Tough Crowd

"Ho ho, what's this" Payaso says to himself. "This is some powerful reiatsu!." With his senses heightened now, he can see to his left energy being released on the horizon, almost like an aurora, made of multiple colors. " Must be more than one, then ." He pauses for a second, then starts walking in the general direction from which the reiatsu was flowing from.

How long had he been wandering across this huge desert? Weeks, months... years? He didn't know for sure. All he knew was that he was dreadfully bored. Only his humor kept him from going completely crazy. He made fun of the dark sky and how no light shone down from it. He laughed at the endless expanse of sand that lay all around him, with nothing discernible in sight. He even teased the pitiful hollows that wandered through this desolate place, just like him. However, nobody understood. His first attempts to tell his jokes to hollows, to make them understand his humor, ended in him cutting them to bits in frustration. He eventually decided not to bother to communicate with them. He'd prefer to be alone rather than enjoy the pleasant company of those buffoons.

Recently, he had become desperate to do anything, accept any change to his static surroundings. He even used his reiatsu to control the hollow lizards that burrowed beneath the sand, waving them around like rag dolls then release them and watch as they scurried back to their burrows, but after playing with 24 lizards his enthusiasm for this is rapidly waning.

And now he had sensed this source of energy. It was strong, without a doubt, but it was very faint; he would have missed it had he not had his reiatsu threads on the alert, looking for more hollow lizards to play with. “Interesting how that is,” he muses. “ Sometimes it’s just a one second difference between a golden opportunity taken and a missed one.”

“ It seems pretty far away. Good thing I know some jokes to pass the time.”

Payaso had just told himself a good joke, and he was still chuckling from the punchline when he stopped suddenly, eyes widening. He had been walking for a good hour now and could identify the source of reiatsu. He was now able to discern three separate reiatsus, each a different color, and that the reiatsus were coming from Arrancar-level hollows. Now, he felt the one with the most reiatsu moving and coming in his direction.

For a moment, Payaso was indecisive.

He was proud of his ability to use his reiatsu threads to judge the movement, location, and strength of his opponents; it was how he had managed to find weaker hollows to eat and avoid the stronger ones until he became an Arrancar. And now this Arrancar coming towards him had the largest reiatsu he had ever felt, easily twice as much as his own. A little voice in his head, probably Mr. Common Sense, was screaming at him to run away, to avoid the powerful being at all costs.

On the other hand... Payaso WAS bored. "And what would I do if I managed to evade him?" he asked himself. " Continue wandering in this desert until I starve to death?" Speaking of which, I am feeling a bit faint. I haven't eaten anything for several days except for hollow lizards, and those aren't exactly filling.

"Decisions, decisions..." Payaso finally made up his mind, sitting down on top of a sand dune and taking his time to shake the sand out of his shoes. He then sat up with his arms draped over his knees, with all of his threads aimed at the approaching reiatsu. "I hope that guy has something to eat" he said, to no one in particular.

The eternal night and miles of dunes made a beautiful combination which stretched out forever. But every few hundred meters, there could be a dust cloud seen formed.For those close to it, there would be a blur seen and a static sound heard nano-seconds before the cloud formed. Sol was using Sonido to cover large distances, which really would help his search, if Hueco Mundo wouldn’t be so damn huge. He was moving for several hours and no luck finding someone. But then something caused him to stop. He felt a vague reiatsu. What could it be? A weak being, which is just slightly stronger than the rest, or a powerful one, hiding his reiatsu? In either case, there was only one way to find out. Sonido after Sonido, Sol was getting closer and closer to the source of reiatsu.

He stopped. In from of him was an Arrancar, sitting on the sand, waiting. What was he waiting for? Him? Who knows? Sol looked at the Arrancar for a while, tilting his head to the side. This clearly was the source of the reiatsu, but whether it was his max or the minimum, Sol couldn’t tell. He was just looking at the Arrancar, waiting for him to do something, anything really.

