Dead or Alive (For Pywakit)

[Grail]

Hayate only knew one thing about the mission he was sent on, and that was that he knew little to nothing. Being in his position, the master of his martial arts style in his village, meant that he would have to take the dangerous assignments, and learn everything he could about the world around him. Such knowledge led him to this place, an area that was about fifty five miles southeast off the coast of Japan.

It was a tiny island, so to speak, and in the far east side there was a massive, unactive volcano. Rumors had spread to his village that someone, or something that was living on the island was causing a disturbance to it, an unnatural balance that would continue to build and build until it was indestructable. Hayate could not allow it, although there was another reason as to why he was infiltrating the island.

He had finally regained his memory a few months back...and before he could finally be reunited with his sister, Kasumi, she dissapeared, left without a trace. With the rumor of the ever growing threat on the desolate island, there also was one that a woman wearing a blue outfit, with long, brown hair was seen around the island...and that was enough to spark his interest immediately.

So now he was off, heading towards the island that could reunite him with his past, or prove to be the biggest challenge of his life. Could the Master find his family once again? Or will he face other dangers on the island?

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

"FUCK!" Christie's voice cut through the sounds of the surrounding jungle, but was quickly muffled by the thick foliage. Despite her anger, the profanity had no effect on her backpack, which even now was floating over the edge of the waterfall and was gone. She'd taken it off to rest her shoulders for a bit while she leaned against a tree, and it had promptly slipped over the edge of the embankment and into the swift river below. She'd chased after it, splashing through the water and had almost managed to grab it before she sliped and fell completely in. And now, it was gone. By the time she could clamber down the cliffside and down to the beach below, the powerful riptide of the ocean would have taken it far beyond her reach.

She cursed again, under her breath this time, and sat down on a large flat rock, dripping wet and miserable. This mission had been a mess from the start; the rumors that Helena had fled to this island had seemed suspect to her from the very beginning, but there had been no reasoning with Donovan. And so, here she was on this tropical island, probalby the only person for miles. The satellite images of the island had seemed to indicate there was some sort of hidden compound up on the volcano's higher slopes, but those images had gone over the falls with her backpack. Along with her extra ammo, her food and water, and the rest of her kit.

As she slowly dried out, she considered returning to the beach, to the drop point, and using her comlink to raido back. But that would be admiting defeat, and even if that was what was, in fact, the case, she'd rather be damned than give them the satisfaction. No, there was only one choice. Continue the trek upriver to the volcano itself, explore the compound, and find out if the rumors of Helena retreating to this nasty, humid place were true. Christie knew in her heart that the chances of pristine little Helena even considering such a place as a hideout were remote... but it was always best to be sure.

With a huff, she got to her feet, checked her guns, then started up the river bank again. Her stomach growled and she regretted for a moment not stopping earlier for lunch.

"Oh well... too late now," she muttered to herself. "Maybe this compound has a restraunt and maybe a spa on site..." She chuckled wryly, shook her head, and focused on the job at hand.

 

[Grail]

Hayate didn't have all that great of luck while approaching the island either. The boat that was speeding towards the unknown island was suddenly attacked from out of no where, and Hayate barely escaped with his life. In fact, he washed up on a beach about a few hours later, breathing faintly and with no supplies what-so-ever. When he came to, he knew that this was no ordinary island resort, and that meant he would have to be extremely careful not to get caught, or worse.

He did, thankfully, have his sword attatched to his back, and now he was following the footprints of someone that either had been patroling the island, or was here for different matters of their own. This was going to be a rough day, the master knew that, and if this island proved to have nothing he was searching for, there would be hell to pay.

"Kasumi...if you're on this island let me know somehow...someway." He quietly prayed, and as if his prayer had been answered, a small whirlwind of leaves kicked up and flew straight to his right, guiding him slowly through the forest, and towards the woman he did not know was there, Christie.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

Christie did her best to recall the satellite images from memory, but she still couldn't dodge the feeling that something was off. The sattelite had shown that the slopes of the volcano were barren of jungle, that the river she was following should have entered this area of barren mountainside minutes ago. Which meant one of two things; either the satellite image was wrong, or she was lost.

