Verum Rex 2: The REAL Challenge

Tulse had been looking around for more stuff to smash in order to lure out that pretender to the Saiyan throne, and just when she'd spotted a priceless painting of a former King and Queen that looked like a prime target for important destruction, her tail twitched and her ears picked up the sound of a door slamming open down the hall. Before she even had the time to turn, though, the back of Tulse's neck was suddenly pounded with enough force to destroy a city, and the force of the shock reverberated throughout her entire body like a seismic wave. "Gcku-!" was the only noise that was able to escape her lips.

A moment later, Tulse hit the ground with a loud thud, face first, her tail erect in the air behind her as her rump pointed up in her attacker's direction. By all accounts, such a powerful blow should have killed her, or at the very least knocked her out cold, yet, somehow, after a moment or two of having blacked out entirely, Tulse blinked awake with a groan. "Groooohh..." she grumbled as she turned over onto her back, reaching up to cup the back of her neck. It throbbed with pain, especially as her old laser scar had been agitated something fierce by that strike.

"What the hell..." she grumbled. Her vision was still a blur, but she ultimately blinked herself back to clarity, and standing before her was... A golden warrior! One whose hair shone with a mystical aura, and whose eyes glimmered an icy blue. Tulse's mouth fell agape at the sight of whatever it was that stood before her. "Are you..." her scratchy voice finally came out, "Are you a god?"

Tulse takes the full blow from Zuqetta and suffers 2,971% damage! She is incapacitated.

Tulse was a little bit... Confused, to say the least. Her head was still throbbing and her ears were still ringing as the blonde woman before her spoke to her, so not all of the words coming out of her lips were making it all the way into Tulse's brain. She finally tuned back in fully when the woman conjured up a poster of a smiling but grotesque creature giving her a double thumbs up. ...What the hell was that thing? "Guh?" Tulse mumbled, her mouth still agape as her vision panned from the poster up towards the woman. "I mean... Huh?" No hard feelings? And why was she... Breaking her stuff? Wait a minute... 'Her' stuff... So then... This woman was...

"Zuqetta?!" Tulse exclaimed as she leapt up to her fight and immediately maintained a fighting position - only for the sudden movement to swirl through her head and immediately through her off balance, which caused her to stumble back and fall onto her rump. Tulse blinked at nothing with a stunned expression on her face for a few moments until the world stopped revolving around her. Okay... Maybe she wasn't quite ready for a fight. Yet.

She could still talk, though. "You-" Tulse paused as she gagged. Oh great, now she was almost throwing up. She held up a finger towards Zuqetta and clenched her fist in front of her own mouth as she forced the vomit back down into her stomach where it belonged. After a moment had passed and her stomach seemed settled, she continued. "You... Can't escape my challenge forever! Next time we," she paused for another breath, "Next time we meet, I'll be ready to... To... To kick your ass!" That sneak attack didn't count. Anyone would have been caught off guard by that.

"Ugh... Why are you blonde now, anyway?" she asked after another moment had passed. "Last I saw you, your hair was black, like any other Saiyan. What's with the dye?"

"Huh?" Tulse blinked and shook her head. Right... Not blonde anymore. Wait, that made even less sense! How was her hair changing colors on the fly?! Wait... Did she just say... "Did you just say Super Saiyan?" Tulse replied in shock. She knew those were around again, of course - how could she not have? Everyone had talked about it when Lottus went Super Saiyan during the Second Battle of Hatchi. Tulse, of course, had been there... Though, she'd gotten herself knocked unconscious before the real fireworks went off, so that was fun. She knew their previous King, Taori, was also a Super Saiyan, though she'd never actually seen the man in person, let alone in that form. So, finally having it before her like this was... Well, it was a lot.

"No, no, I'm fine," Tulse insisted as Zuqetta fussed over her and tried to help her up. "I've taken harder hits than that and walked 'em off. I'm good." ...Actually, she absolutely hadn't taken harder hits than that, but she'd taken hits meant to kill her before. Zuqetta had clearly restrained herself quite a bit - otherwise, little bits of Tulse would be staining the walls and carpet all around them. 

"And yeah, of course I know my own name. I'm Tulse. We've met before, though..." Tulse slowly got to her feet, though she refused Zuqetta's hand, instead pulling herself up and using her tail to boost off the ground. As she stood back up, though she was still on the woozy side, she at least didn't fall over this time. "...Though, I guess I didn't exactly prove much of a challenge if ya don't even remember me. Ah, hell... I never would've stood a chance against ya if I'd shown up on time for the real challenge, huh?" Tulse lamented her utter inferiority in the power level department.

She took a step to leave, though ended up stumbling and nearly falling over, practically right onto Zuqetta. "Gah!" Tulse grunted as she tried to remove herself from the other woman as gracefully as possible, though she more or less just ended up throwing herself off of the Queen and onto the wall, which she nearly slid down. "...Okay, maybe that glass of water wouldn't be the worst idea, right now."

As Zuqetta began to help Tulse to her feet, she quickly protested. "Hey! I can walk! You don't have to-" she grumbled, though she figured there wasn't much use in trying to argue with the Saiyan Queen. As had been very well demonstrated for her a few moments earlier, there was no question of the difference in strength between the two of them - if Zuqetta wanted Tulse to be doing something, Tulse was highly compelled to do so.

