Force Ten Storm

Look in to the eye of the storm

"So, tell me..." Daisuke stood, brooding at the window, watching the ants scurry along the canvas of his chosen battlefield. "Why do you put up with those insufferables?" He questioned Kliff, who sat in his chair brooding himself. A brood off.

Daisuke could only help but wonder why someone of Kliff's intelligence and ability put up with someone like Chris above all others in his band. Who had just gotten done mocking and cloying the deadly Iwakuma. Had Kliff not been there, it very well could have been another murder in LA.

"Because, as insufferable and loathsome as they are. They're all proportionately skilled at what they do." The concept of Chris being as skilled at playing guitar as he was at being a contemptible human being was staggering to conceive.

"I'll take your word for it. As I never wish to be troubled by that again."[/font] Daisuke turned to face Kliff. "Where's Ichi?" He wondered, realizing Ichi wasn't joined at Kliff's hip.

"I had him go get some exercise. I was tired of him groveling and begging for me to forgive him."

"Groveling and begging eh? ... Over what?" Daisuke looked over Ulysses' living space. He wasn't impressed by the overtly modest means the man lived.

"Things I'm not going to speak of." Kliff said sharply, turning on the TV. Daisuke understood fully well and decided not to pursue it.

"So.... Omar Wise." Daisuke said to break the building silence in the room.

"Omar Wise indeed." Kliff confirmed, not shifting his gaze.

"Well. What do you think?" Daisuke paced about and sat down on the narrow couch to the left of Kliff.

"I don't think much of him. Or his handler...Donovan" Kliff looked in himself for a second. "I don't really like Don. If I'm forced to think about it. He's ignorant, filthy, and nagging. I don't like people like him. I can hear the stupid behind his voice, and when it mocks me so childishly I just want to...." Kliff ringed his knuckles before taking a deep breath.

"Is he really getting under your skin that much? I didn't take you for the type to let such... Petty antics faze you, Kliff." Daisuke seemed slightly disappointed, but also absorbed in the information.

"I just don't like when idiots try and pretend to be smart." Kliff began to cloister.

"Well you and I know it's not so. But do we both know you can handle Omar?"

"I cannot." Kliff shook his head slowly.

"...Well. That is unfortunate-" Iwa-san was about to sigh and go about his own business.

"Not literally." Kliff quickly asserted. "The man's massive. And amorphous. There's no way I could pick him up. I doubt you and I both could pick up his misshapen being."

"It is quite the hill to climb, isn't it? But you know how you do it?-" Daisuke leaned forward to impart knowledge with Kliff, who simply raised his hand up to stop him.

"You don't use the same equipment to catch a whale, that you would a shark." Kliff stated. "That's their one fatal flaw. They think I'm going to take them on the same way I put away Alex- And for that matter the same way I'd have dispensed Justin Brooks. That's a sure sign that I know what I'm fighting."

"Fools." Iwakuma said with a sting. He was a little off guard knowing that Kliff's mind worked that quickly.

"Foolish Fools. That think they're strength and guile is enough. It's contemptible. It's pathetic- Especially pathetic." Kliff stood up, heading into the kitchen. His guest following right behind. "You know. I feel just a bit bad for them..." He remarked as he got himself a large bowl and pulled a tub of raspberry sherbet from the freezer.

"Why would you feel bad for them? They deserve what's coming to them." His associate remarked.

"I feel bad for what made them, well... What made them who they are." Kliff said, scooping himself out a shard of frozen perfection one spoonful at a time. He looked to Daisuke, wondering if he wanted any. He wasn't slightly interested.

"What does it matter to you? Their life has no affect to yours. It's theirs and they can wallow in their own ruins as they see fit." Daisuke would however help himself to the fridge. All he could find himself to be slightly interested in was a bottle of Gatorade Kliff had placed inside. He knew that the Cunning Ulysses would not mind.

"It matters plenty. It's something to think about, what sums you up. What made you how you are." Kliff capped the sherbet tub and stowed it once again for another time, poking around at the bowl full with his spoon.

"For a man who isn't interested in sharing himself- His sums to others... You are certainly invested into other people's." Daisuke eyed him, giving him a moment of pause to consider.

"Yeah." He nodded slowly. He could hear her in his brain at that very moment. Calling him a hypocrite. It was a knock on the windows of his sanity as he got lost pushing around his favorite treat. Eventually he wasn't looking at a bowl of ice cream. He was now peering through a window into his own soul. And all he could see is the most precious thing he lost along the way.

"It apparently is one of those things that greatly affects a man. Something he ponders over deeply." He watched Kliff snap back to reality.

"Yeah. We never ask to be ignorant, or bitter, or cold, or alone. Something happens to you, and those events make you that way." Kliff wilted slightly, picking at the pink melting dessert.

"We may not ask for them. But some thing, you choose upon your own self." Daisuke told him.

"And those are the ones that affect you the deepest.... When you know something stupid you did has doomed you and something you couldn't help has crushed you... It's... Crippling." Kliff muttered.

"Getting a little introspective. Are we?"

"Of course." Kliff looked up. Seeing the acknowledging face of Iwakuma.

"I'll leave you to it then. You need a clear mind to win a fight." Daisuke sipped the Gatorade and began to head to the door. This time it was Kliff who was coming along with him. "You prepare yourself. You conquer a giant this week."

"I am prepared." Kliff nodded.

"Then be more prepared. Just remember. The silver lining: Wherever you go from here, is still towards the Crown. And one path leads to Fiona." Iwakuma told him.

