Arrival and Disgust....(Open)

[Malachi]

The young man known as Malachi was on a single person space pod headed for Earth at this very moment. The cramped conditions of the pod had been mostly mitigated by the fact that the interior was practically fitted for the sole occupant, though it didn't allow much room to readjust yourself to a more comfortable position. It was quite similar to the seat in a movie theater, but without the cup holders. Malachi had slept for most of the journey despite the constant buzz of anticipation, anxiety, and curiosity about his home planet. The place he came from, but never knew, was as much a mystery to him as space itself. Since he couldn't see his entire sensory input for the duration of the trip had been limited to what was inside the pod. The vacuum of space didn't allow for any noticeable sound or smell, and even if it did there was the thick metal hull of the pod between him and it, so he couldn't discern anything about the void.

BOOM!!!

The small metal sphere slammed into the side of a plateau, lodging itself in the rock wall upside down. The human therein wasn't exactly certain how that happened, or even how he ended up landing upside down at all, let alone stuck in a cliff facing, but as the hatch flopped open in the wring direction and it became clear from his initial sensory readout of the immediate area around the pod...he'd have a long climb ahead of him. As he went to reach up and pull himself on top of the part of his pod that stuck out from the rock his nose curled and his mouth fell into a rather distasteful looking grimace. The smells of this place assaulted his nose and he didn't find any of them too pleasant. The air was thick with dust and death, and though there wasn't much humidity in the area there was still a fair bit of heat beating down from Earth's sun. Despite being born here, Malachi was raised on Namek. The expansive oceans and fields of grass always smelled so inviting and tranquil to him...and this was the exact opposite. Had the state of his home planet really gotten so bad that even nature was sacrificed in the conquest? When Lute explained of his parents' decision to send him off of Earth he didn't want to believe that the place could be truly as bad as they had made it out to be. But it became all too real from that first breath of Earth's air.

Without so much as a second thought, Malachi climbed atop his pod and began making the difficult climb up the cliff facing one step at a time. One hand, then the other was quickly followed by one foot and then the other as he began slowly scaling the rock. If he managed to get remotely close to a town he would know it from the smell, but in truth he had no clue where he was headed. His ability to 'see' only extended out to about fifteen or so meters, so anything in the distance was unknown to him. At the moment, however, his only concern was making it up the cliff and onto solid, stable ground.

It seemed like ten minutes had passed and Malachi's rather lengthy climbing session had gotten him nearly nowhere until something entered his field of 'vision' that he'd never known before. Just over the edge up on a rather large ledge on the side of the cliff was a nest. Woven sticks and...bones? It reeked of all manner of decay. The more concerning thing was there was a creature in the nest, and if Malachi understood its movements correctly it was looking at him. It let out a deafening screech and Malachi winced, immediately getting a headache as the monstrous bird practically roared at him. He flinched and then  got up on the ledge, continuing his climb as if the bird wasn't there to try and keep it from bothering him. Maybe if he left it alone it would return the favor after giving him a severe headache.

And luckily it did. The massive feathered creature with a horrible screech gave a couple more lighter screeches, "CAAAWWW!!" But it didn't pursue the young man or even attack him. As unpleasant as the idea was, Malachi assumed from the smell of bones and the nest made from them that it was a carrion bird. A scavenger of deceased creatures rather than one that ate live prey. That was lucky for him, as the bird would have had a clear advantage in location and size if it had seen him as a meal. Just another half dozen feet above the bird's nest was the top of the plateau, and the lucky Malachi made it onto solid ground at last.

[Roosevelt]

There had been a loud sound, and a heavy impact. It had shaken the ground and the air for quite some distance. SLUGGER...no, Roosevelt...was only vaguely aware of it. It was only recently that his capsule had run out of power, and he was still half stuck in his dreamlike learning state. Images of one-inch punches and car chases and "here's lookin' at you, kid"s still danced in his head.

As it turned out, the remains of Dr. Clemens' lab had been situated on the land that had become the plateau Malachi had just crested. There was little to nothing in the way of ruins, no walls or doors. Maybe a few bits of foundation stuck up like confused flowers here and there, but there was one prominent feature - Roosevelt's capsule. A man-sized blue steel tube with a green plexiglass viewing window in the front lay on the ground, half buried in the dirt and sand. A crack ran through the viewing window.

