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[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, East City Outlet Mall...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~
~PAGE THREE!!!...~

Tulare held his fist in front of him. With his other hand, he gave the saibaman a gentle push back to ensure the shot would not hit Yatapi. Tulare extended his staff at the same time. A loud klank could he heard. Metal thrusting against concrete as his staff his the ground.

Tulare went a foot and a half off the ground, feet extending into the air to give him extra distance from the ground and making himself a smaller target. He landed, flicking his staff up and firing a warning shot back in the soldier's direction. Specifically in the area where legs were. The fight was going to be rough, but they weren't gonna give up now. He certainly wasn't going to let them have Yatapi.

 

[DevVoid]

Yatapi was blasted back as Tulare just so happened to jump the exact time the Saibaman was looking to dive behind him for cover again, causing him to be knocked away and to his feet. Still, he had not done so without his finger pulling the trigger, his reflexes kicking in and having caused his finger to curl, incidentally pushing down the firing mechanism.

The barrel of the alien firearm lit up and promptly produced a laser blast that would make its way over to the man, not quite aimed at anything on him specifically but surely ending up landing against something while Yatapi hissed and was attempting to stand up again, hands clutching tightly to his one and only weapon.

 

[~Nilion~]

While Itrus wasn’t quick enough to dodge either of the oncoming blasts, he was fast enough to see them coming.

Booom~

An explosion, much stronger than the first warning shot, eruppted outwards as Tulare and Yatapi’s laser beams collided with the large ball of energy produced from Itrus’ weapon. Lightning crackled across the scorched earth and nearby shop windows buckled inwards from the force. Itrus himself had to brace against the strong winds while his two subordinates were completely toppled over, with one being knocked out entirely.

“What the…hell…” The seasoned soldier muttered in surprise as the wind and dust finally settled. The little demon and weird teenager had advanced weaponry of their own. And it appeared these weapon reacted very violently with one another. Suddenly, things didn’t seem so one sided.
General was quick to bark a command at his remaining soldier, “Open fire, but avoid the demon!”

The soldier in question was slightly out of it after being launched off his feet and hesitated a moment as if he were hunting for the trigger on his gun.
Itrus paid no heed to this and immediately fired off another shot at the two. Again, it wasn’t aimed to hit them directly, simply to cause explosions around their feet.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, East City Outlet Mall...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~

~BOOM...!~

Tulare's hair blue back in the wind, but he was still standing in his stance. It would seem Yatapi was their main priority. Looking around at the situation, it appeared to be a two on two now. Being the main target of fire, he'd need to watch out for the shots to come. The second soldier couldn't seem to find his trigger, but the seasoned soldier didn't hesitate to fire two more rounds.

luckily for Tulare, it would seem Itrus was aiming low. Though in Tulare's interest, it was best not to get shot at all. With that, he press his staff against the ground. Kicking off against the ground, getting him up. Avoiding the first shot just barely. He pushed off his staff just as soon as his feet touched it. He managed to avoid the second one, but knew he couldn't do this all day. He fired two more back. One to the leg and one to the hand. Not taking his eyes away from Itrus, he decided to speak to Yatapi.

"you okay back there? You think you can handle that guy over there? " Tulare said, referencing to the second soldier. As soon as he was out of the fight, it would become a two on one, assuming the third soldier didn't get back up.

 

[~Nilion~]

As Tulare began to repeat his previous actions, Itrus quickly dashed to the right in an attempt to dodge the blasts.
The first attack just barely whizzed by his left leg before barreling into the front bumper of Tulare’s RV, which was directly behind Itrus.

“Gaah!” The sculpted soldier let out an agitated shout as the second blast hit his left pec. Normally, a blast like that would blow clean through a person’s chest… but that wasn’t the case.
Itrus made quick work of righting himself, after which he casually dusted away the point of impact. Instead of a clean hole passing all the way through his body, as one would expect, Itrus was left with nothing but a charred dent-mark where the blast had hit.

“Even with the energy resistant uniforms his weapon nearly pierced through…where did he get such incredible technology…”

While Tulare and Itrus were left to ponder one another for a moment, the downed soldier had finally righted himself and had his rifle aimed right for Tulare.
With a quick squeeze of the trigger, the soldier fired off a burst of three rounds, all now barreling towards the Tuffles head and chest.

 

[DevVoid]

The Saibaman was blasted back once more before he could completely get up again, now launched with his back clashing against the wall of the store they had just left. There didn't seem to be any visible cracks made because of his impact, but what this did accomplish was make the small, red-green gremlin upset. Quickly getting up, Yatapi begun making strange gurgling noises.

Then, not a second later, foam was bursting from the edges of his bottom jaw, a spray of acid being blasted at the previously downed soldier while he simultaneously pulled the trigger of his space blaster, firing another shot, this one aimed at the soldier's chest so the acid wouldn't end up covering the shot and bursting it pre-maturely, the spray itself being aimed at the man's face.

 

[~Nilion~]

!Warning — Mild Blood and Gore!

The large blob of acidic foam which had been spat up by Yatapi couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. The oncoming round fired by the soldier passed through the wave of green liquid, being almost instantly dissolved in the process.

“GUAAAA-….ughu…” As Yatapi’s attack splashed across the soldiers face and chest, his skin and uniform immediately began to dissolve. Though he barely had a fraction of a second to scream out in anguish as a large hole was quickly blasted through his sternum, utterly destroying his chest cavity.
The soldier merely stood there for a moment, hunched forward slightly and totally unresponsive. During all of this, everything on the man from the shoulders up was still dissolving. Flesh had entirely given way, with muscle following close behind. What remained of his eyes were completely blank, and about half dissolved at that point.

