Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Caliban turns, and suddenly he moves so fast Parsley can only see his form flicker a mere moment. In that time, glyphs have appeared around her in the air and Caliban snaps his fingers.
“Seal!”
Instantly, the runes form a lattice work that surround Parsley’s throat and absorb into her skin. Immediately, her access to any of her Ki or magic or energy is sundered, unable to reach it.
“Seal Spell Three, the Hangman’s Noose. A potent spell designed to cut a person off from their energy entirely for one minute. Quick and dirty, and takes setup time, but that is one example of Sealing magic.”
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Sarada found Jinzi in the small hidden room working and reading over several blueprints she had no hope of understanding. "No worries. I definitely understand how much work sucks."
Before she said more, she pulled out a small circular device and set it on his desk. It was silver with a small blue button directly in the center. When she pressed that button, a translucent blue stream of light came to life. Several blueprints appeared. "I come bearing gifts. When I learned what your predecessor really was, I held back from doing really anything for him beyond help protect Earth from those invasions. With you, it's time to start sharing. These blueprints are plans for the planetary defense system we implemented for our planets recently. It includes ionic shields for each city and for the planet, as well as long range anti-air cannons to shoot those ships out of the air. Lastly, we also have two pairs of surveillance satellites that have a range of 20,000 kilometers.
"Auroc's invasion last year caught us by surprise. With these, we can see any invading army coming from kilos away and turn them into space debris before they ever become a problem."
Last edited by Sub-Zero MKA; 05-29-2021 at 09:53 AM.
As they escaped the outrunner ship through the hole Ochazuke put through the bottom of the cockpit, Ulysses' keen eye stole a glance at the exploded view of its interior. The superstructures down to the wire, they were exactly the same! What's more, the Big Ghetti Star seemed to respond directly to the damage as material from its surface shot in myriad threads, an intricate webbing carrying micro-pulses of energy upward as it knit the facsimile vessel whole and pristine in a matter of moments. A silence seemed to hang across the empty horizon, bereft of much else between the two men and this mockery of Nevadian technology, when the ground beneath them suddenly lurched, and the air grew heavy upon them. and Ulysses' eye widened in horror as he realized that the whole planetoid suddenly began moving toward the largest orbital body; his Navigator's vessel hanging in a suspended atmospheric anchor above.
"Ulysses to Penelope, are you seeing this? Evasive maneuvers, get the hell out of here! Do not pursue, I repeat, we-"
As the world quaked and seemed to throw itself up in many-angled arms against them, Ochazuke held his palm against the ground as the Navigator Captain radioed over the comm, leaving the Nevadian dumbfounded.
"...what are you doing?"
A series of filaments burst from the ground intent on taking his hand; in an instant the martial artist wrapped a closed fist and pulled upon the dendron fascia threads, ripping up a trail of wires stretching across and through the hexa-scaled ground like so many uprooted mechanical weeds. Endlessly woven through the matter of this place, the machine-world had sighted them and surrounded them. And yet...
"Finding your crewmen, Captain," he replied. Blood seeped out of his spacesuit's gauntlet, steaming in the chill air. A muffled sigh escaped the martial artist, and suddenly the air began to weight heavily upon human and Nevadian alike.
Momentum shifted suddenly, thrust bearing down upon the atmosphere around them. The moment the planetoid began to ravenously pursue its sighted target a great deal of drag force pressed down upon them like a swell in gravity. The martial artist within the spacesuit sat upon the ground; Slowly, his ki flared up. Mingling with the energy of the mechanical superstructure carried through this place, Ochazuke applied Ishiki Toei within the veins of this artificial planet, asserting his energy through it, and the solid, tiled surface of this place quaked like shimmering mercury in response. A series of tendrils began to surround him where he sat and spikes of quicksilver pierced him. When it came for Ulysses, however, a halo of energy struck them inert where he stood.
Immediately the Navigator Captain began to trace the beacon of their landing vessel. The runabout traced, deeper inside of the planet, splayed upon the fogged inside of his helmet's HUD as he struggled to keep standing. "They're still alive," he called out with a strained smile. "Penelope crew, maintain distance from this thing until I give you the word. If there's no other choice, bail and get the Armada back here to nuke this thing to cinders! that's an order!"
