The Doctor Will See You Now...

“Doctor, Ikolo and Lieutenant Espara are here for examination.”

The nurse had smiled at Kale before leaving them to greet one another. Kale attended to Ikolo first, before turning his attention to Espara. Kale had sprinted toward Espara, he seemed very eager to get the examinations underway. Kale raised a hand to Espara’s chest plate, inspecting it, but his hand seemed to linger, almost stroking the chest plate of Espara’s armour. Kale had seemed to realise how strange his action may appear, and retracted his arm, almost standing in single file. Espara just smiled at him, “Are you always this hands on with your patients?” He asked him.

“So, it’s simple… just power up to your maximum. I just want to gage whether the cryo-stasis has retained your natural fighting ability. And if it hasn’t… well then, at least you won’t be strong enough to beat me up for bearing the bad news.”

Espara laughed at Kale’s joke, it was nice to see somebody else around here that did share a sense of humour such as he did. “I’ll try not to disappoint then.” Again he smiled, almost grinning.

Espara was given the signal to begin. He instantly focused himself, he didn’t shut his eyes, rather, just focused them. Not on Kale, or the room, nor the base he was now inhabiting, or the universe he was a part of. He focused on the darkness. It was just Espara and the void. The energy burned within him, consuming him like a wild fire, only hotter. It wasn’t exactly a warm embrace, but to Espara it was like slipping on his favourite glove. His muscles began tensing, his veins were bulging, he could feel his blood rushing, his veins fighting to break free from beneath his skin. Then, from out of the darkness, he saw Frieza. That smug face just smiling at him. The burning intensified, his blood boiled, his veins all but popped. Kale was still taking the power reading on the scouter as Espara reached what seemed to be the peak of his power.

((Because waiting 9 months between posting is how I role!)

"Shall we begin? If I'm to assume my test is the same as the lieutenant's then I hope you won't be sorely disappointed in me. I'm not a fighter."

The junior doctor lightly chortled in response to what the patient said and activated his scouter sensor. Kale briefly eyed his colleague and Ikolo from the other side of the room. Although Grape was a doctor, the mission brief had identified him as a novice, so Kale tended to inconspicuously eavesdrop on how his subordinate was faring at any given opportunity.

“Don’t worry Miss Ikolo, we don’t expect all Saiyans to have equal fighting power. It’s just a general procedure to make sure that you’re exactly the way you were before cryo-freezing.” Replied the junior doctor.

“Yeah,” Kale interjected, “we just need to make sure that there’s still no parts of you lying around in that giant freezer, don’t sweat.” He smiled on one half of his face, the other half was focused on Lieutenant Espara as he prepared to power up.

Interestingly enough, as Espara began to charge his ki energy, he started to smile. Slightly perplexed, the doctor fell back onto the bridge of his slightly bent foot. He was fully aware of the fact that Saiyans relished their fighting ability, but something about Espara’s expression made Kale feel tense. With a brief flash, the doctor saw an image of the battlefield in his mind’s eye, and he saw the sight of many of Freeza’s goons reigning down on unsuspecting worlds, bringing with them havoc and destruction. The tyrant’s cronies always smiled, malignantly, they relished the mayhem they were instructed to deliver. An austere feeling welled up in the doctor for a moment, but as quickly as it had came he shuck the sensation away. Even as a simple physician of war, scars ran very deep indeed.

The scouter had started off cumbersomely, its figures reading 2,000, but quickly it climbed and climbed, hitting the 5,000 marker. Kale had half expected the Lieutenant’s power level to subside at that point, but it (like the Commander’s) continued to grow… 6,000, 8,000... 10,000! The doctor winced and his left eye prepared to tightly shut, he wasn’t a massive fan of the face full of metal that he had previously received when Celeria had literally caused his scouter to explode. But after a couple of moments, the device stabilised, and Kale came out from behind his metaphorical shell. The Lieutenant’s power level perpetuated around the 10,000 mark, which, for a middle ranked Saiyan was inordinately high.

