Starring:
Date: July 5, 2014
Summary:
Moe gets a distress call from a few trapped Genin, and fights off the Aces High gang. (Warning: some violent imagery.)
Poster's note: the use of a robot in this scene is out-of-theme with the MUSH and should not be repeated. Foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Aces High roll Snake Eyes"
Some village in the Land of Wind
A team of Genin, investigating some minor acts of vandalism, have been cornered in a warehouse. Luckily, one of them is a Hayato, and has sent off his animal companion to find help. After circling the area, the hawk happened to find a Sunagakure shinobi it believe may be of help: Moe. And so, while minding her own business, Moe suddenly finds herself with an agitated bird of prey jumping around in front of her, poking at the hastilly-written scroll tied to its leg.
Just when Moe was starting to enjoy taking a bit of a break under a small shelter of rock and sand, a bird comes up and starts going crazy in front of her. She blinks a couple times then eyes the scroll, reaching to grab it and open it to read the message from the Genin. "…. Lovely," she says with a sigh before standing up and looking to the bird. "Lead on," she says, hoping the bird understands human talk well enough to know to take her to where the Genin are hemmed in.
"KREEEEEEEE!" The hawk cries, taking off ahead of Moe. A few times, it rises to the skies to get an overview, and then drops down again to lead her through narrow passages and a few times over some fences. Eventually, she gets to a warehouse. Already from afar, she can hear the noise of some sort of combat: heavy blows falling on something, and electricity crackling, the thumping mixing with thunder emanating from the thickest rays of lightning. As she comes closer, she sees that the blows come from a humanoid figure, almost two and a half meters tall. The figure is entirely white, with a large Diamonds symbol on its chest and back. A woman - or, on closer inspection, a girl of maybe fifteen, with a metal rod, dressed to look like the Queen of Spades. Lightning archs around her rod, which is shaped to look like a scepter, and strikes their target. Between the hammering and the lightning, she didn't hear the third visible figure: a young man, in his early 20s, dressed like the King of Hearts. He wields a sword. Well, he'd like to wield a sword. The sword is stuck in a slab of crystal, which they are, all together, attacking. The slab of crystal extends all around a warehouse. Presumably, the trapped genin are inside.
Despite her inherent weakness, Moe is at least fast enough to follow the bird on foot and be sure not to lose it to the dunes or the sky. Some of the passageways and such are a bit tough for her to get through, but she eventually makes it through okay. As the sounds of clashing fall on her eyes, her eyes narrow, and she decides to temporarily use the dunes to mask her approach as she inspects the situation at hand. Two targets thus far of unknown strength… though they can't break a Genin's Crystal Release. That may be a good sign in her favor. She sort of wishes she'd completed her contract with the snakes by now, but she hasn't made it to the cave to do so yet, which is where she was headed before her trip was interrupted by the bird. Still, those are Sunagakure Genin in there, and, even by herself, there's no way she can let them die like this. Thus, she would slide her hands into the sand, allowing a snake to crawl out of each of her jacket sleeves and make its way to each of the unknown shinobi attacking the crystal. Once there, the snakes would lunge and attempt to bind the two up before they realize what's going on.
Despite her inherent weakness, Moe is at least fast enough to follow the bird on foot and be sure not to lose it to the dunes or the sky. Some of the passageways and such are a bit tough for her to get through, but she eventually makes it through okay. As the sounds of clashing fall on her ears, her eyes narrow, and she decides to temporarily use the dunes to mask her approach as she inspects the situation at hand. Three targets thus far of unknown strength… though they can't break a Genin's Crystal Release. That may be a good sign in her favor. She sort of wishes she'd completed her contract with the snakes by now, but she hasn't made it to the cave to do so yet, which is where she was headed before her trip was interrupted by the bird. Still, those are Sunagakure Genin in there, and, even by herself, there's no way she can let them die like this. Thus, she would slide her hands into the sand, allowing a snake to crawl out of each of her jacket sleeves and make its way to each of the unknown shinobi attacking the crystal. Once there, the snakes would lunge and attempt to bind up the two normal-sized targets of the mystery shinobi by coiling around them from bottom to top before they realize what's going on.
