| Test Your Might | ||
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| Summary: As a final step of a job interview for TASK, Mayumi must prove she knows what she's doing in kombat. Of course Kotal Kahn hears of this and shows up.     |
Mayumi slips in shortly behind Rayne and glances about as if she were just another citizen. It is important to her to get the lay of the land, as it were. Eventually she makes her way to the arena floor and waves to Rayne in greeting. "Sorry I took a little longer to get here. I was doing a bit of sight seeing on my the way." Her outfit has changed from a sweater and jeans, to leathers. A long sleeved-tunic and knee high boots are complimented by her braided hair with its dangling feathers. Holding out her right hand her bow appears. A traditional style of weapon, it is made of a silvery wood with a string of gold. There is no quiver and no arrows in sight though she doesn't seem worried in the least. "So, what are the rules?" A FIGHT GOING ON IN THE ARENA!!? You can bet Kotal Kahn is going to be there. Ask not how the TASK Director manages to move his skull throne around as much as he does, that thing is definitely not mover friendly. Nevertheless, it still manages to sometimes be in his office, sometimes in his room, and sometimes here in the arena. Kotal had been one of those people that heard a fight was going down. Unlike most of those said people, he does not leave when Rayne explains it won't be a match to the death and rather just a spar. It all works for the god of war who cares not the outcome, just that there is KOMBAT! As he waits for the kontestants to approach, the warlord leans forward and squints his glowing eyes at the approaching figure of Mayumi. "Is that a Chichimeca woman??" He exclaims in surprise, recognizing the buck outfit and eagle feathers worn by the northern tribes of America. "This will be interesting." Its intriguing to see someone who is so close to his adopted people here, though Kotal will wait before passing judgment. "Finish her quickly, Rayne! Pay me my tribute." He yells from the crowd seats. Even though he feels a lot of kinship to Mayumi. Kotal has to be a little biased towards his Second. Rayne says, "Rules? Well, honestly, I kinda wanted you to go all out to-" and then Kotal makes his presence known. She visibly winces before looking up towards Kotal. "Uuuuuh, that's not what this is about, boss. This is about seeing what she can do, not me." She sighs into a facepalm. "Like I said. 'Quirky,'" she says to Mayumi. Shaking her head, she raises her two practice swords. "Right, well... What I was about to say was that there won't really be rules for you, other than if I seem to explode, stop attacking me. That means you've gone too far. I'm going to limit myself to these, but treat a hit as if it were a blade. I'll warn you, the last time I did something like this, we had to call a medic... buuuuut she admittedly was kinda below amateur in her physical combat abilities." She frowns slightly at the bow, seeing as she doesn't have a non-lethal method for her own ranged combat. Still, she steps back to a fair distance before taking a combat stance and asking Mayumi to, "Begin." The loud shout distracts Mayumi from whatever Rayne is beginning to say and she turns her attention to one side. A very tall, blue-skinned man. Must be the boss. Mayumi can't help but smirk and shake her head. Choosing to ignore him for now she turns back to Rayne and listens to what she has to say. "Right!" Taking a leap back away from her opponent Mayumi draws back her bow and fires a shot towards the space above Rayne's head. The shot explodes in a shower of light and sparks that lack substance. No one would feel anything, but anyone watching might feel the need to clear their vision. When she lands Mayumi instantly begins running left, a grin on her face. "Right." Kotal doesn't sound at all convinced that Rayne is doing this purely to test the other woman out. There is undeniable satisfaction through KOMBAT, trial or no. As he stated earlier in his mind, the details about a battle are ultimately meaningless for the god of war, who only cares that there is battle and nothing more. To put it in perspective, Kotal gains as much power from fights as he does from the sun, to him its like eating, and when you're kind of starving you really don't get to be too picky on what you eat. Nevertheless, Kotal allows them to proceed as planned and leans back upon his skull throne. However, as he senses they are about start the battle, Kotal raises his hand to signal the battle to commence, only to see the two women unexpectedly start attacking each other. "Let Mortal Komb-- hey! I hadn't say the signal yet!" The Aztec warrior flumps back in his seat looking vexed. "Damnation. To think that I was once respected by mortals." Well, at least he gets to see