Well, there's no turning back now. It was amazing how the Arrancar had closed the distance between him and Payaso in such a short time. Payaso could move fast, but what this Arrancar was doing seemed almost like teleporting. Payaso broke into a slight sweat as he finally saw the Arrancar for the first time. He looked interesting enough: a tall man with this weird fringe on one side of his face. This reiatsu is tough to bear, Payaso thought to himself. Even though the other Arrancar was hardly releasing any reiatsu, Payaso, with his heightened senses, could sense the sheer volume of energy hidden, ready to be released at any given time.

Even if his reiatsu was at full strength, Payaso was pretty sure he couldn't win a fight against this Arrancar. And since he had not eaten for several days, Payaso's reiatsu level was low, and he knew that any fight with this Arrancar right now was sheer suicide. However.... He thought it would be a good idea to hide two of his threads in the sand. He decreased his reiatsu output into those two threads until even he could barely feel that they existed. He slowly snaked his threads toward and around the Arrancar, until there was a thread on each side of him, aimed at the Arrancar who was just standing there looking at him. He kept the threads a good distance from the Arrancar though; it wouldn't do for him to find out what Payaso was planning. Could spoil any potential relationships. If worst comes to worst, he could use his Cero Dirigido as a desperate attempt to escape. If I do that though, I'll use up a lot of my remaining reiatsu. And he might be a tad angry if he dodges my cero. Decisions, decisions...

Payaso finally decided to break the silence that was growing between the two Arrancar. He smiled and said, "Hello. My name's Payaso Real. You wouldn't happen to have something to eat, would you?"

“Ah…” Sol scratched the back of his head and looked away in embarrassment “unfortunately, not with me.” He then looked at Payaso “but we’ve got plenty of food in Las Noches…unless Lyca ate it all.” He added in a bit of an annoyed voice. He sat down as well. For a while there was just silence. It was long and nerve-wrecking, until Sol finally broke it “So you wanna be an Espada?”

Payaso blinked a couple of times. Gets right to the point, this one does. He had no idea what a Las Noches was, or who Lyca was, though it was probably safe to guess that she was one of the sources of reiatsu he had felt earlier. At any rate, this Arrancar had sat down about 20 feet from him and didn't look like he wanted to pick a fight with Payaso. Still, I'm not going to let my guard down quite yet. "An Espada, huh? Does that mean I get to be in some sort of club you formed?" He laughed out loud at his little quirp, but he wasn't able to get a visible reaction from the Arrancar. Hmm. Tough audience.

"Anyways, are there benefits for members of your little group? It seems that you only have two other members, and your clubhouse is pretty far away, it seems" Payaso remarked, nodding in the direction of the other two reiatsus. He turned his head back at the Arrancar, then quickly glanced at the two spots were his threads were hidden just below the surface of the sand. The Arrancar didn't seem to know about Payaso's gamble of a trap. He also seemed to not be sure about Payaso's reiatsu level. Must not be a very good sensor. Thank goodness for that. "But you've have piqued my interest. And my hunger. Though I am curious as to why someone as freakishly powerful as yourself would want to form a club in the first place. Surely you don't need someone like little old me to watch your back, do you?"

Sol looked at Payaso in a bit of confusion, then eased his face. A joker huh? Well that can be interesting. “Well, that’s exactly the reason I’m asking you to join us. Because there are so few of us. Plus, you seem like a strong guy, and smart too.” Sol got up, made a bit of a smile “All this time you were not foolish enough to attack me from under the sand, shows that you think logically.” Sol took a few steps towards Payaso, but made sure that he wouldn’t mistake it for an offence. “What benefits there are? Well you get to learn stuff like Sonido…” Sol vanished. His next words were heard from behind Payaso “like this. Or Garganta…” Sol raised his hand, stuck out the index and the middle finger and pierced the air with them. As his arm was fully stretched, a mouth-like portal opened where his fingertips were “like this.” The portal closed. “You can also get underlings, if you’re interested of course. You also seem to be suspiciously good at deception, so that’s a definite plus.” Sol looked into the sky, searching his mind for any other details. “You get to with other Arrancar as well. In case of danger we’ll look out for you. At the same time, you’ll watch out for us on a major scale, cause I must say that your perception is unrivaled, at least for now. So what do you say?” Sol looked at Payaso.