The screeching of a bird had shaken Roosevelt further, and as his eyes started to slide open, he watched a humanoid figure clamber up onto the top of the plateau. He couldn't make out the details of this person, as the viewing window was covered in a layer of dust, and his sensory systems were still adjusting to normal activity. He considered trying to open the door of his capsule and see to this person, but he was more focused on why he was sideways.

[Malachi]

As Malachi finally stood upright again he took a deep breath and focused to survey his surroundings. The first thing that caught his attention was the smell of metal and a large cylinder half sticking out of the ground. He took a few steps closer to get a better readout of the tube, wondering why something like that would be out here in the middle of nowhere. He couldn't hear or smell anything like a city save for this metal tube, and it was far too quiet for there to be a city nearby. Upon closer inspection there was a crack in the front of the tube. The human knelt down and scanned up and down the tube with his senses, thoroughly trying to figure out what it was for. The crack in it did let him get a little bit of information, but he couldn't quite tell if anything was inside just yet. He brought his left hand up and tapped on the middle of the glass once with a single knuckle. The sound resonating through the glass and into the tube gave him a startling revelation.

"Wh-what? A person? Are you alive in there?" He asked with a look of concern, not quite sure why or how someone would be stuck inside a metal prison in the ground. But whoever it was didn't seem to be flailing around trying to escape like mad, and this confused Malachi further. He began to dig with his bare hands, trying to uncover more of the large cylinder. "Just hold on. I'll try to dig you out and then we can see about getting you out of this case..." Malachi wasn't quite sure what to really do in this situation. He didn't have any tools to open the case once he got it out, and it might take some time to dig the other man out with just his hands even at his own impressive speed. He could try to open the case with his energy, but that might damage the occupant. He'd save that as a last resort.

[Roosevelt]

His mechanical mind finally starting to clear, Roosevelt looked at his surroundings. The capsule was not only damaged, but entirely out of juice. Its locking mechanism was designed to open when the power ran out, but even if it weren't damaged, opening the door would require clearing away the dirt first. He watched curiously as the human outside dug with his hands, and quickly at that.

"Are you one of Dr Clemens' new assistants?"  A foolish question, he realized as soon as he asked it.  He was no longer in the lab, that much was clear, and odds are this person didn't know who Dr Clemens was, let alone assist him in the lab.

He began to consider other options.  Digging him out could take hours or even days, especially if the man digging needed food, water, or sleep.  

"Do you have anything that can just break this tin can open?  It's broken anyway, and honestly digging isn't gonna be easy.  I don't know if you brought tools with you, but really anything that can bust the seams or something oughtta do the trick.  I can wait if you want to go get something, too - food and water aren't really concerns for me."

[Malachi]

Malachi raised an eyebrow at that question. Dr. Clemens? Who was that? He shook his head in response, "No, I'm not an assistant to a Dr. Clemens. I'm not even sure who that is," he admitted with a hint of curiosity in his voice as he felt the case over one more time. When informed that the person in the capsule didn't need food or water Malachi was quite perplexed, but he didn't see any reason to try and refute that information given the situation that the fellow in the capsule was in. From the looks of things the capsule had been here a long time. There were even bits of rust on parts of the metal areas of the capsule.

"I can try to blast it open with energy, but I don't know if it would damage you in trying to break the cylinder. I'll try to focus the blast enough to crack the casing and maybe we'll be able to knock the rest loose after it's cracked," he said with a sigh before pointing his palms at both of the exposed corners of the glass on the case and charging an energy blast in each hand. With his impressive ki control he could focus a lot of energy quickly and keep it well compressed so the blasts would only hit the target area and all the energy would be expended on the target area and no where else.

He focused for a few moments to ensure his aim and energy levels were right before unleashing the blasts onto the corners of the glass. If he could knock it loose and crack it then they might be able to get the other fellow out of the tube and have a respectable conversation instead of talking through a half broken glass tube. Malachi just hoped that he had given enough control to his blasts that they wouldn't damage the man inside, but still break the case so he could escape this odd solitary confinement he seemed to have been stuck in for an extensive time.

