Power Level: 2,976
Weighted Power Level: 2,232

The unfortunate snack snatcher quivered on the ground his eyes wider than dinner plates. A dark spot spread across his crotch bladder control lost in the face of what he was sure must be his final end. He didn't want to die! Not like this! NOT OVER PASTERIES! The man rolled over and scrabbled away on his hands and knees desperately, shoving himself up to a hobbled and desperate escape. He shoved past people in attempt to futilely escape Zerori. It didn't work the first time, but surely it'll work this time, right??? The crowd parted to avoid the man as if he carried with him the plague, or at least the mark of death for crossing Zerori.

Except for one person. A woman with long dark hair, a flat expression and a thick red scarf. 

Anastasia turned from the fleeing man to Zerori before raising her hand up, palm out. In a mock authoritative voice that just sounded dull and bored she said, "Excuse me ma'am. I have a few questions to ask you about a case. We have a suspicion there's a thief and public urinator in the area."

Ana's face may have been straight, but there was a slight twinkle in her eyes that you had to really look to see. Anastasia took a piece of receipt paper from her pocket and mimed writing in it (some of us weren't capable of conjuring prop notebooks from thin air, thank you very much), "Now word has it that the man was seen snatching a bag of food? Could you please described the stolen goods?"

Ana reached into her coat and pulled out a emblazoned with The Sweet Girl logo and held it up for Zerori's perusal, "Did it happen to look anything like this, ma'am?"

The thief had been so desperate to get away he had no idea that one of the people he had ran into had snatched it right from his hands. He probably wouldn't realize he no longer had his prize for several minutes, if at all. He would probably just be glad to have escaped with his life at this point. Maybe he'd think twice about stealing. Maybe not.

Ana couldn't keep up the game as long as Zerori could, and immediately just dropped the façade of authority... which really meant she put the receipt back in her pocket. Anastasia wasn't much of an actress.

"Fancy meeting up like this again..." Ana cocked her head, "Don't you think you're over acting? My guy stole my wallet, and I didn't make him fear for his life."

Word Count: 432
Total Word Count: 432

Power Level: 2,976
Weighted Power Level: 2,232


Ana enjoyed Zerori's slack jawed shock when she presented Zerori's food to her. The other woman was always so self-assured and confident, it made it fun to turn the tables on her a bit. Besides, snatching the bag back from the panicking idiot hadn't been too hard. Even if he hadn't been scared so senseless that he wasn't paying attention to his purloined goods, his average human speed was no match to Ana's super human reflexes. After catching bullets, grabbing the bag from him was like taking candy from a baby... a near perfect comparison since he had wet himself like one.

"Even if they are that good, you could have just bought another one," Ana pointed out with a shrug of her shoulders. To be fair, she didn't really care about food. After so many MREs food became just a source of fuel for her. But... she did enjoy the occasional sweet treat.

"Alright," she accepted Zerori's offer, and followed her towards the city park, hands in her pockets.

Ana cocked her head again when Zerori's armor disappeared and was replaced with her usual flashy outfit. The quick change was interesting... Being able to switch clothes on the fly could be useful. If someone caught you unawares you could protect yourself with armor with out needed to be lugging it around all the time. It seemed like it could be a great ability with a lot of utility.

"Handy trick. How did you do that?" Ana gestured towards all of Zerori, implying her quick change, "What else can you do?"

The park wasn't too crowded. There were a few people walking their pets, others jogging for their daily exercise, young lovers walking hand in hand, even just the occasional person who needed a break from the dull grays of the city to experience a little green nature. The usual crowd of suspects in a pleasant city park like this.

Ana led the way to a small picnic table under the shade of a large tree. There was a plaque built into the ground by the tree's roots thanking some one for donating to the park. Probably some rich person looking for a tax write off. But at least their tax write off paid for something in the community. Ana sat at the table and rested her arms across the top, gesturing to Zerori to take a seat as well.

Word Count: 400
Total Word Count: 832

Power Level: 2,976

Weighted Power Level: 2,232

Ana stared back at Zerori flatly when she joked about making Ana jealous and her insinuation about her relationship with the proprietor... she arched an eye brow and although her tone was even there was still a sense of tease to it, "I still don't see the problem. You can always engage in some additional... rapport."

Of course Ana tiny nudge of a joke was nothing compared to Zerori's outright attentions. When she joked about them dating, Ana just flicked her fingers in Zerori's face, letting loose the barest of ki sparks. The equivalent of flicking static shocks. It was harmless. In this instant, Ana was metaphorically spritzing a naughty cat with a spray bottle.

At Zerori's offer of the bag of sweet treats Ana carefully took a small piece, tearing it loose with her fingers, and nibbled on it. It wasn't that she was reluctant, or didn't want to partake. It was just polite and her careful nature. As Zerori spoke she would just occasionally take additional pieces bit by bit. She watched attentively as Zerori literally summoned a book out of thin air. Anastasia cleaned her fingers on her pant leg absent mindedly before reaching out for the book, stopping to look at Zerori for permission, before picking it up. Ana looked at the cover and flipped through the pages. She was curious to see if the book was blank, or if Zerori's abilities also created or copied text inside as well.

