Going Native (DBZ/DC Comics) (Complete)
- Thread starter Ideas-Guy
- Start date
Touch of Power
- Location
- USA
Things were changing again, Matillo thought as he watched over the hundred children as they struggled to understand the teachings that Prince Tarble was trying to impart. Oh, they learned the techniques easily enough, especially Kakarot, who was rapidly becoming the envy of the class, but only a few seemed to understand what exactly Prince Tarble was trying to teach them.
Teamwork. Such a foreign concept for the saiyan race. As far as Matillo was aware, only three saiyans had ever managed to learn the value of it -- King Vegeta the First, Bardock and now Tarble was added to that shortlist. Bardock might be a snot-nosed brat with delusions of grandeur, but he was a legend in his own right. And King Vegeta the First went without saying.
Matillo let out a soft sigh, glad for his old bones to be back underneath proper gravity, rather than that weak garbage other planets offered. His bones ached under the pressure for a time before they remembered how to handle it -- it seemed that he had grown soft in a way, despite his slow increase in power. Matillo had never learned his power level before he left his prime, but he liked to think he was nearing the strength he had in his heyday.
His attention was drawn to Olaive, who glared at Kakarot in a way that lacked any real heat. He waited for that moment, wishing that he could push them in the direction that Prince Tarble wanted them to go in, but this was something that they had to learn on their own at their own pace. Matillo saw her face twist up, warring with herself.
He understood it. Matillo had struggled with it when King Vegeta the First had tried to impart the same lesson onto him when the Truffles had ruled this planet. It wouldn't be wrong to say it was against their nature, even back then. Now...now Matillo was forced to wonder if it was possible at all.
Matillo clenched his hands into fists, ever muscle going taunt, waiting for her to come to a decision. Olaive's face twisted like she ate something sour as she watched Kakarot form perform the technique -- the Medicine Ball. It was a complicated technique, but the trick was in the intensity of the purple light rays that made it work. They didn't need to study for years to complete it, and it was a true shame that they would never understand the effort Prince Tarble put into creating that technique that he so freely gave away.
Olaive's shoulder slumped in defeat before her feet carried her toward Kakarot, who rubbed his success in the face of his peers. It was detrimental but understandable. Kakarot was weak in the world of the strong -- Matilo couldn't imagine that he had many chances to prove himself superior to his peers.
"Oi, idiot," Olaive spoke, biting the words out. "Show me how you do that so easily," she demanded, making Kakarot's face twist. Matillo tried to pretend he wasn't eagerly watching the interaction -- this was the moment. Olaive took the first step, and now it was Kakarot's turn to meet her halfway.
For a long moment, it seemed like Kakarot wouldn't. He glared back at her, his expression sullen, but then he nodded. "Only if you let me go hunting with you the next time you guys go," he bartered. "And I want the biggest piece."
Olaive tsked to herself, but she nodded all the same. A simple interaction, but an important one. Those that looked at Olaive or Kakarot noticed the exchange as Kakarot began to offer advice. Then they looked at others, both who had success and those that didn't.
Matillo sighed in contentment. "Things are changing again," he said, speaking his earlier thought aloud as he gazed upward at the sky above, the planet in the system dominating the skyline.
He was old. Over a thousand years old. Matillo watched his people go from warring tribes to a united front against the Truffles. There had been so much hope when they had conquered them, claiming Planet Plant as their own and renaming it Planet Vegeta. They learned the Truffles technology, adapting to it, then turned their gazes to the stars above.
They found a weak species hardly fit for eating, but they offered goods in exchange for a planet better suited for them. It was only because of King Vegeta the First that they accepted at all -- they had no use for wealth beyond decoration, but their first king said that they should. Most had thought that would be the birth of the saiyan empire...and it so nearly was.
But most didn't know King Vegeta as Matillo had. It wasn't the desire for glory that motivated him but the desire for knowledge. Even back then, he had understood that the saiyan race was not peerless in the universe. Something that was made all too apparent when King Cold had arrived on their planet and demanded their surrender. A simple case of bad luck -- King Cold himself was in the area when news reached him of the exchange.
Since then, the Saiyan race had changed. The united tribes were gone, vanished entirely. Each warrior fought for themselves and their own glory, nothing else. Mothers cared nothing for their children or any children at all. Three hundred years passed by so very quickly, but the saiyan race was nearly unrecognizable compared to what it was.
And, to his shame, he had done nothing. Matillo hadn't realized it for over three hundred years, but he might as well have been standing still for those centuries. He was stuck, unable to move on from the death of his friend and king. He simply went through the motions of being a warrior -- and barely one at that. Matillo couldn't recall one notably powerful opponent he fought in this century.
Matillo sighed, taking in a deep breath as he could feel life being breathed back into the saiyan race and himself. Things were changing. Much like they had with King Vegeta the First, and it was fitting that his descendent was doing the same-
"Oi, old guy," one of the children shouted at him, kicking his shin to get his attention. Matillo looked down to see it was a child with hair sticking straight up. He recognized the hairstyle, even after centuries. A descendant of his old rival. "Is Prince Tarble really Prince Tarble?" The child asked as if that question made any amount of sense. Then he recalled that show Elery seemed to enjoy so much.
"What makes you doubt that he is?" Matillo questioned, looking down at the small group of children.
"Prince Tarble wears a mask and has a cape," the lead child stated as if that was all the evidence he needed. "And that little girl keeps saying that he just likes to pretend that he's Prince Tarble, and he makes you all go along with it because he's stronger than you."
Matillo smiled, "then can you really trust anything I say? I could be lying," Matillo pointed out, making the children's eyes widen in shock, clearly having never considered it.
"See? See? I told you!" Elery shouted, puffing her chest out with pride. She flew over, choosing to clean to his shoulder as if he were a stead and pointed down at the group of children. "My brother isn't the prince Tarble. They just have the same name." Matillo swallowed a laugh as the group of children nodded along -- some appeared more doubtful than others, but they seemed convinced.
For now at least. Matillo doubted that notion would continue once they saw the prince fight. In their history, Prince Tarble and Prince Vegeta fought for the strongest Saiyan there had ever been and each time they one-upped each other, that ceiling grew higher. It was a sobering thought given that both boys were years away from seeing their final growth spurt.
"Whatcha thinking about Old Man?" Elery asked as Matillo turned his attention back to the children. Matillo didn't comment on the nickname of him -- for one, it wasn't exactly untrue, and it would be a lie to say that he didn't like it a little bit.
"How your brother reminds me of King Vegeta the First," Matillo admitted.
"Hm. Whose that?" Elery asked, making Matillo go still before he recalled that Elery never received an education in a tank. "And why is he like my brother- wait, that's that guy my brother was going to talk to the other day! Or that other Vegeta."
"No. King Vegeta the First was the first King Vegeta. He had a son, also named Vegeta, just as he named his son Vegeta and the current King Vegeta named his eldest Vegeta, which makes him Vegeta the Fourth." Matillo explained, glancing at Elery, who looked like she was trying to wrap her head around it.
"That's a lot of Vegetas," she decided after a moment. "But what's the first one got to do with my brother?"
Matillo chuckled at her easy dismissal as he continued to watch the next generation of saiyans learn. And struggle. And, in time, they would grow, mate and the next generation would be born. Their path forever changed due to the actions of a small boy.
"I was thinking how alike but different they are," Matillo stated. "Your brother is very reserved and stoic, but King Vegeta the First was rather loud. And dramatic." Enough so that his signature cape flair was deemed important enough that four generations learned it. "They...probably couldn't be more different in personality, but they remain very similar in action."
There were moments where it felt like he was back at the head of his tribe and one of the women brought in Vegeta for the first time. Matillo hadn't thought anything of him for a long time, but King Vegeta the First made it a habit of surprising people.
"Hm," Elery grunted, not interested in the ramblings of an old man, unlike her brother. "Where is my brother anyway? I still want him to teach me the Spiral Buster," Elery stated in a hungry tone. It seemed that not only she, but nearly every child of this generation was rather taken with that technique. And if enough of them asked, then it would only be a matter of time before Prince Tarble taught them it.
Matillo didn't quite agree with the idea of so freely sharing techniques, but things had changed already. The tribes of yesteryear were gone, and it was he that had to adapt to the current reality. As he considered the question, his gaze drifted towards the direction that Prince Tarble was. Far off in the distance, his scouter picked up two power levels that would have been inconceivable only a handful of years ago.
180,000 and 240,000.
"Your brother is sparring with Prince Vegeta," Matillo answered as his gaze drifted back to the group of children. Some were making more progress than others while some were forced to practice the ki blades from yesterday. They were all taking the training seriously because all of them wanted to learn the Wrath State, but they needed more than a treat at the end of a stick to lead them where Prince Tarble wanted them to go. They needed a push in the direction as well.
"We should go see him," Matillo decided, looking at the few others that were tasked with wrangling the children to make sure they stayed on task. Fasha was making an effort to teach while Gine was having far more success. Matillo thought she was far too soft-hearted to be called a warrior, and it could prove disastrous on the battlefield, but he kept such thoughts to himself. By now, Prince Tarble had more than earned his trust.
Gine seemed to notice his gaze, meeting it steadily but questioningly. At the very least, she had a spine, even if her heart was too soft.
"We are going to watch the princes' spar. The children should see who will be leading them into battle," Matillo decided for them. Luckily, Queen Teach wasn't here to overrule the decision. Prince Tarble had given her another task -- a vague excuse to separate her from the children. A saiyan mother's instincts to adopt children were strong and never before had there been so many of them.
"Really?! Awesome!" Eley cheered, flying upward. The other children glanced at him, excitement dancing in their eyes.
"They're really going at it. Are you sure that they won't kill us by mistake?" Fasha commented, earning a lingering glance from Matillo. He could hear what she really meant -- that Prince Vegeta would attempt to kill them with a stray blast. By now, it was no secret about the animosity between the royal family and what was once Bardock's team. Matillo had suspicions at what caused it, but he held his tongue until he was certain.
"I doubt Prince Tarble would allow anything like that to happen," Matillo returned. Fasha considered it, glancing at Gine, who looked between them questioningly before giving a hesitant nod.
A small smile tugged at Gine's lips as she turned her gaze to the children who increasingly grew excited at the prospect while arguments of if Prince Tarble was the real Prince Tarble grew more heated. "I think it would be a good idea to see if Prince Tarble is really as strong as the shows make him out to be," Gine said, speaking softly to the children than to either of them. Fasha sighed before she nodded, agreeing.
With that, all of them drifted upwards before they blasted off towards where the princes were sparring. A vast desert that claimed a large portion of a continent. The children grouped up -- sticking to the teams that Prince Tarble had placed them in. Part of their training was to fly together in teams, so this would be good practice, Matillo decided.
The only one that didn't was Elery, who chose to cling onto his back. They were greatly slowed down by the speed of the children, but it was necessary. A great many predators inhabited the sky, with this so-called Sky King the strongest among them, but there were plenty of others that were more than a challenge for the children. They would be expected to survive on their own strength soon enough, but for now, they had to be protected.
Every saiyan is born weak at the start. There was no better example than Prince Tarble.
However, soon enough, they reached the edge of the great desert that served as a training ground for the princes. His scouter said that they were a considerable distance away, but he saw evidence of their latest bout already. Dunes collapsed into nothing, holes that slowly filled up as sand trickled down and glass where the discharged lightning from a Galick Gun.
He slowed, peering off into the distance to see flashes of light from two techniques. Matillo sent a quick message to Prince Tarble, alerting him of their presence, but he didn't need to. Prince Tarble seemed to have an uncanny ability to notice people without using his scouter -- undoubtedly an ability that he chose not to share. Yet, at any rate. Matillo was glad for it -- it would be one of the greatest tragedies if Prince Tarble gave a rival the techniques to best him because he was too generous.
Matillo didn't receive a reply, but they continued forward anyway. Until they stood at the very edge of the battle waged between the princes. Matillo grinned as the children lined up to watch, and he heard Elery gasp in his ear.
"Bear witness to the power of the royal family," he spoke, his words nearly lost in a wave of wind that blasted through a sand dune.
Perhaps King Vegeta's flair for the dramatics had rubbed off on him.
…
There was a critical difference between Vegeta and I. It wasn't our power levels, or how we fought. It's what we were. I had to crawl my way up from the bottom over the course of my life, whereas Vegeta had been born at the top.
The others had teased that I was a freak of nature, but Vegeta was more so than me. Because, unlike me, he was a natural prodigy that came once in a lifetime.
"You mastered the Wrath State," I realized as we clashed above a sand dune, blasting is apart from the force of our blows. Vegeta smirked, his eyes blazing yellow, visible because I broke his scouter earlier, as his fists flew. I blocked them, diverting them when I could, and waited for an opening. My blood hummed in my veins -- after so many years of fighting scarabs, fighting a powerful opponent that wasn't a scarab was enough to get my heart thumping.
"Of course I did," Vegeta stated easily, ducking under a kick to my head, only to block another foot that rushed to his face with his forearm. "I'm not like the other trash you're used to fighting beside," Vegeta scoffed as he lashed out with a fist, that I caught, diverting it away from my body as I tried to slam a knee into his face.
The Wrath State was something I had given a lot of thought about the past couple of days as we neared the deadline I had established. In the end, my thoughts on how I was going to keep this Broly fellow hidden led me to how I could put safety breaks into the Wrath State. I had attempted to explain to the others how to separate themselves from the rage and pain but they didn't have any luck with it.
And, even now, I doubted that Vegeta had managed the same feat. What I went through when I was in the tank was simply too unique for others to replicate.
However, what it meant was that Vegeta had mastered the Wrath State by crushing the pain and the rage, to remain in control with sheer force of will.
A fierce grin tugged at my lips as I threw myself into the fight. I darted forward, jabbing at him, only for him to divert the attack and following it up with an elbow aimed at my eye. I caught it with my forehead instead, aiming to bury a fist in his gut, only for his other hand to stop my attack cold. Blood dripped down from my forehead, but so long as it didn't get into my eyes, then I didn't care.
I broke off, ki flooding towards my hands as I became aware of Matillo's presence some distance away. Along with Fasha, Elery and the other kids. A message made itself known, but I didn't read it in favor of powering up a Kamehameha. Vegeta did the same, however dark purple arcs of electricity escaped his palms as he prepared a Galick Gun.
Gritting my teeth, I put my all into it and launched it at my brother Just as he did me. Our attacks clashed in the air, a mighty explosion blasting away the light sand as both of us struggled to overcome the other. I poured everything that I had into it, but it was no use. Vegeta was simply stronger than me, so overpowering him wasn't an option.
Instead, I rushed forward, near where the attacks clashed -- Vegeta must have noticed something was going on because he poured even more power into the attack. In response, I abandoned mine as I spun out of the way, the Galick Gun sailing by me. I saw Vegeta's eyes widen a moment before I was upon him, planting a fist into his stomach.
He countered by punching me in the face, but I accepted the teeth-rattling blow, pulling to the side just fast enough to avoid the full force of it. As I did so, I spun sharply, lashing out with a foot that caught him in the face, flattening his nose.
Despite the blood that flowed from his nose, Vegeta smiled viciously. From there, the fight only grew more intense.
We clashed, mindful of our watchers, but we held nothing back. Vegeta was stronger than me, and he leveraged his strength well. I was better at leveraging mine and I had more than a few tricks up my sleeve. Even still, the fight was close and I wasn't able to rely on waiting for the timer to run out like I had previously counted on.
I blocked a hit from Vegeta, grunting as his fist slammed into my forearm that sent me flying. I sailed backward, slamming through a sand dune hard enough that it felt like it was solid. As sand obscured me for a moment, I left behind a ball of ki. And, as Vegeta rushed to press the advantage, I detonated it with a thought.
Sand exploded outward, obscuring Vegeta for a moment but that didn't matter for me. Pushing my hands at my side, lightning cackled to my side as I flooded ki into my palm. It was quick and fast, but that's how a Galick Gun did its best work, I'm learning. Blue lightning arcked out, slamming into the sand dunes around me, turning wherever they touched into glass. Gritting my teeth, I launched the technique at Vegeta in the split second that he was obscured.
The technique slammed into him, knocking him back. I felt his presence waver for a moment, telling me that I had managed to do damage. Only for it to be my turn to be surprised. Vegeta's presence grew stronger, jumping strength as my Galick Gun was pushed to a halt before it was knocked to the side. I barely paid any mind to the following explosion, only that it didn't come anywhere close to where everyone was.
Vegeta blasted back the lingering sand and dust in the air, revealing himself. His body was coated in an aura of green, his body already showing signs of growing while veins bulged in his neck and forehead. He looked down at me, his expression one of triumph and I realized that there was good reason for it. I didn't need the scouter to do the math.
360,000. Over a quarter of a million.
"You figured out the second stage of the Wrath State," I said, bracing myself for what came next. Vegeta answered by flexing his power, it washed over me like a wave as the air stirred.
"From the sound of it, you discovered it first," Vegeta said, a barely repressed scream in his voice but he kept himself in check. He took his stance -- one hand out while the other was held out in front of him. Perfect for quick switches between offense and defense. I noticed he sounded faintly disappointed.
I grinned as I took in a deep breath and pulled from the well of power that was the oozaru and pushed it past its limits. My hair drifted upwards, an aura of green coating my body as my bones ached under the strain. Even after two years, using the second stage felt absolutely hellish and I could feel my body cracking under the strain already.
"I did. Back on Rench. I just can't use it very well because of my body," I bit out, my lips curling back into a wide smile that my brother matched. It was hard to tell, but Vegeta did seem like he had an easier time with the second stage, which gave me hope that I would be able to use it once I had my first growth spurt. I could only hope that I got mine early as Vegeta did.
"Then we should end this quickly," Vegeta decided.
And then we clashed above the desert and it was as if the planet itself shook.
I wasn't going to be able to overpower him. It couldn't be done before, and it was flat out impossible now. I had to pull out every trick up my sleeve.
Ki blades formed around my hands as I sent a slash at him, which he dodged out of the way as he rapidly closed the distance between us. I blocked a jab that he launched at my face, catching it with my forearm. It didn't snap under the blow, which was a promising sign, but as I blocked it, I grabbed hold of the ki slash that I had sent and started angling it to the right.
My ki control grew in leaps thanks to Matillo's training and advice, but it looked like my complete control over a sent out attack was a pipedream. Once it was shot, it was next to impossible to control how I wanted it to, but, at the very least, I could angle it a little bit one way or the other.
All the while, I built up a ki breath attack in my mouth, lashing out at Vegeta with a flurry of swipes that he dodged and blocked with ease. His smile grew as he seized an opening, planting a fist in my gut, and I took that moment to unleash the ki breath attack into his face. It slammed into Vegeta's face like a brick, knowing him back. I used the opportunity to dodge to the side when he lashed out, the smile falling to be replaced with a snarl.
I had a head start, but Vegeta was simply faster than me, so he closed it in no time. I let the ki blades fade into nothing, still guiding that attack as I led us to it. However, since my attention was split, I found a fist buried in my gut. I folded around the fist, grunt in pain, but refusing to let go of the ki slash. Even when Vegeta raised his hands and brought them down onto my back and sent me flying into the ground.
Vegeta sent me flying through a sand dune before I found myself buried underneath, shooting beneath the surface as if it were water. Holding my breath gathered my ki and sent the ki slash towards Vegeta. It slammed into his back, distracting him, but not much else. He'd be pissed at me for pulling my punches, but I'd rather he be pissed than bisecting him on accident.
Even still, that gave me a fraction of a second. With a Hellzone Grenade prepped, I flexed my power and sent the mountain of sand that covered me flying outward. As the sand and dust bloomed, I used the cover to send hundreds of balls of ki upward, punching through the cloud -- each one was large enough that they would be able to hurt Vegeta, if only a little.
"You...can sense me?" Vegeta questioned, eyeing the attacks that allowed me to take control of the skies. Now I controlled the battleground and the past two years leading the 501st taught me how valuable that was. "And you can manipulate your attacks after you send them." The last one was a statement of fact.
"Do you want me to teach you?" I asked, ki gathering in my hands. Vegeta scoffed at my offer as he did the same.
"As if," Vegeta dismissed as lightning gathered in his palms as it did mine. We gathered our ki, pushing out control to its absolute max. However, Vegeta's control was far less fine than mine, even in this form. His dark purple Galick Gun launched at me and in that moment, I sent every ki blast that hovered above in the way.
For a moment, the world was nothing by light and noise. Only for the noise to become a high pitched ringing as my eardrums gave out as heat washed over me. The only thing that I was aware of was that I was still alive, and so was Vegeta. My attacks had detonated his attack prematurely, buying me a few seconds to continuously gather my ki-
Vegeta moved, darting down through the explosion and my eyes barely had a moment to widen before he emerged directly in front of me. I reacted instantly, throwing out my hands to launch the attack but- but, at this distance, it could kill him. Instead, I aimed it at the ground the same moment his fist collided with my face.
