A Royal Welcome (Done)

[ayame]

Ayame woke with a start. She was encased in a metal and glass orb, and immediately felt claustrophobic. Where am I? she wondered, panicking and begining to breath heavily. I need to get out of here! Crying out, she thrashed her body with full strength, trying to escape her prison. The metal easily gave away with her strike, the roof of the orb popping straight off. Ayame was suddenly greeted with the warm, comforting caress of sunlight on her face. Looking around, she realized she was in a grounded space pod. The sight of the pod caused a flood of memories to return to Ayame, memories that had been clouded by her panick. That was embarrassing... Ayame thought to herself, stepping out of the pod. I sure hope noone saw that...

According to the space pod's computer, she had just landed on her target planet of Earth, and was awakened from hypersleep shortly after touching down. Ayame vaguely remembered freaking out when she first entered the spacecraft, her fear of enclosed spaces getting the better of her. Luckily all she had to do was use the pod's hypersleep function and anesthetize herself for the duration of the trip.

Looking around at her surroundings, Ayame was a little dissapointed at the scenerey. There were few trees or any other kind of vegetation, but she supposed she would have to get used to it. "Lets see..." Ayame mumbled to herself. "There should be some humans around here somewhere. I'd like to see what they're like!" According to her tutors back on Niwa, humans were the dominant species on earth. Rising into the air, she scanned her surroundings, searching for signs of civilization.

[Antary]

Antary quickly flew through the blue sky, the wind blowing on his spiky hair. He was looking for a strong opponent, one that could surpass him in strength or at least be a fair match to him. However, the beauty of this new planet easily distracted him from his main goal. The saiyan often decided to land on places he found most pretty, and took a rest there. For many hours have he searched, far and wide, for an opponent. Hell, even a bit of civilization would be nice. The planet was indeed amazing when compared to Antary`s homeworld, but he saw how it could get annoying quickly. Finding food and water was an easy matter, especially considering his survival training since when he was 4 years old. The creatures of Earth were much slower and weaker, even the giant dinosaurs weren`t all that much of a challenge. When the night fell on this world, Antary felt weird. In the sky was some sort of white half circle, that changed places with sun at night. Perhaps this is the moon he have heard so much about back on his homeworld? It certainly gave the saiyan that feeling. He was practically sure of it. Back when he was a child, he has never seen the sun or the moon. The grey, polluted sky covered everything.

After days of travelling, Antary noticed something falling down to the planet, just a few miles away from him. He heard a loud "thump", as the metal sphere crashed to surface. "That could be another saiyan!" the warrior thought, stopping in midair. Antary closed his eyes, concentrating. He could certainly feel something from where the pod landed, whoever was there was stronger than the average human. The saiyan opened his eyes, and a bright white aura appeared around his body. Leaping back slightly, Antary then propelled himself forward, now flying at an incredibly high speed. The aura made him look like a star, leaving a white trail behind. In a few minutes, Antary could see the crator that was left during the landing. He propelled himself to the ground, slowing down as he was nearing the ground.

Once the tailed man landed, he looked at the owner of this space pod. It was a woman, with large purple hair. She looked like a human, but there was something different about her. Antary couldn`t figure out what. "A woman? I must be wasting my time here." As he turned around, he noticed the pod. It was literally torn apart from the inside. Antary stood there for a few seconds, seemingly shocked. The saiyan`s tail quickly whipped around his waist as he turned back to the strange alien woman. Gliding his right foot back, the elite-class warrior took his fighting stance. "You, the woman with big hair, fight me!" Quickly said Antary, his eyes full of excitement and fighting spirit. Yet not even a smile or a greeting. "Why am I doing this? Well, we`re about to find out." He thought.

[ayame]

Ayame had hardly begun to search when she was suddenly confronted with the sight of an approaching creature. The newcomer was flying through the air, surrounded by a brilliantly white aura. Could this be a human? She wondered, squinting to get a better look. It was a humanoid figure, apparently male, with spiky black hair. The man landed near Ayame, speaking a language that she recognized. Ah yes... English. That is the native language here. She turned her mind to her lessons all those years ago, trying to remember one of the many lessons she had been taught. It only took her a moment, and soon she was confident she could speak the language fluently.

