Log:Nar Shanka
An exhibition match goes pear shaped.
OOC Date: March 18 2023
Location: Nar Shanka, Corellian District, Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Grom, Narsai Ordo, Tamsin Cas, Terek Rosol, Sumi Kora
The fighting arena had full attendance, and every seat was taken. Down at the center of the venue, where lights are shown down upon the fighting pit, hover droids are seen establishing their flight routes so that live footage of the fight will be properly displayed, uninterrupted, to the large screens occupying the rafters above.
In the ringleader suite, a loft above the crowds and the ring itself, stands the curator of the fight. She wears the blue armor of a Mandalorian sans the helmet, and leans upon the railing holding her mic with one hand, and a smoke with her other.
<<"Good evening,">> Rasps the voice of Sumi Kora.
<<"Tonight's fight is an exhibition match against the Grand Champion of Nar Shaddaa. The Hutt Lords are eager to challenge the grand champion by sending one of their own. Give it up for the contender, Loos Stryker! Will Loos have what it takes to claim the title for the Hutts? Or will his death bolster the statistics for those who tried and failed.">>
<<"Now, returning to the ring after many years, eager to spill the blood of those he deems WORTHY -- I would introduce him, but he has COMMANDED that only one as MIGHTY AS HE may introduce him to the ring. I stated there are NONE who meet that requirement, thus he will introduce himself!">>
Opposite Loos Stryker is a hulking monolith of a Houk, whose yellow eyes narrow and blunt teeth are bared in a bombastic smile. "Yes! BEHOLD, little blue shelled firefly and all her mammal friends: BEHOLD THE MIGHTY GROM: KING of Fale! CONQUEROR of the Sky Road! CHAMPION of Nar Shaddaa and VANQUISHER of the tiny- YET VERY POWERFUL- Wizard King of Corellia! Who has EATEN the laser sword, and DEFECATED THE CRYSTAL-" The titles go on.
Well, while Tamsin Cas was wearing blue, her attire could not be considered a shell. She was however, a mammal, when last she checked. So, the broadband greeting given by the Houk was probably partly for her. So nice to be remembered and acknowledged. The good doctor was not, however, looking at all as though she had any intentions of ending up in the ring. Rather, she had found a seat in the stands, as was the usual custom at these sorts of events, where a medical doctor might be a useful thing. Whether, in truth, it was to save lives, or simply to keep the fight gong a little bit longer was debatable.
Well, this was a touch of nostalgia for Narsai on the second home away from home that was the smuggler's moon. The arenas? The crowds? It had been years since she'd been to one and years more since she'd been on the sands herself...but she was here!
With the crowds coming out she leans on the rails, watching the madness and spectacle that was Grom's intro!
<"Without further delay, let's shed some rekking blood! FIGHT!"> Sumi screams, and the lights above the fighting arena flash before fanfare is released in the form of sparks and loud cracking effects.
Loos Stryker, the massive Herglic standing opposite of the MIGHTY GROM, growls and steps forth, his footfalls thunderous upon the ring as he closes the distance, clashing his metal covered fists together, preparing himself for a melee. "TODAY GROM DIES!" He exclaims.
Loos is a white and gray designed alien with ample muscle, and a large gaping mouth filled to the brim with razor-sharp teeth. His eyes are large, and his nose, is more of a sharp brim spread wide and flat like a shark.
One massive swing makes a connection against the monolith Houk's armor, but a harrowing second hook misses the Houk! WHOOOOOSH!
Up above, Sumi lounges like a spoiled cat, smoking and laughing.
"-Who HEADBUTTED the walls of Strategy- Oh, we are beginning? VERY WELL-" Several seconds after being struck, as the Houk's notoriously sturdy constitution took that long to register the damage. Today Grom dies? "NO, Grom does not labor in textiles, BUT GROM HAS MADE HATS OF WORTHY FOES, Normal sized Tooth-Fish." The first pair of pontificating punches narrowly miss, as Grom boisterously brawls on.
Ah. Always helpful to know who might eventually end up being a patient. Would it be the one with the most muscle? Or the one with the largest mouth? Between a Herglic and Houk...how did one make that determination? Ah well, blood would show the way. Tamsin remained in her seat as the battle began, hands folded neatly on top of her medical bag. Between her hands? her ever present bottle of water.
Blood flows, violence springs forth and Narsai was leaning in, watching the savagery...and one-liners exchange with interest.
Fresh off turning in a bounty, Terek has decided to swing by Nar Shanka and catch whatever fights were going on. At the moment he is gathered amongst the crowd down in the main viewing section, helmet under his arm as he puts a bet on Grom with one of the bookies, before stepping over to get a better view of the pit proper.
