Zach and Antary; Rivals for life.

[Zach]

{As per Antary’s request, this altercation is occurring several weeks prior to current events.}

It was yet another day of training on the lookout for Zach and after the session he’d headed out on the deck of the lookout to cool down. Standing on the polished floor of the floating keep, practically on the very edge of the platform, Zach looked out over the horizon. His gaze did not fall on any one feature of the Earth bellow, nor was he staring off into the sky, instead the boy was looking inward, berating himself for being off at some stupid contest and not on his home planet, protecting it as he should have. The boy's anger was seething like back in the days just after his town was destroyed, only now it wasn't just some little farming village, entire cities had been laid to waste and he wasn't there to stop it. With all the power he'd accumulated, Zach might as well have been back home, asleep when the monsters came to his town.

"They will pay... All of them will pay." he whispered to himself, closing his eyes as he imagined crushing the life out of those who had dared to attack his home. The teen had done the right thing when he'd forbade Diane to take revenge on the Saiyans who'd destroyed their home. He already knew the hatred and need for vengeance had already consumed him beyond any hope of return, now that hunger for justice was all he had left, there was no reason to leave the young woman to that fate.

[Antary]

It`s been a day at most since Antary had arrived to the Lookout. His trip here took 2 weeks, mainly because he had to run through what felt like the entire planet just to get here. Run, not fly. The weighted gauntlets he was given by his mentor who went by the simple name John were preventing any flight. It was difficult to perform the Kaioken without crushing his own arms and feet, too. Looks like the weights were entirely dependent on how well Antary could control his energy, which made it quite harder than just wearing heavy clothing. On the bright side, Antary was not just getting physical excercise, but also learning how to keep his energy focused at all times. It was constant pressure, even during sleep.

But it felt like he`ll have to remove them soon, somehow. The green man Kami told him to get ready for some special training soon, and if the old man`s training is more intense than the one he received from John, which was promised, Antary will no doubt have to find a way to remove them.

Tenshu seemed to underestimate the rate at which saiyans recover. He gave him two days for rest, but it was completely not needed. It resulted in Antary just walking around the Lookout, looking for something to do. He was itching for training right now. He just did about a thousand pushups, and that was simply a boring warm up. No, less than that.

To have some fun, Antary needed to fight. A sparring match would be just what he needed right now, and there were a few energy signatures to pick from. Well, not that many, actually. One notable. An energy signature that was not hidden one bit, causing the power to just pour everywhere. "This seems good enough." Nodded the saiyan, quickly walking in the direction of the power level.

Sitting on the edge of the Lookout was a blonde man. Looks like this was one of the few students of Kami, probably resting after a busy day. Well, this guy certainly did not seem too tired. The only thing indicating that he could have been training was the fact that the man was shirtless. Antary scratched his head, thinking over something.

"This guy... Looks familiar. Hmm, I guess I saw him somewhere before. Well, he seems pretty strong." After a bit of thinking, the saiyan scratched his head a bit more, and yelled out, calling the man. "Yo! Do you want to train a bit? I`m really bored here."

[Zach]

Zach was still gazing out across the sky, musing to himself when a voice suddenly cut into his alone time. It wasn’t Nam or Kami or even that Toshio guy, this was someone else. Zach couldn’t place the voice alone though but seeing as Kami had told him that there would be a monkey among them, it was only logical to assume the mystery voice belonged to said primate. The blonde wasn’t surprised when he turned around and laid eyes upon the Saiyan, grumbling to himself. It was difficult to keep his anger in check, but he’d promised Kami he’d try, although the other was supposed to be keeping meetings just such as this from happening.

‘He wants to train eh? Well… Wait… It’s that guy from the jungle!’ Zach thought to himself as a crooked smile started to form across his face. ‘Oh this is going to be fun.’ Making the smile look more genuine, Zach folded his arms over his chest and watched silently as the other boy approached. He held his reply until the other was within a more traditional conversational range, preferring not to shout back and forth. As the other approached though, Zach saw no return sign of recognition, apparently the Saiyan didn’t realize who he was.

