[center][h3]Arahabaki - Big Money[/h3]
Goldlewis’ [@Lugubrious] / Susie’s [@Archmage MC] vs [color=#0087BD]Hank Allen[/color] / [color=red]Jack-8[/color] / [color=red]Jacqueline[/color] / [color=lime]Deckard Pain[/color]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 6926 (+7)[/center]

Between the stolid soldiers and unfeeling automatons, there weren’t any more words to bandy, so without further ado the fight was on. Jack and Jacqueline both took off like sprinters from a starting block, the former swinging his massive arms like an ape as he took large, clumsy strides while the latter dashed headfirst on pointed stilettos with her arms and long hair extended behind her. For the moment, Goldlewis held his ground. Considering he was up against a team of four, they probably had a strategy. He and Susie had nothing but their weapons and their wits. While the veteran’s methods might employ a lot of brute force, his greatest strength was the experience and cunning he’d honed over the course of more battles than he wanted to admit. As such, though he didn’t want to give his foes the positional advantage, he needed a moment to scrutinize them. To slow them down he smacked his coffin’s lid and received his Skyfish minigun from within, with which he [url=https://i.imgur.com/mAj0CFr.png]opened fire[/url]. And as the bullets flew, his mind raced.

Jack-8 closed in at the enemy team’s forefront. Clearly a robot of some kind despite his human face, he looked like a heavy metal juggernaut. Probably the equal of Goldlewis in strength, and he couldn’t assume a lack of intelligence or skill, either. Despite her much smaller size, Jacqueline seemed closer, but strangely built. With those crystal skewers especially, she struck him as a product of magitech, perhaps made in Piltover. Her lack of speed made him wonder what supernatural abilities she had in store. Behind the two jogged Hank, a heavy cannon in his hands. Normally someone with defensive abilities would take point, so Goldlewis assumed his plan was to stay back, stay alive, and keep putting shields on the frontliners to keep them alive. If that was the case, going for the tank first might actually be the best option. That came down to the healer, though. Old Deckard moved at a walking pace, staying well away from the frontlines. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat though; just that he was where he’d be most effective. In war medics were protected by the Geneva Convention, but in a fight like this victory hinged on eliminating enemy healers. Especially considering that the Seekers didn’t have one of their own.

Well, Goldlewis couldn’t strategize for long. Jack was almost here, and Skyfish hadn’t chewed through his shield. “Get the old guy!” he barked at Susie, figuring that her mobility and ranged attacks would give her the best shot. He dropped his minigun and grabbed the coffin as Jack charged in, then readied himself to block. Like a madman, Jack went for a running tackle right away, and as the throw beat the veteran’s guard Goldlewis went down with Jack on top of him. The robot began to punch, arms like pistons, and Goldlewis put up his own to shield his face. After four punches Jack grabbed hold for a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/0/00/40d46e4493.gif/revision/latest?cb=20221105151149&path-prefix=en]cross arm lock[/url].

Any attempt from Susie to intervene found opposition in Jacqueline, however. The doll used Dark Moon, accelerating her leg boosters to zip behind Susie in a blistering burst of speed, where she whipped her skewers in a two-meter circle to stun her opponent while she stealthed herself. That stun gave Hank the time he needed to jog over and take aim with his laser cannon. A moment after Susie regained control, its powerful beam would blaze her way.

Susie, seeing this coming, transported away and just barely avoided the beam as Hank adjusted his aim to chase her. She hadn’t had a chance to get into her business suit yet, but with their hand shown, she could finally get some height before dropping with her business suit right on top of Deckard. The healer was hurt by this, being the old man he was, but it was soon found that while he lacked in mobility, he gained in the ability to heal himself until help arrived by chugging his potions and tracing a triangle upon the ground using some scroll. Not knowing what this was, Susie started to punch Deckard and push him out of it, and while she managed that, she found her mech was rooted when the rune completed while she was still inside of it. The damage was low, it was just a root, but if Deckard had followed up on the stun from Jacqueline properly there wouldn’t have been anything she could’ve done about that beam.

To finish his retreat before Susie could continue the beatdown, he threw a cube that expanded and exploded in a red flash, causing 3 small red potion vials to spawn around Susie. Bottles that would soon disappear as she spun up her business suit’s spinning fist charge and hit the stealthed Jacqueline as she dashed forward towards Deckard. The healer wouldn’t take this lying down though and as he drank his own potions, he also summoned a tornado of books that Susie couldn’t dash through, instead they knocked her back as she dashed through them, eventually causing her to go around it and clip Deckard instead of hitting him full on with the tornado whirl.

