Dragon Ball: Forgotten Generations (IC)

[Sean Renaud]

Crim watched with a great excitement as the beauty and the brute attacked a helicopter. That. . .took a certain testicular fortitude that Crim wasn't certain he possessed. Of course if anybody had asked if he could do that he would have assured them that he could. He simply didn't feel like right then. He continued to pursue them at a distance until they disappeared to the underground.

"I'm going to feel very stupid if the tournament is literally underground." He mumbled aloud. He certainly wasn't about to dive into that hot mess. Following them would be difficult at best. Even if he'd known his way around the city he'd have no way of figuring out where they'd surface so he let that go for the moment.

He did have a goal after all and perhaps there was a simpler way to go about it. Crim descended to ground level until he found himself a group of rough looking men.

"I hear there is a tournament. Now we politely direct me to it." Crim instructed. Predictably however the men didn't seem impressed with the slender young man attempting to give orders on their 'turf'.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Under God's Green Earth.

Flute hurriedly followed Grisha through to the back of the train, continuing her string of profuse apologies--

--though she did sense that Grisha was starting to be... almost gentle... at least, gentle in a Grisha sort of way... with the passengers he was shuffling out of his path.

No one was badly hurt, in any case.

He hesitated at the rear door, looked back at her, and she stood behind him and nodded simply, indicating that he could go when ready. She knew that he could easily absorb the impact of a jump from an airborne helicopter and break concrete with his feet; he could make the jump off of a moving train, but this was something she could handle.

She couldn't jump like he could, from rooftop to rooftop to copter-skid.

But she was light on her feet.

He hurtled straight from the train, scraped to a stop on the floor of the tunnel, his boot-soles braking his momentum.

But when Flute jumped out, her own cape and her hair streaming behind her, she swung on the frame of the door so that she shot out sideways to the wall, and ran along it, sprinting at first and then slowing as she angled her descent to the floor.

She wound up jogging to a halt right about even with Grisha, and nodded to him.

"Okay," she reached up (and up and up) and touched his shoulder. "Let's get to a safe distance so we can figure out where to find your Lena."

She paused for a moment, and turned in a slow circle.

She didn't have the infrastructure of East Haven memorized by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew that so many problems could just be solved if one kept one's head clear, and one's heart brave.

And as Flute stood there in that moment, contemplating their next move, she felt the tiniest of breezes through her hair and on her skin, the faintest brush of cool air. Somehow she knew that it was a whisper of fresh air from far above, entirely separate from the slipstream of the stampeding trains, and entirely separate from the ventilation systems here in the crawlspace beneath the floorboards of the city.

Squinting her blue eyes, she murmured: "This way."

And led Grisha into a side service tunnel that led to a maintenance trunk that led to a larger service tunnel-- and on and on and up and out...

...pausing every so often at intersections to listen to her heart as well as her healed ears.

 

[HotCider]

Grisha watched Flute’s fancy method for leaping off the train. It was much more graceful than his own jump and the style seemed to suit her well.

Okay…Let’s get to a safe distance so we can figure out where to find your Lena.

Grisha nodded and watched as the gears in Flute’s mind began to turn.

This way.

He followed her and as far as his nose could tell, she wasn’t going the wrong way. If they had stayed on the subway, then they might have taken a longer route to get to wherever the scent was leading them. It was a quiet walk—mostly because Grisha’s throat was still lubricating itself and he might have been too focused on finding Lena for casual conversation. Their wandering eventually led them out an old door that opened to what appeared to be a slum. Grisha had never seen a slum before and so to him it looked like a ruined part of the city. What happened to the noise, tall buildings, and the aroma of hot meals? The air was somewhat cleaner but it didn’t smell entirely pleasant. There was wet garbage undergoing decomposition somewhere and the smell of pollution from a factory that was dumping waste into the water and ozone.