“By train I suppose you want to take a poke at me?” Zach responded, sounding as friendly as he could, which was in actuality just a low monotone. “Well fine by me, I want to get my endurance up. What exactly do you have in mind?” he asked, deciding to use this opportunity to gauge just how far he’d surpassed the Saiyan. Zach knew he was stronger then his opponent now, but not being able to sense other people’s energy other then his own, he didn’t know by how much.

[Antary]

The grin on Zach`s face caught the saiyan slightly off guard, making his expression change to a confused one - Antary raised one of his brows while keeping the other low. The blond man`s reaction was unexpected, the smirk pretty much completely out of place. Or... Was it? Perhaps this guy knows something Antary doesn`t? Maybe the offer of training made him overconfident, seeing how their power levels are different, in Zach`s advantage. Maybe there is something with the saiyan`s hair or clothing? He kept the confused expression for a couple of seconds, the thinking caused the man`s words to go past his ears. The saiyan shaked his head a bit, tossing the annoying thoughts away and trying to pay attention to Zach. There will be plenty of time to think, and it is better not to clog your head with pointless thoughts that may distract you in battle. Which is exactly what Antary was planning to do.

"Well, I don`t really have anything else in my mind other than a fight. You know, beating the crap out of each other, but not to death? Sparring." A shadow of a smirk appeared on the young saiyan`s face, anticipating an exciting fight. Maybe this was also the case in the guy`s seemingly unfitting grin? Antary folded his arms as well, taking a brief pause in talking. "Or maybe you have some other ideas?" He didn`t think this man was going to refuse. Well, he certainly didn`t look like it.

Either way, Antary would disregard the answer completely. Yes or no, he would simply take his fighting stance. The weights made it hard on his hands which he had to keep at shoulders height, but he had to bear with it. The point of these things was to overcome their pressure, and get used to it. This was going to take a while, that`s for sure. The saiyan would have a full blown grin on his face at this point. "First, I need to find out how strong he is exactly."

"Come on, I`m giving you the first strike. Call that honor or something, I could care less." Giving Zach the first attack would help Antary gauge the man`s speed, strength and technique. It would be pretty easy to keep track of him even if he tried outflanking via energy sensing, but whether the saiyan will be fast enough to actually counter the attack is a different question entirely.

But there was still that annoying nagging feeling like he forgot something important.

[Zach]

‘Giving me the first hit? Or that’s rich.’ Zach thought to himself and suppressed the urge to chuckle. It was ironic that in their previous altercation, Zach had let his opponent wreck him with free hits and now his opponent was going to do the same. Evidently he must have been too overconfident to realize just how outclassed he’s become. True Kami had asked him to try and tolerate his monkey team mate, but he had a personal grudge with this one and no promise he made to the Namekian was going to stop him from having a little fun. Of course it also occurred to Zach that he could intentionally throw this fight just to build up the other’s confidence even more then it is now, and then crush him when they next meet. He liked that idea a lot and decided after a moment’s though to proceed.

“First strike eh? Well if that’s what you want…” the teen responded and unfolded his arms. Clenching his fists and jumped forward, closing the distance between the two, the blonde launched a showy right handed uppercut intended primarily to wallop Antary in the jaw and secondarily to open up Zach’s body nice and wide for a counter. To compound and damage that might be done should the Saiyan take the bait and launch a counter attack to his stomach, Zach didn’t tense up his protective abdominal muscles. In spite of his great strength, he wanted to keep a much of it hidden a possible while also looking as inexperienced as possible. To accomplish this he’d essentially be relying on his impressive constitution to keep him on his feet as his midsection was now being afforded even less protection then it usually had.

[Antary]

Antary just stood firmly, watching his opponent lift himself off the ground and charge. He was fast. In his eyes was visible a fire, a fire that Antary could see in other saiyans back on his home planet, each time they sparred. Looks like humans share that same interest in fighting as saiyans... Or maybe it`s just this guy? He does look like he has a personal grudge against Antary. It`s probably the thing he forgot about, so perhaps it`s nothing important? Eh, he`ll figure it out, eventually. Now, he had to focus on the fighting.

