An encounter with Black Lightning

Lotuce could hear the shouting of the person screaming for help. As he approached from the air, he began to focus in a bit and noticed the man appeared to be about his age and was being held up at knife point. While Lotuce did not care about good or evil acts he did have a certain sense of honor when committing those acts, if your strength was not enough and you needed to rely on weapons for petty crimes like this then you did not deserve to commit the act nor live to correct your ways at all.

Lotuce suddenly and quietly landed behind the man and without any warning or hesitation his fist rammed its way through the robber’s back square through his spine and appearing quite bloodied through the chest of the robber. The man was barely able to make a death groan as his life was snuffed out in a moment. The man’s body then slumped down being held up only by the forearm that was sticking through his chest, the only pulse that was could be felt by any means was that of Lotuces’s as the man simply bled from the large fist shaped wound in his body.

With just as much suddenness as he had thrust his fist through the man’s body he yanked his hand out and let the corpse fall to the ground. His eyes following the sight of his body falling, as he did he looked at the man. Blood was likely covering both of their faces at this point, though Lotuce more so than the other man since his hand was also covered well up to his elbow in blood from the robber. His face never changed from its calm demeanor as if he didn’t just end some poor bastards life.

“You good?” Was the first thing that Lotuce said and likely would be the only thing he said to the man. He wanted to simply make sure the victim was physically alright after all that, he knew likely the man would be traumatized after having just seen someone get brutally murdered right in front of them, it wasn’t a normal thing for a normal person to see after all. Lotuce then crouched down and grabbed the robber’s shirt or jacket, whichever would be easier and began to wipe his arm clean onto his clothes. “Be useful you waste of oxygen.”

Lotuce heard the man say his name after changing not only his clothes but also his physical appearance. Lotuce immediately did not trust him, after all if you can change your appearance so easily as that, then your name would always be suspect after that. The man then spoke about Saiyan’s making brilliant fighters which did coax a small smirk out of the young Saiyan, after all the second fastest way to a Saiyan’s heart was through his ego. The first and best way to a Saiyan’s heart was clearly through their stomach and feeding them.

Lotuce then watched as the man or whatever they were easily seemingly killed the robber’s friends. Lotuce did not care if they lived or died much himself. The man then asked if he was some kind of superhero or something which elicited a small laugh, a chuckle as it were, from Lotuce. The Saiyan then began to shake his head a bit at the mere suggestion of the idea. For any that knew Lotuce the idea of him being something as lofty as a superhero was laughable at best, if not downright insulting. No, he was not a superhero, nor did he even pretend to be anything such as that.

“No, I’m not a Superhero ‘John’. I’m far from it, I mean how many superhero’s do you know of that kill like that? I can kind of think of one, but he’s more an anti-hero.” Just then an image of a man clad in red and black wielding twin swords appeared in Lotuce’s mind’s eye. With a slight shake of his head, Lotuce dispelled the image as he started to walk away. He had purposely not answered the rest of the man’s questions as he did so, trying to get a bit more of the dead person’s blood off of him.

Lotuce sighed as he said out loud to himself “This is going to take forever to get out of my glove…” luckily the glove was as black as his eyes and hair so it at least at first glance would not look too far out of place. Lotuce himself had many questions for the strange ‘magic man’ that that claimed to be named ‘John Woods’ but that curiosity would not kill this particular cat on this day. Lotuce knew better than to get mixed up with people that could change their appearance at the drop of a hat like that.

Lotuce watched as the chair appeared and the man sat down asking for him to introduce himself. Before he had had a chance to respond, the man made the blood on Lotuce’s glove disappear as if it had never been there, he then offered to teach him how to use magic. Lotuce scoffed a bit, looking at the man who only had conjured a chair for himself, thinking that it was quite rude of the man to do that. Lotuce then slowly crossed his arms in front of him and looked ‘John’ over again before thinking that the ability to use magic might be useful.

