Scene #7759: Storm Season

Owner	Pose
Xion	It hadn't been that long since Xion had invited Go to innovate and improve on the form she had gifted to him based on that most legendary of supercars, the Mach Five, and the power-enhancing technology of Smart Brain. It must have been for some reason, though, when he was invited to some Asiatic everyplacewithin the Jade Empire. A bitter storm battered the sloped pagoda roof and rolled water in great sluice-pours down the side of drenched-shining weathered bamboo columns. An invitingly hearth-orange door can be pushed aside to reveal the interior of the broad tea-shop that Xion had chosen to call Go Shijima from. Three-levelled, with a broad-curling staircase up, the smoky atmosphere seems hauntedly empty, as there's nobody there but a few chefs in the open kitchen on the first floor, by a step-up bar area. Xion's table, at the center of the lowered common space, is sprawled with plates of potstickers, steam trays of buns, and other great luxuries that she has done critical damage to. With her charm-chained phone jangling in her hand, Xion continues to direct texts to Go encouraging him to arrive, or something like... >X: hey are you ok >X: do i need to harass someone to make you show up instantly >X: normally kamen rider shows up instantly
Go Shijima	>Go: kamen rider shows up instantly >Go: go shijima is fine he was taking pictures >Go: i'm stopping to get dango do you want any? Go's not really an umbrella guy. Usually when there's rain he's giving hands, getting hands, or crying. So when that white-and-red superbike pulls up to the tower, he's kind of soaken wet, but thankfully, there's need for neither hands nor tears today. "Oh," he says after entering in through that hearth-orange door. "You got food! Sorry, I didn't want to check my phone while I was driving. I still have dango if you want it, though." Go slips out of his drenched hoodie and takes a seat opposite her. "How have you been?"
Xion	Xion sighs into a bowl of mostly-cooled soup. "I had a whole adventure while I waited. There was these two guys in qipao who fought across the third deck, and then the whole second deck got shot up by roving bands of pirates. I led the song down here where we all did the musical number, and you just missed it." Xion smiles emptily, her blue eyes watching the drenched Superstar Rider. "I had to get my head right, but it just reminded me about something." Xion reaches forward, knocks off the top of a steam tray with her index finger, and seizes a bun. "I've been waiting, Go. Waiting for the next bad thing to happen. Waiting for my next challenge. I don't have to wait for those opportunities. I figured it out." Xion smiles, and polishes off her bun. Both hands planted on the table, she then rises, dusting off her front with idle brushes of the back of her hands, and produces Starlight with a flick of her wrist, the star-capped blade snapping into realiy with a metallic ring to point, across the mostly-eaten spread, at Go's chest. "I can just see your best moves whenever I want, Go. Isn't that right?" And, transformed or not, Xion's knee raises to plant her boot-tip into the wooden lip of the inn-table and leap across it, spinning in a blunt crescent of her hilt-gripping fist, that transitions into a spacing kick without warning. "Just for the fun of it. That's what will unlock the FiveS' power! The joy of racing! Come on!"
Go Shijima	Go grins. "If you insist! Let's..." He's out of his seat. The chair is gripped, legs used to try and deflect or trap Starlight. The kick crashes into it, splinters it, but he's already flowing with her strike, already in the midst of one of his signature feats of acrobatics. By the time his back is parallel with the floor, the belt has already clicked in. "Henshin!" SIGNAL BIKE//SHIFT CAR - Mach 555! By the time he's suited up, the white and red armor is spot-fabricated by those hard light tires. "Because you believed in me... I'll give it my very best, like only friends can!" Go punches in a number combination--but this is for the joy of racing. So why not get inventive? Why not experiment. "Here goes..." 525 - JCK The shin plates of that sleek white armor pop open with a pneumatic hiss. Go leaps back into battle, but his already impressive jump is augmented by the sudden snap of a piston, rocketing him forward. The tires at the armor's ankles skid as he drifts up to Xion, letting loose a flurry of kicks assisted by those same powerful jumpjacks. Left, left, an overhead leaping axe kick from the right. "Can I still have some of that food when we're done?"
Xion	Xion's twirl has her looping through the air on heels and feet and the tip of her sword as a fulcrum, fanning through an acrobatic reset that she skips no frames of, a laconic movement through the air that sets her past the table and in a one-handed ready stance with her arm held high and blade tilted down-diagonal across her centerline. "The people here learned something about life, Go." Xion's defense begins with an incredible crack as she two-handed swings Starlight into the first blow and cascades the air between them into a shower of star-marked fireworks. Each dynamiting strike connects with her lifted ankle, or parrying hand -- but the Jump-Jacks allow for that extra bit of momentum. When she takes a strike, Go advances it into her raised defense to shatter her guard for a followup, and leaps in after her with the sproinging momentum. Go's perception of her seems shocking slow compared even to normal -- was the Mach 555 just that much faster than Xion? In the wake of the chase, purple strands of restraining force slipstream around Xion and into Go's path as her sword swings left-handedly into his path, ropes of drawing force causing shearing tears in their high-velocital rigidity. "Is your mind already past the finish line?!" Xion shouts, accusatory. It's in good fun -- so far. He can stand for his words, as Mach 555 braves the gravity tunnel on approach to clash again!
