2010-05-09 - Piercing the Heavens

It came a few days ago - in the form of, of all things, Allenby Beardsley, or rather a hilariously out-of-character copy of Allenby Beardsley, who informed Domon Kasshu to be on the moon in three days' time for an audience with the Spiral King, or else there would be undisclosed consequences. Then she turned into a rabbit-girl and tried to kill him, so presumably Domon blew her up with his fists.

Now, Beastman Army units have descended on a small and frankly unimportant Soviet settlement on the moon, harrying their defenders and keeping them busy...while inside the dome, Lord Genome stands, with arms crossed.

In a rare fit of mercy, he is not slaughtering the populace.

True story: Allenbunny Beardsley would have been fist-exploded regardless of whether or not she'd tried to kill him, because that's just how Domon rolls, and presumably the Beastwoman wasn't as sturdy as the real deal.

Domon has been on the moon a few times, for reasons ranging from 'was sent there by Neo-Japan on pain of having his frozen father dropped into a gigantic toaster' to 'low gravity training with Master Asia', and bizarrely, this kind of ranks firmly between the two extremes, because hey, an 'audience' could just be tea and crumpets and it would just be kind of strange instead of painful or emotionally ruinous.

He is, after all, only passingly familiar with the Spiral King; the last time the two encountered one another, Domon was running like a 103 degree fever and zonked out of his mind on NeoNyQuil to boot.

So, in three days time, as poor, unfortunate Soviets are harassed by animal hybrids and the mechanized weapons that animal hybrids drive, "RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!" echoes through every point of the dome. Moments later, a bank fashioned into a replica of the Kremlin just outright explodes, revealing the faintly glowing GF13-017NJII God Gundam at the center of its ruined foundation.

It's not really worth asking how it got here, these things just happen.

"Stealing an honorable warrior's face just to send a message... what do you /want/?" Domon Kasshu--communicates to every available frequency as he searches his many monitors for Lord Genome.

The Spiral King remains in Lazengann's cockpit, arms crossed and scowling at the man who has appeared. So that was Domon Kasshu, he thinks, as the (replica) Kremlin explodes before him. The head of Lazengann parts open, and for once - the Spiral King speaks to a man to his face. If Domon steps out of his cockpit, anyway.

He's a titan of a man, easily seven feet tall, and probably half that across. Fat has probably never lived on that frame - all of it is powerful muscle, especially visible now that he has thrown off his long cloak, revealing a muscled chest with a triangular tuft of hair sweeping across the center. He raises one foot - he wears white breeches and nothing upon his broad feet - and stomps it down on the rim of Lazengann's cockpit, the impact no less final than the fall of a gavel.

"Domon Kasshu," he says, not raising his voice and yet somehow all too easy to hear. "King of Hearts. I wonder, do you know the meaning of your station? Your Queen found out, once..."

Steam laced with emerald sparks jets from the seams of the God Gundam's cockpit, and while he is not the impossible specimen of physical perfection that Lord Genome is, Domon's black, frame-hugging mobile trace suit demonstrates that he, too, is in impressive shape--for a human, anyway. There are still a few lingering green lightning bolts arcing from the studs on his shoulders to the systems dotting the spherical cockpit block, despite the whole thing being on stand-by.

"Of course I do," he confidently says. With his perfectly straightened back and tightly balled fists, he manages to look a few inches taller than he actually is, somehow, some way; chalk it up to super-secret martial arts techniques or the Protaganist Effect, whichever way works.

"It's a symbol of my strength, just like it was a symbol of my teacher's strength--a sign that I am -- and he was -- one of the most dedicated warriors in the Earth Sphere," he intones, brimming with confidence. A teeny lash of lightning licks off of his shoulder right at the end, like punctuation; he locks his steely eyes, his determined mask of neutrality onto Genome's terrifying visage, ready and willing to meet him as an equal, here.

And then a couple of seconds later his brow furrows contemplatively as he tentatively corrects, "Rain--Rain doesn't have a crest, though." Beat. "Yet." Another beat, then another, and then he is filled with renewed vigor, reasserting his dominant posture and wiping any trace of uncertainty from his features. There is a crackle of electricity to accompany this.

