Welcome to Gaia! ::

:Students:

They went to go eat at the small cafeteria. Shima had gotten rice with sliced carrots, while Hero piled on any meat he could get. Even the carnivore beast humans were impressed by his meat prone appetite. Shima simply ignored it in favor of passing him. Some of the students displayed techniques like telekinesis, to which Shima stated that he would get to do. Another managed to divide himself up. Much like the after image but the person remained solid. “Can I do that?” Asked Hero with a slight grin.

“Of course you get to learn the basic stuff. Of course we won’t let you learn the stuff a person achieves on becoming an advanced student.” She said secretly snacking on a carrot.

“Oh? Tell me about them.” He was curious on things he couldn’t learn.

“Well for instance there is the Tri-Beam.. This technique is performed by gathering energy, forming a triangle with the hand by keeping the fingers on each hand together, overlapping the index finger on the one hand with the pinky of the other hand, and overlaping the thumbs. The object being focused on gets zoomed in on and visualized inside that triangle, then the user shouts "Tri-Beam, ha!" while releasing the large yellow beam from the hands.  It’s dangerous because if used to many times the wielder can die. But on the upside it’s perhaps one of the most destructive techniques a person can learn.”

“Even beyond the Kamehameha wave?” Hero asked dropping a piece of pork from his chop sticks.

“Of course! Even Master Roshi has said that it was stronger than the kamehameha wave. With two people who were equal on terms of power used them one after the other.” She said with a nod.

“I..I see.” Maybe he should have trained at the crane school first? No. He wouldn’t regret his choices. He learned much with his training with Genkai.

“Next we have the Spirit Tri-Beam. A one-handed version of the Tri-Beam the user charges a great deal of energy in his right hand. Then, he brings his hand forward and fires the energy in the form of a Tri-Beam against the opponent. It’s more stronger and if you loose an arm you can use this technique!” She said happily. As if loosing the use of one limb wasn’t scary enough.

“So is that all I’m missing out on, different tri-beams?” Hero asked feeling slightly better. Atleast he had variations in his style.

“Well theres the Neo-Tri-beam. The user can use multiple regular tri-beams in succession. Thusly making it a powerful attack, that the enemy will be unable to escape from.” He said shoveling in more rice.

“Then theres the Evil Contaiment Wave. Made by the original crane and turtle hermit’s master this technique allows them to seal away demons or other evil nasties. However at the cost of there own life.” She said looking down sadly.

“Wait? So do all techniques require the user to sacrifice their life?” Hero asked a thud beating in his heart. These techniques were suicide!

“Well..no just most of them. Like the Four Witches technique  is a technique in which its user temporarily grows two extra arms from the back, seemingly under the shoulder blades. This allows the user to attack with twice the intensity that he or she would normally be capable of!” She said with a grin. Huh he could perform four kamehamehas has with that. Or four different beams. Or heck six if you counted the feet kamehameha! To bad that was forbidden for him to learn.




“Then theres the Dodon Ray and Super Dodon Blast. A powerful finger beam and a the super one shoots multplies of the regular version.” She said in a rushed explanation, she ran out.

“H-hey wait!” Suddenly he heard it now. A commotion outside. Shima must of heard it earlier with her bunny ears. They were more for show it seemed. Outside they saw students being thrown left and right. It looked like a person but armor was fused to their skin. He looked like part human part machine.

“Oh no! It’s Grob!” Shima said shaking behind a wall.

“Whose Grob?”

“H-he was once a pupil of Mater Tienshinhan but he grew tired of being weak, so reprogrammed himself to not worry about ethics. He tried taking over the school but Master Tienshinhan stopped him, but that was when he was younger!”

Great this had to happen on his training day. “Hey big guy!” Hero said walking out, ignoring Shima’s protest. Grob immediately noticed him as Hero unsheathed the Z-sword at on his back.

“Whoo the hell are you?” His voice cracked like two pieces of metal scraping against each other. His eyes were a bright red and his arm moved, purely mechanical.

“I’m the guy whose gonna send you packing.” With that he charged. His blade brought down on the android. But a heavy arm blocked it, the sword bit into the arm but stopped. Either the metal was to strong or his swing to weak. Then a kick to the gut sent him flying back.

“GRAH!” Rockets flew at Hero who managed to jump back into the air. But for a moment he slapped himself mentally, he just allowed the other students to get into harms way! But much to both his disbelief and delight the rockets followed him.

