Hey everyone and welcome to the new look for Dragonball Universe's U6 forum! We're going to freshen things up for everyone and hope to bring a new light to the forum and the brand new lore.
We are now known as SUPER Dragonball Universe in an attempt to reflect our shift from Universe 7 to Universe 6.
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Universe 6 Event: Galactic World Tournament
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29/06/18 We have an updated Beginner's Guide for New Members! Please browse through it to get a feel for our systems before diving in! It is here. 22/04/19 Brand new site skin, what what!!
Mansion Thread PL: 59,325 Heavy Weighted PL: 14831 -ACTIVE-
Dinner at the Jefferson Mansion was... extravagant. It smelled of various sorts of time periods, from classic porridge and rotisserie turkey and chickens to Beef Ravioli and bamboo-wrapped zongzi. Everything was in the process of being sat on the table by the few maids coming out of the kitchen. Flare herself had found her seat at the head of the table, properly sitting up in the only chair that had armrests. Jax was standing just next to her. He didn't need to eat after all, so it was fine that he didn't have a view of the food. Both the flame and saiyan had gotten proper care prior and took their showers separately as the cook had their meal fixed beforehand. Flare sniffed hard to take in the aroma around the room.
"Ahhh! Woo, nothing like a good meal after training and a shower." Even though, really, she could only take so much water being around her to wash her off. On point with the meal talk, she glanced at wherever Ermine was probably deciding to sit and rose some brows at another assumption the elemi had made. Now that she knew he was a saiyan, why did he never eat like one? "Hey, Ermy. Sayyyyy... Don't saiyans eat a lot? I remember the first and last time we went out you didn't even touch your curry!" Not even taking to consideration he might have not liked the boiling and spicy hot mess she started digging into back then. Eating habits aside, she decided to go ahead and pick up some spicy ravioli and take a turkey drumstick to slam down onto her plate. That was when the front door started knocking. They... couldn't be here already, right? One of the maids were asked by Auntie to go and answer it. Flare was not ready to hide nor punch some innocent police faces in.
The voice that could be heard softly on the other side of the door came with relief as she visually settled down. Ermine himself might not understand why, but he'd hear the door close as the maid said to 'come on in, sir!'. A couple of footsteps were heard before the maid and their guest would come on into the room dining area just next to the lobby. This man was tall, older, but had some sort of charm about his face that didn't exactly make him a nontarget for older women. His suit screamed fancy and well taken care of. Ermine would see that he fit the description of someone they had previously looked at... Flare looked back too and smirked at the incoming man.
"... James!" James Duff, the Adviser and front-face of the engineering firm. The old man had come in unannounced, and... well, that's left to be decided actually. Scion said there were a few others helping him obtain the money from Flare, which up to this point she assumed was the other factory owners, not the adviser himself. There was no telling if trust could be entailed from this encounter. "How are you doing, ya old geezer?" She turned her chair around to more face him comfortably. James himself just looked between all the other maids, then Ermine, and THEN look between Flare and her robot. He hadn't smiled until he took a look at all of it, slowly coming closer to the dining table to talk.
"I'm rather quite good... I've come back early from my vacation-" You know, the one where his actual registered house is? "-because I hear in the news that you've gotten into trouble, Red. That old man was your master, wasn't he?" Red... It was definitely different from Hun or Jackie, that's for sure. "Is that all true then? Will I be expecting police at the doorsteps some time soon?" The young flame frowned a bit and shook her head.
"Yes, no, and probably." Flare remarked to all three 'questions' as she crossed her arms. "Me and Ermine here were ATTACKED by that man. He set it all up and reported the scene to look like we were guilty of assaulting him and his two FORMER students. Couldn't do much about that, we were passed out." James's eyes slowly moved away from the fire elemi and looked across the room at the other roaming maids, some having taken a seat with the elemi and ermine already. He wanted... one thing, just to be sure.
"I want some confirmation, do all of you think Ms. Jefferson here is innocent of her alleged crimes? I want your opinion, not the one Tabitha here gave you." Auntie squinted her eyes at him from the other side of the room, being identified now as this Tabitha. There was... surprisingly no hesitation in all of their answers. Nods yes, all around. He took it all into consideration and scratched the small scruffy white beard he had.
"Then I'm more than confident in my thought that you didn't do this, Red. You haven't killed me yet, there's no way you killed someone else." James was the only one laughing at his rather dark jest, deciding to walk around to the other side of the dining table now to sit next to Flare.
