Post by Zach on Oct 28, 2012 13:43:35 GMT -5
{Managed to wash this through Word at work and it is now complete. I’ll be washing the second page during my lunch break.}
Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter 1; In the Beginning (First half of Year One)
Chapter 2; Victory of the Phoenix (Second half of Year One)
Chapter 3; Tournament of Champions
Chapter 4; The Battle Continues
Chapter 5; Time Passes (Years Two to Five)
Chapter 6; Present Day
Chapter 7; Learning Something New Every Day
Prologue:
Five years... Had it really been five years? The passage of time for Zach had become somewhat blurred, the teen's immortal state had finally sunk in and although he always knew what day of what month and of what year it was, the actual passage of the weeks and months lost a great deal of meaning. He was aware of their passage though, Toshio, whom he'd kept in touch with, had shown the passage of the years markedly. Although it had been a clandestine joke to refer to the former school master as an 'old man' amongst the students and sometimes Zach himself, the passage of time was apparent in the man's appearance. That wasn't to say he looked old, quite the opposite in fact, Toshio was still quite youthful in appearance, but still the passage of time has it's effects and now that Zach had suddenly taken notice of the time that had passed he became aware of the cosmetic changes in the teacher. Zach by contrast had remained exactly the same in appearance since that day he'd encountered the genie. He still had the ornate ring, having never gotten around to giving it to Kami before the Namekian's death, though had also never succeeded in summoning the magical being again.
Zach splashed some water on his face from the basin in his quarters at the school, straitening up and looking at himself in the mirror. Even though he understood his immortality it really was still astonishing. It had been five years and he was still exactly the same as when he was that last hectic month years ago. That horrible, month during which he received the great gift off immortality and yet once again lost everything he cared about. That month five years ago had been the second greatest horror of Zach's life, the two worst aspects of which were Kami's death and the fact that Zach himself had taken life. He'd always thought himself above that sort of thing, but in his uncontrollable anger and zeal to defend his planet, Zach had killed. The guilt had weighed on him for some time, for weeks he stayed on the lookout, the place feeling like a tomb without Kami. Of course there was that look-alike pretender Geurin, but he wasn't Kami, not even close. Further throwing Zach into despair was the fact that the Victory School, his second home had been obliterated with the rest of the mountain range it was built upon.
Chapter 1.
Before locking himself away in the lookout, literally only days after the cataclysmic incident, Zach had gone on a drinking binge, desperately trying to forget the horrific events that had brought him to this state. It was during this week long attempt at alcohol induced suicide that the teen lost track of his own whereabouts, although he was pretty sure at one point he’d been in a strip club or brothel. The only thing that brought Zach anything close to happiness in those first few weeks on the floating tower was his attention to the lookout's gardens. Geurin was most certainly not the type to tend to a garden so in spite of any protestations the Namekian might have lodged, Zach would not let him near the planters. He wasn't Kami, Zach didn't have to do anything he wanted anymore, all he was was a sore reminder that Kami was gone, that and the new prime minister of the planet. The teen still wasn't sure how that came about and neither did he care, his depression outweighed any of those earthly concerns. He was aware of some contest being held by Geurin to pick generals but couldn't care less, the position was all but a certainty for him, all he had to do when he was feeling better was show up and take it, so Zach declined to participate. Geurin knew where his loyalties lay though, Zach fought for Earth and if the green man needed him, he would answer the call, but for now Zach needed to be alone.
Eventually though Zach got over his self loathing and regret, leaving his shell in the sky three or four months after the Suki incident. Toshio was the only man he considered anything close possessing to Kami's understanding and wisdom and probably the only one who could understand what he'd been through in his life. And so Toshio was whom Zach sought out, going to the one place he knew the man would be, his school. The place was gone though, wiped off the face of the mountain right along with the mountain, it was only the fact that Toshio had teleported with Royd to safety that he survived, had he been at the school when the blast struck, surely he would have been killed with everyone else.
At the cratered remains of the mountains all Zach found though was rocks. No Toshio, not even evidence that he'd been there. He was sure the man had survived, he had to, perhaps he was teaching elsewhere, perhaps building a new school. It wouldn't be the Victory School though, the place was as much it's location as it was the curriculum. With the mountains devastated and the entire teaching staff gone, Zach was all that remained. Perhaps that was why Toshio had not returned, perhaps he thought the blonde dead as well and had lost hope. Zach wouldn't though, he couldn't, if there was one thing his months of solitude on the lookout had taught him, it was that things were finally starting to look up. Geurin had whipped the planet's military and police forces into shape and there hadn't been one major incident the entire time the teenager had been away. If that wasn't a beacon of hope Zach didn't know what was. From that moment forth the young man decided that this devastated mountain range should become another. Like the mythical Phoenix, the Victory School would rise again.
Chapter 2.
The entire remainder of that first year, Zach dedicated his every waking moment to rebuilding the place. He wasn't a building engineer though so the new structure was made of what he had on hand and built overly robust, to ensure it could never be knocked down again. Stone was everywhere and so stone was what Zach used, cutting slabs and bricks as needed with his eye beams and lifting them into place with his great strength. The pieces were then permanently joined together by a unique welding technique the blonde had developed, partially melting the stones and letting them merge together before cooling, again with the heat beams generated from his gaze. Over the course of the remaining year, Zach's body became so well trained in lifting the immense loads and melting the stones that he needed only five to six hours of sleep each night and even then dreamed of what the next section of the massive construct would look like when finished. When his work was finally complete, the new school stood like a monolith towering over the decimated landscape, grey in color as was the stone that surrounded it.
The structure was truly massive, towering twenty stories above the desolate landscape and although small by skyscraper standards, this building was none the less both impressive and imposing. Unlike modern skyscrapers that stood in the hundreds of stories tall and were made of glass and steel, this building was all stone and possessed a gradually tapering shape, much like a tall pyramid or more accurately, a ziggurat with extremely steep outer walls. The shape of the building was necessary as the taller it got the thicker the walls at the base had to be both to support and distribute the structure's weight. Unlike the original school, this stone castle had space in its walls to house hundreds if not a thousand or two. The first and second floors were dedicated storage space for the school's provisions such as food and other consumables, with the obvious exception being the entrance hall. This space though served mainly as a transportation hub with stairs leading up through the building. The third floor comprised the building's utilities, or rather would when they were installed. Among the utilities would be the boilers for providing hot water and heating the place during winter, air conditioning units to cool it in summer, a power switchgear room and even a sewage treatment plant as would be needed considering the number of students and staff that would be staying in the massive building. Floors four through seven were all dormitory space for the students, most rooms sleeping two or four at a time. The next three floors, eight, nine and ten, were living quarters for the staff and were possessed of decidedly larger sleeping and living arrangements as the staff had to live and work in the structure and commuting was a prohibitively long distance affair. Floor eleven housed the main cafeteria and kitchens, providing the bulk of the school's food preparation and dining capacity. Floor twelve would eventually become a humongous library, easily dwarfing the original, at least once it is filled. The thirteenth floor was additional storage space, and served as a sound buffer between the library on the twelfth floor and the main gymnasium on the fourteenth. The fourteenth floor gym was for lack of a better word, huge. It's dimensions encompassed the entire footprint of the original building, thousands of square feet and was dedicated solely to weight training, aerobics, acrobatics and other simple physical exercises. Floors fifteen, sixteen and seventeen were also gym space, but these were smaller rooms, sectioned off into age groups like the original school, only there were now many, many more of them. Nearing the top of the structure, floor eighteen was an odd one, serving more as a container then an actual floor. Except for the outer walls, plumbing, utility shafts and the stairwells, the entire eighteenth floor was filled with dirt. The dirt had taken some time to get as Zach had to travel back and forth to fill the massive container up. Finally though when this two was complete, the nineteenth and twentieth floors would be added and these in his mind were the very special ones.
The Eighteenth floor was by all rights the top of the actual ziggurat, having a parapet wall that held in the dirt roof and kept anyone from falling over the sides. What stood on this roof though was the very symbol Zach had wanted the building to be known for, a replica as exact as the teen could make it, of the original school. The new Victory School looked very much like the original only a few dimensions here or there skewed out of proportion, either from bad memory or necessity given the building materials. No glass windows were installed yet or any at all throughout the rest of the building. Until Zach could get actual building contractors to the site, the new school was just a great stone shell, waiting to be filled with it's functional innards, students and staff. The replica of the original school was the crown jewel of the entire building and when it is finished, will serve as the official entry hall as well as all of the functions that the original building had. The replica was complete with every room accounted for in more or less the correct dimensions, dormitories, offices, gyms, classrooms, cafeteria and even the training and main garden courtyard.
Now that all of the major grunt work was done he could call in more experienced builders to modernize the practically medieval castle. That was when the most interesting thing to happen in that preceding year occurred, quite out of the blue two things were delivered to Zach's construction camp, a basket and an envelope. The envelope contained a letter and a substantial sum of money, more then enough to finish the school. The letter though explained the contents of the basket and left Zach in a state of shock. Someone, Zach knew not who, had left him the funds to complete the school and a child to care for. Frankly he didn't know what to do, Zach was not a parent, he didn't know the first thing about parenting and hadn't the time nor the inclination to care for someone else's child, not when there was so much more work left to do. It was a quick decision on his part but before the day was out, Zach had carried the basket to the nearest orphanage and left it there with a significant portion of the funds he'd received, that would at least provide for the kid's future ad perhaps even one day the little tike would become a student at the great academy when he is of age.
The beacon of hope Zach had intended the school to be was apparently more effective then he'd thought as by the time Zach returned to the mountains, he could see below him a stream of construction vehicles carving a new road through the mountains and already at the building site, hover vehicles were landing with workers. Word had spread and before Zach was even ready for them the men had gone to work. Perhaps it was Geurin who had organized them or perhaps someone else but within a month of intense labor the massive building had been finished, plumbing, electrical, air conditioning and all. To top off the miraculous turnout of construction workers, as the road approached, so did flocking students and martial artists from all around the land. The word had spread further then Zach had imagined possible and when the story of one boy rebuilding the Victory School reached the other great academies, they had been inspired and sent some of their own teaching staff to help reestablish the great school.
Zach was grateful that he could resume his part time position at the institution, acting as a teacher's assistant and landscaper rather then the new head master. That position, much to the staff's disappointment he left vacant and although they protested and pleaded for the young blonde to take up the title, Zach refused, never seeing himself has experienced enough to head the school. He knew we was stronger then any other person there but he was not a skilled, patient teacher and was most certainly not the type of person that could handle working in an office half the time. Instead the position remained reserved for Toshio should he ever turn up. Eventually Toshio did resurface, but something about the man had changed and no matter how much cajoling Zach tried, he could not convince his old mentor to take the reigns of the new school only succeeding in getting him to agree to teach at the institution. Forced now to take the title officially, Zach assumed the position of head of the new school, but in name only, he did not want the responsibility and so acted mainly as a figure head, leaving the actual office work to his staff and continuing to work at the school as a teacher and landscaper only.
Chapter 3.
