Part IV: Aftermath

[DBIL Administrator]

The Situation

Date: Year 19 of Deragth's Reign
Main Characters: Brokel, Nirvei, Calico

Primary Goal(s): Escape the Eastern Capital, Defeat Captain Stripe
Secondary Goal(s): Liberate the Old Herbalist

CONCLUSION

With the simultaneous and climatic defeat of both Brokel and Nirvei at the hands of the Captain's personal guards, all that remained of the the fugitive resistance was the Antromomorph known as Calico Nerdani... Though even his futile resistance was now threatened by an enraged Captain Stripe.

Hope for survival let alone victory for the fugitives was now but a glowing splint shrouded by a blanket of the blackest darkness...

Increasing the pressure of his hold on Calico's paw, Stripe took pleasure in the snarls that the cat made as he squeezed harder and harder after every passing second. Before he realized it, the Captain had reached his full strength, keeping his eyes focused on his adversary's face which cried out pain. Licking his lips in a disgusting manner, Stripe proceeded on to the continuation of his torture session.

For a split second, Stripe seemed to give a hint of releasing his hold on the oversized cat's paw, even loosening his grip to an extent. Giving his opponents false hope was Stripe's favorite part of torture, the hopeful look on their faces, and that unique gleam that formed within their eyes were always what Stripe paid most attention to... And only when that hopeful look expanded adequately would Stripe draw even more blood...

Calico was no different to any other victim of torture...

In a swift motion, Stripe once again tightened his grip on the cat's arm, feeling the rough fur that had been burned by all sorts of objects and energy time and time again... A smile appeared on Stripe's face as he cherished the thought of what was about to occur...

Charging up burning Ki within his grabbing hand, Stripe heated up his hand, the smell of fire now becoming imminent. Smoke began to form, and seeped out through the small gap between the Captain's arm and the back of Calico's paw, as Stripe very quietly began to chuckle...

In the blink of an eye, Stripe had pulled on Calico's arm, whilst sidestepping to position himself to the right of the arm, raising his free hand in the process... What was about to happen was obvious, as Stripe, with a devilish smile on his face brought down the raise arm, his other hand still burning on Calico's paw.

A chopping motion soon ensued, as the outside of the Captain's hand made contact with the joint that connected the forearm and the upper arm, a loud snap generated with the impact...

What happened afterward occurred within only a few seconds...

A few meters out, the victorious "Uppy," as Brokel had nicknamed his opponent, continued the fluid motion that had resulted in a Ki powered chop in the back of the young Hybrid Saiyan's neck, who now lay unconscious as a result. Completing the 360 degree spin that he had begun, Uppy ended up on the left side of Brokel's descending body, catching himself in mid-air using Bukujutsu.

In the blink of an eye, Uppy had conjured his blazing aura, and blasted towards who everyone had thought had been his leader... A look of fear creeping upon his face as he noticed Uppy dashing towards him...

Two seconds passed... As Uppy stood opposite the Captain, who stood awkwardly, motionless, having dropped Calico on the ground.

Another second passed... Next to Calico on the sandy floor lay the breathless corpse that had once been the most powerful being in Eastern Earth...

One more second passed... Another figure appeared, seeming to be floating in the air, holding a hostage. Before him floated none other than the slayer of the one known as Captain Stripe, speaking with him in a cool and calm tone, their voices blurred out from any unfocused ears... And perhaps even a glimpse of Sally McSally's plight would be seen...

Only Calico would hear a part of their conversation, and only a part it would be...

"Return the fugitive... (Scattered voices)... You fools, guided by the false words of the Resistance! (Scattered voices)... No... I am no pawn nor leader of the Resistance... I stand here for the innocent... For all those ---- (Scattered voices)... So be it... The next Tenkaichi Budokai --- (Scattered voices, blackout...)"

At this point, incapacitation would be unavoidable, as Calico slowly slipped into the blackness as two of his companions had done before him...

What had become of the two surviving "guards" was unknown at this point, but they had not killed the fugitives, that was for sure, as they would perhaps awaken at nightfall, where a half moon would loom in the sky...

Perhaps the lamentation of their failure to rescue the old herbalist would be appropriate... How will our heroes deal with the scrambled pieces of conversation now embedded in Calico's head.