I didn't lose consciousness, but it was a near thing. The only thing that prevented me from blacking out as an explosion racked the planet from a full-powered Galick Gun was the certainty that if I didn't keep up the second stage of the Wrath State, then I would die. I accepted the pain, heat washing over me as I was thrown in some direction, only able to orientate myself by the reassuring presence that I felt. Vegeta was still alive too, and so were the others that watched the fight.
When things settled down, I found myself half-buried in sand, face down so more than a little was filling my mouth. "Hnn...ugh…!" I groaned, pulling myself out of the sand, spitting it out as I shook my head to displace whatever was resting on me. A lot of it stuck to me because of sweat and blood, but other than a few injuries, I was mostly fine. Nothing that a Medicine Ball couldn't fix at any rate.
"You held back," Vegeta accused, having recovered first. He looked a little roughed up, more than me at any rate since I had managed to land a few more attacks than him.
"The only way I could have beat you was to kill you, and I'm not going to do that," I answered. Vegeta scowled at that, glaring hard at me, but he stopped himself when he let out a huff. I felt like I should say something, but I was unsure of what. I took too long and the moment passed. Instead, I formed a Medicine Ball and tossed it overhead so it could heal both of us. All the while, I glanced around us to survey the damage.
It was difficult to tell with just how much sand and dust was in the air, but we stood at the edge of a massive crater that was slowly filling up with sand. I looked at it for a moment, mulling something over before I let the Medicine Ball fade away once our wounds were done healing. Then I performed a self-scan.
19,080. Over a thousand point jump from a spar. It had taken me months of fighting saibamen to earn half that same amount.
"Vegeta...you figured it out too, haven't you?" I asked, looking at my brother. His scowl lessened as he glanced my way, his gaze lingering on my scouter before he gave a slow nod.
"I noticed it during the past couple of years. My largest jumps in power only came when I was heavily injured from fighting a powerful opponent. That, and the stronger I become, the larger the jumps in power become," Vegeta answered, confirming what I had noticed. There was no way that I couldn't notice after I had crawled my way up from the lowest of the low-class. Nor how I watched my team's power levels steadily climb upward.
I continued to look at the massive crater, feeling the presence of the others nearing to check-in. "Our bodies adapt rapidly in response to opposition. That's how our race managed to adapt to standard gravity to ten times the galactic standard. The more we're injured, the more our bodies can build themselves back stronger than before."
"Which is why you created the Medicine Ball," Vegeta hazarded a guess. And he wasn't wholly wrong, so I nodded since I knew he wouldn't understand that my motivation had also been to prevent our troops from dying pointlessly. "Hmph...with it, it's only a matter of time before we surpass Frieza himself."
I took off my scouter and tossed it into the crater so we could speak freely.
"I don't think it's going to be that easy," I told Vegeta. "Frieza is in a class of his own...I know we only have a record of his power level being ten million, but I...I would put it closer to a hundred million. Or more," I was quick to put down the notion that defeating Frieza in a fight would be anything but easy.
Vegeta looked faintly alarmed, but I could see what happened to Sereall flash before his eyes. I knew because every time I thought of his strength, that's what popped into my mind. "A hundred million…? What an absolutely ridiculous number," he said, sounding like he agreed with my assessment.
"We're nowhere near his level of strength. And we won't be for a long time. The ki sensing will help --if our bodies react to a powerful opponent, then feeling their presence will do a lot more than just reading a power level on a screen. But, I also have an idea for a technique-" Vegeta huffed, muttering a 'of course you do' before I continued. "- that could help us train. That way we won't be so dependent on finding powerful opponents."
"Elery gave me the idea. It might take some time, but if I can figure out how to manipulate gravity with a technique then I could make it stronger just as I could weaker. Our race grew stronger because we lived under ten times the standard gravity, but what if we trained in twenty times the standard? Or more?" I asked, trying to picture it.
Vegeta fell silent, looking upward, peering through the sand and dust at the presences above that were likely searching for us.
"Do you intend to spread these techniques to everyone?" Vegeta asked, looking back down at me. I knew the answer that he wanted to hear was no. But if I said that, then it would be a lie.
"I will. If we're so weak that we have to cripple our race to remain the strongest, then we don't deserve it," I stated. Vegeta flashed me a sharp grin before he turned his attention to the crater that we stood at the edge of. Both of us looked down to see that the bottom was filling up with sand and I could feel the ground shifting beneath us.
Despite the fact I could fly, I couldn't help but worry that I would trip and fall until I hit the bottom.
"Well said."
...
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Teamwork. Such a foreign concept for the saiyan race. As far as Matillo was aware, only three saiyans had ever managed to learn the value of it -- King Vegeta the First, Bardock and now Tarble was added to that shortlist. Bardock might be a snot-nosed brat with delusions of grandeur, but he was a legend in his own right. And King Vegeta the First went without saying.
Matillo let out a soft sigh, glad for his old bones to be back underneath proper gravity, rather than that weak garbage other planets offered. His bones ached under the pressure for a time before they remembered how to handle it -- it seemed that he had grown soft in a way, despite his slow increase in power. Matillo had never learned his power level before he left his prime, but he liked to think he was nearing the strength he had in his heyday.
His attention was drawn to Olaive, who glared at Kakarot in a way that lacked any real heat. He waited for that moment, wishing that he could push them in the direction that Prince Tarble wanted them to go in, but this was something that they had to learn on their own at their own pace. Matillo saw her face twist up, warring with herself.
He understood it. Matillo had struggled with it when King Vegeta the First had tried to impart the same lesson onto him when the Truffles had ruled this planet. It wouldn't be wrong to say it was against their nature, even back then. Now...now Matillo was forced to wonder if it was possible at all.
Matillo clenched his hands into fists, ever muscle going taunt, waiting for her to come to a decision. Olaive's face twisted like she ate something sour as she watched Kakarot form perform the technique -- the Medicine Ball. It was a complicated technique, but the trick was in the intensity of the purple light rays that made it work. They didn't need to study for years to complete it, and it was a true shame that they would never understand the effort Prince Tarble put into creating that technique that he so freely gave away.
Olaive's shoulder slumped in defeat before her feet carried her toward Kakarot, who rubbed his success in the face of his peers. It was detrimental but understandable. Kakarot was weak in the world of the strong -- Matilo couldn't imagine that he had many chances to prove himself superior to his peers.
"Oi, idiot," Olaive spoke, biting the words out. "Show me how you do that so easily," she demanded, making Kakarot's face twist. Matillo tried to pretend he wasn't eagerly watching the interaction -- this was the moment. Olaive took the first step, and now it was Kakarot's turn to meet her halfway.
For a long moment, it seemed like Kakarot wouldn't. He glared back at her, his expression sullen, but then he nodded. "Only if you let me go hunting with you the next time you guys go," he bartered. "And I want the biggest piece."
Olaive tsked to herself, but she nodded all the same. A simple interaction, but an important one. Those that looked at Olaive or Kakarot noticed the exchange as Kakarot began to offer advice. Then they looked at others, both who had success and those that didn't.
Matillo sighed in contentment. "Things are changing again," he said, speaking his earlier thought aloud as he gazed upward at the sky above, the planet in the system dominating the skyline.
He was old. Over a thousand years old. Matillo watched his people go from warring tribes to a united front against the Truffles. There had been so much hope when they had conquered them, claiming Planet Plant as their own and renaming it Planet Vegeta. They learned the Truffles technology, adapting to it, then turned their gazes to the stars above.
They found a weak species hardly fit for eating, but they offered goods in exchange for a planet better suited for them. It was only because of King Vegeta the First that they accepted at all -- they had no use for wealth beyond decoration, but their first king said that they should. Most had thought that would be the birth of the saiyan empire...and it so nearly was.
But most didn't know King Vegeta as Matillo had. It wasn't the desire for glory that motivated him but the desire for knowledge. Even back then, he had understood that the saiyan race was not peerless in the universe. Something that was made all too apparent when King Cold had arrived on their planet and demanded their surrender. A simple case of bad luck -- King Cold himself was in the area when news reached him of the exchange.
Since then, the Saiyan race had changed. The united tribes were gone, vanished entirely. Each warrior fought for themselves and their own glory, nothing else. Mothers cared nothing for their children or any children at all. Three hundred years passed by so very quickly, but the saiyan race was nearly unrecognizable compared to what it was.
And, to his shame, he had done nothing. Matillo hadn't realized it for over three hundred years, but he might as well have been standing still for those centuries. He was stuck, unable to move on from the death of his friend and king. He simply went through the motions of being a warrior -- and barely one at that. Matillo couldn't recall one notably powerful opponent he fought in this century.
Matillo sighed, taking in a deep breath as he could feel life being breathed back into the saiyan race and himself. Things were changing. Much like they had with King Vegeta the First, and it was fitting that his descendent was doing the same-
"Oi, old guy," one of the children shouted at him, kicking his shin to get his attention. Matillo looked down to see it was a child with hair sticking straight up. He recognized the hairstyle, even after centuries. A descendant of his old rival. "Is Prince Tarble really Prince Tarble?" The child asked as if that question made any amount of sense. Then he recalled that show Elery seemed to enjoy so much.
"What makes you doubt that he is?" Matillo questioned, looking down at the small group of children.
"Prince Tarble wears a mask and has a cape," the lead child stated as if that was all the evidence he needed. "And that little girl keeps saying that he just likes to pretend that he's Prince Tarble, and he makes you all go along with it because he's stronger than you."
Matillo smiled, "then can you really trust anything I say? I could be lying," Matillo pointed out, making the children's eyes widen in shock, clearly having never considered it.
"See? See? I told you!" Elery shouted, puffing her chest out with pride. She flew over, choosing to clean to his shoulder as if he were a stead and pointed down at the group of children. "My brother isn't the prince Tarble. They just have the same name." Matillo swallowed a laugh as the group of children nodded along -- some appeared more doubtful than others, but they seemed convinced.
For now at least. Matillo doubted that notion would continue once they saw the prince fight. In their history, Prince Tarble and Prince Vegeta fought for the strongest Saiyan there had ever been and each time they one-upped each other, that ceiling grew higher. It was a sobering thought given that both boys were years away from seeing their final growth spurt.
"Whatcha thinking about Old Man?" Elery asked as Matillo turned his attention back to the children. Matillo didn't comment on the nickname of him -- for one, it wasn't exactly untrue, and it would be a lie to say that he didn't like it a little bit.
"How your brother reminds me of King Vegeta the First," Matillo admitted.
"Hm. Whose that?" Elery asked, making Matillo go still before he recalled that Elery never received an education in a tank. "And why is he like my brother- wait, that's that guy my brother was going to talk to the other day! Or that other Vegeta."
"No. King Vegeta the First was the first King Vegeta. He had a son, also named Vegeta, just as he named his son Vegeta and the current King Vegeta named his eldest Vegeta, which makes him Vegeta the Fourth." Matillo explained, glancing at Elery, who looked like she was trying to wrap her head around it.
"That's a lot of Vegetas," she decided after a moment. "But what's the first one got to do with my brother?"
Matillo chuckled at her easy dismissal as he continued to watch the next generation of saiyans learn. And struggle. And, in time, they would grow, mate and the next generation would be born. Their path forever changed due to the actions of a small boy.
"I was thinking how alike but different they are," Matillo stated. "Your brother is very reserved and stoic, but King Vegeta the First was rather loud. And dramatic." Enough so that his signature cape flair was deemed important enough that four generations learned it. "They...probably couldn't be more different in personality, but they remain very similar in action."
There were moments where it felt like he was back at the head of his tribe and one of the women brought in Vegeta for the first time. Matillo hadn't thought anything of him for a long time, but King Vegeta the First made it a habit of surprising people.
"Hm," Elery grunted, not interested in the ramblings of an old man, unlike her brother. "Where is my brother anyway? I still want him to teach me the Spiral Buster," Elery stated in a hungry tone. It seemed that not only she, but nearly every child of this generation was rather taken with that technique. And if enough of them asked, then it would only be a matter of time before Prince Tarble taught them it.
Matillo didn't quite agree with the idea of so freely sharing techniques, but things had changed already. The tribes of yesteryear were gone, and it was he that had to adapt to the current reality. As he considered the question, his gaze drifted towards the direction that Prince Tarble was. Far off in the distance, his scouter picked up two power levels that would have been inconceivable only a handful of years ago.
180,000 and 240,000.
"Your brother is sparring with Prince Vegeta," Matillo answered as his gaze drifted back to the group of children. Some were making more progress than others while some were forced to practice the ki blades from yesterday. They were all taking the training seriously because all of them wanted to learn the Wrath State, but they needed more than a treat at the end of a stick to lead them where Prince Tarble wanted them to go. They needed a push in the direction as well.
"We should go see him," Matillo decided, looking at the few others that were tasked with wrangling the children to make sure they stayed on task. Fasha was making an effort to teach while Gine was having far more success. Matillo thought she was far too soft-hearted to be called a warrior, and it could prove disastrous on the battlefield, but he kept such thoughts to himself. By now, Prince Tarble had more than earned his trust.
Gine seemed to notice his gaze, meeting it steadily but questioningly. At the very least, she had a spine, even if her heart was too soft.
"We are going to watch the princes' spar. The children should see who will be leading them into battle," Matillo decided for them. Luckily, Queen Teach wasn't here to overrule the decision. Prince Tarble had given her another task -- a vague excuse to separate her from the children. A saiyan mother's instincts to adopt children were strong and never before had there been so many of them.
"Really?! Awesome!" Eley cheered, flying upward. The other children glanced at him, excitement dancing in their eyes.
"They're really going at it. Are you sure that they won't kill us by mistake?" Fasha commented, earning a lingering glance from Matillo. He could hear what she really meant -- that Prince Vegeta would attempt to kill them with a stray blast. By now, it was no secret about the animosity between the royal family and what was once Bardock's team. Matillo had suspicions at what caused it, but he held his tongue until he was certain.
"I doubt Prince Tarble would allow anything like that to happen," Matillo returned. Fasha considered it, glancing at Gine, who looked between them questioningly before giving a hesitant nod.
A small smile tugged at Gine's lips as she turned her gaze to the children who increasingly grew excited at the prospect while arguments of if Prince Tarble was the real Prince Tarble grew more heated. "I think it would be a good idea to see if Prince Tarble is really as strong as the shows make him out to be," Gine said, speaking softly to the children than to either of them. Fasha sighed before she nodded, agreeing.
With that, all of them drifted upwards before they blasted off towards where the princes were sparring. A vast desert that claimed a large portion of a continent. The children grouped up -- sticking to the teams that Prince Tarble had placed them in. Part of their training was to fly together in teams, so this would be good practice, Matillo decided.
The only one that didn't was Elery, who chose to cling onto his back. They were greatly slowed down by the speed of the children, but it was necessary. A great many predators inhabited the sky, with this so-called Sky King the strongest among them, but there were plenty of others that were more than a challenge for the children. They would be expected to survive on their own strength soon enough, but for now, they had to be protected.
Every saiyan is born weak at the start. There was no better example than Prince Tarble.
However, soon enough, they reached the edge of the great desert that served as a training ground for the princes. His scouter said that they were a considerable distance away, but he saw evidence of their latest bout already. Dunes collapsed into nothing, holes that slowly filled up as sand trickled down and glass where the discharged lightning from a Galick Gun.
He slowed, peering off into the distance to see flashes of light from two techniques. Matillo sent a quick message to Prince Tarble, alerting him of their presence, but he didn't need to. Prince Tarble seemed to have an uncanny ability to notice people without using his scouter -- undoubtedly an ability that he chose not to share. Yet, at any rate. Matillo was glad for it -- it would be one of the greatest tragedies if Prince Tarble gave a rival the techniques to best him because he was too generous.
Matillo didn't receive a reply, but they continued forward anyway. Until they stood at the very edge of the battle waged between the princes. Matillo grinned as the children lined up to watch, and he heard Elery gasp in his ear.
"Bear witness to the power of the royal family," he spoke, his words nearly lost in a wave of wind that blasted through a sand dune.
Perhaps King Vegeta's flair for the dramatics had rubbed off on him.
…
There was a critical difference between Vegeta and I. It wasn't our power levels, or how we fought. It's what we were. I had to crawl my way up from the bottom over the course of my life, whereas Vegeta had been born at the top.
The others had teased that I was a freak of nature, but Vegeta was more so than me. Because, unlike me, he was a natural prodigy that came once in a lifetime.
"You mastered the Wrath State," I realized as we clashed above a sand dune, blasting is apart from the force of our blows. Vegeta smirked, his eyes blazing yellow, visible because I broke his scouter earlier, as his fists flew. I blocked them, diverting them when I could, and waited for an opening. My blood hummed in my veins -- after so many years of fighting scarabs, fighting a powerful opponent that wasn't a scarab was enough to get my heart thumping.
"Of course I did," Vegeta stated easily, ducking under a kick to my head, only to block another foot that rushed to his face with his forearm. "I'm not like the other trash you're used to fighting beside," Vegeta scoffed as he lashed out with a fist, that I caught, diverting it away from my body as I tried to slam a knee into his face.
The Wrath State was something I had given a lot of thought about the past couple of days as we neared the deadline I had established. In the end, my thoughts on how I was going to keep this Broly fellow hidden led me to how I could put safety breaks into the Wrath State. I had attempted to explain to the others how to separate themselves from the rage and pain but they didn't have any luck with it.
And, even now, I doubted that Vegeta had managed the same feat. What I went through when I was in the tank was simply too unique for others to replicate.
However, what it meant was that Vegeta had mastered the Wrath State by crushing the pain and the rage, to remain in control with sheer force of will.
A fierce grin tugged at my lips as I threw myself into the fight. I darted forward, jabbing at him, only for him to divert the attack and following it up with an elbow aimed at my eye. I caught it with my forehead instead, aiming to bury a fist in his gut, only for his other hand to stop my attack cold. Blood dripped down from my forehead, but so long as it didn't get into my eyes, then I didn't care.
I broke off, ki flooding towards my hands as I became aware of Matillo's presence some distance away. Along with Fasha, Elery and the other kids. A message made itself known, but I didn't read it in favor of powering up a Kamehameha. Vegeta did the same, however dark purple arcs of electricity escaped his palms as he prepared a Galick Gun.
Gritting my teeth, I put my all into it and launched it at my brother Just as he did me. Our attacks clashed in the air, a mighty explosion blasting away the light sand as both of us struggled to overcome the other. I poured everything that I had into it, but it was no use. Vegeta was simply stronger than me, so overpowering him wasn't an option.
Instead, I rushed forward, near where the attacks clashed -- Vegeta must have noticed something was going on because he poured even more power into the attack. In response, I abandoned mine as I spun out of the way, the Galick Gun sailing by me. I saw Vegeta's eyes widen a moment before I was upon him, planting a fist into his stomach.
He countered by punching me in the face, but I accepted the teeth-rattling blow, pulling to the side just fast enough to avoid the full force of it. As I did so, I spun sharply, lashing out with a foot that caught him in the face, flattening his nose.
Despite the blood that flowed from his nose, Vegeta smiled viciously. From there, the fight only grew more intense.
We clashed, mindful of our watchers, but we held nothing back. Vegeta was stronger than me, and he leveraged his strength well. I was better at leveraging mine and I had more than a few tricks up my sleeve. Even still, the fight was close and I wasn't able to rely on waiting for the timer to run out like I had previously counted on.
I blocked a hit from Vegeta, grunting as his fist slammed into my forearm that sent me flying. I sailed backward, slamming through a sand dune hard enough that it felt like it was solid. As sand obscured me for a moment, I left behind a ball of ki. And, as Vegeta rushed to press the advantage, I detonated it with a thought.
Sand exploded outward, obscuring Vegeta for a moment but that didn't matter for me. Pushing my hands at my side, lightning cackled to my side as I flooded ki into my palm. It was quick and fast, but that's how a Galick Gun did its best work, I'm learning. Blue lightning arcked out, slamming into the sand dunes around me, turning wherever they touched into glass. Gritting my teeth, I launched the technique at Vegeta in the split second that he was obscured.
The technique slammed into him, knocking him back. I felt his presence waver for a moment, telling me that I had managed to do damage. Only for it to be my turn to be surprised. Vegeta's presence grew stronger, jumping strength as my Galick Gun was pushed to a halt before it was knocked to the side. I barely paid any mind to the following explosion, only that it didn't come anywhere close to where everyone was.
Vegeta blasted back the lingering sand and dust in the air, revealing himself. His body was coated in an aura of green, his body already showing signs of growing while veins bulged in his neck and forehead. He looked down at me, his expression one of triumph and I realized that there was good reason for it. I didn't need the scouter to do the math.
360,000. Over a quarter of a million.
"You figured out the second stage of the Wrath State," I said, bracing myself for what came next. Vegeta answered by flexing his power, it washed over me like a wave as the air stirred.
"From the sound of it, you discovered it first," Vegeta said, a barely repressed scream in his voice but he kept himself in check. He took his stance -- one hand out while the other was held out in front of him. Perfect for quick switches between offense and defense. I noticed he sounded faintly disappointed.
