Dragonball M, Chapter 4: Kidnapping! Invasion! A new Threat Strikes First!

[MrSandman]

He quirks an eyebrow.

“Sealing magic? Fae bindings and the like Ehh? Should I be worried?”

He chuckles than thinks.

“I have one I can teach you that worked for a long time against a God of Destruction.”

"Worked *for a long time* hmm?" Etrina quirked an eyebrow, then sighed. "Apologies....I'm a bit over cynical on these things. I'm grateful for any teaching your willing to give."

Caliban nods. He concentrates and than writes out a series of four green glyphs in the air. He concentrates trades, than taps them.

“Clothes Beam!”

A beam of energy shoots and strikes a nearby rock, turning it into two different green combat outfits with Caliban’s symbol on their back. (Up to both of you what each one looks like).

“Official training garb, and a demonstration of the long form of your transmutation spell, Parsley. You two go ahead and put them on, you’ll need them.

At the immediate demonstration, Etrina couldn't help but stifle a laugh with her palm. "Clothes beam? That's.......hmm..." Etrina, who had immediately taken the spell as a joke, slowly spun the idea in her head as her expression changed from amusement to mild interest. "...maybe later..."

Giving a quick appraisal of the uniform, the mage shrugged. ".....need them? Whats wrong wit...." Etrina stifled her complaint, forcing herself back into the student mindset. "....fine....there a changing room here?"

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Just change right here," Parsley said a short distance away. "It's nothing I haven't seen already."

[MrSandman]

Shrinking down to about a foot in size, Lady Binder than chants and a pathway opens up in the massive eldritch forest before them. Filtered sunlight and faint music hangs in the air as she leads Tiny Etrina to her home.


Eventually, the open path comes to a massive tree, easily the biggest one Etrina had ever seen. It’s trunk was so wide she couldn’t even see where the curve began, and it’s limbs and branches seemed as thick as starships. Lady Binder calls out in a melodic language, and suddenly hundreds of Fae appear all around from the branches. They all stare and chatter towards Etrina, until with a groaning sound a doorway opens in the tree and out flies........

A very small, about Etrina’s size, regal looking Fae.



Lady Binder bows.

“Mother, our guest has arrived.”

"....Your majesty." Etrina took a moment to bow respectfully. "....Please forgive my unannounced appearance. Though as I understand it was likely not unexpected."

Raising her head, Etrina took a quick measure of the monarch before her. The Queen of the Fae, it seemed, definitely had the aura of royalty. Perhaps this was the reason she had been reduced in size before their audience....it would be bad form to out stature the queen of the realm after all.

"I'm not particular knowledgeable in the ways of your people....so I ask for your leniency should my formal manners be lacking. I am honored you've allowed me this audience. That being said...." Etrina folded her hands and took a breath. "You've offered council to the Lord Forger in the past, prophetic vision of a future where a dear friend of mine suffers a fate with tragic consequences for life in our universe.....I would see what he has seen so I can judge the validity of such a future for myself."

Etrina tensed.

What happened next would be entirely at the whim of her host.

[MrSandman]

"Just change right here," Parsley said a short distance away. "It's nothing I haven't seen already."

"Like HFIL you've seen it!" Etrina blurted. "It would be unfitting of my lineage to strip in the middle of public...besides....." Etrina motioned her head to Caliban. "He's here too you know."

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Wow, um," Zaofan said, idling popping his lips open as he tried to collect the words. "Okay, there's a fair bit to unpack here."

Additionally there was an insinuation here that caused Zaofan's perennial smile to curdle into a broken line on his face.

"First of all, I suppose I'll come clean. In a manner of speaking, Zxu'ro has been on Earth this entire time. His legacy's been with us and we're rebuilding it from the fragments he'd left behind. Granted, we didn't know he was part of this Palatine group until Parsley cross-referenced Auroc's book with our situation, but The Master, your King Vocado, and Lord Forger were at one time all connected. If we didn't know before, we know now, I suppose we'll get the whole story one of these days, but what they did to Alakazah all those years ago, Earth is still recovering from. Whatever gave Lord Forger the idea to go back on what he'd done thousands of years ago, well, that speaks to the depths of his desperation, and the length of this problem which affects us all."

They both knew Parsley had come across the book in the aftermath of the battle of Reshlan. If Inanna had known of this connection beforehand, what, indeed, would they have done with the knowledge? Probably would've stayed home, ugh. Six months to find the Threshling homeworld and all I got was this spiffy title.

...well okay. Freeing a few planets and ushering in world peace...maybe there was some ground gained. But oh, the way the universe refused to let up, it sometimes felt like they did nothing at all.

"Second, it's nice to hear Inanna's still out there, somewhere, doing what a Goddess of Destruction, or something. does," he said. "You know I wish her well, and I've always got extra jars of chocolate pudding set aside for whenever she comes back."

He folded his arms and nodded. He spoke the truth, and so he would continue.

"But, and this is just me playing Devil's Advocate here, considering all we've been through together, and how everything's at stake here, why is it that you can trust her to do what needs to be done? It's because you have faith in her."

The way Sarada was going, it almost seemed like she wanted to take sides here. As far as Zaofan was concerned, well!

"What are we, then, just some people that live here? She might have the title, sure, but it's not like the fate of the universe is her responsibility alone. And come on, would she really think we'd sell her out? Do you? To Eldfen of all things?"

...well, maybe Sasheem.

"If we're really the wrong kind of people for it, why is it that the first chance he got, Ochazuke struck Alakazah down?"

With a gentle reminder that they were all on the same side, the chef sighed.

"And I know for a fact that you wouldn't have come here, either, if you didn't know we were both as good as our word, beyond committing to stepping up and punching out our problems, right?"

