Ophelia mulled the situation over, the gears turning in her head and in her eyes as she looked between Gokan and his sister at the explanation they'd given her. He was strong - very strong, and that was... Natural? It seemed unreal to her - almost as unreal as her own powers seemed to normal people, Gokan and his sister aside. But something passed from brother to sister and back again that damn near had the status of telepathy.
There was unspoken communication. Shame it went over Ophelia's head. Dimly though, Fee reflected that admitting she was a spy was probably a social faux pas. Too late now. But that was when, to the Oracle's horror, Gokan started to glow! He tensed, calling this natural energy into his arm! That wasn't so bad, though the feeling that flooded the room from his energy made her feel... Curiously heavy, small, and insignificant. For a moment she felt like how an ant must, looking up at a human about to step on her and flatten everything she loved. But that feeling wasn't more than fleeting as his muscles JERKED and she started forward, concern on her face, her slender hands touching his arm gingerly. He was very, very warm to the touch.
But then the penny dropped, and operated her brain. This power... It wasn't super at all, was it? It was like Volschitzu or Captain Generica, she supposed - strength. She smiled a little and nodded "I... Think I understand... Its... Not that you have powers... Its strength, that's all. But what do you mean by that? Cut yourself from yourself...?" She asked, somewhat shyly.
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Post by Gokan Bushino on Dec 24, 2014 13:00:50 GMT
She was confused. Gokan had forgotten what that was like. Sometimes, it was hard to remember that the people who knew about his secret was a relatively short list--up to four people now that Ophelia was included in on it (and six if you count those people he encountered while fighting that seafood monster thing downtown*!)--and the last time he explained what he could do and how he could do it was years ago.
He placed a hand on Ophelia's and patted it as a sort of thank you for her concern of his well being and started to relax himself, or at least tried to in spite of his increasingly sore muscles. The entire time, he couldn't help but wonder how far he could push himself. In either the encounter with the monster or those gang members before that, the Saiyan hardly tapped into his abilities and operated well within the confines of Compression at that. It was a strange thing that even though he Compressed himself to prevent power stagnation and promote some growth without going into the wild and cray training sessions he engaged in during his youth, not once did he really see how far he could go.
One day, and not in the living room.
"That part is kind of...hard to explain." What would he say? Explaining the purpose of his limiter was something he really couldn't do without touching on his past; Gokan didn't want to think about that at all. Bad enough his thoughts have a habit of keeping him awake at night, he didn't want to purposefully go down that route during the start of his day. "Well, you see, I have my natural strength, and then I have my ki. I can use my ki to augment myself. But where I'm from, things weren't as fragile. I mean, uhh, being careful and delicate was never a concern of mine. Long story short, I figured out a way to use my ki to limit not only my usage of it, but also to restrain my body so that I'd be more....regular, I guess. You know, so I'm not accidentally flipping cars when I get angry or something. It also helps keep me in shape; it's like walking around with weights on all day, except that I can control how heavy the weights are.What I did just now was kind of you trying to run full speed underwater."
The girl in the saiyan's livingroom nodded as he spoke, watching his eyes closely and staring at him as he spoke. It struck a chord of a sort, made plain to her the truth of his words - and more than that, they spoke to her personally. She knew how that felt. She knew exactly how that felt - to live in a world of glass. To have power, to have reckless strength nobody could seem to match, and yet... live in a world made of plastic and paper, of glass. Some might have reveled in that power, but that wasn't Gokan. Her either. It spoke to her. Her expression grew somewhat tense as Fee replied, voice hushed as she felt over his arm again, looked away.
"I... understand what that's like, Gokan. I... really, truly do - more than you could imagine. I have no doubt at all that we are two very different people, from two very different walks of life... but this much we share - this restraint." She nodded, and a ghost of her usually sunny smile met her lips. Ophelia blew out a breath, and scratched an itch on the back of her neck. Even now the implants itched a bit sometimes. "I wonder if everyone who has special talents goes through something like this? It wouldn't surprise me terribly." she said.
"But... that's what my implants do." she tapped he back of her neck with her thumbnail. Tink tink. "They help me regulate and control my... abilities, such as they are, so I don't hurt people either. What you saw before was..." she trailed off, glancing back at the kitchen. There was a haunted look on her face, a bit of fear mixed with regret and simple vanilla stress "... not the half of it." she finished, and looked at them again. She had to force herself to. Why had she said all that? It was like prodding a bad tooth to see when the pain would come - she couldn't help but be curious...