Before the school officially went into operation though Zach received a letter in the mail thanks to the newly completed road and sat in the courtyard to read it. It was posted from the government headquarters in Satan City, baring Geurin's official seal. Zach didn't know why the green man hadn't just contacted him by telephone or if the matter was particularly urgent, telepathically. He assumed the Namekian had that ability as Kami had it and it was how the other green man had initially contacted the blonde. No, this was something special apparently and time was taken to write and post a personal letter. Moving past the envelope, Zach opened the message and read the contents of the letter, finding that apparently the tournament Geurin had arranged months earlier was about to begin and that the Prime Minister wished him to attend. Zach had initially assumed that the position of Geurin's right hand man would be guaranteed but it now appeared that Geurin wanted him to actually work for the job. Reading further it became clear to Zach that a human face was needed to outshine any legal aliens that might be residing on Earth and attempting to participate in the event and also to help spin Geurin's obvious alien image by having a strong Human lieutenant. By participating in the tournament Zach would be a familiar face to the public given his participation in the previous tournament held by Suki and his attempt to defend Satan City from the tyrant, both events of which were transmitted around the world. Further adding to the young man's stature was his single-handed reconstruction of the Victory school, aided only in the installation of the building utilities. By legitimately working his way through this tournament rather then simply being appointed, he would demonstrate that in spite of having a Namekian in office, the Humans were once more in control of their own planet and had a proper Human champion to protect them.
Putting the letter away in his quarters, Zach left the school in the hands of Toshio and the rest of the teaching staff and departed for Satan City. There he was met as expected, by throngs of press that thankfully once he was safely in the fighter's locker area, were unable to hound him. Zach was not comfortable with his fame, viewing it more of a hindrance then anything. All he'd done his entire life was just what any other man could do given the proper motivation and time to train one's body. However the media had sensationalized his fights at the Galactic Tournament and his later fight with Suki had put his face on every television screen in the world once again. Zach could rarely go out in public without being recognized as the heroic young man who stood his ground against the merciless tyrant and did everything humanly possible to save Satan City. Once in the locker room Zach had a chance to look over his competition and of course the brackets chart to see who he'd have to crush to get to the top. He didn't recognize any of the names on the chart but as he wondered the area, Zach found one individual he recognized and had to restrain himself from attacking the monster right then and there. It was that black skinned monster that had eaten the young woman he had met shortly before his last encounter with Suki, only now the monster's skin was red. Zach's rage was as difficult as ever to control but the boy managed to keep himself cool enough to prevent a locker room incident.
The first round battle though was anything but civil, Zach was delighted to find that his first opponent was none other then the red skinned beast. He had apparently changed his name to Kazama along with his color alteration but that meant little to the blonde, he would crush the monster, but not before having some fun with him first. Walking out into the arena, Zach preened himself for the crowd, showing the people that he, the Human was going to show his alien opponent who was boss and that he looked good doing it. About the only thing as big as the boy's anger problem was his ego so this display was almost to be expected. Once his crimson enemy was in the arena as well though Zach got a little more serious although was still cocky as hell, folding his arms behind his head and letting the monster open up on him. Zach maintained his usual opening, letting the beast have his way with his midsection although oddly his opponent wasn't hitting as hard as he had when Zach first encountered him. That wasn't to say the Majin didn't hit hard, quite the opposite was in fact true. The red skinned monster hit the boy hard enough to force Zach to tense his abdominals to defend himself and even then his innards were starting to ache just from the first few punches. The battle progressed with Zach calling the monster all manner of horrible names to rile him up even more. Kazama though acted as if he didn't understand why Zach was so infuriated by the Majin's presence but it mattered little to Zach, he knew this beast was his enemy, knew the horrible things he'd done and would make him pay for them in front of this audience. The battle continued, Zach throwing jabs here and there as he toyed with his opponent and purposely took a beating to help build the crowd up. It was akin to the wrestling programs where the good guy would be thrashed for the entire match only to come back in the last moments and defeat his evil opponent.
Things didn't go quite to plan though and at some point Kazama realized that targeting the blonde teen's stomach was wearing him down and that not a single one of the punches had been intercepted. Zach, still in his base form was getting the hell beaten out of him now that everything his opponent had was going strait into the boy's gut. The blows were becoming crippling for real, his show for the crowd no longer just an act. But still the teenager wasn't going down, so the Majin resorted to exploiting the rules of the competition to beat the blonde. Taking Zach off his feet with a brutal uppercut, the boy sailed up into the air over the arena and was followed by the Majin who motioned in a manner Zach didn't recognize. The blonde straitened himself up, breathing heavily and was about to close distance with his opponent when a blinding flash of light obliterated the boy's vision. Stars exploded in his eyes. Taking advantage of this disorientation, Kazama tried to launch the teen with a hammer style punch to his face, into the ground outside of the tiled floor and get a ring out, a move that further infuriated the blonde. Such a cheap move was down right disgusting to him, ending any fun he might have been having while letting the Majin thrash him. The flash though had temporarily blinded the teen so Zach had to guess which way he was falling and applied his power of flight to change direction, causing him to crash into the tiled floor of the ring right at it's edge. The narrow escape put the audience on the edge of their seats and when the boy dragged himself back to his feet they went wild. His vision starting to clear and a visage of pure hate plastered on his face, Zach transformed in an explosion of crimson energy and propelled himself away from the floor surrounding the elevated square they had been fighting on. With his physical strength and energy now far exceeding that of his opponent, Zach laid into the Majin with a savage flurry of fists, kicks, knees and elbows, beating his opponent until he finally launched the Majin clear out of the arena, executing the disqualification the monster had tried on him. He considered killing the beast but it was both apparently against the rules and also not the civilized thing to do. Zach was having greater and greater difficulty in controlling himself in the latter aspect, his anger having already helped him to take the life of at least one person already and nearly beat to death several others including a boy he once considered a close friend.
Returning to the locker room, Zach watched the other first round matches on a television screen, scrutinizing each of the fighters so he could be better prepared for them should they advance to the second round with him. The battles though weren't particularly brutal, not like his had been, his was personal after all. Eventually the first round fights were completed and the only fighter Zach had regarded with any interest was one that seemed to be concealing his identity. There was also something strangely familiar about the cloaked man, something Zach recognized but couldn't quite figure out, at least not yet. After a few minutes respite and time for the crowd to take an intermission, the second round match-ups were announced and much to his dismay, Zach was pitted against Caius, who'd gotten a free ride past the first rounds. Zach had half a mind to fly up to the executive box and punch Gurin in the nose for pulling such a stunt. Not that Zach felt he deserved special treatment, but if anyone should have received such a boost it should have been him. He of course would have refused and fought in the first round anyway as it was the principal of the unfair advantage that Zach had issue with. To illustrate the point, the second round fight was much like the first, Zach leaving himself open and toying with his opponent. The inevitable attempt to get a technical victory came like it had last time, when it was obvious the teen wouldn't be brought down and in it's self, the attempt doomed Caius to lose the match. Zach had reversed the maneuver and slammed the other young man into the ground outside of the arena with a thunderous impact. Zach added insult to injury after defeating his opponent by picking the other up and launching him, as he'd done with his first one, clear out of the stadium. The rules of this ridiculous tournament were absurd, there were no ring outs in real life and having had the same cheap move tried on him trice, Zach vowed to crush his third round opponent if he tried anything similar.
Chapter 4.
Round three, it had come at last and after very little fanfare. Once again a fighter other then himself was handed victory in a solver platter and frankly this tournament was starting to feel more like a joke. His first and second opponents had been keen to try and take advantage of the rules and as Zach had been equally keen to point out, there were no ring-outs in real life, he'd turned their trickery against them. Now opponent number three appeared to be getting a free ride with the timely resignation of his second round opponent and Zach was decidedly unhappy. His foul mood shone plainly on the blonde boy's face as he emerged from the locker room and approached the squared ring in at a leisurely pace. Having been the only combatant here who fought in both the first and second round, he was entitled to keep his new opponent waiting. Once up on the tiled platform though Zach didn't simply stop and take a stance, instead the teen continued around his opponent in a wide circle, taking measured steps as he looked the cloaked figure up and down. There wasn't much to be told about the man other then the fact that he had to be male with the build he possessed or was the most grotesque woman on any planet. Finally completing the circle Zach drew to a halt back in front of the man once again and assumed his usual ready stance with his guard positioned up high to defend his head and chest. Wanting to have some fun with this guy too before he wrecked the man's day and maybe get the crowd going, Zach issued a warning.
"Heh, you know all those heavy things you're wearing are going to get shredded by the time I'm done with you. Maybe you should take them off now before I wreck them." the blonde teen stated with a self assured smirk. The cloaked man though didn't respond in the slightest and given Zach's already volatile emotional state, the boy just got angrier at his obstinate opponent. "Arrogant jerk." Zach spat. "Think you're better then me because you got a free ride? What are you hiding under there anyway?" he asked rhetorically but did not wait for a reply. Since the cloaked man wasn't making any moves, Zach took it upon himself to start the engagement and leapt at the man, aiming to crash his knee up into the man's hood and hopefully his face. However just as Zach's knee would have handed, the cloaked figure vanished from sight, it was a common ploy now used by weak opponent who not only couldn't stand toe to toe with him but lacked any semblance of honor. Zach knew this vile trick though and reacted instantly, kicking off with his free leg to gain altitude and put distance between himself and any possible reprisal that might be heading for his back, the usual target of this underhanded technique. As it happened his evasive maneuver though put his back in the path of said reprisal, a strong thrust from his opponent's boot crashed into the teen's back. Although the blow had been intended for his neck, Zach's quick response had serendipitously saved his neck only to sacrifice his back to the blow. Still his back was much more heavily muscled and the teen crashed to the floor on his hands in knees with no more then a grunt of discomfort. Zach was back up in a flash, rolling forward and back up to his feet where he quickly spun around to face the hooded man and raised his hands back into his high defensive posture
"I knew you'd be a trickster just by the way you dressed, now you've confirmed it. Come on, come and get me." Zach stated and awaited an attack from the hooded man. Zach was getting furious with this bastard's antics, fighting under a cloak was a coward's method and striking at an opponent's back was just as bad. The blonde couldn't believe that Gurin would want such a dishonorable piece of scum to work for him let alone to qualify as one of his generals. Zach didn't particularly want the position himself but knew he was practically the poster child for the new administration, he couldn't be seen to shy away from his post. The next exchange seemed simple, after shrugging in silent response to Zach's heated words, the cloaked figure dashed forward, slung his fist out and low and made for a strike directly to the blonde's waiting abdomen. The punch met Zach's muscled midsection tensed and ready, the teen having ready the telegraphed punch and responded appropriately. While he took the blow to his stomach with another grunt, Zach also launched a counter, a quick strike with his right elbow, intended to swipe it across his opponent's face. The other man proved to be just as fast as Zach though and managed to catch the blow and the throbbing ache in his stomach in spite of his tensed abs also told the boy that this man was also comparable in strength to him as well. At once the man vanished again only to appear a few feet back and was instantly dashing forward again, this time launching a punch much higher. Zach had only a moment to return his hands to a ready position and intercepted the punch with his retracting right arm. Acting fast, Zach attempted to grab his opponent's right wrist with his left hand and managing to get a hold of it, tried to work the grab into a throw. But given the remarkably even nature of their apparent fighting prowess the hooded man managed to yank back, pulling Zach back to face him. His left hand which had launched the initial punch had been left free and in the time between that first shot and the failed throw, the cloaked figure diverted a charge of ki energy into the fist and then drove the hand uncontested into the blonde's gut. The combination of the fist's strength and the discharge of energy directly into his musculature launched Zach across the ring to land with a painful sounding 'thud' on his back.