There was a warehouse not too far away and there were several figures around it. The Saiyan inspected the air for Lena’s scent, and it wasn’t leading that way. She was close but not there. They were where they were supposed to be but not exact.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Fast.

Fast.

Fast.

He's fast.

To everyone else, Cheetu must have seemed like a blur, but Vanessa had relatively little difficulty following his initial movements. She reacted almost purely on instinct, and avoided the reach of his legs by somersaulting backwards, and almost as soon as her feet touched the ground she flipped backwards again, catching sight of his legs flashing by her. When she landed a second time, Vanessa crouched down low and then rolled to the side to keep herself from falling prey to his uppercut.

Vanessa could feel her heart racing inside her chest as she stood up.

"My compliments dear lady. Not too many people have survived my first attacks. I believe I will enjoy this fight. In fact I might even be able to get out of first gear."

Cheeky little...

Oh, who was she kidding?

A fair bit of distance separated the pair, and while she may not have been as fast as CHeetu, Vanessa wasn't a couch potato. She could either let him wear himself out, or hope that she'd land a couple of solid hits to keep him from getting back up. Wearing him down seemed to be the best way to go, and if she played her cards right she could have him dancing around like a marionette.

Control the fight...

A sweep of her legs would cause him to move up or back...

Striking up high would force him down low...

Ten attacks down the line and he'd have to roll to the side.

Twenty attacks down the line and she'd leave her right side exposed long enough for him to think that she was vulnerable.

Vanessa was certain she could block that attack.

Twenty... twenty one... twenty two...

Control the fight...

Vanessa vaulted forwards and used as much of her forward momentum as she could to speed up her attacks. Coming up out of her roll, she curled her right hand into a fist and went for her own uppercut.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Cheetu was impressed. After his first attack she came straight back at him.

A kick here.

A hit there.

A series of attacks there.

She was steadily pushing him around, not letting him launch his own attacks.

He was getting a little frustrated. He had no problems blocking her attacks but he had no time to launch his own. She had upped her speed and every time he thought he had her, she upped it some more.

He grimaced. He was not used to this. No one had even got close to his speed before and here she was pushing him to limits he had never been in a fight before.

Of course this was what he had come to find and he decided it was maybe time to show her just how speedy he was. He knew just what she was doing. He had felt her controlling him from the outset, forcing him to dance to her tune, just as she had done with the fighters before him. Suddenly he smiled at her and upped his speed even more and dodged away from her and then began to launch his own attacks at her.

He followed the exact same pattern she had used on him, just to show her that even though she might know what was coming up she couldn't do a thing about it because he was too fast.

Every time she tried to match his speed he upped it so he stayed just that little bit faster. Soon he would deliver a devastating blow and she knew it and could do nothing about it.

 

[Sean Renaud]

It was a good thing for thugs that Crim really didn't want to hurt them. It was probably the first time in his life that he'd realized just how hard it was not to kill someone. All it would take would be one of them catching him a little off guard, enough that he hit them full force or at all for it to happen. As it one of them would probably walk with a slight limp the rest of his life but the others were just racking up frequently flyer miles from where ever Crim was standing to the nearest pile of trash bags or cardboard boxes. Convenient.

"Okay, I'm getting bored and you're getting tired." Crim said stalking towards the one he thought was the leader in his red bandanna. Crim pulled one hand out of his pocket and watched the thug recoil in, beg for his life but when he opened his eyes Crim was holding a wad of zenni. "So in order to speed this along I'd like to hire you. You get me to the tournament and then you can go. . .of course if you choose to stick around there might be more money in it for you if I win." Crim returned his hand to his pocket. "Either way's fine by me."

The thugs looked from one to the next obviously confused by this chain of events but slowly they pulled themselves to their feet and quickly made up their mind.

"Yeah, we can get you there. Everybody knows where that is." The thug laced his fingers behind his head and started to lead Crim.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Greenhorn.

There was a warehouse not too far away and there were several figures around it. The Saiyan inspected the air for Lena’s scent, and it wasn’t leading that way. She was close but not there. They were where they were supposed to be but not exact.