a fight, and slouches a bit whilst he sips on a can of pulque through a silly straw. Rayne starts dashing forward as soon as Mayumi starts leaping backwards. This, combined with her forward leaning running stance, puts the shower of sparks behind her as it goes off. Still, it takes Rayne time, of course, to try to close in on her opponent. The look on her face is one of concentration; she's testing herself as well. How do I close in on someone when I can't use a ranged weapon but they can? Her aim can't be very good if she's constantly running, or at least she'd have to slow down, right? I know I can't run full tilt and keep a decent aim. She follows Mayumi's turn, to Rayne's right, beginning to catch up due to the changing angles of motion. It may not be different to Kotal, but to Rayne, when there's no real bad intent, it's nothing more than a test, not a real fight. That doesn't stop her from trying her best, though. With the light behind Rayne she is lit up in profile, making her quite visible. She makes no move to run from the oncoming woman, but rather braces her feet and stands where she is, bow in hand. Mayumi raises her bow and pulls back on the string, her fingers light on the golden thread as she aims. An arrow made of pure energy forms instantly on her command and she releases the shot, letting it fly. The arrow glows bright, highlighting her face and the look of concentration upon it. A release of breath and she fires; pulls back, fires again; then again, and again, and again in rapid succession. The strikes hit to either side of Rayne as the woman charges her. Suddenly the bow vanishes and Mayumi cocks her hand to replace one weapon with another. In her hands she holds a rifle. Firing from the hip she rapid fires into the space left empty by the arrows, right at Rayne. Rayne deftly jumps side to side, deftly dodging the arrows that... weren't actually aimed at her to begin with. Still, these dodges give Rayne a bit of a confidence boost, as she- Wait, it's a gun now? -as she manages to get taken completely off guard by the hip fired rifle. She tries to duck, holding up her arms to futily block as the energy rounds pelt her across her arms and bracers. "Damn that stings!" she yells out as she rolls to the side, trying to regain her footing. Kotal's eyes widen in surprise as he sees the Chichimeca woman conjure a magical gun and proceed to shoot Rayne with it. Now this is more like it! The warlord is beginning to think that this new girl might have a lot of promise. Her fighting style is strikingly similar to his personal mercenary Erron Black and the Earthrealmer warrior Nightwolf, and a combination like that is not something to take lightly. "Outstanding!" Kotal yells from the crowd seats. Silencia had been training most of the day, working mainly on fusing together the two kinds of magic that she possessed. For some reason, she had difficulty concentrating, so she decided to call it a day. She noticed that there was quite a commotion at the Town hall, so she succumbed to her curiosity and peeked in. She lets out a soft gasp as she notices Rayne and Mayumi fighting. Luckily, Silencia has more sense than to barge in without knowing what's going on, so she quickly makes her way over to Kotal and taps his arm softly, a concerned look on her face. "What is going on?" Mayumi raises the rifle to her shoulder and begins walking towards Rayne. "Are we done or do you want to continue? I'll let you get up and we can try again now that you know more about my weaponry." The tip of the barrel lowers slightly, just enough to show that she is willing to back off for the time being. Rayne takes this time to get up to her feet. She's not let go of her weapons yet, and she quickly regains her stance. "I never said I gave up." She gives a smirk and charges at Mayumi, swinging her left practice sword upward to strike the rifle further out of line, while also making a direct stab with her right. "Yes! Continue on!!" As one might expect, Kotal is the entire opposite of Silencia. The war god gets visibly excited when Rayne refuses to go down and continues to attack Mayumi, swinging her weapon at the Chichimeca woman to disarm her and stab her at the same time. Just as Kotal is eagerly slamming his fist on the armrest of his skull throne, he feels a pat on his muscular forearm that causes his to look sideways. "What!? Oh, Silencia." He says surprisingly, not having expected to see his priestess here. "Rayne is testing the might of this new warrior." "Stand by in case either of them is in need of healing after their ordeal. Your newfound power over the sun will be able to sooth their wounds." Kotal seems to be in a very good mood right now thanks to the current entertainment, and he shows this by extending a hand over to Silencia and pet her head. Silencia seems relieved that it's merely a test of