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Post by Kyubey on Mar 26, 2013 13:46:35 GMT -5
Moisant was almost shocked when he found that his charge had worked. Given how the fight had proceeded thus far, he was a little shocked that it did. He drove it into Asuza's side as far as he could, intending to get the most possible out of his attack, but knew that the battle wouldn't be over just yet. As the King grabbed at his trident, Moisant let go of it, now knowing better than to hold onto a weapon that Asuza also had a hold on.
When Asuza swung the rocket at the sphere, Moisant realized what a sorry position he was in. His first instinct was to move it out of the way, perhaps using its mobility to attempt staying out above the ground again, before remembering with a dull horror that he couldn't. The one tool he had for moving his precious spheres was now in the possession of the enemy. No matter what Moisant did, the sphere he was standing on would not move. He had no choice but to leap away from the incoming attack alone, leaving his only remaining sphere to shatter into several pieces under Asuza's tremendous strength.
Grunting with pain as the effects of earlier attacks surged through him, Moisant landed right beside the King. Now, he found, he was alone in this fight, left without his weapons. All of his weapons, in fact, except for one. A moment after landing, he stepped forward, right at Asuza, and thrust his gloved hand forward, aiming to strike the place where his trident had hit its mark.
"Impact."
If and when his strike landed at all, the Impact Dial that Moisant kept in his glove as a last resort would activate, sending a powerful force into the tenacious King.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 27, 2013 0:20:40 GMT -5
By the time Asuza noticed Moisant leaping to the side to deliver the attack, it was too late. He was still following through with the swing of the rocket in destroying the sphere. The impact dial unleashed the blast of force, and there was nothing the King could do but take it.
He couldn't feel anything anymore, not around that area. There was the sharp, rending pain of the sudden impact and unleash, but that lasted only for a second. Wincing from it, he didn't actually see what happened when it did. He only saw the trident clattering across the stony floor, a sizable chunk of him going with it. It seemed that Moisant had literally pushed the trident right through him and caused it to tear through. Rather than just being pulled out, it exited right out the side, when already it was deeply embedded. Effectively, it now looked like someone had swung a sword or an axe and chopped right through his side, as there was a clear missing portion.
The blood poured forth and soaked his clothes terribly. Chances were Moisant would even get some on him when the impact activated. The King only stood there, like he had been turned to stone for a good few moments. Breathing in, breathing out. It was his way of dealing with the shock. Eventually, he slowly shifted to face the old man, holding out his arm and dropping the metal rocket he had been holding onto with another clatter of metal. With his hand still open, he simply placed it on Moisant's shoulder and looked at him now.
"Talk. Listen. As much as you love to. Only the winds will respond now."
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Post by Kyubey on Mar 28, 2013 1:10:46 GMT -5
Moisant's mind raced, as he evaluated all his possible options, every move that could have been made from there, and what the consequences would be. Given his intelligence, this only took him a single moment before he had figured out his best possible course of action. It was amusing to him. A good, well-trained mind was useful for so many tasks, valuable in countless ways, but it never mattered all that much when it came to actual battles, which is what counted the most on the Grand Line. It was partially why he always questioned why he was even there in the first place, or why he bothered to play by its rules constantly. For years, it seemed, he was fighting for a prize he never even wanted. Silently, he thanked whatever greater power was out there in the universe, for giving him this moment of enlightenment. Who knows how different his life, and, subsequently, history would have been, if it wasn't for the encounter with King Asuza that was absolutely impossible for him to win.
"That's it. I'm done," he said, brushing Asuza's hand off his shoulder. "I give up. You win this one. Good job, sir. You've earned your victory."
Yes, in every way, Asuza was amazing. What kind of man could be so sure of himself after getting a chunk blasted out of him couldn't be defeated by one who loved books more than war, that was certain. And yet, Moisant had no qualms with this. He was sure that if he had to lose to a man, a force so unstoppable as that was as well as anything.
"I suggest you get yourself patched up. And we'll both catch our deaths if we stay out here any longer. Farewell, and do remember me when you reach the end of this path, would you?"
He began to take a few steps away from the king, and gathered up what was left of his weapons. "Oh, and next time you see that Henri fellow, tell him that I'm leaving the Grand Path, and let him know that this is nothing personal. My experience here has been a truly thrilling one, but there are plenty of others I mean to see before my name is called. Moisant the Great Pirate is no more. I've found Plain Moisant to be a much more favorable man."