“Well, how about you introduce yourself for real first? I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I can sure as shit tell you that John isn’t your real name. Besides…John is a stupid name.” Lotuce then smirked down at the seated man, he was hoping that he had managed to somewhat throw him off of his game, whatever that game might be. Lotuce then looked around for a moment before finding a large enough rock. He walked over to said rocked and with one good yank with both of his hands due to its shape more than its weight yanked the rock from the ground.

He then walked or rather waddled more like, the rock back to where the man had placed his chair and sat down. Lotuce then placed the rock down opposite the man and sat down on the chair, waiting to see what he said. He somewhat doubted that he would actually give him his true name, but he trusted his own ability to see through lies to at least know when the man gave another clearly fake alias or to know if he was being somewhat truthful in the alias given.

Lotuce listened to the man as he spoke, confirming that his name was not John but that his real name would likely be impossible for Lotuce to pronounce and that due to this any alias he gave was as good as the next; he did however congratulate the Saiyan for seeing through the fake name as that was an impressive feat unto itself. Lotuce rolled his eyes a bit as he rested his right leg onto his left with his ankle resting on his knee. He then began to speak about the differences of age and mental flexibility when it comes to learning magic.

Lotuce smirked “I can show you how flexible my fist is when it punches through you like that mugger over there.” Lotuce may have been more likely to see through bullshit but he also had a bit of a short fuse, something he knew of and did not bother to fix in his years on this planet. The man then began to speak about how Lotuce was far from home, to which Lotuce was about to comment that his home was on another continent but that he could get back in about a day if he really needed to get home.

However, before he could begin to speak this the man would go on about him not wearing proper Saiyan garb and that he was not working for the Crusher Corps, whoever they were. Lotuce would then nod and said “Correct, I am not affiliated with either the Saiyan Empire or this…Crusher Corps.” Lotuce had only ever been told about the Empire by his parents and what he learned from the intergalactic news systems. Lotuce then looked the man over a bit “So, you going to start teaching or should I leave you here with this corpse?”

He was dead serious about the idea of leaving the man to deal with the corpse or to leave it there which had just as strong a possibility as anything else. Lotuce had a serious look in his eye as he was a bit curious about this magic stuff. He figured that anything that could help him out a bit would be quite nice at the moment. Lotuce however was prepared to leave if the man was just full of fodder regarding the idea of being able to teach the Saiyan on this matter. Lotuce continued to look at the man, waiting for him to speak.

Lotuce scoffed at the man for the way he pointed out the minor flaw of not being able to teach Lotuce if he himself was already deceased. That was neither here nor there as the man himself claimed to not be a normal person. The Saiyan would continue to listen as the man began to explain what Magic itself was, that it was the opposite of Ki in a sense. If Ki was about mastering and manipulating oneself and ones own internal forces, then Magic was all about the external. Magic seemed to be about mastering and manipulating ones own environmental factors.

To gain control of both himself and what was around him seemed to arouse his attention, after all if he could control what was around him then he could control the tide of battle more favorably. Lotuce got a bit of a twisted smirk at that realization, that he could better control the environment and seemingly create something from nothing. But there had to be some kind of limitations on even this sort of power, after all if it was truly unlimited then Magic would be much more prevalent in the world, the strongest fighters would learn to use it for their own good.

Lotuce was then shaken from his thoughts by the man asking for information about himself, to gain some better way to train the Saiyan he needed to know about the Saiyan. It made sense, that much was certain. Lotuce thought for a moment, it had been a very long time since someone had asked about himself and what it was to be Lotuce. Lotuce would eventually cup his right hand under his own chin with his left hand resting under the right elbow, thinking for a moment as deeply as he could before he would start to speak.

“I guess…if I had to say, at my core I am a true Saiyan, I do love to fight. Fighting is most of what I do, I desire to grow stronger so that I can fight even stronger foes. I’m simple in that regard.” Lotuce continued to think for a moment about what drove him though, what motivated him to fight other than a love of combat. “If I had to guess, I would say that I hate the current Government of this world and probably of others. I hate governments that try and exert control over their citizens instead of…”

Lotuce was fumbling a bit with his thoughts, trying to not be misunderstood. “Instead of trying to simply exist to better the lives of their citizens. If I had the strength, I would want to destroy those that run this government and build a new one, one that works solely for the betterment of the people.” Lotuce continued on with his seemingly insufficient manifesto of an idea. He then looked at ‘John’ and brought his hands back down to a neutral position, no longer being deep in thought and introspection about himself and his reasonings.