"Tch, always want to be safe with your opinion, huh?"
-Heavy Weights On!- -Base PL: 63,377- -PL With heavy weights: 15,844-
He sat there a little more refreshed from resting, observing all of the food. Some of it he recognized, some he didn't, it made him laugh a little to himself realizing just how unfamiliar he was with food. Really, he only ever ate stuff that was in his area, the explanation for such coming in the form of an answer to Flare's question. "Yes, I remember that my.."kind" had voracious appetites. If I were anything like them. ... This probably wouldn't be enough food, honestly." he shakes his head, smiling a bit. "I don't share that kind of appetite, though. I honestly never feel the need to eat when I'm busy or thinking. Usually both." Two things that happened often in his life...He wasn't much of an eater, almost dangerously so. Though he didn't do it on purpose, time has a way of slipping by when he's caught up in something important to him.
"Y'know, it reminds me of th-" His statement was interrupted as the knock to the door came, he wasted no time standing up from his chair, glaring at the door and trying not to give anything away. He was ready to move, or fight, or both if he had to do so. Even when it was revealed who it really was, he still didn't let his guard down...He remembered exactly what they found, Scion being the real culprit didn't exactly remove any doubt casted on this man. Besides, he wasn't fond of people like...Him. And the Saiyan made no attempt to hide his clear distrusting gaze. "It seems some people can't get by on trust alone at times." Was his only comment as he simply shut his eyes. The air around him was pretty tense, though he wasn't exactly angry.
"Joke all you'd like, that old man gets his way and you'd be next. I suggest for your safety that you trust us 100%." He was still definitely calm, there was no doubt there, and as much as he would have loved to just tell this man off, he had no proof of any wrong-doing, yet still... "... Unless you're in on it. You have the strongest motive of all to get rid of her." It was reasonable, after all, he could be there to see if Scion finished the job, there was no sure way to tell. ... But there was currently no evidence to the contrary. Better to run on the side of caution after all, he thought to himself. He was stern, unmoving, just waiting for the man's reply. It was definitely going to be a negative one, not that the saiyan cared much, his distrust was reasonable after everything they've gone through. and whether the evidence against this man was all planted or not, there was currently no way to tell, the whole situation was tense enough as it was, a risk like that just made the P.I. more uneasy on top of it all.
The Adviser stopped mid-step towards a chair to take a look over at Ermine. Bright green eyes traced up and down what the man could see of the saiyan from across the table. This Ermine... he wasn't so sure on the hunch, but James put his arms behind his back as he made retort. "Ermine?... I take it you're the unnamed 'alien'. Boy, I'm not sure what you're accusing me of. What motive would I have to try defaming a little girl?" The maids around them remained immobile as the drama ensued. Auntie herself tried rounding them up as to get them out of the way. Knowing just how Flare was with confrontations, this seemed best. "The name's James Duff, as you seem to already know." Motive? He physically scoffed at the notion, attempting to take a seat at the table as he waved his accusation around. "Jackie basically grew up under my guidance, Mister Ermine."
"I'd like to point out that we know you and the executives met a day after our last business meeting. You can cut the shit and give me a straight answer, James." Flare narrowed her eyes the the behavior the older man was giving. The entire room fell into silence as even Auntie shut up. "Have you or have you not be conspiring with the others to kill me off and reap the benefits? Huh?" Even when they were being pushed aside into the kitchen the maids stared anxiously at the three of them. James didn't seem intimidated in the slightest as he started making his own lunch, picking up a good bit less than what Flare put on her own.
"Conspiring? Does it look like I need to? Red, I live way too comfortably at such an old age for that." That idea seemed to just make him laugh as he continued explaining. "And that was a bloody birthday party. Sorry for not informing you of such a minor detail, we all did put it in the other category like we were suppose to. The heavy-set fellow looked like he needed one with how lonesome and reclusive he was." He was already starting to eat, as if they still were not to suspect the guy... All his points to pan out though. If this is the case, then Perhaps it was just the old man doing it. Then... why would Scion have the need in saying 'they' were close to completing their plan?
"Huh." Flare looked between Ermine and James. Frowning at the words and trying to piece things together. Would they really trust them in the first place? "Ermy, what do you think?"
