Challenges and Chores [Okra]

“I’ll just stick with you,” Okra replied as he began to follow Safe down the left hallway. They eventually came to a metal staircase. The saiyan followed Safe as she hopped down the steps and came to a smooth steel door. On the other side, a group of voices could be heard discussing the recent intrusion. Before long, the trio opened the door, and stopped in their tracks. They quickly surrendered, and came to a huddle behind the duo when the loud speaker kicked on again.

"Defense Sys- Override detected, countdown cancelled. Defense System Phase Two activating."

“Hmm, you think it’s another incineration ray?” numerous guns popped out from various places around the hallway, all pointing at the dynamic duo. They even had targeting lasers! “Well, I guess that answers that question huh,” he remarked as the guns started to whirl.

He watched as Safe rushed ahead, creating a barrier to protect herself and the three idiots. Okra also casually stepped behind her. He wasn’t interested in finding out if these bullets caused welts too. As he stepped behind the shielding, bullets began to rapidly fire at the group, but they harmlessly deflected off the barrier.

“Huh? Oh yea, I guess I should deal with them,” Okra mused. He sighed and held out a palm before noticing something out of the corner of his eye. One of the aliens was trying to be a sneaky bastard and stab Safe in the back! The saiyan quickly grabbed the alien’s wrist with a grip of steel, “Oh no you don’t,” he bent the wrist backwards till it was at its breaking point. The alien was near sobbing from fear as Okra glowered down at him, “Your actions have consequences.”

“Puh-puh-plea-please don’t ki- AGHHHH OH GOD, MY WRIST,” the alien sobbed in pain as Okra broke his wrist like he would a twig. He dropped the wrist, and the alien immediately held it against his chest, whimpering. The other two gulped.

“Please don’t kill us, sir”

“Please let us live. We didn’t do anything wrong. W- We were forced to join or else they would kill us,” Okra seriously doubted that.

“Whatever. No more funny business,” the saiyan remarked as he turned on his heel. Once more he held out his palm, “Watch this,” he grinned.

A wave of blue energy shot from his palm and weaved around Safe’s barrier. The attack struck one gun, then another, and then another, and kept going snaking around the room until all the machine guns were merely a smoking pile of broken and charred machinery.

Now that the guns were gone, the trio of idiots immediately ran away in the opposite direction of Okra and Safe. The one with the broken wrist obviously lagged behind, still whimpering in pain from the brutal break Okra had given him.

“Well that was easy,” he muttered. Although, the effort had left him feeling slightly drained.

The saiyan rushed on ahead, bounding through the metal hallways. He came to a large open mess hall. The tables had been overturned, sitting on their sides to offer protection to those sitting behind it. Around ten men were scattered throughout the room. When they spotted the duo entering, they immedialty ducked behind the tables.

“Ah fuck they're here already!”

“Oh shit, what happened to the mechs?”

“We are soooo screwed”

“It isn’t much fun is it,” he agreed, turning his head to face Safe, “And I dunno, they might have more to throw at us. Wouldn’t shock me. They seem to have an abundance of resources.”

Safe suddenly jumped forward, stating that she was just gonna go on ahead, Okra looked near dumbfounded, “Wait what…? Okay, guess I’ll just deal with these guys myself,” he audibly sighed. He waved back at Safe and set his sights on the aliens before him. He’d make short work of the fools.

The saiyan flew forward, too quick for the alien’s to track with their blaster guns. His shoulder slammed into the center most table, sending it flying backwards. The two aliens sitting behind it were unfortunately carried along as the table, and by extension themselves, crashed into a wall. The two aliens lay writhing on the ground, groaning in pain from the likely concussions and broken bones they had just received.

The remaining alien’s finally decided now would be a good time to shoot the bastard since he was staying still, so they started to fire willy-nilly at him. Some shots were wildly off the mark, others came hurtling right for him. The saiyan just grinned as he deftly swiped his hand and deflected a shot right back at an alien. The poor bugger yelped as it struck his gun, causing it to blow up in his face. The poor guy spun around for a moment, dazed, before dropping like a sack of rocks to the ground.

One alien’s aim was so bad, he even managed to hit one of his allies. The energy blast didn’t even come close to Okra. Instead, it whizzed its way through the air, and struck a blue alien in the gut. He wasn’t dead, but he was certainly hurt. The alien next to him gave shout.

“YOU SHOT HIM! YOU SHOT BIRCH! NICE GOING YOU TEAM KILLING FUCKTARD.”

