The area was clear, a rocky terrain covered by small patches of grass here and there. The rocky landscape stretched for as far as the eye could see, the horizon in all directions devoid of the very sign of civilization. The blue sky stretched out above, dotted here and there by the occasional bird flying overhead. Other then those presences, there was no other wildlife to be found. In fact, there was no other life to be found, period... Save for one being who stood in the center of it all.
His bald, golden-domed head glinted with the mid-day sunlight. The lines of red running across his body seemed to shine white in some places as well. His small stature made him seem rather unimposing, but looking at his face, a very different opinion was to be had. His closed eyes and linear face told a story of complete focus and determination. As the eyelids snapped open, revealing the red-and-gold eyes beneath, that story was confirmed as true.
An instant later, the Android burst into action. From the very beginning, his movements were clean and crisp, combining an uncanny power with absolute control and skill. It displayed an absolute mastery of his rather unique style, and as each of his five limbs moved in conjunction with each other, the air could almost be seen crackling with the intensity of it all. He was locked in the furious motion of a Kata – that is, a dance of martial arts that helps students of any style to master the basic movements.
It started with a double-block left, preformed with his left arm and leg, which snapped together at the elbow and knee joints, sweeping sideways. As the block came through, the right leg and tail swept behind it for an attack, the right arm dropping to support his body weight as he fell from mid-air. A series of flipping blocks concerning both hands and feet followed. The entire sequence was finished by a flurry of high-flying kicks and tail thrusts. It had been a beautiful, but deadly picture.
But that was only the beginning sequence. He landed in a horseback-riding stance, with his arms held up at equal and opposite angles in a double-block which covered both of his sides. That stance twisted back the way he had just come, the arms re-setting and side-blocking out again. Twin side-kicks followed, and he sustained the stance for quite some time, supporting his body weight with his tail. His arms, previously kept inward for defense, were the next to burst out as he thrust forward from his tail-stand and dove into a roll.
He came up from that roll in a double-fisted punch forward, both balled up hands thrusting directly ahead of him. He turned his palms upward and put his fingers into a clawing position, sweeping them high over his head and turning to face the other direction. The clawing attack, directed at the invisible enemy's head, bled into a hand-stand, and the Android walked forward on those hands, attacking relentlessly with both feet and his tail. That ended in a flip that brought him back to his feet, and he high-blocked with his left hand as his right leg simultaneously kicked out. Ending that sequence in a front-facing kicking stance, a middle guard about his torso, the Android prepared for the final and most acrobatic sequence of the Kata.
None of these next moves took place on the ground. He was leaping high into the air for every one. At first, he just jumped straight up, his leg snapping upward to kick at an invisible target several feet directly above him. He touched the ground only for a moment, springing forward in a flying tornado kick. Again, he didn't stay on the ground, but sprang fourth for a thrust-kick, then a hook kick which led into a side-kick, and then the largest, most impressive move of the sequence: a tripple-tornado kick given in quick succession. As he landed, his eyes closed once again, and the Android smiled.
'That's good enough for a warm-up,' he thought.
Now it was time to really get started. Invisible opponents and a dancing practice session were all well and good... For children and novices, that is. What Android 23 needed now was something a bit greater then that. He needed some resistance to his blows, something that would force him to put some real effort into his attacks and not just effortlessly cut through the air. He knew just the drill to go through. All he needed was an exceptionally large-sized rock.
He searched the area for one that was big enough. He came by one boulder that was far bigger then he was, but still, he wasn't satisfied. He looked about as he continued his search, but he wouldn't find what he was looking for until a good fifteen minute search was over. “There,” he said, pointing to a rock pillar that was easily fifty feet high. He smiled as his pointing finger changed into an outstretched hand, gripping the wrist of it with the other. Summoning his energy from within, he channeled it all into his hand. “Bakurikimaha!” he shouted, and the energy burst shot fourth from his palm.
