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+--- Thread: Day One: Afternoon (/showthread.php?tid=41815)
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Day One: Afternoon - Burter - 06-03-2008
Day One
Noon - 6 PM
Noon - 6 PM
"High noon, everybody, hope you all have some form of comfort! Get out your maps and get ready to cross some names off, because we've lost...
#13 Raspberry
#17 Tapion
#30 Jack Sparrow
Now, for the danger zones set to active at 6:
A-2
C-6
G-7
I-5
I-6
And that's all! Good luck to those fighting for the sniper rifle! I'll see you all again in six hours!"
Day One: Afternoon - Burter - 06-03-2008
Face to Face
Android 18, Raditzu, Retane, Ruhiel
Easter Egg: Sniper Rifle
Android 18, Raditzu, Retane, Ruhiel
Easter Egg: Sniper Rifle
He could clearly see the weapon from where he was crouching. Ruhiel, the Android assassin, was ducking behind a large rock over the sandy beach, staring carefully at the gun balancing perfectly on the rock. There was a clear path leading from his location to the reward at hand. Since he was naturally fast, it wouldn't be too much of an issue.
His legs began to buck towards the large pointed rock, immediately down the center of the path. His bag was back where he started, and his gun was in his hand. He didn't particularly like the idea of holding the weapon, but if he wanted a shot at getting this prize, it was use it or die.
He was right.
A fwoosh sound came from behind him and he activated his upgrade immediately. Using the android upgrade, his speed grew and lept over a small boulder, using a spin look behind him...
A green namekian was standing about two dozen yards away, on top of another huge boulder where he had a good vantage point. He tossed a flaming bottle towards Ruhiel, using careful aim to get it just right. Instantly, the Android knew what was coming at him. The glass shattered all over the boulder in front of him, sending a barrage of flames covering his facial features.
"Agh!" He let out a yelp, falling backwards as the flames covered his arm and leg. He quickly rolled, putting it out and aiming his pistol with his good arm. Retane knew to duck at that sight, dodging two shots.
With the flames inbetween him and Retane's vantage point, Ruhiel took the free moment to spin around and run after the sniper rifle...
Only to find a man standing in front of the rock, sniper rifle already attached to his back. The man had long blonde hair, though it wasn't glowing like a super saiyan's. It seemed more thin, pillowing down his back and giving off a white glow, concentrating on the man's features. "Hi," the man said calmly, "I'm Eightzu. Nice to meet ya."
Before Ruhiel could react, there was a metal clang and sharp punch to his face. His jaw snapped, eye popped and body thudded against the rocky sand. It was like being hit by a truck, though he didn't actually see anything hit him.
Coughing, the Android stumbled to get to his feet. He gripped his pistol, moving so he could spin and see the man. "You like the brass knucks?" The man asked, still causually, "I thought they were a nice addition, myself."
Ruhiel held up the metal pistol, his ki flowing inwards to fill up. This time, he saw Eightzu move, but it was the unpleasant sight of his arm being snapped, the elbow cracking in the wrong direction.
"Here," Eightzu taunted, "Pick a card."
Ruhiel watched in horror as the man's arm flicked, then a slight sting came from his throat. Blood spurted from both his neck and his mouth before his eyes noticed the dripping card in the man's hand. How could an assassin robot fail this easily? How could power like this man's actually exist? It was almost as if...as if he were like a god himself.
The android finally fell and Eightzu looked to see Retane, focusing energy into his hands. Both of his arms were spinning in a circular motion in front of his chest, concentrating into an attack. "I didn't forget about you," Eightzu promised, though Retane was too far away to hear. He squinted his eyes, "What are you doing, hm?"
The namekian refused to run away again...he refused to admit defeat, even after such a tremendous display of power. His hands bucked forward and the wind he had gathered blew at Eightzu with a roaring moan. "Windstorm!"
Instantly, the fused saiyan's hands came together, making a familiar hand motion. "Masenko-HAA!"
The ki blast erupted through Retane's wind attack, heading right for the namekian with amazing accuracy. Retane felt the blast smack right into his chest and then explode, covering his body and blowing him backwards. A bright white light filled his eyesight...and then he thudded to the rocky ground.
Eightzu let out a sigh. How boring. He had been summoned by his creators to get himself a gun and thin out the competition...but he only had two victims. Still, the job was done. He grabbed Ruhiel's pistol and supply bag, then walked over to where Retane had been cowering with his weapons.
But when he got there, he would find no dead namekian. No weapons laying around. By then, Retane was over a hundred yards away. His wrist was fractured, his body was bruised, one of his eyes was swollen shut, he was cut up and bleeding, and the only piece of clothing left on him that wasn't tore apart was the beautiful savior in the form of Ki-Proof Vest.
#11 Ruhiel DEAD
26 Remain
Rad and 18 are tired for 3 OOC days. They have the ki sniper rifle and the ki pistol.
Retane is tired for 1 OOC day. He has 1 molotov cocktail left. He has a fractured wrist, a blind eye, and several cuts and bruises which all constitute a major injury.
26 Remain
Rad and 18 are tired for 3 OOC days. They have the ki sniper rifle and the ki pistol.
Retane is tired for 1 OOC day. He has 1 molotov cocktail left. He has a fractured wrist, a blind eye, and several cuts and bruises which all constitute a major injury.
Day One: Afternoon - Uno - 06-03-2008
ooc: Two things. One, this was supposed to go in the morning thread, but I'm a slow typer. Two, this takes place before Para's last post in the last thread.
The sun was directly overhead of the island, radiating its light and warmth onto Uno’s being. He was well rested from the encounter with the alligator man. In fact, he began to think that he was too rested. After all, he had just killed somebody by his own hands, but didn’t mind taking a nap afterwards. Was that really alright?
“Of course it was.” Uno answered himself. “He didn’t really die. Dante’s Abyss is nothing more than a live-action video game. Nobody really dies, and nobody really kills. It’s just a game.” Then he nodded, satisfied with his own excuse.
Tearing his mind away from those unpleasant thoughts, Uno glanced around the village. To his left, the elderly Paragus was still enjoying his nap; his snores load enough to wake a bear from hibernation. To his right, he could see Talys continuing his ‘training.’ He saw the newcomer shout and dance around in victory, probably hitting hit target directly in the head. Finally, looking behind himself, he saw his little pet Grenade hopping peacefully around a nearby hut. Uno scratched the back of his head, wondering if this was really his group.
Walking over toward the group’s things, Uno picked up his shotgun. He glanced at the device, happy that he could start with such a powerful weapon. He then approached the Gator-gin’s corpse with his weapon in hand. “If I didn’t have this, we might have…not…won…” He slowed down his speech as he began to recall the fight. Then he realized a critical mistake.
“Oh shit! What are we all still doing here?!”
Running towards the still sleeping Paragus, Uno shot his shotgun into the air. The blast caused the elderly old man to jolt, waking him from his sleep. “Hey, get your stuff ready.” the white-haired warrior demanded. “We’re leaving soon.”
Summoned by the gunshot, Talys left his training and ran outside. “What’s with all the noise?!” he angrily asked. “I was in the middle of an important victory dance!”
“We have bigger problems than your dance.” Uno calmly answered, trying to gather up his belongings. “We have to get out of this village. Now.”
“Why?”
“Simple, you see that dead guy over there?” Uno stated, pointing toward Raspberry’s corpse.
“Yeah, I can see.”
“Well, I used this to kill him.” pointing at his shotgun.
“I don’t see your point.”
“The sound! My shotgun made a bunch of loud noises.”
Talys paused for a moment. “And…?”
Uno smacked his head with his hand, as his pet bunny hopped around him. “People must have heard the sound. So they’ll come here. To this spot. With weapons. To kill us.”
“Oh.” Talys responded, thinking for a moment. “Oh shit! What are we still doing here?”
Day One: Afternoon - Burter - 06-03-2008
Face to Face
Paragus, Talys, Uno, Warako
Paragus, Talys, Uno, Warako
Downtown USA.
Okay, not quite.
Warako didn't really grasp the concept of 'downtown.' The advertisements laying around told him he could get a facial for only 10 bucks. He didn't know what a facial was, but it sounded like a damn good deal.
The namekian waltzed into the courtyard of the downtown mall, looking around the area at the many closed shops. It looked like the area had been raided, as many of the windows were shattered and the ground was burned from flames. Behind him were stairs leading up to an outside bar, while in front of him was a movie theatre. Surrounding him were shops, all pillaged.