Zxu'ro was still on Earth? Unless he wished for immortality, she was certain that humans weren't particularly long-lived. Perhaps the occasional outlier who lived long beyond their lifespan, but most died within 80 to 100 years. Zxu'ro would have been every bit of at least 2,000 years old if Zaofan was saying what she thought he was saying. It was cool that he was there to guide them in his legacy's restoration. Part of her wished that Vocado was still around to see what she and those with her were doing; then, if he was still alive, then their race wouldn't have gotten in the position they were in.

Wait.

"If he's still alive, how did his legacy get so fractured? I mean, I would have thought he would have seen whoever wasn't following him for the right reason and busted their heads."

She had read the journal that Parsley found years ago, so she knew that Vocado, Zxu'ro, and Banespell were a part of the Palantines, along with a few others whose names escaped her. It sounded like they all went their separate ways, if Vocado's own journals were accurate. That would have explained why and how Banespell was allowed to fall off the deep-end the way he had recently and how he got away with undoing what he and the others struggled so mightily to accomplish.

Loosening the bonds of the most powerful being in the universe, and for what? A hair-brained scheme he didn't even have the balls to see through to the end. All because Etrina was there. So many innocent lives lost, their deaths - or near death in Eva's case - rendered completely meaningless.

It pissed her off just thinking about it.

Everything about that day pissed her off.

"Don't call her 'God of Destruction'," Sarada chided lightly. "She hates that title." As Zaofan continued, she sighed. "It's not about us worrying about you selling us out. At least not with me. It's about not putting anyone's life in unnecessary risk." She looked up at him from her seat, her gaze deathly serious. "If Eldfen were to find out that you knew where the Palantines were, do you think you could stand up to him? He can't hurt you, sure, but he managed to kill Jinzi's parents just fine, and that was before that idiot partially released him. He's the most powerful being in the universe, Zaofan. And I don't think he's dead."

Saying those words haunted her, and it showed in her hushed tone. "Ochazuke struck him down, but we never saw what happened to him. At least I didn't. One minute, I was staring at him lunge at Eldfen with that hammer, the next I'm on Reshlan three days later." Part of her feared that the elder dragon was still alive somewhere, nursing his wounds and waiting to return. That very same part also feared that the hammer strike didn't kill him, but broke the weakened chains that bound his full power. "I hope I'm wrong and that he is dead, but I'm not going just assume he's gone for good." Assumptions made asses out of the person making them, after all.

The last thing she wanted was for him to pop up again suddenly and she be unprepared. If it turned out she was wrong, she was going to be stronger for whoever else decided to step up.

"Well, he's probably a bit busy with a rather extensive project at the moment," Zaofan replied, "...uh, and being President, I guess. I've never known a guy so good at a job he hated since I saw Alfredo wash dishes at Bedlam's diner."

Thumbing his chin, he paused. All this time and we've barely scratched the surface on Fusion... Suddenly, he snapped his finger.

"I do have a way to absolutely guarantee Jinzi will clear his schedule. But first..."

Clearly, somebody had been training his dexterity. How else had he pulled out a cookie from nowhere? And by its heat and aroma, it was fresh.

Zaofan walked around the counter and reached forward, as if he was sincerely going to hand it over to Sarada...

Then he slipped it past her, holding it tantalizingly close to her face, and yet annoyingly just outside of her reach.

"Try to take the cookie from my hand. Undamaged, of course."

The thin row of sweat upon his brow revealed this took a certain level of bravado on his part as he reached forward. Holding his palm in, he held his wrist against Sarada's on the outside.

"Don't worry, there is a point to this, but if I tell you, you won't really get it" he said.

Certainly, she could feel it there in the pressure at the point of contact, his hand was going to move inward, and yet the intention beyond that, from hand, to wrist, to elbow, it was ambiguous save for one thing.

He was probing her guard. The next direction of the target would have few indications but the structure of the kinetic chain in his arm.

Sarada had thought he was just going to give her the cookie out of the goodness of her heart. She should have known some kind of bullshit was coming. She reached with one hand, then the other, only for him to move it past her grabs. She was getting frustrated, but then realized something. When their wrists touched, she knew that he was going to move his hand inward. Beyond that, she had no idea which direction she was going to go in.

He was probing her guard, that much she did know.

Heh. He doesn't realize that I can counter this.

Peerless Instinct

Her mind drifted into the background, allowing her body's own instinctual intuition to take over. Her limbs moved on their own as her face blanked, as if in a trance. Their wrists were still pressed together, but her free hand was ready to move. However, she had another adaptation waiting for him; her tail started to unwrap from around her waist, ready to grab him when the opportunity was right.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Like HFIL you've seen it!" Etrina blurted. "It would be unfitting of my lineage to strip in the middle of public...besides....." Etrina motioned her head to Caliban. "He's here too you know."

Parsley snickered and shook her head. "It never ceases to amaze me how sheepish some races are about their bodies and nudity in general." She supposed it was a difference in culture. Earth seemed more repressed and conservative when it came to nudity, while Saiyans didn't really care. Sadly, there being humans on Ruco - interesting story, that - meant that beachgoers actually had to wear an article of clothing on the beaches.

Imagine wearing clothes to swim.

Madness.

[grampagen]

Zxu'ro was still on Earth? Unless he wished for immortality, she was certain that humans weren't particularly long-lived. Perhaps the occasional outlier who lived long beyond their lifespan, but most died within 80 to 100 years. Zxu'ro would have been every bit of at least 2,000 years old if Zaofan was saying what she thought he was saying. It was cool that he was there to guide them in his legacy's restoration. Part of her wished that Vocado was still around to see what she and those with her were doing; then, if he was still alive, then their race wouldn't have gotten in the position they were in.

Wait.

"If he's still alive, how did his legacy get so fractured? I mean, I would have thought he would have seen whoever wasn't following him for the right reason and busted their heads."

"Well, I did say in a manner of speaking. It isn't so much that he is actually, physically alive as much as his memory persists. Despite Alakazah's best efforts, there were some paths left behind to his teachings...but only for those who knew where to find them," Zaofan said with a smile.

"Of course, even if he was, The Master wouldn't use his skill for something like that. Perhaps it is the simplest solution, but it would be a shame to cut an education short on a whim if there were another way."