Thump~

The soldier crumbled forward, smacking face first against the pavement, dead. As his head violently struck the ground, droplets of blood and ooze were sent spattering across the arm of the unconscious soldier; his sleeve gently began to sizzle as the trace amount of acid on him began slowly eating their way through the material.

Despite the brutality of what had just occurred, General Itrus seemed entirely unfazed by the situation. Instead, he was too busy taking notice of the fact that Tulare and Yatapi we’re now several feet apart. The General felt more than confident taking a more lethal approach to dealing with this troublesome teen.
Once more, Itrus cranked his weapon back and took a shot at Tulare, this time aiming directly for the Tuffles chest. Playtime was over.

Off in the distance, the sound of approaching helicopters could just barely be heard.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, East City Outlet Mall...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~

As Tulare stood there silently exchanging looks with Itrus, Tulare noticed the other soldier about to shoot him. He twisted his staff. With. Flick of the wrist, he intended to block the oncoming shots, but a well placed acidic shot. Tulare watched intently, observing the effects of the acid eating away at the soldier's flesh. This was not the first time he seen someone die a gruesome death, but a first, seeing a man's face eaten by saibaman acid.

With that thump of a lifeless body, his attention was back on Itrus. Who would soon fire another shot at him. Tulare took a big step forward, sliding down in a low forward stance, adjusting his hand grip on his staff thrusting it downwards lifting him off the ground like a pole vault athlete.

Flicking his staff, he promptly landed and and adjusting himself. He was now slowly beginning to close the gap, but still keeping some distance to react. It was a feo on one, but Itrus didn't seem to care, which didn't sit well with Tulare. He likely had a trick up his sleeve yet to be revealed.

 

[~Nilion~]

Itrus simply watched as Tulare carefully twisted through the air with the assistance of his laser staff, taking a moment to asses the boys movements.
He was fast, faster than a normal person… too fast for Itrus to fight head-on.

Chnk~

Itrus quickly slipped a cylindrical grenade from his belt pouch and pulled the pin on it, while discreetly taking a deep breath in. Without much sense of urgency, he simply held towards Tulare, as if to show him the live grenade sitting in his hand.

Pfffff~

Rather than an fiery explosion, a thick wave of yellow smoke erupted outwards, almost instantly engulfing the whole parking lot.
Mere moments after the General had detonated his strange grenade, a Gurumes chopper with three more soldiers began preparing to touch down on the roof of the nearby store, almost as if they’d been drawn to the beacon-like cloud of smoke below.

“Take a good, deep breath, boys. You won’t be running around much longer…”

 

[DevVoid]

As the small Saibaman got up to his feet- or rather, his claws again, he could see a yellow cloud of gas draw closer to him, as well as hear the very loud rotors of the nearby helicopter landing a ways above him. He started to panic, but then an idea had struck him. Yatapi cried out a quiet shriek to Tulare so that he could possibly grasp his attention before trying to get away from the gas through using his claws to climb the wall he was now facing against, holding his blaster between his teeth.

As soon as he made headway to the roof however, he could already see more armed people up ahead. Well, this didn't exactly mean well, did it? Staying low to the ground, Yatapi attempted to quietly climb atop the roof (struggling to do so) and planned to lay down on the floor in order to crawl behind an A/C unit, trying to use it as cover to hold out his position and fire as many shots off as he could. Unfortunately for him, he could start to feel his limbs refuse to respond to his attempts at movement, making him hurry up this much more. He didn't know what was going on or what was happening to his body, nor did he really want to at this point. All he wanted was to just get out of here..

..or, at least, to get these people to leave them alone. He just wanted some books, and now this. Was learning really such a crime around here?

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, East City Outlet Mall...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~

Tulare had been expecting the fight to become melee combat, but not a grenade to be thrown. Smoke quickly came out. Tulare quickly took a deep breath before the smoke reached his mouth. Holding his breath, he turned to Redgie, giving hand gestures. Redgie knew what it meant and latched onto Tulare's arm. He turned to hear Yatapi. It was becoming increasingly harder to see with all the smoke, but he knew which direction he was going. He grabbed his portable jet launcher. He saw Yatapi make his move to the rooftop. With the press of a button, Tulare was sent flying over the rooftop. Landing on his feet, he turned to Yatapi and looked around quickly. The RV was too far away and he wasn't feeling good enough to get past Itrus. A nearby helicopter coming made him think.

He pointed at it so Yatapi may see it. His intentions were to board it when it got closer. Aa large open side door was their target.

"Grab ahold, I think I can get us up there" Tulare said. As soon as the chopper came within range he would use his pjj to get himself up to the helicopter. The pilot would need to be dealt with after they got in, but one problem would need to be solved at a time.

 

[~Nilion~]

Two armed soldiers were manning the side door of the chopper, ready to take aim at the first thing to arise from the smoke.

Pewpewpeww~

Though this plan was short lived as one of the soldiers had his leg grazed by one of the shots Yatapi had fired off by surprise. The soldier stumbled forward in pain, causing him to fall out of the heli, over the lip of the building, and directly down into the gas-filled parking lot below (insert Wilhelm scream).
Despite it appearing like the General wasn’t affected by the gas at all, Itrus was still too deep within the smoke to see what was going on. Though as the familiar sound of energy weapons blasting filled the air once more, be instinctively dove for cover.

With the side of the chopper now being pelted by laser blasts, the pilot quickly dropped the bird down hard onto the roof before he began scrambling to get unbuckled and grab his rifle.
The last soldier standing was quick to aim his rifle right for Tulare and open fire, sending a large wave of bullets towards the slowing alien.

————————

After silently driving for what had felt like weeks, Gyoza’s eyes suddenly snapped away from the road when a notification popped up on his monitor. Looked like the old man finally had some intel for them.

