Scene #6530: MECC: Stella vs Katt

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Stella	Stella is always exactly on time, which is yet another way to tell how perfectly boring her mindset must be. Or perhaps less boring and more entirely too task-focused, seeking to excel in everything thrust upon her. Though after her last match with Krusty, she'd been left somewhat thoughtful, which was unusual. The MECC stage awaits, like an open-air holodeck that's yet to turn on, surrounded by countless seats and cameras, screens showing audiences from every corner of the Multiverse, and countless security measures to ensure the crowd's relative safety, not to mention the fighters', the Shrine's systems taking scan after scan in preparation for the end. It's almost time. Stella enters without a word, unarmed, wearing the usual clothes she does; her skin and dress shimmer unnaturally, like crystal trying to appear as tissue and textile but not quite managing it entirely. One might even notice her dress doesn't flutter in the wind, entirely too heavy for that. Still as a statue, she waits for her third opponent, now quite comfortable with the process after two matches. She sees the red signal lights, the silent horns waiting to resound, the crew overseeing the match getting things ready at the last second, cameras being adjusted and people getting their hurried hot dogs. The arena has yet to configure itself into anything interesting, though.
Katt	Katt is always on time. Well, no. She really isn't. But she's always on time for things she cares about. Gladiatorial combat is one of those things. Katt is the former champion of Coursair, even if she doesn't live there any more. She couldn't not join in an event like the MECC, and she was quite excited to participate, even if she got a little unlucky on scheduling - this is the first of her booked matches, which come fast and furious from here on out. Katt vaults into the arena from the outside, having used her combat staff as a pole to get some extra height. No fancy clothes for her either, just her usual purple outfit matched with a staff close to her own height (not much over five foot) with a catpaw-styled top and a reinforced butt end. She spins her staff before raising it, trying to get some crowd attention and cheers, and only then does she turn to her opponent. "So you're my challenge for today!" She considers Stella for about five seconds before she nods, more to herself than Stella. "Then let's make it a good one... but I hope you don't mind that I'm going to win!" Well, she's confident, at least.
Stella	She's heard that voice before, hasn't she? Ah, yes, on radio. "I do not mind. It is the powerful's right to win. If you win, then you are more powerful. That is how it is," Stella states flatly, almost completely monotone. Hm, this one doesn't have a sword, then? She lucked out, two knights in a row. This one isn't. But it's worth asking. The signal lights turn yellow, then green. The horns sound loudly to announce the start of the match. The arena is washed over by a wave of digital-like magic, which instantaneously reforms the terrain into something else. Purple, purple everywhere. As if the land had been shattered and floats in a void of stars and purple streams of energy, sections of dark purple and grey land slowly detaching itself from the largest, central piece, providing plenty of gravity-defying rocks to jump all over the place. Very rarely, bolts of energy crash from the sky and break up the landmass a bit more. Stella remains still. "Are you a knight?" she asks. Two blades of prismatic crystal appear over her shoulders, and launch for Katt without fanfare. "You do not look like one, but I was told I should ask to be sure."
Katt	No sword here, or at least Katt doesn't obviously have one. Just a staff. Those might usually be in the hands of magic-users, but the way she's holding it and the way it's built suggest that this one is more of the combat model. The sudden surge of violet surprises Katt - not because she didn't know what the MECC setup could do (though perhaps she didn't) but because she wasn't expecting it to do this. Her ears flick back, but she keeps her cool. "Knight? No, not me! I'm Katt! Flower of the battlefield! Gladiator of Coursair! I... guess you haven't heard of me!" Katt starts an advance, staff held back, just before Stella shoots crystals directly at the feline girl. Katt's reactions are fast. Not quite fast enough; she rushes forward suddenly, avoiding one of the crystals but taking a glancing blow from the second, enough to break her stride and cause her to lurch dangerously to one side. But she doesn't let that slow her down; Katt continues her rush, charging toward Stella - But some steps away, Katt plants her staff butt against the ground and vaults, coming in for a two-footed kick instead of a staff strike! It would ordinarily be a move more showy than practical, and there's a certain element of that too, but because of her momentum it has a surprising amount of force behind it. "Ha!"
