Post by Celerous on Jul 31, 2017 23:26:39 GMT -5
[PL: 2334; 1750.5 with Light WC]
The small brook that Celerous sat at was impressively clear. It was completely devoid of any muck or particles, and it even tasted clean. Bending over at the bank, Celerous cleaned his hands of the sweat from his training session, and cupped them to draw water from the flowing stream. He brought his hands up to his mouth and took another gulp of the water. It was refreshing, especially after the few hours he had just spent kicking and punching in his new weighted clothes.
He stood up and shook his hands, trying to dry them off. Rolling his shoulders, the farm boy turned to his makeshift camp; a small nylon tent and a temporary firepit cobbled together from some stones (that Celerous found at the bottom of the brook), both of which sat under the shade of a tall oak tree. Celerous had only been out here for a day and a half, and most of that time had been spent in tense training.
After being freed from his obligation from the farm, Celerous had opted to temporarily leave the spacepod behind, and explore Earth at his leisure. After all, what kind of “explorer” left for Wild Space without ever traveling around his own planet? Not that Celerous considered himself an explorer; he had only flown about a hundred or so miles West of his home, which meant he was still pretty close to Satan City, and therefore civilization. In reality, he hadn’t explored anything. He hadn’t even seen any of Earth’s famous landmarks, or biomes, like Mount Paozu or the Diablo Desert!
Sighing at the sheer amount of sightseeing he had to do before he could justify exploring space like his father had, Celerous sat down in front of the fire pit that he had been slowly roasting some trout over. He turned a critical eye to the fish, that were currently impaled on the makeshift spit he had managed to make out of some thin branches from the oak tree. The meat was browning on the side facing the fire, so Celerous reached up with his hand and twisted the spit so that the uncooked side now faced the flames.
‘Well, that’ll take a little while to cook. Guess I could try and get some extra practice in.’
The hybrid stood from the ground, dusted the sides of his pants off, and shook the dirt and grass from his tail. Celerous took to the air, flying over to the far side of the brook. He knew exactly what kind of training he was going to do in the time he had, and if things went sour, he wanted his camp to at least stay intact. At that thought, he took to the air again, and moved even farther away.
Landing, Celerous took in a breath, and looked to the clear sky. He focused on the blue hue above him, and with clenched fists, he began to draw out his Ki. As the familiar feeling of the energy pervaded his body, he brought his hands to the sky, and let loose the biggest burst of Ki he could manage. The yellow ball, about a quarter of the size of a spacepod, flew lazily through the air for a few seconds, until it lost its momentum and began to fall back to the Earth. Celerous spread his feet apart, held his hands up with the palms flat, and braced himself as the energy he released came crashing back down.
It slammed into his hands, and Celerous fought to stay upright as the energy swelling above him threatened to crush him. The ball didn’t so much as vibrate or “hum” with energy; it was more like a pulse. Just about every other second, he felt a pressure apply itself to his arms, which would then travel throughout his whole body like a wave until it reached his feet. By the time one “wave” seemed to pass into the ground, Celerous would feel another hit his palms. He felt a ragged shout leave his throat as he tried to throw the ball back into the air.
Instead, the attempt only increased his exertion, and Celerous fell to one knee. His arms quickly turned to lead, and his elbows bent involuntarily. Celerous had to tuck his chin into his chest just to keep the Ki blast from touching his face. As it was, the energy ball was only inches from touching his neck. And while Celerous was confident that he wouldn’t die if it happened, having a big ball of Ki explode on him would still be excruciating. The fear of pain seemed to lesson his exhaustion some, as he felt his arms rise a little. Too little, but it gave him that much more breathing room.
Breathe. That’s right, he needed to breathe properly, and not raggedly as he was. He drew in a gulp of air, and exhaled it all to quickly. Then another, slower this time. Another, and he kept drawing until his breath slowed, and some of the strength he’d had returned to his body. Celerous relaxed his core as much as he could, and slowly rose off of his knee, and stood tall once more. Next came his arms. They were still bent far too low for his liking, so squinted his eyes shut and pulled even more energy from his being.
And it worked. The ball that had been crushing him grew lighter, and Celerous was able to extend his arms until they were perfectly straight once more.
'Okay, now I’m back to where I started. Time to get rid of this thing.’
But to do that, he would need more energy. With his eyes still shut, Celerous strained his body, trying to draw everything he had left in it. His mouth opened, and ragged yells came forth once more. His arms and legs began to shake, but they did not falter. Veins bulged along his muscles, and they pulsed in time with the waves of pressure the energy ball sent through him. Celerous felt like a sponge; wringing his body for every last drop of Ki. When he was sure he had it, Celerous forced it up his arms, and formed a second, smaller ball of red Ki out of it. The bulbous energy pushed into the bigger blast bearing down on him, and the yellow energy blast seemed to almost sag around it.
