Necessary Preparations [Invite Yogu]

Tebooleh winced as the poor patron was launched by the force of Yogu's... belching.  Gross, but interesting.  And, like everything else about the boy at the moment, it was incredibly powerful.  He glanced to where the man had landed, which was in a pile of rubble that had, at one point, been the support structure to a pylon of lights and speakers.  Someone was already rushing in with a first-aid kit and some healing salve.  Another person was already making a radio call to get the on-site paramedics in.  There was nothing for him to do.

What he could do, however, was respond to Yogu's call.  And perhaps correct him.

"My name is Tebooleh."  He finished off the last piece of food on his plate with some polite and restrained chewing and swallowing.  He chased it with some water from a little plastic cup, before putting his dishes into the recycling can that had been set up next to the table.  With that done, he turned to the still-transformed, still cranky boy.

"And yours is... "Yogu", yes?"  He began to walk down the length of the table, with his arms crossed, towards the giant, grey man... boy... thing...  All three of his eyes were studying Yogu intently.  Watching, waiting.

"I was hoping to run into you here.  We need to work out our strategy for the finals.  We have been given..."  He wanted to say a smack in the face.  A dishonor.  To be given a "pass" to get to the final rounds without even having to fight.  It was just... just insulting!  "A chance to really work on our "A game" before we get back into the rings.  I believe it is best to take advantage of it."

Tebooleh stayed silent for just about all of Yogu's "answers" to his statements.  That was mostly because they were rambling and utterly insane.  What was this about "dying with Yogu"?  Why did he want to name himself "Monster"?  Why was he talking about himself in the third person?  It all made no sense.  Unless he was being possessed by some sort of demon.  Considering that his skin was sloughing off when he scratched his chin...  Well, possession was a possibility that he would have to keep in mind.  If only Tebooleh had been trained in the ancient rites to ward off such creatures, rather than martial arts.

He wasn't, unfortunately.  The village's mystic had chosen a different child as an apprentice.  Tebooleh also did not have a phone, or steady access to a computer with an internet connection.  This meant that he couldn't look up any of the various rituals to purge a body of demons.  He could, however, perhaps tease some information out of whatever was running Yogu's body.  And perhaps trick him into turning back to normal.  Even if it meant losing the tournament, he would rather not risk the boy's soul being damned or destroyed or permanently pushed out of his own body.  That would have to be torture.  And if he wasn't being possessed, and perhaps just had some sort of split personality disorder, Tebooleh had no desire to let him be a danger to himself or others.

Which meant following after Yogu, and trying his best not to set the teen (or whatever was piloting him) off.  Every suggestion would have to be couched in such a way that the boy didn't think he was being commanded.  And every statement would have to be carefully planned out, with none of the tri-clops' usual bluntness.  He had to ponder on what to say for a little while, at least until they were out of the craft service... tent?  Hut?  It had a door, but it seemed less permanent than a proper house.  And Hale had kept most of Muscle Tower closed for the tournament.  The grounds were open, but the building itself was kept closed to everyone but "authorized personnel".  And Hale.  And whoever Hale said could enter.

"Very good.  Though, perhaps we should train and plan somewhere away from the tower's grounds?  That way we can..."  He couldn't say, 'keep damage to a minimum'.  Whatever Yogu had turned into didn't seem to care about collateral damage.  Or harming the innocent.  Perhaps... "Keep our opponents from seeing just how powerful you are.  We don't want them to run off before the final round and leave you without a proper fight, yes?"

There, Tebooleh thought to himself that his words had been careful enough.  And he'd left it open for Yogu to decide exactly where to go, while giving him a reason to choose somewhere more remote (or at least out of sight and damage distance for the tower).

Tebooleh felt the disturbances in Yogu's power-level via his extra senses.  Though his eyes also noticed the tell-tale puffs of wind caused by an aura that had flared up, but was not quite visible yet.  The wind created a physical sign in the blowing of sand away from his body, which created little ripples of the stuff on the ground.  The tri-clops kept every part of himself primed... He also followed Yogu when the boy shot up into the air.  While trying his best to keep pace, he replied...

"An excellent idea.  That far out, they may confuse you for the other high power-levels in the background."

He tried to keep from snarling or showing his anger.  He hated acting deferential to whatever this thing was that had possessed the young lad.  But he had to keep up the show, or it might start rampaging.  With the power it was channeling at that very moment, it could crush Tebooleh like a bug.  Perhaps it could do the same to all of the other competitors.  At the full power that he sensed lurking within the possessed child?  Well, the thing using his body probably could take on Ramen, the top-tier competitor that had left after the first round.  And she was who-knew-where by that point.

As if to further prove the point, Yogu disappeared for a brief moment.  Before reappearing a short distance ahead of where he should have been if he were still travelling at the speed he'd set.  Only the boy had stopped and started... mocking himself?  That was odd.  Definitely a possession then, by a spirit that had a special hate for Yogu.  Or at least one that had encountered him before in the afterlife or on another world or both.  Tebooleh stopped as Yogu('s body) stopped for a moment to laugh and roll around in the air.  Once that business was done, it was back to following the monstrous form.