---
Several minutes later, Moisant was walking towards the nearest shelter on the island, as the storm showed no signs of stopping. Behind him, splashing and sloshing in the muddy ground beneath, his suitcase dragged, heavy from the bits of sphere that were crammed inside. The old man walked with a bit of a limp, finding that the battle he lost was hurting more with each step he took. During the fight, the tension and danger had done an excellent job at getting him to forget the cold and the hurt and the general discomfort he felt, but now all those things were making him quite irritable. And yet, he could still find a merry tune to hum, preferring to think of the pain as a pleasant reminder of what was now thankfully behind him.
And then, suddenly, he stopped. Lightning flashed overhead, and Moisant's humming came to a worried end. He looked to either side of him, then downwards, paying close attention to the surrounding trees and rocks. And then, with a serious look on his face, he sighed.
"If it was your intention to assassinate me, Dorian," he said solemnly, "Then you must be aware that you've picked possible the most unwise means of doing so imaginable."
From somewhere unseen, a low, chilling voice cackled above the sound of rain and thunder.
"Do you truly think I wish you dead, Moisant?" said the sound of a much younger man. "I could never! You're far too great a man to die, and far too valuable to our cause. No, I'm offended you think that I would desire to kill you. Not my dear mentor."
"Is that so? Not even after I've stopped being useful?"
"Thinking so low of yourself, are you? I see no reason to view this as the end of anything. A setback, yes, but you can always reclaim your position, especially now that you know how that man fights. The Grand Path still has many doors open for us."
"No it doesn't, unless you want to become a pirate suddenly and enter yourself. I'm done with this. I'm through with the violence. It's time for it to end."
"Well, that is your decision to make, but would it be possible for me to talk you out of it?"
"In all the years I've known you, you've never talked me out of anything, why would that change now?"
"I see then. It is a shame, though. Having one of our order planted in the Grand Path might have been so useful to us..."
"And that's another thing. It's good you came here today, Dorian, now I can tell you that I'm leaving the Order as well."
"...What."
"I'm done with it all. I'm but a simple old man, who gets pleasure out of the simplest of things. No need for me to complicate that any further. I wish the rest of you all the good in the world, I really do, and I thank you for listening to me for so long, but my purpose is done now."
"No."
"Please be reasonable."
"You speak of reason? You were the man who began all this, it was your words that set us towards our chosen goal, and yet you, our leader, try to leave us?" The young man's calm voice was beginning to sound agitated now, as he failed to hide his emotions.
"Sounds about right, if you want to say it that way."
"No! You are our symbol! Our teacher! Our inspiration! You cannot leave behind that which you created!"
"Now hold on," Moisant said assertively, "I didn't create a damn thing. It might have been me that brought you lot together, and it might have been my words that inspired you, but the Order was never of my invention. The philosophy you and the others have made is interesting, yes, but it has nothing to do with what I meant to say. What you've made has potential, but you made it through twisting what I said and forcing it into something else entirely. Best of luck to you if you want to keep doing what you're doing, but as for me? I want no part of it. And never again associate that goal of yours with me, do you understand?"
There was a long pause, and for a moment Moisant suspected the young man had already left.
"Then that's it? You are gone from us forever?"
"Exactly. Sorry this is so sudden. And tell the others that I'll miss them dearly, and they shouldn't blame themselves."
"They'll lose heart because of this."
"Ha! You're all too set in your ways for that! Again, if you mean to kill me..."
"No. I'm disappointed, yes, but I'd never take the life of the man I owe everything to."
"I'm glad of that. I'd hate for our last meeting to end in such a tasteless manner. Call me when the world is yours, will you?"
"Perhaps I shall, teacher, perhaps I shall."
"Oh, and one more thing. You are wearing a jacket, aren't you? I'm serious, I'm very worried about you kids getting sick out here, and I remember how you..."
"Goodbye Moisant."
The old man shook his head, and continued walking.
"Goodbye."
Moisant seemed to vanish after that day, only reappearing some several weeks later, when he climbed onto the ship of a certain Alabastan pirate.
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Post by CJ on Mar 30, 2013 10:08:58 GMT -5
When Moisant was long gone, Henri finally came onto the scene with what appeared to be a bucket of sandwiches, chips and sodas. His head twitched about rapidly, looking for the participant.
"Where'd Moisant go? That's so like that geezer. He'll blast half of you apart and still let you live. Augh. I got to go find him now and make sure he doesn't wander off somewhere."
Before Henri ran off, he stopped and looked over Asuza's injures. He tried to hold back a smile and shrugged.
