Pizza Time (Tunic)

Gato had only a brief second to feel relieved when the person in front of him swiftly ducked out of the way of the out-of-control delivery boy, because just behind her was a wall. There was a great crashing sound as Gato ran facefirst into it, leaving a small crater in the brickwork as his head proved harder than the stone. Thankfully, he was clearly unhurt, as the mercurial Saiyan simply stood back up and dusted himself off, no worse for wear other than the dust now covering his uniform. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine..." he muttered, brow furrowed in irritation. This was an unwelcome delay when he had so little time to deliver... wait, he was forgetting something... "Oh shit, the pizzas!"

Gato's stoicism was broken when he saw the unfortunate state of the pizzas he had been delivering, however. The bag and its contents had been practically pulverized by the impact. Gato's mouth dropped open in shock as he beheld the carnage. "Awww... I'm totally gonna get fired!" He fell to his hands and knees dramatically, the crowd of pedestrians already having lost interest in the scene and moved on. "I guess it's beans and rice this month... again..." He stayed like that for a few moments before suddenly remembering the other party in this incident, and springing to his feet. "Waittaminute! You!" Gato shouted, his excessive natural volume easily loud enough to cut through the ambient noise of the city. He pointed at the mysterious girl he had almost crashed into, making it unmistakably clear who he was addressing. A faint smile cracked his lips as he observed the woman. She looked totally normal, and Gato couldn't sense any power coming from her. For all anyone knew, she had probably just gotten lucky getting out of the way in time.

But that said... Gato was getting one of his hunches. Something about the way that encounter played out didn't quite sit right in his mind, though he was far from being able to figure out why. All Gato knew for sure was that his instincts were rarely wrong. "You're pretty fast, aren'tcha? Have a bout with me to make up for ruining those pizzas!" It was a straightforward request, though his reasoning was pretty flawed, considering that it had been entirely his own inattention that caused the problem in the first place. Not that it mattered to him now, Gato was entirely focused on at least getting something worthwhile out of this workday, even if he was pretty much guaranteed to be out of a job again after this.

"Hell yeah! Anywhere, anytime! I, uh... I don't think I could afford any more property damage today, anyways." Gato responded, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. The dire status of his bank account aside, Gato was impressed that she had a venue for this already picked out ahead of time. Did this sort of thing happen to her often, he wondered? In any case, he relented and began to follow the mysterious girl. As they walked, Gato took the opportunity to get a better look at his prospective opponent. To be honest, he hadn't really been thinking too deeply about it when he proposed a fight, he had been kind of following his gut. She was probably around his age, maybe a bit younger, but it was difficult to tell. Other than that, his initial impression seemed to hold water: She looked very ordinary. But then again, nobody who would willingly fight a random stranger off the street could be that ordinary.

His suspicions were partially vindicated when they entered the lofty building and the mystery girl admitted that she owned the place. Gato let out an appreciative whistle. "Nice place! You meet all kinds'a people in this city, I guess." His lips curled into a smile when she mentioned that any potential property damage would be taken care of. "Music ta my ears! I promise I'll try not to bust up the place too bad, gahahaha!" Gato laughed, his lack of volume control causing his voice to echo throughout the building.

Taking on a serious mien for a moment, Gato folded his arms as if in deep thought. "I gotta ask though, do people randomly try ta pick fights with ya on the regular? 'Cause it ain't every day ya meet somebody who's got a venue all picked out before ya even ask. 'Specially one that, s'far as I can tell, ain't putting out a lick of ki. Not that I'm judgin' or anything."

"Every major city? Like, all of 'em? Guess ya must travel a lot, then. Sounds exhaustin', honestly. Hard enough gettin' around the one city." Gato scratched his chin, imagining it. Of course, traveling the world was part of his grand plan, but the travel expenses had mostly kept him confined to his hometown for now. And he didn't really have a plan about where to go or what to do when he got there, anyway. Wandering around looking for people to fight hadn't really been giving him the results it used to. Turns out, when you get stronger, your pool of opponents shrinks! Gato wished somebody had told him that ahead of time.

As soon as the weapon came out, Gato was startled by a sudden weight settling over his body, causing him to stumble slightly. It made his limbs feel like they were made out of lead. Once recovered from his initial shock, Gato straightened, staring down at his hands inquisitively. After a few experimental jabs at the air, feeling out how much he'd be slowed down by this strange technique, Gato turned back to the girl with a widening grin on his face. "A dragoon, huh? Ya say that like I'm s'posed to know what that is. Well, whatever, it don't matter. Just show me."

He was thoroughly convinced. She might not use ki, but this girl clearly had some kind of power; Hell, he might even be outmatched, if this feeling like his spine was going to fold in half was any indication. The idea delighted Gato. This weight is all the proof I need! He thought, his inner monologue raving, elated at having struck gold. "Name's Gato, by the way. Oughta get names out of the way before one of us has ta get their jaw wired shut, gahahaha!" He laughed, but he wasn't joking. It'd be a shame if he found a worthy opponent and then got beaten unconscious, or vice versa, before they could exchange names. He'd made that mistake before and lived to regret it, opponents like that were hard enough to find without even a name to go off of!