As Flute strode out into the air, she flung her arms wide and tilted her head back and beamed a smile up at the sky.

"Oh, that's so much better. Those tunnels were so dark and stifling."

She wasn't especially claustrophobic by any stretch of the imagination, but here under this patch of sky, she certainly exulted as though she were an agoraphile. There was just something about a fresh breath of air!

...unfortunately, of course, she lacked the olfactory acuity of Grisha to sniff out Lena's actual scent on that air, and since he couldn't speak again yet, she wasn't privy to Grisha's disappointment that they weren't... quite... in the right spot.

She twirled, then, facing Grisha as she beamed, tucking her red hair back behind her ears with both hands.

"Right! I don't think I've ever searched for a missing person before, but I think you're supposed to canvas neighborhoods, which means asking people around if they've seen the person."

She glanced over at the warehouse, squinting across the distance to see people gathered about it.

"What do you think, should we start with those people?"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Vanessa worked almost effortlessly to enact her strategy, but its success simply hinged on her opponent being as unable to defend himself as the other members of her gang were. Each punch she threw was blocked or avoided completely, but that was alright.

She wanted to back him into a corner.

She wanted him to slow down.

As Vanessa went to sweep at him with her legs, Cheetu sped away and threw her plan right out of the window.

She wasn't entirely surprised at how fast she was, but she'd at least hoped to get to him before he fell back on his natural talents.

"Damn," she cursed under her breath.

Vanessa resumed a more defensive stance as Cheetu pressed his attack, and began forcing her to do exactly what she had been doing to him: dance.

When Vanessa thought she might be able to gain the upper hand, Cheetu upped his game yet again.

It really was only a matter of time before either one of them got hit...

It was only a matter of time before one of them was fooled into making a stupid decision...

When Vanessa thought she had successfully dodged one of his attacks, she turned and watched as he came back around and struck her midsection, sending her hurtling towards one of the already crumbling brick walls.

No one, not even Vincent, had gotten in a hit that good on her before.

No one knew what would happen... though some assumed she'd be down for the count.

Crashing into the wall had kicked up quite a bit of dust, but Vanessa eventually emerged from the rubble with only a slight tear in her pants. She rather casually brushed off some of the dirt from her arms, and rolled her shoulders as if to work out whatever kinks had made their way into her system.

Vanessa seemed, at first, a bit miffed, but it didn't take long for her lips to curl up into a smile.

"That was great," she said. "Alright. Let's try this again."

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Cheetu had enjoyed sparring with his opponent. She was good, in fact she was superb. It was just the sort of fight his masters had sent him to find. She had pushed him far beyond any other fighter he had ever faced before but still he felt she was not in his league.

While she seemed to be at her physical limit in speed, he had several more gears he could call on. He could end this fight quickly if he wished, but that was not honorable of course.

Smiling he launched another series of attacks at the female,

Two blows to the head,

five to the body,

three kicks to the legs, then a snap kick to the head

then a sweep to her legs

followed by a massive uppercut.

All of this was done at a slightly faster speed than before. He wanted to really push her and see just where her limits were.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Down there." The leader said to Crim pointing down to a warehouse.

Crim nodded taking the lay of the land, it certainly wasn't that far off the beaten path. Just enough that the police had to be summoned, they'd never randomly be here. That was just fine by Crim. He didn't really have much use for law enforcement and had caused his fair share of trouble over the years. "Come on." He said motioning with his head.

This time the gang fell in line behind him not with the precision of a wolf pack. This was more like a pack of dogs gravitating around a much bigger and meaner dog. Crim didn't mind them at all, though he'd have to get them cleaned up at some point if they were going to be his entourage.