He didn't like the situation of being put in a game of death, but he had to make the most of it. As he moved to the left to go into a store, he paused, hearing footsteps. In front of him was a familiar sight: the one-eyed saiyan warrior he had just saved the universe with. "Paragus," he said, almost relieved. The man was holding a small device in his hand, but his survival bag was nowhere.
Behind him came another figure. This time he didn't recognize the short-haired man standing in a martial arts outfit. He didn't have anything in his hand, just kept his fists balled up as he stared at the namekian.
Finally, a third figure appeared. Another one of Warako's previous comrades, Uno stood with a shotgun up over the back of his neck, pointed towards the sky. In his free hand was a small white rodent with cute, pointed ears. "What's going on?" Warako asked, as if he needed to. He backed up towards the stairs, now closed on three sides. "Uno? Para?"
"We're traveling together," Paragus said. "We saw you down the street and followed you."
"Does that mean..." Warako began to say, looking at the three of them. "You arn't playing?"
The man the namek didn't recognize, Talys, spoke up. "Not play?" He asked, surprised. "You can't just not play. This is a game, bro. You don't walk into the Abyss and say 'I'm just gonna camp out for a weeks.'"
The clicking sound of a shotgun being pumped came from the left. Warako spun to see Uno now aiming the shotgun with the arm opposite of the one cradling his bunny. "You're either with us, or against us," he said.
Warako backed up again till one foot landed on the first step of the stairway to the bar. "Killing isn't a game!" He shouted at the trio, "I'm not with anybody, but I'm not against you either. So...just leave."
"Sorry, Warako," Uno said, "Wrong answer."
The shotgun erupted just next to the namekians skull, breaking off a piece of the stairway. Warako immediately bounded upwards to the top of the staircase, flinging his pack with him. Talys and Paragus lept after him, moving up the steps as again, Uno fired the shotgun and missed.
Once at the top of the stairs, Warako assessed the area. There was nowhere to run from here, so he spun around, throwing a foot down at the chest of Talys. It was easy enough to knock the man backwards down the steps, into the rail.
Paragus lept into the, defying gravity as it moved higher then Warako, throwing a kick. The namekian used the leverage on the stair to grab the saiyan foot and push against it, sending Paragus slamming onto the stairs and rolling down before catching himself.
Seeing no escape route, Warako grabbed one of the orbs on his belt and released the top of it. Immediately, he dropped the object and ran for it.
"Grenade!" Talys shouted, eyes lighting up.
The explosion was small, but pressurized. Both Paragus and Talys lept off of the stairs in opposite directions, while Warako took the full brunt on his back. He fell forward, stumbling out of the explosion and to the other end of the bar. Thinking quick, he lept over the rail, grabbing it, and releasing.
He wanted to turn around and talk to his former friends about the situation, but his legs wouldn't let him. He didn't want to fight them again...he didn't want to kill anyone.
Killing wasn't a game to it.
But he was a player, whether he liked it or not.
26 Remain
Warako used a grenade. He has second degree burns on his body. Minor injury.
Warako used a grenade. He has second degree burns on his body. Minor injury.
Day One: Afternoon - Reijin - 06-03-2008
Continued from: http://www.cdbzrpg.com/forum/showpost.php?p=459666&postcount=11
The sun rose high into the sky overhead, leaving the dark haired Saiyan to wander around in the central city ruins in deep thought. He had been thinking a lot after the girl had revealed her identity, but she'd grown oddly quiet since. It was good. He really felt he needed some time to think and if she'd been an actual person he would have walked away for some time to think on how to proceed. He knew she could read his every thought... But there was still something comforting about the illusion of privacy.
Walking over to a large fountain, Reijin leaned down onto the stone, staring into the water. This time there was no purple haired girl overlaying his image. There was simply water moving past him to drip quietly off the side, birds chirping high overhead, and himself to question his decisions of the past.
He'd caused a lot of pain over the course of his life, but he always believed it to be necessary. There was justification for every action that he'd made in his young twenty four years of existance, but did that mean that they were right? Honestly, he didn't really care as far as that went. He had been disillusioned about dying long ago, and he was in no way trying to win points with some all powerful Kami to attain entrance into a heavenly paradise. He'd killed Satan himself alongside angels and they had come to him for help. That alone strengthened his conviction as to where he was going.
He reached down into his bag to pull out some bread and then tore off a bite in his mouth, watching thoughtfully into the water. A leaf floated down from one of the nearby trees and landed in the fountain and he watched the ripples appear, shimmering over his reflection and distorting his image to play with what was and would could have been. Finally, he found himself calling out, bread crumbs falling into the water as he looked down into it.
"I don't really know what to say."
A moment passed to allow the tranquility around him to settle before the form slowly superceded that of his own within the liquid mirror. This time, the effigy spoke out to him, leaving him to feel a bit less paranoid and more at ease with his actual thoughts.
The girl nodded and looked at him solemnly. "You must have a lot of questions. I'm sure you do. So where would you like to start? I'll try to explain what I can for you."
Reijin took another bite from the bread and then glanced down at his bag long enough to pull out a bottle of water. He wasn't exactly proud of some of the things he'd deemed necessary in the past, nor the results, but he always justified it within his mind. This didn't allow him to look her in the eye as he asked his next question, however, so fighting with the top of the water bottle made a perfect distraction for him. "Your father was Trunks. Before I... Before he fused. This new being that has replaced him, I mean its not like I ever really spoke with the other two forms of him aside from trying to kill them, but I have always had questions that I've never been able to answer, about what changed with him, about who he was, about-"
"I think I know what you are saying," a female voice called from behind him.
Spinning around, Reijin braced himself for an attack to find that no one was standing behind him. His blood was rushing momentarily and he looked quickly down the streets before he felt something knock him backwards into the water of the fountain, his head striking the side hard enough to knock him unconcious, the lulling drift of the water calling out to him as the world passed into darkness once more...
A final bite of bread fell to the ground, landing on his bag safely and breaking into small bits.
Drip...
He stood up quickly, looking around at his surroundings, immediately seeing subtle changes. The city was no longer abandoned, however. There were droves of people trafficking past him seemingly unaware of his presence. "Welcome to the city as it once was," he heard the familiar voice call beside him.
This time, however, there was a girl of the same height as himself to meet his gaze, the figure giving him an acknowledging nod when he looked to her. "Don't worry, you are asleep, again. I had to show you somethings and its a bit hard to interact with you from a pool of water, as necessary as it may be," she assured him quickly. "My name is Jun'ai Briefs. It is an honor to meet you, although not in person, Reijin."
Day One: Afternoon - Raditzu - 06-03-2008
It always felt nice to accomplish something. Unfortunately, Raditzu and Eighteen wouldn't know they had actually accomplished anything for another few minutes. And, in the meantime, Eightzu was still irritated that he would be called on for something so trivial. He looked down at the weapons he held. A sniper rifle in his left hand, and a ki pistol in his right. To the mind-bogglingly powerful being, they seemed like little more than toys, and he couldn't even begin to understand why his creators would bother with them.
After what seemed like forever, a soft glow encompassed Eightzu's body. It spread from his chest outward, making his skin shimmer brightly. The fused being looked genuinely pleased that it would be free of this silly little tournament, knowing that it was almost time for its creators to return. Not wanting to damage the weapons that Raditzu and Eighteen had obviously wanted, Eightzu set the pistol, rifle, cards, brass knuckles, and both bags against a nearby rock. Just as he did, the glow erupted into a flash of light.
When the light subsided, there stood two figures. Despite their own rather amazing strength, neither warrior's presence could match that of their fused persona. It was like comparing the brilliance of the sun to that of a flashlight. Even with brand new batteries, the flashlight wouldn't stand a chance.
"Well," Rad turned towards Eighteen. "Was it good for you?"
Instead of actually responding, Eighteen simply threw Rad's bag at him. Quickly followed by his deck of cards. Both warriors looked down at the remaining weapons with a feeling of satisfaction.
"Looks like things went well," the android commented.
"No kidding." Rad made a quick check of his bag. Intending to pass the time with a little game, the saiyan started to shuffle his cards. "So how about a friendly game of stri-- hey!" The saiyan stopped shuffling and pulled a card free from the deck. "What the hell happened to my nine of spades?"
Small dots of blood were sprinkled across either side of the card. Raditzu wouldn't have been so upset, but he had gone to great lengths to keep the cards shiny and clean as he traipsed about the wilderness.
Eighteen wasn't actually paying attention to her partner, though. She had become much more interested in checking the conditions of their weapons. She picked up the ki pistol first. The androidess spent a couple of seconds getting a feel for the weight of the weapon before leveling it at a nearby rock and pulling the trigger twice, in rapid succession.
