Ambitious Marine

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #6

The Professor frowned, when the young marine turned down his bribe offer and urged him to surrender again.

“Is she just bluffing, or does she really have some kind of power I can not see? Better to not take unnecessary risks, we are in hurry after all.”

He thought for himself, increasing the number of banknotes in his hands.

“Two million?”

He asked, realising maybe a bit too late, that the young woman probably didn´t even hear him over the music in her headphones as she suddenly charged forward, sending a powerful sidekick towards his face. With his hands preoccupied, Gabriel couldn´t really block it and so he did the second-best thing he could, swiftly sidestepped and let the attack to go past him. But something was off. While the kick itself seemed to be well refined, the woman that just attacked him was full of opening and wasteful movements, especially compared with the people he fought on Python´s tournament. Was she…perhaps really weak? As this thought ran through his head, Gabriel became suddenly grateful that she didn´t accepted his money. If he paid million to bribe someone of her level, Myra would eat him alive for wasting their corporate funds.”

“Hmmm, are you sure you want to do this?”

Gabriel asked, hiding his wallet back into the safety of his chest pocket.

---

Meanwhile in the restaurant Beast was feeling guilt over tricking one of her favourite humans like this. Afraid that she could lose her source of quality belly rubs, she walked slowly towards Danielle, head down and puppy eyes on.

“Soooooorry.”

She whined silently, while poking Danielle´s hand with her wet snout.

At the moment, Danielle was the only person who could hear her as Namkhai took the opportunity to order them the takeaway before returning back to the two ladies.

“The food should be ready in five minutes or so.”

He grinned, completely ignoring Danielle´s previous protests about who should go out there as for him Gabriel´s orders were absolute.

“Hmmm can I ask you something?”

Namkhai suddenly addressed the young treasure hunter as they were waiting on their food to be prepared.

“Are you interested only in girls or do guys stand a chance as well?”

He asked bluntly.

[Shisha]

She looked up, somewhat bewildered at the fact her foot, now hanging in the air, had missed its mark and hit nothing. Standing in a perfect pose, leg outstretched in front of her, stood on one leg where the man had been before. Slowly she lowered her leg and turned on the spot with her heel. Dropping the other calmly on the floor before her. Despite seeing him evade the kick in mid, well, kick she didn't let it get to her. Instead brushing the hair from her face, grabbing the edges of her shirt and tugging them back into a comfy position.

"I kind of HAVE to, its my job you know?".

She took a few steps towards him, the usual smile from her face had vanished, replaced with a more stern, serious expression.

"I challenged you're big burly friend back there, not you. But I have to say, this is a lot of fun already!". Back came the broad smile, flicking over to another track. Stopping for a moment upon reflection mid flip of the tune.

"Not that one, save that for an emergency Suke.."

So she flipped to the next and almost instantly her style move movement changed. Much more akin to a kind of standing shuffle of sorts, but with the odd sudden and abrupt motions than before. A foot cam crashing down into the ground in front of her, at an angle forcing bits of rock and pavement up and away from the impact site, scattering like projectiles at the Dapper professor. If she couldn't hit him head on, she could at least see how he moved...

---

Elsewhere, on a Marine ship headed to Fuschia town, a large and imposing brown bearded Captain stood arms crossed, a den den mushi snail on a barrel next to him. The very one a certain marine had left behind. Tapping his large metal gloved against his crossed arms, a face that looked like an angry bulldog having the worst day of its life. Her commanding officer and very publicly annoyed with captain. The other marines around him looked scared stiff, afraid to do anything or say anything, lest they incur his skull smashing wrath.

Letting out a sort of deep angry growl, he gritted his teeth for a moment before letting out a sigh. "You'd better be sick or dying Sukkari, Otherwise you'd wish you were when i get these hands on you..."

[Bobbie]

With a huff, Danielle watched Beast for a moment, her angry frown still on her face. However, it didn’t take much at all for her frown to be dispelled as it was soon replaced by a soft smile and Beast’s nuzzle was returned with a gentle scratch behind her ears.

Then Danielle froze.

Did she just… say she's sorry?