"It's only a matter of time, of course--she just as soon as she stops throwing up so much during high gravity training, we'll be /on the right track/!"

The Spiral King unfolds his arms. The many bracelets adorning his wrists clatter as he moves - one hand resting on his knee, leaning in as if to stare into Domon's heart from a battlefield away.

"Such ignorance. Truly, your Master taught you nothing," the Spiral King says, with no pity or kindness whatsoever. Or anger. Or fear, or resenment...boredom, almost like. As if he has done this a thousand times before. Maybe he has. "If all that crest did was mark you as the strongest in the world, then it would be mine." Oh, well, no ego there, then...

The Spiral King seems to take Domon in, gauging his mettle, the lashes of lightning leading back to his cockpit. Genome does not know the technology, but the suit tells him enough. "Hoh, you would seek to train your woman?" the Spiral King hums. "Greater than you have fallen from such arrogance.

He tips his chin up, pointing his gaze down at Domon like gazing down at the most lowly of peasants. "The Crest has far greater meaning than some trifling title. The depth of your ignorance is frightful. Did he tell you? Your 'master', did he tell you what the crests were made for?"

Once, Domon Kasshu concussed a man with a jar of pickles because of jokes made about his inability to actually open the thing.

Domon Kasshu is a different enough man now that challenges to his competence, his strength, they don't drive him to leap from his cockpit to the Lazengann's to try punching Genome square in his chest tuft, or something. They are /annoying/, certainly, and his muscles are all coiled and tense in readiness for just such a leap, but he remains still; it would be stupid. This is what people do at audiences: they talk.

"I earned it, just like he did," is all he says of Genome's boast. "But he didn't--"

Somehow, he manages to look really, really contemplative while maintaining a steady glare. He even brings his right hand - devoid of the crest that sometimes adorns it, currently - near his eyes for examination, until...

"You brought monsters here to threaten these--people!" he suddenly exclaims, snapping his fist away from his gaze. "You /sent/ a monster to bring me here to /begin/ with! Even if you /do/ know something he didn't--why should I believe you?"

The Spiral King hums, deep and powerful in his throat. "I see," Lordgenome rumbles - and then steps back, arms recrossing across his massive chest.

"I did all of those things, Domon Kasshu, King of Hearts. I did them to show you."

And then there's a spike - the God Gundam doesn't know it, but Domon surely does in his heart, the sudden surge of energy of Spiral Power as Lazengann's head snaps shut and the spiral gauge rapidly fills, the still titan twitching to life. "To show you that that crest...!"

He sets his foot back - and charges, suddenly, horn first, to slam it under God Gundam's head and pry it right off. "makes you my /enemy/!"

The only /good/ thing about this is that Domon isn't properly connected to the mobile trace system when Lazengann's horn burrows in between God Gundam's chin and clavicle.

Of course, this is also really problematic because Genome wants to /decapitate the fucking thing and there's nothing Domon can do about it yet/.

The impact sent him tumbling backwards into the cockpit, and he was really lucky not to end up ass over teakettle against its back wall; having to scramble to his feet and take position in its center is bad enough, but he manages it in due time.

"This crest is a /symbol/, Spiral King!" he exclaims as God Gundam's eyes flare to life and physically realized chi crackles all throughout the cockpit. "Nothing more, nothing less--if I'm your enemy, it's because you've /chosen/--chosen--ggh..." He swallows roughly, then, when the mobile trace system activates and there's suddenly a goddamn spike rammed up against his throat. /Now/ he feels the imminent threat of his head being forcibly removed from the rest of his body, and it is terrifying; he /has/ to escape. He /cannot stay here/, helpless in the power of a mad... man? Madbeing.

"--just--like--you're /mine/--because you've chosen--to be--!" he gasps a second later. God Gundam's back spines spread, three to a side; a flickering ring of fire appears between them for but a moment, the outward result of the mobile fighter's systems all ramping up to high gear.