Impossible. Payaso had made sure that he was using as little reiatsu as possible for his trap, so little that even he could barely feel that his threads were under the sand. And this guy didn't fall for it? Me thinks I might have underestimated this guy a tad, and here I was trying to be cautious. More importantly, he didn't kill me on the spot for trying to trick him. He wasn't even angry at me. I guess he really does want me to join this group of his.

Payaso was also amazed at how incredibly fast he was. I was at full awareness, and I didn't even sense him moving until he was already behind me. And as for that door thing.... Payaso felt himself trembling slightly, then suddenly burst out roaring with laughter. His laughing attack lasted for about a minute, before he finally settled down and wiped the tears from his eyes. "This is the first time I've been left speechless! Well Mr. Espada, if you insist on recruiting me, I guess I'll have to accept your offer." He retracted the reiatsu threads from his now useless trap and stood up facing his new comrade. "But first, you might want to teach me how to do that speed thing, 'Sonido' you called it? It'll make following you a bit easier."

The Sonido was an Arrancar version of the Shinigami Shunpou. Sol didn’t exactly know which one came first, but who cares really? “Sonido happens when you gather Reiatsu into your feet and make a move it. The result…” Sol made one step towards Payaso. In that one step, he was stending next to him “…is something like this.” Sol walked off a bit. “It takes a bit of practice. Try using both legs first, like jumping. Then try using one leg. This will help you use it continuously.” Sol vanished. A whole round of static sounds, blurs, and little dust clouds started forming around Payaso. Then Sol appeared in the same spot he left from. “So something like this. Sonido is also making you move in a straight line, and that little trick with using only one foot instead of both can give you extra mobility. Then comes the distance of a sngle Sonido, but that’s another story. Sol folded his arms and watched as a teacher on a training session. "Well, give it a try.”

>entering from the return to Las Noche<

"STOP RIGHT THERE PREY" Lyca's yelling could be heard far and wide, Lyca was now chasing without using her sonido, following her new prey on only 2 meters. "STOP I JUST WANNA EAT YOU" drawing her red katana she was chasing it. She had fun as she was trying to catch the prey.

After a few minutes, she suddenly sensed something familiar, "SOL" She smashed a small bala next to the prey making it move towards the sensation. When she neared Sol and the new espada Payaso, she jumped up on the huge worm-like adjucas. with one powerfull stab to the head, she pierced the skull and brain if the adjucas. IT let out a screech as it plumited to the sand coming to a halt only a few meters away from Sol and Payaso. Lyca jumped up from behind the worm-like adjucas where she couldn;t have been seen earlier and pulled out her katana. "SOL look i caught dinner" She smiled and with one fluid motion she flinged of the blood from her katana and sheated it. with a wide grin she stood upon its head.

"Let's see..." Payaso had kind of understood what Taios had said. However, he had never released reiatsu from anywhere else from his body except with his reiatsu threads. But I might as well give it a go, just to please him. "Here I go!" He attempted to gather his reiatsu into his feet, but he failed to equally distribute the reiatsu into both legs. What resulted was Payaso traveling a very short distance before tripping and falling head-first into a sand dune.

Spitting sand out of his mouth, Payaso looked back at gave a little shrug. "Sorry, but I don't think I can do it. Besides, it really messes with my control over my reiatsu threads, and I prefer to be able to use them."

Now that he wasn't messing with his reiatsu, Payaso was surprised to feel the red reiatsu he had felt far away suddenly very close. He turned around to see a huge worm-thing charging at him, and saw a girl stab the creature in the brain and jump on its head. "Well, that's something you don't see every day. You must be Lyca, I guess. Do you mind if I have some of that worm-thing to eat?" Payaso was really feeling faint from his experiment with reiatsu control and was practically drooling at the sight of meat right before his eyes.