Blinking for a moment, Danielle stared at Beast in disbelief. “Did you… No…” she glanced at Namkhai to find out if he heard it too, but he was in the middle of placing their order which would make that unlikely, then she turned back to the malamute while he was busy. “Beast, are you able to talk?” she asked in a whisper, bringing her own face closer to Beast’s nose, but she quickly dismissed her own question and sat down to proceed with her sulking about the matter.

“Great, now I’m even imagining a dog speaking to me in human language…” she muttered as her complaints about the situation continued to be ignored. Her attention was fixed on Beast, even as Namkhai returned to state that their food should be ready very soon, ignoring him just as he ignored her.

Without saying anything, however, she glanced at him when he asked if he could put forward whatever question he had, too curious to deny him that.

Interesting… a lot more polite than he’s ever been before, what could he possibly want-

The expression on Danielle’s face changed entirely as the rather blunt and unusual question was asked. Most importantly, why was it asked? First, she watched him in shock and confusion, then frustration as her cheeks coloured a little bit, growing warmer by the second. Her frown returned thanks to Namkhai as quickly as it had previously been washed away thanks to Beast.

“What kind of question is that?” She snapped, her arms still crossed and her posture a little bit slouched. A little embarrassed, she sat up straighter and let her arms rest on the table, but as she opened her mouth to answer, her frown softened ever so slightly and she hesitated, avoiding looking at him altogether. She couldn't understand why he would ask her something like that - was he simply trying to get to know her? They had plenty of chances to do that during their journey on the ship here, so why now? Perhaps he was trying to pass the time.

Danielle shrugged and finally looked at him. “Maybe? What does it matter to you anyway? My heart beats for Rosalina and Rosalina alone. Any other man or woman is entirely irrelevant to me.”

Her gaze drifted onto a hanging clock, and then toward the door of the restaurant as she wished to know what was happening out there. There were some noises and it sounded like something was definitely happening, but surely it couldn't be an actual physical fight... Danielle was certain there would be more evidence of that if it were the case, even from inside the establishment - like the door bursting open or a one of the two crashing through a window.

As the thought came to her, she turned her chair a bit and craned her neck to try and peer out the window and see how things were moving along outside between the marine and the professor.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #7

As the young marine refused his bribe again, citing her duty, the Professor sighed with a mixture of disappointment and annoyance.

“That´s an admirable stance. You wouldn´t believe how many of your colleagues would take the money without second thought. So, let´s just hope, you can back it up, shall we?”

He smiled, still careful about any possible surprises she could reveal, but the more he watched her, the weaker she actually seemed, or was it that he grew that much stronger during the past few months? As brought her leg down, crashing the ground beneath her foot, Gabriel kicked the ground, jumping few steps backwards to avoid the flying debris.

“Sorry, but Namkhai don´t know how to hold back and I would prefer if there were no dead marine officers in our trail”

He said before becoming quiet, lowering his voice into silent whisper…

“it´s just a guess, but you are using music to change the rhythm and tempo of your movement is it right? That´s an interesting strategy, I never fought someone like that before, so I hope you won´t disappoint me.”

With that he rushed forward cowering the distance between them with several fast steps, before throwing one of the simplest combinations possible against her face, two swift jabs from the lead arm, followed by one more powerful strike from the rear one. For now, he was just trying to test her defence and so adjusted his speed to match her own.

---

Namkhai seemed unaffected by the sudden burst of Danielle´s emotions that followed after his question. But at least he was mature enough to not comment her visible embarrassment and flushing cheeks.

“Pretty straightforward one I would say. Sorry if it upset you.”

He shrugged his shoulders seemingly backing off from this conversation, before Danielle continued, making him smile.

“So that means, that if by any chance you two break ups I have a chance?”

The wrestler grinned, following the direction of her sight towards outside. Almost, as if he could hear her thoughts he muttered.

“It´s taking too long. Guess she knows some unique martial art and he got too carried away, but don´t worry, if they won´t be finished before the food will be ready I´ll take care of it.”

As he was looking towards the door, Beast used the chance to sneak on Danielle whispering to her ear.