“FLARE-”
As worn as his voice was from yelling with exertion, Celerous was still able to form coherent, and very loud words. The second energy blast in his hands swelled with power, and it almost seemed to be alive. The new energy Celerous was forming felt energetic; as if it wanted to be released against their yellow oppressor.
“FIRE!”
And released it was. The red energy turned from a ball into a ki wave, one that shot straight up the middle of the yellow blast, and pushed it into the heavens. Celerous kept his arms up, ensuring that the flow of Ki was uninterrupted. When his arms began to shake, Celerous let out a yell, and let loose one last burst of power. As his arms fell to hang limply at his sides, he watched as a small explosion dominated the sky, painting it with a red hue for a fraction of a second.
Then he fell onto his back.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
He woke to another explosion. Celerous jolted up, his head spinning as quickly as it could so that he might scan his surroundings. He didn’t see anything in the immediate area. Then again, it was dark out. That surprised Celerous. It seemed that after his training exercise, he had accidentally fallen asleep. And in that time, the moon had risen high into the sky. He had no way to check what time it was, not with his watch being at his camp on the other side of the river. If he had to guess though, he must have fallen asleep only a few hours before dusk. At the very least, he had slept for five to six hours.
And in that time, someone had gotten close enough to let off an audible explosion.
Celerous silently leapt to his feet, and slowly suppressed his Ki. There was a good chance that whoever was around hadn’t noticed his camp or him yet. If so, Celerous wanted to keep it that way. His eyes scanned over the flat plains more meticulously this time, but to no avail. It was simply too dark for him to see much. He waited for another explosion, or any auditory clue that someone might be close to him, but he heard only the chirping of crickets near the brook.
“Dammit,” he Celerous muttered to himself.
There was one more thing he could resort to; sensing for Ki levels. It was an easy technique, one that his father had taught him at a young age. Usually, it would have been the first thing he used to try to find someone in his area. But there was a drawback to Ki Sense; Celerous wasn’t skilled enough to search for someone else’s Ki, and keep his own suppressed at the same time. To try would be like shooting off a flare for anyone else who could sense energy levels.
As he was about to bite the bullet and do it anyway, he heard another explosion go off, and this time, there was a flashing yellow light to accompany it. His eyes flickered to his left, past the oak tree that hung over his campsite. With the flash of light having dispersed, he still couldn’t see past the tree itself. He would simply need to get closer.
Taking care to keep his power level suppressed, Celerous broke into a sprint, and launched himself over the brook with a mighty jump. He landed in a roll, and he effortlessly kept his momentum and continued to sprint. His long legs carried him past the tree, and once he was out of its shadow, he began to see a couple of dark shapes in the distance. Four of them looked to be humanoid, and three of them stood together, while the fourth stood about six car lengths away. Between the the lone figure and the three figures, was a bigger, and bulkier shape. It looked to be a big truck.
When he was close enough to be heard, Celerous shouted, “What gives?!”
Before he could facepalm at revealing his presence, despite intending to do the exact opposite, the lone figure shuffled a little bit. By the time Celerous realized that the shuffle had been the figure pointing his arm at him, there was a Ki blast headed his way. He didn’t think; didn’t have time for it. Instead he reacted on pure, cowardly, instinct, and threw himself to the ground. The blast flew over him and exploded somewhere behind him. Well, at least now he knew what had caused the explosions he’d been hearing.
“Stay out of this, asshole. Doesn’t concern you.”
The words sounded like something a big and gruff guy would say, to a bystander who happened across a gang fight in an alley, but the voice that had spoken to him was feminine. Tough sounding, like she was willing to throwdown with anyone who pissed her off, but feminine still. Celerous was surprised, but that didn’t liberate her from the consequences of shooting a Ki blast at him.
He stood up, spitting dirt from his mouth. Now that he was close enough, he could make out the woman who assaulted him. He could tell that she was young, even with the cover of night masking her features. She had black hair that was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a black leather jacket, with dark grey jeans and boots. He wasn’t close enough to see the color of her eyes, or to approximate her height, but he was more than close enough to feel her energy. Now that there wasn’t much of a need to suppress himself, he could tell that this woman was easily just as strong as he was. Maybe even stronger.
Part of him got excited just at the thought of fighting her. He quelled that feeling, and instead tried for a less confrontational approach.
“Woah, you should watch where you shoot those things! I was right in the way!”
It sounded so stupid that he had to fight the urge to facepalm.
The woman clearly agreed, as she turned to look at him with a single eyebrow raised. Her hand remained pointed at him, and a yellow glow enveloped it.
“Yeah, okay, that was dumb. I’m just trying to break the ice here. Look, you woke my up with your Ki blasts, and I just wanna know what’s going on here.”
One of the three figures, all of which were somewhat overweight adolescents, spoke up with a stutter, “S-she’s trying to kill us! We done nothin’ to her!”
“Oh that’s a load of bull,” the woman said, as she pointed her hand at the trio, “you broke into the women’s locker room to sneak a peek!”