“Gyoza? My drones began scanning over the Land of Gurumes… but I’m not quite sure what to make of these findings...” Dr. Ceric paused for a moment while typing away on his keyboard. After a moment, several images began flashing across the screen.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Gyoza muttered while leaning to the right so Flake’s could see the screen as well. The once lush Land of Gurumes was completely destroyed; forests burning, farms torn asunder and hundreds of citizens huddled up in the ruined remains of their once prosperous homes.
But the truly interesting part was Gurumes’ castle, which appeared to be essentially abandoned. There wasn’t a single soldier in sight, nor did there appears to be any form of automated defenses. It appeared as though Gurumes had sent out every single soldier at his disposal, leaving none to defend his castle.

“Think it could be a trap? Lure us in with the idea that it’s empty?” Gyoza asked, not anymore certain what to think than his father was.

“No, I don’t think so. Scanners detected very few heat signatures- they’re not just hiding, it really is almost entirely empty.” Dr. Ceric responded, taking a moment to type away on his keyboard once more.

“Well it sounds like I’d do just fine walking in half-naked.” Gyoza said while shooting a cocky glance over his shoulder and back towards his passenger.

@Grand Master Koop

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, East City Outlet Mall...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~

as the soldiers came out, Tulare's plan came to a temporary screeching halt. Moving behind cover with Yatapi to avoid getting shot by the wave of bullet fire. Tulare could feel the effects of the toxin. His body was slowly becoming sluggish. They'd need to take these guys out quickly. Luckily Yatapi already taken one down.

Tulare began to charge his next shot. When he came out from cover, he fired it at one of the two remaining soldiers, firing a quick second shot at the other before returning to cover. Slamming the end of the staff against the ground and blowing against the tip.

phwww

He kept a look out for Itrus as he'd no doubt assist his troops at some point. Tulare would need a lot of help from Redgie when they got to the helicopter. Luckily for the trio, the helicopter had landed thus getting on would be easy.

 

[DevVoid]

With his body already starting to stiffen and go numb as if petrifying into a goblin-sized statue of a saibaman, Yatapi used what strength in his arms he had left to do two things - for one, he flipped on the safety of his blaster with a claw and jammed the weapon between his teeth again. With the other, he reached out, planning to grab hold of Tulare's leg so that whatever he had planned, Yatapi would not be left behind. He just hoped whatever the guy did have in mind would get them out of there as soon as possible.

 

[~Nilion~]

Tulare’s first shot sailed cleanly through the soldiers chest, sending his flopping to the ground in a heap. The second soldier remained safely inside, allowing the blast aimed his way to leave yet another dent mark in his helicopter.

“Wait! I surrender! Don’t shoot!” The third soldier shouted in a somewhat panicked tone, quickly throwing his rifle and handgun out of the chopper and towards Tulare and Yatapi before holding both of his exposed hands out the door.
Though one thing the soldier ‘forgot’ to mention was the taser tucked away on his left hip. All he needed was to stall them and land one good shot with it.

“This better get me that damn promotion.”

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, East City Outlet Mall...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~

Tulare looked over at Yatapi then listened to the pilot. The pilot had thrown their gun out. Tulare began moving out of cover and towards the chopper. He kicked the gun off roof as he walked.

"You seem to be a reasonable sort. How about you just carefully start walking away from the aircraft now? Don't walk towards us, we still got plenty ammunition..." Tulare said. Tulare had his staff in one hand and jump jet in the other as he walked towards the helicopter door, ready to get inside. Walking towards the helicopter was no small feat as he could feel the effects of the toxin in his joints, but he maintained a consistent stride walking speed.

 

[~Nilion~]

The soldier in question backed away at a snails pace. He kept his hands raised and visible at all times, but never turned his back to the pair. He watched Tulare closely, taking note of the effort in his expression as he approached. The soldier could tell that the gas was taking effect.

“Okay… I’ve gotta… turn here for the ladder…” The soldier leaned towards his left side as of reaching for the ladder, only to swing his arm back up with his taser gun drawn. He knew his targets reflexes were slowed and hoped he could beat him in a good ol’ fashioned stand-off.

Tshzhzhz~

With a squeeze of the trigger, a pair of high-speed, sharp metal prongs would be ejected from the tip of the weapon at rapid speeds, aimed directly for the center of Tulare’s body.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Journey to the West(Near Land of Gurumes)...~
~September, 12th(Thursday)...~

As the tuffle made his way to the chopper, he maintained a carful watch over the soldier backing away towards the ladder. He was moving almost as slowly as Tulare was. Just before the soldier could go down the ladder, he had a very quick change of heart and used his tazer. Through gritted teeth, he extended his staff in front of him like a lance. Pressing the button on his portable jet jump. He lunged forward, eating the tazer but smacking the soldier with the full force of his staff. He managed to catch slam his staff into the ground afterwards, catching himself. He was now slouching as he leaned against his staff. He managed to walk to the helicopter. Each step more difficult than the last.

"Red. Gie. Get the. Parts from. Bag. Get us. Outta. Here... Auto... Pilot mode...... Work on......... Radar-" He stopped talking. He leaned against the wall of the helicopter. Turning around so his back was against the wall. He slid down, now sitting on the ground. The last thing Tulare saw was Redgie getting the helicopter off the roof, and airborne. The helicopter had various coordinates. After plotting course and setting auto pilot mode, the small robot floated back to Tulare. Redgie messed around with Tulare's bag. Fidgeting with his tools. Redgie knew a lot, but wasn't entirely sure what to do. It managed to take apart various tools and appliances Tulare had gotten from the store. Picking out various little parts that could be put together to make something useful.