The landscape flashed with the light of Android 23's energy as the attack hit its target right on the mark. The tower crumbled, large rocks falling from what once was its central structure and littering the ground with its debris. An immense dust cloud rose as the pillar fell, and the Android walked straight toward that dust cloud as if it had been nothing to create. In all honesty, it really was nothing to destroy that pillar. Android 23 hadn't put all that much energy into it. To a being on the level of this particular Android, destroying a big rock or two wasn't even a warm-up.
What was to happen next, however, was most certainly something to be categorized under 'Exercise.' Standing in the midst of all that debris, the Android began his workout. The tail scooted itself underneath the nearest of the big rocks, flexing upward and thrusting it into the air. As he turned to punch that one into pieces, another flew upward, and the series repeated. Soon, where there had once been several large rocks, there were many smaller ones, but those were useful to him as well.
He increased the pace of his rock throwing, creating a literal shower of gravel that rained down upon him. Furiously working arms broke them one by one, their pace faster then any normal being could hope to even see, much less keep up with. As the churning continued, the rocks began getting ever smaller, until eventually, he was creating a large pile of sand all about him. 'Accursed Geta minerals,' Android 23 thought, standing in the midst of that sand pile. 'How did they get so brittle?'
Still not ready to be finished with his work-out, however, the Android simply moved to another spot and repeated the process. That was how strength was built, repetition of strenuous activities. He was focusing on that goal as his arms continued to pump outward. It wasn't made any easier by the weighted royal uniform, its heavy lead pieces weighing down on him as he worked through his training. By the end of this second run, he was beginning to break a sweat. 'Good,' he thought.
He was getting ready to really work himself up here, but he didn't feel quite ready for his next strenuous bit of exercise just yet. He had to repeat the rock-punching exercise at least once more before he was set to move on. And so he did. This time, however, instead of concentrating on the speed of his punches, he concentrated only on their power. His goal now was to reduce the rocks as close to grains of sand as he could in a single blow. He never once succeeded in that trial, however; The closest he could get to it was a few gravel sized pieces taken off of a chunk of one of the smaller rocks.
Frowning at the results of the exercise, the Android moved on. He couldn't break his routine because of just one bad exercise. “I need another rock pile,” he muttered aloud. He walked off to renew his search.
He found what he was looking for in an enormous cliff face. Smiling at his success, he again put his palm forward. He had to grip the wrist with his other hand to deal with the kick and keep the beam attack steady, but he also had to be precise so that the whole thing wouldn't just be destroyed. “Bakurikimaha!” he shouted, moving his hand as the beam shot fourth. With that attack, he carved away the first layer of rock in large enough chunks to suit his purpose. “Perfect,” he said softly through a well-pleased smile. The first phase of the exercise was ready to begin.
He walked over to the rock pile, gripping the first of the man-sized boulders he came to with both hands. He lifted the rock high over his head, then allowed it to lower gently onto his back. He secured it in place with his tail before re-configuring his hand grip to hold it more securely. With that big rock in his hands, he turned and started walking to another place, where he reversed the motion, lifting the stone up over his head and setting it on the ground.
He repeated the process, gripping a rock, setting it on his back and moving it to a new location. He lined ten of them up side-by-side in this manner, then started on the next row. He kept on going until he had five rows of ten rocks each, giving him fifty boulders to throw. The remainders, he left behind. They were of no use to him now. The manner he went about this process was very specific, very painstakingly sure. He moved slowly to get the maximum affect out of the training. Short bursts of great strength were all well in their own right, but they were rather useless in the long haul. By controlling exactly the motions with which he moved, the First Prince was able to ensure he got the best out of this portion of the workout.
Now it was time for the real exercise to begin. He approached the first of these massive lumps of mineral, lifting it up and holding it there for a few seconds. He spun three times, moving forward as he did, and released the boulder, pushing it intensely to add in its momentum. He wanted the thing to sail as far as he could send it, his eventual target what was left of the cliff face he'd carved up before. Before he could even see if the first one had hit its target, he had the second one in his hands, held up above the ground, then spinning once more and releasing.
