Breakfast Run

Nero’s expression sharpened with an excited fervor, his eyes not only returning to normal for a moment, but beginning to glow a little— perhaps this was a direct opposite phenomenon to what was true just moments before? The truth was still unclear, though it clearly had changed for the better. “Oh, well then, you asked for it!” As Nero more or less predicted, Zhalla had more than enough leeway to firmly grapple one of his legs— he was a clever one, using his attempt at pushing with his free leg against him, now that was some real fighter’s instinct for sure!

Even with his defeat ultimately ensured, Nero’s own fighting spirit had it’s brief moment to shine, for the first time in a long time of being unknowingly repressed, it was free. As such, so was he. Without even so much as a thought lingering on the inevitable, Nero unleashed a wild barrage of spirited punches at Zhalla’s seemingly unguarded shoulders and face— even if everything connected it was unlikely that Nero would even leave so much as a scratch on her. If anything, he hoped it got her off balance enough so that his landing wouldn’t be totally awful.

Not that it really mattered, for he had kept his promise. On his oath of Saiyan pride; he fought and stood for longer than ten seconds. In the end, triumph or fail, Nero would do either with his head held high.

Everything went exactly as Nero had expected, Zhalla was largely undisturbed by his attempt at stopping her final move. Though she flinched away, there was practically no need to since she overpowered him by leaps and bounds at the moment, especially with Nero’s true strength ‘sleeping’ so to speak.

Even though Nero had been satisfied by the short spar, there was no reason for him to make it easy for Zhalla. In her moment of shock, Nero managed to get his bearings. It didn’t take much effort for him to calculate the multitude of actions Zhalla could take. He was deftly hoisted upwards by the female Saiyan and subsequently dropped onto the pavement with a satisfying ka-thwack!— but he managed to do so reasonably safely, which was his main focus since being thrown in some way was unavoidable to begin with. The problem was he ended up landing on his back somehow. Now, considering the way he hit the ground Nero suddenly burped in a rather comical manner. Moments after registering what just happened, he began laughing uproariously. “FHehhehhahahahhaha ooohhh my goodness, excuse me!” He finally managed to speak through his laughter. “Did not expect that— sorry, heh. Good fight, solid win on your end.”

After properly recomposing himself with a sharp exhale, Nero gestured for Zhalla to let him slowly sit up. When able to do so, he gave Zhalla a nod and his own grin to match hers. “You’re not bad either! I do wonder what you can pull off outside of just a physical bout. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind sparring again sometime. You’re way cool in my book.” No wonder she was so popular with those kids; she absolutely had the makings of a badass motherly figure.

Nero kept snickering while still flat on the ground. Seeing Zhalla scrunch up her lips was proof enough that she totally almost laughed— she could deny it all she wanted but Nero could tell. “Heh, nah I’m happy about what I managed, I just didn’t expect to belch upon hitting the ground is all!”

Without further hesitation after making sure he was okay, Nero gladly took Zhalla’s supportive hand to get himself up. Where most other Saiyans might swat her hand away, he saw no reason to. “You tell me, you’re the one that kicked my ass.” Nero shrugged, not seeing the big deal. He ended up confused at Zhalla’s following statement though. “I meant other than a purely physical sparring match. Like your laser pew pew skills, Ki techniques. That kinda thing. But hey yeah, I’m keen to see what other skills you’ve got. Play any video games? I do work at an arcade too. You down for an eating contest? We’re both Saiyan, so surely we can make a contest out of that. The list goes on~” Wait, was that a wink? Surely there was just something in his eye? Dust, perhaps? “The uniform should be fine though; its honestly made of sturdier stuff than I ever expected. Weird, right?”

Nero nodded and held out his hand, gesturing for a handshake when Zhalla looked back at him. “If you want to throw down again sometime, I’m game.” He raised a brow in regard to ‘holding back’ but he chose not to comment on it. As far as he could tell, he gave it all he had. “No worries! I can handle it. After work I’m gonna just relax, that usually does the trick. So, I’m ready to head out.”

“If you know that you can push yourself, that’s all you really need. That’s kinda how it goes for those that fight— assumin’ that they enjoy it and all.” Nero mused, often being the kind of guy that saw no shame in the art of combat conceptually. Things only became flawed when certain people’s goals involving combat came into play. “Practice makes progress, is how I like to put it.”

Nero chuckled, seeing Zhalla confounded by his questions. “Yeah, your laser beam and ki manipulation skills.” Bringing up his hands he made a goofy finger guns gesture with the appropriate ‘pew pew’ noises to accompany it. Tiny harmless marble sized bullets of plain white ki flew out from his fingers, dissipating into the air. “Or, like uh... Hmm, close combat tricks...” Nero took a deep breath, focusing on one of his free hands. A very vague and near unnoticeable plain white aura formed around his outstretched hand— those with an untrained eye wouldn’t notice it unless they were told to look directly at it. “This, but not as lame, something with a more solid form, like a basic energy sword or whatever.” He explained, making a ‘knife’ shape with his hand, the aura morphing just enough to swirl around it. “I’m just, uh, way out of practice.” Nero glanced away bashfully, dispelling the meagre display of ki manipulation he could manage.