In going after Deckard, Susie forced the enemy team to adapt around her. While Hank’s laser cannon ran through each charge too fast for sustained DPS, it could belt out a lot of punishment in a short amount of time, and the moment he could he unleashed the sizzling blue-and-red beam into Susie’s business suit. His weapon’s recoil was such that he seemed to be fighting it as much as his opponents, and when it petered out, he switched it out for a strange two-handed projection device that looked like something between an accordion and a belt buckle. A little after Deckard’s initial shield burst and he healed himself with a potion, Hank’s Shield Charger placed another, beefier shield on the healer to help keep him alive. Jacqueline joined the attack with Burst Harpoon, slamming the ground to create a fissure beneath Susie’s business suit. From the gashes that left behind the machine began to bleed, not blood but coolant, the loss of which would lead to higher internal temperatures.

Meanwhile, the shift in battle had left Goldlewis in the dust, forcing him to go toe-to-toe with Jack-8. After the arm lock Goldlewis managed to dislodge his opponent and rise, and Jack came in swinging with a series of [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/e/e8/7fce1aafac25.gif/revision/latest?cb=20201204221107&path-prefix=en]rushing uppercuts[/url]. The veteran blocked them while standing, trying to get a feel for his foe’s strength, and the moment the barrage slowed he tried to check Jack’s offense with a couple low elbow jabs. When they caught him, Goldlewis went straight into an up-forward-down [url=https://i.imgur.com/orEUw3J.png]Behemoth Typhoon[/url] as an overhead. He did not expect Jack to nimbly backdash, moving with deceptive ability, then circle around and struck with Dumptruck, a forward elbow smash right to his target’s padded ribs.

“Bah.” Goldlewis composed himself in time to block the first two hits of Jack’s [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/f/fa/Pivot_Gun.gif/revision/latest?cb=20220413214058&path-prefix=en]Pivot Gun[/url], only for him to delay slightly while charging the final two-fisted blow. Goldlewis knew a frame trap when he saw one, and wasn’t about to challenge this combination. Unfortunately, he was wrong; when that double piston punch blasted forward, it turned out to be unblockable, and the impact threw Goldlewis onto his back. “What!?” As he hit the floor, Jack dashed in to deliver a meaty [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/c/c5/09d697d7ae.gif/revision/latest?cb=20230901231119&path-prefix=en]Rocket Kick[/url], but Goldlewis wasn’t having any of it. “Get the hell off!” he roared, planting his foot hard enough to crack the ground as he rose. “Down the…system!” His heavy [url=https://i.imgur.com/q2ya1jG.png]reversal[/url] dealt a chunk of damage and launched Jack off his feet. By the time the robot landed, he’d be reconsidering such impunity in the future.

Susie meanwhile saw what was going on dealing with the three around her. At least she was causing a lot of chaos and forcing the others to focus on her while Goldlewis dealt with the other person. Deckard saw that his 4th team member was getting attacked, but soon his weakness was shown; he had to get fairly close to toss a potion to them. And with Hank having given his shield to Deckard to protect him from Susie, the only thing she had to really worry about was the assassin doll and the occasional blasts from Hank. At least they attacked her suit, and not her. 

And she was going to take advantage of all of this. Grabbing Jacqueline and Deckard with her mech, Susie gave them a toss towards Hank and shot the trio with her cow mangler as Deckard and Jacqueline flew through the air at Hank. Seems like she’d have to keep them together to deal with what Hank and Deckard were doing before they caused her business suit some serious damage.

With his Shield Burst recharged, Hank primed it the moment Susie’s mech managed to grab hold of his teammates. To her credit, neither the medic nor the doll saw it coming either. In their efforts to stay alive and bring the pain to the business suit, they’d ended up underestimating the range of its free-floating limbs. What she did with her captives, however, could’ve used some second guessing. Hank’s eyebrows went up as Susie tossed his teammates toward him. Rather than crush them in her grip, pound them against the floor, or even slam them together, she thought she’d try and take them out in one fell swoop? Well, this bot had another thing coming. Hank turned and rolled out of the way; his joints might creak with age, but his muscles had been forged in fire. His Shield Burst went off to give everyone a little extra protection, which Deckard definitely needed as he hit the ground, but Jacqueline ignited her leg thrusters to recover in the air for a graceful landing.

“You wanna play rough?” Hank spat, rising to his feet. “Fine, we’ll play rough. Round ‘er up, fellas.” Jacqueline obeyed without question, running toward Susie. She whirled like a ballerina to cast Crescent Moon, the pointed tip of her leg drawing a semicircle that then fired out toward the business suit. By now, her attacks had generated enough heat to activate her passive Thermoelectric Shield. When she attacked, the residual heat from each strike got converted into a barrier that would help her keep the pressure on for about seventeen seconds. Meanwhile, Deckard shuffled into position to cast Scroll of Sealing again, aiming to root Susie in place.