"What do you mean by 'understand how it works'?" Ana cocked her head curiously her mind turning over the possibilities of this ability and the utility of such a skill. Could she create food and water? Sustenance? How much did she need to understand something? Engineering? Elemental make up? How long did these things last? Ana had so many questions, but didn't want to throw them all out at once. 

The biggest question, though, was could it be taught?

Word Count: 323
Total Word Count: 1,155

Power Level: 2,976

Weighted Power Level: 2,232

Years, she had said? Zerori must extremely liked this treat if she hadn't gotten tired of it by now. It made her previous reaction to the theft a little more understandable, but it still seemed excessive to Ana. Even if it seemed to be her favorite confection Ana couldn't see why she couldn't just get another one. But then again, it was probably just the principal of the matter at this point.

Anastasia listened attentively to Zerori's explanation. She didn't respond to Zerori's question, Ana taking it for rhetorical, and waited for Zerori to continue her line of thought. When Zerori summoned an exact duplicate of the strawberry glazed jenny lindt, she had cemented Ana's opinion that she had over reacted to the theft. Kami, if she could just create it on a whim what even was the big deal? Anastasia mentally shook her head at the thought before returning her focus to the questions she had for Zerori.

"So you don't even need to know how to bake it? That seems like an important part of 'understanding' it. How long does it last? Indefinitely? If you consume it, does it still fill you up and feed you?" if it could actually feed you, and more people were able to use the ability, the struggled for rations and supplies for an army would be moot. An army marched on it's stomach and one that could just summon what it needed at will would have a ludicrous advantage against their enemies.

"What do you mean more complicated things?" Ana continued her line of questioning after Zerori encouraged her to do so, "Say some sort of machinery. A clock, versus a car. Actually, how large can you make something?? Just hand sized? How many things could you make?"

Anastasia hadn't realized just how curious she had been about Zerori's magical ability. This was the most that Anastasia had ever asked her. An usually spoke in short sentences if she spoke at all. When Zerori had offered to share her story in the past Ana had declined. Now she was asking multiple questions back to back. The piece of jenny lindt that Ana had been eating momentarily forgotten in her hand in the face of her curiosity. 

If Zerori had any doubts about Anastasia's interest, they would probably be gone now. But Anastasia's interest in Zerori wasn't the same as Zerori's interest in her. If anything Ana was oblivious to it. She thought of Zerori's attentions as harmless teasing and banter that the woman would use on anyone. She had admitted outright to her... what was the word she had used? Rapport. She had admitted outright to her rapport with the baker of the very treat they were eating now, after all.

Word Count: 460
Total Word Count: 1,615

Power Level: 2,976
Weighted Power Level: 2,232

"Hmm..." Ana cocked her head thoughtfully at Zerori's explanation on whether or not you needed to bake something for you to know it. It changed how she looked at the ability. Would you just need to understand the concept of how things operated? A flash like illuminated because of electricity and a bulb. A car ran on fuel being burned in an engine that made the wheels turn and propel the car forward. You needed less specific knowledge than Ana had initially thought.

She brought her thoughts back to the present and Zerori's next part of the explanations. Indefinite existence. Whatever she created was created essentially. It was less a summoning than a more a manifestation if Ana understood her correctly. That made the ability even more amazing. You could create weapons then give them to a soldier and they would be supplied with out having to worry about their equipment disappearing mid combat. You could, theoretically, create a building if you did it piece meal enough to conserve your energy, doing a little bit every day.

Which meant the food Zerori could create would sustain a person. Her explanation of how she consumed more food than she could eat made sense. That meant that, once again theoretically, if some one were strong enough they could feed multiple people. You'd be able to supply a team with rations if the creator was strong enough. That would make the team self-sustaining essentially. Obviously not a team of saiyans, unless you were extremely powerful. But feeding a saiyan was a difficult endeavor with or without magic. Her corp had a few saiyans on duty, but feeding them had always been a difficult trial for logistics. They needed five times the rations of other soldiers, and if you can't provide that, they would just take the food regardless. Anastasia had needed to fight for her food on more than one occasion...

When Zerori said that she wasn't going to tell Ana the limits of her abilities, Ana merely nodded her head, as if to say, 'That's fair.' It made sense to keep your limits close to the chest. Knowledge was power, and if a person knew Zerori's limits that made it easier to make a plan for how to make her expend her resources and tire her out.

Ana perked up at the additional bone that Zerori threw to her, "You mean like teleporting or summoning? Would that be easier to do than creating? Cost less energy? How far away could something be? Would you need to see the item to do so, or just know it's location? How exactly? If you were in one room, and you wanted to summon something from another room. Would you need to see it? Or know whether or not it was on a table? Or just knowing that specific item is in that specific room?"