I grinned as I took in a deep breath and pulled from the well of power that was the oozaru and pushed it past its limits. My hair drifted upwards, an aura of green coating my body as my bones ached under the strain. Even after two years, using the second stage felt absolutely hellish and I could feel my body cracking under the strain already.
"I did. Back on Rench. I just can't use it very well because of my body," I bit out, my lips curling back into a wide smile that my brother matched. It was hard to tell, but Vegeta did seem like he had an easier time with the second stage, which gave me hope that I would be able to use it once I had my first growth spurt. I could only hope that I got mine early as Vegeta did.
"Then we should end this quickly," Vegeta decided.
And then we clashed above the desert and it was as if the planet itself shook.
I wasn't going to be able to overpower him. It couldn't be done before, and it was flat out impossible now. I had to pull out every trick up my sleeve.
Ki blades formed around my hands as I sent a slash at him, which he dodged out of the way as he rapidly closed the distance between us. I blocked a jab that he launched at my face, catching it with my forearm. It didn't snap under the blow, which was a promising sign, but as I blocked it, I grabbed hold of the ki slash that I had sent and started angling it to the right.
My ki control grew in leaps thanks to Matillo's training and advice, but it looked like my complete control over a sent out attack was a pipedream. Once it was shot, it was next to impossible to control how I wanted it to, but, at the very least, I could angle it a little bit one way or the other.
All the while, I built up a ki breath attack in my mouth, lashing out at Vegeta with a flurry of swipes that he dodged and blocked with ease. His smile grew as he seized an opening, planting a fist in my gut, and I took that moment to unleash the ki breath attack into his face. It slammed into Vegeta's face like a brick, knowing him back. I used the opportunity to dodge to the side when he lashed out, the smile falling to be replaced with a snarl.
I had a head start, but Vegeta was simply faster than me, so he closed it in no time. I let the ki blades fade into nothing, still guiding that attack as I led us to it. However, since my attention was split, I found a fist buried in my gut. I folded around the fist, grunt in pain, but refusing to let go of the ki slash. Even when Vegeta raised his hands and brought them down onto my back and sent me flying into the ground.
Vegeta sent me flying through a sand dune before I found myself buried underneath, shooting beneath the surface as if it were water. Holding my breath gathered my ki and sent the ki slash towards Vegeta. It slammed into his back, distracting him, but not much else. He'd be pissed at me for pulling my punches, but I'd rather he be pissed than bisecting him on accident.
Even still, that gave me a fraction of a second. With a Hellzone Grenade prepped, I flexed my power and sent the mountain of sand that covered me flying outward. As the sand and dust bloomed, I used the cover to send hundreds of balls of ki upward, punching through the cloud -- each one was large enough that they would be able to hurt Vegeta, if only a little.
"You...can sense me?" Vegeta questioned, eyeing the attacks that allowed me to take control of the skies. Now I controlled the battleground and the past two years leading the 501st taught me how valuable that was. "And you can manipulate your attacks after you send them." The last one was a statement of fact.
"Do you want me to teach you?" I asked, ki gathering in my hands. Vegeta scoffed at my offer as he did the same.
"As if," Vegeta dismissed as lightning gathered in his palms as it did mine. We gathered our ki, pushing out control to its absolute max. However, Vegeta's control was far less fine than mine, even in this form. His dark purple Galick Gun launched at me and in that moment, I sent every ki blast that hovered above in the way.
For a moment, the world was nothing by light and noise. Only for the noise to become a high pitched ringing as my eardrums gave out as heat washed over me. The only thing that I was aware of was that I was still alive, and so was Vegeta. My attacks had detonated his attack prematurely, buying me a few seconds to continuously gather my ki-
Vegeta moved, darting down through the explosion and my eyes barely had a moment to widen before he emerged directly in front of me. I reacted instantly, throwing out my hands to launch the attack but- but, at this distance, it could kill him. Instead, I aimed it at the ground the same moment his fist collided with my face.
I didn't lose consciousness, but it was a near thing. The only thing that prevented me from blacking out as an explosion racked the planet from a full-powered Galick Gun was the certainty that if I didn't keep up the second stage of the Wrath State, then I would die. I accepted the pain, heat washing over me as I was thrown in some direction, only able to orientate myself by the reassuring presence that I felt. Vegeta was still alive too, and so were the others that watched the fight.
When things settled down, I found myself half-buried in sand, face down so more than a little was filling my mouth. "Hnn...ugh…!" I groaned, pulling myself out of the sand, spitting it out as I shook my head to displace whatever was resting on me. A lot of it stuck to me because of sweat and blood, but other than a few injuries, I was mostly fine. Nothing that a Medicine Ball couldn't fix at any rate.
"You held back," Vegeta accused, having recovered first. He looked a little roughed up, more than me at any rate since I had managed to land a few more attacks than him.
"The only way I could have beat you was to kill you, and I'm not going to do that," I answered. Vegeta scowled at that, glaring hard at me, but he stopped himself when he let out a huff. I felt like I should say something, but I was unsure of what. I took too long and the moment passed. Instead, I formed a Medicine Ball and tossed it overhead so it could heal both of us. All the while, I glanced around us to survey the damage.
It was difficult to tell with just how much sand and dust was in the air, but we stood at the edge of a massive crater that was slowly filling up with sand. I looked at it for a moment, mulling something over before I let the Medicine Ball fade away once our wounds were done healing. Then I performed a self-scan.
19,080. Over a thousand point jump from a spar. It had taken me months of fighting saibamen to earn half that same amount.
"Vegeta...you figured it out too, haven't you?" I asked, looking at my brother. His scowl lessened as he glanced my way, his gaze lingering on my scouter before he gave a slow nod.
"I noticed it during the past couple of years. My largest jumps in power only came when I was heavily injured from fighting a powerful opponent. That, and the stronger I become, the larger the jumps in power become," Vegeta answered, confirming what I had noticed. There was no way that I couldn't notice after I had crawled my way up from the lowest of the low-class. Nor how I watched my team's power levels steadily climb upward.
I continued to look at the massive crater, feeling the presence of the others nearing to check-in. "Our bodies adapt rapidly in response to opposition. That's how our race managed to adapt to standard gravity to ten times the galactic standard. The more we're injured, the more our bodies can build themselves back stronger than before."
"Which is why you created the Medicine Ball," Vegeta hazarded a guess. And he wasn't wholly wrong, so I nodded since I knew he wouldn't understand that my motivation had also been to prevent our troops from dying pointlessly. "Hmph...with it, it's only a matter of time before we surpass Frieza himself."
I took off my scouter and tossed it into the crater so we could speak freely.
"I don't think it's going to be that easy," I told Vegeta. "Frieza is in a class of his own...I know we only have a record of his power level being ten million, but I...I would put it closer to a hundred million. Or more," I was quick to put down the notion that defeating Frieza in a fight would be anything but easy.
Vegeta looked faintly alarmed, but I could see what happened to Sereall flash before his eyes. I knew because every time I thought of his strength, that's what popped into my mind. "A hundred million…? What an absolutely ridiculous number," he said, sounding like he agreed with my assessment.
"We're nowhere near his level of strength. And we won't be for a long time. The ki sensing will help --if our bodies react to a powerful opponent, then feeling their presence will do a lot more than just reading a power level on a screen. But, I also have an idea for a technique-" Vegeta huffed, muttering a 'of course you do' before I continued. "- that could help us train. That way we won't be so dependent on finding powerful opponents."
"Elery gave me the idea. It might take some time, but if I can figure out how to manipulate gravity with a technique then I could make it stronger just as I could weaker. Our race grew stronger because we lived under ten times the standard gravity, but what if we trained in twenty times the standard? Or more?" I asked, trying to picture it.
Vegeta fell silent, looking upward, peering through the sand and dust at the presences above that were likely searching for us.
"Do you intend to spread these techniques to everyone?" Vegeta asked, looking back down at me. I knew the answer that he wanted to hear was no. But if I said that, then it would be a lie.
"I will. If we're so weak that we have to cripple our race to remain the strongest, then we don't deserve it," I stated. Vegeta flashed me a sharp grin before he turned his attention to the crater that we stood at the edge of. Both of us looked down to see that the bottom was filling up with sand and I could feel the ground shifting beneath us.
Despite the fact I could fly, I couldn't help but worry that I would trip and fall until I hit the bottom.
"Well said."
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
There's also the fact that there's nothing better than fighting a strong opponent, so it's rather counterproductive, not to give potential opponents the tools to become stronger, I mean do you want to be safe, or do you want a good fight? If you answered safe, you're not a Saiyan.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Yeah, letting opponents strengthen themselves is something both Goku and Vegeta do, and the two of them were about as different as people can be. It's very much a racial tendency.
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Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
Though I have to wonder how long you can keep the planet intact and unmolten with that many insane demigods on it. The power scales up but so does the collateral damage. You might need to spread out and start being outright fleet based just to have anywhere left to live.
What does a hundred thousand simultaneous training duels on the same planet look like when everyone ends up over a 10k power level?
What does a hundred thousand simultaneous training duels on the same planet look like when everyone ends up over a 10k power level?
- Location
- America
can we just stop and appreciate the fact that the first king vegeta was such a drama queen that four generations of vegeta's have had to learn the dramatic cape flair just to be on the throne.
Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
I have to assume he was in the wrong damn anime, originally being intended for JJBA.
- Location
- Writeland
King Vegeta the first was so extra that he decided the standard Saiyan uniform is pointy boots and bigass triangular shoulder pads.
Touch of Bah
- Location
- USA
"You're going to pick him up?" Vegeta asked, crossing his arms as he leaned his back against the doorframe that marked the entrance to Castle Vegeta. I glanced at my brother before I nodded.
"It's for the best. Broly needs to get used to fighting with other saiyans and hiding his power level. And it'll be good for the others as well. I want to see how they act when I'm not looking over their shoulders," I answered. Matillo had reported some promising progress with Olaive and Kakarot, and things got...pretty weird after my fight with Vegeta. They seemed to hang off of every word I said to a worrying degree, but I needed to see if they would follow through with that promised progress when they thought I wouldn't find out.
Vegeta nodded, accepting that answer. "And he'll be attached to your 501st," he commented with only a trace of bitterness in his words. Which was fair, honestly. Because Vegeta was a part of Frieza's personal army, it was too big of a risk for Broly to travel with Vegeta. We didn't know how powerful Broly was currently, but given that he had had a power level of over nine thousand as an infant...well...there was a reason only me and Vegeta could go pick him up.
"Don't worry. I won't get too much stronger than you," I teased, flashing a grin, only to get a scowl in return.
"In what universe does the youngest surpass the eldest?" Vegeta scoffed with a shake of his head. "You'll always be weaker than me, little brother. As it should be," he decided firmly. My grin grew a fraction, knowing that after these few days of...vacation were done, the next time I saw Vegeta he was going to be crazily strong. And I had to make sure I could match him.
Three presences that I recognized entered my range. I glanced over to see Mom and Fasha with Elery hanging on Mom's shoulder. Elery's gaze met mine for a brief moment before she quickly looked away, ducking behind Mom's shoulder guard. My heart clenched in my chest -- it had been a few days since I fought her somewhat seriously, and she had barely spoken a word to me since.
There were times when her presence could be annoying, but now she was flat out avoiding me...I hadn't realized how used to her presence I was until it was gone. Still, I was made of sterner stuff than that, so I didn't let it bother me. Too much. Instead, I focused on Mom and Fasha.
"I figured I would see you off," Mom decided with a shrug. Which prompted my gaze to shift to Fasha. And since my vision wasn't blocked by my visor, she saw the question in my gaze.
"You should have some backup. Just in case anything goes sideways. The Old Man can handle the kids. Pretty sure he secretly loves it," Fasha explained with a shrug of her shoulders, mirroring Mom. I haven't seen much of either of them since I arrived on Planet Vegeta, but it seemed that they were getting along well enough. Much better than Vegeta and Bardock, at any rate. Not that was a high bar to get over.
I mulled it over for a second before I nodded, thinking that was fair enough. I was planning on taking a small shuttle to and from the planet, but adding another person wouldn't do any harm. And in case we did run into any Reach forces, I would be glad to have Fasha watching my back.
"Sounds good to me," I agreed, gesturing to the saucer ship that we would be taking. I glanced at Mom and Vegeta, a question on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't bring myself to ask it. However, Mom seemed to sense my hesitance and answered my unspoken question.
"Your father is probably pretending that he's busy, or something," she told me. From what I gathered, they still didn't see eye to eye about Dad staying on Planet Vegeta. And I doubted that they ever would. In the end, as much as I would like them to get along, it didn't change much if they didn't. The results remained the same.
"I see," I said, wondering if I would see him again before I left for the war again. After picking Broly up, it would be the final day and the hundred saiyans under my wing would challenge the Sky King. After that, we would leave for the front lines again, take a weaker planet to get the saiyans under my command used to war...then we would take Antiople, the next shield world. "Tell him I said goodbye if I don't see him."
Vegeta nodded, and I was reassured that my message would be passed on. With that, I turned away from my family to head to the shuttle.
"Don't die!" Elery called out, peeking up from Mom's shoulder. A tension that I wasn't aware of until it was gone eased out of me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mom grinning as Elery peeked over her shoulder so only her eyes were visible.
"I won't," I said, waving goodbye. Fasha followed me up the staircase into the ship. I was compelled to look over my shoulder one last time as the staircase closed, sealing tight enough to be worthy of space travel. It only lasted for a split second before the staircase blocked my vision, but I saw Vegeta waving goodbye right back at me.
My gaze lingered on the spot with some disbelief before Fasha reached out to rub the top of my head. I glanced up at her to see that there was a soft smile tugging at the edges of her lips.
"Is it everything you'd thought it'd be?" Fasha questioned, and it was simple to guess what she meant.
I didn't even have to think about it. "It's even better," I told her. For so long, I had fought for my place amongst the royal family. And now I had it. I could call Vegeta my brother. Mom and Elery loved me. My father was proud of me. My team respected me and the issues we had were gone.
"Well, I'm happy for you. Now where are we going?" Fasha asked, making me realize that she wasn't in the loop. I glanced at her before I started walking toward the cockpit. I had absolutely no idea how to fly one of these things, but that's what autopilot was for. I input the coordinates as I explained the situation.
However, there were some things that I just had to leave out. The plot to overthrow the Cold family as the head of the Trade Organization...that was so much bigger than me that it wasn't up to me who learned of it and who didn't. I'm not even sure what I should do about the plan. But, still, there were some things that she needed to know.
"We're picking up a saiyan around my age," I started to explain as the ship lifted off. "His name is Broly. Dad sent him to a planet called Vampa to keep him out of sight until now." At that, Fasha cocked an eyebrow at me, a questioning look on her face. "When he was about a year into gestating in the tank, he had a power level of eight hundred."
Fasha sputtered, caught completely off guard by the ridiculous number. And that was the perfect time to follow it up. "However, when he started to cry, his power level skyrocketed to the point that it broke the older versions of the scouter. The final reading before it broke was ten thousand."
"Wait one second there -- you're telling me that a baby still in the tank had a power level of ten thousand?" Fasha held up a hand, her voice shifting from shock to deadly serious as she realized the implications. It had taken me years to break the ten thousand barrier. My team spent most of their lives inching towards that threshold and most of them still hadn't managed it despite how close they were.
Broly was elite-class twice over, in a league of his own.
"I am," I confirmed with a nod.
Fasha thought about that, taking a seat in the pilot's chair. "Why was he sent to Vampa? If King Vegeta wanted him out of the way, then killing him would have been the smarter option," she said. At that, I shook my head.
"Dad wanted him out of the way, but he didn't want to get rid of him. Back then we had the population cap, and he was worried about what Frieza would do if such an unusually powerful saiyan was born," I explained.
Fasha scoffed, "more like he wanted to keep his throne secure." As soon as she said the words, she sent me a look that told me that she hadn't meant to say that out loud, or she forgot who she was talking to.
I gave her words a moment of thought before I shook my head. "If he wanted that, then he could have just killed him like you said." I refuted easily enough, hearing a small sigh and a nod from Fasha. I wasn't surprised that she didn't have the highest opinion of him. I wanted to defend him by telling her that he was a better man and a better king than anyone thought, but that would lead to questions why I thought that. And I wouldn't be able to answer.
"So, what changed? Do we know how powerful the kid is now? Is he even alive?" Fasha asked as the wink-drive teleported us hundreds of lightyears away from Planet Vegeta. Given that Vampa was on the very fringe of the galaxy, located in the least populated sector that was cleared out by some Warlord some time ago. As far as hiding places went, there was no better one.
"The war happened. Now Lord Frieza would welcome a powerful soldier in his army," I answered. The last two questions I was less certain about. The wink-drive gathered up power for another jump. It was going to take a day to get to Vampa and another day to get back. I understood the basics of it -- the larger the jump, the more likely there would be a failure and we would be wiped from existence. So, the wink drive was best used in bursts with time to recover between those bursts.
"We don't know how strong he is though. But...given how wildly his power fluctuates...I'm guessing strong," I answered. "And if he's strong, then I'm willing to bet that he's alive."
"Fair enough, I guess," Fasha conceded, scratching at her cheek in thought. Her gaze lingered on me for a moment, a question in her eyes. It was a look I was starting to recognize, but instead of not asking or asking a different question when I prompted her, she asked what was on her mind. "What's going to happen to the other kids? I know that the elite-class is being divided up between the royal family and Matillo, but no one's said anything about the mid and low-class."
That...was a good question, actually.
"I don't know," I admitted, which seemed to surprise her. "I've been more focused on dealing with the troops that I was going to be in charge of. The 501st is going to be put up to full strength soon and given how many saiyans are going to be put under my command...well, I've been preoccupied." Fasha nodded, accepting that point. Even still, it felt too much like an excuse for comfort.
Her lips thinned as she looked out the viewing window.
"I'll find out when we get back. I'm assuming that they'll be assigned to units like how we were before," but that had some issues. If we weren't careful then our population was going to be blasted back until we were nearly extinct. And because there wasn't a lot of genetic material, there wouldn't be a massive population boom like this again.
We had to make sure as many saiyans as possible made it to their prime. Just like Dad instructed us to make sure as many as the elite-class made it to their prime.
That gave me an idea.
"Would you feel comfortable leading your own units?" I asked as I puzzled the problem out, the offer surprising Fasha.
"What?" She asked, blinking at the offer.
"Would you want to command your own unit? Like the 501st," I explained with a frown, thinking it over. "It's just an idea, but...I would feel more comfortable putting saiyan lives in saiyan hands. I know it's impossible to do it with everyone. And for those that I can't, I'll do what I can to make sure they get good commanders. But if we assign...ten thousand or so to each of you -- the team, and the other few saiyans remaining."
Fasha considered it for a long moment as if she were carefully considering her words. "I...wouldn't be opposed to it. And I don't think the other members of the team would be either," she said at least. That was good. Between Tora, Fasha, Shugesh, Borgos, and Parslee, that would be another fifty thousand saiyans in saiyan hands. And maybe I could talk to Mom about having more of them attached to our army.
"But, couldn't we just take them all?" Fasha questioned, looking at me with an unusually heavy gaze. "I mean, of course we wouldn't be in command of all of them," she quickly explained. "I just think that our race was nearly wiped out because we were scattered about. So, instead, the team would be in command of...I dunno, twenty-five thousand, or something?"
I shook my head, "logistics are the real limiting factor." I refuted, agreeing with her in spirit. In an ideal world, all three million would live to see their prime. That was impossible, though. "We eat too much. With the elite-class that'll be joining us, we're already gaining near a hundred thousand more mouths to feed. And things were bad enough when there were only fifty of us."
The fact that saiyans were bottomless pits wasn't news to me. I learned that lesson back on Rench when thirty saiyans impacted the food reserves enough that having us eat corpses bought us a day's worth of food to feed thousands.
I didn't plan on being in that situation ever again, but that didn't mean I wouldn't be. Not only that but adding a hundred thousand saiyans was already going to mean a sharp upturn in the amount of food that we would need. I didn't want our supply line to be a lifeline, and the moment it was severed our situation became dire.
"Adding another fifty thousand would be pushing it. The capsules make transporting it better, but the sheer amount of food we'll need is an issue." Especially when we pushed to take another shield world.
Unlike the last time, Lord Frieza wouldn't pave the way for us. We were going to have to fight to take it. There were shield world's that hadn't fallen since the war began. I had to assume that would be the case with us and prepare for that scenario.
Fasha looked like she wanted to argue, but realized that was right. Instead, she let out a deep sigh as she nodded in acceptance. "What about Lotuce and Gine? Would they be commanders too?" I considered the question before I gave a hesitant nod.
"I trust Lotuce to lead a unit well, but...I haven't seen Gine fight. I don't know her. I'll trust your word if you say she can lead them well, but you've said it yourself -- she's too soft-hearted to be a warrior." I understood her motivations better than most. She was only coming because she didn't want to be separated from Kakarot. She wasn't joining us to fight.
