Settling Minds and Mixing Designs
It had been an interesting way to reveal the past, Jazz had to admit that. Bulma definitely had her fun with that mental whammy. Still though, the budding psychologist in her was a little annoyed with the big reveal. She felt that it probably should have been handled a lot more gently. After all, it wasn't every day someone told you the hugest, most dramatic events of your life changed an entire world, lasted for about a year and you don't even remember any of it. Particularly in cases such as Kim, where the mention and evidence of such events brings back tidal waves of memory. By the time the others had all gotten over the shock, she still looked completely overwhelmed.
That was expected of course. Kim actually was a Guardian, she was far more involved and connected with everything and everyone she'd forgotten than even Bulma had been. Jazz had got off relatively easily that night in Hong Kong, when Gohan, a talking duck named Huey and Jake came to talk to her family. Not being too deep into it all before, she simply got a few resurfacing memories of the world in general, news reports, names and faces she'd forgotten visiting Danny and a few nightmares involving the black monsters her mind called the Heartless for the most part. Some feelings resurfaced with them too, as well as some thoughts she'd pondered over the group throughout its time, but it was basically just enough for her to believe it and be comfortable with it. Henry appeared to be in the same situation now that she'd found herself in weeks before, accepting it and mulling over his own personal thoughts about it. Felix was easily the least affected and basically just remembered a few names and comments, a result of the fact that he wasn't a part of the hero world and therefore had little association with the Guardians at all during their time, mostly getting all he knew from the TV and conversations with Kim and Ron, and Monique appeared to be in more or less the same situation once she was informed, maybe remembering a little more. Ron was easily the most vocally blown away, but even he seemed to have the same level of recollection as Henry, maybe a little more thanks to Kim's longer and more in-depth connection as a Guardian than Ryo's. Wade was hit with a memory surge apparently comparable to Bulma's by the end of it, but rather than being overwhelmed, he took it in stride and even got excited as knowledge of magic, scenarios and amazing technology, both alien and human, he'd once gathered returned to him. He prioritised what he needed like the genius that he was and immediately moved on to find out what Bulma had planned on her joint hero support project, drawing a curious Henry in along the way. But as for Kim, after looking through a few of Bulma's files, she went to find the room she was sharing with Monique with a bottle of water and a packet of aspirin. She was done for the day.
'Information overload.' Jazz sighed with a shake of her head before letting the subject die. There was nothing she could do about it now except let Kim rest and sort her head out. Which she was fine with. After all, Jazz had her own headache inducing data to deal with.
Seeing as nothing else was really planned for today after that little introduction meeting, Jazz was quite content to sit down comfortably at the desk she'd basically claimed as her own in the computer bay portion of Bulma's lab and work on one of her own projects. Or rather, modify one of her parents' old ones.
Blueprints and notebooks filled with both neat, factual and terribly messy, crude writing covered the entire desk the computers didn't touch while the computer screen showed a 3D model of a very unusual looking metal suit. Jazz's eyes were forever glancing over all of it back and forth as she typed, only growing more frustrated as she went on. The data was ridiculously complicated, even without her father's lack of proper spelling, grammatical structuring and actual words running wild all through it, often interrupted by 'take that ghosts'! Though she wasn't ever really mechanically inclined or bearing the level of knowledge of ectoplasm that her parents did, she'd gotten a lot better in recent times at both developing and constructing a lot of their inventions, but this one...it was something of a different world! And it was driving her crazy that her sometimes silly and childish parents had actually succeeded in developing something so complex that she could barely grasp any understanding of its data, let alone how it worked. She absolutely hated being wrong or stumped!
"AUUHH! Since when are my parents this good?" Groaning as she found herself lost and confused for the twentieth time, she threw her head into her hands and rubbed her temples, trying to relieve the stress induced headache starting to form. Then she closed her eyes too as she realised that the bane of her existence was still staring her in the face. Maybe she should take a break.
"Something troubling you?" Unprepared, Jazz nearly jumped right out of her seat at the voice, but settled for just whipping up her stunned face to find Wade by the door, watching her amusedly. In addition to that, she caught Henry in her peripheral vision, giving her a raised eyebrow from the mechanic bay and blushed, sending him an apologetic look. She hadn't even noticed he'd been working over there, she being so wrapped up in her work and him being ridiculously quiet for someone working with machines.
