Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5426254-20150930003410/@comment-5426254-20151013001306

''You're going to love this one. A lot. -GL''

The crowd was aghast to see Tana crying out in such pain. Sable and Goodwitch, however, were mortified.

She didn't anticipate this to happen, and was relieved that Tana could actually heal herself with the help of her Semblance cauterizing her wounds. It absolved her of some of the guilt.

''Poor girl. I need to do something about this.''

"Pardon the interruption, but I need to have your attention please. I will take this time to amend the rules. Unless your Semblance can be used to heal your own wounds, it will be forbidden in this tournament. That is all."

Holy shit, Sable thought, with a bit of remorse. He never realized that Tana was more fragile than he expected.

"Hey listen," Sable apologzied. "Sorry bout' the damage there, I swear I didn't know."

But he had no time to fret over his own guilt as he had to concentrate against the two enemies rushing towards him - and Pieter.

Rayne had reached Sable first, the ex-cult assassin instinctively swiping and thrusting at him. However, Sable did an equally impressive job keeping pace and dodging every single blow.

As she landed a downward strike, Sable immediately flipped the switch on TKO and retracted their barrels, forming an oversized pair of brass knuckles - or boxing gloves, and blocked the blade.

Then he heaved himself forward, lifting the blade upwards, gaining a momentary split-second advantage to fire the SMGs at Rayne.

As bullets pelted his opponent, Rayne had to back off as she deflected whatever amounts of rounds were left in the magazine... -- Pieter was deadlocked against Heart. He knew that she would swipe at him from every angle, but it was only a matter of time before she could overpower him with an edge in close-quarters combat.

He was on his feet, constantly dodging the swipes of Heart's Shiranami, as he desperately thought of a strategy. Then he remembered the words of his old superiors.

How do you beat someone as fast as her in CQC when you only specialize in medium-range?

He twirled Innocence against his opponent's thrusts, and blocked her swipes.

You force a little distance, and prepare a counterattack.

After the next swipe was blocked, he swung Innocence towards Heart, forcing her to back off. A few more jabs forced her to move farther away, before Pieter sprayed bullets at Heart, forcing her to deflect every single one.

As Pieter ran out of ammunition, Heart immediately saw her chance as she rushed forward.

''This is it! Once I close the distance, I can slaughter him, easy-peasy and get back at that hotshot over there!''

But she didn't expect Pieter to slash the ground, sending dirt towards her face.

''Pfft! What!?''

Then she narrowly blocked a jab from Innocence's blade coming out of the distraction. But it wasn't enough as Pieter twirled Innocence to the other end, first whacking her with the shaft, and then ramming the other end into her stomach. A kick then sent her on her back.

Pieter then transformed Innocence into an assault rifle, carefully taking off the blade that now doubled as a magazine. He then calculated the distance, and attempted to throw it at Heart like a throwing knife, barely missing her head as it landed right next to her.

After the reload, he sprayed a small burst of bullets before he ran off... -- Carmine and Alicia now had recovered from a heart attack that Tana's recovery had brought them.

But now, they had to deal with Tana, now enraged that she didn't get what she wanted. She decided to target the two enemies standing near Asher, first with an angry charge.

The two quickly dodged the roll as Tana swung her mighty axe near Alicia, forcing her to dodge every blow. When Alicia fired Wonderland, the Dust rounds were quickly deflected by the massive axehead of Pomf, before making a swipe towards her.

"Uh, Carmine?" the Huntress asked. "How do we beat her without making her cry?"

The reply came when Carmine broke the deadlock between him and Asher with a kick to the gut,and rushed towards his teammate.

"You go and stall Asher! I'll handle this!"

As Alicia and Carmine switched positions, Asher had to wonder what was going on. Carmine had dodged the heavy axe swings that Tana displayed and quickly rushed close for the melee.

Now, how do I beat her without sending her into the morgue?

The answer came when Tana landed another downward swing. Carmine then intercepted it by swatting the axehead's broadside with his cybernetic arm, then rushing forward, thwarting her headbutt and sending her several feet in the air with a smack to the head.

As she yelped in terror, Asher was scared.

"Hey, don't go too rough on her!"

"Trust me, he knows what he's doing," Alicia reassured him.

As Carmine caught Tana in his arms, he immediately placed his right arm on her neck, and his left arm on her mouth, forming a chokehold.

When Asher saw this, he was scared.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Carmine immediately lifted his left arm in the air to signify silence as Tana began to struggle.

Then he did the unthinkable: He began to sing a lullaby.

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word. Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird."

"And if that mockingbird won't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring."

When Tana heard the "diamond ring" part, she immediately relaxed herself as the lullaby continued. This worked for Carmine, as he saw her Aura levels steadily decrease to zero.

By the time the lullaby finished, Tana was unconscious, but had a smile on her face as it appeared she was sleeping. And the kicker was that she had no injuries, with no blood leaking out by the gallons, and no Semblance that needed to cauterize those possible wounds.

The audience, including Asher, was at first perplexed. But when they realized the methodology behind the lullaby, they were swooned.

''Mr. Ravenholme, what could you possibly accomplish with this- oh, I see. Well, this is a pleasant surprise,'' Goodwitch thought as she smiled.

The arena was filled with the sound of applause when they realized how gentle and clever Carmine was with his lullaby chokehold.

"It appears Tana Bunsen is eliminated from the match," Goodwitch announced, to the sound of cheering.

"Boo-ring," Mercury muttered as he continued filming.

"Actually, I think it's quite adorable- and a smart idea to boot," Emerald replied. Still, I'd hate having to fight a guy like this further down the road.

"You know," Alicia remarked, "I always liked those lullabies. They were so sweet. And look at her! She's sooo cute! And she's alright!"

Asher was awestruck as he admired what went on. To think he was merciful and clever enough to incapacitate Tana without spilling a drop of blood ... Asher thought, wiping away a tear as he focused on the battle ahead.

After Carmine set her unconscious body against a crystal deposit and patted her on the head, he turned to Asher.

"This is for taking care of Alicia when she was down," Carmine stated. "Consider us even."

"But first, there's someone we gotta help."

He immediately sucker punched Asher with his left arm, sending him sprawling on the ground.

As he saw Pieter and Sable locked in combat with Rayne and Heart, he immediately motioned to Alicia as the two of them aimed their weapons at the two opponents... -- Sable continued to dodge Rayne's attacks as he counterattacked with a punch, knocking aside the scythe blade. As Rayne resorted to using her tonfas, Sable remembered that he had to reload, so he ejected the empty mags, spun around, and kicked them at her.

"Hey Petie! How much more can we take this?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure!"

"Back to back?"

"Yeah!" As soon as he finished that sentence, he noticed from the corner of his eye that several projectiles were coming at them.

"DUCK!"

What-

Before Heart and Rayne could comprehend what was going on, they were bombarded with bullets and Dust rounds, thanks to Carmine and Alicia.

"Looks like we won't need it after all," Pieter muttered.

"Pieter! Take care of Asher!"

"If you say so."

"Sable?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep that rematch going with Heart. Alicia and I will take care of White Coat over there."

He grinned as he headed off to face her.

As the members of C.A.S.P. headed off to their positions, Alicia checked Wonderland. Thankfully, only the bottom half of the fabric was ripped, so she could use the top half.

Carmine had remembered Asher's last words to him before he left.

"See that whitecoat over there? That's Rayne, the girlfriend I was talking about. You might as well be careful, because she will want your heads once she sees you dishing me damage."

He sighed as the two of them headed off to fight Rayne. This was going to be a long and difficult match...