Forced Changes (Zenke)

Sojourner had asked for leave from the Coalition's work orders to get a grip on the new changes his body had went from when he recovered from his injuries during his last mission to the serion outpost in the middle of bum fuck icy nowhere. He had lost many things but gained things of greater use to him in the process. Something that pleased and confused him at the same time.

He went to "The Hole" the ruined remains of Chicago where only empty destroyed city remnants and mindless minor hollow were now. Rebuilding the city was impossible since the area was now a reishi rich environment due to the spiritual fallout from the attack that had destroyed it. Making it almost like a tiny pocket of Hueco Mundo on Earth for weak hollow.

Seemed the perfect place for him to get an idea of his new limitations. He didn't have alot of spiritual power but he was rich with energy thanks to one of his new powers, something that would draw any hollow towards him for food sake, and it gave him plenty of punching bags to test his new "body" on.

It seemed more odd to him, having slain a few hollow by this time, that his non-dominant hand.. his left.. had gained a new sort of power that made no real sense.

Something he was still testing the limits of as he stood in place and backhanded the air to his left causing an almost hurricane like effect from the sheer force the blow had behind it. Something in his mind told him that such a force would serve him well against his more supernatural enemies.

He slowly noticed and came to fine tune, the fact his human senses had been put to higher levels. As he could hear, see, and smell much better than he could before his attack, yet it seemed to not be a constant thing.. something he could not turn off. He had control of it somehow..it felt natural to go from normal senses to heightened and back again with ease.

He stood there clenching his fists over and over in the middle of a circle of dead hollow. Just trying to figure out what all had changed and what all hadn't. He tested his matter regeneration power during his skirmishes and found he could no longer absorb things.. but that he now had constant regeneration in it's place. This would make it harder for him to gauge the amount of damage he could take without a proper test..but for now that didn't matter as much.

He thought he heard someone that wasn't a hollow somewhere in the city using his enhanced sensory prowess,, but he couldn't tell just yet because he was still working on figuring that whole mess out...

In part of the less destroyed but still abandoned city, a girl of 19 walked through the broken street, not really doing anything. The girl had red hair and luminescent green eyes. She wore a pink plaid skir and a black undershirt under a long red coat that was a open at the waist. She also wore shin high leather boots. Her left arm was covered by a white sleeve with a black cuff, and her right arm was metal from above the elbow down. 

Vyn had come out here to avoid being near areas to populated by people. Zackary wasn't far, but she'd left him in their base to take a walk and get a look around the city. So far she hadn't attracted any attention, because she wasn't making any noise, and there was nothing for anyone to sense off of her. The girl gave off no spiritual energy, or any signiture at all. Her skin prickled, her bioelectric skin pulling towards something behind her. Vyn took a step to the side as something suddenly lunged at her  from behind. A hollow stumbled past. 

It wasn't the only one, she realized. They others came stalking out from hiding. To the hollow that were now moving towards her, she was just a normal girl. "Easy snack." One muttered. The other one laughed. She rolled her eyes at them, and when the first one lunged again she jabbed it in the face with her fist hard enough it's head exploded. The other hollow stared at her in shock, but didn't seem to get the picture. It lunged too with a roar and she stepped it out of the way. 

She jumped and kicked it in the back, sending the hollow across the street into a wall. More hollow seemed to emerge, all foolishly rushing her. She'd heard hollow were stupid, but this was beyond idiotic. Vyn burst through them, faster than they could comprehend, a blur of red, striking with blows that shattered bones and mask and sent hollow flying in all directions. One of the hollow threw a punch and she caught its fist, shaking her head. She crushed it in her hand and threw the hollow at a wall. 

With that, she turned and started walking again. She turned a corner and spotted someone in the distance. She could pick out the details of his face from where she stood with her keen eyesight. She wasn't sure what he was doing, but it didn't concern her. She started walking again, ignoring him. And then more hollow appeared. "Oh for fuck sake..." She said, rolling her eyes again.

He had heard the Hollow talking, which confirmed his earlier suspicion that someone else was nearby, then caught the unmistakable roar of an attacking hollow soon after. Meaning something had happened that the hollow didn't like. Only to look and see a woman, a young girl, and that she was fighting the hollow off. Seeming to do quite well at it too all things considered.

When she got surrounded again he decided to step in. Not because she needed it but because that is just the kind of man. He had almost seemed to appear near her since she wasn't paying attention to him at the time and decapitated the hollow with a light saber in one spin motion after a short hop to make sure he didn't hit her.