"I--I can /feel/ you--in my heart," he hisses, chin pointed up as far as it'll go on a phantasmal point; the muscles of his neck are bulging, straining against nothing and everything. "I--I will--let--let--" Genuine desperation begins to creep in between his words, coiling around his bravado and taking roost. "--/Let go of me/!"

When he then lunges forward, the mobile trace system reads his actions and will to survive, translates them to the mobile fighter's thrusters with such power that the machine will leave afterimages in its wake. Rather than pulling /away/ or even sideways from the Lazengann, though, God Gundam is /charging into it/ with both hands reaching for the Gunman's shoulders. If it--if Domon Kasshu are to earn their freedom, they will do it by prying Lord Genome's monstrosity from their being rather than simply fleeing, because no matter how high his fears of being, you know, decapitated may rise, it's impossible to meet a challenger with one's back.

The Spiral King continues his assault. Genome snorts, disgusted. "Is that your belief? Your ignorance is broader than I ever dreamed."

The God Gundam pushes itself forward, and Genome catches the move just in time; he leaps backward, disengaging from the grapple and somersalting away, soaring high and landing in a three-point crouch on a nearby building.

"That crest," the Spiral King intones, "is far more than some /emblem/, boy. Did you truly believe it little more than a sign of /strength/?"

Lazengann's wrist nodes flicker with red fire. "Perhaps it was foolish," he muses. And then he's arcing again, shooting into the air, throwing clusters of drill whips down toward Domon, forcing him to move rapidly while Genome speaks further: "To expect one such as /you/ to understand the /weight/ of your situation!" The drill whips suddenly grow taut, and Lazengann shoots downward into the hopefully off-center God Gundam, foot extended!

'Move rapidly' is something of an understatement; there's a brief span of time in which the God Gundam's high performance proves sufficient to keep it safe, but its systems can't--or perhaps just /won't/ sustain this level of output for so long, so early into the fight; as soon as its back spines snap shut and the ring of fire alighted on its back is extinguished, the mobile fighter's speed peters out. Initially, the drills were passing harmlessly through afterimages that, thanks to constant movement were simply replaced with /more/ duplicates; there's no such luck now, though, as the field of God Gundams is whittled down in short order leaving just one.

And it's unmoving; the dramatic downshift has done awkward things to its--to Domon's balance, and where this would normally be no great problem - as continuing to move and adjust to the change in momentum would allow the two to continue functioning as if nothing had really changed, he's... thinking, now, and thinking means slowing down, and slowing down means wobbling, and wobbling means that when Lazengann's foot buries itself into God Gundam's--Domon's chest, the pair goes flying and does not stop until they are seated in what was a perfectly nice Russian building a second ago.

"Nnngh..." he intelligently groans. Part of him misses the days before Master Asia forced him to learn how to function on more than pure, wrathful instinct; things were /simpler/ then.

You're--ggh--babbling--Spiral King." He mentally high-fives himself for his sweet comeback while struggling to retake his feet. Ignoring his entire body feeling like one horrific bruise and the bottom third of his--God Gundam's right back spine being bent to a near-ninety degree angle, he's still in great shape, certainly good enough to reach back and wrap their right hand around a contiguous length of jagged, twisted steel that was once a girder bracing some part of the wrecked building.

"Shrouding--shrouding your meaning in nonsense and aggression is a sign that your words have no heart! How could I--how could /anyone/ believe you now, while your fists are singing so discordantly?! If you want me to hear you--"

In one fluid movement, Domon wrenches the girder from the ground and sends it hurtling towards the Lazengann's right eye--the one on its belly, not the one in its head. Its end is wickedly sharp and glinting in the artificial light of the colony, forged as it was by the sudden trauma inflicted on it by Neo Japan's former Gundam Fighter.

"--speak in a language that begs to /be/ heard!"

He sags a little after that; bravado is all well and good, but it's a bit tiring after having been hit by the mecha equivelent of seven Mack trucks all at once.

Lazengann charges in and slams God Gundam to the floor, and pushes away before retaliation can arrive - arcing skyward and somersalting to land neatly, pristinely, half a block away.