She had read the journal that Parsley found years ago, so she knew that Vocado, Zxu'ro, and Banespell were a part of the Palantines, along with a few others whose names escaped her. It sounded like they all went their separate ways, if Vocado's own journals were accurate. That would have explained why and how Banespell was allowed to fall off the deep-end the way he had recently and how he got away with undoing what he and the others struggled so mightily to accomplish.

Loosening the bonds of the most powerful being in the universe, and for what? A hair-brained scheme he didn't even have the balls to see through to the end. All because Etrina was there. So many innocent lives lost, their deaths - or near death in Eva's case - rendered completely meaningless.

It pissed her off just thinking about it.

Everything about that day pissed her off.

"Don't call her 'God of Destruction'," Sarada chided lightly. "She hates that title." As Zaofan continued, she sighed. "It's not about us worrying about you selling us out. At least not with me. It's about not putting anyone's life in unnecessary risk." She looked up at him from her seat, her gaze deathly serious. "If Eldfen were to find out that you knew where the Palantines were, do you think you could stand up to him? He can't hurt you, sure, but he managed to kill Jinzi's parents just fine, and that was before that idiot partially released him. He's the most powerful being in the universe, Zaofan. And I don't think he's dead."

Saying those words haunted her, and it showed in her hushed tone. "Ochazuke struck him down, but we never saw what happened to him. At least I didn't. One minute, I was staring at him lunge at Eldfen with that hammer, the next I'm on Reshlan three days later." Part of her feared that the elder dragon was still alive somewhere, nursing his wounds and waiting to return. That very same part also feared that the hammer strike didn't kill him, but broke the weakened chains that bound his full power. "I hope I'm wrong and that he is dead, but I'm not going just assume he's gone for good." Assumptions made asses out of the person making them, after all.

The last thing she wanted was for him to pop up again suddenly and she be unprepared. If it turned out she was wrong, she was going to be stronger for whoever else decided to step up.

"I'm not sure why you feel the need to explain this very particular problem to me, Sarada." Zaofan said quietly.

He left the rest unsaid, for by this point, it should have been rather plain. Earth had been ground under the shackles of The Elder Dragon for thousands of years, and only very recently had been able to move out of his bloody shadow. Everything he was, everything he'd done, he had a front row seat to. Everything he tried to cover up was right under their noses and was woven into the history of their home planet.

By the flash of hurt on his face, this was a matter he took very, very seriously.

"I'm used to being underestimated, sure. The further along things have been going, I'd gone along with it, because I know I have a part to play here, and that's fine. However, with this year possibly being our last, Ochazuke and I have been working to do all we can to prepare for the fight to come. Besides our training in the moment, that includes building for the future...and teaching those who are willing to learn."

Balancing the cookie in his narrow fingers, the brief darkness that took his face evaporated into his usual good-natured self with a small wink.

"So just to be clear, I'd rather not be talked down to by my friends as well, okay? I know there's things out there that will erase everything you are down to the withering memory. Things crawling between dimensions willing to get out and telling some unlucky sap it's a miracle."

The cookie fluttered there in front of the Saiyan Queen's face.

"Maybe I'm not a God- Inanna, but what can I do? I do what I can."

Sarada had thought he was just going to give her the cookie out of the goodness of her heart. She should have known some kind of bullshit was coming. She reached with one hand, then the other, only for him to move it past her grabs. She was getting frustrated, but then realized something. When their wrists touched, she knew that he was going to move his hand inward. Beyond that, she had no idea which direction she was going to go in.

He was probing her guard, that much she did know.

Heh. He doesn't realize that I can counter this.

Peerless Instinct

Her mind drifted into the background, allowing her body's own instinctual intuition to take over. Her limbs moved on their own as her face blanked, as if in a trance. Their wrists were still pressed together, but her free hand was ready to move. However, she had another adaptation waiting for him; her tail started to unwrap from around her waist, ready to grab him when the opportunity was right.

Perhaps it was a rather harebrained scheme, holding a morsel hostage directly in front of a Saiyan, and one crowned from conquest, to boot, for there are far simples ways to chase dangerous thrills - like cutting your hand and dipping it into the brackish rainforest basin or the shark-filled sea. The tale of the planet-splitting fight with Tundra would be enough to dissuade even the bravest and the most brazen.

Those who have no fear, however, cannot know what courage is.

Zaofan leaned inward slightly at the contact point, pressing down. To Sarada's instincts, the direction seemed clear, and yet he somehow managed to drift the chocolate-studded disc exactly where it needed to be.

Each time contact shifted and was reestablished, the sensation was similar to pressing upon a ball floating over the surface of the water; the sinking force seemed to press it out of grasp. And when the third limb struck out from behind, he took a short step back, yet maintained the contact point, a thing in motion.

She's good. Really good. Wow!

This surely was an acutely refined natural weapon, the sharpened mind of a predator, all the more uncanny the way her face lost all emotion put toward the task. Precise snappy reactions, and she began to adapt.

Left. Right. Right. Left. Above. Tail.

Reactions, night instantaneous, without a thought in between the ground into muscle memory by a high level of physical training of training. Yet still in the midst of the dervish, three limbs against one, the cookie remained in Zaofan's grip and the contact point rolled from wrist to wrist, annoyingly just out of reach by the slimmest of margins. It was as if he were somehow goading her reflex to provoke a specific reaction and as a results, his motions swam past her attempts like a whisk through egg whites.

...of course, much like whisking egg whites, go at it too long, too aggressively, and the peaks stiffen.

"Hup!"

And as a chef, he'd rather not lose his hands. He rolled the cooking back, bounced it off his wrist, and spun it on the tip of his finger.

"Whew...alright, here you go," he said as he gave her the confectionary treat. "You...you've earned it."

Chuckling to himself, he dabbed off his forehead, then started massaged his aching hand. Why don't I save myself the trouble and just stick a fork in the garbage disposal next time...

