Wounding Water (Vennel)

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    In the swirling darkness a lone woman struggled in vain as it seemed as though an ever expanding tide constantly loomed over head, threatening to swallow her whole. Indescribable geometry surrounded her, in shapes alien yet familiar- it was a city. Above, like a bird of prey came a beam of pink light that divided itself like a cell under a microscope. Rocketing into her body, she was pelted by the lights. Then a wetness, she felt it all over, warm and comforting like the color red. Another shock of pain coursing through her- a blinding orange glow and a dark shadow moving past, before she was once more surrounded by the warm embrace of the dark.



    Vennel's face twitched before she shot up suddenly, with a panicked shout, and was immediately greeted with an immense pain surging from her right arm, which turned her cry to one of injury. She saw a camp fire, and a battered Vocado, wearing a new scouter, huddled over by the fire. Her expression softened as she grasped a better handle on her surroundings. They seemed to be in some sort of haphazard shelter made of the ruins they were in before. It was raining outside still, at least the patter of the droplets falling told her as much. She had no idea how long she was out for, and judging by the pain she was still in, Vocado's current state, and the rain, it could have been five minutes, or several hours. Though, she was inclined to believe it was closer to the latter due to the fact her arm was fashioned into a shoddy splint made from salvaged pieces of their gear. 

    She grimaced as she looked at her hand- covered in a sickly black and purple pallor. It looked as bad as it felt, swollen and mangled, just as she left it. She'd really need medical treatment if she ever made it back to the Vegeta Sector. She glanced from underneath her swollen eyelids over towards Vocado and, though she wanted to speak, her voice caught in her throat. She didn't know what to say. 'Thank you?' To say thank you for saving ones life, she had never done so before. As she grew up, she'd learned this was something of an anomaly. Most saiyan warriors would have left her for dead, as a weakling. Her own pride caused an internal conflict that she couldn't reconcile.

    Instead, she compromised, and looked back towards the exterior, as though she were keeping an eye for an unseen adversary. "How long has it been?" Was all she could muster to say to him. She was of course supremely grateful to still be alive, but she didn't expect to still live, nor did she feel herself even deserving to. After all, she lost to a tuffle, and they had it outnumbered. This shouldn't have happened.

    So, it had been a few hours since their fight with Cheri. Just thinking about her soured her expression more than it already had been. What she wouldn't give to put her down herself. Wait a minute, was she even dead? But Vocado was asking after her arm and she tried to move it to see if it wasn't completely beyond help. Searing pain surged from her arm as she strained to even just twitch her fingers. And sure enough, she noticed what was a barely perceptible movement in her index and middle fingers. "So it's not completely a lost cause," she thought to herself. She relaxed long enough to turn her head towards her companion. "Useless to me now, but it might heal up fine." She said, unconvincingly.

    Her eyes drifted back towards the entrance of their little hide-out. She couldn't help but berate herself for listening to Vocado's advice. After all, if she had used the power ball then she may not have been in this condition. She trusted in someone to protect her for once. It went against everything she'd believed in. But they'd fought so well together up until that point. She'd never managed to find a battle partner that talented without some sort of elite's ego to go with it. So why then, why did she trust him? 

    Vocado's cough snapped her thoughts back to the moment at hand as he produced a phial of familiar gel. He said he'd recovered it in the ruins, which gave her pause. No wonder it looked old, it was some sort of proto-stimpack. He offered it to her with a caution about the risks about using expired goods, and she pulled her hand back apprehensively. Was it worth the risk? Without it, she'd be stuck here until the rain let up, and even then, trying to get back to a proper medical facility back in the Vegeta Region would take days. Was this really the only solution? 

    "No," she said softly. Even though it was the only way to get her back to any semblance of fighting shape she couldn't bring herself to do it. She should have died out there, and she would have if not for Vocado's intervention. No, if she was going to recover or survive, she'd need to prove to herself she could do it without a second helping of his kindness. "What about a hospital? I know Vegeta is days out from us, but what about somewhere else?"

    Vennel glanced over the vermin kebabs with a blank expression. Not for any sort of ungratefulness for the food. But more so that she felt like she was almost dissociating. She'd never encountered anything like what Cheri had presented, and now she had herself a meager, yet warm meal. Even as low as she had been brought, she could feel a momentary relief in a cooked meal. And that very idea, as she felt like an outside observer to her own life, gave her pause. Was she truly such a simple creature, like a rabid animal until given a treat? But she was brought once more to the here and now when Vocado began listing their almost nonexistent options.