"My message is singular, King of Hearts," the Lord of Spirals declares. "Your thoughts are simply too addled to hear it. Lost in the mists of your own ignorance, you cannot see the truth for what it is."

Lazengann takes a step forward, setting itself for a lunge---and there it goes, sprinting across the distance like a bullet, shooting forward...but Domon is faster than Lord Genome expected, and when he snaps up a pair of drill whips to retaliate to the girder, neither one intercepts it before it pierces the heart of the Lazengann, killing the machine's momentum and staggering it backwards, Lord Genome grunting an impressed, "Hoh?" as the machine skids backward with a girder through its chest, claws digging into the street.

"Then I will tell it to you in a language you speak, /boy/," Lordgenome declares, and then Lazengann's back bursts open with drills, a maelstrom of whips surging forward - sheering through buildings and picking up cars as they multiply and surge toward God Gundam, ready to simply rip Domon Kasshu to shreds.

Lazengann apparently being completely unhindered by a chunk of metal sticking through its body -- through the face implanted /in/ its body -- is, okay, impressive. Impressive and, and taken with how the fight has progressed so far, /fucking terrifying/; this might be why when Domon's body -explodes- with enough crackling tendrils of emerald chi to force God Gundam to reassume its high performance posture and the little power regulation port on its chest normally responsible for 'venting' a portion of his inner fury as a macro-sized King of Hearts crest, nothing more than wispy strands of web-like energy are emitted; even they are probably notable to the Spiral King as bare echoes of properly formed Spiral Energy.

Even Domon himself, who is busily trying to contain the overflow of personal power that's brought the mobile fighter to this point generates no more than a red spark above his right glove; regardless, this does not keep the groaning, power-inflammed Gundam Fighter from straightening his and God Gundam's back, raising their right hands high and most importantly watching the hell of drills unfolding from Lazengann's back.

"This--" He swallows a little, tamps down on the hitch in his voice--Lord Genome, despite being a scary ubermenschen of some kind, is just another sort of crazy person, at the end of the day, after all, right?

"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!"

Simultaneously, a thick blue sheath of armour snaps over God Gundam's right hand to help regulate the golden glow beginning to course along its palm and drill after drill begins tearing through the scenery in a mad rush to skewer him from every angle. God Gundam's hand isn't as bright, as blistering as it could or should be, but it might be enough to conquer the Gunman if he's fast enough. Besides: it keeps a face on its /torso/, and grabbing /that/ should be easy.

"Its burning grip tells me to defeat you! Here--"

God Gundam's already in motion as Domon continues his impassioned(stock footage) speech; their right hands have been cocked back behind their head, a burning ring of excess thruster fire and extreme propulsion is bearing them forward at high speeds, and for a moment it looks as if they just might succeed at shoving their hand through Lazengann's chest or head.

Until the drills converge, that is.

The silver lining here - and it's a hell of a silver lining - is that with God Gundam's hellacious, if wholly temporary maneuverability and Domon's quick reflexes, the pair are able to adjust themselves well enough that what drills aren't outright dodged actually land in--or more correctly, a couple of inches away from God Gundam's palm, repulsed by the diminished golden fury of its burning grip. The collision sends out a wave of force sufficient to shear the tops off of a few nearby buildings, and windows a ways past that blow violently inward.

Inside the cockpit, a webwork of red lines spread from the center Domon's right palm and do not end until they've overtaken his whole hand, signifying that the mobile fighter has lost the use of that particular extremity thanks to the strain. He tries and kind of fails to bite back a cry of pain and surprise--he can/not/ prevent himself from doing what passes for 'thrashing around like a wounded animal' in this instance, though, which is to say that as the remnants of the God Finger gutter out into nothingness, God Gundam pushes past Lazengann's and throws punches, kicks, elbows, knees, sword strokes, machine cannon bursts, /anything at all/ in a desperate bid to find a more than incidental weakness in the Gunman.

If it weren't for the veritable army of mobile fighters springing into existence in the wake of his every move, this would probably be an entirely toothless threat, but as it is it may get a bit difficult to determine which attack is coming from where as an army of flailing, flickering mobile fighters grows around Lazengann.