Stella	"You are a flower?" Stella looks at Katt like she's mad. "Krusty said we're all boxes." She still can't make any of that out. "You look more like a cat-person. I suppose a gladiator is not unlike a knight. Perhaps I can learn from you after all." As Katt charges in, Stella continues making zero effort to move. Even as the feline fighter smashes both feet into the golem, she doesn't move. Her skin and clothes crack, not a drop of blood though. She's absurdly sturdy. And to make things worse, the cracks are slowly starting to mend themselves, too. "I am trying to determine the ideal qualities of a knight," she states, as if this were the time or place to have that talk. Crystaline thorns suddenly burst out of her body, like sharp swords aiming to catch Katt before she rebounds off from her double kick. "Can you tell me about that?"
Katt	"No, no, it's like a title! When you're a champion you get a cool title, and boxes are not cool titles," Katt explains, which may or may not actually help matters. "I am - I mean, you don't call me a cat unless you're a jerk, I'm a woren, but I know what you mean and I know not everywhere has woren!" Katt isn't sure what she expected to happen when she kicked Stella. Usually people fall over, or at least stumble backwards. Stella just doesn't go anywhere. Katt's only recourse is to kick off her in the same way she'd kick off a pillar or a wall, flipping backwards to land on her feet. Stella slips her spikes past Katt's guard mid-flip. Not that Katt was guarding herself particularly well; she was still reacting to Stella's durability. Fortunately, Katt has a plan, even if it is slightly interfered with due to the stabbing. Katt's plan for when force fails is to use more of it. It doesn't fail her! Much. It doesn't fail her much. Sliced by the spikes, Katt's landing is a little awkward, but she turns it into a dramatic touchdown anyway. Part of her wants to play to the crowd, but she knows she can't do that until she gets a few more hits in, so she just winds up and has at, wielding her staff like a bat. And Katt, when she puts her muscle into it, is strong. "How would I know? I'm not a knight! Knights are fancy people in fancy castles. Do I look fancy to you??"
Stella	"A title. I see. I understand it now," Stella responds, putting aside the matter of suspiciously cat-like flowers. "And woren. Understood. I am a golem. People seem uncomfortable calling me that. I do not understand why." That and a thousand other things. Katt's staff comes in like an angry baseball bat. It smashes into Stella, whose surface cracks and shatters in places. She's even knocked back, this time, but remains unfortunately standing despite the pieces of her that are now little crystal chunks and dust on the ground. "Fancy people in fancy castles?" Stella considers. "Are those not kings instead of knights? Nobility?" Well, the king did invite the knights to the castle often, and they guarded the castle, so... maybe that's true. "You look fancy compared to most people," she even adds. Crystals burst out of her wrists, forming blades that she grasps once fully formed. Clean blades, almost transparent and obviously made of crystal. She finally makes a move, too! Stella leaps straight for Katt, brandishing both blades to X-Slash from above.
Katt	"Oh, a golem!" That explains why she's so hard to hurt, Katt thinks. And where all the crystals are coming from. She was kind of wondering about that. Katt is on less firm ground in this part of the conversation. "Well, the nobility makes the knights," she says, "so maybe they're all fancy, but anyway I'm not one. I've only met one and he was definitely fancy. And had like six names." Please ignore the fact that Katt has at least two. Having seen Stella mostly stay put previously, Katt is not expecting her to move as quickly as she does. She bounds back, using her staff as a parrying tool to attempt to deflect the slashing blades, but only manages to alter the angle of one; it still slices into her, cutting down her side, as does the other. It's not the worst injury she's ever had, but it's not real fun, either. Katt changes her tactics - she needs to stop Stella from stabbing her quite as much. Her staff licks out, striking with the butt end toward Stella's legs, striking at her knees and ankles - if she's so heavy, maybe damaging them will slow her down. With the last of the blows, Katt bounds upwards, actually catching one of the floating rocks and swinging from it before launching herself in a new direction. Let's see Stella chase her down now when she's hampered!
