A pirate and a Saiyan

Jagaimo had taken leave of the busier parts of Earth and made her way towards the wilderness, fascinated by the variation in landscapes she could see…there was an ocean…and actual ocean of water! Not acid or boiling death gas…The young warrior had read about them in her research and other scouts reports but she’d never seen anything so vast and blue in all of her travels so far. She’d stood on a beach for almost an hour just watching the water lap across the sand and even risked taking off her boots to stand in the cool liquid. It was amazingly pleasant and the urge to wade in deeper was hard to fight but she wasn’t here just to enjoy herself. Despite no official orders, Jagaimo was here to scout out and learn about the people of Earth as much as she could before returning home. If the messages getting through were accurate then war was coming to Plant again and the Saiyan’s might finally have a place to call their own once more. Hopefully she would get back in time…but in the meantime…she had things to explore.

The young woman had left the colder north behind her for now, although there was still much to learn in Central City the rest of the planet called out. She could sense powers all over the surface, some as strong as her, others as strong as the some she had met in the Radditsu District and even as strong as Rainer had been when she first met him. It was exciting to think that even on a planet as soft and weak as this there were people here to rival the Saiyan’s strongest amongst them. She was following one such trail now into the West of the world that had only recently appeared on her senses, hair whipping around freely as she blasted through the blue skies, so unlike what she was used to on Plant. One minute it wasn’t there, the next she could feel lit clearly. So now the young fighter was skimming by bodies of water and watching as the landscape turned from lush and green to drier and more sparse, the heat of the sun more obvious here than it had been towards the northern pole of the planet. Pretty soon everything was a dusty, sandy wasteland not unlike the Saiba wastes back home…although she had yet to spy anything that looked like an acid pool.

Ahead now she could see what looked like a trail gouged out of the sand and rock…knowing enough to know she was witnessing a crash site of some kind. It seemed recent and she could now make out the smoke coming from a small silvery wreckage not too far away now. The crash looked nasty and it surprised her that anything could have survived the impact and destruction without some kind of innate power…and what she felt confirmed what she was thinking. Whoever had emerged was strong…far stronger than almost all of the Earthlings she had encountered in her short stay here but for once…a stranger with power wasn’t stronger than her. But she knew they could be masking themselves, she herself was able to do that although on this occasion she hadn’t bothered…she was so far away from any civilisation that she didn’t think the authorities would be chasing her out here…besides they couldn’t still be looking for her over that whole Zoo mix up…

What she saw when the distance closed made her stop in mid flight, stalling instantly, eyes moving to the blue skinned being floating in the air a short ways ahead, a purple ponytail where the head and hair would be…a thought struck her and when she looked closer the young Saiyan confirmed her suspicions…A Heran. She had only ever met one before but she knew what they looked like and their reputation, bloodthirsty pirates all of them and if the rumors were true they had some strange rituals for their young to prove their worth. Her fist clenched and opened a few times…they were pirate scum, and this one was bound to have some kind of bounty on its head.

Her mind made up Jagaimo flew closer, stopping a good distance away so she could be seen and heard but not so close he might get the drop on her, it could be a trap and her eyes darted round the wreckage a few times before she spoke,

“It would have been better if you’d burned up with your pod pirate.”

Oh how she wished she had a scouter to be able to try and identify this one, to at least know something about him…but she’d never bothered to purchase one…with her ability to sense others she hadn’t expected she’d need it…

“Surrender yourself to me and I'll make sure you are treated fairly for your crimes. Earth will not be your gateway to adulthood.”

It sounded confident enough…

Well it didn’t look like the Heren was planning to be leaving anytime soon by the state of the smoking pod scattered around the ground below them. Jagaimo’s eyes flicked from the wreckage to the blue skinned arrival floating in the sky opposite her. He seemed uninjured which was a shame and the sudden grin on his face told the young warrior that there was little chance he was going to pay any attention to her words. She could feel his confidence seething through with his power as they eyed each other up across the short distance that separated them right now and when his eyes glanced over the tail cinched round her waist like a belt and the change in his expression the young fighter knew this was only going to go one way. Her fists clenched when he spoke, mocking and laughing and she could feel her own power rising up inside her in preparation for a fight. From what she could sense it was close enough to be even…

“Just like a Heren, hiding like a coward and stupidly thinking a race as mighty as the Saiyan’s are going to kill themselves in a few scuffles. Plant, Earth, Namek…we’re not going anywhere, so if you want us gone that badly you’re going to have to do it yourselves!”

He exploded forwards before Jagaimo could open her mouth to try and insult him a little more, barely giving her enough time to drop her head a little to let his knuckles crack into her forehead rather than flatten her nose all over her face. The impact rocked her head backwards moments before she felt the air driven from her lungs with his shin buried in her gut. The young warrior felt the impact of his last blow on her back rather than saw it as the ground accelerated up to meet her fall, cracking the dry dusty ground and scattering the sand all around.

“You know…”

The dust swirling around her slowly settled and she was left on one knee, a fist planted in the ground, eyes slowly rising to meet the look of her opponent,

“You hit like a Tuffle’s grandmother.”

