2264/It's Hot In Here

It's Hot In Here
Date of Scene:	17 May 2015
Location:	Volcanian Plains
Synopsis:	Tsun tsun tsun tsun tsun tsun!
Cast of Characters:	73, 768, 772

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Hiei (772) has posed:
It's difficult to tell if it's night or day, since the sky is perpetually darkened by thick black smoke, and the area is primarily lit by the fires of distant volcanos and flowing lava streams.

Hiei is sitting on the burning rocky ground of the current area, the closest volcanos at least a mile away, and clearly visible. But there -are- plenty of lava flows and pools around here, and not all of the ground is stable, but it tends to be rather easy to tell.

He's staring at a hot rock in his palm as steam rises from his hand, raising it up to his nose to lightly sniff at it. He does look pretty bored.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Lacking personal flight, Frederica does the next best thing when responding to the beacon. She commandeers a ride. It allows her to stew in her own private world of worry and anger while she anticipates an upcoming fight with a monster who seemingly loves only killing.

    One advantage of knowing the fight is coming, of course, is it allows her to gear up. Not that she uses weapons beyond that of her own mind, but she does wear an armoured uniform. Not bulky steel, but a light jacket of slash-resistant weave backed by impact gel; flexible yet reasonable protection. The only problem is it's hot stuff, not suited for everyday wear. Also it's slightly unfashionable. It's a bad idea to show off shoulder, hip and thigh when you're going into combat. Unless, of course, you're a MMO character. Unfortunately for Frederica, she doesn't show up as Frika.

    When she steps out of the VTOL, some small distance away from Hiei in the hopes of preserving the Union Forces pilot, she wrinkles her nose. "Quite some place you picked." she mutters to herself, then shrugs. No sense appearing anything but cool. She engulfs herself in flame, apparently compounding the problem, and the elemental form of Salamandra forms out of the flame, stumping heavily across the ragged ground towards the youkai. It's fairly huge as far as fires go, though not terribly giant in terms of elemental beasts. Twelve feet high and about eight around the middle, Salamandra is an egg-shaped monstrosity that would look absolutely comical were it not made from living flame and bearing an expression of malevolent intent made from brighter tones of flames where its face would seem to be.

    Within the flaming belly of Salamandra sits Frederica, casual and seemingly bored. She makes no effort as Salamandra stumps forward, seeming indifferent to her surroundings or the efforts the elemental makes in approaching Hiei. She only stands once the elemental stops, within speaking distance. Once she stops, the flame of Salamandra collapses, pulled back in upon itself until it reverts into a palm-sized ball on the girl's outstretched palm. She closes her hand, and even that little flame is snuffed out.

    She stands a moment, outwardly defenseless, waiting. "Is this the fight you want?" Frederica asks coolly, her ice-blue eyes and expression belying the flame of only moments before. "I've trained most of my life to defeat people like you. My will is iron, my soul is fire. It's your move." she states, settling into a stance with one leg just slightly ahead of the other, more a pose than a martial stance.

Hiei (772) has posed:
Hiei's eyes are actually wide at the gigantic elemental creature, as if it were some completely ridiculous thing he was definitely not expecting. But when she reverts, his stare returns to normal, and he simply stands. "People like me? Unmotivated people who suffer from horrifying levels of boredom?"

He drops the rock he picked up earlier, then just sort of stares at her. "You look different from what I expected. Are you bringing that thing back out? I'm actually not entirely confident in my ability to kill it. I'm not sure -how- I would kill it, actually." He doesn't sound worried or -concerned- about not being able to kill it, he just seems curious if he'll have to fight it.

Cory (768) has posed:
    Coordinates had been provided openly, and so...

    Someone who DOES have the power of flight also arrives, propelled from the horizon to just above the coming conflict via a very visible rocket trail of Ki - thankfully, one that disperses behind her rather quickly. So too does the aura it's trailing from... THAT vanishes mere moments before she lowers down to about a hundred feet in the air, arms folded under her chest, tail wrapped about her waist, and a rather eager, enthusiastic look aimed down at Frederica and Hiei.

    "This Hiei guy might be kinda cute, maybe handsome, if the glare dropped a few notches... definitely the same power as the other day."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    There's nothing particularly pleasant about Frederica's smile, but she does smile at being called not what Hiei expected. Salamandra does have that effect on people. That's half the reason she brought it out. The other half is it's a buffer between the dangerous ground and herself.

