john travolta [closed]

“And everything looks good at the north gate.” Levi said triumphantly into his earpiece. He had just finished triple checking the components for La Colonia’s newest, and first significant, defensive measure. No more would they have to rely on glass walls to keep invaders at bay! Not that they had ever actually relied on their walls to begin with. Levi had questioned the wisdom of building glass walls when he had first seen them, until Zettai had pointed out that no walls had ever made an actual difference in a fight between or among hollows and shinigami. The walls were for show, and hollow-glass was cheap.

Now a multi-layered barrier of cero and bala energies on the other hand, that was some worthwhile protection. Far from perfect, but definitely superior to scary looking glass.

“Alright, Zettai...” he said as he started backing away from the gate, giving himself a little distance while still watching where his masterpiece would appear. The gate had been the trickiest part to build as the barrier had to be isolated in order to open without bringing the whole thing down, but still fuse into the rest enough that it wouldn’t make a big obvious weak spot. “Clear the walls, and set’s fire this bad boy up!”

Knock knock.

“The fuck?”

Knock knock knock knock knock.

“Scratch that. Zettai, who the fuck was supposed to be guarding this gate?” Levi snapped as he noticed a distinct lack of movement anywhere near the walls. There was supposed to be someone there at all times to guard the gates, let Zettai know if anyone showed up, be they enemies or potential citizens. Honestly the word citizen still tasted funny to Levi when used to describe a hollow, but Zettai had held things together so far.

“Yeah, well tell Spiny he’s fired.” Levi started walking back toward the gate. Apparently he would have to do Spiny’s job for him before he could activate his barrier. “And by ‘tell Spiny he’s fired’ I mean throw Spiny in the generator.” Whether Zettai took that as a joke or not was up to him.

Using his Manos Fantasmales to open the gate, Levi came face to face with a short, thin woman with long black hair, red eyes, pale skin, and a figure that Levi hadn’t known existed on real women. He could have resisted the urge to wolf-whistle at her, but he was Levi Grisha.

“Well, hello beautiful. And what can I help you with?”

She was no more subtle than Levi himself, although she had very different intentions. Levi chuckled before answering. “Welcome to La Colonia. Basically Las Noches but smaller, and with more stuff. The most civilized place in Hueco Mundo, because that bar is so freakin high.” He said, adding a layer of sarcasm to his last line. “bad news is, you don’t get to kill everyone around you. Good news is, you don’t have to worry about getting killed by everyone around you.”

“Also, we have tech, such as the huge, badass, bala-cero barrier that I’m about to test as soon as we get out of this gate. So, how about you come on in, and I can give you the grand tour once that’s done?”

WC: 539

La Coloina, she sampled the name in her head. It had a bitter flavor that threatened the scrunch up her nose and make her gag on the spot. She didn't, this time, but her lower eyelids did raise up as if she had spelled a particularly pungent odor.

What good does a "civilized" ""colony"" bring to Hueco Mundo? It seemed about as smart as throwing a cat in a bird house. More importantly, why would they actively discourage infighting? How were the Hollows supposed to toughen their skin to the harsh world if they were locked away in a daycare? It all seemed poorly planned, but what good did she know? Was she suddenly some expert on the matter? Her gut said she was.

"Creative way to go about things," she said slowly, taking the time to choose her words with a bit more delicacy this time. "Why not just do this at Las Noches?"

She didn't seem super interested in getting an answer to the elephant in the room. Instead, she lifted her shoulders in resignation and then strolled right on into the community of mentally disabled Hollows. She walked right on by the man at the door, hardly giving him and his rat's nest of a hairdo a second glance. Her distant, almost thirsty looking stare scanned the town before her. Mostly just desert, honestly. It didn't seem like actual civilization began until a few acres into the mass. It had a lot more room to grow, as if they expected this little sand castle to stay standing for years on end.