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Post by Gokan Bushino on Dec 25, 2014 10:15:47 GMT
Gokan could see it in Ophelia's eyes that she likely understood what he talked about. They may have two different sources, two different types of abilities, but it all boiled down to the same desire to remain in control, to not accidentally do damage or harm to anything or anyone. Though in Gokan's case, it was more about assimilating more than anything. Even before the war that claimed his parents, seeing people leap and fly all over the place in spite of the fact that the majority of the population wasn't uncommon.
Here, they seemed to be extremely, extremely rare, with the Hero Force making up the entirety of all known individuals. And by Gokan's estimations, they didn't even seem all that impressive.
Regardless, Eden wasn't the place where people like him really went out and expressed their power, so he opted to abide by standard societal conventions. Based on the snippet of what Ophelia had unleashed in the kitchen, he was sure that she had it much, much worse than he did. She highlighted the various nodes across his body--prompting Gokan to realize that he wasn't seeing things earlier after he glimpsed her naked body (and remembering that he glimpsed it this time)--and explained that they allowed her to control her powers.
He couldn't even imagine what it was like to have to rely on something like that to help him manage his ki. He was lucky to have been trained by his parents and Master Gen; lucky to be blessed with the aptitude to come up with his heavy handed technique to Compress his power. Ophelia wasn't that lucky, and that must've been hard. "Strangely enough, I'd like to see an actual half of it. One of these days, you gotta show me."
The girl looked more startled than anything, and her first knee-jerk response was to tell him that you didn't play with a loaded gun. But he wasn't scared of her powers exactly. She'd told him about what she had, her problems, and he'd just rolled with it. He even understood, she felt. A child's pain was eased a little, and after a moment's thought, she nodded at him.
"Yeah... Okay, I can show you, some... I mean... we'd have to go somewhere else to do it - I wouldn't wanna hurt anyone or damage your beautiful home, but... alright, if you want." She said, fingering her hairband a little bit. Her glasses finally finished 'waking up', and a feed of text appeared across the bottom. 3 missed messages. 3? She barely ever usually saw one in a week, much less three in the time it took her drunk tush to fall in bed with a stranger and eat a hangover breakfast the following morning. Three messages!
The girl looked distant a moment as she tapped where her glasses met her temples, he contact point, and pushed a tiny button. The feed said a couple things
2: ========Irregular hormonal activity detected: Diagnosis, sexual stimulation==================
She visibly blushed, and bit her bottom lip a little, trying to avoid Gokan's eyes a moment. She felt slightly dirty and still a bit sore. She wondered if she'd need to do a report or something about that?
And her blood ran cold. She went bloodless in the face, pale as a sheet, and glanced at Gokan. No, he wouldn't have had the chance. His sister? She glanced at her, then wrote it off as a no way. She darted from the room suddenly with a squeaked "Excusemepleaseamoment!" and ran to Gokan's room full tilt, literally flying up the stairs. The bag was already opening, in which she found... she found... a pair of ladies yoga pants, some gym shorts, and lingerie! She covered her mouth, eyes huge!
Oh... Oh no. Oh... no, nono, no no NO! She felt a flash of anger and the pink bag tore in half with no more effort on her part than someone might tear a piece of paper. Someone... stole her bag! The barman? He was an old fella, just a man... she didn't remember anything after dancing with Gokan - it was just a blank. Had she grabbed the wrong bag? She'd paid the man to watch her things for her...! He wouldn't have... double dealed her, would he? She felt betrayed, angry, and.. knew she had to get ahold of herself, that she shouldn't get worked up like this... but...
Frustrated, she struck the bed with her fist, and shook her head, hanging it low. "... Damnit... what am I gonna do..."
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Post by Gokan Bushino on Dec 25, 2014 10:54:13 GMT
There was a tingling sensation that started in the Saiyan's gut and eventually rolled throughout his entire body, prompting a slight smirk to stretch across his face. She agreed to give him a show of her power; her true power. He wasn't familiar with everything that encompassed being a Saiyan--their innate curiosity of power, their lust for a challenge--and in some cases, Gokan was somewhat timid in comparison to what those who knew of Saiyan's expected of them. Even so, whether it was biological or simply his inquisitive nature, the former warrior monk was truly excited to be able to witness Ophelia demonstrate her power.
Maybe it'd get him in the mood to express his further? After all, it's been a good while since he'd even used a decent amount of power for anything other than making lifting a gallon of milk feel like he'd tossed a car over a mountain. Now was as good of time as any to start flexing muscles again at the very least.
