Chapter 2: Training With Ultka

"WE! ARE! THE TIME PATROL!"

Roma stood in a line with other newly-minted Time Patrol recruits, blushing furiously and doing the same T-pose she'd seen Chronoa and Trunks do.

When I find out who came up with this Ginyu Force imitation crap, even if it was Chronoa Herself, they WILL pay.

For the past seven weeks, Roma had been attending the Time Patrol Academy, learning all the ins and outs that she needed to know to be part of the Patrol. While some of the classes had been about sparring with instructors and other students, since Patrollers often needed to defend themselves, most had focused on the nature of the time/space continuum, the different kinds of missions Patrollers went on and how to adapt to changing circumstances on those missions and why altering time, even when it seemed like it could result in a beneficial change, was ultimately a bad idea. Not like Roma needed to be taught that after what had happened…

While the non-combat classes hadn't been too hard for Roma, she'd had a lot of trouble with even basic sparring, which had let her in for a certain amount of ribbing, considering her Saiyan ancestry. This hadn't really amounted to much more than some bemused teasing but it still drove her nuts.

But at last, the time had come for final exams, which actually were written exams. Roma had figured that martial arts or ki control or something would factor into it but it hadn't. Turned out that Roma had done pretty well and graduated near the top of the class but the only problem with that… was the actual graduation ceremony. Sure, she got her first official Time Patrol uniform, Saiyan armor in blue, white and dark grey and oddly asymmetrical leggings with the TP logo on the left breast, but the ceremony also involved that damn Official Pose.

Well, now that the humiliation was over, it was time to go find her assigned partner. According to one of the many Capsule Corp. robots that roamed throughout the Academy and Conton City, her partner, a Namekian named Ultka, was currently in the Plains district that bordered the Central Plaza, the path to the Time Nest and the Namekian and desert areas.

"That's going to be a bit of a run," she muttered to herself, adjusting the newly-purchased basic sword she had belted at her waist.

Exiting the grounds of the Time Patrol Academy, which had a strange resemblance to Orange Star High School back on Earth, Roma took a deep breath and broke out into a run, dashing across the road and then onto the sidewalk of the opposite intersection. She didn't really have to worry about anyone running into her; there were only a very few vehicles that the Time Patrol used, since most of them were licensed to fly (something that still bugged Roma even now).

As she passed a small group of Patrollers, she grimaced as one of them, without trying to be subtle at all, leaned over to whisper in her Majin companion's ear as soon as she saw Roma jog past. Another thing that Roma had to deal with becoming part of the Time Patrol was the rumor mill. Conton City may have been about 4-5 times the size of Toki Toki City but it was still a small community so lots of people ended up knowing lots of other people's business. There was even an entire team of Patrollers, the Romance Rangers, who specialized in local romantic gossip. So it hadn't taken long before rumors about Roma's brief incarceration started spreading. The rumors had ranged from the mundane (they needed to have her cool her heels since she'd gotten violent when she'd been recruited; you know those Saiyans!) to the outlandish (She was actually a former member of the Time Breakers). Nobody directly gave her any grief about it but it had led to some of her Patroller classmates being distant and cautious around her. As a result, she hadn't made many friends during her time at the Academy.


Soon enough the City District, which the Academy was attached to, that so much resembled West City on Earth gave way to bamboo forests as Roma ran through an arch that separated the two districts and onto a dirt path. As she rounded a corner she spotted a clearing in the forest area where a small house had been set up. It was a replica but Roma knew it as the house of the elder Son Gohan, who had raised Goku when he had been a little boy. Roma then passed through a tunnel dug into the hillside of the forest area and found herself in the plains area. She stopped at the side of the path, barely winded from her exertions and clicked on the green-tinted Scouter she had mounted on the left side of her head. As the Scouter beeped and the images on the eyepiece locked onto the person she was looking for, she smiled appreciatively. These Capsule Corp.-designed Scouters were much more useful than the old ones used by the Frieza forces. Those just acted as communicators and read power levels whereas these new models functioned much more like smartphones from back on Earth. Currently it was showing her specifically that Time Patroller Ultka was located behind a tree she could see on a small hillock a short distance away.

She jogged over and around the tree and sure enough, she found Ultka sitting there cross-legged with his eyes closed.

"You must be my partner, Roma," he said, before she could say anything to him. His voice was a pleasant baritone, instead of Piccolo's bass.

He rose to his feet smoothly and Roma blinked in surprise. Ultka had looked big sitting in front of the tree, but standing up he was a giant! Roma wasn't a small woman at 5' 9" (175.26cm) but this guy must have been at least 7' 2" (218.4cm)! He also looked a lot different than most Namekians she had seen; Ultka sported yellow skin with blue patches and two rows of spikes on his forehead instead of the usual antennae. He was dressed in a simple black gi with a green belt and light purple wrappings on his forearms, which were the same color as his Namekian-style shoes. He also wore one of the Capsule Corp. Time Patrol Scouters with an orange lens.