"I guess in the meantime I can set up your next fight. Let's go Asuza. I'm sure your death is waiting for you in this next bout. I haven't had a single person beat her yet!"
---
It was a fortnight before King Asuza heard anything from Henri after the Asperio incident. Now here they were, back in the mobile home as usual. Henri was dawdling about the kitchen, trying to muster some kind of dinner for Asuza as the orange and purple of the sunset leaked through the curtained window.
The coordinator at first tried to dice some vegetables. The knife kept slipping out of his hands and clattered loudly against the ground. He apologized profusely and tried cracking some eggs into a bowl. It took several tries to even get the eggs to crack against the counter top. When they did, they were crushed under his hands.
He eventually gave up and succumbed to making something simple. With shaking hands, he placed milk, protein powder, chocolate and a banana into a blender. After it was done he poured it into an elegant glass and put some whipped cream and a lopsided cherry on top. Finally, a cute pink and purple straw was added to the mix.
Henri slid the protein shake to Asuza. He placed his hands on the counter and looked at Asuza with a unnaturally pale face and tired eyes. His hands were metal now, noticeably large and uncomfortably grafted to his wrists. He mentioned in passing once about having relatives who were handy with machinery but it might have surprised Asuza to see they could make something like this.
"I'm sorry for what happened. These fights are supposed to be between you and your opponent. No one else. That kid is in Marine custody now so I don't know if I'd be able to reach him... truthfully, I'm not sure if I could do anything at this point."
The coordinator hadn't said anything about the next fight and Light was nowhere to be seen, having left some minutes before for an errand. The bleeps and bloops of her paused video game played softly behind Asuza.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 31, 2013 2:07:58 GMT -5
"I'm sorry for what happened. These fights are supposed to be between you and your opponent. No one else. That kid is in Marine custody now so I don't know if I'd be able to reach him... truthfully, I'm not sure if I could do anything at this point."
For once, Asuza was actually sitting down. He had taken the mass of rockets and explosives from his back, and left them outside with the two new, enormous weapons he had procured. He had taken a seat, and finally, Henri actually made something he could "eat". Letting out a long breath as he looked at it, he finally lowered some of the bandages near his mouth. A short glimpse of charred flesh that was his lips, but he had the straw to drink through, thankfully. He had come so far, and after all that had happened, he didn't feel like standing up anymore, didn't feel like it mattered whether or not he ate anything Henri made for him. There was only one thing left to do now.
"What is left?"
The King set the drink down. After being told how he was going to die so often, and all that talk about perfect deaths and all that, he had almost expected Henri to go off on some lecture about how his fate was inevitable. That he did not, in conjunction with everything else, just made things feel all the more exhausting. A lack of things to do, a lack of things to respond to. Everything he had done and everything he had been through, more and more it was starting to catch up with him. He was not yet thirty, but he felt so much older.
"Who is last?"
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Post by CJ on Mar 31, 2013 11:24:32 GMT -5
"Here's the thing. This next one's someone even Obviate didn't want to deal with. Are you sure you don't want to stay in second? There's still plenty of honor and glory in your position."
Henri stared down Asuza intently. His completely focus was on the man now. There were no distractions and no jokes. The coordinator wanted answers.
"Think about it. You'd have plenty of opportunities to kill people in all sorts of amazing ways! Are you really sure you want to continue? Do you really want to die?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 31, 2013 13:25:13 GMT -5
"I'm not doing this for honor or glory, and I'm not doing this to kill people. If this is going to be my end, then they'll hear across the four Blue Oceans, and every sea between."
There was the Henri he was used to. Not once did he ever question if Henri was actually concerned for his wellbeing. The strange fellow was obsessed with death, that much was clear, so he couldn't be a fan of Asuza when the King never killed anyone. It was likely then, that Henri would have wanted the King to fall at some time, at leas then he'd be rewarded with a death. If that were the case, then he assumed at least in some regard, Henri was partially looking forward to this.
Why deny him his enjoyment?
"Who is left? Who is last?"
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Post by CJ on Mar 31, 2013 14:41:43 GMT -5
"But you're already popular! You've caused Moisant to go into hiding. You're the first person to ever get past Obviate. Even if you didn't do it yourself, you're still popular!"
Henri was getting desperate. His large metal hands made a crack in the counter as he set them down forcefully. When was the last time the coordinator blinked?
"Are you sure you want to face the last of it all? Are you really really sure?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Apr 1, 2013 12:12:09 GMT -5
"Popular? Is this how people become popular on the Blue Sea?"
