All in the Technique
By Moonraker One
2. Late Dragonball
Chapter Seven – Invasion of the Shinhan Zaibatsu
She stood at the street level staring upward at the massive skyscraper. It was quite a sight from down where the normal people were; this building was easily taller than most mountains and the steel and glass gave it a dominating impression. She walked up to the front door, and uneasily pressed the intercom button. The speaker crackled a bit, then the silence gave and a voice came on.
"Please state your business with the Shinhan Zaibatsu," the voice blandly called out.
She cleared her throat. "My name is Maron," she said, inching closer to the speaker. "I've come here to settle my business with Ten."
She then heard the sound of a group of people whispering to each other restlessly, obviously calculating what to do with her now that she was here. After a few seconds, a new voice came onto the speaker system, a voice that was audibly more feminine. "Ms. Maron," the female voice said, "Ten will see you. Please enter." The massive steel door slid open, revealing a carefully carpeted pathway leading somewhere in the back. She walked along the pathway, making sure she kept her guard up; she did not want to be struck from behind like she was before.
Feeling slight vibrations in the hairs on the back of her neck, she whirled around to catch a foot, just as the door sealed shut. She scooted back a couple feet, and took up the snake stance. She looked around; fortunately, this small hallway was just wide enough for her to fight off this new opponent. She could tell by reading her opponent's moves that he was a student of the Tsuru-sen'nin.
"What do you want with me?" she asked, hoping to have her question answered.
Surprisingly, her opponent responded. "Ms. Maron," he said, "you have dishonored lord Tenshinhan! Therefore you must die!"
He may've been skilled, but one thing he did not have was proper technique. He threw at her a crane punch, which she dodged rather easily. While her opponent was retracting his arm, she snatched it, pulled him towards her, and delivered a knee to his chest as he approached. Grimacing in pain, he went for a spinning roundhouse, which she ducked below. The unique position she was in by dodging his kick put her in prime position for a standing side kick. He was about to go flying when she grabbed his left leg in midair, and twisted around, planting him halfway through the wall.
Stupid foot soldier, she thought.
These hallways were bland, dark blue colored paint with rocky texturing. The only bright color around was the blood red carpet on the floor. As she was walking along, she unexpectedly ducked, avoiding two swords slashing from a small crack in both sides of the wall. From the crouch position, she pointed her arms at each wall, palms extended to fire ki. A abrupt yell later, and a large section of each wall was obliterated. Certainly, this complex had been designed to kill anyone who dared defy the mighty Shinhan Zaibatsu. It was incredible what one could do when one had virtually limitless resources; this complex was a perfect example. What else this meant was that if she was going to do this properly, she was going to have to be extremely careful. If she wasn't, she would probably be torn a new piehole.
Fortunately, she was quite good at sensing danger whenever it was abound. For example, she managed to dodge three sets of dart shooters that tried to batter her with darts as she walked by. She noticed that while she strolled down the halls of the building, she was being watched by several different cameras that were hidden quite well in the walls. She ignored them and kept going until she entered a large open room with several doors; they all shut on her the instant she came in.
"So," a voice coming from a figure masked by shadows said. "You've come here to settle your business with lord Tenshinhan."
Maron apprehensively stepped a little closer to the shadowy figure. "That's right," she replied. "I defeated him in the Tenka'ichi Budokai. For some reason, he seems to think that I stole some kind of honor from him by doing so."
The figure, while still shrouded by the shadow, came closer, allowing basic elements of itself to be revealed. For instance, Maron could tell by the basic shape that the being to which the figure belonged to was a female, just like her. She could also tell, by her ability to sense other sources of ki, that this female was quite skilled at martial arts with a ki level near or equal to her own. Due to this, the outcome of this battle would be decided only by whoever gained an advantage during combat.
"Guard yourself," the woman said, turning off the light and making the room completely dark. "Now we shall see who will win!"
Maron, who could not see, knew that she did not need to; it was one of Hebi-sen'nin's most important lessons. If you could not see, you could use either your enemy's ki signature or the vibrations in the air to find out where they are and what attack they're using. It was even better for Maron that she could sense both and use both to her advantage. So really, by turning off the light, the woman actually was not accomplishing anything she had not already.
