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 Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:30 pm
Just before Penny had passed out, Kam had managed to wrangle a little information out of her. Part of him had said not do this - not to go behind her back, not to put himself in danger. Then, as he stared down at his exhausted partner with her bruised face framed by pale, wet hair and her body fighting not to curl in on itself because of the pain from all the gashes in her abdomen, logic slowly got swept up in his anger. This was his partner, she was his responsibility, and damn it all, this was his territory that the b***h was stepping in. Precedent said that he should have just drowned his feelings with booze but in that moment, he only had a taste for violence.
That's what had him storming his way through the tiny park near Penny's apartment. Even as a civilian the makeshift patch of dirt and grass wouldn't have deterred him - few things ever did. Instead of shying away from the beaten paths hidden amongst the city's poor excuse for lighting, he was plunging into the shady darkness and making as much noise as he could. The Page of Mars was kicking over tin garbage cans, smashing old warped bench planks with his feet and fists, and generally trying to call all the attention in the world to him.
All he seemed to be doing, though, was causing a few homeless people to curse where they were sleeping next to trees or underneath lamp posts. A few more alert figures shifted and squirmed out of sight, sober enough to realize that it wasn't just any raging man storming through the park. Even if they didn't all have access to TVs, news of the terrorists were in every citizen's mind, and not having direct access to the information sometimes let imaginations run wild. He looked dangerous even without that static feeling cracking around him like a live wire.
Finally, frustrated, Gehenna stopped dead center in a path. He glanced around him, turning in one complete circle, and curled his hands into fists. Maybe he just needed to make his intentions obvious? He could do that.
"Come out, come out, little b***h!" Sure, it wasn't clever, but it was to the point and certainly had a touch of Kam's eloquent nature. If she was somewhere around, she would have heard, and he hoped that she did. These had to be easy hunting grounds for cowards.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:31 pm
Captain Painite couldn't have been more confident. Everything was going so well! Sure, she had lost track of that one little senshi she wanted revenge on, but she had injured her and that was a triumph. If that other male senshi hadn't shown up to save her, she would have been at Painite's complete mercy. The civilian who had helped her, too.
Painite was finding that the feeling of power she got when she was actually winning her fights, when she had control and her opponents were at her mercy, was unfathomable. Truly the greatest high she had ever experienced, and she was quickly getting addicted to it. It boosted her confidence skywards, and her opinion of herself, though never low, was now at its highest. She knew she was capable of anything, and she was going to keep improving. Nothing stood in her way.
So far, the most pointed evidence she had of her growing power and competence came from finding that Page and defeating her. Sending her fleeing through a mucky sewer, bleeding and sobbing! The delight she felt, though strange and new, was something she just had to experience again. She was sure it was a sign. Whatever these Pages were, she wanted to find the whole book of them, and tear them all out one by one.
Clearly, the book metaphor was sticking with her from the fight.
The Captain often went to the parks around town on slower nights to train, and though she had every intention of doing so the moment she powered up she felt compelled to go find a real target to use as a punching bag, instead of the gizmos she often brought with her. She summoned her weapon, pristine now and no trace of use on it, and grinned, just thinking about the last time she had really used it. It was dangerous. She was dangerous. Why not prove it further? So she left her chosen clearing, hiding her work out bag under a bush near a tree, and set out to find another target. Her senses tingled soon enough, and she heard a voice echoing in the air. The energy was different than a senshi! Perfect! She knew it had to be one of those Pages, and that meant another awesome opportunity to add one more win to her mental scratch card.
"Such language!" she called, walking up the path toward him, at his back. Looking at him, he was certainly not what she was expecting. But she couldn't get intimidated yet, and a grin split her face. "There are usually kids around here, you know."
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:32 pm
Ghen had yet to practice this 'aura reading' thing. Chances were, with his quick-to-act, bold attitude that he hadn't even realized they existed yet. He wasn't a planner, he didn't sit around feeling for opponents, he just barreled head first into fights as they presented themselves. Since his power up to Gehenna, everything he'd battled had been youma with really unfortunate timing. That didn't mean Kamboja Vaiphei had never scrapped before, though. Gehenna might have been a little green around the edges, but he had years worth of brawling knowledge from a life as a punk.