"I'll get to that bridge sooner or later. But I won't be brought there by someone else's power." Kliff said sternly.

"A great way to live." Daisuke nodded. "Clear yourself, and bring your path to you." He said before stepping out, not bidding farewell. Kliff receded back to his empty space. Pondering himself and his obstacles ahead.

Look out for the force without form

The camera came on, coming into focus slowly on Kliff, quietly absorbed in something on TV. The volume was low, and the picture was out of shot. The only thing that could be heard was what sounded a man with a soft spoken voice monologuing about Love & Peace.

"A giant, and a man with a leash. Two fools playing the game of power." Kliff said carefully as he paused the episode. "I've been hearing a lot of noise, coming from the way of the man behind the beast. I am less than pleased. Because it sounds so foolish and sounds so sure of itself." Kliff looked over. "Omar Wise. Your mouthpiece says I'm too busy worrying about Jon Collins to worry about you. That I am obsessed with him and I am blind. This is furthest from the truth." Kliff gave a low chuckle.

"It is hard to focus on something. When someone so large is eclipsing the horizon. And he's being directed by someone so crass and so putrid with foolish arrogance. I see you two. Standing over there. Mocking and posturing. And it doesn't impress me. Because I can see behind the veil and I see two little men." Kliff turned to face the camera.

"I see a little guy who is like a virus, that latches onto people and can't seem to be truly put out of misery because he keeps slipping through the cracks. And I see an angry beast that's been ruined by the hand life dealt him. A creature wrapped in his own ignorance, his own pain, his own abuse. Like a beaten and mistreated dog, we can't blame him because something made him that way. And for that we can only extend pity."

"I won't discredit you both. Omar is strong, and is angry. And Donny... You can use a computer." Kliff shrugged.

"That's a pretty inexpendible ability in the modern era. So you can keep track of things like what Anime I'm referring to, or how many more songs and bands I know than you." Kliff chuckled to himself and nodded. "You're right. The Humanoid Typhoon is something I recalled from a great old show. And I'll readily admit it. One thing I am not, is unoriginal however. I'm also not as stupid as you think of me to be. And am not as defenseless as Omar needs me to be." Kliff looked at both of his arms. "You're right about this though. I do have guns for both of my arms. And they hit hard. I may not be able to move skyscrapers. But I can pound a gym bag of it's frame. And if you hit something hard enough, you don't need to toss it around. Because it'll hit the ground on its own." Kliff said confidently.

"You do a good job playing up your one trick pony. Omar is strong and he is big. But he's also slow. Compared to me, in both respects of physique and mentality. Just as you are, Mr. T... Mr. Torment. That one's slightly more original. I'm sharper than the razor's edge in my own head. And my body will be racing around at the speed of sound when I'm in the ring with the Blaster to your Master. But it's not nearly all the tools of my trade."

"I can move faster than either of you. I can hit much harder than you attempt to lead to believe I can. I'm cunning like a fox. Much more than you, who is only quacking like a duck. I know I can't stand up and box with a man who seems like he was genetically engineered from a Hippo. But why would I want to? That's a fools game. And you're foolish enough to want and expect me to. Police Force 101: Everything can and will be used against you. And I can and will use everything I feasibly can against Omar. I'm not an idiot, I can use that Ring, I can use those guard rails, I can use the man himself, and I could even use you if I'm feeling game enough- Another piece of that Police theory. Every officer knows fully well that anything they are carrying can be turned against them." Kliff pondered, stroking his stubbled face. He was losing motivation to shave.

"It's a philosophy to live by. If you know you can use it against someone, know they can use it against you. Which is why they're prepared to get shot, maced, cuffed, or even tazed. They understand those things personally. They don't brandish those things proudly and wave them around favoringly. Food for thought when things happen." Kliff said, beginning to brood sinister intentions.

"I'm able to outmaneuver you. I can catch you with a good blow and move in and out before you can hold me down. And I can keep track of you and make sure anything you try to do gets turned around on you." Kliff began to grin. "But what's the best part?"

"I can last longer, and take more, and am willing to do more. I run till I puke up blood, and I don't slow down and I don't get tired easily. I can push harder and further. I'm going to wear the giant out before I cut his throat open and watch him bleed. And all he can do is get angry to mask the fear inside as the lights begin to shut down and he knows he can't help what's coming for him. That's what makes me dangerous Donovan."

"That's what makes me the Storm. The Humanoid Typhoon. Because I don't blow up. I tear my way through. I whirl around every corner, and blow through everyone crack. I can hit hard and take a piece out of you while you stand there and try your hardest to brave the gale. And the most painful part is I don't stop. Like the howling chilled winds in the depths of hell there is no end as the sheets of ice grow thicker and the mammoth Omar is consumed in his cold lonely grave."

"You're going to watch and stand as witness to your own undoings. The both of you. You're going to be turned around and thrown back into yourselves before I am through. Omar; You are going to know what power is when we are through. Not because of what you have done but because of what was done to you, and how power-less you were in stopping it. And Donovan...." Kliff stood and grabbed the camera, adjusting it as he began to stand.

"You're going to rue the moment you dared claim you were at all smarter than me. You are going to watch as I do with ease what no others were ready to do in Exodus. Omar Wise, The Storm is Coming. And Donovan Torment-" Kliff seemed to actually be a bit giddy. "I really enjoy saying this: Donovan Torment. You better Run. Like. Hell when you see me finish off with your favorite monster. Because the Humanoid Typhoon is far from done." Kliff chuckled, feeling pretty good as he went and set off the camera.

Look around at the sight and the sound