[Roosevelt]

Roosevelt didn't bother hiding his fascination as the man blasted at the corners of his capsule-turned-prison with what seemed to be nothing but bare energy fired from his hands.  The concept wasn't foreign to him - it was featured in much of the "learning material," or martial arts films that had been shown to him while he was locked away for however long it had been.  However, seeing it in person, and so blatantly used, was a whole 'nother ball game.

Once the blasts had done their work, it was more about just forcing the capsule apart.  Roosevelt wasn't weak, but he doubted he was strong enough to just brute force his way through the capsule walls, even with the structure now damaged as it was.  He'd have started to despair, but he'd learned something else he'd learned from his years of unconscious tutelage.  He'd learned that cumulative force was just as good as immediate force, and that all one would need to properly execute this widom was enough speed.  Thankfully, speed had been what he was built for.

"You may want to back up," he said to the man outside.

He closed his eyes and focused.  He knew how this capsule worked.  He'd watched Dr Clemens build it.  He knew where the structural weakpoints were.  If he hit them enough times, thanks to the damage done to the outside of the capsule, he'd be able to open the thing up like a tin can and get out.  All he needed was the right motivation.

Bottom of the ninth.  Bases loaded.  Two outs.  Other team is three runs behind, and their best hitter just stepped up to the plate.  The windup, the pitch, and with that mighty CRACK the ball was in the air.  No time to think about it, no time to worry or plan or be impressed by just how high that ball was.  Only enough time to go for it, to recover it, and make sure no one gets where they're going.

First, the vault off the back wall of the field.  The catch follows - one man out.  Sure, he could stop there, but by the time anyone registered that he'd caught the ball, someone would have crossed that plate.  He hit the ground and made a mad dash for second base.  He spun around the runner, dragging the ball across his chest.  Out.  Then a mad leap towards first, his Angel module propelling him through the air, ball first.  Another tag, and another out.  He turned, third runner was too close to the plate.  He could make it, but the risk was too high.  He opted to throw, and trust in his team.  A catch, and an out.  The crowd goes wild.

Of course, that wasn't what was happening inside the capsule.  Instead, it was like watching Ip Man or Wing Chun, but in fast forward.  A veritable barrage of punches and kicks, all aimed at the hinges and corners and seams of the capsule was sent forth from its prisoner.  At first they had been fast, but soon they picked up even greater speed.  His hands and feet were almost a blur, and the sound his assault made was like a hard hurricane downpour on a hot tin roof.  The dirt residue on the capsule was shaken off, becoming a cloud of dust before the cacophony finally halted.

Soon the capsule was little more than slag, and as the dust cleared Roosevelt was clearly visible hovering over its remains, blue wings of light shining off his back.  His eyes slowly opened, and he landed before extending his hand.

"Thanks for the assist.  I'm Roosevelt."

[Malachi]

Malachi had already stepped back after the blasts to give himself a good view of his handy work and to check if it was as thorough as he hoped. Judging from the verbal request for him to step back he assumed that the man inside was unharmed. Just to be cautious he took another wide step back from the capsule and kept his attention on the man inside to understand what he was about to do.

At first there was nothing. Malachi stood back, waiting and watching intently as he anticipated the man in the tube to do something interesting. And after a few moments he did. A barrage of kicks, punches, elbows, and knees the likes of which even Malachi's enhanced senses had trouble keeping up with. His movements were so fast that Malachi was only able to account for about three fourths of the blows. Each thud against the glass, each impact causing the cracks to spiderweb out a bit further and knocking the case loose more and more.

Malachi was quite impressed with the speed of his newest acquaintance, and he'd hoped the man would explain himself a bit when he got out. But for now he was quite content to watch this epic beatdown on the capsule glass. When it finally stopped Malachi could detect his new ally through the smoke. He was...floating? Was that even possible? Apparently it must be, as he was doing it. And with...wings? No...something was odd. They weren't solid. Wings made of energy? If energy could allow you to fly he might have to try that some time. He did have pretty exceptional ki manipulation skills. He liked to think so, at least.

When the man landed and extended a hand, Malachi gave his own for a shake, "Nice to meet you. I'm Malachi."

[Roosevelt]

"So this might sound kind of weird to you...but what the hell happened out here?  Where are all the buildings and people?  I mean, okay I'm not stupid, I know they've clearly been obliterated, but what I'm asking is by -what-?"