Ayame's understanding came just in time to hear the man challenge her to a fight. She blinked, taken aback. "You want to fight me?" She asked incredulously. She was about to flatly refuse when she suddenly caught herself. This could be the custom of the land... She told herself, trying to think of a reason the man would challenge her so freely. It would be extremely rude to disrepect their culture! Deciding it would be in her best interests to accept the offer she bowed and answered: "I would gladly spar with you, sir."

On Niwa, it would have been customary to give ones name before even conversing with another person, but apparently things worked differently here on Earth. I have alot to learn to learn about this planet... Ayame thought to herself, shifting into her fighting stance. She didn't know if she should attack first or if she should let her opponent strike, so she just stayed still, awaiting any sort of prompt. In the meantime, she fluctuated her ki, causing it to blaze around her in a bright flash of violet. She was worried about whether she could still use energy attacks after her long flight, but it seemed everything was in working order.

[Antary]

Antary stood there for a few seconds, thinking over his next actions. Because of her first reaction, he thought that the woman must be really confident in her strength. The saiyan took a quick look over the location of their fight. There weren`t many trees around, it was a wide and open area. The only notable thing was the large crator left by the space pod. Antary couldn`t figure out a way to use it to his advantage. After taking a brief look around, the saiyan locked his eyes on the woman. He looked carefully as a purple flash appeared around her. Feeling her inner energy move around like that, it seemed like she was about to launch an energy blast. "She seems like a ranged type. However, I`m not." he thought, slowly taking a step to the right. "I wonder how strong she is. Only one way to find out." Quickly, Antary calculated the distance between them. A few meters. "I can jump this far, I`m sure."

And then the saiyan started his attack. He leaped at a crazy speed, to the point where his image still stood there, making it look like he didn`t move. Turning around in this jump, now behind Ayame, but still in midair. Antary quickly lifted his right leg, so that it was slightly above his head, and brought it down at a crazy speed. He was aiming straight at her head with his heel. Such an axe kick could become devastating, especially if this alien was weaker than him. But Antary was not going to hold back, no matter who his opponent is. He was expecting a challenge, however. He knew that everyone has their tricks and special abilities, especially aliens.

[ayame]

Ayame was watching her opponent curiously when his form suddenly shimmered. What is this? the wondered, before being answered by the man's foot slamming into the back of her head. Her vision dimmed momentarily, the sudden pain coming as a complete surprise. At first she thought she had been double teamed, one person taking her attention while another snuck an attack from her blindside. She soon realized that the form in front of her was an after-image, and that her opponent just moved a a speed that she couldn't register. He's faster than I originally believed... Ayame thought to herself, But I won't be caught off guard again!

Her ki instantly changed from a deep violet to a fiery red with a purple tinge. From her aura spawned dozens of red petals that leapt from her back, along with an explosion of flames. Ayame had the advantage of being able to use her ki based attacks from any point of her body, since they were manifested from her ki aura and not internally. The wave of flame blasted from behind her, in the direction of her opponent. In the meantime, Ayame contemplated her next move.

He seems to be extremely fast, Ayame observed, and adept in hand to hand combat. I have martial arts training, but it might benefit me to play this match from a long range. Deciding on her course of action, she turned around and prepared for her next step. With a push of her legs, she launched into the air, soaring backwards and away from her opponent. She planned to put as much distance between herself and her opponent as possible, hoping to get a warning next time the man tried to rush her with his great speed.

[Antary]

"That hit and she took damage. It did less than expected, but it did... What the..!?" within an instant, her aura changed to red. Before Antary could even react, he was almost fully consumed by the flames that suddenly emerged out of nowhere. Leaping back and doing a few midair flips, Antary managed to somewhat blow some of the fire away, getting out with a lot of minor burns. A lot of them were around the legs and some on the arms. The saiyan took a look over his wounds. He was used to pain, but he did not want to push himself too hard. "The burns are nothing big, but..." he stands up and takes his fighting stance again. "That was really close. It would be luck if I wasn`t of the elite. Heh." he said to himself. "But how do I fight someone who can incinerate me from anywhere?" Antary started thinking about his strategy in this battle. The opponent was tough, at least according to his last attack.