He landed and smirked as he put the handle of the light saber back on his waist where it went. The energy beam of a blade turning off of course. Hollow were not only stupid when not evolved but they weren't a threat to someone of Michael's level. Or this girl it seems. Interesting. He took a quick glance at her. More noticing her lack of spiritual energy and her metal arm than anything else.

Bounto? No. Bounto had a distinct......flair.. about them.. and he knew most of the bounto still alive.. This girl definitely gave him the vibe of being human. Especially when he considered that arm. A bounto was a spiritual being. While spiritual bodies were not unheard of to have mechanical additions....they were extremely rare even among Shinigami. So her being human was the most logical conclusion he could make. True or not.

"Greetings." He said, as his thinking had only taken a moment and he had still just finished killing the hollow around her, "interesting arm you got there... Maybe you could use it to help me with something..?" He clenched his fist but didn't move, not even to face her, "I'm in need of a proper test of my new body.. and you seem capable enough. Fancy something to do?"

As soon as he got within  50ft of her, even though she wasn't looking, her bioelectric skin alerted her. She turned and looked directly at him and seen him swinging that sword her way, but he jumped and hit the hollow behind her. Still she was slightly alarmed since she hadn't been expected him to come rushing over. But maybe he just liked killing hollow, since that's what he proceeded to do. She examined the stranger for a moment. She couldn't sense, so she didn't know what he was. Human, possibly, he didn't have any of the calling cards of most other races, no mask, no hollow hole, no katana. Regardless it didn't matter  to her.

She left him to it and started walking away only for him to talk to her. She stopped to listen to him. She didn't understand if he was trying to imply something, or what that something was. She started to walk again but decided to atleast answer him. "I'm not entirely sure why my metal hand would be of use to you unless you've got some sort of prosthetic fetish. In which case, no I will not give you a hand. Also that's really creepy..." She said. She noticed how he was clenching his fist, which put her on edge. She was not a people person, and was starting  to wonder if he was just going to attack her.

It made sense that you'd find wierdos out in the hole, though she wasn't extremely worried. "I don't know what you want buddy but I wouldn't try anything. I'm not the forgiving type, so just keep you distance." She said as she started walking away again, though she was paying a little more attention should he decide to attack her from behind.

"I just told you I wanted to test my new body..and what better way to do that than someone who's got a metal arm. I would have just asked Kai to contact Gaige but I'm sure she's busy with her own crap and I needed time to figure out what else had changed since my recovery anyways." He was now looking at her when he said that but she was already walking away. What a rude woman... oh well it wasn't any of his business how others acted unless they were committing crimes or it was a job.

She then proceeded to threaten him. Which struck a nerve, "Hey lady I haven't done anything except be a bit chivalrous against those hollow and ask for your assistance with something. The attitude is uncalled for."

and he was in front of her. again. He didn't teleport or anything but he was certainly there. His muscles were responding much better than normal it seemed. Frowning and crossing his arms, "I would like an apology at the least now.. I've had a really rough couple of weeks and I go out of my way to be nice to someone only to be spat at for asking for a sparring match to help figure things out."

How the hell did this guy know Gaige? She frowned at then. Then when she tried to leave he demanded an apology, appearing in front of her. Impressive speed but she was just as fast... He'd wanted a match? "Oh. I thought you were.. Nevermind." She said and sighed. "I didn't need your assistance. I'm not going to thank you for that. As for a sparring match..." She said and paused to considered it.

She hadn't actually had a proper fight since Gaige had lost her spiritual energy and the power that had been corrupting her mind. She knew everything she could do on paper, her bitch mother had kept plenty of records of the Gene mods she'd implemented into Vyn, so she didn't know just how strong she was anymore. She shrugged. "Alright fine. Just a spar though." She said. She wasn't ready to push herself to her limit, unless she lost control again.

"I'm Vyn by the way. And you are? Also how do you know my sister? Gaige I mean." She asked as she took a few steps back and clenched her metal fist. She didn't take a stance or anything, she wasn't fully trained in any martial arts she just faught on instinct and hit really hard. She did enjoy punching things. "Also. I'm sorry. Or whatever."

It looks like she got the point this time. Good. She mentioned not needing his assistance... which was both ignorant and stupid of her to say.. If she had "needed" assistance she was in the worse place on earth to visit for that. So obviously she can take care of herself, "you know chivalry doesn't care if you needed it or not..cuz that is not the point.." he muttered with a sigh before pulling a cigarette out and lighting it only to puff out a moment later.