"Ack!" The twisting tattoos connect, entangling the two human-sized figures. The huge one - the Ace, if you will- turns around to show its face is, like it front, uniformly white, with no facial features and another symbol on its chest. It launches itself impossibly far towards Moe, kicking her in the chest after landing. The Kuroki is launched through a nearby wall, forced to let go of the other two. They immediately return to breaking open the crystal cage, leaving Ace to deal with Moe.
Though she attempts to bring up another tattoo to block the incoming kick, Moe is struck hard and flies through the wall to skid a bit on the ground. She heaves a bit, taking a few deep breaths before pushing herself up to her feet and dusting a bit of sand/dirt from her skin that was left by the man's boot. "Bit rude, don't you think?" she asks with a smirk as her hand trails down off her chest to move into position in a fighting stance. The pair of snakes that receded into her jacket reveal themselves again, this time bearing five fangs each rather than two as they dance in front of her. She watches him carefully a moment before the snakes move into a trio of strikes, one at the right side of his neck, the next at the back of his knee on the opposite side, intending to rend tendons with acidic lashes, and the final one at his right shoulder.
Ace moves out of the way, but she catches him in mid-mair with two snakes. The third, he manages to step on. Still, two of them rake over his skin- no, his surface: as they burn through her, she sees the white opening to show copper and steel cogs and joins underneath, turning, twisting, and spinning as Ace gears up for the next attack. Ace continues moving on. He raises his large hand, and grabs her by the throat, the other hand brushing aside her raised shield. As he tries to slam her into a nearby wall, however, Moe manages to bring her shield behind herself and the wall, protecting herself from the impact.
Moe lifts an eyebrow as the man… machine's innards are revealed to be made of metal rather than flesh and bone. Still, that actually works a bit to her favor in some ways as long as she can survive its hits. She chokes a bit as she's lifted up by the throat, though managing to save herself from critical damage as a snake comes from under her collar to wrap around her and shield her from the impact. It then charges forth at the puppet, lashing out at the cogs inside it in as a pair fly from under he sleeves once again trying to do the same, intending to dissolve and jam up these cogs enough to render Ace useless.
With a creak and a whine, one of the snakes digs into the exposed mechanism at the neck, and tears upwards, removing large chunks of Ace's neck and part of his 'face'. Ace responds by grabbing the two snakes in his free hand, then slams her into the ground. Once again, her shields block the nearest surface. Ace is unrelenting. After forcing its head, now lying limp on its shoulder, around to face her, it lobs her through the next wall, head over heels.
Though her initial shield saves her from some damage, Moe doesn't move it quickly enough to help with the next, and she winds up soaring in a spin THROUGH a wall to bounce a few times then skid, groans of pain escaping her lips upon each impact. She coughs a few times, breathing heavily as she forces herself to her feet once more. A hand is brought up, wiping a bit of blood from her lips before she straights her skirt out a bit. "Persistent," he says, coughing again then smirking almost as if enjoying holding her own against such a metal Taijustuist. "That all you've got?"she asks as she charges forward, this time going with a bit different tactic. One snake flies from her back at the cogs on the puppet's neck again, hoping to further disable it while the ones from her sleeves lung at its shoulders, trying to dig in with acidic lashes in hopes to start on disabling its arms.
Ace charges Moe as she gets up, hoping to crush her with his sheer bulk. One more lash takes the creature's head straight off mid-charge, and as the next foot doesn't move to catch it, it just falls forward, its shoulders caught on the snakes' teeth and shredded, and skids to a halt in front of Moe. Through two holes in walls, the Kuroki can hear chunks of crystal crashing down, and the lightning subsides for a just a moment.
Ace charges Moe as she gets up, hoping to crush her with his sheer bulk. One more lash takes the creature's head straight off mid-charge, and as the next foot doesn't move to catch it, it just falls forward, its shoulders caught on the snakes' teeth and shredded, and skids to a halt in front of Moe. Through two holes in walls, the Kuroki can hear chunks of crystal crashing down, and the lightning subsides for a just a moment.
With the first target disposed of, Moe would glance down at him before taking off back toward the warehouse. Her brows furrow a bit as she frowns upon spotting the crystal blocking the entrance of the warehouse shattered and the door torn open. No choice now… She moves swiftly toward the warehouse, lines spreading out from each of her tattoos along her body as hairs used to try to detect the presence of the enemy and hopefully get to them before they can harm the Genin.
