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

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Nail and Slak again have a conversation they can’t hear, then Elder Nail nods slowly.

“I would not be against such an alliance.”

He holds a hand out to Sarada.

Sarada grinned and took Nail's offered hand. "That's great to hear, Elder Nail. To a long and prosperous partnership."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Sarada grinned and took Nail's offered hand. "That's great to hear, Elder Nail. To a long and prosperous partnership."

He shakes it back firmly.

“Slak has told me you and your people have changed, Queen Sarada. Guardians Meagan and Evangeline have also spoken well of you. I hope to see where this partnership can take us both.”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

He shakes it back firmly.

“Slak has told me you and your people have changed, Queen Sarada. Guardians Meagan and Evangeline have also spoken well of you. I hope to see where this partnership can take us both.”

"If Slak here is any indication, we have a great deal to learn from your people."

So, people has taken notice. It meant that their efforts weren't just being acknowledged in private between themselves. They weren't doing it just for everyone else, but it felt good to know that the perception was changing.

"All of the credit goes to this lady," Sarada said, gesturing toward Maiz. "She's the one who's been raising the more open-minded generation that's really kick-started this whole reformation.

"Some of the credit," Maiz amended. "There were several who agreed with me and helped." She glanced at Nail and sighed. "I have to ask you a favor, Grand Elder, if I may?"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"If Slak here is any indication, we have a great deal to learn from your people."

So, people has taken notice. It meant that their efforts weren't just being acknowledged in private between themselves. They weren't doing it just for everyone else, but it felt good to know that the perception was changing.

"All of the credit goes to this lady," Sarada said, gesturing toward Maiz. "She's the one who's been raising the more open-minded generation that's really kick-started this whole reformation.

"Some of the credit," Maiz amended. "There were several who agreed with me and helped." She glanced at Nail and sighed. "I have to ask you a favor, Grand Elder, if I may?"

“And what would that be, Guardian Maiz?”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

“And what would that be, Guardian Maiz?”

Maiz drew in a breath to calm herself, then explained.

"A few months ago, we were attacked by a powerful enemy who intended on killing a comatose Sarada and wiping is out. My son, Mato, and my daughter, Rutaba, sacrificed themselves so Sarada could live and defeat him. I would like to learn how to make a set of dragon balls so I can bring them back, as well as all the soldiers and civilians who were killed during that invasion.

"Please?"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Maiz drew in a breath to calm herself, then explained.

"A few months ago, we were attacked by a powerful enemy who intended on killing a comatose Sarada and wiping is out. My son, Mato, and my daughter, Rutaba, sacrificed themselves so Sarada could live and defeat him. I would like to learn how to make a set of dragon balls so I can bring them back, as well as all the soldiers and civilians who were killed during that invasion.

"Please?"

Nail’s face clouds over for a second, eyes narrowing.

“Dragonballs can only be created by a Namekian of the Dragon Clan. There are none available that have yet to make their own set, as they are few and far between. I am sorry, it will not………”

Slak holds a hand up, firmly looking at the two Saiyans.

“I have yet to make mine.”

Elder Nail and Slak have another mental conversation for a few minutes before Nail fold his arms across his chest, brow furrowed but silent. Slak speaks up.

“My father is correct. Dragonballs can only be created by a Nemekian, Alakazah’s not withstanding, and only one of the Dragon Clan can do so. Once created they can be transferred to another, such as with Earth’s being passed down through the Guardian Line. However, each Dragon Clan member can only create one set. As such, currently, only I remain that can make one.”

He pauses and nods.

“I cannot teach you to make a set, but Inwould be willing to create you one and attach your Guardian Line to it.”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Nail’s face clouds over for a second, eyes narrowing.

“Dragonballs can only be created by a Namekian of the Dragon Clan. There are none available that have yet to make their own set, as they are few and far between. I am sorry, it will not………”

Slak holds a hand up, firmly looking at the two Saiyans.

“I have yet to make mine.”

Elder Nail and Slak have another mental conversation for a few minutes before Nail fold his arms across his chest, brow furrowed but silent. Slak speaks up.