Gato casually waved off his opponent's remark about her weapon. "No problem, use whatever lets ya fight at yer strongest. I'm gonna go full throttle, so don't hold nothing back!" His tone was confident, but truthfully Gato hadn't had much experience fighting weapon-users, aside from the occasional knife-wielding punk, but he could already tell this was something different. He'd figure something out. Well, he'd have to, one wrong move and he'd end up skewered otherwise.

But enough thinking. He was itching to get this thing started! Gato inhaled deeply, drawing upon the wells of energy deep within. Like a dam about to break, he could feel the power building inside him. Wild, almost uncontrollable. But he held onto it until it felt like it was going to burn a hole in his chest. Then, all at once, he let it go.



As he exhaled, his body seemed to expand, and a bluish glow radiated from his skin. Gato's face twisted into an expression halfway between mania and pain, as the rush of the transformation overwhelmed his senses. He never got used to this part, the flood of emotions. He wanted to scream in terror, to break down and cry, to tear the girl in front of him limb from limb. Every feeling burned ten times hotter, all at once, swirling in his head like a typhoon. When he was younger, he'd black out and lose all reason when this happened. It still wasn't pleasant.

Gato stretched languidly before settling into a loose fighting stance, light on the balls of his feet, with one fist forward and one tucked low against his body. "ALRIGHT! I'm ready, come at me!" Gato shouted, somehow even more obnoxiously loud than before, if that was even possible. Contrary to his apparently hot-blooded state, he simply stood and waited, inviting his opponent to make the first move.

"Uhh..." Gato scratched his head in confusion. That was a lot of name to remember. "Lessee here... Tunic Bradford Leonard... No, wait, that's wrong... Tunic B- wait, what was the second one? Shit, uhh... I'm just gonna go with Tunic." It didn't help that much of his focus was currently focused on keeping his sanity under the mental assault of the wrathful form. Remembering things would have to come later.

When questioned if he was sure about his request, Gato looked somewhat scandalized. "Of course!" he exclaimed, aghast at the thought of holding back in their first bout, of all things. "How the hell am I s'posed to know how strong ya are if ya don't go all out?" Then, suddenly, Gato was forced to hold up a hand to shield his eyes when a blinding light emanated from his opponent. When the light subsided, Gato was surprised to see Tunic had apparently... changed clothes? He wondered if that meant she had gotten stronger. She looked more intimidating, he supposed. Then, all at once, he felt the mysterious weight fall over him once again, just as before! Damn! Thought I was done with this... what is it? Some kinda technique? Gato pondered, doing his best to keep his stance intact while his limbs seemingly gained about a hundred pounds each.

Whatever the source of his mysterious impairment, Gato didn't have time to mull it over. Before he could even react, Tunic had stepped into close range! She's quick! he had time to think before the first strike landed across his ribs. "Urk!" He would feel that in the morning, for sure. Gato wasn't even sure how Tunic's little body could put out that much power, especially without the assistance of ki.

Gato stumbled back a step, but did not fall, a testament to his tenacity. Roaring in a display of his fighting spirit, Gato retaliated by charging straight in, seemingly about to skewer himself on the offending points of his opponent's weapon. Then, at the last moment, he threw himself into a baseball slide, hoping to enter the range in which it couldn't be brought to bear. Then, utilizing his forward momentum, he would kip up onto the balls of his feet, and propel himself upwards like a giant spring, ki-shrouded fist outstretched to perform a devastating rising uppercut! Of course, if he missed, he'd just propel himself right into the ceiling...

Gato hardly had time to process what had happened when he found his own momentum being used against him to slam him into the ground, knocking the air from his lungs and forcing a loud gasp from the young man. And then came the real attack. Gato gritted his teeth as electricity coursed through his body, lighting up every nerve with pain. Finally, as all that energy was released into a powerful explosion, Gato was sent tumbling head-over-heels across the floor of the training room, smoke rising from his smoldering clothes as he finally came to a stop and lay flat on his back.

"Ouch." said the prone combatant, before leaping to his feet with surprising alacrity for somebody who had just been electrocuted. "That really smarts! I knew there was somethin' special about that thing." Aside from his thoroughly scorched clothing and a painful-looking red burn across his forearm where the trident made contact with his body, Gato appeared to still be in fighting shape. Stepping back into the "ring," Gato retook his stance before dashing back into the fray, knowing that he stood no chance unless he could somehow close the distance and get inside of Tunic's range.

This time he didn't go for any grand attacks, focusing on weaving in and out of Tunic's attack range while peppering her with weak, but annoying ki blasts wherever he could find an opening. There weren't many, but he couldn't think of anything else to do that wouldn't risk ending up on the receiving end of those prongs.