Post character aftermaths here, after all three have posted, rewards will be given out

[Calico Nerdani]

Calico awoke abruptly to the loud, painful crack of his shoulder being re-located, and yowled in pain.

"By the Mother, that hurt!!" He exclaimed. "Ever heard of painkillers?" Glaring at Brokel, Calico tested his arm to gauge how long it'd take to stop being sore. In that time, he also decided to stop being grumpy.

"Sorry.... And thanks."

His apology summoned an empathetic grin from the Hybrid Saiyan, who was fashioning a sling for Calico's arm. Calico shook his head at the sling.

"I won't need that. I've survived much worse'n this." He moved his arm without a flinch or trace of pain, and it didn't hurt that bad. A manic grin spread across his face. "I've survived Sally's cooking!" And then it hit Calico that he didn't know where Sally was, and he couldn't smell the telltale smell of her attempted cooking either. Anyone could smell that a mile away, and Calico could smell better than alot of people. Sort of one of those times he wished he didn't have animalistic senses.

"Speaking of Sally, where is she??" Calico asked as he stood up and stretched. A good, relaxing stretching session was always needed after an injury like that. It might increase the pain for a bit, but it was worth it because it rehabilitated the muscles and tendons in a shorter time. He stretched vigorously, even though he was sore all over.

Cats also liked stretching.

Calico began growing uneasy at Brokel's silence. Well, in Brokel's defense, Calico did sort of mumble his question. Maybe he just wasn't heard.

"Hey, Brokel" Calico asked again slowly to make sure Brokel would heard him. "Where's Sally McSally?" He waited, his attention on Brokel.

[Nirvei/Lapis]

“Ugh...” groaned Nirvei as she gradually regained consciousness. The Keretian’s eyes opened and were greeted with the darkness of night that hung overhead. What was going on? Why was she on the ground in the middle of the night? It didn’t seem likely that she had just fallen asleep here. Her entire body ached and her memory was a blur.

Nirvei shifted into a sitting position as she tried to recall what happened. It wasn’t until she noticed Brokel and Calico not too far away that everything rushed back to her. That’s right! They were attacked by Captain Stripe and his goons. Nirvei was surprised that they had managed to survive that fight. She knew that Calico, Brokel, and herself weren’t pushovers, but Stripe was more powerful than all of them. What happened while she was knocked out?

Something Nirvei saw from the corner of her eye demanded her immediate attention. An eerily familiar corpse was sprawled out on the ground not too far from her two companions. It was none other than Stripe himself. There was no doubt about it; he was dead. ‘Calico really did a number on this guy. Maybe he’s stronger than I thought,’ Nirvei wondered while staring at the body of their foe. Something didn’t seem right with this situation though. The girl wasn’t sure what it was, but the feeling was there.

Only at the mention of Sally McSally’s name did the Keretian look back at Calico. She instantly remembered how one of the guards had captured her and how she failed to stop him. Nirvei gritted her teeth and punched the ground in anger. It was her right hand; it still hurt, but she didn’t care right now.

“I’ve got bad news Calico. I think one of Stripe’s guards managed to capture her during the fight,” she explained while staring at the small hole in the Earth that she had just made. “I’m sorry. I tried to stop him, but I had used up too much energy by then. I don’t know what happened to her after I blacked out.”

Nirvei still couldn't believe that she couldn't do anything to keep that guard from getting away. Even if she was feeling a little weak from the previous battle, that's something she just couldn't excuse herself for. What would uncle Dior say about this? Disgraceful...

'I've been taking a lot of damage lately. That needs to stop. As soon as I recover it's time for more training,' Nirvei thought with determination. She couldn't stand the thought of being weak. It was time to do something about it.

[Brokel]

Brokel just shook his head in response to Calico's question while Nirvei answered, rubbing some burn salves on his shoulders from when he split the Kamehameha. It was the first time he'd seen that move. He looked at Calico with growing certainty about what he was going to say.

"We have no time, my friend," Broekl said, a little surprised himself at his declaration of Calico as a friend, and continued, "To go rushing to her rescue right now. You, I'm sure, were the last one to be incapacitated. And thank goodness it was only incapacitation. I know you didn't do this to Stripe-" he motioned at the corpse "-because I was defeated by one of my opponents, and he spared me. Most likely, he was the one that saved you from Stripe's Death Grip."