Much to Rad's amazement, the double-tap hit the small boulder dead-on. The second shot landing several inches above the first. Text-book firing if ever he had seen it. His awe, however, was replaced with an entirely different emotion as he watched Eighteen take aim with the pistol again. The android turned her head as Rad let out a low whistle.
"See something you like?" the android asked.
"If you have to ask," Rad grinned, "then you've obviously never seen a hot woman holding a gun."
Instead of taking her shot, Eighteen pocketed the pistol and snatched up the sniper rifle. As she slung it over her shoulder, Rad temporarily shelved his lust. As much as he would have liked to, they were still fighting for their lives.
"Hey, babe, you actually know how to use that thing?"
"You mean this big shiny gun?" the android asked as she ran a hand along the barrel. "Oh no, I just liked the way it looked. Could you be a big, strong man and show me?"
Puffing up his chest, Raditzu swaggered over to the android and took the sniper rifle from her. The saiyan dropped to the ground, laying on his stomach and steadied the rifle on the small bi-pod at the end of its barrel. He instructed Eighteen to lay next to him and waited for her to do so before beginning his explanation.
"Now this is called a 'sniper rifle,'" the saiyan said, making air quote around the name of the gun. "It's used to shoot things that are far away. This 'scope,'" Rad pointed to the scope, "lets you see really far. That way you know what you're looking at. When you pull this 'trigger' the gun makes a loud noise and a bull--"
The saiyan's lecture was interrupted when Eighteen pulled the rifle from his hands. A massive report filled the air as the android fired a shot. Before Raditzu could even blink, Eighteen had pulled open the bolt, ejected the empty shell casing, and reloaded the weapon. Meanwhile, off in the distance, small pieces of bird were falling out of the sky.
Hopping up to her feet, Eighteen brushed herself off and smiled down at her lover. As Raditzu followed her off the ground, the android extended her arm, handing Rad the rifle.
"You can hold onto it. You probably need the practice."
Mouth agape, Raditzu looked from android, to the rifle, back to the android.
"I have never wanted you more."
Day One: Afternoon - Reijin - 06-03-2008
Continued from: http://www.cdbzrpg.com/forum/showpost.php?p=459964&postcount=5
The youth simply looked her in the eye, nodding before turning to look at the people around them. "What does any of this have to do with giving me answers?" he questioned, motioning with his arm at the crowd going about their lives around them, completely unaware of the presence of the pair.
The woman gestured for him to follow her before answering once more. Reijin took a moment to get a better view of her while he had the opportunity. Till now, she'd always been ambiguosly hidden within the shadows in some manner or another, but now she revealed herself in full. Her hair was a darker shade of amethyst, falling down to shoulders that were adorned with padding to cover what appeared to be a very well toned and graceful form. Her clothing was a mixture of saphire and plum shades and she had a small cloak hanging off her shoulders to help conceal herself when she felt the need. She glanced back him with piercing emerald eyes and allowed herself a small smile to comfort him. "Can we talk more?" she asked.
He pointed up at the cybernetic implant that curved around her eye like a crescent moon. "So what exactly caused that if you aren't a cyborg?" It was a question designed to dodge the real questions, the ones he was unsure about asking and didn't want to admit to himself. She turned from him, however, and began walking before speaking once more, forcing him to catch up and fall into stride beside her as they walked through the crowd that seemed to part around them in some graceful choreography.
"I'm going to tell you, but let me get to some things for you," she replied finally. She spoke again quickly before he had a chance to give another evasive question and silenced him. "My father was the older Trunks that came to your world from the future. He had already lived his life through his teenage years before ever arriving to your time. He had left a world that had been plagued with androids and corruption, in hopes of finding someone to help him save the world that he belonged to. When he returned, he found his mother to be dead there along with every final survivor that he'd attempted to save by himself. In his time, there was nothing left to return to. The machines had won."
She shrugged in the direction of the park before stepping off the sidewalk to cross the street towards it. "Anyway, he returned to your timeline and tried to make a life there, having live alongside your world's younger version of himself. Since his own father Vejita had never really attempted to be a role model for the younger Trunks, something that the future Trunks found depressing when he was reunited with his father, he took it upon himself to tend to training and helping the younger of the two. He had grown a bit bitter with life and seeing the younger Trunks so naive and cheerful in his youth only harshened the reality of it."
The two stepped onto the park grass and walked to a bench before she motioned for him to take a seat beside her. He did so, taking in what she was explaining to him but wondering what it really had to do with him. In answer, she continued. "He met my mother at some point, Pan, who never knew that she'd been torn from another timeline as well," she said, leaning back and kicking her feet out on the bench to look up at the skyline. "I guess that is what brought the two of them together, kinda like fate. She was the daughter of a woman named Videl in another time."
Videl... Reijin hadn't quite anticipated that comment and looked sharply away from the girl towards the crowd, grumbling under his breath at the reminder. "So what does this have to do with anything?"
She hurriedly waved her arm in front of her to grab his attention, turning him around to face her from his shoulder. "Look, its a lot of information, so just soak up what you care about and ignore the rest. The two of them entered the Room of Spirit and Time on Earth in hopes of training to defeat some random being that threatened your world. At some point during their 'training' they concieved a child within that room. As you probably know, that room allows you to live a year in a single day. So basically they entered the room as two people, and when they left the room there was three. A baby girl just a couple of months old. Her name was Jun'ai. This was maybe four years ago in your time."
He groaned at her at this point, interrupting her quite rudely. "So I'm going to take a guess that you age at some faster rate due to the room? No, wait, you probably came from the future yourself. Where's this world's version of you? Are you planning to fuse with your younger self just like your father did?" He stood up and kicked at absolutely nothing on the ground before looking around at the crowd that was growing a bit more scarce.
"Reijin, believe it or not, you did nothing to create what my father became. I honestly believe that fate would have lead him down this path in an attempt to right the wrong that had happened from the two of him sharing a time stream together. I think the something similar happened to my mother, as she simply vanished from this world and oddly no one here knows anything of her existance."
Reijin nodded at her, not quite believing her but not entirely caring. "I know something of it," he whispered, thinking of the existance wipe that had occured on Videl when she escaped Hell to live her life after death.
She stood up and turned him to face her once more. "Let me give you the abridged version as much as I can. If you need more info then you can always ask for it. Right after my parents brought me out of the Room there was a large battle on the lookout, one that nearly sundered the fabric that this world exists upon. It created enough of a tear in the fabric of time that a wormhole or something, I'm not entirely sure what, connected to a similar catastrophic event in another time. My parents had left me sleeping and went to help with the fight and when the came back, I was gone. I had been temporally displaced just like a number of other people in your world have been, with no one ever remembering they even existed.'
"You showed up shortly afterwards, when my mother had already disappeared from this world, and ended up in a fight with a group of warriors, to include my father Trunks and the younger Trunks. You had the legendary Potarra Earrings with you, and when during the clash you gave a fatal wound to the younger Trunks, my father rushed down in blind rage in an attempt to save him somehow." As she spoke, the visions of what exactly had happened seemed to transpire around them in their current world. Reijin could not shut his eyes to it, because he knew that he was in his own mind right now and these were his memories. "Then another warrior gave his life to wrest the ancient trinkets from you, throwing them down to my father as he watched the one that he'd tried to give a life to slowly die. He felt he had no choice. Knowing full well the consequences that would result in wearing them, he put one of the rings through his ear and the other through that of his younger self, at the exact moment that the younger Trunks would pass from this world."
The male Saiyan turned back to her and grabbed her by both of her wrists, wrenching her to face him directly. "You are pushing buttons right now that I do not think you want to push. Instead of reopening old scars, why don't you get to the point."
The woman looked him in the eyes a moment through piercing green before he found himself telekinetically seperated from her and standing a short distance away, breathing heavily with no memory of what had happened between the lapsed time. She then took slow deliberate steps towards him while continuing. "Then I will finish explaining in time. These temporal rifts are becoming a real problem and I'm going to need you to try to help me with them or else both of our worlds are in danger."
"Both of our worlds? You were born here, so why would you care about the other one? Just change the future or live your life in this one," he spat.
Her cheeks took on a blushed color as her eyes narrowed at him. "Call it my human half, if you want. I can't do that. I was taken from this world and grew up on that other world, and I will call it more my home than this one. Even then, this affects both worlds and quite possibly more."
"So why are you coming to me? Why not go to your father, the great and powerful Trunks Unified? Where has he been, anyways?" Reijin gloated, hoping to hurt her for daring to delve where she was not wanted.
