1348/TB Rookery: Toph vs Zod

TB Rookery: Toph vs Zod
Date of Scene:	16 January 2015
Location:	TARGET: The Rookery (TR)
Synopsis:	Toph challenges the Confederacy for The Rookery, and Zod answers. Rocks, aircombat and dragons!
Cast of Characters:	20, 524

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Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The wind tugs at the blind girl's clothes where she stands, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she waits for a response to the challenge she issued on the radio. Surely the Feds aren't going to let her wait, right? But then again, if they do not want to defend the place...

    This place is fun to fight in, at least. Lots of earth to work with, and it gives her many things to work with in a fight. Not to mention she can make her way around here easier than most, and it ought to be easy for her to 'see' no matter who shows up and attempts to fight her. But for now she waits and listens, a small sentinel ready to react and to fight, no matter who will stand up to her challenge.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    There's a subtle rattle and hum as Zod descends from above, not sounding anything like the flap of dragon wings. Small loose bits of dirt and grass kick up as Zod's feet touch the earth, wearing what can only be described as a black Kryptonian jumpsuit that has a strange faint metallic sheen, as if somebody had made cloth from ceramics and metals
    Zod narrows his eyes at Toph. He's not sure what tricks this young woman has up her sleeves, but he knows not to underestimate elites. "I am Lieutenant Zod of the CEF. If you want to capture the Rookery, then you will have to fight me." he states plainly.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The sound from above catches Toph's attention, though she doesn't move her head. The pressure from Zod's descent does make Toph arch an eyebrow at the pressure, though when he lands it is all clear to the blind girl. It is a bit weird with what he is wearing, but hey... if he's wearing metal it makes it far easier to sense him. And there he goes introducing himself.

    "I am Toph Beifong, the greatest earthbender of all time. I was certainly not here to have a thumb war or something. Unless you are chicken," Toph smirks as she moves into a defensive stance, feet apart and her palms facing her torso as she stands ready. "I dunno who you are, but let's make this quick, I'm sort of in a contest with another Unionite to see who can capture a target first."

General Zod (524) has posed:
    The attack commences with little warning, maybe a rush of air or a rumble of the earth as Zod hurtles at Toph in the blink of an eye and the sound of a thunderclap. He twists in mid-air and brings his elbow up to catch the earthbender's face in the strike.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Just the slightest warning is enough when people are in contact with the ground, really. Toph is ready as Zod rushes forward, and as he hurtles towards her she is already moving forward and to the left, throwing her right arm out. The elbow grazes her face, and at the same time a dull earthen spike shoots out, aimed for Zod's abdomen. If she's lucky, maybe it will stun him for a moment. But the blind girl is focused, prepared for any counter attacks. She hopes.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    The effect was like being punched in the gut, as the earthen spike erupts from the ground suddenly and hits Zod in the abdomen, shattering itself as it meets the Kryptonian's body. It smashes the miniscule links in the weird fabric of his jumpsuit ito his skin, tearing the suit and drawing small amounts of blood in the exchange. Zod reacts by grunting at the blow, taking a sharp breath to recover. Then he attempts to grab Toph's arm and twist it, forcing her to either flip with the motion or get her arm broken.
    "Is that all? I was led to believe you were more impressive." He says.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    As Zod grunts and the earthen spike shatters, Toph narrows her eyes just slightly. Only for them to widen in surprise when she finds her arm grabbed, and she lets out a yelp when she has no choice but to flip with it, wincing.

    His comment earns a snort. "I am just getting started!" she states firmly. As an earthbender her balance is a bit harder to break, and even when she stumbles forward she kicks her heel into the ground, sending out a bigger earthen spike that goes straight over her head... and aimed right at Zod's face. Hopefully that will make him let go of her arm!

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod does let go of her arm! To try and block the earthen spike with both of his arms! The force knocks him a step back, shoots down across the side of his suit before coming back down to earth. At this rate Zod is going to end up fighting naked...
    Zod's response is to stomp the earth, causing a plume of dirt, rocks, and earth to spew forward at Toph in an attempt to confuse the girl's senses while he leaps through the plume with a powerful left hook, his feet leaving the ground.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    It helps that he gets knocked back, and Toph works on regaining her balance again. Though she seems to frown when he tries to use earth against /her/. It isn't easily done when using the same element she fights with herself. No, the punch is far more effective, and while Toph does her best to bend the dirt and rocks that Zod kicked up into something to use against him, she finds herself at the end of his first, and the blind girl lets out a yelp as she herself is forced back, even though she digs her heels into the ground. Spitting out some blood, the earthbender raises her head. Her lip is bleeding, and the right side of her face is certainly going to be bruised from that punch. "You asked for it...!"