“HA!” A field of ki erupted around him, enough to detonate the rockets to only bounce him around in the air. Then like that Grob attack, chomping his oversized mechanical jaw at him. He was going for the kill but only found air as Hero escaped using the after-image technique. With a thrust of the sword he managed to slice into his back. But that didn’t even slow down the bio android. And like Shima had told him before he placed his fingers in a triangle.

“TRI-BEAM!” The bio android shouted, shooting a blast directly at Hero. The young warrior dropped from the sky and landed onto the ground with a thud. Then the mechanical monster dropped down, crashing into Hero.

“GAH!” Hero managed to choke out as Gorb rose into the sky, to bounce on him again. Hero wasn’t going to have it. Flipping the Z-sword up he threw it into the sky. The sword manage to hit Gorb in the leg, weighing him down.

“KA..” Hero got up cupping his hands back. Gorb pulled the sword from his leg, dropping it down. “ME….” A bright blue light formed in his hand.

“Ish that hows its going to go..fine.” He made the triangle formation with his hands again. “NEO!” His own yellow light began to flash. The students managed to clear out in time, all expect Shima who simply watched Hero remain in combat.
“HAME!”

“TRI-BEAM!” With that a powerful flash encompassed all around as his beam fired down upon Hero.

“HA!” The blue beam shot out from his finger tips. It hit the larger beam. For a moment they struggled but due to the Tri-beam being more outspread albeit much stronger, it didn’t occur to Grob that the tighter packed kamehameha wave would be able to push through it. And like that it did. While the tri-beam wrapped around the blue wave, Gorb was hit his attack to be interrupted. However the tri-beam met it’s mark, but Shima stood in front of Hero, her body creating a ki field, like he had done earlier.

But the bunny girl dropped down, the hurt Hero managed to move to her. “Shima! You didn’t need to do that!” His voice filled with panic. “W-we barely just met, you didn’t need to shield me!” He shouted.

“M-master always said..I w-was..implusive..” She intook a pained breath. “B-but now you can make..your father p-proud. You have a goal to achieve..y-you can live on..” She intook one final breath and no longer was on this mortal plane.

“Shima! Wake up! SHIMA!” His cry echoed in the now destroyed halls.

“Gaha..bunny never wake up.” The bio-android said, getting up. Partially damaged but still functional.

“You did this!” His rage welled up inside of him. Setting Shima’s body down, he charged at the machine, picking up the Z-sword. He raised the sword on high. He wanted to destroy this thing. He wanted to slice him into piece, shred his insides with his sword, obliterate the pieces left behind. But as he was about to strike, he stopped.

“W-why do you not destroy me?”

“Because. While the hero might destroy the villian. That makes them no better than the villian. I will not become what I hate.” He sheathed the sword on his back, walking away.

“D-don’t leave me like this! Kill me! KILL ME!” Grob’s cries went on deaf ears as Hero carried Shima back into the temple. There had been enough death. And he had lost a friend.

Nearly several days later he watched as Shima was given a burial. Master Tienshinhan made a speech about how her smile lit up the school. He spoke of her in a way that Hero couldn’t help himself but become teary eyed. It wasn’t fair. She had as much right for him to live. As much right to achieve her goals. She wasn’t some stepping stone for him to learn about the fragility of life. Not some lost friend to drive him. Her loss was painful. Even for someone who only knew for not even a day. They had touched minds, and while briefly he had understood her simple view of the world. And she had seen his mind and saw what he had hoped and dreamed.

“Hero? Would you like to say something?” The master of the crane style offered. Stepping up Hero, swallowed his hurt. The physical pain he had paled in comparison to the emotional.

“Shima. From the very moment I met her, she was bright and cheerful. She was kind and took me in without hesitation. And while we only knew each other for a few hours, I’d like to think she was my friend. She gave her life to save me and because of that I am forever indebted to her.” His thoughts went to the now neutered Gorb. The mechanical life form had been stripped off all weaponry, and taken away by the law enforcement. He would be reprogrammed like all dangerous machines. But he hoped, that the being would forever hold some guilt to what he had done.

“And..that’s all I have to say about that.” With that he stepped down. Walking away he stared at the court-yard. His mind retrained to the entire battle. How he could have finished it without Shima’s death. “Multi-form.” He said as another version of him, his powered halved but it would work for a demonstration. His copy and himself, began to fight. The copy taking the place of Gorb while he fought as himself.