~Time Skip...! Friday~

"Hmm! Hmm! Hmm! Redgie do good! Good! Figure out. Figure! Progress..." Tulare made random commentary as it continued to tinker. Time went by and eventually one of Tulare's fingers began to twitch. Which became a foot twitch. Eventually he turned his head. He looked to see Redgie still humming to himself as he worked on Tulare's device. Tulare looked the other way. They were still in the air, as he watched the clouds pass by. It would be a while longer before he could feel himself again, but he managed to push himself forward enough to use his legs to stand up, but quickly fell back down. At least he could move his legs again. He turned to Redgie.

"Let... Me... Handle that" Tulare said reaching outward. Redgie cheerfully handed Tulare what he was working with.

"Tulare, here! Tulare, here! Redgie do good! Do good! Still need configuring! Configuring! Not working. Not working" Redgie replied. It took a few moments for Tulare to get his tools, and his hand movements were still sluggish but he managed to tweak the radar that Redgie had been working on. Tulare tinkering for several minutes and eventually it was finished.

When he turned it on. The dragon ball radar started going crazy. It were as if all the dragon balls were in one area. Tulare had double checked the wiring, and assumed it couldn't have been a malfunction. Minus the dragon ball Yatapi had, could they all be in one location? That seemed way too convenient. Not only that but the helicopter was slowly making its way towards it. A unnerving feeling overwhelmed Tulare.

He managed to get to his feet again. when he got up, he approached the window, and that's when he saw it. The land of Gurumes in the distance. Where would they land the helicopter now? If they landed where the chopper was likely taking them, there would most likely be soldiers waiting. Possibly someone stronger than Itrus. Tulare was not looking forward to the idea of getting paralyzed again. He sat the radar on the table. It continued to beep with small dots which represented the other six dragon balls. The seventh dot being with Tulare at the center of the screen.

"Looks like we're almost here" Tulare commented.

 

[DevVoid]

The small Saibaman struggled to move as his limbs kept getting stiffer and stiffer, taking away control from him. With what little he could still move, he had closed his eyes to shut out all the chaos around him and attempted to drift his mind elsewhere in an attempt to take away what was happening currently. There, he lay motionless as a rock in the helicopter as it took off, appearing as if he had fallen asleep when it was quite the contrary. After all, how could anyone sleep with this kind of commotion going on?

Some time later..
Yatapi had slowly come to his senses again. Granted, after the take-off, the spinning rotors of the helicopter didn't seem so bad compared to all the screaming and shouting he's witnessed from what felt like a few moments ago, and he genuinely did get a small nap in as he just kept himself busy thinking back on his past life so far. It wasn't the greatest, but.. well, he felt it could have been a lot worse, too. So, there's that.

His eyes had slowly opened as the paralysing agent started to fade from his system, giving him gradually more control over his limbs again. Finally. Though, the control of his body is what this Saibaman was the least concerned with. Using as little movements as possible, Yatapi dropped the blaster from his mouth, putting in on the floor of the helicopter and tilting his head in order to scoop it up with his hollow cranium, alongside rattling one book loose enough to slide out from his headspace.

Then, as his head closed again, Yatapi slowly but surely moved one arm to open the book and rest his claws on it to keep it down while he read it. This was the lexicon he bought, which he was most excited to try out. After all, he already knew how to read the universal language, but writing and speaking was on a whole different scale that he needed to learn if he really wanted to hang out around these guys for longer. Fortunately for him, his unaware being would find an easier time adapting here thanks to the special soil he was grown in.

 

[~Nilion~]

After several more hours of driving along, contemplating what might be waiting for the pair at the Land of Gurumes, Gyoza was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of an approaching helicopter.

“Huh…look! They’re heading back towards Gurumes’ Castle. I bet they have more intel than the last guy I stopped…” The young cyborg trailed off, taking a moment to adjust his speed and course so that they’d match up with the approaching chopper. After taking a moment to scan the bird over, Gyoza finally continued, “Do you think you could pinch off a shot aimed for the top rotor? Be careful though, we’re not trying to kill them, just force em’ to land.”

@Grand Master Koop

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Flakes sat quietly on the back of the stranger's motorcycle as the man drove down the road. She spent the time in silence inspecting her nails. "Hmm, good. They didn't get too damaged in the fight. I never thought I'd end up on the back of some guy's motorcycle after escaping a full scale invasion when I woke up this morning." She thought to herself. "I wonder what mom is doing right now."

Soon enough, the silence was broken when Gyoza received a call. The green haired girl looked over the man's shoulder at the screen on his motorbike, learning of the situation in Gurume. While she knew next to nothing about this farming kingdom before their ruler decided to launch a full scale invasion, seeing the destruction in front of her made her feel uneasy. A farmer's lifeline is their land, and it appeared the lifeline of Gurume's farmers have been mercilessly torn asunder.

After taking a moment to sympathize with the common folks of Gurume, the subject of the castle was brought to attention: It appeared completely empty. After looking at the conversation between Gyoza and his father, it was deduced that the enemy's stronghold truly was devoid of life. "Hmm, this sure is strange, leaving a place as big as a castle completely unguarded. Doesn't look to be a trap either. Is this king just stupid or has he gone mad? Does he really care so much about these "Dragon Balls" that he would leave his castle completely open?" The girl contemplated in her head.

Flakes' internal monologue would be interrupted, however, when she noticed the cocky remark her driver shot her based on a previous statement. The girl clicked her tongue. "Don't act like you planned all this. You simply got lucky." She shot back.

After a few more boring hours of driving, the monotony of the road was once again shattered at the sounds of a helicopter. Looking up, the pair would see the aforementioned chopper that appeared to be headed back towards Gurume. Honestly, Flakes welcomed this change of pace.

