2011-03-29 - The Mysterious Spiralwarrior

It's been days since he's been in a proper suit and Ed was relieved that the initial tests on Shelly showed her in good working order. However there is a difference between flitting hither and yon and actual combat. So he was in the arena in the middle of seemingly random debris tossed around for both cover and impromptu weaponry. "Everything looks good." Calm voice to whoever was in charge of the match setup. "Gimme a live one." And as if to demonstrate his enthusiasm he made the Jenice do laps around the perimeter before landing in the middle and waving to the crowd.

Sitting in the arena stands, Sinya seems to be using her precious free time quite wisely - and not wasting it drinking at the Arm Pit. Instead, she followed the line of other off-duty mechanics to the Arena. The catgirl sits at the edge of the group, although it's clear that a few are vying for her attention as they pass bets around. She's yet to see just who might answer Edward's challenge, so she hasn't added her own bet to the pile just yet.

"Come on, Sin. A bet on Edward is easy money!"

"Right, like it was last time when I fought him?" She answers, looking at them and causing more than a couple to re-think their bets. "I want tos see who comes to call first before I put down my credit." She folds her arms in her lap, leaning back in her seat as her tails ways easily back and forth behind her. "Edward is a friend, but money is money." Her ears twitch, swiveling as they listen in on the bets being made by other nearby groups and silently keeping tally.

The Raven's Nest. House of the Ravens, and with that - a massive arena where most of them test their strengths. There was much enigma amongst those top men in the ladder, but to climb that ladder, one first had to defeat those lower of rank. With the purpose of training, Xiang planned to participate in this long climb to the top. But, not to give himself away too easily, he had registered himself under the cloak of 'Heaven's Torrent'. And speaking of cloaks, the machine he was using was clothed entirely in a ligh brown garb which was attached at the top with a set of clamps, surrounding the entire unit aside from its head. A white face-head wearing a beautifully blue ornate helmet, showing a light blue 'V' on top. Its movement is slow and steady as it walks into the Arena.

The machine halts, slowly turning about entirely, instead of turning the head above, and looking over the debris and other points of cover. But instead of moving towards one of those points, the machine begins to move again... right towards the very middle of the area, out in the open.

"Good morning Raven's Nest!" An announcer suddenly calls out over the speaker system, and lights flare up, quickly centering on the strange and robed machine. "We have a newcomer to the Arena. Please give a warm welcome to Heaven's Torrent - in the Azure Dream!" There's a small applause that indeed rings, mostly due to a somewhat small showup. There were so many newbies that came and went, and for most of them, this was just another newbie. "Today, he will be facing off against Edward, in his Jenice!" The lights quickly flick over to Edward, which has the 'Azure Dream' change where it is facing so it knows where he is.

"Now! Without further adue! Place your bets, grab your drinks, and prepare to rumble. This is it ladies and gentlemen! Match starting in 5...."

The machine remains stalwart even as the countdown continues, just facing Edward, without moving. "4... 3... 2... 1..."

There are whispers amongst the stands, laughter as they watch the newbie just stand there. "Must have frozen in fear." Some of them whisper.

"GO!"

Cute. The cloak could have any number of oddball surprises for him and Edward never liked unfamiliar units. His suit kicked off the ground before arching upward and toward's his opponent before drawing a bazooka from it's back weapon rack. He has been told, constantly, he needed to get better at range. Ergo the very large boom toob in action.

When the challenger appears, it seems to be the signal for most people to start adding their final bets. A newcomer is obviously at a disadvantage, so the odds shift in favor of Edward. Sinya, on the other hand, simply looks at the mech with an appraising, narrow-eyed look. She leans forward slightly, ears tilting back. Then, without a word, she takes out a piece of paper and jots something down on it, nudging her neighbor. "Pass this to the bookie, will you?" The other mechanic glances briefly at the page, his eyes going wide as he looks first at Sinya, and then passes her bet down the line. "Why did you bet on the new guy? You know something, don't you?"

"Call it a hunch." Sinya shrugs her shoulders, and then leans back, putting her hands behind her head as she sprawls across two seats and settles in to watch the festivities. The hunch, however, has the other mechanic quickly changing his own bet.