The procedure continued until he had gotten all fifty of the big stones thrown into the air. He didn't watch the projectile's path, but instead put both hands on his waist, arched his back and turned his head up to the sky. Sweat rolled off the back of his round head, his shoulders, it ran down his back and chest, across his legs, arms and tail. Every part of his body was drenched in sweat from this part of the workout, which, between the rock-moving and subsequent rock-throwing, had taken him nearly an hour to complete.
He didn't let himself double over, like his lungs begged him to. That only made it harder to catch your breath afterward. He couldn't let himself fall to the ground and rest, either. Such abrupt stopping of an intense workout would cause him to not only cramp up, but also throw up. This was an idea that the Android didn't like, so he forced himself to keep moving, twisting both arms about in their joints to keep the tired muscles from ceasing on him.
As he cooled himself down from that exercise, he thought about what he would do next. He had worked hard already, he knew, but he wasn't quite ready to call it quits yet. 'All I've done so far is strength training,' he thought, justifying that line of thinking even further. 'I still need to get some endurance and speed training in before I wrap it up.' He looked around himself for a bit. 'But, what am I going to use for it?' he asked himself. That was when he caught sight of a lake, and his lips curled up in a smile. 'Perfect,' he thought.
The lake was wide, and its shore served as the grounds for his first exercise. He held in his hand a small rock, which he tossed up and down as he observed the lake. The training exercise was simple, and it required no real preparation. He would toss the rock far up in the air, then try to make a lap around the lake before it hit the ground. It was one thing to just keep running lap after lap for continued exercise, but that got boring really fast. Besides, he could do sustained cardiovascular exercise by jogging back into the city from this place. For now, he needed pure speed training.
He began at once, throwing the rock over his head and taking off. He pumped his legs as hard as he could, picking up speed with each step. He rounded the whole of the lake, the waters rippling from the speeds he was putting fourth. He came across the entire perimeter of the lake and back to his starting point, holding his hand out and easily catching the rock in it. When you could move fast enough to dodge an energy beam, after all, running around an entire lake in a matter of seconds was no sweat.
He frowned at the ease with which his self-challenge had been completed. He needed to get something more out of this little exercise if he wanted to improve. Unbridled success led only to stagnation, which was a breeding ground for weakness. So, how was he going to push himself? Well, one thing was for sure. He couldn't just use the force of gravity to time himself. It was far too slow for him. No, what he needed to do was make a training regimen all his own that would push him enough to force improvement.
The idea came to him by an extension of limits. Why not try the same test, but this time use the entire valley as his track? That didn't seem like a bad idea at all. It would be harder and suck a lot more, but that was a good thing. It meant that his muscles would be responding more to the training and improving more, just as he wanted. He looked around him, mentally plotting out his course before he started on it. Throwing the rock roughly into the lake as he began to walk off toward the starting point.
Now, the question was, what would he use to time himself? He had to settle for his own reckoning. If he was fast enough to please himself by the end of this lap, he would do another one, and another one, and another and another until his muscles told him they'd learned their lesson. With a streak of golden motion that left dust kicking up behind him, following him around the perimeter of the valley.
He completed his first lap shortly, but still his muscles weren't burning quite enough. 'Not yet!' he thought in response. Not long afterward, his fifth lap came to its completion. 'Not yet!' His tenth lap. 'Not yet!!' He pushed himself ever onward, completing his twentieth lap. By this time, he couldn't deny that his legs were starting to burn up. 'NOT YET!' he demanded of himself. He managed to keep himself going well past the thirtieth circle around the place before he allowed himself to slow to a walk, which he continued until he found himself back at the lake's shore.
Following a near-compulsion, the Android walked into the waters of the lake and started swimming about casually, cooling his legs down from the exercise. 'Endurance training is next, then,' he told himself as he floated around in the waters, face down to allow the coolness of it to literally wash over him. 'And I know just the thing,' he thought. He allowed himself to continue piddling about in the water before he moved on to that training exercise.
A recurring theme once again returned to this training session. He needed a really, really big rock. He knew exactly where to find it too, the carved-up cliff face he'd visited before. He swam toward the edge of the water, standing up when he was in just a few feet of it and walking out of the pool, water dripping off of his body as he made his way inland. The dripping made a pattern across the ground as he made his way toward the cliff face, marking his trail perfectly.