    "Salamandra? She's a good answer to a swordsman." Frederica agrees. "But firebenders? They're martial artists. They punch and kick, and the flames move with their fists and feet." she says. Then she holds out her hand, summoning a small ball of flame, sending it spinning into a chaotic orbit around her. "I'm no firebender, not like what comes from that world. No firebender could do this." she says, adding a second orbiting ball, and a third with no apparent effort. "Fire with fire? It matters little to me. In the end, it's about will isn't it?"

Hiei (772) has posed:
"Normally I would use my sword, but on the off chance that you -did- die, I'm not entirely sure if I would be happy about it." Hiei suddenly removes his hidden still-sheathed sword from under his clothing, then he tosses it rather quickly in Cory's direction. Apparently he expects her to catch and hold it.

"Fire with fire, then. Fist of the Mortal Flame!" He holds his hands up, which are then suddenly covered in flames. If Cory or Frederica can read his energy in some way, they might note that this energy didn't come from -inside- of him, it was summoned from somewhere else.

He actually smiles, showing his teeth in a somewhat sinister way. "I'll raise the stakes, because you've actually stirred my interest. I will give you three lives." He holds up three flaming fingers. "If you defeat me, you will have three lives that you will be able to tell me to spare, to use as you please, whenever you please."

Then he rushes forward with -ridiculous- speed. To a normal human, it might appear that he's entirely vanished, leaving a slight after image where he originally stood. Who knows about Frederica, but he immediately begins launching flaming punches at her, aiming primarily for her face, his look serious now.

Cory (768) has posed:
    With seemingly practiced ease Cory snags the weapon right out of the air, hand clasping about the sheath just beore the guard. She does draw the blade out just an inch to examine it, but quickly sheathes it again and holds it politely at her side.

    Curiosity can get anyone being maybe a bit rude.

    "High quality stuff. I'll hold it 'til you're done."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Fortunately for Frederica she was forewarned of Hiei's speed. That, and she has ways of dealing with fast opponents. Sure she COULD spend all her time safely wrapped in Salamandra's warm embrace, but that carries its own risks. The fewer who know of those, the better. She'd rather keep it as an ace in the hole; a protection for when things are a little more desperate, and for not letting her foes get time to puzzle out its weaknesses.

    She uses a different aspect of her power now. A little Rise, and of course her defensive flame. Her eyes track Hiei, her senses and reactions amped psychically to nonhuman levels. She's nowhere near as fast as him but her mind can keep up. The three orbiting flames about her dart and weave chaotically, spinning and threatening, making it difficult to commit to an attack without risking damage in return. They're a passive defense, not requiring concentration. Her real counterpunch is a series of rapidfire darts, streaking out from Frederica herself, carrying both heat and momentum, with unexpectedly more kinetic than heat energy. She also shields herself, raising her forearms to take the punches. Her sleeves are armoured of course, and somewhat flame-resistant. She's not fast enough to block everything and avoid all damage, but the combination of threat from her orbiting flame, kinetic bolts, and her heightened reflexes should keep her relatively safe from the initial volley.

Hiei (772) has posed:
By the time Hiei makes it close to Frederica, his headband burns off, revealing the third eye peering at her. It's definitely difficult getting in punches with so much going on around here, though this much is expected of someone like her.

It's when the fire darts come out that he covers his face, and gets knocked back into the ground, rolling across it.

His top very quickly burns off, and he stares at his chest as the darts leave scorch marks. "I'm actually enjoying this." He moves back to his feet in a blur, crouched slightly. "Perhaps this is the reason that people like the man from earlier dislike killing their opponents. They find a sense of fulfillment in seeing what that person can do later. I don't necessarily feel such a thing, but the idea of you dying and never getting to see all of what you can do... it would be regretable."

He suddenly thrusts his fist at her from a good twenty feet away, then a torrent of flames explode out toward her, trying to slam into her stomach. They're no hotter than a normal flame would be scientifically capable of getting, but that's -still- quite hot.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Alfheim Online has been good training for Frederica. While martial arts have always been a part of her regimen, she's never been comfortable in melee. Until she came to the Multiverse she never had a lack of strong fighters to protect her, to complement her chosen style. She's had to get good at hand to hand and, while she's not unhurt by Hiei's punches, she's not as uncomfortable or as hurt as she might have been a mere year or two ago.