Ermine considers everything this...'Man' is saying, and everything Flare has said, he takes it all in, letting those two go about the argument, paying no mind to any of the staff on hand, they would just break his concentration, but finally, the other two stopped, and Flare had asked what he thought of the situation. "Hmm...His alibi is pretty strong with not a whole lot to go against it, and he seems very sure of it to begin with..." He rubs his chin, thinking this over for a minute longer...
....And then it's like a light goes off in his head as he takes on an expression that screams "gotcha". "Yeah, his entire alibi would be solid. He pauses for only a moment before interrupting anything Duff might've had to say about that. "...But there's a huge problem with what he just said." The room practically goes dead silent. (Mood Music) "...Except I find it odd that you'd hold a birthday for that large man when his birthday is many months away!!The saiyan slams his hands down on the table, running the offensive, he had seen the records, he knew this was a huge lie. "Which means you're lying to us, Mr. Duff! Need I remind you that you're only an advisor? Whenever that 'little girl' decides she wants back in? You'd lose your position of full power in the company! You have every reason to get rid of her, and that lie of yours just dug you deeper into this belief."
He points at Duff. "What were you really all doing that day?! Tell us the whole truth this time, maybe she won't roast you for it, but I can't exactly control her, she's the one calling the shots here!" He did have a point, Flare was his 'client', which by extension made her his technically temporary boss, he wasn't exactly in a position to tell her what to do, not from a legal standpoint, anyhow, though he more meant respect behind calling her the boss. "Don't try to lie your way out of this one, I saw every single record on the employees. I have a photographic memory, don't screw with me, Duff."
He had made a lot of good points so far, at least so he thought, if that old man wasn't sweating with panic by now, he'd definitely be derailed and start backtracking, not that the saiyan minded, he'd break through every last lie if he had to. He wasn't afraid to say harsh things, both because of his aforementioned less than spectacular social skills, and because he'd do anything to find the truth, Even in a lie. "I've done this for three years, I was trained by the one woman who revolutionized the Private Investigation field, you can keep it up all day, but it won't do you any good." Even if he was wrong...He didn't plan on backing down from this, there was just as much reason to suspect this man as there was to trust him, and Ermine himself would rather not trust in this situation, even if it costed him credibility.
James looked up from the bit f soup he was sipping on. He lowered it down slowly as Ermine seemed to get riled up and on his case. Flare herself just observed the man in action with a smirk, folding her arms after she took another bite of the drumstick."Have ya never heard of someone celebrating their birthday on a non-specific date, boy?" James proceeded to almost mimic Flare with his own crossed arms over his chest. "Do I need to remind you again, Mister Ermine, that I've lived most my whole life as an adviser to her parents? I find it rather comfortable to just sit back and teach the girl while I run financials and front-face the company until she's of age and experience." Nothing really showed on his face that he was outright lying about all this. "Flare knows me, I'm far too loyal to her father to do that."
"He does kind of teach me in-detail economics and is showing me how to run the company. I've known him for years, but I've never known his loyalty." Her eyes narrowed on down to James as she balled a fist up and showed it to him. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't call you a traitor and beat the life out of you." One of the maids let out a small peep in the silence, but other than that it just sounded like fires from the fireplace was the only sound in the background. "Hell, I'll let Ermy here get rough on you too."
"If I were against you, I would have had brought the Earth's police with me. I came back under the impression you hid here so I could buy some time should they find you." She lazily looked back down into the small bowl of soup he had made himself, almost looking sickened by the food. A lost appetite? "You can go ahead and skewer me all you want. Whether you believe me or not is beside the point anyways. I'll even let you use my vacation home as another refuge if you really want." It sounded like he was going to offer such a solution anyways.
"... I'd like to say you're lying out your ass. As much as I'd like to, I suppose there is a point to you not being against me. You'd have already gotten Earth's forces onto me if your assumption about me being here isn't a flat-out lie." It all seemed to make some sense. Ermine was probably gonna have to take it from here as she stuffed some spicy soup into her hole.
Ermine stared on as the man sipped down his soup, waiting for just exactly what he had to say. ... And then he said it. "...-!!" He reels, looking a little dissapointed. "Why does everyone call me a boy...I'm a grown man!" Were his thoughts as he spoke up. "... We don't...Really celebrate birthday parties where I'm from. Heh." He rubs the back of his head, his eyes shut with a grin. Boy, that one crashed and burned pretty fast...And he backed it all up with such certain statements... ... Further backed up by Flare. He was annoyed and a little embarrassed to be honest...Did he go onto the wrong track? Was there really nothing to doubt?