He had all but dried out by the time he got to the place. A few small lines of water still dripped down his body, but in general he was far dryer, and by extension far warmer. He changed his method of carving out this time, bombarding the rock with a series of Kienzan disks to get a large block just the right size for what he was thinking. As the cube slid down the cliff face, it brought to mind the one flaw Android 23's plan. “I'm gonna have to catch that thing!?” he exclaimed more then asked, and as the block started chasing him, he started running away.
He ran hard for a good five minutes, the block of stone right on his tail. Eventually, he got tired of the game of chase with the inanimate object and, with a determined look on his face, turned around, setting himself in a strong horseback-riding stance. With that strong stance, further supported by his tail on the ground behind him, he thrust both arms out and caught the stone block. The sheer momentum it was still carrying, combined with the force of gravity, pushed him back for several yards before finally, at the base of the cliff face, it stopped.
Now it was time for endurance training, limb-by-limb. He would hold the block in the air with four limbs, supporting his weight and that of the block on the ground with the fifth. It would start with his tail, the strongest of his limbs by far. With both hands and both kegs, he wrapped himself around the block, lifting it into the air but putting opposing pressure on the ground with his tail. There, he held that position, keeping the stone block suspended in the air.
The pressure this exercise exerted on his tail was tremendous, but the Android could take it. He wasn't some puny 5 power-level human, nor even a 100-power-level human martial arts master. No, Android 23 was a Android Prince, the sole heir to the kingdom of his father, Burner, and his power level was in the thousands. That made him stronger then most other creatures in the galaxy, including a good number of the mighty Saiyans, whose accomplished 'elite warriors' only stood at a power level of ten to twenty thousand.
Of course, there were other beings in this galaxy alone that were far more powerful then that, but Android 23 was operating on galactic standards. He didn't know about the extreme exceptions.
After a relatively long time, Android 23's tail began to give out. Stopping the exercise before that could happen, he set the block down and rested for a few moments before beginning again. This time, however, he gripped the block backward, using both arms and his tail to keep a hold on it while lifting it into the air with both legs. He lifted his right leg off the ground and put that on the block as well, training his right leg for endurance instead.
His leg was burning as he held it there, supporting a very heavy block on top of it. He pushed up against it with that one limb standing between himself and the ground, the tough weights upon it forcing him to strain. He had begun to sweat again, the salty little dribblets running down his face and body and drip-dripping down to the floor. He felt the impossibility of the task he was preforming beginning to weigh down on him, but still he persisted. No way was some stupid rock going to defeat Android 23, First Prince of his Android empire!
Even when his leg buckled and threatened to snap, he didn't give up. Instead, he gave one final push, even harder then the others! He jumped up into the air, switching legs in mid-maneuver, and landed on his left. The weight of the stone on his back pushed him down toward the ground, but Android 23 pushed back just as hard, eventually lifting the block up off of the ground and stabilizing it on his left leg. 'Heh,' he thought, 'If this isn't endurance training, I don't know what is!'
He kept on fighting through the burn, through the exhaustion, through the sheer, pressing weight on his back. This tough little child-sized being just refused to give up. If he hadn't been sweating before, he most certainly was now. The five toes – more similar to actual fingers, complete with an opposing thumb – spread wide across the ground, increasing the area over which the pressure was being disbursed. That didn't do much to make the struggle easier, but it did enough. He managed to hold for quite a while. However, as it always did, the struggle eventually ended with the Android forced to drop the massive stone dead-weight to the ground.
Android 23 took another short rest after his legs had been worked out, kicking with them a few times just to get out the kinks and, as was always important, keep the muscles from cramping up. Massive muscle cramps were most decidedly not fun. Therefore, Android 23 had no intention of experiencing one. Once he had caught up with himself, he walked back over to his training spot, ready to begin the next portion of his training.
This next positioning was rather awkward. He stood with his back facing the block, his tail pressing against the lower edge of it, ready to scoot under and support it when he started lifting. Next, his leg shot out, grabbing one side of the block with his finger-like toes. His other leg shot out in the other direction, catching the other end of the block. From that position, doing a perfect split, he bent at the waist, putting his hands against the ground. Then, without giving it any further thought, he lifted with his waist, back and tail. Slowly, but surely, the block pushed off of the ground and back into the air.
