Unity vs. Darien Magnus

DUREM CLOCKTOWER: CLOCKFACE

After the previous season, efforts were made to refurnish the classic clockface. Unfortunately, a bunch of half-demons and rafter-lurking vampires demolished it in a city brawl, and the clockface has once more been relegated to the inside of the tower for storage and repair.

Terrain

General: The clcokface is a 200' diameter disc of steel and wood that lays flat on its face in the topmost portion of the Durem Clocktower. Set into the center of the face is a 15' tall, 10' wide pillar of steel, on which the hour and minute hands are mounted. The minute hand is long enough to stretch across half of the clock's face, while the hour hand is only 1/4th as long. The second hand is broken and lays on the ground. The clockface is cracked and scorched in some places.

Weapons: The second hand is a 15' length of wood that could be used as a spear. The numbers are loose and each is roughly 3' tall, weighing approximately 50 pounds. The hour hand sits approximately 4' from the ground, and the minute is 7' from the clockface.

Bonus Features: A fighter can easily budge the hour hand by pushing it with their body or with a supernatural ability. If a fighter activates the gears via a control panel on the central pillar, the minute hand will begin to spin. While it is too high to hurt someone, it will create a powerful wind effect that can disrupt flying fighters and throw ranged projectiles off balance.

(Open to spectators.)

And the quest to destroy this structure with yet another character.

It wouldn't be loud before a set of echoing footsteps entered the clock tower, accompanied by the tell-tale glow of a burning cigar cherry. Conversely to his opponent, Darien Magnus dressed with an element of class. A light tan leather long coat draped over stylized suit-vest of ballistics armor, complete with a dress shirt and tie. Elements of cybernetic augmentation were present on Darien's face, the most apparent of which being a black mechanical eyepiece embeded over his right eye. While the metal base was embedded into his skin, the eye remained intact underneath. A secondary lens was worn over his left eye and, while clearly attached to a cybernetic base, was far less intrusive than the first.

Rifle slung over his right shoulder, the bounty hunter's immediate view of the surroundings were--

--rather lackluster, not to mention suspiciously dark. Odd, given that it was broad daylight outside. There should be at least a cursory amount of light coming in through the windows, partially boarded or no. Without giving it much time for thought, the lens of his eyepiece shifted, appearing red in tint as the device went into thermal mode.

Mechanical Eyepiece Wrote:

> [Thermal Vision] The lens of the eyepiece turns red to indicate that vision modes have changed. Used in tandem with the magnifier, this QWIP-based thermal imaging mode has extremely long range capabilities and has significant resistance to battlefield obscurants and solar dazzle. While this vision mode can be defeated by substances or abilities that reflect thermal heat (such as a space blanket), it is incredibly potent at finding people who are attempting to hide from the bounty hunter.

His non-augmented eye squinted to a close as he took in his new surroundings. The trials of time and combat have ultimately proven unkind to Durem's landmark clock tower, all but abandoned in a state of disarray and permanent disrepair. More importantly, Darien caught an immediate glimpse of the 'gargoyle' perched on the pillar center stage.

The bounty hunter began slowly pacing towards and around the pillar counter-clockwise, appearing as though he were attempting to get a feel for his environment in the darkness. In reality, his was keeping an eye on the rogue through his augmented eye, never truly looking directly at her as the red lens obscured the direction of his eye. Still, it wouldn't take long for the bounty hunter to close half the distance and comment aloud to himself. "Doesn't this just beat all?"

There was a pause as he took a long drag from his cigar with his left hand. Outstretching his arm towards the pillar, the bounty hunter flicked the remnants of his cigar upwards towards Unity in a manner that was clearly no accident. If the rogue didn't move, the cigar butt would harmlessly bounce off of her forehead. "Get down from there. You look ridiculous."

show spoilerhide spoiler**Note: The secondary eyepiece has no real function in the GCL. It's just sort of there.

**Note 2: Other equipment includes:

Assault Rifle with Pile Bunker

2 unloaded pistols worn on his legs.

2 EMP grenades, on vest harness.

4 Drones, in vest harness under coat.

Totally-not-a-flamethrower on his left arm.

Grapple Cannon on his right arm.

