06-25-2018, 09:03 AM
Kerrigan’s smile was thin, plastic, and just as much a fake as everything else while she casually lounged as the pre-show continued. Unlike many of the other primes, preferring to utilize their connection to the dataverse with an electronic device - many of them reminded her of the fones people used for local planetary communication back in the Koprulu sector.
The queen preferred to ignore such a simple connection, instead utilizing an organic link to the dataverse to view every stream at once. She’d been caught off-guard by the weakest primes she’d ever faced in the last battle - the queen of blades was determined to avoid that issue in the future. Particularly…
She rewound the tape of her last fight, watching the bandit’s early slip from the arena again. If Kerrigan hadn’t summoned that hydralisk, she would have lost her most valuable tool before the battle again - the tool that made the complete difference between a glorious victory and an embarrassing defeat.
Kerrigan’s smile faded at the thought. The self-proclaimed ass-kicker was strong, Determined, and destructive. Her teammate had the capability to crush anything that erupted in her path and the endurance to live through her own reckless charges. In zerg terms, Kerrigan had made the comparison to an ultralisk several times already.
Still, it wasn’t exactly a fair comparison. That assumption had caused her to use her time to stop the bandit’s ring-out in the first round, but it made her miss the versatility and capabilities the bandit had. She’d mistaken a simple, unfettered mind for one of stupidity. Instead, she’d been capable enough to surprise their opponents, canny enough to take the opportunity to knock out both of them out of the ring, and kept Kerrigan from falling to a surprise attack.
No. The scarred veteran was far from stupid. She was crude, certainly, but so was a wild beast. Her partner from Dante’s abyss knew what she could do, knew what she was incapable of, and had built an incredibly effective level of fighting skill based off of what she had. Much like the zerg, she was a brute creature evolved to become a hyper-effective killing machine. Relentless, powerful, and unstoppable.
Subverting her remained possible, though, as the earlier battle proved. A powerful fighter that simply couldn’t remain flexible enough to handle the battle situation alone, a crude fighting style that could fall to more sophisticated hands. A powerful warrior but one with as many weaknesses as she had strengths on the battlefield.
Kerrigan had tried to take advantage of her as a tool, but that had failed to bring out the potential that scarred body held. Both she and the experienced fighter ended up struggling against their inferior opponents simply due to a certain lack of coordination. She’d learned quickly through her defeat at Darkshire that fighting two primes at once was simply beyond her abilities in this moment, and she wasn’t keen on dying in this next battle.
Getting up from her seat with a strained look, she realized that the change she’d need to make was treating her Partner like… well, a partner. Taking her input and needs into account in the coming battle. An equal.
Kerrigan didn’t like using the word to describe a terran. She knew what Terrans did to equals, and while it certainly made them easy to play against each other, it invited risk. She wouldn’t be able to simply use Bandit where it seemed easy. She’d need to give the Bandit trust, and she’d only really done that once before now. Her chosen Cerebrate she had trusted implicitly, utilizing his tactical abilities to accentuate her strategic prowess. Together, they had brought the sector to its knees.
The difference was that she could have killed the Cerebrate with any errant thought, and the great worm made every decision knowing that the Queen of Blades could find any stray inkling of resistance no matter how hard it tried to hide it’s mind from her. A brilliant strategist and a wonderful ally, but one Kerrigan had nothing to fear from.
Here… it was different. The Bandit with No Name was not bound to her will, and would likely defy it even to an irrational extent if she was ever given what she considered to be good reason. Given her flippant nature…
Kerrigan wasn’t pleased, but she found herself on her feet and moving, regardless. She found Bandit by checking for her psychic signature amongst the crowd, the blood-loving woman eagerly absorbing the newest match of the tournament.
“Hah! She totally is Tinkerbell! Kuzuru’s on point!” The Bandit yelled, giving a thumbs up to the prime on the other side of the screen. “...Who’s Tinkerbell?”
Sarah ignored the comment from the Ass-kicker as she slid in next to her. “Hope this seat isn’t taken, but I’m here to make a little deal before the next match-up starts.”
The bandit turned with a look of surprise as Kerrigan sat next to her. “Oh! Hey, Kerri! What’s up?”
Kerri. She was not going to get used to that.
“I’ve been meaning to offer you a proposition. Consider it motivation, for the fight ahead.
“What’cha got? Lay it on me. I’m not looking for any extra limbs or anything, but, y’know…”
“Perform well, bring us to the finals and I’ll give you Zig - with added features.”
Sarah was not prepared for the hug she was covered in. She was not prepared for hugs in general. “Oh my god, oh my god, yesss!”
The hug ended as quickly as it started, with the bandit wiping her hands on her pants before she raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, added features?”
Kerrigan gave a slow shrug. “Zerg mutate easily and quickly, with little actual harm done by tinkering with their genetics. I can give “Zig” over there different colored carapace, a mohawk, the ability to spit acid, cooking skills… It just comes down to what you want.”
The Bandit opened her mouth in excitement, clearly ready to throw quite a few - dozen - suggestions at Sarah, but she just raised a hand. “When we win. Keep those ideas quiet for now.”
The Bandit blinked a few times, before giving Sarah a huge smile, and taking another swig of her drink. “Well, guess I’ve got even more reason to beat the next two into paste.”
Sarah’s response was merely a lopsided grin. “I’ve seen you can fight now.”
Bandit grinned as Sarah held on the statement. “Next round, we just need to coordinate better. We do best as a team. Let’s capitalize on that.”
