Post by Tomoroko on Sept 7, 2015 20:21:21 GMT
[ Heavy weights on ]
Once Tomoroko had made it back home, she barely said two words to her mother as she stepped inside. She went straight to her room, leaving the door wide open as she crawled into her bed. She grabbed one of her many pillows and drew it close to herself as she closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a large sigh as she tried to release the stress of the day. However, try as she might... there was no forgetting what had just happened... or how scared she had been... Natto had figuratively lost his head when he found out the Queen's advisor was a Tuffle, something she didn't think would truly bother her boyfriend that much... he had been so tolerant when it came to people like Etoru and Manesco, both half bred saiyans. It seemed that what bothered him, were Tuffles in particular. From what she had read, this was an extremely old hatred as the Tuffles had not been around for many many years. Something must have happened when he was younger for him to harbour such hate against them...
Then, there was the presence of Icarus himself who's power level continuously read over 600,000. While he wasn't the most intimidating man, the number itself made Tomoroko uncomfortable. She was no-where near that strong, and neither was Natto... how was it then that Natto had so easily been able to subdue the android Tuffle without even transforming into a super saiyan? There was something there that didn't quite fit... unless her scouter had something wrong with it and added an aditional number to Icarus' power? She'd make sure to have a look at it later.
As if Natto and Icarus weren't enough to deal with, the sudden appearance of Queen Zucceta frightened her, and she didn't understand why she had been so scared. The Queen had never done anything against any of her people that she had seen. She was a powerful figurehead to be sure... maybe it was the message she sent out to the galaxy that frightened her the most about the woman. Regardless, being trapped in a room with those three, emotions running rampant and the threat of death on the air... she hated it.
"Tomo?"
A voice penetrated Tomo's thoughts just then, her mother walking into the room and sitting down at the edge of the young girls bed. Tomoroko glanced over her shoulder at her mother, tears were rolling down the girls eyes as she opened her mouth to speak to her mother. She closed it however when she couldn't find any words to say, burrying her face into her pillow as if to prevent her mother from seeing her weakness.
Her mother sang softly as she moved up from the end of the bed so that she was lying down right next to Tomoroko. She wrapped her arms around her daughter as best she could, and hugged her tightly, her right hand gently brushing through the young girls hair.
She continued, causing Tomoroko to choke up as she kept her face buried deep in the pillow until her mother sang the last syllable. She remembered this song... At least... she thought she remembered... as her mother sang to her, the white mist that blocked up her memories began to dance again, covering up the image of a very small girl being placed within a saiyan space pod. As she heard her mother sing, she could also hear it in her memory... that same song being sung to her as she was being prepared to be sent away... her mother didn't want to send her, and Tomo didn't want to go... but she promised that the two would be together again, safe and sound. She promised that Tomo would be so powerful, that no one could hurt them when they got back.
Tomoroko finally looked up from her pillow, glancing back to her mother before rolling around and hugging her tightly instead of the pillow.
"Mom... I... I was so scared..."
Tomoroko began, but her mother continued softly after placing a gentle kiss on the girls forehead.
The young girl smiled at that as she reached up to wipe at her eyes, resting her head more comfortably against her mother as she did so. As if all her mother had to do was sing her an old lullaby to make her feel better... at least enough that she wasn't bawling her eyes out anymore.
"Tomoroko, you don't need to be scared of anything. You're a very strong young woman. I'm not only referring to your power, you have a strong character, a good head on your shoulders and a good heart. Thing's will intimidate you, but you need to have more confidence in yourself."
Her mother then said gently, causing Tomo to nod lightly against her mother's chest, sighing once more as she moved to sit back up. Her eyes were red from her tears, but for the most part, she had stopped crying. Her mother then sat up in bed too, patting the young girls shoulder before leaning her forehead against Tomoroko's.
"I can't believe my little girl's grown up to be this amazing woman... Keep pushing forward Tomo... learn from what scares you..."
With that, her mother kissed her forehead and stood up. Tomoroko nodded gently as she got up too, reaching out for her mothers hand and stopping her from leaving the room just yet.
"You're right mom... I can't stop because I'm scared..."
She stood up from the bed, walking up next to her mother and turning to face her. She took in a deep breath before she began to tell her mother everything that had just happened.