    She emits a brief burst of flame from her forearms when Hiei is blown back, letting her 'harmless' flame extinguish the smoulderings of any black fire the youkai landed on her forearms. She shakes her head, brushing her sleeves off, wincing at the scorches. "You battle idiots are all the same." she says dismissively. Of course the biggest 'battle idiot' she knows is undoubtedly her brother Kyle, so it's not quite as disparaging as it might sound. "And there's no limit to what I can do. My fire obeys my will, so I'll never run out of moves!" she claims. This is ... not entirely true. She can tire, she can overstrain. She can burn out, and she can wreck her focus with psychic feedback. She has plenty of limits, but no lack of potential so long as she is free to think and act.

    For now, it suits Frederica to continue with simple emissions of fire. Nothing complex, nothing exotic. His fire isn't as fast as his fist, it seems, giving her time to react. She meets Hiei's fire with one of her own, pouring gelled fire out before her in both attack and defense. She doesn't try to maintain the fire past the point of impact. She could... she could try to form her flame into a spear of will, to push it through the center of the flame, but it would probably fail. Hiei's still quick after all, and the complexity of such an attack would leave Frederica fewer reserves with which to fight later. No, keeping it simple seems like the best move for now. She maintains the flame pressure though, testing to see if Hiei can maintain the pressure as well or if his flames have limits hers don't.

Hiei (772) has posed:
"'Battle idiot'? That's new." Hiei says with some amusement, his third eye glowing briefly as he pushes against the pressure of her flames. But it seems he's not the Saiyan type, as he very quickly releases the flame and runs around it in the brief second that she's still occupied, trying to use this moment to take advantage.

The moment he starts to get close is about when the flame he left dies down. He enters melee, trying to rapidly slam his fists into her stomach and catch her off guard. "I find your confidence pleasing. It never quite crosses over into arrogance, which makes it much easier to enjoy this and not try to kill you too quickly."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Even ready for it, Frederica can't quite defend herself when Hiei flashes in to the attack. Her armoured uniform takes some of the blow, but the punches slam hard into her, knocking her off her feet. She has the confidence and experience of a warrior to be sure, but in the end she's still a rather scrawny girl, probably barely breaking a hundred pounds in weight.

    It's not in her to go down without a fight, of course. As she falls back, flame bursts out of her body, enveloping her in a ball of heat and pressure, there and gone in less than a second. Not the explosion that would happen if she lost control completely, but a focussed defensive burst driven by will rather than emotion. She stumbles, staggers, then rights herself.

    "Arrogance? Confidence?" she mutters as she rises, her expression grim. "A Pyrokinetic has to learn control. Mind over body, will over emotion." she states. "Failure in this means being consumed by my own power. I don't have the luxury of a Firebender. Mastery or death." she says, gathering her focus. Her defensive flame orbs have never left her. They continued to spin and orbit chaotically even when she was reeling. Now though, it's time to show some real fire power. "That's why I'm stronger than they are. That, and because of why I fight."

    She doesn't explain that however, not yet at least. Her next words have nothing to do with an explanation. "PYRO QUEEN!" she cries out, forcing the shout, calling on her power. "Flame lance!"

    A beam of flame shoots out from her belly, a super-hadouken without the arm motion. A bar of deep red flame shoots out, solid like a pillar, easily more than a foot across and ringed with a spiral of incandescent orange. Force in the core of the pillar, heat in the spiral ring. And, if she gets a hint that Hiei's going to dodge the attack, she'll attempt to BEND the bar of flame to track him. Not much, maybe only a foot or two, but the flame answers to her will rather than to any laws of momentum or projectile motion. If he dodges only at the last second there's nothing she can do, but if the attack hits... well, it's a lance just like she called out. It's not bound to be pleasant.

Hiei (772) has posed:
"A pyrokinetic, I see. Some sort of psychic. I'm rather impressed. I believe I'd rather fight you than a firebender. Someone whose own flames could harm her, someone who has finely honed her mind to control the destructive forces of her power. You are an exceptional human being." Hiei still looks dead serious, even in the midst of his praise. And then... the beam of flames.

She guessed right if she figured he could dodge, in fact, it makes no sense -not- to dodge. But he crouches down, then crosses his arms over his face. "I have to know... I have to know your power." He looks almost fascinated by the light of the flame, eyes wide, mouth almost hanging open. "I have to..."