Now, for a lot of people, it's hard enough just doing a handstand. Imagine, if you will, doing so with an exceedingly heavy weight held between your legs. Imagine the burn that would put on your entire body. That was the kind of burn that Android 23 felt now, but even through it he refused to quit. He kept pushing back, no matter the strain, and fought with every fiber of his being to keep that heavy weight suspended in the air. He gritted his teeth and growled as the strain on both arms continued to grow, and when the block finally began to press down crushingly upon him, he allowed it to slam back into the turf.
Everything always felt so much lighter then it did before after an exercise like that. He could feel it now as he jumped into the air with his burning legs. Perhaps he should get into the habit of wearing heaver weights? Looking down at his still-damp royal suit, he declined that possibility in short order. 'This'll do for now,' he decided. Now all that was left was a general cool down, and he was ready to head back.
He ended the session in the same way he had started it: Kata. He stood before the block of weight he'd just been straining to lift, focused internally with his eyes completely closed. He concentrated on the energy that flowed through his body, the Ki that gave him so much more power then most of his rivals. He allowed that energy to come out this time. This would be a full Kata, not just a simple warm-up like he had done before.
It was already getting dark as Android 23 snapped his eyelids open, beginning the motions of his Kata from memory. First, low-block left, step forward, middle punch. Turn with a low-block and repeat. That was the simple beginning; now was when it got more complicated. Flipping sideways, he landed on both feet and thrust downward with both fists, where the enemy's knee level would normally be. He followed with a tail thrash and a sweep kick, then reverted to a series of blocks that flowed from one into another.
Ki blasts were not far behind, these playful tosses not really dangerous to anybody, save for the weak environment around him. Explosions resounded as he leaped high, kicking front and back in another perfect split, blasting down with both hands and keeping his tail coiled back in defense. On the way back down to Geta, he initiated a long series of swirling tornado kicks, eventually coming to rest on both feet and one hand, crouched in a springing position.
A thrust kick from that spot was what came next, and Android 23 executed it masterfully. He landed and flowed straight into an axe-kick, which kicked up dirt as his heel dropped down into it. He rolled forward low, turning on his backside by using his tail as a trigger. The defensive frontward roll was instantly transformed into an offensive kicking back flip. Again, he landed in a low, crouching position. This time, though, he did not take an acrobatic approach to his movements.
Stepping forward twice was the overall motion that proceeded. Two fists twisted about, one supporting the other as they twirled around each other for a new punch with every step. The combination of attacks would have wrecked havoc on the body of any enemy unfortunate enough to be caught in that linear motion, and with the tail sweep that followed as Android 23 changed directions, they would have been laid low and out cold in short order. That was the end of this sequence, and the beginning of another at the same time.
This other direction was one of his more favorite Kata motions. He launched forward ferociously, the Ki ball in his hands acting as a club rather then a projectile. He proceeded with a thrust of his other hand, which had a Ki beam cutting through the darkening air. The ball he had in his hand was launched out toward the side, the melee weapon becoming a deadly ranged blast. Another flipping kick brought him into a position for a double-palmed Ki beam.
The series of Ki attacks bled perfectly into a string of martial blows. A solid flurry of fists and feet and tail, almost impossible to keep up with only the eye, launched out of the small Android. Acrobatics factored in once again, and soon the whirlwind of blows was not only on the ground, but often in the air. It was truly a dazzling spectacle, the speed and precision with which each attack was launched at his invisible opponents.
As the Kata ended, Android 23 went into a massive back flip that carried him yard after yard over the terrain, back toward the nearby like. He allowed himself to land peacefully in it as the sun finished its setting and day bled into night. He didn't need air to breathe. He could rest undisturbed at the bottom of this lake after his hard day's workout. And just think! That would save him the trouble of a bath in the morning. Before the Android had even hit the bottom, he was already asleep.
Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:36 am