Go Shijima	It's like I'm watching in slow motion... but that doesn't make her any less dangerous! This... is she using the Heaviness?! If she's going to accuse, he might as well playfully lean into it. "If we're friends, of course I'd talk a big game!" Go mashes another combination. 873 - TRE The jump jacks disappear, but now the tires on his ankles have thick steel treads that grip the floor tightly and propel him forward, scratching up the floor as he attempts to counter her gravity. [center( ZENRIN, )] When he gets within striking distance, the Zenrin Shooter appears, its tire also clad in those same treads. He feathers the triger to send energy darts her way--but it doesn't fire as fast. Not nearly. What the projectiles lack in speed they make up for in impact, each one more than makes up for in power, easily the size of a fist. He spins the wheel after that opening salvo. Picking up speed, the treaded front wheel clashes with Xion's keyblade in another dramatic series of sparking collisions. Go mixes in knee strikes and utilizes his ankle-wheels as well, the treads sacrificing centrifugal force in exchange for the ability to more easily catch and halt her strikes! "How's this? I really oughta mash buttons more often!" The treads aren't as fast, but they're weighty, shifting 555's attributes to favor strength and brute force. It won't match Dead Heat's--but Xion's helping him bring out the suit's biggest strength: versatility. "What else you got?!"
Xion	The ripples are ground through as Mach switches to the heavy tire form, weathering through her waves of deceptive force and spin-away pressure. A little grin curls the corners of Xion's mouth as the floor is chewed up and Mach advances on her. "Big talk... no. But a friend might cut lose with their Wild type. Is this yours?" Xion braces the impacting shots across the full length of her weapon, her gloved hands absorbing the blows into her arms and elbows from gripped at the hilt and thumb-braced against the length near the tooth. Each shot casts bright bursts of pale white moonshine from her guard that sparks out, hangs frozen in the air, and then quickly inverts and implodes into her blade, the high-impact power finally causing Starlight to shatter into bright silver shards of power that collapse into a ring of light. "It's a start. A speed type, and a wild type. Is this your answer to Officer Tomari? I think he drives for 'his justice'." Clapping her hands around the ring, she hooks her thumbs into the edges and curls her fingers tight around the edges and pulls sharply, the ring snapping apart into ring-bands of light around her fingers. White lightning snaps between the two, arcing molten-orange impressions of metal within the bands of starlight dripping among her fingers. As the metal transmutation finishes, her hands are dripped in thin keychain links like half-mailled fists, her gloves taking on a torn and 'exposed' impression. With these key-hands, she grabs the tearing Zenrin shooter right as it swings in between both palms, and grins brightly at Go. >'What Else you got?!' "Wanna see?" She asks, eagerly. Without waiting for an answer, her grip wrenches laterally as her freakish out-scoped cartoon character strength applied to judo throwing Go into the ground. Hurling up his guard, she follws the throw with a surging palm-chop that bursts with a tidal gush of splashing springwater that bursts from the wooden floor with a foaming bubble corona.
Go Shijima	...Fighting Heart really took it out of me. But Xion wants me to give it my all, and I will. The finish line's out of reach... but I won't let that affect my resolve! 456 - ILM Go hurriedly punches the numbers in. Something, anything, to get him just a little bit further before he spins out. The Rear Wheel Signal just beneath his shoulder slides open to reveal a headlight. It's blinding. Just enough for Go's ankle-tires, now without treads, to carry him to safety. Relative safety--even though the water clips him, it's still enough to send him tumbling, tumbling, crashing into a wall at-speed. The Rear Wheel Signal extends outwards on telescopic coil, and that headlight flashes again--only now it's shooting sharp white photonic lances, an independent point-defense system meant to get the driver out of tight spots. Even when Go makes an agile kip-up, its articulated coil allows it the benefit of a smooth firing angle. Go feathers the trigger of the Zenrin shooter, and more sizzling-hot white needles fly through the air. "What's this...?" A side button, pressed with the thumb. Nothing happens, until he swings the weapon. Then, the wheel detaches on a length of wire, spinning rapidly to strike Xion from a distance. It retracts, he sends it out again, and again--but the final time, he twists differently, the wire now spinning around Xion and attempting to bind her! Meanwhile, the articulated highbeam fires one final, much faster photon lance. The cable yanks--if she hasn't avoided it by now, and doesn't slip free... it's going to pull her right towards the photon lance, and towards Mach 555's burning-red-orange kick!
