A Not So Proper Welcome (Solo)

The next day after his conversation with his friend, Subazerot was now heading to the train with his new friend and mentor. The wind quickly passing across his body as his aura had enveloped around him, his ki propelling him forward as he soared above the clouds.

Having already had some "great" adventures, the only thing the changeling Subazerot wanted was a true training with his master, The Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi. More importantly, he had to worry about the troubles his father and his PTO goons is giving to Nuindo and the other fighters of Earth. He have to become more powerful to confront them and put an end to this. This is what he had decided, this is his choice.

He thought of this as he flew with power towards the isle of the hermit. As he neared the location, he discreetly slowed down, not planning to mess up the landing and get scolded again like the time he met Roshi. He was not planning to get on the bad side of the hermit.

Subazerot stopped and hovered a few feet off the ground when he had neared enough to be directly below dry land. He landed without a sound, his feet touching the soft, green grass beneath him. There, he faced a house that looked like it was just completely built a day ago, but, who knows, it could've been older than his father was... heck, it could've even be built before his father's father's time.

The door was then opened, revealing a man in his teenage years, wearing beach shorts and shirt, with sun glasses. It was definitely Master Roshi. Although it was quite surprising considering his appearance, it could be said that the hermit was even older than the house.
Subazerot tried to approach his master but before he could, he heard a noise from his right that he was somewhat familiar with, it was the sound of heavy, fast flying with ki. Someone was nearing the island. He turned to see and saw two figures enveloped in white ki.

Alarmed, the changeling quickly took a stance and never took his eyes off of them. As they got closer, the young alien could see the duo's appearance more clearly. Both of them had clothing that had the color green on the torso and yellow on the sleeves.

"The Crane School" Roshi muttered. The changeling saw the hermit had showed an expression other than one that was carefree-like for the first time, he saw irritation and anger on the face of his master.

The Crane School, he thought. What would've these people have done or how are they connected to Roshi, these continued to disturb him as the Crane duo was approaching. The two landed, which made their appearance clearly and more identifiable. The one on the left was the short one, just about as tall as the changeling was. He was bald, had a tanned complexion, and had a gruff expression. The man was grinning wickedly, like he was looking at his prey. The other one however, was rather silent. He had a pale complexion and was also bald like his friend. He was almost the exact opposite of his partner, having a kind and sad face and he let off the atmosphere of a calm, mature individual.

For a minute, there was a silence with a dangerous atmosphere. The one who broke the quiet air was Roshi. "So, what does the Crane School want with me now?" he asked, with annoyance visible from his face and voice.

"My master heard you got a new pupil. He wants us to give him a proper "welcome", from the Crane School of course" The short one answered, still grinning.

This made Roshi glance towards Subazerot, who was still at his stance. The two from the Crane School, followed Roshi's gaze towards him andturned to the direction of the changeling. Apparently, this fighters hadn't even known or noticed the alien until now.
The two immediately dashed towards the poised warrior without any warning. The charge surprised Subazerot, not having seen anyone that fast in a while. But, he knew this was gonna turn into a fight. The changeling, out of reflex, quickly sidestepped to the left. The two however, wasn't as dumb as to fall for it as they changed directions with ease. But they weren't trying to chase the alien, they took off to the opposite direction and stopped.

The young alien was now facing two skilled fighters just a few feet away from him. Behind them was Roshi, who hasn't even moved a muscle. Is this a test or what?, he thought to himself, confused that his master hasn't come to his aid at all.

Subazerot knew he had to fight to survive this day, and he knew that these two means serious business. The alien was regulating his breath, thinking deeply on what he should do next, especially against these two. He had to be careful on his moves, or it could be certain death for him. The tall fighter moved in on him first, flying straight to his face with his right leg outstretched and feet pointed nearly completely straight like an arrow as if to stomp him in mid-air.
Having expecting such an attack, Subazerot swayed his head to the side, barely dodging the kick with his foe's feet grazing him on his left cheek. He felt a sting as the graze let off steam. He had no time to for nonsense and quickly turn around, only to find that his opponent has thrown a left hook at him already. It landed cleanly on his temple, leaving him staggering and stunned. All he could see was outlines of what he had seen, ripples of figures heading for him. He shook his head, clearing his vision and consciousness. The first thing he saw clearly was a fist right in front of him, nearing his face quickly. Another punch landed on his face, blowing him a feet away and crashing onto the wall of Roshi's house.

He was now leaning on the partially destroyed wall, with remnants and rubble all around him, the two from Crane School walking away and Roshi rushing to his side. This was the last clear thing he saw. Then, everything was starting to swirl around the changeling, figures were going blur, he was slowly closing his heavy eyes with no intent of doing so. He had no energy left to recover and get up. His body felt like it was weighing a ton, he couldn't even think straight and in an instant, everything went black.