Inside there were two people fighting, a woman and a catboy. Crim had never actually seen one those before. Dogboys sure? Pigmen? By the dozen. He'd even once seen one of those gorgosaur, tyranno, Indominus, allosaurs? It had a crest and horns and found it amusing to eat people. Earlier he'd seen a brute and a green girl. But this was his first catboy and boy was he adorable. Like big human sized plushie.

He did not however fight like a plushie nor did the girl fight like. . .well a girl. Not that Crim had that particular prejudice. Whatever he might say about women and clothing, bugs, shopping. .. not shopping he enjoyed that a bti too much, and puppies every truly outstanding kicking of his ass had involved a woman.

"Well that's interesting. Much better than I was expecting to find." Crim mused. He wasn't really talking too the men following him. He was talking to the aether so it was a mild shock when a soft voice asked if he was still confident he could win.

 

[HotCider]

Grisha’s grey eyes lowered to the green girl as she smiled up at him in a way that reminded him of Lena—at least when she was in a good mood. It was infectious and the corners of his mouth slightly curled in response.

Right! I don’t I’ve ever searched for a missing person before, but I think you’re supposed to canvas neighborhoods, which means asking people around if they’ve seen the person.

His smile then faltered. He didn’t need to ask anyone. They were already so close! Growling a little, Grisha crossed his arms before his chest and scowled off to the side.

What do you think, should we start with those people?

His eyes rolled over to the direction she indicated where there was an apparent fight. The strange spark of a ki signature had poked at his curiosity a little. There weren’t that many people in this world who emitted such a presence even if it was minimal. With a heavy sigh through his nostrils, Grisha uncrossed his arms and calmly decided to walk with Flute over to the sparring match.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Greenjeans.

His eyes rolled over to the direction she indicated where there was an apparent fight. The strange spark of a ki signature had poked at his curiosity a little. There weren’t that many people in this world who emitted such a presence even if it was minimal. With a heavy sigh through his nostrils, Grisha uncrossed his arms and calmly decided to walk with Flute over to the sparring match.

Flute was not unobservant.

At least when it came to stances, attitudes, physical responses, microexpressions, that sort of thing.

But when she was focused on Doing The Right Thing For The Right Reasons, it became like a bright hot light in her mind, eclipsing all else.

And thus she did not notice Grisha's grimace when she suggested canvassing the area.

And thus it did not really occur to her that Grisha already had been canvassing in his own way, be it ever so unsubtle and ferocious.

Instead, she happily hurried towards the warehouse, and then even a little more faster than that when she realized there was fight-clubbing happening therein.

"Oh, my goodness!"

She moved up beside Crim (though she knew him not by that name) and his little red ribbon army, and she clasped her gloved hands in front of her mouth.

"They're wonderful! It's like watching a bare-knuckle ballroom dance!"

And... it was not lost on her that the spotted feline fellow was fast.

Maybe even faster than she was.

Oh, good! A challenge! Challenges were important!

 

[Sean Renaud]

Crim's eyes cut from the battle to the verdant vixen standing beside him. He'd know she and her companion were coming, they weren't exactly quiet but he hadn't bothered to look until he noticed her practically tingling beside him. Well that and her emerald hue. Today was just a day of firsts, a cat boy and now a green space babe like in one of those shows the geeks watched.

"Heh." He hadn't actually meant to vocalize that bit but it happened despite him.

Judging the two fighters he wasn't certain he could quite keep up with them if it came down to raw speed but he didn't like to run anyway. Regardless he'd certainly break a sweat against either of them.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Vanessa wasn't becoming frustrated, but she was being pushed a bit harder than even she thought she could be pushed. Hell, even Vincent was surprised by just how hard his girlfriend was fighting. Cheetu was tough, no doubt about it. And sure, he was fast, but Vincent wouldn't put it passed Vanessa to pull out a last-minute win.

He'd never actually seen her lose.

Vanessa certainly had it in her mind to win. Her attempts at Dance Fighting hadn't proved successful, so she was starting to rely more and more on her baser techniques.

Sometimes she'd let him land in a hit. It hurt, but she'd gain everything by suffering a little humiliation.

