Bounty Run (Side B)

Making his way through the forest, Nero took note of the various sights and sounds. Perhaps in another life he would have liked to consider Namek to be home and wondered what that may have been like.

In the shadows of this forest, he listened out for signs that would potentially lead him to his mark. He could have sworn that he heard the strumming of some guitar in one direction— slightly out of place for Namek’s instruments as far as he knew, but it wasn’t something to get sidetracked by.

Eventually he found a Namekian kid hiding behind a rock somewhere, and they looked like they were carrying something, a small hammer. This matched the description of the child he heard went missing— “Hey. Are you Dontoph?” He asked gruffly, to which the small kid yelped slightly, but they ultimately nodded. “Your village is worried about you. Why did you wander out this far?” Nero knelt down to be at the kid’s level, but he didn’t get too close. “I-I wanted to.. F-find a rare material for my a-appraisal t-test... B-but I got lost...” Nero gave an exasperated sigh. “Take a grown up with you when you do stuff like that.” He bluntly asserted. “You should get out of here.” Lifting his wrist up, Nero pressed a few buttons on a concealed device, and a series of small disks flew out and landed on the ground, forming a line that went on for some distance before they spread out to make a shining red path. “Follow that. You’ll get back to your village.” Dontoph sniffled and shuffled out from behind the rock. “Th-thanks mister...” He gave a small smile. “It’s fine. Just do me a favor and ask around for Zhalla? I’ve been looking for her and I needa speak with her.” Dontoph had no idea why, but he was grateful so he chose to try and be helpful to someone that had helped him. The Namekian child nodded and went on his way.

Interestingly enough, Dontoph would find Zhalla even before he got home. “Oh! M-miss Zhalla!” He called out to her, but he dared not step away from the path that was lit up for him in case he lost it again. “Th-there’s a guy looking for you over that way—” He pointed in the direction from which he came. “H-he seemed nice, he even lit up the way h-home for me! I wonder what magic he used..?” Hilariously, it was not magic at all, but yet another cleverly designed device created by Nero’s genius little brother. “U-uhm, before you see the guy, c-can you walk with me so I don’t get lost again?”

Meanwhile, Nero sat upon the rock he found Dontoph at, waiting for his prey to come to him...

Dontoph didn’t seem to have any complaints, he wasn’t acting out of the ordinary and he wasn’t harmed, so that was a win. The little Namekian followed Zhalla like a little duckling and was eventually safely taken home where he would be able to properly prepare for his upcoming test.

Waiting patiently on the rock, the bounty hunter after Zhalla remained still, in what looked to be a casual seated position to those with the untrained eye— those with more experience would know that it was in fact a position wherein he would be poised to strike if given reason to do so.

The Bloodhound repeated the haunting whistle once Zhalla had come into view, the red light disks would shrink and then return to the device mounted on his wrist. “Don’t worry about it.” The kid was safe, or more importantly elsewhere and unlikely to interrupt. The interaction with Dontoph had brought out Zhalla, so the plan worked, that was all there is to it. “Yeah, I was looking for you.” He tilted his head slightly, to get a better look at her. Quite the looker, he had to admit, an air of confidence about her— something she was bound to have if she had the guts to repeatedly cross a notorious gang leader like Zinde.

Speaking of his current employer, the Bloodhound had been told that Zhalla had stolen some of Zinde’s property, namely, her chain-linked axes. Now that he saw what had become of them, Nero couldn’t help but smirk under his mask, Zinde would no doubt be pissed if she found out. “Axe guitar. Clever. Bold statement.” Anarchy against anarchy, rebellion personified, and also a visual pun.

Holding a hand out to his side, a streak of black and red energy danced out of the Bloodhound’s body, curling around his arm and downward in his outstretched hand as a rather menacing thick chrome black club with glowing red spikes appeared in his grip. It made a crackling thud as the end hit the ground. The man’s tail swayed, he knew this wasn’t going to be easy given the reputation this woman had, and in fact this was what he would prefer.

“I’ll do us both a favor and cut to the chase. You seem like a nice woman, Zhalla, but I have a job to do. I’m here to collect a bounty, and that bounty is on you. Nothing personal, it never is with the hunts I take up— besides, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to experience the full power of someone that crossed the Red Bull of the North Galaxy so many times and gotten away with it, and I’m no liar.” Maybe if she impressed him in combat, he could be convinced to strike a mutually beneficial deal instead. Zinde deserved to be taken down a notch or twenty anyway, and her bounty was pretty much on par with Zhalla’s.

A beautiful whistle? Well that was certainly a novel opinion from a stranger that didn’t know where it originated from. “Interesting take, but I’m not complaining.” It was clear that she was also sizing him up as well. “Heh, the mask is a personal matter, can’t exactly go around blabbing my source now can I?”

It was interesting to see that Zhalla was proud of what she had done with what was once Zinde’s property. This Saiyan was confident, and not just any kind of confident, a real kind of confident. Now he was getting more excited at the prospect of a fight— even just outside of his job related commitments.