Hearing Gyoza's question, the girl simply smirked before taking her sunglasses off and pointing her fingers towards the helicopter. "Oh please, this will be no problem at all." She declared as a beam of energy charged up on her fingertips. Closing her left eye, the green haired woman shot a precise beam at the top of the helicopter, piercing the rotor and causing the chopper to begin faltering.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Journey to the West(Near Land of Gurumes)...~
~September, 13th(Friday)...~

As Tulare stood there casually looking around, he turned to look at Yatapi, whom seemed to regain his movement. A brief smile, then-

Bang! Something had made the chopper shake, then warning sirens had been going off.

"What the?! We need to get emergency landing protocols! It's that That one guy, isn't it! The one that threw that grenade. He must have came for us, Yatapi. Ready yourself. We may need to be ready to fight or run for it!" Tulare said before adjusting the chopper's coordinates. where they had previously headed east towards the land of Gurumes, Tulare made sure the helicopter was now heading south, quickly making its way down, as the chopper struggled to stay in the air.

"Redgie, give me altitude!" Tulare called out, readying himself for the abrupt landing. He grabbed his staff, ready to fire. They flew south east for a fairly good distance before hitting the ground hard in a fairly open field.

"Heeeeere goes!" Tulare yelled moments before the landing.

CRSSSSHHH

Tulare looked around, ready to either duck for cover and open fire, or get out quickly and flee the scene of the attack. No doubt their attacker was either going to be nearby. Tulare could see the damage to the helicopter and try and fix it, or possibly even just fly off as is in desperate scenario. His staff in hand, he didn't need to speak at the moment. Silence filled the air, until the eventual sound of enemy pursuers would inevitably show up.

 

[DevVoid]

Yatapi had been lost in the world of the lexicon he had gotten for himself. For others, it may have been boring to learn such manners like language. For Yatapi however, it had been a blast. He could feel images fade in and out in his head, each associated with a word he read. He knew what they were, but he never did get their names. And now that he had.. things finally started to click in this little Saibaman's head when it came to inching ever closer to speaking this strangely universal language. That was, until..

Bang!

The incoming quake had almost caused the little red goblin to lose his book to the heights below, were it not for his quick reaction and resting his arms atop of it. With a wonder of what could have caused this, Yatapi stood up and stored the book in his cranium again before looking about. Something was off, and this very eerie feeling would quickly reveal itself as Tulare's voice rung out to him, indicating that they were hit by something and were about to make a rough landing! Oh great, not again!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeing how he was no stranger to crash landings, Yatapi already knew to brace for impact. When it was all finally done and dealt with, he was quick to get out his laser blaster again and stick by the helicopter doors. Whatever shot them down would surely come after them now to claim their loot.. or whatever it was they wanted. That's usually how these things went down, after all. And now, he'd not be caught off-guard by an approaching man. Now, he'd be ready.

 

[~Nilion~]

“Good aim… really good aim.” Gyoza commented with raised eyebrows. He genuinely hadn’t expected her to hit such a small target after such a fast and unsteady lineup.
Flakes definitely wasn’t normal…but in a way, it made Gyoza feel a bit better.

The chopper skidded down roughly across the flat wastes outside the Land of Gurumes, with Gyoza and Flakes trailing closely behind. The bottom of the bird crumpled a bit from all the small impacts. What’s more, the nose was buried deep within the earth, causing the chopper to sit rather lopsided. Other than that, it seemed to be pretty intact.

“These guys are armed to the teeth, so we gotta be ready.” The young Cyborg noted as he gradually brought his speedbike to a halt, now only a few meters out from the crash site.
He hopped off the bike with a large flourish of his cape, once again fully exposing his cybernetics.

Ker-chnk! Tsh-Ksh-Ts-Tssss~

The intricate layers of overlapped plating along his arm once again expanded, slid, and unfolded apart to form a shield. Now that things were less action-packed, Flakes would finally have a chance to see the thing in its full glory.
It looked a bit like a futurist kite shield in design; long and wide enough to completely protect the young man from the hip up.

“You should get directly behind me and be ready to fire if they’re hostile.” Gyoza whispered as he aligned himself with Flakes and slowly began his march towards the helicopter. He moved quietly and slowly, always leading with his right side so that his cybernetic leg would act as cover for anything not protected by the shield.
So long as Flakes kept close behind, she would be almost entirely shielded as well.

“Alright, we don’t wanna hurt you! Just come out and… we can talk.” He shouted towards the wreckage, somewhat uncertain of what approach to take. They had the made the chopper crash, so there was a decent chance these guys would start blasting right away.

@Grand Master Koop @DevVoid @ThAtGuY101

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Journey to the West(Near Land of Gurumes)...~
~September, 13th(Friday)...~

Tulare eventually saw a figure. No. Two shapes in the distance. One using a shield and the other not far behind. One of them shot their chopper down, he didn't know which, but it was likely going to be a rough shoot out. They didn't look like soldiers. Especially the woman, who looked like she'd rather be shopping than fighting in a skirmish. He wasn't sure of the threat of these two. The shield bearer was likely some foot soldier. A messenger of sorts. His metal arm gave Tulare the opinion that he might be incompetent in battle or just unlucky.

"Redgie, power scan. Yatapi, keep your head down" Tulare said. Should they try anything wild, Tulare could snatch Yatapi off the ground and jet the trio out the back window. Redgie gauged their power level and Tulare decided to speak through the front window.

"I'm talking right here, robot cop! You're clearly not soldiers, so what do you want and speak fast. No telling when more soldiers arrive and I don't wanna be here when they do" Tulare commented. Who were these clowns? Besides probably dangerous. Mercenary? Looters? Did they have a vendetta against Gurumes? At worst, maybe they work for him and simply aren't in uniform. All the more reason not to step out the chopper just yet.