Within the cloaked machine, Xiang casually looks at the 360 degree monitor before him. He was allowed to see through the cloak somehow - something easily written off as due to Spiral Power. The machine rests there, casually looking at the Janice that comes into view. Somewhere at the back of Xiang's mind, he feels sorry for Edward. But at the same time, he knows he should not underestimate the man. The machine remains standing, watching the bullet come its way...

Then suddenly, it explodes into movement. The machine spins around, throwing up the cloak slightly, catching the grenade within. The high velocity tears at the machine's legs, forcing it to take a step and coming down hard - causing some sparks to show beneath before the machine finishes its spin... and throws the grenade that had been launched at it right back - without it having exploded! The toss however fails to reach its target, and instead causes a gigantic explosion on one of the walls behind the Jenice: protecting the audience.

The machine's cloak then falls down again, and the machine jumps to try and meet the Janice, just flying straight for it like an arrow. Inside the machine, Xiang bites his lower lip, closes his eyes for a moment, then flashes them open again and pushes the metalic braces inside the machine forward. A series of quick machinegun punches erupt underneath the cloak, trying to punch his opponent without as much as showing any parts of the machine itself. And if people did get a glance, it was merely a short one.

Inside the Jenice Edward was rattled, but his hands moved smoothly even as his armor was ratled around. His opponent moved too smooth to use a traditional interface. He didn't like that, but it's a risk one takes when entering the arena. Besides. Lots of good punchs deserves one more yes? Sure compared to the flurry of fists he'd gotten a single blow would mean little, but all it takes is one hit, sometimes. One hit.

The crowd seems to roar as the first exchange of blows happens, first at Edward's strike and then the one from the 'mystery combatant'. Others start to filter in to the crowd, having heard the initial clang of metal on metal. As the stands fill in, Sinya decides it's best to get some space from the masses of humanity and walks down the aisle towards the side of the ring. There, the catgirl leans against the metal railing, getting a good view of the fight. "Go Azure Dream, Go Edward!" Yep, she's cheering for both sides, even if one already certainly has her money riding on it. A small grin shows on her face as she leans forward, a posture much appreciated by a few men in the seats behind her. Of course, her enthusiasm lasts only as long as it takes for a vendor to come by selling snacks.

"Hey, over here!" She calls, waving an arm, and then is quickly lost in a transaction for the time being.

The punch is denied. Whilst the force does hit on the cloak, and hits something solid - it barely glances as underneath, a hand 'pushes' the punch away and towards the side. It's reached the pinacle of its jump however, and Xiang can feel that gravity is beginning to draw on the Azure Dream. So what he does is simple! He punches through the cloak, the brown material getting caught in the hand, as it tries to grab onto Edward's Jenice!

The machine underneath the cloak attempts to grab the machine, and begins to move down, and does only one, very simple thing. It tries to slam the Jenice right into the ground, onto a nearby piece of debris to puncture it. However, if it succeeded in that grab, Xiang was skilled enough to ensure the cockpit would not be on the other end of a spike.

Edward didn't directly block his opponent's strike. Even with reinforcement it's foolish to try countering force with armor. However he did turn so the blow missed. While turning he bent his suit's knees, waiting for both combataints to land before lashing out with a leg. Risky since he would be leaving himself open, but then no risk no reward?

With the grab having failed, Xiang finds himself in a bad situation. The machine ends up before the Jenice, and when he reaches the ground and the Jenice does too, he is not far enough to perfectly do away with the attack. The leg lashes towards the Azure Dream and rips partially through the part of the clock, hitting the unit's midst, and sends it a single step backwards.

Or at least, it seemed like Edward had managed to get it to step backward. What actually happened was that Xiang inside had pulled on his right side brace and pushed the left forwards. "Cha-hiiaaaa!" Suddenly a voice comes out from the machine, muffled slightly behind the now tattered cloak. It looked like there was movement beneath as it spoke. With that left brace moved forwards, it punches again. ducking down first, and then suddenly a shock of green light following after it - speeding up the entire action. And again, with the cloak still hiding most of the Azure Dream, it punches - trying to punch THROUGH the Jenice's right arm.

Fast! Edward was in the air again even before his suit's left leg had managed to fully get back under him. The green burst... punch... thing found only empty air while edward drew his heat hawks. It was instinct that made him act and it was instinct that made him come down again rather than draw his bazooka. It seemed he'd hoped to come in from above and behind with these pieces of heated metal.

