Post by Vennel on Jun 4, 2015 1:54:03 GMT
[Heavy-Weights on]
[Power Level: 69'599 (for sake of sequencing with weighted effectiveness)]
[Takes place directly after the events of this thread.]
A space pod, battered and old, tore through the Vegetan sky, crash landing safely in one of the pads that were designed to neutralize impact from the attack balls. It's stark white shell, still hot from reentry, was pulled down into the docking bay of the Cacumber City space port. The gentle whirring of machines as the platform descended down into the dimly lit port. Upon finally landing, a slumbering Saiyan child was awakened. Her eyes fluttered open, as the attack ball's hatch followed suit. Awaiting her were two well dressed Saiyans, dressed in armor that appeared quite ornate, with white capes attached to the pauldrons.
"Well, seems we've got a live one."
"Yeah, seems so. Which one is she?"
As the two talked, as if the girl were not present, she was having a rough time simply processing what was happening. She had awakened, after falling asleep shortly after departing her Jungle home, and had just seen people who looked the same as her. Was this home as the computer had described?
Glancing at a datapad in his hand, the first of the two spoke once more, replying to his comrade's question.
"Let's see... Her name is Vennel? Yeah sent to planet oh-oh-fourty-five-nine-twelve, in the local cluster."
Nodding, the second of the two extended a hand to help the girl out of the pod. Slowly, Vennel extended her arm, and grabbed ahold of the other Saiyan's. Leaning back, he pulled her up and onto her feet, giving her a firm pat on the back.
"Quiet, aren't you?"
He spoke, however Vennel's stupor quickly came to an end, flashing him a glare.
"I'm merely still waking up. I feel.."
Her jaw opened wide, as a yawn escaped her lips, not bothering to finish before continuing her sentence to the best of her ability.
"Sle--heepy."
Finishing her statement, she looked curiously around her, never seeing such a sight before. She was much more used to large swathes of untamed Jungle, towering trees and monsterous, carnivorous plantae. But here, all around her, she saw cold, utilitarian metal, and pseudo metals, worked into a large docking bay that seemed to stretch on for at least a mile. Large landing and launch pads shifted up or down, ferrying their cargo down from impact, or up to launch. And it wasn't just the srroundings that caught her eyes either. Hundreds of people, all lacking scales, walked about in armors like hers, wearing colored eye glass pieces and boarding or coming out of space pods. Some of them were in clusters, talking, laughing, quarreling. And others were solitary, leaving the docks or going toward their attack ball. It was all just such a huge culture shock to her, she found it hard to respond in a gruff nature, as she was want to do, even though the other two adults spoke about her.
"Yeah, first time among her people since she was shipped off world. Should have expected as much."
"Come on, Vennel was it? There will be plenty of time for sight seeing. Theres more important things for now."
Turning around to face the two she rose an inquisitve eye brow in response.
"Like what?"
The two exchanged surprised glances. They didn't really expect her to ask, much less care. Perhaps she didn't care, but either way, it wasn't most Saiyans that typically cared.
"Well, first we need to get you to a medical diagnosis, make sure you're not infected with anything. Then a psych evaluation, and afterwards, if it all checks out, you'll be sent to the Academy, so you can be integrated with Saiyan society."
She nodded her head thoughtfully. Truth be told, she didn't understand half of those word. But she'd learned after years of being treated like a god, that sometimes it's just better to pretend you know everything. Made it easier to deal with things at times, if people assumed you were up to speed. Of course, despite how erroneous her mentality may be, it did serve her well, and neither of the two Saiyans seemed to really care that much if she actually knew what was going on or not.
"Now, if you'd follow me."
She nodded, and followed after the first of the two Saiyans. The other one followed behind her, sticking close as if they were guarding a prisoner. And in some regards, they were. They didn't want to risk a Saiyan who had no idea what was going on running amok after their first day back on Vegeta.
The three of them walked down the docks, passing by numerous pods, each identical. Some were about to be used, just finished being used, and others yet remained unused, being fueled or repaired. She didn't quite understand the latter two things that were happening, but it all fascinated her immensely. She knew so little about her people, and now she found there were so many of them. She was curious what they were like, would they be like her? Would they maybe be different? And if so, how much?
Continuing t on, they finally came to the doorway that lead to the outside of the space port. The bright light was jarring to Vennel at first, her eyes squinted and she instinctively rose an arm to try and shield her eyes from the sunlight. But when her eyes adjusted, she was stunned to say the least. Everywehre she looked, she saw people like her, the "Saiyans." She even saw many different kinds of aliens wandering about, wondering what they were doing. But she didn't have much time to stop and stare, as the Saiyan behind her nudged her to continue on.
"Move it."
He grunted. It seemed clear now that his patience was wearing thin with Vennel's constant stops. She looke dback to give him a glare, only for him to shove her forward. The sudden push caused her to stumble slightly, before she regained her footing. Turning to the large male infront of her, she continued walking forward.
While they walked to some unknown destination to her, she took in all the sights. Tall buildings, taller even than the towering trees of her jungle planet. The bustle of the city vaguely reminded her of the small empire she had formed with the reptillian aliens from her former home, but that was no where near the scale and magnitude of this place. But one thing stuck out in her memory, the pink skies of the world. Seeing them again, it brought out a sort of nostalgia to her. She could feel it, this was home.
The trip felt like forever to her, but that was mostly because of how wonder struck she was about everything. When they'd finally arrived at their destination, the trio came to a halt outside of a large, wide building.
"We're here. Head on in side, give them your name, and tell them you're a new arrival. You'll be met with soon."
She looked to the Saiyan who spoke up, it was the one who had been in front of their little band of three. She was about to inquire further, when the two Saiyans exchanged a brief look, and the one who'd just spoke nodded to teh other, and the two seperated from her. She was about to call them back and ask them a question, like, where was she, and what was she doing here. But she shook her head, it was partly her fault anyways, for playing it off like she understood. So, in she went.
As she approached what she assumed to be a doorway with a solid wall, the wall slid open. This had been her first encounter with automated doors, and it neraly made her jump. But she had to play cool, she was used to just rolling with the punches at this point anyways. Though, she wondered if she'd ever get used to this place.
As she entered the building, she saw a large room, with rows of ergonomic chairs, lined up back to back in a very utilitarian design, as was most of the city she'd seen so far. The room was largely empty, a few Saiyans around her age sitting in the chairs waiting. At first glance, she'd counted them to be five in total. But they weren't the only ones, as soon as she entered a female Saiyan behind a desk at the far end looked up, to see who had arrived. She nodded, signaling with her hand for Vennel to approach.
Coming towards the long desk, her eyes just barely making it over the top of the desk, she looked up at the woman who stood above her. She seemed to be waiting on her to say or do something, and remembering what she was told not but a few moments ago, she replied.
"My name is Vennel, and I'm a new arrival."
Nodding absently, the woman looked down at a computer, and began fidgeting out of Vennel's view. But she could hear what sounded like the clatter of keys typing under the woman's finger falls. Looking back a few moments later to Vennel, she nodded at her.
"Very well, go ahead and take a seat. I'll call you up when the doctor is ready to meet with you."
Vennel nodded, and went over to one of the many chairs that made up the room. Her first idea was to sit next to one of the other Saiyans but each of them seemed more disinterested with her than the last, and none of them were sitting together as is, so she decided to take her own seat, secluded from the rest.
Sitting down, she had no idea just how long it was going to be that she waited, but one by one, she noticed as the others were called away from their seat, and to the desk, until it was just her and one other in the room.
"Carowei..."
The voice of the woman behind the desk called out, and the Saiyan boy stood up, and walked over toward the desk. Vennel was too far away to accurately understand what was being said between the two, no different than the others, but after a few moments, the boy nodded and walked off down one of the long halls, presumably heading to meet with one of the doctors. Vennel paid little attention though, as she had her arms crossed, and appeared to be trying to rest while she waited. But she wasn't very good with waiting in the first place, used to being waited on rather than the other way around.
But after the boy was called up, it wasn't but a few moments later until she heard her own name called. She hopped out of her seat, and onto her feet, and approached the woman.
"Doctor Choibok will see you shortly. Please proceed to room number thirteen."
Nodding, Vennell was about to elave, before she looked back to the woman.
"Which one would that be?"
She was asking a question, but despite that her tone was almost arrogant, as if she thought the woman stupid for not telling her first. Thankfully, despite appearing to have caught on, the woman didn't seem to mind enough to speak about it. However, her arm snapped up, pointing to a small sign on the wall of one of the hallways. The sign read: "Rooms 1-12 → Rooms 13-25 ←" and upon reading it, she turned back to the woman and gave a curt nod. Turning on her heel, she took off in a leisurely saunter, heading for the room. She didn't have to go far, as it was the room on the immediately on her right. Approaching the door, like the one at the front of the building, it whisked open immediately.
She expected it, though, since the last one had as well. She walked into the room and found that it was rather small. About twelve feet wide and twelve feet deep, on one side sat a large table, that looked more like an uncomfortable bed, and on the other, was a sophisticated tank of some sort, with clear gree glass forming a porthole that reminded her of the window on her attack ball. She walked over to the table, since it seemed to be the only thing she could sit on, and pulled herself onto it, sitting down to wait for the doctor to arrive.
Luckily, this time she wasn't left waiting for long. The door way to the room peeled away, and out stepped a Saiyan male. He wore a long cloak, that seemed to protrude from under his pauldrons, and covered his back, but also swept forward to the front. He had short, spikey black hair, and was clad in black elastic pants, but no visible undershirt. His gaze was focused on some sort of data pad in his hand, while he entered, before looking up to see the young Saiyan sitting on the table and nodded.
"Vennel, I presume?"
He asked, assumedly to determine if she weren't in the wrong room. She nodded, however, and he returned the nod.
"Alright, so, why don't you remove your armora nd clothing and I'll prep the rejuvenation chamber."
The what-jination cham-huh? She didn't bother to question, though, as her curiosity was quickly sated as he immediately walked over to the large device in the room. She should have guessed, absed on the context, but some of these were words she'd never heard before. However, as he set to work setting up the tank, she complied, removing her armor, and clothing. Standing naked, she was forced to wait a few moments before he backed away from the tank, and the door to it swung open.
"Alright, step in side and I'll begin your diagnosis."
Nodding, unsure what he was going to be doing, or how he was going to be doing it, she walked inside. He helped her fit a strange device over her nose and mouth, the breathing apparatus that would keep her from drowning in the next stage.
"Good, now remain still. I'll initiate the machine."
No sooner than he finished speaking, than the door closed shut. Suddenly, she felt a damp, moist feeling around her toes. She looked down and noticed as the chamber was rapidly begininng to fill with a translucent green liquid. As the liquid continued to fill at a rapid pace she began to bang on the port hole desperately, assuming something must have broken. However, Choibok seemed to be unphased. He even went so far as to visibly sigh before looking at her.
"Relax,"
He said, his voice muffled by the hatch that seperated the two.
"This is normal. That liquid has a healing property, and I'll need you submerged in order for the machine to see if you're healthy."
This was normal?! Well, she could drown in there. But then she remembered the apparatus around her face. She could breathe in it. She felt as though a weight were lifted off her shoulder, and she began to relax, realizing she could breathe regularly even as the liquid filled up, finally enveloping her entire body. The liquid seemed to tingle, as if a light tickle to her skin.
She sat submerged in the tank for roughly fifteen minutes, her thoughts drifting to things such as, "when am I getting out of here," to "I wonder what sort of food they have here." By the time the diagnosis was complete, she was made aware this step was at least finished, as the liquid began to drain almost as quickly as it had filled. Upon emptying, the hatch swung open, and Vennel reached up, removing the breathing mask from her face. As she took her first step out, a soggy splatter was heard as liquid that still clumb to her body splashed off, droplets hitting the ground and leaving a wet set of foot prints as she walked toward the table.
The doctor turned to her, pulling back out his datapad. His gaze was afixed to the datapad as he started talking to her.
"Well, you seem healthy enough, and your time on that planet did you well. Reports say you practically wipe it clean. However, before we're done, I have to send for Doctor Kabaj, he'll be performing your psych evaluation."
Vennel looked at him curiously, she didn't know what any of those things were herself. Luckily Choibok caught on, having looked up just in time to catch her confused expresion.
"Nothing to worry about, he'll just have to ask some questions of you. No matter how bizarre, just be sure to answer them truthfully."
When he'd finished speaking, Choibok put his datapad away and nodded toward Vennel, before leaving the room, presumably to go check on another Saiyan. This left Vennel alone in the room, to her thoughts. As she picked up her clothing and armor and set about redressing herself, she wondered just what this "sike" evaluation was about.
As Vennel finished redressing though, she heard the hiss of the door opening again. She peeked over her shoulder before turning around to face her new guest. He was a tall man, nearly six feet, Vennel would have guessed, and his head was bald. His armor was similar in design to the one Choibok had been wearing.
"Ah, Vennel..."
The doctor said quietly, going over a datapad of his own. But he pause for a moment, looking at the datapad again.
"Huh. Well, didn't think you'd make it back."
"What?"
"Ah, nothing. Nothing."
Kabaj chuckled to himself as he tucked the datapad away. To him, he remembered this one. Due to her name, she came towards the end of the list alphabetically, and with her power level, they'd run out of planets that quite fit her level range. So instead, they had to send her to a world that might have been too much for her. But she survived, none the less, and no worse for wear. Perhaps she'd go on to do some great things, he wondered. But enough about that.
"Alright Vennel, I'm going to be asking you some questions and-"
"Yeah, yeah. I need to answer truthfully. Get on with it."
Kabaj's face seemed to pause for a moment, before a grin curled onto his face. "A true Saiyan, through and through." He thought to himself. He nodded, though, to her.
"Very well. Now let's begin."
Glancing one last time at the datapad, he then folded his arms behind his back while making eye contact with Vennel. Vennel naturally returned the eye contact, but took it a bit more instinctively like a dog might, as a challenge of authority. An interesting reaction that he already needed to make note of.
"Now, first off, tell me your name."
"What do you mean? It's Vennel, you already know it, you said it as you entered?"
Raising a hand he tried to calm her reaction, before speaking.
"Remember what I said, just answer truthfully. Some questions may feel redundant, but trust me."
Clicking her tongue, Vennel folded her arms, thinking this was stupid even now. Her tail swayed back and forth impatiently, as she awaited the next question. Taking a deep breathe, Kabaj proceeded with the rest of the exam.
"Now, then, shall we continue?"
Vennel nodded, and Kabaj began to question her. His questions covered topics such as hypothetical situations, problem solving, questioning her life on the world she was sent to, and even critical thinking. Vennel's replies were all satisfactory, showing she was indeed in healthy mental order for a Saiyan at her age. Though she seemed to have an unnatural distaste and borderline fear with plants for some reason. But given her answers about life on that planet, he could rationalize the reason for her reactions, and even surmised that she'd recover from it in due time. Almost an hour had passed, during the verbal exam, and Kabaj nodded once more, and pulled his data pad out again.
"Well, everything checks out. Do you have any questions?"
Vennel paused, wondering for a moment if she had anything to still ask, and she found but one question that still tickled at the back of her mind.
"So what happens next?"
"Well, after I submit my results, you'll need to wait for a little while, but you'll be registered to the Academy, where you'll learn what it means to be a Saiyan."
Even that brought more questions to her, like what it meant to be a Saiyan, as her examiner had put it. But sensing her confusion he waved his hand, his head shaking from side to side.
"I'll say no more, that's the purpose of the Academy. Now, come with me."
Beckoning her to follow him, with his hand, he walked toward the door. The door made the now familiar hiss as it opened of it's own accord. Vennel gave a half hearted shrug, and followed after him. Kabaj seemed absorbed by something on his data pad, as he seemed to be reading and replying with the occasional tap on the monitor, however he walked through the halls with purpose. It was as if he knew where he was going and how to get there without even looking, though if he'd worked here long enough, it made sense. Vennel followed close behind, until they came to the end of the hall. A door opened up infront of them, And he lead her inside. The room looked like a sort of armor, with sets of armor hung on racks, and strange circular objects with curved glass of different colors hanging from the racks.
"Thankfully, you still have your armor from when you were a child, though that's not all of why we're here. You're going to need a scouter."
"A what?"
Before he replied, he approached one of the racks of lensed devices, that looked like the ones so many Saiyans wore. He retrieved a red lensed one, matching her armor, and tossed it to the girl. She instinctively reached to grab it, catching the device quickly. And before she could ask further, Kabaj was already reading her like a book, pointing to his scouter-covered ear. Mimicing him, she rose her scouter up, and placed it over her ear. Surprisingly, it stuck in place, apparently designed in such a way that it utilized a comfortable amount of suction to keep it in place.
"Now, tap the button on the side."
Following instruction, she reached up, and sure enough there was a large button for her hand to press. The resulting click caused the device to boot up, running through a sequence of foreign figures to her, before finishing.
"The device is called a Scouter, as I previously stated. But it does a myriad of things. It tracks power levels, quantified aproximated strengths of whatever it can detect, provided it's alive. It will display this in numerical format for comparison. For instance..."
He glanced at Vennel and smiled.
"Your power level is just over twelve hundred. Which is a very respectable power level for your age. Certainly above the norm for first-class Saiyans at your age."
She nodded, pleased to hear that her power level was actually not half bad. However, she wondered just what this business about first class was, or what other peoples' were. She saw a silhouette of Kabaj's body on her scouter, but she couldn't understand the numbers, as she didn't know how to read or write.
"Right now, you're probably wondering what mine is, probably unable to read the language that's written in, right? But don't worry, you'll learn about that and more at the Academy."
Nodding, she had almost grown used to Kabaj answering her questions before she could even ask them. In fact, she almost preferred it this way, too used to the constant questioning of the reptillians that were always too afraid to take initiative. Perhaps her people were much like herself after all.
"Now, You've been registered to the Academy, you'll need to head there. Once you arrive, you'll be assigned a place to live during your stay."
"And how long will I be attending this Aka-demi?"
Stiffling a chuckle in response to her ill pronunciation of the word, he just shook his head.
"That's totally reliant on you. The length of time a Saiyan stays there is usually until the Saiyan has proven that they have learned all they will from their instructors. Now, I'm sending you a map of the city to your Scouter, just follow the lines on the map toward the north end of the city. You'll find the Academy located there."
And true to form, her scouter began to load up a top-down view of the city, with various lines spreading out from a central hub, forming a circular shape to the city, organized almost like a wheel. The city was broken up into two distinct districts, with the outer wheel forming the majority of the city's space, and the inner wheel forming a smaller portion of it, close to the center. Kabaj then lead Vennel out of the room while she noted her position on the map, indicated by a pulsing dot on the map.
"Well, that's it for you here. You're on your own now. Best of luck to you."
Kabaj spoke, while looking back at his Datapad.
"Er, thanks for your help- I guess?"
A simple grunt was all Kabaj offered in reply, clearly absorbed in his datapad now, and only half-ways paying much attention to Vennel. Nodding in response, purely for the formality of it, she then turned to walk away. She headed for the doors she first entered when she came into the building and was once again thrust outside into the open air of the city. The sights were indeed marvelous to her, but she now had a new objective, to go and find this academy. So off she wandered, into the big city, following the lines which represented the major streets of the city, on her way towards the north.
She'd been wandering for what felt like an hour. She'd had to stop and ask for directions, since being unable to actually read the map she was given, she didn't really know which building it was she was looking for. But she at least knew what side of the city to be on. And lucky for her, a passing Saiyan was willing to answer her question, when most were too busy. He was an aging Saiyan, hair turning partially white on the sides of his head, giving him a salt and pepper look to his hair.
"You're looking for the Academy?"
"Yeah, is it nearby? I was told it was in the north of the city, but I can't read this map yet."
A look of realization sprang into being on the older Saiyan's face. Ah, so she was new on Vegeta. She looked a bit older than most who returned from their proving, but it wasn't unheard of for a Saiyan to be a bit older though.
"Yeah, you're not far from it right now. If you head back the way you came about a block or so, it's the largest building on the street. You can't miss it. It'll be on your left."
Vennel smiled, and waved to the man, before taking off running towards the Academy. The other Saiyan nodded, before turning away to return to whatever it was he was doing. Vennel honestly didn't care what it was, she now knew where to be and where to go. If she was going to be taught how to get around this city, and get stronger, she couldn't wait to get started.
Pushing her way through the crowds, the short Saiyan girl finally found herself in front of the building that probably was what was referred to by the man she spoke to not long ago. The building was huge, spanning the length of the block, and tall to boot. The front of the building had large double doors that were nearly three times her size. As she approached them, they pulled away to give way to the interior of the building.
With a deep breath, she took her first step into the massive building. What she saw was a large circular room, with stone floors with a large circular inscription in the floor with strange unintelligble markings, at least to her. There was a desk at the far end of the room as well, and two large doors roughly half the size of the front doors that were located on the east and west walls respectively. And behind the large desk, flanked on either side, were a large set of stairs that seemed to vanish upward in a spiraling staircase manner. Stepping further in, a man at the desk wearing rather ornate armor stood up to call to her from across the room.
"You there. Come here."
She immediately broke her explorative nature and looked at the man, before approaching the desk. Again, her stature was rather short, and she barely was taller than the desk was. As she approached, he appeared to be looking at his computer at something, and as she came to the counter, he looked back to her.
"What's your name?"
He asked, his tone was firm and to the point. He clearly wasn't one who was fond of niceties, and he seemed to be rather harsh with his body language as well, standing tall and rigid without a perceived ounce of relaxation.
"Vennel, sir. I'm a new arrival."
"I can see that. Wait right there."
He turned back to his computer, and once again she heard the clicking and clacking of key strokes as he worked busily on the machine. Only a few moments later, and he'd turned back to face her and give her a stern nod.
"Right, we have one spot left for you. Team Aurel lost two members in squad practice last week. The surviving member's name is Kamomil, and she's awaiting you in the team dorm. You and another new arrival have been assigned. I'd suggest you get moving, so you can get acquainted with your new team mates. Kamomil will explain how things work around here."
Vennel nodded, and was about to leave before she turned to the man once more.
"Er, where would that-"
A sigh of expasperation, you'd think she'd be used to these at this point. The male looked down to her with a scowl and then jerked his arm up, thumbing toward the stairs behind him to his left.
"Up these stairs, second floor, down the hall. Room two-twenty."
Nodding again, Vennel waved after him as she darted around the desk and up the stairs.
"Thanks!"
She yelled, not waiting for a response, though she doubted in all likelihood that she'd even get one from that man. As she ran up the stairs, she looked up and realized that they were rather long, and she'd probably have an easier time of just flying up them, as the spiral staircases seemed to allow for that with enough space in the center of the cylidrical staircase being spacious enough for a person to fit in. She gently ascended upwards, until she passed the first floor, and came to the second. As she moved through the air towards the door that seperated it from the stairs, the door slid open. She hadn't seen many other Saiyans in the building, besides the one at the desk, and was rather curious why that was.
But shaking the confusion, she drifted into them hallway, and touched down. The hall was rather undecorated, merely being a row of doors evenly spaced roughly ten feet apart, and stretching on for a long distance. She passed by room after room, glancing up occasionally to try and read the numbers of the doors. But she remembred she couldn't read the language so the numbers all seemed foreign to her. Great, she thought. Her next option, was to just keep knocking on the doors until someone answered and told her that she had the right door. But then she'd just look like an idiot, and her pride prevented her rom stooping so low, at least, not yet she couldn't. But as she tried to mull over her options in an attempt to reach a resolution, someone came into the hall way from the stair case, and Vennel spun around to see who it was.
It was a Saiyan a little bit taller than her, wearing armor that covered just his torso, without pauldrons, or even the leg plates. She thought he looked familiar too, but she couldn't her finger on why for. The boy looked back at her, his hair was wild, having no rhyme or reason, and standing on end in several directions at once. He wore a blue lensed scouter, and merely glared at her disapprovingly.
"What, you have a problem?"
Vennel barked at the kid. The kid just scoffed at her, and continued walking toward her, but as he was coming close to her, he merely shoulder checked her. Not expecting the display of aggression, she wasn't prepared, otherwise she may have pushed back. But since she was taken by surprise, she nearly lost her balance as he passed by.
"Hey! Don't you walk away from me! Where the hell do you think you're going?"
She shouted after him as he continued to walk away. However, despite noting even so much as looking back to her, he continued walking and replied.
"To my team's quarters."
"And which one is that?"
Her tone was aggressive, she was seething from his disrespect. She wanted to know what team he was on so that she could look out for him and maybe get a chance at beating the shit out of him. However, her question caused him to stop in his tracks. He looked back at her, peering over his shoulder to glare at her again.
"Team Aurel."
And without another word, his body turned and he approached the door in front of him, as the door slid open and he stepped inside.
Was she hearing him right? Her stomache felt like it had just fallen out of her after she heard him. There had to be some mistake, right? The same team as hers? This little punk was going to be one of her team members? She was fuming, this was the absolute worst thing that could have happened, a little punk like him was her- no, unacceptable. Surely there was a mistake.
She marched through the hall toward the door that he had just entered and rapped her knuckles against the door in quick succesion. She could faintly hear the sounds of foot steps, as they grew closer to the door and it opened in front of her.
"What is it?"
It was a female's voice. It was a girl who was dressed with long black sleeves and leggings, a pair of white gloves and boots, but no armor or scouter equipped. Her tail was wrapped around her waist, which Vennel saw as a bit strange, but recalled seeing many of the adults she'd been around lately had been doing the same thing. Perhaps they thought her the strange one, with her tail hanging freely as it did.
"Is this Aurel Team's room?"
The girl nodded, leaning against the frame of the door way, and giving Vennel a once over. It seemed as though she were judging her rather obviously before she spoke again.
"And what if it is? What business do you have?"
"I'm Vennel, the new recruit for this team?"
And the girl's face lit up after hearing that. Those simple words, was all it took to shift her mood from stand-offish to accepting.
"Ah, welcome, welcome. I'm Kamomil, and this:..."
She turned her body to gesture with her arm towards the other new arrival, and guess who it was? Dick-bag McBastardson himself. Before Kamomil could introduce him he snarled toward Vennel's appearance and stood up.
"Oh please, this has to be a joke. What is she doing here?"
"And this bundle of sunshine is the other member of our team, Carowei."
Carowei stood up, from his seated position. He was sitting on a sectional couch that didn't look too terribly comfortable, more utility rather than anything. Vennel's attention, however, was too distracted by the rude boy her age giving her disrespectful comments.
"Trust me, I'm no more pleased about this than you."
"Settle down, both of you!"
The almost plesant demeanor of Kamomil's had vanished in almost a blink of an eye, both Vennel and Carowei snapped their heads around to look at her.
"Since I am the only member of this team left, I'm the defacto team leader. The las ttwo members got themselves killed, and it doesn't matter what your opinion on the other is. From now on you both are going to fight and bleed together, so you best get used to cooperating."
Vennel gulped. She was sure serious. Her eyes darting over toward Carowei who seemed to be having a similar reaction. It seemed even he respected Kamomil enough to not step over her, as he had to Vennel.
"Tch, fine."
Carowei grumbled, before he turned around. He headed towards a door in the room, and it slid open, disappearing into the room on the other side. A disappointed sigh fell out of Kamomil's lips as she turned back to face Vennel.
"Now that we've got that unpleasantness behind us, I hear you're a new arrival? And the medical reports also seem to state you're not versed in written language, is that correct?"
Vennel nodded sheepishly. She couldn't hide that fact forever, especially if she was going to be learning to read it. But her embarassment must have been plain on her face.
"Don't worry. You're not alone in that. Many people get sent to back water planets where they don't speak galactic common, so they are sort of lost. You'll learn that here though, so don't worry."
"Right, so what's the purpose of, you know, these teams?"
"Ah, glad you asked. Well, the teams are groups of three. Usually with a high ranking Saiyan put in charge of the them, or the strongest Saiyan. In this case, we have two elites, and yourself, a first-class Saiyan. So pardon Carowei's reaction. He just had hoped to be on a team with all elites, though he probably would have been in your position if he had. He's fairly weak for his rank."
Vennel couldn't help herself, she tried to supress it, but her laughter came roaring out of her after hearing that Caroei was weak. The idea the little guy was acting that way toward her was hilarious, as he was likely just overcompensating for his short comings. But her laughter soon came to an end after Kamomil continued speaking.
"Don't think you've any room to talk either, though. You may be a first class, and stronger than average for your birth power level, but here you're in another class. You see, there are three floors to the academy. Those floors house Saiyan teams in accordance with their overall rating. We're on the second floor, despite having two elites. Most teams here are comprised fully of elites, and the floor below above this house the strongest members of some of the most powerful noble houses in the Imperial diet."
Vennel's laughter felt like a distant memory now. Was she just being told she was weak? She felt out raged. She was far from weak. She'd spent her life growing up treated as a god, so it was natural that her ego was a bit inflated.
"Just who are you calling weak, huh? I'm one of the most powerful first-class Saiyans, the people on my planet saw me as a GOD, before they all died. And you're calling me weak?!"
She pulled her fist back and threw it towards Kamomil, expecting to clock her in display of her power. But Kamomil was anticipating it. She rose a hand up to catcht he fist, and over pwoered Vennel with relative ease, pushing her down onto the ground and bending her arm backwards behind her body.
"Yes, yes I am calling you weak. But we Saiyans grow stronger at an impressive rate if we really set our heads to it. So remember, if you're weak now, you can always grow stronger. But strength enough isn't enough to win a fight!"
Releasing her, Kamomil stood up, and let Vennel get herself back on her feet. Vennel rubbed her arm, while glaring at the team leader, but she knew that if she was overpowered by Kamomil that easily, she clearly did have a lot of room to grow.
"You're at a disadvantage, everyone we'll be facing, well most everyone, will out class you. So use that, use that to your advantage and grow stronger. Your room is over there, get some rest. We begin training in the morning."
Kamomil pointed over at the door on the left wall. Now that Vennel didn't have so much to concentrate on, she could observe the room more fully. The sectional that Carowei was sitting at before had a small white table in front of it. Next to her, near the entry way, was a small kitchen, with a counter that ran from the right wall to a pillar that also served to seperate the kitchen. There were three doors on each side of the room, each presumably leading to a bed room with this central room serving as the common space.
Vennel nodded to Kamomil, who smiled in return.
"Fine."
"Good. You're prideful, use that to drive you forward. Don't take a defeat sitting down."
Vennel was at least glad to hear that coming from her superior. It was still a strange feeling to even have a superior for her. But the fact alone she had one that she could respect their strength, was important to her. Walking towards her door, it slid open in her presence. The bed room had a single cot in it, hung off hooks on either side of the wall, and a small closet door on the north. A wall switch by the door way stood alone on the otherwise barren wall. Running her hand over it, the room grew dark, clearly being the light switch, she turned it back on for a moment, and undressed herself. She stored her armor and clothes in the closet door, along with her scouter. Walking back to the wall switch, she turned the room's light's off again, and tossed herself over into the cot.
Closing her eyes, she didn't realize until that moment just how tired she'd become from the day's activities. But she'd had a lot to think about, and as much as she wanted to go over all the new changes to her life, the tug of slumber was too great, and she felt herself slowly slip unconscious. Thus began Vennel's life in the Academy.
[Power Level: 69'599 (for sake of sequencing with weighted effectiveness)]
[Takes place directly after the events of this thread.]
8 Years Ago
A space pod, battered and old, tore through the Vegetan sky, crash landing safely in one of the pads that were designed to neutralize impact from the attack balls. It's stark white shell, still hot from reentry, was pulled down into the docking bay of the Cacumber City space port. The gentle whirring of machines as the platform descended down into the dimly lit port. Upon finally landing, a slumbering Saiyan child was awakened. Her eyes fluttered open, as the attack ball's hatch followed suit. Awaiting her were two well dressed Saiyans, dressed in armor that appeared quite ornate, with white capes attached to the pauldrons.
"Well, seems we've got a live one."
"Yeah, seems so. Which one is she?"
As the two talked, as if the girl were not present, she was having a rough time simply processing what was happening. She had awakened, after falling asleep shortly after departing her Jungle home, and had just seen people who looked the same as her. Was this home as the computer had described?
Glancing at a datapad in his hand, the first of the two spoke once more, replying to his comrade's question.
"Let's see... Her name is Vennel? Yeah sent to planet oh-oh-fourty-five-nine-twelve, in the local cluster."
Nodding, the second of the two extended a hand to help the girl out of the pod. Slowly, Vennel extended her arm, and grabbed ahold of the other Saiyan's. Leaning back, he pulled her up and onto her feet, giving her a firm pat on the back.
"Quiet, aren't you?"
He spoke, however Vennel's stupor quickly came to an end, flashing him a glare.
"I'm merely still waking up. I feel.."
Her jaw opened wide, as a yawn escaped her lips, not bothering to finish before continuing her sentence to the best of her ability.
"Sle--heepy."
Finishing her statement, she looked curiously around her, never seeing such a sight before. She was much more used to large swathes of untamed Jungle, towering trees and monsterous, carnivorous plantae. But here, all around her, she saw cold, utilitarian metal, and pseudo metals, worked into a large docking bay that seemed to stretch on for at least a mile. Large landing and launch pads shifted up or down, ferrying their cargo down from impact, or up to launch. And it wasn't just the srroundings that caught her eyes either. Hundreds of people, all lacking scales, walked about in armors like hers, wearing colored eye glass pieces and boarding or coming out of space pods. Some of them were in clusters, talking, laughing, quarreling. And others were solitary, leaving the docks or going toward their attack ball. It was all just such a huge culture shock to her, she found it hard to respond in a gruff nature, as she was want to do, even though the other two adults spoke about her.
"Yeah, first time among her people since she was shipped off world. Should have expected as much."
"Come on, Vennel was it? There will be plenty of time for sight seeing. Theres more important things for now."
Turning around to face the two she rose an inquisitve eye brow in response.
"Like what?"
The two exchanged surprised glances. They didn't really expect her to ask, much less care. Perhaps she didn't care, but either way, it wasn't most Saiyans that typically cared.
"Well, first we need to get you to a medical diagnosis, make sure you're not infected with anything. Then a psych evaluation, and afterwards, if it all checks out, you'll be sent to the Academy, so you can be integrated with Saiyan society."
She nodded her head thoughtfully. Truth be told, she didn't understand half of those word. But she'd learned after years of being treated like a god, that sometimes it's just better to pretend you know everything. Made it easier to deal with things at times, if people assumed you were up to speed. Of course, despite how erroneous her mentality may be, it did serve her well, and neither of the two Saiyans seemed to really care that much if she actually knew what was going on or not.
"Now, if you'd follow me."
She nodded, and followed after the first of the two Saiyans. The other one followed behind her, sticking close as if they were guarding a prisoner. And in some regards, they were. They didn't want to risk a Saiyan who had no idea what was going on running amok after their first day back on Vegeta.
The three of them walked down the docks, passing by numerous pods, each identical. Some were about to be used, just finished being used, and others yet remained unused, being fueled or repaired. She didn't quite understand the latter two things that were happening, but it all fascinated her immensely. She knew so little about her people, and now she found there were so many of them. She was curious what they were like, would they be like her? Would they maybe be different? And if so, how much?
Continuing t on, they finally came to the doorway that lead to the outside of the space port. The bright light was jarring to Vennel at first, her eyes squinted and she instinctively rose an arm to try and shield her eyes from the sunlight. But when her eyes adjusted, she was stunned to say the least. Everywehre she looked, she saw people like her, the "Saiyans." She even saw many different kinds of aliens wandering about, wondering what they were doing. But she didn't have much time to stop and stare, as the Saiyan behind her nudged her to continue on.
"Move it."
He grunted. It seemed clear now that his patience was wearing thin with Vennel's constant stops. She looke dback to give him a glare, only for him to shove her forward. The sudden push caused her to stumble slightly, before she regained her footing. Turning to the large male infront of her, she continued walking forward.
While they walked to some unknown destination to her, she took in all the sights. Tall buildings, taller even than the towering trees of her jungle planet. The bustle of the city vaguely reminded her of the small empire she had formed with the reptillian aliens from her former home, but that was no where near the scale and magnitude of this place. But one thing stuck out in her memory, the pink skies of the world. Seeing them again, it brought out a sort of nostalgia to her. She could feel it, this was home.
The trip felt like forever to her, but that was mostly because of how wonder struck she was about everything. When they'd finally arrived at their destination, the trio came to a halt outside of a large, wide building.
"We're here. Head on in side, give them your name, and tell them you're a new arrival. You'll be met with soon."
She looked to the Saiyan who spoke up, it was the one who had been in front of their little band of three. She was about to inquire further, when the two Saiyans exchanged a brief look, and the one who'd just spoke nodded to teh other, and the two seperated from her. She was about to call them back and ask them a question, like, where was she, and what was she doing here. But she shook her head, it was partly her fault anyways, for playing it off like she understood. So, in she went.
As she approached what she assumed to be a doorway with a solid wall, the wall slid open. This had been her first encounter with automated doors, and it neraly made her jump. But she had to play cool, she was used to just rolling with the punches at this point anyways. Though, she wondered if she'd ever get used to this place.
As she entered the building, she saw a large room, with rows of ergonomic chairs, lined up back to back in a very utilitarian design, as was most of the city she'd seen so far. The room was largely empty, a few Saiyans around her age sitting in the chairs waiting. At first glance, she'd counted them to be five in total. But they weren't the only ones, as soon as she entered a female Saiyan behind a desk at the far end looked up, to see who had arrived. She nodded, signaling with her hand for Vennel to approach.
Coming towards the long desk, her eyes just barely making it over the top of the desk, she looked up at the woman who stood above her. She seemed to be waiting on her to say or do something, and remembering what she was told not but a few moments ago, she replied.
"My name is Vennel, and I'm a new arrival."
Nodding absently, the woman looked down at a computer, and began fidgeting out of Vennel's view. But she could hear what sounded like the clatter of keys typing under the woman's finger falls. Looking back a few moments later to Vennel, she nodded at her.
"Very well, go ahead and take a seat. I'll call you up when the doctor is ready to meet with you."
Vennel nodded, and went over to one of the many chairs that made up the room. Her first idea was to sit next to one of the other Saiyans but each of them seemed more disinterested with her than the last, and none of them were sitting together as is, so she decided to take her own seat, secluded from the rest.
Sitting down, she had no idea just how long it was going to be that she waited, but one by one, she noticed as the others were called away from their seat, and to the desk, until it was just her and one other in the room.
"Carowei..."
The voice of the woman behind the desk called out, and the Saiyan boy stood up, and walked over toward the desk. Vennel was too far away to accurately understand what was being said between the two, no different than the others, but after a few moments, the boy nodded and walked off down one of the long halls, presumably heading to meet with one of the doctors. Vennel paid little attention though, as she had her arms crossed, and appeared to be trying to rest while she waited. But she wasn't very good with waiting in the first place, used to being waited on rather than the other way around.
But after the boy was called up, it wasn't but a few moments later until she heard her own name called. She hopped out of her seat, and onto her feet, and approached the woman.
"Doctor Choibok will see you shortly. Please proceed to room number thirteen."
Nodding, Vennell was about to elave, before she looked back to the woman.
"Which one would that be?"
She was asking a question, but despite that her tone was almost arrogant, as if she thought the woman stupid for not telling her first. Thankfully, despite appearing to have caught on, the woman didn't seem to mind enough to speak about it. However, her arm snapped up, pointing to a small sign on the wall of one of the hallways. The sign read: "Rooms 1-12 → Rooms 13-25 ←" and upon reading it, she turned back to the woman and gave a curt nod. Turning on her heel, she took off in a leisurely saunter, heading for the room. She didn't have to go far, as it was the room on the immediately on her right. Approaching the door, like the one at the front of the building, it whisked open immediately.
She expected it, though, since the last one had as well. She walked into the room and found that it was rather small. About twelve feet wide and twelve feet deep, on one side sat a large table, that looked more like an uncomfortable bed, and on the other, was a sophisticated tank of some sort, with clear gree glass forming a porthole that reminded her of the window on her attack ball. She walked over to the table, since it seemed to be the only thing she could sit on, and pulled herself onto it, sitting down to wait for the doctor to arrive.
Luckily, this time she wasn't left waiting for long. The door way to the room peeled away, and out stepped a Saiyan male. He wore a long cloak, that seemed to protrude from under his pauldrons, and covered his back, but also swept forward to the front. He had short, spikey black hair, and was clad in black elastic pants, but no visible undershirt. His gaze was focused on some sort of data pad in his hand, while he entered, before looking up to see the young Saiyan sitting on the table and nodded.
"Vennel, I presume?"
He asked, assumedly to determine if she weren't in the wrong room. She nodded, however, and he returned the nod.
"Alright, so, why don't you remove your armora nd clothing and I'll prep the rejuvenation chamber."
The what-jination cham-huh? She didn't bother to question, though, as her curiosity was quickly sated as he immediately walked over to the large device in the room. She should have guessed, absed on the context, but some of these were words she'd never heard before. However, as he set to work setting up the tank, she complied, removing her armor, and clothing. Standing naked, she was forced to wait a few moments before he backed away from the tank, and the door to it swung open.
"Alright, step in side and I'll begin your diagnosis."
Nodding, unsure what he was going to be doing, or how he was going to be doing it, she walked inside. He helped her fit a strange device over her nose and mouth, the breathing apparatus that would keep her from drowning in the next stage.
"Good, now remain still. I'll initiate the machine."
No sooner than he finished speaking, than the door closed shut. Suddenly, she felt a damp, moist feeling around her toes. She looked down and noticed as the chamber was rapidly begininng to fill with a translucent green liquid. As the liquid continued to fill at a rapid pace she began to bang on the port hole desperately, assuming something must have broken. However, Choibok seemed to be unphased. He even went so far as to visibly sigh before looking at her.
"Relax,"
He said, his voice muffled by the hatch that seperated the two.
"This is normal. That liquid has a healing property, and I'll need you submerged in order for the machine to see if you're healthy."
This was normal?! Well, she could drown in there. But then she remembered the apparatus around her face. She could breathe in it. She felt as though a weight were lifted off her shoulder, and she began to relax, realizing she could breathe regularly even as the liquid filled up, finally enveloping her entire body. The liquid seemed to tingle, as if a light tickle to her skin.
She sat submerged in the tank for roughly fifteen minutes, her thoughts drifting to things such as, "when am I getting out of here," to "I wonder what sort of food they have here." By the time the diagnosis was complete, she was made aware this step was at least finished, as the liquid began to drain almost as quickly as it had filled. Upon emptying, the hatch swung open, and Vennel reached up, removing the breathing mask from her face. As she took her first step out, a soggy splatter was heard as liquid that still clumb to her body splashed off, droplets hitting the ground and leaving a wet set of foot prints as she walked toward the table.
The doctor turned to her, pulling back out his datapad. His gaze was afixed to the datapad as he started talking to her.
"Well, you seem healthy enough, and your time on that planet did you well. Reports say you practically wipe it clean. However, before we're done, I have to send for Doctor Kabaj, he'll be performing your psych evaluation."
Vennel looked at him curiously, she didn't know what any of those things were herself. Luckily Choibok caught on, having looked up just in time to catch her confused expresion.
"Nothing to worry about, he'll just have to ask some questions of you. No matter how bizarre, just be sure to answer them truthfully."
When he'd finished speaking, Choibok put his datapad away and nodded toward Vennel, before leaving the room, presumably to go check on another Saiyan. This left Vennel alone in the room, to her thoughts. As she picked up her clothing and armor and set about redressing herself, she wondered just what this "sike" evaluation was about.
As Vennel finished redressing though, she heard the hiss of the door opening again. She peeked over her shoulder before turning around to face her new guest. He was a tall man, nearly six feet, Vennel would have guessed, and his head was bald. His armor was similar in design to the one Choibok had been wearing.
"Ah, Vennel..."
The doctor said quietly, going over a datapad of his own. But he pause for a moment, looking at the datapad again.
"Huh. Well, didn't think you'd make it back."
"What?"
"Ah, nothing. Nothing."
Kabaj chuckled to himself as he tucked the datapad away. To him, he remembered this one. Due to her name, she came towards the end of the list alphabetically, and with her power level, they'd run out of planets that quite fit her level range. So instead, they had to send her to a world that might have been too much for her. But she survived, none the less, and no worse for wear. Perhaps she'd go on to do some great things, he wondered. But enough about that.
"Alright Vennel, I'm going to be asking you some questions and-"
"Yeah, yeah. I need to answer truthfully. Get on with it."
Kabaj's face seemed to pause for a moment, before a grin curled onto his face. "A true Saiyan, through and through." He thought to himself. He nodded, though, to her.
"Very well. Now let's begin."
Glancing one last time at the datapad, he then folded his arms behind his back while making eye contact with Vennel. Vennel naturally returned the eye contact, but took it a bit more instinctively like a dog might, as a challenge of authority. An interesting reaction that he already needed to make note of.
"Now, first off, tell me your name."
"What do you mean? It's Vennel, you already know it, you said it as you entered?"
Raising a hand he tried to calm her reaction, before speaking.
"Remember what I said, just answer truthfully. Some questions may feel redundant, but trust me."
Clicking her tongue, Vennel folded her arms, thinking this was stupid even now. Her tail swayed back and forth impatiently, as she awaited the next question. Taking a deep breathe, Kabaj proceeded with the rest of the exam.
"Now, then, shall we continue?"
Vennel nodded, and Kabaj began to question her. His questions covered topics such as hypothetical situations, problem solving, questioning her life on the world she was sent to, and even critical thinking. Vennel's replies were all satisfactory, showing she was indeed in healthy mental order for a Saiyan at her age. Though she seemed to have an unnatural distaste and borderline fear with plants for some reason. But given her answers about life on that planet, he could rationalize the reason for her reactions, and even surmised that she'd recover from it in due time. Almost an hour had passed, during the verbal exam, and Kabaj nodded once more, and pulled his data pad out again.
"Well, everything checks out. Do you have any questions?"
Vennel paused, wondering for a moment if she had anything to still ask, and she found but one question that still tickled at the back of her mind.
"So what happens next?"
"Well, after I submit my results, you'll need to wait for a little while, but you'll be registered to the Academy, where you'll learn what it means to be a Saiyan."
Even that brought more questions to her, like what it meant to be a Saiyan, as her examiner had put it. But sensing her confusion he waved his hand, his head shaking from side to side.
"I'll say no more, that's the purpose of the Academy. Now, come with me."
Beckoning her to follow him, with his hand, he walked toward the door. The door made the now familiar hiss as it opened of it's own accord. Vennel gave a half hearted shrug, and followed after him. Kabaj seemed absorbed by something on his data pad, as he seemed to be reading and replying with the occasional tap on the monitor, however he walked through the halls with purpose. It was as if he knew where he was going and how to get there without even looking, though if he'd worked here long enough, it made sense. Vennel followed close behind, until they came to the end of the hall. A door opened up infront of them, And he lead her inside. The room looked like a sort of armor, with sets of armor hung on racks, and strange circular objects with curved glass of different colors hanging from the racks.
"Thankfully, you still have your armor from when you were a child, though that's not all of why we're here. You're going to need a scouter."
"A what?"
Before he replied, he approached one of the racks of lensed devices, that looked like the ones so many Saiyans wore. He retrieved a red lensed one, matching her armor, and tossed it to the girl. She instinctively reached to grab it, catching the device quickly. And before she could ask further, Kabaj was already reading her like a book, pointing to his scouter-covered ear. Mimicing him, she rose her scouter up, and placed it over her ear. Surprisingly, it stuck in place, apparently designed in such a way that it utilized a comfortable amount of suction to keep it in place.
"Now, tap the button on the side."
Following instruction, she reached up, and sure enough there was a large button for her hand to press. The resulting click caused the device to boot up, running through a sequence of foreign figures to her, before finishing.
"The device is called a Scouter, as I previously stated. But it does a myriad of things. It tracks power levels, quantified aproximated strengths of whatever it can detect, provided it's alive. It will display this in numerical format for comparison. For instance..."
He glanced at Vennel and smiled.
"Your power level is just over twelve hundred. Which is a very respectable power level for your age. Certainly above the norm for first-class Saiyans at your age."
She nodded, pleased to hear that her power level was actually not half bad. However, she wondered just what this business about first class was, or what other peoples' were. She saw a silhouette of Kabaj's body on her scouter, but she couldn't understand the numbers, as she didn't know how to read or write.
"Right now, you're probably wondering what mine is, probably unable to read the language that's written in, right? But don't worry, you'll learn about that and more at the Academy."
Nodding, she had almost grown used to Kabaj answering her questions before she could even ask them. In fact, she almost preferred it this way, too used to the constant questioning of the reptillians that were always too afraid to take initiative. Perhaps her people were much like herself after all.
"Now, You've been registered to the Academy, you'll need to head there. Once you arrive, you'll be assigned a place to live during your stay."
"And how long will I be attending this Aka-demi?"
Stiffling a chuckle in response to her ill pronunciation of the word, he just shook his head.
"That's totally reliant on you. The length of time a Saiyan stays there is usually until the Saiyan has proven that they have learned all they will from their instructors. Now, I'm sending you a map of the city to your Scouter, just follow the lines on the map toward the north end of the city. You'll find the Academy located there."
And true to form, her scouter began to load up a top-down view of the city, with various lines spreading out from a central hub, forming a circular shape to the city, organized almost like a wheel. The city was broken up into two distinct districts, with the outer wheel forming the majority of the city's space, and the inner wheel forming a smaller portion of it, close to the center. Kabaj then lead Vennel out of the room while she noted her position on the map, indicated by a pulsing dot on the map.
"Well, that's it for you here. You're on your own now. Best of luck to you."
Kabaj spoke, while looking back at his Datapad.
"Er, thanks for your help- I guess?"
A simple grunt was all Kabaj offered in reply, clearly absorbed in his datapad now, and only half-ways paying much attention to Vennel. Nodding in response, purely for the formality of it, she then turned to walk away. She headed for the doors she first entered when she came into the building and was once again thrust outside into the open air of the city. The sights were indeed marvelous to her, but she now had a new objective, to go and find this academy. So off she wandered, into the big city, following the lines which represented the major streets of the city, on her way towards the north.
* * *
She'd been wandering for what felt like an hour. She'd had to stop and ask for directions, since being unable to actually read the map she was given, she didn't really know which building it was she was looking for. But she at least knew what side of the city to be on. And lucky for her, a passing Saiyan was willing to answer her question, when most were too busy. He was an aging Saiyan, hair turning partially white on the sides of his head, giving him a salt and pepper look to his hair.
"You're looking for the Academy?"
"Yeah, is it nearby? I was told it was in the north of the city, but I can't read this map yet."
A look of realization sprang into being on the older Saiyan's face. Ah, so she was new on Vegeta. She looked a bit older than most who returned from their proving, but it wasn't unheard of for a Saiyan to be a bit older though.
"Yeah, you're not far from it right now. If you head back the way you came about a block or so, it's the largest building on the street. You can't miss it. It'll be on your left."
Vennel smiled, and waved to the man, before taking off running towards the Academy. The other Saiyan nodded, before turning away to return to whatever it was he was doing. Vennel honestly didn't care what it was, she now knew where to be and where to go. If she was going to be taught how to get around this city, and get stronger, she couldn't wait to get started.
Pushing her way through the crowds, the short Saiyan girl finally found herself in front of the building that probably was what was referred to by the man she spoke to not long ago. The building was huge, spanning the length of the block, and tall to boot. The front of the building had large double doors that were nearly three times her size. As she approached them, they pulled away to give way to the interior of the building.
With a deep breath, she took her first step into the massive building. What she saw was a large circular room, with stone floors with a large circular inscription in the floor with strange unintelligble markings, at least to her. There was a desk at the far end of the room as well, and two large doors roughly half the size of the front doors that were located on the east and west walls respectively. And behind the large desk, flanked on either side, were a large set of stairs that seemed to vanish upward in a spiraling staircase manner. Stepping further in, a man at the desk wearing rather ornate armor stood up to call to her from across the room.
"You there. Come here."
She immediately broke her explorative nature and looked at the man, before approaching the desk. Again, her stature was rather short, and she barely was taller than the desk was. As she approached, he appeared to be looking at his computer at something, and as she came to the counter, he looked back to her.
"What's your name?"
He asked, his tone was firm and to the point. He clearly wasn't one who was fond of niceties, and he seemed to be rather harsh with his body language as well, standing tall and rigid without a perceived ounce of relaxation.
"Vennel, sir. I'm a new arrival."
"I can see that. Wait right there."
He turned back to his computer, and once again she heard the clicking and clacking of key strokes as he worked busily on the machine. Only a few moments later, and he'd turned back to face her and give her a stern nod.
"Right, we have one spot left for you. Team Aurel lost two members in squad practice last week. The surviving member's name is Kamomil, and she's awaiting you in the team dorm. You and another new arrival have been assigned. I'd suggest you get moving, so you can get acquainted with your new team mates. Kamomil will explain how things work around here."
Vennel nodded, and was about to leave before she turned to the man once more.
"Er, where would that-"
A sigh of expasperation, you'd think she'd be used to these at this point. The male looked down to her with a scowl and then jerked his arm up, thumbing toward the stairs behind him to his left.
"Up these stairs, second floor, down the hall. Room two-twenty."
Nodding again, Vennel waved after him as she darted around the desk and up the stairs.
"Thanks!"
She yelled, not waiting for a response, though she doubted in all likelihood that she'd even get one from that man. As she ran up the stairs, she looked up and realized that they were rather long, and she'd probably have an easier time of just flying up them, as the spiral staircases seemed to allow for that with enough space in the center of the cylidrical staircase being spacious enough for a person to fit in. She gently ascended upwards, until she passed the first floor, and came to the second. As she moved through the air towards the door that seperated it from the stairs, the door slid open. She hadn't seen many other Saiyans in the building, besides the one at the desk, and was rather curious why that was.
But shaking the confusion, she drifted into them hallway, and touched down. The hall was rather undecorated, merely being a row of doors evenly spaced roughly ten feet apart, and stretching on for a long distance. She passed by room after room, glancing up occasionally to try and read the numbers of the doors. But she remembred she couldn't read the language so the numbers all seemed foreign to her. Great, she thought. Her next option, was to just keep knocking on the doors until someone answered and told her that she had the right door. But then she'd just look like an idiot, and her pride prevented her rom stooping so low, at least, not yet she couldn't. But as she tried to mull over her options in an attempt to reach a resolution, someone came into the hall way from the stair case, and Vennel spun around to see who it was.
It was a Saiyan a little bit taller than her, wearing armor that covered just his torso, without pauldrons, or even the leg plates. She thought he looked familiar too, but she couldn't her finger on why for. The boy looked back at her, his hair was wild, having no rhyme or reason, and standing on end in several directions at once. He wore a blue lensed scouter, and merely glared at her disapprovingly.
"What, you have a problem?"
Vennel barked at the kid. The kid just scoffed at her, and continued walking toward her, but as he was coming close to her, he merely shoulder checked her. Not expecting the display of aggression, she wasn't prepared, otherwise she may have pushed back. But since she was taken by surprise, she nearly lost her balance as he passed by.
"Hey! Don't you walk away from me! Where the hell do you think you're going?"
She shouted after him as he continued to walk away. However, despite noting even so much as looking back to her, he continued walking and replied.
"To my team's quarters."
"And which one is that?"
Her tone was aggressive, she was seething from his disrespect. She wanted to know what team he was on so that she could look out for him and maybe get a chance at beating the shit out of him. However, her question caused him to stop in his tracks. He looked back at her, peering over his shoulder to glare at her again.
"Team Aurel."
And without another word, his body turned and he approached the door in front of him, as the door slid open and he stepped inside.
Was she hearing him right? Her stomache felt like it had just fallen out of her after she heard him. There had to be some mistake, right? The same team as hers? This little punk was going to be one of her team members? She was fuming, this was the absolute worst thing that could have happened, a little punk like him was her- no, unacceptable. Surely there was a mistake.
She marched through the hall toward the door that he had just entered and rapped her knuckles against the door in quick succesion. She could faintly hear the sounds of foot steps, as they grew closer to the door and it opened in front of her.
"What is it?"
It was a female's voice. It was a girl who was dressed with long black sleeves and leggings, a pair of white gloves and boots, but no armor or scouter equipped. Her tail was wrapped around her waist, which Vennel saw as a bit strange, but recalled seeing many of the adults she'd been around lately had been doing the same thing. Perhaps they thought her the strange one, with her tail hanging freely as it did.
"Is this Aurel Team's room?"
The girl nodded, leaning against the frame of the door way, and giving Vennel a once over. It seemed as though she were judging her rather obviously before she spoke again.
"And what if it is? What business do you have?"
"I'm Vennel, the new recruit for this team?"
And the girl's face lit up after hearing that. Those simple words, was all it took to shift her mood from stand-offish to accepting.
"Ah, welcome, welcome. I'm Kamomil, and this:..."
She turned her body to gesture with her arm towards the other new arrival, and guess who it was? Dick-bag McBastardson himself. Before Kamomil could introduce him he snarled toward Vennel's appearance and stood up.
"Oh please, this has to be a joke. What is she doing here?"
"And this bundle of sunshine is the other member of our team, Carowei."
Carowei stood up, from his seated position. He was sitting on a sectional couch that didn't look too terribly comfortable, more utility rather than anything. Vennel's attention, however, was too distracted by the rude boy her age giving her disrespectful comments.
"Trust me, I'm no more pleased about this than you."
"Settle down, both of you!"
The almost plesant demeanor of Kamomil's had vanished in almost a blink of an eye, both Vennel and Carowei snapped their heads around to look at her.
"Since I am the only member of this team left, I'm the defacto team leader. The las ttwo members got themselves killed, and it doesn't matter what your opinion on the other is. From now on you both are going to fight and bleed together, so you best get used to cooperating."
Vennel gulped. She was sure serious. Her eyes darting over toward Carowei who seemed to be having a similar reaction. It seemed even he respected Kamomil enough to not step over her, as he had to Vennel.
"Tch, fine."
Carowei grumbled, before he turned around. He headed towards a door in the room, and it slid open, disappearing into the room on the other side. A disappointed sigh fell out of Kamomil's lips as she turned back to face Vennel.
"Now that we've got that unpleasantness behind us, I hear you're a new arrival? And the medical reports also seem to state you're not versed in written language, is that correct?"
Vennel nodded sheepishly. She couldn't hide that fact forever, especially if she was going to be learning to read it. But her embarassment must have been plain on her face.
"Don't worry. You're not alone in that. Many people get sent to back water planets where they don't speak galactic common, so they are sort of lost. You'll learn that here though, so don't worry."
"Right, so what's the purpose of, you know, these teams?"
"Ah, glad you asked. Well, the teams are groups of three. Usually with a high ranking Saiyan put in charge of the them, or the strongest Saiyan. In this case, we have two elites, and yourself, a first-class Saiyan. So pardon Carowei's reaction. He just had hoped to be on a team with all elites, though he probably would have been in your position if he had. He's fairly weak for his rank."
Vennel couldn't help herself, she tried to supress it, but her laughter came roaring out of her after hearing that Caroei was weak. The idea the little guy was acting that way toward her was hilarious, as he was likely just overcompensating for his short comings. But her laughter soon came to an end after Kamomil continued speaking.
"Don't think you've any room to talk either, though. You may be a first class, and stronger than average for your birth power level, but here you're in another class. You see, there are three floors to the academy. Those floors house Saiyan teams in accordance with their overall rating. We're on the second floor, despite having two elites. Most teams here are comprised fully of elites, and the floor below above this house the strongest members of some of the most powerful noble houses in the Imperial diet."
Vennel's laughter felt like a distant memory now. Was she just being told she was weak? She felt out raged. She was far from weak. She'd spent her life growing up treated as a god, so it was natural that her ego was a bit inflated.
"Just who are you calling weak, huh? I'm one of the most powerful first-class Saiyans, the people on my planet saw me as a GOD, before they all died. And you're calling me weak?!"
She pulled her fist back and threw it towards Kamomil, expecting to clock her in display of her power. But Kamomil was anticipating it. She rose a hand up to catcht he fist, and over pwoered Vennel with relative ease, pushing her down onto the ground and bending her arm backwards behind her body.
"Yes, yes I am calling you weak. But we Saiyans grow stronger at an impressive rate if we really set our heads to it. So remember, if you're weak now, you can always grow stronger. But strength enough isn't enough to win a fight!"
Releasing her, Kamomil stood up, and let Vennel get herself back on her feet. Vennel rubbed her arm, while glaring at the team leader, but she knew that if she was overpowered by Kamomil that easily, she clearly did have a lot of room to grow.
"You're at a disadvantage, everyone we'll be facing, well most everyone, will out class you. So use that, use that to your advantage and grow stronger. Your room is over there, get some rest. We begin training in the morning."
Kamomil pointed over at the door on the left wall. Now that Vennel didn't have so much to concentrate on, she could observe the room more fully. The sectional that Carowei was sitting at before had a small white table in front of it. Next to her, near the entry way, was a small kitchen, with a counter that ran from the right wall to a pillar that also served to seperate the kitchen. There were three doors on each side of the room, each presumably leading to a bed room with this central room serving as the common space.
Vennel nodded to Kamomil, who smiled in return.
"Fine."
"Good. You're prideful, use that to drive you forward. Don't take a defeat sitting down."
Vennel was at least glad to hear that coming from her superior. It was still a strange feeling to even have a superior for her. But the fact alone she had one that she could respect their strength, was important to her. Walking towards her door, it slid open in her presence. The bed room had a single cot in it, hung off hooks on either side of the wall, and a small closet door on the north. A wall switch by the door way stood alone on the otherwise barren wall. Running her hand over it, the room grew dark, clearly being the light switch, she turned it back on for a moment, and undressed herself. She stored her armor and clothes in the closet door, along with her scouter. Walking back to the wall switch, she turned the room's light's off again, and tossed herself over into the cot.
Closing her eyes, she didn't realize until that moment just how tired she'd become from the day's activities. But she'd had a lot to think about, and as much as she wanted to go over all the new changes to her life, the tug of slumber was too great, and she felt herself slowly slip unconscious. Thus began Vennel's life in the Academy.