"So our squad get's to stay together... but we'll probably be headed to Earth for the invasion now as well... I'm scared that we'll lose, that I'll lose Natto, or Aspa or even Habana... I'll probably have to fight Etoru too and I really don't want too. I love fighting... don't get me wrong but I'm not a conqueror... I can't make those people suffer just to prove we're stronger... I'm going to head back to the Star Javelin... I need to keep training up until the minute we leave. Maybe if I become strong enough... I can protect my team, and I can stop unnecessary deaths..."
She said gently, her determination suddenly showed on her tear stricken face. Her mother simply smiled and nodded to the young girl.
"Alright then. You go train, and I'll meet you at the Star Javelin when you're done. I'll have a few gifts for everyone so you're all ready for this war of yours."
Her mother stated as she gave Tomo's hand a tight squeeze before letting it go and heading to her workshop, taking her saiyan armor off in the process. Tomo knew that this meant her mother meant business. She wondered just what kind of gifts her mother was talking about, but didn't press the issue.
Instead, Tomoroko walked back out of the house, taking in a deep breath full of Vegeta's fresh air before taking to the skies once more and heading towards the Star Javelin. Her red ki flared up around the young girl as she soared through the skies of Vegeta. Her heart was pounding heavily in her chest as she made her way to the ship's entrance.
She paid no mind to the guards, quickly walking passed them and into the ship. From there, she closed the door behind her and made her way over to the gravity chamber. Instead of going directly for the gravity controls, she crouched down underneath them and removed one of the forward panels. Inside, there rested a funny looking headset which the saiyan removed and placed it on the ground. She then began playing around with the wires within the control panel, changing the wires from one outlet to another on a completely separate panel. From there, she replaced the panel before picking up the headset and standing up once more. She began to type furiously on the controls keyboards, programming the hidden droids to follow a set training routine that she had programmed. Next, she began to pull up profiles of two saiyans in particular. One was of Aspa, while the other was of Natto.
When she put the headset on, the images of the two saiyans appeared before her eyes as if they were really standing there. In truth, they were just programmed illusions that would follow the program she had just set.
"Alright... they are both strong but... our super saiyan powers... that's what scares me..."
The girl muttered as she turned back to the controls. She began putting in more information, and immediately the form of Natto and Aspa began to change. The sound of them transforming sent shivers down her spine as she turned to look at the images just in time to see their dark hair spike up and change from the classic black saiyan hair, to gold. Their eyes also changed to a greenish hue, and their aura's became just as gold as their hair. She knew Aspa couldn't transform yet, but the image displayed in front of her was what she imagined he would look like if he did. She took a deep breath before turning to the gravity machine and increasing it to x50.
The images in front of her seemed to fade for a moment as the sudden gravity change seemed to affect the program but soon, the images stabilized themselves. Tomoroko immediately began channeling ki through her body, focusing on her legs for the time being to help her master this gravity faster.
As she prepared herself, the training droids began pouring out of their hidden compartments, each taking position where the images of Aspa and Natto were standing. Each image had 5 droids associated to them. One for their heads, and two each for their hands and feet. This way, the droids would imitate the images movements and actually be able to damage Tomoroko based on what the program assigned.
She knew that the program wouldn't wait for her to get ready for the gravity, and so, while sucking in a deep breath she braced herself, bringing her arms to her side as she channeled her energy.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
She began to cry out as her red ki flared up around her, looking like red flames as she built up her attack. The forms of Aspa and Natto flew directly at her at varying speeds. Natto's image was much faster and disappeared before hitting her, while the image of Aspa aimed a punch directly for her face. Just then, Tomoroko released her energy in an Explosive wave that went crashing into both Aspa and Natto as his form re-appeared on her other side in an attempt to hit her. The energy pushed the droids away from her, giving her just enough space to move. She turned her attention to Aspa, extending her left arm and bracing it with her right hand. She began to charge up her Rail Gun, watching as it immediately grew to the size of a basket ball, and attempted to push even more power into it.
However, as she did so, the image of Natto came flying up towards her. He stopped just inches away from her, energy forming in his own hands as he fired down at Tomoroko. This forced the young girl to leap up into the air to get away from the blast, however as she wasn't quite used to the gravity yet, she didn't jump very high. This caused the blast to hit too close, and send the young girl careening off course. She growled lowly under her breath as she spun around in the air, firing off her Rail Gun towards Aspa as she had intended but missing her target, as the fake Natto had given him more than enough time to get away.