She cursed and looked around, quickly finding a fairly tall tree. Wasting no time, she clambered up the trunk until she was a cool 90 feet from the jungle floor. The branches were thin and treacherous up here, but by balancing on the topmost ones that would support her weight, she could just see through the canopy. Enough to validate that she was still on the right path. She'd simply miscalculated the distance and time it would take to get to the lower slopes of the volcano. She could see them from here, probably another good 3 hours away at the pace she was making through the dense jungle.

"Damn," she muttered. Three hours would cut things close to nightfall, and without her gear... well, she wasn't fancying sleeping in the jungle wihtout her tent and other camping gear.

And then... she heard a noise. Down below. Was it a wild animal? Or was there someone else on the island? She crouched down against the trunk of the tree and peered down throught the dense branches, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever it was she'd heard without giving away her location.

 

[Grail]

(bumping this till I can figure out a post ^^

 

[Grail]

Hayate continued to make his way slowly through the dense, forested area. He didn't know if the island's defenses were built into the rain forest itself, or if there were any anti-personel weapons here, but he intended to take everything that got in his way down. Nothing was going to stop him in his quest to regain his memory completely, not even an army.

Hayate soon walked past a rather large tree, one that was a bit more noticable than the rest and he carefully inspected the trunk. Seeing that there were no wires wrapped around it, or any hollow spaces, he cautiously made his way onward. He never would have spotted Christie up above him, and he would not know that from that far down he would be made to look like your average enemy, grunt, lackey, whatever you wanted to call it...he just continued to listen to his surroundings, and focus on what was more important.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

Christie watched as the figure stole quietly throguh the jungle below her. He moved with an undeniable grace, and she could tell by his stance and the way he maintained an alert watch around him that he was a trained fighter. There was something else about him too... something that nagged at her. He seemed familiar, but she couldn't tell why from her angle up above.

She waited for him to pass by, then quietly clambered down the tree, landing softly on the ground in a crouch. Slowly, carefully, she began to follow him.

 

[Grail]

It wasn't soon after Christie began to follow Hayate that the man felt something wasn't right. The way the birds were flying from the trees, the way the wind was suddenly picking up...it was all showing a bad omen that the trip he was taking was about to become very rough.

Sure enough there was a rustle that was coming from the bushes in front of him, not behind and the man would slowly turn his body into a stance, ready for whatever would come from the thickets to greet him. Firstly there was a loud thud, and the ground shook soon after, and then another, and another. After the thudding stopped there was a sound as if a nearby tree was being uprooted, and Hayate only caught the tree flying at his body out of the corner of his eye until he flipped into the air, pushing a foot off of that trunk and using it to catapult into the sky.

Appearing from the forest and running at full speed, a cybornetic warrior that was about the size of a rather burly man, a wrestler if you will, rushed at the karate master and planned to throw a rather solid, and probably fatal punch.

Hayate dodged to the side and avoided the attack and would follow with a quick two kicks to the cyborgs face from the side. Taking a leap back, he would see taht the thing would be hardly phased at all. Laughing a bit nearvously Hayate stood toe to toe with the massive, mohawked robot...

(Oh yeah, I'm so director material )

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

As the cyborg attacked the man ahead of her, Christie stopped and crouched down near an upturned tree trunk to watch. She didn't recognize the cyborg's make, but it stood to reason that if Helena would stoop to using thugs like them she'd want to keep it on the hush and use someone subtle. Not that there was anything subtle about the cyborg. Whoever stitched it together wasn't interested in hiding the cybernetics; the armor plates and enhanced flexsteel tendons were blatantly obvious.

Suddenly her eyes widened. As the man kicked at the cyborg, he spun around and she finally got a good look at his face.

"Hayate... what the hell are you doing here?" she mused aloud. This made no sense at all. Curious to see how things went with the cyborg, she continued to watch, but nonetheless tensed her body, ready to spring into action in case it looked like the cyborg was getting the upper hand. She didn't particularly like Hayate, but neither did she dislike him, and it stood to reason that he might know something about this island, since he was here for something...