Fasha appeared pensive before she spoke. "I'll talk to her about it. I think she would be good at it, but she shouldn't if she doesn't want to. For everyone's sake," she pointed out, getting an agreeing nod from me. She ran a hand through her hair before she nodded to herself. "I'll go shoot a message to the others. Might send one to Bardock too, while I'm at it."
While she did that, I pulled up my own assignments. I was behind on them, and Technician expected them to be done when I got back to the fleet. And I hadn't even started them.
Pulling up the first one, my gaze landed on the first math problem. Then my eyes narrowed into slits.
"Why are there letters in math!?"
…
Vampa looked more desolate in person than it did as a hologram. The surface of the planet was a sickly yellow, there was no sign of plant life at all. The catalog said that this planet had two species left after an apocalyptic event some centuries ago. Bloodsucking insects and some kind of eel dog that lived in craters.
"We're picking up an SOS down there. Night side of the planet, directly in the middle of a storm." I said, highlighting the position. I felt faintly proud at the simple action. I wasn't used to using technology yet, but I was steadily learning how a lot of things worked.
"Should we wait until it clears up? I'm betting that the constant storms are the reason they're stuck on this planet," Fasha asked as she looked at the swirling clouds on the dark side of the planet.
"No. I want to get back to Planet Vegeta as soon as possible. We'll leave the ship in orbit and take down a few oxygen masks so Broly and Paragus can make the trip up." I was looking forward to meeting Paragus. He cared enough about Broly to steal a ship to free him from his exile to this waste hole. Dad didn't seem to think he would still be alive -- Paragus was low-class, and a fairly weak one as well, so his odds weren't great but I was holding out hope that he was still alive.
Though, just in case something did happen, "send a message back to Planet Vegeta while I get the masks on when to expect us back."
Fasha nodded, "sounds good to me." With that safety net done, both of us donned our masks and descended down toward the planet's surface.
As we entered the atmosphere, immediately we were hit with powerful winds and sand that would have flayed any non-saiyan member of the 501st. It was no shock at all that this planet was completely devoid of plant life, the wind and the sand must have killed it. I stretched my hands out and formed a bubble shield to keep the sand from getting in my eyes. Fasha did the same. Then I formed a ball of light in my hand and tossed it upward, illuminating the intense darkness that surrounded us.
"You can use two techniques at once now?" Fasha commented, looking at me as we descended.
"Only easy ones like this. I can't prepare two attacks at the same time. Yet," I tacked on. I hadn't managed to do it yet without one technique blowing up in my face, but I would manage it eventually.
Fasha simply shook her head as she eyed the ball of light, "so it's like a Solar Flare? I remember you using yourself like a flashlight back on Rench."
I nodded, confirming the guess as we neared the ground. "I created it back when I was trying to make the Power Ball emit certain kinds of light waves. I never had a chance to use it before, though."
"What are you going to name this one?"
That was a good question, I thought, glancing over my shoulder at the small ball emitting light. "Nightlight? Light Ball?"
A chuckle escaped Fahsa's lips, "you might be a genius at creating techniques, but at the very least I'll know you'll always be bad at naming them."
Oi...what does that mean…?
I didn't get a chance to ask because we reached the ground. Like we saw from space, the ground was a pale yellow of harsh stone. I pressed down on the side of my scouter to activate the map function. Through the storm, I saw the forms of jagged outcroppings of rock formations, and, more importantly, I saw a dot on the map that was the source of the SOS.
What I didn't pick up on were any power levels. Either they were beneath the ground...or….they were dead. Which would really throw a wrench in Dad's plans.
I traded a look with Fasha, who nodded before we took off in the direction of the SOS. It was a saucer ship nestled in a rock formation, kept out of the sandstorm but not buried to the point that it couldn't broadcast. I didn't know much about ships, but I could see that it was well taken care of at least. There was some wear and tear, but it didn't look like it was wasting away. That was a great sign.
My eyes found a tunnel near where the ship was set up. I flew toward it, standing at the-
I felt a presence and it was like a punch to the gut. Not because I had nothing to compare it to, but because I could.
The presence was comparable to Vegeta in the first stage of the Wrath State. Not quite as strong, but comparable. Almost numbly, I pressed down on the side of my scouter to get an exact number. The numbers kept ticking higher and higher until they settled on...a completely ridiculous number.
83,755.
Unless...unless Broly was in the oozaru form or the Wrath State, then...that...was his base power level. I expected him to be powerful, but this was insane. I would have said that it was impossible, but clearly it wasn't. How? How could he be this strong? Were the two species here really strong enough to push Broly to this extreme level of strength?
I wasn't sure if the plan could work anymore. The plan was that I would be able to keep him in line easily enough. If he learned the Wrath State…
Broly would have a power level dangerously close to a million. That was a sobering thought.
"Holy shit," Fasha muttered, picking up on the same power level. Now that the initial shock had worn off, I realized that there were two other power levels. One that was 3,360 -- who must be Paragus given that was about a five hundred increase from his last recorded one, and the other was a mystery of 1,002.
"Let's take this slow," I told her before I decided to take off my mask and scouter and sealed them away with a capsule. I had picked an older model of armor so my tail was free for the first time in what felt like years. That way they would know we were saiyans just by looking at us. Fasha nodded as she did the same, and only then did we start to walk down the tunnel, my Nightlight illuminating the pitch-black tunnels.
The walls occasionally had some kind of egg built into them. I knew that they were eggs because most of them had the shell broken so the yoke inside could be eaten. The tunnels themselves were a maze, dozens of tunnels leading one way or the other. If it wasn't for my ability to sense ki then we would have been lost.
Steadily, we drew nearer to the only sentient presences on this planet. I let my Nightlight die off as I saw light illuminating a tunnel up ahead, hinting at another source of light. Then we stepped into the light.
The first thing we saw as we turned the corner was a boy sitting on a rock. His hair was a shaggy mane, his skin tanned with a few scars visible. One on his face that split his cheek and another on his left arm at his bicep. His armor had seen better days, almost to the point I wasn't sure why he bothered to wear it. Underneath was a deep blue undersuit that cut off at the thighs and left his arms bare.
He paused midway to bite into a leg, his face covered in greenish blood. I figured he would have gone through his first growth spurt, but he looked to be around my size. Yet smaller because he appeared to drown in a light green fur blanket that was tied around his shoulders. He lowered the leg, revealing some kind of metal collar around his neck as he blinked a few times at us.
"Who...are you?" He spoke, sounding uncertain. I eyed him for a moment -- Broly was prematurely ejected from the gestation tank, so I wasn't sure how many lessons he got before he was sent to Vampa. Still, he was able to speak saiyango, so that was a promising sign.
"My name is Prince Tarble, and this is Fasha, my teammate. We're here to bring you back to Planet Vegeta-" I introduced us, stepping forward. I saw a flash of light to the side and I reacted instantly. As a ki blast was launched at me, I lashed out with a hand and batted it to the side, sending it into a wall. Only then did I pay any attention to the interior of the cavern.
It looked lived in. The beds were ripped out of the ship, a floater from the ship that was being worked on as well as a place with various tools laid about. The source of the light was coming from some kind of stone, illuminating the cavern.
Two other people were in the cavern. One was Paragus. Instead of just sporting a mustache, a short beard was growing out, and he was missing an eye. Oddly enough, he was showing signs of leaving his prime, even though he wasn't that old -- wrinkles gathered in the corner of his eyes and his black hair was sporting a few strands of gray.
The other one was scrawny, almost hollowed cheeked and haggard-looking like he hadn't slept easily once in the past six years. He almost looked familiar, but I had more pressing concerns. Like how Paragus had taken a shot at me.
"So King Vegeta sends another one of his spawn to finish the job that he's too cowardly to do himself?" Paragus spat, preparing another ki blast. Broly took his cues from his father, dropping the leg and jumping to his feet as he started growling at me.
I looked at Broly because he was by far the biggest threat, but I spoke to Paragus as I did so. "You jumped to conclusions then, and you're jumping to conclusions now. If my father wanted Broly dead, then he would be dead. If I came here to kill you, then you would be dead. Yet, you're all alive. What does that tell you?" I was many things, but a diplomat wasn't one of them.
Paragus sneered, anger blazing in his eyes. This wasn't going to be a simple conversation. Not when he was staring at me with black eyes full of hate and loathing, like I was the source of every misfortune that he had ever had.
"Wait- Wait, everyone, just wait one second," the other guy said. Oddly enough, Broly calmed down almost instantly at the request. He stopped growling at me and looked over at the other guy. "You have a ship, right? You can get us off this rock?" He asked almost desperately. Actually, there was no almost involved, he was desperate.
"We do," I confirmed, sliding my gaze to Paragus. "Like I said, we're here to bring you back to Planet Vegeta. Then you'll be accompanying me to the frontlines."
A hint of confusion entered Paragus's hateful gaze, "frontlines?" He echoed before his eyes narrowed at me, "the war with the Reach?" He hazarded a guess.
I nodded, "the war has been going on for about six years now. Our population cap has been lifted, and things have changed. My father sent Broly here for his own protection. If Lord Frieza had found about him before now, Broly would have been killed-"
Paragus snarled at me so intensely that I'm pretty sure that he pulled something in his face. "Don't lie to me, boy! King Vegeta was jealous! He was jealous of my son and the power that he has!"
"Paragus! Listen to reason -- does it matter why King Vegeta sent Broly here? We're your ticket off this planet," Fasha tried to reason with him, but there was no reasoning with absolute hate.
"No," Paragus shook his head, glaring at me with a lone eye. "We've spent years in this...hell. Because of your father. We'll take that ship of yours and your father and brother will be joining you here. After you've suffered long enough, I'll allow you to leave this hellish planet." This wasn't going as well as I hoped it would. Not in the slightest. Paragus couldn't be reasoned with because he didn't want to be. He wanted revenge for a mistake that he made.
"My father wasn't the one that crashed your ship," I refuted. "And he didn't send anyone to stop you. If you had left Vamp with Broly, that would have been fine because my father's goals would have been fulfilled -- keeping Broly out of Lord Frieza's hands. Blame yourself for being stuck here. We aren't your enemies."
I could see that my words had an effect. Just not the one that I wanted. The truth fanned the flames of his hate until I could see them. He blamed Dad because the only other option was blaming himself.
"Broly!" Paragus snapped, making Broly flinch at his tone. "Kill!" He shouted, pointing at us.
Broly looked at us, his gaze wide and...reluctant. That caught me off guard. Though, not as much as what came next. Broly's eyes went wide as his hands went to his neck, a scream ripping from his throat as he collapsed to the ground, covered in the green fur blanket. My gaze darted to Paragus to see that he held a controller in his hands.
"Kill him Broly! Kill!" Paragus shouted and, for a moment, I just looked at him. He...was completely consumed with his vengeance. All because of the symbol that I wore on my chest. Perhaps it was a mistake to send me here, or any member of the royal family. I should have just sent Fasha. Because, right now, actually leaving the planet was the very last thing on Paragus' mind.
I raised a hand and blasted the control out of his hand, and only then did Broly's screams stop. The boy laid in a heap underneath the blanket, shivering as he gasped for breath. Shakily, he pushed himself up, looking at me with eyes filled with fear. Paragus was so consumed with his hate that he hadn't realized that he was hurting Broly too much to let him obey the crazed order.
I walked toward him, my eyes blazing yellow as I slipped into the Wrath State with ease. Broly, finally able to follow through with his father's order, lashed out with a fist. It was wild, no form in the slightest. He...wasn't used to fighting. I saw it easily. Which raised the question of how exactly was he so strong. I expected some level of strength with his wild fluctuations recorded in the tank. If he didn't have a growth spurt…
Did...Broly grow stronger over time naturally?
His fist slammed into my palm and stopped dead in its tracks. Broly's eyes widened a look of shock on his face. Given how strong he was, I imagined he was used to the things he hit being broken. Grabbing his hand, I held him in place, his eyes growing fearful as I reached out. Then that fear melted into confusion as I ripped off the collar, identifying it as what caused Broly to scream.
Broly rubbed his neck tenderly, looking at me with no small amount of confusion once I let go of his hand and made no move to attack.
This...was disappointing as hell.
"Paragus," I spoke slowly, turning to the aging saiyan, who met my gaze firmly, thoroughly unrepentant. "I'm going to pretend like that didn't happen. For your sake. In exchange, you're going to shut up, get on the ship, and then go to planet Vegeta with us. From there, you can do whatever the hell you want. I don't care. However, two things are set in stone -- Broly will be accompanying me to the frontlines and you won't put another collar on him. Is that clear?" I spoke, my words as cold as ice.
"I…" Broly interrupted, looking between me and Paragus. "I don't want to be away from Dad…! Don't...take him away...please!" Broly looked like he was on the verge of tears at the mere thought of it. He grabbed onto the green blanket, curling it around himself as if it was the only source of safety that he had ever known.
That decided that then.
"Fine. Three things are set in stone. You're joining us on the frontlines," I informed Paragus. His expression was rebellious, and I knew he was going to be an absolute pain in the ass. But Broly wanted him to be there, and right now, what Broly wanted, Broly was going to get.
"Paragus, just accept it for now," Fasha spoke, trying to reason with him again. "There's a time and a place for vengeance, and this is neither." That...was a good idea. Instead of trying to reason with him with logic, she was appealing to his desires for undeserved vengeance on Dad. At the very least, it would make him cooperative enough to get on the ship with minimal complaining. And once he calmed down enough, he could be more open to a rational discussion.
And if that didn't work, I would punch him in the face until he agreed.
Paragus looked at Fasha, his eye darting to me before he scowled deeply even as he nodded. For now, that would be enough.
"Good," I said, reaching to my belt and tossed a capsule containing the spare oxygen masks and tanks. "Take those and follow us up," I said before I narrowed my eyes at Paragus. "And here's some advice on trying something on the ship," I started before I turned around and started walking down the tunnel, expecting to be followed.
"Don't."
…
People respond to stress in different ways, I learned over the years. I had a habit of throwing myself at the problem until it went away. Tora buckled down and worked his way through it. Shugesh ate to deal and...well...the list went on. Likewise, different people responded to relief.
Broly took off his mask, looking around at the interior of the ship with a hint of wonder. Paragus looked like he ate something sour as he strode forward, barely paying any attention to his surroundings. Thankfully, Fasha followed him to make sure that he didn't blow up the ship out of spite.
The third saiyan, on the other hand, broke down crying. He dropped to his knees, his chest heaving as tears ran down his cheeks as he held onto the ship hard enough that the grating warped underneath his fingers.
"I...I thought I was never going to leave that place," he sobbed, crying his heart out in pure relief. I...think this was the first time I had ever seen a saiyan cry before. Elery did early on, but only when she was a baby. The only other time that I could think of was myself back on Rockoroad when I participated in unprovoked genocide of another race...my first taste of war.
I shared a look with Broly, who looked outright concerned for the guy. He walked over to the sobbing saiyan, hovering around him before he held out the blanket that was tied around his shoulders.
"You can pet Bah's ear. You'll stop being sad," Broly offered, pushing the furry ear into the saiyans face. Then his concerned expression showed some apprehension, "but only for a little bit. And you can only pet Bah's ear," he laid down the restrictions, and through his sobs, the saiyan let out a wet chuckle.
"Thanks, Broly. I appreciate it," the saiyan said fondly, his voice thick with emotion. He wiped his eyes with the back of his forearm, glancing up at me before he swallowed thickly. "Sorry about that sorry show. I...I...I thought I was really going to die down there, you know? Shit...I've...I've been lying for years about the ship, and I thought Paragus was going to figure out any day…"
That caught my attention. "Lying about the ship?" I questioned, giving the saiyan a moment to gather himself.
"Back when the ship crashed, Paragus was going to kill me to save on food. So, I lied and said that I could fix the ship with enough time. But the main floater was broken, and there was no way that I could. So, I just...kept lying. Every day, I thought that Paragus would figure it out and…" Kill him because there would be no reason keeping him alive.
The saiyan pushed himself off the floor, choosing to sit on it as he wiped away the last few tears. "I'm really lucky that you arrived when you did. I think he was starting to suspect something," the saiyan admitted, taking in a calming breath as he gave a thin smile to Broly, who receded the offer to pet Bah's ear. There was a story there as well. "But I never expected that you'd be the one to rescue me."
Huh?
"You know me?" I questioned, confused. If he was stuck here for years, then he couldn't know me from the war and he was a Mechanic, not a Nurturer, so he shouldn't know me from the Nursery.
"I'm not surprised that you don't remember me. We only met briefly a couple of years ago...but…" the saiyan looked apprehensive for a moment while I tried to place him. I knew he looked familiar...but…
"You're the Mechanic that was working on my team's ship," I realized. That was ages ago, and it was briefly. However, what I didn't expect was for a pained expression to pass over his face. He hesitated to speak, or even nod, and that was alarming.
"I am," he agreed, swallowing thickly. "I...well, my name is Beets. Not sure if you remembered. You probably didn't. I didn't know you were royalty, though. But I probably should have -- you have the look," Beets said, dancing around the issue.
"I wasn't. I was born low-class and had to earn the right to join the royal family by becoming high-class," I explained, making his eyes widen.
"Huh. Well, I can believe it. Broly is pretty strong. Stronger than I thought possible, really," Beets commented, making Broly smile widely. "But...there's something...something that you should know...about why I was working on your ship." Beets started, swallowing thickly as he braced himself. "You should know. Especially after you saved me."
I gave him a slow nod, "alright...why were you working on our ship?" This reaction...it couldn't be because of scheduled maintenance. Beets was too nervous.
Beets didn't continue for a few seconds, long enough for me to think that he wasn't going to. But when he did speak, I almost regretted asking.
"King Vegeta ordered me to plant a bomb on your team's ship. A timed one that would detonate when you activated the FTL drive to make it look like an accident of shoddy repairs. I was in the middle of installing it when...when you came on board...I…" Beets looked away, his eyes filled with shame.
"I'm working-class. I'm not a warrior. I...I don't have it in me to kill a kid...so I didn't go through with it. I was freaking out, convinced that King Vegeta was going to kill me because of it. That's why I offered to help Paragus get off the planet to rescue Broly." He explained, but I didn't hear a word that he said.
My hands curled into fists as I clenched my jaw, my heart hammering at my ribs as my blood rushed in my veins.
I…
"I guess it was too good to be true," I admitted to myself. I had known since the beginning that Dad didn't care about me. It's why he okayed me going on a suicide mission. But, I had accepted that. I rationalized it. I told myself that when I made it to the elite-class, that Dad would accept me. That...that was the bar I had to reach to earn his love and acceptance.
But...he had lied to me. Back on Planet Vegeta. When he said that he allowed Bardock to be the face of the saiyan race. I suspected it, but I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to believe in the family that I now had.
King Vegeta tried to kill my team. He tried to kill me. He never cared about me at all. He only cared that I was elite-class.
Broly walked over to me, reaching out and pushing the filthy green ear towards me. My heart clenched in my chest at the silent offer and even as tears stung at my eyes, I gave Broly a small smile.
"Thanks Broly," I told him, reaching out and petting the ear.
Unsurprisingly, I didn't feel any better.
...
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"It's for the best. Broly needs to get used to fighting with other saiyans and hiding his power level. And it'll be good for the others as well. I want to see how they act when I'm not looking over their shoulders," I answered. Matillo had reported some promising progress with Olaive and Kakarot, and things got...pretty weird after my fight with Vegeta. They seemed to hang off of every word I said to a worrying degree, but I needed to see if they would follow through with that promised progress when they thought I wouldn't find out.
Vegeta nodded, accepting that answer. "And he'll be attached to your 501st," he commented with only a trace of bitterness in his words. Which was fair, honestly. Because Vegeta was a part of Frieza's personal army, it was too big of a risk for Broly to travel with Vegeta. We didn't know how powerful Broly was currently, but given that he had had a power level of over nine thousand as an infant...well...there was a reason only me and Vegeta could go pick him up.
"Don't worry. I won't get too much stronger than you," I teased, flashing a grin, only to get a scowl in return.
"In what universe does the youngest surpass the eldest?" Vegeta scoffed with a shake of his head. "You'll always be weaker than me, little brother. As it should be," he decided firmly. My grin grew a fraction, knowing that after these few days of...vacation were done, the next time I saw Vegeta he was going to be crazily strong. And I had to make sure I could match him.
Three presences that I recognized entered my range. I glanced over to see Mom and Fasha with Elery hanging on Mom's shoulder. Elery's gaze met mine for a brief moment before she quickly looked away, ducking behind Mom's shoulder guard. My heart clenched in my chest -- it had been a few days since I fought her somewhat seriously, and she had barely spoken a word to me since.
There were times when her presence could be annoying, but now she was flat out avoiding me...I hadn't realized how used to her presence I was until it was gone. Still, I was made of sterner stuff than that, so I didn't let it bother me. Too much. Instead, I focused on Mom and Fasha.