“My father is correct. Dragonballs can only be created by a Nemekian, Alakazah’s not withstanding, and only one of the Dragon Clan can do so. Once created they can be transferred to another, such as with Earth’s being passed down through the Guardian Line. However, each Dragon Clan member can only create one set. As such, currently, only I remain that can make one.”

He pauses and nods.

“I cannot teach you to make a set, but Inwould be willing to create you one and attach your Guardian Line to it.”

When she heard Slak's decision, Maiz's lips started to tremble. Very soon, she would see her children again, all thanks to the kindness of a complete stranger. "Thank you," she murmured as tears started falling down her face. "Thank you so much."

Sarada's reaction was much more muted, but still just as grateful. "Thank you, Slak. You didn't have to do that, but... You have no idea what this means to us."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

When she heard Slak's decision, Maiz's lips started to tremble. Very soon, she would see her children again, all thanks to the kindness of a complete stranger. "Thank you," she murmured as tears started falling down her face. "Thank you so much."

Sarada's reaction was much more muted, but still just as grateful. "Thank you, Slak. You didn't have to do that, but... You have no idea what this means to us."

He nods.

“I will begin packing shortly. I will travel with you and create the dragonballs on Vocado. It will take several days to create a brand new dragon, just so you know.”

[MrSandman]

Your head rocks backwards as you eyes turn white, and a vision plays out before you.

Etrina finds herself watching, as if a movie, a scene before her. Three Destroyers, their faces obscure but all feminine appearing, floating behind a radiant figure.

Oddly enough, in this vision, another man floats beside her.



“Interesting.”

"Vague is more like it..." Etrina couldn't help but answer with annoyance, turning a momentary side glance to the man. "....what are you, my vision animal?"

The figures before her were too shadowed to make out, save being possibly female. The shining figure in front was likewise unrecognizable, but she held a fair assumption in the back of her mind of who it could be.

So instead....so focused on the 3 behind him in an attempt to part the veil of their identities.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

He nods.

“I will begin packing shortly. I will travel with you and create the dragonballs on Vocado. It will take several days to create a brand new dragon, just so you know.”

"Ah, Vocado was destroyed a few months ago," Sarada explained. "We're building a new throne world, but it's nowhere near ready."

"It should be fine," Maiz said. "We'll provide you with temporary shelter on the new throne world until you're done."

Sarada nodded her agreement.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

OT:

Roll a D20 and tell me the number that pops up.

IC:

Praxat, only echoes seems to exist here. The ruins are vast and intricate, large pagoda like buildings half covered in swamp vines are interspersed with columned trade buildings that are barely standing.

OT: I roll a 18

[grampagen]

" I am Chahan, 73rd Grand Master of the Crane School. Two thousand years of victories do I hold in my fist. Tell me, Crimson Cloak, what it is that makes you any different than any other beast, man or demon the hermit and I have survived?"

"S'pose it's probably 'cause he's all three."

"PERISH IN FLAMES! DAI HINOTAMA!"

Blood issued from Shingen, its surface forming into an leaden orb. Cracks poured upon its surface and he cast it forward, superheated like magma as it combust into a fireball that descended toward them. Chahan lift a finger, Kuki threw forth his palm and for the first time in generations, the Kamehameha and Dodonpa of masters flew side by side toward the Blood Mantle.

They say that at a certain level, a fight between martial artists is decided in the fewest moves, for in the course of an engagement there come few moments, and even less men crafty or knowledgeable to use them. What Chahan beheld before him, however, was a twisted conundrum, for truthfully Ryu Shingen was neither man nor demon, refined nor savage, cosmic nor earthly. Rather, he stood an abomination, this bloody shade, and so garbed in the manner of the fell samurai of old with the sword to match, Chahan felt nothing but insulted by the Master of Assassins.

Perhaps he is merely putting on airs, but none of that matters anymore, he thought, for the sword sang through the air with a killing intent his jaded soul was far too familiar with. Against an opponent like this, it suit him just fine, even though for his engorged size, the swiftness of his arts never left the Hokuto Master.