She turned her back to him and looked up at the sky once more, not allowing him the pleasure of seeing her facial reaction to his stinging words. She gave herself a moment before continuing, her voice trembling a slight bit. "Because I have never been given the chance to know my father. Nor my mother. I don't even know if I can call them that by now. I met them, once, but that caused a great deal of trouble in both worlds as well. Since then I've found other..." she trailed off midway through her sentence, before whirling around to face him. "He's not even here on this world anymore. We haven't been able to track him or contact him. I honestly don't know what the hell happened to him or where he went. So I contacted you. You are the only living person that was involved in the situation that created one of the largest rifts out there, and despite you not knowing it, you are the last resort for me to come to in order to get this fixed."
Her eyes were glistening although in her Saiyan anger there were no tears, just cold anger. The two crossed eyes at each other like two rattlesnakes before Reijin growled at her. "I'm ready to wake up now. I have a tournament to win."
She stared at him a moment, her bottom lip trembling a bit, before she answered. "Fine. I get it. You don't care about anyone outside of yourself. I'm sure that fighting for yourself is going to get you far. I mean, its helped you win these tournaments in the past and I'm sure its gotten you quite far with the ladies. I bet you even get a great deal of respect from other fighters around you. Those that waste their time with other weak creatures that have blood flowing through their veins." Her words ripped at him, each stinging blow tearing at his psyche till he spun around in rage...
He awoke in the fountain, finding his arm once more shredded and bound to his chest, reminding him that without change life would continue the way it always did. Hard and uneventful. And without a purpose.
Day One: Afternoon - Violet - 06-03-2008
Part One
Keeping the ever ominous Bardock within eye and earshot, they parted ways once more. Violet stepped quietly amongst the dilapidated buildings and empty streets, the cold echo embracing the young woman as she searched for clues amongst the rubble of any passers-by, or immediate threats. It would have been a perfect spot to hang around for a good while, waiting for all the weaker competitors to amble along into their trap, but something was wrong here. She couldn’t sense ki anymore, but she did pick up on the electrical charge of thought remnants, fresh ones.
The brittle crunch of glass froze the woman in place, her body tensing as her hand went automatically for her weapon. Frantic eyes dropped to the source of the sound, the broken image of her reflection stared back, too much white blanching her delicate features. A strange sort of energy surrounded the broken shards, like the wavy ripples of heat from asphalt in the summer, if you looked hard enough, you could see them.
Lowering to rest on her haunches, Violet reached unsteady fingers towards a broken shard, tiny charges of electricity exploding on her fingertips as they skimmed over the glossy surface. She stared back at herself through the sliver of glass, seeing nothing out of the ordinary about it, except for the ever looming voice of something else. Her mind reached out to the remnant energy, the vaguely familiar impression sparked visions of recent memories, but one thing remained constant: the stench of Saiyan marred the sparkling energy.
“That boy…” she murmured. As she gazed into the smudged glass, a different set of eyes peered back, green, green like spring grass, but everything else…it was almost identical. The doppelganger smiled, showing the perfection of her straight, white teeth.
”You.” the image gasped, its eyes darkening as it stared back in wonder. ”How can you see me?”
“Don’t ask me, I don’t have a fucking clue how this is happening.” Vi responded quietly. She fished for the name that whispered halfheard through her head. Raiden, Regan, Reijin…”Reijin. He was here.”
“Lucky guess,” the apparition scoffed. “But you’re too late. He is far away from you and that hack ‘champ’.”
Vi clutched the pulsing shard of glass within her palm, the edges of the sharp carving neat lines deep into the tender flesh. “He’s not a hack. Your friend found that out the hard way;” she hissed.
“He still lives. As long as there is breath in his lungs, you both will suffer. After all, your deceit can only last so long, Uzumaki.”
Almost dropping small sheet of magically charged material, Violet stumbled over her response.
“Reijin doesn’t care either way about the two of you right now, especially you. How many times have you aligned with his family and left without so much as a word? You turned your back on him, knowingly or not. Saiyans do not respect betrayal, on or off the battlefield.”
“Who in the fuck is talking about betrayal? What does that have to do with me and Bardock?” she glared at the face staring back at her. The smugness in the other’s eyes mirrored the look she so often wore, if hadn’t been for the soft lines of youth, she’d swear it was herself looking back.
”Run. That’s what I suggest you do.” The face before her began to fade, transmogrifying into another, this time, the familiarity stinging her heart. It was no longer her face she stared into: this one had haunted her every waking move since her arrest, one that even now, sent shivers of fear racing through her body.
OOC: The image is just a projection, and although it appears as the NPC in Rei's RPs, It isn't. The face is simply an avatar of something else.
Day One: Afternoon - Violet - 06-03-2008
The glass slipped from her bloody palm, shattering into thousands of tiny pieces at her feet. As the energy dissipated from the artifact, the Changeling’s laughter surrounded her, fading into the background of her head. As quickly as her feet could carry her, Violet scurried off into the forest of buildings, her heart racing in her chest.
“Bardock!” She called, “Bardock!!”
His head jerked around the side of a crumbled wall, energy spiking and weapon drawn as the female approached. Cursing her loudness and blatant obtrusiveness, he answered back. “Would you keep it down? You’re going to get us killed, idiot!”
Shuddering to a halt before him, her breath coming in hard, rampant pants, she gazed wildly up at the taller man. “We need to move. Reijin, that kid we ran into earlier, is close by.”
“Great! Some action!” he threw his hands up in exasperation. “I’m bored shitless just standing around waiting for someone to pop up.”
“Yeah? Really? You want some fucking action?” she snapped, face furrowing in anger. “Give me some fucking action, will ya? If we’re going to win this motherfucker, then we need to pick our battles instead of running head long into them. The kid was pretty fucked up when we left him, but we were lucky, Bardock. L-U-C-K-Y.”
“It wasn’t luck,” the Saiyan snorted arrogantly. “If you hadn’t jumped in, I could have gotten the kill.”
“God, Bardock, could you quit being an asshole for a few hours and let me help you?”
“I don’t need your help,” he snarled, stepping past her.
That stopped her. She didn’t follow him at first; instead, she mulled over the trailing energy he left behind, and although she didn’t feel any immediate danger for her life, she did feel it for this relationship. He didn’t want her help, he was ‘omnipotent’, and she only dragged him down. She’d had that suspicion for a while now, but until she saw it there so plainly on his face, she didn’t want to believe it.
It hurt, it really did. He was so ready to kill her, bounding out of hidden places with his weapon poised, mere inches from her face. She’d reacted, of course. It could have been anyone springing out at her, but it didn’t stop the sudden terror that shot through her, waiting for him to lower the weapon and cleave the life right out of her. After all, he didn’t need her.
Without looking back, she picked up her sack and hit the bricks. If he could go about this alone, so the fuck could she.
* * * * *
“BOOOO!!” handfuls of popcorn hit the large LCD screen, pinging off the plastic surface. Kayley hissed in disdain, sprinkling the crew cabin with more kernels.
“This doesn’t look good, guys;” Briggs announced solemnly.
“If they split up, it won’t be much longer for either of them.” Sky amended. They all released a collective sigh over the latest development of their fellow crew members.
“Wait, she’s turning back!” Kayley squealed happily.
They watched intently as the scene played before them, their hope a tangible thing as they held onto each dramatic inch.
Day One: Afternoon - Bardock - 06-03-2008
Violet turned around, the angry impulse fading as second thoughts came into play. She’d not gotten too far, and she quickly backpedaled. Once she found the street he had been stomping through, she began to voice her hesitation.
“Bardock, wait…I really…”
But she looked to the left, and then she looked to the right. He was already gone. The second thoughts that were running through her mind were obviously not running through his. She trailed off in her impromptu speech, realizing that he really wasn’t coming back. Violet clenched her fists in frustration, blood from the glass cuts spilling through her tightly squeezed fingers.
Fuck ’im then.
-------
Bardock trudged through the ruins, looking for anything that could prove useful. Violet had no doubt been off screwing around instead of being productive. Whatever. He was better off without her. He didn’t need any deadweight hanging around. The saiya-jin wondered why he’d even asked her to come in the first place. She was never going to be able to show him what he wanted to see, what he really wanted to see. Thinking it through just now, he pondered why it was even so important to him at all. Quickly shrugging off the contemplation, he figured it didn’t matter now. They’d gone their separate ways, and he’d be damned if the human was going to go very far now.