"Errrr. Ok..." Zach groaned while he laid on his back for a moment. "You want to play tricky, fine." the teen continued and went into action. Placing his hands up above his head and gaining firm purchase on the floor, Zach curled his legs up and then kicked out, applying additional thrust with his hands to flip him self forward and back to his feet. He didn't stop there though and once he was up, Zach leapt into the air in preparation for his next attack. He'd had it with this guy's tricks and decided setting the creep on fire would be suitable punishment for fighting like a coward. He could have accomplished this just as easily while standing on the ground but being there was an audience's safety to consider, the blonde teen couldn't risk hurting any of them. And so from his elevated position Zach launched a moderately powered strike with his eye beam technique, the crimson laser like streams of energy tracing across the marble floor and intended to follow a path across the man's chest, setting his clothes ablaze. Unfortunately the other was fast enough to avoid the strike, rolling to the side to avoid the path of the beams. Happy that he finally had the hooded man on the defensive, Zach dropped back to the floor and raised his arms while simultaneously turning the fight up yet another notch by activating his body armor technique. Diverting some of his energy reserve, the blonde teen formed his customary protective shields over his chest, forearms and legs, adding to the defense he'd have against anything the other man threw at him.
With his defenses up and ready Zach motioned for the cloaked figure to come at him and needed to do nothing more to provoke the other into action. The cloaked man leapt forward with an easily read helicopter kick. Zach's counter was an obvious one, at least as far as he was concerned, block with his right bracer and arrest the hooded man's rotation and then counter punch with his left. The man reacted quickly though as well, managing to intercept Zach's incoming left fist. If it weren't for his constant trickery Zach might have enjoyed fighting the figure but as it was, every chance the creep got, he'd try and pull a dirt trick and this instance was no different. No sooner had the man intercepted Zach punch then did he vanish again. The hooded man had transported himself above, intending his subversion to allow him to kick the blonde from above. The fight although unpredictable was becoming predictable in one sense, Zach knew his opponent to be a trickster and that he was heavily reliant on transporting around to attempt sneak attacks. Already all too familiar with this cheap trick from this and other fights, Zach dropped into a forward roll the moment the man vanished. The resulting kick ended up colliding with the floor as Zach rolled back up to his feet about a full body length away and quickly turned around to face his opponent once more. He wouldn't give the man a chance to close again this time and so launched another eye beam strike intended to rake across him again. His wily opponent though managed in the time it took Zach to turn back, to gain his footing and leap out of the way, leaving another scorch mark in the marble floor and another on the opposing wall in the wake of the blonde's beam attack as well at the faint smell of singed cloth. Succeeding only in singing the cloaked man's sleeve and burning a fist sized hole in the concrete wall beyond, Zach grumbled and resumed his defensive posture, bringing his guard up to protect is head and chest. His eyes were locked on his opponent as the two stared each other down, eventually Zach decided to make another offensive move, dashing forward and loosing another pair of beams to rake the tiled floor in front of the other man. This was a distraction though, intended only to vaporize some of the marble tile and raise a cloud of smoke. Zach would strike through the cover of the debris thrown up, lifting off and attempting a kick of his own at chest height. The ploy seemed to work and Zach's kick met it's target, although unfortunately through the miscalculation of having used a distraction that would have induced his opponent to block, the hooded man was doing just that. Although the kick landed, it landed against the man's defending arms.
Brought to a halt by the hooded man's interception, Zach kicks off of the man's arm and drops back to the floor about twenty feet back, ten more then where he started from. The boy resumed his usual stance and after the smoke fully cleared would yell to his opponent. "What's the matter, running out of tricks? Or don't you like it when someone fights back just as dirty?" The man reacted only by chuckling which of course had the obvious effect of further annoying the blonde. Zach's anger in spite of his efforts to contain it was easily provoked and this guy seemed to be doing everything he could to do just that, a fact that wasn't lost on the boy. "Oh, trying to make me angry now are you? I should warn you. Mister McMask, don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." No reaction this time, the other simply stood there, passively staring out across the space between them. "Hmmmm. I warned you." Zach grumbled and started to walk forward, his face starting show how annoyed he was getting with the hooded man. Closing on the man, Zach approached one step at a time and then pulled some more dirty trickery of his own, lunging forward feigning a flying knee and instead launching yet another burst of heat beams from his eyes. The tricks though didn't stop flowing on either side as Zach's hooded opponent once again vanished, appearing above the boy once more and unleashed a wide blast of energy that tossed Zach back down to the floor. It wasn't a particularly strong attack but did cover a wide enough area that had the teen see it coming, he still would not have been able to avoid it.
In a flash though Zach was back on his feet, furious with his opponent. Anger was starting to override his rational mind and a new strategy was formed to sate Zach's desire to cut this limber little trickster down to size and to ensure he didn't take any more unnecessary hits. No longer was he going to play this game, no longer was he going to attack, this fight was going to go how he dictated and that meant no mater how long the hooded man waited, Zach would no longer stalk after him. He would how ever continue to send repeated blasts from his eyes at the man, making sure to shoot high or low so as to avoid hitting anyone in the audience. This very same audience was cheering wildly as the two squared off once more, Zach's laser light display having forced the hooded man from the air. The cloaked figure went on the offensive this time, dashing low and forward, landing a solid punch directly into Zach's stomach. His earlier estimate was correct, the guy was at least as strong as he was. The blonde's musculature was shaken by the blow and the intruding fist forced a full fledged gasp of air out of the boy's lips. Zach wasn't a slouch though and was much to angry to even think of toying with the man any more, he wasn't going to get a 'free' hit like this for free, no he would pay for it. As the punch had barreled in, Zach could well tell it's destination was his stomach and so given the other man's couched position as he came in, the blonde launched a downward thrusting punch that crashed across the hooded man's face. Zach still hadn't seen it yet but he certainly felt it as his fist impacted the other man.
The elation of having landed such a solid blow though was short lived as the man he was fighting picked up on the opening Zach had always maintained and hammered the blonde with another punch to the gut. Zach gagged and attempted to strike back, his punch being intercepted by a blocking arm this time. A third exchange yielded the same result, the hooded man plunged an easy fist into the blonde's navel and Zach's counter was blocked. By now the boy's abs were starting to feel more like jello then muscle and his innards were starting to ache along with his lungs. Determined not to let this guy take him down after having fought so cheaply, Zach jackknifed violently as a fourth punch thudded into his stomach, although it wasn't to protect his midsection but rather to head butt his opponent. The move wasn't something Zach would normally consider but he was angry now, and when anger took the boy over he sometimes didn't do the smartest things. The desperate move worked though and their skulls crashed together, sending the other warrior crashing to the floor in front of the blonde. It was at that moment that the entire fight changed, the cloaked man's hood fell away and his identity was revealed to the entire stadium. The cloaked fighter was none other then Nam, that half Saiyan abomination that still caused the blonde boy so much heart ache.
Zach straitened himself, dizzied by his head butt to the hooded man and remained motionless on his feet as his vision focused and the audience suddenly went deathly silent. Looking down at his opponent Zach's eyes went wide as he recognized the young man on the ground and a primal growl escaped his lips. "You..." the teen rasped and pointed a commanding figure down at the fallen man. Although the audience likely couldn't hear the exchange it was clear to everyone now that Zach knew who he was dealing with. "I let you live exactly so this wouldn't happen you idiot. What the hell did you think you were going to do here? What do you think I have to do now? I can't let you walk out of here, you know that right?" Nam raised himself back to his feet and responded by attempting to confuse the issue at hand with rhetoric about Gurin and the Namekian's lies.
"Zach... everything you've been told is a lie. Gurin is using you!"
"Oh shut up. Do you think I'm a complete idiot? Everyone's been using me. The only difference is now something productive is coming from it." Zach retorted.
"P-productive? You're okay with sending the planet to war?" cam Nam's response.
"The planet is mobilizing to properly defend it's self. Of all the people on it, Gurin and I are the only ones strong enough to actually go to war as he defines it. Now he's not going to go anywhere and neither am I. We aren't going to invade anyone because I'm not going to leave my planet open to attack and go elsewhere to do the same shit that ended up getting my whole family murdered." Zach responded, trying to resist the urge to yell as it would surly be loud enough for the crowd to hear at that point.
"Defending the planet is just an alibi. Geu- Gurin's real objective is no different from Touketsuki." Nam replied, adding to Zach's urge to scream at him. Flaring his nostrils with anger, Zach marched up to the other young man and grabbed hold of Nam's collar, pulling him close to ensure no one could possibly hear his response.
"You don't seem to be able to get this through your head. I don't care what his intentions are, I care to see that my planet is safe and it can only be that way by taking a firm stance against those who would invade us. Now he's not going to leave his seat of power to fight a battle off-world and I'm not going to fight a proxy war for him. And if he does send my people out to fight this war, I won't hesitate to walk up behind him and snap his neck. Do you understand me? I would kill the man who saved my life twice if he puts my planet in danger. That is how dedicated I am to my world."
"'Your' world. What happened to 'our' world? You find out I used to have a tail and now I'm suddenly a stranger. I was born here too. You know absolutely nothing, therefore you can't protect this world -not on your own. Gurin is far too strong now, maybe even stronger than Touketsuki. What makes you think you can lay a finger on him?" Nam responded.
"It became my world when I found out you have lied to me from the moment we met. If you had told me what you were from the beginning I would have kicked your ass but that would have been it. But no, you knew I had a problem with those monsters and you still didn't tell me. As for that green skinned old man, I can deal with him because he would never see it coming from me." Zach paused for a moment and then continued after shoving Nam backwards a few steps. "Now we had better get this moving or they are going to think you're getting to me. After this I don't want to see you again, stay, go, just stay out of my way and don't give me reason to hate the rest of you."
"There was no reason to tell you. I only realized you had a problem with Saiyans back when you fought Antary. I wanted to tell you the moment I found out, but it just wasn't the right time. Next thing I know, Gurin fucks everything up..." Nam replied after straitening himself from the shove.
"I don't care what time you thought it was, you should have come clean but you chose to keep hiding." Zach retorted and raised his hands back into their usual defensive posture. "I've given you fare warning. Fight back or I'm going to beat you to a paste and leave you for security... Or you could turn tail and run."
"I wasn't hiding anything." Nam said. Taking a moment to think things through, he observed his surroundings; the crowd, the gawking announcer. He turned around and started walking away. "There's no longer a purpose to stay here..." he stopped and turned, looking back at Zach from the side of his eyes. "I've said what I needed to say -just know, our paths 'will' cross again. And depending on the circumstances, it might be on the battlefield..."
"Grrrr, and when we meet again are you going to fight or talk, you can't do both, not at the same time. If you want to do both then we will fight first." Zach grumbled and lowered his arms once more. "I want to let you go, but you know I can't. You've got to knock me down and run before I get back up, you understand that, right?"
