Tropical Encounter

[Zach]

Following his training with Diane and a few hours to recover, Zach had set out alone towards the Gengoro Islands, specifically Wonder Island. He’d visited there on occasion and had pretty much been supporting himself by collecting specimens for the museums on Metropolis Island. The job that was dangerous without a large, armed party but when done by a single man, it paid well enough that he only had to do it once every few weeks. This was one of those weeks and so an hour or two before sunset, Zach came in flying low over the water and touched down on one of the naturally beautiful beaches surrounding the island.

He’d already made a pit stop in the city to pick up the sample container and so was carrying the large, temperature controlled box with him when he landed. Any normal person would have found it ungainly at the very least to handle, but Zach was carrying it on his shoulder like an empty cardboard box. The teen found a shady spot where some of the tropical trees overhung the beach and placed the container down there then retrieved a slip of paper from his pocket.

“Ok, first this on the list… Oh jeez, lizard eggs, gross, not again.” Zach grumbled to himself. It was no use complaining to the air though, it wouldn’t respond. Stuffing the list back into his pocket, Zach turned to the container and pulled out the drawer marked ‘1’ and started to head down the beach to where he knew the lizards sometimes laid their clutches.

[Deleted]

Ryota smiled to himself as he slashed his way through a few dense patches of leaves as he stalked through a denser part of the island's underbrush. He'd been flying around trying to find something interesting to do when he'd spotted this island it had some fairly thick tree coverage and for some reason it just drew him, it felt as if going here would lead him to some sort of wonderful treasure or at the very least something interesting to do.

Ryota had been wandering the island for a good half hour now and while he hadn't found anything of real note aside from a rather friendly brightly colored bird who'd made itself at home on his shoulder he had no regrets about this little detour, he still had that something interesting was about to happen. "Oh jeez, lizard eggs, gross, not again." Ryota's turned his head as he head a voice not too far away. It appeared that he was not alone on the island.

Deciding to check out who this new arrival was Ryota headed off in the general direction of where the voice had come from. "Oh jeeeeez, raaaaw" came a voice from his shoulder startling Ryota slightly. Evidently his little hitchhiker could speak or at the very least mimic speech. "Well aren't you full of surprises." Ryota said giving the bird a grin before running a hand down it's back. "Raaaw full'a surprises!" The bird repeated flapping it's wings happily. Shaking his head slightly Ryota continued his pursuit of the voice.

[Zach]

As Zach made his way along the beach towards where he knew the lizards laid their eggs and cursing about it under his breath every step of the way, the teen detected a faint, high pitched sound, almost like a human voice. He stopped short and looked around but saw nothing. Delaying a moment longer before starting off again, Zach waited to see if he could hear the sound again, but none came. Shrugging, the blonde continued on with his mission, the ‘oh so dangerous’ job of digging up some reptile’s babies to be.

He made it about another hundred feet down the beach before he heard the distinct sound of footsteps. By the sound of them they were coming from the jungle and approaching him. Turning to look towards the island’s interior, Zach didn’t spot any movement, but that wasn’t a surprise. His eyes were currently acclimated to the bright, reflective sand and the clear, sunlit sky. When he looked into the wooded area, everything under the thick canopy appeared as an amorphous black and green blob. Knowing someone was approaching but not being able to spot them was a little disconcerting, especially in this island so the boy announced himself.

“Hey you in there. I know you’re there.” he called and put his free hand over his eyes to try and shield out some of the light. “There’s no use sneaking around in there, I can hear your footsteps. Come one out where I can see you.”

[Deleted]

Ryota was rather surprised when as he got closer to where he believed the voice had come from it came again this time calling out most likely to him demanding that he reveal himself, Ryota couldent help but smirk a bit at that, he hadn't actually been trying to hide himself from the other person quite the contrary as he'd made no attempt to quiet his new feathered friend. But now... perhaps now he'd have to have a bit of fun. Turning his head to the bird he pressed one finger to his lips hoping the bright bird would understand. Strangely enough the bird really did seem to understand as it had been about to say something but paused midway shutting its beak. Smirking again Ryota quietly drew is sword and cut open a rift to one of the higher branches of a nearby tree.