 

[~Nilion~]

Gyoza furrowed his brow a bit as he he of the passengers spoke up. The first thing he noticed was that the guy sounded… young. A bit too young to be a soldier. This was only confirmed as the individual seemed to be just as concerned about Gurumes as he and Flakes.

“We… we’re looking for more of Gurumes’ soldiers. Why are you in there? You a hostage? Any soldiers left alive?” Still somewhat uncertain if he trusted the situation, Gyoza kept his arm-shield extended, but built up enough courage to slowly wade forward.

“If you’re really not a soldier, I’m sorry. We’re trying to put a stop to all of this and we can’t do that without answers.”

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Journey to the West(Near Land of Gurumes)...~
~September, 13th(Friday)...~

Tulare glanced down at Yatapi, then at Redgie. Redgie was facing away from Tulare so that he may see the duos power levels. Fifteen and sixteen. Stronger than himself and Yatapi. On the bright side, they weren't after him and Yatapi. But how much did they know? Tulare debated telling Gyoza, but knew he needed people he could trust, and these two were hunting Gurumes soldiers. After a silent minute had passed, Tulare cleared hid throat.

"Why are you hunting his soldiers? What do you know about this Gurumes fellow or his soldiers? Does the term dragon balls ring any bells with you?" Tulare asked. He paused then stepped out of the chopper. Staff still in hand, but no longer pointed at anyone, and held vertically in a loose but firm grip.

"Us? We were heading west. Just left East City. Managed to give his soldiers the slip. A few dead soldiers, but we narrowly escaped the other soldiers there" Tulare paused again to look up and down the duo.

"If you guys are after that guy's soldiers, then maybe we can help each other out, but we'd need a plan. Either we can take this chopper back to Gurume's palace and face whatever comes to greet us, or we find another way in. Possibly send the helicopter back as a distraction. Got any ideas? You guys in?" Tulare asked.

 

[~Nilion~]

Gyoza lowered his shield just enough to meet Tulare eye-to-eye, quietly taking in everything he said before responding, “Central City was completely overrun by his forces. The military is likely after them now, but the damage has already been done. As for the dragon balls…” The chestnut-haired young man looked back over his shoulder to Flakes with a raised eyebrow. There’s that term again, Dragon Balls.

“We’ve heard that that’s what he’s after, but we don’t know anything about them. Why… what do you know about them?” Rather than immediately accepting the strange-colored individuals offer to team up, Gyoza thought it best to pry for a few answers of his own.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Journey to the West(Near Land of Gurumes)...~
~September, 13th(Friday)...~

Tulare leaned back then crossed his arms after hearing Gyoza explain himself. Tulare thought about telling Gyoza that Yatapi had a dragon ball, but neither he nor Flakes needed to know that just yet. Tulare still hadn't fully ruled them out as working for Gurumes, but he decided to explain dragon balls anyways.

"Right, right... Theres these things called dragon balls. Orbs of power to my knowledge. Able to grant powerful wishes. Sounds like something straight out of mythology, but his soldiers have taken the search extremely seriously. I have reason to suspect they may have most of the dragon balls already. If the tales are true, theres no telling what Gurumes could do with that power, but it's definitely no good" Tulare explained. He looked in the direction of Gurumes castle. Clearing his throat. He looked at Yatapi.

"You ready? What about you two? You coming with us? We could use the extra hands" Tulare added, turning to look at Gyoza and Flakes.

 

[~Nilion~]

“A soldier I… spoke with said Gurumes is sick and he needed the Dragon Balls to heal himself. The way he described it made me think it was just some really strange medication. He seriously thinks it’ll grant him wishes? I don’t know if I believe a fairytale like that. The guy must really be insane.” The cyborg quietly chuckled to himself, his shield quickly compressing back down into a normal arm as he did so.

“I suppose there’s no harm in more traveling companions. But what do you me by ‘us’?” Gyoza trailed off as his eyes skimmed the wreckage, only just now locking onto the small, red monster stowed away behind the staff wielding-stranger.
The young man’s eyes went wide as he slowly took a few steps back. His lips parted and closed several times before he managed to squeak out any words, “….what…the hell…IS THAT?!?”

———————

With the chopper being too smashed up to use and Gyoza’s speed bike being too small, the newly acquainted crew opted to simply walk the rest of the way; using the time to exchange what little info they could.

As the group moved closer and closer to the entrance of Castle Gurumes, the scenery would only grow more and more decrepit; ripped up fields, burning trees and the occasional ransacked house. No people seemed to be present at all, wether or not they were dead or in hiding was entirely unknown.

“Woah…” Gyoza muttered as the group approached the edge of an incredibly long bridge, with Castle Gurumes residing just on the other side.
The bridge itself was suspended over an absolutely massive pit in the earth, which went down maybe ten meters and stretched well beyond the horizon line.
Gyoza stepped forward, resting his left foot on the bridge. With a heavy sigh, he spoke up once again, “The Land of Gurumes was home to one of the largest bodies of good, clean drinking water on earth. It kept both the farmers and the farmlands alive- fed many, many people. This was it…” The young cyborg took a moment to let it sink in. How many nearby cities and towns would likely suffer and starve without these crop lands. Every man, woman and child. Gurumes had damned them all.

“Let’s go.”

——————————

“Sir! Sir…?” Pasta rushed into the main hall of Gurumes’ castle, with yet another dragon ball in hand, only to stop dead in her tracks upon catching site of Gurumes.
He was standing up next to his chair, leaning against the wall. He seemed to be trembling slightly while clawing at his aching gut. His robes had tightened at the seems, indicting he’d grown even more since her last visit.