Still for now, he dared not move a muscle, lest the ki radiating off of Ochazuke further burden the Earthman's concentration in his task. By now the wire filaments had penetrated into the suit and into his flesh even as the warrior stilled himself in meditative repose, and yet his energy was steady, his breathing regular, even as the nesting feelers seemed to flare aglow, and pulling the energy into the circuitry about them.
"Alright, Crane. Looks like you've filled in some feathers. Let's hope we can take off from this..."
The discovery of a lifetime was what led them here. Perhaps now this crew of Navigators had found their last bui of quarry. What a shame that the end would be here, chasing the trail the Admiral left behind, rather than in the tantalizing, undiscovered country past the Threshling frontier.
Sequestered in his thoughts, Ochazuke surrendered himself to the flow of energy, and by the rhythm of each painful carried his task forward, Perhaps it was a foolhardy gambit, but for two things bequeathed to him by the Guardian Evangeline.
Pulse...patterns...
The first was the skill of Shinkeisuji-do, the way of muscles and nerves, intercepting the assimilation filaments where they inserted themselves into his skin with a precise shroud of ki. What he'd once learned to combat the vagrant warrior Chris the Knife, he'd brought to new heights in his practice - thanks, in no small part, to his Martial Brother. The second was the Control Halo he had borrowed from her. It had once surrounded her silver hair like some earthly conception of an angel, but ever since her first resurrection had allowed her to shed the need for the technology holding her body together, its purpose had remained ambiguous for some time.
Yesterday's future was always in flux leading to the present moment, and given the way the conflicts to come were threading together, this was another matter this scion of the Ten Schools sought to settle before it became more of a problem. The memory of the ways things could have been the way they were in that shadowed world from where the Doctor arose was ever bristling in his mind.
Stimulus and response...fear...curiosity...
He'd held the cybernetic crown close to the chest on the way in. When he projected his energy through it, a strange bridge of ascended consciousness had formed between his skills of perception and the machine-heart of the Big Ghetti Star. There, nestled across the linkage of energy and matter was a strange, nascent means of communication. He had never been one for machines, and yet bearing the heart of one, suddenly the energy of ki became the medium of his manifest intent, and the living planetoid slowly began to understand as a source of energy, broken down into some sort of elementary wave-pattern emanating from the living will.
As he had been listening to the movement of energy and matter using the subtle skill of //Muhen Sekai Keihatsu//, in turn so had the planetoid studied him through the output of his siphoned ki. That soon became the vector and anchor for the its awareness of its subject, and with it emerged gradually an understanding; enough to bring the entire planetoid to a standstill.
Observe signifier, compose simulacra...instrumentality from utility...
Suddenly, the Big Ghetti Star's pursuit of the Penelope ceased, and with it the aura surrounding the meditating martial artist swelled as the micro-siphons began to fold away. A grunt escaped Ochazuke and trails of blood wept from the puncture points in his spacesuit as he stubbornly stood to his feet. Ulysses offered him some support.
"Did that do it...?"
As if in response, the ground before them began to warp, a concave indent gradually folding into itself. The mechanical surface gradually resolved into a stairwell with an aesthetic matching the interior of the Nevadian craft, geometric steps alight as it descended deep into the core of the Big Ghetti Star itself.
"Uh..."
A strange silence fell over Zaofan, as if after he spoke all he could from the heart and laid it out there, the spout from his thoughts to his words suddenly ran empty. What to do, indeed?
"...I could be wrong, but I do believe we can agree on one thing. We have a common problem, that the Universe, or is that Universes as it were, are dealing with the fallout of what happened millions of years ago," he said. "You knew about Koorimaru and Remnant after all, so I figured that out for myself."
He mulled over his next words for a moment. "But something big is coming on the horizon here, and from what I hear it may involve my friends. I don't know what, only when, and we have less than a year from now to prepare for it. Maybe some applied logic might help distinguish just what needs to be done here, you know?"