Sarah grin turned into a proper smile as she continued. “Besides, I enjoyed seeing the first human to successfully ride a zergling. It’s not often I’m legitimately entertained these days.”
“I got to be the first? Kickass!”
The queen preferred to ignore such a simple connection, instead utilizing an organic link to the dataverse to view every stream at once. She’d been caught off-guard by the weakest primes she’d ever faced in the last battle - the queen of blades was determined to avoid that issue in the future. Particularly…
She rewound the tape of her last fight, watching the bandit’s early slip from the arena again. If Kerrigan hadn’t summoned that hydralisk, she would have lost her most valuable tool before the battle again - the tool that made the complete difference between a glorious victory and an embarrassing defeat.
Kerrigan’s smile faded at the thought. The self-proclaimed ass-kicker was strong, Determined, and destructive. Her teammate had the capability to crush anything that erupted in her path and the endurance to live through her own reckless charges. In zerg terms, Kerrigan had made the comparison to an ultralisk several times already.
Still, it wasn’t exactly a fair comparison. That assumption had caused her to use her time to stop the bandit’s ring-out in the first round, but it made her miss the versatility and capabilities the bandit had. She’d mistaken a simple, unfettered mind for one of stupidity. Instead, she’d been capable enough to surprise their opponents, canny enough to take the opportunity to knock out both of them out of the ring, and kept Kerrigan from falling to a surprise attack.
No. The scarred veteran was far from stupid. She was crude, certainly, but so was a wild beast. Her partner from Dante’s abyss knew what she could do, knew what she was incapable of, and had built an incredibly effective level of fighting skill based off of what she had. Much like the zerg, she was a brute creature evolved to become a hyper-effective killing machine. Relentless, powerful, and unstoppable.
Subverting her remained possible, though, as the earlier battle proved. A powerful fighter that simply couldn’t remain flexible enough to handle the battle situation alone, a crude fighting style that could fall to more sophisticated hands. A powerful warrior but one with as many weaknesses as she had strengths on the battlefield.
Kerrigan had tried to take advantage of her as a tool, but that had failed to bring out the potential that scarred body held. Both she and the experienced fighter ended up struggling against their inferior opponents simply due to a certain lack of coordination. She’d learned quickly through her defeat at Darkshire that fighting two primes at once was simply beyond her abilities in this moment, and she wasn’t keen on dying in this next battle.
Getting up from her seat with a strained look, she realized that the change she’d need to make was treating her Partner like… well, a partner. Taking her input and needs into account in the coming battle. An equal.
Kerrigan didn’t like using the word to describe a terran. She knew what Terrans did to equals, and while it certainly made them easy to play against each other, it invited risk. She wouldn’t be able to simply use Bandit where it seemed easy. She’d need to give the Bandit trust, and she’d only really done that once before now. Her chosen Cerebrate she had trusted implicitly, utilizing his tactical abilities to accentuate her strategic prowess. Together, they had brought the sector to its knees.
The difference was that she could have killed the Cerebrate with any errant thought, and the great worm made every decision knowing that the Queen of Blades could find any stray inkling of resistance no matter how hard it tried to hide it’s mind from her. A brilliant strategist and a wonderful ally, but one Kerrigan had nothing to fear from.
Here… it was different. The Bandit with No Name was not bound to her will, and would likely defy it even to an irrational extent if she was ever given what she considered to be good reason. Given her flippant nature…
Kerrigan wasn’t pleased, but she found herself on her feet and moving, regardless. She found Bandit by checking for her psychic signature amongst the crowd, the blood-loving woman eagerly absorbing the newest match of the tournament.
“Hah! She totally is Tinkerbell! Kuzuru’s on point!” The Bandit yelled, giving a thumbs up to the prime on the other side of the screen. “...Who’s Tinkerbell?”
Sarah ignored the comment from the Ass-kicker as she slid in next to her. “Hope this seat isn’t taken, but I’m here to make a little deal before the next match-up starts.”
The bandit turned with a look of surprise as Kerrigan sat next to her. “Oh! Hey, Kerri! What’s up?”
Kerri. She was not going to get used to that.
“I’ve been meaning to offer you a proposition. Consider it motivation, for the fight ahead.
“What’cha got? Lay it on me. I’m not looking for any extra limbs or anything, but, y’know…”
“Perform well, bring us to the finals and I’ll give you Zig - with added features.”
Sarah was not prepared for the hug she was covered in. She was not prepared for hugs in general. “Oh my god, oh my god, yesss!”
The hug ended as quickly as it started, with the bandit wiping her hands on her pants before she raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, added features?”
Kerrigan gave a slow shrug. “Zerg mutate easily and quickly, with little actual harm done by tinkering with their genetics. I can give “Zig” over there different colored carapace, a mohawk, the ability to spit acid, cooking skills… It just comes down to what you want.”
The Bandit opened her mouth in excitement, clearly ready to throw quite a few - dozen - suggestions at Sarah, but she just raised a hand. “When we win. Keep those ideas quiet for now.”
The Bandit blinked a few times, before giving Sarah a huge smile, and taking another swig of her drink. “Well, guess I’ve got even more reason to beat the next two into paste.”
Sarah’s response was merely a lopsided grin. “I’ve seen you can fight now.”
Bandit grinned as Sarah held on the statement. “Next round, we just need to coordinate better. We do best as a team. Let’s capitalize on that.”
Sarah grin turned into a proper smile as she continued. “Besides, I enjoyed seeing the first human to successfully ride a zergling. It’s not often I’m legitimately entertained these days.”
“I got to be the first? Kickass!”