When that voice chimed in from behind him, he whirled like he expected a spear right through the back. Minus one, Ghen, for letting some b***h sneak up on you. Despite his score-keeping in his head, he was already giving her a quick glance over. Spear, gears, reject riding outfit - this had to be her. He was already imagining the ten thousand different ways he was going to break her bones apart when she chimed up about his language of all things. He really wasn't in the mood to be scolded, least of all by the woman that had Penny in tears earlier in the day.
"Who gives a ********," was all he said before he rushed forward. He wasn't interested in talking to her, he just wanted to leave a trail of her teeth on the ground from beating her little, snarky face in. Everything about him was pure rage from the way he lunged at her to the snarl on his face. Rage made him reckless, but it also made him dangerous.
Just when he was closing in on her, he pulled back a fist, and aimed to slam it right into her gut.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:33 pm
Painite grinned. She was all for the witty banter, though it didn't seem like he was too keen on playing with her. Some of the senshi she had fought were clever, or thought they were, and provided amusing back and forth with her. This Page, it seemed, was not the same sort. He, in fact, looked very much like he had no funny bone in his body, and had patience to match. Such a serious face. She could only imagine what she had done to deserve it, though she had a very good idea.
She grinned at him.
"Why the long face, Muscles?" she cooed, "get something trapped in that rat nest on your head? Or maybe," she tapped the javelin against her head in an imitation of thought, "you're her on behalf of a friend. A rather smelly, wet, bloody one, if I recall? Running away with her tail between her legs, fear shaking her to her bones?"
So maybe she was projecting what she had wanted Penny to feel from their fight a bit, but she was picking a fight here. No point holding back.
"So what are you? The big tough boyfriend page, come to defend her honor? Get back at me for... oh s**t."
In her banter she hadn't been paying attention to him as keenly as she probably should have, and before she really knew it, he was lunging at her. She saw his fist flash and had little time to react before it struck her in the gut and sent her spilling to the floor, all the air forced out of her lung in one gagging cough. Gasping, unable to draw a proper breath, she rolled to her knees as quickly as she could, looking back over her shoulder with a glare on her face. Serious now.
"How dare you!" She railed, grabbing her javelin and barely pulling herself to her feet before trying to put some distance between herself and him. They were supposed to be the perfect targets. The ones she could fight and hurt and have fun with. They were not supposed to be fast or that strong. Had the other one hit that hard? She had not even thought to compare their relative strength to that of senshi or herself. And this one, of course, was made entirely of muscle and anger. Which added to the problem quite a bit.
She held her weapon in front of her defensively now, knowing she needed to focus instead of get carried away in the fun. It wasn't fun if she lost. Gripping the Spirit of Mr. Saddles tightly, she dared to lunge forward now, swinging the staff first low, for his leg, so she might throw him off guard and bring it around again to hit him high. A simple move she used a lot now, ever since training with Hiro.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:34 pm
Each and every word she spoke had fed into his anger, making it grow like a blazing fire in the pit of his stomach. It coursed through his veins like adrenaline and before he knew it, the Negaverse Captain was flat on the ground and he was standing over her with a smile almost too feral to carry the name. He knew, as he watched her scramble to get to her feet, that she was not invincible. She might have found an easy target in Penny, but he knew she would bleed. She would fall. She could die.
"Then shut the hell up and come at me, b***h." He fell back into a defensive stance then but the same angry sneer still curled the corner of his lips. He didn't want to play this smack talk game, he wanted to play the 'beat the hell out of the Negaverser' game. When she came at him again, he was ready for an attack - just not the right one.
He expected her to use it as a spear after seeing the gashes on Penny's body, but he was unprepared when she swung it down and landed a sharp blow across his shin instead. He stumbled to the side and, if not for the fact that he had spent years among South American cultures who used spears as their primary weapons, he would have been a victim to the second blow. Instead a hand shot out as he saw it whirling back around and he caught it by the shaft. It hurt like a b***h and sent a jolting pain up his arm that almost made him let go from reflex, but he held fast.
