The Tournament
So my name was called-
And lo and behold my first fight was against Android 17. All it took was one look into his cold blue eyes to know that he really hadn't changed.
I remembered the fight we had before, the moves he pulled, and most of all I remember his arrogance as he could assume he could beat me as soon as all of my ki had been wasted.
Within a moment's glance all of these memories had gone between us, and I could tell by his following smirk and the annoying way he always tucked his raven hair behind his artificial ear that he had not come very far from that past.
"So, Piccolo, it will just be like old times," Android 17 said, a faint smile etching up onto his flawless face.
I stood there, letting the wind gently blow the ruffles of my cape aside and looked at him straight in the eye.
"No 17," I replied, "It won't."
It was then the android frowned, and it wouldn't be the last time he expressed himself so either.
It was then I charged him, but instead of aiming for his hastily blocked midsection, I tumbled sideways on the tile, grabbed him by the ankle and swung him face-first into the floor, creating a crater around his body.
He tried to attack me from above, but I flashed out of existence and after that there was more quick movements and flashing in the air, full of wasted parries, attacks, as we eached seemed to dodge out of the other's way in the last instant. It was when I lost track of him in a misplaced glance, that I felt him kick me from behind and sent me like a rocket, straight into the tournament floor.
I moved my arms and legs forward, and the Earth, underneath the tournament floor tiles. seemed to take my weight and sift around me as I slowed down and eventually stopped my descent. Above me, somewhere in the clouds of dust, I could hear the raven-haired robot boy say, "As I recall, my memories show me you lost the battle, and here I was expecting something different."
I floated out of the hole, and looked in the direction my ears had picked up the source of his voice, and glared at him.
"I never lie," I stated in response, and flung my armor and turban against the crowd walls. Without losing eye contact, I stretched my muscles in my neck and rubbed the back muscles of my shoulders for a moment to get them loose.
Android 17 frowned again, and decided to blast me with his ki, but if I had learned anything while I was training, I had learned to increase my reflexes beyond what most inhabitants of this planet could fathom, including Super Saiyans. And Android 17 was no Super Saiyan.
I knew that his smaller blasts, as I knocked them away from me and into the sky, harmless as a show of fireworks, that he was only trying to distract me with them in order to warm his circuits to prepare for the main event to come. He expected this battle, like the last we had while Cell was still around, that it would be a battle of ki, a battle of who was stronger than who, and a test of endurance. He had no idea what my power was because I was keeping it that way. Besides, it was stupid and ignorant to waste energy on one that was now beneath me. I was going to beat him where it hurt.
And that was when I saw it, the same instant that I had in the other fight; the moment before he would release his ki. I flashed into existence behind him, grabbed his tender throat in between my green Namek right hand, lifted him and threw him face-first into the ground again. I grabbed his ankles and slammed him in to the floor again, and repeated the whole process twice over. By the time I saw him get up, I was already walking over to him, and I could see his left eye twitching, his hair the worse for wear, and sparks floating around his breaking mainframe. I grabbed him by his hair, tossed him lightly in the air and spin-kicked him to the ground. I walked over to his hurting body and kicked it again for good measure across the tiles.
I lifted his body up again and put my knees behind his back and pulled his arms away from his body with the strength of my own, working his hinges to the max as he screamed. Before I got the point of breaking them, I swiftly relased one of my arms and swung my elbow into the android's face. His limp body flew across the stadium, and was going to fall out of bounds, when I caught him by his shirt, a hair's breath from touching the ground and watched him as he looked at me in fear.
"I'm going to end things this way, 17, " I said, calmly, and simply, "And I'm going to end it where it hurts. You might actually learn something from what happened today if you try, but the question that's going to get you is how high my power level really is, and where in competence you actually measured up."
"Then again," I added, raising a straightened hand upward, "You probably won't remember," and in that instant I chopped my hand forward against his neck, making his body go instantly limp and unconscious. I guess Androids were a little human after all.
I dropped his body to the ground and walked away in silence. I didn't need a roaring crowd to tell me I had won. I was a preserver walking on the road called Justice, and I took my victories as they came.
-Piccolo-
And lo and behold my first fight was against Android 17. All it took was one look into his cold blue eyes to know that he really hadn't changed.
I remembered the fight we had before, the moves he pulled, and most of all I remember his arrogance as he could assume he could beat me as soon as all of my ki had been wasted.
Within a moment's glance all of these memories had gone between us, and I could tell by his following smirk and the annoying way he always tucked his raven hair behind his artificial ear that he had not come very far from that past.
"So, Piccolo, it will just be like old times," Android 17 said, a faint smile etching up onto his flawless face.
I stood there, letting the wind gently blow the ruffles of my cape aside and looked at him straight in the eye.
"No 17," I replied, "It won't."
It was then the android frowned, and it wouldn't be the last time he expressed himself so either.
It was then I charged him, but instead of aiming for his hastily blocked midsection, I tumbled sideways on the tile, grabbed him by the ankle and swung him face-first into the floor, creating a crater around his body.
He tried to attack me from above, but I flashed out of existence and after that there was more quick movements and flashing in the air, full of wasted parries, attacks, as we eached seemed to dodge out of the other's way in the last instant. It was when I lost track of him in a misplaced glance, that I felt him kick me from behind and sent me like a rocket, straight into the tournament floor.
I moved my arms and legs forward, and the Earth, underneath the tournament floor tiles. seemed to take my weight and sift around me as I slowed down and eventually stopped my descent. Above me, somewhere in the clouds of dust, I could hear the raven-haired robot boy say, "As I recall, my memories show me you lost the battle, and here I was expecting something different."
I floated out of the hole, and looked in the direction my ears had picked up the source of his voice, and glared at him.
"I never lie," I stated in response, and flung my armor and turban against the crowd walls. Without losing eye contact, I stretched my muscles in my neck and rubbed the back muscles of my shoulders for a moment to get them loose.
Android 17 frowned again, and decided to blast me with his ki, but if I had learned anything while I was training, I had learned to increase my reflexes beyond what most inhabitants of this planet could fathom, including Super Saiyans. And Android 17 was no Super Saiyan.
I knew that his smaller blasts, as I knocked them away from me and into the sky, harmless as a show of fireworks, that he was only trying to distract me with them in order to warm his circuits to prepare for the main event to come. He expected this battle, like the last we had while Cell was still around, that it would be a battle of ki, a battle of who was stronger than who, and a test of endurance. He had no idea what my power was because I was keeping it that way. Besides, it was stupid and ignorant to waste energy on one that was now beneath me. I was going to beat him where it hurt.
And that was when I saw it, the same instant that I had in the other fight; the moment before he would release his ki. I flashed into existence behind him, grabbed his tender throat in between my green Namek right hand, lifted him and threw him face-first into the ground again. I grabbed his ankles and slammed him in to the floor again, and repeated the whole process twice over. By the time I saw him get up, I was already walking over to him, and I could see his left eye twitching, his hair the worse for wear, and sparks floating around his breaking mainframe. I grabbed him by his hair, tossed him lightly in the air and spin-kicked him to the ground. I walked over to his hurting body and kicked it again for good measure across the tiles.
I lifted his body up again and put my knees behind his back and pulled his arms away from his body with the strength of my own, working his hinges to the max as he screamed. Before I got the point of breaking them, I swiftly relased one of my arms and swung my elbow into the android's face. His limp body flew across the stadium, and was going to fall out of bounds, when I caught him by his shirt, a hair's breath from touching the ground and watched him as he looked at me in fear.
"I'm going to end things this way, 17, " I said, calmly, and simply, "And I'm going to end it where it hurts. You might actually learn something from what happened today if you try, but the question that's going to get you is how high my power level really is, and where in competence you actually measured up."
"Then again," I added, raising a straightened hand upward, "You probably won't remember," and in that instant I chopped my hand forward against his neck, making his body go instantly limp and unconscious. I guess Androids were a little human after all.
I dropped his body to the ground and walked away in silence. I didn't need a roaring crowd to tell me I had won. I was a preserver walking on the road called Justice, and I took my victories as they came.
-Piccolo-