"You mentioned a... Bala and Cero wall?" She spoke up and half turned to face him. "How is that possible? More importantly, wouldn't Cero be the better option? Bala is weaker, meant to fly fast, whereas Cero is just concentrated energy. How do you even tell the difference between what is what when it's in a wall fashion?"

There was more to ask -- her questions were endless at this point -- but she opted to stop with the very obvious ones. Bala and Cero were really only different in execution, not the materials behind it, after all. But, surely, the man before her knew such trivial things and was simply testing her. His well put together outfit and the arrogant curl of his lips suggested a man who knew everything under the sun.

[396]

The girl had some political sense about her after all, though her expression was still too honest. She was right to be skeptical. Levi certainly was. A small town of hollows actually trying not to fight each other, and focusing on more civilized pursuits? There was no way it would last forever. And yet Zettai had done an amazing job of keeping it all intact so far. It had had a couple of bumps in the road, and a couple of explosions, but it was still standing. As long as it was standing it was useful, and as long as it was useful, it had Levi’s support.

“The idea of La Colonia was to expand beyond what Las Noches already is. To add to the hollow kingdoms borders. That and experiment with a... less traditional approach to hollow life. An approach that most denizens of Las Noches proper would seek to destroy. It also has the benefits of being relatively free of Las Noches’ bloody politics, and direct oversite.” That was a bit of an exaggeration. The truth was there weren’t enough Espada left to have bloody politics, and with Levi himself being an Espada they had as much oversite as they would in Las Noches. It might be true one day though. And in the meantime, it made both Las Noches and La Colonia sound better.

“You must be a cero user.” Levi said with a smirk, in response to the woman’s question about the cero-bala wall. “You underestimate the humble bala.” Saying this, Levi held up his hand and charged a very loose, amateurish bala around it. The glowing yellow energy pulsated and shivered, more like a fireball than a bullet. “It’s true that both techniques use the same energy. A beginner’s bala is little more than a faster, weaker cero, sure. But a proper bala...” Levi closed his fist and the bala condensed into a solid sphere around it, almost like a glass ball. “...Is a much more stable construct. You could say a cero is like water, and a bala is like ice. Or it may be more accurate to compare them to stone and lava.”

Using his other hand, Levi reached up to push the button on his earpiece. “Alright, fire it up.” He said. A few seconds later a loud, deep humming came from the ground just inside the wall. A second after that, a transparent yellow dome rose out of the outermost cero-bala constructor that Levi and Zettai had spent so long installing in the ground. The energy started as a simple ring, but slowly rose into the sky and fell inward until it all met in the center a thousand feet in the air. Then another rose out of the innermost and followed the same pattern. Then the middle constructor activated and a brighter energy shot up and filled the space between them. Levi smiled in triumph. Now they just needed someone dumb enough to test it out.

“I called it a cero-bala barrier because it has three layers.” Levi pulled his fist out of the bala, filling the gap with more energy as he did so, and let it float just above his hand. “The inner and outer layers are made of the denser, more stable bala energy.” As he spoke he charged another bala around the sphere, and a cero in the space between them, simulating the barrier. “The inside is the more destructive, chaotic form that is used in cero. Now if someone manages to break through the outer wall, which I’ll admit isn’t all that difficult...” In his other hand Levi charged a tiny bala, no bigger than a dime, and shot it at the barrier model. It punched a hole straight through the outer wall, and as soon as it did the cero energy shot through the opening. It wasn’t strong enough to hurt anyone, but it was flashy enough to get the point across. “They have to contend with the full power of that cero, and then break through the inner wall too. And if they aren’t fast enough the machine can regenerate the barrier. Not to mention the fact that everyone inside will be alerted, as well as myself.” It still wouldn’t do much against a truly powerful enemy, a captain or a Vasto Lorde for example. Against a threat like that however, only an equal warrior would make a difference.

“So.” Levi said as he dissipated the bala. “What else did you want to know?”

WC: 751
twc: 1,290