Luck smiled on Bardock as he found a sporting goods store. It was fate. The fighter walked inside, knowing now from previous experience that the bell that greeted him wasn’t an “alarm” at all. He perused the dusty glass cases, finding a wide assortment of knives and utilities. Everything else seemed like any usable weapon in here had been purposefully disabled or destroyed.
Damnit…the saiya-jin cursed. As a consolation prize, Bardock busted open the glass case full of knives, and slipped one in each boot for later. They weren’t going to be any help in a fight, but they would be more useful than his axe for cutting and gutting. A lot of things were missing, but Bardock settled on some camping equip he could fit in his duffel and split, not wanting to hang around for too long.
He skillfully clambered up the side of a building and moved from rooftop to rooftop, only moving low in the streets when he couldn’t make a jump. The roughneck wasn’t keen on staying in the abandoned civilization long, and he edged closer and closer to a different area of the map.
Surprisingly, he spotted Violet down below walking along, ducking behind cars as she scanned the street ahead. Bardock snarled. If she wasn’t with him, she was against him, and that made her a justifiable target. He slowly hefted up his axe, his hand sliding down to grip the end. The fighter slowly flicked it forward without releasing, testing the weight and adjusting accordingly. He crouched low atop his perch, getting into position and silently setting his duffel on the ground of the rooftop. His dark eyes squinted as they locked on. The human suddenly stopped and her head jerked up. She was aware that something wasn’t quite right. Bardock’s window of opportunity was quickly closing. Taking careful aim, he hurled his axe forward. At the last possible second, she saw it out of the corner of her eye and jerked her head back. The hatchet buried itself in the car door where she had just been.
No time to lament the miss. Bardock leapt down from the building, rolling as he did so to absorb the shock of the fall. He came up running, and charged like a maddened bull. Keeping her nail gun steady, Violet pulled the axe out of the marred metal and flung it sideways at him, low and aimed for his legs. Without even hesitating, Bardock jumped over the air-born object and kept on coming. He thrust an arm out, fingers pointed in the shape of a gun.
“Pistol!” he cried out. His thumb curled, and a quick burst of energy was fired from the tip of his index. Violet easily dodged, and the ki bullet passed through the car and hit a support beam on the building. Before he could stop himself, Bardock ran right into the path of a crumbling wall. His eyes widened as a section of concrete bore down on him, threatening to crush his mortal bones. He thrust his arms out, and his whole body sank to absorb the shock as he caught the wall. His face turned red and he choked in exertion. Walls were heavy.
“Bardock!” he heard Violet cry out.
If he could, he would have seen the second segment of ruin fall on top of the wall that he was holding, and Bardock could no longer support the weight. The saiya-jin buckled underneath the rubble, and was lost from sight. Everything went black.
Day One: Afternoon - Bardock - 06-03-2008
It was a funny feeling, being disembodied. You just kind of float around. You see and hear things you wouldn’t normally see or hear. Echoes and colors passed all around him in a whispery wind of senses. Bardock’s eyes slowly opened, and he sat up, not really paying attention to how he’d managed to survive that stupid mistake of his. After a moment, he got to his feet, rubbing his head, which happened to be pounding. His thumb caught something that should have been missing right now: his ear. Face forming in surprise, he palmed the appendage, confirming that it was, in fact, there. Both of them. Something wasn’t right. Reijin had torn it off. Looking around, Bardock realized he could no longer see the ruins. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t really see anything. The world was empty and white, a shapeless realm of nothingness.
“Hey!” Bardock called out, his voice reverberating into the distance. “What the hell is this?”
He turned this way and that. Was he still on Dante? Or was he dead? Had he been killed?
Whirling around, he stopped. Somebody was standing there that hadn’t been standing there before. The blood boiling in his veins, Bardock recognized the person immediately and threw his arm, shooting an energy blast from his palm. The attack passed right through the apparition of Violet. The saiyan’s mouth dropped slightly in surprise. Her face was lined in concern.
“Don’t die, Bardock,” she said.
“What? I’m not fucking dead,” the fighter insisted.
“Come on, snap out of it.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I’m fucking fine!” Bardock reiterated. His words hung deafly on the air.
“Don’t you fucking leave me.”
His already short amount of patience expired, Bardock lunged, fist cocked. “SHUT UP!!”
Just as his energy blast, he too, phased through. Undaunted, the black-haired brawler turned right back around and began launching a vicious assault of wild punches. None of them landed, but eventually, Violet’s form dissipated into the ether. Bardock’s eyes widened in surprise, wondering what happened. The only thing for sure, was that he was alone again. The fighter didn’t know what to do now. This was some kind of trick…some kind of mind game, and he was the poor fool on the receiving end. He squeezed his eyes shut and screamed. When the breath was gone from his lungs, he dropped to his knees. He hated this. All he wanted was to just get lost in the tournament. Clearly, in his mind’s eye, he could see Violet smiling at him. After all that had happened, it was over. He wasn’t able to make her understand that all he was trying to do was fight, that all he knew how to do was fight. And he wanted her to fight, to see what it meant to him, to see that maybe, just maybe, he was trying, too.
His eyes opened slowly, and an outstretched hand was waiting gently before his face. He didn’t need to look up to see who it belonged to. Unquestioningly, he closed his eyes again, and grabbed it.
“Bardock…Bardock…”
When he opened his eyes again, he was laying uncomfortably on the concrete. He groggily realized he’d been pulled out of the rubble.
“Shit,” a familiar voice breathed.
Surprisingly, he’d just been knocked unconscious, and was otherwise unhurt. He sat up, a little too quickly for his spinning head, but sat up he did. Bardock reached up with his hand, and felt the side of his face. No ear. Things were back the way they should be.
“What did I say?” Violet said shakily. “Don’t fucking do that.”
Silently, Bardock got to his feet, and slowly stumbled to where his axe had been thrown. Suddenly, he felt cold metal on the back of his neck. His senses fully reawakening, he realized Violet had drawn her nail gun on him. They were, after all, still fighting. He smiled wryly, knowing even during this bold move she wasn’t going to be able to pull the trigger.
“Even if you don’t need me, even if you don’t want my help, Bar, we’re fucking in this together or we’re not,” she stated.
Deliberately, Bardock turned around, looking down at the nail gun that was now aimed for his throat, and then slowly raised his gaze to her eyes. Their blue depths were alight with blazing determination. She most certainly wasn’t a quitter.
His face expressionless, he uttered a single word. “Okay.”
Day One: Afternoon - Aero - 06-03-2008
The three walked through the thickly vegetated forest, Aero out in front. He flailed his arms around, knocking back bushes, branches, and other plant life that impeded their path. It wasn’t even a path; they were journeying across undiscovered territory, but they’d rather be exasperated by the ways of nature than picked on the competition’s terms. Aero was a womanizer, sometimes an asshole, and even crazy—like a fox—at times. There was one thing that people never associated with his name, however, and that was stupidity. He knew that the harder road was probably the safer road.
The voice of Karl Jack boomed over the island again, making apparent new information that would be valuable to all of those who listened.
"High noon, everybody, hope you all have some form of comfort! Get out your maps and get ready to cross some names off, because we've lost...
#13 Raspberry
#17 Tapion
#30 Jack Sparrow
Aero was one of the virgins of Dante’s Abyss, not yet fucked by the tyranny of the flamboyantly homosexual host. He was lucky. He still had that glimmer in his eyes, that innocence. Virgins were not all necessarily clueless, however, and that was what he ranked under. He was well-informed of the subject. He knew that to win he’d have to fuck Karl Jak right back, remembering to wear a condom so he wouldn’t be retaliated against with a STD. What better way to do so than two carry two women along with him, and to defeat the masculine men that Jak had come to adore? But he was in no condition to be fucking at the moment. No, for the time being he would simply have to tolerate being the catcher.
“Aero,” Celipa said with a commanding voice, stopping. She could still feel the throbbing pain in her jaw with every word she formed. “Where are we going?” The question had been on her mind for a while. Unlike the pregnant Ader, the human was not vulnerable, and unlike herself, he had been unharmed throughout the competition (other than a few dings and scratched from Seventeen, which by this time were already fully healed). “You’re taking us further and further into the jungle. Why?” She was beginning to have her doubts about his motives. He didn’t know that Zangya was preggers . . . or did he? If he was aware of such information he could be tempted to betray them. It was the logical thing to do. DA was no place for a woman carrying a child and definitely not designed for the encumbrance that it indubitably placed upon her allies.