“IT WASN’T ME, IT WAS THIS DUMB BLASTER RIFLE! IT’S MALFUNCTIONING. IT AUTO LOCKS ONTO TEAMMATES. LOOK,” he shot his rife, the blast of energy heading straight for an ally. Fortunately, the alien managed to duck down before getting hit.

“NO I DON’T WANT TO SEE, YOU DIRTY TEAM KILLER.”

In the meantime, Okra had dispatched of two more goons with simple energy blasts to the noggin. He didn’t kill em, but they may or may not be concussed and probably burnt. As the ‘team killer’ raised his head over a table to reply to his ‘ally’, Okra knocked him out with a simple blast of ki. He slumped over the table, dropping his gun. Another alien fired a shot at Okra, and the saiyan again, deflected it back at the perpetrator. His gun too, exploded, knocking him unconscious. Okra let loose a small sigh, “I better deal with the last of you quick and catch up with her.”

The saiyan zipped around the room, appearing before the remaining aliens and chopping them in the back of their necks. They all crumpled within seconds of each other. Satisfied with himself, the saiyan sent himself rocketing along the path Safe had gone. He moved at breakneck speeds in an effort to catch up with her.

He came to a stop before a large mechanical door. It had already been busted through, pried right open from the looks of things. On the other side he saw Safe inside a very white, cubed shaped room. Carefully, the saiyan stepped through the opening and came shoulder to shoulder with the saiyan hybrid, “Yo. No need to worry about our-”

He was interrupted by a loud screeching as the ceiling opened up. From the largest mech Okra had ever seen dropped. The thing was the same size of a building if not bigger! The ground shook when it landed, and Okra counted the copious amount of guns that littered the machine’s frame. In the center of the machine’s chest, was a large red circle

'Destroyinator Online, searching for targets'

'AAHAHAHAHA I HAD INTENDED FOR THIS TO DESTROY EARTH BUT I DON'T MIND A TEST RUN NOW! ENJOY DYING LOSER!'

“Well, I should really stop being surprised but I mean, this is something,” he remarked. The saiyan fired a ki blast at the machine as it turned towards them, however; before it could strike the machine, a mostly-transparent blue bubble popped into place around it, stopping the blast in its tracks, “Seriously? Guess we’ll have to get close.”

‘AAHAHAHAHA SUCKERS! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY BRAND NEW SHIELDING TECHNOLOGY!’

As the machine finished turning towards the duo, two compartments opened from its shoulders. Two large missile launchers emerged, each sporting multiple exit points for rockets to be launched from.

‘Target locked’

Twenty small missiles were launched at Okra, and Safe if she were still here. The saiyan quickly dashed to the right, avoiding the rockets and their resulting explosions that shook the room. He quickly flung himself through the air at the mech, however; the giant machine swung its arm, nearly swatting Okra like a fly. The saiyan nimbly doged to the side, but the machine pressed its attack with the same arm. It swung again, and this time the saiyan decided to try and catch it. The force behind the machine’s swing brought him to the ground. The saiyan strained as he struggled to stop the arm from smashing him into the ground. He fell to a knee before he gave an extra burst of energy, and shoved the arm off.

Panting he glanced over at Safe, “Be careful, this thing is strong as hell.”

Okra watched in astonishment, as Safe rocketed through the air and slammed into the mech. Multiple sections of the machine malfunctioned as its entire top half caved in on itself. Sparks of electricity jolted along the mech has its electronics briefly.

“Nice job!” he called out to her. He was serious too, that move had been pretty impressive. He supposed that he had initially underestimated the hybrid. It was hard to get a good judge of her strength considering their opponents, but her quick take down of the mech confirmed to him that she wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

Suddenly, the P.A system cut in again, telling the machine to activate form two. The machine sparked to life again. Its arms, missile launchers, and other various parts fell off, and from its base, numerous spinning blades emerged. Some attached themselves in place of where the arms had been, others snapping into place onto other parts of its body.

The saiyan let out an exasperated sigh, “Just don’t know when to give up do ya machine,” he remarked, frown tugging at his lips, “I grow weary of these games Commander Beat. Come down and face us yourself. Stop hiding behind your pathetic toys, they won’t stop us.”

He watched with arms crossed as Safe fired off a ki blast. The machine's spinning blades deflected the ball of energy, sending it flying right back at Safe. She easily dodged the blast, and it harmlessly nailed the wall, “Well, it was worth a shot,” a grin snuck onto his face, “It’s my turn now.”