After a few seconds in thought about his tactics, Antary decided it would be a good idea to keep it at range. Perhaps a foolish one? "Only one way to find out." Gliding his feet so that they are close to eachother and moving one of his arms back, as if charging a punch, Antary started to gather up some energy in his right palm. When releasing the energy, he moved his left arm back, in the position that his right arm was, quickly gathering up some more energy and repeats this over and over. Antary was not very good at energy blasts, which resulted in some of them exploding before reaching their target, or simply missing.

After shooting off about 20 of these quick blasts, Antary leaped into the sky, trying to get a better look on his opponent from all the smoke that those blasts have caused. He shouts, causing a bright white aura to appear, and literally dives head first at Ayame. Saiyans naturally had pretty tough heads, so Antary was not thinking much of what would happen in case he`d miss.

[ayame]

Ayame’s opponent began charging and throwing a series of energy blasts. The first few missed, some of them exploding before they even made it to her. It seems he isn’t one for ranged combat… Ayame thought to herself. It was a good idea for me put some distance between us. As soon as the man began throwing energy blasts, Ayame had flashed her ki once again, this time her aura turning a violet-tinged white. From her ki spawned collection of ivory colored petals. The petals moved through the air lazily, forming a protective barrier in front of their creator. The petals arrived in place not a moment too soon, because just as they covered the area between the two fighters an energy blast exploded against them.

By now the air around Ayame was thick with smoke from the explosions. Her opponent probably didn’t even notice the shield. Ayame squinted, trying to get a better view of the man, but he had left the place he was previously occupying. Where did he go? Ayame wondered, looking around frantically. Suddenly she heard a shout from above her. The man was flying towards her at high speed, looking to ram into her. Thinking fast, she dropped her altitude by a few feet, putting herself on the other side of her petal shield. She continued to pump ki into the shield so that the petals didn’t deteriorate, and the petals themselves angled to catch the incoming fighter head on.

If the man wasn’t paying attention, he would likely slam headfirst into Ayame’s shield. She didn’t know if the man was powerful enough to break through, but even if he could the impact wouldn’t feel too great. Diane braced herself, prepared for her opponent’s strike. For all she knew, he could avoid the shield completely, and Ayame had reinforced it for nothing.

[Antary]

Antary`s plan was to strike so fast and so hard, so that Ayame would not be able to use her flames again. However, while in mid-dive, he notices that she got out of his blast barrage unscratched, and was holding a weird barrier of energy in front of her. At this speed, Antary could not change his direction, so the only way out was to make the impact as little as possible. So he flipped, so that he is not going head first anymore, but feet first. It was, however, too late to turn on the breaks now, so he ended up crashing into the barrier with his feet, clenching his teeth and his eyes now wide open from pain. The barrier did not seem to be too damaged, unlike his legs. "Well, at least I didn`t dive head first, that would have hurt! Well, now I know that I can`t really do much at range, either. So, only one way to go, then. I`m curious about one thing, though..." Antary was plotting. Perhaps if he is right this really might change the course of this battle.

"Standing" on the barrier for a few more moments, Antary then disappeared from it, leaving an unclear afterimage that looked like a bunch of lines. Now behind Ayame, the saiyan sends a couple of punches to the back of her head. He was curious if she can use this white barrier and that other fire attack at the same time. Putting his bet on that she can`t, but not getting too reckless about it, after the punches Antary quickly glides away from her, to a distance from which he will be able to comfortably assault again.

The saiyan was trying to catch his breath. He could only barely move his legs, so fighting on the ground and kicking is not an option anymore. However he kept moving them, just trying to bluff his way out. This fight was getting pretty troublesome quickly. But at least Antary now has a basic strategy. That is, if Ayame really can`t use 2 abilities at the same time.

[ayame]

Ayame felt the impact as her opponent crashed into her barrier. That seems like it hurt... she thought to herself, cringing. Looking past her barrier she noticed that he was staying in place for a moment too long. He's doing it again! Her eyes widened, but she realised the trick a moment too late. The man's fists crashed into the back of Ayame's head. She tried to move her white petals to block herself, but the slow petals didn't have enough speed to make it in time. Another punch slammed into her head, refreshing the pain. I can't take many more hits to the head like this... It's as if that's all he's aiming at!