Nam closed his eyes in agreement and an instant later he'd vanished once again, appearing behind the blonde boy. "...and hopefully... as allies..." With that Nam launched a quick punch to the back of Zach's head that landed the teen back the floor on his hands and knees. "My fight is with Geurin and his war, not you." Nam continued and turned to the audience exclaiming "I'm not a criminal! I will protect this planet and overthrow Geurin's reign!" Another instant later the brunette was gone having used his transporting technique once more to vanish from the arena all together.
Putting on a show now instead of an actual fight, Zach took the blow to the back of his head, collapsing to his knees and one hand while the other rubbed the back of his skull. He didn't know how long it would take Nam to escape but gave him a good three seconds, expecting him to fly rather then run. Once the allotted time was up the blonde teen 'regained his senses' and stood up quickly, turning about and raking the tiled floor with a decidedly more powerful pair of energy beams that dug a smoke spewing, semicircular trench in their wake. Turning completely about he looked for his opponent and yelled. "Get back here you coward!" The fight was over though, Zach knew it so he remained on the arena floor long enough for the announcer to get over the shock of what had gone on in front of him and declare the blonde boy the victor. That done, Zach departed the arena back for the locker rooms and eventually would return back to the Victory school to resume his duties there.
This whole episode had been a complete waste, not a single combatant had put up a serious fight and the last match of the day turned out to be against the arch enemy of the state himself. Zach didn't know how Gurin's political spinsters were going to work this one but for now Zach was done. He didn't want anything to do with the position he'd just won, at least not for a while. If this championship had taught him anything it was that he still needed to get a better handle on his anger. In his zeal to bring Nam down out of the air he'd fired several shots that could have killed untold numbers of the audience. Thankfully that didn't happen but it could have and that is what scared Zach the most, accidentally killing innocent people in a fit of his uncontrollable rage.
Chapter 5.
Once he was settled was when the time for Zach started to slip away. Although Toshio wasn't Kami he made Zach feel comfortable enough that the boy could gradually let go of the grief and heartache that his self accused crimes had caused him. The work on the new school he viewed as his penance and only comforted him for as long as the place was still being built, now that it was complete he once more had to deal with the pain of having killed and the dread of possibly doing so again. During the following years, the blonde split his time between tending to the gardens on the Lookout and working at the school. Even though he was starting to forgive himself for taking lives, he'd still kept himself isolated, traveling only between the school and the Lookout and nowhere else except when asked to do so by Geurin himself. Even though it was usually only after a great deal of cajoling. He still trained daily, ever improving himself but never ventured away from those two destinations. It wasn't out of fear that he would have to deal with troublemakers again, he'd dealt with one or two at the school and cooled a few trouble spots for Geurin, but fearing that outside of the school and Tosio's influence he might take a life again, the boy kept himself isolated in the two places. Zach had been an anger driven monster and knew it and so had sequestered himself in self imposed isolation at the school and the Lookout to prevent that anger from ever coming out again.
Zach wasn't sure what personal growth was, frankly he didn't believe that anyone could really change, including himself. Ever since the death of his family, Zach had been driven by anger and a need for revenge. Suki had been able to manipulate him using that need for revenge and his uncontrollable anger had led him to taking life. He'd tried to control his anger but had failed several times in the past, always with consequences. So instead of trying to change that aspect of himself as he didn't think he could change that fact, Zach decided not to give his anger a chance to emerge. The five years he spent at Toshio's... His school was that attempt, keeping himself in a controlled environment where nothing could truly anger him. And it worked, for those five years not once did Zach lose his temper. Sure there was the occasional sour look or curse word during a bout but nothing that he'd ever count as truly being angry. If one wanted to compare it to the world of ancient comic books, Zach was akin to Dr. Banner, sequestering himself away to keep the dreaded Hulk from ever showing his face.
There was another odd thing that was constantly niggling at the back of the boy’s mind as time passed, although it wasn’t really at the back, more just outside of his field of vision. Zach had always been deaf to the energy signatures of others, able to sense only his own and thus having the ability to manipulate it. However in the third, going into the forth year of his self imposed isolation, he boy started to hear, or rather feel the tiniest if whispers, the most insubstantial glimmers of an energy signature not originating from his own body. At first the blonde only sensed the signature when he was laying down just before sleep, when his mind was quietest, but with the passage of time he began to feel the signature at other times, spiking periodically. All the time though Zach just attributed the sensation to stress from his job at the school, it was likely just his own energy he was feeling, the location distorted by his otherwise focused mind. By the fifth year though the familiar buzz, if that’s what it could be called, was ever present, strong enough for Zach to listen to any time he wished to tune it in, although he still hadn’t the faintest idea where it was coming from if not from himself. He had no reason to think otherwise as it felt like his own energy although was strangely separate. It wasn’t important though, at least not to him at the time, it couldn’t be illness of any kind like a brain tumor, as the genie’s magic prevented that kind of thing so as far as the teen was concerned, it could wait.
Chapter 6.
Splashing some more water on his face, Zach shook his head and ran his hands through his spiked hair. He wasn't sure what had exactly reminded him of the amount of time that had passed, but suddenly the past five years had come into sharp focus.
"Five years... I can't believe it... Nothing's changed..." Zach commented to himself as he looked himself over in the mirror. Every feature was exactly the same, his eyes, his hair, skin tone, everything.
The morning sun was just starting to glint over the horizon as Zach left the bathroom, adjusting his weighted wrist bands and exited his quarters. The trip down to the first floor was quiet, the day was still too young for any of the students to be awake and only a few of the staff were active at this time either. Entering the cafeteria, Zach noted that breakfast was already being loaded into the buffet style tables and what few faculty members that were up were already eating and conversing about the day's lessons. Zach didn't envy the teachers that had to deal with the younger students, those particular children always irked him, they either thought they knew everything already or were the polar opposite, asking questions about every little detail even if the same question had been answered already. No Zach had made sure his duties kept him as far away from the younger students as possible for as long as possible, although for some sadistic reason he did find himself getting called to one of their classes on occasion by Toshio. Although the majority of his time was spend landscaping, Zach had become friendly with much of the his staff and the usual divide that existed between the teaching staff and the janitorial department simply didn't exist as Zach wouldn't stand for that sort of thing. In addition to being the figure head Head Master of the school, Zach technically worked in the janitorial department so he made sure the various factions of the staff worked together as harmoniously as possible. Since the hour was still early and there was no line at the buffet, Zach simply grabbed himself a tray and started to fill it, starting first of course with a healthy portion of eggs. A nutritious arrangement of whole wheat toast, orange juice, milk, lean ham and some cream of wheat accompanied the high protein starter. Even after five years, seven if you count his earlier, non-steady employment, and a friendly relationship with the staff, Zach didn't really consider himself one of them, his modesty about his own skill ever present and so usually took a seat by himself. If anyone wanted to join him he wouldn't stop them but the boy didn't actively seek conversation during his meals.
The boy's meal was quiet and fast, taking only about fifteen minutes, during which time the other faculty members who had already been in the cafeteria finished their meals and went about their duties and another group of teachers who were too wrapped up in a conversation about renovations to the medical department, failed to notice him and sat at another table. Once Zach was finished, he collected his tray and returned it to the receptacle before heading out of the cafeteria and down to the maintenance office to pick up his cart. Before classes today he had to tend to the pair of indoor gardens and then weed three of the outdoor training areas. Although the building wasn't exactly the same as the original school, Zach made sure the top two floors were as close as he could get them to the original two story school. By the time the latter of the tasks was complete the morning classes would be starting and Zach would be heading to his first teaching assignment of the day, assisting one of the school's masters in target practice. Unfortunately it wasn't the type he enjoyed, when he himself was the target, no today's targets were clay pigeons destined to be blown up by the students using advance ki techniques. It wasn't the fact that Zach couldn't take the hits, quite the contrary, Zach was more then capable of taking shots from every student and faculty member in the school, including it's former master, the issue was the time allotted for the class and there simply wasn't enough Zach for all the students to get practice in on. So the solution was to set up the clay disk launchers and have the students blast the speeding targets out of the air. The second class of the day, at least for Zach as there was an hour in between the lessons he had to attend and so used that time to train on his own, was a simple aerobics class. Again Zach was assisting, this time though it was more by looking pretty then actually doing anything. The instructor would use the teenager as a model, indicating various muscle groups while explaining the exercises and what groups they targeted. Zach didn't mind the work in the slightest except for the fact that the teacher was a woman and always seemed to leave her hands on the boy for a moment too long. One of these days he'd have to make it abundantly clear to her that he was both not interested in cougars or even women for that matter and that if she persisted he'd eject her from the teaching staff.
The third and final lesson of Zach's day was right after the aerobics course and paired him up with one of the more brutal teachers that enjoyed showing his students how to inflict as much damage with their strikes as possible. This particular job Zach enjoyed the most, playing practice target. The students would unload everything they had on him, usually following the master's coaching and trying to go for weak spots like the solar plexus or ribs. Zach though would simply stand there and stare the students down, taking the hits without protest or even much of a reaction, which of course was always a thrilling sight for the students. It was just as trilling for Zach as well, he'd taken punches, kicks and even the odd energy blast from every student in the class and the greatest reaction they managed to get out of him was an extended groan from a punch directly to the solar plexus. It filled the teen with a sense of accomplishment to have taken the best shots from every student in the class and be able to just smile at them.
At the conclusion of the session, Zach thanked the class for the workout and headed off to the rest of his duties for the day, a scheduled afternoon watering of several tropical plants in the indoor gardens and an inspection of the main court yard to ensure the gravel walkways weren't migrating anywhere. Anyone who owns a gravel anything knows what a pain it can be to keep the rocks where you want them, even with elegant brick boarders intended to hold the stones inside. Once his inspection and some light raking to herd some runaways back into place, Zach was done for the day. The rest of the afternoon would be spent in private training and finally when evening rolled around the boy intended to head up to Toshio's office and see what the 'old man' was up to.
Arriving in one of the private training court yards, Zach started to stretch as he made his way out into the middle of the yard. Once he was limbered up the blonde teen started out in his usual fashion, forming an imaginary opponent in his mind and taking his usual fighting stance. In five years the stance had not changed and likely never would, the boy being set in his ways more then concrete. With his arms up high to defend his head and chest, Zach called upon his body armor technique to add further protection, although in actuality it was simply to exercise his use of the technique and add an early Ki drain on his reserve at the beginning of the training session.
Leaving the private training court yard, Zach headed first to his quarters to grab a quick shower, the day's exertions having been strenuous enough to make the teen smell a bit more manly then he usually liked. Re-spiking his hair after cleaning up, the blonde made a quick trip to the cafeteria to pick up a snack before finally ascending to the second floor of the school's upper tier. Passing by a group of giggling co-ed's, Zach shook his head, knowing he was the cause of their hormone driven hysteria. Were he attracted to the opposite gender the boy would have felt flattered, instead it happened so often he was in fact slightly annoyed. Thankfully there were a few other boys around the school that shared his tastes and he visited with them as often as his duties around the school permitted. Tonight though he wasn't heading into the dormitory wing but rather through it to the teacher's quarters. Zach soon arrived at Toshio's office and in so doing, gave the door a knock.
Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter 1; In the Beginning (First half of Year One)
Chapter 2; Victory of the Phoenix (Second half of Year One)
Chapter 3; Tournament of Champions
Chapter 4; The Battle Continues
Chapter 5; Time Passes (Years Two to Five)
Chapter 6; Present Day
Chapter 7; Learning Something New Every Day
Prologue:
Five years... Had it really been five years? The passage of time for Zach had become somewhat blurred, the teen's immortal state had finally sunk in and although he always knew what day of what month and of what year it was, the actual passage of the weeks and months lost a great deal of meaning. He was aware of their passage though, Toshio, whom he'd kept in touch with, had shown the passage of the years markedly. Although it had been a clandestine joke to refer to the former school master as an 'old man' amongst the students and sometimes Zach himself, the passage of time was apparent in the man's appearance. That wasn't to say he looked old, quite the opposite in fact, Toshio was still quite youthful in appearance, but still the passage of time has it's effects and now that Zach had suddenly taken notice of the time that had passed he became aware of the cosmetic changes in the teacher. Zach by contrast had remained exactly the same in appearance since that day he'd encountered the genie. He still had the ornate ring, having never gotten around to giving it to Kami before the Namekian's death, though had also never succeeded in summoning the magical being again.
Zach splashed some water on his face from the basin in his quarters at the school, straitening up and looking at himself in the mirror. Even though he understood his immortality it really was still astonishing. It had been five years and he was still exactly the same as when he was that last hectic month years ago. That horrible, month during which he received the great gift off immortality and yet once again lost everything he cared about. That month five years ago had been the second greatest horror of Zach's life, the two worst aspects of which were Kami's death and the fact that Zach himself had taken life. He'd always thought himself above that sort of thing, but in his uncontrollable anger and zeal to defend his planet, Zach had killed. The guilt had weighed on him for some time, for weeks he stayed on the lookout, the place feeling like a tomb without Kami. Of course there was that look-alike pretender Geurin, but he wasn't Kami, not even close. Further throwing Zach into despair was the fact that the Victory School, his second home had been obliterated with the rest of the mountain range it was built upon.
Chapter 1.
Before locking himself away in the lookout, literally only days after the cataclysmic incident, Zach had gone on a drinking binge, desperately trying to forget the horrific events that had brought him to this state. It was during this week long attempt at alcohol induced suicide that the teen lost track of his own whereabouts, although he was pretty sure at one point he’d been in a strip club or brothel. The only thing that brought Zach anything close to happiness in those first few weeks on the floating tower was his attention to the lookout's gardens. Geurin was most certainly not the type to tend to a garden so in spite of any protestations the Namekian might have lodged, Zach would not let him near the planters. He wasn't Kami, Zach didn't have to do anything he wanted anymore, all he was was a sore reminder that Kami was gone, that and the new prime minister of the planet. The teen still wasn't sure how that came about and neither did he care, his depression outweighed any of those earthly concerns. He was aware of some contest being held by Geurin to pick generals but couldn't care less, the position was all but a certainty for him, all he had to do when he was feeling better was show up and take it, so Zach declined to participate. Geurin knew where his loyalties lay though, Zach fought for Earth and if the green man needed him, he would answer the call, but for now Zach needed to be alone.
Eventually though Zach got over his self loathing and regret, leaving his shell in the sky three or four months after the Suki incident. Toshio was the only man he considered anything close possessing to Kami's understanding and wisdom and probably the only one who could understand what he'd been through in his life. And so Toshio was whom Zach sought out, going to the one place he knew the man would be, his school. The place was gone though, wiped off the face of the mountain right along with the mountain, it was only the fact that Toshio had teleported with Royd to safety that he survived, had he been at the school when the blast struck, surely he would have been killed with everyone else.
At the cratered remains of the mountains all Zach found though was rocks. No Toshio, not even evidence that he'd been there. He was sure the man had survived, he had to, perhaps he was teaching elsewhere, perhaps building a new school. It wouldn't be the Victory School though, the place was as much it's location as it was the curriculum. With the mountains devastated and the entire teaching staff gone, Zach was all that remained. Perhaps that was why Toshio had not returned, perhaps he thought the blonde dead as well and had lost hope. Zach wouldn't though, he couldn't, if there was one thing his months of solitude on the lookout had taught him, it was that things were finally starting to look up. Geurin had whipped the planet's military and police forces into shape and there hadn't been one major incident the entire time the teenager had been away. If that wasn't a beacon of hope Zach didn't know what was. From that moment forth the young man decided that this devastated mountain range should become another. Like the mythical Phoenix, the Victory School would rise again.
Chapter 2.
The entire remainder of that first year, Zach dedicated his every waking moment to rebuilding the place. He wasn't a building engineer though so the new structure was made of what he had on hand and built overly robust, to ensure it could never be knocked down again. Stone was everywhere and so stone was what Zach used, cutting slabs and bricks as needed with his eye beams and lifting them into place with his great strength. The pieces were then permanently joined together by a unique welding technique the blonde had developed, partially melting the stones and letting them merge together before cooling, again with the heat beams generated from his gaze. Over the course of the remaining year, Zach's body became so well trained in lifting the immense loads and melting the stones that he needed only five to six hours of sleep each night and even then dreamed of what the next section of the massive construct would look like when finished. When his work was finally complete, the new school stood like a monolith towering over the decimated landscape, grey in color as was the stone that surrounded it.
The structure was truly massive, towering twenty stories above the desolate landscape and although small by skyscraper standards, this building was none the less both impressive and imposing. Unlike modern skyscrapers that stood in the hundreds of stories tall and were made of glass and steel, this building was all stone and possessed a gradually tapering shape, much like a tall pyramid or more accurately, a ziggurat with extremely steep outer walls. The shape of the building was necessary as the taller it got the thicker the walls at the base had to be both to support and distribute the structure's weight. Unlike the original school, this stone castle had space in its walls to house hundreds if not a thousand or two. The first and second floors were dedicated storage space for the school's provisions such as food and other consumables, with the obvious exception being the entrance hall. This space though served mainly as a transportation hub with stairs leading up through the building. The third floor comprised the building's utilities, or rather would when they were installed. Among the utilities would be the boilers for providing hot water and heating the place during winter, air conditioning units to cool it in summer, a power switchgear room and even a sewage treatment plant as would be needed considering the number of students and staff that would be staying in the massive building. Floors four through seven were all dormitory space for the students, most rooms sleeping two or four at a time. The next three floors, eight, nine and ten, were living quarters for the staff and were possessed of decidedly larger sleeping and living arrangements as the staff had to live and work in the structure and commuting was a prohibitively long distance affair. Floor eleven housed the main cafeteria and kitchens, providing the bulk of the school's food preparation and dining capacity. Floor twelve would eventually become a humongous library, easily dwarfing the original, at least once it is filled. The thirteenth floor was additional storage space, and served as a sound buffer between the library on the twelfth floor and the main gymnasium on the fourteenth. The fourteenth floor gym was for lack of a better word, huge. It's dimensions encompassed the entire footprint of the original building, thousands of square feet and was dedicated solely to weight training, aerobics, acrobatics and other simple physical exercises. Floors fifteen, sixteen and seventeen were also gym space, but these were smaller rooms, sectioned off into age groups like the original school, only there were now many, many more of them. Nearing the top of the structure, floor eighteen was an odd one, serving more as a container then an actual floor. Except for the outer walls, plumbing, utility shafts and the stairwells, the entire eighteenth floor was filled with dirt. The dirt had taken some time to get as Zach had to travel back and forth to fill the massive container up. Finally though when this two was complete, the nineteenth and twentieth floors would be added and these in his mind were the very special ones.
The Eighteenth floor was by all rights the top of the actual ziggurat, having a parapet wall that held in the dirt roof and kept anyone from falling over the sides. What stood on this roof though was the very symbol Zach had wanted the building to be known for, a replica as exact as the teen could make it, of the original school. The new Victory School looked very much like the original only a few dimensions here or there skewed out of proportion, either from bad memory or necessity given the building materials. No glass windows were installed yet or any at all throughout the rest of the building. Until Zach could get actual building contractors to the site, the new school was just a great stone shell, waiting to be filled with it's functional innards, students and staff. The replica of the original school was the crown jewel of the entire building and when it is finished, will serve as the official entry hall as well as all of the functions that the original building had. The replica was complete with every room accounted for in more or less the correct dimensions, dormitories, offices, gyms, classrooms, cafeteria and even the training and main garden courtyard.
Now that all of the major grunt work was done he could call in more experienced builders to modernize the practically medieval castle. That was when the most interesting thing to happen in that preceding year occurred, quite out of the blue two things were delivered to Zach's construction camp, a basket and an envelope. The envelope contained a letter and a substantial sum of money, more then enough to finish the school. The letter though explained the contents of the basket and left Zach in a state of shock. Someone, Zach knew not who, had left him the funds to complete the school and a child to care for. Frankly he didn't know what to do, Zach was not a parent, he didn't know the first thing about parenting and hadn't the time nor the inclination to care for someone else's child, not when there was so much more work left to do. It was a quick decision on his part but before the day was out, Zach had carried the basket to the nearest orphanage and left it there with a significant portion of the funds he'd received, that would at least provide for the kid's future ad perhaps even one day the little tike would become a student at the great academy when he is of age.
The beacon of hope Zach had intended the school to be was apparently more effective then he'd thought as by the time Zach returned to the mountains, he could see below him a stream of construction vehicles carving a new road through the mountains and already at the building site, hover vehicles were landing with workers. Word had spread and before Zach was even ready for them the men had gone to work. Perhaps it was Geurin who had organized them or perhaps someone else but within a month of intense labor the massive building had been finished, plumbing, electrical, air conditioning and all. To top off the miraculous turnout of construction workers, as the road approached, so did flocking students and martial artists from all around the land. The word had spread further then Zach had imagined possible and when the story of one boy rebuilding the Victory School reached the other great academies, they had been inspired and sent some of their own teaching staff to help reestablish the great school.
Zach was grateful that he could resume his part time position at the institution, acting as a teacher's assistant and landscaper rather then the new head master. That position, much to the staff's disappointment he left vacant and although they protested and pleaded for the young blonde to take up the title, Zach refused, never seeing himself has experienced enough to head the school. He knew we was stronger then any other person there but he was not a skilled, patient teacher and was most certainly not the type of person that could handle working in an office half the time. Instead the position remained reserved for Toshio should he ever turn up. Eventually Toshio did resurface, but something about the man had changed and no matter how much cajoling Zach tried, he could not convince his old mentor to take the reigns of the new school only succeeding in getting him to agree to teach at the institution. Forced now to take the title officially, Zach assumed the position of head of the new school, but in name only, he did not want the responsibility and so acted mainly as a figure head, leaving the actual office work to his staff and continuing to work at the school as a teacher and landscaper only.
Chapter 3.