Needless to say, having to assure himself that he still has a right hand is interfering with Domon's ability to speak like a normal human being, but the fear and fury in his grunts and cries of exertion are like a language unto themselves.

A hell of drills descends.

The Spiral King gives away none of his thoughts. He never has; he has grown more vocal, in recent months, but even now he speaks in half-truths, half-sentences, riddles and accusations. As if everyone should already know the things he knows.

Or perhaps, as if he doesn't care if anyone learns.

"Hoh...?" Lord Genome rumbles, as the glaring, glorious light of God Gundam's power eradicates the smashing drills. "So you yet struggle?" He watches - God Gundam moving, too fast to track, glorious and powerful and full of that energy, /that/ energy, that hateful strength that the Spiral King knows too well. He sets himself, the drill whips finally snapping back and drawing into Lazengann as if they never were, and while Domon flails at him with all his power, Lord Genome lances out a brutal reply punch which is promptly devoured by the God Gundam's fury. Lazengann is brutalized by Domon Kasshu's assault - knocked backwards, carried into the air, every punch like a shockwave that shatters glass. The dome above cracks, perilously, but does not give, at least not yet, until Domon finally spikes the Lazengann back into the pavement far below, the ground fracturing under the force of the impact.

"Unquestionably...you wield that power," the Spiral King rumbles from the dust. "Now, it is certain."

"It is time for you to die."

Lord Genome suddenly emerges out of the dustcloud on twin towers of drills, surging from his wrists - then both retract instantly, just as Genome arcs toward God Gundam and snaps both legs up to catch its neck in a scissor grasp, before Lazengann whirls a drill whip toward the Moon's surface and drags them both down at high speed -- God Gundam first.

"My--my symbol--my /strength/," Domon gasps between ragged breaths for air, "They--/they/ aren't going anywere--/I'm/ not going anywhere!"

For a few seconds, Domon is free to /watch/ as Lazengann ascends; it's an incredible sight, and if he weren't a middle school drop out the way it does so very much with /drills/ would probably be painful to contemplate. As it is, the Gunman's spiralling towers serve to tell him that the Helix King is more still very much 'in' this fight, despite the damage inflicted.

"You can hate me as much as you like, whyever you like, but nothing, not even /you/ can stand in my way forever! I /will/ def--"

Funny thing about starting a fight off by being damn near decapitated: it leaves the head and neck vulnerable, so when the immortal monster responsible focuses the terrifying might of his machine /right there.../

Well, not only does God Gundam's head bounce heavily across the dome-city's street as the mobile fighter topples, the violence of it all sets off a chain reaction of explosions that coursing down its front and back. The cockpit block isn't breached, but that's luck and nothing more; everything /around/ the cockpit is in ruins and its interior still goes black due to the trauma of heat, wrecked systems and repeated percussion.

Worse still, when God Gundam finally hits the ground, its six--well, five split back-spines are shoved forward by the impact, causing it to impale itself on its own subsystem, and not only are the ragged, sparking edges of those spines jutting crazily from what is left of the mobile fighter's chest, the great vertical halo of fire they were sort of regulating is allowed to burn freely. Plumes of fire and choking black smoke lick out from beneath the mobile fighter's body, cocooning the two combatants in a personal inferno.

Domon can't speak anymore; one of God Gundam's few still-functioning systems now is the Mobile Trace system.

So Domon can't /speak/ but he can sure as hell /scream/, and scream he does.

Threads of red energy pour from the ugly wound where God Gundam's regulation module was mounted, dancing through the air in tune with the slight modulations of the Gundam Fighter's agonized desperation; similarly, within the cockpit his right hand is aglow, fisted as it is by dint of sheer convulsive inevitability. Those threads swiftly push the smoke and electricity and fire from within and without the mobile fighter as if it all has a physical weight that it should lack. They weave together. They intensify. They call to the Spiral King.

They explode outward into a radiant plane of primeval force that seeks to push against the Spiral King then surround the two combatants in red boundaries that are to the naked eye as thin and ephemeral as silk despite their solidity. This part of the city may not /survive/ it, but Lord Genome is regardless treated to a front row, first person look at the object--the crest--the force responsible for bringing Domon Kasshu to his attention.

The impact is incredible. God Gundam's systems erupt violently, tearing the machine apart from within. Lordgenome leaps away, the Lazengann landing at the edge of the crater, simply...watching, arms crossed defiantly.

"Far greater than you," Lordgenome says, "have said such things to me." He takes a step forward, deeper into the crater. It's time to finish this. "Do you think I have not faced your predecessors, boy? I faced the first. I trampled him into the dirt until he fled in shame."

Another step, Lazengann's hands unwinding from across his chest. "I will not force you to make such a decision. You will--"

Domon screams. The Gundam Fighter answers his cry - threads of energy snapping out insanely in every direction. "FOOL!" Genome thunders, and his arms uncross across his own chest, as spiral fire bursts into being on his head, hands extended outward - his own spiral energy colliding insanely against the outrushing of Domon's infinite fury, the crest of the King of Hearts bursting with power. Buildings dissolve under the force, crumbling to ruin as they are shaken apart, while Lord Genome meets it with an equal counterforce, the blast wave simply /stopping/ at his hands, which glow with a malign red light that spins and spirals around itself, as Genome pushes himself in, deeper, through that field of the end.

He reaches to simply grab God Gundam by one leg, and by an opposit arm, and thunders, "FUTILITY!" as he attempts to rip God Gundam in half.

There's a moment where every inch of Domon's body is covered in a web of red lines; mercifully, the Mobile Trace system dies after a few more seconds of the Gundam Fighter being treated to the experience of his entire body being torn apart, leaving... quite a bit of residual agony, still, but it's better than what it /was/.

The Core Block and head are the only parts of the mobile fighter that are remotely solid, now; the rest of its body is in shambles that kinda sorta look like robot components if you squint and turn your head the right way.

Rain is probably gonna be pissed or dismayed or both but so it goes.

Stymied as it was by the might of Genome, the King of Hearts crest has winked out of existence leaving the shattered mecha's body devoid of light, if not life.

"Hhh--hhhh... haah... aggh... ggh--"

The scorched, tortured metal lining the visible side of the Core Block shifts, bulges, pops, steams... explodes, admitting an inky blur into the dome-city's air. The black comet is arcing itself for the girder embedded in Lazengann's eye, and presuming that the Gunman does not evade it, said girder will begin to shift within the two-faced monster before trying to rip catastrophically through its torso.

"--GGRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! SPIIIIIIIIIIRAAAAAAAAAL KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!"

For a moment, the blur resolves, revealing a bloodied, beleagured and bellowing Domon Kasshu; his cry is forceful enough to ripple across the whole city and his wide-eyed, rage-kissed glare is alive with renewed vigor, dauntless passion--

--and the faint outlines of glowing red hearts at the center of each pupil.

Rain Mikamura's unlimited fury is not a concern of the Spiral King.

Domon Kasshu's, however, might be. Lord Genome shreds the God Gundam to flinders, and it will take an enormous building project to reconstruct. He laughs, a half-mad sound like the roll of thunder, and roars, "YOU call yourself KING OF HEARTS!? The first gave me a thousand times this pitiful battle!" Lazengann takes a step closer - to simply end Domon Kasshu with a stomp.

Until the Core Block bursts open like a pinata from Hell, emitting an inky too-fast blur that latches on to the girder that Lord Genome never bothered to remove - latches on and pulls, using inhuman might and furious strength to shove the weapon through Lazengann's torso like a sword, shredding it in twain.

The two halves fall - machinery and explosive gouts of spiral power burn the eyes as the great machine falls in two parts.

And Lord Genome laughs, laughs, laughs, and cries, "How foolish of me! I should have known better than to trust a GUNMAN to kill YOU!"