Zach seemed to take his time preparing that uppercut of his. Either he was for some reason intentionally showing off, or he was really inexperienced at this whole "fighting" thing. Antary was given this dodge, so he took the chance and succeeded. He pulled his head back, the hand literally passing by his nose. The uppercut was pretty fast, and the saiyan wouldn`t try a close dodge like this if he knew Zach`s speed for sure. Well, now he does.

Whatever feint the man was attempting by leaving his stomach open was ruined - his arm blocked sight. With the use of zanzoken, Antary took a slightly different stance, and instantly grabbed the blond`s arm right as he was finishing the punch. When he would try to stop the attack, seeing as it did not hit it, he would have to move it down to some extent in order to stop. Using that split second, Antary pulled Zach`s arm downwards, simultaneously swinging his fist right at the man`s face. This would be pretty painful if it hit.

Whether the attack connected or not, the saiyan would use zanzoken yet again to make a bit of distance and take his stance. "Something is not quite right. Is that green man really that bad at teaching his students how to fight, or is this guy just... Holding back? Well, I better tell him not to do that by beating him up." Contemplated the boy in the short break that was created. It was his turn to attack.

With a short cry, Antary jumped at Zach, swinging his leg at the man`s body for a kick. After that quickly followed a straight punch to the head. A simple, yet efficient combination. And they were just doing this for training, not for killing each other, right?

[Zach]

Launching his flashy uppercut, Zach was intercepted, much as planned, however he wasn’t intercepted in the manner he intended. Instead of going for the painfully obvious opening, the blonde’s stretched and un-tensed midsection, Antary latched onto Zach’s extended arm, yanked down and planted his opposite fist across the teen’s cheek. Zach’s head snapped to the side for an instant and then turned to looking strait ahead at his opponent, anger starting to become evident.

The other backed off for a moment as Zach pulled his arms into their usual defensive positions, guarding his head and chest. ‘Pft, head shots, anyone can take those, it takes a ream man to take a shot to the body and keep going. I see this little pest is going to need some coaxing to do it right.’ Zach thought to himself and watched the other boy’s movements carefully. The blonde’s opponent went on the offensive now and opened up with a kick. The movement was slow enough for Zach to intercept but he chose against it, letting the relatively low angled kick thud into his side drawing a slight grunt. Next was an immediate follow up, a punch headed strait towards his face.

‘Ah, bingo.’ Zach thought as he used his left arm, which from it’s defensive position could easily block the incoming fist without moving, to deflect the shot out wide. He then stepped in closer and used the same arm to strike back as Antary’s right side would then be open. He intended to bring his left elbow crashing across the other boy’s face and provided it made contact, would strike again with his right, a hard strait punch with much more strength then the left elbow had imparted, also to the face.

If both attacks landed, Zach intended to follow his opponent who he could only assume would fall back from suck a fast and powerful combination and continued with a solid peppering of punches aimed at the other boy’s head. “You keep throwing face punches and I’m going to turn yours into mush.” he’d issue as he pressed forward.

[Antary]

Growing a bit overconfident about the striking kick, Antary proceeded with his punch, failing to realize just how much greater the opponent`s speed is compared to that of his own. Not only did Zach block his strike, but also turned it into a counter assault, hurting the saiyan`s face in a pair of really powerful hits, stunning him momentarily and causing him to stumble back. He "woke up" to the sight of two fists flying at his head, to which Antary could only react by lifting his arms up and letting them take all of the damage. After it had been made clear that Zach was not planning to stop, the saiyan decided to try and counter his assault.

In a swift movement, the saiyan crouched down, the blond man`s fist going straight through his hair, and started spinning. With a sweeping kick, Antary expected to take the man off his feet, and then, without stopping his really fast spin, grab Zach by his foot, quickly extending his own legs in a brief jump, and then, still carrying Zach by his foot, do a flip and let the man go, slamming him into the Lookout`s floor at an insane speed face first.

If this was a success, the saiyan would hop away with a large smirk on his face. The opponent seemed stronger than him, but perhaps he was right about the whole "bad technique" stuff because of how straightforward the attacks of his foe were. The counter was pretty good, but he failed to follow up with anything truly devastating. Antary did notice the blocked strikes, causing him to cringe slightly when he imagined how painful the strikes would be if they got fast, and how many of them this man was going to unleash before stopping.