The Herglic ducks beneath on blow, then jumps slightly back from the second. His legs part, bracing and taking on his gargantuan weight before setting up to strike once more. Clearly, effort was placed behind the blow with intent, Loos grunting out so loud he may have been screaming.
His attacks yield another hit, metal knuckles generating sparks off the MIGHTY Houk's armor. He presses for a second attack, yelling in a loud voice, "ENJOY --- THIS!" He knees and misses, the momentum of the attack (coupled with his weight) carrying him off balance to collide against the arena boundary. It shocks him as a result.
Sumi is no longer alone in the Ringmaster's loft. Well dressed sentients have come to speak with the Mandalorian, taking her attention away from the fight.
Grom is struck twice more, only seeming to notice one of the blows. "Grom enjoys that greatly, Interrupting Fish! But you may strike with your full strength, and not that of a TINY BABY, if you wish.. But how will you fare, WHEN GROM ATTACKS?" Notably, Grom does not immediately attack, instead, muttering "Are you prepared? Good," before bellowing "GROM ATTACKS." The challenger is slightly faster than Grom, and- as the Houk persists in announcing his blows, has evaded damage, thus far.
Tamsin, clearly, was not the right one to be observing such a fight. She had credits to spend, certainly, but with no clear idea of how to select the winner. So, she simply placed abet on either as the hawker came through. Either way, it would be a win, yes? This was, clearly, not the way things were done, but money was money, and she soon had her two chits in hand.
Interrupting fish? You sure as hell get things a little different with a Mandalorian duel...but yeah. Still, she was enjoying things quite happily as she listens in, her gaze flicking lazily towards the familier figure of Sumi before drawing back to the fight.
The cathar Mandalorian cheers when the insults are thrown...Even if he has no idea what in the hells that is even supposed to mean. Either way he's trying to motivate his fighter to get in there and maybe actually hit that squirrely guy, "Kick his head in Grom!"
A lot happens in a brief few seconds. There's the cheering of the crowd which is dwarfed by the audio coming from the ring. The herglic Loos Stryker manages another hit upon GROM, this one achieved in anger. He had charged across the arena in a thunderous rumble that echoed throughout the large room and collided against GROM. Wrenching his large arms about the MIGHTY KING OF FALE, he tried to heft him up, but GROM with his armor, was no easy feat to lift. So instead, he stays in place, trembling and straining, veins popping up in his neck and arms.
Up above, in the loft, a firefight breaks out. Both well dressed men draw weapons on Sumi and fire, but their shots miss. The lounging Lioness springs from her spot and slugs one across the face, in response, sending them stumbling backward until they flipped and fell over the railing, landing in the arena with the two massive monuments fighting each other. His death was on impact, he landed face down and blood spattered in every direction.
Sumi fights the second cartel thug, head butting them without a helmet, which separated them both. He fell, and she stumbled to one side, falling to one knee. The fight, or more to the point, the missed shots are what caused a large fuss. Gravity inhibitor devices wired into the loft to make the fight more interesting began to spark and malfunction. Doors within the audience chamber closed, and the boundaries containing the fight withdrew into the ring. Suddenly...
THERE WAS NO GRAVITY.
More cartel thugs began to appear from the crowd, 15 in total, blasters out and closing for GROM.
IT WAS AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT!
Sumi, who is a victim of the gravity issue, kicks off the ground and catches the MIC. <"IN A MOVE NO ONE IS SURPRISED BY, THE CARTEL CHEATS AND ATTEMPTS TO KILL THE GRAND CHAMPION! IF YOU ARE A WARRIOR, KILL THE IDIOTS SHOOTING BLASTERS, AND DON'T GET KILLED BY THE TWO STILL FIGHTING IT OUT IN THE CENTER!">
"YES, the Mighty Grom shall kick in his head, and perhaps punch it in as well, OR PERHAPS STOMPING. GROM ENJOYS STOMPING. Then you shall become a HAT. COME CLOSER AND BECOME A HAT, INTERRUPTING FISH." Then, Loos does rush in and seek to lift Grom. "What? No, THIS IS NO TIME FOR HUGS. HEADBUTT," he announces, before floating off the ground. "What? NO. THE GROUND HAS BETRAYED GROM. Do not shun Grom's mighty BULK, Ground!"