strength and not some type of argument gone wrong. "Ohh, alright then..." She's obviously not as excited as Kotal about the fight, but she doesn't seem horrified. The nature of the fight helps. She blinks surprisedly when Kotal pets her, but she smiles despite herself, leaning against the skull throne while watching the fight. Mayumi grins at the challenge. As the sword swings up she vanishes her rifle to negate the pressure it might cause on her body. This allows her to shift to the right and away from the stabbing motion. She reaches out to take hold of Rayne's right wrist and shoots a bolt of energy into the woman, a bit stronger than the previous shots from the rifle. Then she lets go and jumps to the side calling up her rifle once more. Rayne pulls her hand out of the way just in the nick of time... And look at that, there's an arm there to guide her (admittedly wooden) sword right towards Mayumi's body! With a quick twist of her wrist, she rotates the sword into position inside Mayumi's arm. She draws it up Mayumi's arm, and if the older looking woman woman doesn't pull her arm out of the way in time, it would be scraping up the inside of her arm right up towards a neck strike. She steps in as well, placing herself in a much more difficult position to bring a longarm like a rifle to bear on her. "Excellent!" Kotal is in rare form right now as he's not unlike an excited young boy watching his favorite cartoon. Where normally he's grim and serious, right now he can't help but cheer at the kombatants' skills, particularly when Mayumi and Rayne begin to pull some serious moves. He's not even sure who to cheer for right now since they both actually look quite evenly matched. "Aah, isn't this fun, Silencia?" He asks of his priestess and lifts the girl up, sitting her on his leg, face towards the arena so she can still see the match. Silencia seems more amused by Kotal than the fight. Him acting like a little boy was something very different from what he was usually like. She chuckles and agrees with Kotal, though her source of entertainment was not the same. "Yes, very!" A surprised yelp escapes her when Kotal puts her on his lap, the girl peeking at him before returning her attention to the fight. She seems embarrassed, but she doesn't move to get off of his lap. Mayumi hisses loudly as her attack fails and that sword comes for her neck. "Kuso!" Unable to escape entirely she is able to shift enough to save her neck; so with a real sword she would not have died instantly. Her arm is not as lucky and she knows that there will be a harsh bruise later. If this were a real fight she would be disabled. Good thing Rayne plans to get her a trainer for long blades. The best she can do for the time being is dodge, putting some distance between herself and Rayne. Holding her arm close to her body she runs in a sideways motion to prevent putting her back to her opponent until she can shake the majority of tingling from her limb. Rayne doesn't look like she's about to let up on her attack! She keeps up with the running Mayumi, advising her now, "This is the problem with only focusing on ranged over melee, Mayu." Still, hopefully in a real situation Mayumi would have someone else in melee to intercept. The constant motion doesn't particularly make this easy for Rayne, however, as she continues to make some harassing swings, but is unable to get a solid stab forward while at that kind of motion. Silencia seems to be getting into the fight a bit. When Mayumi got hit, she perks up, slightly worried. When she keeps running around, Silencia smiles, the girl is still okay! "And the problem with short ranged weapons," calls Mayumi over her shoulder. "Is that you have to get close enough to use them." The young woman flexes her fingers and finds that they are usable again. Using the momentum of her run to propel her, Mayumi takes a leap and places her right foot against the wall. No, she is not trying to climb it, nor is going to do a weird back flip. Instead she simply uses to force to pivot herself. Calling up her rifle and once more firing from the hip and right at Rayne's feet. The idea is not to hit the woman, not yet at least, but to gain some room to maneuver. Space gained and once more on both feet, Mayumi takes aim at Rayne fires off a heavier shot than she has been using. Obviously Rayne can take it. Rayne indeed chases Mayumi all the way to the wall, taking one last swing-and-a-miss as the other woman jumps off of it. She seems to have a little trouble managing to stop in time herself, and in the end has to jump a bit off the wall herself in other to avoid flat out crashing into it. To keep her other foot from being shot she brings it up to the wall as well, momentarily bringing herself horizontal with the ground. This gives Mayumi's shot but one place to hit, and hit it does into the top of Rayne's