With their enemy softened up and pinned down, Hank was ready to take her out. He leveled a strange-looking pistol at his enemy, registering her with a harmless laser pointer. After a brief delay, his Orbital Drill joined the party, a pillar of plasma from on high that would track its target as it lasted for ten seconds, wreaking havoc all the while.

Over by the wall, Goldlewis was having trouble with his own opponent. It wasn’t Jack-8’s strength or intelligence that challenged him; it was that this robot moved like nothing else he’d ever seen. In addition to dashing in and out of range in a fast-paced stop-and-go dance, he moved sideways with uncanny speed and precision, sometimes circling halfway around Goldlewis before his Behemoth Typhoon even descended. On one such exchange Jack counterhit him with an uppercut launcher, then kept him juggled with a knee strike on the same side followed by a stubby hinge kick on the left. As if the metallic impacts weren’t bad enough, Goldlewis came to the shocking realization: this machine knew his combos!

Well, that wasn’t going to fly. “Eat shit!” He yelled, using his Burst to break out of the combo much to Jack’s surprise. The energy wave floored Jack just as Hank’s Orbital Drill dropped on Susie, and Goldlewis grumbled as he charged forward. “How does [i]his[/i] work underground?” Jack woke up with a low turn kick, but his opponent had taken to the air. Goldlewis airdashed in and landed with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/1FTUsj3.png]UMA slapfest[/url] practically unopposed, allowing him to gatling into an aerial forward-up-back Behemoth Typhoon, land, and get another [url=https://i.imgur.com/gDfDkUC.png]Behemoth Typhoon[/url] on the ground for good measure. Still Jack came back for more. Time to see if he really couldn’t anti-air. Pressing his advantage, Goldlewis jumped again with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/OjdAT6a.png]knee strike[/url] for an instant overhead. That worked too, so after thanking his lucky stars Goldlewis followed up with aerial down-back-up coffin swing, then landed, got close with a shoulder barge, slammed the coffin down, and finished with a meaty back-down-forward Typhoon. 

When Goldlewis went for an empty jump low, however, his good luck went bad on him. Jack might be bad at anti-airs, but he could react to this. He performed a low parry, and before Goldlewis knew what hit him, he’d been flipped onto his back and bounced off the ground. His foe struck with an uppercut into a strong hook punch, ran after him to hit the knee, then launched into a three-punch sequence that ended by firing out his forearm like a piston. Goldlewis hit the ground and slid up against the wall, sore from a barrage of hits mostly to his legs and belly. “Oooogh,” he groaned, struggling to rise as Jack dashed in. The robot stopped short to bait the super, but Goldlewis didn’t bite, going for a grab instead. Jack promptly teched the throw, and just like that the two were back in neutral.

Well if Hank thought Susie was slow and going to take that laser, he had another thing coming. Revving up her business suit, she dashed forward with the mechanical arms of her business suit whirring like a buzzsaw, first bashing through Jacqueline’s crescent moon (which both damaged her suit and inflicted more bleeding), then escaping Deckard’s slow to deploy root, and outrunning the orbital laser as she dashed right for the trio who hadn’t really separated much. 

And much like a bowling ball running through pins, she rushed through all 3 of them, dealing some hefty damage and knocking them in various directions. With his jetpack Hank had the mobility to take minimal damage, but Jacqueline and Deckard were not nearly as mobile and got caught off guard by the sudden speed of the business suit, granted their various shields dulled some of the damage. Turning Hank’s own weapon against him as she could still turn while doing her rush and made the laser trace a line to her, having Hank in its destructive path, swerving around in a large circle to take another swipe at them.


Deckard got busy, tossing a health potion to Jacqueline as he moved away, after which he cast a Horadric Cube toward Susie to stymie her approach. The doll regretted using Dark Moon earlier, as its stun paired with the Orbital Drill would’ve been a killer combination, but that ability was still on cooldown. She spread out from the others to force Susie to pick a single target. Once Hank landed, his jetpack needing to recharge, he fired up his laser cannon and let it rip once more.

After their reset, the fight raged on between Goldlewis and Jack-8. Both landed a couple short strings on each other, neither overcommitting. Though the robot managed to open up Goldlewis more with his amazing movement, he discovered one other problem for Jack other than anti-airs: projectiles. When he got enough space to let out a Thunderbird, the flying grenade tracked Jack down despite his attempt to sidestep, and paved the way for Goldlewis to close in behind it and overwhelm his opponent with a hard-to-see jump-in. In the middle of his combo, however, Goldlewis dropped it, and Jack bit back. “Ah, hell!” the veteran spat, counterhit and then sent spinning. He slammed the wall behind him and slumped down, allowing Jack to close in and land another few hits before the hapless southerner finally went off to the side.