Before the school officially went into operation though Zach received a letter in the mail thanks to the newly completed road and sat in the courtyard to read it. It was posted from the government headquarters in Satan City, baring Geurin's official seal. Zach didn't know why the green man hadn't just contacted him by telephone or if the matter was particularly urgent, telepathically. He assumed the Namekian had that ability as Kami had it and it was how the other green man had initially contacted the blonde. No, this was something special apparently and time was taken to write and post a personal letter. Moving past the envelope, Zach opened the message and read the contents of the letter, finding that apparently the tournament Geurin had arranged months earlier was about to begin and that the Prime Minister wished him to attend. Zach had initially assumed that the position of Geurin's right hand man would be guaranteed but it now appeared that Geurin wanted him to actually work for the job. Reading further it became clear to Zach that a human face was needed to outshine any legal aliens that might be residing on Earth and attempting to participate in the event and also to help spin Geurin's obvious alien image by having a strong Human lieutenant. By participating in the tournament Zach would be a familiar face to the public given his participation in the previous tournament held by Suki and his attempt to defend Satan City from the tyrant, both events of which were transmitted around the world. Further adding to the young man's stature was his single-handed reconstruction of the Victory school, aided only in the installation of the building utilities. By legitimately working his way through this tournament rather then simply being appointed, he would demonstrate that in spite of having a Namekian in office, the Humans were once more in control of their own planet and had a proper Human champion to protect them.
Putting the letter away in his quarters, Zach left the school in the hands of Toshio and the rest of the teaching staff and departed for Satan City. There he was met as expected, by throngs of press that thankfully once he was safely in the fighter's locker area, were unable to hound him. Zach was not comfortable with his fame, viewing it more of a hindrance then anything. All he'd done his entire life was just what any other man could do given the proper motivation and time to train one's body. However the media had sensationalized his fights at the Galactic Tournament and his later fight with Suki had put his face on every television screen in the world once again. Zach could rarely go out in public without being recognized as the heroic young man who stood his ground against the merciless tyrant and did everything humanly possible to save Satan City. Once in the locker room Zach had a chance to look over his competition and of course the brackets chart to see who he'd have to crush to get to the top. He didn't recognize any of the names on the chart but as he wondered the area, Zach found one individual he recognized and had to restrain himself from attacking the monster right then and there. It was that black skinned monster that had eaten the young woman he had met shortly before his last encounter with Suki, only now the monster's skin was red. Zach's rage was as difficult as ever to control but the boy managed to keep himself cool enough to prevent a locker room incident.
The first round battle though was anything but civil, Zach was delighted to find that his first opponent was none other then the red skinned beast. He had apparently changed his name to Kazama along with his color alteration but that meant little to the blonde, he would crush the monster, but not before having some fun with him first. Walking out into the arena, Zach preened himself for the crowd, showing the people that he, the Human was going to show his alien opponent who was boss and that he looked good doing it. About the only thing as big as the boy's anger problem was his ego so this display was almost to be expected. Once his crimson enemy was in the arena as well though Zach got a little more serious although was still cocky as hell, folding his arms behind his head and letting the monster open up on him. Zach maintained his usual opening, letting the beast have his way with his midsection although oddly his opponent wasn't hitting as hard as he had when Zach first encountered him. That wasn't to say the Majin didn't hit hard, quite the opposite was in fact true. The red skinned monster hit the boy hard enough to force Zach to tense his abdominals to defend himself and even then his innards were starting to ache just from the first few punches. The battle progressed with Zach calling the monster all manner of horrible names to rile him up even more. Kazama though acted as if he didn't understand why Zach was so infuriated by the Majin's presence but it mattered little to Zach, he knew this beast was his enemy, knew the horrible things he'd done and would make him pay for them in front of this audience. The battle continued, Zach throwing jabs here and there as he toyed with his opponent and purposely took a beating to help build the crowd up. It was akin to the wrestling programs where the good guy would be thrashed for the entire match only to come back in the last moments and defeat his evil opponent.
Things didn't go quite to plan though and at some point Kazama realized that targeting the blonde teen's stomach was wearing him down and that not a single one of the punches had been intercepted. Zach, still in his base form was getting the hell beaten out of him now that everything his opponent had was going strait into the boy's gut. The blows were becoming crippling for real, his show for the crowd no longer just an act. But still the teenager wasn't going down, so the Majin resorted to exploiting the rules of the competition to beat the blonde. Taking Zach off his feet with a brutal uppercut, the boy sailed up into the air over the arena and was followed by the Majin who motioned in a manner Zach didn't recognize. The blonde straitened himself up, breathing heavily and was about to close distance with his opponent when a blinding flash of light obliterated the boy's vision. Stars exploded in his eyes. Taking advantage of this disorientation, Kazama tried to launch the teen with a hammer style punch to his face, into the ground outside of the tiled floor and get a ring out, a move that further infuriated the blonde. Such a cheap move was down right disgusting to him, ending any fun he might have been having while letting the Majin thrash him. The flash though had temporarily blinded the teen so Zach had to guess which way he was falling and applied his power of flight to change direction, causing him to crash into the tiled floor of the ring right at it's edge. The narrow escape put the audience on the edge of their seats and when the boy dragged himself back to his feet they went wild. His vision starting to clear and a visage of pure hate plastered on his face, Zach transformed in an explosion of crimson energy and propelled himself away from the floor surrounding the elevated square they had been fighting on. With his physical strength and energy now far exceeding that of his opponent, Zach laid into the Majin with a savage flurry of fists, kicks, knees and elbows, beating his opponent until he finally launched the Majin clear out of the arena, executing the disqualification the monster had tried on him. He considered killing the beast but it was both apparently against the rules and also not the civilized thing to do. Zach was having greater and greater difficulty in controlling himself in the latter aspect, his anger having already helped him to take the life of at least one person already and nearly beat to death several others including a boy he once considered a close friend.
Returning to the locker room, Zach watched the other first round matches on a television screen, scrutinizing each of the fighters so he could be better prepared for them should they advance to the second round with him. The battles though weren't particularly brutal, not like his had been, his was personal after all. Eventually the first round fights were completed and the only fighter Zach had regarded with any interest was one that seemed to be concealing his identity. There was also something strangely familiar about the cloaked man, something Zach recognized but couldn't quite figure out, at least not yet. After a few minutes respite and time for the crowd to take an intermission, the second round match-ups were announced and much to his dismay, Zach was pitted against Caius, who'd gotten a free ride past the first rounds. Zach had half a mind to fly up to the executive box and punch Gurin in the nose for pulling such a stunt. Not that Zach felt he deserved special treatment, but if anyone should have received such a boost it should have been him. He of course would have refused and fought in the first round anyway as it was the principal of the unfair advantage that Zach had issue with. To illustrate the point, the second round fight was much like the first, Zach leaving himself open and toying with his opponent. The inevitable attempt to get a technical victory came like it had last time, when it was obvious the teen wouldn't be brought down and in it's self, the attempt doomed Caius to lose the match. Zach had reversed the maneuver and slammed the other young man into the ground outside of the arena with a thunderous impact. Zach added insult to injury after defeating his opponent by picking the other up and launching him, as he'd done with his first one, clear out of the stadium. The rules of this ridiculous tournament were absurd, there were no ring outs in real life and having had the same cheap move tried on him trice, Zach vowed to crush his third round opponent if he tried anything similar.
Chapter 4.
Round three, it had come at last and after very little fanfare. Once again a fighter other then himself was handed victory in a solver platter and frankly this tournament was starting to feel more like a joke. His first and second opponents had been keen to try and take advantage of the rules and as Zach had been equally keen to point out, there were no ring-outs in real life, he'd turned their trickery against them. Now opponent number three appeared to be getting a free ride with the timely resignation of his second round opponent and Zach was decidedly unhappy. His foul mood shone plainly on the blonde boy's face as he emerged from the locker room and approached the squared ring in at a leisurely pace. Having been the only combatant here who fought in both the first and second round, he was entitled to keep his new opponent waiting. Once up on the tiled platform though Zach didn't simply stop and take a stance, instead the teen continued around his opponent in a wide circle, taking measured steps as he looked the cloaked figure up and down. There wasn't much to be told about the man other then the fact that he had to be male with the build he possessed or was the most grotesque woman on any planet. Finally completing the circle Zach drew to a halt back in front of the man once again and assumed his usual ready stance with his guard positioned up high to defend his head and chest. Wanting to have some fun with this guy too before he wrecked the man's day and maybe get the crowd going, Zach issued a warning.
"Heh, you know all those heavy things you're wearing are going to get shredded by the time I'm done with you. Maybe you should take them off now before I wreck them." the blonde teen stated with a self assured smirk. The cloaked man though didn't respond in the slightest and given Zach's already volatile emotional state, the boy just got angrier at his obstinate opponent. "Arrogant jerk." Zach spat. "Think you're better then me because you got a free ride? What are you hiding under there anyway?" he asked rhetorically but did not wait for a reply. Since the cloaked man wasn't making any moves, Zach took it upon himself to start the engagement and leapt at the man, aiming to crash his knee up into the man's hood and hopefully his face. However just as Zach's knee would have handed, the cloaked figure vanished from sight, it was a common ploy now used by weak opponent who not only couldn't stand toe to toe with him but lacked any semblance of honor. Zach knew this vile trick though and reacted instantly, kicking off with his free leg to gain altitude and put distance between himself and any possible reprisal that might be heading for his back, the usual target of this underhanded technique. As it happened his evasive maneuver though put his back in the path of said reprisal, a strong thrust from his opponent's boot crashed into the teen's back. Although the blow had been intended for his neck, Zach's quick response had serendipitously saved his neck only to sacrifice his back to the blow. Still his back was much more heavily muscled and the teen crashed to the floor on his hands in knees with no more then a grunt of discomfort. Zach was back up in a flash, rolling forward and back up to his feet where he quickly spun around to face the hooded man and raised his hands back into his high defensive posture
"I knew you'd be a trickster just by the way you dressed, now you've confirmed it. Come on, come and get me." Zach stated and awaited an attack from the hooded man. Zach was getting furious with this bastard's antics, fighting under a cloak was a coward's method and striking at an opponent's back was just as bad. The blonde couldn't believe that Gurin would want such a dishonorable piece of scum to work for him let alone to qualify as one of his generals. Zach didn't particularly want the position himself but knew he was practically the poster child for the new administration, he couldn't be seen to shy away from his post. The next exchange seemed simple, after shrugging in silent response to Zach's heated words, the cloaked figure dashed forward, slung his fist out and low and made for a strike directly to the blonde's waiting abdomen. The punch met Zach's muscled midsection tensed and ready, the teen having ready the telegraphed punch and responded appropriately. While he took the blow to his stomach with another grunt, Zach also launched a counter, a quick strike with his right elbow, intended to swipe it across his opponent's face. The other man proved to be just as fast as Zach though and managed to catch the blow and the throbbing ache in his stomach in spite of his tensed abs also told the boy that this man was also comparable in strength to him as well. At once the man vanished again only to appear a few feet back and was instantly dashing forward again, this time launching a punch much higher. Zach had only a moment to return his hands to a ready position and intercepted the punch with his retracting right arm. Acting fast, Zach attempted to grab his opponent's right wrist with his left hand and managing to get a hold of it, tried to work the grab into a throw. But given the remarkably even nature of their apparent fighting prowess the hooded man managed to yank back, pulling Zach back to face him. His left hand which had launched the initial punch had been left free and in the time between that first shot and the failed throw, the cloaked figure diverted a charge of ki energy into the fist and then drove the hand uncontested into the blonde's gut. The combination of the fist's strength and the discharge of energy directly into his musculature launched Zach across the ring to land with a painful sounding 'thud' on his back.
