July 25th
Current time: 11:48 p.m.
On their way back from training, in the depths of the valley of mountains, Ex-Shin, K'yun, and Ulagur all walk back to HQ, still energized and all.
The moon illuminates a pearly white, hitting every surface to bask in its light.
With all of them donning the classic uniform; consists of a black collared shirt, a dark purple crop top protection vest with a set of baggy battle pants of the same color. The logo explodes "Exceed!" in graffiti. And the shoes, a pair of fashionable, but comfortable, dark gray high top sneakers, accompanied with black claw designs spread around the surface.
These uniforms were single-handedly modified by Yuri, giving them each gadgets and tools to help with missions, or everyday life.
As they continue to stride along the dry region of the valley, they soon come across a rainforest variation.
The mountains scale high as usual. But now, not only is the ground level littered with towering trees, but also the surfaces of these tall mountains.
"Tch! What a pain in my ass! Just how far did we walk anyway?? I don't even remember coming through here!!" Says Ulagur.
"Well if you'd quit your complaining, we'll probably make it there faster…and besides, you know what happened last time when we weren't on time getting back.." K'yun shudders along with the other two
"Ha-yeah..My mom can definitely be a lot…especially with her friends." Ex begins, "So let's hurry and get through this."
And with that, all three began going into the forest.
According to the world of Exceed!!, Earth is 5x bigger in radius, 5x more dense and has 25x more gravity than the red planet, Mars. Each region of the valley of mountains can stretch for tens of miles at least; enough space at a minimum to hone a state-like landscape with multiple large cities that span for, at base, 15 miles…
Ulagur Locknell: A 6'3, light skinned male with spiky black hair, a muscular body, and a love for challenge. His power: a curse that allows Ulagur to produce green acidic blood. He can also manipulate its shape, harden it, and multiply it by dividing blood cells rapidly at will. Though, said by Usami Tokita, multiplying may cause him to get dizzy. But Ulagur could care less, he loves the rush. His acid, while not as strong as Juno's, is still able to melt through the likes of metal without difficulty.
K'yun Oshima: Standing at exactly 6 feet, K'yun wears a head of short, wavy black hair that compliments his already white skin and features. K'yun is accompanied by two blessings. First, Yun has the ability to create and shape transparent barriers that outline in yellow. These barriers are able to withstand much punishment without even being damaged once. And for his other power—a blessing—the ability of geokinesis on a semi-tectonic level. K'yun's body was also genetically modified by this blessing, turning his skin cells partially into smooth rock, giving himself naturally hard skin.
And Ex-Shin Yamamoto: He stands at about 5'8 in height and is easily the fastest Junior Guard of them all, running at about 100x the speed of sound, making a goal to become the fastest being in existence if possible. Ex-Shin has a blessing and a curse. His blessing is the ability to create, control, and manipulate both space and time simultaneously on a multi-city level scale. Though when playing with time, it seems to affect the entire Overworld and not just the area code. And his curse..without any real evidence on its origin, other than the fact that it comes from an entity locked away in Ex's soul..he uses his curse to create ideas and concepts that live simultaneously in existence akin to their original counterparts.
As the young men swipe through the large leaves and wet wood of the forest, the ground beneath them cracks in four, revealing, twisted, black, iron barred gates, three in count. The bars blocking the entrance sink down and a crimson colored portal spirals to life.
Stepping out of each of them, are fiends. Human look alikes with key differences: Sharpened teeth and gray skin.
Each fiends' height matches that of our juniors..they walk up to the teens just mere feet away.
One of them, the tallest, speaks first.
"Well, well..look what we have here boys.." he looks back at the others, "And we were just talking about finding Successors, right Hugo, Quill?" He laughs loudly, before getting interrupted.
"Hey now.." Ex says, "Don't get your hopes up 3 musketeers! The fight hasn't even started, if that's what you want."
The tallest, his name is Iko, he leans to Ex's face then rises back up. "You believe that someone as small as you can deal with the likes of me-"
BOOM
A powerful palm from Ex-Shin silenced everyone.
