- Location
- Massachusetts
Anyone else suddenly hit with wizard of Oz vibes? Frieza makes a pretty good wicked witch what with an evil sibling and a desperate desire for the series mcguffins.
Going Native (DBZ/DC Comics) (Complete)
- Thread starter Ideas-Guy
- Start date
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, sapient oozaru anyway. We don't know if ones without that training who are purely instinct-driven beasts can.Huh
so been rereading old manga panels, and
Apparently Oozaru can fly
Eyes Tinted Red
- Location
- USA
"Stay small," I told my body, fighting against the transformation that tried to overtake me as I stared up at the Power Ball. My teeth grew, sharpening into fangs as I grit them hard enough they could shatter, a vein bulging out near my eye, one had already burst in my eye from the strain. I felt myself grow another inch, fur growing on parts of my skin.
"Stay small," I repeated, trembling with exertion. It was like trying to make my heart stop beating -- going oozaru in response to blutz waves was a natural reaction, just like a surge of adrenaline before a fight, or drooling when you were hungry and a huge meal was in front of you. I mean, it was a little different because of the whole, you know, becoming a giant ape but the principle was the same.
"S-stay...small!" I bit out, sweat dripping down my face as I fought the growth. In response to my words, I grew another inch. That one proved to be the point of no return, I grew another inch, then a foot, then a yard and the next thing I knew I was over a hundred feet tall despite fighting the transformation with every tooth and nail that I had.
The sigh I let out hit the walls of the crater I was in with explosive force, sand spilling down in an avalanche to cover my boots. Grumbling to myself, I pulled myself free before I undid the transformation, feeling myself shrink back down. Again, I tried to fight it.
I tried to keep hold of that feeling of power that the oozaru form offered, that intoxicating feeling that made me feel like I was invincible. My body shrunk just as fast as it grew, the transformation following biological triggers, only to hesitate when I approached my normal height.
"Hrrrg!" I grunted, gritting my teeth, my vision tinted red not just from my oozaru form, but I'm pretty sure another blood vessel popped in my eye. I grasped that feeling of power with all my strength, trying to keep hold of it as the transformation began to fade. I felt it slipping between my fingers like grains of sand, no matter how tightly I squeezed, I couldn't keep hold of it.
Then the transformation faded entirely. Sweat poured off my body, my exhaustion enough to drive me to my knees as I ignored more displaced sand that flooded over my hands and feet. My breathing was ragged, my body pushed to its absolute limit. It felt that way for the past two days of this training.
Worse, I had absolutely no idea if I was doing it right. I couldn't tell if I had made any progress at all. I gained better control over my oozaru form, but that was about it. And it was useless against what resided in that mountain.
Even still, I wiped my face with my forearm, pushed myself back to my feet and looked up at the Power Ball hanging overhead. I braced myself against the transformation, slowing it to a crawl. The feeling of power began to course through my veins, my bone-deep exhaustion vanishing without a trace, replaced by strength. My senses got sharper, I could feel my strength doubling, then tripling and so on.
It was possible. I just had to figure out how to harness it. "Ahhhhh," I let out a low groan as I furled into myself, clenching my hands so hard that my palms bled. My fists shook from exertion, my nails growing longer, fur appearing on my arms. "HNNNNNGGH!" I grit my teeth, trying to push the transformation down, clutching at the power that it gave me, trying to separate the two.
The fur on my arms began to recede, leaving behind bare skin. That was progress. I was making progress! Now, to keep going…! "Ugghhhh," I groaned, feeling the power of the oozaru form begin to slip out of my fingers like smoke in the wind. Just a little bit was enough, all I needed was proof that it was possible. That would convince Vegeta to give me a little more time to master the technique. I needed something to prove that I hadn't wasted two days.
"Come on," I yelled, feeling myself start to transform again as I kept hold of the power. The instincts of the oozaru form bashed against my control, demanding that I let go and lay waste to everything. It was like I was fighting on two fronts and I was losing on both of them. That never stopped me from pulling out a win before, and I wouldn't let it stop me now.
I grew an inch, then another, but fur didn't grow anywhere I could see. My teeth were a little too sharp, my vision was tinted red, there were traces of the transformation but I think I was keeping the worst of them at- then I grew another inch, forcing me to clamp down on transformation, losing my grip on the power and felt myself weaken as I shrunk.
"No," I had time to curse as my control over both weakened until I was forced to choose to maintain control over my oozaru form. I shot to over a hundred feet tall, nearly losing my balance since my tail was still fed through the armor to protect it. I stumbled back, breathing heavily, probably breathing in more sand than air at this point.
Slowly, I nodded to myself, "again." I told myself, forcing myself to shrink back down, clutching at the power with all of my strength. Again, I tried to maintain control of both, only to manage neither. Exactly like I had for the past two days with no rest.
"Still stuck on that, huh?" I heard a voice ask, making me lookup. Bardock floated down the deep crater I used as my training ground, peeling off a black mask as he did so. Up above us both were one of the shields around the HQ to keep out a glass storm that raged on the surface of the planet. Already, the effects of the storms were having an effect on the planet -- wildlife and plants were being flayed alive, the same for our soldiers if they didn't get back soon enough.
Now, we were forced to rely on rations and corpses for food, our supply line our lifeline to continue fighting on this planet.
