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“I can’t believe it,” the Jeporicellir shouted, making sure the crowds could hear him through microphones situated throughout the battlefield. “One of the greatest fighters in the universe is kin to one of the most cowardly creatures to ever shame this ancient planet and its ancient civilizations by daring to challenge a true warrior upon our ancestral grounds.” At this, Axel jerked his head upright, and attempted to stand, but was promptly pushed back onto the ground by a burst of golden energy from the winged beast. “Ah, so the coward tries to stand,” cried Torz, “but he cannot, for he is merely a chicken-duck, so awkward and easily frightened by the slightest thing. He is a shame to Haas, and a shame to his parents; actually, he is not a shame to his parents,” goaded the gray-skinned being, “because they were nothing. Merely pawns to a greater power, their absence in our lives is of no importance, for their greatest contribution to the universe was Haas. They were nothing but ants vying for the attention of the masses, which they, those stinking slaves, do not deserve.”

Upon hearing this, Axel finally managed to stumble to his feet, and when another gust of amber energy crackled around him, he stood steadfastly in his tracks, and slowly asked Torz, “What junk is it that I just heard you say? I am certain I might have misheard, since your voice is as high-pitched as the parakeet and as moronic as that of the parrot.” Infuriated, Torz quickly mumbled something in his native hybrid pidgin language and then yelled that Axel’s parents were worthless pieces of excessive garbage. A slow and steady glow began to flush Axel’s cheeks as the insults flew into his ears and became fuel for the flame that burned deeply within him; it was a furious flame that had lain dormant since the death of his parents, and with the spark of indignation caused by Torz’s jarring verbal attacks, the tiny flicker became a raging inferno. Before, Axel had covered his head with his arms, but now he brought them down in the ‘ready’ stance and screamed while still standing upright as the flames engulfed his body, his jewel, and his mind; the screams echoed off of nearby mountains, and the echoes came back while he was still screaming, so that the volume of it was intensified tenfold, yet he could not stop while the white-hot pain streamed through his battered body. Blood flowed freely from his numerous cuts and scrapes, but it was the colors that twisted in tight coils around his figure that were the most fascinating, for his pearly colored energy would suddenly jump from white to yellow, and then to green, but would just as abruptly turn into flames again. In pain, or in shock, or in fury, his eyes would change, but he would never have lost his childish looks or actions; however, those beautiful cerulean eyes now hid an underlying wrath that Torz saw, along with what he knew was an ascending fighter.

From four stories up in the air, Axel lost consciousness and fell into a crumpled heap on the mossy floor. (8/17/2002)