Sing for the Future, Pretty Sailor Memory!

As natives to Central City, the three girls were not the sort to speculate on the ethnicity of their fellow residents. Whilst each of the three high schoolers were Earthlings, Central City was the melting-pot city of the melting-pot planet. There was a sizeable minority of alien races within their class. It was one of the things that they just took for granted; Earth was filled with people from all across the galaxy, and whilst people could speculate on why that might be... the truth was most likely that every single one of them had found their own thing to love on the precious planet.

It wasn't always easy. Earthlings themselves were a species that had to struggle comparatively hard to obtain any kind of martial power, and that made keeping law and order when the world was filled with powerful people difficult. But it was worth it. And whilst the big city could often be a very lonely place, Tiara and her friends were some of the best people one could hope to reach out to.

"Ah! Of course! They do a really nice fruity Hetap cocktail here called a Rainbow Drop, that's my favourite!"

"No, no, you should try the Fizzy Surprise, it's got a real kick to it!"

"Can't go wrong with a classic ice cream float if you ask me."

Each of the three offered their suggestions in turn, and then dissolved into giggles. "Please, please, join us!" Tiara said, "We're having a party, and what makes a better party than making new friends?"

She smiled brightly as she gestured to an empty section of table. It might be a little strange in some places for a twenty year olf tourist to be invited to hang out with a bunch of highschoolers, but she made the offer so freely!

"My name is Tiara, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"I'm Katsu." "And I'm Dumpla."

On the stage, the salaryman finally reached the end of his song, and staggered off. He, apparently, didn't think much of getting his drinks in early, if the loopiness in his gait was any indication.

"Hurry up Tiara, before someone else snags the spot!"

Katsu fairly pushed Tiara out of the booth, much to the girl's surprise, and she squeaked... but she didn't put up too much of a fight about it. After all, this was the reason that they had come here to begin with! Just walking up onto the stage felt wonderful.

As she did, she had the strangest sensation she was being watched. And not in the normal way that she would expect to be watched by the other patrons of the bar as she went to take her turn at the microphone. That large, menacing, shadowy figure had in fact been staring at the girls and their new acquaintance from the moment he sat down. And now his gaze was very intent indeed upon Tiara. He hadn't taken off his hat, but the intensity of his stare from beneath the shadowed brim was unnerving. Enough to make her hesitate for just a moment...

(Wordcount: 518 / 1022)

Katsu and Dumpla are good friends, and they are very happy to fill Rinako in on her questions.

"It's not a birthday." Katsu says, "But I guess it isn't super far off. Tiara was in an accident at the start of the year, she was really badly hurt and the doctors didn't think that she'd ever be able to walk again, or even hold a pen."

It's impossible to believe that might actually be the case. Even though she was hesitating, the girl on the stage didn't look like she was having any physical difficulties. In fact, she looked... great!

"Doctor Pope did amazing work. She's uhm. She's actually an android now! It's pretty cool."

"Yeah, Tiara's TOTALLY metal now, it's incredible." Dumpla laughed, "I guess she was a bit self conscious of it at first? But we wanted her to know we're just really happy she's healthy again! Heck, don't tell her I said this, but I'm even a little jealous. She could beat my laptime in an instant if she tried, but she keeps holding back."

"That's our Tiara. She's always thinking about others."

Right now, it looked like the girl was mostly thinking about the shadowed figure at the back of the bar. There was something about the way he was looking at her that she found unnerving. It wasn't, totally, unusual for people to stare - but not usually as though she'd done something to annoy them. And the odd silhouette that the man with his heavily rivet-studded figure made was peculiar in the extreme.

Far more important, though, was the fact that Rinako hadn't had an ice cream float before.

"Wait seriously?!" Dumpla exclaimed, "It's the best! You get soda and put ice cream in it! Here, you can try some of mine."

Without any hesitation, Dumpla thrust her tall glass filled with the foamy liquid towards Rinako with a bright grin on her face. And then she shouted.

"Hey! Tiara! Don't sweat it! You got this!!"

"Yeah Tiara! Sing!"

The girl herself took a deep breath - though, really, she didn't need to do that any more. "Ah, hello everyone, my name is Tiara, and I'd like to sing Curiosity for you, today."

She pushed the intense stare of the strange man out of her mind, closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and as the music swelled around her, she sang.

The girl's voice wasn't the best either; she wasn't a professional singer by any means. But the words clearly meant a lot to her. And as she sang, the intensity of that emotion shone out from within her, her words conveying pure optimism and hope for a bright future; a better world, for herself, for her friends, for all people!