head. Instead of kicking off to bounce her back into place, the impact makes her motions very sloppy indeed as her head snaps forward, and she seems to lose her footing on the wall entirely, slamming into it anyway in a more awkward manner than had she just run into it. There's no graceful recovery from this, instead there's an unceremonious dumping of her body onto the ground as she lies there, stunned from the impact of the shot. "There's no such thing as the perfect weapon." Kotal mutters to himself whilst he leans back on his throne, petting Silencia's head idly. "They are never anything more than the extension of oneself." He sighs, forgetting that mortals always take opportunities like this to try and push their believes over others. He shouldn't be all too surprised seeing that as the god of war he knows that's the reason for fights 9 times out of 10. Still, it gives warriors a bad rep and he wishes they'd focus more on fighting than talking. That said, he's still focusing on the fight, and he perks up when Rayne takes a stray rifle shot and plummets to the ground like a downed bird-- or in this case Phoenix. "Yame!" Kotal cries out the word 'Stop' in Japanese so that Mayumi specifically understands him and raises a hand. "Mayumi Wins." "Supreme Victory!" Then he's releasing Silencia and ushering her to go tend to the downed Rayne. "Go tend to our phoenix, my butterfly." Silencia does not need much encouragement to rush over to Rayne's side. She doesn't even wait to see if Mayumi understood that she should stop fighting. She lowers herself onto her knees next to Rayne, quickly checking the damage done. She sighs relievedly, Rayne doesn't seem hurt too bad. She gently pulls Rayne's head onto her lap and focuses on the sun's energy within her. Light escapes through her fingertips as she presses them on the sides of Rayne's head. The warmth would quickly spread through the female's body and repair whatever has been damaged. Silencia smiles softly at Rayne. "Hey there, feeling a bit better?" After making sure Rayne's okay, she peeks at Mayumi, waving her over. "Let me help you as well, Mayumi!" Mayumi winces as she sees Rayne go down. It was never her intent to actually cause harm and she quickly hurries over, rifle in hand just in case. To clarify her point she holds the rifle up as if to shoot, finger away from the trigger, and loudly calls out to Rayne, "Bang your dead! Now how hard did you get hit?" From the side lines she hears Kotal shout and nearly stumbles to hear him using Japanese. More on that later. With half a thought she vanishes the rifle and comes to kneel next to the downed fighter. Silencia has beaten her there, but she can't help but hover in concern. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine," she replies distractedly. "Is Rayne, okay?" Rayne blinks away the stars in her eyes as her head is pulled into Silencia's lap. "Uwah-huh?" she says intelligently as she's healed. On realizing her position, she flushes slightly and tries to sit up again. "I'm okay, I'm okay." She definitely looks embarrassed by the hovering attention that she's now getting from the two of them. "Well, Kotal, I'd say she wasn't bluffing her combat skills. I say we give 'er a job." Oh yeah, that's what this was all about, wasn't it? One moment Kotal Kahn is back sitting by his skull throne. The next he's appearing right next to the fallen Rayne, the nursing Silencia, and the triumphant Mayumi. The air moving in a sudden violent manner around him, as if the man had suddenly moved at the speed of light. First, the warlord ensures that his second is alright by watching her intently and the way that Silencia washes light over her. He nods approvingly, both that Rayne is beyond danger and that his priestess has mastered her powers to the point that she can heal as he does. "Perhaps." Kotal responds to Rayne's suggestion that he should hire Mayumi for TASK, but it seems he still has some misgivings about the girl. The statuesque Aztec warrior turns to look at the magical girl, narrowing his glowing eyes at her. "Your skill is beyond question, warrior. It is no small feat to best my second, even if this was naught but a spar." "However, I find your disregard for the kombat arts distasteful. Judging by your attire you should at least know Okichitaw. The martial arts of the Chichimeca people. Yet, you speak the language of Lady Amaterasu despite your dress and weapons. A strange combination." "Who are you, really?" Silencia blinks when she finds Mayumi so near, she was distracted and didn't notice the girl approach. "Ohh, she should be alright now." Silencia smiles reassuringly at Mayumi. Rayne's embarrassed demeanor earns a softly giggle from Silencia. "Calm down, get up slowly!" She moves her arms to support Rayne as the phoenix tries to get up. She remains glances at Kotal as he starts