When she landed back on the ground, she began to stumble and ended up falling on her backside with a groan. She quickly pushed herself back to her feet, and the image that had greeted her wasn't there before... it was...
"Etoru?"
She questioned as the image of her little brother stood in front of her. She had to remove her headset from her eyes to see if he was real or not, but it surprised her when, even without the headset, he was still standing there.. and so were the images of Aspa and Natto. She looked at all of them in disbelief, both Aspa and Natto still in their super saiyan forms, and soon, she looked back to Etoru who began to charge up his power and eventually, he too transformed into the legendary form of the super saiyan.
"What the hell... Does this ship already have a hologram system? Damn it sometimes I wish that Natto gave me an instruction manual to this thing..."
She grumbled before hearing Etoru cry out the name of an attack...
"SOLAR FLARE"
"CRAP"
Tomoroko brought her hands up to her eyes to cover them from the oncoming blinding light, but the action alone gave the two other fakes the opportunity they needed. Both super saiyans came flying towards her. Aspa charging an attack in his left hand, while Natto charged one in his right. Both stopped just before physically hitting her to release the full force of their energy beams.
A loud cry of pain escaped the young girl as she had no room to dodge the oncoming strikes. The two beams burned through her exposed under armor and gauntlets, cracking at her heavy weights until Tomoroko was able to find the strength to gather her energy once more into another Explosive wave. Her energy was just enough to create an opening for her to fly forward towards the image of Etoru.
"Out of my way!"
She yelled at the image of her little brother as she fuelled her Atomic strike into her feet. She then used one to launch herself high above his head, and while she quickly came down on the form of the young super saiyan, she kicked the top of his head with her other energy infused foot. When the strike connected, a large explosion sent Tomoroko hurling away from Etoru. She was able to recover and land on her feet however, the form of Etoru disappearing even once the smoke had cleared. Now, she only had to deal with her two initial holograms... Natto and Aspa.
She was already panting heavily, and sweating profusely as she stared at both images. She needed an attack strong enough to get rid of at least one... and obviously, the weaker of the two would be Aspa. An idea crossed her mind as she looked at him, she began to fuel her Atomic strike into both of her fists, and as she did so, she watched the two of them charging up attacks of their own. This wouldn't be good at all if she had to try and counter both of them...
While charging her Atomic Strike, Tomoroko brought both of her hands together as if she she was praying, her fingers intertwining with one another. Instead of exploding on contact however, the energy began to mix together, swirling until they formed one single orb around her connected hands. This gave her a great idea! She extended both of her index fingers, and the orb of energy suddenly left her hands, moving up to the tips of her extended fingers, like a super powered Rail Gun.
"Hah!"
She pushed as much energy as she could into the attack, watching as it quadrupled in size! In fact, there was barely any room now in the gravity chamber between herself and the images of herself and her team mates! As if in reaction to the sudden mass amounts of energy, both Natto and Aspa released their own techniques, Aspa's going straight for the Rail gun, while the image of Natto vanished, re-appearing next to the energy and firing his blast directly for the exposed Tomoroko.
"RAIL GUN"
The girl cried out as she released the energy. Lightning seemed to dance around the beam of energy as it was released, being fired quickly towards where they had both been. Aspa's attack was being completely engulfed by her beam, however she didn't hear a secondary attack hit it. By the time she was able to register that Natto had escaped, it was far too late. Natto's attack went crashing into her, sending her flying off of her feet and crashing head first into one of the walls.
The beam completely erased the image of Aspa before also hitting the wall and exploding violently, covering the room in thick red vapor. This didn't stop the form of Natto though as the hologram came down on the young girl, relentlessly punching her as she tried to regain a sense of where she was.
Exhausted from having used up so much energy, Tomoroko could do little against the fake Natto's strikes but curl up into herself protectively, her arms up protecting her head from his onslaught and hoping her armor ould continue to take his punched. However, again and again she would hear it crack, and every moment she felt as if it would fall of of her uselessly.
"Okay... that's... ENOUGH"
She cried out angrily, her explosive wave seeming to shoot out of her body without any effort at all. The crimson ball that surrounded her body slammed angrily into Natto, pushing him away from her and sending the image crashing into the ceiling. The image quickly disappeared after being hit with such force, and even the control panel seemed to burn out at that point as the gravity turned off, and the holograms disappeared.