Pinging the Capsule Communicator in his ear, he called down “Adam? Protocol 3. Tell Jinzi Queen Sarada will be headed your way shortly.”

The Martial Chef was a man of his word.

"Now, I hope some of this exercise will stick with you, because this is the first of three principles of the Fusion Technique," he said, "If two parties are going to merge together into one, you'll have to understand your partner, not compete with them."

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Well, I did say in a manner of speaking. It isn't so much that he is actually, physically alive as much as his memory persists. Despite Alakazah's best efforts, there were some paths left behind to his teachings...but only for those who knew where to find them," Zaofan said with a smile.

"Of course, even if he was, The Master wouldn't use his skill for something like that. Perhaps it is the simplest solution, but it would be a shame to cut an education short on a whim if there were another way."

His memory persisted even though his body died? "So, he's some kind of... astral ghost?" It probably didn't matter, but it was huge. That meant they had a "living" Palentine right there. If it was possible, they could have spoken with him about his battle with Eldfen to find out how he and the others managed to defeat the dragon and bound him to Earth. She didn't feel their battle with him was done, so any insight would have been huge.

Something to consider later, but sooner than later.

"He sounds more merciful than me," she said. "Not cool to abuse someone else's teachings and mistreat the students they trusted you with." She shrugged. "I guess it's all working out for the best. Hey, from the sound of it, you've met him. What's he like?"

"I'm not sure why you feel the need to explain this very particular problem to me, Sarada." Zaofan said quietly.

He left the rest unsaid, for by this point, it should have been rather plain. Earth had been ground under the shackles of The Elder Dragon for thousands of years, and only very recently had been able to move out of his bloody shadow. Everything he was, everything he'd done, he had a front row seat to. Everything he tried to cover up was right under their noses and was woven into the history of their home planet.

By the flash of hurt on his face, this was a matter he took very, very seriously.

"I'm used to being underestimated, sure. The further along things have been going, I'd gone along with it, because I know I have a part to play here, and that's fine. However, with this year possibly being our last, Ochazuke and I have been working to do all we can to prepare for the fight to come. Besides our training in the moment, that includes building for the future...and teaching those who are willing to learn."

Balancing the cookie in his narrow fingers, the brief darkness that took his face evaporated into his usual good-natured self with a small wink.

"So just to be clear, I'd rather not be talked down to by my friends as well, okay? I know there's things out there that will erase everything you are down to the withering memory. Things crawling between dimensions willing to get out and telling some unlucky sap it's a miracle."

The cookie fluttered there in front of the Saiyan Queen's face.

"Maybe I'm not a God- Inanna, but what can I do? I do what I can."

Sarada frowned sadly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to patronize you. I just don't want my friends getting hurt because they..." She let out a frustrated growl. She wanted to make sure that he understood that there were things Inanna knew that were dangerous. If he, if Sarada or anyone else found out about them, that made them a target. It seemed he understood that, so she dropped it. "Whatever. Forget it."

She sighed. "None of us are gods. At least not yet. All we can do is our best, and make sure that today's best is better than yesterday's best." Hey, that sounded pretty good. "You like that? I totally just made that up."

Perhaps it was a rather harebrained scheme, holding a morsel hostage directly in front of a Saiyan, and one crowned from conquest, to boot, for there are far simples ways to chase dangerous thrills - like cutting your hand and dipping it into the brackish rainforest basin or the shark-filled sea. The tale of the planet-splitting fight with Tundra would be enough to dissuade even the bravest and the most brazen.

Those who have no fear, however, cannot know what courage is.

Zaofan leaned inward slightly at the contact point, pressing down. To Sarada's instincts, the direction seemed clear, and yet he somehow managed to drift the chocolate-studded disc exactly where it needed to be.

Each time contact shifted and was reestablished, the sensation was similar to pressing upon a ball floating over the surface of the water; the sinking force seemed to press it out of grasp. And when the third limb struck out from behind, he took a short step back, yet maintained the contact point, a thing in motion.

She's good. Really good. Wow!

This surely was an acutely refined natural weapon, the sharpened mind of a predator, all the more uncanny the way her face lost all emotion put toward the task. Precise snappy reactions, and she began to adapt.

Left. Right. Right. Left. Above. Tail.

Reactions, night instantaneous, without a thought in between the ground into muscle memory by a high level of physical training of training. Yet still in the midst of the dervish, three limbs against one, the cookie remained in Zaofan's grip and the contact point rolled from wrist to wrist, annoyingly just out of reach by the slimmest of margins. It was as if he were somehow goading her reflex to provoke a specific reaction and as a results, his motions swam past her attempts like a whisk through egg whites.

...of course, much like whisking egg whites, go at it too long, too aggressively, and the peaks stiffen.

"Hup!"

And as a chef, he'd rather not lose his hands. He rolled the cooking back, bounced it off his wrist, and spun it on the tip of his finger.

"Whew...alright, here you go," he said as he gave her the confectionary treat. "You...you've earned it."

Chuckling to himself, he dabbed off his forehead, then started massaged his aching hand. Why don't I save myself the trouble and just stick a fork in the garbage disposal next time...

Pinging the Capsule Communicator in his ear, he called down “Adam? Protocol 3. Tell Jinzi Queen Sarada will be headed your way shortly.”

The Martial Chef was a man of his word.

"Now, I hope some of this exercise will stick with you, because this is the first of three principles of the Fusion Technique," he said, "If two parties are going to merge together into one, you'll have to understand your partner, not compete with them."

With all conscious thought shunted to the background, there were no active emotional reactions. No frustration, no anger, no mewls of exasperation as her attempts to pluck the cookie from Zaofan's grasp were repeatedly rebuffed. Even with the added benefit of removing cerebral analysis and all that bullshit to give her more precious seconds to close the gap between and the added use of her tail, she couldn't figure out how or why she kept failing.

Eventually, Zaofan realized that she was going to tear his arm off pretty soon - not really, but she may have considered doing something drastic for that cookie - he gave her the delicious disc. It was gone, reduced to atoms the next instant.