Stepping through the rift Ryota could now see significantly more then he had from the ground and with glance around he spotted the man who had been speaking, a young man likely a human with blond hair black pants and no shirt. It made a bit of sense that the man was going shirtless here it was likely a bit warm for most people as this was a tropical sort of setting, heck the only reason Ryota wasn't effected was because he was used to far higher temperatures due to the Demon Realms over abundance of fire. Masking his power level Ryota cut open a rift a few feet behind the man and once again stepped through that one. Noting that once again the bird seemed fine with it's trip through the rift, perhaps he'd have to see if the bird would come along once he decided to leave the island.

"Raaw I can seeee youuuuu" the bird chimed in once Ryota had closed his rift "Trust me, if I'd been sneaking around you wouldn't have heard me coming. I heard you out here and decided to see what was going on. I didn't know anyone else was on the island except for myself." Ryota said with a chuckle over the birds antics before leaning up against a tree, he hoping to catch the man off guard and perhaps give him a bit of a scare though hopefully in doing so he wouldn't cause the man to then freak out and attack. While he could be disguising it Ryota was fairly certain this man was weaker than Miles a fact that was all but confirmed by Miles' own statements that on the whole humans were a rather weak race. Though like Miles this man appeared to be an exception, not nearly as much of an exception as Miles but one nonetheless.

[Zach]

Once he’d called out to the disembodied footsteps, Zach listed for them or a reply but received none, at least not at first. The boy was about to resume his trek to pick up the eggs he was after when the screechy voice of a bird mimicking speech, scared the daylights out of him. Zach’s muscles tensed with the sudden voice and he spun about, bringing his free hand back down in the form of a fist. Once he’d turned around, the blonde was greeted with the unusual sight of another blonde, young man, dressed in some outdated, fancy red getup complete with an eye patch, sword and the blasted bird that had just tried to scare him to death. The man’s words weren’t at all reassuring either, claiming that he could have snuck up without being heard.

“Funny, isn’t that exactly what you just did?” Zach responded, perhaps with a bit more attitude then he’d intended. Pausing a moment so consider if he should say anything more, Zach reasoned that there wasn’t any secret to his purpose on the island, nor was he carrying anything of value so there was little danger of being interfered with.

“I come here from time to time to collect samples for the brains back at the Metropolis Island museum. It’s a lot cheaper to send me then a whole team of guys… I haven’t seen you around here before though.” Zach continued, but stopped short of giving the man his name. First he wanted to know if the guy was genuinely friendly or just being as sneaky as his approach. Judging by the fact that the man was carrying a sword out of it’s scabbard, it was probably the latter.

[Deleted]

Ryota chuckled at the mans reaction as he re-sheathed his sword not wanting to seem more threatening than necessary as at least for the moment he was not looking for a fight. He rolled his eyes at the man's first statement and merely shrugged his shoulders as a response not quite feeling up to explaining himself without actually being asked to do so.

He nodded as he listened to the mans reasons for being here, while he personally never visited a museum as they were a bit of a rarity in the demon realm as most of what were called museums were simply one demon's personal shrine to his own victory's. He was aware of what a museum was supposed to be, a building filled with 'priceless treasures' of long ago eras, though a good deal of the things housed in them were more of a intellectual sort rather than something priceless that Ryota would be interested in.

"I suppose that's because I've never been here before." Ryota said with a shrug as he pushed himself off off the tree he'd been leaning against. "I'm mostly just exploring looking to see if there's anything interesting around here. All I've managed to find are you and my new friend here." Ryota said giving the bird's head a stroke earning a content caw from it.

[Zach]

Zach watched was the man put away his sword and shrugged at him, presumably at the accusation of having snuck up and felt slightly more at ease. It wasn’t s surprise then that he hadn’t seen the man before as he professed to having never been on the island. Zach couldn’t confirm that statement but in the end it didn’t really matter, they were both there now.

“Well unless you’re interested in nature, you’re right, there’s nothing of much interest here… Well that’s not entirely true. There are the monsters… but you hardly ever see them on the beach.” Zach responded.

“My collecting trips sometimes take me to the interior and I’ve seen a few things you might find interesting. But other then plants and animals there isn’t much here. A village but that’s about it.” the boy added and eyed the parrot. “You’re uh, welcome to come along. I’ve got to find some lizard eggs and get them back to the cooler.”