“G̷iv̸e i̸t t̶o m̴e… N̵̢̂́Ò̸̞W̸͔͒!” Gurumes swiped at Pasta, causing her to fall back and drop the Dragon Ball.
The mad king was quick to scramble for it, after which he promptly shoved it down his throat with a loud, hard swallow.

“N̸̗̊ot̶̞͠ eń̸̫̘̃ou̴̖͑͜gh! M̶̥̣̓Ȯ̸̬R̷̺̦̐̚E̵̖̭̕͝!̴̢̼̅“ He gurgled while half stumbling, half stomping towards Pasta who was actively scrambling for the back door.

“I’ll go, sir! Just one more ball, right?!?!”

 

[DevVoid]

Yatapi held his ray gun trained on the target as Tulare communicated with them. Fortunately, it seemed like they could actually avoid a fight for once. Good. Tulare seemed to want to go with them, but judging the stranger's reaction upon seeing the saibaman, you'd think otherwise. Well, to be fair, this was far from the first time someone has had such a reaction upon seeing him, at least in Yatapi's experience. So.. could be worse, maybe? Either way, it was probably time to move now.. but not without sticking by his staff-wielding ally, given Yatapi couldn't exactly trust someone whose just had such a volatile reaction towards him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Red Gremlin, no relations to the Green Goblin whatsoever, was pretty shocked to find the scenery switching from green and vibrant to barren and robbed of most, if not all life. As a plant-based creature himself, it was especially shocking to see such a sight. How could anyone be so cruel and commit such crimes against nature? Whoever.. or better yet, whatever had done this had needed to pay. And Yatapi would be sure it would, no matter the price..

 

[~Nilion~]

The group quickly dashed across the long, narrow path leading up to Gurumes’ castle, soon finding themselves right outside the large, wooden doors leading to the main hall.

“Alright everyone, be on your toes and ready to dive for cover if needed.” Gyoza spoke softly, before slamming the large doors open with one firm push from his cybernetic arm.
What greeted them on the other side was truly…an ugly sight.

“T̵h̸e̶… ̴u̶n̷y̵i̸e̷l̸d̷i̸n̷g̷ ̷h̶u̶n̴g̴e̸r̵r̵r̶…” Gurumes groaned to Pasta and Bongo, the ladder of which had only just entered the room from the back entrance. This in turn would block off Pasta’s path of escape, leading to her scrambling to push Bongo between herself and the Mad King.

“He might have it, sir!” Pasta stammered while trying to make herself as small as possible behind Bongo, who was incredibly confused about the entire situation.

“Uh…no, not yet, sir. But we-gahhg!” Before Bongo could finish, Gurumes had clamped down on the brutes neck and hurled him across the room, sending him crashing through a stone table.
He wasn’t dead, but he was definitely quite injured.

“T̵h̵e̵ ̴l̵a̴s̷t̵ ̶d̸r̴a̴g̶o̴n̷ ̴b̶a̶l̷l̸… ̵I̴ ̷n̸e̸e̴d̷ ̷i̷t̵! ̶G̸i̶v̷e̸ ̵i̴t̵ ̸t̶o̵ ̸m̴e̸!̷ ̶N̴O̵W̵!̸“ Gurumes crumpled to the ground with one final groan of pain. His body began to ripple and bulge, his clothes ripped apart at the seems and his pained scream quickly turned into a viscous roar. As the ever growing beast stumbled about, he managed to finish what he started with Bongo; crushing the man under his foot.
Gurumes had completely transformed into a giant monster, now standing over three meters tall with a weight that rattled the ground as he moved.
If this weren’t bad enough, he’d now turned his attention away from Pasta and began trudging towards the group who’d just burst into his castle. The last dragon ball… he could smell it. They had it!

ROOOAAAAAARGH!

Gurumes roared while sweeping his arm out at the group, aiming to send them all smashing against the wall in one quick move.

“Move!”

 

[DevVoid]

Yatapi followed along the rag-tag group of wanna-be- heroes, lagging as behind as he could so he'd be sticking close to Tulare. Soon enough, they happened upon a rather large building. While it did intrigue the small Saibaman at first, he had gotten an ominous feeling from it. As if they shouldn't enter it. He'd have voiced his concerns, but.. well, it's not like he could exactly voice anything other than shrieks and screeches. Not at the moment at least.

Then, this dreadful feeling that he felt earlier rung true as a horrid scene unfolded him, ending with one giant freak of nature now barreling an arm towards the group! Thinking fast, Yatapi had quickly leapt back, turned his body around and went to climb up the door and following this the castle's inner walls with his claws, trying to find a spot where he could sit upon. Finding no such thing on the fly, the gremlin simply kept crawling until he was close to the ceiling and hung on with one arm and both legs, using the other to yoink the ray gun from his cranium and let a couple shots loose at the monster-formed Gurumes in an attempt to both hurt him and distract him so the others could get their fair share of hurt in as well!

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Gurumes Castle...~
~September, 13th(Friday)...~

If the threat they'd soon face hadn't sunk in yet, it would certainly be a very rude awakening when the large imposing doors open. Gyoza with his cybernetic arm, opened the door easily enough. As much mental preparation as Tulare did, he couldn't possibly have expected whatever he was looking at. That thing was not human, nor any other worldly species he knew of, off the top of his head.

He observed the mad king's physiology, his erratic unhinged behavior to his overall treatment of his own soldiers. The way his soldiers that Tulare had spoken to. Their behavior was now starting to make more sense and cone full circle. Without looking over, he remembered Yatapi had a dragon ball. Tulare made a conscious effort not to look at him to avoid drawing attention to him.

How many dragon balls did Gurumes have?? He turned to look at Gyoza.