His thoughts soon interrupted as a maid emerged from the group of other maids...One with short blonde hair...?? She put her hand on Ermine's shoulder as she passed, saying something the other two cpuldn't quite make out as she was very quiet about it...She didn't waste time as she casually exited through another doorway. Something was odd about that lady...She didn't hold the same demeanor that the other maids did, her stature and manner of walking was less strict and trained, more calm and casual. There wasn't much time for he himself to think it over it seemed, whatever she said must've convinced him of something as he shut his eyes and crossed his arms.
"...I was following a dead end, you're off the hook." He gives an annoyed sigh and points calmly to the man, his eyes opening. "It remains to be seen if you're really worth your image, however." With that, he calmly sees himself out of the room, heading for the lobby. "...That girl's words were so familiar to me, but I don't recognize her...I've never seen her in my life..." His outloud thoughts rang out in the hallway as he entered the lobby.
He takes deep breaths...There was one advantage to that encounter, he was holding himself back. He felt maybe he was getting some of that self-control under his skills, even if just a little. It remained to be seen if there would be a payoff, however. And he likely wouldn't be alone in that lobby for too long, so he made his calming down period count. "Now I just have even more questions. That maid isn't even here, I could have sworn she went this way anyhow. ... Was I imagining things? They both looked her way, far as I could tell..." He wasn't sure just what to think of that encounter, her words were familiar...They reminded him of someone, made him realize he was incorrect in his assumptions, yet why? That was the big thing in his mind, why was this familiarity enough for him to trust...Whoever that was? He wanted to find out, but going outside could blow the Elemi's cover wide open, he ultimately decided to just wait in the lobby, hoping the others really did see that maid. If so...He probably wasn't going to be the only one with questions.
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Word count: 515
Total: 1,550
Last Edit: Feb 20, 2016 17:45:41 GMT -5 by Deleted
James wasn't at all very pleased with the lack of their hospitality, even though in the face of it all he had to make sure his assumption and opinion was backed up by others. He didn't say another word on the topic from then on, eating properly at the table. Those maids who were still reserved near the kitchen got waved over. They were to eat, too. "Come, the dispute's over!" The old man seemed to shrug it off now, casually smiling at the crowd of maids. This included Tabitha, who made her way on over next to Flare herself, hands on her hips as she watched the others start eating too. There was, what, probably 12 maids?
"Hmm...?" It feels like the sudden conversation had left Flare lacking in something. She soon succumbed to a lost of appetite, furthered when she noticed that Ermine was being pulled from the table by one of the maids. The maid herself she didn't get a good glimpse of, so there was no telling who of the staff it was. "What in the world is that man talking about?" Flare spoke to herself aloud before standing up and walking past Tabitha. "Have you fallen under a trance or something?" She barked at him as she left the dining area, abandoning over half her plate still chock full of foods. It wasn't something she usually did.
"Ermine!" She followed him on into the lobby area with crossed arms, a little whiff of fire here and there coming from her hair. She didn't much appreciate that he wasn't eating yet again. "What are you doing, snooping around and trying to get with one of my maids? You have to at least ASK first, you idiot. They're on the job right now." A smirk would encroach her face as she said it, just looking around to see if whoever he was talking about was around. He couldn't have been losing it, she saw the blondie walk off too. Jax eventually made his way into the lobby as well, not wanting to leave her side without command of it.
"Hey, lady! Come on out!" She yelled at the walls to see if she was just hiding in a shy manner. "There's no need to hide your affections towards this man, he isn't half-bad looking!"
She was clearly joking, he probably would have laughed along with her any other time. But he was dead silent this time. Stomping his foot down in protest. "I didn't recognize her at all! But what she said...It was so familiar to me!! I don't understand!" He turned around to look at her, he was angry... ... But it was a far different anger from the usual she had seen, almost like he was going to cry over it. "Don't lose your focus, Ermine. You're looking at things from the wrong angle again." "It sounds just like...!" ... He was about to say a name, but he cut himself off. He looked full of regretful anger, at this point, even she could see how it was different from the pure rage he had displayed back in that gravity machine.