Sarada's conscious mind returned as she wiped her mouth of any offending crumbs. The lesson? Understand her partner, not compete with them. It was the antithesis of the Saiyan mindset. They loved to compete, aggressively so. Parsley was her greatest rival. The stronger and better her sister became, the more Sarada was compelled and motivated to improve herself to keep up or even jump ahead. Parsley's magic gave her a huge edge, but soon, Sarada would learn her own anti-magic thing to level the playing field.

"Saiyans thrive on competition," she said as she stood and moved to wash up the dishes she and her daughter used. "That part comes naturally. Understanding will take some work." She remembered the tournament from years ago and all the humans she fought against. "I guess humans are the same." She smiled wryly and put the then clean dishes up. "We're more alike than any of us realize."

Kumara was still sleeping, thankfully. She adjusted her high chair into a baby seat and carried it in one arm. "It was good seeing you again, Zaofan. Hopefully, next time won't be when there's another threat to some world's peace."

She started to walk out, then stopped suddenly. "My anniversary is coming up in a four months. I expect something nice since you didn't show up to my wedding."

[grampagen]

“There are other crimes amongst your party, especially among the Saiyans and Goddess Inanna, but as they were not Judged yet, we shall attend to them later.”

He holds his hands out and gestures in a sweeping motion.

“You do not refute that these individuals committed the crimes, merely offered explanation and justification of their actions. Your info, if valid, would mitigate some, like Held being framed, but the laundry list of crimes persists beyond that.”

It’s eyes glow slightly, and for the first time the monotone infliction in its voice shifts to something more...passionate or animated. Something more human than robot under all the logic.

“You present outside situations and circumstances to mitigate crime, but the truth is Justice is blind. It cannot take into account circumstance if it is to remain sacrosanct and above favoritism, correct?. A thief who steals for pleasure and a thief that steals to feed their family is still a thief, yes? The crime, at its simplest, is the same. You would say Mercy should out rule Justice than, and the second criminal treated less harshly than the first?”

"...you don't seem to understand. Justice is blind, but yours is cowardly," Zaofan seethed slowly, "Let's be real here, you haven't judged the Saiyans or Inanna because you can't. Even if you wanted you, you couldn't make a move to do anything about it. You couldn't take the risk making yourself an open enemy of them. So you went after Evangeline and Held and others who couldn't defend themselves or see you coming...because you thought you could get away with it."

The nerve of this guy! He just got through telling him about the potential good he hadn't taken into account before and after the crimes and he just...didn't get it.

"'Attend to them later-' if you don't understand who these people even are, then who are you to pass the sentence? You clearly didn't know a thing about them before you acted, so what gives you the right? Their inability to retaliate?"

In that moment, something suddenly clicked.

"...was this all from what Lord Forger told you? How can you call your judgment objective or perfect if it's skewed toward an agenda outside of itself? Look, your whole scheme is toppling under its own consequences!"

Zaofan took a step forward, motioning for Jinzi and Wilhelm to step back. If things were going to get serious, he'd have to keep them safe for what he might yet have to do.

"Was this a committee decision from all of you, even that Fairy flinging out curses for the fun of it, or that Kaiju lady who I'm not even sure can speak? Was this ever really about evil intentions, or was this all about control? About weeding out the problems before they got worse? I have no idea how that gun of yours works, but space is a very large place, it would be impossible to make all those shots at the same time, which means that you judged them all at a fixed point in their lives without once talking to them. I'm guessing you ran the calculations and took the shot ages before it arrived and this is the result."

The red burning in his eyes began to solidify into something bristling, hot enough to singe the cyborg's metal frame where he stared at him, even across this distance.

"Let's turn that computer brain of yours around, Mr. Judge, since you seem to prefer looking at a situation halfway before pulling the trigger all the way. Do you know who Jack Knave was? Or Nunlil? I doubt that you do because Forger hadn't kept an eye out for them, did he? They're dead. My friends are dead just because they happened to have stood near Evangeline when you dropped your sentence on her. The Ulthan made their move and they died as collateral damage for that. You hear me? You killed them for no reason whatsoever, they died for nothing!"

If there were any vestige of civility remaining in Zaofan, it was masked behind layers of a particularly ferocious fighting intent that shrouded his person, as the shroud of the Altered Beast flowed through him.

"So then, for the crime of unprovoked murder, give me one good reason why I shouldn't erase you myself, right here, right now?! By your logic, I have more than enough just cause, don't I? If I get rid of you, that'll put an end to a mad machine with the sole purpose to fix a guilty verdict without question! No more murders or innocent victims held to a fickle standard!"

The burning red shone so intensely that it seemed nothing but the space between Zaofan and the Judge existed as everything else fell into shadow.

"The ends justify the means, that's what this is all about, isnt it? Well I'm stronger than you! I'll do it so I'll no longer be a slave to your terror any more than you are to your creators, accountable only to myself!"

His teeth pressed together as he made his mark.

"So why shouldn't I judge the Judge?! What are you going to do about it?! Say something!"

[grampagen]

His memory persisted even though his body died? "So, he's some kind of... astral ghost?" It probably didn't matter, but it was huge. That meant they had a "living" Palentine right there. If it was possible, they could have spoken with him about his battle with Eldfen to find out how he and the others managed to defeat the dragon and bound him to Earth. She didn't feel their battle with him was done, so any insight would have been huge.

Something to consider later, but sooner than later.

"He sounds more merciful than me," she said. "Not cool to abuse someone else's teachings and mistreat the students they trusted you with." She shrugged. "I guess it's all working out for the best. Hey, from the sound of it, you've met him. What's he like?"

Zaofan nibbled his lip as he thought over his answer.

"Hm. Well, it's kinda like what you said, right now Zxu'ro, he's something like a ghost, or a memory given solid form through a ki technique, it's rather extraordinary!" He nodded as if to accentuate the point. "It's already the case that when he speaks, you listen, but when he throws hands, you're able to really feel the effects, heh."