Tomoroko stayed on the ground where she was lying, completely exhausted after the mock battle she had just fought. Obviously, the power the holograms displayed wasn't their true super saiyan power... but none the less, she felt like she had just gotten thrashed by it. Her body screamed at her to stop what she was doing, to shut down and try to heal itself, but Tomoroko forced herself back up to her feet. She wasn't done...
Her body was completely bruised and bloodied from the training, she could barely open her left eye and she limped when she walked. She wasn't ready to quit though... she made her way back to the console, re-adjusting the wires she had changed, turning on the coolant fan so that the machine would continue to run properly before taking in a deep breath and reactivating the gravity controls. It immediately jumped back to x50 gravity, and to her surprise, Tomoroko could only slightly feel it. She decided to leave the holograms off at this point, and instead return to her regular training exercises. At least this way, her body would be able to tell it was no longer in danger, and it could continue to function.
With the gravity back on, Tomoroko brought herself down to the ground with a huff. She put one hand behind her back, her legs spread out to form a proper triangular stance to balance herself before lowering herself to the ground.
"I can't quit... I have to keep getting... stronger... for them... I have to protect... my family... and my... my people... the saiyans..."
She huffed with every movement of the exercise.
She continued her work outs like this for another hour, her body running on fumes as she began doing more push ups while just on her hands, her feet straight up in the air. The look in her face was of someone with absolutely no energy left, one of pure exhaustion. Her body might have given up on her just then had the gravity not turned itself off once more. She glanced over to the machine, too tired to go and see why it had stopped... she let herself fall back to her back with a loud OOF.
The door to the gravity chamber opened, and there stood Tomoroko's mom again. She had a rather large box in her hands which she quickly put down when she saw the state Tomoroko had put herself in. She ran over to the young girl to make sure she hadn't killed herself trying to train and sighed in relief when she saw that her daughter's eyes were still somewhat open, her chest still heaving as she breathed.
"I didn't mean you had to push yourself THIS far..."
The woman reprimanded her, pushing the girls bangs out of her face before getting up to go to the refrigerator. There, she gathered a few bottles of water and juice, along with some snack bars before making her way back over to her daughters side and dumping the contents on the ground.
"I know mom... I just... I needed to... ow..."
She complained when her mother attempted to help her up to a seating position. She shifted her daughter so that she was leaning against the wall before cracking open one of the juice bottles and handing it over to Tomoroko.
Tomo took the bottle, thanking her mother lowly before bringing it up to her lips and downing the contents mercilessly. To say her body was thankful for the hydration and nutrients as an understatement. She immediately began to feel her energy slowly start to return to her. Her mother then gave her the snack bars and made sure to sit there until Tomoroko had had her fill.
Her mother had then gone on to reprimand her about how far she had pushed herself, and how if her energy had depleted anymore she could have killed herself, and no one would have been the wiser until they found her corpse here in the gravity chamber. However, once she was done giving her shit, the two girls couldn't help but break out into laughter. The whole situation seemed ridiculous all of a sudden, and Tomo couldn't be happier that her mother was at least there with her...
"Hey mom... what's in the box?"
She asked fially, once the two had quieted down from their laughing fit. The elder woman looked back to the box she had brought it and smiled brightly.
"Well, I figured you could use an updated scouter... you've been putting bugs into yours so I went and fixed it. I got a few upgraded one's for your team too. Oh, and I've been working on some cybernetic prosthetics recently, so I thought that your friend Aspa could at least have a look at the leg I designed. It's a lot sturdier than most models out there, and a lot lighter. There are a few other programs with it, but I'll explain it to him later... oh, and that friend of yours stopped by the house... Dimitrian? He gave everyone a bunch of armor and armored clothing for your upcoming battle. So, there's quite a bit in there for you."
She said happily as she sat down next to Tomoroko. Obviously, even after being nourished, Tomoroko was still exhausted. Her mother put her hand on Tomoroko's head and let the young girl lean into her as she closed her eyes. Her mom cradled her daughter contently, running her fingers gently through her hair to try and calm her in her sleep.