Ah, the truth came out. Celerous could see why the girl was so pissed off then. She thought she was teaching a lesson to a couple of perverts, and while Celerous did not abide by spying on unaware women by any means, he also wasn’t one for advocating murder in the countryside. That thought brought him to his next question; what in Kami’s name were they doing all the way out here?
Celerous dashed in front of the three accused perverts, and raised his hands near his face in surrender.
“Woah, I get that they did something incredibly invasive, but come on, you can’t murder them!”
All he got was another cocked eyebrow, and a small ball of Ki formed in her hand.
“Okay, okay, okay! I get it, you’re really pissed off! But, I mean, you can’t just attack them!”
“‘Pissed off?’ Oh it’s so much more than that! Would someone who was just ‘pissed off’ chase these three worthless idiots all the way from Satan City?”
Celerous’s jaw dropped unconsciously. All the way from Satan City? That was hours from here by car! He turned to the three behind him.
“You guys drove all the way out here to get away? Why didn’t you just go to one of the police precincts in the city!”
The one who had spoken to him originally pointed at the truck, “What are the police going to do to someone who could do that!”
Upon a proper inspection, Celerous noticed that the truck definitely wasn’t in prime condition. The rubber tires had been melted, likely from heated Ki blasts, and there were a number of scorch marks across the body of the truck from similar attacks. The tailgate had been blasted clear off, and the front bumper and the hood were severely dented, as if someone took a baseball bat to it.”
“What in the world… what did you hit?”
“She made us drive through an orchard!”
“Oh relax,” her arm was still leveled at Celerous, “you’re alive. For now.”
“Okay, let’s all just calm down here. I’m Celerous. I don’t much care to know the names of you three, but if the girl who’s pointing ball of energy would deign to tell me who she is, that’d be great.”
She snorted, “Celeste. Now get out of my way or get blown up.”
Celerous frowned, “Look, I’m not saying they don’t deserve to be punished for peeking in the girls locker room while you changed, but this is too far. So I’ve got a counter offer; leave or deal with me.”
He figured he had his answer when she sent a Ki blast careening his way.
He caught the ball of energy with his hands, and with a shout, pushed back to her with a blast of his own. She twisted her torso to her left, and the blast shot past her. Expecting her to dodge it, Celerous had used the blast as cover so that he could get close. His fist slammed into her gut, and she doubled over. His next blow was to be a chop to the side of the neck, but to his surprise, she managed to catch it with her hand. She pushed his arm up, and followed up with a quick knee to his stomach. As Celerous coughed out spittle, Celeste let go of his hand, spun on her heel, and delivered a roundhouse kick to his chest.
Celerous went sprawling to the dirt, but he quickly recovered by using his hands to stop his momentum. He jumped to his feet in time to block a follow up punch that had been aimed for his jaw. He kicked her knee out from under her, let go of her clenched fist, and swung a punch for her temple. He whiffed. Celeste came back up with an uppercut that made him stumble a few feet back. Shaking his head, Celerous spat a glob of blood onto the dirt.
“So the monkey knows how to fight. Well, I might not go that far,” Celeste remained where she was, with both of her fists brought up in an orthodox boxing stance.
‘So, she was definitely trained to fight,’ he noted.
Smiling, Celerous said, “Please, as if I’d go all out on some high schooler!”
“You don’t look much older than me.”
“But I’m much stronger.”
With his feet wide, and his arms curled up near his shoulders, Celerous let out a yell as his aura flared up, and with it, his power level.
The punch in his gut caught him off guard, and his aura died as quickly as it flared up. He hunched over, and took another uppercut on the chin as a result. This one put him on the ground, lying on his back. Celeste stomped her boot on his chest, and Celerous hacked with pain.
“You didn’t- did you think I was just gonna let you power up? Who in their right mind would do that?”
Celerous responded with smirk, and raised his open palms to face her. His issued forth a Ki burst, and Celeste was sent airborne, until she crashed to the ground a few feet away. Celerous leapt to his feet, and then leapt farther, to where Celeste was laying. He slammed a boot down on what was supposed to be her arm, but she rolled out from under him, and pulled him to the ground by yanking on his leg. Celerous landed on his hands, and kicked off of the ground, spinning in the air, and landing a well placed knee to her face. With a sputter, she rolled a few feet away. Celerous landed on his back, and rolled to his knees.
“Some advice; talk less and fight more.”
She was on him in an instant, springing up from the ground and into the air, and coming down with a very telegraphed punch. Celerous grabbed the arm that wasn’t throwing a punch, and threw her onto the ground. Her fist came up and clocked him in the jaw, sending him back onto his ass before he could pin her down. She jumped for him again, but Celerous kicked out both of his leg, and caught her stomach with his feet. He push his legs out as far as they would stretch, and deposited Celeste back onto the ground.
