What They Died For (Open)

"Oh, so you weren't enjoying that little exchange of ours? Right. You're a sad, lonely hypocrite and I suggest you get over it. I haven't done anything to you, you daft bastard!" Zuci shouted as she lunged at her with full force. Zuci grabbed both of his hands and tussled with the man for a bit before her foot caught on some uneven ground, likely a result of their heated altercation. 

Sen had then gotten a stroke of luck and managed to grab her by her hair and her shoulder; strong arms gripped at his as he tried to pull and she cockily laughed at the man. "See?! Wow, I'm such a savage said the stranger going straight for decapitation!"

And he was serious too- Zuci could feel him pulling like his life depended on it, and in some respects it absolutely did. Zuci imagined herself doing the same to him after the fact and oh would it be sweet to put this gun-toting crazy bastard in his place. But she had to focus; this man was trying to kill her, and he was starting to get some ground thanks to her literal misstep earlier.

Zuci grit her teeth and shouted as she expelled a burst of Ki from her, likely blowing the man back and possibly saving her from a dreadful fate. Zuci stood still and caught her breath, eyeing the bruise he left on her shoulder and spitting in his direction. She stepped forward, ready to re-engage him in combat when-

"Ngh!" Zuci twitched unnaturally and stopped her movements, clutching her head and slouching somewhat. Sen might have noticed her power starting to rise, the natural response of her Saiyan body when it came to life-threatening attacks like she had just went through. Buildings began to shake around them as her Ki swelled and her hair rose; she looked up through grit teeth at Sen, eyes full of murderous intent.

"Try to...kill me, like that? You son of a- Ngh..." Zuci fell to her knees and punched the dirt to keep herself from falling over entirely, shaking the ground beneath them. She felt like her body was on fire, and though her power output had remained the same she could swear it felt like something else was bubbling inside of her, like a storm battering against an already cracked dam. When her eyes barely caught a flicker of her trying desperately to change color her eyes widened and she shut in on herself.

"Not...like...this, damn it...!"

She wasn't about to turn Super Saiyan on or for someone like this. Clutching her chest and flying clumsily back in case he tried anything Zuci shot out a Ki Blast towards the ground to make a makeshift smokescreen anf flew behind some tall buildings. She clutched at her arm and breathed in-and-out rapidly, trying to calm herself while reducing her power level. Not to hide (though that would be a positive side-effect), but to ensure she didn't accidentally trigger something in herself. She managed to calm herself eventually, power level lowered and some of the exhaustion quickly catching up to her. She slumped down against the building wall, trying to sense out for Sen and see if he was approaching her location at all.

In and out, in and out... Zuci took deep, deep breaths when she realized Sen truly had no clue where she was exactly. She hadn't been ready for the sudden exhaustion to come with her near-transformation, and the mental trauma of it had definitely tired the woman out. Trauma...? No, just...stress, she supposed. She had felt it invade her entire being and consume her; that was a taste of what she's always wanted for itself and it had nearly come out against this fool of all people. But if she were ever gonna transform she was gonna do it right.

That still didn't help her current situation though...

Normally Zuci would have gone right back out there and get to fighting again, but the sudden tiredness in her bones were real and definitely weren't going away. She figured it was less her wounds and more the stress that whole moment had just put on her body. Still, none of that mattered if he found her in the condition she was in right now. What to do, what to do...

Suddenly Zuci heard the sounds of sirens and yelling; Tuffles in body armor had come to the area to put out some of the fire, not to mention some were definitely equipped and ready to handle themselves if needed. She didn't know if they could possibly take on or hold off Sen, but chances were the answer was no; if he had lived through that war then he had a distinct advantage against these younger, likely fresh soldiers if an altercation happened. Zuci chose to crouch and look at the scene from her hiding spot, many of them already getting to work on putting out the fires while the others had begun to investigate where they'd just been fighting. Since they had both left, thankfully they hadn't seen Sen or Zuci.

Zuci moved around according to where she felt Sen's Ki, heading in the opposite direction while laying low and catching her breath. Realizing she might be leaving vague footprints, Zuci backtracked a little, floated upwards when there was a taller building blocking her from view and hugged the wall. She quietly generates a small ball of Ki in her fingertips and blows it in a general direction towards the ground, making a small and contained explosion near Sen's location. It was enough that it might grab the attention of the authorities; depending on how these next few seconds went, Zuci might either be able to get a good sneak attack in or even retreat to gather herself for the time being...

By the time Sen would start searching via the blast's initial arc Zuci had circled around to go in the opposite direction. She had heard enough to guess he'd somewhat convinced the men to at least be wary of her, so Zuci was extra to descend and lay low this time. Currently she had just made it to the back of a small store and prepared herself to fly off- She'd need to contact Zuqetta about this, especially regarding this man and his dangerous ideas. As she prepared to fly off the cries of someone young suddenly caught her ears.

Zuci peaked around to see a child hanging out a window of a building where fire had just shot out the window. No way to get down safely and it seemed that the firefighters couldn't fly; a soldier or two turned to see the little girl hanging on, but in that instant her little fingers had lost her grip on it. They definitely weren't going to make it in time, still a bit caught off-guard from Sen's appearance and looking for her.

Zuci sighed loudly and shot off like a bullet, catching the little girl and tumbling down to the ground behind the firefighters and in front of the soldiers.

"Wh-?" One of the soldiers asked, nearly raising his weapon but stopping when he saw Zuci with the child. Zuci ignored him and turned to the kid. "Go with the firefighters, they'll help you find your parents." Zuci patted the child on the back and pushed her forward before turning sharply to the soldiers and Sen. "Get your radios and call for reinforcements; no time to convince you, but this man attacked me first and tried to kill people here! Believe me or not, just arrest the both of us and interrogate us later- Or are you going to believe his outdated authorization codes that you don't recognize?"

