Game-Changers & Grudge Matches

Gabe machine gun fires about five blasts at the other two benders while she dives to the side, trying to get in a position to fight back without being pelted by a bunch of assholes.

--

Noctis is still unhappy, and wished it was the full moon.

--

Mortal runs in the opposite direction of the fog.

"Well... I think letting one team use a Sandbender while the other one can't might be considered unfair," Astarte offered.

They continued their search, and would enter another bar if they saw one.

<Gabe is forced against the ropes. She puts up a fancy defensive barrage that does little to dissuade the her opponents, who each duck & weave, firing 3 blasts of their own. It doesn't look like Ven will be coming to the rescue, as the haggard girl seems to have given up moving altogether. After taking a shots to her leg, shoulder, & stomach, she'd likely be in the Drink right now, if she wasn't holding on to the ropes. Halfway through this round, they'll have to step up their game if they don't want the Mongoose Lizards to take it.>

*Ven is forced to kneel, weakly holding on to the ring, & struggling to catch her breath.*
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"No it isn't, just learn Sandbending, or use regular rocks. Or, I dunno, mud, or something."

*He mixes up the drink in his hand.*

"If only there was something we could do to help."
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*Mortal witnesses the figure rising out of the ground not 5 feet away from her.*
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*The next bar they encounter is basically a door in a stairwell, & easily missed. There are 2 large men standing guard, both wearing simple black clothing.*

Astarte shrugged, "There's nothing we can do for her now. Poor Venezuala."

"Reservations only?" Hector and the others stopped briefly before the guards.

Mortal jets, literally, the fuck out of there, running away from the figure. After getting a distance away, she turns and fires off a bolt of lightning into the spirit.

--

Gabe plants herself and uses all of her leverage to grip the fire already in the air with two hands and rip them down into the other blasts. Using the momentum of the rip downwards, Gabe spins, and swings her arms to create a large ball of fire, and launches it directly at the water bender.

*Tirea sends three arcs at the earthbender*
---
*Eve stumbles out of the way, if she can*

*Eve can barely pull herself halfway out.*
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<Gabe conducts the fire blasts into the floor, but the explosions knock her off-balance. Getting hit with a trio of water shots sure doesn't help. She launches an e-normous fireball, but the waterbender cartwheels out of the way & says, "No, thank you," with a kick & a water whip. Their Firebender shoots over Gabe's head, knocking Ven into the drink. Well, she almost made it to the end of the match. Tirea tries to get a little payback, but the Mongoose Lizard Earthbender raises a duo of discs to defend himself. Will the Dragons be able to hold on?>
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<Finally!>

"Hey...you can heal her, right?"
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*The lightning hits it dead on, but it's too dark to tell whether or not it did anything. It starts sinking into the ground again.*
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<Members only.>

"I can, yeah," Astarte nodded. "Is that something I am allowed to do between rounds? If so, it looks like I'll be needed pretty soon."

"Oh yeah? Well, how do I become a member of this fine establishment?" Hector tilted his head slightly as he asked. Eduj had already scanned each man for any weapons that might not to totally concealed. Stefan stood off to one side with his arms crossed before his chest, appearing only mildly interested.

OOC: Lololol.
"No! Bad Slendy!" -Lightning-
"Okay.jpg" -Sinks back into the ground-

Mortal looks around to try and find what direction she parked her truck in, and heads off in that direction, assuming it isn't blocked or anything of that nature.

--

"Tirea, focus fire!" Gabe called out to her teammate, "Attack whoever I attack, defend whoever they're attacking." With that, Gabe spins, and launches into the air using a butterfly kick to launch a speeding blast of fire directly at the firebender.

*It's not blocked, per se, but the direct route is through the swamp. The other ways to get to it are through the house, or by heading along the deck she's on, around the house, & back to the deck at the front of the house. By now the whole area is covered with a thick layer of fog, but the Spirit still has not re-emerged.*
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<Gabe changes her game plan to a concentrated offense, & the fiery Mongoose Lizard goes back to Zone 2. It's not enough to secure them the round, but it's just enough. As time is called, we go to a face-off!>
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"Sure, it's just medical attention. That's not cheating. Oh...but it looks like we won't have time, the round just ended."
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*They both laugh. Neither one is visibly armed.*

<Invitation only. Now scram.>

*Tirea looks at Gabe*

<What should we do?>
---
*Eve continues to struggle, crying for help*

"Hmm," Astarte frowned slightly. "When should I head over to the locker room?"

"Who gets invitations, then?" Hector asked. "I want one."

*As Ven is being brought up by the lift, the referee gestures to the opposing team, the coin in his hand having landed blue side up.*

Referee<I'm afraid you don't really have a choice...the Mongoose Lizards won the coin toss!>

*Their Earthbender steps up without hesitation, grinning smugly.*

Earthbender<We choose earth.>

*Ven reluctantly heads over to stand in the platform as it raises, staring at the floor the whole way. Of course, she is accompanied by frustrated shouting from the Dragons' stands, & ecstatic cheering from the Mongoose Lizards'. The phrases "We're sure to lose!" and "We've got this in the bag!" stick out, respectively.*
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"I don't think they go into the locker rooms between matches."