Sol appeared in front of Payaso and then had a grin on his face “That’s right, she’s Lyca, the Segunda Espada.” Sol pointed at Lyca, who was behind him. “And I just thought of something rather interesting. How about…” he looked at the worm, then looked at Payaso’s expression “you can have a bite of that, only after you master Sonido? Seems fair, right? Oh yeah…” he started walking towards the worm “there is a Time limit of course. You have to master it before Lyca and me finish eating this thing, otherwise there’ll be nothing left for you.” He then addressed Lyca “Alright then dig in.” he had a joyful, yet sadistic smile on his face. Lets hope this stimulates his enthusiasm.

Lyca didn;t really understand the situation "Hey mister who are you?" She ripped out a huge chunk of meat and started to eat it. Only a matter of seconds before the chunk had dissapeared into her stomach. "I don know who you are but this is my prey" Sol said something about doing a sonido before eating. "Well if sl says its owke, you may feast along with us on my prey. AFTER you do that thingy Sol said" She took another Chunk this one lasted even less long as it dissappeared in what was called Lyca's mouth.

The Segunda Espada sures eats a lot. I wonder how she keeps her figure. But Payaso couldn't worry about that now. Sol had just played a cruel trick on him, which he had to admit was delightfully sadistic, and he realized that he needed to take up Sol's challenge and use Sonido without falling into a sand dune if he wanted so much as a single bite of the carcass.

He tried it several times, but he could never get it right. He tried it on both legs and on one leg, but every time he stumbled and fell. He looked up to find himself 100 feet from Lyca and Sol, and they were both reaching for the last piece of meat! Time seemed to slow down, and Payaso felt his frustration and anger fueling his reiatsu. "Okay Sol, you pulled a fast one on me. Now it's time to return the favor!" In a flash of brilliance, and desperation, he pushed the rest of his remaining reiatsu into his threads until all 10 were glowing with energy, and with a flick of his hands whipped them into the ground, propelling himself toward the two espada at blinding speed. He reached out and grabbed the meat out of the hands of Sol and Lyca, and landed 50 feet away. He lay on the ground and held up the piece of meat up as a sign of victory. "Heh. Well, it wasn't a sonido, but same result, right?" he gasped, exhausted but glad that he had gotten the last laugh.

Payaso was moving further away from them. Hm, at this rate he might actually loose. The something interesting happened that Sol did not anticipate. As he was chewing into one of the meat chunks, he noticed an increase in reiatsu coming from Payaso. Sol finished the chunk he was eating and wanted to get the last one. Then there was a fast movement, which was not quite a Sonido, but as fast as one. Before Sol knew it, The last chunk was gone and Payaso was on the ground some distance away from them. He walked up to him. “Well what do you know? Enough motivation and you can do pretty much anything.” Payaso asked about whether it was what was needed. “So you made your own variation of Sonido huh?” Sol stood there, thinking for a while, then a satisfied smile was on his face “Yeah, fair enough, you pass. So I guess you can keep up with us now.” Sol started walking off, into the distance “Oh yeah, before I forget…” Sol tossed a meat chunk at Payaso. “Didn’t really think I would let you starve to death, did ya?”

"Huh, I can't move." Probably shouldn't have used up so much reiatsu. Suddenly Payaso saw Sol throw something at him, which turned out to be another piece of meat from the worm carcass. Payaso looked at the two pieces of meat he had now, then looked back at Sol, who was smiling slightly. So he would have given me something to eat whether I had mastered Sonido or not. Sneaky. "You're too kind." he said, then quickly devoured the meat. He felt his reiatsu level rise again, felt energy flowing back into his body, and could now move his limbs. With a sigh of relief, Payaso released energy into his threads again and slapped them into the ground again, pushing him up into the air, and landed on his feet. "This will do, I guess. I hope there's more back at Las Noches."