"I just need to strike first, huh. Well, I doubt I`ll be able to make enough first strikes to take this guy down quickly. He looks pretty tough... Just as tough as... Um... Nevermind." The train of thought was quickly lost because the rails ended. But he seemed to be getting somewhere.

Right now, Antary was keeping his eyes on Zach, awaiting the man`s next move. He would try to think of a suitable counter for what he does, hoping to press on the experience factor more than anything else. He was, after all, fighting for his entire life. 16 years straight, not a single day of rest. Well, not after arriving on Earth, but that doesn`t count. He had only done so recently, so that is 15 years of constant fighting. But there he goes, drifting in thoughts yet again, while his opponent is probably preparing himself for another attack.

[Zach]

Landing his counters, Zach was happy to feel the sudden shock of the Saiyan’s face pouncing off of his fist and elbow. The other stumbled back from the blows but managed to get a haste guard up and ward off the beginning of Zach’s follow up punches. That didn’t matter to the blonde, he’d simply crank up the power and break the other’s guard. This guy had to learn that the head wasn’t everything, the body was the place to strike if you want to cripple your opponent, not the face. Still, pounding the other’s face into mush would be fun until he learned to go for the midsection.

Then, all of a sudden Antary was dropping out of view and Zach’s punch was sailing right over his head. The blonde though the other might be getting smart and finally going for a body shot, he even left his abs loose as a reward for the other, but no attack came. Instead the monkey tried to pull a dirty little trick and trip him, taking Zach’s legs out from under him. Expecting a body shot, Zach was tripped up and went where his captured leg took him, arcing up into the air and back towards the tiled floor. His reaction to the flip was fast though and even though he hadn’t been able to stop the initial flip, Zach managed to use his arms to arrest his fall, ending up in a sort of pushup position on the floor, rather then the intended face smashing impact.

“Cheap shots are getting a little predictable monkey boy.” Zach issued to his retreating opponent. He wanted to get the other angry, get him fired up and take what would come. He had no intention of winning this fight but sure as hell wouldn’t just stand around like a punching back and certainly not for head shots. Pushing off, Zach landed back on his feet near the edge of the lookout and assumed his usual defensive posture, arms up about his head and chest.

[Antary]

"Monkey boy?" Angrily repeated Antary, his expression changing accordingly. "Is this guy trying to make this personal? What the hell is he thinking?" The boy`s expression seemed to gradually fall into a more serious one, like it often did when he was fighting for real. Zach took a defensive stance as well, maybe that insult was a means to provoke the saiyan, and it did its job pretty successfully. The blond guy did not seem like the most technical guy around, so maybe Antary could rely on anger to lead him into battle. "I wonder what he means by cheap shots. I think I fought pretty fairly so far. Whatever, this guy can whine all he wants, won`t change the fact that I`ll beat him up!"

With that in mind, the saiyan charged at incredible speed, and after a mere two steps was already right in front of his opponent. He didn`t want to stop there, though, and used zanzoken to give himself even more momentum to go along with this attack. When Antary reappeared to Zach`s side, his fist was already lodged firmly into the man`s stomach. Almost instantly after that contact, the saiyan extended his arm, resulting in slight knockback. After another zanzoken, the next strike was directed at the man`s chest.

Antary was trying to "distract" Zach with the pain. Distract him enough so that the saiyan could once again do a swooping kick, but this time followed with a punch to the stomach before the blonde even landed on the ground. This strike would also be backed up by a harsh slam into the tiled floor, which seemed to be almost unbreakable.

But he would not back away just like he always did after a combo like this. The saiyan expected Zach to roll back up to his feet, and if he did he would be greeted with a fist in the face. That seemingly harmless comment made Antary quite annoyed with his sparring partner, who seemed to take this way too personal. But giving up would be far too embarrassing!

And if that last punch actually connected, only then would Antary back away and give the initiative to his opponent. This was a sparring match, after all, and not a fight to the death. If it was the latter, energy attacks would probably be thrown at this point.