"... I wasn't always intent on being a P.I., you know." He walked over to a chair, slumped over as he sat down, his hands pressed against his face, he was looking pretty troubled. "The woman who taught me everything I know about this job...I owe her my life." (Unauthorized Feels Trip) "When I first arrived on Earth, I was a mess, I had no friends, no family, no future. I was badly injured in my escape, not evening mentioning the...Self-sustained injury. I landed in East City. I don't know if I was unlucky, or if Saiyans had given people a reason before, but when I came out of that pod...Everyone ridiculed me, the people standing there on the streets, they started getting angry, afraid, I had...Killed a person on impact. Or so I thought...They wanted to lynch me!!"
"But that woman...This girl with an honest smile on her face...! She told me that not everything is so black and white. That sometimes the weakest people are the ones who seem the guiltiest...That everyone needs someone to stand up for them at some point. She held up a card about her profession...You should already know what it was, but I'll say it anyway. Private Investigator."
He sighed as he continued. "She stood up for me...Some dirty, scared, imperial murderer!! She searched for hours, then hours into days...She ended up clearing my name, that person was assassinated hours before I landed. She saved me." He looks up at Flare, still just as troubled now as he was a moment ago. "She offered me a job...A future. I barely knew her, but she showed me kindness! I couldn't just turn that down...She helped me choose this path, taught me, even guided me through the first job I took on. We became close...Like family, I guess." ... And his eyes go straight down to the floor. "A year ago from five days ago, she vanished. ... She looked too deeply into the truth and died for it."
He gritted his teeth, the tears rolling down despite his best efforts to hold it together. "So why the hell did that maid sound just like her?! Clearly I'm not just imagining it if you saw her too! But she looked nothing like that woman I knew...I can never forget her face most of all, that wasn't it."
On the front door was a brightly colored note...One Erm apparently missed, but Flare could have definitely seen. The note seemed to be from that maid... It reads "Sorry for the unauthorized visit, Miss Jefferson, Ermine doesn't know what it means to be a P.I. yet...This is something he has to figure out on his own. But look out for him, okay? He's too harsh on himself, he's afraid of his past, but he has a good heart, you'll see it eventually, if it hasn't shown already. We will meet again, you are not fighting this alone."... The note was signed only by an..."Stargazer of Truth"... ... Just like that one popular Kids TV show, apparently. But why, exactly...Was this really the name that mysterious visitor was going with? Why a sentai-esk tv show hero? Regardless, the note was specifically written for Flare. Ermine likely wouldn't take it well if he read it himself. Perhaps this would give Flare some idea of how to console him, however.
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Word count: 716
Total: 2,266
Last Edit: Feb 20, 2016 21:24:46 GMT -5 by Deleted
Well, that made her feel like shit. She was just trying to get a bit of a chuckle or something out of the guy, maybe to lighten his spirits. That all went downhill pretty quickly with what he started rambling on about. The maid reminded him of someone he held dear. The young flame couldn't relate to that. She just had to stand there and watch him sulk into a chair. Her expression turned from sarcastic to a very slight frown. She bit her lip at the mention of accusation and lynching upon someone they never met. A saiyan, after all. Flare could have said she figured he came off-planet and was met with such accusation, but she never knew... now, with memories of both good and bad from different angles. She couldn't say she knew what this outcome would be now.
"This... all makes more sense now. Why you wished to help me originally. Even against my rather... Abrasive behavior." She gave a quick look around the place and spotted the note in her peripheral vision as she saw the door creak ever so slightly. It was getting windy outside. As he still talked on about it, the young flame went over and took the note in her hand. Opening it and reading its insides quietly.She narrowed her red eyes on the text, looking between it and Ermine a few times before blinking at it. Huh...
"Look." Flare stuffed the note away from him for now, putting it into her bra like any average chick would do. "Buddy." She stepped on over and gave him a rough pat on the shoulder. "I feel like you're taking it a bit too hard. My maids... well, I didn't hire most of them, but I assure you are just seeing things that aren't there. You need to let it go. Take a GIANT step forward.-" She would demonstrate it to him as she threw a leg to bend out on. "-Take a hold of the future-." Again by grabbing the lamp on a desk near the chair. "and say 'I own you'. Because Ermy, that's all you can do. You have to forget about that and focus on what's in front of us. That's all we can do as people." With the lamp still in hand, she decided to try bonking him lightly on the head with its shade.