And then Ophelia ran off, and Gokan was confused. Aimee was confused. Everything was fine and then...she ran off. "What the hell?" The two, in nigh-unison, bolted out of the kitchen and followed Ophelia in her wake, arriving at the threshold of Gokan's room to watch the woman tear through her backpack in a frenzy.
Ophelia couldn't find the words at first. She had to get ahold of herself first, or the worst cold happen. She doubted verymuch she could hurt Gokan, but firing a gun was NOT a valid response to a kind inquiry from a kind man who had been very generous so far to her. She hung her head and her shoulders slumped, her anger dampened instantly by the thought of him turning her out, getting angry at her. She turned, and said sadly "Someone... stole my backpack." she said, and motioned to the one in shreds on his bed behind her.
"... This wasn't it. Do you remember.... remember where we drank last night? I came with a friend's daughter and...!" she cut off, and looked horrified "Oh... They must be worried, too! Oh nonono..." she sat on the bed, head in her hands "Craaap..."
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Post by Gokan Bushino on Dec 25, 2014 11:19:37 GMT
Reading body language was not his forte, but even he could see that Ophelia was highly disturbed over the loss of her backpack. First instinct would be to say 'hey, it's just a backpack', but of course he didn't. What if the backpack had special meaning and sentimental value to her? Maybe she had some important documents in it that related to her spy work? If she were as much of a spy--or as little of a spy, rather--as she claimed to be of course. If her profession proved to be true and there were important documents in the backpack, who knew what kind of info she toted around with her?
The longer he thought about it, the less likely that seemed. Thankfully, Aimee had a habit of hitting the nail on the head.
"Your backpack," She said as she moved into the room to help comfort the distraught telekinetic, either ignorant or uncaring of how dangerous something like that was given Ophelia's current, sensitive emotional state, "You said your implants helped you control your powers. Did you have something in your backpack that went with them?" The light bulb went off in Gokan's head right at that moment. He glanced over Ophelia once more and looked at the implants; they kind of looked like plugs. Maybe she interfaced with something? He wasn't entirely sure.
"Yeah, I know exactly where we were. Just let me brush my teeth and we can head out."
Ophelia tensed somewhat as the girl moved in to attempt to comfort her, and shut her eyes tight, but she wouldn't hurt the girl. She knew that in her bones. Even so, she fought an urge to remove her hairband. It would have done too much to damage her own trust in herself to do so. Maybe that wouldn't make sense to someone who wasn't as comfortable with her powers, but it made sense to her. She allowed it.
"Yeah, there is... Its... like a suit - it helps regulate and refresh the compound in my implants, lets me use my powers at higher thresholds when I need to... If someone's tampering with it, it could... it could be really bad. I gotta get it back - no telling what could happen. God... god I am dumb as a rock sometimes!" she explained, and barely noticed that, very gently, a bulb on the bedpost was unscrewing itself with a precarious little 'squeekiesqueekiesqueekie!' sort of noise, She noticed that she was fiddling with it, and let out a stressed breath, reaching over to screw it back in.
She watched Gokan go with a guilty glance and nodded to him, and to his sister. ".... I'm sorry about this." she said dejectedly
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Post by Gokan Bushino on Dec 25, 2014 12:02:42 GMT
A suit that helped regulate her abilities? Both Gokan and Aimee paused a brief moment to imagine just how such a contraption would look. Based on how obtuse and cumbersome some of the ports along her body looked, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that whatever the suit was, it was likely just as awkward in various areas. Regardless of visual appeal, it was something that helped her control her telekinetic abilities, so getting it back was imperative. Not to mention, with the way her words trailed off, something catastrophic could happen if those who didn't know what they were doing tampered with the suit. All things that likely went over Gokan's head, but what mattered was that they get the original backpack back; more focus on that and less on what could happen if they didn't.
"No need to say sorry girl," Aimee said with a slight smile, "I blame this all on Gokan anyway!"
Nothing that brother-depreciating humor to ease a tense situation.
Later Downtown, Vargas Strip
The drive to the world famous Vargas strip was longer than wanted or anticipated. A little bit of it, in Gokan's opinion, had to do with the fact that he allowed Aimee to drive--he was, after all, still fighting back a killer hangover despite appearances to the contrary--but it was mostly due to the fact that they unfortunately caught rush hour traffic. The downside to living in a major city or metropolitan area was the fact that traffic jams could happen, and a lot of times, especially in a tourist trap such as Vargas, especially the downtown areas, they happened randomly and without any significant reason.