Quill, the shortest, rushes at K'yun and they both fly through the forest.
Ex runs at Iko while Hugo gets on Ulagur…
Ulagur scoffs as Hugo approaches, switching to defensive-offense.
He blocks the triple jab—almost getting caught by the third and then knees Hugo, but it doesn't faze him. Instead, he grabs Ulagur's head and knees him as well, forcing spit to cough up.
Hugo doesn't even give him a chance to recover, or so he thought…as soon as he tries a for a straightforward punch, Ulagur counters, spinning into a head kick that Hugo sees coming. He ducks under it but that's what Ulagur was hoping he'd do. Using the momentum of the spin, Ulagur sends down a powerful fist only to hit the ground causing an impactful dent to level the trees around.
"Tch! You're more reactive than I thought.." Ulagur said with slight annoyance.
Hugo responds, same energy being displayed, "You haven't seen anything yet, boy.."
CRASH!!
Not only was that the sound of Ulagur and Hugo, but also Quill and K'yun going at it in the far distance.
Quill runs in, and swipes at air; K'yun is no longer there, forcing a lariat on Quill that he managed to block. However, the attack still proves to carry weight around as it ragdolls Quill despite the blocking.
Yun surfs the soil fast enough to keep the chasedown to a minimum, already appearing behind Quill. But then, he vanished.
"Huh? Snakes..?" K'yun asked. Quill's figure breaks apart into a ton of snakes as they then rematerialize his body.
Across from Yun, Quill slithers in, his speed, faster than the likes of wind. Yun gets in stance, activating his Rock Skin, "20% to start off.." he says, the skin of his body hardening like rock.
Yun watches as the obvious front kick fly towards him. His guard is challenged, but nonetheless, accepting, he blocks and to his surprise, "Did he get stronger..?!!".
..CRACK!
Yun's forearm cracks down the middle, breaking his guard and making him wide open.
Quill breaks into snakes just for a moment to get behind K'yun, connecting two to his spine. K'yun waves behind him but Quill isn't even there anymore. Yun then activates 50% Rock Skin and his body becomes sharper.
Materializing behind once more, Quill jumps at Yun who pivots his foot back, turns around and delivers a nasty haymaker to the jaw, as Quill soars his body twists into the landing.
…
K'yun's ability! Rock Skin: Is a technique used by Yun that, whenever activated, hardens his already tough skin into sharper, more deadly layers
…
Iko and Ex-Shin clash nonstop, racing through the entire forest over and over and over. Iko hops from tree to tree while Ex runs on foot. Cracking a grin, both Ex and Iko continue on, now with both on the ground running, they exchange.
Ex attacks first. He throws one, to the liver—next, the temple on the same side, then left jabs into a right cross.
Iko couldn't react fast enough to block the liver shot. Luckily for him, Iko blocks the incoming headshot to the temple and the left jab. Though he was close to missing, Iko successfully dodged the cross Ex dished out also.
Iko sees an opening and tackles Ex, only for his efforts to get reversed, resulting in Ex-Shin dragging Iko across the ground then hurling him up in the air.
Iko regains composure and chants.
The sky next to him shatters open, spawning a massive serpent from it that begins coiling. Soon, it will block out the upward view, leaving the coated black scales in replacement of the clouds.
Ex just grins…his shoulder length dreads flow up and glow a bright yellow-orange while his pupils do the same, fading cyan into that burning fire color.
The landscape dries up and Shin leaps upward, leaving nothing but a molten crater of where he once was.
…
Incinerate: An ability made from his curse..heats up the body temperature resulting in color change; hot enough for Ex to survive in the earth's core if pushed enough.
…
On the other side of the forest, Ulagur slams Hugo on his back—going for the follow-up but Hugo kicks him away and stands, looking up at the serpent—it seemed to have taken shape in Ulagur's vision as well, blocking the moon's natural light, darkening the forest region.
"So he's started…That means I can TOO." Hugo grips his face and his form disfigures. One moment, three geckos in pitch black coil around Hugo, they each swallow him whole and as they do so…in the next moment, the area around Ulagur swarms black in geckos.