"Lighten up. She'd want you to help people like she did you." She hasn't lied about anything in the note yet. "Isn't that what you're doing now? Don't you think she'd be proud? Come on, maybe beating you up in the gravity chamber would put a smile on that face." She was doing her best to try and just get him not sulking in one of her chairs. No one likes a downer.
He gives a stern nod. "Your whole situation reminds me of a lot of things. To be honest...If I weren't a little crazy, and your situation didn't mirror a lot of rough memories, I probably would have turned you down then and there. It's nothing personal, you know, but...One thing I'll admit, shamefully as I must, I guess my reasons are all selfish." He shrugged, he didn't even pay attention as she went over to the door. He had no interest in it, after all, it was just all so confusing to him. He had let things get in the way of progress a lot lately.
...And then he looked up to her as she patted his shoulder and started talking to him. As she mentioned those maids, and how he imagined things, he gave one simple response. "Did I imagine those words, too?" He was quickly silenced as Flare began her odd physical demonstration of her encouragement. The way she threw out her leg, and took up a lamp of all things, and then, even more, hit him on the head, rather lightly but still...He didn't say a word, listening to what she had to say, rather, once she was finished, he slumped down.
And began to shake, as if he were sobbing. Indeed it kept up for a minute, getting louder...And then...It turned out it was actually...Laughter. It wasn't sobbing at all, he shook because he was trying to hold back laughter, and eventually he could hold it in no longer as it kept getting louder until it was a hardy laugh, one he hadn't heard from himself in a long time. He calmed down and began to speak. "What the hell was that?" He said as he grinned and continued to laugh a little bit. It was such an odd demonstration that he honestly couldn't focus on being upset anymore.
he finally shook his head, speaking again as he stood up. "You know, you're right." He gave another nod, putting his hands on her shoulders. "No more regrets. I'm going to do all that I can to give you the justice you're looking for. And just maybe I'll feel a little closure of my own from all of this." He took off towards the garage in a casual stride. "Right, maybe If I beat you down it'll make everything all better." He'd say sarcastically as he felt oddly lighter. As if a weight had been taken off, ironic given his weighted trench coat.
"C'mon, we've got an old man to destroy, and being less strong is going to make that harder to do." He was encouraged now, they both had a date with justice and getting stronger was the only way to see to it that it would be possible, he was going to help her regardless now, even if things got hard, just like they had been, even if they had to keep running forever, there would be justice above all else.
And he would expose that old man for the sins he had committed.
"You can't criticize my awesome demonstration skills!" She egged on the bit of lighter air they finally managed to create between themselves. She couldn't find herself to keep up the act too long as she eventually laughed alongside him. Merrily snorting and not giving a damn for a few seconds was a nice feeling. With all this pent-up emotion and distress from the situation in front of them, laughing was probably the best medicine. Truly.She slowed her laugh as he mentioned a challenge, rather in joke she assumed but a challenge nevertheless.
"Aye, right, after I pummel your face with my fists!" She started waltzing in after him, the large garage the same way they left it. The machine was giving it's low, audible hum. It was still plugged in and all that fine jazz, so they'd have no trouble just climbing on in and getting start. She walked on over to the remote again and made sure to press it while she was away from the unlatching door and steps. The few stairs up to the gravity room itself and they got to see the work of a cleaned room. As Flare had mentioned, she had the machine cleaned of the robots he had 'accidentally' smashed up in his fit of rage.
"To reiterate, let's NOT smash part of the gravity room to pieces again. Alright? We'll save that for Scion." The fire elemi slowly made way towards the central node in the middle of the room, setting it up just as before with one minor alteration. As the retractable doors closed back in on them to seal the room the small digits on a screen displaying the set gravity went up from 1, to 10, then to 20. The thing she had not done yet was set the gravity up to that, instead looking behind her at, assumingly, the saiyan who follow her in.
"We've got hours. I'm not 100% sure twenty times gravity is even something either of us could fully achieve yet, given how abrupt our last one ended. However!" She pressed one of the testing button, lifting a few idle practice dummies out from the holes which all the practice robots come from. Eight, forming an octagon around the middle control panel. "What says we can't try, eh?!" She chanted and threw the switch to turn the pressure on. That recognizable loud humming sounded instantly as the pressure felt familiar to that ten times they had done before... instantly falling into the doubling force right after.
