[center] [h3]Team One[/h3] [img]http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o719/EthereanFire/Fox_zpsterb1uck.png[/img] [color=cyan]Level:[/color] 4 [color=cyan]Day/Time:[/color] Day Two [color=cyan]Location:[/color] Smash Arena [color=cyan]Tags:[/color] [color=f7941d]Zangief[/color] [@Holy Soldier], [color=limegreen]Luigi[/color] [@Bright_Ops] [color=cyan]Mentions:[/color] None [/center] Given how quick he was, Fox didn’t expect that the gargantuan would be able to retaliate with such immediacy to match his own. The mystery of how he could adequately keep up with Fox was one easily solved; he’s dealt with this before. Fox’s usual strategy when confronting heavy hitters in the arena was to move in on them to deal successive bursts of damage and aggravate, then pull back to punish when they make the mistake of moving in on him; a ‘hit and run’ offense that allowed him to vary his approach to favor one or the other depending on how to opponent behaved. It seemed part of that strategy was going to need some improvised adjustment, as there was a good chance that Zangief may not be so prone to making the same mistakes. Fox didn’t know it yet, but his opponent was a more static defensive counter bruiser who could go a relatively long time without having to advance. The fight would come down to whoever could better make the other play [i]their[/i] game. Hopefully, Fox would figure that out sooner. A mere handful of seconds into the match, they were already making fair trade in blows delivered. Fox bounced as he forcefully impacted the stage floor, but he managed to roll to his feet in recovery as he did. No sooner than he could get back up, the wrestler was already aggressively advancing on him, albeit slowly. It didn’t matter. The attack seemed to defy physics. The brute’s body spun independent of his head, and the force of his rotation attempted to draw Fox into the muscular malestrom. The vulpine managed distance as well as he could by moving away from the encroaching assault with a series of one-handed then full backward handsprings that ended in a back layout (backflip). The gap between them neither grew nor shrunk until that point, as per Fox’s intentions. The idea was that Zangief’s attack couldn’t last for too long (no more than 3-5 seconds, on estimate), so Fox would take advantage of the inward current at the approximate moment of the technique’s end to close in. His timing would have to be impeccable in order to not be caught in the damaging torrent, but success would optimize his positioning for a swift counter attack. As the vacuum effect drew him in, Fox put forth his left foot and planted the flat of it against the Russian’s forehead, braking against it to keep himself out of the effective area of the cyclonic flurry of oversized fists. Ideally, they would stop swinging just as (or just after) this happened, leaving just enough of a window in frames of punishable ending lag for him to exploit. That was what he did best (part of it, anyways). His feet snapped upward--left after right--in an aerial to strike Zangief in the chin. He would settle for staggering the giant if the attack didn’t send him airborne, which would be preferable. Opting this time for a more assured retreating offense rather than a careless repelling one, the motion of Fox’s attack would carry him [i]away[/i] from his opponent so to be careful as to not linger in his reach for too long. He let out a three-round blaster volley for his torso while still mid-flip and followed it with a single impact shot for his face as he skipped into a backward dive, his foot only lightly making contact with the floor. The pilot turned mid-dive and swung his free hand around to tag Luigi in, but once their hands met, Fox would grasp his teammate’s hand and hurl him into the ring towards their opponent rather than simply letting him step in and giving their foe time to recover. This may or may not surprise the plumber, depending on what he has come to expect of his comrade after their brief but numerous years of knowing each other, but Fox trusted that Luigi would know what to do next.