“Namkhai likes Danielle, does Danielle like Namkhai?”

[Shisha]

Things were looking worse by the moment, it seemed this Dapper professor was much stronger than she'd first made out and rather annoyingly, faster than her. She could tell from how effortlessly he had evaded her improvised floor based projectiles. Again brushing her hair aside as it got in the way once more, she really needed to do something about that, maybe a ponytail in the future.

However when he began to describe the exact mechanics behind her headphones, how she used them in combat and such, her eyes for a moment shot wide open. Surprised that he'd in mere moments figured out something that usually confused so many people, her commanding officers in particular. But before she could really respond to his statement the man rushed her.

Caught unaware the young marine threw up her leg, using it to take the first punch in the side of her lower leg, the impact much harder than she expected, making the poor girl grit her teeth in pain. Said leg lowering back down as the second punch came flying, the sole of her foot touching his forearm. Using her Ito no mi powers to use his arm like a set of stairs, pushing up and off it as the last stronger punch came flying her way.

Using his back as something to push off of, she Landed behind him a fair distance away on both feet she stopped, and started shaking the leg she'd used to block him, like someone clutching their knee after falling over. Giving it a few shakes before planting it firmly down on the ground, shaking off her surprise and panic.

"O..Ok...So you can fight as well. That's Fun..."

"Maybe i will need to use that track for this.."

She decided to try something she'd been working on before. Like the last time, she brought a leg up and smashed it down into the ground, again sending chunks of debris from the ground out towards him. But this time she used that one leg to push off the ground and follow with the debris towards him, her Ito abilities kicking in, Moving across and jumping from one piece of debris to the other. Once close enough she went for a good old fashioned dropkick with both legs.

[Bobbie]

The complete lack of teasing from Namkhai alone was enough of a surprise to Danielle, when he also offered her an apology for possibly upsetting her with his question, it was even more of a shock. He was being oddly nice to her, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it - in his defence, this was the first time she was actually alone with him in a setting that didn’t call for urgent action like fleeing a hotel room, or during training.

As he asked if he had a chance, however, she looked at him with an uncertain look. She was ready to instantly shut him down, but upon seeing his silly grin, her conscience nagged at her before she got any of the words out. Of course, saying that he did have a chance when she knew he didn’t would be equally cruel…

“Not likely…” she muttered quietly, trying to word her response as gently as she could, which she thought was fair. She had no doubt in her mind that Rosalina was the woman she would spend the rest of her life with anyway, and in return she seemed quite content with Danielle, so why should she even be considering the possibility of them breaking up? Especially so, after the great lengths which she was going to in order to acquire the wealth needed to marry her and all the loops she’s been jumping through to get her father’s approval. If her relationship with her Rosie fell through, then she’d really have nothing left…

The thought saddened her as her gaze was fixed on the window, looking outside but not really watching, hearing Namkhai’s words but not really listening.

Beast’s voice, unique as it was, caught her off guard and she promptly turned to the speaking malamute, still struggling to come to terms with the fact that this animal was speaking a language she could understand. Reaching up to gently scratch her neck, she frowned, “No, Beast… but Danielle sure likes you!” her frown shifted into a smile as her other hand rose to scratch the other side of the dog’s neck.

Then she turned to Namkhai, partly considering what Beast just asked, and partly just now processing what she heard the large man say just moments ago. “Erm, no? The Professor made it pretty clear that you are not to go out there because you don’t know how to hold back - which I can personally attest for.” She argued in her usual irritated tone, although her only point of reference was the way he swept her up and carried her out of their last hotel room, resulting in him making a magnificent leap over a wall while she was on his shoulder, begging him not to, but it was enough in her mind to indicate that Gabriel’s comment was accurate… “If he’s not back inside before the food gets here, I will go out there and take care of this myself. With words, none of your brutish gorilla behaviour, got it?”