 

[Grail]

If her comment was intended to gain the man's attention for even a split second, it fell on deaf ears. Hayate was too busy dodging the relentless assault the cyborg was giving him to even pay attention to anything else than those steel arms and legs trying to split him in two. The monstrosity swung at the man's head one last time before Hayate had enough. With a grunt he caught the cyborg's fist with both of his hands and tossed it above him, ducking down and throwing the thing off balance.

It was then, with a loud cry, the karate master slammed both of his hands up towards the cyborg's chest, knocking the large machine back a few feet. That was hardly enough to end the battle with the robot, as it shook off Hayate's attack as if it was just a little sting.

"What in the world is this thing?" He asked himself out loud as well, and as the machine charged at him again, the only thing Hayate could do was stand his ground and defend whatever was thrown at him.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

"Hmmmm..." Christie murmured as she saw the cyborg stagger back under Hayate's strike and then straighten up as if nothing had touched it at all. The brute was obviously built to withstand his powerful blows, but the more she watched the thing fight, the more she realized how slow it was.

Hayate was on the defensive now, doing his best to avoid the brute's pumelling fists as it slowly worked him back to the edge of the clearing. And as it did, Christie saw something interesting. Whoever had designed the cyborg obviously didn't intend for it to fight more than one target, for each time it brought its fists down, the folds of flesh and metal in the smal of its back parted, revealing what looked to be a tangled nest of cables and fiberoptic filaments connected to its partially exposed spinal cord...

Silently, her body uncoiled like a spring and she vaulted over the log and into the clearing. In a half-dozen long strides, she was up behind the brute, her hand striking out again and again, three, four, five times in barely more than a second's span. Each strike disloged more and more of the filaments, and with the fifth she was rewarded by a strange grinding noise somewhere inside the cyborg. She skipped back a couple paces as the behemoth turned slowly to face her. Its left arm dropped down limply, and the left side of its face seemed to sag, but it didn't drop. Instead, it hobbled toward her on one good leg and raised up a fist to strike. Shocked at its tenacity, Christie hesatated for one moment too long, and when its fist swung down she wasn't quite able to dodge aside. The mighty meaty club struck her in the shoulder, sending her spiraling through the air to land in a crumpled heap at the base of the very tree she'd been watching the fight from all along.

 

[Grail]

Ducking and weaving, and doing the occassional jump, Hayate was nearly about out of steam from the cyborg's relentless assault. The man didn't know how much longer he could hold the cyborg off, and that was when he spotted someone behind the beast.

Watching Christie begin to tear filaments from the cyborg's frame, that gave Hayate an idea. Unfortunately he was tripped up by a nerve shot from the cyborg's left leg, and fell to the ground with a thud, his head hitting up against a rock. Needless to say, he was knocked a bit off of his rocker, dazed if not unconscious.

When the robot turned and smacked Christie down, well rather, towards the tree in the distance, her meddling had caused a few circuits to be crossed, and the cyborg's programming to become a little less than what was desired of it. Stalking towards the beauty, the pants that it was wearing had become a little tighter than normal, and it was tenting. The cyborg wasn't just a robot for distruction, it also seemed one built for pleasure in the right hands...and that phallus was about to tear out of the only binds it had.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

Christie looked up at the approaching cyborg, and couldn't help but notice the monstrous bulge in his pants. She scrambled to her feet and leapt up onto the fallen tree, watching calmly as the cyborg continued to follow her. She let it get almost within arm's length, and then jumped off the log, tucking her legs up and flipping over its head to land lightly on her feet behind it again.

She began striking at it again, tugging and ripping at its filaments in a flury of blows. The cyborg roard in frustration as she worked at it, and by the time it had turned around she was already halfway across the clearing again. Christie cursed under her breath as it lumbered toward her, slower still, yet no less obsessed. If she'd had her pistols... this fight would have been over long ago. She heard Hayate clambering back to his feet somewhere behind her, but didn't dare risk a glance back to see what exactly he was up to.

 

[Grail]

Hayate groaned as the bump on his head began to get slightly bigger. He didn't know what was going on for the first couple of seconds that passed when he came back to consciousness, but after he saw that giant cyborg moving slowly towards Christie, he knew what he had to do to end this fight quickly.