    It really did look like a desperate situation from any way you sliced it. Especially when Vocado outlined their best plan. That truly sounded like their best course of action. Merely making a break for it when the weather let up. Was this really how low she'd sunk? Vocado tried checking the newfound scouter he was wearing and seemed to confirm his previous assertion. And then he apologized to her. She looked at him with a sort of befuddlement you'd expect from a child you just told where babies came from. She even noticed her jaw hanging loose and quickly closed it, and reset her face to try and hide her shock. Not that she didn't think he personally was capable of it, but rather she'd never heard someone say that to her before. That, and also the fact that he said they weren't sure she was dead. 

    "Wait she could still be alive?!" Vennel tried to get up in a hurry and winced in pain before collapsing back onto the ground. Damn, she was going to have to get used to this awful pain and work around it if she wanted it to heal properly. "But if she could still be out there, why aren't we making a break for it now, damn the rains?" Her eyes betrayed the worry in her despite the rocksteady tone in her voice. "Whats to say she's not hunting us down even now?" Her voice lowered now that she was aware of the potential risk of them being found out. But she also didn't want to completely gloss over his apology over telling her not to use the power ball. "And don't mention it, I can't control the form so there's no telling if we wouldn't just end up fighting each other. At least I'm still alive, no sense in belly aching over what-ifs," she admitted.

    It was almost amusing, to have Vocado fussing after her the way he was. Or rather, it would have been if it weren't for how supremely infuriating it was. He was right though, she was in no condition to be up and moving let alone trying to 'leap into action,' like she nearly did. "Yeah, yeah, keep your boots on." She grumbled in response to his cautionary words, even though unknown to her a small part of herself was fond of having someone seemingly care about her for once. 

    Her companion's explanation about his outburst and what bits he could remember about the clash with Cheri after she passed out. Unfortunately, it was all much too vague for her liking. Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth in disappointment she rolled her eyes as she took another bite of the meat on a stick. Perhaps the most sobering part was how right he was- that the tuffle woman could have killed them both. It was a very real and frightening possibility to her, and she couldn't let that stand.

    Curiously, as Vocado mentioned that Cheri was probably as bad if not worse off than them out there did bring her some small amount of pleasure. And whats more, Vennel chuckled. It was an infectious sort of laughter that begot more from her as she laughed heartier and heartier until she was bubbling over into a roaring guffaw before finally simmering back down again. "Yeah, I suppose we should celebrate," she started, "now I have another shot at killing her myself if I get the chance." Before she had merely thought she had been defeated and there was no chance to fight the woman again- no chance at redemption. But now she knew better, that if she could only get stronger, and meet the tuffle general once more, she could kill her.

    "And I guess you're right. I guess I've always been hard headed, but I guess after the beating I took I really took that to another level, huh?" She sighed, leaning back against their refuge's wall she took another bite of the kebab. "Just wait-" she started up again, looking out towards the entrance to the hide away. "Next time I find her, I will kill her." She said, before looking back at Vocado quickly, "that is, if you don't have dibs on her that is?" As far as she knew, Vocado finished the fight and if either of them had rights to the vengeance kill, it'd be him, no doubt about it.

    It was comforting to see Vocado reciprocate her feelings of excitement over the prospect of tracking that damned tuffle general down again and putting an end to her. She liked the idea of turning it into a hunt of sorts, or even taking her on together like he said. "Yeah, we did good work back there, huh?" She grinned, before she shifted her body and it tweaked her sling sending a shockwave of pain through her and making her wince. Her attention turned to her injury just in time for Vocado to have turned away, leaving the woman clueless to the bashful reaction he just had.

    Her attention was brought back to her companion though as he started asking about how she learned to fight. She was thankful to have the distraction from her pain and thought for a moment. "Well," she began, "I didn't learn anything formally. I've always just sort of picked things up as I went along. Either eventually copying someone else I fought with, or making an attack that sort of reminded me of them and the way they fought." A haunting smile adorned her lips as she looked at the fire with a sort of thousand-yard-stare. "Not all of them decent people. But beyond that, I'm self taught." Vennel's eyes lit back up as though her internal flashback had just come to an end. 