Flare found herself falling hard onto her ass, then sliding down onto her back as her arms couldn't quite take that instant amount of pressure to keep her up. She hissed loudly at both impacts, wincing with her eyes shut and only opening them to stare up at the dull white ceiling above them. "Tch. Well... T-there's a start."
He rubbed the back of his head, nodding. "Relax, relax, I have it under control this time, I promise." A statement that was likely hard for the Elemi to honestly believe. He stepped into the machine right behind her, letting the door shut before he said or did anything. He shrugged when she talked about 20 times gravity however. "What's the worst it could do? Kill us?" He laughed a bit. ... And then it turned into an awkward laugh as he realized that wasn't an impossible scenario. He silenced himself due to just how bad of a joke that was. Though regardless, he braced himself as the machine hummed loudly.
As it kicked in, Ermine felt the pressure, but didn't react much. ... Until the 20 times hit. It knocked him right down almost as fast as Flare had done, it was all he could manage to just stay on one knee like he was doing. He grit his teeth. "This...Is only the fourth worst thing I've ever done." He felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped onto him. He looked over at Flare who seemed just as bad off, if not worse. "A...A start doesn't mean much if we don't try to get up." He laughed to himself, and then he began the long, tedious attempt at getting used to this gravity. 10 times was rough, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. That was the gravity of his home planet, the worst he felt was disgust over the memories, this though...It was something else entirely.
Doubling the maximum amount of gravity he remembered, it was very tough, it was even harder once he started to move, he slowly lifted up, pushing as hard as he could against the gravity of the machine, his legs buckled for a moment and if he hadn't placed his arm out onto the floor in reaction, he would have dropped right down like a rock. He eventually retracted his arm as he was getting higher and higher up towards completely standing, now it was even riskier, if he dropped at this point, he wouldn't be able to stabalize himself to keep to the same progress, as risky as it was, he had to, he couldn't just sit on the floor forever. He slowly put his hands against his legs as he now just needed to raise his upper body to be fully standing now.
It was such a slow process, likely over the course of half an hour, or even a full hour, but he had finally managed to stand despite it all. He could feel his legs burning and straining as it took everything he had just to keep in a simple standing position, the weights did not make it any better. he looked over at Flare, clearly struggling. "Feel like a damn toddler. Y...Your turn." He was definitely improving, but he wasn't about to move, not for a moment anyway, he just let his legs adjust to the pressure for now, not moving a single inch, he didn't dare lose all of his progress after how long it took.
It felt like several minutes passed as she laid strained on the ground, bound to it like she was against the seat of one of the revolving rides in an amusement park. Considering ten times gave her a good workout, twice as much seemed to put a lot more onto her in comparison. Perhaps from here, she thought about it, it would get easier. Since the climb will not be twice as much but instead another half as much. It was something to feel reassured about. Slightly. Ermine was already in the process of getting up. Flare couldn't stand being shown up like that. The more she tried though, the less it seemed she could pick up her arms and legs.
The dummies seemed perfectly find in the chamber. They were made for it, of course they would be. All... well, now that one would count, there was only 7 of them around the panel in idle. One of the other ones were one of the few smashed up by Ermine. Would they be harder to disable too? Probably. The machines, again, were made to adapt to the changes in gravity.
"Oh fuck me sideways, man. I feel like I'm glued to the floor with space guerrilla glue or something." The young flame mustered a sentence through the grit of her teeth as she kept on trying to prop herself up with both arms and legs. Her aggressive grunting was almost a show all on its own. She wasn't going to get anywhere on the floor like this. What was the thing needed for such a situation then? It goes with just knowing a little about Flare, and her people in general, that when they get real emotional anger-wise or anything else, they tend to be able to push through a lot. A will with its own power. Ermine probably doesn't remember the first time her entire body of hair started letting off flames and her eyes glowed; That was in that pond they were drowning it.
- Enraged PL: 74,156./44,494 -
"That's it!" She roared, pushing herself up with this new-found strength. "This pressure's had enough time kicking my ass!" The flame had very quickly taken to standing up now, not wavering anymore in the chamber. She looked livid and probably had to be in order for her to keep this up. Unlike her ca-padre Flare freely moved across the room now with this excessive burst of energy. Perhaps she was not truly getting a feel for the gravity since she had pushed to this limit though.
"Now that I'm standing!..." She made her way over to the central panel now as he hair started dying down. The pressure was being put back onto her shoulders as she hunched over to the controls. She wasn't going to train like that, as it was deemed... well, she couldn't get much out of it.
