HIT ME UP WITH A SKILLED FIGHTER

[Vapor]

DAAAAAMN I haven't posted here since last year, have I? huh.

I've decided to come back for at least one battle, and I hope this will be a good one. Hopefully I can shake the dust off of my box of Gunjin Skills that I left in my closet a while back. So this is an open challenge to whoever is willing and good. You choose the battlefield and I'll pick my character later, but let the festivities begin...... NOW.

[Metal Man]

I shall do ze honors then, perhaps as a pre-tournament practice. Of course I won't empty out my tricks here... heh.

One sec before I post.


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A dark matte landscape lay before all; and in this dark landscape was the torn machines of a thousand regimes. Racked by war, this inhospitable wasteland had been host to creeds and political movements of all kinds; the debris proclaimed a thousand things. 'Free the people!' 'Chain the people!' 'Destroy all that is immoderate!' But in the end, they had been united in one thing, and one thing only: death.

A blood red ray of light burst onto the scene, illuminating the orange desert soil. The corroded wreckage glinted with its few untarnished edges in a quixotic, strange fashion. The sun here was just as surreal as the land; it was a crescent shape, and a dull red. Piercing through hazy gray clouds, it lit up the wreckage like a funeral parlor. The graves of a thousand wars sat sadly in the empty expanse.

But from the edges came a new glinting, unlike these pieces of wreckage. A spinning cyclone of wind arrived on the arena, picking up wreckage as it went. A sound of thunder echoed across the dry plains--and just in the distance, the light shone on some gray mesas. In moments the noise was over, but in its place... was a man.

Still sparking with electricity, Metal Man bit his ancient lip and muttered. He brushed off a glovefull of static electricity, twisting his head to survey the new area. He had been sent a ways off from his chosen location--his dimensional device was breaking, and he was worried. He attended frantically to the sparking clock mounted in his right wrist; it had been in his left one until this warp! "What... why is it here... ...please don't break on me. I don't want to get trapped here..."

Metal Man, the 7 foot tall titanium monolith, stood out amongst the wreckage. He took a box from a compartment concealed in his left leg and began fiddling with his warp device, not knowing that the energies of his arrival had been broadcast far and wide across this dangerous expanse. His wrinkled, faded face furrowed its brow, a few scars bending around the dome of his forehead as his thick, frayed eyebrows bunched up and he viciously stabbed his interdimensional device with a screwdriver.

As his HUD shot messages warning him of another being in the area, and that he might damage the device even further, he obliviously tinkered with the device, ignoring these messages. His suit began beeping at him. "Ah, shut up! I know I'm in danger. I'm always in danger, stupid thing!" He punched his helmet, turning off the HUD for now. And what a shame, for another enemy was creeping up upon him!

[Galefore]

hay vaper can u joinz nlbft

Sorry. My inner spammer wants the roster filled out. D:

[Vapor]

@Metal: Cool, I'll have my post done by Thursday at the very latest.
@Gale: we'll see.

[Vapor]

DAMMIT, Life got in the way. Sorry.

The thing trekked across the landscape, stepping across the wreckage and corpses of thousands of dead android soldiers. His feet, quite similar in appearance to lion's paws, splashed slightly against the ground when they hit a protruding spike of rusty metal, only to be brought back to its original form by a crackle of electricity. The being's entire body was like this, some sort of metallic substances halfway between liquid and solid, probably Quicksilver; infused with living lightning. This pseudo-liquid metallic mass was shaped into the form of a lion-human hybrid, an ancient-looking cat's face surrounded by a mercury mane, and what would look like tribal armor coating his body if it weren't part of his mass.

Sparking metallic pupil-less eyes gazed upon the wreckage they passed, reflecting upon all of the failure that it represented. Nothing has come of all this endless war, all attempts to change the world defeated by the army of Decay and Dust. Their insignificant causes and concepts all worthless. Sure, they had some weight at the time, but who cares? The cold hand of Eternity always sweeps it all away, despite their ultimately vain attempts at everlasting glory....he felt something. A tremendous pulse of energy.

Looking around, he saw a hulking robotic figure in the distance. He walked over, nearly skulked over, towards it. It seemed to be fiddling anxiously with a small device on his wrist, and didn't seem to notice as the mercury being arrived behind him. So the quicksilver thing waited. And waited. Aaaand waited. Finally, it grew impatient. Taking out an iron mace, he whacked the metal man over the head with it- to no effect. It didn't even get his attention, let alone harm him.

Quite frustrated, it melted into a crackling puddle of mercury and slithered across the ground, bursting into a geyser jet of quicksilver, and finally bursting into his original form right in the Metal Man's face.

"Far have we come, I for the sake of the Challenge and thee, alas, wander here in confusion. I have the name of Zarjav Sylvol, you are the Metal Man-- But our origins are immaterial. I will fight you now; with all of mind, body and spirit vested therien; in the name of the Awakening, the Contest and the Clash," the newly-reformed mercury proclaimed. His eyes narrowed. "Make the first move."

[Metal Man]

Metal Man fiddled with the device as his time burned. He had no other concern than that; until the strange being appeared before him and challenged him to battle. He seemed anxious about the area for some other reason; stumbling, he spoke at the creature in a loquacious, smooth tone, with a slight hint of amplification in his voice.