Xiang's Gunmen spins around, pivotting around one foot as Edward tries to move around him with that heat hawk, and finds the leg of the unit failing him a littlebit. It wasn't as responsive as he needed it to be. So, the unit suddenly ends up being smashed against the robes with the heated metal, clunking against some metal, and sending the Azure Dream a few steps forwards.

Not hesitating for one moment, the unit bends down with that attack having hit it, spins about whilst lashings the robes along the ground and grabbing a series of sharp debris, and then tosses the objects straight for the Jenice's head unit - hoping to destroy its sensor and blinding his opponent.

While the Jenice was a good suit, at least as far as these things went, it wasn't the most agile thing out there. So rather than try dodging Ed opened up with his suit's waist vulcans and between those and his heat hawks he managed to turn the debris cloud into harmless dust.

So we're back to throwing things at eachother hm?

Ed pulled his bazooka back out and aimed, not at where his opponent was, but where he thought it would be. Tricky given how hard to predict this fight was but worth a try.

The next few exchanges seem to be missed by Sinya as money changes hands and she manages to purchase a big bag of cotton candy, a wrapped sandwich, and a conspicuously brown bottle. Her mouth moves, but her words get lost in the cheering from the crowd. When she turns back, the catgirl ties the bag of cotton candy around the railing, and then takes a swig from the bottle. Her tail sways behind her, ducking slightly as a bit of metal comes flying a bit too close to the audience for comfort.

Musing to herself, the young mechanic watches the match with a careful eye. Unlike most of the audience, she can easily identify the Azure Dream and has a really good idea of just who might be piloting it. What had she been told about gunmen? That they flew on a courageous heart? Hrm, maybe she'd see for certain if that sort of thing actually did lay behind the stone-like surface of Xiang Yuan.

When the vulcans let loose, the Gunmen remains standing. To guess where the Azure Dream was going to be, was something that required very little skill. After all, unless it was on the offensive, Xiang wasn't really making the machine move much. So when Edward comes out to grab that bazooka and blasts at a position slightly to his right, it fails to be able to grab the projectile. Instead, it bunkers down and lets the explosion rip near it! Within the cockpit, Xiang gets rattled a bit, but remains seated in his cockpit, staring at his opponent. The cloak a bit sinched on that side now, but it wasn't enough to destroy the cloak itself.

The machine then suddenly begins making some strange movements in place. Slow movements underneath the cloak that would suggest that underneath, its hands and feet are moving slowly, forming some kind of... pattern. Then suddenly, a thrust, and an arm suddenly comes flying out and tries to /punch/ the Jenice to the shoulder. A flying punch... attached to a very long arm? Or... no! The arm had extended. It quickly retreats to a position underneath the cloak. But for that moment, it was obvious that the 'hand' was actually more like a 'claw', though it had been closed.

A.... What in the Nine Hells? Edward was afraid of this. Fighting supers was always a tricky business since they seemed to pay little mind to conventional physics.

No matter. He's managed to kick it around. HE"LL DO IT AGAIN! Thrusters on full, Jenice roaring at it's opponent before flipping, feet lashing out to kick before coming to a hover.

The moment that kick goes the Gunmen's way, Xiang lets out an annoyed sound and pulls on the left brace, which causes the unit to move one step back and cause the entire kick to simply rip into the cloth on the side the bazooka had ripped into, tearing away the cloth on that side, revealing a strange blue metal. Not waiting one moment, the man hip-nudges the Jenice however, causing it to get unbalanced and jolting its armor.

Following up on that, the person within tries to grab the unit, hoping that it remains unbalanced, and attempts its best at swinging it around once and lunging it at a nearby pile of debris!

The sound of clanging metal along with the roar of thrusters is enough to cause Sinya's ears to fold back, even without the cheering of the crowd adding to the din. The one downside of having enhanced hearing is that sounds that wouldn't bother normal humans are a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the muffling effect of slicking her ears back helps some. Unfolding the sandwhich, Sinya manages to gobble down nearly a quarter of it in one bite, then waves it in the air as her way of cheering.