--------------------
Word count: 4,171
Heavy Weights on
Mastered 50x Gravity
Learned [MP3] Rail Gun
Learned [UP2] Explosive Wave
Once Tomoroko had made it back home, she barely said two words to her mother as she stepped inside. She went straight to her room, leaving the door wide open as she crawled into her bed. She grabbed one of her many pillows and drew it close to herself as she closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a large sigh as she tried to release the stress of the day. However, try as she might... there was no forgetting what had just happened... or how scared she had been... Natto had figuratively lost his head when he found out the Queen's advisor was a Tuffle, something she didn't think would truly bother her boyfriend that much... he had been so tolerant when it came to people like Etoru and Manesco, both half bred saiyans. It seemed that what bothered him, were Tuffles in particular. From what she had read, this was an extremely old hatred as the Tuffles had not been around for many many years. Something must have happened when he was younger for him to harbour such hate against them...
Then, there was the presence of Icarus himself who's power level continuously read over 600,000. While he wasn't the most intimidating man, the number itself made Tomoroko uncomfortable. She was no-where near that strong, and neither was Natto... how was it then that Natto had so easily been able to subdue the android Tuffle without even transforming into a super saiyan? There was something there that didn't quite fit... unless her scouter had something wrong with it and added an aditional number to Icarus' power? She'd make sure to have a look at it later.
As if Natto and Icarus weren't enough to deal with, the sudden appearance of Queen Zucceta frightened her, and she didn't understand why she had been so scared. The Queen had never done anything against any of her people that she had seen. She was a powerful figurehead to be sure... maybe it was the message she sent out to the galaxy that frightened her the most about the woman. Regardless, being trapped in a room with those three, emotions running rampant and the threat of death on the air... she hated it.
"Tomo?"
A voice penetrated Tomo's thoughts just then, her mother walking into the room and sitting down at the edge of the young girls bed. Tomoroko glanced over her shoulder at her mother, tears were rolling down the girls eyes as she opened her mouth to speak to her mother. She closed it however when she couldn't find any words to say, burrying her face into her pillow as if to prevent her mother from seeing her weakness.
"I remember tears streaming down your face
When I said, "I'll never let you go"
When all those shadows almost killed your light
I remember you said, "Don't leave me here alone"
But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight"
Her mother sang softly as she moved up from the end of the bed so that she was lying down right next to Tomoroko. She wrapped her arms around her daughter as best she could, and hugged her tightly, her right hand gently brushing through the young girls hair.
"Just close your eyes
The sun is going down
You'll be alright
No one can hurt you now
Come morning light
You'll be safe and sound"
She continued, causing Tomoroko to choke up as she kept her face buried deep in the pillow until her mother sang the last syllable. She remembered this song... At least... she thought she remembered... as her mother sang to her, the white mist that blocked up her memories began to dance again, covering up the image of a very small girl being placed within a saiyan space pod. As she heard her mother sing, she could also hear it in her memory... that same song being sung to her as she was being prepared to be sent away... her mother didn't want to send her, and Tomo didn't want to go... but she promised that the two would be together again, safe and sound. She promised that Tomo would be so powerful, that no one could hurt them when they got back.
Tomoroko finally looked up from her pillow, glancing back to her mother before rolling around and hugging her tightly instead of the pillow.
"Mom... I... I was so scared..."
Tomoroko began, but her mother continued softly after placing a gentle kiss on the girls forehead.
"Don't you dare look out your window darling
Everything's on fire
The war inside our hearts keeps raging on
Hold onto this lullaby
Even when the music's gone"
The young girl smiled at that as she reached up to wipe at her eyes, resting her head more comfortably against her mother as she did so. As if all her mother had to do was sing her an old lullaby to make her feel better... at least enough that she wasn't bawling her eyes out anymore.
"Tomoroko, you don't need to be scared of anything. You're a very strong young woman. I'm not only referring to your power, you have a strong character, a good head on your shoulders and a good heart. Thing's will intimidate you, but you need to have more confidence in yourself."
Her mother then said gently, causing Tomo to nod lightly against her mother's chest, sighing once more as she moved to sit back up. Her eyes were red from her tears, but for the most part, she had stopped crying. Her mother then sat up in bed too, patting the young girls shoulder before leaning her forehead against Tomoroko's.
"I can't believe my little girl's grown up to be this amazing woman... Keep pushing forward Tomo... learn from what scares you..."
With that, her mother kissed her forehead and stood up. Tomoroko nodded gently as she got up too, reaching out for her mothers hand and stopping her from leaving the room just yet.
"You're right mom... I can't stop because I'm scared..."
She stood up from the bed, walking up next to her mother and turning to face her. She took in a deep breath before she began to tell her mother everything that had just happened.
