On the Prowl (open)

Satoshi Ishikawa was truly a being that belonged in nightmares. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the world, he was not - his six legs padded soundlessly against the rooftops of the city as he patrolled the streets. Of course, he was not patrolling in the normal sense - Satoshi was not guarding anything, or keeping a lookout for enemies - at least not primarily. No, he was merely doing a sweep of the city so that he might find some deliciously hapless morsel of muscle and sinew to whet and perhaps even satisfy his appetite.

He of course did not have long to wait; cities tended to be full of dead people, and this one was no exception. Satoshi's sharp ears detected footsteps. He sat up straight, fully obscuring himself in the shadow. Out of the gloom strolled a human, living, and- the figure stopped. He (the figure) turned, and looked around. Perhaps he was one of those rare humans that could sense danger without seeing its cause. Satoshi stepped out from the shadow and prepared to take his leave; living humans were generally of no interest to him.

"Hollow!" The human's voice called out, and all of a sudden, Satoshi felt a flare of reiatsu from this human. He jumped out of the way just in time as an arrow made of reiatsu crashed into the wall he had just been standing in front of. Satoshi landed on the street, standing opposite the strange human who gave off reiatsu. The two stared at each other, sizing each other up. The human was of average build; in fact, he did not even seem a bit threatening except for the bow of energy he held in his hands, strung and ready to fire. Satoshi of course, was the stuff of nightmares, with his six legs and two tails, his dripping maw.

However, unlike the average Hollow, Satoshi was cognizant of his consciousness. "What are you?" he asked the human. In all my years, I have never come across something like you. A *living* human with powers? Hrmm...what I mean is...is it safe to eat you?

"As if you could get past my arrows!" And the human fired with barely any warning, sending beams of deadly light directly at Satoshi, who leaped nimbly to the side to avoid them. This human was a novice. He aimed at where Satoshi was, never where Satoshi would be. He would be easy pickings.

Satoshi began moving toward the human at a rapid pace, keeping a close eye on the human's arrows. They kept coming at him, but all were easily sidestepped. Clearly an amateur - just to scare him a bit, Satoshi spat a couple of Hiendan to intercept a couple of the arrows, just to show this boy that he was going to die not just because of his own incompetence, but also because he was outclassed.

When Satoshi was within ten feet of the human, he fired three Hiendan right at the boy, ,causing him to jump away to avoid the attack, distracting him for an instant. As a feline (sort of), Satoshi's eyes were meant to capture movement. It was as if the boy was moving in slow motion. Satoshi leaped - and he landed just after the boy did, only, Satoshi landed with a claw over each of the boy's limbs, while two others rested comfortably on either side of the boy's terrified face. "I don't know what you are, boy, but you are going to die. Thing is, I don't like looking at the faces of my meals. They cry too much, it really ruins the appetite."

Satoshi's claws slashed out, and horrific screams rent the air. See, Satoshi had purposely only removed the boy's face, and had not broken his skull or anything (he may have scratched it a little) - technically, the wound was not fatal at the moment, at least if the boy received medical attention. And then, unable to contain himself, Satoshi thrust his fangs into the boy's soft throat, ending the fragile life it contained.

As he ate, Satoshi's tails wrapped around himself comfortably - he didn't want them covered in blood; that would be most unseemly.

Stratus grinned from the shadows. He had been tracking the human from a distance to avoid detection. He had figured it to be a human like the one that had wounded him long ago. A human with a very high signal; high energy. In tracking the signal he found another familiar signal; that of another hollow. Before he had the chance to think of killing the other hollow and taking the human for himself, a fight started. He watched the human's early demise. He did feel cheated of his meal, but in all fairness the human did attack the hollow first. At first he wanted to engage the feeble human to test his powers, but after seeing his efforts figured it was just as well he was dead. He laughed and wondered how the hollow would fair against a more challenging opponent. Why rely on a weak human to test himself, why not try the other hollow? Still this wasn't a primal hollow like he so many he had seen in the past. The gray hollow leaped from his hiding place and landed on a build above the eating hollow.
Close enough, but giving himself distance if it choose to pounce.
"That looks mighty tasty, do you mind if I have a bite?" He called down to the feline beast.

At the appearance of the other Hollow, Satoshi instinctively puffed up his fur as all felines did, making him appear larger than normal. His mouth opened revealing needle-sharp teeth, and releasing an angry, startled hiss. Satoshi was surprised that he hadn't noticed this Hollow before- perhaps it was the hunger getting to him. It didn't matter. He quickly regained his composure and sat on his haunches. The corpse was mostly gone anyway; only the head and the legs remained. Satoshi pushed the cadaver over to the Hollow.

"Be my guest, I'm done with this one," he said in what he considered a friendly tone of voice- which it was, in the sense that a mob leader acts friendly just before killing a subordinate for failure. Inwardly, Satoshi was sizing up this newcomer. He didn't seem too tough...maybe Satoshi would have two meals tonight. He would wait to see what its intentions were, and its character. It might give him hints as to its abilities.