That robot sure hit like a truck, but Goldlewis wasn’t out of the running just yet. “Got my back against the wall, huh?” he muttered, getting to his feet as Jack marched forward with an ominous [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/b/bc/Dark_Greeting_TK5DR.gif/revision/latest?cb=20211024184453&path-prefix=en]Dark Greeting[/url]. He sidestepped the unblockable attack, then lashed out with a backhand that pushed Jack back. He applied pressure with a couple hits, microwalking forward between each one. Then he ran forward as if for a throw, only to shimmy backward at the last second. Jack bought it and flinched in anticipation, allowing Goldlewis to actually grab hold, turn him around, and bash the robot with a triple headbutt. “You! Damn! Fool!” Now cornered, Jack fell to the ground, and Goldlewis tapped him with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/srgWhY3.png]stomp[/url] to force a quick rise. Then he whipped out his coffin for an uncharged [url=https://i.imgur.com/BB7yOOc.png]dust[/url], and unfortunately for Jack, he read the attack wrong and blocked low. The UMA’s fist hit him overhead, staggering him long enough for Goldlewis to jump with another UMA slapfest, bang him off the wall with an airborne [url=https://i.imgur.com/h7FXRwd.png]smack[/url], and airdash cancel that into another one that splatted Jack against the wall. At that point, a third and final coffin thrust smashed Jack right through the wall and sent him flying into the distance.

“Whew,”Goldlewis panted, wiping his forehead. If only he could afford to take a break. Instead he turned and took off running for Susie’s fight, hoping he wasn’t too late to lend a hand.

Susie meanwhile had to guard from the counter attack of Hank. Deckard’s cube didn’t really do much but mildly inconvenienced Susie as he wasn’t really meant for doing damage, but Hank’s laser pushed her back towards Goldiewis. Her suit was durable, but not invincible, and it was looking a bit rough now.

[color=ec008c]”I see you’ve finished with your opponent. Care to help me with these three?”[/color] Susie said, a bit annoyed but more focused at the moment. [color=ec008c]”Their combination of shields and heals makes them quite durable. And that puppet seems to just inflict constant attacks that cause my suit to leak coolant. I really don’t want to have to deal with an overheat scenario.”[/color]

The enemies who might have otherwise been too focused on Susie to notice the incoming veteran (until his heavy footfalls alerted them, anyway) got plenty of forewarning thanks to her speech. “Yeah, yeah, I’m comin’!” Goldlewis called as he jogged over. He didn’t relish getting bogged down by just one opponent while his comrade fought three, but that robot had been one hell of a fighter. Combatants with those sorts of skills were rare, and in terms of raw fighting ability, an outlier. Hopefully the rest were more typical fare.

He stopped and dropped his coffin. It hit the ground with a slam, then cracked open so that the UMA inside could deliver a Skyfish minigun into the veteran’s waiting hands. “Eat lead!” he yelled as he opened fire, trying to draw off one or two opponents. Hank heard the roar of gunfire and scattered away from the others, instinctively looking for cover. As a soldier, he knew what those kinds of firearms were capable of–and he didn’t know that the Skyfish could only fire thirty rounds maximum. What it could do, however, was lock Hank in hitstun when the bullets clipped him, which most bullets couldn’t do. 

The arrival of Goldlewis forced the others to adapt, too. Also identifying him as a shooter, Deckard shied away, trying to put Susie and her business suit between him and Goldlewis. Jacqueline, not being a tank who had to concern herself with Deckard’s wellbeing, decided that she’d rather shed blood than coolant. She used Dark Moon, jetting across the battlefield with terrifying speed to get behind Goldlewis and strike him with a thermoelectric burst. The red-hot wave jolted his nervous system, stunning the man for a couple seconds. “Gaaah, the hell!?” With no more bullets coming his way, Hank switched to his shield projector in anticipation of Susie going after the healer, and began to apply a strong shield to Deckard.

Susie knew that going for Deckard wouldn’t work. Hank would shield him and he’d just heal himself. So instead she decided to go after Hank, with Goldlewis keeping the third member distracted. Hopefully he could handle her as Susie hopped over to deal with the two supports. 

Now, she wasn’t all that fast in her business suit without engaging the dash drive, so her hopping over or scooting over to Deckard and Hank was more a power move than anything as she had an idea. Deckard was an old man, and she noticed that to heal people, he had to get somewhat close, so the question became; could she take out Hank before Deckard got close enough to heal him? Well, it was time to test that. Giving Hank and Deckard some time to prepare and put their guard up, she attempted to psyche them out by whirring her charge again, before halting it and grabbing Deckard and chucking him as far as she could to separate him from Hank. 