The crowd had certainly grown bigger, and more diverse, but the dark-haired Saiyan couldn't stop the match to take down names. She had to concentrate.

"Come on! If you're going to hit me, hit me!"

She smiled as she taunted him.

She suffered another hard strike to her body, but avoided a strong kick to her head.

Vanessa pulled her legs up to avoid his leg sweep, and then rolled off to the side to avoid his uppercut. When she stood up, she actually wiped away a little bit of sweat from her forehead. She knew she could go a bit further. She wanted him to feel at ease, as if she was losing her grip on the fight. When his guard was down, Vanessa would put almost everything she had into her final attack.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Cheetu was pleased. She still had fight in her. In fact she was trying to taunt him. He had to admit it was a bit galling that she had managed to avoid his last attack. He had expected tat uppercut to connect and send her flying so he could finish her off, but he would just have to finish her off now.

He stood before her and smiled. "You have been a worthy opponent and it has been fun sparring with you, but as you have said it is time to end this."
He gave a small growl and launched himself at her.

This time he went at double the speed he had attacked her at from before. He was sure that would be enough, and with others watching he still did not want to reveal his true speed to them.

He circled her and hit her from behind in the kidney area four times, before moving to the front and launching blows at her belly and face. He followed up with a series of kicks to her legs to soften them up and then thinking she was finished stopped moving to launch a ferocious uppercut.

As he wound up, he looked into her eyes and realized his mistake instantly. He had misjudged just how tough his opponent was and he was going to pay for it. He was too off balance for whatever was to come next and too wide open. He was at her mercy and both he and she knew it.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Crim's eyes widened just slightly not that anybody was watching him. Even the thugs that had been following him were completely enthralled with the battle between catboy and the woman warrior.

He's beyond fast. The truth was at this point Crim was less actually keeping up with the spotted feline and more being fairly accurate at predicting where he'd launch an attack if he had that kind of blinding speed. He was still confident he could win but more because it looked like this guy would run into a well placed fist once he got excited.

Still this burst of speed had turned the cat from someone he'd fight anytime, anywhere into someone he'd prefer to fight in a tournament. Someplace where he wouldn't have to kill or be killed.

The woman was impressive in her own way, strong. He would have expected her to be down by now but she seemed to be bidding her time waiting for. . .

. . .for that. The moment when all that speed and confidence set her opponent up. The only question was if she was truly fast enough to realize his mistake or if she was just tough enough to take the abuse.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Once again Vanessa was surprised at how fast Cheetu could move. She thought she'd gotten a good idea at his top speed, but then he moved like the wind, and circled around to strike at her from behind. Even if she wanted to, she probably wouldn't have been able to properly block it. Her grunts of pain were genuine, and she was being hit a lot harder than ever before.

None of Cheetu's attacks were leaving her with much of an opening to retaliate.

He struck at her stomach and face, and then her legs to try and bring her down.

It probably would have worked, but Vanessa recognized just how vulnerable her opponent was when he went to finish her off.

For just a brief moment, time seemed to stop.

Vanessa looked into his eyes, and she could see that he was looking into hers.

Did he know?

Vanessa felt her muscles surge with power, a strength that she hadn't tapped into for the longest time.

First she lifted up her knee to drive it up into his stomach, and with his body bent over she drew both her arms up over her head and joined her hands together to bring them crashing down against the back of his head. It was, perhaps, a more vicious attack than necessary, but she wasn't one to hold back.

And without waiting for him to recover, Vanessa grabbed at his tail and used it to pick up his body and throw him straight through one of the concrete walls.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

As the first blow had landed Cheetu had known he was done for. Just where she had summoned this extra power from he did not know, but the blow landed with what felt like ten times the strength of her previous ones.

He doubled over in extreme pain, the air rushing from his lungs as he folded over her knee. His body rode it for a second, actually lifting a good foot into the air before crashing back to earth.