Then it hits, it impacts , he yells in pain. He goes flying back across the plain of rock from the force of the attack, until finally he's laying he's rolling around on the ground, completely engulfed in flames, holding his body. "It's... it's so hot..." he says as the fire doesn't seem to go out, it just continues trying to consume his shockingly flammable body. "I've... I've never felt this..."

He slowly pushes himself up to his hands and knees, burns gradually beginning to appear on his shockingly difficult to burn skin. "I'm... burning..."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    To Frederica, Bending is simply a form of Burst. Psychic power. Jedi powers are likewise psychic, as are ninja. They are all different aspects of power coming from within, of will made manifest. Magic is the exercise of drawing power from outside, and Hiei's flames seem like that instead of pyrokinesis... but it makes no real difference. It all comes down to will in the end.

    Frederica winces as Hiei refuses to dodge, taking her flame lance. It's not her strongest hit of course. It's solidly in the middle of her arsenal, powerful but not the sort of thing she'd hold in reserve. Straightforward and effective, that's all. And the youkai takes it. Not without effect of course... but the thought of someone willingly suffering that blow is enough to dismay Frederica.

    Of course it's not entirely that, her flinch. For all her talk of the deadliness of fire, she has a gentle nature. She hates and fears the destructiveness of her flame. She accepts the need to use it for the right reasons, is willing to fight and kill for her cause, and has convinced herself Hiei deserves whatever he gets, but that doesn't mean she has to glory in delivering the attack.

    "Impressive." Frederica finally says, seeing Hiei get up again. Burned, but with a hardiness she'd expect from someone who seemed eager to test whether or not her fire could hurt him. "But you're not beat, are you? Come then. I have more fire." she states, almost in resignation.

    Breathing somewhat harshly now, feeling more strain than she might be comfortable showing, Frederica stills her breathing with an effort of will. Quieting, gaining a measure of total self-control, she exhales once again in a sudden shout. "PYRO QUEEN!" she cries out. "Flame whip!"

    The result should be unsurprising to anyone with a little imagination. Raising her arm, a lash of living flame spills out from her clenched fist, looping and coiling into the power's namesake. She doesn't strike out however. She just holds the whip, which admittedly doesn't look quite so much like flame right now. It's more solid than that, bright and focussed, like a rope of plasma bound within a field. Someone familiar with lightsabers might see a resemblance. The lash doesn't hurt her at all, and she seems in no rush. She doesn't strike, waiting instead for Hiei to rise and prepare himself. Ceding him the initiative, in fact. Unlike the last, this IS one of Frederica's more powerful moves, one that could end a fight and possibly a life. Not likely against someone resistant to flame, but this flame's so hot it can sear right through any common target.

Hiei (772) has posed:
"I understand your level of power now... it's exquisite." Hiei slowly stands, still on fire, in fact... the flame -grows-. Is that even her flame anymore? "The Mortal Flame are simply flames I summon from Earth. But I will show you my flames, the flames from within, made up of my youkai energy. Far hotter than any mortal flame."

Indeed, the fire that covers his body seems to burn brighter and hotter thant he flames that were covering his hands before, and he bursts forward.

He covers the distance between them in a fraction of a second, slamming his fist upward to try and catch her chin in a powerful, flaming uppercut.

The red hot flames covering his body right now are hot enough to burn metal, but perhaps being a natural part of him means they don't seem to have any effect on his own body. It's a strange thing to see in contrast to the burns from her earlier flames that are still visible on his skin. "I'm lacking a killing intent toward you. Do you find that strange?"

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Hotter than any mortal flame... well, that could apply to Frederica's own power, though likely Hiei knows that quite well by the effect of it on his own skin. Still it's not as hot as it could be. One of Frederica's disciplines limits her power, keeping it from getting out of control while unavoidably weakening it. She lacks the raw heat output of many multiversal elites, but more than makes up for it with precision and manipulation.

    She takes a half-step back when Hiei charges, but that's all she has time for. That, and to interpose one of her orbiting flames. The surface of the flame orb is rubbery, and no doubt Hiei's power wrapped about his fist will protect him from it. It, at the same time, buffers Frederica. The uppercut doesn't land cleanly. A good thing, since she lacks the physical resilience to take such a devastating blow on the chin.

    The damage is done nonetheless, the flame orb collapsing and winking out under the blow, and plenty of the attack's power transferring to the girl. Only force however, with very little heat making it through her defense. She's singed and battered, not scorched.