To describe the enigmatic Master as a person, well, that was a very difficult thing to do. Each fragment seemed to have been left there at very different stages of his life.

"He's both everything you'd expect, yet not quite what you might picture. Very wise, personable, and filled with the kind of hope any good teacher would have for a friend, comrade or student...and yet he's often distant, almost like he's holding back a kind of sadness. It's like something out of one of those stories, you know? The ones where the hero knows what has to be done, and he knows he's able to do it, and yet no matter how hard he tries, he can't. He can only watch what's happening in the world around him because it's not his time. Only, for Zxu'ro and all his memories, that time will never come, because he knows it's already passed him by."

Sarada frowned sadly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to patronize you. I just don't want my friends getting hurt because they..." She let out a frustrated growl. She wanted to make sure that he understood that there were things Inanna knew that were dangerous. If he, if Sarada or anyone else found out about them, that made them a target. It seemed he understood that, so she dropped it. "Whatever. Forget it."

She sighed. "None of us are gods. At least not yet. All we can do is our best, and make sure that today's best is better than yesterday's best." Hey, that sounded pretty good. "You like that? I totally just made that up."

"Consider it forgotten," he said, holding up a hand with a shrug. "Present company included, we already know something about three of them, for better or for worse, and according to our new handbook, Auroc used to know them by name, meaning there's four more. But we have enough on our plate."

"Think I'd rather pass on the whole godliness thing..." He left it at that and stretched with a silent yawn as Sarada continued. "Heh heh...I sure have been getting an earful of that a lot lately. But hey, that's all we can really do."

With all conscious thought shunted to the background, there were no active emotional reactions. No frustration, no anger, no mewls of exasperation as her attempts to pluck the cookie from Zaofan's grasp were repeatedly rebuffed. Even with the added benefit of removing cerebral analysis and all that bullshit to give her more precious seconds to close the gap between and the added use of her tail, she couldn't figure out how or why she kept failing.

Eventually, Zaofan realized that she was going to tear his arm off pretty soon - not really, but she may have considered doing something drastic for that cookie - he gave her the delicious disc. It was gone, reduced to atoms the next instant.

Sarada's conscious mind returned as she wiped her mouth of any offending crumbs. The lesson? Understand her partner, not compete with them. It was the antithesis of the Saiyan mindset. They loved to compete, aggressively so. Parsley was her greatest rival. The stronger and better her sister became, the more Sarada was compelled and motivated to improve herself to keep up or even jump ahead. Parsley's magic gave her a huge edge, but soon, Sarada would learn her own anti-magic thing to level the playing field.

"Saiyans thrive on competition," she said as she stood and moved to wash up the dishes she and her daughter used. "That part comes naturally. Understanding will take some work." She remembered the tournament from years ago and all the humans she fought against. "I guess humans are the same." She smiled wryly and put the then clean dishes up. "We're more alike than any of us realize."

Kumara was still sleeping, thankfully. She adjusted her high chair into a baby seat and carried it in one arm. "It was good seeing you again, Zaofan. Hopefully, next time won't be when there's another threat to some world's peace."

She started to walk out, then stopped suddenly. "My anniversary is coming up in a four months. I expect something nice since you didn't show up to my wedding."

"Well, consider this a thing to ponder: how can you work as one person when you're competing with each other?" Zaofan rolled down his sleeves to the cuffs. "Fighting isn't just about clashing and coming out a winner. You know as well as I do that it's a subtle dialogue."

He tilt his head back and swept his thumb and forefinger over his chin. "Do you think I was able to stay ahead of you because I was matching you strength-for-strength? The unspoken martial language between fighters, it's like a duel of wit as well as skill. You're quite good at expressing yourself, and I know you're able to harmonize with someone else when you put your mind to it, otherwise Kumara wouldn't be still be sleeping off lunch."

After plucking at his nonexistent beard sagely, Zaofan then rather dreaded introducing the next step...then it hit him. Maybe I should've started here to harness that competitive streak.

"I'm sure you know the old cliche, 'the only way to truly know someone is to fight them?' That's not always about winners or losers. Second step: Next time you have a chance to train with your sister, work on equalizing your powerlevels. By all means, improve as far as you can go, but since we're talking about technique where you'll be working with each other to ascend, reading and matching the intensity of your ki to reflect one another is essential. I'd advise keeping it at base, as it were. It might be hard for you folks used to breaking limits and going beyond, but if were easy everyone'd be doing this. You trust her as much as she does you, in time an understanding will work itself out."

At her closing remarks, Zaofan paused and narrowed his eyes behind an uncomfortable smile.

"Eh...how about you and Parsley come back and figure this Fusion thing out, and we'll call it wash?"

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Zaofan nibbled his lip as he thought over his answer.

"Hm. Well, it's kinda like what you said, right now Zxu'ro, he's something like a ghost, or a memory given solid form through a ki technique, it's rather extraordinary!" He nodded as if to accentuate the point. "It's already the case that when he speaks, you listen, but when he throws hands, you're able to really feel the effects, heh."

To describe the enigmatic Master as a person, well, that was a very difficult thing to do. Each fragment seemed to have been left there at very different stages of his life.

"He's both everything you'd expect, yet not quite what you might picture. Very wise, personable, and filled with the kind of hope any good teacher would have for a friend, comrade or student...and yet he's often distant, almost like he's holding back a kind of sadness. It's like something out of one of those stories, you know? The ones where the hero knows what has to be done, and he knows he's able to do it, and yet no matter how hard he tries, he can't. He can only watch what's happening in the world around him because it's not his time. Only, for Zxu'ro and all his memories, that time will never come, because he knows it's already passed him by."

Zxu'ro's was a sad story. Sarada couldn't imagine what it was like to watch her people suffer under the thumb of a terrible enemy and be able to do nothing about it. He was only a ghost, an image of the past that lingered somehow. There was nothing he could have done to stop "President Grinthorn" from wreaking silent havoc. Watching his school be fragmented and abused by arrogant teachers must have only magnified that pain.