Of course Hank wasn’t going to take this lying down and shot at her suit again with his cannon, seeing Deckard was flying out of the range of his shield. While he would like to shield Jacqueline, the approaching mech was a bigger concern. While Susie threw Deckard, showing her back to Hank, he unleashed his beam on the giant mech that was looking damaged at this point having had to tank so much punishment. 

Susie did this maneuver on purpose though, and used her transporter to ditch her business suit as Hank’s gun started to run out of charge. She then charged up her dash itself and dashed into Hank to grab him and push him away from Deckard in the opposite direction, slamming him down on the ground after doing a bit of a heart shaped loop with her metal body. This momentarily stunned hank, and Susie used this opportunity to resummon her business suit and as Hank was getting up from the ground and revved up his jetpack to jump away, Susie grabbed him as he started to fly and throw him back onto the ground before using her business suit’s drill bottom to hop up and down on him. 

Deckard wasn’t going to let his ally perish that easily though, and walked his way towards Hank. Not being able to get into range to heal him as Susie’s heavy mech jumped on him, he pulled out his book and started to retell a story of his, using his Stay Awhile and Listen. Susie was barely in range of it, and upon hearing the magical words, fell asleep in her business suit which allowed a heavily injured Hank to get out from under her. As Deckard read his words in order to keep Susie asleep long enough to heal Hank, Susie’s hand hit a switch in her suit, and as hank started to pull out his shield generator, the mech fell on top of him, causing his demise and a sleeping Susie to spill out of it. She’d remain asleep for a good few seconds, but Deckard just had his final ally to heal now before he was all alone.

Of course, by this point he was a ways off from Jacqueline, and for most of the time they’d been separated he hadn’t been able to see her. Under the veil of stealth, the doll of destruction had been kicking Goldlewis while he was down, each blow from her bladelike legs leaving a gash or a bruise on his body. He was a titan of a man though, and he recovered from the stun with plenty of health to spare only to find his opponent completely invisible. “What kind o’ doggone hogwash-!” When he took a blow to the face, knocking off his glasses, he wheeled in the direction it came from with a huge backfist, but for all its speed and range his blind flailing failed to connect. “Hmph!” He set up his coffin vertically, deploying a Wall of Light. While he quickly found out that Jacqueline was on the same side of it that he was, the blue energy barrier created a wall he could put his back to, and the probability of being discovered warded the doll off for the last few seconds of her stealth. 

When she reappeared, Goldlewis locked onto her immediately. “There y’are.” Jacqueline launched a crescent moon at him, but he whirled his coffin around to intercept the bloodletting blade with his block. His opponent approached behind it, striking his guard with a flurry of kicks. After a brief pause, she looked down, then dropped one leg to stab into the veteran’s foot. “Ow!” Having opened Goldlewis up, she crouched down and supported herself with one arm to launch a double twisting dropkick. Though he almost stumbled, Goldlewis planted his back foot and pushed forward with a mighty stomp just after Jacqueline landed in a crouch. She dodged away from the blow and threw herself forward with a flying kick, only to be met by her opponent’s haymaker. “Go to hell!” The spectacular cowboy punch flipped the doll end over and, and she landed a couple dozen feet away.

Her thermoelectric shield had absorbed most of the damage, though, and the next moment Jacqueline was on her feet. Goldlewis turned to see her readying another move, so he unceremoniously dropped his coffin on the floor with a bang. His opponent hesitated for a moment, not sure why he’d disarm himself, and in that moment Goldlewis dealt the coffin a mighty kick. It slid right across the floor and slammed Jacqueline’s legs out from under her. Without a word, or even a sign that she felt the hard landing, she got to her feet and began to ignite her thrusters. She did not notice the coffin sliding open behind her, or the arms reaching out, until it was too late. “...Hm!?” Hands clasped around her wrists, her elbows, her shoulders, legs, and neck, pulling her off her feet and onto the ground. They dragged her back to the coffin and pinned her against it, locked around her neck and limbs as she struggled uselessly. As their grip grew tighter, her mechanical body began to spark and crack.

Goldlewis sauntered up. “Thanks, UMA.” He frowned at the trapped robot, rubbing his face before replacing his glasses. “Reckon your time’s just about up, partner. Better hurry up and make your peace.”

For the first time, Jacqueline spoke. “Booster, maximum output. Meteor Strike.”

“Meteor…?” 