“Hmm” The doctor stroked his chin, lightly working circles into the grooves of his skin. Ten-thousand was the power level of an elite, 25,000 was the power level of one of Freeza’s personal henchmen. What was happening? Kale panned his vision towards Ikolo, as his scouter also picked the readings of her power. It was the same! Was this a scientific anomaly, or was all tech in the med bay just completely ruined? Kale smashed the side of his scouter with a flat palm, and mumbled inaudibly to himself.

“Stupid piece of- Might as well use a tin can and-” But no matter how much the doctor smashed away at his scouter the readings remained consistent. The Saiyans (at least THESE Saiyans) had been upgraded.

“Doctor Kale… for a non-fighter this is incredibly high.” Said Grape. Nurse Keyla silently fell behind the junior doctor and looked at his scouter output, her eyes comically widened. Kale had to admit, it briefly stung at his ego that a power level reading could get an emotional response from the nurse, but his jokes couldn’t… tough crowd.

Without explanation, the doctor whizzed around the Lieutenant, he observed his face, his arms, his legs, his back… he looked at every part of Espara. Nothing seemed unusual, he didn’t particularly have an outrageously large muscle mass, but then that wasn’t necessary to high power level. When the doctor returned to a more appropriate face to face position, he smiled. There was very little he understood about their new circumstances…

“So, you either drink lots of milk and eat your vitamins, or both of you are inordinately powerful. Personally, I think the latter option is much more fun.” Kale stroked the back of his head and huffed a slight laugh. “What next? Will I find out that all this time I’ve been the illegitimate daughter of Freeza and King Vegeta?”

“Eh…” Grape’s face distorted at the sentiment.

“Hahaha! There’s so many things wrong with that statement doctor, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” As the nurse chuckled away Kale comforted his damaged sense of humour, finally she had laughted.

“But seriously.” The doctor’s smile receded, “Would you two care to shed some light on why you’re both scaring my scouter?”

Ikolo shrugged gallantly and twisted her arms behind her back ina way that couldn't have been comfortable for most people. "I wouldn't know. I'll have to meditate upon this turn of events. Perhaps in my reflection I might come to an answer or theory of revelation. Perhaps something here effects us in a way that strengthens us. You ask us a question that baffles us as much as you Doctor."

She pulled her arms over her head, an almost sickening popping sound coming from her shoulders as she rolled them forward and in front of her. "I suppose you could perhaps contribute mine to the long cryo sleep. My mind works best in silence and solitude. When I expand my mind my soul goes with it, perhaps my mind was simply stretching itself while I was frozen. Unfortunately such logic is fuzzy at best and would not account for Espara's new found strength." She gave another elegant shrug and gave the Doctor a giggle. "Have you considered that the incident might not be isolated to the two of us? Perhaps you have some extra whollop to you as well!"

She couldn't stay still much longer, it would drive her mad. She pulled her feet into perfect alignment and pushed herself up onto the toes of one foot to test her new strength curiously and found that she wasn't strong enough in the toes to pull it off properly without better balance. She came tumbling down and landed gracefully on her palms and pushed herself into another awkward position in which she began to stretch, her legs curling behind her as she balanced on both palms. Her tail held her skirt tightly in place as she walked a couple steps on her palms toward Kale and then flipped herself back over onto her feet.

"Should there be an investigation or perhaps an experiment of some kind? If the incident isn't isolated to just us it could cause some very big problems should it affect the rest of the populace. Especially if they say 'Don't know their own strength?' I suppose." She flashed Kale a grin as her tail uncurled to scoop Sayda back up and coil it close to her back. "You know, people breaking things without thinking, damaging delicate equipment because they aren't used to such power. We should make sure we know ourselves before we can know our enemies after all."

Espara listened to Ikolo answer Kale’s questions. The sight of her twisting her arms behind her back had caught Espara’s attention. He had expected her to stop long before she eventually did.