The missiles were replaced by ki blasts and instead of dodging he, retaliated with his own ki blast. Then he charged, attacking with his sword. Blocked by his copy’s sword, they began to attack. His copy went high into the air, but he followed, with them even in terms of power he processed the fight on how it would have gone. “WOLF FANG FIST!” He shouted chagrining his strikes while he threw his sword at his copy. The Z-sword was deflected but his movement left an opening for his wolf fang fist. Red sparks shot off his strikes and he slammed him back into the ground. Flying down he picked up his sword and charged again.

“Enough.” The word caused him to miss swing and trip, remerging with his copy.

“Why’d you do that?” Tienshinhan moved towards him.

“Because you were literally going to kill yourself. Remember that it was not your fault. You cannot save everyone.”

“But what if I became stronger? If I was stronger I could have saved her! If I was faster I could have taken down Grob easily!” He was shouting, he knew this but he didn’t care.

“The road to power is not an easy road. I’ve seen a many whom slipped down that road and became the thing they hated. But I’ve also seen people strive to that power and become the pinacle of Good. The thing is, that what drives you. Should you separate yourself from that cause, then you’ll become just like Grob.”

“Don’t even compare me to that monster!” Shouted Hero.

“I apologize but you must see from my point of view. I see a young boy. Hurt in a way he doesn’t understand.” He let out a breath. Things were much simpler when he was younger.

“I-I didn’t mean for her to die.” Hero collapsed to the ground. Out of exhaustion or pain. Or maybe both he couldn’t tell.

“I know young Hero. And you saved so many by fighting Grob. A young student who merely came hours before here, you put yourself on the line for people you didn’t know.” Tien moved, setting an arm on his shoulder. “That is a mark of a hero. Oh. I get it now. Hero.” A smile crossed his face with a chuckle.

“Y-yeah.” Hero rubbed his eyes, mumbling something about the dust.

“Now then, you can only do what Shima asked you to do. Become the best. Do not worry for little Shima was pure of heart and I’ve been to the after-life. She is most likely watching over you now.” He standing up.

“C’mon then lets get some rest. You still have much to learn here.”

“You mean I get to stay?” Hero asked following behind him.

“Why of course. If it were up to me, I’d let you learn even the advanced techniques. Sadly it is not.” Hero felt it was best not to ask why he couldn’t. Sometimes tradition overruled sensible thinking.

That night he slept. His dreams wasn’t filled with battle, nor a crowd of his father cheering him on in battle. It was filled with singing carrots and a young bunny girl holding his hands as they stared at the cartoonish landscape. “I’m not mad at you. You know that right?” Shima said munching on one of the carrots.

“I know. It’s just. I barely got to know you and then boom your gone.”

“Don’t worry the afterlife is nice. I got to keep my body! Seems self-sacrifice is looked highly upon up here.” She gave a peck on his cheek. “Now Hero boy remember that you still have goals to achieve. Stay golden pony boy.”

“Pony boy?”

“I don’t know I read it in a book somewhere. Always wanted to say it.”

With that the dream dispersed and Hero slept much better.

The piece of wood floated, as if some invisible hand guided it. “Very good Hero, now then do you wish to try something heavier?” The advanced student said. He was much mechanical than Shima was, considering he was a bio-android. Tienshinhan had shown that his one time experience with one shouldn’t be all he had so he made one of them his next teacher.

He didn’t hate them. He knew people were not one massive lumped together person. But some resentment still clamped down in his mind. But his teachings had been good so far, so he wouldn’t make a fuss. “Maybe I could try floating my sword to me?”

“Good idea, here I’ll hold it from across the room you bring it to yourself via telekinesis.” He picked up the sword, perhaps using his own telekinesis ability in order to easily carry it. Holding it up he waited for Hero.

It is hard to describe telekinesis. It wasn’t based on sight, but on mind. Using the mind’s eye to get something. For imaginative this wasn’t hard, for the unimaginative it was rather difficult. For Hero, he simply pictured two hands floating over and grasping the weapon. It dropped immediately towards the ground but managed to slowly pull itself up. Beads of sweat poured down Hero’s face as he managed to get it part way, but the stress of the weight was to much and the sword dropped.

“Alright, not bad. Let’s take a bre-”

“No. I’m going to get this.” If one thing, Hero was stubborn and persistent.

“Alright.” The trainer floated the sword back into his hand and waited.

Hero intook a breath and instead of two hands, he saw four instead. These four hands moved to the sword and grabbed it. With the two extra floating hands, it didn’t drop and he slowly pulled it carefully. Reeling the armless appendages back towards him. Then before he knew it, in his outstretched hand was his sword!