“Initiate!” Jacqueline’s eyes flared orange, and in a blast of air pressure she broke from the UMA’s grip, knocking both Goldlewis and the coffin back. Golden gears unfurled from her back like wings, three on each side. As she crossed her arms, pink crystalline spikes extended from the gear wings like enormous feathers, and she shot into the air. As she flew upward, she fired both of her other spikes upward, which combined into a huge pink drill lance. She flipped upside down, inserted one leg into the top, and swung the whole thing downward. A moment later she reached the apex of her leap, and after that, [url=https://i.imgur.com/IDeyJsG.png]she[/url] began to rocket back down.

“No way,” Goldlewis muttered, speechless at the sight of the giant drill descending toward him. Try as he might, he could think of any good way out of this. His heart pounded, and he gritted his teeth. “This is dumb as hell.”

Susie woke up from her impromptu sleep finding herself outside of her business suit, and a spirit under it. She shrugged and grabbed it, before using her transporter to get her over to Deckard who was trying to get into range of his ally. [color=ec008c]”Oh no you don’t!”[/color] Susie said as she approached and summoned her business suit again to try to attack the old man. She’d… find this actually a bad move. While he took all the hits she laid into him and could only really root her or throw cubes at her, he didn’t really bother using the cubes as he just chugged potion after potion, able to completely outheal whatever damage Susie did to him as he moved closer and closer to his ally. 

Susie could toss him again, but that didn’t matter when it came to dealing with his healing. All while…. Well, there wasn’t much she could do against what Goldweis was dealing with. That could be a fun spirit to use, but… well a drill from the sky like that could be pretty painful. Hopefully her ally could handle that…

When Goldlewis tried to run away from the impact zone, Jacqueline altered her flight path to follow him. [i]No use beatin’ a computer when it comes to calculations, I suppose.[/i] Would he bet it all on his Wall of Light, which could stop a platoon’s worth of gunfire, and turn his coffin skyward? Or would he go with his gut? Goldlewis breathed in deep, filling his lungs. There was no time to plan. Only just enough to act.

“Best defense is a good offense,” he muttered, bolstering himself. He grabbed his coffin and mustered his strength. His blood pumped, his muscles bulged, and he called forth every ounce of power of his body. “DOWN THEEEEEEEE…” 

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/HplmD3m.png[/img][/center]

“SYSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!”

His coffin, thrust upward like a mountain rising from continental collision, met the spinning tip of Jacqueline’s crystal drill kick in a calamitous whirlwind of sparks, lightning, and sheer force. For a brief moment they contended, but as Goldlewis held firm, cracks shot up the sides of the crystal drill lance. The next second it shattered, flying apart into chunks propelled by its spent momentum. As the glittering pink shards rained down and Jacqueline got thrown back, three Thunderbirds emerged from the coffin and flew after her. Together they slammed into her and exploded midair like fireworks in a terrific send off for the doll’s flashy ultimate move.

Then Goldlewis slumped down, panting. Down With the System might be invincible, but the aftershock had broken his arm, though between the jarring numbness and adrenaline he couldn’t even really feel it.

Well, Susie didn’t seem to have anything to worry about there, although Goldlewis looked exhausted after doing that. Susie really didn’t have a super move like that, she was more consistent in her abilities. Although having a discussion on that wasn’t something she’d really bother with as all that left to what she could see was Deckard, who just seemed to chug a potion as Susie bashed his face in. For an old guy, he was incredibly durable even without Hank healing him, and his potions seemed to be bottomless. At least his damage was basically non-existent, but Susie wondered why he didn’t give up. Was there something he was waiting for? Or was this just a factor of being Galeem-ified? And with all the healing a friend heart wouldn’t even work on him to break that cycle. Sure Susie could interrupt him every once in a while, but those potions were strong. Maybe he’d run out after enough time passed?

As Goldlewis took a quick breather, he glanced over at Susie with mild bewilderment, wondering what was going on between her and the enemy team’s last man standing. Most medics couldn’t come out on top against a bruiser if left to their own devices, but sure enough, that old man just kept on trucking. As strong as those potions must be to negate Susie’s assault, the experience of getting beat down indefinitely must not be fun. At least he wasn’t going anywhere, so Goldlewis took the moment he needed to compose himself.

That wasn’t to say that he relaxed, though. Always alert, he continued to monitor his surroundings as he fixed his outfit and hair, which meant that when something flew in over the arena’s outer walls, Goldlewis was the first to know. He spotted Jack-8, hanging beneath some sort of [url=https://i.imgur.com/aHnHqil.png]jet-propelled flying machine[/url]. “You gotta be kiddin’ me,” he complained as he hefted his coffin and got moving. If Deckard and Jack reunited, he and Susie might be in for history’s longest boxing match. He ran in, grabbed the medic, and dealt a triple headbutt that ended with a knockdown. The man could chug potions or get off the floor, but not both. He then joined the assault to whittle Deckard down before Jack arrived. A moment later the robot hit the ground a couple hundred feet away, posed once, then started sprinting the Seekers’ direction.