- Normal PL: 44,494/14,831 -
With herself fully calmed down, she struggled to stand over the command panel and issue a simple order for the robots to start slowly hovering around the place at a slow pace. They'd have to learn to readily walk before they could stand a chance wailing on them. "Alright, alright... L-like last time. Stretches, squats. Get the muscles readied up for these tests... G-guh..." The pain was showing as she stood up on her own. Without the help of propping up against the machine. The elemi's red eyes traced back over to Ermine with a bit of a grin as she saw that he was now equally at odds with the chamber's gravity.
He adjusted a little, bit by bit he tried walking too, noticing just how impossible it was with this much weight. Really, it proved more than his match to fight it. Still, he glanced over to the nearly defeated Flare. Who seemed to be getting madder and madder over it all. He witnessed her power spiking rather impressively. He could only raise an eyebrow at this display, he hadn't exactly witnessed it before, so it was new to him regardless of whether it had happened back then or not. Still, he witnessed her pull herself up and hurry across the room to the control panel. It was definitely impressive, he had to speak up.
"Since when were you able to do that?" He asked with a grin, still struggling to stay upright, while she was working on the control panel, he began to pace about the room...very slowly, veeeeeeerry slowly, he looked like an old man with the way he limped and shuffled, only after a few laps did he finally start to show a bit more composure when walking. It was...Definitely a new experience to him. "We weren't quite so...Gifted when I trained. Probably why I'm leagues ahead of the power I had when I was an Imperial. Funny that, a random girl can create a better training regiment than an entire planetary government."
He laughed a bit at the idea of it, why didn't they think of this? Would have made them an unstoppable force most likely. But that was also good in some ways. He didn't like the idea of the Empire being stronger than it already was, it could prove to be a huge problem. But his thoughts were drawn away as he witnessed her seemingly grow a lot more weary than she was a second ago. He wasn't able to sense ki, but he could pick up on visual cues pretty easily. "Too bad you didn't have that back at the dojo. Could have saved us a lot of trouble." He said briefly, rubbing his face a bit from where he had been hit, the pain and marks gone, but the memory still lingering, he laughed a bit. "I guess we still turned out pretty okay regardless. Still, next time we see him, I'm going to let you thrwow the first punch, I feel like being beaten by his own "student" will hurt even worse."
He continued to pace about the room, nodding as she mentioned stretching and exercizes, he still continued to almost silently pace circles inside the machine, not doing anything other than this. It took him what felt like a lot of time to do all of this as he just kept his eye on the Fire Elemi, not saying another word. He'd eventually stop, look at his hands and throw a few slow, clumsy punches, trying to get a feel for how this new gravity affected his speed and movement. He didn't show it much on the outside, but he could still very clearly feel the strain the gravity put on him, he knew he was eventually going to collapse, but he'd keep going until it happened.
"Guess you just need a motive to surpass an entire military program." She looked hard at Ermy as she twisted her torso in a stretch. "It just felt... natural, now, to start doing that. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe like your tantrum from earlier. I dunno, I feel like I release a bit of my emotion physically. Did it look like I had?" And twisting the other side now. Since she had grown fire on the ends of her hair, and her eyes glowed, Ermy probably had a pretty easy answer for that. "I would have kicked his ass if I had it back at the dojo. But..." Now she had her arms up above her head, more stretching. "... You know what happened. My spirit, metaphorically speaking, was broken. I didn't feel anything but sadness with the way he suddenly turned on me like that." She didn't seem comfortable with how fragile she looked then, and didn't want to linger on it for too long.
"I'm confident in my abilities at this point, but we still don't know what other strings he is pulling. He could very well have something unlocked similar to what you just saw." Once she had proper bearings, she started her own sluggish walk around the room, avoiding the pathed bots as they mindlessly roamed the room. Unlike last time, it seemed she was pretty much on-par with how much he was handling himself. She started keeping pace with him until the two of them stopped to start throwing around a few sluggish punches. Not at each other, of course.
"I appreciate you letting me get first hit, Ray, but I'd also appreciate if you let me deal with him in the end. If that can be done." She had built up a good sweat, and strain was apparent on her face. At this rate, she was going to have to call in senzu beans or something for the two of them. "He's my master - Former master, after all. If we have to keep him from blowing people up, then by all means do what we have to do. I want to be the one to end it though. Got me?"
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