[Zach]

Keeping an eye on Antary, Zach grinned when the other boy responded angrily to his ‘Monkey boy’ taunt. It appeared the provocative comment had it’s desired effect, the Saiyan looked about as pissed as Zach had ever seen him and then a moment later he was gone. “Thud!” Zach’s lungs emptied an instant after as Antary reappeared next to him with his fist buried in his stomach.

“Uuuuugh…” the blonde groaned as the punch sank in, bypassing his abdominal muscles and crashing into the boy’s innards. In spite of the gap between them the punch still hurt since Zach wasn’t prepared and indeed, hadn’t wanted to be prepared. There was a sudden thrust deeper into his stomach as Antary pushed him back and then repeated the move, leveling a solid punch against Zach’s muscled chest. The blonde teen’s torso resounded with another hollow thudding sound and Zach stumbled back another step, still pretty stunned by the penetrating gut shot.

Trying to tighten up his guard to ward off any punches that might be intended to go higher then the chest, Zach didn’t see the leg sweep coming as his arms were now blocking the lower half of his vision. Having already been stumbling, his opponent took the blonde’s legs out from under him with easy but before Zach had even fallen half the distance to the floor, another crushing fist exploded into his midsection, pinning him down against the floor and blasting another breath of air from the boy’s lungs.

Zach’s innards were starting to get that familiar burn now, throbbing with a dull ache as he laid there on he cold, tiled floor for a moment. Zach had no idea Antary was reading his actions so well, then again he was very strait forward and didn’t rely on out-thinking an opponent very often. Once he’d gotten a good breath back into his lungs, the blonde tried to roll up onto his hands and knees and get back to his feet however by the time he was half way up another hard shot cracked across his face, dropping Zach to the floor chest first. ‘Grrrr, fine I’ll give him that one.’ he thought and this time rolled away from Antary before jumping up to his feet.

“Hmhmhm… Having fun?” Zach asked, rubbing his cheek with the side of his fist. He had no intention of letting Antary answer though, if it seemed too much like he was throwing the fight, the other might stop before Zach got what he wanted out of it, so Zach immediately lunged forward. Using his capacity to fly, Zach made sure his jump kept him aloft as he crossed the distance between them and intended to crash a lightning fast knee into his opponent’s chest.

[Antary]

"That ought to teach him to keep his damn mouth shout while fighting." Thought Antary, but was contradicted by Zach`s question. He was about to open his mouth to reply, but the blonde already dashed off. And to no other direction than directly at him! The saiyan grew slightly overconfident after managing to pull off such a neat little combo, and so was not prepared for a retaliation this soon. "This guy talks so damn much and doesn`t even let me reply to him. That`s just bad manners!"

The only reaction the saiyan managed to fit into the small timespan that Zach created with his speed was to cross his arms on his chest. This wasn`t an attack that one should be blocking, though. The knee slammed right into his left arm, suppressing his other arm with the strength of the hit. This block did even more harm than good, not only causing all air to quickly evacuate his lungs, but also doing great harm to his arms. Had he not been a saiyan who fought ever since birth, both of them would be broken.

Antary couldn`t stand his ground after such a hit, his feet sliding off the white tiles, he himself flying a couple meters away and gliding a bit further on his back before stopping. The saiyan blinked a couple of times, as if confused, before leaping back to his feet in one violent move, looking pretty angry.

"Alright, no holding back now! If you aren`t going all out as well, I`ll break your legs!" With a roar, Antary surrounded himself with a white aura, powering himself up into "danger levels". That is, for his opponent. Now, without the burden of having to hold back, the saiyan launched himself at Zach, performing some fancy footwork in order to put the blonde at a disadvantage, maybe even as far as outflanking him. If that was the case, then a low kick to the back of Zach`s leg would be in order. A punch to the back would simply be dishonorable.

But unless this guy was completely terrible at the technical side, fully outflanking him would be impossible. Antary would just do a few attacks to his head and chest, once again trying to set up a bigger attack. If such an opportunity appears, the saiyan would instantly change his stance with a zanzoken and drive an elbow into the man`s stomach. Simple, but dangerous. But Zach was warned - no holding back.