"Can I see it? Maybe I can help."
"Um, yeah." She mumbled, only feeling more embarrassed by the second. She didn't like it when she needed help with anything academic. Though, that being said, when she did, she was quick to get or accept it. Not even her pride was allowed to interfere with her learning. So, she forced a grateful smile on her face as Wade beamed at her, making his way beside her. "Though be warned, even geniuses are baffled by anything my Dad's written."
"So it's a family project?" Intrigued, Wade immediately picked up the blueprints and looked over every detail and note. Jazz couldn't help the genuine grin that grew on her face as she watched him, he looked like a kid in a candy store. "The Fenton Ecto-suit? Looks interesting."
"It should." Jazz nodded, turning very serious. "It's easily the most advanced and powerful thing my parents ever made. And by far the most dangerous, even to the person using it."
"What?" Wade cried, baffled, though never taking his eyes off the paper. "How is it...oh, my GOD!"
BANG!
Both Wade and Jazz flinched as something heavy crashed into metal at his cry before looking up to find one of Henry's projects in pieces on his work bench.
"Wade!" The boy in question shrugged and offered a sheepish apology as the startled Henry turned exasperated and worried eyes back and forth between them and his tech. His hands were already flying all over the place and his eyes were glowing, quickly assessing the damage before sighing in relief a moment later. Letting his power fade from his eyes, the boy shook his head before apparently deciding to give up and set his stuff aside before heading towards them.
"When I'm working, please keep it down." He asked, though it brought relief to the nervous African American that, while firm, there was no actual anger behind his words. "All forms of telepathic abilities require focus and if I'm doing something delicate I could easily cross wires and cause explosions if I'm distracted. Or just ruin the whole thing."
"Or send a car careening at you." Jazz added lightly, chuckling a little at Wade's surprise. "I saw it the first day we were here. Vegeta's so arrogant and rude that he actually taunted Henry into doing it."
"And he just punched it to a stop." Henry sighed exasperatedly. "Good thing Bulma took care of paying the owner back. I don't have that kind of money."
"So anger sets your power off?" Wade asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"Any form of mental stimulation can set my power off." Henry replied, pulling a seat over for himself before Jazz's table. "That's the reason I work so hard to maintain my mental discipline. If I let loose, all the tech around me goes wild and the results are completely unpredictable. But we can talk about me later. What has you two going crazy?" He asked, staring over everything, waiting only long enough for Jazz to nod her consent before picking up some files and checking out the screen.
"This suit! Its design is beyond anything I've ever seen!" Wade cried, immediately throwing the blueprints into the others' faces. "If this thing could actually be made-"
"It was once made." Jazz cut it off, leaving Wade gaping in a strange mix of shock, wonder and sheer disbelief. "My parents were working on it and completed it during the invasion of Pariah Dark. It's the only reason my brother was able to defeat him."
"Danny Phantom used this?" Henry cried, staring in wide eyed amazement. "No wonder he won then! If this thing was built and someone as strong as Phantom operated it, they'd make Vegeta look like a joke!"
"You have no idea." Jazz drawled, pushing the paper out of her breathing space. "Speaking from personal experience, the suit works by taking the pilot's abilities, such as strength and speed, and amplifying them a hundred fold. It can also shoot ectoplasmic blasts from its hands. However, if someone with ghost powers uses it, you find that the design was accidentally compatible with their powers and amplifies all of them too! Back when he first used it, Danny couldn't create a single clone, but with this thing, he made three with ease and the energy blasts he released were apparently enormous, not that I got to see it."
"I can't believe something like this exists!" Wade exclaimed, finally taking a seat beside them as he turned his eyes on to the notebooks. "A suit designed to channel the power of the human body and amplify it? Technology connecting so intimately with living biology? That's beyond amazing!"