[midnightdao]

An energy flux began to become noticable between the two that were talking, suddenly a red seal appears to the right of the captain and zach's left. It grew to a noticable size, then the particles around the seal ripped and out came Dao Midnight holding a sword and looking really hard.

As the portal seals up, the nether demon knight looks at both fighters, first he stares at the humanoid with blond hair and no shirt. He then replied, "Your kind is all too common...you mortals think you can run with the globe like it's just a prize...so many of your kind i've slaughtered." He then turned the pirate. "I guarded the palace for the demon king, then got moved to be one of the punishers of majins...." He then looked at both of them. "well, we could see who's better then who, that would be a fair gain...so which one of you is up for a trial?" He asked all serious like, his white cape blowing in the wind from the sudden breeze off the shoreline.

[Deleted]

Ryota nodded as the man spoke not entirely interested in what was being said save for the part about the monsters, that at the very least was vaguely interesting as while they likely wouldn't particularly be tough to put down he could theoretically capture a few once the Galleon was up and running and bring them along for the ride let good old Kiga turn them into some new sort of dish for the crew to try out or perhaps even to be sold once the Galleon returned to the demon realm. He knew a few people back in the home realm that would die to have a few good specimens from the mortal realm to do there wierd experiments on.

Suddenly however Ryota couldn't keep his albiet slightly wavering attention on Zach any longer, he felt something odd yet a bit familiar it took a few moments for Ryota to realize that it was the feeling of another sort of rift opening. One he'd felt once before, a rift opened by the demon king himself. He'd only gotten a chance to feel that particular energy because the captain had gone to see the king and when the king had returned the captain to the galleon by chance Ryota had been close enough to the captain's arrival point to get a feel for the energy.

"What the..." Ryota mumbled just as the seal appeared and from it came a man, this man however was quite obviously demonic in origin. Ryota raised an eyebrow slightly at the man and let out a breath of relief as the seal closed behind him. He'd sort of been expecting something more impressive than what appeared to be just an average demon. Ryota shook his head and chuckled a bit as the demon spoke. Evidently this man was the epitome of the 'average demon' if his boasts about his slaughters were to be believed.

Ryota raised an eyebrow as the demon mentioned that he had been a guardian of the demon king and then went on to challenge both himself and Zach. He wondered if the demon was aware of the power discrepancy between himself the human and Ryota. "I wasn't aware the King employed the run of the mill sort of warrior. Judging by your power your nothing particularly impressive. If your so itching for a fight and my.. friend.. here doesn't mind I suppose I'll take a few moments out of my day for you." Ryota said with a shrug before drawing his blade and cutting a small rift off to his side.

"Keyra, I'm sending a bird through, keep him safe, well fed, and as far away from Kiga as possible." Ryota said before giving the bird a look that more or less said 'go in the rift' "Skwaa Keeeyraa" The bird chirped and giving Ryota a look that on a non-beaked face would have likely been accompanied by a devilish grin before heading through the rift. Just before the rift closed all around could hear the faint sound of a woman's voice shouting "Your sending a what!? OH GOD GET IT OFF OF ME!"

[Zach]

As Zach was speaking who he thought was just another man like himself, all be it an eccentric one, the man seemed distracted by something to the side. Not having yet developed the ability to sense energy in anyone but himself, Zach hadn’t detected the arrival of the third person on the beach until they literally passed into material being.

“What is this, a convention?” the boy asked rhetorically and eyed the strange looking new arrival. He raised an eyebrow when without so much as a ‘hello’ the odd fellow turned to him and started rambling nonsense about how many people’s he’s killed. That comment alone incensed Zach and the boy dropped the sample container in the sand, preparing to belt the jerk across the face, if that ugly mug on top of his neck could be called a face.

But then this uninvited guest started spouting the same nonsense to the man dressed in red. Oh the words were different but the meaning was the same and judging by the other man’s reaction, the threats were just as empty as Zach suspected. His verbal retort confirmed that but alerted Zach to some decidedly more distressing news. First, this insulting creep was apparently some supernatural being and second, so apparently was the man he’d been speaking with. The mention of a fight however was welcome and in spite of his weakened condition, Zach wouldn’t pass up the challenge.

