Judgement Of The Sun & Moon

Nero smiled, very happy to see Zhalla excited for much the same reason as he was. This plan of theirs was going to have rightly explosive results, and Nero could hardly wait to dish out the appropriate punishment for the crimes. “Oh my god they’re in such deep shit.” The matter was quite serious, but seeing Zhalla so into this plan softened Nero for a moment to find humor in it at the expense of those that had wronged him and so many others. Nero purposefully ruffled his own hair to hide his signature style under a more ‘typical’ hairstyle that would be seen around these parts.

Waiting patiently for Zhalla to cuff him in a manner that was sufficient enough to pass as legit, Nero was confused as to why she fumbled a few times. Was she just far more used to properly restraining people? It made sense, given her choice of career. Still, Nero chose not to comment on it, since that might make Zhalla fumble more. “Okay, let’s get a move on.” Nero chose to telepathically show Zhalla the way from here, that way she would know the path to take in a convincing manner that made it look like she was the one leading.

Nero’s research had done well for them, and he knew precisely where to go and how to go about it. Eventually the two would reach a sizable and somewhat complex elite estate. The two forward guards at the gates stopped the pair, holding their palms out at Nero and Zhalla, each with a small ball of energy primed. “State your business.”

Nero understood Zhalla completely, they had to make this all look convincing, not that it would really take much effort to do that considering the baseline intelligence of many in the Marrowbreaker House. ’Nah, don’t worry about it, it doesn’t bother me.’ Nero responded telepathically.

Zhalla followed his mind-compass perfectly, and as soon as they reached the gate to the Marrowbreaker estate, they were met with the intellectual dimness that they were expecting. The two forward guards holding up balls of energy furrowed their brows, quickly glancing between each other. One having a single bead of sweat slip from their forehead. Nero had to keep himself from busting out laughing, but luckily Zhalla stepped up to handle this farce of a situation. The guards glanced between each other again, but they stood firm.

That is, until a younger voice from just within the gate groaned loudly and judgmentally. “Uuuuugggh!” It was a small Saiyan, clearly a young teenager wearing armor just a touch too big for him. He was chewing on lemon bubblegum and a disinterested expression and a messy mop of downward spiked dark blue hair. “You two peabrains! You can’t tell me you dunno who that is? Right?” The first two guards rounded on the youngster. “Oh, what do you know, pipsqueak!” “Haha, yeah you little shit, what if I blasted you instead huh?!”

The youngster kept lazily chewing on his gum, pulling the lever to open the gate, clearly uninterested and unfazed by these threats. “Ignore those two. Come in Gladiator.” Hearing that, it took a second, but the two forward guards slowly looked to Zhalla and gulped, snuffing their energy. “Anyway, I’ll guide you to the main building. My shifts over anyway, someone else will handle the inner gate in five minutes. C’mon, let’s go.” The young Saiyan waved Zhalla and Nero in and began to walk.

Nero telepathically nodded to Zhalla, but he also found himself curious. ’I kinda recognize this kid... He’s like a younger boy version of one of my great-aunts. He’s probably a Bloodmarrow, I think. Could you ask him for his name? I wanna confirm some stuff.’

The gate front guards grumbled swears and profanities in the direction of Nero, Zhalla and the other young Saiyan. Nero rolled his eyes covertly, he heard it all; just jealousy turned audible— he could tell that this kid now guiding them was twice as strong as both of those other dopes. Obviously, they had no idea, which was kind of hilarious in Nero’s opinion.

Speaking of, the young Saiyan spoke up again. “They just talk big, they’re about as strong as a tissue compared to me.” He shrugged, blowing a bubble with his bubblegum. They guided Zhalla and Nero through the main yard, it was a pretty vast front courtyard, it was pretty wild looking, all the grass was a bit too long and the paved areas looked like some kind of aggressive art installation. There was still a fair bit to go before they reached the main buildings, so Zhalla had more than enough time to talk to the youngster. “Huh?” He blinked, looking over his shoulder. “Nah, no worries. You wouldn’t really have needed my help. I like giving them a bit of shit every now and then, they deserve it. I’m Ulluk, by the way. Ulluk Bloodmarrow.”

Upon hearing that, Nero once again telepathically spoke to Zhalla. ’Nice, I think he’s one of my cousins for sure. Not sure if second cousin or second once removed, could be either.’

“I’ve heard stuff about that guy by the way. Nero, right? One of the old farts among the Marrowbreakers really hates his ass.” Ulluk smirked slightly. “It ain’t often that someone gets such a rise outta ‘em. I dunno if I should be impressed or something.”

Ulluk snickered and shrugged. “They’re mostly just stupid n’ can’t think for themselves— them getting bonked around woulda been funny as though!” Passing through the courtyard, Ulluk hopped up onto some of the statues outlining the path and lazily danced atop them while hopping over to other ones as he guided the two around the main property.

