Ava Quest # 23 - Land of Opportunity

Land of Opportunity

Easy Quest

Requirement: None

Reward: 1,000 zeni

After a call to a local radio station, you've won a chance to spar one of Earth's most famous fighters, Pocky Bulbnosa. It will be in front of a live audience and televised all across the globe. Be warned he is no push over and has a reputation of fighting dirty.
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Ava was at home, on one of her days off. Aria was helping her grandfather at his church and the town was having a much deserved public holiday. She was laying in her bath. Just relaxing.

This past week had been tough on her. She had broken up with Kaval, her ex-best friend had tried to kill her and came pretty close too. She just needed to unwind and relaxed a little bit.

She was just drifting off when the phone rang. She looked over to it and sighed. She got out, wrapped herself in a towel and walked over to the phone. She picked it up.

“Hello.” She said.

“Hello… am I talking to Ava?” a man on the other side of the phone said.

“Yes…” she said, already suspicious.

“I got your number from the Dragon’s Heath Prison warden…” the man said.

“Yes…” she said, already regretting having picked up the phone.

“I am the local DJ at the West City Radio studios, do you have a minute?” he asked her.

“Make it quick, I was busy relaxing…” she sighed.

“Ok, basically, we would like to promote one of our events.” He said, happily.

Ava, on the other hand, wasn’t so enthusiastic.

“Okay… why do me to promote one of your events?” she sighed.

“It’s a publicity stunt. You’ll be fighting one of the world’s most famous fighters.” He said to her.

“Agan Son?” she asked him.

“Um… no, Pocky Bulbnosa.” He said and the name didn’t ring any bells for her.

“Oh… never heard of him…” she admitted, shifting her weight onto her other leg and putting her hand on her hip.

“Really, he’s only the most famous fighter on the planet.” The man laughed.

“Okay… is he any good?” she asked him.

“Very good. You have no chance of winning.” The man said.

She nodded to herself.

“We’ll see.” She smiled.

“So you’ll do it?” he asked.

“I expect monetary compensation for my participation.” She told him.

“Of course. Be at the West City Tournament arena in two days time. It will be televised as well.” He said.

“Fine. But don’t cry to me when your champ loses.” She said, hanging up.
She went back to her bath. That was the easiest money she had ever made.





Two days later, she headed into West City, right to the arena. She leaded outside and walked in.
She could see immediately that the stadium was full and everyone one was excited. It looked like a normal tournament, crowd wise. She walked up to the admission desk and saw that there was only one person there.
She stopped in front of them and they looked up at her.

“Ava.” She said simply.

“Ah, the woman we’ve been waiting for. This way please.” the man said, getting up and walking off.

She followed him into the competitor’s suite. It was quiet strange being the only one there. Usually it was filled with fighters, Agan leaning over the entrance board, watching the crowds and the fights, and Kaval, leaning against the wall over to her right.

She sighed. She missed him.

“You can wait here until we call you out. There’s food and refreshments in the waiting room.” He said, walking off.

Ava watched him as he walked off. He seemed fairly vague about her role here. He knew who she was and why she was here, but why the food. There was never food here before. She shrugged it off and went to go eat some food.

She walked into the room and saw that a table had been set up for her, with many different types of food. She smiled and walked over to the table and looked around.

She grabbed a pink fruit at the front of the table, the only one there was. She had never seen this bulbous fruit before. Maybe it grew in some obscure little corner of the globe, with only one person able to get it high atop the tallest mountain.

She laughed at her own little personal joke and bit into the fruit and looked at the other food. It tasted strange too. Like a banana mixed with a berry. She didn’t know what berry, but it was good. Pity there was only one. She took another bite into the red flesh and grabbed a plate. She piled her plate up and walked over to the table and began eating.

Halfway through her plate, she began to feel full, a strange feeling for her. She had very rarely been full in her whole life and usually, half a plate didn’t do it.
She touched her stomach and wondered what was going on. She sighed and pushed the plate away. She got up and went to go lie down on the couch for a little bit of a nap.

She woke up to someone shaking her violently.
“WAKE UP!” the man shouted at her.

“Wha…” she sat up and pushed him aside.

It was Pocky Bulbnosa’s assistant.
“You’re up in two.” He said, to her.

“Two what?” she asked him, touching her head.
It was throbbing.

“Minutes!” the man shouted at her.

She nodded and got up. She followed him out, but she seemed to be moving too slowly for her taste. Her legs weren’t working the way they should have been. She stumbled suddenly and slammed into the side wall of the hall. The assistant turned and looked at her as she slid down wall to the floor.

“What the hell…” she said, trying to get up, but the strength in her arms had failed her.

“The fruit…” she finally realized.

She looked up at the assistant and began to fly up, if somewhat wobbly. She straightened her legs out and landed again.

“WHAT WAS THAT FRUIT ON THE TABLE?” she shouted at him but her vision began to blur. She shook her head and looked back at him.

“Bananas, pomegranates, apples, what?” he asked her.

She shook her head again.

“No, no, the pink bulbous fruit at the front. It tasted like a banana crossed with a berry of some sort?” she asked him, feeling her legs turn to jelly.

“There’s no such fruit, miss.” He told her.

“DON’T PLAY DUMB, I JUST ATE ONE…” she shouted at him.

“No time for that now, you’re up.” He said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the arena.
He pushed her out into the grounds and the bright light blinded her for just a second.

Kaval and Agan were watching the fight in the stands. They had heard that the strongest human on earth had found a fighter dumb enough to take him on and they were curious to see who it was.

“Is that?” Kaval asked Agan, who was sitting next to him.
“Yeah, guess you were right. She is here.” Agan smiled.
This fight would be good.