The threesome was silent. Celipa prepared her fork, grasping it tightly in her hand. Her aura was beginning to flare up. She would be damned if some cocky blue-haired man was going to lead her and a pregnant woman on a Baton Death March into the mouth of a trap. Not on her watch. Though Saiyans weren’t the most intelligent species in the universe, their cunning battle senses were unmatched. She could sniff a trap from a mile away. This one had the scent of cooked salmon—she was beginning to feel her stomach growl and knew that if there was going to be a fight it might as well be now, while she stay had the energy to defend her and the Ader.
Zangya took a few steps back, guarding her stomach with a palm and keeping her other hand ready to defend herself if the occasion arose. She felt the comfort of Gokua’s presence standing by her, and not idly. She felt him unsheathe his rapier, The Dictator, holding it in his left hand, his right fist flaring up with chi. If this human was going to betray them later down the road then the two females were better of trying their luck against him now.
“Chill out,” he calmly remarked, swatting another branch from their path. “If I wanted to do ya’ll in I would’ve done it why ya’ll were busy in the bathroom.” He turned to look at them, glancing at the readied fork in the saiyan’s hand and the look of concentration on both their faces. “Look, we’re taking this path because, for one, it hasn’t been taken yet. And for two, we lost our fuckin compasses and maps, if you didn’t forget.”
Celipa began to relax more; her grip on the fork loosened (it was more so lingering down, out of her closed palm, and seemed like it could drop at any moment). He was speaking truths. If we wanted to take them out he had previous opportunities. And they were lost. She simply let out a sigh and said: “I think we should stop and rest for a while then. I’m getting really hungry and I’m sure Zangya would like some food. Wouldn’t you?” She looked back at her pregnant comrade.
The presence of Gokua slowly dissipated. She looked over at Celipa. “Yeah. I do have two mouths to feed, after all.”
“Okay,” Aero agreed. “Let’s stop here then and make some type of shelter—“ he gazed up at the tall trees; their branches clustered the sky, only allowing blotches of sunlight to seep through. “—we can use some of the thinner, more flexible branches, I guess.” He was beginning to sound like a competitor and not just some guy out for the thrill. He was sounding like a DA veteran, seasoned in the art of survival. That was a lot for a city boy like Aero Cowabunga, who had never even seen a forest, let alone having to shelter himself in one.
Day One: Afternoon - Android 17 - 06-03-2008
As the sun reached its peak in the skies overhead, the grating voice of Karl Jak pervaded the bizarre serenity of the island. Seventeen listened to the man for a little bit, if just to hear who had been slain in the hours that had just transpired. After a few minutes, however, the android found himself zoning out, his eyes looking straight ahead at the rolling landscape but his mind in another place entirely.
Only three people dead so far. The rasping voice uttered, stating the blatantly obvious. And we don’t know any of those ingrates, so that means there’s still a bunch of familiar faces out there waiting to stab us in the back. We need to get out there and claim a few weaklings to secure our standing in the competition.
“Stop saying ‘us’,” Seventeen groaned, rolling his eyes as the splintered asphalt gave way to shriveled up grass. “You’re just a meanspirited little concoction in the my head, and I don’t appreciate the backseat driving, y’know,” the android added, his eyes surveying the vast, new landscape stretched out in front of him. Unlike the congested atmosphere of the city, Seventeen’s new locale was wide-open, which would provide him with a clear view of any encroaching foes.
It’s not like you’re going to kill anyone. The formless voice groaned, conveying a rather human sense of sarcasm that caused the android to laugh faintly. You’ll just knock them out and steal their food, ye gods! All fear the malicious Seventeen, who’ll use you up real good and then knock you unconscious like an inner-city prostitute.
“Get over yourself,” the cyborg replied, turning his attention to the afternoon sky. “I’ll kill them on my terms,” he grumbled, triggering a snide, manic laughter to course through the back of his mind.
‘I’ll kill them on my terms’? The voice managed to choke out amidst laughs. From what I’ve seen so far, you wouldn’t be able to kill an unconscious leper with a shotgun, let alone a bunch of overpowered freaks with the capacity to burns worlds.
“Everyone has their flaws,” Seventeen replied, fishing into his duffel bag from a fresh cigarette. Unfortunately for the cyborg, he was down to only three, which meant he’d have to conserve them or return to the city at some point in the future to restock. With a sigh, the android light the cigarette and took the first drag as he mulled over what to say next. By the time he blew out the tiny ring of smoke (Seventeen had gotten quite good at making the smoke into cute shapes); the rest of the retort had come to him. “So fuck you, asshole.”
Ooo, big man with the nicotine and the cursing. The voice replied, laughing maliciously as Seventeen continued his trek across the lovely little island. So what are you going to do if those three chods track you down to get some vengeance? You going to knock ‘em out and run like a scalded dog again, asshole?
“Oh I have those three all mapped out,” Seventeen replied, tapping his index finger against the side of his head. As he continued to walk, the android’s appearance began to shift and blur—his features melting away as he took on the guise of his old acquaintance, Celipa. “This one is the strongest of the group,” the android spoke, pausing to take a gander at his features. With a grunt, he dropped possessions and began to stretch his weary muscles. After a few moments, he breathed out a deep gust of air and created a ki saber.
“If I can ax the saiya-jin before the fight proper,” Seventeen continued, bringing the humming edge of the synthetic blade up to his neck. With a snicker, the android pretended to slit his own throat, his eyes rolling up in his head and a series of incoherent gasps pouring from his quivering lips. “With that initial strike,” the cyborg continued, his form changing once more to that of the petite Zangya. “I should have enough of an advantage to 86 the tiny one,” on that note, Seventeen discarded the sword and grabbed himself by his giant, orange hair.
Lifting himself up by the hair, the cyborg reared back with a punch and then threw it the side of his face. Seventeen jerked his head to the side and spit up a mouthful of saliva as if he had been actually struck by the blow. From within his mind, the voice was laughing, but unlike before, the laughter seemed benign. It was as if the formulation of slaughter was enough to keep the cynical bastard quiet. With a snicker, the machine-hybrid let go of his head and shifted his form one last time.
“Aero,” he replied, clenching his hands into fists as he flexed out the young man’s body. “We can deal with him once the two little ladies are gone,” he added, hopping from one foot to another and hoisting his hands in front of his face like a professional boxer. “Little mano a mano before he becomes the first man to be disemboweled by a boomerang on international television,” the comment caused both the android and the voice in his head to collapse into a fit of hysterical laughter. When the humor subsided, Seventeen stood back up and brushed off his clothes.
Hey. The voice calmly remarked, causing the machine-hybrid to furrow his brow slightly.
“What?” He inquired as he reached down to pick up his possessions.
You said ‘we’.
Day One: Afternoon - Bujin - 06-03-2008
Dante’s Abyss has a funny way of…changing people. It happens every year; somebody is driven so close to the edge that they begin to do things that the thought themselves incapable of before. Bujin was like this last year, back when everything was so new to him. It was easy to get sheltered when you stayed in the same place, and, as luck would have it, the first real thing Bujin had ever done outside of his home was participate in this God-forsaken televised game. And now look at him – he was killing deer like it was nothing when he wouldn’t have harmed a fly before. If he had been able to see himself now back then, he probably would have hated himself.
But, just as Dante’s Abyss is a place that changes people, it’s also a place where regrets were at a minimum. There was no time for it – all he could focus on now was trying not to get killed. With that in mind, Bujin chuckled lightly to himself as he stood back to examine Rae. It kind of looked funny; blood was splattered next to one of its pink hearts.
“Get used to it, pal,” the midget whispered as he began wiping some of it off. “You’re the only one of the two of us that can get swung around.”
A crackle was heard, causing Bujin to look up while he was just finishing up. The voice of none other than Karl Jak sounded once more. While he usually sounded like he loved the sound of his voice, he didn’t have much to say this time around – just the usual “These are the people who are dead, and these are the areas that will kill you. Have fun,” message. Bujin found himself amused at the names that were called off – all of them participated and died last year. It looked like Bujin wasn’t the only one who hadn’t learned a single thing.
The announcement ended, and everyone was left to fend for themselves once more. Before moving on like he normally would have done after the temporary fireside chat, he decided to stay where he was at the moment. He still wasn’t rested as much as he wanted to be, sure, but there was also something…reminiscent about this place. He could remember everything clearly, just all the events were…jumbled. This place, though – this scarred up, desolate place was burned into his memory.
This was where he shot an amnesiac.
Well…he didn’t know at the time, but it became immediately clear after he pulled the trigger. He could still remember her eyes widening as the bullets penetrated her skin, her scream as if to say “Why are you doing this to me!?” The midget shuddered at the thought – that was the first sign of the change that the island had brought about. This was also one of the first times where he experienced what he since dubbed as “mental feedback”. A while after he recovered from his tussle with the blonde chick, his mind began playing tricks on him.