The mysterious figure rose, and one heavy hand slammed down into the table he had been sat at, causing a discordant splintering sound to pierce the song as he threw open his jacket and revealed the a muscular torso, studded with dozens upon dozens of rivets and bolts.

"Enough!" He roared, "I know what you are, girl, and it is disgusting that you'd dare sing like that!"

Tiara's voice trailed off and she looked, genuinely, hurt. "A-ah, what...?"

(Wordcount: 533 / 1555 - The Song! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwHTkZ_Ygw )

The patrons collectively, including Tiara's friends, are completely stunned by the intervention of the huge guy. This sort of thing was just not done. You don't go to karaoke and then heckle the singers! Everyone is supposed to be there to enjoy themselves. It is such a serious faux pas that it took all of the atmosphere completely out of the room. Then Rinako spoke up, and it seemed to spur them back into action.

"Y-Yeah!" Dumpla shouted back, "Shut your trap you big lug! Nobody asked what you think!"

"That's right! Tiara was doing really well you jerk!"

The bartender tapped his mic - sometimes he was supposed to act as the host after all - and his voice cut over the speaker system. "I think the ladies are right, it'd be best if you left."

Security in the club was light, but hearing the commotion, the single bouncer did come in. It was rare that he had to do anything at all, let alone whilst it was still before 10pm when they kicked the kids out, but the older Namekian was more than ready to use his Warrior Clan training to keep the peace if he had to. Or at least, that was the plan.

In fact, the interloper had grown more and more visibly agitated when he was shouted down. When the bouncer reached out and placed his hand on the man's shoulder to start trying to guide him out of the club, he found himself suddenly grabbed and hauled up over the furious man's head, knocking the hat clean from his head in the process.

This revealed the top of the man's skull; a clear plastic dome in which his brain was fully visible, suspended in some kind of pink liquid. This, itself, didn't seem to cause much commotion - but the fact that the bouncer was now struggling and straining in his grip clearly did.

"This isn't a good thing, you brat!" He roared, "They make us to be slaves! Weapons! Stop prancing around like it's all some stupid GAME!"

The malevolent mechanical man, who clearly had a chip on his shoulder, hurled the bouncer towards Tiara with all his might. The girl had been stuck at the microphone like she was a deer caught in the headlights, though to her credit she did move quickly when the old guy was thrown at her. She managed to raise her hands in time, and catch him carefully, spinning around to divert the momentum of the throw and set him down next to her.

That feat alone made it clear that she wasn't just some normal kid. The bouncer was old, but he had been a warrior all his life; he was far bigger than she was! Horrified, embarrassed, and more than a little scared, Tiara's eyes flit between the man she had apparently angered with her very existence, her friends, and the person who was just used as a projectile.

"Are you okay?" She asked the Namekian and, when he nodded, she looked to Rinako, "I, I'm sorry -- I promise, it isn't normally like this..."

Even now, she was mostly concerned that she was being a bother to everyone else. But what was she going to do? She couldn't transform right here, then her secret would be out! And for some reason, the stranger just looked like he was getting angrier and angrier by the second.

(Wordcount: 567 / 2122)

"Jarhead? JARHEAD?!"

If Rinako had been trying to calm things down... she may have chosen the worst possible word to try and achieve that with. Whilst the high school girls looked startled that their new friend could apparently summon some kind of cool staff, it's debatable whether the enranged android was even aware of the fact she'd summoned it at all - literally blind with fury as she called him, well. That.

Tiara moved quickly to her friends as Rinako approached the other android, "Hey, you should get out of here." She said, urgency in her tone, pleading in her eyes. "I think things are going to get messy."

"We're not leaving you, Tiara!" Dumpla huffed, "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Yeah, you can't fight--"

"I'll be okay!" She insisted, "Please, trust me, it's fine."

That unfolding argument took place whilst the bartender struggled with his phone, fully intent on calling the cops - because this was clearly a situation that was going to unfold very rapidly. Rinako had done a good job keeping the furious android's attention fixated solely on her, though.

He towered over the fox. Infinitely more physically imposing than she was, it was hard to believe that she was able to maintain that level of cold threat and focus when she was acting at the lightning rod for a man who looked like he could break her in half with one hand. Then again, in the world of serious fighters, mere physical size didn't tell you much about who was truly the more dangerous person in any given conflict.

"I was going to start with the brat." He growled, "But CONGRATULATIONS, I'm going to break you into tiny pieces first!"

The ill-mannered brute turned out to have about as much subtly as one would expect given his introduction. He threw himself forward, splintering the table he had been sat behind into tiny fragments in an instant. The huge man's shoulder led the way as he aimed to literally barrel over her, knock her to the ground and stomp over her with his massive feet.