Brokel walked over to the corpse, and crouched down to search it for anything of use. While he did, he continued. "Anyways, it seems that another guard also escaped, probably one with more malicious intentions, since he took Sally. If there was anything you could remember, now would be the time to." He found a rather heavy pouch of zenni on Stripe, and tossed it at his bag after removing the tracker in it. "I'm willing to bet taht the guard that defeated me is probably going to try to save Sally.The look on his face......he was just too good -hearted to be a real enemy.... Ah, I've found something." Brokel produced a small folded piece of paper. He couldn't contain his surprise as his thoughts burst out into speach. Heread the only three words on the paper.

"Next Budokai Tenkaichi?"

[Calico Nerdani]

The weight of the day suddenly became too much to bear, and Calico fell flat on his rump. Sally had been taken.... and now what was this about a Tenkaichi Budokai? It rung a bell fro some reason, and it somehow made sense that Sally would be a hostige....No. A fugitive.....

"Return the fugitive........... You fools, guided by the false words of the Resistance!.......... No... I am no pawn nor leader of the Resistance... I stand here for the innocent... For all those ----......... So be it... The next Tenkaichi Budokai..........."

"Whoever has Sally," Calico began, "is going to be at the next Tenkaichi Budokai. He's probably betting her life on beating that other guy or something!" Forcing himself up, Calico locked eyes with Brokel. "How far away from here is your shack? We gotta get there first things first. It's too risky out here at night. And besides, I need a shower......"

[Brokel]

"It's about half an hour away," Brokel replied, "If we fly. Nobody has a problem with flying do they?" Calico shrugged at him in an I don't care kind of way. Nirvei, however, looked like Brokel just asked her if she could breathe underwater. But for all Brokel knew about her, she could. He took it to mean that she couldn't fly. Brokel stifled a chuckle at her and forced himself to view the seriousness of it. He held out his hand.

"We can't walk there Nirvei." Brokel said. "Running requires too much terrain navigation. Now, you may not know me, but I give you my word. You can trust me." Other than the shack and the clothes Brokel had on, his word was all he had, and it was the most valuable thing he had in his posession. H would die to keep his word, and almost had a few times before.

[Nirvei/Lapis]

Nirvei tensed as soon as the word fly left Brokel’s mouth. That was yet another technique that her uncle had refused to teach her while she was training under him. Something about the fact that Karas was a world full of magic users who weren’t so friendly toward a non-magic user, and there was no point in Nirvei leaving the farm to interact with them. Why did he have to be so overprotective?

“Erm, sorry to say but I DO have a problem with flying. I don’t know how,” Nirvei said sheepishly while looking away from the two. As she thought, some training was definitely in order when this was all said and done.

The Keretian eyed Brokel as he extended her hand to her. “Well, you people have been the most trust worthy people I’ve met so far on this hunk of rock. I don’t think that’s hard to do on a planet like this, but I bet I’m much better off with you guys than sitting out here and waiting for some hellspawn to find me and start chewing on me,” Nirvei replied. She took Brokel’s hand and pulled herself to her feet.

[Calico Nerdani]

Calico couldn't decide whether to help Brokel fly with Nirvei or not. He didn't want to seem mean by not offering, but he didn't know if Brokel wanted him to help. Saiyans and their pride.....

Well, Brokel would just have to swallow his pride because Calico walked up and took Nirvei's other hand.

"When we make it there and have some time," Calico said to Nirvei. "We'll teach you how to fly." And with that, he lifted off the ground without hesitation, in a hurry to make to to the safety of indoors. His instincts were going crazy about the dark desert, lit only by the half-face of the moon. It was eerily silent.

A calm before the storm.

[Brokel]

Brokel wasn't sure if Calico's help was a challenge to Brokel's strength or just Calico being nice. It could have been both, but to make things run smoothly he chose to discard it as being nice, and Brokel was grateful for the help. He wasn't sure if he could help Nirvei out alone, because of how sore he was. Those burn salves had helped, but just on the burns. He'd have to use a stronger herb to get rid of the dull ache accompanied by sharp jabs of pain whenever he moved too forcefully. He'd have to try what Calico did and stretch.