He tried to breathe in and stand upright again and continue the fight, but then felt a hammerblow on the back of his head.

He was sent crashing to the ground and all he saw was a blackness in his vision. He could hardly hear and as he struggled to breathe and see, he managed to just move his head in time to catch her feet move beside him and then his tail was captured in a vice like grip.

He knew he must be moving but he was so disorientated he hardly felt it. The only inkling he had of what was to come was when he felt his tail released. He felt nothing for what felt like a very long time then a massive blow to his whole body before he came to rest.

He struggled to rise and managed to get to a sitting position although he could not see or hear much of anything. Then it became too much for his abused body and his eyes rolled back in his sockets and he fell back unconscious.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Green in 60 Seconds.

The battle raged and the battle waged--

--back and forth--

--time seemed to strrrrreeeeetch and snap back into place, bullet-time, Matrix-time, they were moving so quickly Flute's eyes could barely follow them, their neurokinetics must be way above normal--

--and then--

BOOM.

"Oh my goodness, she's so strong, she's strong and fast!" Flute bubbled, clapping her hands in front of her face, jumping up and down. "Grisha, she might even be as strong as you!"

But then through the hole in the wall, she could see the cheetah-man sit up, wobble woozily, and then topple back down again.

"Oh!" she bit her lip, and darted from her standing position next to the one who had chuckled before, moving swiftly across the floor to bound through the craggy gap in the concrete and land in a crouch next to the fallen fellow.

"Are you all right? Because... you just went through a wall."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

At first Vanessa was surprised that Cheetu was able to get up after she threw his body through the wall, but then she smiled in satisfaction as he fell back unconscious. There was a mixture of cheering and stunned silence in the crowd, and Vanessa lifted an arm up to wipe some sweat off of her brow. Part of her was glad that she'd won, and the other was upset that the fight was now over.

She hadn't gotten that riled up in...

"Good job," Vincent said as he appeared next to her.

Vanessa rolled her shoulders.

"Yeh," she said simply, and then sat down on a large slab of concrete that had come loose during the scuffle. She rested her arms against her legs, and only looked back over towards where Cheetu was lying unconscious when she heard someone rushing over to check him out.

Green skin.

Red hair.

Vanessa shook her head.

They were really coming out of the woodwork today.

She gave her pants a quick pat, but even before she pulled her pack of cigs out from her side pocket she knew that they'd been crushed. She could have simply re-rolled them, but getting a fresh pack was easier.

With a sigh, Vanessa stood up and walked over towards her fallen opponent.

"I doubt he can hear you," she said. "Got to give the furball a bit of credit, though. He's tougher than he looks."

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Cheetu started to come around. He remembered trying to get up and continue the fight but he realized he had been defeated. He shook his head a little and sighed. He had got cocky again. His master had always told him it would get him in trouble and now it had. Still it had not only been that. He had greatly misjudged his opponent and been caught off guard. He had not seen she had so much power left and had paid the price.

He sat up and began to wipe the concrete dust out of his fur. He looked to his side and saw a green skinned girl and then looked forward and saw his opponent walking towards him. She had said something he was sure but he was still a little groggy and had missed it.

Smiling he looked at her. "Damn, misjudged how much you had left in the tank. Oh well the fight is yours." He got shakily to his feet but with each passing moment he was feeling better and better. One of the benefits of having a naturally fast geared body, it healed quickly.

"Well as I lost allow me to introduce myself formally. My name is Cheetu and I have come here in search of fighters worthy of fighting against. Just my luck to find one capable of defeating me straight away," He smiled. "Still we must learn, and we learn more from our failures than our victories."

He bowed formally to her then looked around at all the people that had gathered, especially the green girl. "Oh, you must have been trying to help me. I am sorry but I didn't hear you at all. My ears were a little fuzzy and I was out of it for a bit there, but thank you for coming to my aid. If I can ask what is your name," and he turned back to the woman who had punched him through the wall, "And perhaps you will now tell me yours?"

