-A father's pride-
"That armour looks great!" Crowe exclaimed, "But where did you get it?"
"It's a very old armour, it's been cleaned up a little and we had to patch a few holes, but otherwise it's still exactly like the original," Kabbats said, "It was issued to us by lord Ice Boss himself, we were to try and discover what material it's made of and we were to see if we could replicate it."
"That's interesting," Fridge commented, "Did you succeed?"
"No. We do know what it is, but we can't replicate it... It's Hanesium, a metal that was only found on Hane-sei..."Kabbats explained.
"...Which was destroyed." Fridge added.
"Yes. So we couldn't replicate it." Kabbats continued his explanation, "The abilities of this metal are amazing: It resists high pressures and extreme heat, it softens punches very well and is very light-weight. All-in-all, it allows it's wearer to move quickly, take a beating and use powerfull attacks without having to cool down to prevent getting overheated."
"So it's perfect for a Youcmou-jin?" Crowe wondered.
"Yes, exactly, that's why I showed it to you instead of wearing it myself... Well... that and the fact it's too small for me." Kabbats concluded his explanation.
"Well, this has all been fascinating, and I am very happy to see you again Kabbats, but I think it's time we got our gear together and moved on," Fridge said, "You're welcome to join us Kabbats, but we don't have any spare rooms on the ship so you'll have to sleep on the couch."
"That won't be a problem Fridge, I don't sleep, I only recharge and I do that sitting." Kabbats replied.
"Great! It'll be cool to have someone to talk to, besides Fridge, for a change!" Crowe cheered.
Fridge made a few gestures indicating he wanted Crowe to put on the armour and Kabbats to help him carry food to the ship.
He remembered the last time he'd seen his father in a similat armour.
It was during the annual (based on one Hane-sei year, about 5.2 earth years) festival that the planettraders organised to celebrate the 'liberation' of the known universe.
It always involved a mass of people from all over the universe who came to vacation on Hane-sei. It usually mean that Youcmou-jin families were forced out of their homes to make room for people coming to see the festival.
A big part of the festival was the Gladiatorial Games, a competition to select which tribe would be allowed to live in the more free quarters closest to the local Planettrader palace. Living in there was an honour and a privilege and this meant relatively great freedom for the people living there. Winning the games meant an appointment as bodyguard of the tribe's leader and the extra freedoms this brought with it. Defeat meant simply death or, if the opponent was merciless, severe maiming.
Crowe remembered so well, even though he was only four years old at the time, because his father and older brother had been selected to fight, along with five others, to fight for the Katka-tsume.
The colloseum was huge and spectacular on the outside and from the seats, but in the inner catacombs, the beauty was nowhere to be seen. Foul odours were abundant and filth covered the walls and floor. None of this, however mattered to Falco of the Katka-tsume tribe. he had stood there, his armour polished until is was speckles, save for the boots which had obviously also been polished but were now covered in the dirt and blood that covered the catacombs' floors.
He had stood there, knowing his eldest son had already died and knowing that, in five years, his youngest son would have to fight too... And still none of it mattered to Falco, for Falco was a Youcmou-jin and the Joucmou-jin were warriors, born to fight, born to die in battle, born to grow strong and powerful for the sake of the tribe.
As he stood there, he knew what he would have to face in the next match, the finals: Peeking, the uncontested champion of the Games and the most merciless of all the warriors who had ever entered the Games.
However Falco was not afraid, he knew he could take Peeking, because Peeking was too influenced by the planettraders. Peeking relied on brute strength: something most, if not all, other Youcmou-jin lacked. But Falco, he relied on his speed and agility, traits that are the trademark of the Youcmou-jin race.
Falco knew that if the planettraders would bother to ship one of their bulky 'scanner' devices to scan their 'powerlevels', he would be rated well above Peeking.
Still, this only meant he had a chance to defeat Peeking, it was in no way a certainty. If Peeking managed to land a single, good, blow hard enough to knock Falco down for even a second, his chances would be grim.
As Falco stepped into the ring, he saw Peeking was already there, getting the crowd to cheer for him. The Youcmou-jin in the lower levels, looking at the ring through the grates, however boo-ed him, even those of his own tribe. Peeking was a collaborator and a traitor and it was suspected his strength did not come from mere training. This made him unpopular with all Youcmou-jin.
As he sized up his opponent, Falco heard the gate behind him close. The announcer asked for attention and announced the fight: "Ladies, Gentlemen and assorted others, today on the last day of the Games, we have the two finalists fighting each other: on the north side, the reigning champion, the favourite for four straight years: Peeking of the Net-Hane Tribe! On the South side the challenger, Warrior of the Katka-tsume tribe and favourite of the Youmou-jin, Falco! Now let's get ready for some serious fighting!"
As soon as this was said the two Youcmou-jin stood in their battle stance. Peeking was the first to move when he decided to charge right for Falco. Falco dodged him easily and tripped him. Cries of disapproval came from the crowd as Peeking's fell down flat on his face.
He didn't stay down however, but jumped up and kicked swiftly in Falco's direction, missing him by a hair. Falco followed suit with his own series of kicks. Unfortunately all of his kicks hit with little effect. Falco realised that if he wanted to do any significant harm to Peeking he needed a weapon. Looking around quickly he saw a sword nearby. He rushed for it, but by the time he got to it, Peeking had already picked up a spear and thrown it at him. It pierced his leg and went into the ground, pinning him down with the sword only barely within his grasp. Falco clenched the sword and turned around as much as he could. He saw Peeking slowly walking towards him, a huge sledgehammer in his hands. Falco hesitated for a second, but then decided he had no other option. He swung the sword quickly and cut off his own leg right above where the spear had pierced him. The crowd cheered at the magnificent show of savageness and ferociousness. Seeing Falco's act, Peeking picked up the pace, swung his hammer and... dropped to the ground as he missed Falco and Falco slashed open his throat.
A few hours later, Falco woke up in a regeneration tank, his leg partially restored. On the outside of the tank he could see his wife and his four year old child, Crowe, standing there. Crowe looked back at him.
Crowe looked back at him and saw the pride in his father's eyes. As Crowe remembered that pride, something strange came over him. He saw a bright light and felt warmth all around.
Seconds before that, as Fridge and Kabbats carried the last crate into the ship, an alarm sounded at the main console. Both ran towards it. As they looked at the console they saw the message: 'Extreme ki build-up detected, discharge imminent'.
"Crowe! Get out of.." Fridge yelled too late. Behind him the base exploded as a number of beams hit it, the ship automatically closed the hatch and took off.
"Kami, this is horrible!" Kabbats whispered in a distraught tone.
Ok, are you curious yet? I'm sure you want to see the next episode, right? Well you're in luck then because it's almost done.
A few notes on this episode:
Peeking's name is a pun (well all names in DBZ and in FoC are puns, but Peeking is a double one). You see: the bird that the name 'Peeking' refers to is a duck ... get it? Get it? -_-* o-kay....
Finishing this episode took me over two months, this is not my record however. The very first episode, which is only 600 words in size, took me almost a year to 'perfect' into the episode it is at the moment. On the other hand, episode 5, with around 1400 words, was written over a period of approximately four hours. The reason why it took me so long this time was a combination of the holidays and the fact that I originally wrote episode 6 (this one) and episode 7 (the next one, soon to be complete) as a single +/- 2000 word episode. I decided however, to split it up into two parts and add a little detail to each of these parts.