Their current situation was caused by someone opting to take a picture of the highrises, skyscrapers, and casinos that littered the skyline rather than focusing on navigating traffic; something that did nothing to alleviate the Saiyan's headache once Aimee was close enough to the source vehicle to discover the cause. Eventually, the trio made it to their destination, the Imperial Hotel and Casino. And once inside the casino proper, Gokan lead the way to the Algonquin Lounge--its name was somewhat a misnomer since there plenty of room to do more than lounge. A lot of clubs tended to be closed during the day time, but the Algonquin Lounge operated in a limited capacity as a standard bar during the morning and afternoon hours.
Gokan led the way inside, keen on keeping an eye out for anyone who might attempt to hassle his sister--she was under the legal drinking age after all (though it really didn't matter because she had a fake ID that Gokan didn't know about)--and simply allowed Ophelia to take over with her search.
Ophelia was mostly quiet during the car ride, her eyes shut and her head laid back against the back seat's rather comfortable cushions. Cars were something she was still getting used to, but she had gotten over the motion sickness some time before coming here to Ravertia. She wasn't overly interested in the journey to the casino she'd visited the night before, it seemed.
It took her some time to gain center. But gain it she did as she let her senses flow out, let the dull pulse of her spatial sense throb out, out of the car, out over the passing lanes and other vehicles, into them, through them, and it was soothing. The world seemed to make more sense like this - everything simple, everything people, machines, and movement. She got a good feel for the overpasses and occupied her thoughts with making a mental map of the area as they went, pushing out as far as she could, the green light invisible in the light of the sun.
That was why she noticed that a couple vehicles, SUVs, were tailing them. Four men each inside... she concentrated, brow furrowing a little as she focused on the car. Four men in each car... no, three men and a woman in the first, and four men in the second, all in casual clothing, but with jackets... and... police holsters. Holsters? No bulbs on top though - they weren't cops. But the cars were denser... the glass thicker, and the materials felt... odd. Thicker, for one thing, denser materials than was in any other car on the road in that moment. And... in the back, there were guns. Assault rifles, shotguns, the rear car even had a rocket propelled grenade launcher! And these two vehicles were... following them. They kept well back, and didn't turn exactly at the same times. Professionals, she supposed. Anyone else wouldn't have seen them coming.
Well, she had. Her mouth drew into a thin line as they took the turn behind them. She opened her eyes again, pushing up her glasses with the middle finger of her right hand, green light glinting a moment off her glasses. She kept dim track of the vehicle from that moment forward.
The casino was not as beautiful in daylight as she had remembered it. The stonework was lovely and had nice contours though. The design of the architecture subtly reminded her of the female form, all soft curves and grace despite its modest daylight face. The inside was already abustle with activity, and as they got inside, the SUVs pulled up into parking. She didn't have long before whatever they wanted became plain.
She glanced at Gokan. She was tempted to tell him what was going on, but she didn't want to get him in trouble too. This was her problem. She'd sort this out herself - him and his sister had done enough already. She caught the barman's eye, and caught the way his eyes bulged a moment behind his walrus mustache as he saw her. He hid it quickly. She beamed at him cheerily, and waved, walking up to the bar.
"Hello! Can I get you anyth-" he began, jovial, and she set down a shred of the pink backpack he'd sent with her last night, and her mouth set into a thin line. "Where's my backpack?" she asked, more calmly than she felt.
He was sweating. "Dunno what you mean - that WAS your backpack, wasn't it?"
"No, it wasn't. Look mister" she peered at his name badge "Mister Davis. It was mine, and I just want it back, that's all. I just wanna know who has it - I don't wanna make trouble for anyone." she said, plaintively. "I just need my pack, ok?" and he became uncertain. He felt guilty, visibly, and sighed. "Please!" she added, pleading with him.
He almost told her. He almost did. But he glanced behind her. Those people walked fast, and must have taken a back exit. Six fanned around the room. One was walking towards he other end of the bar like he was another customer, and he last was approaching her back. All bases loaded, the home team down by one and seconds left on the clock. She saw him lock his jaw shut. And she saw the man's gun in his hand behind her. He didn't notice as his clip came loose and floated down to the ground like a feather, though.
She, rather. The woman put the cold barrel of the pistol to Ophelia's side, nudged, and sat beside her. Ophelia didn't look, but said "Could I have a cola?" she asked, quite calmly, a smile playing on her lips. "One for my friend here, too." she said, and he barman gratefully moved away. Only then did she look at the woman beside her.
The agent was pretty, about ten years older than her and she looked very, very tired. Steel glinted in her eyes though as she said "Come quietly. I really don't want trouble either." she murmured. Ophelia gave her an apologetic look, and met her eyes a moment, then pointedly glanced back at the clip on the ground, which wiggled a little as if waving. The agent followed her gaze, saw, had a doubletake, then glanced at her gun.
"Sorry..." Ophelia said, and meant it. "But... I just want my backpack back. That's all I want - its mine." she said, conviction in her voice. The woman's jaw tightened and her teeth ground, but she blew out her breath through her nose in irritation.
"Kid, I don't know what he hell you did, but there's a bullet in the cham--" but Ophelia slowly put the bullet on the table, as if she'd had it in her hand. She'd pulled it out of the barrel. The agent's mouth fell open in shock and no small measure of horror.
"What the hell... are you... how the hell did you do hat..." she hissed, voice deadpan.
Ophelia sighed. "Look. You've got six guys surrounding me. None of them have clips either. I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to make trouble for anyone. Just... give me my stuff back. I'd be happy to talk, but you're not forcing me to go anywhere. Not now, not ever." She said, and noted with satisfaction as the men all checked their guns - empty to a man. She could hear cussing, and frowned.
"I really could do worse. I don't want to." she said, sadly. The female agent merely said one word. One simple word.
"Mop." Just then there was an explosion of glass, a POK of plaster, and Ophelia had just enough warning to turn a bullet that would have introduced the inside of her head to the outside world into a rather militant paperweight, an inch from her shocked eyeball. The woman was already moving, not waiting to see if the bullet had struck its target, diving for the clip on the ground. She raised her weapon, pulled it to chamber the round, and fired, in a bullet time style dive - one single fluid action. Ophelia squeeked as the world filled with light and thunder, and stopped that bullet too - barely. Her head pounded from the alcohol the night before, boom boom boom, pulsing in her ears and she floated up out of her chair, and behind the counter, quick as a breath. They tore into it. They gave that poor countertop everything they possibly could, emptying their handguns in her direction. She balled herself up as tight as she could, and shielded desperately.
Seven or eight shots pinged off her shield, careening wildly around, and she only dared to relax a bit once she' felt, dimly, the agents around her pull out fresh clips. She didn't have her suit - she only had her headband, and she was to take on this many people, plus a man with a high powered rifle? The bullet floated into her hand and she glanced at it. .50 cal, anti-material rifle. Holy shit!
Time to counterattack. She wouldn't kill them - she wouldn't even badly hurt them, but she had to stop them shooting her, and had to prevent stray bullets from ripping into bystanders! Dear god, did she have a great job or what? She felt out the woman as she slotted another clip into place, grimly determined, and formed a small ball in one hand, compressing her will. She tossed it, like a ball, over the counter and it bounced once or twice. The woman looked up in time to see the sphere, and then hell dislodged its boot up her ass, the concussive wave throwing the precariously held gun from her hand as it burst, and knocked her flat with a WHUFF of expelled breath, stunned.
Ophelia rose and shifted position, crawling on hands and knees towards the exit, keeping her head down.
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As Ophelia went off to to her thing, Gokan finally gave up on attempting to fight against the pounding of his head and immediately moved over toward the nearest table to take a seat, his sister but a handful of steps behind him. Normally, he would've been one to follow Ophelia up to the bar out of general common courtesy, and likely to score himself an early drink--it was 5pm somewhere, after all--and be on with his merry way, but he was currently miserable, and his head was insufferable. Sure, the Saiyan had felt worse in his life, way, way worse, but that was no reason to simply not be peeved over the fact that he was suffering from his own excessive drinking the night before.
"Hey, give me some asprin." Gokan blurted to his sister with an overly demanding tone.
"And what makes you think I just carry asprin with me?" She promptly responded with a sneer, "I'm not a damn medicine cabinet." Gokan glanced up at Aimee and the two locked their eyes. Their staredown was incredibly brief, and though Gokan's expression hadn't changed, the teen knew exactly what her brother was going to say--she grunted in mild annoyance as the thought streamed through her head. "And don't you dare say that it's because of girl ish--" She paused for a moment and started to glance around the room. Aimee, like the rest of her family and like the majority of the world, wasn't like Gokan in the slightest. She didn't possess the kind of strength a Saiyan had, she didn't have the ability to manipulate ki, nor did she have the sort of enhanced senses that usually came with that territory.
But like a lot of people, she had an intuition; she had a gut feeling, and right now, she felt like a thousand eyes were right on her.
Out of pure instinct, the young woman turned to her right, eyes panned past the telekinetic talking to the bar keep, and toward the emergency exit. A man was there. His stance and posture told her that he didn't fit in, didn't belong. He wasn't a typical employee. Bouncer maybe? If so, why was he way over near the exit and not toward the front? The place was empty aside from them, so it wasn't like he would've had much of a job to do. The sudden interruption of Aimee's sentence and the silence that ensued hadn't gone unnoticed by the Saiyan, either. Though he broke eye contact with his sister and stared into the table moments earlier, he looked back at her once she stopped talking because she never stopped talking.
He didn't say anything though, he simply caught her glance and followed her eyes around the room. He spotted the man toward the rear exit not too long after that. "Aimee..." Gokan's posture shifted from a slump to a more upright position, and his muscles tensed. He turned toward the bar where Ophelia was and practically grimaced at the sight; she was pretty much surrounded by people who hadn't been inside the bar a heartbeat ago. It quickly became clear just how outnumbered they were, and there were a lot of eyes on the two siblings while most of the attention was on Ophelia and the lady that now conversed with her. As tempting as it would have been to stand up and walk over, Gokan reigned himself in, not wanting to leave his sister anymore vulnerable than she already was.
This woman told him straight up that she was a spy and he dragged his sister along anyway! What kind of a moronic asshole did that?
Mental ass kicking would have to come later, he had to make sure things didn't go too sideways inside of the bar.
Hah, good luck he had with that. Everything went to hell before he could even move.
"Mop."
It was the only word out of the entire bar conversation that he heard, and it introduced a cacophony of violence in its wake. Glass shattered and shot through the air. Gunshots rang out. Chaos erupted. Gokan tipped the table over and shoved Aimee to the floor. The repetition of of brass and lead exploding from chambers in rapid succession would do nothing to improve the former monks current health, but his health was by far the least important thing he concerned himself with. Ophelia managed to do some to reduce and redirect the gunfire, but she needed help, though Gokan would've intervened regardless with his sister's well being in jeopardy. Compression was already being removed from his body; a slow process based on just how Compressed he had himself, though low level usage of the Great Surge helped to bypass that. There was a brilliant flash of red that washed over the entire room for a handful of seconds, and then the Saiyan went on the offensive.
The nearest man to him had emptied the chamber of his weapon of its contents and ejected his spent magazine and quickly began the process of reloading his handgun. A heavy hand collided with the weapon before he reloaded with enough force to send the gun to the floor and shatter the tile. As the man turned to face his aggressor, a solid punch to the chest launched him two dozen feet across the room, his body sliding along the tile until it came to a stop along the wall. Gokan turned to face the others and was immediately bombarded with a barrage of gunfire. Saiyan physiology was always resilient and less vulnerable to gunfire, and Gokan's body in his Compressed state was no different. Since he was operating at lower tiers of power, the shots hurt, the ones to his face especially, but no true damage was done.
Until a round blasted him in his face. The Saiyan recoiled backward and nearly dropped to his knees. But instead of falling prey to what would've been a death blow to a normal human, he simply growled in frustration. His body trembled. The forces at work that kept his body in check began to relax; his Compression was fading away. At 50% Compression, the debris scattered across the room began to drum along the floor, this picked up and became increasingly violent. At 35% Compression, there was a faint hue around the Saiyan's body. At 25%, his muscles tensed and flexed.
Then his power surged and for the first time in seven years, Gokan broke Compression completely.
A flare of blue ki erupted around the man as the floor cracked beneath his feet. The shimmering blue blur that his body became collided with a man and nearly sent him through the decorative bar wall that contained bottle after bottle after bottle, and then his power surged once more and rippled through the room. "Enough!" The Saiyan shouted, eyes filled with rage, "Enough!"
Ophelia stood from her crawling position and started to make a break for the back door, before something bid her take pause. She could feel the ground shaking, and pressing her senses outward she found quickly why this was. Appearantly Mop had been more than a trigger word for a sniper. SUVs were pulling up - another four of them, and a semi truck. They all had characteristics like the first two SUVs, and all had people in them. A lot of people, in the semi's case. She'd stood still a moment though - and had been too intent on her telekinetic 'eye'. The man at the door had his gun in her face.
"Look kid, just get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head."
Never let them take you, Mecha had told her. Never let them take you. She set her jaw, and gave the agent an apologetic look. "I can't. Please move." Surely Gokan had gone to safety.
The man looked grim. He would shoot her "Get on the ground! NOW! Or I WILL shoot you!" He roared at her, and she flinched at his tone. She didn't bother with a reply. She just shook her head, and twitched her wrists at her side, the barrel of his gun pointing skyward sharply, yanked by an emerald glow. He squeezed the trigger out of pure shock, and his belly indented, right below the solar plexus, winding him and slamming him against the back wall - Right as another man squeeeeeeeked across the polished floors to bump up against the wall beside the door! Ophelia blinked, and looked back, seeing who else, but Gokan!
People weren't paying attention to her at the moment at least - they were far too busy letting adrenaline warp trigger discipline to notice that she was inches from escaping. Might as well have been miles - he'd... Jumped in to help her. Gokan was... Trying to help her! Why? Why would he do this? She boggled - he lived here!
She crouched over the two agents. The one she'd whammied was wheezing gently. She gently pried his hands from his gun, and formed green light around them, binding his hands to his knees. Then, she moved to the other man, and looked him over. Blood was on his lips and his eyes were empty - but his pulse was steady, at least. Knocked out, probably with a popped lung and a couple busted ribs. She sighed - hell of a hit. She was just rising then to go to Gokan, to at least help him escape when she saw the female agent roll up again, gun trained on the saiyan's forehead. Ophelia could feel it like a picture! She started forward, gathering her will about her in a desperate twitch, but it was too late. The blast rocked her senses and she stopped short, as if the shot had come for her instead!
"N-no!" She cried, as the saiyan staggered backward and almost fell to his knees. But... He caught himself, forehead bleeding, and... Honestly, for a moment Ophelia thought he was going critical, entering Sunset. That could happen, if he was like her... But he wasn't. His power again felt so much different from her own. It made her feel leaden, it fatigued her, made it hard for her to breathe, and from the shuddering reactions of the agents in the room it was having a similar effect upon them as well. The room began to shake, chandeliers far above rattling, the building quivering to its foundations as the saiyan warrior unlocked his true power, and sent it roaring to the surface.
Ophelia let it shake her to her knees, eyes huge, green light rippling around her as the air pressure of his presence alone pushed against her will.She felt like a child in front of a monsoon. She absolutely missed it as he blurred, and pushed the man who had been a feign bar patron through the liquor display, quicker than a wink.
"ENOUGH!" Gokan roared. Every man and woman in the room flinched, Ophelia included. "Enough!"
Ophelia felt the people piling out of the SUVs stop dead in their tracks as well. But she also felt something else, and looked up in alarm.
"Aimee!" Ophelia called, and saw the girl dragged to her feet by the now haggard female agent, her pistol in hand, pointed at the teenager's temple, her neck in an armlock.
"Listen up freaks!" She called in response. "This stops! Right! Now! Get on the ground, or the girl gets her head redecorated! You might be freaky fast, blueboy, but I only have to twitch and she dies!" The woman bellowed.
At this point, her hand CLAMPED upon the gun, with a snap crackle pop as fingerbones snapped. Ophelia felt rage pound in her veins, and felt only contempt for the woman as she howled in pain, releasing the girl, who hurriedly dove away, the room was otherwise silent with horror as the Oracle strode towards the offending agent.
"No." She hissed, deadly and quiet, knuckles white. The agent jerked as she was lifted into the air bodily.
"I wanted to leave. I just wanted my bag. I wasn't going to hurt anyone." She must have squeezed, because the glow around her mangled hand intensified, and the agent wailed louder, her voice cracking. One of the others that still stood trained his gun on Ophelia. He tried to fire, but when he did, she just jerked her hand at him without looking, and his gun simply fell apart, bolts pinging off walls as it simply fell to bits, destroyed.
"S-stop! Please!" The woman pleaded, and Ophelia felt a flutter of something. A kind of... Sick joy. It made her stomache flip flop. Horrified, she let the woman go, and she collapsed to the ground, the gun falling from her white hand, visibly throbbing. Ophelia wanted to throw up. She'd almost killed the woman. She'd been just that close. And she'd liked it. Goddess help her... She liked it.
Shaking, Ophelia glared around the room, and the other standing agents compared current job conditions to standing orders... And made a life decision - their guns were carefully set down too.
"Tell your friends outside to back off." Ophelia growled. The female agent skittered away from her, clutching her hand at the wrist, terror in her eyes.
"Tell them NOW!" The oracle screamed, and the glass in the chandeliers shattered, the stylized decor panels of glass shattered, and every glass and bottle at the bar did the same. Ophelia could see blood comin in a slow trickle from the woman's ears as well.
"Oh god! Oh g-god! Stand down! S-stand down authorization mugwump!" She squeaked into an earpiece before scurrying another foot backward. Ophelia looked to Gokan. Her eyes were glowing, her jaw set hard.
Large Avatar: http://i.imgur.com/jrJgUQk.pngProfile: http://forcedheroes.proboards.com/thread/2185/gokan-bushinoTimeline: http://forcedheroes.proboards.com/thread/2340/gokan-thread-magnificent-order
There was a momentary pause in the room as Gokan stood, the fire of his aura dancing around his body as all eyes fixated on him. His head operated on a swivel with eyes that darted between the bodies of individuals lined up in various arrangements throughout the room, their hands tightly gripped around firearms of various sizes and calibers. Five minutes ago, they may have been a viable option against the Saiyan; staggering him or even injuring him to where they could complete their objective. Hell, maybe they could've significantly injured or killed him for all he knew. The limits of his natural durability, Compressed or otherwise, had never been tested by him. Ki enhanced, on the otherhand, he was damn near unstoppable from their frame of reference.
Their bullets wouldn't even register to him as a nuisance at his current level of power.
The entire time, the Saiyan focused his senses, aiming to get a read on the individual ki signatures within the room. He was rusty and was sure that he wasn't picking up on every single person, but a general idea on the population count inside of the room and on those who were still making their way in was good enough. His ki surged once more, sending out an irritating shockwave throughout the room. Those that thought about taking a step immediately rethought their decision. And with Gokan's power steadily increasing, they were pretty damn smart to do so. Well, most of them. There was one that opted for something really, really, really stupid.
The lead woman managed to grab Gokan's sister and held her hostage.
Gokan didn't notice until Ophelia called it out, but he immediately locked on to the hostage taker once he was aware of it. The teen was restrained by a forearm pressed against her neck with a gun pressed firmly against the head of his sister.Aimee's arms were wrenched around the ladies a bit to provide her airway with a little bit more oxygen for her lungs to breathe in, but she remained docile otherwise. To say that she wasn't fearful would've been a drastic understatement, but Aimee was surprisingly calm. There wasn't a hint of fear on her face, probably because she saw nothing but blind fury within Gokan's face and understood that her brother would see to it that she remain safe like he always had.
The threats came, and Gokan remained unmoved; he remained still and his aura still flickered violently. In spite of it all, his muscles relaxed, almost as if he was unconcerned.
Though none if it mattered, since Ophelia went to town before he even had a chance to. Telekinetic might shattered the gunwoman's hand, who then let out a shrill of sheer agony immediately after. Without a gun pressed against her head, Aimee took the opportunity to exit stage left, and smartly, no one opted to make a move on the teen. As Ophelia dealt with the woman, Gokan dropped his aura and debris scattered about ceased drumming to the pulse of his ki surges. He followed his sister with his eyes as she made her way toward the shot up countertop and turn turned around just in time to watch the the lead woman slump to the ground after being released from a TK hold.
The Saiyan then moved toward the downed woman and the telekinetic that loomed over her, only to be momentarily stunned by the brief shockwave that caused the room to rattle and glass to shatter. Moments afterward, the lady seemed to call off the assault. Gokan diverted his eyes from his current partner down to the woman and scoffed at her and crouched beside her. He placed one hand flat against the floor, a hand that was surrounded by ki within seconds. "I would've stopped you," Gokan remarked as the ki intensified and began to crack and distort the floor beneath his hand, forming a small pothole in the process. "Before you drew the trigger back all the way, I would've stopped you. And if I couldn't..."
The ki exploded into a ball at least a foot and a half in diameter. The churning of the ki practically destroyed the floor around his hand and sent fissures arching erratically throughout the room, and then ceased. "If I couldn't stop you from pulling the trigger, I still would've stopped you, because I'm faster than you think." Was it a bluff? Who knew? "But if you would've succeeded, what I did to the floor, I would've done to you." The Saiyan returned to his full height and looked down at the woman. "Think about threatening my family again and it'll be the last thought that crosses your mind. Now where's the damn backpack?"