As Subazerot woke up, he felt warm leather on his back, he felt comfortable. But at the same time he felt pain on his head, like his brain had been bouncing around inside his skull. He held the side of his head reflexively. The damage from the hits he took was still there, and he had a feeling his opponent was still opponent was still holding back on him, as he remembered that before he took the finishing blow, the tall Crane School student was smiling and hadn't even broke a sweat.
The changeling was still lying down on the couch, realizing that he lost, and well, he hadn't in a long time until now. He now understood that there are still many fighter who are stronger, and will keep getting stronger. He understood that if he want to be able to protect Earth, he have to train hard, harder than anyone could.

"Oh, you're awake" a voice came from his right, he was all too familiar with this voice. He knew who to expect as he sat up and turned to where the sound came from.

There, he saw his friend, Nuindo, sitting on the floor next to the changeling. Nuindo had a grin on his face, like he'd been expecting this to happen. Why would a friend want him to be beaten? Subazerot was puzzled.

"You finally felt defeat in a long time huh" Nuindo said as he patted him on the shoulder and the grin on his face vanished. "You needed it to realize. But, did you really?"

So Nuindo was actually wanted him to learn from his lose, this cleared things up and made him happy. He gave his old friend an honest response, "Yeah, I did".

But... there was still one thing he was wondering about, something that disturbed him, "Why didn't Master Roshi do anything to help me anyway?".

Silence came, the leaves of the coconut trees swayed by the brushing and passing of the ocean breeze, and after a minute, his friend finally answered, "It's rather complicated...". The tall, green skinned xeno paused for a second and started to scratch his bald head like he was unsure if he really had to say it, even though the last minute could've already gave him enough time to make that decision.

"The Crane School and the Turtle School have been rivals for a very long time. Sometimes, when there's a new student from either schools, a few of the students from the other school will "visit" and test the newcomer" Nuindo then continued as he stood up. "This happens before that newcomer will have to fight in a "true" test in a few days, fighting another student from the other school. Usually we play it safe, but the Crane School, they're the aggressive ones".

This made it clear to the changeling, now he understood the situation. He realized that the reason of his master's action. He stood up with his head facing down, looking down at the floor.
Subazerot gripped his fists as hard as he could, as although he was happy to know, he was nervous, he had just gotten his "initiation" and sometime later he had to fight a student from a rival school. Who knows, his opponent might be the same man who beat him recently, or even somebody stronger, and the changeling hasn't even trained with Master Roshi even once.

Subazerot's expression must have given him away some, because his friend tried to cheer him up with "Don't worry, you still have time. Roshi's gonna train you, I'm sure of it" as if he was reading the small alien's mind.

The changeling was happy of what his friend had said. Of course! There is still enough time to train with the hermit. He had enough time to get stronger, strong enough to be a match for the Crane School fighters. He will catch up to them and have the power to confront the PTO, but he would to face the Crane School first before doing so. This lifted his spirits and actually made him smile.
Subazerot hugged his old acquaintance, and as he did so, he felt warmth on his face, he knew he was blushing badly but he was not ashamed of it as he was very grateful to his friend, his friend who have had his back for some time now and is one of the only ones who actually accepted the real him.

"Thanks. I'll work hard, you should too. I assume you're also a student of Roshi's" The changeling then said after he pulled away.

"It's that obvious isn't it." He chuckled. "Well, see 'ya on the day of the test. I'll be watching".

Nuindo turned and walked towards the beach outside with a smile on his face that didn't seem to go away, even when he left the house and flew away, probably back to West City.

Subazerot also came outside, planning to go home. The stars shimmering on the night sky, the crescent moon glowing, with almost no clouds in sight. But, he had to take care of something first. He approached the hermit, who was staring at the beautiful view of the night and standing with his back facing the changeling. Roshi turned towards him with a calm expression. One look and the small alien knew, the hermit knows what he wanted to say.

"Looks like our training for today has been postponed, and it looks like you just found the answer you needed" Roshi said as he smiled.

"Yes master. I'll be going now, but promise me something..." Subazerot answered calmly with a straight face, he had to request a very rigorous and dangerous rare training but he had to loosen up the atmosphere somehow.

"Please let me have at least one day of proper training" he jokingly added with a chuckle. The changeling felt he needed to do it, he chose to postpone his request and just have a normal day of training as a "real" first day of training, he was in no hurry after all.

Roshi put out his right hand and the small alien shook it. Subazerot knew they had a silent agreement, an agreement that they would keep, an agreement to support each other to become stronger.

Master Roshi turned and walked inside his house, disappearing from the changeling's sight as he closed the door behind him. The alien took this as a sign to go home and flew away to the direction of Satan City, back to his residence and home, back to Martha's house.

TWC - 2,203