Roosevelt looked around, and adjusted the ball cap on his head.  He took a few steps to the edge of the plateu and put his hands on his hips.  He was most certainly not in Kansas anymore.  This had once been a well-populated area, not quite a major city but neither was it rural or even suburban.  Unless his capsule had been moved, he was standing in what once was Dr Clemens' lab.  There had been a factory across the street, they manufactured home appliances.  Down the road had been a used book store, and a little further than that an apartment building.  The place had been alive.

Now it was just a wasteland.  Dirt and sand and heat and silence.  Almost no life whatsoever.  This sort of change was only caused by two things: Cataclysm and Time.

"How long was I in there...?

[Malachi]

The question that the odd fellow asked did, indeed, sound rather strange. But Malachi gave the only response that he was able to given the information he knew, "I don't know how long you've been in that capsule, but I can tell you that long before my time, the Saiyans showed up on Earth and wiped out most of mankind, and then enslaved the rest. They've been ruling our planet ever since and making slaves and play things out of humans at their own leisure. If I had to guess I'd say you've been down there at least a hundred years if there was a city here before you got capsulized, though my history isn't perfect when it comes to exact dates." He gave a hearty chuckle and smirked at the man.

Malachi glanced around as well, scanning the nearby ruins and wasteland with his enhanced senses before turning his attention back to Roosevelt, "I don't know a lot about the specific situation right now, since I just got to this planet myself. It's a long story, and though I am human I wasn't raised her. I came back because I want to try and change things. I'm going to do whatever it takes to see Earth back into the hands of humankind and to kick the Saiyans off our home planet. But before I can do that I've got to find an actual city that's still got people living in it that isn't completely enslaved by the Saiyans." His explanation was short and sweet, but it got his point and his short term goal across. He had to find other humans, figure out if there was a possibility of fighting back, and then help make it happen. It was simple in his mind, but deep down he knew the reality of the situation would be much more difficult and unforgiving.

[Roosevelt]

Roosevelt nodded as he listened to Malachi's explanation.  So it had been quite some time, and likely everyone he had ever known or cared about was dead.  Including Dr Clemens.  Dr Clemens had to have known what was coming, at least on some level...

"So that's why he locked me in there...to protect me from a threat I couldn't overcome.  He probably died in the invasion..."

In that moment, he decided what he had to do.  Dr Clemens hadn't locked him away for nothing.  He still had a purpose.

"You have no idea where civilization is?  Interesting fact, neither do I.  Still, two heads are better than one and I need to find what's left of humanity.  You wouldn't mind having a travelling partner for the time being, would you?"

[Malachi]

Malachi gazed out into the distance over the Plateau as Roosevelt spoke, listening intently to his words before frowning, "I don't know your Doctor friend, and I'm sorry to hear that he's gone, but he must have been a wise and good man to have sacrificed himself so you could stay hidden and safe for so long. I don't know what you are, but I can tell that you aren't human. I can't hear your heartbeat, and your footfalls are...different? It's hard to explain as I've never encountered anything like you before. I don't mean to be rude in saying this, as I'm sure humanity could use your help and it sounds like you have a reason to help them remove their Saiyan oppressors."

He stepped to Roosevelt and faced the man directly and raised his right arm, fist clenched, in front of him aiming to bump forearms as a more formal form of greeting. It wasn't a typical Earthling greeting, but rather a way that Namekian warriors greeted one another. It was a habit he'd picked up from his mentor and caretaker back on Namek. "If you want to travel with me I'm definitely not opposed to the company. I can always use another pair of eyes, especially if they have my back. I'll have yours, but I can't promise an extra pair of eyes," He chuckled at that and then looked around again, "So if you had to pick a direction to go to find civilization, which way would you go?"

[Tenshu]

Sorry Malachi, I have a feeling Roosevelt isn't coming back. I can keep this thread up if you like or I can grade it the way it is.

[Malachi]

(In that case go ahead and grade it. I had a feeling he wasn't returning, though I don't know what caused him to leave. Maybe my long response time killed his muse or something...But regardless, go ahead and wrap it up and knock it out. It's not going anywhere else with him gone. )

[Tenshu]

+1 Users Choice for Malachi
+1 Users Choice for Roosevelt

No I doubt thats it, he probably just got busy, or bored with the site. His character is a bit comical so it wouldn't surprise me if the joke just stopped being funny to him.