"So our squad get's to stay together... but we'll probably be headed to Earth for the invasion now as well... I'm scared that we'll lose, that I'll lose Natto, or Aspa or even Habana... I'll probably have to fight Etoru too and I really don't want too. I love fighting... don't get me wrong but I'm not a conqueror... I can't make those people suffer just to prove we're stronger... I'm going to head back to the Star Javelin... I need to keep training up until the minute we leave. Maybe if I become strong enough... I can protect my team, and I can stop unnecessary deaths..."
She said gently, her determination suddenly showed on her tear stricken face. Her mother simply smiled and nodded to the young girl.
"Alright then. You go train, and I'll meet you at the Star Javelin when you're done. I'll have a few gifts for everyone so you're all ready for this war of yours."
Her mother stated as she gave Tomo's hand a tight squeeze before letting it go and heading to her workshop, taking her saiyan armor off in the process. Tomo knew that this meant her mother meant business. She wondered just what kind of gifts her mother was talking about, but didn't press the issue.
Instead, Tomoroko walked back out of the house, taking in a deep breath full of Vegeta's fresh air before taking to the skies once more and heading towards the Star Javelin. Her red ki flared up around the young girl as she soared through the skies of Vegeta. Her heart was pounding heavily in her chest as she made her way to the ship's entrance.
She paid no mind to the guards, quickly walking passed them and into the ship. From there, she closed the door behind her and made her way over to the gravity chamber. Instead of going directly for the gravity controls, she crouched down underneath them and removed one of the forward panels. Inside, there rested a funny looking headset which the saiyan removed and placed it on the ground. She then began playing around with the wires within the control panel, changing the wires from one outlet to another on a completely separate panel. From there, she replaced the panel before picking up the headset and standing up once more. She began to type furiously on the controls keyboards, programming the hidden droids to follow a set training routine that she had programmed. Next, she began to pull up profiles of two saiyans in particular. One was of Aspa, while the other was of Natto.
When she put the headset on, the images of the two saiyans appeared before her eyes as if they were really standing there. In truth, they were just programmed illusions that would follow the program she had just set.
"Alright... they are both strong but... our super saiyan powers... that's what scares me..."
The girl muttered as she turned back to the controls. She began putting in more information, and immediately the form of Natto and Aspa began to change. The sound of them transforming sent shivers down her spine as she turned to look at the images just in time to see their dark hair spike up and change from the classic black saiyan hair, to gold. Their eyes also changed to a greenish hue, and their aura's became just as gold as their hair. She knew Aspa couldn't transform yet, but the image displayed in front of her was what she imagined he would look like if he did. She took a deep breath before turning to the gravity machine and increasing it to x50.
The images in front of her seemed to fade for a moment as the sudden gravity change seemed to affect the program but soon, the images stabilized themselves. Tomoroko immediately began channeling ki through her body, focusing on her legs for the time being to help her master this gravity faster.
As she prepared herself, the training droids began pouring out of their hidden compartments, each taking position where the images of Aspa and Natto were standing. Each image had 5 droids associated to them. One for their heads, and two each for their hands and feet. This way, the droids would imitate the images movements and actually be able to damage Tomoroko based on what the program assigned.
She knew that the program wouldn't wait for her to get ready for the gravity, and so, while sucking in a deep breath she braced herself, bringing her arms to her side as she channeled her energy.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
She began to cry out as her red ki flared up around her, looking like red flames as she built up her attack. The forms of Aspa and Natto flew directly at her at varying speeds. Natto's image was much faster and disappeared before hitting her, while the image of Aspa aimed a punch directly for her face. Just then, Tomoroko released her energy in an Explosive wave that went crashing into both Aspa and Natto as his form re-appeared on her other side in an attempt to hit her. The energy pushed the droids away from her, giving her just enough space to move. She turned her attention to Aspa, extending her left arm and bracing it with her right hand. She began to charge up her Rail Gun, watching as it immediately grew to the size of a basket ball, and attempted to push even more power into it.
However, as she did so, the image of Natto came flying up towards her. He stopped just inches away from her, energy forming in his own hands as he fired down at Tomoroko. This forced the young girl to leap up into the air to get away from the blast, however as she wasn't quite used to the gravity yet, she didn't jump very high. This caused the blast to hit too close, and send the young girl careening off course. She growled lowly under her breath as she spun around in the air, firing off her Rail Gun towards Aspa as she had intended but missing her target, as the fake Natto had given him more than enough time to get away.
