nexus_crossings | We're all gonna get in a fight! [EVENT: FITE NITE][Warning: Violence and Blood]

We're all gonna get in a fight! [EVENT: FITE NITE][Warning: Violence and Blood]

People have been disappearing in the Nexus.

Going missing from work, from their homes, from the Plaza.

Locals are staying in their homes, shutting their doors. Even the more shut-in of Nexus goers will be able to tell that something is amiss around here. The Plaza is strangely sparse as far as foot traffic; many of the shops downtown are closing early.

Word is spreading in the Industrial District of an anomaly in the anti-violence field. Easy money for betting in cage fighting. Less easy money but larger amounts for competing in said cage matches. One on one, matches with and without weapons. Rounds go until someone surrenders, is knocked out, or dies. Who would set up such a thing? It's becoming very popular and many a coin is being generated. Are so many people really signing up for this?

Some are. Others are captured and drugged, thrown into the ring against their will with the ultimatum: Fight and get free, or die.

What do you do?

Are you looking to bet your wages? Sign up for a chance at riches? Are you one of the unwilling laying in a dark room?

Or.

Are you going to stand for this if not?

((Please view this OOC post to chat with other players before you jump into a fight! All fights must be agreed upon by participants ahead of time for severity of injuries. Outcomes can be agreed upon or will be decided by a coinflip by myself. Please do not come into this expecting to clean sweep someone without sustaining injuries unless you and your fight partner have agreed ahead of time that would be hilarious. If there are questins, concerns, or complaints PM me. TL:DR Have fun and don't be a dick!))

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Dia'ndria Starfall may be an Exiled Sith, and she may be trained to be a Sith Assassin of all things, but she does have her own internal logic and sense of honor, however twisted it might be by her training and the very strange life she's lead up to this point.

Regardless, Dia nods, taking in this information and filing it away for both current and future reference, and the fact that she'd guessed correctly: Blaze is some sort of sentient machine, but far more advanced than any droid she's encountered thus far. The idea doesn't really unnerve her as much as it probably should, but it's a new one to accept.

Slowly, the Sith slips into a ready stance, saber held behind her, and she activates both ends of it, the weapon hissing to life and humming quietly in the air. Dia's eyes narrowed as she waited, figuring that most of what Blaze possessed happened to be ranged, which was easier for her to react, than rush straight into. "I suppose for now, it is. Anything else, I can learn as we go."

It was the truth, really. And she was definitely looking forward to the challenge. Particularly now that she was out of that damned cell (Which, incidentally, the demons were going to have a hell of a time getting her back into).

Edited (Added a couple of lines after a bit of thought on it.) 2016-05-13 07:46 (UTC)

Blaze certainly has ranged weaponry to spare, and Dia’s assumption doesn’t look to be far from the mark at this point. She unclips the blunt-nosed fusion rifle from her back, feeling it power up quietly as she settles it in her arms. Her answering chuckle is low, but the good humor is genuine. “My kind of plan.”

The moment she judges Dia ready she moves, pulls it up to take a shot. The rifle is slow – a couple seconds to charge before it looses a bolt of orange fire. She’s not aiming too close though – the point is just to make her opponent move, shake her guard, because the Titan’s closing in fast as she fires.

There’s a certain logic to charging in – it’s the simplest way of testing her opponent’s defenses, reflexes, not to mention her nerve. If necessary, the Exo can control the damage her fists inflict far better than her guns. Mostly though, a frontal assault is just what you get when you challenge a Striker.

Interesting, she's so used to the blasters from her reality, that seeing a rifle taking a second to charge before firing is a bit of a novelty. Still, her eyes narrow as Blaze takes the shot. Dia, herself, takes a half step back before charging forward herself. Unsurprisingly, the robes she's wearing are light, allowing for full freedom of movement, and frankly, she's fast. Hers is a world where life, death, and limb attachment can be decided by actions in mere moments.