"Eh, whatever," she quickly gave up. "Guess I've always been a little curious 'bout what the great hall looks like, anyway. ...Well, not always, but now that you've mentioned it, it'd be cool to see." It was certainly going to be a whole lot more prim and proper than any military mess hall she'd eaten in before. And, once they arrived, Tulse's suspicions were confirmed: this place was massive! "Holy hell," was all Tulse could muster aloud as she took in the sights. She felt... Unqualified to be here. She was just some common rabble rouser, some grunt Saiyan who was never even supposed to speak with the Queen, let alone be host to a banquet in the royal halls. The hell was she even doing here?

She had half a mind to bow herself out, but when the fanciest meal she'd ever seen was presented to her, well... She couldn't help herself. Tulse began to chow down immediately upon being sat down, first shoveling several strips of bacon into her cheeks at once, then ripping a chunk off of what seemed to be some kind of steak, and then a whole sausage that she hardly even chewed before swallowing, and then...

Tulse paused and glanced over at Zuqetta as she was asked a question, her cheeks still overflowing with various types of meat. "Mmh?" she replied, her voice muffled through all the food in her mouth. "Mmhmm, sholdier," she replied. And that was all she said before she got right back to work, piling on more and more onto her plate and shoveling more and more into her mouth... Until she finally managed to swallow, and came to a stop. "Oh, man..." she groaned as she rested a hand on her bulging belly. "You eat like this every day? Damn, you royals are so lucky. Can't see why that last guy would ever wanna ditch his post, even if he got his girl knocked up, if he was getting to eat like this every day. I'd never even wanna leave the castle!"

Tulse then looked around and frowned. "Say, you got a to-go box? Wanna bring some home for my wife and kid. They'll love this stuff."

A place for every soldier to get together? Well, they already had those with the mess halls and bars scattered across Sadala and out in the barracks of outposts, but having a more formal, higher quality place to chow down with your war buddies didn't seem like such a bad idea to Tulse. And if the food was free, then even better! Especially with how high quality the grub was - one could probably eat lunch here every day for a year and never have to eat the same meal twice! Tulse, though, was a creature of habit: once she found a food she liked, she'd order it nonstop until she began to hate it.

"Mm," Tulse mumbled as Zuqetta began to lament the naysayers of her current way of ruling. "Well, I can say, as a low class - or former low class, I guess - that the only folks who are really gonna be against whatever it is you're doing are the ones who used to be in the upper levels of Saiyan society. Don't imagine the oldies like having some teenager come in and tell 'em they're no longer special." 

Tulse paused to chow down on another entire link of sausages, which she seemingly vacuumed into her mouth and swallowed in one single, swift motion. Once they were down, she continued, "And I mean, you're insanely powerful, so it's not like they can stop ya, anyway. Might try to plot against ya, but ye can swat any sort of resistance down with the twitch of your finger. If you plan on ruling like a dictator, anyway. If you're planning on being all friendly and democratic with everyone... Eh. You're probably screwed."

Tulse wasn't exactly a professional political analyst, though, so if Zuqetta had been seeking genuine advice, she'd likely not find much with her. Tulse's attention had been taken up by the sudden arrival of crates of food to take home, as well. "Holy- I get to take home all of this! This is more food than I could afford to buy in a whole month!" Tulse wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth, though, quickly snatching the crates for herself and setting them on her lap. "If you're looking to appeal to the common soldier like me, though, this is how ya do it!" Tulse added, enthusiastically. "Best way to any average Saiyan's heart? Right through their stomach."

Zuqetta felt the elites were never special, eh? Well, maybe not to her, an elite-born herself, as far as Tulse was aware, but for most Saiyans, they just didn't have the strength that most elites inherently did. There was a reason the class system had formed even among a race far more focused on battle than economics: some Saiyans were just built different. Of course, there were exceptions like Lottus, and apparently Taori had been born a low-class too, but then you had far more regular shmucks like Tulse and her peers. Was she ever going to stand a chance in a fight against Zuqetta or Vocado? Hell no.

"You ain't a teen? Then how old are ya, twenty? Twenty-one? You don't look older than sixteen to me, personally, but maybe you're just a late bloomer," Tulse casually commented as Zuqetta protested against being called a teen. Tulse didn't see what the big deal was, anyway. She'd been going out to fight in the war since she was fourteen. What did it matter if their Queen was only a few years older than that?

"Oh yeah," Tulse stated as her partner and their child were brought up, "Tzan's real great. I'll have to introduce you two. And her kid, well, she's only about two, I think, but she's already real scrappy. Her name's Yacai. Forget who her dad is, though, Some rando somewhere in Radditsu." Tulse continued to eat, though she stopped and coughed suddenly when Zuqetta directly asked about any siblings of hers.

"Siblings? Uh..." Tulse mumbled, unsure whether she should really get into all this with her own Queen. ...Ah, hell, why not? Maybe if Zuqetta was reminded of what consequences came with war, she wouldn't be so eager to thrust another one onto her people. Not that Tulse disliked the fighting... She just didn't like all of the losing that came bundled alongside it.

"Yeah... I got one left," Tulse said after a moment spent in silent thought. "His name's Ichoke. He's older, and grumpy. I don't see him much." She hadn't checked in with Ichoke in at least a few months, despite the two of them living in the same city. She wondered - how he was doing, now? "Used to have ten more, but, uh, war took every last one of 'em," Tulse said with a sigh as she leaned back in her seat. "Parsla, Torba, Chini, Endie, Celtu, Komata, Guara, Okra, Himbao, and Coli. Half of 'em weren't even your age when they died, if you're as old as you say you are."

Tulse paused and tightly pressed her lips up against each other as she sat for a few moments, the faces of each of the names she'd just rattled off briefly filling her head. "So, yeah, I had siblings. Now I have sibling, and I don't talk to him. The crates you've given me already are more than enough."