She agreed to the spar and introduced herself before asking who he was and how he knew Gaige. Odd that she'd care about gaige, but she cleared that up soon after, "I am Sojourner.. Not many mercs take jobs from the coalition and "not" hear about Gaige. So that is how I know of her." he stood there continuing to smoke his cigarette without a care in the world as she presumably prepped herself in whatever fashion she chose, "When you are ready go ahead. I've got all the time in the world to be patient right now."

She shrugged. "That makes sense.. Sojourner.." She replied. "Chivalry. A bit like Gaige maybe. She insists on helping when she owes me nothing.." Gaige had saved Vyn from their mother and herself. Not alone, but she had an uncanny ability to bring people together and lead. She'd even managed to get Zackery on her side when she'd come to save Vyn from her corrupting powers. Vyn was grateful. But Gaige had paid the cost for it and Vyn didn't like that. It didn't sit well with her when strangers risked themselves for her. Even if there was no real danger posed by those hollows.

"Don't underestimate me." She said in response. She took a step forward, putting allot of force behind it and springing forwards as if she'd just used blur or shunpo, and threw a punch with her right hand, aiming for his jaw. She followed up with an uppercut from her left hand and then a sudden kick from her right leg. She was not hitting as hard as she could, but they were still fast as all hell. She backed off after and waited.

She was fast sure. Probably as fast as him by the looks of things. Alright so a pure speed battle wasn't going to get them anywhere.. He caught the metal fist with his left hand noticing it was easier than he thought but still more resistant than he expected. Nice metal arm she had there.. He moved that same hand to pushed her uppercut to the side making it miss it's mark before bringing up a leg in typical martial arts fashion to use it to take the kick to his body instead of his ribs.

She backed off after this and he just stood there clenching his left hand over and over staring at it. He then looked at her and brought forth his right hand putting his left in his pocket, "Thank you. Now allow me to test my normal hand to gauge the difference." and he moved at near shunpo speed all of a sudden, much like she did, to close the gap between them and attempt to Jab, palm thrust, his right hand into her face before dropping down and doing a sweep kick for her legs and using the spin momentum and a quick hop to bring him back up, closer to her, in an uppercut like manner for her jaw. Yes he had intentionally did his own version of the exact assault she had tried of him but he had his reasons.

He felt like she was holding back. For what reasons it was not his concern... but maybe he could coax her out a little.. Not necessarily make her try to kill him.. but get her to be more serious. It was just his thought though. He continued trying to palm jab her in multiple places throughout her torso after his uppercut and waited to see what she did next.

Vyn frowned. What was so special about his left hand? He'd said something about testing his "new" body. Probably something to do with that. She shrugged it off as he rushed forward and tried to slam his palm into her face, but she turned it away with her left hand. She jumped, and not just a little jump she went up about ten feet, over his sweep and landed smoothly behind him and spun to back hand him with her right hand only to clash with his incoming uppercut.

She ignored the fact that he'd practically copied her. She was more interested in his strategy. People usually had powers. He was just trying to jab her with his palm now, which she was easily avoiding. She started to get a little irritated and stepped in, getting grazed with a jab but turning away from it while bringing her fist in under his right arm, aiming for his ribs. She moved forward quickly trying to get to his side and kick the back of his legs and then followed it up with a second kick for his back.

She kicked off and spun away, landing lightly, and then frowned at him. "I don't understand what your doing. Are we supposed to be fighting with only one hand?" She asked. She wasn't attacking as much as him but she could damn well dish it out when she needed to. Maybe he'd noticed her holding back and decided to do the same in a different way.

he wasn't getting anywhere much. She had done a neat jump to get behind him but her sneak attack was countered.  She went more offensive now though. Moving in from his jabs and trying to strike him in the ribs, a blow he didn't bother to avoid so that he could test his endurance, she then sidestepped? and got to his side where she struck at the back of his legs.

In a normal person this blow to the legs would have forced them to kneel or stumble or move in some fashion.. and while the blow landed and did it's damage.. he found he had such control over his muscles, blood flow, even his skin, that the normal reflexes to force the leg to buckle were shut off and he was essentially left unmoved. THough it still stung.

He was more surprised and curious, evident on his face, about this than he probably should have. But he didn't mind for now..he would think about it deeper later because right then she kicked him in the back with a nice thud and re-awoke him to the fact he was still fighting.