And then? She leaps, and it's not some paltry little jump, but a Force enhanced jump forward, arms going above her head to spin the dualsaber between her hands as she twists her body into the motion to add momentum and swing in a wide, plasma-blade humming arc. Even if Blaze avoids the strike, Dia lands in a forward roll, and keeps her momentum going, smoothing rolling into another jump-then-running motion.

One might think that someone with a weapon that's obviously designed for close range combat would stick close to Blaze, who's weapons are clearly designed for range. But that's not the case here. Yet, anyway.

She’s a hell of a lot faster than Blaze was expecting. Where Dia moves with fluid grace, the Exo reacts with machine reflexes and force – even as she lets out a very human-sounding grunt of surprise. Sand flies as she slams to a halt, twisting to catch the strike on her shoulder guard. She’s not fast enough to actually avoid the sweep of that blade – nor was she expecting it to come from that angle. Even at a glancing blow it bites into her armor and carves a smoking gouge into the plate, fiercer than an arc blade and broader than an energy bolt.

She’s going to feel that as soon as she flexes her shoulder again. This saber is not a weapon to shrug off like so many others. Blaze isn’t stopping to take in the damage report, though. She wheels to track the nimble assassin. Got to stay moving. Tactical analysis second, hitting home first.

Which clearly won’t be easy. Her outpaced rifle is lowered as she opens her left fist to launch a grenade into Dia’s estimated path, try to slow her down. Not one of the Guardian’s usual flashbangs – she’s made one concession to the presence of an audience after all. This sparking ball of energy is aimed for the ground; where it lands it stays, pulsing waves of lightning in a radius of several meters around it.

On beings made of flesh and blood, the lightsaber famously slices limbs off and instantly cauterizes the wounds as it cuts, typically leaving a burned stump in its place. On mechanicals, such as droids, it's unsurprising that the effect is similar. The blade hums, even when Dia's not exerting any force to cut with, thrumming in the air.

Dia sees Blaze move and launch the grenade out of the corner of her eye, tracking it where it lands and gesturing sharply downward as she uses the Force again. This time, Blaze is treated to the show of Dia using another Force leap from a different angle. The Exiled Sith gestures downward sharply, throwing a lot of the sand in an explosive wake, and leaps into the air, clicking her saber off for safety's sake as she flips her way over the damaging area-of-effect of the grenade, and lands seamlessly into another run.

As soon as she's on the ground though, the saber's back above her head and in both hand. She flicks her wrists and what was one quickly becomes two deadly blades. Dia turns again, and rushes towards Blaze again, one blade in front of her, and the other trailing behind. Both humming with deadly promise, while glowing bright red.

Now those are some acrobatics! Looks like Blaze is about to get what she wanted… ready or not. The switch to double blades changes up the situation, but the Exo’s reaction is already decided. She fires off another shot at Dia’s right side, trying to break the charge or force her aside. It’s almost the last moment when Blaze throws herself forward for a bone-cracking shoulder tackle, lifting the heavy rifle against the saber already in front. Might cost her the gun but that’s acceptable.

Not much she can do about the other saber except try to get inside its reach and hope Dia can’t angle an effective strike at her. (Well. Ghost hopes; Blaze assumes.) No tactic is perfect.

Of course there’s no stopping if Dia evades upward again. She’ll just have to duck and roll with her own momentum. The Titan may be about half as nimble, but she has the power to move damn fast for someone carrying that much mass.

Dia's adaptability has always been one of her strong suits, which was why she chose and created the lightsaber she did. And, indeed, Force users are capable of utterly amazing feats of acrobatics when applying their skills to themselves. Dia'ndria herself was fairly experienced in this, since she was assassin, as well as someone who was sent into dangerous temples for various missions to retrieve artifacts, holocrons, and so on.

Still, it's a learning experience all around for Blaze: Lightsabers can deflect energy weapon shots, something Dia demonstrates to avoid having to dodge the shot, whipping her left saber up to block the shot with a extremely distinct pinging noise, sending the energy ricocheting off of the plasma blade and harmlessly into the sandy floor.