    Bringing both her arms forward, Toph raises them and makes a thick earthen wall shoot up from the ground. At least until she punches out in succession, causing several earthen rocks to fly out and at Zod.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    The General was not really expecting that. He expected the wall more as a way for Toph to offset his speed by forcing him to go around it. Instead he's pummeled unexpectedly with rocks even as he was moving forward to just burst through the wall like a bulldozer. Cuts and gashes appear in both his suit and skin, with two large chunks getting him right across the face, staggering him for a second or two as well as forcing him to twist awkwardly in mid-air. It takes him a good moment to regain his balance and senses.
"Urrrgh..." he says, wiping his face of the grime and blood.... "Let's see how well you like heights, earthbender!" He growls before rushing forward again, and then attempts to grab Toph and hurl her into the air like some kind of ragdoll.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Damnit, this guy is like a tiger bull...!

    Stubborn and rushing ahead, and here he goes rushing through the remains of the wall before she can do anything about it. This guy is crazy fast, that's for sure! Before she can react she finds herself grabbed again, and she lets out a startled cry that echoes in the area as she is airborne, her world spinning around.

    "Oh damnit...!" she cusses. Okay, the earth is in that direction, but it's a bit tough to figure out exactly where her opponent is. Even as she is falling back down Toph motions with her arms, and the ground underneath her and Zod explodes into dust and gravel all over the immediate area. It's not bound to hurt much at all, but it's more to prevent him from actually seeing her as she falls back down.

    And as she plummets the blind girl uses her hands to bend the earth directly underneath her into a makeshift slide that she lands roughly on and slides down with both feet.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    A great plume of gravel and dust shoots into the air and if Zod hadn't had other plans it would have caused some confusion even with his senses. After all, when there's all that stuff in the air it's a bit like trying to see clearly when somebody dumps a bucket of glitter on you, regardless of how many senses you have or how keen they are.
    But instead, Zod is rocketing towards where Toph is trying to land safely, kicking up a dust trail as he flies close to the ground. He lowers his shoulder, aiming it for Toph as the wind catches up with him. "Too slow!" He taunts.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    With her feet on the earthen slide it's pretty easy for Toph to 'see' Zod as he barrels forward like a raging beast with little thought or planning. It's something she has encountered before, and well... she has dealt with it easily enough. Why not try that again?

    When Zod is nearing the end of the slide, Toph kicks off with one foot, launching herself up and over that area. Keeping her legs tucked up against her body, she throws her arms to the side in a split palm attack...

    "Let me speed you up then!"

    Suddenly a massive earthen pillar shoots out diagonally from the ground behind Zod, aimed to knock him forward towards the waiting cliffside not too far away. His own speed might be a weakness, after all.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    It is kind of hard to stop when you have that kind of momentum going. Zod is kind of slapped into the opposing cliff-face by the pillar, causing a thunderclap as the earth shatters under the impact, collapsing the whole thing on top of him and tumbling down into the placid river below, the sound of the roaring earth accompanying it. It's a long few minutes before Zod regains his senses. He emerges from the rubble, knocking the large boulders aside as if they were made of styrofoam, suit shredded around him and his body caked in dust and blood from the cuts. He knows he's gonna feel those bruises later too. But for now...
    Zod lifts off into the air and flies towards where Toph is, raking the ground with twin beams of incandescent heat as he flies by her, at least forty feet in the air.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Man, that one really did send vibrations through the ground upon impact! Toph blinks as she skids to a halt. Did he die...? Toph waits, not about to do anything too drastic. After all, she isn't here to kill anybody.

    Still, her sharp senses do not betray her as she feels him move underneath the rocks and rubble, and Toph frowns as she feels him throwing away the boulder as if it weighed nothing. While she can't see him, she can hear how his body reacts to the injuries, and she knows she can't afford to take somebody like him lightly. When he lifts off into the air her expression drops however. Oh damn. And from the force he puts out whenever he is doing that flying thing, he... is not close to the ground. That makes it harder to know how to evade the attack, and Toph cries out as she finds herself hit by the beams, stumbling to the side. But it does give her an idea of where he is, and Toph kicks into the ground. A large pillar shoots out from underneath Toph as rocks explode all around her, and she is up in the air once more, this time of her own will. Considering where the laser came from, Zod should be... around here! Bending some of the earth that was thrown up with her, Toph twists in the air with the motion as she kicks out, aiming the rocks to swirl around her in a wide ring.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Well. Isn't Toph full of surprises? Zod is caught by no small number of the rocks, battered this way and that. Using telekinesis for flight is really nice, except it doesn't work so well when you get knocked around sillysince it starts getting hard to figure out which way is up. As tough and durable as Zod is, he is still reliant on his senses to react to the world around him. The barrage just clobbers him because he can't figure out which way to go. Too much stuff going on.
    He lashes out with the heat vision, flares of bright white light flickering all over the place as he struggles to get his bearings and stop the pummelling. Liquidated glowing gobs of earth explode where the beams intersect the rocks. Finally, out of it.
    Zod catches up with Toph and snaps his arm foreward, feinting with a punch before spinning his leg around to kick her sideways further into the air. Look, when you have limited ranged options on-hand and most of those options mean throwing rocks your opponent can turn against you, you punch and kick everything.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    It's easier to know where Zod is when the rocks strike him, and Toph knows she only has moments to act before gravity pulls her back down. There's also Zod doing that weird beam thing and blowing up the rocks, and as there's suddenly rock disintegrating between her and him, it is easy to figure out what is going on. So she prepares, pulling up the largest rock between her and Zod, and just barely in time.