They stood to their feet together. Celeste eyed him for a second, before pushing her arms out and firing out another Ki blast. Celerous knocked it aside with his left arm, and it exploded behind him. He rushed at her, and brought an arm back. She moved her own arms to block a punch to the torso, and didn’t expect Celerous to instead kick at her knee. She stumbled back, and dropped her arms, leaving her wide open to the punch Celerous had purposely telegraphed. It landed right on her forehead, and she stumbled back even farther, clutching the spot where he had hit her, with her left hand.
Celerous brought his hands back up in front of him, “You done?”
She just smiled at him. Then she disappeared. Something latched onto his tail, and Celerous looked behind him to see the brown appendage in the firm grasp of a reappeared Celeste.
“Heard you Saiyans don’t like this,” she gave his tail a yank, and Celerous slid half an inch toward her.
He elbowed her in the face, and the shocked visage that crossed her features at his lack of paralysis was priceless. Cradling her nose, Celeste took a step back, and Celerous capitalized on it. He jumped up, and came crashing down with a blow to her collarbone. She slammed into the dirt below with a gargled cry.
Celerous jumped away from her, and when he landed, curled his tail out in front of him. He quickly inspected it, to see if she had pulled any hairs loose. Satisfied that it hadn’t been soiled by Celeste’s hands, he let it go back to swishing behind him.
“Can we call it a night? Because I would really like to get some sleep,” Celerous called out to Celeste, hoping she would submit.
Celeste stood to her feet, panting heavily. She placed her arms our in front of her, and started to groan and grunt. Celerous could feel her Ki rising, and he just sighed. This chick really didn’t know when to give up. When Celeste’s arms began to glow with a yellow hue, he knew what was coming.
Celerous stretched his arms out in front of him in turn, and felt the familiar flow of energy that would make up a Flare Fire. A red orb of Ki hummed with energy as it began to expand from his open palms. He took a breath. He had to focus his energy on this one; couldn’t let the Flare Fire blast off with too much power. Tired as she was, Celeste wouldn’t be able to take it on the nose and stand back up if he used it at full power.
Celeste let out a loud yell, and the wave of yellow Ki she had been building up was discharged.
“Flare Fire!”
His significantly larger wave of red colored Ki collided with Celeste's attack. They pushed against each other, equal in power, and fought for dominance over the center point of the distance between the two fighters. The two attacks sent gusts of wind blasting throughout the plains, and the light show they were putting on could likely be seen from a mile away. Celerous could hear Celeste grunting and groaning from the effort of holding his attack at bay. She couldn’t keep this up for much longer, but even Celerous himself was starting to tire.
Slowly, the Flare Fire won dominance over Celeste’s yellow wave. She struggled to push back, but to no avail. In half a minute, the red beam was an inch away from her fingertips. Celerous felt her resistance give out, and the red ki exploded on Celeste, and sent her tumbling across the grass. For a second, she was still, and Celerous’s breath caught in his throat. Did he not hold back enough?
Then she groaned, and began to slowly get up. Calming himself down, and taking a good glance, Celerous noticed she didn’t seem to be to badly injured, much to his relief.
He turned to tell the boys to get back home, but was surprised to find that they were long gone, evident by their absence and the tire marks in the dirt. He probably should have been a little irked that they bailed without even thanking him for diverting Celeste’s attention, but honestly, it was probably better this way. Now the girl couldn’t take her frustration out on them.
“What was that attack?”
He turned to look at Celeste. She was bruised and bleeding from several cuts on her face and arms, and her jacket had been burnt to a crisp. It seemed she herself had avoided getting scorched though, and Celerous was thankful for that.
“Just a little something I came up with in my spare time. You alright?”
Celeste frowned at him, “Why do you care?”
“Because someday, I’d like to fight you again,” he said with a smile, “can’t do that if I accidentally crippled you.”
She snorted, “Well, then don’t fret. I’m fine. Wouldn’t have been if you hadn’t decided to hold back on that last attack.”
“Didn’t want to roast you.”
They stood silently together for a minute, neither one of them knowing what to say. Celerous tried to busy himself by looking at the stars, but it didn’t make him feel any less awkward. Right as he was about to excuse himself, and return to his campsite to catch some sleep, Celeste spoke up.
“Those idiots deserved to be punished.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Celerous replied, “but you can’t just slaughter them.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” she was silent again.
“Well, if you can make it back to Satan City on your own, then I guess I’ll take my leave. Need some sleep after that fight.”
He began to walk back in the direction he had come from.
“Wait!”
He turned to see Celeste with one of her arms outstretched in his direction.
“Next time you’re in Satan City, stop by Moreal’s Urban City Kitchen! It’s my dad’s diner, and well, I guess I kind of owe you a meal for attacking you.”
Before Celerous could respond, Celeste took to the air, and flew off towards civilization.
“Huh. ‘Moreal’s Urban City Kitchen.’ I’ll have to remember that.”
Celerous continued on his way back to camp. His stomach growled.
“Aw, dammit! My fish have probably turned to ash by now!”
