"No, no, I'm the only rebel here, I dragged these two goody two-shoes into this," the tough-looking one laughs, "like we said, we ended up inside while travelling through some funky wormhole. They wanted to leave, but I thought that we should stay for a bit, love the aesthetics. Don't worry, nothing was touched, though it was tempting... But I really am sorry, but I didn't mess anything up, promise!"
"Please, Ms Bulma," Asuha says, "do forgive my seniors on my behalf."
"Well, Asuha, at least you know which examples of ours not to follow, ahahaha..." the short-haired one seems sheepish about this, "I truly am sorry, Miss."
"Ms Bulma, was it?" the bespectacled one asked, "it appears that the best choice would be to take our leave, as we have already found who we wanted to find. Once more, I apologise for any inappropriate behaviour. Come on, Asuha."
"Sorry, Itsuki-senpai, but I've sworn to participate in the Cell Games!"
"The what?"
"Oh, that was real? I thought it was a poorly made news parody show."
"And what did this poorly made news parody show say about the Cell Games?"
Just then, Vegeta walked in to check out what was going on.
"Mr Vegeta," Asuha bows, "good to see you again. I am here to train for the Cell Games. I have already met Ms Bulma, and these here are my seniors! They've taught me most of my combat skills, and I'm ready to do them proud!"
"I believe introductions are in order," the bespectacled one bows, "I am Yakumo Itsuki."
"Sakaide Mari, pleased to meet you all."
"Yo, name's Mitsurugi Fuuran. Guess I'll be in your company."
"No Stiles, that's not it, and why do you-"
Ben turns to see Pomada.
"Oh, hey Pomada, is there something you need from me?"
Ben reveals the holograms in his Omnitrix after her enquiry, specifically the blob of glorified pudding.
"Yup, I've still got this guy I got from your DNA. In fact, I just finished a training round with Stiles using him. Is something the matter?"
"I know what you mean. I tried sensing the ki of some of the people, and we have some strong power levels here, mostly from this universe. Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan... even Dende has a lot of power for a little guy. I see why he's Earth's guardian in this universe. Then some of the other worlds' fighters... most everyone seems a couple leagues above you and me at least. Especially the little girl with the gauntlets and that guy in the banana yellow suit. I don't think I could survive a punch from either of them."
"Just give me a couple minutes to heal and I'll be ready to learn some new techniques. I may not have the best stamina in a fight, but at least I can bounce back quick after a loss. Even death hasn't kept me down for long before."
"..."
"Mason, maybe don't spew out everything that comes to your mind," he told himself.
"Sorry if I say anything weird, Krillin. Coming back from the dead isn't a common occurance, but I've seen it multiple times."
Mason tapped his necklace, and those around him could sense an aura that was definitely different than the one he was fighting with before. Within a few minites, his fatigue and injuries would be gone.
A small spherical ship with CAPSULE3 labelled on the front. The front door of the ship dropped open and they would be inside the ship as Vegeta walked in first. The interior was similar to that of the Gravity Chamber, except in the middle would be several seats and a pilot contraption. Already proceeding to the central console, Vegeta turned up the Gravity to 100x that of Earth's Gravity and smirked towards the girls that followed. "Hmhm. Let's see how you handle 100 times that of Earth's Gravity. Now then, attack me."
@Crow @CapsuleCorporation
". . .Huh."
Specter Knight held up his other arm as a wave of dust blew in his direction from the trembling shockwave produced by Shiori Kujou's explosive counterattack. The cursed purple flames vanished as quickly as they appeared, slowly withering into fleeting clouds of smoke that, when they cleared, revealed an unscathed Shiori standing in the epicenter of the explosion.
Countering her own destructive force with...well, even more destructive force. The girl's ghastly sparring partner couldn't evoke much else but stunned silence. After a moment of silence was shared between the two, Specter Knight eventually lowered himself to the chamber's floor and planted his scythe into the floor by its base. He crossed his arms and quietly laughed.
"Hmhmhm. . .you certainly do not lack in raw power, girl. You could make for a promising member of my order, back in my reality." Specter Knight mused. The words escaped his masked mouth easily enough, albeit with a hint of melancholy. "Far be it from me to put a promising fighter like you through that mundane torment."
Where did that come from? For such an antagonistic looking (and sounding; how raspy can a voice get?) creature, the knight wasn't stubborn enough to know when he's been outmatched. Though he'll make an argument in a battle of speed and reflexes, even he cannot raise a bony finger to a display of such raw, unfiltered power. It's that begrudging respect between warriors that occasionally resurfaces in Specter Knight's rotting veins. Something he would've cherished much more a few years ago.
"I've realized that many of my Curios would be more accurately represented in whatever the true tournament arena will look like, but most of the rest of them are more. . hss, straightforward. So, allow me one final test."
Specter Knight finished the exchange by gripping his scythe once more and rising from the ground. The knight scanned the open space between himself and Shiori, and glanced around the chamber itself.
He raised his free, open hand into the air.
And then, he closed it into a tight fist.
CCRRAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
For at least the fourth time, another booming sound threatened to rupture the eardrums of every fighter inhabiting the Gravity Chamber. It sounded like a thunderbolt had just struck a few inches away from their face, but the haze of the loud noise wasn't the only thing strange about Specter Knight's attack.
It was. . .dark.
Completely pitch black.
This wasn't your average everyday darkness.
This was advanced darkness.
All light in the Gravity Chamber was suddenly erased in Specter Knight's clutch. Any sources of light simply stopped working, beams of energy wouldn't even emit any light, and even those with biological or technical night-vision simply couldn't see past the impenetrable wall of darkness that blinded everyone.