*Roatha finishes his hotdog & opens the chips.*

"Looks like they're making Ven fight the tiebreaker. Poor thing looks like she's going to the vet to have her puppy put down."
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<Not you. Now scram.>

*The other one flexes his arm.*

<Or are we gonna have a problem, here?>
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*No one answers Eve, & of course she's having difficulty pulling herself along, due to her useless, Chi Blocked arms.*

*Eve continues to yell and try to struggle out*
---
*Tirea gives Ven a thumbs up*

<You can do it Ven!>

"Yeah... I really, really feel bad for her," Astarte nodded.

"Only if you make it a problem," Hector replied before lowering his voice. "Could you possibly be hiding something in there? Maybe Purists?"

*Eve manages to make it to the main street. The last thing she sees is a Satomobile speeding towards her before she loses consciousness. She wakes up an unknown amount of time later at the hospital. Her (right) arm is in a cast, her head is heavily bandaged, & Thiera is moving her water-soaked hands over Eve's chest.*

"Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

*Pain. A lot of pain. Even in the parts that weren't apparently hit by a car. On the upside, she can now move her unbroken (left) arm, & presumably Firebend.*
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<Then I guess you've got a problem.>

*One each moves forward to grab Hector & Eduj roughly around the shoulders.*
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<The crowd is doing almost as much damage as the Mongoose Lizards themselves. It's just sad to watch. And the bell rings!>

*Ven sighs & swings her arms, sending a pair of discs at their Earthbender, who ducks.*

<Nice sprawl by the Mogoose Lizard. He hurls a pair of discs up into Ven's torso. She flies & lands on her back at the edge of the ring.>

*Eve blinks at Thiera*

<Everything hurts. W-what happened?>
---
*Tirea jumps up and down, cheering*

<You can do it Ven! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!>

Astarte winced at the impact.

Hector and Eduj darted backwards without taking their eyes off of the men. As Eduj moved the pavement under the feet of their attackers cracked and shifted randomly, shaking them off balance. At the same time a bunch of little flares from Stefan burst into life around their heads as a distraction from the water whip snaking out of Hector's drinking bottle and coiling around them.
"Seem like Purists to me," Stefan said.

*They are faster. The one who grabs Hector's shoulder thrusts his thumb into it, causing the water at his side to fall onto the ground. The other one reaches up with his ankles, jabbing Eduj in either side of his pelvis. His legs go mostly numb & the shaking stops. The man then uses his momentum to throw Eduj back over his head.*
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"It seems you were hit by a car. In a call from a payphone, the driver explained that he saw you lying halfway in the road & slowed down as much as possible before hitting you, which is why you're still alive. But when we got there, the driver was already gone. Other than that, you'd have to tell me."
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<Ven rolls to avoid another disc that is shot at her. Gets up--twirls out of the way of that one, too! This girl can really dodge, I wonder why we haven't seen moves like this up until now.>

*Ven looks in the direction of the commentator's box, with the expression of a personal epiphany. While she's distracted, she's hit again.*

<Ooh, gotta pay attention, those discs really hurt when you're not expecting them. I imagine. But it looks like Ven was able to hold on to the edge & is now pulling herself up. The Mongoose Lizard approaches. My guess is he's worried he'll hit her in the face and forfeit the match, if he tries to use another earth disc.>
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"I have to admit, I was expecting she'd be knocked out pretty much instantly."

*He stands up, cupping his hands around his mouth.*

"Go, Venezuela!"

<I guess that wasn't a dream then. I was attacked by a Purist, and only barely managed to get away.>

*Eve looks around the room*

<How...how badly hurt am I?>
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*Tirea continues to cheerlead*

<That's the spirit Ven! Don't let them get to you!>

Astarte did not join in.

Eduj attempted to negotiate a landing on his feet, but due to the numb feeling he ended up on his ass. The Chi-Blocker who had just thrown Eduj would now find that Stefan had rushed towards him and launched a cloud of pepper from a small sack into his face. With his other hand, Stefan fired blast of fire at his lower legs. Hector made an upwards cutting motion with the hand of the un-blocked arm, causing some of the falling water to spike into the leg of his attacker.

"Well, many of your ribs were broken, but the fractures were small enough that I was able to put them back together with Waterbending. Your right arm is broken, & will take at least a weak to heal. You also had several other minor wounds all over your body, so you may need to stay in here for a while until they clear up. I've tried inducing natural painkillers with my Healing, but if that's not enough, we can give you morphine. You should know that it's fairly addictive, though."
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<Turns out Ven has enough strength in her hips to swing her legs up & pull herself back onto the platform. The Mongoose Lizard ducks low & attempts to push her off in a way that's almost comical to watch.>
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*Experienced with such tactics, the bouncer just puts his arm in front of his face to take the pepper. He is nonetheless knocked down by a fireblast. The other one grimaces at his wounded leg, but headbutts Hector in the nose. The end of a bola wraps around Stefan's outstretched wrist, from behind.*

*Eve weakly shakes her head*

<I'll be fine without the morphine. Thank you for everything.>
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<Way to go Ven!>

Assuming that someone was holding on to the other end of the bola, Stefan extended his arm, touching his fingers to it, and fired lightning along its length. Eduj pounded the pavement with both fists and lifted two large chunks of the ground up, before flinging one at the Purist attacking Hector and the other at the one using the bola. Hector had stumbled slightly and was trying to find a source of water on the street.

Gabe was silently watching the entire thing slightly horrified both by the consequences of the outcome, and by Ven possibly getting jumped.

--

Noct was leaning forward in her chair, silently swearing.

--

Mortal heads along the deck she is on, not wanting to get caught in the swamp, or trapped in the house.