"It's beyond dangerous!" Jazz retorted, a little harsher than she'd intended, bringing Wade right off his cloud. "The suit basically uses the pilot as one of its batteries. Even only using the incomplete, lower half of the suit for a minute, my Dad almost died and was exhausted for the rest of the day. Danny lasted a lot longer, but he's a ghost hybrid! That kind of body can handle the strain a lot longer, but even he almost died in the battle with the Ghost King."
"What about you?" Henry asked, frowning curiously as she turned to him. "You said you speak from experience. You've used it, right?"
"Yeah." Jazz nodded, biting her lip with a frown at the memory. "After the Ghost King fiasco, Plasmius stole it and worked to modify it so it wouldn't waste the user. In a long story that involved duping him, he forced me to fight Danny with it. We tricked him and had the suit blow up in his face. It was far too powerful and dangerous to exist."
"And yet you're making it again?" That seemed a bit weird to Henry and Wade seemed to agree, if he was reading the baffled look right. He had to agree, that suit was an ultimate weapon. It could turn anyone into an unstoppable warrior of death and destruction, assuming that they didn't die from it themselves. Why risk such a thing ever reaching the hands of an enemy, especially when they'd just learned just how many heroes and potential allies were actually in the world?
"No. Not exactly." Jazz replied with a shake of her head before pointing to the screen, redirecting both boys' attention. "I've been trying to determine just how it works so I can use the data to create a similar, but weaker suit. The ideal design will increase your natural, physical abilities tenfold, rather than a hundred. I'm also hoping to find a way to make it only draw on the user's strength when they need it to, instead of constantly, to ensure that it doesn't become life threatening. But of course, if that's the case, then the user will need to be able to move and run even when the suit's not activated, otherwise they become a sitting duck, so it'll need to be more like armour than sitting in a robot. I thought a DNA recognition system might be a good idea too, so the wrong people can't use it. But," She added, quickly growing exasperated again as she threw her hands up at all the paperwork. "I can't start even trying to design the new suit until I fully understand the old one and this stuff is well above me!"
"Well, maybe we can help." Wade grinned, looking up briefly before turning back to the notebook in his hands. "I built Kim's battle suit and plenty of other stuff before and Henry's a technopath. Between the three of us, we'll have it all worked out in no time, right?"
"It would be a lot easier if there was a prototype for me observe already built, but yeah." Henry nodded with a grin, grabbing another book only to give it an affronted look as he saw Jack's work. "Though this might slow it down. Still, we can get it done. I might even already have an answer to your power transference."
"Really?" Jazz's eyes lit right up at that, leaning closer with a smile.
Nodding his head, Henry pulled himself up and back over to his station for a moment before returning with what looked like part of a Gatling gun at first glance. That is, until he slipped it onto his wrist.
"This is one of my Gatling gauntlets. I made them myself" He explained proudly, raising it onto the bench right in front of his two, suddenly very nervous, new friends. Though seeing the looks, he quickly gave them a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, it doesn't have bullets or anything, you won't get hurt by it. In fact, without me it's completely powerless. You see, it's powered by my own techno-telepathic energy. The energy is gathered and shaped through it into the form of energy bullets, lasers or blades. I also created the metal arm Justiman uses. It works similarly, gathering and concentrating his unique type of energy to turn the power into an energy attack, like his Thunderclap or Voltage Blade techniques. I'm sure we can find a way to make my technology compatible with yours."
"I bet I can help with your plans already too." Wade added with a grin. "After all, Kim's battle suit has a repairing function, enhanced jumping tech, a forcefield, adds a slight increase to her punches, can transform the hand into a solid laser scooper and turn her invisible while still adding basically no bulk, weight or denying flexibility. I'm sure I could help minimize the amount of weight and restraining room the suit would need. And in return, maybe I could use some of your tech to upgrade Kim's suit?" He smiled, his voice turning questioningly at the end.
"Of course! That's what we're technically all here for, right?" Jazz chuckled as Wade beamed at her, Henry nodding beside her. "Trying to reform a hero network and use our combined talents and knowledge to help each and every one of them. I'm happy to provide tech to anyone who rejoins this little alliance."
"I couldn't agree more." Henry stated happily, though his face quickly warped into a scowl as he looked at the notes again. "Though, let's get through this mess and try to design one successful suit before we go nuts on everyone else's gear."