Lotuce looked at the man, a quizzical look on his face. Lotuce was unsure of where the man was going with all of this, though he was sure he had a point somewhere that Lotuce was just missing. Sure, Lotuce had this man’s attention, but what good did that do him, after all anyone could gain someone’s attention. That in and of itself, as far as the Saiyan was concerned was of little importance at this juncture as far as he could tell. Then an idea struck him, if this man was as skilled in magic as he claimed the why should he stop at teaching Lotuce how to use magic?

That was a silly idea, after all, Lotuce would likely always pale in comparison to the man in terms of his own skill and aptitude with Magic. Lotuce got a bit of a smirk on his face as he crossed his legs once more, now switching his legs in a way that showed he was a bit antsy just sitting like this. His idea might backfire on him entirely, as far as he could tell this man had a fickle nature to him that might reject the idea but hall the same Lotuce had to try.

“If I have your attention so much, why don’t you come with me? Join with me and watch my rise to power, to saving the world yourself. See how I make my words my reality, see how I make those in power bend the knee and realize how weak they are compared to me.” Lotuce proposed his idea, and now it was a matter of whether or not he would take the offer was now a moment that made Lotuce’s anticipation grow by leaps and bounds. Sure he could learn magic and then part ways with this man, but why do that when he could instead have him as an ally as well.

Lotuce wanted this man as his ally, if only so that he could learn magic and then have someone to help him when he inevitably would become injured. After all, if he was serious about his desires – and he very much was – then he was definitely going to become injured and wounded during his attempts to fight those in power; having someone on his side to help him recover would mean the difference between life and death in those instances.

Lotuce heard the man begin to laugh before going off on a bit of a diatribe, he was at first dismayed when he heard the initial response to his offer. He hated how vulnerable he felt at the moment. The man then seemed to mentally disassociate while he started to consider things before he had begun to speak once more. The man was leaning more towards a yes, but now he had modified the deal that Lotuce had first presented to the strange magical man. Lotuce seemed to understand that the first ‘stipulation’ as ‘John’ had put it was that he would not always be around but that he would be there when Lotuce needed him.

The next stipulation put forth by ‘John’ was that Lotuce assist ‘John’ when he needed the assistance. Lotuce already had planned on such a thing being necessary to secure this man’s assistance first. Lotuce nodded his head, he didn’t verbalize his agreement simply because he was a man of few words and right before he could even try to start speaking ‘John’ had produced a table, a scroll and a set of pens. Lotuce was a bit taken aback by their sudden appearance, still getting used to the idea of magic actually being a thing.

Lotuce decided to read the contract a bit, whilst he had drive and passion he was not stupid. He knew to read anything he planned on signing so that he knew what was said in it, even if he didn’t fully understand its contents or the various loopholes, he wanted to make sure there was no blatant line in there about servitude or that the man would take his soul upon his death. The man seemingly a mindreader made a comment about how the contract itself was not magical in and of itself, just conjured through magic.

Taking one of the pens Lotuce slowly and deliberately signed the document on the appropriate line. Lotuce then had a bit of an idea, from out of the side of his vision he focused on the line that the man would have to sign, after all if he wanted the contract to actually be binding he would need to sign it with his true name. Lotuce was still quite curious about his real name after all. Once they had both signed the document Lotuce would stand up fully and say “So, now what? How do I use magic?”

Lotuce was bringing their little discussion back to the idea that had initially kicked this whole chain of events off, his desire to learn how to use magic from the man to make himself able to do some simple tasks at the very least on his own. He might not be able to become as adept at using magic as the man in front of him but he would still like to learn what he had to offer the young Saiyan. Any form of new abilities were very much welcome by Lotuce, after all with plans as grandiose as he had he knew he was going to need every advantage he could get.