Stella	"Nobility makes the knights?" Stella asks, taking that in. That much was true. So then, an ideal knight must at least have nobility backing of some sort. A king is probably better. That's good. That's... actually, that's really good. Stella's flat, empty stare is broken by the slightest hint of a smile. She isn't aware of it. And that delay in processing lets Katt smash up one of her legs. The blunt force actually shatters the limb right in half at the knee, Stella remaining awkwardly balanced on one foot as she watches the woren jump away. Crystal begins regrowing, slower than usual, to replace and reattach the leg. But in the meantime, she can't close in. So she elects to just do the next best thing. Stella hurls both of her blades towards Katt. They detonate like awful, crystal shrapnel grenades on impact, whether it's her or one of the floating rocks. "Six names? Is that a requirement, too?"
Katt	Katt definitely wasn't expecting that. She doesn't normally break legs - or when she does, it's not quite so impressive. In Coursair, that would have been the end of the match (well, unless the last director was running it, but he was a demon and didn't count). Katt almost assumes she has won for a moment... except Stella doesn't seem particularly fussed about it, all things considered. She's certainly not stopping. And if Stella isn't stopping, Katt isn't stopping. "You know, you can give up if you need to fix your leg," she says, while hanging from the second rock she's clung to. This one is moving faster, and is a little more erratically shaped; she pulls herself up behind it when Stella flings the blades, causing them to shatter against it and shower her with sharp shards. It hurts. Actually, it hurts a lot, but Katt isn't going to admit that. "But if you don't want to give up..." She starts swinging herself again, picking up momentum before throwing herself in an arc toward ... a third block, which she springs off of, descending much faster. She swings her staff in an overhand blow sufficient enough that, if it hits Stella's back or shoulder, the recoil will knock Katt right back up! "I won't either! I'm gonna kick your butt!"
Stella	"No. This is fine," Stella replies. Indeed, it seems within a few seconds she'll have a new leg outright. Damage isn't really an issue for Stella. The bigger issue is Katt utilizing that time to cause more of it. Katt comes in hard, her staff smashing one of Stella's shoulders off. Katt rebounds off, safe and out of melee range in an instant. Stella's one-legged one-armed game is probably looking worse by the second. "You are fast. It would be difficult for me to chase you, even if I was whole." Or when she's whole, even. A sudden burst of regeneration causes Stella's missing leg to grow back, and both of her feet anchor themselves into the ground like mining drills. She seems to be reinforcing herself. Even her skin and clothes are losing their colors and regaining their natural, prismatic crystal appearance. "I will merely have to let you break yourself upon my body." A dozen shards of crystal burst out of Stella, jagged spikes only loosely shaped like swords, floating in the air momentarily. As a bolt of energy traverses the sky, its image reflects off the crystals, and they seem to become energized with the same kind of energy and purple glow. They launch immediatly after, like mana bombs encased in sharp crystal that'll make yet more shrapnel, hit or miss, staggered one after the other to keep chasing Katt as she moves.
Katt	Katt does not stop moving once she's delivered her blow. She touches down behind Stella and scampers away, hopefully before she recovers - that's Katt's plan, anyway - so she can circle around. If she's constantly moving, Stella can't catch her, right? ...right? Unfortunately, Stella has strategies to deal with someone like Katt. Katt can tell she's dinging up Stella but it's not enough, or at least not fast enough; she's still fixing herself up. How can Katt even stop someone who does that without actually hurting them too badly? Katt still has her old mentality, regardless of the MECC and its safety systems. She fights because it's fun and because she wants to win. She doesn't actually want to kill her opponents, usually. Beat them up? Sure! Kill them? Well... "I'm not going to break," Katt says, before deciding that that is as good a reason as any to lunge forward and in. Some of the mana-bomb spikes explode behind her, but every one is closer than the one before because of Katt's very direct rush, and the last one explodes so close to her that it sends her tumbling forward in a hail of razors - But while tucked in a somersault, Katt manages to stick out her staff, attempting to smack it against Stella and change the angle of her forward roll enough to get her feet back under her and run past. Hit and run, she thinks. It has to be hit and run.
