trans_9 | The Attack

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The Attack

Between the recent fights, as well as the mixed feelings about Jordan-- she was safe in the pods, at least, and so was the rest of her family, probably-- Rachel really wouldn't mind working some stuff off in the Sensoriums.

Plus, there wasn't much else to do on the ship, and practising different morphs and getting some added thrill from fighting? Wasn't a bad way to spend time. And if she got better about fighting in the process...

There wasn't any finesse to it. She wasn't in her favourite morph, for once, instead opting for a combination of speed, grace and power in the form of the cheetah. The room was filling periodically with an assortment of enemies-- some of the smaller Ohm grunts, Hork-Bajir, even some human (Controllers, something she was used to fighting). She spaced them out enough so she could handle them, but she still tore into each with the same quick viciousness. She lunged with the force of the cat onto a particular human, the instinct taking over to allow the teeth to sink into the throat for a killing bite.

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People sure were taking out a lot of aggression in the Sensoriums lately. Zouichi extended the slender black axe at his side with a single flick of his wrist; with his next motion, he lopped two limbs neatly off an approaching Ohm, sending it crashing to the ground in ungainly fashion.

A Hork-Bajir took a swipe at him with a bladed tail. Zouichi parried the blow and followed it up with a shallow slice, cutting the alien open from breastbone to thigh.

~~It's fashionable.~~ Rachel nearly spun on this newcomer, the cheetah's instincts not differentiating between the presences. He smelt different from the humans, sure, but so did the other creatures in here. Rachel's mind, however, took over enough to know he was acting differently-- that he wasn't another simulated enemy.

She didn't say anything, not right away, instead just dropping the human from her teeth, springing over the blood, and landing on one of the alien Hork-Bajir, all teeth and claws, avoiding the blade to land her full weight on the body.

All the enemies in the room that weren't attacking him were attacking the cheetah. So naturally the cheetah (which was displaying some pretty suspicious behavior for a large cat, anyway) was the crewman. Which meant either there was a new crew member on board or that this was probably another one of those kids who could turn into animals.

Zouichi reasoned this out as he dispatched another two attackers, not hesitating to kill any in his path. After all, no one was here to complain about it.

Rachel was perfectly fine with this guy coming in here and fighting alongside her, especially since he was mostly minding his own business. Besides, it wasn't as if there was any shortage of bad guys to fight-- the simulations could produce as many as they needed to keep the fight up.

Dropping another alien beneath her tearing teeth (and ignoring the cuts that were starting to appear), she sprinted for one of the Ohm nearby, lunging on it to get above the blades, this time, letting out a roar as she did so, landing claws first.

Earth had so many interesting animals. Sure, this one probably wasn't the real thing, but its bursts of speed and effortless agility were still impressive. Maybe Zouichi would get to meet an actual cheetah some day. That would be nice.

He ducked a blow from an oncoming Ohm, drawing his pistol and firing once to down it.

Zouichi wondered if a cheetah's paws were tough from all that running, or soft like Emergency Rations's.

'Rachel' yowled at the sound of the gun, the cheetah's mind rejecting the unnatural noise. But she understood it logically, and so the flash of teeth in this other crew mate's direction was only momentary.

She tore into the flesh, digging in with her claws to avoid getting thrown off, not yielding until the alien fell under her. They had a huge size advantage, but she had speed, at least, and maybe was a bit tenacious.

From the reaction, he figured her ears were sensitive; he resolved to try and cut down on the explosive shots. His subsequent firing was accompanied only by the sound of soft clicking as his gun launched gravity shells at his opponents.

It wasn't like he was unused to fighting with limitations here. Maybe that was just the price of not working alone.

Edited 2011-10-08 23:15 (UTC)

There, that was better. Rachel could deal with it, sure, but it annoyed the cheetah brain-- and her, too, frankly-- so it was better to avoid it if she could.

Springing off of the Ohm, she spun on the next closest enemy, another human, diving after them as they turned to run, all teeth and claws, while a second human readied a weapon at her. She'd just have to be fast, right?

Wrong; Zouichi picked off the second human for her. The man staggered backward for a brief moment before collapsing to the ground, spurting from the sudden chest wound from Zouichi's gravity shell.

She could cover for him in return sometime. Look, he was cooperating!

< Nice, > Rachel said something finally, her own way of showing appreciation, when she noticed the shot take out the other human behind her. She didn't like owing things, but she'd do it anyway. Plus, he apparently saved her some nasty injury, anyway.

Finishing with the other human, she leapt to her feet again, circling somewhat, watching the opponents who remained.

No matter how many times he heard someone speak in his head, it was still weird. "Thanks," he said. "Do this often?"

Even as he spoke, he took out another human opponent at the knees, watching as the man toppled to the ground in an ungainly heap.

< Sort of, > Rachel replied, watching him for the briefest second, before she lunged on the nearest Hork-Bajir, dodging blades in order to go for the face and throat. < Maybe not enough. >

"If you need to practice, I suppose this is the best place to get it." Zouichi sliced through another Ohm, cleanly separating head from thorax. It was safe, as long as you had the safeties on, and controlled.

< Probably, anyway, > Rachel agreed. She didn't really like the safeties much-- maybe it was reckless, but she wanted to fight with the risks. She tore into the Hork-Bajir she'd landed on, yowling at a cut it left in her, but she ignored it to take it down. < Not like there's many other options on the ship. > At least not for what she needed.

"Well, there's always actual sparring." For the purposes of his mission, one form of practice wasn't really any better or worse than any other. Perhaps one might be a little more entertaining than another, but that was it -- most likely a consequence of how different the sensation of pain was for him.

< I guess so, > Rachel replied, noncommittally. She was interested in learning how to properly fight, but she figured she was much more effective while she was taking advantage of her morphing ability. The cheetah paced a small circle, watching its opponents. < Not sure how many people want to spar with animals. Other animal-esque crew aside. >

"You're probably right," said Zouichi, breaking an opponent's arm with one clean motion and tossing him into the crowd. "Animals have a tendency to bite and claw at their enemies. Not really conducive to structured fighting."

Unless you wanted to be a boxing kangaroo or something.

< Not really, > Rachel agreed, leaping at another human, doing the aforementioned biting and clawing. < I can do strategy or whatever, if I want to, but it's easier to just... fight. >

A curious thing to say, if she was who he thought she was. "Do you enjoy fighting, then?"

< Guess so, > Rachel replied, though she honestly knew that she did. It just wasn't necessarily something she was proud of. < It's better than sitting around doing nothing. >

"And a lot of what goes on around here falls under the category of 'doing nothing'," Zouichi agreed. He enjoyed fighting, too... and it did bother him a little. He was just more open about it.

< Right, > Rachel replied, sounding satisfied with that answer. < It's boring and it gets you sloppy, I think. I wanted to practise a morph I didn't use so often, so... >

Ah. So she was one of them. "Yes. I'm a little concerned about it, actually. The battles on my world were significantly more dangerous, both in enemy lethality and spacing between conflicts."

Which was fine for everyone else, but he couldn't afford to get rusty.

< I get it, > Rachel said, the faintest nodding gesture of her cheetah head, even if she wasn't sure he could see it. < I don't know about my battles being more severe or anything, but still. > They did get dangerous and they'd been fairly frequent.

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The Attack

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