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #8

When the Professor noticed that the young marine only barely blocked his first punch and the painful grimace she made, he almost stopped his attack, ready to apologize, but then he remembered how angry Myra was, when he didn´t go all out against her during their training sessions just because she was a girl. And so Gabriel steeled his nerves and continued with his attack this time, with much lesser success as the Marine literally used his arm as a running mat to get behind him. Slightly hunching down, the Professor intended to hit her with the back part of his shoulder, but when he noticed she was shaking her leg, he decided otherwise.

“You don´t know much about us don´t you?”

He asked with a hint of amusement.

“We are organisation of martial artists, don´t you think it would be weird if the Headmaster didn´t know how to fight?”

He paused for a moment, before adding praise of his own.

“But I have to say that the walking technique you used earlier was quite interesting. What school does it belong to?”

However instead of a proper answer she slammed her leg down again, this time however using the debris as a platform to closer the distance between them.

“Interesting, how does this work?”

This time the Professor didn´t even bothered to dodge. Instead, he stepped forward inside of her range, using the sole of his front foot to kick the flying debris out of his way before planting it firmly on the ground, blocking Sukkari´s leg with his raised arm. Not at the heel level when it had all the power, but instead at the thig level above the knee, where it had almost none. From there he just pushed upward on the blocked limb, while sweeping the stance one with his own leg.

---

Despite being turned down, the wrestler didn´t seemed like he took it personally as his face brightened with a wide smile.

“Not likely doesn´t mean no, just that I have to work extra hard for it.”

He laughed so hard, that Beast´s next whinny response almost disappeared in it.

“So youuuuuu leave us one day?”

Her voice sounded sad, almost heartbroken from that possibility.

“Yeah? I would love to see how you explain marine officer that she doesn´t want to arrest me. Thirteen million bounty, do you remember?”

He pointed on himself.

“Besides, I am not a brute you think I am.”

[Shisha]

Another miss, another embarrassing miss for that matter. Simply pushed aside by his fancy foot work and martial arts skills. Forcing the young marine to use her Ito powers to use the other debris floating through the air around them as stepping stones. Running up them and backwards almost like a form of backflip. Back on both feet sliding away from him. As she looked up from the slide, her frustration became quite apparent. Stomping her feet over and over again in place, fists curled up in anger by her sides before reaching up, taking off her headphones for a moment.

"Will you hold still and let me KICK you already!!"

After the outburst she calmed down, taking a second to compose herself. Tapping her left foot on the ground like a beat of her own, to help her relax. This was not going to plan at all, her "back up" would arrive soon enough and so far, she had nothing to show for it. Except criminal damage to the floor at least. But something he said did make her sort of proud. Her walking technique as he called it.

That's what she had, advantage wise over him. Her Devils fruit. No matter how skillful he may of been, he had to obey gravity. He couldn't walk around indefinitely on the sides of buildings or upside down on things. Mentally she smiled like the Cheshire Cat, even doing the evil finger pyramid of evil contemplation. He seemed interested in it, maybe she could use this to her advantage.

"Wait, my Walking technique?. You Can't do this?"

The moment she asked that, she started walking backwards, moonwalking as it were to show off. Sliding back to the closest building, then sliding her feet back onto it, continuing to backwards walk up the vertical surface. The whole time making a shrugging gesture, a mocking facial expression, even going as for to turn on the spot, pressure on her heels, to face the other direction and keep moving up it. Despite all of this, it was planned, if she could get him close enough out of sheer interest in her apparent "technique", she could safely pull off one of her strongest attacks to date. Being so close, evasion would be...problematic.

[Bobbie]

Namkhai’s response was worrying and it brought Danielle’s attention back to him, his loud laugh almost shaking the walls of the building. “Technically that is true, but the chances are… pretty slim…” she muttered, “Like nearly non-existent, you know…”

Shaking her head, she sighed and turned away from him to give more attention to Beast once more. Her fingers once again went to work on the animal’s neck, before she leaned closer to give her loving kiss. “I promise you we will see each other again even after I leave…” she spoke softly, before a bright idea came to her. Glancing at Namkhai in a subtle manner, she turned back to Beast once more, “I’ll do you one better if you help me get outside without Namkhai stopping me. Would you like to come and meet Rosalina sometime?” She waited for a moment as she continued to pet the malamute, tilting her head to mirror any gesture the dog made. “She has the biggest kitchen in all of East Blue, so I’m sure there are some special doggy snacks in there with your name on them!” Danielle’s smile was filled with a heart-warming love for the animal as she knew she would certainly miss Beast after she leaves, but she had no choice.