Stella	"You will, if you are not powerful enough," Stella warns, as Katt begins charging in. The staff connects and digs into the reinforced crystal, but Stella makes one very abrupt move. With her regenerating, broken arm, more of a stump really, she reaches for the staff. Crystal regrows at a sudden pace, trying to wrap around the weapon to hold it, and its wielder, in place. Even if only for a moment, before the gladiator's strength lets her break the staff right out of the half-formed crystal grip. And in that instant, blades of crystal pierce the ground underneath Katt like Stella decided to change her name to Vlad the Impaler. Katt may or may not be glad that the MECC uses a wide array of safeties to prevent actual lethal harm. "I merely need to restrict your other choices."
Katt	Katt gets about three feet away from Stella before she is pulled up short by Stella holding onto her staff. Now, Katt could let go of the staff - she can fight without it, if not as well. She could also pull real hard and probably get it free. But given she was in a somersault away with the staff just held to one side, it stops her forward movement dead and causes Katt to unroll into a sprawl across the floor. "Wh - hey!" Katt does yank, then, and frees her staff - but at the same time as a crystal rises up from underneath her. She feels it start to form before it's visible, and she twists to avoid being impaled by it. Between that and the MECC systems, it's enough. What it is not enough to do is stop Katt from launching straight up about twenty feet by it suddenly spiking out of the ground with impressive force. She flails wildly on her airborne arc, manages to accidentally clip one of the drifting stones and then falls back down toward the ground. Katt has shifted herself enough that she does not land on the spikes. However, the rumours are not true: Katts do not always land on their feet, judging by the fact that she faceplants directly into the crystal flooring. She manages to retain enough consciousness to roll over afterwards... but that's about it; she's seeing so many stars right now and is so sore from all the abrasions and slashes all over that she just really does not feel capable of getting up.
Stella	With Katt down and the emergency systems stepping in, it almost seems like time rewinds. Wounds heal, the arena disappears, replaced by the bland grid from before, and a now whole Stella offers the woren a hand up, having learned basic fight etiquette from watching. "Combat is my purpose. I was made into arms and armor, and then into a knight. It is only natural I possess the experience to adapt to most foes. Still, I wish you had been a knight. I might have been able to learn some valuable lessons from you." Well... technically she did. She just doesn't realize it yet. Because how do emotions work? "You fought well. I understand your claims to be a champion now. My physiology allowed me to keep on top. Lesser foes would fall easily to you." It can't even be called flattery, with how straight it's given. Like a monotonous reading of a situation.
Katt	Katt is still lying on the floor even after the systems kick in. No, she's not still hurt or nearly unconscious. Nothing is wrong with the systems. She's just kind of processing her loss. Fortunately, Katt is someone who seems increasingly rare: a good loser. As long as it was a fair fight, no cheating, she has no problem with it - and she has no complaints with the way Stella fought. There wasn't anything underhanded there even if Katt was kind of surprised by the whole crystal thing; that's not cheating. Katt sits up suddenly, before Stella offers her the hand, but takes the hand the rest of the way up. "Huh, it's like that? I thought you didn't know anything about knights, though." She looks at the other woman thoughtfully for a moment, then gives a slight nod. "Damn right I was! Just - bam, straight to the moon! But you are tough. And it was a good fight, don't worry about it!" From Katt, that is a compliment. "So instead," Katt directs, as she turns to the crowd, still holding Stella's hand if she hasn't pulled it away, "smile and bow! They'll love you for it." She certainly is going to, loss or not.
Stella	"I am a knight, but I do not really know much about knights. I have been trying to find other knights, to see what they know. To figure out what is expected of me. How I should behave. Everyone seems to have a different idea of what a knight is so far. It is a difficult task." Stella answers, stiffly as ever. At the request to smile and bow, she at least bows, emulating other victors' bows for the crowd. She's not really sure what purpose it serves, still. "Perhaps we can fight again sometime, in your arena. Or perhaps I can partake in its activities, to find that knight with six names." Maybe she should get more names? Something to consider.