"I figured I would see you off," Mom decided with a shrug. Which prompted my gaze to shift to Fasha. And since my vision wasn't blocked by my visor, she saw the question in my gaze.
"You should have some backup. Just in case anything goes sideways. The Old Man can handle the kids. Pretty sure he secretly loves it," Fasha explained with a shrug of her shoulders, mirroring Mom. I haven't seen much of either of them since I arrived on Planet Vegeta, but it seemed that they were getting along well enough. Much better than Vegeta and Bardock, at any rate. Not that was a high bar to get over.
I mulled it over for a second before I nodded, thinking that was fair enough. I was planning on taking a small shuttle to and from the planet, but adding another person wouldn't do any harm. And in case we did run into any Reach forces, I would be glad to have Fasha watching my back.
"Sounds good to me," I agreed, gesturing to the saucer ship that we would be taking. I glanced at Mom and Vegeta, a question on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't bring myself to ask it. However, Mom seemed to sense my hesitance and answered my unspoken question.
"Your father is probably pretending that he's busy, or something," she told me. From what I gathered, they still didn't see eye to eye about Dad staying on Planet Vegeta. And I doubted that they ever would. In the end, as much as I would like them to get along, it didn't change much if they didn't. The results remained the same.
"I see," I said, wondering if I would see him again before I left for the war again. After picking Broly up, it would be the final day and the hundred saiyans under my wing would challenge the Sky King. After that, we would leave for the front lines again, take a weaker planet to get the saiyans under my command used to war...then we would take Antiople, the next shield world. "Tell him I said goodbye if I don't see him."
Vegeta nodded, and I was reassured that my message would be passed on. With that, I turned away from my family to head to the shuttle.
"Don't die!" Elery called out, peeking up from Mom's shoulder. A tension that I wasn't aware of until it was gone eased out of me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mom grinning as Elery peeked over her shoulder so only her eyes were visible.
"I won't," I said, waving goodbye. Fasha followed me up the staircase into the ship. I was compelled to look over my shoulder one last time as the staircase closed, sealing tight enough to be worthy of space travel. It only lasted for a split second before the staircase blocked my vision, but I saw Vegeta waving goodbye right back at me.
My gaze lingered on the spot with some disbelief before Fasha reached out to rub the top of my head. I glanced up at her to see that there was a soft smile tugging at the edges of her lips.
"Is it everything you'd thought it'd be?" Fasha questioned, and it was simple to guess what she meant.
I didn't even have to think about it. "It's even better," I told her. For so long, I had fought for my place amongst the royal family. And now I had it. I could call Vegeta my brother. Mom and Elery loved me. My father was proud of me. My team respected me and the issues we had were gone.
"Well, I'm happy for you. Now where are we going?" Fasha asked, making me realize that she wasn't in the loop. I glanced at her before I started walking toward the cockpit. I had absolutely no idea how to fly one of these things, but that's what autopilot was for. I input the coordinates as I explained the situation.
However, there were some things that I just had to leave out. The plot to overthrow the Cold family as the head of the Trade Organization...that was so much bigger than me that it wasn't up to me who learned of it and who didn't. I'm not even sure what I should do about the plan. But, still, there were some things that she needed to know.
"We're picking up a saiyan around my age," I started to explain as the ship lifted off. "His name is Broly. Dad sent him to a planet called Vampa to keep him out of sight until now." At that, Fasha cocked an eyebrow at me, a questioning look on her face. "When he was about a year into gestating in the tank, he had a power level of eight hundred."
Fasha sputtered, caught completely off guard by the ridiculous number. And that was the perfect time to follow it up. "However, when he started to cry, his power level skyrocketed to the point that it broke the older versions of the scouter. The final reading before it broke was ten thousand."
"Wait one second there -- you're telling me that a baby still in the tank had a power level of ten thousand?" Fasha held up a hand, her voice shifting from shock to deadly serious as she realized the implications. It had taken me years to break the ten thousand barrier. My team spent most of their lives inching towards that threshold and most of them still hadn't managed it despite how close they were.
Broly was elite-class twice over, in a league of his own.
"I am," I confirmed with a nod.
Fasha thought about that, taking a seat in the pilot's chair. "Why was he sent to Vampa? If King Vegeta wanted him out of the way, then killing him would have been the smarter option," she said. At that, I shook my head.
"Dad wanted him out of the way, but he didn't want to get rid of him. Back then we had the population cap, and he was worried about what Frieza would do if such an unusually powerful saiyan was born," I explained.
Fasha scoffed, "more like he wanted to keep his throne secure." As soon as she said the words, she sent me a look that told me that she hadn't meant to say that out loud, or she forgot who she was talking to.
I gave her words a moment of thought before I shook my head. "If he wanted that, then he could have just killed him like you said." I refuted easily enough, hearing a small sigh and a nod from Fasha. I wasn't surprised that she didn't have the highest opinion of him. I wanted to defend him by telling her that he was a better man and a better king than anyone thought, but that would lead to questions why I thought that. And I wouldn't be able to answer.
"So, what changed? Do we know how powerful the kid is now? Is he even alive?" Fasha asked as the wink-drive teleported us hundreds of lightyears away from Planet Vegeta. Given that Vampa was on the very fringe of the galaxy, located in the least populated sector that was cleared out by some Warlord some time ago. As far as hiding places went, there was no better one.
"The war happened. Now Lord Frieza would welcome a powerful soldier in his army," I answered. The last two questions I was less certain about. The wink-drive gathered up power for another jump. It was going to take a day to get to Vampa and another day to get back. I understood the basics of it -- the larger the jump, the more likely there would be a failure and we would be wiped from existence. So, the wink drive was best used in bursts with time to recover between those bursts.
"We don't know how strong he is though. But...given how wildly his power fluctuates...I'm guessing strong," I answered. "And if he's strong, then I'm willing to bet that he's alive."
"Fair enough, I guess," Fasha conceded, scratching at her cheek in thought. Her gaze lingered on me for a moment, a question in her eyes. It was a look I was starting to recognize, but instead of not asking or asking a different question when I prompted her, she asked what was on her mind. "What's going to happen to the other kids? I know that the elite-class is being divided up between the royal family and Matillo, but no one's said anything about the mid and low-class."
That...was a good question, actually.
"I don't know," I admitted, which seemed to surprise her. "I've been more focused on dealing with the troops that I was going to be in charge of. The 501st is going to be put up to full strength soon and given how many saiyans are going to be put under my command...well, I've been preoccupied." Fasha nodded, accepting that point. Even still, it felt too much like an excuse for comfort.
Her lips thinned as she looked out the viewing window.
"I'll find out when we get back. I'm assuming that they'll be assigned to units like how we were before," but that had some issues. If we weren't careful then our population was going to be blasted back until we were nearly extinct. And because there wasn't a lot of genetic material, there wouldn't be a massive population boom like this again.
We had to make sure as many saiyans as possible made it to their prime. Just like Dad instructed us to make sure as many as the elite-class made it to their prime.
That gave me an idea.
"Would you feel comfortable leading your own units?" I asked as I puzzled the problem out, the offer surprising Fasha.
"What?" She asked, blinking at the offer.
"Would you want to command your own unit? Like the 501st," I explained with a frown, thinking it over. "It's just an idea, but...I would feel more comfortable putting saiyan lives in saiyan hands. I know it's impossible to do it with everyone. And for those that I can't, I'll do what I can to make sure they get good commanders. But if we assign...ten thousand or so to each of you -- the team, and the other few saiyans remaining."
Fasha considered it for a long moment as if she were carefully considering her words. "I...wouldn't be opposed to it. And I don't think the other members of the team would be either," she said at least. That was good. Between Tora, Fasha, Shugesh, Borgos, and Parslee, that would be another fifty thousand saiyans in saiyan hands. And maybe I could talk to Mom about having more of them attached to our army.
"But, couldn't we just take them all?" Fasha questioned, looking at me with an unusually heavy gaze. "I mean, of course we wouldn't be in command of all of them," she quickly explained. "I just think that our race was nearly wiped out because we were scattered about. So, instead, the team would be in command of...I dunno, twenty-five thousand, or something?"
I shook my head, "logistics are the real limiting factor." I refuted, agreeing with her in spirit. In an ideal world, all three million would live to see their prime. That was impossible, though. "We eat too much. With the elite-class that'll be joining us, we're already gaining near a hundred thousand more mouths to feed. And things were bad enough when there were only fifty of us."
The fact that saiyans were bottomless pits wasn't news to me. I learned that lesson back on Rench when thirty saiyans impacted the food reserves enough that having us eat corpses bought us a day's worth of food to feed thousands.
I didn't plan on being in that situation ever again, but that didn't mean I wouldn't be. Not only that but adding a hundred thousand saiyans was already going to mean a sharp upturn in the amount of food that we would need. I didn't want our supply line to be a lifeline, and the moment it was severed our situation became dire.
"Adding another fifty thousand would be pushing it. The capsules make transporting it better, but the sheer amount of food we'll need is an issue." Especially when we pushed to take another shield world.
Unlike the last time, Lord Frieza wouldn't pave the way for us. We were going to have to fight to take it. There were shield world's that hadn't fallen since the war began. I had to assume that would be the case with us and prepare for that scenario.
Fasha looked like she wanted to argue, but realized that was right. Instead, she let out a deep sigh as she nodded in acceptance. "What about Lotuce and Gine? Would they be commanders too?" I considered the question before I gave a hesitant nod.
"I trust Lotuce to lead a unit well, but...I haven't seen Gine fight. I don't know her. I'll trust your word if you say she can lead them well, but you've said it yourself -- she's too soft-hearted to be a warrior." I understood her motivations better than most. She was only coming because she didn't want to be separated from Kakarot. She wasn't joining us to fight.
Fasha appeared pensive before she spoke. "I'll talk to her about it. I think she would be good at it, but she shouldn't if she doesn't want to. For everyone's sake," she pointed out, getting an agreeing nod from me. She ran a hand through her hair before she nodded to herself. "I'll go shoot a message to the others. Might send one to Bardock too, while I'm at it."
While she did that, I pulled up my own assignments. I was behind on them, and Technician expected them to be done when I got back to the fleet. And I hadn't even started them.
Pulling up the first one, my gaze landed on the first math problem. Then my eyes narrowed into slits.
"Why are there letters in math!?"
…
Vampa looked more desolate in person than it did as a hologram. The surface of the planet was a sickly yellow, there was no sign of plant life at all. The catalog said that this planet had two species left after an apocalyptic event some centuries ago. Bloodsucking insects and some kind of eel dog that lived in craters.
"We're picking up an SOS down there. Night side of the planet, directly in the middle of a storm." I said, highlighting the position. I felt faintly proud at the simple action. I wasn't used to using technology yet, but I was steadily learning how a lot of things worked.
"Should we wait until it clears up? I'm betting that the constant storms are the reason they're stuck on this planet," Fasha asked as she looked at the swirling clouds on the dark side of the planet.
"No. I want to get back to Planet Vegeta as soon as possible. We'll leave the ship in orbit and take down a few oxygen masks so Broly and Paragus can make the trip up." I was looking forward to meeting Paragus. He cared enough about Broly to steal a ship to free him from his exile to this waste hole. Dad didn't seem to think he would still be alive -- Paragus was low-class, and a fairly weak one as well, so his odds weren't great but I was holding out hope that he was still alive.
Though, just in case something did happen, "send a message back to Planet Vegeta while I get the masks on when to expect us back."
Fasha nodded, "sounds good to me." With that safety net done, both of us donned our masks and descended down toward the planet's surface.
As we entered the atmosphere, immediately we were hit with powerful winds and sand that would have flayed any non-saiyan member of the 501st. It was no shock at all that this planet was completely devoid of plant life, the wind and the sand must have killed it. I stretched my hands out and formed a bubble shield to keep the sand from getting in my eyes. Fasha did the same. Then I formed a ball of light in my hand and tossed it upward, illuminating the intense darkness that surrounded us.
"You can use two techniques at once now?" Fasha commented, looking at me as we descended.
"Only easy ones like this. I can't prepare two attacks at the same time. Yet," I tacked on. I hadn't managed to do it yet without one technique blowing up in my face, but I would manage it eventually.
Fasha simply shook her head as she eyed the ball of light, "so it's like a Solar Flare? I remember you using yourself like a flashlight back on Rench."
I nodded, confirming the guess as we neared the ground. "I created it back when I was trying to make the Power Ball emit certain kinds of light waves. I never had a chance to use it before, though."
"What are you going to name this one?"
That was a good question, I thought, glancing over my shoulder at the small ball emitting light. "Nightlight? Light Ball?"
A chuckle escaped Fahsa's lips, "you might be a genius at creating techniques, but at the very least I'll know you'll always be bad at naming them."
Oi...what does that mean…?
I didn't get a chance to ask because we reached the ground. Like we saw from space, the ground was a pale yellow of harsh stone. I pressed down on the side of my scouter to activate the map function. Through the storm, I saw the forms of jagged outcroppings of rock formations, and, more importantly, I saw a dot on the map that was the source of the SOS.
What I didn't pick up on were any power levels. Either they were beneath the ground...or….they were dead. Which would really throw a wrench in Dad's plans.
I traded a look with Fasha, who nodded before we took off in the direction of the SOS. It was a saucer ship nestled in a rock formation, kept out of the sandstorm but not buried to the point that it couldn't broadcast. I didn't know much about ships, but I could see that it was well taken care of at least. There was some wear and tear, but it didn't look like it was wasting away. That was a great sign.
My eyes found a tunnel near where the ship was set up. I flew toward it, standing at the-
I felt a presence and it was like a punch to the gut. Not because I had nothing to compare it to, but because I could.
The presence was comparable to Vegeta in the first stage of the Wrath State. Not quite as strong, but comparable. Almost numbly, I pressed down on the side of my scouter to get an exact number. The numbers kept ticking higher and higher until they settled on...a completely ridiculous number.
83,755.
Unless...unless Broly was in the oozaru form or the Wrath State, then...that...was his base power level. I expected him to be powerful, but this was insane. I would have said that it was impossible, but clearly it wasn't. How? How could he be this strong? Were the two species here really strong enough to push Broly to this extreme level of strength?
I wasn't sure if the plan could work anymore. The plan was that I would be able to keep him in line easily enough. If he learned the Wrath State…
Broly would have a power level dangerously close to a million. That was a sobering thought.
"Holy shit," Fasha muttered, picking up on the same power level. Now that the initial shock had worn off, I realized that there were two other power levels. One that was 3,360 -- who must be Paragus given that was about a five hundred increase from his last recorded one, and the other was a mystery of 1,002.
"Let's take this slow," I told her before I decided to take off my mask and scouter and sealed them away with a capsule. I had picked an older model of armor so my tail was free for the first time in what felt like years. That way they would know we were saiyans just by looking at us. Fasha nodded as she did the same, and only then did we start to walk down the tunnel, my Nightlight illuminating the pitch-black tunnels.
The walls occasionally had some kind of egg built into them. I knew that they were eggs because most of them had the shell broken so the yoke inside could be eaten. The tunnels themselves were a maze, dozens of tunnels leading one way or the other. If it wasn't for my ability to sense ki then we would have been lost.
Steadily, we drew nearer to the only sentient presences on this planet. I let my Nightlight die off as I saw light illuminating a tunnel up ahead, hinting at another source of light. Then we stepped into the light.
The first thing we saw as we turned the corner was a boy sitting on a rock. His hair was a shaggy mane, his skin tanned with a few scars visible. One on his face that split his cheek and another on his left arm at his bicep. His armor had seen better days, almost to the point I wasn't sure why he bothered to wear it. Underneath was a deep blue undersuit that cut off at the thighs and left his arms bare.
He paused midway to bite into a leg, his face covered in greenish blood. I figured he would have gone through his first growth spurt, but he looked to be around my size. Yet smaller because he appeared to drown in a light green fur blanket that was tied around his shoulders. He lowered the leg, revealing some kind of metal collar around his neck as he blinked a few times at us.
"Who...are you?" He spoke, sounding uncertain. I eyed him for a moment -- Broly was prematurely ejected from the gestation tank, so I wasn't sure how many lessons he got before he was sent to Vampa. Still, he was able to speak saiyango, so that was a promising sign.
"My name is Prince Tarble, and this is Fasha, my teammate. We're here to bring you back to Planet Vegeta-" I introduced us, stepping forward. I saw a flash of light to the side and I reacted instantly. As a ki blast was launched at me, I lashed out with a hand and batted it to the side, sending it into a wall. Only then did I pay any attention to the interior of the cavern.
It looked lived in. The beds were ripped out of the ship, a floater from the ship that was being worked on as well as a place with various tools laid about. The source of the light was coming from some kind of stone, illuminating the cavern.
Two other people were in the cavern. One was Paragus. Instead of just sporting a mustache, a short beard was growing out, and he was missing an eye. Oddly enough, he was showing signs of leaving his prime, even though he wasn't that old -- wrinkles gathered in the corner of his eyes and his black hair was sporting a few strands of gray.
The other one was scrawny, almost hollowed cheeked and haggard-looking like he hadn't slept easily once in the past six years. He almost looked familiar, but I had more pressing concerns. Like how Paragus had taken a shot at me.
"So King Vegeta sends another one of his spawn to finish the job that he's too cowardly to do himself?" Paragus spat, preparing another ki blast. Broly took his cues from his father, dropping the leg and jumping to his feet as he started growling at me.
I looked at Broly because he was by far the biggest threat, but I spoke to Paragus as I did so. "You jumped to conclusions then, and you're jumping to conclusions now. If my father wanted Broly dead, then he would be dead. If I came here to kill you, then you would be dead. Yet, you're all alive. What does that tell you?" I was many things, but a diplomat wasn't one of them.
Paragus sneered, anger blazing in his eyes. This wasn't going to be a simple conversation. Not when he was staring at me with black eyes full of hate and loathing, like I was the source of every misfortune that he had ever had.
"Wait- Wait, everyone, just wait one second," the other guy said. Oddly enough, Broly calmed down almost instantly at the request. He stopped growling at me and looked over at the other guy. "You have a ship, right? You can get us off this rock?" He asked almost desperately. Actually, there was no almost involved, he was desperate.
"We do," I confirmed, sliding my gaze to Paragus. "Like I said, we're here to bring you back to Planet Vegeta. Then you'll be accompanying me to the frontlines."
A hint of confusion entered Paragus's hateful gaze, "frontlines?" He echoed before his eyes narrowed at me, "the war with the Reach?" He hazarded a guess.
I nodded, "the war has been going on for about six years now. Our population cap has been lifted, and things have changed. My father sent Broly here for his own protection. If Lord Frieza had found about him before now, Broly would have been killed-"
Paragus snarled at me so intensely that I'm pretty sure that he pulled something in his face. "Don't lie to me, boy! King Vegeta was jealous! He was jealous of my son and the power that he has!"
"Paragus! Listen to reason -- does it matter why King Vegeta sent Broly here? We're your ticket off this planet," Fasha tried to reason with him, but there was no reasoning with absolute hate.
"No," Paragus shook his head, glaring at me with a lone eye. "We've spent years in this...hell. Because of your father. We'll take that ship of yours and your father and brother will be joining you here. After you've suffered long enough, I'll allow you to leave this hellish planet." This wasn't going as well as I hoped it would. Not in the slightest. Paragus couldn't be reasoned with because he didn't want to be. He wanted revenge for a mistake that he made.
"My father wasn't the one that crashed your ship," I refuted. "And he didn't send anyone to stop you. If you had left Vamp with Broly, that would have been fine because my father's goals would have been fulfilled -- keeping Broly out of Lord Frieza's hands. Blame yourself for being stuck here. We aren't your enemies."
I could see that my words had an effect. Just not the one that I wanted. The truth fanned the flames of his hate until I could see them. He blamed Dad because the only other option was blaming himself.
"Broly!" Paragus snapped, making Broly flinch at his tone. "Kill!" He shouted, pointing at us.
Broly looked at us, his gaze wide and...reluctant. That caught me off guard. Though, not as much as what came next. Broly's eyes went wide as his hands went to his neck, a scream ripping from his throat as he collapsed to the ground, covered in the green fur blanket. My gaze darted to Paragus to see that he held a controller in his hands.
"Kill him Broly! Kill!" Paragus shouted and, for a moment, I just looked at him. He...was completely consumed with his vengeance. All because of the symbol that I wore on my chest. Perhaps it was a mistake to send me here, or any member of the royal family. I should have just sent Fasha. Because, right now, actually leaving the planet was the very last thing on Paragus' mind.
I raised a hand and blasted the control out of his hand, and only then did Broly's screams stop. The boy laid in a heap underneath the blanket, shivering as he gasped for breath. Shakily, he pushed himself up, looking at me with eyes filled with fear. Paragus was so consumed with his hate that he hadn't realized that he was hurting Broly too much to let him obey the crazed order.