It's hard to tell just where the betting lies with the roars of sound, although the cheering seems to favor Edward and his Jenice. Swollowing, the catgirl lets out a whoop, a sound that probably gets drown in the rest of the sounds unless one was really listening for it.

Edward manages, just barely, to avoid being grappled. However in avoiding the grab from his opponent Edward failed to take the battlefield into account and glanced off different bits of arena debris. Plus where his suit had been grasped at were rends in armor. He tched as he got his suit back to it's feet.

"You're toying with me aren't you?" No rancor or malice in that voice. "You barely react to my attacks and are purely on a defensive game." He draws his heat hawks again. "Let us dance. You and I."

With that his suit flowed, each step matched by a sweep of the heated blades as he moved around his opponent, hoping to chip away at armor or... whatever was under the cloak.

With one of its arms now coming out from underneath the cloak, it becomes somewhat easier for Xiang to guide his unit's defenses, and begins to... deflect the heated blade. Each time it come down, he puts the back of the arm in the way and 'taps' it away, each time taking a step back, slowly letting his enemy exhaust himself by stepping in, or overstepping himself. It's all extremely well calculated. But within, Xiang is bitting his lower lip. He feels a bit bad for doing this to Edward - not replying.

"I'm not toying with you." Suddenly the machine speaks. that is, something underneath the robes literally moves, and a voice comes out that could be recognized as Xiang's - but for people knowing him to be a ship captain... nobody would actually /expect/ him to be in there. So most would almost likely believe it's just some random person. The unit then suddenly, on one of the attacks moves inwards, letting the heat hawk carve past itself and taps the arms upwards just ever so slightly. Then it moves around, sidestepping around the Jenice, and tries to use the other hand - hidden underneath the robes still, to palm-strike his opponent to the ground. His aim? The waist of the Zaku-like unit.

"Then stop trying to hit me." Edward's Jenice deflected the arm.... claw.... whatever away from him before returning the blow in kind to where he thought the machine's chest would be. "AND HIT ME!"

Edward's retaliation only ends up striking the palm of the Gunmen's visible hand, causing it to spin again, and there it goes again. Using this kinetic force, its other arm goes swinging around, and without much trouble, it attempts to bash the Jenice's back and force it to flip over again. "Such impatience." The unit mutters.

Edward floats back on his own. "I would save the discussions or another time and place." He keeps flying till he lands on a random piece of debris large enough to support his unit. "In this place." He gestures to the arena at large. "My size means nothing. In this place we are only as good as our skill and our craft."

He drew his bazooka again. "No" Edward's tone was sincere and grave. "Would you kindly stop pussyfooting around?" Aim. Fire.

Xiang doesn't reply. It's not like he isn't trying. But, he's trying to remain suitably calm. After all, if he lost his patience, it would only serve to be his defeat. But at the same time, he had to channel some of that hot bloodedness that, strangely, actually came quite natural to him. It's simply that he's not been shouting out his attacks. That is, until now.

"Ripple On Water!" The unit suddenly calls out, and there is suddenly a tremmor within the arena. Its both fists are wrapped in glowing, spiralling green energy around it them, which catch the bullet of the bazooka and literally crushes it. And then, not waiting any more second, the unit begins to move fowards quickly, trying to claw its hands into the shoulders of the Janice, and tries to push it with two palm-strikes towards the edge of the arena.

Edward was caught a moment too long by his facination at the Green Death that pretty much stomped his shell. Purdy Colors. PURDY COLORS BAD! PAIN! His suit fell from it's perch to the ground with predictably unpleasant noises.

"Alright." Surprisingly, though winded, Ed sounded pleased. "You can hit a stationary target. Good." His heat hawks were out. "NOW HOW 'BOUT A MOVING ONE!" Roaring thundering decapitation inbound!

The Gunmen, its fists still aglow, remains stationary once more when Ed approaches. And when those two heat hawks come up and try to chop at its head, it /catches/ them! That's right, it uses both arms to catch the attack, sending the entire machine reeling and crying under the stress of such force. It's slowly brought to its knees, and the joints near the shoulders begin to crack underneath the force.

Not giving up however: "Again! Ripple On Water!" The hands push outwards, letting go, and then immediately both push forwards towards the cockpit of Edward's Janice, hoping to bash into it and send it flying again!