So it was that they clashed in the air. Shingen's blade flew, and as his forebearers had done against the shogun retainers ages ago Chahan by the coarse conditioning of his limbs would deflect the sword, beat it back by the flat, then close the distance and strike. Seven times he did this, his punches landing with precision, but whether nose, throat, chest, abdomen or groin, though the impact struck true as if hitting upon steel plating, buckled and cracking, it did not slow Ryu Shingen down in the slightest. Each counter-riposte from the Crimson Cloak drew blood from shallow cuts as he narrowly escaped them as he returned to position, his keen bird's eyes never wavering before executing the same maneuver again without hesitation. With each droplet of vitality absconded from his flesh, the blade glowed and the nigh-impenetrable substance that composed Shingen's body would be made whole once more.

"YOUR POWERS ARE FEEBLE, OLD MAN." The blade thrust, and Chahan sought to deflect once more, and withdrew swiftly into a retreat as he nearly lost his head, and Shingen's mocking laughter pursued him. "THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE! INHERENT TO IT ARE THE MEMORIES THAT GUIDE THY FIST! THOSE I HAVE SLAIN, THEY SPEAK TO ME!"

What fresh hell is this? he must be bluffing.

"THE FALLEN HOKUTO DISCIPLES GRANTED ME THE EYES OF THIRTEEN YOUTHS TO REFINE MY TECHNIQUE! THE BLOOD OF YOKAI, THEIR AFFINITIES! A MILLION DEATHS WILL BE THE BIRTH OF TEN MILLION MEMORIES FOR THEIR SOULS ARE MINE TO PORE THROUGH AS I SEE FIT!"

Where the wounds had struck, Chahan felt a searing within his skin. Hastily he gathered his ki and braced for the explosion that threw him backwards, and Shingen threw his blade forward in the aftershock.

"IN OTHER WORDS, YOUR OWN BLOOD HAS BETRAYED YOU, OLD MAN, AND THUSLY I CANNOT BE DEFEATED! SUIJUHA!"

With a hard twist, the Crimson Cloak struck the air, and blooded droplets stirred the air instantly into a great tornado before him unmeant for the Paozu Valley. The river ceased its course as it was wicked dry to the bottom, and the winds bored through brook and bramble towards the edge of the forest with enough force to pluck the old growths up by their ancient roots. Unfortunately for him, that was not the only ancient thing pulled up from below, as Kuki scrambled from trunk to tinder, remarkably composed as he threw a salvo of energy spheres about him.

"I SEE YOU TURTLE MAN! DO YOU THINK THIS MISCHEIF WILL AVAIL THEE?"

Cast out from the twister, they moved in oscillating patterns converging onto Shingen who then slashed into the spheres, absorbing the ki as they unfurled. As he stood astride the timber in the twister, Kuki observed, his clear eyes wide beneath a furrowed brow, even as the Hokuto master tore at the sky towards him and cut the tree in half beneath him, sending him leaping and running from one to the next casting another series of ki orbs. The Nichirin Odama cast themselves adrift in the torrent, leaves floating in the storm as they quickly scattered, and Shingen barreled past them to find his footing before Kuki.

"CHOU NINPOU! KAZE NO MAI!"

His visage darkened as he passed. Like a streak of black lightning Shingen cut forward, and though his Oni Sword was not seen, it was felt through even the howling vacuum at the core of the crimson cyclone. He swung the sword down, the wood splintered...and he suddenly found he could not move where Kuki now stood upon its narrow blade.

"Hrm. S'enougha that!"

The gnarled human face of the Shogun of the Dark glared hellish murder at him from where it emerged from his demonic body. His body began to bristle with dark energy, and the blade of bone and steel shift beneath the Kamesennin's feet.

"CHOU NINPOU! JIYAIDEN-"

The incantation never finished as Kuki smashed a palm into Shingen's face, carrying with it ki enforced within Seisui Tensho. Energy rippling through his strike, coursing through his face and turning the flow of energy within his armour itself. Though he drew sustenance from blood, the myriad malformations left Ryu Shingen without need for veins or other mortal concerns to draw a breath. He was nearly impervious to conventional damage. And yet the insights of Kuki's waking meditation through his skill of Kyokushin Keihatsu had granted this knowledge to him: strike the energy, strike the soul. Without flesh, the ki was, in essence, rawer within this newly possessed armoured body and when Kuki struck the soul of the being within it was like clawing at an open wound.