Magnetic Boots

Scalar Warfare Wrote:

🎧 ~♪

There was a sharp laugh at the rogue's 'generous' offer. "You're an awfully considerate young lady." Darien shifted his rifle from his shoulder, placing the rail of the weapon into his left hand. Unity was fortunate; were this a normal scenario, she would have found her legs quickly riddled with holes.

Unity's ploy to flood her opponent with light was sound, but unfortunately for her she wasn't dealing with traditional night vision. Thermal imaging was a lot harder to defeat than simply dousing the landscape in a swath of light. Chances are, the bounty hunter would hardly notice the shift aside from the sudden glow seen through his closed eyelid.

It was a precarious thing avoiding high speed projectiles. Darien had less than two fifths of a second from the moment his opponent made the decision to fire before the bolt reached him, meaning he had to watch both her trigger finger and the positioning of the crossbow. Blocking or avoiding such a shot at this range wasn't completely in the realm of impossibility, but to say that there was some guesswork involved would be putting it mildly.

Still, he's beaten worse odds. Getting cover quickly would be ideal.

"Give me your best shot." Breaking into a jog, Darien began approaching the center pillar. Even from this distance, an audible ~CLINK could be heard no sooner than his boot first struck the ground, a grapefruit sized metal sphere unhinging itself from the interior of his coat. The small one-eyed drone quickly rose around its master, following his every movement like a mechanical ioun stone.

Drone 1: Standby Order

Drone 2: Inactive

Drone 3: Unavailable

Drone 4: Unavailable

"We make the perfect pair."

It would appear a homeless man with a scruffy beard and a white wifebeater had entered the Clockface from inner city Durem. He was clapping his sweaty hands together, and seemed rather intrigued to be watching combat occur between a scantily clad woman and a costumed reject from the local mechanic joint.

"UHHH-huh!" Delin grunted, sitting himself down inappropriately near the outskirts of the clock-face floor surface - his bottom planted on surface wood.

It was hard telling how he managed entry. However, he didn't seem to be threatening to interrupt the fight... just... sitting abnormally close to it. Crossing his legs and patting the ground while yelling "Okay, unless I tell you otherwise, continue pushing forward!" as a bizarre chant of encouragement to his preferred fighter, Unity.

She was sexy.

Character: Unity

Now Wearing: Fleeting Shadow Armor

Location: The Clocktower - Durem

=She Is Young, She Is Beautiful, She Is...=

That depth perception, or lack thereof, would be tested again presently. Standing with a commanding view of most of the clockface, her eyes flitted across the room, reconfirming the state and lighting of the room, and orienting herself in it. As more metallic hoverballs started pouring out of the hunter's coat, and his movement suggested a single-minded dedication to activate the now-evident control panel facing him, she crouched back down on the minute hand, the partial shadow of a boarded up window falling over her menacingly.

Twin daggers, Contrast and Blur, sat nestled in her respective hands, waiting for the right moment. Darien's hand reached for the console, and Contrast tightened in her grip...

... And Unity dipped forward, diving into the shadow cast over her. Contrast, it's blade a full foot of razor steel, stabbed out from the shaded face of the central pillar, right above the console, squarely into the bounty hunter's trachea at the end of the thief's extended right arm... followed by the rest of Unity falling outward from the pillar, tackling him with the natural gravity of her previous perch. Her knees still up and in from the crouch, her shapely legs hit him square in the torso, to bowl him over - then attempted to consolidate by slipping to either side and locking his arms to the floor with her weight when they landed... not least to prevent him from turning that horrid spike against her.

In between the surprise, the shock, and the momentum of her tackle, Unity's confidence was high - but she had activated the enchantment on the striking blade, so that when it bit flesh Darien's eyes would go into a vertigo-inducing hypercontrast, upsetting any natural sense of balance. Blur stayed ready in her left, available to strike or ward as needed.

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[Contrast] - Drawn, right hand, enchantment active, striking the trachea and throat!

[Blur] - Drawn, left hand, ready

[Premiere] - (Stowed) Ammo: 4/5 Steel Penetrator; 2/2 S-bevel broadheads

[Tools of the Trade] - show spoilerhide spoiler18M sulfuric acid, 1 fl oz glass flask(stowed), garrote, steel wire(stowed)

[Sounds of Silence] - Active, muting sounds of movement and activity to 1/4 normal decibel value

[Saturate] - Deactivated, 8t CD remaining!