He hopped to his feet and would place both of his hands, palms out, away from his body, and down at his side. He growled a little, the wind soon kicking up behind him as he began to charge up his style's most lethal move. He waited until the cyborg was for sure never going to see it coming, and then launched that massive lightning attack at the beast's back, hitting it square on and frying everything that was inside of it. The cyborg dropped soon after, needless to say, but Hayate fell to a knee as well.

"Damn...demon..." he grumbled, trying to gather up his strength just in case Christie was agaisnt him as well.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

As Hayate looked up at her, Christie gave him a polite little clap.

"Well done, Hayate. Although I'm not sure why you waited this long to pull that stunt on him."

She leaned back against a tree, pretending to be at ease but remaining on alert in case he lunged at her next.

"So... seems a bit strange... running into you here, of all places. What's your game?"

 

[Grail]

A low grumbling sound could be heard from Hayate's throat...perhaps it was one of annoyance, who knew with him. He soon was climbing to his feet, his eyes dead locked ont he woman in front of him. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? And furthermore, why were you following me assassin?" He asked, his arms coming up to lock in his stance, ready for anything coming from her.

"But if you must know, I'm searching for my sister, and something tells me I'm getting pretty close as to where she is. I won't let you stand in my way either."

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

Christie smirked at his words, especially the way he nearly spat out the word 'assassin.'

"Listen, pal. You've got nothing to worry about from me. For now, at least. If I'd been sent here for you, you wouldn't have known I was here. Simple as that. I think a more important thing to ask, thoguh, is why we're both here." Christie looked around at the primal jungle that surrounded them.

"I mean, this just doesn't seem to be a place your sister would really want to visit. Of course... I don't know her as well as I assume you do..."

 

[Grail]

If he remembered one thing about the white haired assassin, it was that when she told someone that they'd never see her coming, she meant it. He nearly was killed by her once, in the tournaments a while back, but luckily he avoided that fate. "I've learned to be a little extra careful around beautiful women with a nice body...I guess I can say I owe you for the lesson." He shot back at the woman before he began to slowly let his guard down.

"I don't think Kasumi visited this place, I believe she was kidnapped and brought here for a reason, I don't know why but I have this odd feeling that she's not alright. And I intend to find out the truth, and my sister." He said flat out, not caring if Christie knew of his plans or not. He could take her easily in any hand to hand fight, and they both knew it.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

Christie made sure to keep an eye on him as he spoke. Her greatest advantages over him was speed and suprise. Now that he knew she was here, she had only speed. If he could get up close to her, she had no doubt he'd be able to take her down with just one well-placed hit.

"Well... as it happens, I'm looking for someone here too. Although I have the feeling that the reason I think I'm here isn't the actual reason im here... if that makes any sense. Anyway... it seems ridiculous for both of us to go it alone from here, don't you think? What I'm offering, Hayate, is a truce. You up for that?"

 

[Grail]

The idea was okay on concrete, but Hayate did not like the idea of teaming up with an assassin, a beautiful one at that. There were things to consider when actually going through a partnership such as this one, and that was survival. Christie was no match for him one on one, no holds barred fighting, she just clearly could not beat him toe to toe. Though, in a large fight against a few other people, she had the sneakiness to easily overcome him. He turned his gaze towards her and studied her carefully, not knowing whether or not he should give his trust to this woman or not.

"Fine...though I already know that, due to the nature of your work, you could betray me at any time...if I get the slightest hint you're going to cross me, I'll cut you down that instant, is that understood Christie?" He asked, his eyes moving back down the path to spot any traps or anything of the like...it seemed pretty much calm.

 

[Pywakit]

Christie

Christie allowed herself a little smile. "Wow! Do you always talk this sweetly to a girl on the first date? I do think that I'm blushing!"

She glanced down the path as well. "Well then... since I'm barely to be trusted, I guess I'll go first so you can keep your eyes on me and make sure I'm not about to shiv you. That sound fair?" She didn't wait for an answer, but set off at a brisk pace down the trail. She kept an eye out for triplines and other traps, and althoguh she didn't look back, she made certain to concentrate on the sounds of him following her. If he tried anything himself... she wanted to be ready for him.

 

[Grail]

(same as the others hon)