‘How flexible is this girl?’ Espara was thinking to himself. Espara was pretty sure that he had managed to keep his mouth shut whilst watching her. Pretty sure. Espara turned his gaze back toward Kale.

Espara laughed at Kale’s joke, “Well… I wouldn’t say I try to get my vitamins….” Espara smiled, rubbing the back of his head with his right hand. “By the way, I wouldn’t joke about being the illegitimate daughter of Frieza and King Vegeta just yet.” Espara smirked.
A popping sound made Espara squirm slightly, his eyes snapped back to Ikolo. She looked okay, the sound had obviously been intentional. Espara had never heard a pop come from a person’s joint like that before. The closest would have been Pep’s. Espara was still sure that she had only done it to make the moment better.

Back when he had been working with Frieza, before Spin had gone, they had been sent to destroy a group of rebels that had escaped a planet that they had destroyed. Ugly place, nothing but rocks and sand. The inhabitants were even worse, there was no order to the place, it was every man for himself. It was only a group of around twelve, they never actually got to see this particular group. They chased them down to another planet, uninhabited, the rebels were still in their ship. Espara and his squad had already landed, they never saw it coming. Pep destroyed their power relay station with a single blast, later she explained why she hadn’t simply targeted their engine.

“Why be so kind? Didn’t you enjoy the spectacle?” She asked licking her lips.

The squad watched as the fire from Pep’s blast spread throughout the ship, and without the relay station they were powerless to do anything about it. They couldn’t land, they’d only be slaughtered by the squad, they couldn’t eject they would receive the same fate. The fire spread, spark shot in all directions as the ships systems began to fail and explode. Then chunks of the ship began to fall to the planet around the squad. Pep moved her neck from one side to the other, with a distinct snap as she did so. Then the spacecraft exploded before them, a beautiful explosion, multi-coloured in appearance. The squad watched with great, big smiles spread across their faces. Espara caught sight of a chunk of the ship hurtling across the sky, it was flaming, a beautiful bright yellow, with a hint of orange. It could easily have been mistaken for a shooting star.

As for the sound that Ikolo had just made, Espara had actually worried for her well-being when she had made it. The sound was much louder than the one Pep had made all those years ago.

Espara thought about Pep again, it had been so long now. It felt like it was just a few years ago, but it wasn’t. It was much longer than that.

Espara snapped himself back to the present, and turned his attention back to Kale.

“As for the power level, I don’t feel any different, at least, I haven’t noticed any differences.” Espara wondered if he should tell them about his incident with the wall in his quarters, but he thought it was best not to, he didn't want to make a fool of himself to these people that he had only just met. The ape that can’t keep his own temper in check. “I wish I could shed more light on the matter, but I’m afraid I can’t. I guess you’re scouter won’t get any comfort just yet.” He smirked again. “By the way, nothing else scared you while you were looking at my body did it?”

“By the way, I wouldn’t joke about being the illegitimate daughter of Frieza and King Vegeta just yet.”

Kale grinned while he simultaneously stroked his chin in contemplation. He had always wondered why his head was so bulbous… maybe he had finally found his answer, Freeza genetics! Laughing internally, the doctor met Espara’s gaze as he continued to talk.

“As for the power level, I don’t feel any different, at least, I haven’t noticed any differences. By the way, nothing else scared you while you were looking at my body did it?”

Kale removed his hand from his chin before responding “Yes as a matter of fact, it did. Ostensibly, Espara…” He looked towards Ikolo “Ikolo too… you’re both very normal looking Saiyans. Well, apart from a few minute differences” Of course he was referring to the oozaru teddy bear. “And these readings don’t match my initial analysis of you. I don’t know what to make of this, yet. But Miss Ikolo, perhaps you’re right.” He was referring to her highly perceptive comment about this power level case being an epidemic. Every colonist could now potentially be a neutron explosion just waiting to happen. Of course he knew what theoretically needed to be done, but he also had a brain, and that brain had common sense. Perhaps for the meantime it was best to further analyse the situation first.