[WC: 4399. Light WC are equipped]
[Asking Pl]
The small brook that Celerous sat at was impressively clear. It was completely devoid of any muck or particles, and it even tasted clean. Bending over at the bank, Celerous cleaned his hands of the sweat from his training session, and cupped them to draw water from the flowing stream. He brought his hands up to his mouth and took another gulp of the water. It was refreshing, especially after the few hours he had just spent kicking and punching in his new weighted clothes.
He stood up and shook his hands, trying to dry them off. Rolling his shoulders, the farm boy turned to his makeshift camp; a small nylon tent and a temporary firepit cobbled together from some stones (that Celerous found at the bottom of the brook), both of which sat under the shade of a tall oak tree. Celerous had only been out here for a day and a half, and most of that time had been spent in tense training.
After being freed from his obligation from the farm, Celerous had opted to temporarily leave the spacepod behind, and explore Earth at his leisure. After all, what kind of “explorer” left for Wild Space without ever traveling around his own planet? Not that Celerous considered himself an explorer; he had only flown about a hundred or so miles West of his home, which meant he was still pretty close to Satan City, and therefore civilization. In reality, he hadn’t explored anything. He hadn’t even seen any of Earth’s famous landmarks, or biomes, like Mount Paozu or the Diablo Desert!
Sighing at the sheer amount of sightseeing he had to do before he could justify exploring space like his father had, Celerous sat down in front of the fire pit that he had been slowly roasting some trout over. He turned a critical eye to the fish, that were currently impaled on the makeshift spit he had managed to make out of some thin branches from the oak tree. The meat was browning on the side facing the fire, so Celerous reached up with his hand and twisted the spit so that the uncooked side now faced the flames.
‘Well, that’ll take a little while to cook. Guess I could try and get some extra practice in.’
The hybrid stood from the ground, dusted the sides of his pants off, and shook the dirt and grass from his tail. Celerous took to the air, flying over to the far side of the brook. He knew exactly what kind of training he was going to do in the time he had, and if things went sour, he wanted his camp to at least stay intact. At that thought, he took to the air again, and moved even farther away.
Landing, Celerous took in a breath, and looked to the clear sky. He focused on the blue hue above him, and with clenched fists, he began to draw out his Ki. As the familiar feeling of the energy pervaded his body, he brought his hands to the sky, and let loose the biggest burst of Ki he could manage. The yellow ball, about a quarter of the size of a spacepod, flew lazily through the air for a few seconds, until it lost its momentum and began to fall back to the Earth. Celerous spread his feet apart, held his hands up with the palms flat, and braced himself as the energy he released came crashing back down.
It slammed into his hands, and Celerous fought to stay upright as the energy swelling above him threatened to crush him. The ball didn’t so much as vibrate or “hum” with energy; it was more like a pulse. Just about every other second, he felt a pressure apply itself to his arms, which would then travel throughout his whole body like a wave until it reached his feet. By the time one “wave” seemed to pass into the ground, Celerous would feel another hit his palms. He felt a ragged shout leave his throat as he tried to throw the ball back into the air.
Instead, the attempt only increased his exertion, and Celerous fell to one knee. His arms quickly turned to lead, and his elbows bent involuntarily. Celerous had to tuck his chin into his chest just to keep the Ki blast from touching his face. As it was, the energy ball was only inches from touching his neck. And while Celerous was confident that he wouldn’t die if it happened, having a big ball of Ki explode on him would still be excruciating. The fear of pain seemed to lesson his exhaustion some, as he felt his arms rise a little. Too little, but it gave him that much more breathing room.
Breathe. That’s right, he needed to breathe properly, and not raggedly as he was. He drew in a gulp of air, and exhaled it all to quickly. Then another, slower this time. Another, and he kept drawing until his breath slowed, and some of the strength he’d had returned to his body. Celerous relaxed his core as much as he could, and slowly rose off of his knee, and stood tall once more. Next came his arms. They were still bent far too low for his liking, so squinted his eyes shut and pulled even more energy from his being.
And it worked. The ball that had been crushing him grew lighter, and Celerous was able to extend his arms until they were perfectly straight once more.
'Okay, now I’m back to where I started. Time to get rid of this thing.’
But to do that, he would need more energy. With his eyes still shut, Celerous strained his body, trying to draw everything he had left in it. His mouth opened, and ragged yells came forth once more. His arms and legs began to shake, but they did not falter. Veins bulged along his muscles, and they pulsed in time with the waves of pressure the energy ball sent through him. Celerous felt like a sponge; wringing his body for every last drop of Ki. When he was sure he had it, Celerous forced it up his arms, and formed a second, smaller ball of red Ki out of it. The bulbous energy pushed into the bigger blast bearing down on him, and the yellow energy blast seemed to almost sag around it.
“FLARE-”
As worn as his voice was from yelling with exertion, Celerous was still able to form coherent, and very loud words. The second energy blast in his hands swelled with power, and it almost seemed to be alive. The new energy Celerous was forming felt energetic; as if it wanted to be released against their yellow oppressor.