"That has to suck," she remarked when he finished. "But, knowing that his students are stepping up to protect Earth has to stem the pain a little bit."

"Consider it forgotten," he said, holding up a hand with a shrug. "Present company included, we already know something about three of them, for better or for worse, and according to our new handbook, Auroc used to know them by name, meaning there's four more. But we have enough on our plate."

"Think I'd rather pass on the whole godliness thing..." He left it at that and stretched with a silent yawn as Sarada continued. "Heh heh...I sure have been getting an earful of that a lot lately. But hey, that's all we can really do."

She grinned and smashed her fist into her open palm. "Four more faces to punch in! We'll show all those godly douches not to **** with us mortals!"

Auroc had a list of gods and godlike beings. Well, Sarada had her own list based on his list: a list of people she needed to punch up. Those gods thought they were hot ****; just wait until they got a load of her.

"Suit yourself," she said with a shrug. "I told Asha'rah years ago that I plan on becoming a god so I can surpass the ones that already exist. Parsley told me that there's an Angel in Hell that knows a ritual for ascension. That's how those Ulthan fucks managed to do it, and I'm doing the same." It wasn't even about the status. Who gave a **** about being a god? It was the next time of her evolution as a warrior. Super Saiyan would eventually reach a natural plateau. It was the nature of mortality: everything had its limitation. Toss in god ki into the equation and everything changed. There was no telling how high Sarada and Parsley could go once they ascended.

She couldn't wait to find out!

"Well, consider this a thing to ponder: how can you work as one person when you're competing with each other?" Zaofan rolled down his sleeves to the cuffs. "Fighting isn't just about clashing and coming out a winner. You know as well as I do that it's a subtle dialogue."

He tilt his head back and swept his thumb and forefinger over his chin. "Do you think I was able to stay ahead of you because I was matching you strength-for-strength? The unspoken martial language between fighters, it's like a duel of wit as well as skill. You're quite good at expressing yourself, and I know you're able to harmonize with someone else when you put your mind to it, otherwise Kumara wouldn't be still be sleeping off lunch."

After plucking at his nonexistent beard sagely, Zaofan then rather dreaded introducing the next step...then it hit him. Maybe I should've started here to harness that competitive streak.

"I'm sure you know the old cliche, 'the only way to truly know someone is to fight them?' That's not always about winners or losers. Second step: Next time you have a chance to train with your sister, work on equalizing your powerlevels. By all means, improve as far as you can go, but since we're talking about technique where you'll be working with each other to ascend, reading and matching the intensity of your ki to reflect one another is essential. I'd advise keeping it at base, as it were. It might be hard for you folks used to breaking limits and going beyond, but if were easy everyone'd be doing this. You trust her as much as she does you, in time an understanding will work itself out."

At her closing remarks, Zaofan paused and narrowed his eyes behind an uncomfortable smile.

"Eh...how about you and Parsley come back and figure this Fusion thing out, and we'll call it wash?"

She frowned.

They had to equalized their power? Why? She assumed that Fusion added the two powers together. If they were even, then the end result would be weaker, right? Then again, if they were to fight as one cohesive unit, they had to be synchronized in every respect.

Well, Zaofan knew more about it than she did. "Alright. We supposed to have two more year-long stints on Ilargi when she gets back, so we'll get it down then." Having a year together to do nothing but train with that new method in mind was such a great advantage. Plus, they had ready made sparring partners in the Archons, all of which were strong enough to give them good fights to help push them beyond their limits - or help fight as one.

"What? No. The present has to be for the both of us, not just me, right? Inanna wouldn't give a **** about Fusion." She sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever. I guess it doesn't matter if she isn't here to celebrate it."

"Oh, I nearly forgot!" She reached into her cleavage and pulled out her capsule wallet. She pulled one out and popped it open, unveiling a large bronze trunk, as well as a small box. "When you see Erosa again, can you give her these? I owe her big time for helping to save Ruco a few months ago."

She didn't have much time left and still needed to talk to Jinzi. "I'll see you again soon, Zaofan!"

After bidding farewell to Eva and the others, Sarada leaped off Lookout with sleeping half-demon in tow and flew toward Capsule Corp. ...She assumed that was where Jinzi lived as President. I probably should have asked.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"....Your majesty." Etrina took a moment to bow respectfully. "....Please forgive my unannounced appearance. Though as I understand it was likely not unexpected."

Raising her head, Etrina took a quick measure of the monarch before her. The Queen of the Fae, it seemed, definitely had the aura of royalty. Perhaps this was the reason she had been reduced in size before their audience....it would be bad form to out stature the queen of the realm after all.

"I'm not particular knowledgeable in the ways of your people....so I ask for your leniency should my formal manners be lacking. I am honored you've allowed me this audience. That being said...." Etrina folded her hands and took a breath. "You've offered council to the Lord Forger in the past, prophetic vision of a future where a dear friend of mine suffers a fate with tragic consequences for life in our universe.....I would see what he has seen so I can judge the validity of such a future for myself."

Etrina tensed.

What happened next would be entirely at the whim of her host.

The Queen cocks an eyebrow, than chitters at Binder. The two speak back and forth for several seconds before Binder speaks up.

“Such gifts are only given once. The Lord Forger’s vision is his own. However, a vision can be granted to you if you wish. It will not be exactly the same as Lord Forger’s, but of a similar nature.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Caliban rolls his eyes but dutifully turns around and even covers his face so Etrina can have her privacy.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Zxu'ro's was a sad story. Sarada couldn't imagine what it was like to watch her people suffer under the thumb of a terrible enemy and be able to do nothing about it. He was only a ghost, an image of the past that lingered somehow. There was nothing he could have done to stop "President Grinthorn" from wreaking silent havoc. Watching his school be fragmented and abused by arrogant teachers must have only magnified that pain.

