Crick Crack (Natasha/Anis)

IThis was going to go terribly. We all knew it, and yet she went anyway. With Meni in her life now, Anis couldn't just sit around and let herself drift, let herself linger that half step towards Sofia and a return to the easy days of just doing as she was told...

Of course, it was only her dreery self-depreciation that ever implied she was that close to it. These days, she was much better in all aspects and was never actually honestly going back to that kind of life. But the point of wanting to be better now she had a reason to be better was still there, so she would appear where she was meant to appear, and give Natasha a wave.

"Hello! I have come for your challenge!"

Standing within the center of empty training grounds reserved for combat exercises, Natasha turned to the blonde and high-spirited lady greeting her as she approached. Someone accepted her open challenge again, eh? Truth be told, she had been meaning to fight far more, but not many took her up on the offer.

Heh, that simply meant she'd have to approach those who weren't stepping up. After her last outing with Alex, she was still rearing to go. He handed her a prompt ass whipping, but her spirit was still going strong. She learned a thing or two in that fight, and that was all that mattered. Learn from past battle experience and turn it into strength.

"Howdy, sweetheart. What's yer name? I'd like to know ya first before we start throwin' down."

Excellent, the first part was successful; she was not turned away immediately! So with more enthusiasm than before, Anis would explode and give another wave because why not ehh?

"I'm Anis!" she exclaimed, grinning broadly. That name was certainly known in the City. The less polite people called her Cyrus' pet project, or a Slinky (Because her only use was being pushed down the stairs). Specifics were more vague, but she had been the target of a raid on Demon-held America during World War 4....

"I am here to do the good sparring fight thing! I've not done it before, so I hope you will take care of me, Vorgesetzter!"

"Pleasure to meet ya, Anis. Don't ya worry yer sweet little heart. I've been itchin' to get another fight in myself lately. Let's have a good clean fight, alright, pumpkin? First move is yers."

A confluence of reishi formed within her palms. Solidifying the reishi into two pistols, Natasha spun both of them around as she assumed a defensive stance, moving from side to side as she grinned at Anis. There was zero knowledge of this lady outside of the reports about her history. It would be mighty interesting to see how she held up in combat.

Pumpkin! This woman was great. If Anis didn't already have a girlfriend, she would definitely try to make Natasha her girlfriend.

"I wonder if Meni is into polygamy" Anis would comment, before snapping back to the situation and clenching her gloved fists. They looked like Sanrei Gloves, which was strange given the rumors around Anis. Maybe they were all fake?

She then proved that they were in fact, not at all fake by simply running at Natasha. Not even using Steigen, not even that fast. Just, running...

"Well, this is certainly an interestin' approach if I ever did see one..."

Natasha remained laser-focused as Anis ran toward her. Dismissing the odd approach as a quirk of some sort, the hazel-eyed gunslinger leveled her pistols on Anis and fired off a wave of twenty compressed high-speed reishi bullets, each targeting a vulnerable part of her body. They weren't meant to cause fatal damage, since this was a spar, but they still possessed enough of a concussive punch that could wear on the body with repeated impact.

"I'm guessin' you might have quite the faith in your Blut if yer chargin' me like this, but I don't see any blue veins... Hm. Maybe yer just feelin' courageous. Either way, let's see what ya got!"

Anis got smashed with the wave of bullets and promptly collapsed from the combined impact of all the bullets hitting vital parts of her body. What a way to start the fight.

"Ohh, Blut! I knew I was forgetting something" came the call from the ground, and so Anis staggered by to her feet and lit up the arena. Thick and throbbing with power, the Blut lines crawled across her eyes and the inside of her mouth. Under her clothes, the shone luminescent enough to easily be seen even through her uniform. Lit up from inside, it was like she was wearing nothing at all. The raw potency that oozed from her was intense.

And then, with that done, she ran at Natasha again. Like it was the only trick she had.

"Christ, pumpkin, ya mean to tell me you just charged right on in without activatin' any form of defense?"

An unexpected revelation, to be sure, but Natasha took it in stride. Anis was unpredictable so far, but whether that worked in her favor or not was an entirely different matter altogether. There had to be a method to the madness, right?

With a luminous glow, Anis charged toward her again. In response, Natasha simply repeated the same tactic as before. She doubled the number this time - forty bullets released in a precise wave of reishi gunfire that would assault her at all angles if she didn't choose to evade.

"I am a forgetful Pumpkin!" She exclaimed, somehow proud of this title. The idea that she was going to go around calling herself The Forgetful Pumpkin now was certainly possible...

Unlike before, where her natural durability took the bullets without hurting too much but was effected by the force, Anis' Blut-empowered body simply barreled through the wave without slowing down. There was definitely something wrong - or right - with Anis' Blut, so bloated with power as it was. It was good that she seemed to prefer Artarie. Her Vene might get...dangerous at this level of uncontrolled power.

Should she manage to get in range before Natasha did Actual Quincy Things rather than this thing that just wore the uniform, she would showcase her spectacular capabilities in all Quincy arts, with a punch!

"Forgetful pumpkin, eh? How adorable..."

Natasha voiced that genuine compliment as she chortled softly. Her apparent ditziness was confusing and refreshing all at once. She didn't quite know what to make of her, let alone devise a battle strategy. There was no method to her madness nor some carefully devised strategy.

Anis was repeatedly striking at her without a care in the world. She wasn't fixin' to remain in the same spot a third time. Thus, at the moment Anis might have thought her punch landed, Natasha would employ Steigen to carry her body from point A to point B - that is, from her current position to the blindspot behind Anis's back. There was no triple number in her reishi gunfire this time. There were neither forty nor twenty reishi bullets but five, each fired at her neck and back.

"I reckon ya got the spunk and spirit, but do you really think the charge and punch approach is the best way of goin' about things, or is that all ya got in the arsenal?"