Then, with his free hand, he delivered a swift forward punch - right in the direction of her pretty little face.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:35 pm
If there was one emotion Painite hated above all others, it was fear. She was not used to it, and did not want to get used to it. She would prefer it, in fact, if she never had to feel it at all. Most of the time she did a good job of faking her way through scary situations, forcing herself to use her bravado and her laughter to her advantage. It was the same with sadness, in a way. She preferred to be laughing than crying. But with fear? She would take sadness over it any day. She would take anything, in fact.
She stared at him and her heart sank as she digested his expression. He was not like any senshi she had met, that was for sure. Even the ones that had defeated her, made her feel fear before this moment. It had never been like this. But she was a Captain, damn it, and a good one. She was confident. She could do this. Why was she scared of this nobody? This muscle man. She was scared of his size. His stature. His anger? His expression. Superficial things.
It would do her well to remember, to remind herself constantly, that she was stronger than she knew. She was clever and determined. She would not go down because she was scared.
She would use that to make sure she didn't fail.
"You want me to fight you so bad?" She yelled, over her attacks, seeing him stumble and not letting up. She had said something similar to a Lieutenant not too long ago. No relenting. If they were off guard, keep them there. For the moment, the advantage was hers and she had to stay with it. Or else he might get his big hands on her, and snap her like a twig. Of course, the moment she felt his hand grab hold of the spear she knew she was in trouble. Too fast. A tiny truck must have hit her in the face, the force of it sending her senses flying right out of her mind. She crashed to the floor, releasing her weapon as she hit the grass again.
Dazed, she wobbled as her instincts got her to her knees again, but her mind was too fuddled to know where she was or what she was doing. She had to get a grip on herself quickly.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:36 pm
There it was again. That cocky, conceited little sneer that made everything about Kam that much more intolerable. Nothing about him in that moment was nice or forgiving. There was just the confident knowledge that he was winning and he that he could keep winning. He'd avenge Meri now, he'd avenge her and go home to tell her the Captain wasn't half as scary as she thought.
She was good at what she did though, he would give her that. She knew stances, she knew fighting moves, and she had a weapon that could compensate in the areas that she didn't have a perfect handle on. Her problem was that she wasn't trained to fight him. He wasn't some magical brat in a skirt, he was ******** Gehenna - Page of Mars.
He was breathing hard from both exertion and adrenaline, causing him to slow down as soon as she went stumbling. His hands curled around the weapon and he gave it a cursory glance over. It was simple but effective, nothing special or outstanding. It was good for one thing, he knew that, and he was determined to shower her exactly what it felt like to be on the other end of her stick.
"I don't want you to fight," he hissed, stepping up over her where she was still kneeling, dazed on the ground, "I just want you to ******** suffer." He pulled the spear high over his head and aimed it straight down, right for one of her crouched legs. He wanted to make a little butterfly out of her, pinned to the ground with nowhere to go.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:36 pm
Painite was not going to let this guy earn that cocky face he was making. She was going to make sure, in fact, that it was completely unjustified, and he regretted ever looking at her in that way. He thought he was better than her? This was something she had to correct. Something no one ever had the right to think, ever. Just as soon as she got her senses back, of course.
Panic gripped her chest, and she looked up to see him coming near her.
"Suffer? You don't know the meaning of the word!"
She saw the staff in the air. Her weapon. The Spirit of Mr. Saddles. He thought he could ever hurt her with the weapon that saved her life more than once? The weapon that propelled her through her duties, that aided her in everything she did? The extension of herself? He had no idea what he was dealing with. She didn't know how these Page's treated their weapons, though she didn't see an obvious one on him like she had with the other Page, but he was severely underestimating the bond she felt with her own. In fact, seeing it coming down at her, slowly cutting through the air like time itself had slowed down because of his error, she felt relief power through her. It gave her muscles strength. Confidence restored.
She saw a way to fight back.
Lifting her hand as if to defend herself, the staff vanished from his grip, into its subspace pocket, leaving him holding nothing as his momentum brought him toward her. She had her hand positioned already, calling Mr. Saddles right back to her, closing her hands around it and stabbing the Javelin forward at his upper body. She didn't care where she hit him, as long as she did. There was no doubt now, as there hadn't been when she tried to stab the Page before. The idea of killing, the moral weight and the inner discussion, were no where near her mind at that moment. All she saw was an enemy who had earned an introduction to the business end of her weapon.