“FIRE!”
And released it was. The red energy turned from a ball into a ki wave, one that shot straight up the middle of the yellow blast, and pushed it into the heavens. Celerous kept his arms up, ensuring that the flow of Ki was uninterrupted. When his arms began to shake, Celerous let out a yell, and let loose one last burst of power. As his arms fell to hang limply at his sides, he watched as a small explosion dominated the sky, painting it with a red hue for a fraction of a second.
Then he fell onto his back.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
He woke to another explosion. Celerous jolted up, his head spinning as quickly as it could so that he might scan his surroundings. He didn’t see anything in the immediate area. Then again, it was dark out. That surprised Celerous. It seemed that after his training exercise, he had accidentally fallen asleep. And in that time, the moon had risen high into the sky. He had no way to check what time it was, not with his watch being at his camp on the other side of the river. If he had to guess though, he must have fallen asleep only a few hours before dusk. At the very least, he had slept for five to six hours.
And in that time, someone had gotten close enough to let off an audible explosion.
Celerous silently leapt to his feet, and slowly suppressed his Ki. There was a good chance that whoever was around hadn’t noticed his camp or him yet. If so, Celerous wanted to keep it that way. His eyes scanned over the flat plains more meticulously this time, but to no avail. It was simply too dark for him to see much. He waited for another explosion, or any auditory clue that someone might be close to him, but he heard only the chirping of crickets near the brook.
“Dammit,” he Celerous muttered to himself.
There was one more thing he could resort to; sensing for Ki levels. It was an easy technique, one that his father had taught him at a young age. Usually, it would have been the first thing he used to try to find someone in his area. But there was a drawback to Ki Sense; Celerous wasn’t skilled enough to search for someone else’s Ki, and keep his own suppressed at the same time. To try would be like shooting off a flare for anyone else who could sense energy levels.
As he was about to bite the bullet and do it anyway, he heard another explosion go off, and this time, there was a flashing yellow light to accompany it. His eyes flickered to his left, past the oak tree that hung over his campsite. With the flash of light having dispersed, he still couldn’t see past the tree itself. He would simply need to get closer.
Taking care to keep his power level suppressed, Celerous broke into a sprint, and launched himself over the brook with a mighty jump. He landed in a roll, and he effortlessly kept his momentum and continued to sprint. His long legs carried him past the tree, and once he was out of its shadow, he began to see a couple of dark shapes in the distance. Four of them looked to be humanoid, and three of them stood together, while the fourth stood about six car lengths away. Between the the lone figure and the three figures, was a bigger, and bulkier shape. It looked to be a big truck.
When he was close enough to be heard, Celerous shouted, “What gives?!”
Before he could facepalm at revealing his presence, despite intending to do the exact opposite, the lone figure shuffled a little bit. By the time Celerous realized that the shuffle had been the figure pointing his arm at him, there was a Ki blast headed his way. He didn’t think; didn’t have time for it. Instead he reacted on pure, cowardly, instinct, and threw himself to the ground. The blast flew over him and exploded somewhere behind him. Well, at least now he knew what had caused the explosions he’d been hearing.
“Stay out of this, asshole. Doesn’t concern you.”
The words sounded like something a big and gruff guy would say, to a bystander who happened across a gang fight in an alley, but the voice that had spoken to him was feminine. Tough sounding, like she was willing to throwdown with anyone who pissed her off, but feminine still. Celerous was surprised, but that didn’t liberate her from the consequences of shooting a Ki blast at him.
He stood up, spitting dirt from his mouth. Now that he was close enough, he could make out the woman who assaulted him. He could tell that she was young, even with the cover of night masking her features. She had black hair that was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a black leather jacket, with dark grey jeans and boots. He wasn’t close enough to see the color of her eyes, or to approximate her height, but he was more than close enough to feel her energy. Now that there wasn’t much of a need to suppress himself, he could tell that this woman was easily just as strong as he was. Maybe even stronger.
Part of him got excited just at the thought of fighting her. He quelled that feeling, and instead tried for a less confrontational approach.
“Woah, you should watch where you shoot those things! I was right in the way!”
It sounded so stupid that he had to fight the urge to facepalm.
The woman clearly agreed, as she turned to look at him with a single eyebrow raised. Her hand remained pointed at him, and a yellow glow enveloped it.
“Yeah, okay, that was dumb. I’m just trying to break the ice here. Look, you woke my up with your Ki blasts, and I just wanna know what’s going on here.”
One of the three figures, all of which were somewhat overweight adolescents, spoke up with a stutter, “S-she’s trying to kill us! We done nothin’ to her!”
“Oh that’s a load of bull,” the woman said, as she pointed her hand at the trio, “you broke into the women’s locker room to sneak a peek!”