{Question: what do you think I should call this Sonido? I'd hate to describe it every time I use }

You know, I never noticed it, but this desert is actually quite beautiful in a certain light... Fache walked on, purposefully looking around. I'll miss this place alittle... He sniffed, intaking a large amount of sand inside his nostril, forcing him to cough up. He scowled, unimpressed by the deserts gesture of thanks to his compliment. Well, not that much then...

He walked up a dune, and came across the sight of the rest of his espada allies. Noting the extra hanger on, he slid down the dune, neatly jumping at the last hurdling.

"There you are! Good day Miss Segunda, Mr. Primera. Its good to see we have all finally met once more in the same place. By the way Miss. Segunda... did you ever catch that prey?" His face shone of a false smile, as his eyes finally turned towards Payaso.
"And I believe... We have never met. What is your name, hollow?" He made it evident that he saw not a shred of a connection between him and Payaso. Of course it was rude, and of course he knew that this newbie would most likely be a new espada, afterall, Sol had told him we was searching in the desert. Yet, he just couldn't help himself it seemed.

(saltar sonido? Lancio sonido? xD I like the second one.)

Lyca was munching the meat and wanted to reach for the last piece when it dissappeared, Lyca's face turned to a slight evil grin. Who would steal espada food? She looked around for a possible strong enemy, when she noticed that it had been the new guy that apparently had mastered some form of high-speed movement. Damn just the new guy a slight dissappoint could be seen on her face. As a reward Sol threw a second piece towards him.

Fache suddenly arrived "It couldn;t escape even if it had grown wings, the other one was way smarter. If you were wondering where it went, its already devoured" She turned towards Fache "And it seems like mister Turtle has finnaly caught up" She grinned mockingly at Fache. Well since i just had a snack might aswell practise a bit With a crackling sound Lyca dissappeared and multipull afterimages could be seen as she was executing short sonidos. It was almost as if she was putting on a show, in every afterimage she could be seen in a relax pose.

Even if he were blind and deaf, Payaso couldn't have missed the unveiled rudeness that Fache had shown him. He smiled right back. " How rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Cuarta Espada, Payaso Real. And since I was too rude to ask for YOUR name, I'll just refer to you as Mr. Hollow for now." No need to hold back if he isn't. He then thought of something really funny to do. Well, there's no love lost between us anyways. Might as well make the most of it. Payaso reached for his shoe as if he were going to shake sand out of it, but instead sent two of his threads into the sand and towards Fache. "But I don't mind, Mr. Hollow. I have a sense of humor, after all. Insults are like water off a duck's back with me." Payaso frowned, puzzled. Wait, what does that mean? Shrugging, he suddenly lifted his threads from under Fache, wrapped them around his legs, and yanked on them. Now let's see how you react to that, Payaso thought with a wide smirk on his face.

Keeping his face a perfect cheshire cat grin, his eyes squinted towards Payaso.
"For your infomation, "Mr.Cuarta", I'm the Tercera Espada. I suppose that means I out-rank you... eh? My name is Fache regale! And I think you should bo-" Fache never did finish his sentence, this could be because the the feeling of sand hitting his face, and a large amount of it getting stuck between his teeth.

He got up slowing, coughing up sand in heaps. He looked up from below. He wasn't smiling anymore.
"Mr... Cuarta... yea... I don't see why you deserve the rank at all... no no... such... hmm... insolence, yes..." He got up, spitting the last glob of spit-sand at Payaso's feet. "So how about you earn it, eh? I propose a game! Just alittle bit of," His right eye twitched rather violently. "fun, yes? Of course, games need rules... 3 cuts. First to hit the other three times wins. Resurrections... allowed. Shall we?" He extended his hand to shake Payaso, to begin the contest immiediantly. He was looking forward to beating him into submission.

