Day Three: Afternoon

[Bardock]

Oh, it was on. One thing you never wanted to do was get into a pissing match with a saiya-jin. It was not going to end well for anyone.

Bardock kicked violently down to the bottom of the water pool, until his hand could reach the bottom. A handful of mud was nothing. This fighter had style. Hovering at the floor with his legs, Bar pressed his palm to the bed of muck and splayed his fingers out. Concentrating on holding his breath and expelling energy at the same time, he slowly ejected several thin pulses throughout the layers of mud. When the bottom was good and popping, Bardock fired off a concentrated blast that pounded through the base of the sand. Back above the water, Violet curiously peered down at the surface, noticing the body of liquid beginning to roil and bubble. Her head jerked up in surprise as a thick object burst through a few feet away, and landed back in with a plop. A few seconds of bewilderment passed, and suddenly the whole pool was erupting with strange masses shooting from the depths. She looked up, and was splattered in the face. Wiping it off, she realized it was mud. It was raining mud! The human threw her arms up, trying to prevent from being completely plastered in the stuff. Alas, her attempts were in vain. There was no escaping the mucky downpour.

After it was over, Bardock surfaced, a grand smirk smeared all over the lower half of his face. He spread his arms out in superiority. Violet wasn’t looking so smug now. She disappeared underneath. Bardock treaded lightly, eyes scanning below. The woman emerged like a leaping shark in front of him, her hands landing on his shoulders as she roughly pushed him under. Violet laughed, swimming a few strokes backwards, completely cleansed of the sand. The saiya-jin burst back out gasping for breath, slicking his hair back from his face. It was Violet’s turn to laugh.

“Oh, you wanna do that? You wanna do that?” Bardock challenged, beckoning her over. “C’mere.”

“I don’t think so!” the human grinned, treading water at a safe distance.

So, Bardock stroked over to her, trying his best not to look like a lamed fish with his busted hand. However, rather than lunge aggressively for her, the closer he got, the slower he approached until he was just a few inches away. She carefully swam backwards, keeping just a little bit of distance between them.

“Bring it on then,” Violet dared, until her back was to the bedrock shelf he had been sitting on.

There was no more room for her to flee, and Bardock closed in. Yet he did not attack. He just kept staring, and slowly, the smile on Violet’s face faded. Using his bad arm, Bar reached out with his hand, carefully sliding it around her waist and pulling her close. Her heart began to pound as he leaned his head forward. At the last possible second, he suddenly crushed her body against his and yanked her out of the water, flinging her over and onto his shoulder like a bale of hay.

She fell for it!

“You bastard!” she growled, realizing she’d been tricked. Futilely, she beat her hands against his back. “Put me down, right now!”

“Nope,” he said simply, approaching the bedrock wall. With his strong hand, he reached out and pulled himself up, beginning to climb the slippery slope to the top of the waterfall. It was an amazing sight as he scaled the rock wall with one hand and her over his shoulder. The only thing missing was a couple of barrels and a fat guy in a red-and-blue jumpsuit chasing after him.

Seeing his flickering tail, her eyes lit up and she attempted to grab at it. As she grasped the slick wet fur, he stumbled a little bit in surprise, and she gasped.

“Don’t do that,” he warned, giving her butt a smack. “You struggle and you’re gonna fall.”

“What exactly are you planning on doing here?” she inquired with a frown.

“You dunked me. I’m going to dunk you,” Bardock answered, finally reaching the top.

“Ohmygod, no!” Violet protested in realization. “That drop is really high!”

Bardock stood at the edge of the falls, pausing in contemplation. Impacting the water from that height would surely worsen the pain of her burns, and he couldn’t have that after using up the last medical supplies for them. Instead, he set her down, and she straightened herself out. The saiya-jin peered over the edge.

“That is pretty far down,” he admitted. He grinned, and twisted the upper half of his body to face Violet. She studied his face, and then it dawned on her. Before she could say a word, he turned so his back was facing the drop. He spread his arms out, and leaned backwards until his feet could no longer hold him up.

“Bardock!” she shouted in surprise. She raced over to the edge just in time to see him straighten out and tuck his injured hand against his chest like a broken wing. He hit the water with a majestic splash that geysered all the way up to the top of the falls. “Crazy ass,” she muttered, waiting for him to surface.

Moments passed, and the ripples of the splash faded and smoothed over. He wasn’t coming up. Worried, Violet took a running leap and jumped in after, gracefully breaking the surface in an Olympic dive. When she bobbed to the top, she looked around. He still wasn’t there.

“Quit screwing around!” she called out, beginning to panic a little.

Suddenly, a gargantuan fish popped out and began violently flapping in her face. Backing away in surprise, the human saw a distinctly male form gripping onto its body. Bardock cracked the neck of the leviathan fish and hurled it out of the river and onto the bank like a shot-put.

“I found us something to eat,” he smiled.