did, though, he went for his knife.

Except for some reason, he didn't draw it. A second thought seemed to blip through his mind, and instead, he squinted a little, leaned back on his rear foot into a lower stance, and put up his fists. One sagged well below the other due to his injury, but the posture was obvious: he was suggesting finishing it the old-fashioned way.

"Bring it, kitty-cat," he slurred with a dirty little grin.

Greens · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 8:29 pm

He might've been an unrepentant, cruel, snide little brat with a messiah complex and the worst fashion sense since Eggman decided to wear tights, but Ace couldn't fault him for not being able to take a hint. It was one thing to take Seven down, but another to do it in a way that shattered any and all notions of his own monstrous ego. And while he appreciated that, the last thing he wanted to hear was that little turd's voice. Seven wouldn't have the chance to say anything beyond "kitty--" before said kitty hurled the right cross from Hell-- a heavy-knuckled, hip-twisting, thick-fingered, lip-splitting, muscle-busting brick of raw power-- into the boy's held up wrist.

NPC · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 8:38 pm

Fwoof.

Seven was not going to challenge anyone to fisticuffs when he was injured, disadvantaged, and still had a weapon of any kind on his person. Anyone who fell for his taunts may have deserved what they had coming. When the cat attacked exactly, predictably as Seven had goaded him to, the boy shrank back from the strike, double-faked, and zipped off to one side in a full-tilt run, as fast as he could muster, toward the waiting circle of light at the center of the command center platform.

He wasn't quite as fast as he usually was, though. The fighting, the pummeling, the explosions, and everything in between had taken their toll on him. While he was still a speedy brat, it still wasn't anywhere near his maximum potential. Nonetheless, Ace had only seconds within which to act and save the day.

Greens · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:03 pm

"Hrrhh."

To his credit, that might've worked if Ace were anyone else. But he was still him, the man with the impeccable aim. But cards were too good for Seven, so instead, Ace sprinted in the same bee-line Seven made, scooped up a chunk of floor about the size of his fist, and hurled it at the boy's tailbone, making long, if limping steps in his direction.

NPC · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:08 pm

The loose piece of hefty, jagged metal flooring Ace slung at Seven hit the mark close enough, and with good power; the boy yelped in surprise and pain, buckling back at the waist, tripping, and falling inelegantly in a very short roll across the floor.

Needless to say, he was quick to try to scramble up again, and, anticipating Ace overtaking him, reached for his knife.

Greens · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:07 pm

There it was, the moment of opportunity. The do or die moment... or both. Putting all his pain aside, Ace leaped on the boy hands-first, like a beast to its prey, scrambling for something to grab hold of, his shirt, a clump of hair, his shoulder, whatever. Anything available that he could put the pressure on. And if-- no, once he did, off the ground Seven would go, lifted into the air like Ace wanted to show him off, only to be turned around, and slammed back to the ground facefirst, facing a full 180 degrees away from the command center.

NPC · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:08 pm

Ace's tenacity and quick action met with success; Seven was successfully pounced upon and hoisted aloft, uncomfortably, to boot. Ripped off the floor partially by his hair, and partially by a bit of his synthetic shirt at his waist, he nearly fumbled his knife as he was turned, and then—

*Pow.*

—did fumble it when he was body-slammed back onto the hard metal. He was left dazed.

Greens · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:26 pm

The serval placed a hand to the boy's shoulder and flipped him like a burger patty on his backside, already crawling over him, pinning him under his own weight with his legs resting on either side of him. "You," he growled.

Ace punched him in the stomach.

"You think you're on top?"

Then, with his left hand, he pressed Seven's head down, while his right punched in the same place again.

"You want survival of the fittest?!"

Just to throw him off, he punched him twice in the jaw.

"Well here it is, you little s**t!"

His left hand threw the human's head against the ground, only for Ace to lift it up again and repeat the action. And then punch him in the ribs.

"HERE'S MY SURVIVAL!!"

NPC · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:36 pm

It was a savage mauling. Seven shielded his face with his hands and forearms even as he was being wailed on elsewhere, not that it made a big difference with the sheer force of the blows. Was that a laugh in there? Whatever the case, one good punch was all it took to break his guard long enough for another to slip through and connect with his mouth directly.

... Yet, even through the struggling, there really was something off about him, because as soon as he got a breath, an opening, anything, he grinned at Ace through his pain.

"You mad?" he croaked, face reddened, blackened, blued, and bleeding; then he spat a gross, red-tinged loogie at the cat's eye, and started to drive punches back with what little strength he had left.

He truly fed off of frustration; as long as Ace seemed angry at him, and as long as he was conscious, he seemed sickly amused, even while in pain and getting beat down.

Greens · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 7:53 pm

Ace's nose twtiched when when the ball of blood and bile made its mark on his cheek (miraculously missing the 60% of his face that was eye), but didn't so much as flinch when Seven threw his first punch. With some decidedly humble effort for someone supposedly so injured, the cat merely caught his fist in his own hand, and stayed it under his chin. When the second punch inevitably came, he gave it the same treatment. And with his fingers already digging into the boy's knuckles, Ace pinned his wrists to the ground, and delivered a swift, but brutal stungun of a headbutt, directly above his nose. In fact, it might've just been brutal enough for Ace to recoil himself, for he rose his own head with a sharp breath. But he still kept his grip on Seven's hands. Until...

"...No," he spat, curling his spine to reach for something behind him. "Not even close. I'm pissed. I am at my wit's f#&$ing end. Do you get me!?"

The hand he kept on Seven wrapped itself around his neck with a frightening tenacity, while the other produced... Seven's own knife.

"And y'wanna know what? When I look back, and when I compare you to all the $%@& I've gone through already in the past month..." He flipped the blade into a reverse grip, and spoke with a deadly, low whisper. Not the kind that you force to sound deep, or scary, but the kind that you can't control. The kind that implies the end of emotion, when fear or hysteria, or animal instinct threatens to take over entirely. "...You don't even rate."

NPC · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:16 pm

It was strange how, even with his life threatened, Seven's own common sense was suppressed. Time and experience had shown that silence and calm tripped him up, even psyched him out; but rage and emotion? They bizarrely emboldened him, and removed all fear.

"Why should I 'rate'?" he gasped out, quiet and strained, but still grinning. He now had a free hand, but he kept it clutched near a wound on his chest for the moment. "Never killed anybody, did I? But maybe it'll make you feel better."

The isolation field blockading the platform flickered and weakened.

That's Me in the Corner (Ch. 4 Ending) [Ace]

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