With Goldlewis helping keep Deckard under control, Susie could help finish him off using the drill bottom of her business suit, drilling through the surprisingly durable old man before Jack got here. 

Susie’s decisive conclusion to the storied healer’s attempt to sustain himself made Goldlewis frown. As someone who’d experienced warfare firsthand, he was no stranger to death, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it. He tried to put Deckard’s gruesome end out of his mind as he turned to face Jack-8, ready for another round with the scrappy machine. 

Without hesitation, Jack turned the momentum of his run into a sliding low kick, but Goldlewis had good enough reflexes to crouch and block it in time. He replied with an equally audacious up-forward-down Behemoth Typhoon to smash Jack overhead, but the robot managed to rise and block it standing. It still guard crushed, though, which kept Jack in blockstun long enough for Goldlewis to dash forward. They traded jabs, a metal punch for a beefy elbow. Jack went for a launcher in hopes of counterhitting his opponent, but his opponent’s [url=https://i.imgur.com/UrUsO6B.png]forward-down-back Typhoon[/url] was disjointed enough to wallop him. “Try this on!” Its recovery prevented any kind of combo, though, and when Goldlewis ran in for a throw on Jack’s wakeup, the robot deftly sidestepped his grasp and grabbed him instead. “Dagnabbit-!” Jack hoisted him off his feet and kept him airborne with a barrage of piston punches.

Well if the first teamwork move worked, why not another? Hopping out of her business suit as she doubted it would be fast enough for this, she charged up her dash and got into position as Goldlewis went to clash with this final enemy and waited for her opportunity. Which came fairly quickly as Jack was able to outmaneuver Goldlewis and get him into a combo of his own, a combo Susie would break with her own suplex move coming from a very different angle.

After Jack got snatched, Goldlewis hit the ground with a groan, but hurried to pick himself up. Jack was back on his feet just as fast. Now the robot had two targets to worry about, which wasn’t something he was necessarily designed for. 	Of course, that didn’t mean that he felt any fear. Unconventional foes just demanded unconventional moves. After dashing backward, Jack spread his arms wide and launched off the ground to deliver a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/6/62/Giant_Foot_Stomp_TK7.gif/revision/latest?cb=20211105154652&path-prefix=en]Giant Foot Stomp[/url] to his fellow machine. Goldlewis had already airdashed toward him and couldn’t change his trajectory with a double jump, so for the moment Susie had to fend for herself.

Jack had a fair amount of distance to cover though, especially as he dashed back, so in order to deliver his foot stomp, he had to deal with getting pelted by Susie’s blaster fire with Susie also retreating back since she was going to stay at range for now. She underestimated the distance he’d cover, since he could jump again several times midair, but he’d pay for knocking Susie back with his foot stomp by taking quite a few blaster shots before he made contact. After her bit of flight, Susie got back up, dusting herself off. Her shield she had grabbed earlier absorbed most of the damage from that attack, but that didn't’ really matter since getting kicked like that made her a bit annoyed as she pulled out her cow mangler and began shooting Jack with it.

The Cow Mangler’s shots traveled a lot slower than Jack could dash-dance, and they didn’t apply hitstun either, but with Goldlewis on the case he couldn’t just chase Susie down. He got Jack’s attention again with the help of an exploding Thunderbird, and their duel quickly resumed. In a flurry of fists and heavy metal the two titans traded blows, mechanical might versus one hundred percent home-grow American muscle. Putting what he’d already learned to good use, Goldlewis made ample use of jump-ins, abusing his coffin’s range and Jack’s lack of anti-airs for all they were worth. Jack didn’t give him a lot of room to work with, but he also utilized his ranged weapons, throwing out a Thunderbird for oki whenever he managed to knock Jack down. Of course, his opponent was a tough nut to crack, and the robot struck back with blistering speed and force.

Their exchange came to a head when, after taking one too many Behemoth Typhoons, Jack threw caution to the wind and went ballistic with a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tekken/images/f/fd/Dc371afd3a.gif/revision/latest?cb=20221122133045&path-prefix=en]ten-hit combo[/url] of steel-bending slugs. That barrage overwhelmed Goldlewis early, before he could commit to Faultless Defense. “Agh! Augh! Gah! Ow!” When the final strike sent Goldlewis spinning, Jack did not rush in to pressure him one wakeup, but did something strange. Seemingly unbothered by Susie, he stood still and began to whirl one of his arms around like a cartoon character. From out of nowhere, an omnipresent voice began to count his arm’s revolutions. [b]“One…two…three…four…”[/b]

Well if this guy was going to dodge her shots…. Wait, these were energy rockets right? Why not shoot the ground under him? He couldn’t dodge the explosions! And using this idea, Susie shot her next rocket at his feet. He wasn’t trying to dodge, so that part of it didn’t come into effect. However, what she did cause him to do, was drop the massive hit he was about to do to Goldlewis by making him go airborne and interrupting his concentration.