"You should play basketball for West City," she said, a slight grin on her lips as she extended her hand for a handshake. Ultka paused for a moment and then shook her hand saying, "Those sorts of sports aren't really my speed."

Without warning, he hauled back and swung his free fist at her. Roma released Ultak's hand and leapt back, immediately unsheathing her sword.

"Do you have a habit of attacking your partners?" she asked warily.

"Just the ones that I want to get a sense of," he replied, "And put that pigsticker away for now. You don't need it."

Ultka blurred forward and launched a short combo of two punches and a kick. Roma, having just put her sword back in its sheath, deflected the punches and blocked the kick before responding with some punches and kicks of her own. As the two of them lost themselves in the dance of martial arts, Roma felt more happy than she'd been for the last month and a half. Feeling the pulse of her own ki rising to meet her opponent's, the swish of air as Ultka's punches and kicks missed her, even the flare of pain when the occasional hit landed, no stress about tests or distrustful classmates… this was what she had been missing, since fighting at the Academy had been such a secondary consideration.

Suddenly, Ultka switched things up; he thrust forward his right arm and with a shout, an invisible kiai wave slammed into Roma and knocked her flat onto her back and several feet away from the Namekian. Before Ultka could follow up to that, Roma jumped to her feet, pulling back her right arm, hand cupped as if holding a ball. The thrill of the fight still flowing through her, Roma prepared to fire a full ki blast back at Ultka… but the grin on her face was replaced with a gasp of shock as pain flared throughout her body. She collapsed to her knees, then keeled over onto her side as the pain grew worse, causing most of the muscles in her body to start spasming

"Hey! Are you alright?! Do you need me to call a medic?" asked Ultka as he kneeled down next to her. Roma couldn't answer since she was gasping because of the pain, curling up into almost a fetal position. Ultka had put his finger up to the side of his Scouter when Roma reached up with a shaky hand and grasped his forearm, shaking her head. After a few more gasping breaths she began to relax and was even able to sit up. Ultka still regarded her with concern, the big Namekian rising to his feet, offering a hand to help her up.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, gently.

"I'm fine… now," she replied, still breathing a bit hard.

"You know, I was wondering why your ki wasn't rising too much when we spared just now," he said, as he helped get to her feet. The two of them walked over to the tree that Ultka had been sitting under where there was a small pouch leaning against it. Ultka bent down and pulled a pair of water bottles out of it. Tossing one to Roma, he said, "Now that I think about it, it feels like you were really struggling to control your ki. Seems a bit unusual for a Saiyan," he said. Roma shot him a quick, irritated glance then looked down at the water bottle in her hand. The label featured a very happy-looking Majin girl and the legend: Majin Pecori Sport Water. Cocking an eyebrow, she twisted off the cap and took a deep pull, glancing back over at Ultka. He continued to watched her with a slightly curious expression on his face.

She sighed.

"The short version is that I had a run-in with a warrior-mage who works for the Time Breakers. Goes by the name of Beez. He pissed me off enough that I charged him and left myself wide open, so he hit me with a magic technique that screwed with the ki channels or Chakra points or whatever you call 'em in my body so that I now have a very hard time channeling or doing really anything with my ki." She let out a sharp, bitter bark of laughter.

"I can't even fly or transform right now!"

"You were fairly powerful then, yes?" asked Ultka, taking a pull from his own bottle.

"I suppose so. I used to be a Super Saiyan, now… trying to transform would definitely kill me. You saw what happened just trying to fire an ordinary ki blast."

"By the way, there's no ki blasts to be fired in Conton City and that includes out here in the, ah, rural areas," said Ultka with a slight grin. Roma just scowled and plopped down onto the ground with her legs crossed.

"I know! Believe me, I saw that damn commercial more than enough times before the Academy! Not that it matters anyway since I can't even do that much," she groused.

"Is the condition permanent?"

She cocked a sardonic eyebrow at the question. "If that were true I wouldn't be an active Time Patroller, now would I? No, the doctors here told me that it will get better… eventually."

"That's a bit vague."

"It's a vague condition."

The conversation tailed off at that point. After several awkward moments Ultka put his water bottle down, stepped in front of Roma and assumed a battle stance.

"You wanna go already?"

"I thought you Saiyans lived for a good fight. Besides, given what you've told me and what I sensed of your ki, with the right kind of training, your body will heal itself in… due time." His tone wasn't jokey, just matter-of-fact but there was still a very slight smile on his face. Roma rolled her eyes, put the cap back on her bottle and tossed it off to the side.

"Ok then. But no more jokes or puns about time or attempts at such or I'm resigning."