Quickly agreeing with a laugh at his irritation, the three of them got right down to it. Sparing a moment, Jazz sent both boys thankful smiles before diving right in along with them. And it wasn't long, much to her surprise, before they actually made real headway, each of them focusing on one feature and informing the others of the required details and making their own set of notes before moving on to the next. The method only got even better when Bulma came and found them a little later and joined right in. Right after almost giving all three of them heart attacks as she cheered for joy at the sight of the first collaboration already well underway of course.
...
It was well into the next morning, nearly afternoon, before Kim felt that her mind was settled enough to function again. She still felt like she'd been run over by a steam train though. Ever since the orientation, her brain had been doing constant cycles of the same events. She'd hear, see or think something that would trigger a number of memories, so many that her head would hurt or spin, that would bring up even more questions. So, when her head settled a little, she was compelled to go through Bulma's files or the data on her Vcom and begin the process all over again.
She was pretty sure she had most of the necessary details now though, along with a few comic relief moments, and her headache was dulling, so that was a relief. Still, processing everything was a much bigger handful. The weight of the achievements the Guardians made when they were together was absolutely amazing and sadly, most of it was gone now, long forgotten. It was mindboggling just how much harmony they'd unintentionally caused and worked to maintain, only to give it up to revive a world consumed in darkness.
Then there was her teammates and friends. Each one, even those who were related, brought a completely new set of abilities, realms and powers into her life, more than she ever thought could possibly exist. Ghost powers, aliens and their tech, five different variations of magic, the details behind just them were overwhelming. Then the situations and enemies they'd faced, like the Fright Knight, alien invasions, going back in time! It was amazing that her brain hadn't exploded with all that knowledge suddenly pouring back into it.
Still, it did bring some clarity to more recent days. Why she frequently had unusual dreams of witches and yellowed eyed monsters or imposing figures in cloaks, why déjà vu moments kept occurring every time she saw or heard about something ghost related or when she'd run into a thief calling herself Katnappe. It also added more insight as to why she started drawing her friends onto the team, even though they'd just won their greatest battle ever. She and Ron had needed help to do it, a part of her had remember the invasions that had taken all of the Guardians to stop and she had resorted to try and recreate the strength she'd grown accustomed to being supported by.
But she wasn't thinking of any of that right now. No, sitting on her bed, playing with her Vcom, the returning memories she was thinking about was the lost friends. Now that her memory was well on its way to fully restored, she was almost brought to tears over them. She suddenly missed them all. Some more than others, but all of them were special to her and she hadn't seen even one of them in many months, hadn't even remembered the people who'd stood beside her, cared for her on and off the battlefield. Sure, she knew that that wasn't her fault in any sense of the word, but that didn't stop the guilt and sadness.
So there she was, fiddling with the Vcom and trying to work up the nerve to call one of them. She so wanted to call all of them, to catch up with them, to be reassured of their friendship and to be able to talk to someone who was just as blown away by all this as she was. But still, she couldn't shake the stupid, senseless doubt that they'd be angry with her. It was ridiculous, they'd all forgotten her and each other too, no one was going to feel betrayed or abandoned or anything, so what was the problem? She was only the fourth old member to actually reactivate the com system for crying out loud, there were four other members in this world alone that had yet to do that! Anyone she could reach would just be happy to have her back, like she was, right?
"So where's your damn problem?" Kim scowled at herself, kicking her foot against the bed. "Stop acting like some lovesick twit about to call a crush and activate the damn communicator that could put the Kimmunicator out of business!"
It took a few more minutes to work up the nerve, but in the end, she forced herself to do just that. Bringing up the contacts page, she briefly looked over the small list of possibilities before setting her eyes on the American Dragon. Danny was still beyond their world and he was currently beyond reach. She knew her Vcom could communicate with another in the dimensional pathways just like the others', so she guessed that he was currently resupplying in another dimension or something. Gohan would have made a good talk too, he was kind and forgiving to a fault, but Kim remembered having a better relationship with the dragon. Jake was laid back, fun loving and always excited to see a friend. It would do her nerves good to see the bright ball of energy smiling at her and from what she'd heard of his recent days, she was sure that he could use all the reassurance of friends that he could get.