The saiyan flew forward, ducking and weaving around the blades that threatened to cut him in two. As powerful as the machine was, it was still fairly slow. Coming close to its center frame, the saiyan reeled back his right arm, bright blue energy coalescing in his palm. He air-dashed to his left, narrowly avoiding a vertical slash from the machine. The ball of energy in his palm began to grow in size, highlighting his features with a blue tint, as he ducked under a horizontal slash. Ducking under under slash, the saiyan came close the mech's chest.

With a shout, the saiyan shot his arm forward, unleashing his pent up energy. A wave of crackling blue energy exploded from his palm. The wave widened to encompass the machine’s entire top half as it crashed into the machine’s chest. Okra felt a brief resistance, but it easily gave way as the top half of the machine vaporized from the sheer heat. The machine’s arms, which had been come slashing once more at Okra, halted in mid air.

His attack’s energy dissipated. Smoke wafted from the top of the machine’s frame, concealing the extent of the damages. Briefly, it twitched and its arms inched forward before once again coming to a stop. Okra let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his brow.

Slowly, the smoke cleared, revealing the mechs damage. Its head, along with its neck, and a sizable portion of the upper half of its chest, were all gone. Its frame crackled with electricity, emitting small jolts along its surface.

Okra descended to the ground, and let out a yawn, “Well, that was pretty tiring. Anyways, I think it’s done for sure this time,” he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, “Oh yea, nice attack again. Pretty impressive stuff. To be honest, I think I underestimated you early. You’re pretty powerful aren’t you.”

“Well,” he glanced at her and pointed up at the metal gate, “Think we should go through there? I’d blow it up myself, but after this attack and the homing one from earlier, I’m feeling a little drained. Think you can handle it?”

He absolutely was feeling a little tired, the saiyan had expended a lot of energy in an inefficient manner to deal with the guns from earlier, and now this giant mech. Which, he hoped was down for the count, but he couldn’t be sure.

“You know, I’m surprised that Commander guy didn’t say anything to us after we destroyed his machine a second time."

---

“Weak? Last I remember I was one of the strongest saiyans in the kingdom,” he muttered under his breath, of course that had been nearly two years ago. A lot could change in that time. He listened as Safe offered him a place on some sort of ‘team’. She said he wouldn’t be able to kill if he joined, and that somewhat irked him. Killing had its place in battle, but they had already had that discussion, and it seemed there was no way they would be able to change each others mind.

Philosophy differences aside, Okra also had to consider his duty to the kingdom. He was a saiyan warrior who served his race’s best interests. He had a duty to uphold and he intended to return to the kingdom and serve it throughout the rest of his days. He just had to find Vocado to figure out the current situation.

So, he somewhat turned her down, “I’m afraid not, Safe. Philosophy differences aside, I fully intend to return to the Saiyan Kingdom after I find my cousin, Vocado. I admit, I’m a bit unaware as to what’s happened in the past two years. I’m hoping he can fill me in a little bit, and for some reason, I feel he’s here on Earth. I have a duty to uphold to my race, and I aim to ensure I can serve my nation’s best interest,” he finished.

He watched as Safe ascended and tried to punch her way through the door. She dented a fair bit, but the person whom Okra assumed was Commander Beat, just opened the door for the two. Okra levitated, trailing behind Safe. He followed her through the door’s opening and came to a room looking very similar to the one they had come from, although; this one had red tiles in place of white.

“These guys don’t have much imagination,” he remarked. Safe stepped forward, causing the room to detect the motion.

An intercom crackled to life, 'MOVEMENT DETECTED IN... SUPER DESTROYINATOR LAIR ECKSDEE. DEPLOYING SUPER DESTROYINATOR FOR COMBAT TESTING.'

“Jesus, another one?” the saiyan sighed. Another machine dropped from the ceiling, although; this one was less of a mech and more a rolling tank of death. He had blades, missiles, guns, the whole shebang. Whoever designed these had way too much time on their hands.

The intercom came to life again, and the man or alien proceeded to mock them, making a joke about how offense was the best defense and choking on a quesadilla, apparently?

The saiyan dashed to the side as a missile came flying at him. As he flew he grunted, “You’re seriously eating right now? Is this entertainment for you?”

The shield hand came flying through the air at the saiyan. It was too big to dodge, and instead he braced himself. It pushed him back through the air a fair distance and stung his arms, but he was otherwise unhurt. A trio of missiles came at him, but the saiyan stopped him with his own ki blasts. The rockets were stuck by the orbs of ki a fair distance away from him. They exploded, giving a fiery spectacle.