Soon enough, they would arrive at the first batch of buildings, and they mostly looked like different sets of houses. This wasn’t where they were stopping, just somewhere that they needed to pass. There were other Saiyans and such around at this point. Most of them simply went about their business— mostly the younger folk would pay little mind to their visitors. The older folks however took a few glances, some gasped at the sight of Gladiator and Nero. There were a few whispers around here and there, none that were safe from Nero’s ears— obviously these people either didn’t know or forgot that he had vastly better than average hearing.

It was practically all the same shit he had heard the last time he was here. A great deal of the people muttering to each other had some measure of distaste or disgust directed toward Nero and Zhalla would easily be able to see it on some of their faces.

There was more to this though. A small minority thought the opposite. Mostly, people from the Bloodmarrow house seemed worried, shocked, or even concerned. However, there were a few from other houses that were in agreement. So there was obvious dissent and doubt in the ranks of these people— people that could be part of the upcoming revolution against Egumel as well as the other sour old farts and elites.

Ulluk raised a brow curiously, that usually meant one thing as far as he knew. “I bet that’s probably cuz they wanna execute him themselves.” He said casually, with a hint of what seemed to be disappointment. Eventually the group would reach a primary courtyard with a fountain in the middle of it. There were several other Saiyan or Saiyan hybrid youths sitting around at the fountain. Some of them waved at Ulluk and wanted him to come over. “Yo! Ulluk, your shift over yet? Whaddya doin man?” A fairly chubby boy called out, they had rather hefty forearms with some spikes on them as well as some on their forehead. “Yeah Punkin, I’m free. Just guiding the Gladiator...” Ulluk gestured to Zhalla and Nero. “They caught that Nero fella that a lot of the grownups talk about.”

At this revelation, the other youths dropped their jaws and all scrambled on over. “What!? No way dude, you’re bluffing! You’re bluffing right?!” Punkin spluttered, looking to Zhalla and Nero in awe. “N-no way...” His face lit up, excited to have this chance. “Absolutely unreal! I’ve only heard stories about both of them!!” The others crowded around and tried to get past Punkin. One in particular simply scoffed and slid past everyone else. It was one of the older ones by the looks of things— another hybrid, this one was a young woman with skin tinted slightly blue with dark blue hair swept off to the side with little curls at the end. “Well don’t crowd around them you dopes!” She turned to tell off the others, who, understandably, started whining and pouting. “Honestly! You know who the Gladiator is and this is how you react to seeing them?” She said, putting her hands on her hips. “Uh… Yeah!? How else am I supposed to react?! What, you gonna tell me how, Kaz? Huh?” Punkin huffed, rolling his shoulders, probably ready to take a swing at her. As most silently looked on in awe, Kaz and Punkin’s glares clashed as they scowled at each other.

In this moment of silence, one of the smaller teenagers piped up. “Um. I think Nero is cooler...” It was a rather thin and spindly boy without a tail but a whole lot of hair down past his knees. They looked kinda beat up actually, as they had a lot of bandages on. The others looked at them in shock, but they didn’t say anything, they just looked at each other. This caused an adverse reaction it seemed, as the one that said so began to well up with tears. “I mean it! You don’t get it! You just don’t understand!” They said, holding back tears before running off in a random direction.

At that point all the other kids just started running after him. “Adzu! Come back here!” Kaz called after him, leading the charge with Punkin close behind. “You just surprised me when you talked, that’s all buddy! I didn’t mean anything bad! Please don’t just run off like that!”

Ulluk looked between the group running off and the two he was meaning to guide. “Shit— fuck!” He exclaimed, his aura flashed to life. “Sorry— gotta go, just go down that way and you’ll find the main hall!” Ulluk explained hurriedly, pointing off past the fountain, basically meaning for them to go straight ahead from here.

Then there was silence. Nero clenched his fists. This was part of a recent incident he had heard of, he was sure of it. One he had gathered information on while scouting this place out. He had mentioned this to Zhalla as part of his various reports when getting intel. The basics of the scenario was that Adzu got his tail torn out and beaten to a bloody pulp because he had ‘stepped out of line’. Over what, exactly? It was unclear, but it set off Egumel in particular, personally.

Nero could only think of a few things that could result in that.

’...’ He wasn’t sure what to tell Zhalla through his telepathic link, but it was clear enough just how truly angry he had just become at a moment’s notice. He wanted to go and make sure these kids were all okay, but he and Zhalla had a job to do...

Nero had very little in terms of worries regarding what he had been overhearing. He knew that none of the Marrowbreaker elites could compare to either himself or Zhalla even if they tried. Still, it seemed as though Zhalla was somewhat surprised to hear something that Nero already told her stated so plainly by another person.

Zhalla gave Nero some sort of unsure look, or at least he guessed she did, it wasn’t like he could see her face. Why was she so uncertain? Was it because of these youngsters? Given what had happened so far with his interactions with Zhalla, she seemed to treat youths much differently from adults. It could be for any number of reasons, maybe she just held herself to some very specific standards, or, as much as she would probably deny it, she was a decent person. A softie with a badass exterior, so to speak.