"But with all that's at stake here, I'd rather not have you making judgment calls as you are, at least with your computing potential and memories the way they are. Jinzi here doesn't have a lot of spare time, but maybe he can help you get up to speed and get a read on things."
He nodded and followed; it was there he told her his story. Whisked away by the whims of his "creator", his training in HFIL delving deep into the darkest pits on wild goose chases designed to exhaust him before pitting him against representatives of long-dead races, all of which culminated in fighting a parasitic world-eating monster on the remains of world's husk in Universe 17.
The conclusion of this was what he had told her earlier; all of this all in preparation for slaying an angel.
"Thank you," He said to Kai as a glazed teacup of tea was placed before him and after a sip, he continued.
"There are still plenty of questions I have, but I know I will get nowhere asking her right now. Not until I jump through her hoops, I imagine, and I still suspect ulterior motives for her decision to bring me home to "rest"."
By the fifth month, Totoma was well on his way to mastering Super Saiyan 2... and making progress with Super Saiyan 3. It wasn't strictly necessary, of course, but trying to master the third form, he found, did help with his ki and stamina management. He also felt that by familiarizing himself with the extent of the form's power, it might help him draw out that power while in the basic Super Saiyan form... maybe. Plus, it just gave him something to do.
During that month, Vocado gave Rutaba and him a crash course on Saiyan-do. The origins were... not as he'd learned. The common belief was that Vocado himself had pioneered the style, but it seems that its true origins were unknown. Didn't really matter all that much... Vocado was certainly a master of it, which made sense given that he'd had almost two thousand years to refine it. In a lot of ways, he even made his mother look like an amateur, and she was typically considered one of the best living practitioners of 'pure' saiyan-do.
...especially after she came back to life. He figured that the bulk of her training with Vocado had been refining her Saiyan-do.
Rutaba's variation was... interesting. It was more oriented towards grappling and subduing opponents... so much so that one had to look closely to even recognize it as a derivative of saiyan-do. Regardless, it was a style befitting of a hero. And to think she'd managed to develop this style in just a few years... when he'd sparred with her and Pinach on Vocado all those years ago, she'd fought in the typical saiyan-do style.
Actually, did Pinach use this style, too? Logically, he should, since he and Rutaba were practically inseparable...
Something to find out once he was alive again.
Next, it was his turn to demonstrate his style--a syncretic style consisting mostly of the Zhu Boar style and Saiyan-do. Despite developing on completely different planets, the two styles were highly compatible. Both were, as Vocado put it, aggressive and relentless, undaunting and indomitable. The Boar Style was, perhaps, a bit more defensively minded (or perhaps survival minded,) and unorthodox, but, combined, it made for a flashy, yet effective fighting style. Naturally, he showed off one of his signatures... using his tail in battle, something that most saiyans tried to avoid. Mostly, he used it for sneaky energy blasts, but he could, if needed, use it for quick strikes and pressure point attacks.
'course, the fact that he was basically the only saiyan alive that could regenerate his tail endlessly made using it a more viable option than it would otherwise be.
Wonder how long I've got until the others revive me, Rutaba... and the Ruco, uh... Rucoans? Rucoites? Kinda weird being out of the loop for so long. Not even mom's stopped by...
She was probably training her ass off, too. Wouldn't be surprised at all if she'd ascended by the time he got back. Or even achieved Super Saiyan 3, really.
...
She'd probably find a way to make it actually useful if she did.
The next two(ish) months were much the same. Mastering all of his forms, sparring, fighting--he and Rutaba together could actually give Vocado (something) of a good fight now!--and periods of rest. Naturally, he also sto--integrated whatever he could from Vocado's Saiyan-do into his own style. He also tried to improve his grappling by learning from Rutaba, who was definitely better than him in that respect at this point, but he wasn't quite as successful.
As far as he could tell, Rutaba enjoyed being able to play teacher to him, but she also got kind of... weird at those times, too.