Asuza pressed off the table to reach his feet. Sliding the chair back, he made his way for the door, and went to open it. He was going outside to collect his weapons, and then go to where it was this remaining person was, or persons were.
"I won't ask a third time."
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Post by CJ on Apr 2, 2013 22:41:49 GMT -5
Henri sidled his way between Asuza and the door. "Hold on now," he said carefully. "You'll have your fight but there's something I need to take care of really fast."Making his way back to the counter, he held up a small white note in his huge metal hand. He smirked and waved it. "You want the information on the next fight? It's right here."Henri made his way back and patted Asuza on the shoulder. He opened the door to the mobile home and made his way out. "Now, while you're looking over that, I'll be outside, Zuzu."--- The note on the counter was written hasty rough handwriting. By the time Asuza could interpret it, it would already too late. LIGHT VON FEUER
HERE The walls and floor turned bright pink. Everything else turned into the same muscular pink but the note in Asuza's hand and the light fixture above him, glowing brightly. The floor slowly connected to the walls in a slope. Asuza's surroundings began to contract and expand, perhaps knocking him off his feet. The room was getting small and uncomfortable. Burning acid began to drip in and around Asuza. --- "Good job, Pato! Man, digesting people alive never gets old!"Henri and Light sat on a red-checkered blanket and ate already made sandwiches outside their mobile home turned apatosaurus. He gave the dinosaur a thumbs up with his metal hand. It tilted its head and waddled toward them rather cutely. "This sucks," Henri complained as he tore into corn beef. "I really wanted Zuzu to be my new #2. He could have killed a cornucopia of participants! How long do you think it's going to take before he's digested? I wonder what kind of furniture he'll turn out to be. I'd love if he was turned into a hot tub."Ignoring the coordinator, Light stood up and began to smack Pato the apatosaurus's leg. The creature began eating some of Asuza's weapons. "Hey! Pato! Those aren't for eating!" Henri teased and laughed. Light wasn't too happy, however. A grim look came on her face as she couldn't get the dinosaur to spit out the weapons. --- Down the apatosaurus's esophagus, some of Asuza's weapons entered the stomach. They weren't looking good for the ware, having been chewed and forced down the dinosaur's throat. Still, it was better than nothing.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Apr 2, 2013 23:15:54 GMT -5
"Now, while you're looking over that, I'll be outside, Zuzu."
"What did I tell you, about calling me-"
As Henri skirted his way outside, Asuza lowered his gaze to read the note as he spoke. He never got to finish, as the house became an animal around him. He had hoped to at least toss his lighter out the door after Henri, but it was too late for that. Asuza was eaten alive, and that looked like the end for the King.
---
Struggling to stand inside the gut of the giant beast, the only thing the King had to make anything out, was the hanging lamp above. Exactly how that still worked, he had no idea, but it wasn't really important right now anyway. He could feel the burning sensation beginning all about him, but then he was no stranger to being burned alive. Before he had to worry about being dissolved altogether, he first had to worry about suffocating inside the creature's stomach. Taking a deep breath to hold it, his mind raced through the possibilities.
Think fast, what do we have in here... nothing. With everything outside, well, looks like this might be the end. P.t. you son of a bitch, you were right all along.
His list of possibilities quickly narrowed down to nil, and it seemed that there was little else to do other than to accept his end. Realizing the grim nature of the situation, he was somewhat at peace, though he had some regrets to be sure. Perhaps chief among them, that he never got to see the effect or try out those two new weapons he got. Well, maybe Henri or Light would find a use for them after?
I knew I should have gotten a self destruct feature put in. Oh well, maybe next time.
He was about ready to give out, reaching the threshold for how long he could hold his breath, when he was hit in the head by something solid. A few things actually, and since it wasn't that goopy burning sensation, he was inclined to look.
Were those really his weapons sifting about in the muck? They weren't inside the house when everything changed, so maybe someone chucked them inside after? It didn't matter, his possible course of actions expanded now, and he had to work quick. Taking off his bandages, he grabbed a couple of the rockets and removed the soaked fuses. Using those same fuses to tie them together, he took the bandages and rolled them together in order to place them where the fuses had been. In one final effort, he swung the rocket bouquet upwards in order to smash it against the light, in the attempt at catching the makeshift bandage fuse alight.
Beyond that, all he could do was hold the makeshift weapon aloft, towards the direction they had fallen in and hope they fired before he blacked out completely. Of course he also braced himself as he knew that even if this worked, an explosion of this magnitude within the same creature he was already inside of, could very likely kill him. Better than being digested though, that was for sure.