He stood up after her kick and stretched a bit before pulling his cigarette out of his mouth and blowing another puff of smoke from it, seemed she didn't like how he was fighting her.. She voiced some questions about it, "I told ya.. I'm testing my new body.. If you'd like I'll go into details..sure. I was recently sent on a mission to the Serion's not so longer hidden invasion outpost in the antartic.. Though I failed in what I was sent to accomplish I did manage to wreck some of their higher ranked people in the process.."

He took aother drag of his cig and blew more smoke, "When I recovered.. a process that took days.. considering I was all but limbless and nearly bled out when I escaped.. My body...changed. I found that I had lost certain abilities but had gained a better....body. In their place."

He put the cigarette out on his hand which then healed itself, "Which brings us to this sparring match. Your metal arm is a good way to test the new limits of this body of mine.. As for my hand.. there is nothing special about it..persay.. but for some reason I can draw much more physical strength from it than I can my right.. despite the fact I am clearly right handed.."

To prove his point he pulled his left hand out of his pocket and without moving punched forward at his fastest speed. The sheer force behind the blow creating wind force that would make it hard to Vyn to either stay in place, or stay on her feet. Even with their similar physical prowess. And if she were to look behind her, or even on the ground in front of her, the force that his punch created had damage the ground for a long distance, roughly a city block's worth.

"I would hope that that is sufficient enough. If you don't mind I'd love to continue our little sparring match. I've not yet finished learning what I can about my new changes I think." He then took a boxer pose, with both hands, and waited on her to make her move, as it was polite to let her restart combat, if she was even going to, since he had stopped the fight to talk to her.

Vyn listened to what he had to say and nodded. She had experienced a similar, albiet not nearly as drastic change. Though it did not involve forced evolution, she had mearly lost a great deal of power. This was her first time testing herself without all of that psychic and elemental power backing her. When he punched, She let the shockwave hit her. It didn't move her as far as he probably expected as she reflexively braced and dug her feet in. But it still pushed her away. She looked back and whistled.

"I'm impressed." She said, and then raised a foot and slammed it into the ground with the force of a cero on top of her already large physical strength, smashing a crater into the ground that easily spanned 20ft all around her, leaving him just on the lip of the crater. She turned and walked up the side of the crater from him then ran, till she was almost to the lip, then jumped right at him with a hell of allot of speed, blowing another crater into the ground behind her, albiet way smaller, and moving at blur equivalent again.

She aimed to clothes line him and see if she could take him off the ground, which if she managed to actually collide with him and bring him up with her, she would spin and throw him into the ground, which should slow her down enough to fall to the ground.

Well at least she was impressed. He pulled another cigarette out as she created a crater with her leg, perhaps this was going to get more interesting after all. He had no cards to bring to the table except his body and she hadn't done much besides hand to hand, but ah well. He had just managed to light it and put the lighter out when she suddenly blur hopped into a clothesline of him, causing him to have to breath the smoke puff he had drawn in out his nose to keep from losing his cigarette in the process.

However things may, or may not, have gone according to her plan, as soon as she grabbed him to try and throw him towards the ground he attempted reversed it and then tried to throw her into the ground instead of him at full force most likely causing another crater.

Either way when he landed he'd get to a standing position and shift from each of his learned stances of Thai Boxing, Tai Kwon Do, Karate, and Kenpo. At random. Repeatedly. He was grinning too. In a hand to hand fight he was very dangerous..powers aside. He had mastered several forms of martial arts and that just made him worse to fight.

He shifted his left foot and forced a chunk of earth up that he punched into tiny pebbles, all of which got thrown like bullets at Vyn's position like a hail storm of stone. Soon as he had finished his tossing fit he, dug, into the ground and vanished.

Only to pop out behind her using the dust, dirt, and rocks to blind her as he made several strikes at her pressure points in her shoulders from behind said debris objects finishing with a round kick towards her mid-section to force her to back off.

He did reverse it. But Vyn twisted like a cat and landed on her feet, crushing the ground beneath her, and bounded out of there in a backflip leap. He came at her and attacked, switching styles randomly. She had no set fighting style, she adapted quickly, and though she didn't know the name of his styles she started to learn the rhythms to them. Of course there wasn't enough time to do it fully. or even a quarter. But she managed to resist his barrage of attack, blocking his blows with her own, or straight up defending when she needed.