to speak, raising an eyebrow at his question to Mayumi. Job? Oh yeah. This was about getting hired. "That was just a lucky shot. If this had been real you would have taken me out with that sweet sword thrust to the neck." She grins down at Rayne while pressing a gentle, but insistent, left hand on the woman's shoulder to keep her from rising too swiftly. Her right arm is still rather sore to be honest and she does her best not move it too much. And yet, the sudden backwash of air causes her to turn, rifle in hand as she aims it towards the source and... Oh. Never mind. The weapon vanishes and she stands up, feet shoulder width apart as she looks up, and up at Kotal Kahn. "I am Mayumi Tiponi Shaw. Daughter of Ethan Shaw of the Apache Nation and Yukiko Kazahana of Okinawa, Japan. And you are Kotal Kahn, God of war to the Aztec people and current leader of TASK." The warriors bows as one does to another warrior, eyes never leaving them. "Ngggrrr." Rayne makes the most odd sounds when there's this many people doting on her. Especially when they all, with the exception of Kotal, have their hands directly on her. At least Mayumi touch is temporary. "I'm fine, Sil," she protests. The look on her face suggests she'd rather be hiding right now than having that much up close attention on her, and she in the end tries to squirm out of Silencia's grasp as she gets up to her feet, finally. "An Apache?" Kotal Kahn says with a hint of nostalgia to his voice. His head rises lightly causing the sun to peek through the quetzal feathers of his eagle knight helmet. He looks pensive for a moment as Mayumi gives her introduction and waits until she's done. The Aztec makes no motion to do anything about the rifle briefly pointed at him, and he even returns the bow, though far shorter than Mayumi, in fact it just looks like he's inclining his head. "I knew an Apache brave once." Continues the Aztec. "His name was Nightwolf. One of the strongest warriors Earthrealm could ever hope to produce." There's a sad smile to him as his sight shifts momentarily before focusing back on Mayumi. "I sense a power within you similar to his. If you have even a fraction of his dedication then you should be more than worthy to join TASK. The city of Twisted needs strong warriors such as yourself." "Join us if you are ready to undertake such a challenge." Meanwhile, if Rayne wasn't embarrassed about being touched by everyone already. Reptile appears all of the sudden and helps her steady herself. Forked tongue slithering from his mouth. Silencia reluctantly lets Rayne go, the girl feeling a rather familiar feeling rise. Her hands rest on her hips and her eyes narrow slightly at the colorful girl. "You get knocked down means you get doted on by me. If you don't want that, then don't get yourself hurt!" Again with the babying, Silencia can't seem to help herself. Her expression softens and she reaches up to ruffle Rayne's hair smilingly. "But I'm letting you off the hook for now, because you seem well enough..." The unfamiliar figure makes Silencia's eyes widen slightly. Even though she had upheld her philosophy of accepting everything the way it is, some things still surprised her and Reptile was one of them. It takes her a moment to recover before she smiles friendlily and greets Reptile. "Well... hello there, I don't think we've met..." An incline of the head from a god is more than respectful and as Mayumi rises she smiles at him. Easier to talk to him when he's sitting though, her neck is going to get a kink in it. "I know not of this Nightwolf, but I would be proud to join your ranks. Boss," she adds cheekily. A sudden presence causes her to tense and turn, no weapon present, but she is on alert none-the-less. O-kay... This place just keeps getting weirder. Rayne deadpans to Reptile, "Hands off, tongue in mouth, please." He must be someone Rayne knows, because she didn't seem to flinch as much from his presence as from his helping her stand. She pulls away from the green warrior and finally has her personal space back! And then she visibly winces again as her hair is ruffled by Silencia. "Glrfffrr... I don't do it on purpose. You healed me, I'm fine. Thanks, but no need to dote on me afterwords." She sighs and starts brushing the sand from her armor. Hmph, so this one also has a sense of humor, great. Kotal Kahn only makes a face when Mayumi is already calling him boss. A lot of things have changed since he ruled Outworld, back in the day he held titles like Emperor, Lord, God of War, nowadays he's had to face the reality that people call him cheeky stuff like boss man and buddy. Eh, he's nothing if not easy to adapt though and he gives half a smile to Mayumi. "Then I bid you welcome to TASK, o' brave Mayumi. My assistant Minu will give you the paper work necessary to fill out." So, even in a place like this there's still tedious