“Doctor Kale, care to increase your energy level too?” Grape suggested.

Kale remained silent for a moment. This time he had no quick quips or witty comments, he just wanted to get to the bottom of this. He sharply nodded in compliance, and spread his legs into a crouching position. It had been a long time since the doctor had made use of his ki, he did half expect there to be none of it left. Quickly concentrating the power inside him, Kale unleashed everything he had. A transparent aura erupted from his being and fluctuated around his body. As his ki continuously charged, papers and files flew across desks and onto the floor. After a few moments he was at maximum power. He exhaled deeply, feeling pumped but slightly exhausted.

“Yes doctor, it’s 10,000 too. This really is an intriguing phenomenon.”

Kale was in shock! He’d never come close to a power level like 10,000 before, and now he was on equal footing with Saiyan warriors! On the bright side, maybe now he’d have the power he needed to fit an engine cylinder without resorting to getting someone else to do it? This was indeed a conundrum, and Kale didn’t pretend to understand it. But perhaps during the Saiyans long slumber, something had happened to them?

“Let’s contain this information for now. I’ll speak to the Commander about this later. Maybe this has something to do with our circumstances on the colony. Can I ask why King Vegeta chose you both for this project?” The doctor turned to Kale and Ikolo with the question. He was still trying to understand why they were on this world, and already more questions were coming his way. It was time to ask some of his own…

Ikolo giggled softly setting Sayda down on Grape's desk after scooping up several papers with her telekinesis and straightening them out in the air before putting them back on the desk. "I'm to assume everyone knows what a lock is so I'll just say it. I got caught being somewhere I shouldn't have been able to get into in the first place. I got locked in and I let myself out without touching anything~" She grinned and turned to the nearest thing with a lock on it, a cabinet, and focused. She could feel the lock, the mechanisms inside, the order of of which everything was in and slowly she got a feel for the right order to put them in. She focused and pushed just a little bit here and there and with a click it opened and the door swung open. She gave a grin and sidled back over into a more open area of the room to begin another hand stand only to stay walking on her hands for a while longer this time.

"King Vegeta said he was sending me away because of my upbringing. I was raised for political liaison via marriage so I had to be the best at diplomacy and the perfect example of a princess since the day I was born." She twisted her spine in a way that could never have been comfortable for anyone at all and several popping noises emanated from her back as she gave a relieved sigh and pulled her legs back toward her head and got so close she could almost rest her feet atop her head as she flipped back up onto her feet. "That and once I complete my training I'll be able to keep people out of your hair for the most part without consuming resources!" She gave Kale a bright smile and twirled over to the desk to scoop Sayda back up. She gave a gallant shrug and reached up on her tip toes to poke Kale between the eyes. "And now I most certainly have to get married or when I die the last of the witch blood will die with me so you'd better take really good care of me!" She made a fake pout that dissolved into soft laughter as she pranced away to climb Espara like a jungle gym and plopped herself on his shoulders, her head resting on top of his. "You too Espara!" She grinned and waved at him from her perch atop him.

She gave the muscly saiyan she was sitting on a pensive look. "...You know you might make a good husband." It was difficult to tell if she was serious or not but then something clicked in her head and she came leaping off his shoulders like she'd been struck by lightning. She grabbed Kale by the coat and shook him very thoroughly as her voice suddenly rose in pitch. "WAIT! THIS MEANS I CAN MARRY WHOEVER I WANT!! I don't have to let momma choose for me!" She screeched for joy and tackled Grape next to give him a massive hug regardless as to whether or not he wanted one and then scooped up the nurse to snuggle her as well. She ran back to pick Kale up from wherever she may have dropped him (if he fell at least). With her hands on the same spots as before she hauled him about and gave him a hug as well. "I can marry whoever I want~ Oh me, oh my, I haven't been this giddy since auntie Aza gave me a sugar tart!" She was obviously very excited about the revelation that she no longer had to marry whoever she was told. She dusted Kale off and apologized to everyone quickly before she sequestered herself in a corner to wiggle and coo about being a bachelorette. Either something was very wrong with the girl or she really was as sheltered as she seemed.