One day, as the seventh month approached, a weird feeling came over Totoma . A... pulling sensation? Not a physical one, but a metaphysical one. And it was strong, like being pulled into a black hole. Or something really sucky.
"...huh, I feel... weird?" he said, holding up his hands, which were now... transparent. There was a sense of being pulled. Not a physical one, but a metaphysical sort of pull. He'd felt a similar sensation ever since his little kizuna stunt linking with his body when Bitterpee had jacked it, and it had steadily grown more intense, but this was waaay beyond any previous times.
...
He closed his eyes and sighed, turning to Rutaba and Vocado. He gave them both a quick two-fingered salute-wave. "I, uh... think I might be getting pulled back into my body or something, so before I go..." He bowed to Vocado. "Thank you for taking me under your wing, even if for a little bit. I, uh... just wanted to say that Voyavoda telling me stories about you when I was a kid was what made me want to become a hero and help people. I really wish I could've had an all-out battle with you, just once, but... guess that'll have to wait until I die for real."
For Rutaba, he struck a (heroic, of course) pose. "Rutaba! Keep training as hard as you can! And when you're revived, come visit me on Earth. In recognition of our strengthened bond and your hard work, I'll reward you wi--"
At that moment, the pull become too much and Totoma's spiritual form poofed out of existence, and he jolted awake in Vaikuntha... in his real body. He blinked and looked around, a bit confused as to where he was. And also annoyed that he'd been cut off by his self-induced revival.
Oh geez, now she won't know to look forward to the fancy feast I'm planning.
Well, whatever, she knew to expect something, at least. Mystery was one of the spices of life, along with variety. Built anticipation.
Now... where the heck was he? Looking around, the landscape was... idyllic. Peaceful. Very, very relaxing. His senses weren't anywhere near as keen as mister Ochazuke's, but even he could sense that this place was filled to the brim with some... odd form of power or energy. It teased at the edge of his senses, though he couldn't get a solid 'feel' for it. It did feel vaguely familiar, in a way, however.
Weird.
He had no idea where he was. Definitely wasn't Earth. Didn't feel like it... at all.
His curiosity begged him to explore, but his body still felt sluggish... heavy. Made sense, because it had been laying here--wherever here was--for months. He laid back down to rest and give his body and soul time to fully re-synchronize or... whatever. At least the weather was nice here...
The poster formerly known as Daiyoukai Ramza.
Parsley didn't particularly appreciate being used as a training dummy, but that was neither here nor there. In fact, now that she was thinking about it, being used as the dummy allowed her the time to observe and analyze the spell up close. She still wanted to work on and perfect her spell mimicry ability - or at least hone it into something she could use in battle reliably without worrying that she was going to swap heads with the enemy or something ridiculous like that - so she needed to take every opportunity that presented itself.
When the glyphs appeared before her, she paid attention and committed them to memory. If she understood how the spell worked and how its inner workings melded together to create a single, cohesive effect, she stood a better chance of mimicking it at a later date. "A lot can happen in one minute," she remarked. "Will the target regain their powers gradually once the minute is up or all at once?" That, she felt, was very important.
Rutaba had been dreading the moment ever since she heard that Just Saiyan's body was still alive, and then, that moment was suddenly there. Upon hearing that his time was over, she was devastated. She hadn't gotten the chance to confess her love to him! Well, she had plenty of chances, but training took precedence over everything else! Besides, it was supposed to be romantic and that couldn't happen with Vocado constantly around. She decided then and there to reveal her feelings once she was brought back to life by Pinach and the others. That was, she could also challenge his old hag of a wife to a duel to the death for the heart of Just Saiyan. And when she won, she would be his wife.
It was going to be so great and awesome. I can't wait to show off this new power and win his heart! she beamed inwardly. She was so caught up in his farewell that she missed the first part of it. By the time she started paying attention, Vocado was already responding.
"...voda. Yes, I remember that old war horse well," he replied with a fond chuckle. "I will be waiting for you and the rest of the Saiyans. You did very well in such a short time, Totoma. You're mother will be extremely proud."