He apparently still didn't waste any time answering calls either, for ten second barely passed before the calling screen was replaced by the face of a stunned, but very happy Asian American boy.
"Hey Kim! Man girl, it's great to see ya. Finally found a few missing tidbits in that head of yours, huh?"
"More like had them jack hammered into my skull." Kim pouted, getting a laugh from Jake as she rubbed her head. "I came with Wade to meet Bulma. She offered him an apprentice position and she took great joy in smacking all of us in the face with every detail imaginable. My head only stopped reeling about ten minutes ago and this happened yesterday afternoon!"
"Oh wow, you did get it rough." Jake tried to sound sympathetic, he really did, but his amusement in all of this was radiating from him. Normally Kim would get snarky at him for laughing at her pain, but now that she was relaxing and looking at him properly, she could tell he could really use a good laugh. "Mickey told me after Danny's presence was already setting stuff off and even then, he only gave us the basics. Most of what I remember has come back slowly since then."
"Do you think you're caught up?" Kim asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"Yeah. There are still a few blank, weird moments, but I could probably keep a conversation about anything you ask me going." Jake nodded before turning a little concerned. "So how are you dealing with it? Are you ok with it? Weirded out, overwhelmed? It's a lot to deal with in small amounts, I have no idea how you'd handle everything coming back at once."
"I am very overwhelmed! Vast depths of knowledge in things that most people called myths, battles with beings that make my toughest villains look like jokes, friends I forgot even existed, it's all crazy! And on top of that, I can't shake the guilt of forgetting you and the others in the first place! I mean, yeah, we'd only known each other for about a year and we hardly spent every minute together with everyone, but we were still all good friends and owed each other our lives more than once. How could I just forget about people who have done so much for me?"
"Yeah, it's a pretty crappy feeling, isn't it?" Jake nodded as Kim took a few deep breaths. It was the first time the frazzled girl had taken one since she started her rant. "Those feelings returning and comparing to the current ones is a bit of a minefield too. When I was getting my memories back, I had both a bit of jealousy and an inferiority complex to Danny going on. That was as painful as hell."
'I can imagine." Kim replied as she calmed herself. "So how did you deal with that?"
"Danny actually helped me discover a little trick to my magic and upped my game." Jake answered with a grin, raising his arm up to the screen. Kim's eyes widened, stunned, as his whole arm glowed reddish orange before it burst into flame, as it always did when he transformed. However, this time instead of making him dragonic, the fire simply danced over his flesh and sleeve without so much as singeing the fabric. "He taught me how to control the flames through my aura. I can't make projective fire attacks like this or use it in my dragon form, but I can make them as big as a bonfire around my body if I want. I'm learning to use it to propel myself and mixing it with my human talents too. I'd say I'm getting pretty tough."
"I'll bet. That's amazing Jake." Kim said softly, staring in awe even as the flames receded. It was definitely impressive and very useful. Not to mention that his claims of this technique's power outshined most of his dragon abilities. He couldn't breathe that much fire at once, that's for sure. To hear that Danny had managed to guide him into something that amazing... "You should have trained with Danny a lot sooner."
"Yeah. And hung out with him more." Jake was quick to agree. "He is such a cool guy, you know? But what can I say, we all had our own preferred group choices amongst the Guardians. You and Rai were mine."
Well, that was definitely true. Looking back on it, she had to admit everyone found other Guardians they were most comfortable with and some they did very little with. Danny had been drawn to the Tennysons, partly due to his and Ben's shared love of video games and the cousins' space connections. Kim had Jake and the girls as her go to friends and partners, though Gohan was her all time favourite sparring partner, being the only one to match her level in martial arts. The only one who made sure to spend a great deal of time with everyone was Roxas, the one everyone had a soft spot for, and even he was closer to Raimundo, Namine and Ben than anyone else. They were just starting to mix it up, training wise at least, when the mess Maleficent started broke loose. If the Valour Guardians were fully restored, they'd have to fix that. She'd be a better friend, not just a teammate.