"That has to suck," she remarked when he finished. "But, knowing that his students are stepping up to protect Earth has to stem the pain a little bit."



She grinned and smashed her fist into her open palm. "Four more faces to punch in! We'll show all those godly douches not to **** with us mortals!"

Auroc had a list of gods and godlike beings. Well, Sarada had her own list based on his list: a list of people she needed to punch up. Those gods thought they were hot ****; just wait until they got a load of her.

"Suit yourself," she said with a shrug. "I told Asha'rah years ago that I plan on becoming a god so I can surpass the ones that already exist. Parsley told me that there's an Angel in Hell that knows a ritual for ascension. That's how those Ulthan fucks managed to do it, and I'm doing the same." It wasn't even about the status. Who gave a **** about being a god? It was the next time of her evolution as a warrior. Super Saiyan would eventually reach a natural plateau. It was the nature of mortality: everything had its limitation. Toss in god ki into the equation and everything changed. There was no telling how high Sarada and Parsley could go once they ascended.

She couldn't wait to find out!



She frowned.

They had to equalized their power? Why? She assumed that Fusion added the two powers together. If they were even, then the end result would be weaker, right? Then again, if they were to fight as one cohesive unit, they had to be synchronized in every respect.

Well, Zaofan knew more about it than she did. "Alright. We supposed to have two more year-long stints on Ilargi when she gets back, so we'll get it down then." Having a year together to do nothing but train with that new method in mind was such a great advantage. Plus, they had ready made sparring partners in the Archons, all of which were strong enough to give them good fights to help push them beyond their limits - or help fight as one.

"What? No. The present has to be for the both of us, not just me, right? Inanna wouldn't give a **** about Fusion." She sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever. I guess it doesn't matter if she isn't here to celebrate it."

She didn't have much time left and still needed to talk to Jinzi. "I'll see you again soon, Zaofan!"

After bidding farewell to Eva and the others, Sarada leaped off Lookout with sleeping half-demon in tow and flew toward Capsule Corp. ...She assumed that was where Jinzi lived as President. I probably should have asked.

She finds him easily enough, sitting behind a mountain of paperwork after the seven secretaries begrudgingly let her through.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"...you don't seem to understand. Justice is blind, but yours is cowardly," Zaofan seethed slowly, "Let's be real here, you haven't judged the Saiyans or Inanna because you can't. Even if you wanted you, you couldn't make a move to do anything about it. You couldn't take the risk making yourself an open enemy of them. So you went after Evangeline and Held and others who couldn't defend themselves or see you coming...because you thought you could get away with it."

The nerve of this guy! He just got through telling him about the potential good he hadn't taken into account before and after the crimes and he just...didn't get it.

"'Attend to them later-' if you don't understand who these people even are, then who are you to pass the sentence? You clearly didn't know a thing about them before you acted, so what gives you the right? Their inability to retaliate?"

In that moment, something suddenly clicked.

"...was this all from what Lord Forger told you? How can you call your judgment objective or perfect if it's skewed toward an agenda outside of itself? Look, your whole scheme is toppling under its own consequences!"

Zaofan took a step forward, motioning for Jinzi and Wilhelm to step back. If things were going to get serious, he'd have to keep them safe for what he might yet have to do.

"Was this a committee decision from all of you, even that Fairy flinging out curses for the fun of it, or that Kaiju lady who I'm not even sure can speak? Was this ever really about evil intentions, or was this all about control? About weeding out the problems before they got worse? I have no idea how that gun of yours works, but space is a very large place, it would be impossible to make all those shots at the same time, which means that you judged them all at a fixed point in their lives without once talking to them. I'm guessing you ran the calculations and took the shot ages before it arrived and this is the result."

The red burning in his eyes began to solidify into something bristling, hot enough to singe the cyborg's metal frame where he stared at him, even across this distance.

"Let's turn that computer brain of yours around, Mr. Judge, since you seem to prefer looking at a situation halfway before pulling the trigger all the way. Do you know who Jack Knave was? Or Nunlil? I doubt that you do because Forger hadn't kept an eye out for them, did he? They're dead. My friends are dead just because they happened to have stood near Evangeline when you dropped your sentence on her. The Ulthan made their move and they died as collateral damage for that. You hear me? You killed them for no reason whatsoever, they died for nothing!"

If there were any vestige of civility remaining in Zaofan, it was masked behind layers of a particularly ferocious fighting intent that shrouded his person, as the shroud of the Altered Beast flowed through him.

"So then, for the crime of unprovoked murder, give me one good reason why I shouldn't erase you myself, right here, right now?! By your logic, I have more than enough just cause, don't I? If I get rid of you, that'll put an end to a mad machine with the sole purpose to fix a guilty verdict without question! No more murders or innocent victims held to a fickle standard!"

The burning red shone so intensely that it seemed nothing but the space between Zaofan and the Judge existed as everything else fell into shadow.

"The ends justify the means, that's what this is all about, isnt it? Well I'm stronger than you! I'll do it so I'll no longer be a slave to your terror any more than you are to your creators, accountable only to myself!"

His teeth pressed together as he made his mark.

"So why shouldn't I judge the Judge?! What are you going to do about it?! Say something!"

The Judge watches him, saying nothing even as the outer layer of his form singes and glows a faint red from Zaofan’s harsh light.

After a few moments, the Judge nods.

“I accept your Judgement, your logic. I have no info on Jack Knave or Nunlil, oddly, but a brief search brings up information saying they were killed. If it was by my hand, unknowing or not, justice must be taken. You must become The Judge than, and judge me on my actions.”

His head twitches a bit, eyes flickering for a moment.

“I am......hmm. There are files missing. How passing strange, my data files are..incomplete.”

Eyes flick to Zaofan and then to his rifle in Wilhelm’s hands.

“Be careful using it, Judge. It is...a heavy burden.”

The last is said not with the same monotone robotic voice, but some underlying emotion coloring it. Whatever organic presence still residing within peeking through at last.