She heard cheering and when her vision was somewhat better, she looked around. Everyone was cheering her on. In the middle of the arena was a tall man with tanned skin and short black hair spiked up like a teenager’s. He had stunning green eyes visible even from this distance.

Ava stood up right and took in a deep breath. She took a step forward and felt her legs almost give way under her, but she caught herself with her ki control. She just hovered above the ground the rest of the way, making steps to look like she was walking. She stepped up to the arena and walked over to Pocky Bulbnosa. She stopped in front of him and he looked her up and down.

“So, you’re Ava.” He smiled at her.

His white teeth nearly blinded her as she averted her eyes.

She nodded.

She couldn’t feel her tongue anymore, so she wouldn’t try and speak to him. She wondered if he had put the fruit on the table to try and give him an advantage. She looked at him and her vision swam as she tried to focus on him. She saw several Pocky Bulbnosa’s in front of her. She was going to lose this fight unless things got better soon.

“You ready?” he asked her.

Her eyes shot open and she stepped back, holding up her hands, shaking her head. She needed to recover first.

“Aw, are we scared?” he laughed at her.

She shook her hands more vigorously as to indicate that she wasn’t, but he took it as a sign of pure terror.

“Oh, I get it. I’ll go easy on you.” Pocky Bulbnosa said, moving into his starting position. She recognised it as the Crane technique.

This technique relied on power and overwhelming opponents with it, as she had learned, but in this state, she couldn’t defend against it.

He launched at her, and saw five Pocky Bulbnosa’s flying towards her, fists drawn. She gasped and fell to the ground, and curled up into a ball, shaking uncontrollably.

Kaval and Agan saw immediately that something was wrong. She was wobbly on her feet, in flight and she was being submissive in the fight. It wasn’t like her.

“Something’s wrong.” Kaval said to Agan, not taking his eyes of Ava.

Pocky Bulbnosa began pummelling her body as she was hunched over in a ball. She felt each impact and pain ripped through her body. What the hell was this guy and why were his punches hurting her so much. She tried to scream for him to stop, but she couldn’t.

“She’s weak, slow and unsure. Yeah, something’s really wrong.” Agan stood up and walked to the steps. He made his way down to the bottom railings.

“AVA!” he shouted to her.
She lifted her head up and looked at him while Pocky beat her mercilessly.

“GET UP. FIGHT!” he shouted at her.

She shook her head at him.

He frowned and jumped over the railings, flew over to her, and hovered above her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

They crowd stopped cheering and Pocky turned and looked at him.

“Hey, no tag teaming.” He shouted at Agan.

“Shut up.” Agan said to him as he landed in front of Ava and pulled her up.

He set her down and removed his hands. She began to fall over sideways but he caught her. He looked into her eyes and saw that they were cloudy and unfocused.
He looked back at Kaval and gestured him to come closer. He flew down and landed at their side.

“Look.” Agan whispered to Kaval.

He moved away and Kaval stepped up in front of her. She didn’t even recognise him. She just stood there like a zombie.

“What the hell is wrong with her?” Kaval asked Agan, who just shrugged.

“What about this fight, there’s a lot of people who came to see it, you know.” Pocky said to them. Kaval looked at him over her shoulder and growled at him.

Pocky backed off a little bit but still stayed in the ring. Kaval looked back at Ava and shook her by her shoulders slightly.

“Ava, wake up…” he said to her.
“Wake up…” he repeated himself.

Her cloudy eyes seemed to pan over to him and a slight smile broke out on her lips.

“Kaval…” she smiled weakly.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked her.

“Fruit, made me… drugged…” she spoke incoherently, but the message got through.

“What fruit?” Agan asked her.

She held up her hands to show how big it was. But then they fell back down to her sides.

“There’s no telling what she ate.” Agan sighed.
“She’ll have to sleep it off.” He added.

“But the fight…” she lolled her head over to Pocky and smiled.

“Can you still make a ki blast?” Kaval asked her.

She held up her hand and made a tiny ball but it whizzed off and exploded above them.

Kaval turned her around and pointed her in the direction of Pocky.

“Now, attack him.” He said.

She put her hands together and made a small ball of ki. She shot it off and it hit him in the chest. It was barely a quarter of what she was capable of, but it worked. It pushed Pocky back and out of the arena. He popped his head over the side and saw that her head was rolling around on her shoulders, on the point of passing out.

She dropped her hands and the ki came streaming out of it as she passed out, breaking up the tiles at their feet.. Kaval grabbed her hands and blocked the ki until it stopped.

He picked her up into his arms and looked at Agan. He knew where she lived. Agan got the message, nodded and flew off.

The organizer ran up to Kaval and Ava and slipped a cheque into her pocket.

Kaval nodded to him and then he took off after Agan.

They landed at her house and walked up to the door. There was a note stuck to the outside. Agan ripped it off and read it.

“I expect to see you soon. Remember our deal. Chiller.” He read out loud and turned to look at Kaval behind him.

“Chiller, but we killed him.” Kaval said, looking into her face as she lay passed out in his arms.
“And what deal?” he asked her at if she was awake.

“Let’s just get her inside.” Agan said, taking the key out of her pocket and opening the door.

Kaval walked down to the last room, the master bedroom and lay her down on her bed. He stepped back and looked down at her.
“We need to protect her.” he said to Agan.

“She can protect herself.” Agan told him.

“Obviously not!” Kaval turned and shouted at him.
“Shenron knows what she ate and why she’s acting so weird.” He said, looking back at her.
“I’ll wait here till she wakes up. Then I’ll ask her about this letter.” He said, sitting down on the chair in the corner of the room.

“Kay, but Bulma’s not going to be happy.” Agan said, walking out.

Kaval nodded and settled in for a long wait as he heard Agan close the door behind him.

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END
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Quest Status – Completed
WC - 2367