Finally, she turned to Namkhai again, having left him waiting long enough for an answer to his question. First, she scoffed, then she spoke, “Oh, I remember. It’s hard to forget with you flaunting that bounty around like a worthless crown.” Danielle waved her hand dismissively and shrugged, but her smile remained. “Okay, you can watch then…” she stood up and walked toward Namkhai until she stood right in front of him, mere inches away from him as she looked up at him. “There’s more to words than bragging and gloating, Mr Titan.”

With a chuckle, she swiftly turned to the waiter who just reached them. Taking the bags of their food, she promptly pushed them against Namkhai’s chest for him to take and let go so as to force him to busy his hands unless he wanted their food to fall to the floor. Spinning on her heel, she made a run for the door, pulling it open and slipping out, hoping Beast would prevent him from stopping her or making it out before her.

“Okay, where is this marine?” She glanced around, confused when she didn’t immediately see Sukkari anywhere, until she turned around and looked up slightly to see that she was walking up the wall.

“What the heck?” She couldn’t hide her shock and looked at Gabriel, then back at the pink haired woman. “Look, we have terms of our own - whatever your plan is here, it’s clearly not working, so you might as well listen.” she shouted up toward the marine in a boyish tone as she watched her sternly and in a confident posture, yet she remained close to Gabriel, just in case the marine got any funny ideas of snatching her. “You want Namkhai’s bounty? Race for it, or we walk away right now. If you're confident that you can catch us, then a race shouldn't be a problem, and it's an easy solution that both you and I need.” At this point, she nudged Gabriel lightly while her gaze remained fixed on the woman standing at an impossible angle on a fully vertical wall, “Floors versus walls, sounds interesting enough. Whoever makes it first to the pond at the square three blocks down has the mighty Namkhai Monkhbat belong to them.”

Her eyes fixed on the woman, Danielle refused to look away in fear of causing uncertainty in Sukkari and resulting in a refusal to participate out of caution. She only hoped that Gabriel would catch on - whether they win or lose the race, they would be away from whatever rendezvous point the marine had already set up with her peers outside this restaurant.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #9

Sukkari managed to dodge again with the help of her unique ability, making Gabriel even more interested in the mechanics that were hidden behind it.

“Of course not, that would set a terrible example. If you want to hit me, you have to earn it with your skills.”

He said with a tone of professor giving a lecture to his student, just as she started walking backwards up to a vertical wall.

“Is she mocking me?”

The Professor frowned in a response to her gestures and silly dancing. He wanted to follow her, to observe the way her technique worked from a closer distance, but at the same time the door leading to the inn opened as Danielle convinced Beast to hold Namkhai back just long enough for Danielle to run outside.

“You furry traitor! You were supposed to stop her, not me!”

The heavily muscular wrestler cursed from inside, while Danielle presented her offer. A race that should decide Namkhai´s fate. Unfortunately for her, it was just at the time, when the martial artist managed to push Beast aside and join them as well.

“A moment ago, you didn´t want to go on date with me and now you are speaking for me as if you were my wife already? What a turn of events.”

He said with a grin. There was no malice in his voice, just a pure amusement.

“Also, I don´t think it´s necessary…Master, she is probably just using some kind of Devil Fruit, let´s beat her and continue, the food is already here.”

Namkhai raised his hand with a paper bag filled with three food boxes.

Gabriel frowned. Devil Fruit, that would definitely explain thing or two about her strange abilities and truth to be told the way she mocked him earlier rubbed him up the wrong way so perhaps it wouldn´t be that bad to teach her little lesson.

“True Step.”

Without responding to either Danielle or Namkhai, the Professor raised his right foot, kicking the air beneath it with such speed and strength that he simply disappeared, flying through the air with blinding speed only to appear just above her back a blink of eye later, using the young marine as some kind of stool.