The bad thing about using two heat hawks? Both hands are kinda full if something decides to take a shot at you. Fortunately, for Edward, he's played the living daylights out of 'The Gates of Death'. Semi-Obscure game that had all sorts of improbable scenerios thrown at you. Also fortunately he had his cockpit data synched with the home built setup/recreation of said cockpit so any macro he had there would work here.

...In Theory...

In practice his suit's thrusters burned for perhaps half a second, long enough for his cockpit to not be where his opponent was aiming. Then he threw a grenade as he fell.

The cloak gets pulled up again, catching the grenade, and as it explodes - it rips the center parts of the cloak apart... revealing... a Gunmen! The clasps at the shoulders suddenly release with mini-explosions, and the brown cloak soon lays around it on the ground. The crowd suddenly goes wide-eyed and silent. A gunmen!? What kind of crazy fuck uses a Gunmen!? Was this one of Lord Genome's beastman!? No, the registration office would have caught that. And then suddenly, an applause. This meant that that 'crazy fuck' was a human, who'd stolen a Gunmen!

"Stone Strikes Water!" Not caring about this applause however, Xiang goes right through to his next attack. The big mouth of the unit opens and closes as the pilot speaks, then remains open as Xiang roars out and begins a quick combo of punches, trying to strike at the arms of the Janice and single time! Step forward, punch, other foot forward, punch with other fist, and keep on going!

 A loud shouting can be heard from the Arena. "A Gunmen!? What kind of crazy **** stole that from Genome!?"

Edward managed to move with the now revealed gunman, making it seem like some sort of bizzare dance between mecha. "You dance well." He then hits a button just to one side of the main flight control cluster. Chiptunes start playing as Edward starts introducing moves of his own, Step. Punch. Step Step. KNEE. And so on...

Cupping her hands around her mouth, "Come on Yuan!" Sinya calls out, trying to raise her voice above the roar of the crowd. Even if the others are roaring about the appearance of a gunmen, the catgirl seems to still be trying to root on the underdog. For the time being, her food is ignored as she tries to show her support. Of course, it isn't as if she can actually make a difference in the battle, not really anyways.

When Sinya calls out the Gunmen pilot's name, that chant soon begins to carry around; "Yuan! Yuan! Yuan! Yuan!" They go, now suddenly routing for the underdog. Lord Genome and his Gunmen had quite the reputation amongst the trailers. After all, they were the only ones who actually raided his plains at times. But to see someone pilot those things, outside of his beastmen, that was something they only rarely saw. Some of them whispered, not knowing who 'Yuan' was, whether or not this guy was a new addition to the Dai Gurren Briggade.

The punches hit, each getting deflected by the back of the Gunmen's thickly armored arms, taking each strike. Then, after a few moments, the green spiral glow having grown with each hit taken, the unit suddenly strikes forwards again, sending /waves/ of energy towards the Janice. Punching each wave - as if telekinetically striking at the Zaku-lookalike.

The green glowing was noted, and again Edward's instincts proved up to judging when it was best to cut the ance early and give his partner some breathing space. Still, it had been close, as several miniscule dents and ripples along the surface metal of his Jenice could tell you.

"OK Shelly... Crowd's in his corner. He apparently is in some insane suit and I'm starting to run out of ideas. Guy's gotta be watching how I move." He flicks his eyes along the different displays and smiles. "Well. I'm sure he won't be expecting this one." He whipped a heat hawk out and THREW it at his opponent. Quick, fast, and hopefully unexpected.

No, that was somehow expected. Xiang's Gunmen suddenly ducks in place and grabs the Heat Hawk out of the air with one of its arms. Did the machine just grin!? "Thank you." The man states, the Gunmen's mouth moving along with him talking again, as always, only more exageratedly so. "But you can have it back."

The green glow on hand which had caught the Heat Hawk flares up, spiralling in place, then begins to wrap around the Heat Hawk. "Here, have it back!" The Azure Dream suddenly spins around twice, then with both hands holding the hilt of the weapon for a moment, it flings it right back to the Janice, hoping to chop off its head!

While Edward had expected a return throw he hadn't expected one backed by SPIRAL POWER. Ergo he was too slow on the return catch. On the one hand he didn't have a heat hawk through his main reactor, which was really good. On the other.... He now had no left arm.