"Errrr. Ok..." Zach groaned while he laid on his back for a moment. "You want to play tricky, fine." the teen continued and went into action. Placing his hands up above his head and gaining firm purchase on the floor, Zach curled his legs up and then kicked out, applying additional thrust with his hands to flip him self forward and back to his feet. He didn't stop there though and once he was up, Zach leapt into the air in preparation for his next attack. He'd had it with this guy's tricks and decided setting the creep on fire would be suitable punishment for fighting like a coward. He could have accomplished this just as easily while standing on the ground but being there was an audience's safety to consider, the blonde teen couldn't risk hurting any of them. And so from his elevated position Zach launched a moderately powered strike with his eye beam technique, the crimson laser like streams of energy tracing across the marble floor and intended to follow a path across the man's chest, setting his clothes ablaze. Unfortunately the other was fast enough to avoid the strike, rolling to the side to avoid the path of the beams. Happy that he finally had the hooded man on the defensive, Zach dropped back to the floor and raised his arms while simultaneously turning the fight up yet another notch by activating his body armor technique. Diverting some of his energy reserve, the blonde teen formed his customary protective shields over his chest, forearms and legs, adding to the defense he'd have against anything the other man threw at him.
With his defenses up and ready Zach motioned for the cloaked figure to come at him and needed to do nothing more to provoke the other into action. The cloaked man leapt forward with an easily read helicopter kick. Zach's counter was an obvious one, at least as far as he was concerned, block with his right bracer and arrest the hooded man's rotation and then counter punch with his left. The man reacted quickly though as well, managing to intercept Zach's incoming left fist. If it weren't for his constant trickery Zach might have enjoyed fighting the figure but as it was, every chance the creep got, he'd try and pull a dirt trick and this instance was no different. No sooner had the man intercepted Zach punch then did he vanish again. The hooded man had transported himself above, intending his subversion to allow him to kick the blonde from above. The fight although unpredictable was becoming predictable in one sense, Zach knew his opponent to be a trickster and that he was heavily reliant on transporting around to attempt sneak attacks. Already all too familiar with this cheap trick from this and other fights, Zach dropped into a forward roll the moment the man vanished. The resulting kick ended up colliding with the floor as Zach rolled back up to his feet about a full body length away and quickly turned around to face his opponent once more. He wouldn't give the man a chance to close again this time and so launched another eye beam strike intended to rake across him again. His wily opponent though managed in the time it took Zach to turn back, to gain his footing and leap out of the way, leaving another scorch mark in the marble floor and another on the opposing wall in the wake of the blonde's beam attack as well at the faint smell of singed cloth. Succeeding only in singing the cloaked man's sleeve and burning a fist sized hole in the concrete wall beyond, Zach grumbled and resumed his defensive posture, bringing his guard up to protect is head and chest. His eyes were locked on his opponent as the two stared each other down, eventually Zach decided to make another offensive move, dashing forward and loosing another pair of beams to rake the tiled floor in front of the other man. This was a distraction though, intended only to vaporize some of the marble tile and raise a cloud of smoke. Zach would strike through the cover of the debris thrown up, lifting off and attempting a kick of his own at chest height. The ploy seemed to work and Zach's kick met it's target, although unfortunately through the miscalculation of having used a distraction that would have induced his opponent to block, the hooded man was doing just that. Although the kick landed, it landed against the man's defending arms.
Brought to a halt by the hooded man's interception, Zach kicks off of the man's arm and drops back to the floor about twenty feet back, ten more then where he started from. The boy resumed his usual stance and after the smoke fully cleared would yell to his opponent. "What's the matter, running out of tricks? Or don't you like it when someone fights back just as dirty?" The man reacted only by chuckling which of course had the obvious effect of further annoying the blonde. Zach's anger in spite of his efforts to contain it was easily provoked and this guy seemed to be doing everything he could to do just that, a fact that wasn't lost on the boy. "Oh, trying to make me angry now are you? I should warn you. Mister McMask, don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." No reaction this time, the other simply stood there, passively staring out across the space between them. "Hmmmm. I warned you." Zach grumbled and started to walk forward, his face starting show how annoyed he was getting with the hooded man. Closing on the man, Zach approached one step at a time and then pulled some more dirty trickery of his own, lunging forward feigning a flying knee and instead launching yet another burst of heat beams from his eyes. The tricks though didn't stop flowing on either side as Zach's hooded opponent once again vanished, appearing above the boy once more and unleashed a wide blast of energy that tossed Zach back down to the floor. It wasn't a particularly strong attack but did cover a wide enough area that had the teen see it coming, he still would not have been able to avoid it.
In a flash though Zach was back on his feet, furious with his opponent. Anger was starting to override his rational mind and a new strategy was formed to sate Zach's desire to cut this limber little trickster down to size and to ensure he didn't take any more unnecessary hits. No longer was he going to play this game, no longer was he going to attack, this fight was going to go how he dictated and that meant no mater how long the hooded man waited, Zach would no longer stalk after him. He would how ever continue to send repeated blasts from his eyes at the man, making sure to shoot high or low so as to avoid hitting anyone in the audience. This very same audience was cheering wildly as the two squared off once more, Zach's laser light display having forced the hooded man from the air. The cloaked figure went on the offensive this time, dashing low and forward, landing a solid punch directly into Zach's stomach. His earlier estimate was correct, the guy was at least as strong as he was. The blonde's musculature was shaken by the blow and the intruding fist forced a full fledged gasp of air out of the boy's lips. Zach wasn't a slouch though and was much to angry to even think of toying with the man any more, he wasn't going to get a 'free' hit like this for free, no he would pay for it. As the punch had barreled in, Zach could well tell it's destination was his stomach and so given the other man's couched position as he came in, the blonde launched a downward thrusting punch that crashed across the hooded man's face. Zach still hadn't seen it yet but he certainly felt it as his fist impacted the other man.
The elation of having landed such a solid blow though was short lived as the man he was fighting picked up on the opening Zach had always maintained and hammered the blonde with another punch to the gut. Zach gagged and attempted to strike back, his punch being intercepted by a blocking arm this time. A third exchange yielded the same result, the hooded man plunged an easy fist into the blonde's navel and Zach's counter was blocked. By now the boy's abs were starting to feel more like jello then muscle and his innards were starting to ache along with his lungs. Determined not to let this guy take him down after having fought so cheaply, Zach jackknifed violently as a fourth punch thudded into his stomach, although it wasn't to protect his midsection but rather to head butt his opponent. The move wasn't something Zach would normally consider but he was angry now, and when anger took the boy over he sometimes didn't do the smartest things. The desperate move worked though and their skulls crashed together, sending the other warrior crashing to the floor in front of the blonde. It was at that moment that the entire fight changed, the cloaked man's hood fell away and his identity was revealed to the entire stadium. The cloaked fighter was none other then Nam, that half Saiyan abomination that still caused the blonde boy so much heart ache.
Zach straitened himself, dizzied by his head butt to the hooded man and remained motionless on his feet as his vision focused and the audience suddenly went deathly silent. Looking down at his opponent Zach's eyes went wide as he recognized the young man on the ground and a primal growl escaped his lips. "You..." the teen rasped and pointed a commanding figure down at the fallen man. Although the audience likely couldn't hear the exchange it was clear to everyone now that Zach knew who he was dealing with. "I let you live exactly so this wouldn't happen you idiot. What the hell did you think you were going to do here? What do you think I have to do now? I can't let you walk out of here, you know that right?" Nam raised himself back to his feet and responded by attempting to confuse the issue at hand with rhetoric about Gurin and the Namekian's lies.
"Zach... everything you've been told is a lie. Gurin is using you!"
"Oh shut up. Do you think I'm a complete idiot? Everyone's been using me. The only difference is now something productive is coming from it." Zach retorted.
"P-productive? You're okay with sending the planet to war?" cam Nam's response.
"The planet is mobilizing to properly defend it's self. Of all the people on it, Gurin and I are the only ones strong enough to actually go to war as he defines it. Now he's not going to go anywhere and neither am I. We aren't going to invade anyone because I'm not going to leave my planet open to attack and go elsewhere to do the same shit that ended up getting my whole family murdered." Zach responded, trying to resist the urge to yell as it would surly be loud enough for the crowd to hear at that point.
"Defending the planet is just an alibi. Geu- Gurin's real objective is no different from Touketsuki." Nam replied, adding to Zach's urge to scream at him. Flaring his nostrils with anger, Zach marched up to the other young man and grabbed hold of Nam's collar, pulling him close to ensure no one could possibly hear his response.
"You don't seem to be able to get this through your head. I don't care what his intentions are, I care to see that my planet is safe and it can only be that way by taking a firm stance against those who would invade us. Now he's not going to leave his seat of power to fight a battle off-world and I'm not going to fight a proxy war for him. And if he does send my people out to fight this war, I won't hesitate to walk up behind him and snap his neck. Do you understand me? I would kill the man who saved my life twice if he puts my planet in danger. That is how dedicated I am to my world."
"'Your' world. What happened to 'our' world? You find out I used to have a tail and now I'm suddenly a stranger. I was born here too. You know absolutely nothing, therefore you can't protect this world -not on your own. Gurin is far too strong now, maybe even stronger than Touketsuki. What makes you think you can lay a finger on him?" Nam responded.
"It became my world when I found out you have lied to me from the moment we met. If you had told me what you were from the beginning I would have kicked your ass but that would have been it. But no, you knew I had a problem with those monsters and you still didn't tell me. As for that green skinned old man, I can deal with him because he would never see it coming from me." Zach paused for a moment and then continued after shoving Nam backwards a few steps. "Now we had better get this moving or they are going to think you're getting to me. After this I don't want to see you again, stay, go, just stay out of my way and don't give me reason to hate the rest of you."
"There was no reason to tell you. I only realized you had a problem with Saiyans back when you fought Antary. I wanted to tell you the moment I found out, but it just wasn't the right time. Next thing I know, Gurin fucks everything up..." Nam replied after straitening himself from the shove.
"I don't care what time you thought it was, you should have come clean but you chose to keep hiding." Zach retorted and raised his hands back into their usual defensive posture. "I've given you fare warning. Fight back or I'm going to beat you to a paste and leave you for security... Or you could turn tail and run."
"I wasn't hiding anything." Nam said. Taking a moment to think things through, he observed his surroundings; the crowd, the gawking announcer. He turned around and started walking away. "There's no longer a purpose to stay here..." he stopped and turned, looking back at Zach from the side of his eyes. "I've said what I needed to say -just know, our paths 'will' cross again. And depending on the circumstances, it might be on the battlefield..."
"Grrrr, and when we meet again are you going to fight or talk, you can't do both, not at the same time. If you want to do both then we will fight first." Zach grumbled and lowered his arms once more. "I want to let you go, but you know I can't. You've got to knock me down and run before I get back up, you understand that, right?"