“You did it. Congratulations!” The trainer said with a slight applause. A smile crossed Hero’s face as he shouldered the sword. “Alright I suppose we’ll take the break now? Unless theres anything else you wanna know about?”

“Can you tell me of any other techniques I’ll learn? I think I’ve mastered most of them.” He had learned telepathy, the multi-form, the nauseating drill attack, and now telekinesis.

“Well theres the psychic bomb, since you mastered telekinesis. The user to his psychic energy into an energy bubble in his hands. He charges the bubble, making it bigger and bigger until it finally explodes, blasting the opponent away. It’s good for those people who can absorb ki.” He said shrugging. “Like some androids can do.” With a nod Hero and his new teacher left the training room. As he walked into the halls, he was suddenly struck across the face. An older woman then suddenly hugged him. She had the same apperance as Shima did. At first he wanted to retaliate for the hit but the hug caught him off guard.

“Bun, dear please stop it.” Another rabbit said pulling the crying woman off of Hero. Then it clicked.

“You must be Shima’s parents.”

“Yes. Bun here heard about you. It seems she didn’t know whether to hit you, since Shima sacrificed herself for you or hug you for being with her when she died. I suppose both worked.”

Hero gave a curt nod as he suddenly bowed his head. “I’m sorry. My lack of power cost the life of your daughter. If theres anything in my power I can do for you..I don‘t have any money but..”

“No no, we don’t want anything. It’s just..we needed to see you. See the reason why our Shima left us.” The rabbit humanoid said. “And if Shima had die, I suppose it wasn’t in vain if she saved someone like you.” This brought tears to Hero’s eyes and suddenly he found himself hugging the two parents.

“I didn’t want her to die. I’m so sorry.” His words were choked but he managed to speak them.

“It’s okay. We forgive you.” The mother spoke in a hushed whisper and as Hero pulled himself a way, he felt several times better.

“We’ll be going now. Come on dear.” With that they were gone.

“Let’s go. No sense in you wasting away.” No because Shima wouldn’t like that. At lunch he decided to not eat simply meat like before. He grabbed a couple of carrots. Saving one he set it down upon the freshly dug grave. Leaning over it he couldn’t help but smile at the marker.

‘Give carrots not war!’

He laughed, until tears sprang out of his eyes. Perhaps it was good to cry. He was never this sad in his entire life and yet right now simply pouring his tears was all he could do. Getting up, he swallowed he stared at the sky for a moment. Maybe she would meet Master Kamina up there? Kamina and Shima, rooting for him in the after-life. Now that’s a thought. He flew up high into the sky and his thoughts resounded on the last technique. No one told him of course but he managed to glimpse it in one of the mind’s of the students.

“Self Destruction. Simply the act of releasing all of one's energy in an explosive, suicidal blast. It is a last ditch effort, used only when a fighter isn't strong enough to defeat his opponent by any other means.” He said releasing his breath. A last ditch technique. Something that would not only end his life but maybe the person he was fighting. He figured out why they didn’t tell newbies about it. Perhaps being able to regenerate then reform would simply negate this technique and the reason why only the beings who could possible die, used this technique. To remind them of their mortality? Or simply so the universe won’t feel cheated.

He could picture himself doing. Grasping onto some dark force, welling up all his power within his body and erupting. Maybe the entities that would try to eat him. Just like Kamina had said. “Keep fighting even if your in their stomach!” He shouted into the sky. His stomach rumbled in response, perhaps those carrots were fighting back too. Ironic perhaps?

“Hey Hero!” Several of the students floated around him. “Could you tell us about your dad?” So they found out he was related to ‘the’ Fenrir Shen. With a grin he nodded.

“My father was a legend. Four times in the world championship, he faces insurmountable odds. Although he had second place three times, fifth place the last time. Each time the winner said he was the hardest person they ever fought.” His father made them work for their title. “We was master of the whirlwind!” He spun around them with a grin. “He could attack a person like a pack in one!” He grabbed one of the students and lightly bit his head. “His very howl could beat weaker enemies!” With that he howled, in chorus to the other students. “He traveled the world, learning all he could. I’m following in his footsteps.” He said proudly.

“Whoa!” One student exclaimed.

“Yeah whoa. And the last fight my father was in, he stopped the invading demonic armies by himself! Fighting the royal demons to his last breath, his comrades managed to seal the portal. But that story..never happened.” A chorus of huh? And whats? Echoed among them.