He looked around further – nothing else of interest really happened here. His experience with the amnesiac was the first clue as to what happened, but he had yet to figure out how it connected. Surely Dante’s Abyss had more answers to give.
Day One: Afternoon - Zangya - 06-03-2008
“Celipa, you go out and get some food. Zangya, you can make a fire while I build the shelter,” Aero commanded, and the group nodded in succession. Celipa started off into the woods, leaving Zangya and Aero alone at the campsite. The Ader looked over to the pile of wood that her male companion had built to be used for fire and for the shelter. She picked up a few logs, and carried them over to a small clearing that she’d found. Soon, she’d made a makeshift fire pit by arranging some nearby rocks in a circle—it wasn’t the most graceful fireplace, but it would have to do. The jade woman laid the logs down into the pit, and then hesitated before setting them alight.
Aero was already hard at work on the shelter. He was getting the foundation in place, forgoing a hammer for his bare hands. She watched as he dug several logs into the ground, then using those as the foundation for him to place other building blocks on top of. He seemed undisturbed by her staring, and she simply continued to watch him, watch him as he built the shelter. What was he getting at? Ever since they’d left the city, he’d left the pack. Was he trying to be more masculine, or to show off his complete and utter arrogance? Zangya felt unsure of her partner’s motives, but feared questioning them. He was a stronger man than her, even if not by much, and she was afraid that a face-to-face encounter would leave her dead and him laughing.
Perhaps words, then, were the best way to go.
“Aero,” she asked him, “Why are you doing this?” The man stopped his work, and then turned with a puzzled look on his face. He sat down on the sturdy portion of what had already been built, and looked down at Zangya, but he said nothing. He waited for her to clarify. “Ever since we left the city, you’ve grown more… serious. More masculine, or something. Are you trying to impress us or something?” Aero’s looked shifted from puzzled to one of understanding—he let his head hang low, and then stood before replying to Zangya’s question.
“Zangya,” he began, “I’m a man. You two are females. It’s common knowledge that I must be trying to impress you.” He laughed, satisfied with his spin on her question, but Zangya was not satisfied. So he continued, growing more serious, “Maybe that’s one of my motives, as you know my personality. But there are other things hidden inside me, as well. I’m here, in a competition that I’ve never been in before, trying to find out what’s going on. I don’t like being the newcomer to anything, so when I stand here, with you two women who have played before—even if only once before—I feel that I have to be better than you. I think I’ve done a pretty good job so far, but obviously it has come across a bit different than I thought. Men don’t like to feel inferior, Zangya—you should know that—so I attempt to be better than everyone else by acting that way. There’s nothing you can do to change me. It’s just how I always act.”
The Ader smiled, relieved. At least now she knew his motives. Suddenly, she felt a hand upon her shoulder, and looked up to see Gokua. “He’s okay,” the fellow Ader-jin guided her, “I trust him. And so should you. He doesn’t have it in for you, Zangya. He’s simply trying to convince himself that experience doesn’t matter.” The female of the species nodded, but Gokua continued on: “Especially after Seventeen just left you all there, instead of killing you all like Aero thought he should. Aero’s mindset, I believe, is that Seventeen should have killed you all instead of leaving you there. Aero sees that as mockery, I think.”
“Perhaps,” Zangya muttered, though all of her conversations with Gokua went unheard by Aero, “Alright. I’ll leave him be for now, my love.” The Ader stood, and Gokua dissipated, satisfied with Zangya’s answer. She walked up to Aero, and grasped his hand, “Alright, Aero,” she told him, “I trust you.” She turned away from him, and aimed her palm at the fire pit, launching a tiny ki blast at it. The image of Gokua stood over it, proud of his love’s decision. “I told you I’d listen, Gokua,” she muttered.
“WHOA!”
Aero and Zangya spun around, and Celipa came tearing through the campsite, breaking the relative calm that had come over it—at first, they thought she was overreacting, but when they saw the huge crowd of wild boars that was coming fast behind her, they too picked up their feet and followed the Saiya-jin out of the campsite. The boars smashed through, leaving the place in ruins, giving it the feel that perhaps, the group had been run out by another contestant. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, Zangya didn’t know. All she knew was that these boars were not the best thing that had ever happened to them.
Not as bad as Seventeen, but not the best thing, either.
Day One: Afternoon - Warako - 06-03-2008
Full speed ahead, it’s what his mind was subconsciously saying to the Namekians Body. It was something he didn’t agree with, but it must be done for the young Man to survive. He didn’t understand fully why his two previous comrades attacked him, especially Paragus. It didn’t make sense, and the young Namekian didn’t seem to want to understand.
With his body in full motion, adrenaline pumped; there was nothing that would stop Warako from getting far away from this location. The hiding did him no good; it seemed he would be hunted down no matter where he stayed. If it was a matter of survival, constantly moving was the best bet.
It only took a matter of minutes before Warako had exited the downtown of Dante’s Abyss, now he paced himself through luscious green grass as the buildings behind him began to shrink in the distance. However full speed ahead wasn’t exactly energy efficient, not everyone is capable of running around the island nonstop, Warako included. With the grass at a moderate height, the young Namekian dropped down to lie out on his backside.
It was a beautiful day for once on this Island of Hatred as a few rolling clouds whisked by beneath the sun’s rays. This was the closest to Paradise that the Namekian would get, and he intended to enjoy it for some time as well.
However the adrenaline slowly faded away from the Green Skins body as a paining sensation began to creep up from the Boy’s shoulder. On Warako’s back sat a discoloring of his skin, it was no longer green like most Namekians, but rather a light greenish, pink coloring had developed. It wasn’t exactly painful to the point that the young Namekian would cry, but enough to make him uncomfortable on the grass.
Nevertheless, the burn only brought back the recent memories of the fight that took place only minutes ago. It was in the past, something the Namekian never dwelled on, but something this significant had never happened to him before. Never before has a man such as Paragus and Uno turned their backs on their previous comrades.
Paragus, the man who sacrificed himself to the giant Scorpion so Warako could go onward with Uno and destroy the satellite, had just attacked the man he tried to protect. It was unfathomable how something like that could happen. To sacrifice yourself, than a few days later try to kill the man you wished to protect. It made no sense.
Was this really just a game? Pondered Warako, as the burning of his skin signaled it couldn’t have been. Pain is not a game, neither is death. To toy around with lives, even with those that saved your life was unacceptable.
Game or not, this was something Warako was not stuck apart of, and he would make damn sure that the next time he saw Paragus and Uno, neither will walk away unscathed.
Day One: Afternoon - Android 17 - 06-03-2008
“Uh,” Seventeen mumbled, his physical features shifting back to his normal, drab appearance. “Ere,” he added, kicking at the loose grass with the tip of his boot. “You’re a bitch,” he added, before continuing his forward venture. Within the recesses of the android’s mind, the formless voice laughed quietly but soon even it fell victim to the silence. After a minute or so of noiseless walking, the machine-hybrid came to a stop near a small prominence and turned his attention toward the horizon. To his one side, the sun was dipping toward the endless ocean that surrounded the island paradise.
There are still more recognizable faces out there. The voice remarked—the first thing it had mentioned since the somewhat awkward moment to two had shared a few minutes ago. Kirano, for one, is somewhere wandering across this fun little place. Plus there’s that blue-skinned alien with the turban and the slut that tried to cut us during the pre-show. Do you remember that one, champ? The disembodied voice inquired, causing the android to emit a callous laugh.
Tossing his duffel bags down the side of the tiny knoll, Seventeen flexed his arms and took in a deep breath of air. As the android breathed out, his features once again became muddled and incoherent. With a grin, the cyborg threw his hands in the air and began to laugh, but when the sound spilled out into the surroundings, it wasn’t the haughty laughter of the android. The sound that escaped was a much higher octave than it should have normally been.
Seventeen’s now petite hands fell down to his waist, which was now clothed beneath a different suit of armor. Staring down at the ground, the cyborg flexed his toes within the hiking boots he now wore, and as he did, he took a moment to pay homage the finesse of the illusion. With a grin, he ran his fingers across his slender cheekbone—his eyes gleaming with a sort of bizarre form of glee.
That’s the one. The voice replied as the android continued to admire his synthetic physique. Violet, right? Because of her hair or something retarded like that? Although he heard the words in his head, Seventeen opted to ignore them for the time being and continue his little analysis. With a tilt of his head, the android slid the tip of his index finger into his mouth and suckled it for a few moments before popping it out with a gratifying sigh.