Espara watched intently as Ikolo showed off her amazing telekinetic powers. Now, Espara was by no means new to the use of telekinesis, he’s come across a race of people who used it for everything, even spoke using just their minds and, as Espara had later learned, used their minds to beg too, but Espara had never seen somebody skilled enough to open locks using just their mind, let alone a Saiyan.

“Wow… so you could just walk in and out of anybody’s room here and they wouldn’t even know a thing about it…” Espara said smiling.

Espara thought about making some clever quip to Kale about locking up his stuff but thought better of it.

Espara listened intently to Ikolo’s story of her being chosen for this project, he had noticed a slight rise in excitement before it erupted from within Ikolo. Espara did struggle to hide a smirk when Ikolo poked Kale between the eyes, that was until she approached Espara. Espara didn’t really know how to react as she pranced gleefully toward him. He certainly hadn’t expected her to climb onto his shoulders, he froze in place, tensing slightly. Espara felt slightly less tense as she rested her head on top of his and just grinned as she waved at him from her position.

"...You know you might make a good husband."

Espara wasn’t sure how to respond to that. First he wondered just how serious she was, he couldn’t quite read her body language, though it didn’t help that his look was limited as she perched on top of him. For once in his life, that he could recall, Espara had not only been caught off guard, but his smart quips and witty comments had also been silenced.

“You know, you might make a good wife.” Espara called back as she leapt from his shoulders. Yep, he was back, witty comment accomplished, balance to the universe restored.

As Ikolo started screaming and shouting around the room about how she could marry whoever she wanted, suddenly Espara realised that her comment may have been genuine. Perhaps his comment hadn’t been so witty after all, and balance hadn’t restored to the universe.

Espara internally composed himself, and acting natural, he returned his gaze to Kale.

“As for being chosen, I haven’t really thought about it before. It was just a series of circumstances really.” Espara thought for a moment, “Well first… I guess it was at school, that’s when the teachers first starting taking notice of my presence, after a little incident at school. That little incident however started off my career in Frieza’s army. I made my way up through the ranks, and before I knew it I was being selected for this programme… You know, I never expected it to be like this. I expected less…” Espara looked around the room, at the various friendly faces, “friendly people I guess.” He finished his dialogue with a smile.

Espara wondered if what he had said was sufficient enough to answer Kale’s question of why he was selected for this project.

(( Basically, this thread has boiled down to a discussion between Lt. Espara and Private Ikolo. There are two ways we can do this: You guys can have the thread for yourselves and take it in whichever direction - dialogue, confrontation, whatever - or you can wrap it up and close it for assigning power-levels. You can also start new threads, as long as they're arranged on your character's timeline.

Just giving a heads-up, don't mind me. )

((I'm in favor of wrapping up tbh. I've been eagerly awaiting the first mission for... I forget how many months has passed, maybe a year already |D Well, that and Ikolo's kinda in a corner gushing lol))

((Yeah same, I'm cool to wrap things up, we can continue these kind of dialogues on missions ))

((Alrighty then. Since Espara was the last one to post, Ikolo - could you write a little wrap-up post so we can close the thread? Or Kale can do it. I would've written one, but Celeria has left the chamber quite some time ago. Iko - don't close the thread when you finish up, Gelth will do that once he's done assigning power-level gains. ))

Thread complete. Power level rewards:

Celeria - 7 posts - 2,500 PL x 7 = 17,500

Espara - 8 posts 2,500 PL x 8 = 20,000

Ikolo - 7 posts 2,500 PL x 7 = 17,500

Kale - 10 posts - 2,500 PL x 10 = 25,000