“You see, my father was pulled into another planet to stop their world from being taken over by demons. So that our world wouldn’t be next.” He said with a grin. As a response of oh and I sees. Hero nodded crossing his arms. “My father is now song praises among that planet and a legend. I aspire to win the world tournament and be as half as powerful as him!” He shot an arm up in the air and the students all cheered for him. As they left one child stayed behind.

“Sir? Did that really happen.”

No. His father died of an illness. They couldn’t afford the heart medicine that afflicted him. But it was best to simply tell a lie. It was better that way. Even magic couldn’t bring his father back nor could the fabled Dragon Balls as he learned later on in the West Academy. “Yes. He’s buried on an alien world.” With that the student, satisfied with the answer left. Leaving Hero with a heavy heart.
(3836)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A second later Silva felt a ki source approach him as his scouter gave a small beep. Wearing the small green screen over his right eye he saw a bunch of yellow text and numbers pop up on the screen. Just then a pink bubble about his size floated over in front of him. Suddenly the bubble bursted into pink glittering light as a small human / humanoid with the white face paint of a doll and black cap on his head appeared. This person looked to be an inch or so smaller than the the feline standing upright. And judging by the beard on this one's face he'd have to say the human wasn't as young nor not as old.

"Hah! Welcome!" The doll looking human smiled cheerfully with a smile nod in greeting and hovered in mid-air. "I'm Chiaotzu, friend of master Tienshinhan. We’ve been expecting you Silva-" "Hold it! How do you know my name? Can you read minds?" Chiaotzu didn't seem too offended by the sudden interuption. He snikered and gave a quick nod. "I know alot about telepathy. But actually it was a letter that arrived which mentioned your coming." The feline felt foolish for thinking otherwise and realized that in the excitement he blabbered out of turn. "Forgive me Master Chiaotzu. I-I had no idea," he bowed in apology and shifted his jade gaze to the ground for a second before looking back up. "It's an honour to meet you in person." "hehe" the telepathy master snikered once more as that smile never seemed to fade. "You'll fit in perfectly. Don't worry, me and Tienshinhan are always around if you need something."

Silva obediently followed the telepathy master as they ventured through the outside training grounds. He couldn't help but notice a slight heaviness in the surrounding atmosphere. Sniffing the air he pawed on all fours to keep up. "Master..." he paused for a second to make sure he wasn't speaking out of turn this time. "There feels to be a heavy presence here. Like an eerie calm after a storm." It was now that Chiaotzu frowned sadly with a small sigh and peered over his shoulder to the feline. "One of the teachers here perished when the school was attacked days ago. A kindered spirt she was. We still feel the burden of loss though go on living day to day. Just as she would want us to." Silva suddenly felt a slight heaviness in his heart for the loss of students and insturctors here. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." The tension lessened as there was an awkward silence. The feline wasn't sure to feel guilty for asking that question, or glad that he asked so he was aware of the current situation.

The telepathy master broke the silence with a half hearted cheer again as they strolled over to a secluded patch of trees. Soon they slowed to a stop to stand in the tree's shadows with branches stretching out overhead. Before the feline even had time to blink, he felt a small branch fall ontop of his head. Whack! "Ow!" he yelped and reached up with both paws to rub the sore spot between his ears. "Hey! What was that for?!" he growled anxiously as that was the least he expected. Chiaotzu calmly sat down at the base of the tree, cross-legged he closed his eyes and appeared to be meditating (or sleeping, Silva wasn't sure). Another branch fell onto his head, this time it was engulfed in a pink aura, and whacked him. The downward momentum pushed his to plop down and sit on his rear. "Calm down" Chiaotzu's tone was soft yet confident. "There's no need to rush." "But-" Whack! "Calm down." Protesting was futile as he grumbled and sat cross-legged on the ground in front of the telepathy master. With a small pout he quieted down and waited, hopeing not to recieve another whack of that tree branch. A moment of silence passed as a smile spread across Chiaotzu's lips. "See? Was that so hard?" he spoke up cheerfully. Opening his eyes Silva was met by a gaze that seemed to peer deep into his soul.

~I'll get stronger....

Jalen flew down confused. "I think im in the wrong place?" he walked threw the area and glanced at Silva. "Why????" he asked as he walked past others in confusion. "Gahh great lost....Again" he muttered as he sat down his back against the wall his head looking up. "Failure...thats all i really am!"