Her tremor hairs fail to tell her anything relevant. However, her ears tell her something interesting: inside the warehouse, the fight has broken out in earnest. She can hear the cries of the hawk she met earlier, lightning crackling, and the shattering of more crystal, all accompnied by shouts and the sound of physical movement.
When she moves to the door, she sees a battlefield: the Queen is attacking a pair of near-identical genin, maybe eight years old, who are interchangingly bringing up crystal walls. As each wall is thinner and narrower, it seems they're getting tired. The Queen, however, strikes with lightning from her rod, shattering the walls rapidly. In the meantime, the King is engaged with the Hayato, who is slowly circling him with two kunai drawn. Moe arrives just in time to see the Hayato's pet bird drop towards the King, only for him to spin around and slash with impressive speed, leaving the bird to drop on the floor, blood splattered all along his slice. He pivots around and begins spinning in unison with the clearly enraged and hurt Hayato.
Moe's eyes widen as she arrives to see the Genin barely holding on. She frowns again, but this time with a bit of rage. The snakes from her arms quickly shoot out at the King and Queen, intending to bind them up again as she had before. "Excuse me, but I believe I was in the middle of killing the two of you before the puppet interrupted," her voice rings out sternly as she tries to coil them up and bind them. "You better worry about me instead of the Genin."
"How the-" King gets about mid-sentence before getting yanked off his feet in the coils of a tattoo snake. Queen doesn't even manage to do as much: her last blast, aimed for the now-defenseless twins, shoots over their heads. The two of them slump down, leaning on each other, while the Hayato dashes for his bird, tears streaming down his face. He spares King just one momentary glare of the deepest, darkest darkness his face couple possibly be distorted by.
"Like I said, I was in the middle of killing you," Moe says, another pair of snakes rising from her skin, this time from her back collar. They tower over the King and Queen before going into a barrage of acidic strikes directly at their throats with killing intent. Moe is quite wayned, and she knows just who to channel her anger at.
The King takes a snake to the throat, gurgling painfully, but alive. Barely. For now: the Hayato reaches for his Kunai, deliberately moves towards him, and then with an eerily methodical manner inserts the blade into one of the wounds at his throat. He doesn't cut. That's too good. He moves it sideways, tearing his throat open as he continues gurgling and reaching for throat. Queen screams and, rolling aside, manages to avoid getting injured lethally. Her shoulder is burnt badly, as is her face, but she's breathing. She points her staff at the Seishukuni twins. "Step back! Step back, or I kill them both! I'll fry them!" she screams, clearly on the brink of hysteria, if not past it.
"Touch them again, and I'll make you watch while I slowly burn all your skin off with acid," Moe retorts as she starts to gather chakra again, stepping to put herself between the Queen and the twins. She's quite winded and battered, but the Kuroki woman is fiercely determined. "How pathetic… Willing to kill children, but afraid to die yourself."
Queen already has her rod aimed in the twins' direction, so it's a brief moment of focus away from throwing a bolt of lightning Moe's way. The lightning stings painfully, but doesn't do much damage. It does, however, cramp her muscles - enough for Queen to make a terrified dash for the door, running for her life desperately.
As the lightning strikes her and courses through her body, Moe lets out a groan of pain. She seems rather graysoned that the Queen gets away, but the important thing is that she managed to save the team… well, most of it. Dropping to her knees, she lets out a heavy breath and looks about at the Genin. "… Is this all of you?" she asks then looks at the fallen hawk to see if there's any chance it might still be breathing to survive if it was taken to a mednin in time.
The hawk is still alive. A pitiful, bloody pile of feathers, but a breathing one. It's badly wounded and if it gets a medic, it'd need a medic immediately. Even if it lives, though, it probably won't ever be in fighting shape any more. "Yeah. Yeah, that's all of us." The Hayato's voice is strangely hollow as he looks at King's face, now frozen in an expression that's a mix of terror and pleading for the rest of his life. "Let's get going."
"Alright," Moe says, picking herself up and dusting herself off a bit before straightening her clothes. She looks at the hawk again, letting out a sigh before looking at the door. "Let's get a move on toward the village. You guys need medical attention and rest." Not to mention herself needing a bit of the same now.