When she landed back on the ground, she began to stumble and ended up falling on her backside with a groan. She quickly pushed herself back to her feet, and the image that had greeted her wasn't there before... it was...
"Etoru?"
She questioned as the image of her little brother stood in front of her. She had to remove her headset from her eyes to see if he was real or not, but it surprised her when, even without the headset, he was still standing there.. and so were the images of Aspa and Natto. She looked at all of them in disbelief, both Aspa and Natto still in their super saiyan forms, and soon, she looked back to Etoru who began to charge up his power and eventually, he too transformed into the legendary form of the super saiyan.
"What the hell... Does this ship already have a hologram system? Damn it sometimes I wish that Natto gave me an instruction manual to this thing..."
She grumbled before hearing Etoru cry out the name of an attack...
"SOLAR FLARE"
"CRAP"
Tomoroko brought her hands up to her eyes to cover them from the oncoming blinding light, but the action alone gave the two other fakes the opportunity they needed. Both super saiyans came flying towards her. Aspa charging an attack in his left hand, while Natto charged one in his right. Both stopped just before physically hitting her to release the full force of their energy beams.
A loud cry of pain escaped the young girl as she had no room to dodge the oncoming strikes. The two beams burned through her exposed under armor and gauntlets, cracking at her heavy weights until Tomoroko was able to find the strength to gather her energy once more into another Explosive wave. Her energy was just enough to create an opening for her to fly forward towards the image of Etoru.
"Out of my way!"
She yelled at the image of her little brother as she fuelled her Atomic strike into her feet. She then used one to launch herself high above his head, and while she quickly came down on the form of the young super saiyan, she kicked the top of his head with her other energy infused foot. When the strike connected, a large explosion sent Tomoroko hurling away from Etoru. She was able to recover and land on her feet however, the form of Etoru disappearing even once the smoke had cleared. Now, she only had to deal with her two initial holograms... Natto and Aspa.
She was already panting heavily, and sweating profusely as she stared at both images. She needed an attack strong enough to get rid of at least one... and obviously, the weaker of the two would be Aspa. An idea crossed her mind as she looked at him, she began to fuel her Atomic strike into both of her fists, and as she did so, she watched the two of them charging up attacks of their own. This wouldn't be good at all if she had to try and counter both of them...
While charging her Atomic Strike, Tomoroko brought both of her hands together as if she she was praying, her fingers intertwining with one another. Instead of exploding on contact however, the energy began to mix together, swirling until they formed one single orb around her connected hands. This gave her a great idea! She extended both of her index fingers, and the orb of energy suddenly left her hands, moving up to the tips of her extended fingers, like a super powered Rail Gun.
"Hah!"
She pushed as much energy as she could into the attack, watching as it quadrupled in size! In fact, there was barely any room now in the gravity chamber between herself and the images of herself and her team mates! As if in reaction to the sudden mass amounts of energy, both Natto and Aspa released their own techniques, Aspa's going straight for the Rail gun, while the image of Natto vanished, re-appearing next to the energy and firing his blast directly for the exposed Tomoroko.
"RAIL GUN"
The girl cried out as she released the energy. Lightning seemed to dance around the beam of energy as it was released, being fired quickly towards where they had both been. Aspa's attack was being completely engulfed by her beam, however she didn't hear a secondary attack hit it. By the time she was able to register that Natto had escaped, it was far too late. Natto's attack went crashing into her, sending her flying off of her feet and crashing head first into one of the walls.
The beam completely erased the image of Aspa before also hitting the wall and exploding violently, covering the room in thick red vapor. This didn't stop the form of Natto though as the hologram came down on the young girl, relentlessly punching her as she tried to regain a sense of where she was.
Exhausted from having used up so much energy, Tomoroko could do little against the fake Natto's strikes but curl up into herself protectively, her arms up protecting her head from his onslaught and hoping her armor ould continue to take his punched. However, again and again she would hear it crack, and every moment she felt as if it would fall of of her uselessly.
"Okay... that's... ENOUGH"
She cried out angrily, her explosive wave seeming to shoot out of her body without any effort at all. The crimson ball that surrounded her body slammed angrily into Natto, pushing him away from her and sending the image crashing into the ceiling. The image quickly disappeared after being hit with such force, and even the control panel seemed to burn out at that point as the gravity turned off, and the holograms disappeared.
