El Bandito Rises (Open)

After meeting with old friends on the Capital and paying off scores of old debts, K4 went on with his journey to the deepest wasteland, where the Kingdom and tuffle law meant nothing. He was dangerously close to being rapt by the familiar sights along the way, but the quaint arrangement of boards that passed for Tarble Town had its whimsy broken by El Bandito.

As a fellow experiment led astray, it was easy to disregard the patently saiyan signals its body sent off as the result of tuffle malfeasance. Those bastards really were as brilliant as they were foolish, who else could have invented something as powerful and destructive as destron? And as for its peers, garbed also in green uniforms, those could only be similar projects neutered to the point of being, quite frankly, idiots. They seemed more like drunk hooligans harassing the town instead of destroying it.

Before K4 could even step in a brave soul voiced her rather mild discontentment! And although he agreed with the core of the message, his eyes rolled at the attempt to have Los Banditos — filed that way in K4's database —  target another settlement. Tensions in this cursed planet were already high enough, thank you very much.

"Here's my two zeni, folks." he said, swooping next to the tall and powerful Bandito "Whatever you're trying to do, don't. You think whatever's inside that bank is worth having a squadron chasing after you? The people in this place live in wood!" he gestured grandly at the dirt streets and houses around "No offence." he added, presuming hurt from the locals.

"Look," he placed a strong, mechanized hand on Bandito's shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze "whatever purpose you were created for doesn't have to be the be-all and end-all of who you are. It's not the code here that defines you-" K4 tapped Bandito's veiled forehead "but what beats here." he bumped softly the giant's chest, where he estimated the heart to be.

"Do you really want to be a tool?"

    K4 was a wellspring of love and compassion for the kindred soul he had stumbled upon, he wished nothing more than to sit down and exchange stories about mad scientists and their twisted attempts at playing god. But this was not the time and place, the good dirt farmers of Tarbel Village needed liquidity on their meager assets... Oh, if only he was a rich man! Surely he'd spread his wealth to this sordid nowhere, have it become a bonafide district. Then the Strongbones would stand as a bastion against the Kingdom and the tuffles.

    He noticed slight apprehension and perspiration, not what he expected from the huge and grotesquely burly 'El Bandito'. Why, if he had that height and build K4 would be even more of a tower! And have as much of a 0.3% increase in pay. Fleshies were fickle like that... Still the leader scattered his men, which didn't bother K4 as much as it perhaps should. Raiders and bandits of this sort were quite a problem to his old tribe.

    So K4 felt he had been plenty lenient already, when offered to join the lesser experiment he could only scoff! Even the little saiyan woman had the sense to not become a bandito. "He can leave," he told her "but the gold stays. Its not his." Again he gestured at the misery surrounding them, spoiled as he was by sights of arcosian mega-engineering, even the many skull-crowned saloon was downright afflictive to his eyes. 

    "And if he tries something funky... we kick his ass. Bump on it?" he offered Delia his powerful, mechanized hand clenched into a fist. Wasteland diplomacy, brought to the frontier. He hoped she was quick with her terms, Bandito seemed to be ready to gallop away at any moment. And as for the weird musician... he had gone unnoticed.

    "And I never fought alongside a..." starlet? Well, there was that time on Todokama.

    Bumped, K4's fist was holstered back to his side. What he expected was a short and simple battle for paltry riches, certainly a distraction but not so dramatic that he'd have to add another day of travel... And for once none of the fighters seemed to radiate that mad energy so common in killers and cheaters!

    Then a poncho'd gremlin entered the cyborg's notice, accusing him of not looking like a saiyan?? "Look at yourself, you stumpy bastard! I could stack two turds and have them look more like a saiyan than you!" he lashed, waving his ally and brother-soul goodbye as they went out to find someplace to fight, far from the folk Bandito had just robbed. What a decent chap, a shame he stole from the poor.

    "So..." he began, after a deep breath and a moment of silence, only then noticing his opponent had been whisked away too! K4 followed with a sigh, throwing away any prospects of a duet challenge or match of go. Perhaps the four could play mahjong after the bloody deed was done.