[quote][i]“I’m a damn good pilot, and when I’m done ripping you up, I’m gonna make you squeal like Jade does until you shout it out for everyone. How do you like that, huh!”[/i][/quote]

Isabelle doesn't reply immediately. Too much focus is needed on those blades, on keeping them away from her vitals, on minimising the damage, on staying in the fight. Wrist to parry. Catch a hand and redirect. Kick to break away.

No luck, no luck, no luck. The two mechas carve grooves in the sky as they fight. Ksharta always following, never allowing a gap, a moment to recover. They leap from cloudtop to cloudtop, obliterating white mountains with their passage. The pace quickens, a whirlwind of blows and strikes. An attack comes in high and is met with crossed arms. Thrusters flare, countering momentum, and a shockwave ripples out across the blue.

And in that hurricane, Isabelle feels herself tossed like a leaf. 

[i]Mother's advice is why I'm here.

She'd expect me to be able to get out of this on my own.

... so why can't I do it?[/i]

She sees those daggers coming at her again. At this rate, it's only a matter of time. Her arm is already starting to numb, and one more direct hit might knock it out of action. Hells, enough heavy fighting might do it all on its own. And yes, she has close-combat weapons on her, a sword, the EMP gauntlet, some daggers of her own, but she needs space to deploy them. An opening. A chance.

All she can do right now is make that time stretch as far as possible. Give herself time to keep rolling the dice. And hope that eventually ...

She catches Ksharta's wrist. Twists inside the overconfident strike and brings an elbow hard into the throat of the other mech.

... eventually, her luck might turn.

"You're right, you are a good pilot." she says, as Ksharta reels from the neural feedback. Coughing into her comms. "But I'm not the one who's going to go home tied up."

She raises her hand, revealing a smart cable that snakes from a concealed spool and around the wrist of the Pulsar Cat.

As her opponent staggers forwards, Isabelle ducks under the blow, bringing the rope around and behind. Snagging the other arm by the elbow and pulling a strand across the chest of the other mech. Can you feel your bonds closing in about you Ksharta? Can you feel victory slipping away?

Will you come undone for me, even as the ropes are binding you tighter?

What will you do?

[Isabelle rolls to Fight: 5 + 5 + 2 = [b]12[/b] - She choses to inflict a condition, take a string and a superior position. She'll immediately spend that string to encourage Ksharta to fall apart. Just as mother intended.]