Then he moved away and kicked up a rock, smashed it, and started throwing pebbles. She blocked them with her hands, a few grazing her. Then he tried was gone. However, dust cloud or not, he did not know about her bioelectric skin. She couldn't see well, despite amazing eyesight, but she felt the tug of his body's natural energy and spun, meeting his blows with her own. He spun and kicked her, and she slid back, only to dash forward and throw a wicked right hook into his gut, and followed it up with a knee to the groin. Not at full power though. She wanted to distract him, not destroy him.

After that she backed off, and basically straight up copied him like he'd done to her, slamming a foot into the ground she kicked up a chunk of rock and punched it with her metal arm, with the force of a cero. She didn't need to throw the pebbles, since they shot at him like bullets from a shotgun blast. Still she smirked. That was a really cool trick. The fight was making her smile. Something she rarely did around strangers.

He got solidly countered in the stomach, but he used it's momentum and his own double palm block of her knee to flip him over her and try to kick the back of her head before landing behind her and spinning around to face her.

Which gave him just enough time to watch her repeat the very rock trick he just did. However all he did with them was simply dodge. Though his feet didn't move more than a few inches from their original position at any given time. So it "looked" almost as if he hadn't moved at all. The ground told the story of his dodging exploits though as it had obviously been shifted and cracked under his movements a bit, "I'm afraid I may become boring soon. I only have two real skills aside from physical prowess. But I will give it my best to entertain!"

He noticed her smile for the first time since the match had started and couldn't help but grin. He then picked up a pebble from their earlier skirmishes and smirked a bit, "Mage I am not..but I do know a trick or two.." He tossed the pebble in the air for a moment, caught it, and said right before throwing it, "I'd run if I were you!" when the pebble reached the vicinity of Gauge or was stopped. It would explode out with the force of two cero oscuras for a hundred feet.

After the explosion occurred Sojourner waved a hand in front of his face and coughed to get the dust and smoke to settle and go away, "Ah..whoops.. I overdid it.. HEY ARE YOU ALRIGHT! I forgot just how strong that thing was! It's still new to me! I do apologize!"

She was kicked in the back of the head which sent her forward away from him, out of range of the back hand counter she threw. Her bones were tough, so her skull was fine but that kick jangled her brain a bit. He dodged the rocks with rapid movements most couldn't fallow by eye. She felt the movements, subtle as they were, with her bioelectic skin's field. Then he picked up a rock. She looked at it confused. Then he told her to run. She backed up dodging away from it. She was about twenty feet out when it exploded and though she started to run she barely escaped the blast and twisted towards it, she jumped and curled into a ball. Which protected her but sent her flying.

She went through a wall. It felt like a wall. Then before she hit another she uncurled and it hit it feet first, carrying her through it and out the other side of the ruin into the street which she slid across. She felt herself slip. Not her body, but her mind, as rage started to consume her and she lept into the air back towards him. With a flash of silver a sword appeared in her hands as her body burned with rage. She was losing it. She was moving at him fast, ready to cut his arms and legs off when she just stopped, about ten feet away and let out a scream. The sword vanished. She brought herself under control.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" She screamed in his face. She smashed her foot into the ground. "You said you wanted to spar, you could have killed me with that!" She shouted at him. Her clothes were charred, her forearm and shins charred, but the damage was healing quickly. Still, she was not happy with him. "I'm done. I think i prefere the hollow's company.." She said. She wasn't just mad at him though. She'd almost lost it. She wasn't as strong now, but when she'd lost it before she'd destroyed allot of shit. She'd nearly killed Gaige and her freind's atleast twice in one day. She hated that side of herself, hated remembering the all consuming rage she had to deal with.

He grimaced when she screamed and had appeared she was going to attack him with a weapon, but then she made the sword disappear. He put his hands up in surrender as she got in his face and lectured him but as soon as she backed off he rubbed the back of his head, "Now now.. lemme at least explain.. That technique is very new.. I can only do it once a day.. so I'm not used to it.. I forgot it was that powerful and I figured you could take it since you were as strong as me. I do genuinely apologize though."

He looked it too. He was incredibly sorry for his stupid use of that move. He got over excited at the great match and went overboard. "I'd like to make it up to you somehow. Maybe someday you can cash in a favor from me or something? I don't know what do you think?" He thought about it for a second after he said it and regretted saying it but stuck to his word. If someone as strong as her needed him for something chances would be high that it would nearly kill the both of them before it was done. But he said what he said and he meant what he said so he'd stick to what he said. lol.