Lyca had stopped using sonido and had taken a seat on a large sand hill, As she was looking at FAche he suddenly got flipped into the sand. "WHAHAHAHAHAHA" Lycan fell backwards as she saw the whole thing happen "Mister fache seems to be shaking so hard he can;t stand up straight" an amused grin was on her face as she sat back up . "This could be interresting" Fache and Payaso seemed to be at the point of flinging to each others necks and Lyca wasn;t gonna miss it for the world, she had tried setting up a fight between Gillian but they lacked the finess to grant her an amusing sight.

Hehe. Great timing and a strong reaction. The audience loves it. Payaso had almost burst out laughing himself when he saw the arrogant espada fall face-first into the sand. But then Fache had challenged him to a 3 cut duel. Payaso looked at Fache quizzically, seeing his eye twitch. He wondered to himself what Fache's snapping point is. From the looks of it, it isn't too far off. "OK, Mr. Tercera, I courteously accept your challenge. But I'll make you use YOUR Resurrection first." Payaso pulled out his blade-less longsword and ran the 5 threads on his left hand along the sword, creating multiple blades. "Let's go,"he muttered, before using his Lancio Sonido multiple times, eventually appearing on Fache's left side and slashing his sword downward.

[to know what Payaso's Lancio Sonido is, read the posts previous to this one]

He came face to face with Payaso, as he appeared not even a few feet away from his sudden movement.
Wait, what? that wasn't a normal sonido? Crap, move! Not a blink of an eye later, Fache barely dodged using to the side using sonido.
"Its true Hollow that I'm not the fastest Espada, but my short range Sonido is good enough!" A look of casual distain fell across Fache's face as his gaze fell across the cylindrical sword. "and good luck trying to cut me with a club, hollow," He had performed a near text book sidetep, having not even drawn his rapier yet. He faield to mention to himself that he hadn't had the time to draw his own sword. He turned his head slightly, facing Payaso's side, meeting it with a grin. "And my Resurrection, is not for yo- " He heard a crash, and saw from the corner of his eye, a large mound of sand rising into the air.
His club sword hit the ground and it did that much!? but... wait... He took note of the clubs position. It was afew inches above the sandy surface. H-how did he do that? did he use a type of cero?

Without much thought, he quickly used another sonido to creat some distance between the two. He looked, interested at the area where the sand was now settling. Carefully and slowly, he raised the golden hilt of his Espada Rapier, and pointed it at Payaso.
"Nice trick. Don't suppose you'd care to explain?"

Payaso loved it. He loved seeing his opponent's confidence shatter. He loved to see that one slip, that one glimpse of unease, revealing the cracks in a shell of bravado. Payaso's reaction to Fache's look of shock at his sword was no different. He was practically dancing with glee.

"Oh no, no, that won't do. We can't just start explaining. The mystery of it all would disappear. And where is the fun in that?" From his right hand, two of his threads shot to the left and right of Fache. Payaso yelled, "Cero Dirigido!" and the two threads brightened with energy for a split second before ceros erupted from their tips.

As Fache had said before, his sonido was good enough at short distance. However, dodging two cero's at short range was not what he could do. That was more for Lyca.
The last thoughts he had before he was going to be engulfed by the Ceros were dodge? Can't. Block? Impress. Good. He was then shot at from both sides. His automatic innate instinct released his own Siermo Cero. All he could see, what a mix of golden swirls. There was however, one red hot glow in front of him, growing ever brighter.

The cero's evaporated, as did his own, and he stood there, non plused by Payaso's attack. There had been one change. Fache's beloved Rapier shined a white-hot.
"My blades a strange one you know. Thank you for heating it up. Hollow. This would have taken so much longer if you hadn't"
How was he able to fire those cero's without moving? It certainly is an interesting game today!
He took a moment to smile at Payaso, then lunged back, falling not 3 meters behind.
It'll be something tricksy knowing him... lets try and see if I can see it. He emitted a small, feint pulse, and just as it reached Payaso, he saw something bounce back, as if it had hit something similar. What is that? Rope? string? Its gets better...
"You know, I somehow guessed you were a reiatsu user. It fits you, Hollow."