“Is it true? Is it just a Devil Fruit?”

He asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

[Shisha]

As the others of Gabriel's group came busting outside, Sukkari was in mid show off walking backwards up the wall, but the sudden appearance of them all made her stop. Losing her grip on the wall she slid down it slowly, coming to a stop and righting herself on the ground. For a moment she didn't pay attention to her opponent, but when he suddenly spoke from not just behind, but above her she froze and like a creaking slow moving sign, turned her head.

"Oooh... well. That's... not fair"

She hadn't even seen him move, this sudden burst of speed and the look of not really trying at all plastered on his face, Sukkari suddenly had reservations about this fight. Her face, eyes wide with one eyelid twitching, the shaky jaw, the sheer surprise and realization of how totally screwed she was started to set in. He was standing on her, Standing on her for crying out loud. Feet on her shoulders, forcing her to bend a little forwards. The idea to flip up her leg and try and kick him off felt, like a bad one. No doubt he'd move, or worse. And with her being drastically outnumbered, things seemed bad.

But quickly she coughed and sorted herself out, a semi serious face once more despite her turmoil inside. "So what if it is? It's not exactly a Rare thing anymore now is it?"

She rolled out from under him and took off her coat, brushing it down with her hands as she shot Gabriel a sort of frown. "I'm proud of my devils fruit powers thank you... I can handle things myself without a group to back me up".

But just as suddenly as always, she shot up straight, a thought had entered her head. If his skill was Martial Arts as he loved to inform her, it could be learnt, taught, mastered. Shamelessly and somewhat moronically she span around, both hands together with almost stars in her eyes.

"How did you do that by the way? That teleporting thing. Did it take long to learn? where did you learn it? Self taught?. How does it work? Just fast movement or is it a special kind of maneuver..."

She trailed on and on, slowly leaning closer and closer to him as she did so, stopping her leaning to bolt from place to place around him. Examining him, poking his legs, eyeing the distance between his feet. Obsessively one could say.

[Bobbie]

Danielle sighed in frustration as her proposition seemed to fall on deaf ears and elicited no response from the marine.

As Namkhai burst out after her, she turned to look at him, frowning at his silly comment. “Your wife?” she blurted out before laughing and shaking her head. Perhaps he had more of a sense of humour than she initially thought, but that wasn’t enough for her to ignore every other infuriating quality of his. "Not in a million years."

Walking over to his side, her gaze was fixed on the paper bag, “What did you even order, anyway?” she asked, curiously as she reached over to the bag to try and take it from him - not a snatch but just a gentle hand over.

At that point, there was some quick movement that she caught out of the corner of her eye, causing her attention to redivert back to the pair engaged in some kind of combat. It was clear that the professor was curious about her abilities and would be disappointed to hear it all explained away through a simple devil fruit, though that needn’t really be as simple a concept as his tone implied.

She watched on while their scuffle resulted in equal curiosity on the marine’s part, as she circled round her opponent with so many questions.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #10

The Professor jumped off her shoulders, clearly disappointed by the explanation hidden behind her extraordinary ability.
"So it's really Devil Fruit? That's so…boring."
He muttered with the tone of a small child that just found out that instead of an amusement park, they are going to their old cat-loving aunt.
"That sounds great coming from you."
Namkhai laughed while giving Danielle the bag with their lunch. A large box with salmon steak with salad and pasta.
"A girl who cried about reinforcements since the moment she started the fight."
Gabriel sighed. While Namkhai was right, the last thing they needed was a prolonged verbal fight with that pink-haired woman and so he turned around to simply leave, only to be stopped in his tracks by her follow-up question.
"Well, it's not that hard."
The Professor smiled, pleased by her sudden interest in his craft.
"It's based on a Sky Walk from the third scroll of Blue Dragon Kung Fu, where you hit the air beneath your feet with enough power to actually compress it into a solid platform from which you can jump off. Now, that alone won't allow you to move with blinding speed of course, for that you have to…"
While he was talking and talking with the enthusiasm of a nerd that was asked about Warhammer lore by a pretty girl, Namkhai rolled his eyes.
"Stay here alright?"
He asked Danielle, before charging forward. And while he wasn't able to move with a blinding speed, he was still absurdly fast for a man of his size, perhaps even comparable to Gabriel in his base speed. He covered the distance between them in a heartbeat, but his heavy footsteps alarmed the Professor just in time for him to turn around.
"Empty Moon"
As Namkhai threw his punch, aimed at Sukkari's face, Gabriel intercepted it with a gentle circular movement of his arm, pushing the strike off it's trajectory and into the ground where it left a large crater, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air.
"Looook, they stroooong"
Beast howled silently, so only Danielle could hear her.
"Will protect, give goood strooong puppies. Will youuuuu stay?"