I walked toward him, my eyes blazing yellow as I slipped into the Wrath State with ease. Broly, finally able to follow through with his father's order, lashed out with a fist. It was wild, no form in the slightest. He...wasn't used to fighting. I saw it easily. Which raised the question of how exactly was he so strong. I expected some level of strength with his wild fluctuations recorded in the tank. If he didn't have a growth spurt…
Did...Broly grow stronger over time naturally?
His fist slammed into my palm and stopped dead in its tracks. Broly's eyes widened a look of shock on his face. Given how strong he was, I imagined he was used to the things he hit being broken. Grabbing his hand, I held him in place, his eyes growing fearful as I reached out. Then that fear melted into confusion as I ripped off the collar, identifying it as what caused Broly to scream.
Broly rubbed his neck tenderly, looking at me with no small amount of confusion once I let go of his hand and made no move to attack.
This...was disappointing as hell.
"Paragus," I spoke slowly, turning to the aging saiyan, who met my gaze firmly, thoroughly unrepentant. "I'm going to pretend like that didn't happen. For your sake. In exchange, you're going to shut up, get on the ship, and then go to planet Vegeta with us. From there, you can do whatever the hell you want. I don't care. However, two things are set in stone -- Broly will be accompanying me to the frontlines and you won't put another collar on him. Is that clear?" I spoke, my words as cold as ice.
"I…" Broly interrupted, looking between me and Paragus. "I don't want to be away from Dad…! Don't...take him away...please!" Broly looked like he was on the verge of tears at the mere thought of it. He grabbed onto the green blanket, curling it around himself as if it was the only source of safety that he had ever known.
That decided that then.
"Fine. Three things are set in stone. You're joining us on the frontlines," I informed Paragus. His expression was rebellious, and I knew he was going to be an absolute pain in the ass. But Broly wanted him to be there, and right now, what Broly wanted, Broly was going to get.
"Paragus, just accept it for now," Fasha spoke, trying to reason with him again. "There's a time and a place for vengeance, and this is neither." That...was a good idea. Instead of trying to reason with him with logic, she was appealing to his desires for undeserved vengeance on Dad. At the very least, it would make him cooperative enough to get on the ship with minimal complaining. And once he calmed down enough, he could be more open to a rational discussion.
And if that didn't work, I would punch him in the face until he agreed.
Paragus looked at Fasha, his eye darting to me before he scowled deeply even as he nodded. For now, that would be enough.
"Good," I said, reaching to my belt and tossed a capsule containing the spare oxygen masks and tanks. "Take those and follow us up," I said before I narrowed my eyes at Paragus. "And here's some advice on trying something on the ship," I started before I turned around and started walking down the tunnel, expecting to be followed.
"Don't."
…
People respond to stress in different ways, I learned over the years. I had a habit of throwing myself at the problem until it went away. Tora buckled down and worked his way through it. Shugesh ate to deal and...well...the list went on. Likewise, different people responded to relief.
Broly took off his mask, looking around at the interior of the ship with a hint of wonder. Paragus looked like he ate something sour as he strode forward, barely paying any attention to his surroundings. Thankfully, Fasha followed him to make sure that he didn't blow up the ship out of spite.
The third saiyan, on the other hand, broke down crying. He dropped to his knees, his chest heaving as tears ran down his cheeks as he held onto the ship hard enough that the grating warped underneath his fingers.
"I...I thought I was never going to leave that place," he sobbed, crying his heart out in pure relief. I...think this was the first time I had ever seen a saiyan cry before. Elery did early on, but only when she was a baby. The only other time that I could think of was myself back on Rockoroad when I participated in unprovoked genocide of another race...my first taste of war.
I shared a look with Broly, who looked outright concerned for the guy. He walked over to the sobbing saiyan, hovering around him before he held out the blanket that was tied around his shoulders.
"You can pet Bah's ear. You'll stop being sad," Broly offered, pushing the furry ear into the saiyans face. Then his concerned expression showed some apprehension, "but only for a little bit. And you can only pet Bah's ear," he laid down the restrictions, and through his sobs, the saiyan let out a wet chuckle.
"Thanks, Broly. I appreciate it," the saiyan said fondly, his voice thick with emotion. He wiped his eyes with the back of his forearm, glancing up at me before he swallowed thickly. "Sorry about that sorry show. I...I...I thought I was really going to die down there, you know? Shit...I've...I've been lying for years about the ship, and I thought Paragus was going to figure out any day…"
That caught my attention. "Lying about the ship?" I questioned, giving the saiyan a moment to gather himself.
"Back when the ship crashed, Paragus was going to kill me to save on food. So, I lied and said that I could fix the ship with enough time. But the main floater was broken, and there was no way that I could. So, I just...kept lying. Every day, I thought that Paragus would figure it out and…" Kill him because there would be no reason keeping him alive.
The saiyan pushed himself off the floor, choosing to sit on it as he wiped away the last few tears. "I'm really lucky that you arrived when you did. I think he was starting to suspect something," the saiyan admitted, taking in a calming breath as he gave a thin smile to Broly, who receded the offer to pet Bah's ear. There was a story there as well. "But I never expected that you'd be the one to rescue me."
Huh?
"You know me?" I questioned, confused. If he was stuck here for years, then he couldn't know me from the war and he was a Mechanic, not a Nurturer, so he shouldn't know me from the Nursery.
"I'm not surprised that you don't remember me. We only met briefly a couple of years ago...but…" the saiyan looked apprehensive for a moment while I tried to place him. I knew he looked familiar...but…
"You're the Mechanic that was working on my team's ship," I realized. That was ages ago, and it was briefly. However, what I didn't expect was for a pained expression to pass over his face. He hesitated to speak, or even nod, and that was alarming.
"I am," he agreed, swallowing thickly. "I...well, my name is Beets. Not sure if you remembered. You probably didn't. I didn't know you were royalty, though. But I probably should have -- you have the look," Beets said, dancing around the issue.
"I wasn't. I was born low-class and had to earn the right to join the royal family by becoming high-class," I explained, making his eyes widen.
"Huh. Well, I can believe it. Broly is pretty strong. Stronger than I thought possible, really," Beets commented, making Broly smile widely. "But...there's something...something that you should know...about why I was working on your ship." Beets started, swallowing thickly as he braced himself. "You should know. Especially after you saved me."
I gave him a slow nod, "alright...why were you working on our ship?" This reaction...it couldn't be because of scheduled maintenance. Beets was too nervous.
Beets didn't continue for a few seconds, long enough for me to think that he wasn't going to. But when he did speak, I almost regretted asking.
"King Vegeta ordered me to plant a bomb on your team's ship. A timed one that would detonate when you activated the FTL drive to make it look like an accident of shoddy repairs. I was in the middle of installing it when...when you came on board...I…" Beets looked away, his eyes filled with shame.
"I'm working-class. I'm not a warrior. I...I don't have it in me to kill a kid...so I didn't go through with it. I was freaking out, convinced that King Vegeta was going to kill me because of it. That's why I offered to help Paragus get off the planet to rescue Broly." He explained, but I didn't hear a word that he said.
My hands curled into fists as I clenched my jaw, my heart hammering at my ribs as my blood rushed in my veins.
I…
"I guess it was too good to be true," I admitted to myself. I had known since the beginning that Dad didn't care about me. It's why he okayed me going on a suicide mission. But, I had accepted that. I rationalized it. I told myself that when I made it to the elite-class, that Dad would accept me. That...that was the bar I had to reach to earn his love and acceptance.
But...he had lied to me. Back on Planet Vegeta. When he said that he allowed Bardock to be the face of the saiyan race. I suspected it, but I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to believe in the family that I now had.
King Vegeta tried to kill my team. He tried to kill me. He never cared about me at all. He only cared that I was elite-class.
Broly walked over to me, reaching out and pushing the filthy green ear towards me. My heart clenched in my chest at the silent offer and even as tears stung at my eyes, I gave Broly a small smile.
"Thanks Broly," I told him, reaching out and petting the ear.
Unsurprisingly, I didn't feel any better.
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
- Location
- Florida
Ideas-Guyback at it again with a banger chapter. So what will Tarble do? Will he confront his father? Find out in the next episode of Going Native.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmm. Broly seems nerfed compared to either of his movie versions, and that's good. Couple alterations to his nature should prevent him from completely overshadowing everybody.
Have his natural growth eventually cap out, and he starts having to work like everyone else by a certain point. Or something else.
Have his natural growth eventually cap out, and he starts having to work like everyone else by a certain point. Or something else.
Do....do you not remember the author's change in plans? Tarble will he going to DC earth eventually, he just has to be built into a legend in his own right first.
Furthermore, it's kinda silly to say DC doesn't matter when it's provided one of the main antagonists outside of Saiyans/ Frieza. It's provided motivation, character development, and ways that Tarble can grow etc.
Just because the story is focused in on the interpersonal struggles of Saiyans doesn't make it a completely DBZ only story.
DC and the war with the reach have catalyzedthe development of the Saiyans into a different kind of people and set the stage for a wholly different universe to come into being (literarily speaking). So saying DC doesn't matter at the moment doesn't really track, in my opinion.
I do understand that it can be frustrating for Tarble not to have reached earth yet.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
Really, after that Omake about Tarble on Earth, I don't want him to go. The Space Wars and the army leading and the nation building and stuff are far more interesting to me than him punching some guys in spandex, and skipping the good parts to get to something so underwhelming just doesn't sound enjoyable.
Like, the space parts of DC are great. They flesh out the Galaxy, and plenty of elements that show up on Earth can also come across him in space; the Green Lanterns for example, or the Tameraneans. But Earth in general is just one planet, and he knocks those over all the time, so reducing the scope in order to stoop to their level just doesn't sound very fun.
Like, the space parts of DC are great. They flesh out the Galaxy, and plenty of elements that show up on Earth can also come across him in space; the Green Lanterns for example, or the Tameraneans. But Earth in general is just one planet, and he knocks those over all the time, so reducing the scope in order to stoop to their level just doesn't sound very fun.
- Location
- Writeland
Beets remains best soft boy. Give him Freeza's immortality wish.
Zo-Kel
H̸o̴t̷-̵b̴l̶o̵o̵d̴e̸d̷ ̷A̸b̶o̷m̷i̸n̶a̴t̵i̶o̷n̶
- Location
- Meropis
Broly isn't really nerfed though. Dude is super young still and hasn't had any real fights but is sitting at 80,000. Once he receives training and actual challenges he will skyrocket up in power. That is not even getting into how he explicitly gets stronger and stronger when he fights. Broly is basically anime Hulk. I think Broly might be a mutant of his race just like Frieza is.
- Location
- Belgium
Sure but Broly here is far younger then the ones we saw before, he is also at 80K without even using Wraith state (and we know that he learned on his own in the movie so he will be able to do it) which make him far stronger then any other sayian and that while still being a kid who never had a serious fight in his life, once he hit the battlefield his power is indeed going to sky rocket really fast. But how much time before Frieza learn about that and think of him as a threat?
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
He is younger, but I doubt the next 20 years of sitting on his hand would turn him into someone who can slap Beerus.
Which is a good thing, that level of natural progression in this universe, where PLs observed in story cap out around the 100s of mills, would be utterly unnecessary.
Which is a good thing, that level of natural progression in this universe, where PLs observed in story cap out around the 100s of mills, would be utterly unnecessary.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
Broly is Kakarots age, that mean he's been out of the tank for only a few years, he's done no training, and his power has grown tenfold from the tank, I wouldn't say he's nerfed compared to the canon version.
Just growing older increased his power tenfold, and that's without going though either of the 2 growth spurts Saiyans get, which is normally the only times a Saiyan grow stronger without training or a Zenkai, his first growth spurt, he's a few years younger than Tarble, so there's still some years to his first growth spurt, which is enough time that even without training, his power level will probably have grown to between 100-200K when that growth spurt come, and the growth spurt will probably increase his power level tenfold again, then there's years more before the next growth spurt, where his power will slowly go up, probably putting him at between 5-10 million, the growth spurt increase his power level tenfold again, and his base power level is between fifty and a hundred millions, his natural rage boost, can at least increase his power level ten times with buildup time, so when an adult and in full rage mode, if his current growth continue, his max will be somewhere between 500 millions and a billion.
And all that is if he don't grow faster from Tarble training him.
The Earth Omake was underwhelming for me too, instead of seeing the struggle between space invader Tarble and Earth, it was just Tarble the ultimate authority on Earth, Tarble just becoming an accepted fact on Earth is no fun, if we get to Earth, I want to see the struggle between Tarble and the Justice League, as they absolutely don't acknowledge his claim on Earth.
Maybe not someone who can slap Beerus, but able to defeat Perfect Cell, is a possibility for how strong he would be when he becomes an adult.
Ethan Eldritch
Multi-Dimensional Eldritch Tree
- Location
- The Void between
- Pronouns
- Tree
dude he's probably going to go to Earth after the war you know to relax as a vacation
Touch of Inexperience
- Location
- USA
Elery watched the space ship go upward towards the sky until it disappeared behind the clouds. She clung to Mom's back, frowning up at the sky as she watched her brother disappear. She was only stopped when a hand reached back and ruffled her hair hard enough that Elery was sure that she was missing a couple of hairs now.
"What's with you, Elery?" Mom questioned. Elery batted away the hand or tried to at any rate. Mom was a lot more pestering than Brother, so she didn't let up until she was satisfied in torturing Elery for an answer.
Elery stubbornly refused for a few seconds, intent on looking up at the sky, trying to will the clouds to part so she could see Brother going to that other planet and to see him come back. However, Mom was relentless. "It's embarrassing…" Elery admitted, trying to keep her voice down so Not-Brother wouldn't hear her.
"What is? Did you and Tarble have a fight or something?" Mom asked as she turned away from the landing pad to walk toward Not-Brother. Which was the last thing Elery wanted, and she wanted to admit the problem even less.
"Brother...is really strong…" Elery started at last in a voice just above a whisper. She knew that. Old Man, Mom, and the Team always reminded her that Brother was stronger than them. Elery didn't really get it, but over time she learned that Brother had two people inside of him. There was Brother, who played with her and saved her tasty foods. Then there was Not-Brother. Not Not-Brother that didn't think that she was a princess, even though she totally was, but Not-Brother who…
Who could be really scary. When they were on a planet and the scouters told Brother that he had to go to war, Brother went away and became Not-Brother. Who didn't smile, or entertain her or anything. Not-Brother would pretend to be Brother, but they were too different. His eyes were really cold, his gaze cutting right through her and his eyes were that mean yellow color that she didn't like.
Brother was really strong, but Not-Brother was super strong. And he was really scary...but...not to her. Not-Brother tried to not be scary to her or the team or anyone else that was on their side. At least, he wasn't before. Then, back when they were sparring...she thought she was fighting Brother, but she was actually fighting Not-Brother. But his eyes weren't yellow…
Could it be that Brother was losing some unseen fight against Not-Brother for control of his body?!
"He is," Mom agreed, walking over to Not-Brother, who scowled in her direction. "And he's only going to get stronger, so you better step up your training or you're going to get left behind Elery." At that, Elery scowled as she clung to Mom's back.
An image of the fight that Not-Brother and Not-Brother had flashed before her eyes. She had put up her really powerful Bubble Shield to watch the fight with the others, but they were all swept away when the explosion's aftershock hit them. How much stronger would she have to get until her techniques did that instead of small explosions?
"Did you hear me Elery? Do I need to clean out your ears?" Mom questioned, making a shiver go down her spine.
"No!" Elery quickly refused with a shake of her head. Her ears still hurt from the last time that Mom had cleaned her ears. It was like she was trying to stab her brain or something. It really hurt. "I don't. And I'm going to get way stronger than Brother. And you too!" Elery declared, earning a chuckle from Mom.
She reached back and rubbed her head again, "well I look forward to it. I could always use another training partner." Mom said before they finally reached Not-Brother that refused to acknowledge her princessness.
"Mother," Not-Brother greeted with a nod of his head.
"Vegeta. What are you going to do with the time left home?" Mom asked, coming to a stop. Not-Brother's gaze darted upward in the direction Brother had left, raising her hopes that he was already back, but he wasn't. The jerk was trying to trick her and it almost worked.
"I was planning to spar with Tarble, but it seems that he had other plans," he commented, making Elery's eyes narrow. "I'll check in on my troops, I suppose."
"Have you passed on those techniques yet?" Mom questioned, making Not-Brother look away. "I know it's weird, but Tarble isn't wrong about this. None of them are going to live to see the end of the year unless they get those techniques and the Wrath State. We can't afford to waste time on them developing their own."
Elery scowled, knowing that she was included in that 'they.' She totally would survive until the end of the year! She didn't need the techniques or the Wrath State, she just wanted them because they were really cool and awesome.
"He's just giving them away," Not-Brother argued with a shake of his head. "It's completely backwards." At that, Mom sighed as she nodded. Elery frowned at the conversation. She liked Brother sharing his techniques. It meant that she got to learn them.
"I know," Mom repeated. "But think of it as them learning a foundation so they can develop their own techniques down the line so they won't keep needing to learn them from Tarble."
"That sounds like something he would say."
"That's because he said it."
Not-Brother let out a small huff that was almost a laugh. But for frowny people like Not-Brother, it might as well be one. She learned that from Borgos when she kept trying to get him to talk. Then, without any warning, Mom reached back and grabbed her by her armor before holding her out towards Not-Brother. Their eyes met before Not-Brother's eyes narrowed when she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Why don't you take Elery with you? She already knows them all, so she can help you teach them," Mom pointed out. Elery's first thought was to say no because she didn't like Not-Brother, but she gave the idea a quick think. If she taught the other elite-kids...didn't that kinda make her like Brother.
"Yeah!" Elery exclaimed, "I know all kinds of techniques! Bet I know more than you!" She added, earning a long sigh from Not-Brother. He looked at Mom as if asking if he really had to before he nodded reluctantly. Elery recognized it because that same expression appeared on the Team's face when Elery saw them and wanted them to play.
"Fine," Not-Brother agreed after a long moment, unable to find an excuse to not take her in time.
"Good. I figured the two of you needed to spend some time together," Mom commented. "I have to go...talk to your father about the other kids and get some food for when we deploy." Elery wasn't an idiot. She knew that when Mom said talk, she meant fight.
"Bye! Don't die and beat up a Vegeta!" Elery said, escaping Mom's grasp and sending her a smile and a wave. She couldn't remember which Vegeta Mom would be fighting. There were too many.
Mom let out a huff of laughter before she floated upward. "I'll be sure too," Mom said, giving both of them a smile before she blasted off. Once she was a spec in the distance, Elery turned to Not-Brother, who turned to her.
"Do you actually know any techniques?" He asked, sounding doubtful. Elery scowled at him, crossing her arms as she looked away sharply.
"I do! And I'm not going to show you any of them cus' you're mean and I don't like you," Elery informed, sneaking a peek at him, expecting No-Brother to break down and beg to learn her techniques. Instead, he simply shook his head as he let out a sigh.
"Don't fall behind. I won't wait for you if you do," he warned, ignoring her.
"I won't fall behind!" Elery started forcefully, glaring at Jerkface. After so long, Elery had no idea how bitter the taste of defeat was until she tasted victory. "You better make sure I don't leave you behind," she warned as she floated upward.
Jerkface cocked an eyebrow, "and how would you manage that when you don't know where my troops are located?" He asked, making her frown because he had a point.
"Shut up! I'll follow you until I see them then I'll zoom right past you!" Elery decided, picturing it in her head. They would be flying neck and neck until they saw the troops doing whatever they were doing, Jerkface would try to race ahead but he would be no match for her speed! She smiled at the thought while Jerkface simply sighed.
"I don't know how Tarble puts up with you," he commented more to himself than to her. He floated upward, ignoring her indignant 'hey' as he looked down at her. "If you don't keep up, I'll make sure an animal eats you."
"I-" Elery started to bluster that she would feed him to an animal, maybe the Sky King, after she kicked his butt, only for Jerkface to blast upwards. She quickly gave chase, going her max speed to close the distance, only for Jerkface to speed up as well so that the distance between them didn't close at all. Elery frowned, going her maximer speed, the wind hurting her eyes, her scouter helping some but not enough, as her hair was blown back, but even then the gap between them didn't close.
Gritting her teeth Elery pushed her maximer speed even further beyond. Her vision blurred until she couldn't really see anything and her face started to get pushed back. This...she had an idea! Thrusting out her hands, she formed a ki ball like a Destructo Disk, but she made it like a cone in front of her face. The ki shield protected her face, letting her go even further beyond that previous further beyond.
Even still, it wasn't enough.
Mega-Jerkface remained in front of her the entire way. They neared a field that her scouter picked up a whole bunch of power levels, and even when she tried her super-smart maneuver, she still wasn't able to close the distance. Elery frowned deeply, frustration bubbling in her chest. As Supreme-Mega-Jerkface came to a stop, Elery continued forward, aiming a kick at his face.