Goldlewis had been way too alarmed by whatever it was Jack was going to risk getting anywhere near him, so the help from Susie was just what he needed. As the robot popped into the air, his Gigaton Punch cut short, the veteran charged in. “Thanks, li’l miss!” He jumped up and caught his opponent with a quick air combo, and the flurry of hits ended with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/7lgU1pw.png]tremendous slam[/url] that obliterated the last of Jack’s health beneath Goldlewis’ weight. With a sound almost like a duck, the robot’s body burst apart into pieces that quickly began to dissolve, leaving Goldlewis to lie on the floor for a spell and still his pounding heart. “Whoo-wie!” he breathed. “That sumbitch knew how to fight!”

[color=ec008c]”It was 4 of them vs 2 of us, and they had support as well.”[/color] susie said, dusting herself off and making herself presentable before she went over to take a look at Goldlewis. [color=ec008c]”Hmm…. I suppose I should pay you for being my bodyguard this time…”[/color] Susie said, looking through her bag of random stuff and pulling out some healing mushrooms she had gotten earlier in the quarantine zone. She held them out for Goldlewis to grab.

“Bodyguard? For you?” Thinking of just whose security detail he’d coordinated in the past, Goldlewis chuckled. When presented with stripy fungi, he was hesitant for a moment until he received the unmistakable aroma of fried pork belly. “Bacon?” He took the mushrooms and ate one tentatively. To his surprise, he felt his injuries begin to recede. “Wow. What in the world?” Quickly he devoured the second, and he almost ate the third before he paused, mouth open to take a bite. “Hmm. That’s probably fine for now, better keep the last one.” He handed the last mushroom back to Susie, then got to his feet, his eyes on the immense pillar that seemed to form the core of Arahabaki. “After all, we ain’t done yet.”

[color=ec008c]”Yes, we had best get going.”[/color] Susie said. She was about to get going, before she remembered about the field of spirits of all the things she had just fought, and moved over to pick up all 4. [color=ec008c]”Hm…”[/color] Susie thought to herself before remembering the pain some of them were. For now, she figured that the old man she had to deal with, the healing one, could be incredibly useful as a new employee. And taking the military Deckard spirit, she enlisted her in the PMC division of the haltmann works company, gaining him as a striker.

[hider=For Susie]New Striker:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/JwOLJ9k.png]Deckard Pain[/url][/b]
A support striker with a medium cooldown. He can do three things: Healing Potion, which places a potion on the ground that can heal anyone on contact, Horadric Cube, which is a projectile that deals minor damage plus a slow, and Scroll of Sealing, a channeled ability that creates a rooting triangle on the ground upon completion.[/hider]

The other spirit she had an idea of was that stealthing doll that did a fair amount of damage to her business suit. She did notice her out of business suit capabilities were lacking, and that thing had some interesting functions. The stealth most of all the most useful if she got focused to get her out of there and into a better position…. Well she shrugged and figured the two of them looked fairly similar knowing what this spirit fusion did to a few others, so she shrugged and decided to give it a try.

[hider=For Susie]Notable spirit consumed:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/Kp1f28H.png]Jacqueline[/url][/b]
The host is a bit taller, with more humanoid proportions, such as a smaller head. Her skirt now has side slits and she has actual legs beneath them, though they terminate in points with brass heels. Her floating hands are now five-fingered and white in color with poofy ‘sleeves’. Her head now has a simple face, though it more resembles a motionless mask, with a simple mouth and more detailed eyes. Her hair is also realistic and is longer, now a pink-to-white gradient, but kept in two twintails with pink diamond fixtures on their tips. This spirit confers the Power [b]Thermoelectric Shield[/b]. When using an ability that expends energy, some of that energy is now converted into a protective shield, which can also be released for a burst of dual electric-heat damage. This spirit also confers the Weakness [b]Slow[/b]. Her baseline movement speed, regardless of transporter or business suit use, is slower[/hider]

While she did that, Goldlewis collected the other two spirits. He hadn’t been able to pay too much attention to what Hank could do, and he wasn’t sure that he liked the other soldier’s attitude, but both he and Jack packed some serious firepower. Still, better to hold on to them than shake things up mid-operation. With Susie’s changes complete, he looked her over briefly before jabbing his thumb at the other conveyor bridge leading away from the arena. “Whenever you’re ready.”