But they disappear just as quickly as they arrive, leaving where Hugo stood, a new body.
This new form is dragconic. Red, thorny, scales ride up the shoulder and backside of his body, with the front being protected by natural plating. Horns erect out of Hugo's head and wings shoot out back.
"Jester in Red: Maximum Effort!!" Hugo's voice echoes, distorting air.
Ulagur says nothing. As if imagining it, he grabs the air near both sides of his waist and begins pulling on it like unsheathing swords. Hugo raises an eyebrow as he sees green blood form and harden into curved blades that drip that same acidic, liquid. He doesn't transform; he simply weaponizes his core ability in real time
…Then…
BOOM
They vanish before meeting in the middle, having the scales of Hugo clash with the blood-blades of Ulagur.
Hugo weaves a down slash, slips past the horizontal, and hits Ulagur in the ribs as he himself catches a fist that hits his neck.
The two don't even seem to care for the damage, running in once more. That is until Quill and K'yun crash the fight, knocking into their peers.
"Ow!" Yun rubs his head, "Ulagur, where's that nutcase, Ex? You know?" Ulagur shakes his head no, "I haven't seen him since when we first began. And look up."
Yun does so.
"Have you not noticed? There's a flying serpent blocking the sky.."
"Yeah, yeah I noticed, acid brains. We've gotta take care of that, after we're done with these two." K'yun then smirks, "And I call the red one."
Barreling in, Yun sends himself and Hugo elsewhere. "You're faster than your friend over there, boy! This'll be fun!" Hugo goes for a body blow to the gut while Yun just stands there unfazed by his attempt..
WHOOM!
Hugo's fists carried winds that were strong enough to knock down all the trees in the 55 mile radius of the rainforest region.
Yet, dust clears—Hugo's face, dumbfounded as he feels plates of armor tightly pack up underneath the undamaged uniform.
Hugo pulls his hand back but Yun grabs it, stopping Hugo's escape entirely. He flails Hugo around then launches him upward where Hugo utilizes his wings to recover quickly.
"How are you STILL standing!?!?!??" Hugo shouts, shaken and trembling.
The fear is noticed by Yun. In response, he starts ripping the upper half of his clothes, showing it off as he calmly says, "Well, wouldn't you like to know.."
…
Pristine Plating: While the enhanced version of Yun's "Rock Skin" already plates him in stone armor, Pristine Plating takes it a step further. From head-to-toe, K'yun's skin is tightly sealed underneath crystalline plates of rainbow color, resembling rainbow quartz. Along with that, he dons a face cover—a mask. Stone, and animal-like in shape, quartz protrude from it, acting as whiskers. Every breath he takes steams from out the mask.
…
The serpent still sits where the clouds were, blocking the moonlit sky for all but Iko and Ex-Shin; on top of the serpent they continue.
Iko blocks Ex's right hook and leg kick simultaneously, then the left hook, he steps away from, countering with a straight that misses and gets him pulled into an elbow, popping his neck back. Iko defends as much as he can from the next volley, parrying and blocking most from Ex, until he performs a surprise drop kick to Iko's chest, causing the wind to get knocked out of him.
SNAP
"Heh…where the hell do you think you're going?"
In an instant, Ex appears right in front of Iko. No sound, just a snap that signals.
Doing that allows Ex to attack him while off guard.
Shin connects a mean left hook to Iko's chin, then two jabs into a straight, all hitting his face. Ex only targets that and that alone. He faints a jab, throws an elbow, then a slap from both hands causing him to spin in place.
Ex carries on with an axe kick, it strikes the back of Iko's head. Following up, Ex then mixes his kicks with summersaults, then a front flip going into cartwheels that all hit the nape of Iko. Finally, Ex uppercuts the chin and sends him soaring up.
In frustration he grunts and Iko makes the serpent move. Its head, where Ex was standing, flings up, throwing him farther into the air than before in an attempt to eat him whole.
However, Ex appears on the backside of the serpent, running down the airborne snake.