 

[Sean Renaud]

Crim surveyed the remnants of the battle and winced just the slightest bit. Of course nobody noticed him, not when there was a comical hole in the wall where the cat boy had been propelled through solid concrete.

Well that changed things a bit.

The truth was Crim had been partially lying when he said he was looking for a good fight. Sure he wanted to stretch but he didn't want to lose and it was realistic that either of those fighters could beat him, especially if he let himself get off guard just a bit.

Still since the violence seemed to have come to an end he wandered slowly down to the gathering remaining silent for the moment.

 

[HotCider]

Since the two had walked over, Grisha reluctantly watched the match between the dark-haired girl and the Cheetu. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate a battle every now and then, it was the fact that he had more pressing matters that he should be dealing with. He crossed his arms and watched the exchange of blows until a slight spike in strength caused him to arch a brow. In result, the match ended with the furry guy being sent straight through a wall. The conclusion seemed to excite Flute as she grinned back at him and exclaimed, Grisha, she might even be as strong as you!

Grisha’s brows crashed together on his forehead. Did she forget why they were there to begin with? He watched the green girl race over to the downed fighter and that had been the end of his patience. Usually, his patience was a lot thicker than that, but it was as thin as thread when a loved one was in danger.

The giant uncrossed his arms and marched over to where Flute stood with the two fighters and interrupted their friendly banter to rudely demand, “WHERE LENA!?”

 

[ChasNicollette]

Project Greenlight.

With a sigh, Vanessa stood up and walked over towards her fallen opponent.

"I doubt he can hear you," she said. "Got to give the furball a bit of credit, though. He's tougher than he looks."

Flute rose as Vanessa approached, bowing respectfully, grateful for having witnessed the display. She had shown such mastery!

"Oh, that's worth more than a bit of credit."

"The wisest warrior knows that true power is not worn on the sleeve or the shoulder, but hidden in the heart, so it can be be contained when it is not needed, but can fill your very lifeblood when it is needed."

The felinoid fighter awakened, lurched to his feet, expressed grace in his defeat, and after a few moments, acknowledged Flute.

"Oh, you must have been trying to help me. I am sorry but I didn't hear you at all. My ears were a little fuzzy and I was out of it for a bit there, but thank you for coming to my aid. If I can ask what is your name," and he turned back to the woman who had punched him through the wall, "And perhaps you will now tell me yours?"

"I'm called Flute D'Amour," she greeted him. "I'm glad you're all right! And I am honored to meet you. Honored to meet all of you!"

Still since the violence seemed to have come to an end he wandered slowly down to the gathering remaining silent for the moment.

Flute nodded to Crim as he approached, closing her eyes and smiling and flashing him a "peace" sign, cheered that she seemed to have found this community of camaraderie at last-- a like-minded club of fighters would could benefit from and teach each other--

The giant uncrossed his arms and marched over to where Flute stood with the two fighters and interrupted their friendly banter to rudely demand, “WHERE LENA!?”

At this, Flute stiffened, standing up ramrod straight, eyes way way wide.

"Oh! Oh. Oh, Grisha I'm so sorry, I got all caught up in the--"

She coughed with her hand in front of her mouth, cleared her throat.

"We're looking for his friend, Lena. She's blonde and she's about this height--" she held out her hand to indicate the same height Grisha had shown her earlier "--would any of you have seen anyone like that?"

 

[Sean Renaud]

Crim didn't acknowledge the nod from the over enthusastic yet oddly and undeniably attractive green skinned woman. He did wave off his "posse" though. They had more than served their purpose at this point.

"No, I haven't seen anybody fitting that description since entering the city." He nodded towards the gang. "But those. . .excellent gentlemen can put the word out." Crim said volun-telling the gang's cooperation. A quick glance from him was enough to ensure they'd at least half try to help. He'd certainly given them enough money. The slight implication of violence probably didn't hurt much either.