Ah, the truth came out. Celerous could see why the girl was so pissed off then. She thought she was teaching a lesson to a couple of perverts, and while Celerous did not abide by spying on unaware women by any means, he also wasn’t one for advocating murder in the countryside. That thought brought him to his next question; what in Kami’s name were they doing all the way out here?
Celerous dashed in front of the three accused perverts, and raised his hands near his face in surrender.
“Woah, I get that they did something incredibly invasive, but come on, you can’t murder them!”
All he got was another cocked eyebrow, and a small ball of Ki formed in her hand.
“Okay, okay, okay! I get it, you’re really pissed off! But, I mean, you can’t just attack them!”
“‘Pissed off?’ Oh it’s so much more than that! Would someone who was just ‘pissed off’ chase these three worthless idiots all the way from Satan City?”
Celerous’s jaw dropped unconsciously. All the way from Satan City? That was hours from here by car! He turned to the three behind him.
“You guys drove all the way out here to get away? Why didn’t you just go to one of the police precincts in the city!”
The one who had spoken to him originally pointed at the truck, “What are the police going to do to someone who could do that!”
Upon a proper inspection, Celerous noticed that the truck definitely wasn’t in prime condition. The rubber tires had been melted, likely from heated Ki blasts, and there were a number of scorch marks across the body of the truck from similar attacks. The tailgate had been blasted clear off, and the front bumper and the hood were severely dented, as if someone took a baseball bat to it.”
“What in the world… what did you hit?”
“She made us drive through an orchard!”
“Oh relax,” her arm was still leveled at Celerous, “you’re alive. For now.”
“Okay, let’s all just calm down here. I’m Celerous. I don’t much care to know the names of you three, but if the girl who’s pointing ball of energy would deign to tell me who she is, that’d be great.”
She snorted, “Celeste. Now get out of my way or get blown up.”
Celerous frowned, “Look, I’m not saying they don’t deserve to be punished for peeking in the girls locker room while you changed, but this is too far. So I’ve got a counter offer; leave or deal with me.”
He figured he had his answer when she sent a Ki blast careening his way.
He caught the ball of energy with his hands, and with a shout, pushed back to her with a blast of his own. She twisted her torso to her left, and the blast shot past her. Expecting her to dodge it, Celerous had used the blast as cover so that he could get close. His fist slammed into her gut, and she doubled over. His next blow was to be a chop to the side of the neck, but to his surprise, she managed to catch it with her hand. She pushed his arm up, and followed up with a quick knee to his stomach. As Celerous coughed out spittle, Celeste let go of his hand, spun on her heel, and delivered a roundhouse kick to his chest.
Celerous went sprawling to the dirt, but he quickly recovered by using his hands to stop his momentum. He jumped to his feet in time to block a follow up punch that had been aimed for his jaw. He kicked her knee out from under her, let go of her clenched fist, and swung a punch for her temple. He whiffed. Celeste came back up with an uppercut that made him stumble a few feet back. Shaking his head, Celerous spat a glob of blood onto the dirt.
“So the monkey knows how to fight. Well, I might not go that far,” Celeste remained where she was, with both of her fists brought up in an orthodox boxing stance.
‘So, she was definitely trained to fight,’ he noted.
Smiling, Celerous said, “Please, as if I’d go all out on some high schooler!”
“You don’t look much older than me.”
“But I’m much stronger.”
With his feet wide, and his arms curled up near his shoulders, Celerous let out a yell as his aura flared up, and with it, his power level.
The punch in his gut caught him off guard, and his aura died as quickly as it flared up. He hunched over, and took another uppercut on the chin as a result. This one put him on the ground, lying on his back. Celeste stomped her boot on his chest, and Celerous hacked with pain.
“You didn’t- did you think I was just gonna let you power up? Who in their right mind would do that?”
Celerous responded with smirk, and raised his open palms to face her. His issued forth a Ki burst, and Celeste was sent airborne, until she crashed to the ground a few feet away. Celerous leapt to his feet, and then leapt farther, to where Celeste was laying. He slammed a boot down on what was supposed to be her arm, but she rolled out from under him, and pulled him to the ground by yanking on his leg. Celerous landed on his hands, and kicked off of the ground, spinning in the air, and landing a well placed knee to her face. With a sputter, she rolled a few feet away. Celerous landed on his back, and rolled to his knees.
“Some advice; talk less and fight more.”
She was on him in an instant, springing up from the ground and into the air, and coming down with a very telegraphed punch. Celerous grabbed the arm that wasn’t throwing a punch, and threw her onto the ground. Her fist came up and clocked him in the jaw, sending him back onto his ass before he could pin her down. She jumped for him again, but Celerous kicked out both of his leg, and caught her stomach with his feet. He push his legs out as far as they would stretch, and deposited Celeste back onto the ground.