Landing onto the school yards, he looked around confused for a moment. Wait why was he here? Oh that’s right Master Tien had something he wanted to talk to him about. Walking inside he stepped back as two blades sliced into the air in front of him.

“Hey!” He immediately ducked as another sword struck at him. Now two more swords joined into the play. Dodging and weaving from the strikes he grumbled. “That’s. Enough!” He declared as he exerted his energy and the swords alongside their wielders were sent flying back. “I didn’t come here to get attacked.” He grumbled in annoyance.

“Of course not. We simply wished to test you reflexes young Shen.” Tien spoke walking out from his hiding place. “I called you back here simply because there was one more ability that you forgot to train for.”

“Oh? Really I thought you said I knew everything.”

“You do, you just don’t realize it.” Suddenly his headband was snatched off from his head. “Hey wait a minute!” Hero protested but suddenly felt something. His vision began to well change. The world around him seemed so much clearer. “What’s going on?” He asked momentarily. A rush of happiness seemed to pull at his every being.

“You’ve just unlocked perhaps the only true human transformation. You have reached enlightement.”

“Wait..does that mean?” He poked his forehead but pulled his hand back. It was just like as if he had poked his eye. “I have a third eye!”

“Yes. You awoke your inner eye through training here. It must have taken abit due to you hiding this over your eye. However you must know. This human skill pales in comparison to other techniques that other races have.” The Super Saiyan as well as it’s other stages came to mind. “But that means you’ll simply have to find other paths to gain strength.” He said turned away, tossing back his headband. Hero tied it back on, hiding his eye. No need to show it off at all times.

“Well like what?” Hero asked with a tilt of the head.

“Well for instance. The changelings, are capable of many transformations. Infact they are quite capable of surpassing you, in terms of raw power. You might have a large amount of ki energy but their abilities in terms of strength and speed and raw defense will out match yours if you let them transformation to their full extent.” Frieza the tyrant was simply one example. “Along with people who can manage to harvest that power.” Cell for another. “Infact in terms of power. Your weaker than most.”

“So..like roleplaying stats. I can have a large amount of magic but my other stats are weakest.” Hero said rubbing his chin. Thoughts of The Fantasy Finale, came to mind.

A chuckle came from Tien. “Yes, like a roleplaying game I suppose. With that Hero made his way from the temple. That is until he stopped from a moment. They had been repairing the courtyard. A part of him saw the mental battle that had taken place there. That was something else that drove him to become stronger. Something else that he wished to become stronger for. He would surpass anybody who would come to harm this world. He would surpass those who wished to conquer the world. Like that Makyo, would find himself in a very painful position if he ever decided to enact his plans. He would protect this world, with his life if necessary.

Majin Bubbles’s words came to him for a moment and he smiled. He was inclined to thank that man. He would become this world’s hero. His father named him Hero because of that and he wouldn’t fail that man. Even if the world was going to end, he would fight even if everything was evitable. Because he was a fighter.

A determinator til the very end. (647)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This reaction was the least Silva expected. For a second he was a bit unsure of what Jalen was talking about after saying he was lost. With a slightly raised eyebrow and a 'what' expression he noticed this boy back into the wall. "Oh!" He finally clued in that this must might not be something normal for the blue haired teen. "No no no," the feline spoke calmly and stood up on his hind legs. He waved his arms around as if swatting away the idea of him being some kind of hallucination. A sway of his tail he stepped closer with a grin on his muzzle. "You're right about me being a cat. I do possess feline traits. But I'm just as real as you. Can a hallucination do this?" Without thought he reached back to grasp his power pole and pull it out of its sheath. "Extend," with the command to increase the pole's length a little bit. Just enough so that Silva would be able to gently bop Jalen on the head, with the end of the pole, from where he stood."Gotta name?" the feline asked curiously while trying not to seem threatening or scarey. "I'm Silva. Don't worry, I usually don't bite on a first impression."

It was only a couple hours later when Ayane was awoken by a quiet voice inside of her room above the dojo. “Ayane, are you ready to continue your training?” Ayane hadn’t really been sleeping, but she shut off her sensors so that she could be alone to her thoughts. The battle with Tien was intense, it was enough to make her realize how much more work she needed to do just to get strong enough to beat one of history’s greatest fighters. She wasn’t about to lose, not to anyone and she looked at the intruder of her privacy. It was Master Chiaotzu, whom she had yet to train with.