Thankfully her opponent pulled away after only a couple of punches, obviously wary of retaliation. Ayame's white petals had faded, meaning her ki was ready for a fresh attack. She was dazed for a moment, but she quickly recovered. I need to keep an eye out for his afterimage technique... She ordered herself, facing her opponent with a determined look in her eye. I won't be fooled again. The man was staying on the move, recovering from the last clash as well.

Ayame decided to take her opponent by surprise. Flashing her ki as if she was going to perform an energy attack, she launched herself forward instead. At top speed she rushed the opposing fighter, rearing her arm back for a punch. As soon as she entered striking distance, she threw her fist forward, aiming her punch at the man's face. Meanwhile, she prepared her ki for her defensive technique, in case her opponent tried a counter attack.

[Antary]

Expecting an energy blast to be shot at him, Antary was about to knock it away. However, to his surprise, his opponent charged instead. Because of many factors that include his damaged legs and the opponent being stronger than him, Antary did not dodge that and instead tried blocking. He crossed his arms and placed them in the way of the strike. The punch was strong, and the strength of it caused the saiyan to hit himself with his own crossed arms. He was also sent flying a few metres back. Quickly regaining his senses, he quickly stops from flying away further. "This fight is not going in my favour. I have to end this, now!" and the saiyan started looking downwards, thinking over his next move. A smile could be seen on his face, as he started saying his first words since this fight started.

"You are strong. However, are you stronger than me?" The smile on his face was pretty evil looking. Throughout this battle Antary wasted his energy very quickly, and he was practically the cause of his own injuries. Ayame didn`t even really do much. But the saiyan had a plan to end this quickly, using his full power. It could cost him dearly, but if this won`t work, nothing else will. "It`s time that we see about that. I`ll end this battle in... 30 seconds. Brace yourself." He took a deep breath and closes his eyes. He was calling out every bit of energy left in his body. "Ha!" shouted Antary, before disappearing and leaving an afterimage, then another one behind Ayame, and, expecting her to turn around, another afterimage in front of his last afterimage. After "setting up" his traps, he waited a little time a few metres above his opponent, waiting for her to use that flaming wave to retaliate. To not waste the momentum and the confusion of the opponent, the saiyan dives, trying to hit her with a two handed attack, sending off a bit of energy with it, using it to try and knock Ayame downwards, not for damage, but to get some distance and win time.

Now panting heavily after all those zanzokens, Antary flies higher, and once the distance was pretty big, whips his arms back, gathering up whatever energy he has left. A bright white ball of ki appears in his hands, and shortly after, an intense electrical like aura surrounds him from head to feet, however Antary does not seem damaged. "See the extend of my power! Saiyan Soul!" Moving his palms towards Ayame, he releases a fast, bright and powerful beam of energy. He could always try and release it before charging it up to the maximum, should Ayame try and attack before that.

[ayame]

Ayame's punch slammed into her opponent's arms, launching him backwards. He recovered quickly, and looked at Ayame, apparently thinking over his next move. A smile crossed his face, and he started talking about how he would end the fight in under 30 seconds. Tough words. she thought to herself, smiling at the man's arrogance. We will see if he can back them up. She kept her eyes locked on him, careful of any tricks he might pull. Suddenly his form shimmered, and Ayame knew that he was attempting another afterimage attack. "Not this time!" she called out, swinging her arm out behind her trying to strike him as he appeared. He fist instead swung through open air, another afterimage in the way.

Ayame knew she had been duped again. In a split second she covered her head, knowing that her opponent would most likely aim for it. She quickly felt a double handed attack on her blocking arms. An energy blast also issued from the man's hands, throwing Ayame downward. Ayame was prepared for the onslaught to continue, and she was planning to counter attack, but the other fighter had other plans. He had already risen high into the air, and was charging a massive energy attack. Ayame's ki flashed deep violet, and she contemplated whether she should try to attack or defend. It's been a while since i've had to use so much energy in a battle, but it's almost over. Her ki changing from purple to purple-white. Petals began to form from the aura around her body. This is going to be a big one... I'd better put some serious strenght into this barrier.