things to do like filling out paperwork. Reptile slithers his tongue back in his mouth when Rayne chastises him. "Sssorry." Poor guy, he was just trying to help. The green armored lizard man ninja regards Mayumi briefly, seeing that yet another joins the ranks of TASK. Before saying anything though, his gaze focuses on Silencia as she says hi to him. "Greetingsss." He hisses and extends his long forked tongue to lick Silencia's cheeks, mostly because he senses that she's friendly enough to let him do it. That might look like a weird gesture but lizards see better with taste rather than their eyes and its just easier for Reptile to remember people using this method. After a moment though, Kotal rolls his glowing eyes slightly and gestures with his hand. "Can every one please give Rayne some space?" He's aware of his second's social anxiety. Silencia pouts slightly at Rayne's reaction to her doting. She doesn't say anything about it though. Reptile's tongue surprises Silencia and she makes an odd face as he licks her cheeks. Now it was Silencia's turn to feel a bit uncomfortable. Reptile's guess was right though, she is friendly enough to let him do as he pleases for a moment before taking a step back to avoid that tongue. She reaches up and rubs her cheeks to dry them off. "My name is Silencia... who are you?" She had already let Rayne go, allowing the female her personal space once more. "Taichou!" Mayumi offers another, deeper and far more formal, bow which she holds for an extended period of time. Both sides of her heritage promote respect and, despite her generally informal attitude, Mayumi does her best to honor those ideals. When she finally rises she turns immediately towards Reptile and offers her hand to him. "Hello, Reptile. I'm Mayumi, the newest member of TASK." She makes sure to keep her hand outstretched and away from her body, eyes watching that tongue. Rayne, finally accepting that she's never going to get her armor sand-free while she's still wearing it, sighs, then straightens herself as she turns to face Mayumi again, now finally smiling again. "Welcome to the team, Mayumi." Rayne then gives Kotal a glance. "Minu's already working on the paperwork, actually. She seemed to think Mayumi was a good fit for us, as well." And there the smile turns into a bit of a smirk for a fraction of a second. She then clears her throat, trying to make herself seem professional. It pretty much never works, but it's hard to look professional when you look like a 17 year old with rainbow colored hair. "As a member of TASK, you have another option for lodging now, in that we have a habitation floor, as well, that you can set yourself up in. From what you said earlier, that might be to your liking as that's the same floor as the kitchen and dining area... where the coffee machine is. But it is a bit less customizable than Integra Arms. "Is she now?" Kotal raises his eyebrows as Rayne gives him the good news that Minu was already setting things into motion to hire Mayumi. "As expected of my personal assistant. Such dedication." He says clenching his fist and looking onward with pride. It finally looks like TASK was shaping up to be the disciplined law enforcement that he envisioned. Though it's still rather unnerving that most of his members are young looking girls but-- well, this is Twisted. In a way it perfectly makes sense that the police would be magical girls. At the very least, the warlord nods approvingly of Mayumi's bow and listens as Rayne explains TASK's benefits. Including lodging, dinning room and kitchen. "Just be wary of entering the kitchen when I am using it. I tend to.. experiment." Does he ever. Guess Mayumi will find out just really how eccentric the god of war can be. In the meantime, Reptile gives a fanged grin to Silencia in his own way of thanking her for holding still long enough to be licked. "Reptile." He introduces himself and then turns to Mayumi, giving her a far more formal hand shake. "Welcome. I look forward to working with you, yessss." "Thanks," she grins at Rayne, nodding her head at the suggestion of a possible place to live. "If that's where the coffee is so you'll be seeing a lot of me. Oh, and I like chilies," Mayumi tosses over her shoulder at her new commander while shaking hands with Reptile. After a moment she turns her hand over, offering it to him palm up. "And I with you. Have a lick if you'd like." Silencia smiles back to Reptile and nods her head in a friendly greeting. "Nice to meet you, Reptile!" Mayumi gets a wide smile from the priestess. "Congratulations, Mayumi!" Silencia was truly happy that the girl who had been so very frazzled before seemed to fit in perfectly. Kotal gets an odd look though as Silencia tries to imagine him cooking. She can't help but smirk at the mental image. | |
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