"Got any plans?" Tulare asked.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Flakes ran through the halls of the seemingly abandoned castle alongside the rest of her group. The young woman held her dress up as she ran, now visibly dirtied by the adventure she was unwillingly dragged into. She took a glance at the state of her clothes and scoffed. "I'm not properly dressed for this. All this dirt better wash off, I really like this dress." She mumbled to herself.

Arriving at the throne room, Flakes, alongside the ragtag group she found herself in, witnessed the true ugliness behind the ruins of Gurume. The king of Gurume has mutated into something that could barely be considered human, raving and moaning about having the so-called 'Dragon Balls'. It only got worse as his henchmen returned to the throne room. Flakes watched on as the meathead she had previously faced in battle was effortlessly dispatched, as well as the King's continued transformation into something truly monstrous. "Gross." She muttered under her breath.

As the King's transformation reached its final stage, his attention was suddenly drawn towards the group of intruders that had just arrived on the scene. "Damn, we've been found." She declared as she formed an energy orb in her hand. With the king looking like a giant gross slug man, Flakes had less than zero intention of letting him get close to her. "Stay back, you overgrown slug!" She shouted before throwing the ki blast at the monstrous King Gurumes.

 

[~Nilion~]

“Sort of,” Was all Gyoza could say to Tulare. He didn’t have time to converse as he had the same idea Flakes had. Rather than attempting to dodge the beast, the young cyborg instead decided to use the opportunity to see just how strong Gurumes really was.

Ker-chnk! Tsh-Ksh-Ts-Tssss~

As Flakes let her blast loose, Gyoza expanded his arm shield in an attempt to protect the pair from the massive, sweeping limb.

CRRRRSHH~

Pewpewpew~

The small, glowing ball of energy fired by Flakes rocketed forward, directly into the attacking Mad Kings face. At almost the exact same time, a small shower of laser fire was sent directly down from above, courtesy of Yatapi.
The series of sudden explosive impacts kicked up a massive cloud of dust, totally enshrouding Gurumes.

Before the pair could even question if the blasts had worked, the massive beasts arm came soaring through just as intended, crashing into Gyoza’s limb with incredible force.
The tan-cloaked young man was sent rolling across the floor from the impact. He instinctively dug the sharp, pointed end of his shield into the solid rock beneath his feet to stop his momentum.

“…the blasts were completely in effective,” Gyoza shouted to his allies while taking a moment to exam Gurumes, who was once again slowly trudging towards the group. If there was one area the Mad King lacked, it was speed; taking several moments to move from one end of the castles main hall, to the other.

“G̴͍̓iv̸̤̇e m̶̜̊e t̶͇̾hè̶̱ Dr̷̪̅ag̸̫͠oņ̷͝ Bȁ̸̬ll!!” Gurumes gurgled while shambling towards the Gyoza, who had now righted himself and retracted his robotic shield.

“We don’t have you’re damned Dragon Ball!” Gyoza roared while charging in with his cybernetic arm reeled back.
Gurumes attempted to reach out and swipe Gyoza up, but the cyborg went low, ducking under the behemoths slow, clumsy grasp before letting loose the hardest corkscrew punch his artificial limb could generate.

RRrrr~

It sounded almost like thick rubber being stretched as Gyoza’s limb sunk deep into the large beasts lower gut, before being pushed back out with out with enough force to send Gyoza rolling backwards once again.

“Damn it! This guys immune to everything! I don’t think we can beat him like this!”

———

During all of the action, Pasta had slipped out of the main hall into a back room.
Her mind was racing a mile a minute as she tried to sort out her course of action.

“He really is cursed! I though he was a monster-type earthling with an ego problem. No wonder the soldiers were so fearful of that blubbering oath.” The battered and exhausted redhead thought to herself while taking a moment to get herself together. She had a plan in case things went south. Now was the time.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Tulare...~
~Location, Gurumes Castle...~
~September, 13th(Friday)...~

As Gurumes demanded the dragon ball, Gyoza shot back that he didn't have it. He clearly didn't know about the one Yatapi had, and Flakes was no doubt in the same situation. As the beast went to strike Gyoza, Tulare extended his rifle instantly before quickly firing three bursts at Gurumes. If the others were going to fight that thing, so was he. With his large size and sluggish movements, they'd need to constantly move around. Getting hit would certainly spell trouble.

 

[~Nilion~]

Gyoza threw his shield in front of him while dashing backwards; attempting to remain on the defensive without getting trapped in a corner.
But before the strike would have a chance to reach him, three orbs of energy were fired from Tulare’s rifle, slamming right into Gurumes’ lower-left side.

Boing~

Tulare’s weapon was currently capable of producing energy blasts far more stable than anyone else’s. The group would soon realized this as, rather than detonating on impact, the attacks instead sunk deep into beasts body before being launched back out at a high velocity.
Three projectiles whizzed through the air and towards the warriors; two headed straight for Gyoza and Flakes, and one headed right back at Tulare. Fortunately for Yatapi, he was well out of range and at no risk of being hit.

 

[DevVoid]

Yatapi hung back far above the other three fighting this behemoth of an enemy, out of reach of whatever was going on down there. Well, it appears his blaster was having little to no effect on this thing, so.. really pointless to keep it out, isn't it? Stuffing it back in his cranium, the Saibaman instead procurred his laser cutter, voicing out toward Tulare with one screech of his own.

" Gyaahr! "

And with his clawed hand, he proceeded to toss the thing down, hoping at least one of the three, more specifically the man who he was flying here via helicopter earlier before being shot down, would end up catching the thing. Yatapi sure as hell couldn't use it in his current position, so maybe one of the others would have a better time figuring out a use for this switchblade-like cutting device.