For the first time, Shingen cried out in pain and forget himself enough to loose his grip on his sword; Which, in turn sent Kuki shooting backwards upon it, through the tree upon the force of his own blow. Crouching he gripped its handle as he began to fall. "Blech!" With a single touch he got a reading of the undead prescence filling its wicked edge. A horrid, twisted calling from the remains of the immortal demons whose remains composed it, it raked over his soul and filled with a particular avarice filled with fine, gravely promises...one he'd long since parted from on the path to shedding worldly attachments some forty years ago. And so Kuki seized it by its pommel and threw it haphazardly back to its owner.

"YOU DARE STRIKE ME?! YE OF MORTAL-"

With the plink of metal on metal, the pommel of the sword bounced off Shingen's head. Incensed, his eyes burned at Kuki who lift two fingers to his forehead and waved off in response.

From behind him, five Nichirin Odama that remained about the bloody twister pulsed and shift, each a suspended Kamehameha beam that converged toward the demon sword and vaporized it instantly before Shingen's eyes. The Shogun screamed, murder in his throat as his power flared desperately; Still helpless in mid-fall, Kuki split a toothy grin and bowed his head.

"THIS CHARADE ENDS NOW! TENSHO HYAKURETSU KEN!"

The Hundred Rending Fists of the North Star. As destiny turns round the guiding light in the heavens, so did Ryu Shingen's order study the median points that govern the body; 708 tenketsu channels guide the course of ki, flowing through energy meridians that drew vitality into the tissues. Should one exert control over them, immense potential beyond the subconscious limits could be acheived, and the Crimson Cloak knew it well: the power of life over death!

The bloody shadow ripped around the Old Turtle and struck him in lethal succession, and blood issued from his sallow face.

"IT'S OVER. YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD!"

His fingers drew no blood this once, for he directed it from within. Kuki felt the flow of his blood seize, and he hit the ground hard and did not move.

Seizing upon the opening, Chahan threw a salvo of Dodonpa. Now that the fiend's sword was no longer, the Grand Master of the Cranes struck true, the thin rays piercing like the narrow bill of his house's sigil. Every bolt fell, chipping apart portions of his armoured body, loosing fragments of the blood-and-katchin matrix at a time.

All for naught, as Shingen closed the distance into a melee. While Chahan's punches struck true, they were meant to smash flesh and shatter bones. The discipline of Hokuto wrought its infamy through attacks that cut through tendons, smashed the defense by twisting nervers. Chahan felt it fall upon his guard, and the muscles that he'd tightened in his stance seized and froze there.

"HACHIMON KUDAN"

Ryu Shingen's hands flew out with a horrid hunger. The blows were light, but the Old Crane was not armoured, and eight strikes landed in an instant upon him.

"TODAY IT ENDS, OLD BIRD, AND I AM YOUR EXECUTIONER! IN THREE SECONDS YOU SHALL BE DRAWN AND QUARTERED, DIVEST OF BLOOD AND BONE BY MY SUPREME SKILL!"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Vague is more like it..." Etrina couldn't help but answer with annoyance, turning a momentary side glance to the man. "....what are you, my vision animal?"

The figures before her were too shadowed to make out, save being possibly female. The shining figure in front was likewise unrecognizable, but she held a fair assumption in the back of her mind of who it could be.

So instead....so focused on the 3 behind him in an attempt to part the veil of their identities.

“No, more an interested party that would like to help.”

He gestures and the three figures become clear. Inanna, Ruination Ishtar, and She Who Stalks.

“Three Destroyers.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Ah, Vocado was destroyed a few months ago," Sarada explained. "We're building a new throne world, but it's nowhere near ready."

"It should be fine," Maiz said. "We'll provide you with temporary shelter on the new throne world until you're done."

Sarada nodded her agreement.

Slak nods, bows, and than leaves to pack. Elder Nail watches them with contemplative eyes.

“Slak is my only progeny. I expect his care and safety to be paramount.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

OT: I roll a 18

After hours of searching, you find a strange metallic door, covered in mud and sludge, that appears to go downward. The door is locked.