Tamsin was no cartel operative, nor was she someone for whom fighting was second nature. Certainly, she had no visible or useful weapons on her person. What she did have, was some knowledge of how such arenas worked, and gravity controls should be near where the fights could be monitored. And so, the good doctor tightened the strap on her medical bag, lest it float away into the great beyond, and as people went this way and that around her, she kicked off from her seat, using her body's momentum to help her grab a handhold on the nearest tier of seats to try to float jump her way up towards where Sumi was taking care of business.
A firefight? Things were getting...exciting! After all, how many forms of entertainment got this level of interactive?
The sudden lack of gravity had her drifting, but Narsai found herself...comfortable. She'd spent plenty of time in the air, and she -was- still wearing her jetpack.
Kicking off the seating, the redhead launched herself out towards one of the gunmen, slicing deep with her beskad in a flash.
There's a pause for a moment as the body hits the floor of the arena with a wet squelch. Terek's head tilts, the cathar's mane shifting just a bit as he stops cheering and looks up at where the now-corpse came from.
And then he notices he's tilting off to the right, because gravity is no longer holding him to the floor. He's confused, for a moment, until he hears blaster fire. Then Sumi's voice over the PA system, "Oh hell no."
Shifting around he turns his left arm and aims upwards at the railing that leads into the VIP area, and fires the whipcord on his gauntlet, the cable wrapping around the rail, and immediately retracting, yanking Terek upwards, as he prepares to assault whatever hostiles are up there.
People are floating everywhere, and when blaster fire erupts, it's intended for the two trying to oppose the Cartel from winning this fight by 'ANY MEANS NECESSARY'. Whilst Loos and GROM slug it out, floating by in one direction, blaster fire illuminates the darkened room, hitting floating shadowed bodies of bystanders, and some even hitting the intended targets.
Sumi for instance, had slain one poor thug with a dagger, and was in the process of stabbing a second when a blast PLINKED off her right arm, and sent her end-over-end across the arena from the concussive impact. Bystanders and all could hear her as she pass, "..ggooOOOdddSSSssdddaaAAAAmmmmnNNNNiiIIIIItttttT..."
Loos slams a harsh blow across Grom's chin. "HOW ABOUT THAT?!" He yells out, finally able to put more UMPH behind the hit. However, he's apart from GROM, and can't reach him because he's just floating there now. "HEY.. COME BACK HERE!"
Grom's legs are rather stubby, relative to the bulk of his torso and arms, thus it looks slightly comical as the Houk kicks about in an ineffective effort to reach the ground. Instead, he only manages to slowly rotate in midair. "Grom is now the UPSIDE DOWN KING, and he DOES NOT LIKE IT. Cease your treachery, Ground! SILENCE, INTERRUPTING FISH. Grom is berating the Ground!" Finally, he bumps headfirst into a barrier and is able to tumble-jump back at the Herglic. Rather than flying punch, he tries to grip the aquatic sentient by the fin with one hand and pummel him repeatedly with the other. Grom has taken all of the punishment this far, but once that three-fingered fist connects a single time, the field is nearly leveled.
Given that most of the people were either free floating and trying to save themselves, free floating and being shot, or free floating and screaming like small children, no one much seemed to notice the doctor making her way up rung by rung, handhold by hand hold. Though one might have noticed her once she made it to the level on which Sumi was fighting, if only for the flashy way in which her jacket was floating around her. Fashion, even in zero G. Tamsin kept ahold of the railing, as she scanned the owners' box, as if were, seeing what looked to be a sparking mess of wires. Well, one worked with what they had. Tamsin pulled herself over there, anchoring herself with afoot tucked into the legs of one of the chairs as she put on a pair of gloves. Not much insulation, but one worked with what they had, as she started trying to unpack what was working and what needed to be fixed. Carry on with the fighting, everyone. Nothing here to see.
Amid the sea of floating panic, fear and screaming locals...Narsai was alive. She was having fun despite herself!
Wheeling around in the air with the thrusters of her jetpack so she can fire off her bracer. The bolt misses...but the beskar-clad blur of red and black with her sword? Not so much.
There's a black armored blur as Terek pulls back the wire when he reaches the apex of his pull. He may have misjudged his timing and sailed right past the thug he was aiming for.
On the bright side the thug's shot at him appears to have sailed wide because of how fast he was flying by.
Sumi corrects her flight pattern after smacking into a wall. She returns to the fight, disabling two of the thugs in a pass, but taking a shot to her leg when she closes on another. It forces her to curse again, this time in Mando'a, as she swings for the culprit, and gloriously misses.