Maron sensed a foot sailing towards her head, so she threw up her left arm and blocked the kick in midair. Because she knew that her opponent was directly in front of her, Maron threw a fist forward, which surprisingly caught only air. Instead, she was struck from behind by a knee to her back. Blaring out a cry of pain, Maron was tossed forth into the wall. Urgently trying to learn why, Maron sensed that separate ki had entered the chamber and was just as powerful as the first. Maron blocked a knee headed for her stomach but could not block an axe-handle smash to her head at the same time, sending her forward into a barrage of punches to her chest and head, followed by a swift kick to her face. As she sailed backwards, she was caught in a full nelson by the woman, while the second person drove an elbow into Maron's stomach. She sensed that the person in front of her was about to throw a punch powerful enough to go straight through her, so she utilized all of her strength to flip the woman over so that the woman was upside down in front of her. Once the flip was complete, the person in front of Maron delivered his powerful punch, except instead of taking her head off, it penetrated the back of the woman, causing her to spit blood on the floor, while Maron backed off.
"KIAI!" Maron screamed, sending the two of them through the wall with a surge of ki. The force of the push blasted them through seven layers of concrete, which led to a fifty foot drop onto the steel floor far below. Maron looked out the newly-formed hole in the wall; obviously, this room was a chamber directly above a massive science laboratory below.
Damn, she thought, looking at the two on the floor far below. That couldn't have been a painless way to die.
She exited the sealed room through the hole in the wall, and descended slowly down to the ground below. Once there, she walked through the series of complex machines and computers that adorned a pathway leading all the way to the end of the lab. Halfway to the end of the line of computers, she sensed someone coming towards her with a flying kick. Instantly, she ducked, causing the person to nail a computer next to her instead of her. When the person attempted a punch to her face, she delivered an open-palmed thrust to the person's chest, knocking him out cold instantly. Once he plopped down on the floor, she dragged him all the way to the end of the line of computers, where she saw a service elevator. Because it was retina-scan activated, she lifted his head to the eyepiece and scanned his eye-it was accepted. Inside the elevator, the computer activated.
"Where do you want to be?" the voice asked.
Maron carefully spoke her words to sound like Tenshinhan, whose voice she remembered from the Tenkai. "My office," she replied.
"Floor one hundred seventy: Tenshinhan's office," the computer stated. "Have a nice day, mister Tenshinhan."
The whirring of the elevator lasted roughly twenty seconds, while it was rising to the topmost floor. She noticed that the elevator was rising faster than most, so it would be there very soon. Once it stopped, the steel doors silently slid open, revealing the hallway at the end of which her target would be located. There was a surprising lack of guards as she walked down the hallway, just a series of paintings of the previous owners of this large company. Upon reaching the end, the secretary noticed that she was an intruder.
"Hey!" The secretary yelled. "Are you supposed to be here?!"
"My name is Maron," Maron replied. "Ten has some business with me."
She checked; she was supposed to let Maron in if she got this far, because she would soon be dealt with by Ten. The secretary pressed a button, and Tenshinhan's office opened, revealing the man himself in his chair.
"Well, Maron," he uttered. "I'm amazed you got this far. Now you die!"
As soon as he finished that sentence, he leapt from his chair and threw a punch at Maron. She dodged it easily, and responded with a kick to the side of the head; she felt his neck break again, but somehow, he was still moving. During the last seconds his body responded, he hurled a kick at her, but she dodged and delivered a powerful punch to his gut. While he reeled, she kneed him in the chest, then uppercut him on the jaw. The last blow broke his neck again, and sent him backwards, through the glass behind his desk.
He began to plummet towards the ground. During this time, he tried to use his ki to slow his descent, but could not; his spinal cord was torn, so his body would not respond. His eyes widened when he realized his fate.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed, just an instant before he slammed into the pavement, shattering his head and splattering his bodily fluids all over the place.
Maron, who witnessed the entire thing, exited his office. As she walked out, she turned to the secretary.
"You might want to order the clean-up crew," Maron said.