“I wonder if this is what she tastes like,” Seventeen spoke aloud, flicking the saliva off his finger as he began to shimmy his hips. Snickering, the android placed his hands on his hips and tried his hand at dancing like those sluts in all the music videos. After a few moments of making a fool out of himself, the machine-hybrid quickly abandoned his efforts and stopped moving. “Damn slut!” He suddenly screamed before slapping himself across his cute face.
You’re supposed to be analyzing strategically, you pounce. The voice barked, having fallen silent amidst the android’s bizarre behavior. So stop ogling over yourself and find someone to maim…fucking wanker. The remark caused Seventeen to frown, and with a grin, he stuck his tongue out and wiggled his booty.
“Fuck you!” He screamed, holding a hand up to his chest as he spoke. “Why does she do things like this?” Seventeen added—his eyes alive with unrequited as he sauntered down the small hillside and scooped up his belongings up off the grassy earth.
What in the hell are you babbling on about? The disembodied voice inquired, a hint of confusion laced within his words.
“‘I’m Violet, I leave for two years to go find some hot alien hunnies and then swing back in like I’m hot shit and nothing’s changed’,” Seventeen mocked, his synthetic voice barely coherent as his entire body began to shake with frustration. “All my friends leave me!” The android screamed as a crimson aura began to form around his trembling features. “They leave for years and then come back like it’s no biggie. I gave them everything during our time together, and they abandoned me to their own personal wiles.
“Then they go and pop back up when it suits them…like I’m some unchanging paragon of camaraderie. News flash you spoiled little bastards—I’ve got my own goals and aspirations too. Why should I be the one who has to rot away whilst everyone gets to go out there and do what they want? I never asked to the responsible one!
“I-I…I hate every last one of them,” he continued as the aura grew increasingly noticeable. Amidst the amassing anger, Violet’s blue eyes began to take on hints of a dark crimson hue. “They cling to me when it serves them and then run off with saiya-jins and changelings and anything they can grasp their insatiable fingers around. They don’t know what friendship is,” Seventeen hissed, his knuckles ghost white as he struggled to maintain his composure.
“I will burn them,” the android growled incoherently as the crimson aura shimmering around him surged—fueled by the man’s unending pool of festering, pent-up loathing. “I hate all of them!” Seventeen screamed, his head flinging backwards as his words were given wings and soared into the darkening sky overhead. In that instant, the illusion he had crafted shimmered just once and then blinked out of sight.
All that remained was Seventeen, who stood wreathed in eternal flames of his unyielding rage. A smile spread across the android’s visage—a hateful, sneering expression that was a far departure from the goofy, witty grin that he had been known to frequent his pale visage. No…this was something else entirely, something new and terrifying. There was silence within the cyborg’s head, as if the voice had been somewhat sated.
Without words, the machine-hybrid collected his things and left. Although the aura soon faded away, the fire still burned within Seventeen’s eyes—a testament to the bottled rage that surged beneath the surface.
Day One: Afternoon - Kirano - 06-03-2008
By noon the host Jack announced three names, three victims of the game. He envied the killers. Why would he not? It had been a peaceful day for him, no bloodshed yet. It was boring. When would the fun start? Who would be the hybrids first victim? The anticipation to kill had birthed within and grew stronger with every aching moment of patiently waiting for an individual or pair to enter his boundary. For the past 15 minutes the hybrid had been gazing out of a second floor window, belonging to a tall building. Sweat had formed around the handle of his pistol, as a result of refusing to take his hand off his weapon. The silver spout directed towards the open window, while Kirano concealed half of his face below the lower frame of the open window. Now that was strategy.
They say good things come to those who wait. If that theory was true, then his ambush would be worth the wait.
There they are, he thought, while a smile spread across his face. After licking his lips as he usually did whenever Phoebe prepared a delicious meal, he placed his right hand over his left hand. “SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!” he screamed, revealing his entire face, while the index finger on his left hand squeezed the trigger. Ki rained out of the window towards the pair of Dante’s Abyss participants. Kirano laughed menacingly while Ki from his weapon tore through their flesh. The victims collapsed to the floor with blood from their fresh wounds accompanying them. They were dead, yet Kirano had not released his hand from the trigger. Ki still drilled through their lifeless bodies. He could not care less. This was his idea of fun after all.
STOP. Snap out of it, he said to himself, returning to reality. No, he had not killed a pair of Dante’s Abyss participants. They were not real. The victims, the violence, unfortunately the whole thing had been a figment of his imagination.
Good things come to those who wait, he recited, gazing cautiously for through the window, continuing to look out for intruders, fresh meat.
Day One: Afternoon - Minoshia - 06-03-2008
Colossal waves of incalculable heat weighed down on the shoulders of the wandering warrior. Meandering without course or direction, he had left the proper cover of the canopies and relocated himself in a land that seemed to be a conductor for misery. Rape was the only word that came to mind when the Konat looked skyward, he had never been so violated by an inanimate object. This is why he refused to correspond with the sun; it was nothing but a giant burning ball of shit that caused nothing but pain and irritation.
“High noon, worst time of the day.” Minoshia commented to no one in particular as he gazed into the blinding light above. Shielding his face and squinting his eyes, he managed to catch a glimpse of the titanic orb hovering directly over his head – confirming the fact that it was indeed noon. Acute boredom and fear of damaging his pale skin told him to find shelter and an activity to bide the time until a more favorable opportunity presented itself.
Move it faggot, I’m burning alive in here. An unsettling voice interrupted his thoughts, the dark amorphous being that dwelled inside his heart and his mind. From time to time he roared his ugly head and seized the reins of control, times of emotional and mental instability usually preceded these mutinies.
“Just when I thought we were starting to get along…” He snarled with poison in his voice, years of uncontrollable rage had blended the barriers between personalities. Regardless of his disagreement, he quickened his pace towards a small overhang – a rift in the desert possibly caused by years of ferocious wind and erosion.
Get along? Fuck yourself. Let’s make a deal – let me have control of the body, indefinitely, and we can get along. The dark figure inside his mind chuckled in unison with the Konat; both knew that neither would agree to the terms. Never the less, as his small frame became hidden within the shadows of the natural awning the outside of his vision began to blur slightly and a small silver streak began to fracture the window of his left eye. What the fuck is going on…
“What…” His monotone voice could never match the shocked expression that spread across his usually grim mask. “I figured this was your doing, what the fuck is going on…”
Without warning or notice, Minoshia’s body seized and his muscles froze. He felt suddenly heavy, someone had poured dense concrete into his body and he was feeling the effects. His generally limber body fell to the ground like a collapsing tree. He lay on the ground stiff as a board watching the ceiling of the overhang through eyes that were progressively becoming glazed doughnut holes. He tried to scream out, but could not; he laid totally conscious, pain writhing through his flesh and bones as he waited for the moment to pass.
Day One: Afternoon - Bojack - 06-04-2008
The forest was dense with alien trees, mighty testaments to past centuries absent the blood and the death of more recent days. The air was thick and hot and full of mosquitoes and bugs. Shitty, to put it simply. He made his way through the thickest part of the forest he could find, staying as far away from the main path as he could. There would be one of two types of people along the main path: either those too stupid to know the danger, or those too well strapped to give a fuck.
Bojack was neither.
He had taken out a salted snack. Some crappy deer meat ration, he thought. Nevertheless, he needed something to keep him busy and something to calm his stomach. His jaw was already going numb from all the required chewing, and his neck couldn't handle any more recoil of tearing off a piece with his teeth.
The thick ferns were beginning to thin slightly, giving way to a more woody area. Broken branches and dead leaves covered the ground. With every step, twigs and leaves crunched under his feet. It was an odd sound, not as monotonous as it usually was... it was as if there were another pair of feet-
Wtf.
Bigfoot.
![[Image: FilmHarryHendersons.jpg]](http://www.monorails.org/webpix%202/FilmHarryHendersons.jpg)
Bojack reached out the salted snack, offering the creature a bite.
"Hey, asshole," Sasquatch said, "this ain't no damn beef jerky commercial. Don't fuck with me."
"Hey," Bojack replied, "you wanna go? Cuz we can go."
"Why don't you go fuck your dead mother you cunt-monkey."
"Woah... that was kinda mean."
"Damn right. And if you got a problem, we can handle it right now!"
"=("
"Pussy."
And with that, Sasquatch slunked away into the shadows. Bojack took another bite of his snack and looked to the sky. The treetops formed a sort of checkerboard, bunches of leaves offset by jagged squares of sunlight. Stars, he thought. They looked like stars.
How 'bout that.