[Shisha]

"Third Dragon Scroll?...Blue, Sky Walk?"

The young marine, enraptured by the explanation of his technique, had no idea what he was talking about. The nodding expression and hand on her chin to display a image of learning was just a façade. Of course she understood tiny bits of it here and there, but Blue dragon Kung Fu, that alone made her spiral down a vortex of cluelessness. But it made her think about something she'd never tried. Sky walking, Surely that was possible for her. After all she could walk on everything else so it would only make sense for the air...

Her thoughts cut off by a sudden shout at her side, eyes darting to the noise only to spot and grow wide at the sight of a Fist. A big, heavy fist speeding towards her head. With her in such a lowered guard and in her own little world, it would hit for sure. Like it was all in slow motion for her, she couldn't even gulp in time.

But just as quickly as it came, it was over. The rush of air hitting her face as his fist traveled past her into the ground thanks to what was probably another Blue Dragon whatever technique from Gabriel. Slamming into the ground near her, making a sizeable crater. The impact making her bounce up off the ground only to land back on her feet. She blinked, a few times while glancing behind her. Just how strong were these people?

Within seconds after the initial surprise, her expression vanished, looking serious again. The mental Sukkari spewing fire and brimstone from her maw as she looked at the large man, this Namkhai. Once again she went to rear her leg back, making the movement to stand on one leg while Gabriel had him distracted, but stopped just as she coiled the leg back against her chest. Lowering it she restrained herself from doing what she'd planned on doing from the start, shoving her foot in Namkhai's face. Instead patting Gabriel on the arm and smiling at him with thanks.

"So, before your huge friend here tries to kill me, Again... I'm obviously not going to win this, So may i ask. What are you guys doing here to begin with? Our meeting was coincidence, but you guys are here for something, right?"

Even while asking him, her eyes would now and then dart at Namkhai, shooting death and malice at him, never breaking her friendly smile towards the dapper professor though. Keeping an eye on the big guy while she conversed with Gabriel.

[Bobbie]

As Danielle took the bag, she lowered it beneath her nose to get a whiff of the food that she was quite hungry for, as she opened the paper bag to peer inside. She couldn’t see what it was through the boxes, which prompted her to get one of the three boxes out and hold the bag that held the remaining two under her arm. Presumably hers, she flipped the box open to see what was in it.

For perhaps the first time, Danielle listened to Namkhai and stayed put, quite distracted with the food that she couldn’t resist stealing a nibble from while everyone else was busy. So distracted, in fact, that she didn’t hear Beast sneak up on her until the malamute spoke.

Startled, she nearly dropped her box of food, before she turned to look at Beast, though whether she was more shocked by her sudden intrusion or by what she was implying was not entirely clear. Her cheeks reddened for a moment and she looked at the crater in the ground that Namkhai had just unintentionally made, a clear sign of his strength, then back at the fluffy dog. “We’re not… Beast, we’re not going to have puppies whether I stay or not.” She paused to glance at Gabriel, then tore a small piece of salmon from her box to hold it to Beast’s nose. “I’ll have to go back to Rosalina at some point…” despite treasuring her beloved, Danielle still spoke with sadness in her tone. Parting with Beast will be the most devastating that she’d ever have to endure on this journey for true love.

Continuing to get an early start on her meal, she turned her attention back to the three.

---

Danielle: #fffd17