The roof of Lazengann's skull blows off, struck and sent flying by a single, mighty blow, and the Lord of Spirals emerges, stomping across it even as it strikes the ground. His baldness is rife with furious veins, but even more than that, his chest hair has arranged itself in the shape of an infinitely deep spiral, so much so that it can be mistaken for a circle; his eyes burn with red light, highlighting the glowing circles within. His head is on fire with sheer power.

"Come HERE, boy!" Lord Genome cries out, and leaps for Domon to wrap a hand as large as Domon's head around the man's neck. "Let me SHOW YOU the meaning of your FOLLEY!"

If Domon has ever or will ever have any inkling at all of what this fight is going to cost... well, /someone/, he doesn't can't feel it /now/; his Clear Mirror is cracked into a million pieces that each reflect and magnify his explosive rage, his Still Water has been stirred into a churning stormsea into which the other emotions he's been learning to accept and balance are swallowed and lost. Windows are rattling, dust is billowing away from him in a granulated wall; screaming really, really loud for prolonged stretches of time is either some secret technique of Ryuha Tohofuhai or a facet of Spiral Power unleashed.

Only after he's touched his feet to the front of the topplign Gunman to give himself something to push off of before launching into a series of somesaults that leave him perched on the edge of a building does the scream stop... though the cry of, "You should've known better than to TRY AND KILL ME AT ALL!" is every bit as loud. "HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU NEED TO LOSE BEFORE YOU REALIZE YOU CAN'T--gkk!"

If nothing else, when Lordgenome grabs him by the throat, Domon has the wherewithal to slam his forehead against the Spiral King's mighty cranium in the hopes of stunning him somewhat; after that, his attentions turn to prying those mighty fingers from his throat--

Okay, so Genome's grip is far, far too strong for him to deal with now(or possibly ever), and methods involving leverage or blows to the others nervous system are probably a huge waste of time, considering that Lordgenome is probably not even a person so much as a really bald force of nature. The pupil of the Undefeated of the East falters as the breath is driven from his body; if /nothing/ is done, he will be on his knees, and then he will be dead, and--

--and that can't happen. After being summoned here for, seemingly, nothing more than insults and aggression, kneeling before this man-monster is in no way an option; Domon's trembling right hand closes tight and a strangled sound of defiance is forced from between his teeth in contrast to the pained gurgling noises that followed Genome getting a hold of him. His eyes and the heart-shaped indicia of Spiral Energy blazing within them fix on the King of Helixes.

Soon, there is an audible sizzling as Domon's inner fire enters the air; soon after that, red and gold light begins to shine in the narrow space between their bodies as the King of Hearts crest on the back of his fist glows bright, almost like a defiant crosshair for Genome's aggressions.

And soon after /that/, as Domon's lips shape words that his lungs have no breath to lend sound to, the King of Hearts - the /first/ King of Hearts - is burning in the air around him, arms folded imperiously over his massive chest, flowing blonde curls trailing from beneath his golden crown and growing freely from his chin. A clone of the crest hovers mere inches away from those arms, and unlike dirty, besmudged and simply attired Domon, the King is in purple and red robes and golden jewelry as befits his station; despite this disparity, when Domon tries to drive his glowing right palm against Lordgenome's spiral-adorned chest, the King of Hearts responds by trying to race from around Domon's body to run Genome over like a radiant freight train.

Whether the... quasi-apparition passes harmlessly through the Helix King or succeeds in driving him away from warrior who bears his crestt him will depend entirely on whether the palm-shaped projection of chi, of Spiral Power, of Domon's outright desperation to preserve his life and determination to stand strong in the Spiral King's presence explodes against his chest or is harmlessly turned aside by his peerless mastery of the powers in play.

Lord Genome grips the King of Hearts with all of his inhuamn power. A headbutt is nothing. It staggers him - just a moment.

And then the Spiral King simply starts walking across toward the nearest broad-faced buidling, holding Domon up in one hand like nothing. "There is nothing that you can take from me," the Spiral King rumbles. "Your weakness and ignorance are vast...but the strength of that power is not something I can ignore."