But that wasn't all. There wasn't any noise. There were no smells. No tastes, no sense of feeling or spacial awareness. Try to talk, scream or grunt in annoyance or confusion, but no one can hear themselves. Even their inner voices were muted.
For a few seconds, the Gravity Chamber was lost in darkness. It was like someone had turned off the lights of the universe.
And then, at once, everything came back on. Light filled the Gravity Chamber as much as it did previously, and the senses swiftly returned like they never left. The smells, the sounds, the taste and feeling of the Gravity Chamber was back to normal.
Except now Shiori Kujou surrounded by skeletons.
A lot of skeletons.
In the short time span during Specter Knight's 'attack', it seems as if a horde of reanimated bones emerged from the floor of the Gravity Chamber and swiftly took point surrounding Shiori. The skeletal sentries mindlessly stood and stared at the girl, carrying nothing but rusted swords and armors. Specter Knight would suddenly appear from behind one of his minions, rising up and motioning his scythe towards Shiori.
Each of the skeletons locked on to her, and a faint twinkle of purple light began to manifest in their eye sockets.
BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMABAMBAMBAMBAMBAM
Like a firing squad set to execute, a hailstorm of magical missiles suddenly soared towards Shiori from all directions. The sentries continuously rattled their target with volleys of magic missiles from their empty eye sockets, while seamlessly tracking her movements and not stopping their attack until destroyed.
Was this undead firing squad lethal? Get hit, and see what happens.
Mason would deliver a few more punches and kicks that could easily be blocked, as well as block anything Krillin could try to throw at him. "This is normally when I would start using ki tricks, but I think I'll hold back on them for now. Using my power is really the only way I gain a leverage in fights. Let me know if you want to start using tricks."
"But for right now? I'm having fun doing just this."
It appeared that, contrary to when he was using his powers, Mason wasn't losing stamina from this simple sparring. He had a smile on his face and kept his eyes focused on Krillin's movements. Mason did have some experience in a fight.
Itsuki's blasts were able to neutralise Vegeta's, each collision resulting in an explosion that allowed her to use the resulting smoke to strike him stealthily. While Mari & Fuuran foresaw Vegeta's counterattacks, they dodgerolled away in response, before continuing their forwards assault.
Asuha, however, was hit and pushed back, taking a while to pick herself up. During Vegeta's turn, she would be struck once again.
Itsuki briefly glances at Asuha, then at her two fellow stooges. "Now!"
Fuuran & Mari would perform feints to make it seem like they were prepared to counter Vegeta, just before Fuuran stabbed her sword into the ground before punching it through, and Mari would begin to hover, allowing her to evade Vegeta's next potential attack. During all this, Itsuki raised her rod, summoning a great attack...
The assault starts off with Mari conjuring plasma beams around that carried shock to them, causing them to cumulate and home in to Vegeta, releasing an intense stun effect. Next up was Itsuki's attack, where she summoned icicles to crash into Vegeta. Finally, Fuuran's strike shattered the Earth and summoned a powerful, rising firestorm just below Vegeta.
While Vegeta was being struck, Asuha had long recovered. She wasn't very synchronised, it seemed, but that was far from a bad thing.
"S- sorry for the delay, seniors!"
Asuha begins her special move as a red, eastern dragon-shaped aura circles around her, charging at Vegeta just as the first three special attacks had finished hitting! This one wasn't as strong or powerful as the three prior special attacks, but it did its job as its ethereal aura body rammed through him a few times.
"Nothing like a good government experiment to start fucking things up" Armstrong pushed his slipping spectacles back up onto the bridge of his nose with his middle finger and staring off into the sky, letting the sunlight reflect deep into his eyes. He didn't blink. He never did. What use was there flinching and surrendering in the face of adversity? He played 'chicken' with the sunlight, certain not to flinch first "Hasn't been a good experiment since democracy. First cloning, then gene-tampering... sometimes the people in charge don't know what to do with their power... unlike yours truly" He began beaming again "Maybe my world hasn't been turned to shit by nukes, but it sure as hell been turned to shit by the La Li Lu Le Lo... you might know them as 'Patriots' or just the Illuminati. Sons of bitches started out playing fantasy football with politics back in the 60s. Some of their members were Chinese, some American, some Russian. Even back then they had the habit of meddling with civil liberties. By '65 they had almost torn themselves apart from the inside, only to be kick-started by some poncy Brit. That's when things got real bad. He seemed to get off controlling information and thought it was a great idea to build a bunch of A.I.s to start running the world. By the time I was old enough to enlist the A.I.s had built up a 'War Economy'. The 5 Ls would start a war on some damn backwater, and hire out U.S citizens to die freeing it. Got the whole world involved in that scheme. Made a fair about of dough doing it too" He laughed "Maybe I'm some'Vault-Dweller' too, coz I was born into a shit-pit too. Except my world's chaos was organized chaos. Even after the La Li Lu Le Lo upon and got themselves shut down, the world still feels their absence. That's the whole reason I went into politics... Coz there ain't a world out there that's fair... Just gotta do what we can to make it that little bit fairer for our own kind. No matter the cost-- you of all people would understand that, right?"
"Shit" Cole murmured, sensing the fluctuation in power. Ki, in its simplest form, was routed in electricity, and Cole could sense something a few miles away lighting up like a Christmas tree. With everyone sparring or training, he had expected some large power's to emergy- the door to the time chamber had been bleeding energy like a gash ever since he had arrived, and the Majin's energy had attracted his attention the instant she had transformed, but Vegeta? His energy hadn't only grown, but also shifted. The charge from his distant electrons seemed to shift on their axis, turning the positive charges negative and the negative positive. He was in a state of flux. A highly dangerous state of flux.