He dodged it easily, which didn't surprise her but it was really annoying. Especially when he began to mock her. "I'm not Tarble. I won't entertain your delusions of grandeur. I'm the most power saiyan alive, and-"
"No! No, you're not!" Elery refuted, glaring at Ultra-Mega-Supreme-Jerkface. "My Brother is!" She shouted above the field filled with a bunch of other kids fighting.
Ultra-Mega-Supreme-Jerkface smiled smugly at her, "then why did he lose?" He asked, talking about their fight. Elery's hands curled into fists, wanting to punch him in his really stupid face.
"Brother didn't lose!" Elery argued but she knew it wasn't true. Brother had said it himself that he lost...but...but…! "He let you win!" She accused, jabbing a finger at him. It was the only explanation. There was no way that Brother would ever lose at anything ever, much less a fight. He was way too strong. He was practically invincible and he could take on entire armies. Prince Tarble wasn't even close to being as strong as Brother.
That was the wrong thing to say. Elery knew it in her gut when Scary-Jerkface's face twisted. Anger radiated from him as he glared at her for saying that. Elery tried to keep the sudden bone-chilling fear off her face, but she knew she didn't manage to do it. For the briefest second, Elery thought he was going to hit her for saying that, like how Not-Brother hit her.
Scary-Jerkface opened his mouth to say something to her, only to pause for a second. And in that second, Elery seized the initiative.
"Sorry," Elery apologized. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. She just wanted him to shut up.
Jerkface gathered himself before he let out a long breath. "Consoled by a child…" He muttered to himself with a shake of his head. He looked down at the field below them and for the first time, Elery bothered to pay attention to what was going on below.
It was an utter mess. A whole bunch of saiyans all down there. More than she trained with like a million times over. Some of them were fighting, some were eating and the rest were doing both at the same time. Which was a really awesome skill she needed to learn. However, what she noticed was that some of the kids had really familiar hairstyles.
"Kakarot?" Elery muttered, flying down to, ignoring Sensitive-Jerkface. She saw his hairstyle -- it was really funny looking so it was easy to spot even among a whole bunch of saiyans. From there, she spotted Olaive and a few others from her class. Elery turned her attention to some of the ones that stood across from them, then took in the stretch of land that they stood on.
They were fighting. Both sides were injured, but not too badly. The battlefield looked like it suffered the most. The people she didn't recognize suffered a close second.
"I wanna join!" Elery announced her presence, making all of them look up at her. "What are we fighting over?" She asked, landing next to Olaive, her rival nodded as she settled into a stance. However, it wasn't her that answered.
"It's not fair that you get to fight with Prince Tarble! We want to switch!" A saiyan with long hair that looked really soft shouted.
"You can't switch!" Olaive shouted right back, looking like she was about to walk over to smack some sense into the boy's hair. Olaive said something else, but Elery wasn't paying attention. She glanced up to look at Sensitive-Jerkface, who looked down at them all with a very blank expression. But, after dealing with Not-Brother, Elery learned to recognize the hidden anger in his eyes and how his hands were clenched into fists so tight that they trembled.
Instead of blowing them all up, Sad-And-Sensitive-Jerkface lowered himself. The fact that she was looking up alerted everyone else to his presence. When he touched down, Elery saw some pale faces on the other side as they looked at Sad-And-Sensitive-Jerkface warily. The silence spread from where he landed until, within a minute, the clearing that was once filled with noise was incredibly quiet.
And she really had to cough.
"You," said Sad-And-Angry-Jerkface, turning to look at one of the saiyans on the other side of him. "You want to leave my army? I'll give you one chance to explain why before I execute you for desertion." The saiyan that he singled out paled, glancing at the few that flanked him, only for them to take a step away to avoid getting blasted with him.
The saiyan hesitated for a moment before his eyes narrowed into a glare. "Because we want to learn techniques!" He declared, apparently accepting his death and determined to voice his opinion as his final words. "All of Prince Tarble's troops got to learn a whole bunch of techniques and we haven't learned any! And...and Prince Tarble is the Arch-Nemesis for the Reach, so he's going to get all of the really awesome fights!"
Elery shifted from foot to foot as she shook her head. It wasn't like she didn't get why everyone thought that Brother was Prince Tarble. It was a really easy mistake to make. But Prince Tarble wore a mask and talked in a really funny way and he was the leader of the Hero-force. Brother was in charge of fleets and armies and stuff. Even Mom listened to Brother when he said to do something, so she was pretty sure that Brother was more important to that Frieza guy.
Sad-And-Angry-Jerkface nodded, crossing his arms as if he was making a promise to not blast anyone. "Then we'll have to change that, won't we?" He asked, smiling a smile that could be mistaken as kind. "But I won't waste my time teaching trash."
One of the saiyans that had walked away from Long-Soft-Hair suddenly found his courage. "We aren't trash!" He snapped at Sad-And-Angry-Jerkface, "we're the elite-class!"
"You're weak," Scary-And-Angry-Jerkface refuted flatly. "And if you think a power level is all that matters in a fight, then you're sorely mistaken. I might as well kill you now and save us all some time," he threatened, earning nervous glances even as saiyans settled into their fighting stance. A tension unlike anything Elery had ever felt before seemed to fall upon the clearing as his words carried.
Because Brother was gone.
Scary-And-Angry-Jerkface let the tension soak in as he turned his back to them to look at his troops. "But that would be a waste," he said after a too-long pause. "Instead, who gets to learn my brother's techniques will be decided...by a free for all. The last hundred saiyans left standing will be my commanders and receive the highest honor of being assigned to my personal taskforce."
"But-" some started to argue, but Scary-And-Angry-Jerkface cut them off.
"War is different than any combat you've experienced so far. It's a mess. Strength matters less than you would think and at times it all comes down to dumb luck if you live or die," he spoke, his voice level but it seemed to carry over the field. "Not all of those hundred left standing will be the strongest, or the smartest, or the most competent. But if you can win this battle than it shows me you have what it takes to fight in a war that's completely beyond you."
He paused for a moment. "I'll be generous enough to give you a hint on how to survive so pay attention because I won't repeat myself: A saiyans mind is their greatest weapon," Scary-And-Confusing-Jerkface said, giving that a moment to sink in. Once that moment passed, he spoke a single word.
"Begin."
At once, the entire clearing exploded into chaos. Saiyans turned to those standing next to them and started fighting, only to be attacked from behind by others. The familiar sounds of explosions rang in her ears, wind hitting her face as she watched thousands of saiyans fight in one big mess.
A smile tugged at her cheeks as her gaze landed on one Saiyan with a scar on his cheek. She lunged to go attack him, only for a hand to grab her by the back of her armor. It stretched a bit, but not enough to let her escape and join the chaotic fight. "Hey-" she started to shout ut, only for
Scary-And-Confusing-Jerkface to fly up with her dragging behind him.
Elery turned around, biting down on his gloved hand to make him let her go, and it worked. Her teeth hurt a bit, but it was well worth the price for her freedom. However, before she flew back down there to join the fight, she noticed that Olaive, Kakarot and the others had followed them up.
"Unless you want to follow me in battle, then don't get involved. This is for my soldiers only," Jerkface told her as he looked down at the thousands of battles raging down below. Elery looked down as well, her hands curling into fists. She wanted to fight, but she didn't want to follow Jerkface. Maybe she could go down there and fight then get Brother to make sure she stuck with him?...No…
"...Fine," Elery decided reluctantly, pouting as she watched the fights she could be taking part in.
"Good." Jerkface said, looking down. Already some were laying on the ground defeated. Elery didn't think they were dead, though- "Which ones do you think will win?"
The question from him caught her off guard, making her glance at Kakarot and Olaive, who simply shrugged in response. Elery pressed down on her scouter-
"Hey!" Elery shouted when Super-Duper-Ultra-Mega-Supreme-Jerkface grabbed her scouter with a hand and crushed it after yanking it off her face. She glared at him before launching an attack, aiming to kick him in the side of his head, but he effortlessly caught her foot. Unlike Brother, when he grabbed down, he did it hard enough to hurt.
She sucked in a breath before she wound up her leg and tried to kick him again, only to freeze in place as his black eyes flashed yellow for a moment.
"Didn't you just hear me? There's more to winning than power levels. Mother and Tarble have clearly been too soft on you," he said more to himself than to her. And despite her fear of his yellow eyes, she kicked him in the face. Or, at least she tried before he lazily tossed her to the side.
"Tarble and Mother care about you, which is the only reason why I'm bothering with you," he growled at her, his voice nearly lost in the explosions below. "Do you honestly think that you could ever actually hurt me just throwing yourself at me?" He asked, making Elery frown.
No. She didn't. Jerkface...was just too strong. Almost as strong as Not-Brother, who was stronger than Mom, who was stronger than the Team, who was stronger than Lotuce, who was stronger than her. But…!
"I bet we could land some hits on you if we teamed up!" Olaive announced before she flew over next to Elery. Kakarot joined not a second later, floating on the other side of her. Elery smiled so wide that her face hurt as she settled into a fighting stance. The others that had joined them originally made no move to join them.
"No, all you'll manage to do is to die together." Jerkface dismissed, not even looking at them as he continued to watch the chaos down below. By now, some others had joined them in the air and the battlefield was expanding. "I'll ask again -- who do you think is going to win?"
Elery stared at Jerkface for a long second, thinking that the question sounded a lot like something Brother would ask her. Her lips thinned before she looked down at the chaos below that she wanted to join in on. She was struck by how different it was compared to how Brother did things.
There was no teamwork that Brother insisted was so important. Her eyes found one saiyan who looked like he was teaming up with another saiyan to take down a third, but as soon as their common enemy was defeated, they started fighting each other. That same story was repeated hundreds of times, over and over and over.
"How am I supposed to know! They're too many!" Elery decided, wondering if this was some kind of trick question to make her look dumb.
Jerkface spared her a glance before he pointed down at one saiyan. It took her a moment to figure out which one he was pointing at, but she spotted a saiyan with short spiky hair with a scar that cut through one of his eyebrows at an angle. Elery watched him for a moment and saw what Jerkface was talking about.
The saiyan wasn't standing out and he spent more time maneuvering than he did fighting. The few times that he did fight were short bouts, usually surprise attacks or cheap shots. The number of defeated saiyans at his hands steadily ticked upward but no one gave him a second look as he moved on, constantly moving across the battlefield.
"Because Tarble is close to you, I'll teach you something that it took me years to learn," Jerkface said, bringing her attention back to him. "How you fight matters more than how hard you fight. You need to be aware of every detail on the battlefield and exploit every advantage."
"That sounds like something Brother keeps saying," Elery noted, earning a nod from Jerkface.
"He's better at it than me," he admitted. "Our father tried to drill that lesson into my head, but I was too stubborn to listen. It's only recently that I started to...hm. That doesn't matter," he said...but Elery got the feeling that it mattered a lot, but he didn't want to talk about it. Her gaze landed on the scar on his neck and wondered if that had anything to do with it. "The point is that you can't brute force your way through everything. You have to use your head and think."
Jerkface glanced at her, "otherwise, if you keep fighting as you do...then you're dead the first time someone isn't there to protect you."
Elery started to bluster, only to fall silent as an uneasy sensation gripped her. She could still feel Not-Brother punching her in the stomach hard enough that she fell to the ground, curled up where she was hit, and waiting for the pain in her stomach to go away. Not only that...Elery hadn't won a fight until they came to Planet Vegeta. Brother, Mom, and the Team were too strong for her.
She only started winning when her opponents got way weaker.
"He's conserving his strength and pacing himself. That's what I'm looking for. That's what you need if you're going to survive. If he went all out at the start, even if he defeats a thousand others, he's going to lose the moment he fights a fresh or stronger opponent. Watch him and learn." Maybe-Not-A-Total-Jerkface instructed.
And she did. Minutes turned into hours as the fight below them raged. As every minute ticked by, dozens were left injured and out of the fight. Some rejoined later, but most stayed on the ground. Some of them were out cold from their injuries since they weren't moving at all. Elery followed the boy's fight as hours began to go by and the numbers of fighters began to dwindle.
It didn't take long to see what Somewhat-Jerkface meant. As time went by, others began to tire themselves out. Scar-Face was still fresh while those that he fought were exhausted. And as time went by, it became increasingly clear who else had the same idea as Scar-Face.
"She's going to win too!" Elery pointed out a girl with a really cool hairstyle. It was kinda short on the sides but down the middle it was spiked upward. Somewhat-Jerkface looked over at where she was pointing just in time to see Cool-Hair send one saiyan into another before beating both of them up with a few punches.
"So you can learn," he commented lightly. Elery glared at him before she grew determined to find all of the other ones that fought like that just to rub it in his stupid looking face. Elery quickly found three others, and she noticed that all of them fought in a similar way. The actual fighting couldn't be more different, but how they approached fighting was alike.
And, despite herself, Elery started to understand what Somewhat-Jerkface meant. He was showing her what Brother had been telling her for ages.
More time passed as the fight drew to a close. There was no explosive finale like she wanted, but, as the sun started to go away, there were a hundred saiyans left standing. Then Jerkface gave the order for them to fight until there were only ten left.
Scar-Face, Cool-Hair, Soft-Hair, and seven others that she hadn't seen fight. Which was really weird because she saw others that fought like them- had they lost?!
Those ten floated upward so they flew in front of Somewhat-Jerkface. All of them were sporting injuries, some worse than others. Somewhat-Jerkface held out a hand before a dark purple light emerged from his hand before he tossed it up. A Medicine-Ball. Intense purple light washed away the wounds on the chosen ten, but not just them either. Everyone below had their wounds healed by the Medicine-Ball.
Yet...there were some that didn't get up, and it looked like their wounds were staying? Why wasn't it working on them?
"You ten are now a part of my personal task force. You've done well so far, but now the bar has just gotten higher," Somewhat-Jerkface spoke, looking over the ten who marveled at their vanishing wounds. "Because I have no patience for weak trash. If you want to keep this position, then you must become stronger."
He smirked, "here is your next challenge. The ten of you must become the strongest out of the twenty-four thousand eight hundred and eighty-three down there. Your position can be challenged by any one of them at any time. And, out of the ten of you, the strongest of you will serve as my right hand."
Ahhh...boring stuff, Elery thought disinterestedly, looking down at the battlefield to see a bunch of saiyans up and running. Yet, her gaze landed on one that wasn't moving. He laid down in a puddle of blood, his wounds weren't closed and he seemed really pale…
Oh…
He was dead.
Elery blinked once. It was the first time she saw a body of a saiyan. And the few bodies that she saw before were in the refrigerator when the Team found a race that tasted good. It looked a lot different than she thought it would.
"Yeah...we hear you, Prince Vegeta," Cool-Hair said, sounding excited for the prospect. Scar-Face nodded while the others also voiced their agreement.
"Elery," Kinda-Jerkface said, getting her attention. "Teach them my brother's techniques. Only the one's he's given permission for." Elery nodded as she floated forward, putting her hands on her hips as she puffed out her chest.
"I'm Princess Elery!" She introduced herself, ignoring a long-suffering sigh by Jerkface behind her. "The first technique I'll show is the super cool Bubble Shield!" She followed through with a basic shield, "you push your ki out your hands into a shield like this: fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!"
"What's ki?" Scar-Face asked, earning a shrug from Elery as she formed her bubble shield.
"It's what my brother calls your inner energy stuff," Elery answered, making Scar-Face's eyes widen as he nodded eagerly. They were quick learners, Elery saw as the ten of them quickly managed to form a shield.
"Next is the Kamehameha!" Elery said, clasping her hands to her side. "Brother says that it's a good base for you to create your own techniques, so don't stick with this one forever, or I'll beat you up," she warned. "You gather your ki like this: hmmmm! Then you make it smaller and pack more of it in your hands like this: HMMMMMMMM!" Then she thrusted her hands out to the side, "then you go HA!"
Her Kamehameha wasn't as strong as Brother's. Yet. She waited for the others to give it a try and each of them managed it on their first. It was a rather simple technique, but it was one that got stronger with you, which is why Brother still used it.
"Up next is the Destructo Disk!" Elery said, holding out her hand as a disk of bright blue ki. "You flatten your ki like this: squish! Then you spin it really fast like: FWOOSH! After that, you throw it! Brother can expand it when it hits something, but I don't know how to do that yet," she admitted.
After that was the Medicine-Ball-
Elery's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when, as she formed the technique, a bunch of ships jumped into view just above them, visible thanks to the clear sky. A whole bunch of ships, higher than she could count easily. She blinked a few times at them, wondering if Brother had brought them back from wherever he was.
That thought was put out of her mind when beams of light began to fire downward, slamming into the ground with massive explosions that made her heart jump to her throat.
"We're under attack by the Reach!" Elery shouted, readying herself for a fight, only for Jerkface to shove her to the side as she glared up at the ships above. Rage was etched into his face, which was twisted into a snarl.
"Those aren't Reach ships," he corrected as he formed ki blasts, firing them at a laser that was aimed at the troops below, a bright light blinding her for a second, making Elery wish that she still had her scouter.
"We're being attacked by the Frieza-force!"
...
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"What's with you, Elery?" Mom questioned. Elery batted away the hand or tried to at any rate. Mom was a lot more pestering than Brother, so she didn't let up until she was satisfied in torturing Elery for an answer.
Elery stubbornly refused for a few seconds, intent on looking up at the sky, trying to will the clouds to part so she could see Brother going to that other planet and to see him come back. However, Mom was relentless. "It's embarrassing…" Elery admitted, trying to keep her voice down so Not-Brother wouldn't hear her.
"What is? Did you and Tarble have a fight or something?" Mom asked as she turned away from the landing pad to walk toward Not-Brother. Which was the last thing Elery wanted, and she wanted to admit the problem even less.
"Brother...is really strong…" Elery started at last in a voice just above a whisper. She knew that. Old Man, Mom, and the Team always reminded her that Brother was stronger than them. Elery didn't really get it, but over time she learned that Brother had two people inside of him. There was Brother, who played with her and saved her tasty foods. Then there was Not-Brother. Not Not-Brother that didn't think that she was a princess, even though she totally was, but Not-Brother who…
Who could be really scary. When they were on a planet and the scouters told Brother that he had to go to war, Brother went away and became Not-Brother. Who didn't smile, or entertain her or anything. Not-Brother would pretend to be Brother, but they were too different. His eyes were really cold, his gaze cutting right through her and his eyes were that mean yellow color that she didn't like.
Brother was really strong, but Not-Brother was super strong. And he was really scary...but...not to her. Not-Brother tried to not be scary to her or the team or anyone else that was on their side. At least, he wasn't before. Then, back when they were sparring...she thought she was fighting Brother, but she was actually fighting Not-Brother. But his eyes weren't yellow…
Could it be that Brother was losing some unseen fight against Not-Brother for control of his body?!
"He is," Mom agreed, walking over to Not-Brother, who scowled in her direction. "And he's only going to get stronger, so you better step up your training or you're going to get left behind Elery." At that, Elery scowled as she clung to Mom's back.
An image of the fight that Not-Brother and Not-Brother had flashed before her eyes. She had put up her really powerful Bubble Shield to watch the fight with the others, but they were all swept away when the explosion's aftershock hit them. How much stronger would she have to get until her techniques did that instead of small explosions?
"Did you hear me Elery? Do I need to clean out your ears?" Mom questioned, making a shiver go down her spine.
"No!" Elery quickly refused with a shake of her head. Her ears still hurt from the last time that Mom had cleaned her ears. It was like she was trying to stab her brain or something. It really hurt. "I don't. And I'm going to get way stronger than Brother. And you too!" Elery declared, earning a chuckle from Mom.
She reached back and rubbed her head again, "well I look forward to it. I could always use another training partner." Mom said before they finally reached Not-Brother that refused to acknowledge her princessness.
"Mother," Not-Brother greeted with a nod of his head.
"Vegeta. What are you going to do with the time left home?" Mom asked, coming to a stop. Not-Brother's gaze darted upward in the direction Brother had left, raising her hopes that he was already back, but he wasn't. The jerk was trying to trick her and it almost worked.
"I was planning to spar with Tarble, but it seems that he had other plans," he commented, making Elery's eyes narrow. "I'll check in on my troops, I suppose."
"Have you passed on those techniques yet?" Mom questioned, making Not-Brother look away. "I know it's weird, but Tarble isn't wrong about this. None of them are going to live to see the end of the year unless they get those techniques and the Wrath State. We can't afford to waste time on them developing their own."
Elery scowled, knowing that she was included in that 'they.' She totally would survive until the end of the year! She didn't need the techniques or the Wrath State, she just wanted them because they were really cool and awesome.
"He's just giving them away," Not-Brother argued with a shake of his head. "It's completely backwards." At that, Mom sighed as she nodded. Elery frowned at the conversation. She liked Brother sharing his techniques. It meant that she got to learn them.
"I know," Mom repeated. "But think of it as them learning a foundation so they can develop their own techniques down the line so they won't keep needing to learn them from Tarble."