[Zach]

Succeeding in landing his knee, just not to the Saiyan’s chest, Zach dropped back to the ground while his opponent was sent reeling from the blow, ending up sliding across the tiled floor on his back. Grinning, Zach resumed his normal stance, hopping from one foot to the other in a confident manner. It was really more of a show to get Antary to fight on even harder, Zach wasn’t going to get a good workout unless his opponent put all of his effort into hitting the blonde. It seemed Zach’s plan was working as the other boy got back up and not only exclaimed that this battle was ‘all out’ but actually telegraphed his next move. The most likely reason was that now the Saiyan was angry and when they were angry they didn’t seem to think.

With the fore knowledge that his opponent was going to go for his legs, Zach modified his stance as his opponent approached once more, crouching slightly. Antary attempted a flanking maneuver, no doubt a setup for his afore mentioned attack on Zach’s legs and prompted the blonde teen to turn and follow the other’s movements. The leg sweep was fast but since it had been given away Zach was ready, jumping up above the sweep as Antary’s leg past beneath him. Zach was back on the floor in a flash and his opponent was back up, working the failed sweep into a barrage of punches aimed up high. The blonde was really starting to get tired of all of these attempted head shots, intercepting the fists with his tightened guard. The barrage was short lived and interestingly enough, worked into an elbow that plowed quite unexpectedly into the blonde’s stomach.

“Uuuumph…” Zach gasped and stumbled back a step. ‘He, maybe he is learning. Or it could just be dumb luck.’ he thought to himself, launching a retreating right handed jab at the other’s boy’s head.

[Antary]

Somewhat disappointed by the fact that his elbow strike caused only an "oompf" from Zach, Antary started thinking about really going all out. This whole sparring match was a bad idea. There was clearly something that Antary simply forgot about and it kept nagging to him, and this guy clearly remembers that one thing the saiyan forgot. This fight was supposed to be friendly, but was simply put, unpleasant. "Time to end it." He thought. "And I`m not going to be the loser here!"

The jab managed to scratch his nose as he jumped away from it. There was once again some distance between them, distance that was soon going to disappear as they leap at each other, swinging their limbs. This would be a great training exercise if it didn`t turn so personal for reasons that Antary does not understand. But he could feel it himself - he had a grudge against this guy. And so did Zach.

"Using Kaioken seems to be the fastest way to end this. But it`s dangerous. Maybe..." The saiyan took his stance once again, keeping his eyes on Zach. "Maybe if I use it in a short burst... I`ll win without causing too much damage to myself. But I need the right moment for that." With that in mind, Antary motioned with his hand to the opponent.

"Come."

[Zach]

Actually landing his retreating punch, Zach felt his fist impact his opponent’s nose as he stepped back and returned his usual defensive posture. These one and two hit combinations though were starting to bore the teen and on top of that he had to hold back so very much that he was getting virtually nothing from this encounter. The temptation to flatten the Saiyan was rising in his mind again and Zach had to fight the urge to simply tare is opponent to pieces. Given the power gap between them it would be an easy job, one thunderous punch to the face that would likely daze the Saiyan whether he tried to block or not and then some brutal body work to crush his rib cage and emulsify his organs.

Snapping back to reality, Zach put the intoxicatingly pleasurable fantasy of pounding the Saiyan into pudding aside and refocused his gaze on the other. His opponent ad recovered from the jab and actually had the gal to motion him to attack one more. ‘What does this guy think I’m dumb? My stance is for defense, not offense… Still I could just out run him and counter his counter if I don’t like where it’s going.’ Zach thought to himself and glared at Antary.

“You haven’t done anything yet to warrant that kind of cockiness boy.” Zach rebutted. “But if you want my fist in your face that much, you’ve got it.” he continued and with that leapt forward, not too fast as to completely out pace the other young man, but fast enough to keep him on his toes and then launched the same showy uppercut he’d started the fight with. Hopefully this time his opponent would figure things out, if not though Zach’s left was ready to block any wayward shots heading for parts of his anatomy he didn’t want struck.