Tomoroko stayed on the ground where she was lying, completely exhausted after the mock battle she had just fought. Obviously, the power the holograms displayed wasn't their true super saiyan power... but none the less, she felt like she had just gotten thrashed by it. Her body screamed at her to stop what she was doing, to shut down and try to heal itself, but Tomoroko forced herself back up to her feet. She wasn't done...
Her body was completely bruised and bloodied from the training, she could barely open her left eye and she limped when she walked. She wasn't ready to quit though... she made her way back to the console, re-adjusting the wires she had changed, turning on the coolant fan so that the machine would continue to run properly before taking in a deep breath and reactivating the gravity controls. It immediately jumped back to x50 gravity, and to her surprise, Tomoroko could only slightly feel it. She decided to leave the holograms off at this point, and instead return to her regular training exercises. At least this way, her body would be able to tell it was no longer in danger, and it could continue to function.
With the gravity back on, Tomoroko brought herself down to the ground with a huff. She put one hand behind her back, her legs spread out to form a proper triangular stance to balance herself before lowering herself to the ground.
"I can't quit... I have to keep getting... stronger... for them... I have to protect... my family... and my... my people... the saiyans..."
She huffed with every movement of the exercise.
She continued her work outs like this for another hour, her body running on fumes as she began doing more push ups while just on her hands, her feet straight up in the air. The look in her face was of someone with absolutely no energy left, one of pure exhaustion. Her body might have given up on her just then had the gravity not turned itself off once more. She glanced over to the machine, too tired to go and see why it had stopped... she let herself fall back to her back with a loud OOF.
The door to the gravity chamber opened, and there stood Tomoroko's mom again. She had a rather large box in her hands which she quickly put down when she saw the state Tomoroko had put herself in. She ran over to the young girl to make sure she hadn't killed herself trying to train and sighed in relief when she saw that her daughter's eyes were still somewhat open, her chest still heaving as she breathed.
"I didn't mean you had to push yourself THIS far..."
The woman reprimanded her, pushing the girls bangs out of her face before getting up to go to the refrigerator. There, she gathered a few bottles of water and juice, along with some snack bars before making her way back over to her daughters side and dumping the contents on the ground.
"I know mom... I just... I needed to... ow..."
She complained when her mother attempted to help her up to a seating position. She shifted her daughter so that she was leaning against the wall before cracking open one of the juice bottles and handing it over to Tomoroko.
Tomo took the bottle, thanking her mother lowly before bringing it up to her lips and downing the contents mercilessly. To say her body was thankful for the hydration and nutrients as an understatement. She immediately began to feel her energy slowly start to return to her. Her mother then gave her the snack bars and made sure to sit there until Tomoroko had had her fill.
Her mother had then gone on to reprimand her about how far she had pushed herself, and how if her energy had depleted anymore she could have killed herself, and no one would have been the wiser until they found her corpse here in the gravity chamber. However, once she was done giving her shit, the two girls couldn't help but break out into laughter. The whole situation seemed ridiculous all of a sudden, and Tomo couldn't be happier that her mother was at least there with her...
"Hey mom... what's in the box?"
She asked fially, once the two had quieted down from their laughing fit. The elder woman looked back to the box she had brought it and smiled brightly.
"Well, I figured you could use an updated scouter... you've been putting bugs into yours so I went and fixed it. I got a few upgraded one's for your team too. Oh, and I've been working on some cybernetic prosthetics recently, so I thought that your friend Aspa could at least have a look at the leg I designed. It's a lot sturdier than most models out there, and a lot lighter. There are a few other programs with it, but I'll explain it to him later... oh, and that friend of yours stopped by the house... Dimitrian? He gave everyone a bunch of armor and armored clothing for your upcoming battle. So, there's quite a bit in there for you."
She said happily as she sat down next to Tomoroko. Obviously, even after being nourished, Tomoroko was still exhausted. Her mother put her hand on Tomoroko's head and let the young girl lean into her as she closed her eyes. Her mom cradled her daughter contently, running her fingers gently through her hair to try and calm her in her sleep.
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Word count: 4,171
Heavy Weights on
Mastered 50x Gravity
Learned [MP3] Rail Gun
Learned [UP2] Explosive Wave