Ayame's petals shifted in front of her, and at the same time her opponent fired a huge energy wave at her. Lifting her arms up to brace the shield better, Ayame closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. With a jolt, the enemy's energy attack slammed into Ayame's petal barrier. It held, but she could feel her energy draining, the petals feeding off of her ki to stay strong. Ayame pumped all she could into her defense, but she couldn't last forever. At this point it was a fight between who could push their energy the farthest.

[Antary]

"What`s the matter?! Why did it stop!? Darn it! It`s that shield again, I bet! I`ll break it!" However, Antary was at his limit. His electrical aura already disappeared, and the beam started decreasing in size. As if water, the white beam was gliding off the bareer and downwards, to the ground. It caused a lot of damage to the surrounding territory, the ground splitting up and shaking. Antary however could not see anything through the beam, blinded by its light. However the beam was quickly fading away, soon bringing back the visibility of the area. Antary felt that there was something in the way of the beam, and he was right. The beam was fading away, so that the saiyan can gather up energy for one last push. He knew that he lost this battle already, but he simply had nothing to lose. Except for his pride. Now he was simply lowering the casualties of his pride.

Moving his hands away slightly, still using the beam that have now become really tiny compared to what it was, the electrical aura started returning. It have gotten just as intense as before, if not even more. "I must find the golden middle... If I gather more power that I can, this will be useless... If I don`t gather enough power, it will be just as bad!" The saiyan closed his eyes, concentrating. The beam was about to disappear completely, when Antary shouted. "I`ll break you!" He thrusted his palms forwards, releasing an even larger beam than before. It probably could consume Ayame completely, and also blew up quite a bit of terrain. However, this beam only lasted around 3 seconds.

After that, Antary started falling. He could not move any part of his body, he could only look upwards, into the blue sky. In mere moments, he couldn`t see even that. Have this battle not taken place, he would probably be able to lower the impact of the fall by using trees, but the surrounding terrain only had rough brown ground. The saiyan opened his eyes for a moment once he fell, but quickly lost consciousness once again. Thanks to his natural saiyan strength and toughness, he survived. But it still hurt a lot.

(I`ll be taking PL for this one.)

[ayame]

Ayame's opponent's attack withered, dropping drastically in strength. Thank goodness! She thought. I'm not sure how much longer i could have stood that... She began to lessen the amount of energy she was putting into her shield, keeping it strong enough to deflect the man's powered-down energy attack. She was extremely low on ki, not used to wasting so much in such short spans of time. After this is over, i need to work on my energy consumption... She told herself. She needed to make sure she could last in battles much longer than this one.

Suddenly there was a burst of strength from her opponent. His attack surged forward, even stronger than it had been originally. Ayame knew that her now flimsy shield would no doubt shatter under the pressure of the attack, and there was only one thing left for her to do. Cutting off the energy to her attack completely, Ayame crossed her arms over her face, curling her body up. Her eyes began to glow purple, and her veins now became visible through her skin. The rosebud technique was a transformation available only to the highest class of Niwaans on her home planet. The move taps into the plant ancestry of the user, coming closer to the "perfect being", a completely half-and-half form of plant and animal life. At the her normal stage, she was about 95% animal, with only 5% plant in her blood. At Rosebud, her plant level rose to 15%, not yet close to 50-50, but signifigant enough to warrant a 3x boost in her speed, strength, and toughness.

The energy attack washed over Ayame, and she could feel it burning at her skin. If she wasn't transformed, the attack would have definitely rendered her unconcious, perhaps even worse. As it was she was in extreme pain. It only lasted 3 seconds, after which the wave died off comletely, it's user falling out of the sky, passing out on the way down. She sighed, glad that it was finally over. With difficulty she reverted to her imperfect normal form. It was always tougher to change back from rosebud, but if she stayed in it too long she would turn into a tree. She had seen it happen to others, and it could easily happen to her if she wasn't careful. Looking again at her downd opponent, Ayame walked away. She have much energy to spare, and didn't want to fall out of the sky trying to fly to civilization. Eventually she would have to run into some kind of transportation. She hoped.

(I'll take PL)

[Gray Callahan]

800 PL rewarded each.