“Heh.” The Bloodhound lifted his weapon with what seemed to be great force, causing a gust of wind to blast out to the side through the trees, he chose to let it rest over his shoulder. “I’d call it mean, personally, but thanks.” Not very many people complimented the weapon of someone that was potentially out to splatter them across the ground with it. However, he was dealing with a fellow Saiyan, so he supposed this wasn’t too strange to hear.

Letting out a wild sort of cackle at Zhalla’s commentary at Zinde’s expense, he pointed his weapon towards her with yet another high pressure movement that let off a gust of wind again. “Well, she’s the one missing out right now either way, isn’t she!?” The beast-like projection on the Bloodhound’s mask contorted into a vicious smirk of sorts.

“She hasn’t just sent you a fun fight this time, believe me.” That ominous red and black energy crackled around the Bloodhound and a dark red aura swirled to life around him. “Compared to my usual picks to go after, you’re an angel.” Plus the reward for capturing her was a hefty one, and would help his reputation as a bounty hunter.

“A name? Sure...” Once again, the man repeated his ominous whistle. Afterward, he repeated a sort of mantra in the same tone and tune as the whistle. “I’m the big bad wolf, I’m the top dog, the prey will run at the whistle’s sound, but they can’t hide from the Bloodhound.” So he had style too, huh? Quite the unique bounty hunter to be sure. “I’ve got a better idea, Rockstar. When I win, you show me those juice bars, then we break the Red Bull’s horns off together.”

“Imagine not taking personal matters into your own hands. Can’t relate, couldn’t be me.” Though he was technically employed by Zinde at the moment, it didn’t stop him from having his own opinion. The Bloodhound was confident in that way, which was probably part of why Zinde considered hiring him at all.

She wanted to see what was under the mask? Well, it wouldn’t be that easy. “Go ahead, flutter your eyelashes and see if that works on me.” The holographic projection grinned deviously. “Or you can try and pry it off my head, your choice. I feel like I know which one of those options you might wanna pick.”

The Bloodhound scoffed. “Yeah? Good that this isn’t a sing off, or else I might have an even easier time trouncing you.” He then began swinging his weapon in a wide circle, causing gusts of wind to pick up something fierce! It seemed to be naturally doing that too, it must be enchanted somehow, or impressively engineered. “I like a confident target. Makes it more satisfying to catch ‘em in the end. I only hunt the most impressive prey, such as yourself, you see.” As for working together, the Bloodhound leaned forward slightly. “I bet I can figure out a way to win big. Collect yours from her, then turn on her and collect hers from the Galactic Patrol.” Well, that was certainly a resourceful way to go about it.

“I was expecting more of the latter, but this works.” The Bloodhound had to admit that it was at least a little bit of a surprise. It was fun to have a bounty that didn’t immediately cower in fear for once. Now, with this Zhalla woman, he felt as though he could go all out without a regret.

That alone made this trip worth it. An opportunity to really test his abilities. “Bark, howl, bite. This wolf has it all. You’ll see.” She was practically asking for him to not hold back on fighting her now, and why not oblige?

“That’s the idea, you heard me well enough.” Sure, his plan did put him as having the most to gain out of such an exchange. “What can I say? I’m a little bit selfish.” Although, it was for a pretty good reason, not like she knew that. “But I think you’d be lying if you said you weren’t tempted to ruin her entire operation.”

The Bloodhound had his attention set squarely on Zhalla, watching for what she might end up doing; and she chose to make the first move; she empowered her axes with Ki and spun them around rather quickly! “Hm.” He stood firm, that black and red energy crackling around him, in the blink of an eye, in a flicker of dark energy, he had sidestepped the axe that was thrown. He was now crouched on the ground with his weapon held above him.

Now, instead of sending out gusts of wind with even the slightest movement, the bounty hunter’s weapon looked as though it was pulsating and rumbling similarly to a speaker system or a storm cloud. “Close one. Sorry, I do my own haircuts.”

“I can’t exactly return the gesture since I’ve got this thing on either, heh.” He sounded somewhat smug about it. “Clever, you almost got me. Almost”

The Bloodhound rolled his shoulders. “It’d be a ruse, obviously, just a believable one.” The hologram display’s expression turned into a somewhat curious one. “What a coincidence. Me too.” He’d do anything to keep his family safe, which was why he was even in this line of work to begin with. He would do what needed to be done, maybe get his hands dirty— all so that his family wouldn’t have to. “You’d do whatever you had to for them, wouldn’t you? You have that look in your eyes.” The look that was the same as his, the only difference is his eyes were hidden.

“Oh yeah? Heh, then aim better.” He tilted his head, leaving his neck ‘open’ to an attack— he spoke in a way that wasn’t derisive of her attempt, his tone was more invitational to go for it without restraint. Banter was banter, but it was also fun.

With an amused scoff, the Bloodhound gave a retort to Zhalla’s egging on. “Only a foolish dog makes haphazard lunges at their prey...” More of that dark energy crackled around him, but he remained in his crouched stance for the moment. Moments afterward, Zhalla had launched a more fierce attack, the glow ignited into a green flame upon the swinging axes. In time with the swings, the Bloodhound would swiftly weave around them with decisive purpose— angular and confident movements within the onslaught. Once the energy in the axes died down, he tried to kick them back at Zhalla. “I always go for blood. I have my title for a reason, after all.”