Alas, Zhalla didn’t seem confident in the idea of video games, she didn’t even touch on the idea of an eating contest— perhaps she wasn’t fond of them? Either way Nero wasn’t bothered, they weren’t that important to him either. “Well, maybe if you could ever bring any of your lot to Button Smash in North City, I could give you an intro on some games, show you the ropes. That way, you could at least play with the kids if they asked. I think that’d be sweet.” Nero chirped up happily. “You got any ideas though? I’d be happy to hear ‘em.”

“Hehe, yeah, next time I hopefully won’t be mid shift or something.” Nero idly held the back of his neck with a free hand, looking at Zhalla curiously as she rummaged around her pockets. Seconds later, she provided a card, not just any card— Nero knew what this sort of thing was. A mercenary’s call-card. He let out an impressed whistle. “Madame mercenary and a mama bear. Well damn, no wonder you’ve got skills!” Nero stowed the card away safely in his shirt pocket, and quirked a brow at Zhalla. “Got a spare card and a pen? I’ll write my number down for you if you’d like.” Should Zhalla provide those things, Nero would quickly (and stylishly) write his number, with some sparkles around it before handing the items back over to his fellow Saiyan.

Now, with that all sorted, Nero made his way over to the bike and took up the spare helmet. “Right on, let’s go.” After making sure he had the helmet on properly, Nero hopped onto the bike and gave Zhalla the signal to head off.

“Sure, I think I see where you’re coming from— having a lot of personal accomplishment go to your head resulting in a big ego or even complacency is pretty bad.” Nero tilted his head slightly and stroked his chin while mulling it over. “I definitely see the other extreme honestly just as detrimental; not giving yourself credit where it is due is a recipe for an inferiority complex in my opinion. So, I’d say one needs to strike a balance. Strive for more, but appreciate how far you have come overall. Looking forward is great and all but you won’t see how far you’ve gone if you don’t stop and look back every once in a while” Nero gave Zhalla a big grin, as well as a playful nudge in the shoulder. “I see nothing wrong with a bit of pride in one’s progress.”

Nero waited patiently for Zhalla to process his (admittedly lacklustre) demonstration of Ki usage, and became all the more curious when she decided to fully focus her attention on it, because he could tell quite quickly, even before Zhalla herself— that something interesting was going to happen, and he really wanted to know what that was.

Now, he was quite impressed, in fact. Zhalla had conjured a twin-axe set made of semi-translucent solid green ki. Unfortunately, she seemed quite stunned and immediately dropped them, causing them to dissipate before hitting the ground. For the limited time Nero could examine the conjured weapons, they seemed to be of a high quality. In his opinion, this wasn’t something one did without training unless they were some kind of prodigy nor a skill kept at such a level of quality unless they were an individual with incredible combat instinct, subconscious or otherwise. “Well, clearly, that the fuck.” Nero chuckled for a moment, before squinting at Zhalla as a smirk crept across his face. “A rare technique, that. Did you develop it yourself or..?”

“Nonsense, it wouldn’t be a problem to introduce you to stuff we have there.” Nero said, attempting to sell Zhalla more on the idea. “Sure, the rascals can enjoy playing against each other, that’s all good, I don’t mind— but what if I want to see what you’re made of, hm? On my ‘home turf’ so to speak? Think of it as a challenge!” He gave a cheeky wink in response to her coy smile. “You’re not one to turn one down are you?”

In regards to Zhalla’s employment, Nero didn’t fully understand why she was seemingly so hesitant about it. He had no reason to assume she was the exclusively shady kind of mercenary. Maybe she took a few questionable quests here and there, but that was just par for the course; even some ‘nice’ contracts could turn pretty sour without all of the information. Nero shrugged it off though, it could lead into quite a lengthy discussion and perhaps that was why Zhalla left it where she did.“Well, the way I see it, you’re your own boss, you make the decisions on what jobs to take. Shows initiative, and that’s pretty cool.”

Given what had happened so far, Nero figured Alomora would completely lose it; he almost felt sorry for the inevitable barrage of questions Zhalla was going to face if that kid ever saw the card with his contact information on it. “Honestly I’d be surprised if she ever let you have a moment of peace if she ever saw it. It shows just how much she cares I think. Yanno, you’d make a great mother just by going how well behaved all those kids are... Well you basically are their mother right now so there you go, point already proven.” Nero shrugged casually, as if saying this was completely normal and figured that there was no way anyone could assume any form of subtext or take it in any way other than objective fact.

“Vroom vroom, lets gooooo~” Nero cheered quietly before speaking up once again when he was questioned. “Nah, I’m good. Even if I wanted to stop off somewhere else I don’t think there would be enough time to make it worth it— so I’d rather be back somewhat early. I take pride in being punctual after all~”