As luck would have it, the children effectively took each others attention with some minor conversations, and neither Zhalla nor Nero had to say a single word.

There was still the matter of the shock that came from one of the more shy among these youths to speak out— and then everything went to complete and utter custard. It was distressing enough for Nero to experience, but Zhalla clued him in that she was feeling similarly by tightening her grip on him. Nero couldn’t physically do much, so he tried to send her vibes of comfort and encouragement through telepathy to help her not fly off the handle somehow, but she seemed to reel herself in quite well on her own.

Regardless of all that had just happened, they had their plan to put in motion. Its success would ensure nothing like what happened to Adzu would ever happen to anyone else again— not without massive consequences. ’Yeah.’ Nero responded, a bit of a furious edge accompanying his telepathy.

Going down the walkways, the main building would soon come into view, it was an imposing construction compared to most other things around this area, and it would be easy to tell that whoever owned it was very much up themselves or overcompensating for something. ’There. That’s it.’

A pair of Saiyan guards would be stationed at the front door of the place, but they looked ragged and tired, despite their strong posture and firm stances. Rather than question Gladiator due to a lapse of judgement, they knew who they were looking at out the gate. A bit of life returned to their faces. “Ah... Gladiator, so you found him... Nero.” There was a slight regretful tone in their voice, one that even Zhalla could pick up if she thought about it. “I take it you are here to collect your reward, then? Perhaps even stick around and watch...” The second guard spoke up, with a twinge of pain in their voice, like they knew what was about to happen and hated it. They were more overt with how they felt compared to the first guard. “Spynna.” The first guard gruffly interrupted and shook his head. “There is nothing we can do... Open the doors.” Spynna reluctantly went over to the doors to open them, but before doing so they shot a look at the other guard who did not dare make eye contact. “Fine. Be a coward then, Celtus.” The doors started to open and the guards returned to their positions, Celtus looking off to the side, away from anyone else, biting his lip hard enough to start drawing blood.

Nero’s brow twitched and his fists clenched even harder, but he still tried his best to keep it together. Soon, he thought. Soon, he would ruin everything for Egumel and make everything right.

Spynna and Celtus only slightly raised their heads when they were responded to. They could see Nero was there in front of them, they knew who had brought him but hearing it gave this scenario a sort of finality. Celtus growled, looking further off to the side, away from all present, though he was still listening. He needn’t say a word, his stance was clear. He had hate in his heart for the one he knew as Gladiator, and perhaps most of all, for himself. Spynna felt similarly, but was far more confident, giving the one she knew as Gladiator a glare that might as well kill someone with lesser constitution. “Enjoy your reward, you rotten bitch.” She hissed, only for Celtus to shoot her a damning look in return. “Be quiet.” He said sternly, trying not to yell as well. “You are not helping.” To be fair, neither was he, but neither of them knew they didn’t need to.

Without any further discussion, the two seemed to be resigned to some sort of perceived failure, following Zhalla and Nero inside, closing the doors firmly behind them, now doing their guard duty from inside as per protocol.

Walking into the long hall and dropping Nero to the floor at the foot of the table, Zhalla would be greeted with the presence of the elite eight of the Marrowbreakers. All of them had some air of superiority among them, most turning their noses up at those that had just entered. The one at the head of the table was a large armoured individual with truly grizzly scars, mostly covering his face. “So here he is, that runt. You have outdone yourself, Gladiator, truly.” Egumel excitedly stood up and began to stride over to Nero, carrying himself with the full force of an arrogant egotist. Egumel grabbed Nero by the chin and looked him right in the eyes. “Yeeeesss... Those eyes. Those foul mongrel eyes. This is him.”

Egumel shoved Nero over, which in truth did nothing but Nero decided to be a bit dramatic either way. Spynna, Celtus and some of the younger elites at the table winced subtly. “Of course, of course. You are nothing if not brutally and ruthlessly efficient.” Egumel grinned, glancing over his shoulder to one of the younger elites. “Senab!” The other Saiyan in question flinched slightly before coughing and realigning themselves. “Yes, father?” They responded blandly. “Fetch Gladiator the agreed payment... And some extra, I'm feeling generous.” Senab stood up immediately and bowed slightly. “At once, father.” Walking off to a platform near the table, Senab began working on a little tablet.

“So, Gladiator, would you like to see the end result, the deserved punishment for this lowly scum?” Egumel grinned, it was such a deranged grin that he had, given he had a grudge for twenty years, that wasn’t much of a surprise. “Hmm. Finally. I for one would love to see this worm disposed of and for all of this to come to a close, Egumel.” One of the older women spoke up, she too had horrible grizzly scars on her own face, though not as intensely as Egumel. “Ahaha, no doubt, Lafafal, no doubt... Unfortunately, I would like to revel in this great victory a little longer.”

“Heheheh... Big talk, for some spineless infant that didn’t bother to do the job of catching me themselves!” Nero straightened himself out and stood up. ’Ok, Zhalla, whack me in the back, make it look good.’