Zuci left them to do with that information what they will; She leapt into the air and threw an axe kick down at Sen's head. "Well?! Get to it before he tries to stop you!"

The one in charge stares at the situation for a few seconds before pulling out his radio with haste. "Backup at Point X-9-30 requested, all you can spare! We've got a man and a woman who need to be taken into custody!"

Zuci smiles. "Well, old man? I'll happily cooperate with the authorities and give up right now if you do the same! See how reasonable I am compared to a savage like you?"

They weren't quick enough- They radio'd for help, sure, but the soldiers just couldn't react in time to save their own lives. The firefighters, meanwhile, grabbed the child and abandoned the fire they'd been putting out; at the very least they were alive to tell the tale. Zuci continued throwing a barrage at Sen with the intention of keeping him busy at worst and breaking a couple bones at best.

"Don't say that like any Saiyan on this Planet uses a gun, you buffoon!" Zuci called out his logic while still throwing out haymakers. "You think you're gonna take on a Tuffle army plus myself? You heard him- 'All you can spare!' Besides," Zuci backflipped away to shoot a barrage of Ki Blasts at his legs and feet, "I've got witnesses now! Your stupid little plan doesn't work anymore!"

On the subject of control Zuci faltered a bit, but decided to use that against him. "Careful now! Didn't you see what happened earlier? I was losing control- Because I'm close to the legend!" Zuci said with full confidence, her posture straightening out and her blasts carrying a bit more strength with them. "You keep pushing me, I really might just do it! You gonna fight a Super Saiyan with a gun?! So come on! Push me! Push me!" Zuci screamed at the top of her lungs while peppering Sen with blast after never ending blast.

"Are you sure? So when they all show up and demand our surrender, you think you're gonna be able to take them all on? Sorry, but you're out of luck old man." Zuci recalled being called arrogant by other people before, but this man was taking it to an entirely different level. She had assumed the man was beyond delusional already but she was starting to consider if he was doing it on purpose just to be funny.

Zuci weaved the blasts he had shot at her with skillful accuracy as he dodged her own; she wasn't really trying to land a decisive blow at this point, more so stalling so things could be settled with the reinforcements coming. Zuci saw Sen prepare his blaster for a bigger shot and got ready to defend herself by putting her arms out in front. However, when Sen started his little spiel and ended it with the words 'Super Tuffle' Zuci's posture immediately slumped.

The blast would shoot out and appear to hit her in the head, but a moment later its shown to be a fading afterimage. Zuci stands just off to the side, posture still slumped and her face exasperated as if she had just heard the worst thing to ever disgrace her ears.

"...Super Tuffle. Super. Tuffle. Really? Like- No, stop fighting for a second." Zuci holds her hand out. Aside from that genuinely hurting her insides she figured this was a good chance to stall until reinforcements arrived. "Hear me out- Super Saiyan. It's original, it has a background- Super Tuffle? Lazy, unoriginal, not to mention lame! If we're going to do witty banter you'd best try harder to make it actually witty, you old dastard! Did you wanna take that again? Try a little harder this time- I'll wait, seriously." Zuci folds her arms and stands straight while waiting for him to continue.

"I'd sooner believe you capable of taking them all on in a fight before thinking of you all as being on the same side. And interesting- I'd love to see the sources on that! ...Genuinely speaking, by the way, not that you care!" Zuci added, honestly curious about what he was talking about. She had never heard of such a thing in her life; was there such a thing as a 'Super Tuffle'? It sounded silly compared to the illustrious legend of a Super Saiyan, but who knows? It'd be something to look into after this.

"Oh, and you haven't let anything happen; I'm clearly not playing for 'game' if you couldn't tell. Let me guess, you're going to try and blow up the entire city block to erase any witnesses? For one, I guarantee you a fair amount of people- starting crowd included- have already gotten by now. But if you do decide to start something as heinous as destruction on that sort of level..."

Suddenly, large groups of Tuffles appeared atop of (the undamaged) buildings, behind and to the sides of Zuci and Sen, and a few flying up high with weapons aimed at the both of them. It seemed that they had developed some sort of cloaking technology, though Zuci had sensed a few members who didn't seem capable of suppressing their Ki. There were at least three dozen in her immediate field-of-view. Zuci smugly raises her hands up and stares at Sen with an inquisitive look.

"Both of you, on your knees and hands in the air!" Two squad leaders shout with their weapons raised, clearly not in the mood to hear anything. "You're going to be taken in for questioning on the destruction and violence here! No arguments- Cooperate or be attacked! Hands off the weapon!"

Zuci can't help the grin on her face. "I'll gladly cooperate! Oh, old man, won't you put the weapon down? They already heard what you plan to do with it- Who knows, maybe they'll find me guilty through a proper investigation? I'm just a dirty, no-good Saiyan who only has death and violence on the brain right?"

Her taunting was clear to everyone, but seeing as how Zuci claimed that she would cooperate the soldiers seemed to let it go. All of their fingers were on their respective triggers ready to shoot either party who made a move. They likely wouldn't kill immediately given their strength levels, but given the amount of people and the other person nearby, conflict wouldn't be favorable. Perhaps escape...?

Just in case he decides to fire anyway, Zuci takes an extremely subtle step forward. The look in her eyes say that she's ready- If he really does decide to use a weapon like that here, she was going to do whatever she could to contain and suppress it. Whatever happened next was all up to him...