Nam closed his eyes in agreement and an instant later he'd vanished once again, appearing behind the blonde boy. "...and hopefully... as allies..." With that Nam launched a quick punch to the back of Zach's head that landed the teen back the floor on his hands and knees. "My fight is with Geurin and his war, not you." Nam continued and turned to the audience exclaiming "I'm not a criminal! I will protect this planet and overthrow Geurin's reign!" Another instant later the brunette was gone having used his transporting technique once more to vanish from the arena all together.
Putting on a show now instead of an actual fight, Zach took the blow to the back of his head, collapsing to his knees and one hand while the other rubbed the back of his skull. He didn't know how long it would take Nam to escape but gave him a good three seconds, expecting him to fly rather then run. Once the allotted time was up the blonde teen 'regained his senses' and stood up quickly, turning about and raking the tiled floor with a decidedly more powerful pair of energy beams that dug a smoke spewing, semicircular trench in their wake. Turning completely about he looked for his opponent and yelled. "Get back here you coward!" The fight was over though, Zach knew it so he remained on the arena floor long enough for the announcer to get over the shock of what had gone on in front of him and declare the blonde boy the victor. That done, Zach departed the arena back for the locker rooms and eventually would return back to the Victory school to resume his duties there.
This whole episode had been a complete waste, not a single combatant had put up a serious fight and the last match of the day turned out to be against the arch enemy of the state himself. Zach didn't know how Gurin's political spinsters were going to work this one but for now Zach was done. He didn't want anything to do with the position he'd just won, at least not for a while. If this championship had taught him anything it was that he still needed to get a better handle on his anger. In his zeal to bring Nam down out of the air he'd fired several shots that could have killed untold numbers of the audience. Thankfully that didn't happen but it could have and that is what scared Zach the most, accidentally killing innocent people in a fit of his uncontrollable rage.
Chapter 5.
Once he was settled was when the time for Zach started to slip away. Although Toshio wasn't Kami he made Zach feel comfortable enough that the boy could gradually let go of the grief and heartache that his self accused crimes had caused him. The work on the new school he viewed as his penance and only comforted him for as long as the place was still being built, now that it was complete he once more had to deal with the pain of having killed and the dread of possibly doing so again. During the following years, the blonde split his time between tending to the gardens on the Lookout and working at the school. Even though he was starting to forgive himself for taking lives, he'd still kept himself isolated, traveling only between the school and the Lookout and nowhere else except when asked to do so by Geurin himself. Even though it was usually only after a great deal of cajoling. He still trained daily, ever improving himself but never ventured away from those two destinations. It wasn't out of fear that he would have to deal with troublemakers again, he'd dealt with one or two at the school and cooled a few trouble spots for Geurin, but fearing that outside of the school and Tosio's influence he might take a life again, the boy kept himself isolated in the two places. Zach had been an anger driven monster and knew it and so had sequestered himself in self imposed isolation at the school and the Lookout to prevent that anger from ever coming out again.
Zach wasn't sure what personal growth was, frankly he didn't believe that anyone could really change, including himself. Ever since the death of his family, Zach had been driven by anger and a need for revenge. Suki had been able to manipulate him using that need for revenge and his uncontrollable anger had led him to taking life. He'd tried to control his anger but had failed several times in the past, always with consequences. So instead of trying to change that aspect of himself as he didn't think he could change that fact, Zach decided not to give his anger a chance to emerge. The five years he spent at Toshio's... His school was that attempt, keeping himself in a controlled environment where nothing could truly anger him. And it worked, for those five years not once did Zach lose his temper. Sure there was the occasional sour look or curse word during a bout but nothing that he'd ever count as truly being angry. If one wanted to compare it to the world of ancient comic books, Zach was akin to Dr. Banner, sequestering himself away to keep the dreaded Hulk from ever showing his face.
There was another odd thing that was constantly niggling at the back of the boy’s mind as time passed, although it wasn’t really at the back, more just outside of his field of vision. Zach had always been deaf to the energy signatures of others, able to sense only his own and thus having the ability to manipulate it. However in the third, going into the forth year of his self imposed isolation, he boy started to hear, or rather feel the tiniest if whispers, the most insubstantial glimmers of an energy signature not originating from his own body. At first the blonde only sensed the signature when he was laying down just before sleep, when his mind was quietest, but with the passage of time he began to feel the signature at other times, spiking periodically. All the time though Zach just attributed the sensation to stress from his job at the school, it was likely just his own energy he was feeling, the location distorted by his otherwise focused mind. By the fifth year though the familiar buzz, if that’s what it could be called, was ever present, strong enough for Zach to listen to any time he wished to tune it in, although he still hadn’t the faintest idea where it was coming from if not from himself. He had no reason to think otherwise as it felt like his own energy although was strangely separate. It wasn’t important though, at least not to him at the time, it couldn’t be illness of any kind like a brain tumor, as the genie’s magic prevented that kind of thing so as far as the teen was concerned, it could wait.
Chapter 6.
Splashing some more water on his face, Zach shook his head and ran his hands through his spiked hair. He wasn't sure what had exactly reminded him of the amount of time that had passed, but suddenly the past five years had come into sharp focus.
"Five years... I can't believe it... Nothing's changed..." Zach commented to himself as he looked himself over in the mirror. Every feature was exactly the same, his eyes, his hair, skin tone, everything.
The morning sun was just starting to glint over the horizon as Zach left the bathroom, adjusting his weighted wrist bands and exited his quarters. The trip down to the first floor was quiet, the day was still too young for any of the students to be awake and only a few of the staff were active at this time either. Entering the cafeteria, Zach noted that breakfast was already being loaded into the buffet style tables and what few faculty members that were up were already eating and conversing about the day's lessons. Zach didn't envy the teachers that had to deal with the younger students, those particular children always irked him, they either thought they knew everything already or were the polar opposite, asking questions about every little detail even if the same question had been answered already. No Zach had made sure his duties kept him as far away from the younger students as possible for as long as possible, although for some sadistic reason he did find himself getting called to one of their classes on occasion by Toshio. Although the majority of his time was spend landscaping, Zach had become friendly with much of the his staff and the usual divide that existed between the teaching staff and the janitorial department simply didn't exist as Zach wouldn't stand for that sort of thing. In addition to being the figure head Head Master of the school, Zach technically worked in the janitorial department so he made sure the various factions of the staff worked together as harmoniously as possible. Since the hour was still early and there was no line at the buffet, Zach simply grabbed himself a tray and started to fill it, starting first of course with a healthy portion of eggs. A nutritious arrangement of whole wheat toast, orange juice, milk, lean ham and some cream of wheat accompanied the high protein starter. Even after five years, seven if you count his earlier, non-steady employment, and a friendly relationship with the staff, Zach didn't really consider himself one of them, his modesty about his own skill ever present and so usually took a seat by himself. If anyone wanted to join him he wouldn't stop them but the boy didn't actively seek conversation during his meals.
The boy's meal was quiet and fast, taking only about fifteen minutes, during which time the other faculty members who had already been in the cafeteria finished their meals and went about their duties and another group of teachers who were too wrapped up in a conversation about renovations to the medical department, failed to notice him and sat at another table. Once Zach was finished, he collected his tray and returned it to the receptacle before heading out of the cafeteria and down to the maintenance office to pick up his cart. Before classes today he had to tend to the pair of indoor gardens and then weed three of the outdoor training areas. Although the building wasn't exactly the same as the original school, Zach made sure the top two floors were as close as he could get them to the original two story school. By the time the latter of the tasks was complete the morning classes would be starting and Zach would be heading to his first teaching assignment of the day, assisting one of the school's masters in target practice. Unfortunately it wasn't the type he enjoyed, when he himself was the target, no today's targets were clay pigeons destined to be blown up by the students using advance ki techniques. It wasn't the fact that Zach couldn't take the hits, quite the contrary, Zach was more then capable of taking shots from every student and faculty member in the school, including it's former master, the issue was the time allotted for the class and there simply wasn't enough Zach for all the students to get practice in on. So the solution was to set up the clay disk launchers and have the students blast the speeding targets out of the air. The second class of the day, at least for Zach as there was an hour in between the lessons he had to attend and so used that time to train on his own, was a simple aerobics class. Again Zach was assisting, this time though it was more by looking pretty then actually doing anything. The instructor would use the teenager as a model, indicating various muscle groups while explaining the exercises and what groups they targeted. Zach didn't mind the work in the slightest except for the fact that the teacher was a woman and always seemed to leave her hands on the boy for a moment too long. One of these days he'd have to make it abundantly clear to her that he was both not interested in cougars or even women for that matter and that if she persisted he'd eject her from the teaching staff.
The third and final lesson of Zach's day was right after the aerobics course and paired him up with one of the more brutal teachers that enjoyed showing his students how to inflict as much damage with their strikes as possible. This particular job Zach enjoyed the most, playing practice target. The students would unload everything they had on him, usually following the master's coaching and trying to go for weak spots like the solar plexus or ribs. Zach though would simply stand there and stare the students down, taking the hits without protest or even much of a reaction, which of course was always a thrilling sight for the students. It was just as trilling for Zach as well, he'd taken punches, kicks and even the odd energy blast from every student in the class and the greatest reaction they managed to get out of him was an extended groan from a punch directly to the solar plexus. It filled the teen with a sense of accomplishment to have taken the best shots from every student in the class and be able to just smile at them.
At the conclusion of the session, Zach thanked the class for the workout and headed off to the rest of his duties for the day, a scheduled afternoon watering of several tropical plants in the indoor gardens and an inspection of the main court yard to ensure the gravel walkways weren't migrating anywhere. Anyone who owns a gravel anything knows what a pain it can be to keep the rocks where you want them, even with elegant brick boarders intended to hold the stones inside. Once his inspection and some light raking to herd some runaways back into place, Zach was done for the day. The rest of the afternoon would be spent in private training and finally when evening rolled around the boy intended to head up to Toshio's office and see what the 'old man' was up to.
Arriving in one of the private training court yards, Zach started to stretch as he made his way out into the middle of the yard. Once he was limbered up the blonde teen started out in his usual fashion, forming an imaginary opponent in his mind and taking his usual fighting stance. In five years the stance had not changed and likely never would, the boy being set in his ways more then concrete. With his arms up high to defend his head and chest, Zach called upon his body armor technique to add further protection, although in actuality it was simply to exercise his use of the technique and add an early Ki drain on his reserve at the beginning of the training session.
Leaving the private training court yard, Zach headed first to his quarters to grab a quick shower, the day's exertions having been strenuous enough to make the teen smell a bit more manly then he usually liked. Re-spiking his hair after cleaning up, the blonde made a quick trip to the cafeteria to pick up a snack before finally ascending to the second floor of the school's upper tier. Passing by a group of giggling co-ed's, Zach shook his head, knowing he was the cause of their hormone driven hysteria. Were he attracted to the opposite gender the boy would have felt flattered, instead it happened so often he was in fact slightly annoyed. Thankfully there were a few other boys around the school that shared his tastes and he visited with them as often as his duties around the school permitted. Tonight though he wasn't heading into the dormitory wing but rather through it to the teacher's quarters. Zach soon arrived at Toshio's office and in so doing, gave the door a knock.