If the summoning was easier than creating, that made it even more possible to support your corp with supplies. You could pull the equipment from a storage location, depending on energy constraints. Ana couldn't help but frame all her thoughts and questions from a military point of view. You could take the soldier out of the war, but you could never take the war out of the soldier. And so all her thoughts, ideas, and questions followed along the logistics of warfare.

Word Count: 561
Total Word Count: 2,176

Power Level: 2,976

Weighted Power Level: 2,232

Anastasia was sweetened out. She gestured for Zerori to take the last of the jenny lindt. Afterward Ana leaned forward and folded her arms over the table top while her mind turned over the possibilities of what Zerori was saying. So she was talking about technology and not her magic ability. Ana hadn't expected that. That was an entirely different skill set, and one she hadn't expected Zerori to dabble in. Once again, she surprised her. Ana knew that Zerori wasn't stupid, far from it. But she hadn't expected the woman to be clever in terms of technology as well. Ana's experience and knowledge did not extend into the realm of what Zerori was describing. Ana could grasp the applications of such things, but had no idea on how one would go about making it happen.


Ana was still struggling to understand certain pieces of what Zerori was telling her, but the metaphor of butchering meat versus using a machine made sense and helped click things more in place for Ana's mindset. In this way you'd have two different options for getting resources, the magic of creation and the technology of transporting it. This doubled the amount of resources you could work with since they wouldn't be limited by the same energy source, theoretical. A person could create items until they ran out of energy. Meanwhile the machine could teleport more items until it too ran out of energy, rather than one person with magic teleporting AND creating. Hmm... interesting. Teleporting required the item to exist already. But it would allow other creators to make items in safety that could then be teleported to the field, rather than requiring a creator to be in the actual field. Depending on if Zerori's machine needed a creator to operate it or not.



Ana broke out of her thoughts when Zerori proclaimed that she had the mind of a general. Anastasia shook her head and waved off the sentiment, "I was just a foot soldier. I never climbed the chain of command. I'm not a leader."


It took more than strategic thinking to be a general. It required a charisma that would inspire others to follow. It required a level of tact to connect and work with multiple people in some form of synergy. Both were skills Anastasia sorely lacked. She was too blunt, and did not have the best grasp of social niceties at times. She also didn't know how she felt about leading others, it had never been a situation she had to confront before. It didn't seem like a particularly unpleasant scenario, but nor was it attractive. Some people craved power, but it seemed that didn't apply to Anastasia. No, she was most comfortable under command.


"So this is something you're actually trying to build?" Ana asked with a tilt to her head, "You don't strike me as an engineer. I wasn't expecting that."


Warrior. Entrepreneur. Scientist/Engineer. Casanova. Charlatan.


Zerori was a woman of many talents.

Word Count: 497
Total Word Count: 2,673

Power Level: 2,976

Weighted Power Level: 2,232

"Hm," Ana murmured softly in acknowledgement of Zerori's comment about her being a general. Whether she did or didn't have the capability to be a general was a moot point. She was no longer in the army. She was now a solo operative, under no one faction. So even if she wanted to lead, she had no one to command.

Putting that aside she cocked her head at Zerori's sharing of her past. It seemed the woman kept dropping little tidbits here and there for Ana. Crumbs. A bread trail through the forest of conversation. Ana couldn't help but reciprocate. If only just a little...

"I never went to a public or private school," Anastasia shrugged, "I studied in the army's private institution, with the other cadets. I imagine some things are still the same regardless. The cliques. The drama. Etcetera."

Ana could see Zerori waiting expectantly for follow up questions, but truth told, while Ana had, had many questions about her magical ability, she didn't have the same amount of questions for her teleportation machine. Machinery was not Ana's expertise. While she could theorize and ponder about a technique, a machine was another thing entirely. She shook her head to Zerori, confirming that she didn't have questions for her at the moment.

Conveniently timed, Zerori's cellphone chimed for her attention and she examined it. Looked like their time was over. Ana pushed herself to her feet but paused when Zerori asked if she had a cellphone. Who didn't in this day and age? They seemed so integral to everyday life, beyond even just the original function of a telephone. Ana slipped her phone from the inner-breast pocket of her jacket and held it up for Zerori to see. But she paused when Zerori mentioned meeting up again.

Did she really want to give Zerori her contact information? The woman's attentions were obvious and while Ana didn't think she would go so far as to harass her, she wasn't sure. But then again, it wasn't like she hadn't enjoyed their limited time together. The bumpy way they had met aside, they had, had pleasant enough conversations. Ana didn't have many friends. Mostly training partners and acquaintances. Regardless of her romantic attentions, Zerori still would be a good friend. 

Why not?

If Zerori did become a pain, or a nut job, she could always just change her phone number.Ana unlocked her phone with a fingerprint, and then pulled up her phone number. She wordlessly held the screen out for Zerori to see the numbers easily enough. Wordless consent for Zerori to have her contact information.

Word Count: 435
Total Word Count: 3,108