"Okay," Brokel said as they ascended into the dark sky. "let's head that way" He pointed over beyond two large rocks that looked like a pair of scissors coming out of the earth. "And do not to fly through Scissor Rock. Bad things happen if you do....." Brokel smirked and with his free hand imitated the motion of scissors snipping together a few times.

[Nirvei/Lapis]

Nirvei said nothing as she was lifted off of the ground by both Brokel and Calico. She still felt sore from battle, and dangling in the air in such an awkward position wasn’t helping. She decided to ignore the pain for now. Besides, the guys were probably hurting worse than she was. The girl would just have to wait until they got the shack that Brokel was talking about to do anything about it. Half an hour wasn't too long to wait.

[Calico Nerdani]

"Don't worry NIrvei," Calico said. "You won't dangle like this for long." And true enough, once they picked up speed, Nirvei sort of had a buoyancy of her own. It also helped that Calico and Brokel were channeling a little bit of latent Ki into her, to help her float along with them. Calico took in the sights, however bleak they were, as they flew over and around the desert landscape, intently scanning the ground below. A few large animals could be seen, and many pairs of glowing eyes dotted the ground beneath the shrubbery. Man was he glad they weren't on the ground. Calico, Brokel, and even Nirvei were stronger than the animals, but there were so many of them, and none of the trio were exactly up to snuff right now.

After long, Brokel announced that they were at their destination. It was a barren plain, a few shrubs littering the area with small tufts of grass scattered willy-nilly around them. A cactus could be seen every now and then.

Just like any other patch of desert.

"Well?" Calico asked. "What are we doing here on an empty plain?"

[Brokel]

Brokel smiled at Calico'squestion

"We are on an empty plain," Brokel agreed. "My shack is in the empty plain." He proceeded to an inconspicuous looking group of bushes and, after rummaging around for a few moments, stood up with a unique looking key enclosed hi his palm. He deftly held twirled it in his fingers and looked at it, and jammed it into the ground and twisted.

The ground tremored slightly as the hidden door slid open with a mechanical grinding sound near where the key was stuck in the earth. Now visible was a set of stairs, leading down into the darkness. Brokel swiftly descended the stairs, pausing for a second with his head just above ground level.

"Last one down grab the key, please." Brokel stated. "The monkeys that live around here like shiny things." And with that, his head disappeared into the hidden bunker. Once the whole trio was inside in the safety of Brokel's bunker, he showed them to the bunks and plopped heavily down onto one of them.

"Sleep now, food later." Brokel said in a soft slur of sleepiness. A few minutes after his final statement for the day, his gentle snoring could be heard.

[Nirvei/Lapis]

Nirvei raised an eyebrow at Brokel’s response to Calico’s question. They could see for miles. Was this shack of his hiding behind a cactus or something?

Nirvei opened her mouth to say something but immediately shut it again as she felt the ground underneath her begin to tremble. So he lived underground? Not a bad idea actually. It must have kept Stripe and whoever he had been working for out of Brokel’s hair.

The Keretian made her way down the stairs. “Nice place you’ve got here,” she remarked when she finally got to the bottom. Nirvei’s eyes lit up as soon as she saw the bunks. She hadn’t slept in a real bed since she escaped from Karas. It may have been a silly thing to get excited over, but the girl was tired of sleeping on the ground outside. She walked over to one of the empty bunks and stretched out on top of it. “Goodnight,” Nirvei mumbled before falling into a sound sleep.

[Calico Nerdani]

"Sleep now, food later."

Calico gladly agreed with that one. He could hear his friend Garufirudo protesting about how he needed "sustenance" or he'd faint. And calico would respond with the usual "either way you're gonna go to sleep" response.

Sitting on one of the bunks, he took the time to unlace his boots and kick them off and then he laid down. In the morning, I'm going to get a shower. And contemplate calling my mom. And definitely eat some real food. And find a lost woman or two..... Calico purred softly as he slept on the reasonably comfortable bunk.

It was much better than the ground. Which, as everyone knew, was where dogs slept. And he was not a dog.