Stratus knew the courtesy was as fake as his friendly greeting. But he didn't mind it. The last few hollow were nothing but roars. Since coming back to the human world he had missed having conversations.
"Well upon looking at it, you're right. All the best pieces are gone." He looked down at the faceless bloodied corpse. Vicious, he liked that. Perhaps he wouldn't kill the cat. "I had aimed to kill that fool myself, but it seems he killed himself." He pointed with his hand and a strand of slime shot out and landed upon the mauled body, with a yank Stratus pulled the body up to his perch. He studied the marks in the flesh, while keeping an eye on Satoshi. There was no mistaking that the creature's claws were sharp. But what interested him was that ability it had used against the man's attack. If it was as powerful as the human that had burned him not long ago. Could his new power withstand such a blow? The gray hollow dropped the body onto the ground below, there was a crack as the body impacted.
"Since you've had your fill, perhaps I can interest you in an after dinner workout." He gestured again, this time the strand of slime shot from his hand aimed at Satoshi. "Can't have you get fat and lazy."

Satoshi remained quiet while the Hollow talked, watched closely as it shot a strand of slime from its hand to grab the corpse. Truth be told, he had never in all his years met another Hollow that could speak like a normal person. He had met a strangely robotic one, but Satoshi didn't really feel like that counted. It was kind of weird, after all. Probably a once in a blue moon type thing. His musing so occupied his thoughts that he almost didn't register the second slime shot aimed at him.

With an annoyed hiss, Satoshi leaped out of the way to land on all sixes, his mouth open in an angry snarl at the Hollow. "And here I thought we were having a civil chat...I'm thinner than you, after all," he said. Then his reiatsu flared. "But if it's a fight you want, you've got it!" He fired a Hiendan from both his tentacles, roiling balls of flame that didn't go out unless extinguished by something with reiatsu behind it.

OOC: Looking at your ability I shouldn't have started this fight

Stratus dodged by jumping sideways from his perch and hanging himself from the wall of the building now. His right claw dug into the stone, while a thin layer of slime kept his feet from slipping down the flat surface. He looked at the spot he had once occupied now engulfed in flames. This was surprising, he had seen the other hollow shoot from it's mouth, not the tails. Instead of just watching it's head he now had to watch three points of it's body. It was bad enough the tails moved so erratically. "Don't think of it as a fight, think of it as a friendly exchange." He played it tough. With his free left hand he fired a spray of slime at the feline. The flat sheet of slime sailed through the air. This was Stratus' net technique, while slower than his other attacks it was wider, if it hit it could tangle an enemy almost instantly. He wasn't done yet, he fired more nets of slime at the feline, but not shot directly at him. He knew even if he dodged the attacks the slime on the ground would limit his range of moment. His nets would make a fly trap of the battlefield.

"A friendly exchange? In my line of work, there's no such thing," said Satoshi with some amusement. His fangs, still dripping with the blood of his previous victim, made this pronouncement even more ominous. The Hollow hurled a larger sheet of slime at Satoshi, followed by several more. So far, Satoshi knew that this slime was sticky- he also knew that other than its ensnaring qualities, it probably didn't function as an acid; after all, when the Hollow had used it on the corpse, it hadn't degraded the organic matter, nor did it seem to be degrading the ground around him.

With a growl, Satoshi launched several Hiendan at the center of the sheet, his intent being to burn a hole through the stuff and jump through it; after all, he was very thin, and such a tactic was well within his capabilities. He was surprised when the instant his flames touched the slime, they ignited the entire sheet, turning the whole thing into a mass of flame. Satoshi bent his six legs and leaped high into the air, jumping over the entire sheet of flame, which crashed into the ground behind him, igniting the other puddles of slime around him.

Satoshi welcomed the heat coming from the inferno around him; he enjoyed fire, and was largely resistant to it due to his own powers. This Hollow had picked a fight with the wrong Hollow. Satoshi gave a very feline laugh. "It seems to me that you're at a disadvantage," he said over the crackling of the flames. His position was indiscernible amongst the thick black smoke the fires around him were giving off. "But I can find you...wherever you are!" Satoshi leaped from the black smoke, his mouth open in a snarl as it fired another Hiendan at the Hollow's position.

Shocked wouldn't begin to describe Stratus' current state of mind. He had found that his slime was quite weakened if not useless in water. But to see it burn so readily upon touching flame was a very unwelcome surprise. The black haze from the burning slime started to fill the air. A smell no unlike rotting flesh suddenly filled his nostrils. He quickly lost sight of the other hollow, this was no time for him to be staying still. He released his grip on the building's edge and dropped to the ground below just as another burst of flame hit him. The fire ate at his arm as he landed on the asphalt. Painfully he screamed while rolling trying to put the flames out. It wasn't working, flames had now sparked on other parts of his body in the process. He had a sudden idea; he released slime from all over his body. The flames flared upon contact with the green substance. But just as quickly Stratus channeled his energy into the burning ooze. The flames died instantly as it crystallized. The next instant the crystal shattered.
The burns remained painful, but he had survived. He was willing to press his luck, he fired more slime blindly into the air around him.