Xion	Xion brightens as she watches, hears the voices that hum around Go's heart, and skip-dances back, dangling chains hanging off her fused gloves and jingling in quiet rustles and metal sussurations. Then she just gets the high beams to the eyes. Quite effective, Xion backs off further, rubbing her eyes with her fingers while startled. As go smashes into one of the wooden walls of the establishment, Xion staggers about with the strobing photonic laser-harassment. It is really effective. Xion's defensive steps become less realistic, reflexively ramping into her more active state of visually glitching through keyframes without the intervening steps - and the lasers, when they catch her images, burrow and disrupt whole eddies of her coat into black smoke and burned out ring-holes. She carries through, her gloved left hand draws a/the black ring off of her right wrist, the length snapping like a cut rubber band and uncoling as a single line into the d-shaped metal. Like a crimson balloon filling at the cap, the tooth emerges a red sphere of sworling crystal. With it, she sweeps the light needles aside in a space-yawning cut of the blade's edge that draws the shots towards - into - and through - the sword. Past it, into some other space. Landing with her left foot leading on one of the side tables, Xion rises with a curious smile. "That's a pretty good feature too-" 'What's this...?' Xion does not know either. It's a total surprise. Momentarily more interested in the mechanism than the fight at hand, the swirling crystal-capped tip of her blade lowers by a hand, and she's grabbed by the tow line. Mach readies his photon lance. He readies his finishing kick. 'Falling' towards the blazing shot, Xion adjusts course by jerking her shoulders quickly, the Hi-Photon Beam scoring across her front with a sparking gash of clean damage on the Nobody. And the tow line. Finally snapped free, Xion turns with air control, taking her black blade in both hands and, heavingly, swinging it down split-legged and coat flared right into Mach's flaming red-orange finishing kick. As the detonation clears, Xion sits up and coughs a puff of black smoke. "Well, Go. If you don't know what it does either, it'll definitely be a surprise." Walking over to go and holding a hand down to help him up, Xion smiles. "You really should race just for the fun of it. You get too twisted up by finish lines."
Go Shijima	A crash to floor turns to a rider beat. Good Work! Go is beat--thoroughly. Without the armor, it's hard to tell what's sweat and what's residual from the rain--but his chest is heaving, and when he reaches for her hand, she'll notice that she's doing more than an even share of the work in getting him off the ground. He has to lean against the table to keep himself upright, until at last his sense of balance is restored. "Phew... that's going to take some getting used to. But I want to! Because I enjoyed myself, and it looks like you had fun, too." His eyes drift towards the nearest unbroken chair, and he collapses into it with a relieved grunt, scooching the chair closer to the table. Smiling, and reaching for some of the food to set up a plate for himself, "I just wish I'd had more gas in the tank. If you want to fight for fun again sometime, I'd be happy to." His smile turns a touch wan. "I want to be able to use that talent for something that's constructive." He has more opportunities to do that now. More incentive to do it, and certainly more motivation to. "As far as the finish line, yeah... that's something I'll work on. I'm so used to feeling like I need one that I don't know what to do when there isn't one. But I've learned so much from you, from Lilian, and even, I think, from Chase. I'll get the hang of it."
Xion	Xion releases her weapons with a quick shrug-like gesture, the Pylon-keyblade and her Starlight-chain gloves shimmering out of active existance. A moment later, with an implosion-pop, her black wristband re-appears around her right wrist. Falling backwards where she stands and glitching across the room with a puff of dark-red smoke into an upturned chair across the back in a sprawl, Xion nods. "Yeah, I noticed you were pretty beat up actually, I felt kinda selfish for just jumping you. Who beat you up so bad? Did you deserve it?"
Go Shijima	"I did, yeah. It was Heart. I think it'll still be a while before we're good," admits Go, lifting a dumpling. "But I think now we're able to listen to each other. I'm glad that it happened." He eats it in one bite. It's still warm enough to be good, and there's a quiet enjoyment painted on his face as he chews. Eyeing another one, "I want them all to be the best people they can be, instead of... punishing them for falling short. I'm going to start supprting them." He snatches it with a sly grin. "Sometimes it's gonna annoy the hell out of them, I'm sure. But that's what good family ought to do--stick by you even when you're determined to put your hand on a hot stove, and be there to help, if you absolutely have to touch the burner. More than that..." "I want to be able to open my heart up to other people, like you do."