"So, anything special change in your life recently?" Jake asked, breaking her chain of thought. "Any serious problems or moments of entertainment, anything of real note?"
"Team Possible expanded." She offered with a grin. "Subconscious instinct and the last alien invasion helped that start up. The media hasn't gotten wind of it or doesn't care yet, but my friends Felix and Monique have joined my crusade to save the world."
"Oh yeah? Sweet girl, you'll have to introduce them to me." Jake smirked. "So, tell me about them, how did they join? Come on girl, I'll deny I ever said it, but I need some gossip time. I've only got Gohan and Huey right now, so as interesting as they both are, nothing about the civilised world ever pops up."
"Sure, if you return the favour and tell me the details of this Duck of Doom sitch you're involved in." Kim nodded, biting her lip. "Is it really Donald? How did that happen?"
"Get comfy, girlfriend. By the time we're done, Gohan will be back from his day long fishing trip and then you'll get to hear all about that too." True to his word, they were talking for hours, each of them recounting their stories, feelings over particularly emotional circumstances, jokes, just about anything that came to mind. It did them both the world of good.
...
Leaving her room, Kim decided that calling Jake had been the best idea ever. Sure, a lot of his recent history had tears falling from her eyes and created a vendetta against Dark Dragon and Charmcaster, but overall, they had had a great time. After finding out that she was staying at Capsule Corp for a good few weeks, he even promised to drop in once they ditched the dragons tailing him. Assuming they didn't get a better lead on finding Donald, of course. If that happened, Team Possible was going to find them and kick the wicked witch that took him where the sun didn't shine. Sure, it would have been better if she'd gotten to talk to Gohan too, but she was sure that she'd hear from him later. He and Huey were still off getting food or clues even when she'd hung up, but Jake promised to tell them all about their talk. She couldn't wait for the call, she'd love the chance to catch up with and meet Gohan and Huey respectively.
But for now, there were plenty of new and old faces to find already in the building. Though they were a little hard to find in such a big place, especially since Kim got lost a good few times. Still, she found her way to them eventually. The battle cries, cheers and small explosions didn't hurt either.
"Man, look at them go! Sure you don't wanna jump in too?"
"Are you nuts? Who in their right mind gets in the middle of something like this?"
"Us? Seriously Felix, did you have your head under a rock after that last mission to that psycho golfer's island? Not all of us were safe in the sky, hover boy."
"Safe? I ended up being an easy target!"
BANG!
"What's going on?" Felix and Monique flinched at the sight before them before turning welcoming smiles to Kim as she entered the training room. Both were sitting near the door, well away from the invisible barrier.
"See for yourself." Felix pointed across the room. "Ron's taking on the pint-sized powerhouses."
Kim didn't need him to say anything, one look at the others and her jaw was already aiming for the ground. Having finally mastered his mystical power, Ron was fully encased in a blue, glowing outline of a monkey and was pulling off gymnastic and offensive feats that were on par with Kim's, only his had a lot more force behind them. Though nowhere as fast, he was proving to be even stronger than Trunks and his flexibility more than made up for the lack of flight, resulting in an intense three way fight.
"I thought this was crazy when just the kids were going at it." Monique sighed, shaking her head as all three met and smashed at each other at once and hit the ground. The fallen fighters got up only for Ron to quickly and effectively jump, flip and redirect his movement all around the area in seconds, avoiding the retaliatory energy blasts and smacking both boys right back down again in the process. Though she'd seen that he'd really stepped up, quite amazingly so, Ron hadn't had a reason to completely cut loose and unleash his full power since graduation. The Saiyan boys were the first people he'd fought since the invasion that had the ability to stand up to the assault and Ron was taking full advantage of it. The sight before them was like nothing either she or Felix would have believed possible a few months ago. Hell, they had trouble believing it now.
Even Kim was still impressed with her boyfriend's growth. Seeing his power firsthand, she compared it to those of the Guardians and was pretty sure he was comparable in power to Danny and Jake overall, if not a bit greater, with enough raw strength to match Ryo's Thunderclap technique and an unpredictability to his unusual moves and twists that made him as tricky to fight as Raimundo. She really doubted that even she could take him on in a direct fight anymore, even with the battle suit. Watching him easily take on two Saiyan hybrids at once, even ones so young as Goten and Trunks, was definitely emphasising that opinion.