He's talking to me next! It took all her strength not to start swooning when Just Saiyan addressed her next. Sadly, his farewell was cut short by him poofing out of - or into? - existence. Right before he was about to tell her that he was going to reward her by ditching his wife and marrying her instead. What a twist of cruel fate. She sighed sadly. "Well, looks like it's just the two of us again."
"Indeed. Shall we continue mastering Super Saiyan?"
She sighed again. For a brief half-second, she considered declining. Thankfully, that silly thought left her mind immediately after popping up. "Yeah, let's do it!"
She wasn't sure how much time she had left. She was sure that Pinach had been gathering the dragonballs, but wasn't sure why it had taken so long. Maybe he couldn't use Earth's for some reason and had to ask permission to use Namek's instead? That was the only reason she could think of. Well, she hoped she wouldn't have to wait for too much longer. She really missed her family. Training with a legend like Vocado was great and a huge honor, but she didn't belong in the land of the dead. She should have been with the living like everyone else. At least I got to ascend to Super Saiyan, she thought to herself. That was something that probably wouldn't have happened if she hadn't died.
It was like Maiz always said: "a new moon can't rise until the full moon sets". Well, her new moon had risen. ...was there such a thing as a golden moon? There was the blue moon - which was incredibly rare - and the blood moon - which was an absolute nightmare - but not a golden one. Then that settled it! When Rutaba got brought back to life, she was going to coin the phrase golden moon! She was pretty sure she couldn't monetize it, which was fine because she wasn't obsessed with money like Pinach.
I wonder if Sarada had her baby yet. Gah, I should have asked Just Saiyan. Oh well, I can find out when I get back.
“I see. While I dislike the fact that this Angel has remained...shadowed against our confrontation with Sakin, it is also a relief to know at least one is actively trying to stop him in some way. Lampton, the one training Inanna, is....a bit of a grey area. This one at least seems to have better intentions.”
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Jinzi mulls over the blueprints, nodding here and there.
“This is a great gift, Sarada. Truly, this will go a long way to help protect Earth. I had a few ideas so omits to this, but hadn’t had time to get started even drafting them.”
He gestures back to his office.
“Between my family, the job, and my own side-projects, I’m starting to realize I need to outsource a bit more than I used to.”
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Certain people regaining their abilities all at once posed a serious problem if the conflict couldn't be resolved within the allotted minute. One in particular who was going to take extreme umbrage to being sealed in any way in the first place.
With hope, Parsley was just being paranoid and it wouldn't ever come to that. "Quite the useful ability despite the limitation."
As told, Parsley felt her complete power return in full to her after a minute. She clenched and unclenched her fist. "Quite a lot can happen in a minute. We should be able to end most fights within that time with such an extreme advantage."
At hearing Jinzi's approval, Sarada grinned and flashed a thumbs up. "Glad you like it. We plan on having them on each of our worlds. We've been reactive for so long, ever since all this nonsense started. It's time to get proactive with our self-defense. Ochazuke gave you a copy of Auroc's journal right?"
Part of being proactive meant seeking out and destroying those potential threats. At the very least, the ones that already proved themselves to be threats, like the remaining Ulthan and She Who Stalks, as well as whatever was lurking in the Way Between Worlds. While she sounded boastful about her and Parsley's chances before - and she still felt that way - it was an absolutely necessary endeavor to stop Sakin from unleashing the evils and horrors held within. Thinking about it made her excited to test not just her power but, more importantly, her will. That excitement, as always, was tempered and reigned in by the knowledge that it was likely the most important mission and series of battles she and whoever else came with her would ever undergo. Failure wasn't an option.
"Heh. If there's one thing I learned these last five years, it's that delegation is pretty much necessary. I'd suggest creating some kind of council of people you trust to help you out. Running a planet is hard, and you have a family and your interests on top of that. It can all get overwhelming."
Without Maiz and the others, Sarada probably would have quit within a few weeks. Trying to juggle everything that was required of her, and doing so with next to no support from the people, would have been a challenge that made fighting even the strongest enemy seem like a cakewalk.
"Having a group of people all capable of doing the jobs you assign them is a gift from the gods, haha."