[T] Barkley vs [T] Pain [OS]

Despite being grossly outmatched, the two girls managed to hold Pain and Recoome up long enough that they missed their window to strike at Luther. After experiencing what could be described as their first failure as a team, they split up. While the PTO Hulk moved on to another target, the android hung back on Ippen. It was expected that the enemy had some kind of vested interested in the planet, and while it offered little strategic value to the Fallen Empire, denying the Kais took priority. It didn't take long for a new challenger to be sent, and this one, Pain sensed, offered more of a threat than any he'd faced since joining the war effort. Without his overpowered partner for back-up, he knew there was to be little room for error. 

"These people are in no danger. They have experienced no pain," he said dryly to the woman that now stood across from him as he calmly took a fighting stance. Following the example set by his previous opponents, he'd met his new one away from the dense population centers that were Ippen's floating cities. Their battle would take place upon a series of mining platforms that had been vacated at the start of the war. There was no danger of loss of life, save the challenger herself if she pushed too him too far.

Throwing away the chance for introductions, he initiated his attack. While one arm rose, pointing two fingers at his foe, the other subtly rolled some kind of orb that had been spit out of his very palm. As it reached the girl, it exploded in a flash of light and powerful static electricity. From the other hand, a twin-set of nigh invisible electrical bolts arced out, filling the air with a faint scent of ozone. From there, the android pounced, launching himself forward like a rocket while sending two carefully-aimed punches, one to the cheek and the other to the ribs.

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Important Notes:

This opponent was no slouch. As much as she resembled the other girls, unlike her predecessors this was meant to be an actual challenge, rather than a distraction. She had come to win, but his mission simply didn't allow it. He ducked her first blow, leaning inhumanly backwards, but the second strike found purchase against his chest. An explosion of energy, though not her own, erupted from the impact zone. His body took in her energy, restructured it, and bit back at her even as she made contact. After that, the duo became a blur of motion, with some of her attacks meeting their mark, other glancing off, and still more missing entirely as he contorted his body around her fists.

She had spirit - so much that with his eyes, he could see the fire burning within her - but it was time to stymie that passion. At the first critical opening, he tensed his body, instantly unleashing an eruption of energy that would give him space to work. His next move was to hold his hand out towards her, each finger glowing momentarily before these tiny orbs raced forward. Thing strings formed a network, connecting these orbs as they expanded to envelop her. He lunged backwards, back-flipping to create distance. 

"You need not experience undue pain. Give up this foolhardy pursuit," he commanded, his deep voice echoing unimpeded across the cold steel of the platform. He doubted this alone would stop her, but once she understood what she was up against, that may change. "Universal Pull." As gravity bent to his will, ripping at the girl's body to hold her fast, he charged forward, leaping once he was in range to spear her with his shoulder. As the distance between them shrank rapidly, he raised one arm to his side, creating a spinning disk of energy that produced a high-pitched scream almost inaudible to most mortal ears. After he'd passed either through her, or by her, he slid to a stop, turned, and launched the deadly razor blade.

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Important Notes:

He parroted the word back, mumbling it as she approached. The girl struck like lightning, dealing him two swift blows before he could react. As he stumbled backwards from the second one, he blinked in confusion. He'd tried to move between the two punches, attempting to counter the second, but it was like time blinked forward and when it resumed he'd already been struck.

Barkley.

Re-stabilizing his footing, he slowed the pace for a moment. The android looked his opponent over, looking closer than he had before. His eyes found them - the trace outlines of scars covering her exposed skin - even her face. To a human, these things would have long since healed and become invisible, but to his lifeless, intense eyes and their pale lavender glow, they were as obvious as her nose once he looked for them. This girl had experienced Pain before.

"You speak as if you and Pain were friends," he responded, knowing that Pain had no such thing, "But if you truly knew Pain, then you would understand how misguided you are to say that Pain and Happiness are connected." He spoke in absolution. How could she be right? He had taken on more Pain than any being in history, and yet not once had he felt Happiness. That was why he had his mission. That was why he must cleanse the unclean, and give life another chance. "These two feelings must be exclusive of the other, that is the only possibility."

With a sudden jerk, he raised his palms to the sky, the gems set in them gleaming brightly. In the blink of an eye, they collected the ultraviolet light surrounding him and focused it in a beam of artificial light that would blind his foe. "Pain has run rampant in the lives of mortals, filling the crevices of all civilization and leaking from each of you as if you are all sowing your own seeds of discord," he called. "But as we speak your sins are being washed away, even the ones you didn't know you committed." In an instant he moved past her, sticking a small, sticky device against her back before he was out of range again. "You would be wise to move along. It is not my mission to share my Pain with you, but if you continue to impeded me, I will have no choice but to show Barkley Cass what she cannot comprehend." That was it, he had seen her. The sum total of all she was - like data points, he could look through her entire history, identifying the moments that she had reeked Pain into the universe. She was good, and seldom had she done it without good intention, but it didn't matter. Pain clung to the soul, staining it for eternity. It didn't see intention, or good-will, or the bright side of happiness - it only knew what it was called, and that was all it was good for.

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Important Notes: