Dragonball M, Chapter 1: Silent Menace Aproaches!

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Within ten minutes, the invading force had dwindled from thousands to just four. “It... it can't be,” Deya stammered, eyes wide with pure disbelief. A roar mixed with grief and anger belted from her throat. Her hands cupped together, and a swirling ball of red and purple ki formed between them. “If my army couldn't defeat you, then I'll just destroy this terrible place. Now, DIE!!!!” The ball turned pure purple. “Ultra Serpent's—”

Suddenly, a yellow ki ball sliced through the air before she could launch her attack. If her intention was to tank it, she was shocked to see it break apart into dozens of tiny energy tendrils that pierced her skin like needles. She gasped in shock; the ki ball dissipated in a flash of purple light. “Wha-what?” she questioned through gritted teeth.

“Ya like it?” Sarada asked with a cocky grin as she flew up to confront the Nagi queen. “I call it the Agony Matrix. If you think this is bad, just wait.”

The tendrils of the Agony Matrix wormed through her body, seeking out and attaching themselves to every pain receptor in her body. Once all were accounted for, they exploded in unison, inflicting pain the likes of which Deya had never felt in her entire life.

She roared in pain and dropped to the ground, landing with a solid thud. Her slender, serpentine body writhed and quaked in agony.

Sarada floated down and watched her with a small grin. The Agony Matrix was her spin on Nunlil's Ballad of Pain technique that she taught her months ago when she trained her and Ishtar. Sarada was close to pulling this off the first time she used it, but she suspected that Nunlil was too strong for the tendrils to penetrate her skin. Well, that wasn't a problem with the Snek queen. Her slender frame shook and quivered as her body reacted natural to the immense pain coursing through its every crack and crevice. The woman had lost consciousness, so her thunderous screams had long since died down.

Sarada watched her move, her eyes entranced by her healthy bust. She licked her lips as her tail strarted to straighten out. Maybe I can bargain with this chick. Her life for letting me feel up those nice ****. Hm, never fucked a snake before. This outta be fun. Just as she completed her resolve, one of the Saiyan boys with her swooped in a sliced the Nagi queen's head off with an energy blade. “Hey!”

“Huh?” he turned to Sarada and frowned. “I.. thought we were still fighting?” he more asked than stated.

“I wanted to mate with her!”

His frown only deepened. He turned from Sarada to the dead queen, then back to Sarada. “Her? Does she even have... you know... genitals?”

“I was gonna find out.”

“Oh. My bad.”

“No! Empress!” came a shrill cry from above. Suddenly, another Nagi warrior erupted from the ship, twin scythes poised to cut into the young Saiyans as revenge for having killed her queen. Before she even got halfway, a tremendous blast zipped in from somewhere nearby and engulfed her, vaporizing her on impact.

The blast came from none other than Queen Senerg herself. The Rucoan queen floated down from her perch atop her island palace to meet the young Saiyans. “Well, I had heard there were a batch of Vocadoans visiting today. Welcome. I hope this... intrusion hasn't sullied your stay.”

“Not at all, Your Highness.” She eyed the delicious upper body of the deceased alien monarch and sighed. “Ready to get back to my rest and relaxation.”

“Very well! I'll have a clean-up crew clear this mess out of your way. If it isn't too much trouble, I would love if you lot joined me for a banquet tonight. I think you'll find the food here to be much to your liking.”

There wasn't much food that wasn't to a Saiyan's liking, so they all nodded eagerly.

Sarada eyed the offending Saiyan who murdered her quarry with a critical eye. His name was Guisant, if she recalled correctly. He wasn't bad looking by any means. Quite the contrary in fact. She had more than a small urge to mate with him to make him repay her for killing Deya before she could have a taste, but she relented. It wasn't that she didn't have the desire – Dashir's conviction and pending execution went a long way toward restoring her attraction toward male Saiyans, though not enough to make her just jump on any old dick – but something made her feel... uncomfortable about it?

No, not uncomfortable. Hesitant.

I mean, I doubt he would care. He probably already moved on. Still, despite the very real possibility that Jack was likely mating with an Earth woman right this moment, Sarada decided not to give into her carnal desires. She planned on returning to Earth next month, so she could find and talk with him then to straighten this out.

It was important to remember that Sarada didn't care if Jack moved on. Not in the slightest. In fact, she would have been more surprised if he hadn't moved on, that was how much she didn't care.

Nope. She didn't care on bit. Not. One. Bit.

Earth women are probably gross, anyway. He wouldn't like them. Not like he likes me. They probably smell like rotten fish and old eggs. Hehehe.

But she didn't care though.

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

'I haven't talked to Ishstar too much as I would have liked, but the times we interacted we've always gotten on. That is strange. Is it Ki or something else? It doesn't truly sound like a Ki attack. They are exceptions but they're usually straight forward far as effects. Most of the time.' Came the reply from Karine.

Was Haurvatat purely a ki-based ability? He... had no idea. The effect seemed more like something magical, to him, but then... esoteric effects weren't impossible to create with ki, just more difficult. He really should have asked.

'I.. forgot to ask. Was too busy trying to figure out the technique and not drown, but it... works, somehow. I did learn that Haurvatat means 'wholeness' or 'perfection' so I have an idea on how to modify and improve the technique.'

The nature of the technique was odd, so actually trying to modify it--while he was using it, at that--was going to take some time. He could do it, though--after all, he'd created the Void Lens in like a day, and the Void Tunnel, its basis, wasn't an easy technique to learn.

Totoma raised his head and noticed something ahead--Capital City. The race was almost over, and it was his to win!

'Heh, almost there. Hope you're ready for... uh...'

Think of something. Anything!

'...a ham sandwich?'

Not that. Anything but that.

Given the context, that would come across as a no sequitur to Karine, but it had a very... specific meaning. And he wasn't sure how she'd react to the idea. She clearly liked one Totoma, so... two Totoma would be even better for her, wouldn't it? Hm.

[grampagen]

Samson leads them down, keeping a few ki flame spheres alight so they could see.

Going deeper, not just Snake and Dragon, but symbols and carvings of Tiger, Crane, and Turtle are found.

Even deeper still, a large unmarred statue is found. It is a fast crane winged creature with a turtle shell on its back, the limbs of a mighty tiger. It’s tail that of a snake, and it’s head a roaring dragon.

Samson pales a bit, though his awe is easy to hear in his voice.

“Zxu’ro, this is a temple to Zxu’ro. Never in my life did I expect to see this. I thought it was just a heretical myth.”

Ochazuke followed Samson at a distance, his imitation Dragon's Fire flowing still far too intense for such a delicate excursion. The tongue of concentrated fire flashed near the top of the chamber twice as he struggled to control it before he resigned to concentrated it to a single point, a red glowing flame balanced on a raised trembling index finger like a torch to cut metal.

Hrm. Force cannot balance the flame. Yet restraint is not a thing that can contain a fire. he thought, following behind their teacher humbled as he observed his silent practice, even as they explored.

Entering the chamber the ruin was lined with ancient renderings of the Five Animals, undisturbed for countless years, leading them the three of them to the statue of a huge unwieldy chimera.

8-font-b-Chinese-b-font-FengShui-Bronze-font-b-Mythology-b-font-North-font-b.jpg
(OOC: 3/5 ain't bad)

"Zxu'ro...?"

The abrupt mention this name - he'd mistaken it at first for the sound of Eastern pork, the Dragon's Fire eating more of his stamina than he knew - was something he'd never heard before. Ochazuke circled around the artifact. Wondering what the symbol could mean, he spread his sense field over the thing, scanning the matter for any smaller mysteries within.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

As Ishtar stared down at the ruined surface of Ilargi, she could not help but feel a welling up of emotion. A faint whispering of that fear, and pain, and anger as it had been experienced all those years ago; and for a moment she considered turning back. Returning to Earth, or even somewhere else entirely, and setting aside her quest for knowledge, of this in particular. Yet those feelings ... In the end that was the point of this, was it not?

To confront this painful past, full of daemons and lingering ghosts, and in so doing allow them to finally fade away so that she might live without the pain that had been found to yet linger. So that perhaps what joy and contentment that had been found in others might not be temporary. And might give the Oni a reason to hope and dream once more, that the truth of what she was, and would become would not ultimately erode away her ability to feel such things at all. Leaving her nothing more than a hollow and empty simulacrum of time, uncaring .. so that she might impassively remind all life, and even the luminaries themselves, that for as long as they might persist in the worlds above there was a singular inescapable truth:

They will all inevitably end.

An ending to a path she fought desperate to avoid. And so with that in mind, the golden-eyed Oni forced herself to turn the attention away from her own flickering doubt, and back to Ilargi, the shattered moon.

Though in Ishtar's continued staring at the rapidly approaching satellite ... she quickly came to see that 'shattered' was not wholly accurate.

When last the Oni had left this place, the moon had been nothing more than fragmentary shards of stone drifting listlessly in the heavens as the magic that sustained life on its surface bled away. Yet while that had remained- with only the remnants of the Khosian Architecture remaining where once had existed flora, fauna, and life-giving water- and the area around the equator was nothing more than fragmentary chunks of the once-whole moon; Ilargi's larger fragments had begun to coalesce. Which meant among many things, that there was yet enough mass to maintain a gravitational bond between what had once been separated; and that meant that despite Ishtar's millennia long belief that Ilargi, and the Order that called its surface home had been destroyed in her grieving ... there was a change it yet lingered.

---

??? , Ilargi's Surface

It had felt it as the Deceiver entered the orbit of the ruined moon, some moments before, and already it could feel that she was near to the surface.

How could it not ?

After all, that energy ... cold, and black, had been seared into its mind and armor, the day the moon had been split. Yet there was something more, besides ... As composed as it was, of echoes of energy from the Order of the Twin Luminaries, there was a fragmentary sliver of the Head Priestess's own Ka inside that swirling core that gave it life. Not enough to reform the bond that had been shared- a thing it did not know of- between the Daemon, and the Khosian .. no, the soul of the woman was yet dead ... Yet it was enough to remember the feel.

So it would bring to bear this energy, along with the others, in this hour of need.

So when the craft that bore the blue-skinned Outsider's finally touched down on Ilargi's surface; the Last Moonsworn readied itself, and surged forward toward a bitter reunion.

---

A Moment Later, Ilargi

As the two women departed the craft with Anubis in tow, Asha'rah would feel it first.

A cacophonous amalgamation of swirling energies rapidly closing the distance between the far side of this ruined satellite, and the ground upon which they stood. And as she readied herself for whatever approached; Ishtar would feel it then. Her Ki senses were not developed, beyond the sensing of available plant life. Yet bonded as she had been to one other, the flickering echo of a woman believed dead registered in her mind, and the Oni's golden-eyes opened in painful realization.

No.

And then, in a flicker of that selfsame cacophony of energies felt by the Goddess of Creation, it arrived:

Theme - Laurence, the First Vicar

There were no words shared between Ishtar, and Legion, as the two stared. No time for tearful reunions, or painful remembering to be had by Ishtar, either. The Oni knew well what it was, after all. Had been there when it had been gifted the energies of the Moonsworn, and the Order's priests and priestesses. Yet despite knowing what it was there for, and what was intended in. The realization that it had not been destroyed in addition to feeling that an echo of her Sekhmet yet lingered ...

Ishtar hesitated.

Legion did not.

Targeting the arm that resonated with the energy of the Blade of the Twin Luminaries, the Last Moonsworn blurred forward, and in one swift motion separated the limb from Ishtar's shoulder, the edge of the lance arcing silently through the vacuum. In the end, nothing more than a temporary affliction, given the bond that had been formed between Ishtar and the prosthetic since it had been remade; but truth enough of the entity's intentions for those who watched on.

Yet as Legion made ready to run the golden-eyed Oni through, channeling the energies of a now defunct Order into the Lance-tip in an undeniable offering, there came a shift. The hesitation that had resulted in the severing of her crystalline arm was at its end. And with the spell- borne by realization- that had left Ishtar paralyzed now shattered, there was in its place only rage, and hate, and grief.

Rage at finding that a fragment of Sekhmet's soul had not found peace, and had been left to languish with the fragmentary echoes of her murderers. Grief, at the knowledge that in a way, it was of her own doing, believing Sekhmet gone, and the Order that had Orchestrated it wholly erased. And a hate that ran deep for this .... creature. This Last of the Moonsworn.

And in the end ... the rage won out. There was no sound, in the void of space. Was no way of knowing what words were uttered in that darkling light provided by Tatenen's life-sustaining star. Yet as Legion thrust that crackling lance forward, Ishtar blurred forward. After all, what memories of the Daemon, Legion possessed were lacking, now. The Oni who had tore through the Order like a cornered animal all those years before, was no more.

Realizing too late what was about to happen, Ishtar dodged the thrust, before grabing hold of the weapon's shaft; pulling the armored Ka Golem forward, before slamming her horns into its armored torso with force enough to crumple the armor.

As Legion reeled then, more from surprise than anything else, the golden-eyed Oni applied a kick the Moonsworn's damaged chest, and flung it away from the craft. And as the echo of a past Ishtar had come to quiet found itself skidding across the surface of that ruined planet, Ishtar turned toward Asha'rah.

There were no words exchanged, no attempt at a telepathic conversation to offer insight or formulate a plan. Simply a momentary acknowledgement as the Ishtar willed her arm to reform, before the blue-skinned woman took off after Legion.

This was why she had been summoned ... This was why she had found herself pulled away from Sarada, and the peace that had been found at her side.

... And perhaps, when it was finished, the Oni might find a way forward, when no longer hounded by the daemons and lingering ghosts of her own past.

[KingofPie]

"Nothing..." P-Sta stated, checking his scouter. "This planet isn't lacking in noteworthy power levels...sort of," he stated, shutting his Police Scouter off before punching his right fist into an open palm. "Curses! I can't pinpoint the Majin at all! Hiding his power level perhaps? But why?! From what my research tells me, this creature's race contain an extreme urge to commit unfathomable levels of chaos and violence! Bah, I really should have listened to Miras more closely..."

"Uh, 'scuse me? Mr Space Policeman?" an earth cop asked, scratching his chin. "Now, I appreciate your advice, but why'd you have me stop three cars and a semi-truck?"

"Ah!" P-Sta noted, breaking out of his inner thoughts to answer his human compatriot. "The truck was going precisely three point two miles under the speed limit, the red car in the back was going zero point two miles under," P-Sta stated, pointing in one direction towards those two vehicles. "Meanwhile, those two similar looking cars. The silver one and the green one...were both going precisely one point seventeen miles over the speed limit."

"Ah...and you told me to write up five tickets because...?" the human officer questioned, only to stand back offended when P-Sta pointed at him.

"That is because you were also going over the speed limit," the Galactic policeman answered, "Precisely five point twenty-five miles!"

"So, what, you want me to write myself a ticket?!" the officer asked, aghast.


"Precisely! It's what I would do," P-Sta answered, looking off into the distance heroically, hoping his cape would sway in the wind. It didn't. "Ahem.." P-Sta coughed. "Honestly, following my example would be beneficial to most of the law enforcement on this planer," he stated earnestly.

"Hey, now wait a-," the Earth cop began, clearly getting offended.

"Unfortunately, I can tarry here no longer!" P-Sta noted, posing so suddenly and dynamically that he nearly toppled the Earth officer over. "I have a mission to complete. One that I'm already hundreds of years too late on, but darn it, A member of the Galaxy Patrol's Elite Katchin Squadron never leaves a case unsolved!"

P-Sta soared into the sky, activating his power level once more. "Perhaps an interrogation of those with high levels of power will be beneficial...though, I can't expect everyone with such capabilities to be friendly...I'd better get ready for a skirmish..." he pondered aloud. "Hmm, that's funny. Scouter's detecting some sort of power...upward? Flying around perhaps?!"

P-Sta continued his ascent towards the clouds. "Further and further still! Training perhaps? Maybe so? Or perhaps they're on their way off world? Though, if memory serves not many humans are capable of such, however...Miras report did mention other races that were....I really should've payed more attention to what she told me," P-Sta sighed, hanging his head down as he continued to travel up.

"Huh...that's an odd shaped cloud..." P-Sta noted as he flew high enough, while reading the power levels displayed on the scouter. "Ah, wait! What a fool, I was! That's no cloud! It's..." the space policeman stopped as he approached what was, unbeknownst to him, Kami's lookout. "Amazing? A floating platform? No! More than that! A floating temple?! Perhaps! I didn't know Earth had such magnificent structures...perhaps it's not as backwards as I thought?"

He landed on the Lookout, placing a hand over his head as he searched for anyone present. "Hello? IS anyone present?" he asked, not wanting to be rude and just barge in, demanding answers. "It is I, the Master Strategist!" he announced crouching down to the ground. "Galaxy Patrol Elite Katchin Squadron! P-Sta!" he announced with a pose. A small explosion set off behind him.




"..."


After the explosion set off and the galactic offcier went quiet the only sound that could be heard was that of the cool breeze of the wind blowing by.

"...Not quite the same without the others, I'll admit," P-Sta commented, still holding the pose.

[The Dog]

Midori sat for several minutes in silence, letting her mind sort through everything she'd downloaded into it. But she succeeded, and decided to go over everything and make sure that she was still 'her'.

Finding everything as it should be, Midori smiled as she said "Awesome. I now know science and fighting with a broadsword!"

Leaping to her feet, Midori stumbled as her brain reoriented itself after such a download and sort. Steadying herself, Midori stretched her arms as she said with a grin as she said "Now, to begin designing upgrades for myself!... No, wait, I have an idea before I start designing upgrades to help with everything!"

Rushing out of the room, she gathered up some blueprint papers and a pen. Slamming the paper down, she began furiously drawing out her idea. Sticking her tongue slightly out of her mouth as the pen danced over paper, bringing her idea out of her mind and onto paper. She was like a woman possessed as she drew, her entire focus on the paper as she worked.

Finishing her drawing, Midori raised up and smiled as she stared at her first project. Rolling up the paper, Midori turned and headed off to a lab to bring her blue prints into reality.

[Tami]

Month 4 - Week 2

The skin on her hands felt raw, her muscles ached and she struggled just to keep up with him, and this was just the walk to his home. A walk that took them one week. One week of trudging through sand, scaling up rock-faces, crawling through caves barely large enough for her to pass through, swimming across bodies of water large enough to qualify as an inland sea. She couldn't be certain, but by the time they arrived, she thought they had traveled half-way across the planet. With a touch of irony, she realized that she could have flown herself and him the same distance in less than a day, with only a fraction of the effort. As she reminded herself on the last day of their hike, without effort there would be no training.



Located on a mountain plateau, Meagan prayed for a moment's rest as soon as she saw the residence. The hut was small and run down. So much so that she almost felt sorry for the old man. Almost but not enough to stop her from finding a boulder nearby to sit on. Perhaps there was something about the gravity, or the atmosphere, or the fact that they kept pushing forward without rest, without food all this time. Which ever it was, she hadn't felt this painfully exhausted ever. Even her Mentor never pushed her this hard.

Nyklos, on the other hand, did not sit, did not look tired. She watched him just stand there staring out over the landscape for a while, then enter the hut and come out with something that looked like two slabs of beef jerky. The old man held out one to her, but she shook her head, "No, I can't." Without a word, he tore into the first one, finishing it off as she watched, as her stomach growled in annoyance.

Standing up again, Meagan asked, "I came here to learn Kaio-Ken. Please teach it to me."

He wiped both his hands together as if cleaning them off, then simply said, "No."

Her eyes went wide, and she felt an anger build inside, but she kept it in check, "Please, I need to know. Many lives may depend on it."

Again, he simply said, "No."

"But why?" she pleaded with him.

"If I showed you how to do the Kaio-Ken as you are now, it would kill you."

Closing her eyes and tilting her head back as if looking at the sky, regaining her composure and her reason she looked back at him, "As I am now, but you will if you deem me capable of handling it, correct?"

For a moment she thought she caught a flash of emotion, as he pondered her statement. "Aye, I will teach it to you when you are ready."

"Will you then train me in a way so that I may be ready to learn Kaio-Ken?"

Again the old man pondered this, finally nodding once, "Aye, you do as I say. No talk back, no complaints, no whining or crying. Do this and perhaps you will one day be ready to handle Kaio-Ken."

Meagan bowed to him, "I will do as you say."

The old man then went into his hut, and came out what what looked like two reddish pears. Tossing one to her, Meagan caught it and started to eat hungrily.

"Chromakai, I know your kind all too well child." The old man took the second fruit in hand and took a bite from it. After chewing and swallowing, "Why did you refuse what I offered you?"

Wiping the juice from her face with her sleeve, "It's a cheat. I swore when I began training that I would do it on my own. How could I know if I am truly getting stronger if I steal power from the flesh of another? I almost broke that pledge once, I won't do it again unless there is no other choice."

For the first time the old man smiled, "I see." he then nodded, "Very well. You may sleep out side tonight. In the morning we will begin." he then walked inside the hut and closed the door.

Finding a patch of grass adequate for her to sleep upon, she sat down, then lay down staring up at the sky until she falls asleep.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Nothing..." P-Sta stated, checking his scouter. "This planet isn't lacking in noteworthy power levels...sort of," he stated, shutting his Police Scouter off before punching his right fist into an open palm. "Curses! I can't pinpoint the Majin at all! Hiding his power level perhaps? But why?! From what my research tells me, this creature's race contain an extreme urge to commit unfathomable levels of chaos and violence! Bah, I really should have listened to Miras more closely..."

"Uh, 'scuse me? Mr Space Policeman?" an earth cop asked, scratching his chin. "Now, I appreciate your advice, but why'd you have me stop three cars and a semi-truck?"

"Ah!" P-Sta noted, breaking out of his inner thoughts to answer his human compatriot. "The truck was going precisely three point two miles under the speed limit, the red car in the back was going zero point two miles under," P-Sta stated, pointing in one direction towards those two vehicles. "Meanwhile, those two similar looking cars. The silver one and the green one...were both going precisely one point seventeen miles over the speed limit."

"Ah...and you told me to write up five tickets because...?" the human officer questioned, only to stand back offended when P-Sta pointed at him.

"That is because you were also going over the speed limit," the Galactic policeman answered, "Precisely five point twenty-five miles!"

"So, what, you want me to write myself a ticket?!" the officer asked, aghast.


"Precisely! It's what I would do," P-Sta answered, looking off into the distance heroically, hoping his cape would sway in the wind. It didn't. "Ahem.." P-Sta coughed. "Honestly, following my example would be beneficial to most of the law enforcement on this planer," he stated earnestly.

"Hey, now wait a-," the Earth cop began, clearly getting offended.

"Unfortunately, I can tarry here no longer!" P-Sta noted, posing so suddenly and dynamically that he nearly toppled the Earth officer over. "I have a mission to complete. One that I'm already hundreds of years too late on, but darn it, A member of the Galaxy Patrol's Elite Katchin Squadron never leaves a case unsolved!"

P-Sta soared into the sky, activating his power level once more. "Perhaps an interrogation of those with high levels of power will be beneficial...though, I can't expect everyone with such capabilities to be friendly...I'd better get ready for a skirmish..." he pondered aloud. "Hmm, that's funny. Scouter's detecting some sort of power...upward? Flying around perhaps?!"

P-Sta continued his ascent towards the clouds. "Further and further still! Training perhaps? Maybe so? Or perhaps they're on their way off world? Though, if memory serves not many humans are capable of such, however...Miras report did mention other races that were....I really should've payed more attention to what she told me," P-Sta sighed, hanging his head down as he continued to travel up.

"Huh...that's an odd shaped cloud..." P-Sta noted as he flew high enough, while reading the power levels displayed on the scouter. "Ah, wait! What a fool, I was! That's no cloud! It's..." the space policeman stopped as he approached what was, unbeknownst to him, Kami's lookout. "Amazing? A floating platform? No! More than that! A floating temple?! Perhaps! I didn't know Earth had such magnificent structures...perhaps it's not as backwards as I thought?"

He landed on the Lookout, placing a hand over his head as he searched for anyone present. "Hello? IS anyone present?" he asked, not wanting to be rude and just barge in, demanding answers. "It is I, the Master Strategist!" he announced crouching down to the ground. "Galaxy Patrol Elite Katchin Squadron! P-Sta!" he announced with a pose. A small explosion set off behind him.




"..."


After the explosion set off and the galactic offcier went quiet the only sound that could be heard was that of the cool breeze of the wind blowing by.

"...Not quite the same without the others, I'll admit," P-Sta commented, still holding the pose.

Kai and Eva walk out.

“I’m always happy to help the Galaxy Police. I am Eva, guardian of this planet. How may I help you?”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Ochazuke followed Samson at a distance, his imitation Dragon's Fire flowing still far too intense for such a delicate excursion. The tongue of concentrated fire flashed near the top of the chamber twice as he struggled to control it before he resigned to concentrated it to a single point, a red glowing flame balanced on a raised trembling index finger like a torch to cut metal.

Hrm. Force cannot balance the flame. Yet restraint is not a thing that can contain a fire. he thought, following behind their teacher humbled as he observed his silent practice, even as they explored.

Entering the chamber the ruin was lined with ancient renderings of the Five Animals, undisturbed for countless years, leading them the three of them to the statue of a huge unwieldy chimera.

8-font-b-Chinese-b-font-FengShui-Bronze-font-b-Mythology-b-font-North-font-b.jpg
(OOC: 3/5 ain't bad)

"Zxu'ro...?"

The abrupt mention this name - he'd mistaken it at first for the sound of Eastern pork, the Dragon's Fire eating more of his stamina than he knew - was something he'd never heard before. Ochazuke circled around the artifact. Wondering what the symbol could mean, he spread his sense field over the thing, scanning the matter for any smaller mysteries within.

“Zxu’ro is a mythical figure, said in a few heretical histories to be either a co-founder of the five schools or the actual founder himself. Incredibly powerful, with a mastery of all techniques and all the secrets. It was said that any who could challenge him would gain his power and secrets.”

Ochazuke senses that one of the pillars is hollow, with something inside.

[KingofPie]

Kai and Eva walk out.

“I’m always happy to help the Galaxy Police. I am Eva, guardian of this planet. How may I help you?”

P-Sta, having grown tired of waiting so long (three minutes) had taken to dramatically posing on the edge of the lookout, happy that his cape had finally begun to flow in the wind properly when Eva and Kai arrived.



"A Guardian?!"

Turning around swiftly once Eva greeted him, P-Sta quickly bent a knee and placed his fist down upon the floor of the lookout, his head bowing down respectfully. "Ah, forgive my outburst...Beautiful Guardian of Earth! I am but a humble, and Elite, officer of the Galaxy Police! As a part of my sworn duty to protect the cosmos, vanquish evil, maintain peace, preach traffic safety..."

After a notable amount of time.

"...rescue lost pets, assuring all laundry is properly folded..."

The morning had gone and the afternoon has just begun.

"...and ensuring the populace is well aware of the full nutritional values of grapefruit, I P-Sta! Master of Strategy of the, Galaxy Police Elite Katchin Squadron-" he stated, standing up and striking another pose.



"-am here to apprehend a dangerous criminal that I...ashamedly admit slipped my grasp hundreds of years ago!" P-Sta answered, finally stating the reason for his visit. "But...if you don't mind me asking...you said you were a Guardian, correct? The last planet I'd visited prior to Earth said their Guardian had abandoned them. Now...I may have been cryogenically frozen for centuries, but..I'd like to think that alien misspoke, right?"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

P-Sta, having grown tired of waiting so long (three minutes) had taken to dramatically posing on the edge of the lookout, happy that his cape had finally begun to flow in the wind properly when Eva and Kai arrived.



"A Guardian?!"

Turning around swiftly once Eva greeted him, P-Sta quickly bent a knee and placed his fist down upon the floor of the lookout, his head bowing down respectfully. "Ah, forgive my outburst...Beautiful Guardian of Earth! I am but a humble, and Elite, officer of the Galaxy Police! As a part of my sworn duty to protect the cosmos, vanquish evil, maintain peace, preach traffic safety..."

After a notable amount of time.

"...rescue lost pets, assuring all laundry is properly folded..."

The morning had gone and the afternoon has just begun.

"...and ensuring the populace is well aware of the full nutritional values of grapefruit, I P-Sta! Master of Strategy of the, Galaxy Police Elite Katchin Squadron-" he stated, standing up and striking another pose.



"-am here to apprehend a dangerous criminal that I...ashamedly admit slipped my grasp hundreds of years ago!" P-Sta answered, finally stating the reason for his visit. "But...if you don't mind me asking...you said you were a Guardian, correct? The last planet I'd visited prior to Earth said their Guardian had abandoned them. Now...I may have been cryogenically frozen for centuries, but..I'd like to think that alien misspoke, right?"

Kai has long ago rolled his eyes and left, but Eva stayed and nodded once he was done.

“I am afraid there has been a rash of Guardians disappearing over the years. I am currently investigating the location they disappeared to, an unknown planet with a red sun. At least two of Earrth’s previous Guardians were felled there.”

[KingofPie]

Kai has long ago rolled his eyes and left, but Eva stayed and nodded once he was done.

“I am afraid there has been a rash of Guardians disappearing over the years. I am currently investigating the location they disappeared to, an unknown planet with a red sun. At least two of Earrth’s previous Guardians were felled there.”

"A-ah...I see," P-Sta spoke in shock, his bluster fading a bit. "Are the Galaxy Police aware of this? I haven't seen any reports on it. At least none that I am aware of..." he asked, wondering if this was knowledge of the top secret kind.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"A-ah...I see," P-Sta spoke in shock, his bluster fading a bit. "Are the Galaxy Police aware of this? I haven't seen any reports on it. At least none that I am aware of..." he asked, wondering if this was knowledge of the top secret kind.

“I have only recently started putting it together, reaching out and speaking to other Guardians. I had not thought to bother the Galaxy Police with it, though now that the thought is there it seems a wise idea.”

[grampagen]

“Zxu’ro is a mythical figure, said in a few heretical histories to be either a co-founder of the five schools or the actual founder himself. Incredibly powerful, with a mastery of all techniques and all the secrets. It was said that any who could challenge him would gain his power and secrets.”

Ochazuke senses that one of the pillars is hollow, with something inside.

"There's that word again, heresy," Ochazuke said, still circling around the visage of the chimera beast, "who the heretic is depends on your doctrine. It is more likely an inconvenience."

Still as he spoke these words, he knew they stood at the precipice of shaking the very foundation of the martial arts they knew. Who exactly was it hidden from? The knowledge of the art he was raised in, the history of two-thousand years of conflict shaping humanity through the countless threads woven all across the world from here, he felt it weigh upon his conscience in this moment. Samson Balon's pilgrimage of rediscovery had already brought him to a crossroads in this temple lost to legend, and their work had barely begun.

"I'd never known him to have a name," he admitted, "The Obushi-sennin was a legend. Could this be the foundation for the Master of Masters?"

He found that hollow space and snuffed out the Dragon's flame, setting his hand upon the pillar.

An artifact holding fast for this span of time is a marvel, he thought to himself, The Zxu'ro sect's craftsmanship is truly extraordinary.

He closed his eyes, his face stilled in lament, as he concentrated.

Shapes and surfaces might be replaced. We came here to honour the hidden memory. There can be no compromise in this.

The mindset to push forward had always seen Ochazuke through in death-duels behind closed doors. It was not until he had held Tiger Master Kaibyo as she died that he felt any regret for it before, yet he was resigned to know that his life's journey and those who fell behind him was not for nothing.

He withdrew his hand an inch from the ancient thing before he threw his palm into it, shocking a path through the column. The force cit through the section, severed the face of the carved stone to a relief that fell off into his hand. Behind the hollow of the pillar stood exposed a hidden part of their shared past.

[Lord Falcon]

- snipped for character limits -

Ilargi:

And as the Oni stared at the shattered remnants of a long dead moon, she could only wonder what would be uncovered.

They flew through the airless void between worlds at speeds far beyond any they could attain on Earth. Yet with inertial compensators to soften the momentum and without guideposts against which to judge, one could not normally tell apart one speed from another. It seemed like they were gliding through space, stars passing by lazily like fireflies in a beautiful, serene parade.

Their interactions, like the journey itself, did not feel like a frantic pace. Ishtar and Asha’rah were both comfortable with silence, both speaking when they felt they had something to say. Like celestial bodies finding themselves within each other’s pull, they orbited one another, coming to understand each other in smooth, natural arcs.

There was something a little different about Ishtar in the first few weeks, at once distracted but paying attention to something close. Asha’rah came to learn of Aka Manah, of the bond Ishtar had forged with the fierce Saiyan Sarada. It was an intimate communion, a joining of souls and lives no matter how far they might travel. Ishtar was feeling what Sarada felt, and could send her friend and lover emotional support in a manner far more literally than most could ever hope to. Asha’rah listened in awe, her respect for the oni continuing to grow. How great a life to live for two, to feel for two. The fallen god felt a twinge of unfamiliar emotion as she listened, a warm pinching sensation high in the core of her own soul. Having never felt anything exactly like that feeling before, Asha’rah was unsure what it was. Something to contemplate.

Ishtar spoke too of her beginnings, of how she came to the mortal realm. Of how she had been lured from the timeliness of the underworld to a place where people lived. Of how she had observed so many worlds and the civilizations they fostered, how they eventually fell prey to their own weakness, to be replaced by a new, better order if the world was fortunate. Or to fall into ruin if the world was not. It had been a solitary existence, beyond what Asha’rah was now or had even been in her heyday. Zurvan had created a watcher, someone to neither do nor say anything to guide existence along. Just someone to be eternal, to be present at the first cry of triumph and as the last mote of dust settled upon the gravestone.

And when Ishtar had at last wandered, stumbled really, into a life worth living, she was not prepared. She had not known who she was or what she was. She had not the skills commensurate with someone spending eons under the guidance of an aspect of reality itself. And from that small blindness…sprang tragedy she could not have known would happen. Asha’rah simply hugged Ishtar when she had finished, accepting her tale. It had not been Ishtar’s fault, to be confronted with terrible power at her darkest hour. It had not Sekhmet’s fault. Not even the jealous fanatics of the Moonsworn, guilty though they were of small-minded murder and betrayal.

“You bear your scars well now, Ishtar. Daughter of Zurvan, timeless watcher, joyous priestess, great griever, seeker of balance…” Asha’rah had said, then separated that she might look Ishtar in the eye with a glimmer of bubbly approval, “and apparently attentive lover. What fulfillment this journey may offer you, I shall see you claim it.”

Asha’rah too, shared of herself. Not all her memories were back, great holes remained, fragments of images like smudged, shattered glass careening where whole epics should lie. But she remembered now why she had gone beyond her station. She remembered the imbalance built into the universes themselves, a core mechanism favoring war and destruction that she had been convinced, remained convinced was a massive danger to its grand design. Tyrants reigned, able to destroy billions without any any support if they became powerful enough. Fighting and martial might had its place, but someone in the small band of people she had known as peers had convinced Zeno to elevate it above all else. Eventually, worlds and systems would die everyday as individuals outstripped their species, becoming unstoppable forces except against each other in clashes that would unmake galaxies. Asha’rah had tried to stop it. She had risen, calling forth a rebellion that shook the heavens themselves. Its effects continued to be felt to this day. And one of her first acts of open rebellion had been to kill her oldest friend.

http://community.comicbookresources....en#post3508479
http://community.comicbookresources....ght=Indar%27en
http://community.comicbookresources....ght=Indar%27en

Of course, their journey was not only about sharing company and the spoken word. Ishtar had trained with Sarada, developing sharper skill to match her abundant ability. Where before she had taken too many attacks without a guard, now she had learned to dodge. Her lateral footwork had improved, giving her more options in a fight. Asha’rah was as eager as Ishtar to put those skills to the test.

From Ishtar, the fallen god ingrained new footwork into her being, learning to charge with greater impact as Sarada and Ishtar were so magnificent at. It was an area Asha’rah was not so good at, perhaps having come to rely on her orbs as a crutch to create an opening in pitched battle.

Asha’rah in turn sought to impart superior deflecting techniques. Not every blow could be dodged, and deep down Asha’rah suspected Ishtar would be a more intuitive blocker than dodger. Even with little prior training, the blue oni faced had her enemies head on, never shirking from a blow or a fight. Asha’rah intended to allow her to do so while suffering less damage, to let blows slide off her as she closed to her ideal distance.

Each time they clashed, Asha’rah could feel the depth of Ishtar’s soul straining against her own. She felt Ishtar’s conviction, experienced the panting breath of a life renewed, lost herself in the simple joy of the moment. Then they would sit side by side upon the training deck, exhausted and eyeing their reflections in the glass.

After some months and too short a time, they reached their destination. It was a moon, or at least it used to be. Now it was many, chunks the size of small continents having come to rest in their own orbits. But the greatest piece, more than half of what had once been a whole, lay beyond, half obscured by its own debris. Its surface was barren grey, what life it might once have supported snuffed out. So this was Ishtar’s ghost.

“I would say fate calls, but you have come here of your own strength.”