“Yes, master. I am ready.” She had heard about Chiaotzu’s training before, he rarely ever sparred with his students. He did the physical training of the students and helped them grow stronger without sparring. Which translated roughly to mental training and philosophy, two things that Ayane wasn’t exactly keen to learn. “What would you have me do?” They were descending the steps to the main dojo, which was now empty. It was eerily quiet but it didn’t worry Ayane, her power would be sufficient to protect her and she knew that Master Chiaotzu was even stronger than she was.

He sat down, hovering above the floor just enough so that he was eye level with the now sitting Ayane. “I am going to show you glimpses of the past and some of the hard choices that we as Z Fighters have had to make throughout the decades.” He pushed his thoughts into her head, showing her glimpses of things that had to be done just to save lives on the planet.

First up was the battle with Raditz, a pure-blooded Saiyan warrior who had come to get his brother Goku. Upon learning the Earth was not enslaved by him, or the population wiped out, he kidnapped Goku’s son and told Goku to either destroy the planet or lose his son. Goku and Piccolo teamed up to take down Raditz but the duo were extremely overpowered by Raditz’s strength. So Goku made the only choice he could, he sacrificed his own life so that Raditz would be destroyed and the Earth be saved.

Ayane’s eyes came back into focus as she looked at her master, “So Goku allowed himself to be killed by Piccolo so that Raditz could be killed as well? That’s crazy talk.” Chiaotzu shook his head, “No Ayane, it is what must be done when what you love is on the line and you know you might lose it forever. Goku knew that we could bring him back with the Dragon Balls anyways, so he wasn’t in any true danger.” Ayaned nodded, looking at her master carefully.

Her eyes blurred out and a new scene appeared before her, she was back in the wastelands where Vegeta and Nappa attacked. Yamcha was the first to fight, yet he died by an unexpected surprise attack from one of the green creatures. Chiaotzu came next, latching onto Nappa’s back and unleashing a powerful explosion with all of his ki though it wasn’t enough to really phase the big man. Tien fired everything he had in a single Tri-Beam, also giving his life for the group. And last, Piccolo sacrificed his life to save Gohan from a powerful attack that Nappa fired at him. They all gave their lives for each other and for the Earth.

“So do you see, Ayane? The fight for good isn’t just fighting, it’s giving the ultimate sacrifice to obtain freedom and justice for everyone.” Ayane nodded, she wasn’t particularly fond of sacrificing her life for a bunch of people she didn’t know but having the Earth destroyed was definitely something that would stop her from being the strongest fighter in history. “I see master, is there anything that can be done to prevent the need of self-sacrifice?”

The Master shook his head, “The only thing is to make yourself stronger and hope that it will be enough. But for good measure, I’m going to pass down the secret of the self-sacrifice attack.” Ayane raised her eyebrows, staring at her master incredulously. Did he really think she would be one to risk it all and give her life to save everyone, when at that point she knows she was going to die anyway? “No, I would much rather not. It doesn’t seem like I’ll ever be that willing to sacrifice everything I am for such a self-less cause.” Chiaotzu laughed, “Then tell me why you went to save that majin when you confronted the creature who almost killed you?”

Ayane really didn’t have any answers for that one, it was just something spontaneous that she had done because perhaps she felt that it was wrong for someone to just start trouble with someone for no reason. It wasn’t that she had any special feelings, it just didn’t seem right to attack an innocent…though she did learn that the majin wasn’t quite an angel herself. She probably could have taken care of herself, for the matter. But it didn’t stop Ayane from wanting to help, something that was really bothering her.

“I’m not sure, master, but I really don’t feel that the technique you want me to learn will really come in handy for me. But I guess if you think it will be worth my learning, then fine…I’ll do it.” She smiled weakly and listened as he taught her everything about it. “You charge your energy to the maximum and you hold it there without giving it a focus point. Then you release it in one massive go from every pore in your body.” He nodded, reminding her that he had once done it himself and that it was also an extremely powerful technique.

After a few hours speaking and making sure she understood how to use the move, since a demonstration would be impossible. She understood and headed towards her room, just trying to wrap her mind around everything she had seen. It was crazy, but that was just fine for her since crazy did seem to be her style as of late. Confronting a murderer, having a fight on the Guardian of Earth’s Lookout, siding with the Saiyans, hell…even becoming an android is pretty damned crazy when you think about it. But when she returned to her room, she turned to her inner thoughts and allowed the circuitry inside her mesh with her brain for the moment.