[Atmospheric Lighting] - Deactivated, 9t CD remaining!

[Slipshadow] - Activated! Entry point: Shadow on minute hand. Exit point: Shadowed face of central pillar. 5t CD remaining!

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MagnusXL Wrote:

It was all a blur. While Darien would have been a fool to expect Unity to just let him activate the central panel unchecked, he could not have predicted that she'd physically exit the pillar in front of him as his left hand reached for the console. He was forced to block on reflex and instinct alone.

As the dagger emerged from the pillar, the bounty hunter attempted to tilt their body to the right, veering their neck and head to the left away from the assault. In a simultaneous motion, his hand arm snapped away from the control panel, grabbing onto Unity's forearm in an attempt to steer the attack further.

This had mixed results as the dagger was moved in such a way as to merely graze the area between the neck and shoulder, his armored duster providing some mitigation to the deflected stab.

Unfortunately for Darien, grazing was all Contrast really needed. The bounty hunter was better equipped to deal with extremes in contrast and vision changes due to the nature of his mechanical eye, but that wouldn't be enough to keep the sense of vertigo at bay. His balance was utterly shattered when the rest of Unity came tumbling. Discarding his rifle as the woman slammed into him, his right arm rebounded off the ground painfully as they came tumbling to the floor.

Still holding Unity's right arm in his left, his best bet was to attempt and deflect her other dagger until he had the opportunity to turn the tables on her. Given the ultra-rapid and imprecise nature of knife combat, it would be a daunting task to say the least.

The lens over the mechanical eyepiece went clear as his other eye was opened in an attempt to offset the vertigo. While the first Drone continued to watch unity in an apathetic fashion (orbiting the two fighters in the process), the second began circling Unity's in a more deliberate fashion at Darien's urging, ionizing her with an invisible laser that she would feel as a buildup of static electricity.

Drone 1: Precaution Order

Drone 2: Targeting Order

Drone 3: Unavailable

Drone 4: Unavailable

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Scalar Warfare Wrote:

Character: Unity

Now Wearing: Fleeting Shadow Armor

Location: The Clocktower - Durem

=Hard Light=

Unity's imperfect understanding of the post-modern world she had been exposed to notwithstanding, her shock of white hair standing literally on end certainly made the defeat of her augmented opponent all the more pressing. Having successfully bowled the man over, her legs fell naturally to either side, straddling him at the waist. Darien's grip on her right arm made using it for anything other than rough balance impractical, as his strength was most likely at least equal to her own, and likely more. Thus she leaned in over him, almost as one would hover in anticipation over a lover - but her intentions were far from amorous.

Hardlight blossomed near her, binding the entire torso of the bounty hunter in a thick band to the floor in an arc, forcing both his chest and the arms at the bicep to remain stationary where they had fallen. Torquing her own torso, she then used the sudden leverage to wrest her right arm from the man's grasp while simultaneously pluging Blur into his side, past the open lapel of the leather jacket and into the armored vest. Penetration or not, a blow like that to the kidney would certainly leave him seeing stars, even as Unity's right hand cocked back for yet another stab, the second directed into the left armpit, where, although there was coat covering it, the razor edge of Contrast would surely prevail and disable the joint.

The flurry of blows was meant to overwhelm the bounty hunter before he could think of a way to escape... or to turn the constructs hovering nearby to lethal intent.

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[Contrast] - Drawn, right hand, drawn back and striking the left armpit!

[Blur] - Drawn, left hand, striking the right kidney!

[Premiere] - (Stowed) Ammo: 4/5 Steel Penetrator; 2/2 S-bevel broadheads

[Tools of the Trade] - show spoilerhide spoiler18M sulfuric acid, 1 fl oz glass flask(stowed), garrote, steel wire(stowed)

[Sounds of Silence] - Active, muting sounds of movement and activity to 1/2 normal decibel value

[Saturate] - Deactivated, 7t CD remaining!

[Atmospheric Lighting] - Deactivated, 8t CD remaining!

[Slipshadow] - 4t CD remaining!

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MagnusXL Wrote: