You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Bing)

There were plenty of reasons why this was a ridiculous idea. Tako could feel the strength surging from the fighter directly in front of her, and yet that only made her more eager to see how she could fare against a man like this. Well, kind of a man. Actually, now that Bing has opened the door, she's a little disappointed. She's expected some hulking warrior, weird alien, or ancient master at the very least! This guy was barely older than she was!

"Hey! Who do you think you're calling kid, buddy?! I'm no kid!"

Well, she was, but not to this guy! He might be strong, but he looked way too close to her age to get away with calling her that!

At the offer to shake hands, Tako takes it. Perhaps more surprisingly, given her general attitude and what she's here to do, she made no real effort to squeeze Bing's hand very hard - which might just be for the best. she goes for a firm handshake, and then, when her hand is released, she bows. She'd shown respect the way he prefers - she asks for it the way she liked too. A lifetime on the martial arts championship circuit ingrains certain habits deeper than others.

Less surprisingly, the teenager isn't at all put off by Bing's continual eye contact. She meets his gaze equally, and when she rises from her bow - hands pressed together in front of her through it - she nodded her head firmly and put her hands on her hips.

"Sure, I don't want to trash your place. lead the way, I don't mind where we do it."

That is certainly true enough. It really didn't make much difference to her where they fought; the fact that the more powerful fighter had agreed to accept the challenge at all was exciting enough. She'd have expected him to laugh in her face! But, hey, she's not going to complain about that.

She's got her opportunity. Now she just has to seize it. If she can hold herself together in a fight against a pressure his intense - if she can hold her own, even? She'll have completely justified her decision to overhaul her training! Heck, even if she can't, she's positive she'll learn immeasurably from the experience. The guy might look a little weird - with his grey hair and his youthful appearance - but she's more than happy to overlook that if his power matches up to what she believes it should be.

Tako followed, and did her best not to get too impatient with the walk. It is a challenge, though. That overwhelming strength yearns to be challenged and contested. She really had no idea how she would fare against it, she only knew without a shadow of a doubt that she wanted to give it her very best shot. That Bing is so relaxed and calm about it is unexpected... but overall, she's glad. The few people she'd found in her years who could easily outstrip her tended to be arrogant and domineering sorts; this was the kind of surprise she could live with.

"I don't know where my limit lays, but every day I'm stronger than the day before. That's what it means to be a martial artist! Always striving to improve yourself!"

She felt a little weird saying that, as though Bing didn't know it already, but she didn't really know much about the guy other than the fact that he was incredibly strong. He could just be a natural talent, or some kind of soldier; that actually seemed pretty likely, and soldiers didn't usually understand the first thing about being a martial artist, in her experience.

When they come to stand before the spaceship, Tako just observed it with a cool gaze. "Okay then." She agreed, "I'll try not to ding up your spaceship." Because, hey, in her experience... machinery tends to explode as readily as anything else when lots of power starts getting thrown around!

And the first thing she does is start calling up that power.

"I'm not going to hold back! So get ready!" The girl announced, her eyes meeting his with a serious glare. All at once, the girl's power triples in strength, going from a relaxed level to a burst of incredible strength that might have been missed by a less aware fighter, but which Bing could no doubt sense easily. She still felt vastly outmatched, but she meant what she said; it'd be a huge dishonour to hold herself back from any opponent, let alone one so much stronger than she is.

"HYAH!"

And with that, Tako burst from the ground, flying through the air as fast as she can. She zooms in low, and at the last moment, swings around sharply to the left, and then flickers in from the side. It is a probing attack of her own; trying to get some sense of her opponent's speed and reflexes, with the added advantage that if he messes up, she'll plant her foot in the side of his head. That, at least, is the plan.

(Transformed to my FINAL FORM and N1: Smash It Up used - 32,252 PL in attack.)

When Tako looked back on it later - and she would look back on it later - she still wouldn't be entirely certain about exactly what happened between the moment when he blocked her kick and the instant she was flying through the air. The girl barely realizes she's been flung at all before she's sailing towards the waterfall - and by that point it is far too late to arrest her movement.

Thankfully, that isn't a problem. The blow hammers into her midsection and she is sent hurtling into the water below where she impacts with a powerful splash. The girl knows what happened there because she can feel it; the pain radiates throughout her entire body, from the point of impact. The girl carries on deep into the water, until she finally hits the floor, and the rocky terrain cracked. The air was forced out of her lungs, and the girl's head spun as she tried to pull herself together. Her mouth was full of blood, and her whole body was aching and beaten.

She knew she'd be outclassed; she hadn't been prepared for just how far the reality of that extended. Where some might have given in to despair right away, though, Tako felt a thrill run through her. Yes, she was outmatched, outclassed by far, and there was no way she could hope to match up against this guy if he got serious...

... but she wasn't out of the game yet! She could still surprise him!

From above, the water goes surprisingly still in the aftermath of the impact, though Bing can still easily sense Tako's power beneath the shimmering surface. He hasn't killed her, which is probably a bit of a relief given the three seconds or so she takes before there's any movement at all.

When there is, the result is explosive.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Cheerful words and banter are replaced with burning determination as Tako summons every scrap and fibre of her power, bringing it to bear around her in a scorching wave of rushing red. She hadn't intended to go right to the big guns so quickly, but there was no way she could stand up to him if she gave him anything less... something which becomes very obvious in just a few seconds.

Beneath the water, a tiny point of red light is barely visible, and then, in the next moment, the water erupts upwards. Standing at the bottom of the riverbed, Tako's feet are dug into the earth, and the girl's body is surrounded by a shimmering nexus of brilliant red energy, flame-like aura swirling about her as she channels everything she has into it.

The energy does nothing to hide the damage she's taken from just that one hit - the thin trickle of blood running from a wound in her forehead, the scarlet stream leaking from the corner of her mouth, but the girl's teeth are grinding together and if the ferocious, stubborn will burning in her eyes is any indication, she's not going to let a little thing like that slow her down!

"THIS, IS THE POWER OF MY TECHNIQUE." She screams from behind gritted teeth, spit and blood forced through her lips. "THIS IS MY HEART, MY SPIRIT, MY ART! PREPARE YOURSELF!"

Even if her actual technique might be lacking compared to Bing's, there's no way anyone could argue her spirit is impressive. The girl's rainbow hair flies up dramatically all around her, stained different shades of red by the thick shield of energy which still keeps the waters at bay. This is what she lives for; the moment where she pushes herself to the very limit. Yes, Bing is an insurmountable obstacle, one that she has no chance of overcoming today...

But if she doesn't give it her all today, she'll have no chance of doing it tomorrow, either! So long as she never gave in, she would learn and grow from the experience... until, of course, she found the actual limit of what she could ever achieve.

That moment is not today.

(Charging MP3 - Invincible - 100% of Tako's PL as a barrier. Currently 96,756)

This is the moment that Tako had been waiting for.

She'd have been insulted if Bing had held back - and whilst she didn't know any moves similar to this herself, she has seen ki attacks before and she knows roughly what to expect. She'd been completely outclassed in hand to hand combat; she didn't expect it to be any different at range, as range was not where her style excelled anyway, but she was determined to test herself to the limit regardless.

Tako can feel the pressure of the green orb - deceptively small but utterly potent - building up in Bing's palm. She responds the only way she knows how; by charging more of her power into herself, calling on the strength of her spirit to bolster her technique and flare the brilliant crimson coating about her even more. She knows deep down, before the attack has even been unleashed, that it is a pointless effort - that there's just too much force coming for her to be able to deal with it... but she doesn't back down anyway.

There are some defeats that taste even better than victory.

"KIYAAAAAAAAAH!"

The bolt of emerald energy shoots towards her ludicrously fast, and she barely manages to brace and throw herself into the air to meet it head on. The top of the girl's skull impacts the bright green light, and there is a stunning, blinding eruption of force from the impact of the two techniques. Tako's scarlet power flares immediately, throwing off bolts of crimson lightning in the instant that her body slams against the almighty eruption of bright green power.

There's a noise like a thunderclap, and a wave of pressure bursts from the point of impact, causing the earth to shake and the water beneath her to evaporate, or else throw itself high into the air and come down as an impromptu rainstorm. This time, though, there's no further attack coming.

In the aftermath of the explosion, Tako is left to tumble from the air, the girl's eyes closed and her expression almost... serene. It is a good thing that Bing's technique didn't have any killing intent behind it; even so, Tako has taken an incredibly hefty hit, and one that has wracked her body like nothing she's ever felt before - the brightly-coloured teenager is now cast in shades of ashen grey and scorched black. It is going to take her hours to fix up her hair again!

When she hits the ground, her fingers dig into the dirt beneath her, and she trembles lightly. Incredibly, there's just - just - enough strength in the girl to get out three words:

"Not... done... yet..."

And then she collapses into unconsciousness, unable to force the fight back into her limbs. She looks almost peaceful like that, really, despite the fact that she's smoking lightly. With her eyes closed and her body sprawled in the dirt, all the tension that had been in her flows out of her, and the effect is rather... serene. Despite what she just said, though, there's definitely no way that she's going to be getting back up to her feet right away. She's going to need to take some time to sleep it off after an overwhelming attack that strong!

(Cobra Bomber of 902,632 hits Invincible at 193,512 with predictable results!)