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Post by CJ on Apr 4, 2013 15:05:44 GMT -5
Pato was looking somewhat sick. The apatosaurus ate some rockets after all. It jerked violently and lurched back, thrashing its neck about. It actually morphed back into a Half Form, parts of it turning back into the mobile home like a set of armor.
It hacked and actually spit up Asuza onto the ground in front of Henri in a slurpy slop. Pato then roared and reeled back away from the King.
"He's still alive?!" Henri screamed, kicking against the blanket underneath him. "Light, put him out of his misery! Quick!"
He didn't have to say a word. Light was already aiming down at Asuza's temple with her average-looking pistol. Her pink irises seemed to burn red without mercy or forgiveness.
She seemed particularly afraid, which was understandable considering no one had ever survived Pato. She pulled the trigger.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Apr 4, 2013 15:46:49 GMT -5
In the mess of goop, Asuza struggled to get up, though he could only reach his knees. Panting heavily, it seemed he had made it out of the dinosaur, but his troubles were not over. Not nearly. Most of his bandages though had dissolved, and though his clothes fared a bit better, they would be able to the parts not covered by clothes that had been wrapped up. That leathery mess of burned skin characteristic of survivors of the cataclysm. Only, because of his work with explosives, the King never really healed. He still looked like he had only just been burned alive, perhaps disconcerting to the onlookers if they were not used to it.
"Light, put him out of his misery! Quick!"
What could that mean? Conveniently enough Light was actually here, so he wouldn't have to go far. Henri though seemed to be directing her, which seemed highly suspect. Looking to the side, he saw his enemy with a gun trained on him, and couldn't react in time. All he managed to do was raise his arm up in her direction, so that when she actually shot, the bullets went right into his hand. He managed to angle it though, so that they wouldn't just go through and hit him in his head anyway; instead, they literally ran through the length of his outstretched arm.
His arm went limp as a result, but he wasn't dead. Taking the chance, he scooped up a handful of the goop with his free hand, and went to toss it right at Light. The intent was to distract her at the very least, to which end the King stumbled to his feet, and went to run for his pile of weapons. The remaining ones that hadn't been eaten that was.
His hope was to get behind one of the large, washing machine-sized boxed he'd brought with him. At least there they wouldn't be able to shoot him, though running over to it, Light would probably be able to get off a few more shots depending on how she reacted to the tossed handful of dino stomach sludge. Ducking his head as he ran though, he didn't have to worry about being killed outright; his flak jacket would at least protect his torso.
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Post by CJ on Apr 5, 2013 15:15:58 GMT -5
Light's eyes widened when Asuza didn't die... again.
She threw up her hands when he tossed some of Pato's vomit at her. She thrashed and squirmed at the gluk now all over her clothing.
By the time she tried to fire at him again, Asuza was already behind his weapon storage. In fury, she started to rapidly point at him, making signals at Pato.
Pato roared and cried at the directions. He shook his head rapidly, clearly afraid of Asuza and further upsets to his innards. Instead, he practically waddled toward Light, who became more and more angry.
Meanwhile, without looking back, Henri started to run away. Light glanced at him once and continued to point at Asuza with Pato shaking his head all the more.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Apr 8, 2013 12:36:38 GMT -5
When the shooting did not continue, Asuza figured he could go on the offensive. A welcome relief that the dinosaur did not attempt to eat and or otherwise attack him again. Reaching up to the large box, he drew forth a fuse, and lit it with his lighter. Once it got right towards the end, he stood up and pulled the top cover off, and kicked it over so that the top was now pointed right in Light's (and possibly Henri's) direction. "Misery?"Without the cover, the top that was now facing could clearly be seen. It looked not unlike a honeycomb; an array of evenly-sized holes, lined up row after row, the entire area of the box. It could be correctly guessed that the holes ran the length of the box, and in effect, it was more or less just a giant rack of small cannon barrels. The closest correlation was a firework array, simply scaled up in size. And now it was lit, and pointed towards his enemy. Once the fuse ran out, what followed was a broadside of explosive rockets. There issued a cascade of fiery missiles firing continually in rapid succession, starting at one top corner of the box array, and running down the rows one after the other. All in all there were around 128 rockets contained within the array, and they all unloaded in the direction in a matter of seconds. That said, as it was, Asuza had only tipped it over in Light's direction. From the time he tipped it to once it started firing, there was of course some time to react. That said however, the rockets would be going quite fast, and would eventually explode if they didn't hit anything (probably doing so some distance away). Asuza himself, just stood behind the array, to watch the effect.
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