Meanwhile, the two massive creatures for which tonight's entertainment was dedicated, are beating the snot out of each other, floating by up-side down, above the ring. Cartel thugs circle, targeting the Mandalorians who have answered Alor'Kora's call to arms, and blaster bolts blast in every direction, landing on some of the intended targets, or hitting more bystanders. People have begun to smartly cling to the rafters, their seats, each other, or whatever they can find to avoid the chaos. Meanwhile, the central console with the screens and speakers has begun to play hype music, intended to draw the crowd into its beat, like a huttball game.
Grom is a terrestrial creature, quite accustomed to Gromming around on both feet. This entire business of floating upside down is quite distasteful to the Houk in a way that is less handicapping for his aquatic foe. "VERY WELL. If the Ground will NOT OBEY, then I have NO ALTERNATIVE. BEWARE ONE AND ALL of the Mighty Grom... OF THE SKY." The rockets built into his heavy boots often struggle mightily to bear up Grom's royal weight. Thus, it is a few starting and fizzing moments before the boots start to spark.
In those moments, gravity is restored, and Grom plummets to the ground with a mighty THUD. All to late, the boots ignite in sad little flares, barely managing to scoot the huge Houk a few faltering inches along the floor, facedown.
As if there was nothing at all going on in the world, Tamsin continued to work at the control panel. There was some bit of internal monologue, where the good doctor considered that this was a bit like trying to fix bad cyber job, only with less messy fluids getting in your way. Space Operation, as it were. But, she was able to extrapolate well enough, that as the music reached its zenith, gravity returned, and she only just managed to unwrap her leg as she dropped to the floor of the control booth. What happened to everyone else, well...good luck folks!
There's a moment of realization as the gravity suddenly turns back on, Terek having still been sailing through the air thanks to the momentum of his whipcord. He aims to fire his jetpack, but only succeeds in turning himself around, flipping over a couple of times and then straightening up, getting his momentum back in check as he drops knees first into one of the cartel goons, slamming him into the deck with enough force to take him out of the fight. Terek rolls a couple of times off of the guy, and then pushes himself back to his feet.
Sumi manages to orient herself mid-fall and activated her jetpack, coming to land gingerly upon the ground level as people fell from above, some as high as the ceiling. Insurance claims for this place were going to be a thing.. Sumi kills one thug as they rise up, then cuts another to keep him on his knees before her, booting him down to reside as the meat between the cold floor and the rough tread of her boot.
GROM is not the only to hit the ring in a thunderous collision. So too, does his opponent. With their weight combined with the gravity restoring, the stress was just too much to bear; the ring gives out in a sudden WHOOSH after they connect, bringing the contestants down another level which stirred up dust and debris all over.
Unfortunately, INTERRUPTING FISH had landed too hard and remained unmoving, whilst the faltering inches that GROM was prompted to move made it SEEM like he was still in the fight, and the clear victor.
Three thugs remain, backtracking their involvement to leave Nar Shanka and avoid the wrath of one pissed off Mando.
Grom does stir, shortly after the boot rockets mercifully go dark. One thick fingered hand braces on the ground, followed by the other and Grom lifts his head to peer with bleary yellow eyes. "Ground," he rumbles. "We must have a LONG talk about ...timing."
See? This was why Sumi Kora kept Tamsin Cas on her payroll. Tamsin, seeing people both falling to earth and likely being crushed under each other, rather than immediately springing up to do her doctorly duties, instead, took a look around, and spying a few trying to escape, reached out to shut the doors of the pit, hemming in, well, everyone. Sorry folks. No one needed to be running out like a wild bantha herd just now.
After getting up off the ground, Terek suddenly finds a sharp pain in his left shoulder as one of the thugs hits him with a blaster shot in the pauldron there, stumbling him backwards. He reaches across his chest and draws his Glie from the cross-draw holster, twisting it upwards and firing.
The first couple of shots hit the deck and a pillar, as Terek is still in the process of drawing, but once the blaster is fully up and his arm is extended, he squeezes the trigger a third time and smacks the Cartel thug in the chest and takes him off his feet.
The final moments of the conflict draw to a close. Terek shoots a thug to death, and the remaining two thugs are taken down by a jetpacking flash of blue who gets lost in blood lust for about five minutes, the soaking, sopping sounds of meat being hacked behind a row of chairs is the only clue as to the fate of the duo who had tried, and failed to escape, thanks to Tamsin Cas' quick thinking.
With GROM rising up slowly, it's clear that the exhibition match has come to its conclusion and a true victor is named. Sumi's breathless voice is heard over the intercom, despite the pained yells, screams, and dying noises of the audience.
<"There you have it.. bloodshed, and a victory.. through any means necessary. GROM.. the mighty, reigns still."> The mic drops, and Sumi is seen lighting a smoke, her hand cupped over the flame. What a rekking disaster.