He turns, and moves as though to simply smash Domon Kasshu against a building, probably destroying it and very possibly detonating the moon, given the level of Spiral Power on display here. But...no. Domon Kasshu will not die so simply. The Spiral King turns with a frown as he senses more than sees the growing of Domon's glory.

And then the apparition grows above, and the Spiral King frowns a mighty frown upward. That face...no, he does not know that face.

But he can guess.

"So this is what they think of you?" he laughs, as if sneering at a memory. "At the end, your failure is absolute. Even your MEMORY is a mockery! Then, boy...if you'll invoke this against me, SHOW ME EVERYTHING!"

The blast of power smashing into him tears Domon from his arm, as the Spirl King's fingers mash into the furious visage of the idealized King of Hearts, a creature of no singular moment or era - the very vision of authority and peace, against what may well be a true god of war.

The impact against a building on the opposite side of the street causes the whole thing to explode in every direction, dust, shrapnel and debris flying around, bouncing harmlessly off the dome above, dust soaring skyward.

Nothing happens. The dust takes ten minutes to settle. There is enough time for Domon to slump to a wall - collapse, breathe heavily, and pray Rain doesn't just eat his heart.

Fifteen minutes after the blast, after the building falls, the foundations of the building Domon is next to explode, the concrete bulges futilely--

And the building is simply hefted overhead by the Spiral King, emerging from the ground with his eyes screaming with fire.

"IS THAT THE LIMIT OF YOUR STRENGTH, BOY!?" he thunders, and then simply...

...drops a building on Domon.

Domon jolts upright when everything shakes around him; slumping to the point of sitting would be about as bad as kneeling, and anyway if he were to sit he might not be able to get up again. Slumping against the building until he's /almost/ sitting, though, there's nothing wrong with /that/; it's like an athletic drill except Master Asia used to make him do it for days at a time while in the middle of predator-infested wilds as a test of endurance and strength and Master Asia's ability to be a fucked up old man.

Speaking of things Master Asia used to make Domon do: on a better day, Domon could probably move a building under his own power if he hit it right, even one falling towards him; a building thrown like a glass and concrete javelin by the tyrant of tyrants at the apex of one of the worst fights of his entire life, though, that is something else entirely.

Domon can't do anything about /this/ building but lash out at the falling structure as it crushes him.

Inside, the King of Hearts - the man, not the avatar - tries his best to hollow out a safe place for himself, but after the first floor or two the resultant debris is too much and chunks of rebar and concrete and plaster are raining upon and all around him as the building compresses itself atop his body; if it weren't for the King of Hearts - the symbol, the avatar, not the man - Domon would in fact be very, very dead, but well.

Spiral Power is a hell of a thing.

About a fifth of the way into the building's weight settling, red and gold begins to shine through each of its levels, staying just ahead of the ripple of kinetic energy racing up its length and shattering its windows. When the last level is hit, the top of the building is blown clean off; its sides follow when Domon's crest rips through it, looming like a great glowing umbrella over his prone form.

The resultant debris fly as if fired from cannons; other buildings are struck with enough force to rend /them/ into swiftly moving debris that strikes yet more structures and so it goes, the dome city collapsing like a madly arrayed stretch of dominoes. The dome itself is the last thing to go after about half of a sparking movie theater marque slams into it hard enough to send cracks racing from the imact point and a huge length of rebar studded with bits of concrete smashes through the fracturing glass; the great 'hisssssss' of the city being depressurized and robbed of its oxygen is difficult to miss.

Throughout all of this, Domon - and Lord Genome, for that matter, should he choose to remain - are safe beneath the radiant aegis of the Shuffle Crest, even if the former will probably /wish/ he'd died when he wakes up tomorrow... or maybe the next day.

The city shatters under the force of colliding powers. No more need be said of the exchange; apocalypse has come to this place.

When he lands, sixteen kilometers away, from the force of Domon's final push, the Spiral King collapses, surviving in the void under nothing more than the weight of his will to do so.

So this is the power of the new King of Hearts, he thinks.

Can I stop it in time...?

Silent, Lordgenome turns and stalks back toward the Star Gunman awaiting him - mulling over what he has seen in his heart.