"But you'll learn the hard way!"
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:37 pm
He felt the staff vanishing, saw it reappear, and it was like time slowed down to show him the error of his cocky ways. It felt like there should have been enough time for him to simply jerk to the side and avoid that gleaming point, but sometimes time was a cruel mistress. His body was locked in place, the fall was going to happen, and all he could do was mentally prepare himself for what he was sure was about to be one of the most painful ******** things he'd ever experienced.
He was right, of course. At least there was still that to gloat about.
His body crashed into the spear from a combination of his own momentum and her upward thrust. The pointed end drove all the way through his shoulder, hooked just under his left collarbone, and sliced it's way out of his back. Blood bubbled instantly around the wound, though the pressure of the spear was holding it together. He knew, probably just as well as she did, that as soon as she pulled that out he was going to be in for a world of trouble.
"Don't make assumptions about people, b***h," it was quiet and hoarse, but even so, he punctuated the last word by snapping his fist up. It was a quick gesture, unexpected, and the last hope he had of making her back the ******** off. It swung out at her almost as soon as his fingers had curled up to form a fist and it struck her, hard, across the temple.
He might have been going down, but he was going to make damn sure she didn't see it. He wouldn't give her that kind of satisfaction.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:37 pm
Painite felt a sudden thrill as her javelin hit flesh. So far, she had only cut and poked with it: she had never stabbed someone with this kind of intent, this kind of damage. She saw a thin trail of blood, the meekest threat of a much larger flow, as it began to flow down the staff, meeting the tuft of hair, from the old Mr. Saddles in his Hobby Horse form, and being absorbed by it. A trip to the internet told her that was what the tuft was often used for. Absorbing the blood of enemies.
Watching it now was incredibly powerful.
She looked up at him, catching his eyes. Hers were soft, bright and sea green but at the moment they were anything but kind or gentle. They were icy, determined, fear replaced by a will to triumph and survive. Adrenaline coursed through her and she pushed forward on the staff, trying to get into a better position, stand up fully and drive him to his knees. She would very much like to see him on his knees before her, at the end of her javelin.
There was something in this fight that snapped a cord in the back of her mind. Whatever happened, if she walked away from this now, she was going to find him again. No. She was going to find the girl again, and make him pay for every slight she felt from him, every cocky look and sneer, every curse thrown her way, and every bruise he left on her body. And she would do that through the other Page, and anything else she could find to hurt this one with.
She hated them both now. They were targets. On a list that had only just been created.
His fist caught her by surprise, and collided with the side of her head with enough force to split the skin. She fell sideways, though her body instinctively remained in battle mode. She didn't lose her grip on her javelin, dragging it, and his shoulder, with her as she fell until it was violently pulled free. She hit the ground hard and stayed there, eyes closed, breathing heavily against the grass.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:38 pm
A breath seized in his throat as he felt her dragging the javelin down with her. He knew what was about to happen before she'd even hit the ground. There was nothing he could do for it and, as it was ripped free and he fought the instinct to scream out as it ravaged an already raw wound, he supposed that it was for the best. Even if it hurt like a b***h.
He couldn't just get up and walk away with a Negaverser's javelin sticking through his shoulder - not after what he'd just seen her do. How would he explain it at the hospital if it just suddenly disappeared from the wound?
Oh, right, the hospital.
He slowly pushed himself back up to his knees, one gloved hand pressed against the wound on his shoulder and trying in vain to keep the blood from trickling out. His dark glove was stained even darker as it poured out, in between his fingers and down the front of his bare chest. His dark skin gleamed darker with it in the poor lighting of the street lamps and the soft wash of the moon's light overhead.
He just needed to get far enough away that she wouldn't find him when he powered down, then he would figure out what to do. He needed to get to the hospital and fast.
He didn't even look back to see if she was stirring yet, he just kept trudging through the darkness, aimlessly winding his way back out to the main road. It was sluggish progress, but soon, he was out of sight of the Captain and her damn weapon.
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