The match went on for a little longer, but it was clear who was going to win. Even when it turned to two on one, Ron was still outclassing them, ultimately ending with a flash of mystical energy from his hands knocking both boys down and groaning. Although, as impressive as the shot was, Kim could tell from one look at her boyfriend's face that it wasn't intentional, but rather an act of desperation. As both opponents had come at him, backing him into a corner, he'd grown terrified for his safety.
As great as they were, there were flaws in Ron's new abilities and the others had caught his biggest one, whether they realised it or not. Ron's incredible strength, skills and power all came from mystical energy, not muscle or mind. Though the mystical monkey power altered his flexibility to extremes even an Olympic gold medalist gymnast could only dream of and put a great deal of force behind his punches and kicks, his physical strength and tolerance to the attacks of others were no different than before. On top of that, the instinctive skill and recent discovery of it left him near useless with combat strategy. So cornering and overwhelming him was the best and easiest strategy to use against him.
"Oops. Is everyone ok? I think I overdid that one." Huffing a little as his adrenaline died, Ron quickly moved over to the kids, falling to his knees before them in near panic as they only groaned in return. "Oh no, stay alive kids, STAY ALIVE! That Vegeta guy will kill me if you don't."
"Ron, get a grip. They're just stunned." Kim groaned with a roll of her eyes, passing through the barrier and shutting it down as Felix rolled over with the First Aid kit.
"Yeah, like you're really tough enough to kill us!" Trunks grunted, trying to sound tough and force himself into a sitting position only to ruin it when he lost his balance and flailed all the way back down. "Saiyans are made to take a punch!"
"That was fun!" Though still a little shaky, Goten was already shooting Ron a big, bright smile as he rolled over. "I didn't know there were humans that strong on their own! I think you could take on Gohan's friend, Justiman. Can we do this again tomorrow? Please?"
"Yeah, sure kid. Why not? Hehe. Oh, thank goodness." Ron sighed, leaning back on his elbows as the kids shook off their aches and got back to their feet. "I'm not gonna die."
"So, now that we got the brawl out of the way, what do you say we get a late lunch and explore the city?" Monique suggested. "Metro City is supposed to be awesome! Mrs Briefs told me about all the killer malls in the area, wonderful cafes and a park that's full of beautiful water fountains and flower gardens. We could get a late lunch, see some of the sights and shop till we drop!"
"Ugh! They just got boring." Kim almost laughed at the look of distaste on Trunks' face as he grabbed Goten by the sleeve, dragging him away. "Come on Goten, let's head to my room."
"Yay! Toy time!" Trunks actually stumbled as the excited Goten overtook him once again, bringing a laugh from the young adults they left behind.
"They sure recover fast." Felix commented, resting his amused face in his hand.
"Heh, Saiyans. Nothing keeps them down long." Kim shook her head with a grin before turning back to Monique. "But yeah, I say let's go, get out of Capsule Corp's hair for a while. I could use a new wardrobe to take to college with me."
"You're going to London for college! You'll buy a whole new set of clothes there." Ron exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at her. "You've been going on about that since you chose which admission to accept!"
"Yeah, but clothes from Japan will be more exotic!" Kim responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world, quickly getting an encouraging nod from Monique. "And there's no reason I can't do both."
"Geez, women!" Ron just gave up, throwing his arms in the air as he turned to Felix. "How many clothes can they possibly need?"
"Enough each to create a fabric shortage in businesses for months." Felix laughed, completely ignoring the raised eyebrows and scoffs the girls sent his way. "But it won't be all bad, Ron. While they try on every item in the store, we'll go check out the video games. Like half of our games come from Japan you know, and come out a lot earlier too. I heard Goo Zombies five is already out here."
"Perfect! Let's go!" Well, that got Ron good and excited. Now it was the girls' turn to roll their eyes in exasperation. How guys got so excited over video games was well beyond them. Still, whatever, as long as those stupid things got the boys to go shopping with them, they were good.