They stood to their feet together. Celeste eyed him for a second, before pushing her arms out and firing out another Ki blast. Celerous knocked it aside with his left arm, and it exploded behind him. He rushed at her, and brought an arm back. She moved her own arms to block a punch to the torso, and didn’t expect Celerous to instead kick at her knee. She stumbled back, and dropped her arms, leaving her wide open to the punch Celerous had purposely telegraphed. It landed right on her forehead, and she stumbled back even farther, clutching the spot where he had hit her, with her left hand.
Celerous brought his hands back up in front of him, “You done?”
She just smiled at him. Then she disappeared. Something latched onto his tail, and Celerous looked behind him to see the brown appendage in the firm grasp of a reappeared Celeste.
“Heard you Saiyans don’t like this,” she gave his tail a yank, and Celerous slid half an inch toward her.
He elbowed her in the face, and the shocked visage that crossed her features at his lack of paralysis was priceless. Cradling her nose, Celeste took a step back, and Celerous capitalized on it. He jumped up, and came crashing down with a blow to her collarbone. She slammed into the dirt below with a gargled cry.
Celerous jumped away from her, and when he landed, curled his tail out in front of him. He quickly inspected it, to see if she had pulled any hairs loose. Satisfied that it hadn’t been soiled by Celeste’s hands, he let it go back to swishing behind him.
“Can we call it a night? Because I would really like to get some sleep,” Celerous called out to Celeste, hoping she would submit.
Celeste stood to her feet, panting heavily. She placed her arms our in front of her, and started to groan and grunt. Celerous could feel her Ki rising, and he just sighed. This chick really didn’t know when to give up. When Celeste’s arms began to glow with a yellow hue, he knew what was coming.
Celerous stretched his arms out in front of him in turn, and felt the familiar flow of energy that would make up a Flare Fire. A red orb of Ki hummed with energy as it began to expand from his open palms. He took a breath. He had to focus his energy on this one; couldn’t let the Flare Fire blast off with too much power. Tired as she was, Celeste wouldn’t be able to take it on the nose and stand back up if he used it at full power.
Celeste let out a loud yell, and the wave of yellow Ki she had been building up was discharged.
“Flare Fire!”
His significantly larger wave of red colored Ki collided with Celeste's attack. They pushed against each other, equal in power, and fought for dominance over the center point of the distance between the two fighters. The two attacks sent gusts of wind blasting throughout the plains, and the light show they were putting on could likely be seen from a mile away. Celerous could hear Celeste grunting and groaning from the effort of holding his attack at bay. She couldn’t keep this up for much longer, but even Celerous himself was starting to tire.
Slowly, the Flare Fire won dominance over Celeste’s yellow wave. She struggled to push back, but to no avail. In half a minute, the red beam was an inch away from her fingertips. Celerous felt her resistance give out, and the red ki exploded on Celeste, and sent her tumbling across the grass. For a second, she was still, and Celerous’s breath caught in his throat. Did he not hold back enough?
Then she groaned, and began to slowly get up. Calming himself down, and taking a good glance, Celerous noticed she didn’t seem to be to badly injured, much to his relief.
He turned to tell the boys to get back home, but was surprised to find that they were long gone, evident by their absence and the tire marks in the dirt. He probably should have been a little irked that they bailed without even thanking him for diverting Celeste’s attention, but honestly, it was probably better this way. Now the girl couldn’t take her frustration out on them.
“What was that attack?”
He turned to look at Celeste. She was bruised and bleeding from several cuts on her face and arms, and her jacket had been burnt to a crisp. It seemed she herself had avoided getting scorched though, and Celerous was thankful for that.
“Just a little something I came up with in my spare time. You alright?”
Celeste frowned at him, “Why do you care?”
“Because someday, I’d like to fight you again,” he said with a smile, “can’t do that if I accidentally crippled you.”
She snorted, “Well, then don’t fret. I’m fine. Wouldn’t have been if you hadn’t decided to hold back on that last attack.”
“Didn’t want to roast you.”
They stood silently together for a minute, neither one of them knowing what to say. Celerous tried to busy himself by looking at the stars, but it didn’t make him feel any less awkward. Right as he was about to excuse himself, and return to his campsite to catch some sleep, Celeste spoke up.
“Those idiots deserved to be punished.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Celerous replied, “but you can’t just slaughter them.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” she was silent again.
“Well, if you can make it back to Satan City on your own, then I guess I’ll take my leave. Need some sleep after that fight.”
He began to walk back in the direction he had come from.
“Wait!”
He turned to see Celeste with one of her arms outstretched in his direction.
“Next time you’re in Satan City, stop by Moreal’s Urban City Kitchen! It’s my dad’s diner, and well, I guess I kind of owe you a meal for attacking you.”
Before Celerous could respond, Celeste took to the air, and flew off towards civilization.
“Huh. ‘Moreal’s Urban City Kitchen.’ I’ll have to remember that.”
Celerous continued on his way back to camp. His stomach growled.
“Aw, dammit! My fish have probably turned to ash by now!”
[WC: 4399. Light WC are equipped]
[Asking Pl]