Okra thought of an idea. He zipped through the air, weaving around the machines various attacks. He kept a close eye on the missile launcher, waiting for it to reload. The warrior didn’t have to wait long. As the machine began to prep the firing of the missiles, he watched the loading mechanism. Right before a salvo of rockets launched, the saiyan stopped and let loose a single a single blast of ki. Unfortunately for him, his momentary stopped him from avoiding another strike from the shield hand. It swatted him out of the air like a fly, and the saiyan slammed into the ground, forming a small crater where he landed.

However, his orb of energy found its mark. As soon as the missiles launched, it struck one while it was still in the rocket tube. The resulting explosion blew apart the machine’s missile launcher. It shuddered for a moment, but otherwise was still operational. Still, smoke wafted the remains of its missile launcher. Okra had done some damage.

The saiyan pulled himself up from the crater, wiping away the blood that dripped from a cut on his lip, “At least I hurt it,” He chuckled to himself. He glanced up at the ceiling, yelling, "Why don't you come down here and fight us yourself you coward? Are you gonna keep hiding behind your pathetic machines?"

The machine started to speed up, focusing it’s attention solely on Safe. Okra wanted to help, but the thing was becoming so quick it was hard to track it with his eyes. His eyes widened as it zipped around the room and smashed into Safe, all in about half a second. He watched as she was slammed into the wall, hard. She was dragged across the room, and tiles along the wall were broken apart, revealing the underlying circuitry.

The lights suddenly shut off and Okra struggled to see as his vision slowly adjusted. However, he could definitely tell that the machine had slowed down. It suddenly hit him what had happened, Safe had ripped out the circuity in the walls as she was dragged across the room. It was a genius move and he was impressed.

In the darkness, he could barely make out Safe, she looked… different. She had grown taller, her eyes a blood red that glowed in the dark. She had transformed into something else. The hybrid almost looked like a monster in the dark. Judging from her rather rabid and jerky movements, she didn’t seem to be in total control of herself. Steam was even coming off her body.

He merely watched as Safe quite easily dispatched the machine. The hybrid grabbed it and slammed it into the floor, causing the machine to break apart. Okra had to quickly dodge some of the debris that came his way.

He watched as Safe seemed to be looking for another target. The saiyan smartly decided not to make his presence known, and instead waited. An intercom came to life, and he watched as the hybrid reacted to the noise and destroyed the machine. Another popped to life, and once again, she readily destroyed it. Okra was beginning to wonder if she would ever turn back to normal.

He didn’t have to wonder long. After destroying the second intercom, she seemed to transform back into her base form. She slowly started to fall from the air. Without hesitation, the saiyan dashed across the room, and easily caught the hybrid in his arms.

He looked down at her, “You alright? That was some pretty impressive stuff there.”

“No worries,” Okra replied, “I’ve seen people do a lot worse. Perhaps you’ll be able to use it soon. Control your anger and use it as a weapon… or something,” he finished lamely. Okra could tell she was tired, but nevertheless she pressed onward. The woman easily broke through to the next door revealing the infamous commander. Okra followed her through.

The commander was an earthling, dressed in military uniform. He had a whole bunch of food stacked at his command dashboard. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to have any guards with him. The man quickly grabbed his, pulled a lever that brought down a glass barrier to stop the duo, before he was concealed by a bunch of metal and ejected from his seat.

“Well, that’s one way to make an escape,” Okra muttered. He probably could have used an energy wave to stop the cheeky bugger, but it probably would’ve killed him, and he knew Safe wouldn’t like that. He didn’t really want to make her angry, especially after that last display of power she showed.

He turned to Safe, “No I can’t sense power levels,” he listened as she continued. After her stomach rumbled, it seemed she had forgotten all about the enemy commander. Okra nearly laughed. What a one track mind. It was probably too late to track him down anyway.

“Well, I don’t have any money, but I’m pretty hungry too,” as if on queue, his stomach growled, “Uhm, so yea, food would be nice. I’ve heard Earth has excellent cuisine. It’s been something I wanted to try since I got here,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

It had certainly been an interesting day, one of the most interesting days he had since the attack. This certainly beat guarding a penal colony all day. Even if the opponents were generally weak, it had been full of surprises. He certainly didn’t expect to be fighting gigantic mech machines when he woke up today. He just figured he’d fly around some, train, eat, and then sleep. So this had been a welcome respite from his dull routine, and he found himself not wanting it to end just yet.

“Er,” he tilted his head, “I don’t really know where the nearest human restaurant is. We’re kinda in a desert, and honestly, I’m super lost. Soooo, why don’t you lead the way? I don’t care where, just some place with good grub.”