…
Using his ability to manipulate Space-Time, Ex is able to instantly vanish. By cutting the space between himself and a target, Shin can materialize anywhere in real time. Or in other words..teleport
…
Ex jumps up and the serpent doesn't hesitate to follow.
"Alright, let's see what these do, Yuri!" Pulling from his pocket, Ex reveals a pair of two yo-yos that are spherical in shape. The designs produce a maze all around the spheres' surface and the divots pulse an eerie nightshade color. The strings are attached to a ring, all made out of nanotechnology.
The serpent opens wide, biting down at the air…Ex teleported, smacking the side of the serpent's head with a yo-yo, causing it to stumble.
"Fool!!" Iko yells, "I've leveled states with this creature alone, what makes you think you can even win?!"
Iko and the serpent dance in the sky, trying to catch Ex, but to no avail, they couldn't reach the young man as—from down below, he kicks the serpent's jaw and sends it up a few meters. His eyes, glowing with that same burning color of Incinerate, fire a Chaos Beam…a thin but powerful beam emitting from his pupils, blow up the snake after he had split it in two.
Back down to ground level, Ulagur swings at Quill who barely moves out of the way. He vanishes into snakes but Ulagur doesn't make time for him to come back. Clasping his hands together, Ulagur forms a small tsunami of blood that dissolves the snakes in a corrosive cascade, killing him, and melting the land around entirely.
With Yun, he receives a punch from Hugo but still stands unfazed. But that's not all from Hugo, he begins rapidly attacking Yun with a barrage of punches. However, they all prove to be useless. K'yun taunts with arms spread wide, his body rooted in the same place.. And after collecting enough blows, Yun barrels in with a gut punch that shakes the destroyed region, cleaving it open as he also staggers Hugo to all-fours. Next, he slams two quartz slabs together like a hydraulic press..Nothing now there but a splat of Hugo's blood staining the rainbow rocks crystals
Free Falling to the ground, Ex sticks the landing. Unfortunately for Iko, he doesn't. Hurrying to get back on his feet, Iko spots Ex across from him, the palm of the young Successor dimly shining and coats itself in spirals and stars. Iko's eyes widened in fear for the first time ever in his life. "THERE'S NO WAY I'M GONNA TO DIE NOW!! Not to a kid, NOT TO HIM!"
He books it, looking for a hiding spot…a tree…but sadly for him, Hugo knocked all of them down prior.
Ex sighs to himself, chuckling
SNAP
"Don't run…it makes your final moments look bad…" from behind Iko, Ex stops time, aggressively he drives his hand into Iko's backside, causing a loud hum to form in its wake.
"Galactic Palm..!!!"
…
Ex-Shin's new ability! Galactic Palm: Using his Blessing, Ex is also able to create and materialize objects found in space—celestial bodies. When using Galactic Palm, Ex's hand shifts and forms into a spiraling quasar. Meanwhile, micro-sized stars orbit it in a universal tone. When hit with this, the target will have said stars shot into them, causing detonation on a cellular level.
…
Ex-Shin resumes time…The front half of Iko's torso blows into pieces as his lifeless body loudly thuds against the soil, chunks of him twinkle away in stardust particles, becoming one with the wind.
"There you are!!" Yun says in the distance, his form no longer in use of Pristine Plating, he runs along with Ulagur, catching up to Ex-Shin.
"Hey you two! Good to see that you're not dead."
Ulagur chuckles low, "Yeah, you too, Ex..". Suddenly, Ex gets a call, he pulls his phone from his back pocket and looks at who it is.
"Olivia? What is she doing, calling at this time? I thought she'd be asleep by now.." Ex then answers the phone..
Ex hangs up the phone and turns to the boys, eyes sunken, and scared. "We need to hurry back, now! There's only two minutes until..you know who is gonna come for us.." he shudders.
Ulagur and K'yun already know what to do, sharing that same fear of being confronted by his mom and her peers once again.
Without hesitation from any of the young men, at full speed they zoom across the valley of mountains, racing home…