So he picked his arm up and charged his opponent as if to brain the gunman to death with the appendage. Only instead at the last minute he slid, hoping to knock it off it's feet.

Sinya's single voice becomes one of many. Quickly drown into the others cheering on the underdog unit. Of course, the beastman girl would be cheering on a beastman unit, but there's more to that as well. Afterall, she did put money on Xiang. The truth? She doesn't want to see Xiang beaten by someone who she had already bested in battle in the arena once before. Somehow, it felt /wrong/ to her. So, abandoning her refreshments, she begins to become the head cheerleader it seems.

The arm coming the Gunmen's way gets caught by Xiang's excellent piloting, whilst at the same time the unit lifts one foot up and pivots. Hoping that Edward is not quick enough with the buttons on his Janice however, he then puts some strength into things. "Hooooryaaaaaa!" He calls out, pushing the right side's brace with as much power as he could, whilst pulling on the left one. What he was trying to do? Fling the arm, and whatever would potentially still be attached to it, halfway across the Arena. With the power of SPIRAL POWER!

Ut-wow.... Edward let Xiang have the arm. Since it wasn't attached to the rest of his suit anymore he didn't have to worry about being tossed into any unforgiving bits of masonry and or metal. He did, however have to deal with the fact his suit was down an arm, he was on his back since he'd hoped that power slide would've knocked that Gunman down, and his opponent was spooky in close.

"Fine. He wants to use Crazy Green Stuff?" His suit levered itself back to it's feet. "He get's crazy green stuff." Granted his suit wasn't SPIRAL POWER. Just a plain Jenice. Olive Drab kicking and punching with it's one attached arm. Oh and if it could there would be a knee and elbow in the deal too. Hey kids. This ain't Dance. This is MOSH!

The Gunmen quickly ducks away from the attack and uses its right arm to tap the knee away - hoping that this will unbalance the unit. It then quickly spins around, sidestepping quickly, trying to make its way behind Edward's machine again. Then suddenly! The arms reach around. That is, the left arm extends and tries to capture the Janice, and tries to link with the right hand.

Hoping that he'd caught his opponent, the unit then suddenly begins to spin around on one leg. The Gunmen announces! "Spiralling!" Its spin stops and the unit /jumps/ up. "Germaaaaan!" Xiang knew anything about the Germans!? "Suuuupleeeeex!" And if the Janice was still in its arms, it tries to back the head of his opponent come down on the ground!

Well this didn't look good for the Zaku expy. Ever get spun around on a merry go round? Yea. Believe it or not Ed never liked the things. Oh and this was way worse because Shelly had gone face first, forcefully, into the ground. Sure he didn't wanna lose but...

He made a waving away motion with his suit's remaining hand. "I Yield." He didn't sound exactly happy over that, but his suit had been mangled enough for one day. Best to call it a towel and let the mechanics sort thigns out in case he needed to field again. At least the crowd got their money's worth?

 Edward Fawkes transmits, "Well. That could've gone better."

 Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "You fought well."

The Gunmen returns upright again and turns about, just about to kick the thing in the chest when that arm goes up. The leg does down again, and the machine takes a few steps back. The machine's mouth then opens, and out comes the captain of the SuiKyosha, one foot up on the edge and one still half inside. His hands on each side of the machine. "You alright in there?" He calls out.

After a moment or three of getting unbuckled, Edward grunts. "Been better, but I'd say the crowd got their money's worth yes?" After another moment the Jenice's cockpit hatch opens. "I still say you were going easy on me." Edward stepped out wearing a navy blue suit trimmed in silver. He waved to the crowd while he made his way to one of the floor exits.

 Edward Fawkes transmits, "If /ANYONE/ in the Arena feels I didn't give 'em their money's worth I'll gladly settle it personally. *pause* Honestly surprised I did as well as I did considering all the guff and flapp I've heard over those things."

With Edward conceding the match, there is a roar from those who had chosen to cheer on the underdog Spiral unit. For Sinya, there is a small grin that forms on her face as she fist-pumps in the air. Anything that comes out of her mouth is drown out by the crowd, but not only did her chosen combatant win, but she's now going home with quite a bit of extra coin in her purse for the evening. Ohoho, tonight is going to be a very enjoyable evening off.