"That sounds like something he would say."
"That's because he said it."
Not-Brother let out a small huff that was almost a laugh. But for frowny people like Not-Brother, it might as well be one. She learned that from Borgos when she kept trying to get him to talk. Then, without any warning, Mom reached back and grabbed her by her armor before holding her out towards Not-Brother. Their eyes met before Not-Brother's eyes narrowed when she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Why don't you take Elery with you? She already knows them all, so she can help you teach them," Mom pointed out. Elery's first thought was to say no because she didn't like Not-Brother, but she gave the idea a quick think. If she taught the other elite-kids...didn't that kinda make her like Brother.
"Yeah!" Elery exclaimed, "I know all kinds of techniques! Bet I know more than you!" She added, earning a long sigh from Not-Brother. He looked at Mom as if asking if he really had to before he nodded reluctantly. Elery recognized it because that same expression appeared on the Team's face when Elery saw them and wanted them to play.
"Fine," Not-Brother agreed after a long moment, unable to find an excuse to not take her in time.
"Good. I figured the two of you needed to spend some time together," Mom commented. "I have to go...talk to your father about the other kids and get some food for when we deploy." Elery wasn't an idiot. She knew that when Mom said talk, she meant fight.
"Bye! Don't die and beat up a Vegeta!" Elery said, escaping Mom's grasp and sending her a smile and a wave. She couldn't remember which Vegeta Mom would be fighting. There were too many.
Mom let out a huff of laughter before she floated upward. "I'll be sure too," Mom said, giving both of them a smile before she blasted off. Once she was a spec in the distance, Elery turned to Not-Brother, who turned to her.
"Do you actually know any techniques?" He asked, sounding doubtful. Elery scowled at him, crossing her arms as she looked away sharply.
"I do! And I'm not going to show you any of them cus' you're mean and I don't like you," Elery informed, sneaking a peek at him, expecting No-Brother to break down and beg to learn her techniques. Instead, he simply shook his head as he let out a sigh.
"Don't fall behind. I won't wait for you if you do," he warned, ignoring her.
"I won't fall behind!" Elery started forcefully, glaring at Jerkface. After so long, Elery had no idea how bitter the taste of defeat was until she tasted victory. "You better make sure I don't leave you behind," she warned as she floated upward.
Jerkface cocked an eyebrow, "and how would you manage that when you don't know where my troops are located?" He asked, making her frown because he had a point.
"Shut up! I'll follow you until I see them then I'll zoom right past you!" Elery decided, picturing it in her head. They would be flying neck and neck until they saw the troops doing whatever they were doing, Jerkface would try to race ahead but he would be no match for her speed! She smiled at the thought while Jerkface simply sighed.
"I don't know how Tarble puts up with you," he commented more to himself than to her. He floated upward, ignoring her indignant 'hey' as he looked down at her. "If you don't keep up, I'll make sure an animal eats you."
"I-" Elery started to bluster that she would feed him to an animal, maybe the Sky King, after she kicked his butt, only for Jerkface to blast upwards. She quickly gave chase, going her max speed to close the distance, only for Jerkface to speed up as well so that the distance between them didn't close at all. Elery frowned, going her maximer speed, the wind hurting her eyes, her scouter helping some but not enough, as her hair was blown back, but even then the gap between them didn't close.
Gritting her teeth Elery pushed her maximer speed even further beyond. Her vision blurred until she couldn't really see anything and her face started to get pushed back. This...she had an idea! Thrusting out her hands, she formed a ki ball like a Destructo Disk, but she made it like a cone in front of her face. The ki shield protected her face, letting her go even further beyond that previous further beyond.
Even still, it wasn't enough.
Mega-Jerkface remained in front of her the entire way. They neared a field that her scouter picked up a whole bunch of power levels, and even when she tried her super-smart maneuver, she still wasn't able to close the distance. Elery frowned deeply, frustration bubbling in her chest. As Supreme-Mega-Jerkface came to a stop, Elery continued forward, aiming a kick at his face.
He dodged it easily, which didn't surprise her but it was really annoying. Especially when he began to mock her. "I'm not Tarble. I won't entertain your delusions of grandeur. I'm the most power saiyan alive, and-"
"No! No, you're not!" Elery refuted, glaring at Ultra-Mega-Supreme-Jerkface. "My Brother is!" She shouted above the field filled with a bunch of other kids fighting.
Ultra-Mega-Supreme-Jerkface smiled smugly at her, "then why did he lose?" He asked, talking about their fight. Elery's hands curled into fists, wanting to punch him in his really stupid face.
"Brother didn't lose!" Elery argued but she knew it wasn't true. Brother had said it himself that he lost...but...but…! "He let you win!" She accused, jabbing a finger at him. It was the only explanation. There was no way that Brother would ever lose at anything ever, much less a fight. He was way too strong. He was practically invincible and he could take on entire armies. Prince Tarble wasn't even close to being as strong as Brother.
That was the wrong thing to say. Elery knew it in her gut when Scary-Jerkface's face twisted. Anger radiated from him as he glared at her for saying that. Elery tried to keep the sudden bone-chilling fear off her face, but she knew she didn't manage to do it. For the briefest second, Elery thought he was going to hit her for saying that, like how Not-Brother hit her.
Scary-Jerkface opened his mouth to say something to her, only to pause for a second. And in that second, Elery seized the initiative.
"Sorry," Elery apologized. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. She just wanted him to shut up.
Jerkface gathered himself before he let out a long breath. "Consoled by a child…" He muttered to himself with a shake of his head. He looked down at the field below them and for the first time, Elery bothered to pay attention to what was going on below.
It was an utter mess. A whole bunch of saiyans all down there. More than she trained with like a million times over. Some of them were fighting, some were eating and the rest were doing both at the same time. Which was a really awesome skill she needed to learn. However, what she noticed was that some of the kids had really familiar hairstyles.
"Kakarot?" Elery muttered, flying down to, ignoring Sensitive-Jerkface. She saw his hairstyle -- it was really funny looking so it was easy to spot even among a whole bunch of saiyans. From there, she spotted Olaive and a few others from her class. Elery turned her attention to some of the ones that stood across from them, then took in the stretch of land that they stood on.
They were fighting. Both sides were injured, but not too badly. The battlefield looked like it suffered the most. The people she didn't recognize suffered a close second.
"I wanna join!" Elery announced her presence, making all of them look up at her. "What are we fighting over?" She asked, landing next to Olaive, her rival nodded as she settled into a stance. However, it wasn't her that answered.
"It's not fair that you get to fight with Prince Tarble! We want to switch!" A saiyan with long hair that looked really soft shouted.
"You can't switch!" Olaive shouted right back, looking like she was about to walk over to smack some sense into the boy's hair. Olaive said something else, but Elery wasn't paying attention. She glanced up to look at Sensitive-Jerkface, who looked down at them all with a very blank expression. But, after dealing with Not-Brother, Elery learned to recognize the hidden anger in his eyes and how his hands were clenched into fists so tight that they trembled.
Instead of blowing them all up, Sad-And-Sensitive-Jerkface lowered himself. The fact that she was looking up alerted everyone else to his presence. When he touched down, Elery saw some pale faces on the other side as they looked at Sad-And-Sensitive-Jerkface warily. The silence spread from where he landed until, within a minute, the clearing that was once filled with noise was incredibly quiet.
And she really had to cough.
"You," said Sad-And-Angry-Jerkface, turning to look at one of the saiyans on the other side of him. "You want to leave my army? I'll give you one chance to explain why before I execute you for desertion." The saiyan that he singled out paled, glancing at the few that flanked him, only for them to take a step away to avoid getting blasted with him.
The saiyan hesitated for a moment before his eyes narrowed into a glare. "Because we want to learn techniques!" He declared, apparently accepting his death and determined to voice his opinion as his final words. "All of Prince Tarble's troops got to learn a whole bunch of techniques and we haven't learned any! And...and Prince Tarble is the Arch-Nemesis for the Reach, so he's going to get all of the really awesome fights!"
Elery shifted from foot to foot as she shook her head. It wasn't like she didn't get why everyone thought that Brother was Prince Tarble. It was a really easy mistake to make. But Prince Tarble wore a mask and talked in a really funny way and he was the leader of the Hero-force. Brother was in charge of fleets and armies and stuff. Even Mom listened to Brother when he said to do something, so she was pretty sure that Brother was more important to that Frieza guy.
Sad-And-Angry-Jerkface nodded, crossing his arms as if he was making a promise to not blast anyone. "Then we'll have to change that, won't we?" He asked, smiling a smile that could be mistaken as kind. "But I won't waste my time teaching trash."
One of the saiyans that had walked away from Long-Soft-Hair suddenly found his courage. "We aren't trash!" He snapped at Sad-And-Angry-Jerkface, "we're the elite-class!"
"You're weak," Scary-And-Angry-Jerkface refuted flatly. "And if you think a power level is all that matters in a fight, then you're sorely mistaken. I might as well kill you now and save us all some time," he threatened, earning nervous glances even as saiyans settled into their fighting stance. A tension unlike anything Elery had ever felt before seemed to fall upon the clearing as his words carried.
Because Brother was gone.
Scary-And-Angry-Jerkface let the tension soak in as he turned his back to them to look at his troops. "But that would be a waste," he said after a too-long pause. "Instead, who gets to learn my brother's techniques will be decided...by a free for all. The last hundred saiyans left standing will be my commanders and receive the highest honor of being assigned to my personal taskforce."
"But-" some started to argue, but Scary-And-Angry-Jerkface cut them off.
"War is different than any combat you've experienced so far. It's a mess. Strength matters less than you would think and at times it all comes down to dumb luck if you live or die," he spoke, his voice level but it seemed to carry over the field. "Not all of those hundred left standing will be the strongest, or the smartest, or the most competent. But if you can win this battle than it shows me you have what it takes to fight in a war that's completely beyond you."
He paused for a moment. "I'll be generous enough to give you a hint on how to survive so pay attention because I won't repeat myself: A saiyans mind is their greatest weapon," Scary-And-Confusing-Jerkface said, giving that a moment to sink in. Once that moment passed, he spoke a single word.
"Begin."
At once, the entire clearing exploded into chaos. Saiyans turned to those standing next to them and started fighting, only to be attacked from behind by others. The familiar sounds of explosions rang in her ears, wind hitting her face as she watched thousands of saiyans fight in one big mess.
A smile tugged at her cheeks as her gaze landed on one Saiyan with a scar on his cheek. She lunged to go attack him, only for a hand to grab her by the back of her armor. It stretched a bit, but not enough to let her escape and join the chaotic fight. "Hey-" she started to shout ut, only for
Scary-And-Confusing-Jerkface to fly up with her dragging behind him.
Elery turned around, biting down on his gloved hand to make him let her go, and it worked. Her teeth hurt a bit, but it was well worth the price for her freedom. However, before she flew back down there to join the fight, she noticed that Olaive, Kakarot and the others had followed them up.
"Unless you want to follow me in battle, then don't get involved. This is for my soldiers only," Jerkface told her as he looked down at the thousands of battles raging down below. Elery looked down as well, her hands curling into fists. She wanted to fight, but she didn't want to follow Jerkface. Maybe she could go down there and fight then get Brother to make sure she stuck with him?...No…
"...Fine," Elery decided reluctantly, pouting as she watched the fights she could be taking part in.
"Good." Jerkface said, looking down. Already some were laying on the ground defeated. Elery didn't think they were dead, though- "Which ones do you think will win?"
The question from him caught her off guard, making her glance at Kakarot and Olaive, who simply shrugged in response. Elery pressed down on her scouter-
"Hey!" Elery shouted when Super-Duper-Ultra-Mega-Supreme-Jerkface grabbed her scouter with a hand and crushed it after yanking it off her face. She glared at him before launching an attack, aiming to kick him in the side of his head, but he effortlessly caught her foot. Unlike Brother, when he grabbed down, he did it hard enough to hurt.
She sucked in a breath before she wound up her leg and tried to kick him again, only to freeze in place as his black eyes flashed yellow for a moment.
"Didn't you just hear me? There's more to winning than power levels. Mother and Tarble have clearly been too soft on you," he said more to himself than to her. And despite her fear of his yellow eyes, she kicked him in the face. Or, at least she tried before he lazily tossed her to the side.
"Tarble and Mother care about you, which is the only reason why I'm bothering with you," he growled at her, his voice nearly lost in the explosions below. "Do you honestly think that you could ever actually hurt me just throwing yourself at me?" He asked, making Elery frown.
No. She didn't. Jerkface...was just too strong. Almost as strong as Not-Brother, who was stronger than Mom, who was stronger than the Team, who was stronger than Lotuce, who was stronger than her. But…!
"I bet we could land some hits on you if we teamed up!" Olaive announced before she flew over next to Elery. Kakarot joined not a second later, floating on the other side of her. Elery smiled so wide that her face hurt as she settled into a fighting stance. The others that had joined them originally made no move to join them.
"No, all you'll manage to do is to die together." Jerkface dismissed, not even looking at them as he continued to watch the chaos down below. By now, some others had joined them in the air and the battlefield was expanding. "I'll ask again -- who do you think is going to win?"
Elery stared at Jerkface for a long second, thinking that the question sounded a lot like something Brother would ask her. Her lips thinned before she looked down at the chaos below that she wanted to join in on. She was struck by how different it was compared to how Brother did things.
There was no teamwork that Brother insisted was so important. Her eyes found one saiyan who looked like he was teaming up with another saiyan to take down a third, but as soon as their common enemy was defeated, they started fighting each other. That same story was repeated hundreds of times, over and over and over.
"How am I supposed to know! They're too many!" Elery decided, wondering if this was some kind of trick question to make her look dumb.
Jerkface spared her a glance before he pointed down at one saiyan. It took her a moment to figure out which one he was pointing at, but she spotted a saiyan with short spiky hair with a scar that cut through one of his eyebrows at an angle. Elery watched him for a moment and saw what Jerkface was talking about.
The saiyan wasn't standing out and he spent more time maneuvering than he did fighting. The few times that he did fight were short bouts, usually surprise attacks or cheap shots. The number of defeated saiyans at his hands steadily ticked upward but no one gave him a second look as he moved on, constantly moving across the battlefield.
"Because Tarble is close to you, I'll teach you something that it took me years to learn," Jerkface said, bringing her attention back to him. "How you fight matters more than how hard you fight. You need to be aware of every detail on the battlefield and exploit every advantage."
"That sounds like something Brother keeps saying," Elery noted, earning a nod from Jerkface.
"He's better at it than me," he admitted. "Our father tried to drill that lesson into my head, but I was too stubborn to listen. It's only recently that I started to...hm. That doesn't matter," he said...but Elery got the feeling that it mattered a lot, but he didn't want to talk about it. Her gaze landed on the scar on his neck and wondered if that had anything to do with it. "The point is that you can't brute force your way through everything. You have to use your head and think."
Jerkface glanced at her, "otherwise, if you keep fighting as you do...then you're dead the first time someone isn't there to protect you."
Elery started to bluster, only to fall silent as an uneasy sensation gripped her. She could still feel Not-Brother punching her in the stomach hard enough that she fell to the ground, curled up where she was hit, and waiting for the pain in her stomach to go away. Not only that...Elery hadn't won a fight until they came to Planet Vegeta. Brother, Mom, and the Team were too strong for her.
She only started winning when her opponents got way weaker.
"He's conserving his strength and pacing himself. That's what I'm looking for. That's what you need if you're going to survive. If he went all out at the start, even if he defeats a thousand others, he's going to lose the moment he fights a fresh or stronger opponent. Watch him and learn." Maybe-Not-A-Total-Jerkface instructed.
And she did. Minutes turned into hours as the fight below them raged. As every minute ticked by, dozens were left injured and out of the fight. Some rejoined later, but most stayed on the ground. Some of them were out cold from their injuries since they weren't moving at all. Elery followed the boy's fight as hours began to go by and the numbers of fighters began to dwindle.
It didn't take long to see what Somewhat-Jerkface meant. As time went by, others began to tire themselves out. Scar-Face was still fresh while those that he fought were exhausted. And as time went by, it became increasingly clear who else had the same idea as Scar-Face.
"She's going to win too!" Elery pointed out a girl with a really cool hairstyle. It was kinda short on the sides but down the middle it was spiked upward. Somewhat-Jerkface looked over at where she was pointing just in time to see Cool-Hair send one saiyan into another before beating both of them up with a few punches.
"So you can learn," he commented lightly. Elery glared at him before she grew determined to find all of the other ones that fought like that just to rub it in his stupid looking face. Elery quickly found three others, and she noticed that all of them fought in a similar way. The actual fighting couldn't be more different, but how they approached fighting was alike.
And, despite herself, Elery started to understand what Somewhat-Jerkface meant. He was showing her what Brother had been telling her for ages.
More time passed as the fight drew to a close. There was no explosive finale like she wanted, but, as the sun started to go away, there were a hundred saiyans left standing. Then Jerkface gave the order for them to fight until there were only ten left.
Scar-Face, Cool-Hair, Soft-Hair, and seven others that she hadn't seen fight. Which was really weird because she saw others that fought like them- had they lost?!
Those ten floated upward so they flew in front of Somewhat-Jerkface. All of them were sporting injuries, some worse than others. Somewhat-Jerkface held out a hand before a dark purple light emerged from his hand before he tossed it up. A Medicine-Ball. Intense purple light washed away the wounds on the chosen ten, but not just them either. Everyone below had their wounds healed by the Medicine-Ball.
Yet...there were some that didn't get up, and it looked like their wounds were staying? Why wasn't it working on them?
"You ten are now a part of my personal task force. You've done well so far, but now the bar has just gotten higher," Somewhat-Jerkface spoke, looking over the ten who marveled at their vanishing wounds. "Because I have no patience for weak trash. If you want to keep this position, then you must become stronger."
He smirked, "here is your next challenge. The ten of you must become the strongest out of the twenty-four thousand eight hundred and eighty-three down there. Your position can be challenged by any one of them at any time. And, out of the ten of you, the strongest of you will serve as my right hand."
Ahhh...boring stuff, Elery thought disinterestedly, looking down at the battlefield to see a bunch of saiyans up and running. Yet, her gaze landed on one that wasn't moving. He laid down in a puddle of blood, his wounds weren't closed and he seemed really pale…
Oh…
He was dead.
Elery blinked once. It was the first time she saw a body of a saiyan. And the few bodies that she saw before were in the refrigerator when the Team found a race that tasted good. It looked a lot different than she thought it would.
"Yeah...we hear you, Prince Vegeta," Cool-Hair said, sounding excited for the prospect. Scar-Face nodded while the others also voiced their agreement.
"Elery," Kinda-Jerkface said, getting her attention. "Teach them my brother's techniques. Only the one's he's given permission for." Elery nodded as she floated forward, putting her hands on her hips as she puffed out her chest.
"I'm Princess Elery!" She introduced herself, ignoring a long-suffering sigh by Jerkface behind her. "The first technique I'll show is the super cool Bubble Shield!" She followed through with a basic shield, "you push your ki out your hands into a shield like this: fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!"
"What's ki?" Scar-Face asked, earning a shrug from Elery as she formed her bubble shield.
"It's what my brother calls your inner energy stuff," Elery answered, making Scar-Face's eyes widen as he nodded eagerly. They were quick learners, Elery saw as the ten of them quickly managed to form a shield.
"Next is the Kamehameha!" Elery said, clasping her hands to her side. "Brother says that it's a good base for you to create your own techniques, so don't stick with this one forever, or I'll beat you up," she warned. "You gather your ki like this: hmmmm! Then you make it smaller and pack more of it in your hands like this: HMMMMMMMM!" Then she thrusted her hands out to the side, "then you go HA!"
Her Kamehameha wasn't as strong as Brother's. Yet. She waited for the others to give it a try and each of them managed it on their first. It was a rather simple technique, but it was one that got stronger with you, which is why Brother still used it.
"Up next is the Destructo Disk!" Elery said, holding out her hand as a disk of bright blue ki. "You flatten your ki like this: squish! Then you spin it really fast like: FWOOSH! After that, you throw it! Brother can expand it when it hits something, but I don't know how to do that yet," she admitted.
After that was the Medicine-Ball-
Elery's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when, as she formed the technique, a bunch of ships jumped into view just above them, visible thanks to the clear sky. A whole bunch of ships, higher than she could count easily. She blinked a few times at them, wondering if Brother had brought them back from wherever he was.
That thought was put out of her mind when beams of light began to fire downward, slamming into the ground with massive explosions that made her heart jump to her throat.
"We're under attack by the Reach!" Elery shouted, readying herself for a fight, only for Jerkface to shove her to the side as she glared up at the ships above. Rage was etched into his face, which was twisted into a snarl.
"Those aren't Reach ships," he corrected as he formed ki blasts, firing them at a laser that was aimed at the troops below, a bright light blinding her for a second, making Elery wish that she still had her scouter.
"We're being attacked by the Frieza-force!"
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!