"I accept your challenge, whatever you are. I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish, but if you truly want to hurt yourself that badly, I have no choice but to indulge your masochistic request."

Metal reached slowly for his lower right leg--but instead of an uppercut, or a punch, or anything else that made any sense, he made a strange pivoting motion. It was all but too late for his foe, who saw nothing but a smeared metallic blur as the business end of an elephant shotgun flew free from the man's leg and smacked him across the face.

CH-CHIK!

Metal held the 4 foot long weapon carefully, its redwood handle gleaming in the dull light. He gave no time for either combatant to hesitate, pulling both triggers at once. There was a sudden sound of thunder. The dire gun shot two exploding shells right at his foe's face. The twin shells screamed through the air, seeking a solid object to trigger their explosive payload and make good on the hours of work the crazed man behind the trigger had spent on them.

The massive force of this shot sent Metal Man flying back as well--but he had hopped momentarily before the shot, so he awkwardly landed and spent a second standing up again. He was a full 10 feet away from his foe, which by Newton's Laws meant his foe had an interesting ride ahead of him.

*B-BLAM!*

The twin shells exploded, ripping open the scabby ground and whatever pieces of Metal Man's slippery foe were in the way. Twin spheres of concussive force and flame flew outwards, bringing an awful brightness to the empty arena.

Behind the curved visor of the Metal Man, two eyes gleamed with indigo hatred, as they focused on the burning tiger's new location. Two clicks were heard as Metal's complex suit fed the elephant shotgun two new shells.

CH-CHIK.

Hunting season was open again, but was his prey in his sight still?

[Vapor]

Most people don't have the chance to feel things go through their face without it bursting apart int a dozen fleshy pieces. Zarjav, however, had no fleshy pieces. But as the bullets rode through his head, two gaping holes were left near his eyes and he was sent a few feet back. quickly, with a spark, the holes sealed up, but then Zarjav essentially landed on a massive explosion. The flames made his body ripple, and one could actually see it... expand. The incredible temperatures beneath him caused him to get unbelievably bloated, and he splashed onto the ground in a huge liquid mass. Metal Man furrowed his brow beneath his visor at this. The liquid metal swirled in the puddle, eddies and small vortexes forming, and it seemed to be slowly, slowly creeping along the ground towards the Metal Man.

Just about 10 feet away from the cyborgian warrior, the quicksilver swirled upwards into a spiraling cone, andremained there for a while. A spinning, spiraling spike leaped out of the puddle and shot towards Metal Man, at the last second reforming into Zarjav as we know him, a face full of a warrior's rage. He crashed into Metal Man, but not with his body-- a gigantic ball of lightning had formed in front of him, and it went straight into Metal. Zarjav himself then collided into him, splashing over him and reforming on the other side. He swiftly turned around and watched his foe, knocked over by literal shock, and glared at him in anticipation.

[Metal Man]

Seeing the spectacle flying towards him, Metal Man moved his finger to the triggers. But the speed the quicksilver moved was too fast; and so, all the man of steel could do was swing his shotgun into his foe's face.

Again he was deceived, as the tiger morphed into liquid and lightning hit his shotgun directly, sparking the explosives lurking deep within the twin barrels. His foe had morphed into liquid when both he and Metal Man lit up like a Roman Candle, burning hideously from the unleashed pyrotechnic violence. Both shells had been set off simultaneously, engulfing the area around both fighters in flame and concussive forces.

The electricity failed to reach its intended target; instead it had accidentally blown up both its caster and its target. The mercury had been splattered about like someone had upended a container full of it; this would most likely complicate reforming for the strange being Metal Man was fighting.

In the center of the freshly cooked crater was the charred statue of Metal Man, whose visor still shined defiantly. As smoke rose from his well-done suit, cracks formed in his rapidly cooling visor, and his elephant shotgun lay in pieces alongside several detached fingers; his right hand had been reduced to a metallic claw, two fingers and one thumb only. He clenched this unwholesome appendage at the boiling liquid surrounding him.

"All your flash and flicker is going to get you killed. While that's fine with me, perhaps you should think before charging directly into the path of an explosive-firing shotgun. Oh well, I guess I'll have to kill you the painful way."

His foe had reformed, but it was doubtful his combat technique had reformed. The lion glared at the Metal Man, as if stares could kill. Metal Man merely reached to his left, carefully plucking out a hefty 5-foot long wrench. It was huge and unwieldy, not to mention covered in blood and grease and corrosion and metallic fragments and bone fragments and pieces of shattered dreams.

The man advanced immediately, going from stationary to full-on charge with the same sort of gusto his foe had shown before. Only in this case, he was not going to try anything particularly strange; all he wanted was to disassemble this annoyance which had appeared in the worst of places.

Holding the huge wrench in only one hand, the Metal Man viciously swung his wrench in a downward arc to the right. His foe went to dodge as usual, but the fact Metal Man was using his left hand threw the silver tiger off juuuust enough that the wrench nicked him.

A solitary silver ear flew onto the ground, a harbinger of pain to come.