Once they'd gotten a good distance away, and landed, Tebooleh crossed his arms.  He raised a brow at the unnecessary use of power to blow a dune away.  After all, they shifted naturally.  And there was plenty of open space around them that they could have used other than the place where the hill had been.  But the monster, demon, devil, whatever he was, seemed rather fond of abusing his power.  Perhaps just to test himself.  To see how much he could get away with, when using just a little bit of energy.

Tebooleh floated into the air, and over to an area across from Yogu.  He didn't bother with stripping his thawb.  But as he got into a combat "stance" (which involved holding his hands up and spreading his legs before bobbing his torso about), he did bother with speaking.  He kept his voice, and his face, flat as he did so.

"I would not even know where to begin on such a ritual.  I am a fighter, not a mystic."

With that, he rushed forward... Though not in a straight line.  Much like he'd done when facing Karon, Tebooleh moved in a zigging and zagging pattern to the beat of an old tune.  He went towards Yogu, then around him, then behind him, then in front again.  Once he was back in front of the boy, he aimed a punch towards his jaw.  It was an uppercut.

"Though it must be easy to do, considering you were sealed away multiple times before."

He knew that was probably going to enrage the thing.  But he had a plan to direct the flow of conversation, while following the flow of battle.  If he could get the monster formerly known as "Yogu" to start spilling secrets, he might be able to reverse whatever was happening before the start of the next round.  Probably.  Maybe.  Hopefully.



No problemo!  Also, opening with a non-technique punch.  Just your regular ol' strike.

Tebooleh sighed inwardly as his fist was caught like it was nothing.  He had a feeling that this was going to be less a "spar" and more an "unadulterated beatdown".  With him on the receiving end.  He braced himself for the pain that he knew was coming.  He also did his best to come to terms with the amount of bruises he was probably going to have.  Especially as he heard the anger boiling through Yogu's shouting.

Despite his mental preparations, he still opened all three of his eyes wide when the transformed Yogu moved to break his arm.  Was the boy crazy?  Well... yes.  Or at least possessed.  But was whatever was possessing him insane?  If Tebooleh's arm was broken, not even nanite-based medicine would heal it by the time of the finals.  Which meant he wouldn't be able to fight.  If he couldn't fight, then they would both be disqualified!

Luckily, the monster seemed to realize this himself.  Though he still delivered a rather hard slap after letting go of Tebooleh's arm.  Despite being, at best, a quick tap... It still hit the tri-clops with enough power to send him falling to the ground.  Where he impacted with enough force to send a plume of sand into the air.  His vision was blurred, his eyes were tearing up from the pain of the blow (and the sand that got into them), and his extremities felt... fuzzy.  All that from just one hit.

But he'd had worse.  Far worse.

Tebooleh quickly recovered enough to push himself back to his feet, then he spat into the sand to get... the taste of the sand out of his mouth.  Just in time to get some information out of the monstrous child.  Pointy-eared space elves?  The only race that truly resembled the elves of ancient lore were perhaps the Konatsians.  Did they know the ritual to seal the demon away?  Interesting.  Now to just fool the boy into revealing how they did it.  As long as the ritual didn't require one to have Konatsian blood, perhaps he could copy the steps.  He opened his mouth to give a reply.

All he let out was an extended "Ooof" from his lips as all of the air was pushed out of his lungs.  He struggled to get air back into them, as he felt spikes of pain radiate all over his chest and stomach.  Then Tebooleh's body was pushed by the force of the blow that it had taken.  It went quite a ways up into the air... then fell down towards the sand.  He just barely managed to stop himself from hitting it by pushing against the ground with his energy, the same way he did when he took off to fly.  Once he'd recovered, he levitated in such a way that his feet were pointed towards the ground, and his head towards the sky.  Then he stopped flying, and got back into his combat rhythm.  As his feet and hands moved from stance to stance, and beat to beat, he got control back over his breathing.

Only then did he speak.

"I do not possess the ability to "transform" as you do.  The most that I can do is unlock more power when necessary."  He left out the part where he couldn't fully control the well within yet.  That didn't need to get covered.

He flew forward again in that zig-zag pattern.  Due to the disparity in power, all of his acrobatics and leaps and dances probably looked like a slow-motion, water-jogging class to Yogu.  But... maybe he could get off a flurry or two.

At a seemingly random point in the beat that Tebooleh had set for himself, he came at Yogu from the side with an elbow strike aimed at the side of his stomach.  Then, as soon as his foot was planted on the ground, he pushed up to go for an uppercut at the boy's jaw.  That upper-cut became a glide up as he began to fly in earnest, or at least hold himself in place for a series of kicks.  As he was aiming these blows, he spoke.

"You know...  I saw a few Konatsians in the audience.  One of them looked familiar..."  What had the one that had confronted him over the movie star looked like?  He was... "About one-point-six... one-point-seven meters in height.  He had the sides of his head shaved, with some gold and turquoise earrings... Oh, and a mechanical eye of some sort.  Was he perhaps one of the Konatsians that sealed you away last time?"

Even if he wasn't, the mere presence of a Konatsian might put the demon on edge.  Which might make him more willing to share some information.  If Tebooleh could just think of the right words to say...  Which was hard when you're fighting someone that is many, many times your power-level.