Obviously, all that anger of his hadn't come from nowhere. This guy was much stronger than any ordinary human; perhaps even a match for most of the planet's standard martial artists. But he completely lacked any of their refinement. All of his power came purely from brute force and raw power; the studs, bolts and rivets that jut from his body at irregular angles already starting to crackle and buzz with electric discharge.

If Rinako were interested in the technology at play here, it should already be very obvious that this machine was of a far lower quality and refinement than Tiara and her near-human physique. That didn't mean it was any less effective though. Bombs didn't need to look beautiful to do damage, and that same logic was likely to hold true here.

(Wordcount: 478 / 2600)

Tiara gave a firm nod to Rinako as the fox told her to get the others out. The moment things turned to violence, she became surprisingly serious! There was no way that she was going to let her friends get hurt; or anyone else for that matter. The last thing she wanted was her celebration of recovery to become the day someone else went into hospital.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" She urged the others, "That goes for everyone else too! That guy's dangerous! We shouldn't get in the way!"

There weren't a ton of patrons left but most of the ones who had there wits about them had already come to the same conclusion. Katsu and Dumpla relented when it didn't seem like Tiara was going to stick around and try to get involved any more. The bartender ducked beneath the bar to use that as cover, and it was just the older Namekian bouncer who was left in the space. Him and the drunk salaryman who seemed quite oblivious to what was going on around him.

The mechanical man definitely didn't seem to be getting any calmer with the way Rinako spoke and danced around. The slashing claw down his back had him growl and stiffen, the heavy coat he wore offered little protection against that, and the gash revealed more of those heavy electrical components jutting from his skin. Electrical power surged and crackled between all those points on his body, flickering as the charge built.

"You don't know what I've been through." He growled, "If you think you can just dance around, you've got another thing coming!"

At least Rinako really had managed to get Jarhead's attention focused fully and completely on her. He seemed to have forgotten all about Tiara as she ushered the others out of the bar and onto the street, "We should see if we can find a police officer." She encouraged, "They'll know what to do."

And inside the bar, the android slammed his hands together before throwing them up and over his head. With a loud shout, all of that electrical power which had been building across his exposed components burst out of him; a sudden six foot wide sphere of electricity aiming to catch the foxy lady and give her quite the shock!

(Wordcount: 386 / 2986)

Grabbing the exposed components on the raging android is a brave move. Electrical charge flows through them continuously when he is in combat mode, but it turns out that Rinako has some advantages over most other combatants in being strong and determined enough not to let that hold her back. As she clung tenaciously to the bulkier warrior, he flailed around trying to dislodge her, shaking this way and that, knocking over more furniture and generally making a mess.

No doubt the club was going to need to close down for the night now no matter what happened. More's the pity. She's going to have to get that soda float another time.

But the assault is successful! One of the bolts coming away in her hand as she pulled on it with all that ferocious strength, exposing more metal and buzzing circuitry within the core of the furious Jarhead. He cried out in obvious pain as the conduit was torn out of his body and went from a buzzing point of electrical discharge to an inert lump of metal in an instant. Obviously whoever had designed this android had maintained much of the same sensory input - probably to make him less willing to have lumps torn out of him.

"Get OFF me!" He shouted, "DAMN YOU! This has NOTHING to do with you!"

His agitation was followed with another full-body crackle of electricity as he attempted to forcibly dislodge the clinging fox, but there was an obvious gap in the field where that nodule had once been plugged in - definitely a weakness that she could exploit.


Tiara snuck back in to the venue almost immediately once she'd set her friends  off looking for the police. She moved quickly and quietly - glad for Rinako's continued distraction - so that she could slip her arm around the drunken salaryman and begin guiding him back out of the venue too. "Come on Mister." She said, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." That's what they said to adults who got into this kind of state, wasn't it? At least the drunk seemed amiable enough, if a little disoriented to find that such a small girl was able to forcefully guide him with more ease than most of the bouncers that he'd become notorious with in this town.

Speaking of, the bouncer had finally recovered his wits, and moved to join the fray. "Enough from you." He intoned, "The word of a bartender within his establishment is law! To refuse to leave when instructed to do so is a violation of the sacred trust between reveler and entertainer!"

He was starting to glow as he pulled on ancient techniques of the Warrior Clan that he hadn't had any need to use in years. A soft yellow light around his form as he gathered his strength between the palms of his hands.

"Cease your resistance. You... ARE BARRED!"

Naturally, directed towards the rampaging robot rather than the helpful patron.

(Wordcount: 497 / 3483)