She examined everything about how she worked through the super computer that she was linked to. It was there how she learned to use her ki to ‘rewire’ herself into a more extreme machine. Rather than be all around at this point, she decided that it was best to make one thing pushed to the maximum of her current limits. She realized that doing this would make her more vulnerable but it was something that she was just going to have to deal with. She was beat both times in her fights because she did not excel at anything beyond defense. Defense, while great, cannot win a fight on its own. So she cranked down the defensive allocators in her internal system, as well as her speed and strength modules. All of this new excess power was then routed into her power output modulators and she could instantly feel a difference.

The next morning, she hurried down the stairs and noticed how slow she was moving. She wasn’t use to it yet, but it was as if she was moving in slow motion in the world around her. Even changing her clothes was a challenge, her weighted undershirt and wrist bands were almost more than she could stand. “Maybe that tinkering wasn’t my best idea…” She focused her ki, which virtually jumped at her call to serve, and teleported back to her favorite training area in the plains outside of town. She looked at a large forest below her and lifted an eyebrow, perhaps this would be a good way to test out her new powers.

She lifted her hand and muttered the words power blitz, a huge blast of pink energy rocketed out of her hand. She almost jumped in surprise as the overwhelming energy obliterated the trees and sent a shockwave back at her, knocking her into the air and onto the ground a few yards away. “That is just insane! I didn’t realize that I would be this powerful with my ki!” But something nagged at her, telling her that she would be even more powerful if it wasn’t for her weighted training clothes. They did more than bog her down, it also seemed to suppress her powers…but that was the price to pay for gaining such wonderful benefits.

She teleported back, grinning like an idiot that was just named prom queen. Her power was immense, but limited to a single area. Due to that, she rationalized that the kind of fights that she wanted were actually ones where she could keep her distance from her foes. Which also made her realize that she needs to learn another technique from West Academy, the energy barrier. Or shield, what the average person called it due to the fact that the barrier protected one from ki attacks sent onto the user. It was going to be very crucial to have for a short time until she was able to boost her stats back up to their proper levels while maintaining her new and insane power level.

But that was for the future, for now she was considering ditching her weighted training clothes in favor of armor. Sure, it would take just a little bit more time to train but she would be able to wear something for defense in the mean time to make up for it and she wouldn’t be slowed down by it anymore. “Jeez, why does this have to be so difficult for me to understand what to do? ARGH!” She growled and stamped her foot, sighing at how little impact was caused. She felt as inept as a child when it came to doing this nonsensical move, she had virtually no physical power at this point and it was bothersome.
She wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but that didn’t matter. She would learn eventually what choices to make, regardless of how wrong or right they end up being. But for some reason, she felt that she needed to return to the Red Ribbon Army’s base. It was feeling very important that she go and fix this urge, something bad was going to happen very soon. So she bid farewell to her teachers and flew off into the distance, bearing south towards the Red Ribbon Army’s base of operations. She was going to get to the source of all the dread that she felt inside her stomach and she prepared herself for a fight.

Her progress was mind numbingly slow, but she needed the time to think about what she needed to do. If she felt that she was in serious danger, all she would have to do is unleash a powerful torrent of energy down on the building. She didn’t know anyone tough enough to survive her new powers of energy projection and knew that it would be better to kill all of the people down there, innocent or not, rather than she herself be slaughtered because she was jumped. But that wouldn’t happen, she turned on her three dimensional scanning so that she would be able to see any attackers before they would see her.

The best thing about the scanning was the fact that she was able to actually see through solid objects, giving her something along the lines of x-ray vision. She almost felt like a superhero that would have the chance to be a real pervert but didn’t because it was considered wrong. It’s because a superhero had better things to do than just sit and stare at people because he or she could see them naked. But then she froze, all of her thoughts emptying as she felt three horrific power levels enter the atmosphere. A projection of their televised broadcast appeared in her vision.

"To those who hear this message, We have landed on your Planet and will take it over. Who ever wishes to stand up and fight us shall be killed without mercy. Those who shall seek power and nothing else, join us and help us rid your world of these low life's you call friend. We shall take the trash out and make our new home in this pathetic planet you call Earth. If you can stop us, try to do so, but we will kill any one who try's to stop us." The words echoed inside of her head, these Namekians meant business and she was debating on what should be done. They were in West City and there was where she really needed to be at this point. She touched her fingers to her head and moved instantly into the center of West City.

(Word Count 2184+2028=4212)
(Techniques learned: Self-Destruction)