“Are you kidding? I’ve been wanting to knock this guy’s block off since he got here.” Zach joked, making it sound as if the dæmon had been boring them with his empty threats for hours. “Oh, my name’s Zach by the way.” he added and smiled to the man in red after the bird was sent of to wherever that frantic screaming came from.

[midnightdao]

Dao Midnight looked at them both, "You wanna take me on, alright."

And with that he shot towards zain, a demonic aura comming about him as he moved to get him and on top of that, he used the maka fang fuu technique which were speedy shots all over his body just to make him faint from his skill and speed. As he was doing this, part of him was feeling the friction in the air just to see if the other opponent was going to save him.

[Deleted]

Ryota shrugged as Zach proclaimed his wish to fight the demon, while the power discrepancy was likely a bit much in favor of the demon if Zach wanted the fight who was he to deny him. Though with the demon mentioning it's slaughter of humans if the fight really did go sour for Zach he'd probably end up stepping in if for no other reason than to piss off the other demon a bit. "Fair enough." Ryota said as he took a step back once again leaning up against a tree.

Ryota's eyebrow raised as he felt the familiar sensation of a demonic aura transformation. He'd felt that sort of energy enough that he'd almost pulled himself from the tree in preparation for a fight. Getting a read on the other demons power Ryota let out a sigh, yeah this was definitely going to be a rather painful fight for Zach though if the boy was anything like Miles he'd hopefully have another form he could take in order to even things out a bit and perhaps put up a decent fight.

Ryota wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the other demon so immedietly using his aura it was a rather... underhanded thing to do which in of itself wasn't a bad thing. It gave the demon a definite edge but really how was he expecting to improve himself if he just overpowered his enemy right from the start. Perhaps it was simply a conflict of philosophy. Perhaps this demon simply preferred to fight as many enemy's as possible rather than having fewer but 'better' fights. Regardless if this was the extent of the other demon's power then Ryota was rather certain he would be fine if he used his own aura. And considering just how quickly the demon had engaged Zach Ryota was preparing himself to activate it at a moments notice.

[Zach]

After giving his name to the man in red, Zach turned his attention back to the dæmon and raised his fists. As the other powered up, Zach though it best to do that same considering he didn’t know what the guy was capable of. The boy’s red aura flowed up around him like fire and once he’d ascended into his transformed state, Zach engaged his body armor technique, giving himself some extra protection. It was protection he’d need as an instant later the dæmon bolted forward, closing this distance between them faster then Zach could react.

“Crap!...” the boy exclaimed just before the first of the impossibly strong flurry of punches started to crash into him. With his arms up guarding his head though and the chest plate doing it’s part to absorb the damage, the only part of the boy’s body that was in serious trouble was of course the part that hadn’t recovered yet. The peppering of punches left Zach’s guts in an uproar and he almost doubled over right there.. Still, he had his wits about him and this was his style of fighting, let them hit him so he could hit back. While the dæmon’s focus was down low, Zach twisted sharply and attempted to bring his elbow across his opponent’s face.

[midnightdao]

Dao Midnight struck this man hard with his defence up, it looked like he was about to drop. Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted an elbow comming to his face. (Heh, take this, you should drop after this...) He then shot his two hands foward in a king kong palm manuver, Launching a Demonic Makaimehameha at point blank range as he got hit with the elbow that zach launched. He then turned to the demon. "This is just a warm up..."

[Zach]

As Zach landed his elbow across the dæmon’s face, the boy was all set to back off and get a good breath of air. Unfortunately his opponent was moving like lightning and before he could back more then a step away, the dæmon launched an energy blast right into his chest. The translucent, immaterial armor surged with every color of the rainbow as it strained to protect Zach, even while the boy was being taken off his feet and propelled down the beach.

Zach leaned on his back with a thud and then groaned. If it weren’t for the armor, he’d probably have a hole in his chest. Luckily the protective technique did exactly what it was intended for, defecting most of the blast’s energy away. Still, Zach’s innards were wrecked by the punches he’d taken and now his pectorals ached from the residual force of the beam. The teen wasn’t about to give up and so he rolled over and climbed back to his feet and then turned to face the dæmon. Chancing bringing the third dimension into the fight, Zach lifted off and hovered about fifty feet up while bringing his arms into a defensive posture once more.