    "What about you, Mister Shredder Corps, huh? We've been traveling a bit but I really don't know much about you besides your name, your company, and that you've a brother." It was a bit hyperbolic, but she had to admit she didn't know much about him. And after a fight like the one they just had, there was no better bonding experience to bring her personal barriers down than fighting back to back in a desperate fight for their lives. She looked him over, and while he was certainly fairly beat up himself he was doing a lot better than she was. No doubt because for much of the fight she was a tuffle punching bag due in no small part to the difference in their power. But she thought perhaps some of it had something to do with the way he fought in general. After all, one doesn't become the head of a company of soldiers without establishing themselves as the top dog and he certainly wasn't the strongest saiyan. So clearly he was using something to give himself an edge against any would-be usurpers.

    Teeth gnashed together as Vennel pulled the last bit of meat she could be bothered to fight the bony rodent for off and finished the impaled meal. Vocado seemed to have guessed as much for where she had "learned" to fight. To be honest, she felt like half the time she got lucky. She must have come close to death hundreds of times now. One stupid, foolhardy, or opponent's error or another usually came up and ended up leaving her to fight another day. But never before had she been quite so outmatched as she had been today. If not for Vocado, she certainly would have put an end to her streak and she wasn't keen to just keep surviving by luck alone. She'd need to learn some new tricks or how to just fight properly if she wanted to keep up with the whole "living" thing.

    She leaned back against the wall behind her and listened as he expanded on his past. She'd only meant to learn about his fighting skills but she learned far more about him than she'd bargained for. Not that she minded, however, they seemed to have a bit in common, in fact. Especially their impetus for joining the military. It was just too appealing to "low class scum" like herself to pass up. But where things really took a turn for the different was with how things went as far as their career. Where he built a following for getting the job done, she'd gotten a reputation among the higher ups for screwing the pooch, even when that wasn't entirely true. 

    The woman chuckled along with him at the notion that signing up with him was similar to just waiving your life. Vennel could see how as well, since she nearly met that very fate today. But when he apologized she shook her head. "Don't mention it. We have quite a bit of overlap in our life stories. My medical files say that my folks were elites, nobles even, but they 'died in the war,'" she said, putting air quotes around their supposed fate. "At least, that's all the records say. And my battle power was quite low, indistinguishable from other low born children, so I was raised along with them. Never knew any family neither. Guess anyone that survived my folks wanted nothing to do with trash like me, eh?" She chuckled sardonically. There was a certain sort of catharsis in saying things like that out loud. Almost like taking ownership of the words normally used to cast aspersions on her.

    But then came a most curious proposition, as Vocado offered her to join with his crew. The pause in his invitation though brought that same warmth up to her ears before he continued with his sentence. She coughed as if clearing a lump out of her throat and hoarsely spoke up, "yes well, I've worked with others before, but they usually end up dead and me surviving them. Top brass seem convinced I'm the reason they keep dying, and who knows- maybe they're right. You sure you need that kind of energy on your team?" She teased him, partly wondering if their combined but opposing sorts of bad luck might balance out or just get everyone killed instead. But if he was able to provide her a more entertaining set of engagements than the military already did, she saw no reason to refuse the offer. After all, whatever happened if they teamed up would surely prove entertaining.

    Vocado's macabre statement elicited an unrestrained laugh from the woman. She had to admit, she enjoyed Vocado's attitude. It suited him, she thought. It was very devil may care, yet she couldn't shake the feeling that he still did, just enough. As far as being a leader of low class warriors like them went, it certainly fit the bill. 

    He continued to try and butter her up, talking up her durability and she couldn't help but grin at that. She certainly wanted to be known for more than just how much of a beating she could take, but it certainly felt like her most identifying trait when you paired her accomplishments up with others. And it was certainly an idea. On the one hand, she'd be agreeing to listening to and accepting more of his orders in the future. Those orders could get her killed, but unlike the others who'd tried to order her about, Vocado seemed to have a magnetic energy about him. She could almost believe him when he said things. After all, she was still standing- well, sitting. 

    Breathing deep, Vennel let out a sigh of resignation. "Alright, alright, you've worn me down." She chuckled, "it's got to be better than the patrols HQ keeps assigning me. And if you're intent on actually fighting those tuffle, then I'm in at least in that regard. I suppose when I get back to Vegeta I'll have to request a transfer. Can't say for sure how soon it'll go through, or if they'll even give me the okay in the first place." She wasn't sure just what she had signed up for, but she hoped it'd be the start of a lot more high energy adventures than her hum drum life had held so far.

    "I've only got one condition though," she added, after giving the idea a moment's additional thought. "Next time we're in a fight like that, do whatever you did after I went down before I go down. I want to see it next time." She gave him a coy wink, that looked more like a clumsy blink with how swollen her eyes were.