Chapter 21
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The courtyard exploded in to chaos. Tomma, Serori, and Sekkai all converged on Trunks, and Mia whirled to stop them; Bra screeched and ran to her mother, picking her up and running into the buildings, and Gohan leapt forwards in an attempt to protect Trunks. Ume took two steps backwards, balling his hands into fists. The scene was a tornado in front of him and his head darted back and forth, following the battle which quickly lifted off the ground and into the air. It was Trunks that first changed, his green eyes glowing under the golden sheen of his aura as he easily knocked Sekkai back towards Earth, dodged a kick from Tomma and sent the older Saiyan tumbling by grabbed and throwing his leg; Gohan stalled Serori. Trunks launched forward, speeding towards Mia, who blinked to the opposite end of the courtyard. Trunks let out a yell as he skidded to a halt on the gound, and hurled a mass of Ki blasts; Mia skillfully danced around them. He looked up to see Serori and Tomma screaming over their Ki blasts raining down on him; he crossed his arms in a block. Gohan fired off his own blasts, aimed to hit the ones sent for Trunks. Sekkai had lifted herself out of the ground and floated up towards her daughter. She took a defensive stance in front of the younger Saiyan, however Trunks quickly skirted the Ki blasts as Gohan’s energy exploded them in the air above him, appeared in front of her and knocked her out of the way. Trunks launched an assault on Mia – she dodged most of the attacks, but a couple sent her tumbling. She refused to fight back. Whatever anger Trunks had, it was best for him to take it out now than bottle it for later. The battle followed this formula for a tense few minutes. Sekkai, Serori, and Tomma would attempt to protect Mia while Trunks would actively attempt to attack her, and Gohan would jump in when Trunks was under direct attack. Ume simply watched as they darted back and forth, or dodged when a stray blast went flying his way. He didn’t understand this. Why had the older man, Vegeta, been so angry with Goten? And why had the purple-haired man attacked his mate? He wanted answers to the insanity going on around him. “Subayai.” Nobody had noticed when Ume had floated up in the middle of the battle – they were simply too focused on each other. The words he spoke triggered a bubble of Ki to flow out from his body, encircling them, where time seemed to distort. For Ume, the world halted for everybody but him. He moved forward almost lazily, knocking each warrior down to the ground with precisely aimed punches. “Darui.” The bubble snapped back into Ume and the warriors all impacted into the ground below, creating small craters from the force. From their perspective, Ume had simply spoken the two words and they found themselves flying into the ground. They were aware they had been hit, but...how had he moved so fast? Ume set down in the middle of the courtyard. His attack had effectively stopped the battle, and brought the focus back on him. “Please, accept my apologies,” He began, being very careful with his words, “But I don’t understand why you’re attacking one another, and what you hope to accomplish by doing so.” It was Trunks who brought himself up to standing first. He growled and spat blood on to the ground beside him. He let his power lower, and his hair lightly fell down to hang normally, the platinum blond fading to lavender. The yellow undertone faded from his eyes, leaving them blue. Ume and Trunks looked at other for a few tense moments, until Trunk raised his chin to one side, snarled, then turned and strode into the Capsule Corp buildings. The rest of the Saiyans began pulling themselves up to standing. Mia dabbed gingerly at her lips and nose – her face was laced with small cuts, her body was littered with bruises and her clothes were singed and ripped. Sekkai stood slowly, her body aching. Gohan brushed himself off, as did Serori and Tomma. “What...what was that?” Sekkai croaked, gritting her teeth. Ume tilted his head. “It’s a speed manoeuvre called Sumiyaka. I phased my body out of this planet’s time-stream for an instant. So the perception is that I moved immensely fast for a short period of time. But you can only do it for a second, otherwise it becomes unstable.” He shrugged. “It’s not a complicated technique.” He didn’t notice the bugged-out look he was getting from all of them. Tomma broke the awkward silence. “I guess we should continue introductions.” He was a bit more short with it, simply pointing at each person and saying their names. “The fellow who left was Trunks. He’s Hakuto’s mate.” Ume paused for a second. “Then why-” He was cut off. “Saiyan name.” Everyone turned towards Sekkai, who was still breathing a bit heavily and stooped over. She glared at the boy, “Your Saiyan name. Were you given one?” Ume blinked. That was an awkward question for him. “I prefer Ty’anu-” The older woman roared, prompting Tomma to shout back at her in a language nobody but themselves and Serori could understand; the Saiyan tongue. Sekkai roared back in the same language. Tomma snarled. Ume looked between the two. “Saiyan name.” She repeated. She snarled at Mia when she attempted to comfort her mother by putting a hand on her shoulder. “Ume. It’s Ume.” Sekkai straightened herself out. “See? That wasn’t so hard.” She flashed a smile at the boy, and turned to Mia, “Stubborn thing, much like -” Sekkai was cut short as Mia punched her in the face. Sekkai was knocked on to her back from the force of the punch, and a small trail of blood leaked from one nostril. Everyone tensed, waiting for her reaction. Sekkai just started to laugh as she picked herself up again. As she straightened out fully her laugh became a cackle, prompting Mia to twist up her face in confusion. Mia honestly didn’t know what was so funny. Impact. Mia felt a burning pain in her back as she was propelled forwards. Impact. Another burning pain in her stomach as she was sent upwards. Impact. A flash of black and blue and before she could respond, she was face-first in hard, compacted earth. There was intense pain around her head, and as she cracked open an eye, she saw the grinning face of her father-in-law. “You’re next, bitch.”
The rest of the afternoon made Ume feel a bit more at ease. Vegeta never resurfaced to speak with him again, although Ume had the feeling Vegeta was supposed to be testing him, or training him, or something. The older Saiyan unnerved him. It was something about the way Vegeta held himself: completely upright, with just the smallest curve through his back that lifted his chest and squaring off with a massive set of shoulders. Even though the Prince of Saiyans was by far the shortest Saiyan Ume had ever seen, his presence was massive. Not that Ume had met many other Saiyans, mind. Trunks had not reappeared either. Ume decided that he would not press the matter for today. Bulma and Bra were present for the midday meal, though both of them seem very subdued. Ume kept his curiosity to a minimum. He was well aware that he was trained for battle, and he was on a mission of subterfuge...but everything was so new and interesting to him, he nearly forgot. It was the middle of the afternoon before he snapped out of wonderment. The scouter had been quiet since he turned it back on after the morning’s scuffle, however it blipped a handful of times in quick succession. He paused for a second, reading the numbers displayed on the screen, indicating that there were several new people in the area with higher-than-normal resting Ki levels. He was promptly distracted however, with Serori and Tomma crowding in on him, declaring that he’d have to learn how to feel Ki rather than use his scouter. He was a bit confused at first, as they spoke as if using a scouter was ‘beneath’ them. He had the urge to proclaim that he had one of the finest scouters built to date; its range would let you easily communicate with someone worlds away, it had the best video and audio pick ups invented, increased security so that only he could physically wear it, and had the ability to transmit data such as power levels, body heat, heart rate, and other such things if he saw fit. He had briefly opened his mouth and then clamped it shut – for all intents and purposes, nobody but him needed to know how intricate his scouter was. Ix’bet’s portion of the mission was heavily reliant on the little machine. He’d have to think of an excuse to wear it later. He spent another couple hours going through various exercises with Serori while Tomma watched. He became very aware of his movements, and that Tomma was watching him very closely. He felt like he was being gauged, so they could see what he was capable of. He silently berated himself for using the Sumiyaka technique earlier. He'd given them something of interest; something that made him seem too above-normal, when Ume's goal was to try to be as ordinary as possible. It would make a battle with them more in his favour, as he would know the extent of their powers, but they would be severely underestimating his. He knew that he was gauging them just as they were gauging him...he felt almost hypocritical. Ume was more anxious to see the other Saiyans in battle though. He knew that Serori and Tomma both could not transform into Super Saiyans, and he assumed the same for Sekkai. It was after the evening meal that Bra approached Ume. She was smiling pleasantly when she introduced herself, and told him she was going to give him a quick tour of the apartment block he’d be living in for the foreseeable future. As they walked, she chattered on about Capsule Corp, and occasionally pointed out rooms that Ume should know. She quickly toured him around the roomy apartment, and showed him which hallways to go down to get to the kitchen, told him she’s be one block over from him if he needed anything, and then she retired for the night. He peeled out of his clothing, and removed the scouter, which blipped quietly as it switched to standby mode, and then his circlet. He wandered to the ensuite attached to the bedroom and after a couple of cold water blasts, and hot water blasts, he figured out how the shower worked and washed. He sat in a plush chair in front of the window, looking out over the courtyard, and the city beyond it. It really wasn’t so different from what Refuge was, or the pictures of Talis he’d seen...or pictures of any other Talisian world. The majority of people just wanted to live our their lives without tragedy or disruption. With these thoughts swirling through his head, Ume found sleep. |
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