the buzz about lottus [lottus]

"Bee!" Kabe clamored as he watched himself, young and hungry, lunge at a warrior several times stronger than he like looking at a time-traveling insectoid mirror. The burbling blast did not reach Lottus, though. Instead Kabe watched in horror as Lottus surged with power, enwreathed his arm with an aura of ki and absolutely walloped the child with it.

Teeth cracked, chitin flaked and biologically recalculable skin burst forth into a mixture of red, green and purple viscera. His pint-sized body, not broken and busted in the horrible way that Lottus tended to break his victims, still flew back several feet and struck hard enough against a metalman bystander to leave a horrid dint in his mechanical form, and he lay limp.

Fury surged in Kabe, the same primal fury that had allowed him to beat the living hell out of Dion hard enough that he'd collapsed the moment his eldritch fury was done with him. His eyes sparked, flashing white, and a crackle of lightning shifted his aura to a gushing, brilliant gold. "Lottus!" Kabe called, his eyes fixed not on the warrior, but on his child.

For a moment, it looked as though he was out cold... at least, if he wasn't killed instantly by a blow of such power difference. Even the mercenaries, who had been being ravaged by the tyke, stopped cold for a moment, frozen in shock. As quiet blanketed that moment, a small murmur began to emerge from the child.

"Kehe..keh-ke.."

He was alive. But he probably couldn't take another hit like that. Kabe lunged, red energy surging like it was going to burst from his left and right palms. This fight was no longer for fun, or about getting to know Lottus. It was about teaching him a lesson. "This is between us. Touch my kid again," he said as he aimed to grip Lottus in his hands, raking the life from him with his very touch. "And I'll make sure you never experience a solid food for the rest of your life. Do we understand each other?"

He didn't yell. He spoke with deadly calm.

---

Lottus

It was hard for Kabe to be angry at the response he was getting from Lottus. Were he on the opposite end, he would have been just as non-plussed about it. He sighed, cutting himself short on it and shrugged at Lottus words, taking the bean. It was frustrating that Lottus seemed to think Kabe could just... control his kid? But at least he had the sense to patch him up.

His lecture feel on deaf ears, but Kabe wised up enough to not push the issue further. "Look, fine. I admit that was dramatic, but if you had kids you'd understand. Not like I can control him anyway. He's been doing this shit for weeks now."

Kabe turned, and lobbed the bean at his child. It landed near the limp insect, and after a few moments of sniffing he unhinged his jaw, his body reconfiguring in shape to some horrible beast-insect hybrid for a moment, eating the bean and a shovel's worth of the ground beneath it in a single bite.

"Bee! Go eat them!" Kabe gestured at the mercenaries, talking slowly and clearly as if he were addressing an otherwise clueless dog. Now misshapen into a horrid form, he obliged and lunged at the mercenaries.

"Alright, get your free hit in." Kabe groaned, finding some small humor in that. He readied himself for whatever Lottus would throw at him next.

---

Lottus

Watching Lottus brutally attack mercenaries while he awaited combat to resume was like huffing something bright to Kabe. A bounty in the five-hundred-thousand region, fighting for the fun of it, revelling in carnage without consequence... it was nostalgic to witness. By the time Lottus was ready to thwap Kabe back in repayment, a small smile was resting on his face.

And thwap Lottus did.

Kabe didn't block, or barrier, or counter in any way. A free hit was a free hit, and an exchange was an exchange. A free hit it turned out, was also something that stung like all hell was sizzling across your chest. "Ack-" He shouted, stifling the exclamation with grinding grit teeth, gripping his chest as the attack ended with a hiss and a large cloud of smoke and kicked up dust.

When the smoke dispersed, the silhouette of Kabe began to take shape and the grin was once again on his face. He stood without a stance, a small red light burbling into being and shining through the grip of his fingers. "That was a good hit. Now we're even!" He shouted, lunging forward and aiming to slam his palm into Lottus' face, a small blister of ki packed and ready to explode with a point-blank blunt impact.

---

Lottus

Kabe was on the backfoot as Lottus came rushing forward, a wild bluster of haymakers threatening to rock, sock and knock Kabe in every which direction. With each step he took, he snatched at another cockily close mercenary, using them to block a single swing before they crumpled.

"Oh Lottus," Kabe started. "I thought we were having plenty of fun!" With a somber expression he flipped overhead and out of harms way before landing behind Lottus, feigning wounded feelings at the comment. "But if that wasn't fun enough," Kabe cooed, starting to charge another energy blast in his hands.

"Then why don't you show me something fun!" Part of him thought that maybe telling the hyperviolent maniac to kick it up a notch was probably a terrible idea. The other part of him though, raised hunting jungles and getting into bar fights that covered entire streets was very excited to see what Lottus could do.

Thrusting his palm forward he released the building energy blast, before shoving his hand into it's backside, clapping against the condensed energy and turning it into a messy erratic blast. He didn't care that it would do minimal damage, it might just get his attention.

---

Lottus

His blast landed and Kabe stifled the grizzly relief he felt in yet another successful blow, instead now focused on the brewing power in front of him. As Lottus' face twisted into a devilish sneer, his body began to swell and his battle power with it. His scouter, beeping and cracked from the wear of battle, alerted him.



Kabe had seen some terrifying battle powers swirling beneath them during his fight with Dion above the Jörmungandr, but seeing Lottus jump a full 34,000 BP simply by tensing his muscles was almost as concerning.

Readying himself, he grinned as the barrage of attacks came in. He'd charged himself with energy, and that boost allowed him to sweep beside and deflect the incoming torrent, preserving the soft flesh beneath the weakpoints in his armor.

As the final blast was unleashed, for a moment it looked as if it had given purchase to Kabe's demise. But as the light cleared, Kabe was standing behind his foe. With a grin, he tensed his body in a similar fashion and threw his arms down like he was reloading them, bringing them up and ready to clobber the fool.

"Stop me if you've seen this one before!" he repeated, attacking with the same moves Lottus had just used, only in reverse order and flipped from left to right. As he broke off, a brilliant burble of red light coiled around Kabe's right hand and exploded, the blast aimed chest level at Lottus.

---

Lottus

Lottus' move was absolutely devastating in effect, even in the hands of somebody else. There was something satisfying about seeing someone get got, and watching them fly across a space and crumble a building with the force they were slammed into it. He clicked his scouter, assuring himself that he hadn't accidentally killed the saiyan, and took out one or two remaining mercenaries as rubble stirred and Lottus popped back up.

"You alive?" Kabe started, hopping over as Lottus wobbled to his feet. "Good, I've had my fun too." Satisfied with the carnage and assured his bounty would bump up at least a couple thousand zeni, he looked down the street toward the Rustbucket Cantina. "What's say we get a drink, mull over our wounds for a little bit. My shout."

Before he could speak on that any more, he registered Lottus' question about Bee, and scanned the horizon. The mercenaries were out of sight, but so was the pint-sized insectoid that Kabe had thrown toward them only a few moments prior. "Bee, get out here you brat!" Kabe shouted, cupping his mouth with his hands to magnify his voice.

No response.

Kabe sighed, and turned back to Lottus. "Raincheck on that drink. I've gotta go find my stupid kid." This brat would be the death of him.

---

Lottus