    The powerful spin kick shatters the large rock, and if it had indeed struck Toph then the girl would have been sent flying through the air. Instead the blind girl feels the remains of the rock, and she clenches her hands into fists as she reaches out, and in response the rock moves to wrap itself around Zod, and then Toph punches down into the air, seeking to slam the earth as well as Zod into the ground should she be successful in wrapping it around him. She herself is falling towards the ground again, the wind tugging on her hair and clothes as she is forced to focus on her landing as she focuses on the earth around her, and begins bending it into soft sand.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod is enveloped by the rock and starts falling... cracks begin to appear quickly as Toph senses the Kryptonian breaking the rock tomb by flexing his body. It shatters mere feet above the ground. He manages to land awkwardly, stumbling a few steps as he catches his breath and ending up on a single knee. Precious oxygen floods back into his body, that stunt costing him quite a bit of precious energy. Little dots dance at the edge of his vision. Thinking quickly, he snatches up a fallen tree with a feral roar and swats Toph with it. The swing is not as accurate as Zod's prior attacks, but the large swath of destruction caused as he swings an entire tree hopefully makes up for that.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Landing awkwardly in the sand, Toph winces a bit. She can hear the rocks cracking around Zod, and since the vibrations don't carry that well through the sand it is very hard for her to know what is coming. She does hear him heave for breath, and perhaps she has a few seconds to--

    Seems not.

    Completely taken by surprise and not seeing it coming, Toph is struck by the tree and yelps, finding herself flying off with the force of the swing. The blind girl hits the ground and tumbles along before she manages to stop, wincing in pain as she leans over and tries to catch her breath. Damnit, her side hurts...!

    Not one to give up though, she slams both of her hands into the ground, the earth crumbling as the energy is sent towards Zod, set to explode in several earthen spikes around him unless he is quick enough.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod manages to hop out of the way of the spikes just a split-second too late, a nasty-looking gash opened up along a leg. He skids as he lands, more than a little tired. It appears as if he is about to charge Toph yet again when he stops. He then looks up, his eyes widening, and then /dives/ for cover as a freaking dragon comes swooping down with /death/ in its eyes and spews flaming fiery death at Zod and Toph.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    There's a frown crossing Toph's face when she feels Zod jump out of the way and avoid the blast. Though she halts when she heads some strange sound overhead... why is Zod diving for cover?
    Too late realization dawns on her, and Toph kicks the ground with only moments to spare as fire washes all over the ground, heating up around the earthen plate that shields the worst of the fire and prevents her from frying to a crisp right there. The fire licks around her, making it way too close for comfort and adding some burns to all the cuts and bruises Toph already has. And it's only when the dragon has passed by that Toph lets the burnt wall crumble and fall, and she winces as she clutches her arm that seems far more red.

    Even so, she can feel where Zod is where he is hiding, so she kicks the ground once more to send a fissure running through the ground towards him, the earth opening up.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod grabs the edge of the fissue as he falls and ends up getting crushed by the fissure's closure more than the dragonfire has hurt him. Sure, it's kind of burnt away the rest of his suit, leaving on rather angry naked Zod, but he guesses that Toph isn't about to stop and tend to her burns.
    Zod extracts himself from the ground, leaving big swathes of scrapes on his skin. He glowers at Toph and runs, not at super speed because he's seriously too tapped for that nonsense, and swings with an uppercut. "Does it burn?" He sneers.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    No, her burns can wait for later. Right now the stubborn earthbender is more focused with actually winning! Fortunately for her she is unable to see Zod's wardrobe malfunction, so she is not distracted as he charges at her again. But injured as she is, it is hard to keep up with it.

    The uppercut hits her directly in the chin, and Toph's head snaps back from the force as she stumbles back... and delivers an uppercut into the air herself.

    Another earthen spike shoots up, heading towards Zod's face.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod hrms as he rubs his jaw where the earth spike hit, spitting a little bit of blood as he does. Okay, seeing double, that means it's actually dangerous for him to keep fighting.
    "Well, I suppose that was impressive enough." And like the giant jerk he is, he just... flies off into the air and leaves. He'll take some clothes from somebody somewhere else.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Wincing and stumbling to regain her balance, Toph prepares herself for another hit.. only to blink when Zod suddenly takes off, leaving her behind. Which means... she won! The earthbender pauses, standing still and letting Zod fly off. Only once she is sure that he is gone does Toph allow herself to flop back on the ground with a heavy sigh, closing her eyes with a grin spreading across her still bleeding lip. Ow.