Satoshi watched in some amusement as the Hollow rolled around on the ground, desperately trying to put his flames out. He was less amused when it demonstrated the ability to put his flames out, apparently by crystallizing the slime. Satoshi wondered if it was necessary for the Hollow to be touching the slime in order to crystallize it, or if it was something it could do at will and at a range. He hypothesized not, since the Hollow had not crystallized the flames that were currently eating up the remainder of the slime on the ground.

Satoshi didn't have time to ponder the matter further, though, as the Hollow had decided shortly after crystallizing its slime and halting its pain, to launch more slime into the air around it, one of which was flying toward Satoshi. Again, Satoshi utilized his feline reflexes and agility to leap high into the air onto a nearby fire escape (irony!). From his perch up there, he peered bemusedly down at his burned opponent.

"Don't tell me that's all you can do," Satoshi said sardonically. "Can't you do anything a little more...offensive in nature?" He was doing what a lot of cats do before eating their prey; that is, playing with it. His hedonistic personality prevented him from thoroughly enjoying a meal until he tormented the victim a little first, both physically and psychologically.

Pajaro was flying above, 15,000 feet was approxamate... and yet he saw the fight as miniatures on a game table, at teh same time knowing that he was a player...

And as a player, it was his turn, the hollow that he had fought before was struggling, and the feline hollow was tormenting him with flames, and this hollow was relativly intelegent, so this hollow was impressive with strength and cunning.

Pajaro tucked in his wings, and dropped, like an artillery shell from the sky, and flattened out his dive at 50 feet, and he was moving, he had reached a large amount of speed, his wings not doing the best of jobs slowing him down... He activated light flight, flying down closer the combat zone... He started charging and Onda Llamarada, the multicolored ball forming in his open mouth, and when he was over the combat zone, he fired, at the at hollow in an 20 degree arc, a fairly narrow arc, and but from alititude it became slilghtly diffused...

Satoshi was about to launch another series of Hiendan, these aimed to kill, when he sensed a second hostile reiatsu coming in from above. He looked up, and saw a dragon-like Hollow coming in from the sky, firing a brilliantly colored ball of reiatsu at him. With a feral snarl, Satoshi pointed both his tentacles up and fired a total of three Hiendan directly at the ball (one from each tentacle, and one from his mouth). The three fireballs dwarfed the one ball of reiatsu and exploded, raining small drops of flame down upon the ground.

Satoshi flexed his leg muscles and jumped again, this time to the roof of the building. He glared up at the interfering Hollow. "Don't interfere with me, Hollow. I'll roast you like a Thanksgiving turkey if you try that again." Satoshi's spiritual pressure began rising- it was clear that in terms of spiritual pressure, he was the strongest out of the three Hollows here. Fireballs formed at the tips of his two tentacles as he readied himself for the inevitable response.

His shots had missed, but with the sudden explosion he could figure where the feline now was. He hadn't even sensed the other signal approach. But now that he did, he wondered if the cat had more enemies that he wanted. Still he wasn't about to let someone else steal his prey again. He could hear the cat beast shouting, now he knew for sure where he was. With a huge jump he cleared the dense smoke that had now covered the streets and rose into the air above the building. From above the smoke he could now feel the other signal better, it felt familiar.Just below him the feline was looking up into the sky in the other direction. Not one to miss an opportunity he created two crystal blades and flung them at the stationary target.

Satoshi flung both his prepared fireballs at the dragon Hollow in the sky, aiming to have them explode in close proximity. He wasn't aiming for a direct hit; no he wanted the blast radius of the exploding fireballs to turn the dragon Hollow into a flying inferno of pain and eventual death. But then he sensed hostile reiatsu above him; the other Hollow apparently was fighting back by flinging two crystalline blades at him.

With an angry roar, Satoshi decided to unveil his second ability. "FUNKA!" he screamed. Satoshi’s body appeared to erupt in flame, with the majority of it concentrated along the spines on his back and tentacles. The flames were three times the size of Satoshi’s body, and almost resembled a pair of demonic wings. He flexed his muscles and sent the flames whirling around him defensively.

They burned right through the crystalline blades, reducing them to ash. Satoshi glared at the original Hollow he had been facing. "My Funka flames are much more powerful than my Hiendan- you can't even touch me. Your fate is sealed." With that statement, Satoshi rushed toward the Hollow, his Funka flames burning all around him, making him a flaming missile of death, his fangs aching to sink themselves into Hollow flesh.

Satoshi, Sorry to interupt on this lovely thread which i must legitamatly post in still, but you do not have Access to Funka in this thread... Chronologically, you are still a rank 0 hollow...