Blaze's block with the rifle does unfortunately cost her the gun, the saber striking and cutting through the weapon with minimal effort from the exiled Sith (it's probably mildly fortunate for them both that Dia doesn't hit whatever power cell is inside the weapon). But it does help: The shoulder ram connects, and sends Dia sprawling backwards with a surprised yelp and groan of pain. She does land on her back, but manages not to drop her lightsabers.

Did she just see that? Slow and inefficient it may be, but she knows the punch that rifle carries. The last thing she expects is to see it bounced harmlessly off that slender blade of energy. Right before said blade cuts about to sever her rifle. She can feel the heat of it on her armor, the sudden loss of weight as it shears effortlessly through the heavy casing.

Then too, Dia’s ability to deflect the shot means she’s not moving the way Blaze planned on. The Titan’s blow is thrown off-center – impacting hard with her momentum behind it, just… not as effective as she’d intended. She doesn’t care about that – efficiency isn’t the goal here. And Dia’s not like any opponent she’s faced before.

Her surprise doesn’t translate to hesitation; she turns to follow through and drops, ramming the stub of rifle in her hand roughly at Dia’s left shoulder, butt-first. Everything’s a bludgeon when push comes to thud.

She doesn’t really want this to end too fast, she thinks. She’s enjoying this; she wants to see what else this former Sith has in her armory. But instinct and training override such things, binding her to dive in, try to exploit the opening before those blades get back in action. Before Dia gets moving again. Light knows it’s hard enough to catch her…

Indeed, Lightsabers having the ability to deflect energy weapons is a time honored ability that many non-force abilities have been calling bullshit about for thousands of years. Simply put, Dia won't allow herself to be herded in any particular direction if she can help it at all.

Still, Dia's on her back, which probably would count as some sort of progress, particularly since she was prone and unable to dodge in any sort of traditional way. Instead, she twists both of her sabers in her hands to the reverse grip, and gestured upwards sharply with both hands as Blaze came baring down on her all at once.

This was probably another new experience for her, too, as she would be thrown, her momentum deflected and transferred like a ball bouncing off of the ground, Dia using the force to throw her away and give herself time to get back on her feet, and step back, whirling the sabers back around to be ready for Blaze's next action

Before she knows it her strike is going backward, the Titan tossed through the air and onto her metal butt in a thump of flying sand. Her instincts react before she’s quite processed what just happened; Blaze rolls to her knees, hurrying to right herself, get back on her feet. Get her thrust pack aimed down so she can avoid any follow-up attack.

She’s laughing as she does, though. Not with bitterness or mockery, but honest joy at the twist. It’s going to be one of those fights after all. The ones she calls good and Ghost calls… educational.

“Guess you’re not so easy to crack,” she calls out. The remains of her gun are almost tossed aside- but she reconsiders, stows the mangled lump at her back. Might be time to accept that a headlong assault won’t work. Well, not just yet. “Didn’t think you had that in you!”

It’s meant as a compliment, really. Just like the fact that she’s drawing the pulse rifle from her back, aiming the first three-round burst of fire at her opponent's feet. Dia can’t be intimidated, or broken head-on, or easily caught out. Which means Blaze has to get smart and switch up her tactics, and that’s not something that happens often enough.

Indeed, simply snapping the saber from her waist into her hand might've given away her telekinetic powers from the Force, but by no means did it reveal how much mass or weight she could toss around at once (incidentally, it was quite a lot. Strong in the Force, this one is).

Blaze's laughing earns an amused look with one eyebrow raised curiously as Dia shifted her stance slightly, twirling the saber she was holding behind herself around as she did. "I've survived a great deal to get to this point. I refuse to go down easily in any situation." Is her reply, her amused tone coming through her voice. "Besides. I don't think you wanted it to be easy!"

Blaze then fired at her feet, while Dia probably made the predictable motion of leaping backwards, what came next might be more of the unexpected tactics of the Assassin who knew how to survive in many situations. She whirled one saber around, a flashy motion, admittedly, and sliced into the sandy arena floor, gesturing sharply downwards with her other hand. There's an explosion of sand that obscured Dia's movements momentarily, as she clicked off both sabers in a single motion as soon as it was thrown high enough.

From there, and hopefully at least momentarily obscured from Blaze's sensors, Dia takes two more steps back, and charges forward, reactivating both sabers as soon as she's clear of the dust cloud she's generated, intending on swinging one saber, then the other at the Titan, intent on putting her back on the defensive once again.

“Course not!” she agrees wholeheartedly. Her fire gets Dia to move, as intended, but it’s obviously hard to keep a good ~~Sith~~ Force-user off-balance and abruptly there’s a cloud of sand between them. Blaze’s sensors – rather, those built into her armor – have been tweaked to function through sand-blown environments. But they’re slow to adjust to the sudden cloud, especially when the brightest energy sources Dia had just went dark. In one maneuver her foe has neatly slipped her trackers.

That doesn’t stop Blaze opening fire, targeting Dia's last position for a couple bursts of fire and hoping luck favors her. She’s aiming low still, preferring to risk a crippling (and repairable) hit than one at chest or head height. Doesn’t make it safe either way, of course. And doesn’t prevent the assassin’s sudden reappearance, much closer, twin sabers flaring to life and swinging right for her-

There’s a muffled curse from inside the Guardian’s helm, distinct in its fervency. And now she boosts as she leaps backward, Light-fueled thrust powering her into an arcing jump. Not quick enough to evade the first swing- and wherever it lands that’s gonna hurt. But maybe not as much as the sting of finding herself playing defense. Sure, she’ll throw down another grenade in front of Dia’s position, but that’s basically just covering her own retreat. What madness is going on here?

Besides getting the fight she wished for. There’s obviously that.

Indeed, Lightsabers are a good way to track a Force user in many situations. They're not subtle weapons at all, regardless if you're Jedi, Sith, or something in-between as our dear Miss Starfall has since become. The blades happen to be made of plasma energy suspended in a magnetic field, and they glow brightly of whatever color the kybar crystal was used to make the weapon.

Supposedly, there were ancient energy saber weapons that didn't glow, but instead consumed the light around them to form a shadowy blade, but even in all her excursions into various Sith temples and holdouts, Dia had never seen one.

To her credit, Dia is holding back. She's not trying to completely destroy Blaze, so much as disable her and try to force her to surrender. All the while, Dia's trying to plan several steps ahead, keeping an eye on her surroundings and the arena itself.

Still, boosting backwards was something Dia did expect. Much of Blaze's abilities and armor's abilities seemed to mimic the various Bounty hunters she's dealt with in her day: Rocket packs and boots, the various blasters and grenades. And while the Exiled Sith didn't use equipment to make up for her shortcomings, she could certainly respect those that did: They made their own power. Found their freedom.

Whether that was the case with Blaze remained to be seen. She, admittedly, didn't know the Titan well at all--one or two discussions in the Nexus and all that.

The grenade was also expected, and a quick glance (seeing that it wasn't solid, but energy, and not something she knew how to manipulate with the Force), a spat out curse, and a leap backwards to try and avoid it going off--

Still, the grenade going off does throw off Dia's jump, causing her to swear and click the sabers off in a smooth motion, having to catch herself on her hands and flip back into a stand, putting her back at a distance from Blaze, panting a little to catch her breath as she reactivates her weapons.

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We're all gonna get in a fight! [EVENT: FITE NITE][Warning: Violence and Blood]

And why don't we make it double!

Prepare the (nearby) world for devastation!

To unite our peoples for entertainment!

Surrender now or- no, don't, it's more fun this way.

For we shall entertain on this day!

Have we broken out the Gladiator references yet?

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