    As she falls, Frederica flails about with the flame whip. It retains cohesion, and the rope of liquid fire lashes in an uncontrolled fashion. The blow is random without muscle power enhancing the cutting force, but the heat is incredibly focussed. It's as much hotter than her earlier attacks as her earlier attack would be to a pleasant little camping fire. The lashing out is purely defensive, unaimed, but random enough to be a serious threat by itself.

    Knocked down, sprawling, Frederica looks up to try to see the results of her whip, to see if Hiei's coming on. "Well, I want to see you BURN!" she cries out, losing herself in anger. Losing her normally-cultured speech too, a little bit. Her words are accented strangely, coarsely, her tone harsh, almost as if another person is talking. She hasn't lost control yet... her whip stays cohesive, still under her will's command, but she seems to be somewhat on the ragged edge.

Hiei (772) has posed:
"Good!" Hiei slides back slightly as she begins to fall, then he -leaps- into the air, ready to slam down into her like a pouncing cat. But then she starts swinging her whip...

His eyes widen, and despite his face eyes, he can't quite follow that random flailing. He does the only thing he -can- do. He swings an arm forward to catch the whip around his limb, then runs a good ten feet back away from her.

Except, well... his forearm suddenly falls onto her chest.

He stares down, knowing full well what he had to sacrifice to survive that. All of his arm below his elbow.

The fire around his body dies down, and he takes a deep breath. "I think you win. Unless you'd like to try and kill me."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica's angry, there's no doubt about it. Those who know her, who have fought beside her and against her, usually recognize that change of voice as a good sign to get clear. She comes up spitting blood, one of her arms damaged enough to be useless. Broken perhaps, or perhaps merely the muscles shocked into temporary immobility. That fury only lasts a moment however, only until the severed arm lands on her, and she recognizes what it is.

    "Ewwwww!" Frederica suddenly shrieks, grabbing the severed limb in one hand and heaving it away from her. At Hiei, probably not coincidentally. It's likely not bleeding or anything. When cut by plasma flame, cauterization is pretty inevitable. Still, an arm flopping about is pretty disgusting. "Keep your body parts to yourself!" Frederica demands, sounding once again her 'normal', prim self. "Eeeugh. Just... just get out of here. If you're admitting you lost, just go!" she insists, apparently not interested in killing Hiei. Or in 'wanting to see him burn'.

Hiei (772) has posed:
Hiei catches his arm, staring down at it, then he looks over at her. "Don't forget my terms. You have three lives, and I have to donate to a charity." There's a pause, and he adds, "Perhaps we could learn from each other's abilities some time... not that I'm asking to be friends or anything."

Cory (768) has posed:
    Holy crap, Hiei just lost an ARM in a SPAR.

    Suddenly Cory's not so sure if it's Hiei she should be worried about taking on.

    She descends in a hurry, landing next to Hiei. "... I don't even wanna say the usual. Can you manage this thing? Better get to some medical help fast..."

    Yeah, she holds the sword out to him, but she's NOT going to say 'you need a hand putting this on?'

    She's not THAT awful.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica, bruised and bloody, has to take a minute to even process Hiei's words. She's not Kyle Tenjuin, able to smile about a fight win-or-lose. She's not someone who easily changes her opinion of someone, and Hiei's way too casual about death and killing for her ever to associate him as anything other than an enemy. For now, at least. She just can't see his almost-friendly overture as anything that fits in her world view, which of course makes her suspicious.

    She glowers at the Youkai. "There's nothing I would want to learn from you." she states. "And you would have to learn control before you could learn anything from me." she adds, somewhat loftily. "Not friends or anything indeed." she adds in an almost-quiet mutter, annoyed. "Just get going. Get to your medical. I can't heal something like that. We can talk about what you owe me when you recover."

Hiei (772) has posed:
"It's important that you said want, rather than need. The distinction is -very- important." Hiei answers as he listens to the rest of her words, before he slams a hand in front of his face... the severed one he's holding, before he lowers it and just suddenly laughs. "I suppose I should go so I can get a hand."

He shoves the arm into his waistband, then reaches for the sword being handed to him. "It's been fun." before vanishing in a burst of speed off toward the nearest gate.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    As Hiei vanishes, Frederica holds a hand to her aching head. Not the jaw and mouth that's bleeding, not to the bruise from earlier... she's holding the back of her head, well away from any impact the youkai could have delivered. "That man is such a pain." she mutters. "I'm getting a headache."