Jagaimo chuckled and rose slowly to her feet, dusting herself off as she pulled her hair from her face and rolled her neck, her face already darkening from the bruise that was starting to form there from his punch. The young Saiyan rocked back onto her heels and then bounced on the balls of her feet, never taking her eyes off the pirate,

“Alright then…lets go”

The sand around her scattered in all directions as she blasted off from the ground, powering upwards to return the favour…a few light feinting strikes across his upper body before a tight arcing elbow rocketed towards the Heren’s thick jaw, and a quick mid-air spin brought a foot slashing down in a spinning crescent kick aimed for the side of his neck…a ‘skip’ backwards through the air meant to finish off the small flurry…

Jagaimo felt the first few feinting attacks get blocked with relative ease as she probed the Heran’s defences, moving herself into position. Her face split into a satisfied grin as the driving elbow caught her opponents jaw and rocked him in the air before the downwards kick slammed him towards the earth where he skidded along the ground like a skipping stone before there was a twist and the blue skinned alien flipped back to his feet looking none the worse for the blows he’d suffered. She floated there for a moment before she saw him tense and call out to her, diving down to meet him on his upwards trajectory.

His brief burst of speed was unexpected and caught the young Saiyan by surprise as he slipped past her defences and grabbed an ankle on his way, yanking her off balance and slamming her bodily once, twice…three times into the dirt like a sack of vegetables before tossing her aside with disdain. She tumbled and rolled a few times, looking up at the sky while she lay on her back. He was strong, she would give him that, although from what she had felt up close, not quite as strong as her…still it wouldn’t pay to underestimate the pirate.

The young fighter lifted her legs and pushed off the floor, rolling backwards over one shoulder, pushing against the ground and rising to her feet, not taking to the air this time but staying in a crouched position. The Heran was taller, heavier and had a longer reach but then most of her opponents did, it was something she was getting very used to lately. Jagaimo rose from her crouch and began to bounce on the balls of her feet, back and forth slowly, testing the sandy ground below, checking her balance before blitzing forwards and kicking up a trail of sand as she got up close, intending to slip inside his guard where the extra reach would mean nothing and she could pummel his midsection with repeated strikes from fists and knees at short range…

She was mildly impressed with the pirate.

Despite the attacks so far only being light teasing blows he had kept his cool and didn’t seem to be exploding into the rage that was prone among many of his species. While it was commendable it was something that Jagaimo had been hoping to exploit but maybe she just hadn’t pushed him far enough yet…for now she was content to let him simmer away. They had both exchanged attacks and strikes, taking a measure of each other and other than a few scrapes they were both unharmed. The young Saiyan knew things would escalate quickly from here now though as the first few passes were behind them.

Her last attack had caused her opponent to skid backwards a short way and almost as soon as he regained his balance he was back at her, driving in close this time himself, fists flying in a sharp controlled manner. She rolled with the punches, guarding where she could, slipping and ducking when she couldn’t block and taking a few blows when there were no other options. He struck well and she could feel the stress on her body already starting to build, the bruises would come later she knew. As he moved confidently in the sand she traded blows back, countering whenever he left an opening and only giving up ground when she needed to. When she saw an opening in his attacks the young warrior gave a thrusting kick to the midsection, more to drive herself backwards than to do any damage, the aim to simply create space between them.

She grinned up at the Heran and rolled her shoulders again, one foot sliding backwards and lifting to its toes, digging into the sand a little to find purchase,

“Not bad for a two bit pirate…how about we get started then?”

Jagaimo powered forwards, closing the gap in moments and launching into a flurry of strikes, a combination of punches, kicks, elbows and knees, shifting this way and that to attack from as many angles as possible. She wasn’t likely to hurt her opponent much if at all with the barrage but every movement he had to make might be an opening she could exploit later down the line. Not every opponent could be finished with one strike, especially on what was practically on equal terms with you…

The two combatants traded blows back and forth in a flurry or movement, fists and feet flying as they both sought to outdo their opponent. The young Saiyan felt a few blows landing in telling strikes while the rest simply glanced off blocks or were redirected harmlessly away by the Heran’s limbs…even his head grazed her knuckles as he used it to push aside an attack. Both of them kicked up dust as they moved and whirled in the sand, Jagimo leaving the floor to remove the height advantage…keeping close in the hopes to lessen the size difference.

She missed something.

The young fighter’s head snapped to the side as a wild haymaker connected, almost spinning her on the spot as stars burst into sight all across her vision. She moved her hands to try and close her guard, but the follow up caught her, driving the wind from her lungs and making the young woman gasp loudly before the yank on her hair wrenched her body round. The momentum from the swing and the length of her hair kept his wrist out of reach when she swung for it to grab before there was a feeling of weightlessness and the Saiyan’s body crashed into something solid that gave way a split second after slowing her down, the impact cracking the stone and pulling a cry of pain from her lips.

Jagaimo coughed as the stone dust settled slowly around her, pushing herself first to a sitting position then pushing back to her feet a little slower than before, shaking her head clear of the bits of stone that had splintered over her. The rock face had stopped her traveling any further but had been a harder landing than skidding and rolling to a stop would have been, so it took a moment to reassess the situation. He was fast, they were pretty even in terms of strength and experience wise who knew, both species were known for fighting from an early age so it was anyone's guess who knew more.

The young Saiyan pushed off the ground with her toes and half jumped half flew the short distance, landing lightly in the sand again a few feet from her opponent, a genuine look of enjoyment on her face, smirking,

“Well, it turns out I should have taken you seriously from the start after all.”

She chuckled and stretched overhead then leaning to her left and right, hand over head, bits of stone falling out of her hair whenever she moved,

“And here I was thinking the stories they taught us about you guys were all true, cowardly backstabbers, the lot of you. Gonna have to start changing my opinion of you all if the rest of your species is like you”

The young fighter looked across at her opponent and grinned, giving him a slight nod,

“No holding back now.”

The distance closed in moments as she blasted off from standing, the strikes coming in thick and fast as she launched into a focused assault…