I tried to speak but my throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper, forcing me to nod my head instead. I coughed a few times when Bardock answered, clearing my throat so I could say, "it's possible. I'm so close, but I just…" I didn't know how to put it in words, trailing off in a frustrated huff.
Bardock nodded, looking like he believed me. "I saw, you can hold the transformation off for about a minute now." He said, getting a disbelieving look from me.
A minute? That was it? It felt so much longer, though. It felt like I've been down here for forever and a day.
Bardock tossed a water bottle at me, I caught it and gulped down the contents, not realizing how thirsty I was until water rushed down my throat. "How much longer do you think it'll take?" Bardock asked as I poured some of the water on top of my head to cool myself down.
I looked down in response, which was all that Bardock needed to know. A sigh escaped as he scratched at his scarred cheek. "We're running out of time, Tarble. Ran into Vegeta today," he said with some amusement, "well… let's say that I doubt we have another day before he decides he's waited long enough."
A day? No, less than a day. It was nearly nighttime now. That… "I can do it," I insisted, my lips pressing together into a thin line. "I just need a little more time, then I can do it." The image of it was so clear in my head, the form that I strode to achieve, but the road getting there wasn't as simple as I thought it was.
Bardock let out a huff, "I actually believe you." He told me, getting a sharp look from me. "The others are saying it's impossible, so they're searching for stuff like a way in or intel on what exactly we'll be facing, but I think it's possible. I just don't know if you can do it before I get executed-"
"I can," I interjected, my hands curling into fists as I forced myself to my feet. I felt like one giant pulled muscle, my body screaming for rest but I've spent years ignoring my limits pleas for me to stop. "I just…!"
I didn't know how to put my relationship with Bardock into words. He was my caretaker before he became my teammate, and most of that time I thought he was trying to murder me. For years, I followed his orders, no matter how little sense they made until I found myself obeying without thinking about it. I trusted him as my leader. I trusted that he wouldn't throw my life away unless there was no other choice.
I trusted Bardock. Period.
Vegeta, my brother by blood even if no one acknowledged it, wanted to kill him.
"Yeah," Bardock agreed, knowing what I was trying to say. "I got overeager. I saw an opportunity and didn't think it through. Guess King Vegeta and his clone have it out for me."
"Why?" I asked, not sure what exactly what 'why' I was asking him.
Bardock fell silent, taking a seat on the sand as he offered a careless shrug. "I have my reasons for killing Nappa," he answered without answering my question. Something churned in my gut, my jaw clenching at the half answer. He purposely wasn't answering my main 'why.' Why did he think King Vegeta and Vegeta were out to get him?
Saiyans didn't have a law of justice. The general consensus was on murder was 'you should have been stronger to stop yourself from dying.' Bardock killing Nappa was hardly against our laws, but he was right, Vegeta did seem to have it out for Bardock. So, maybe the better why was why they were out to get him?
But that wasn't why my stomach churned as I wiped my mouth, finishing off the water. It seemed as much as I trusted Bardock, he didn't trust me anywhere near as much.
I pushed the issue to the side, not wanting to think about it anymore. I had bigger problems to worry about -- like my suicide mission without mastering this new technique. I took in a deep breath, blinking a few times before I looked up at the Power Ball hanging above. The transformation started instantly, forcing me to brace myself against the rage of the oozaru form while trying my best to keep hold of the power.
I focused on the feeling of that power coursing through me, searing the sensation of my power doubling and tripling and quadrupling and so on into my brain. That was the key. If I could tap into that feeling, then I could do this. I struggled against the transformation, seconds ticking by as I ignored Bardock watching me.
I fought against it with everything that I had, I struggled to maintain my hold on my sanity, stopping the transformation and keeping hold of the power, only for the latter two to slip out of my hands when I nearly lost my grip on the first. I found myself over a hundred feet tall again, biting back a frustrated growl as I renewed the fight again, and again I was met with the same result.
"Hm," Bardock hummed, sounding amused. I glared at him, seeing him smirk in response. "Do you know what your problem is?" He asked in a tone that told me that he apparently knew the secret to the technique. I let out a sigh, knowing exactly what he was about to say.
""You think too much,"" I said at the same time he did. Luckily, he was more amused than annoyed at me mocking him. He pushed himself to his feet, brushing sand off his butt as he walked over. "How confident are you that you can do it this way?" He asked, approaching me.
I hesitated before I answered. I knew it was possible. I was absolutely certain of it. I could feel myself keeping hold of the power despite not being a giant ape, so it could be done. I just had to figure out a way to keep it.
"I'm certain," I confirmed with a nod. Bardock looked at me for a long moment before patted me on top of my head.
"In that case," Bardock started, "you need to stop thinking and let your body do the work for you. Going at it like this won't do any good, you need a fight to make up break through your limits."
Ummm...who...exactly was I going to fight, in that case? "Put this on," Bardock said, smacking a mask over my face, a small bubble forming around my head to keep shards of glass out of my eyes and ears. They didn't hurt that much, but they were irritating as all hell to dig out of your ears. With that, Bardock secured his own mask before we flew upwards through the shield that covered a mile-wide crater that was just as deep.
"Where are we going?" I asked as we plunged into a raging glass storm. Sand and glass battered us at every angle, so thick that I couldn't see Bardock's face when I glanced up. I couldn't even tell which direction we were going. Bardock didn't answer in favor of continuing to go up. We left the dust cloud, it continued to rage underneath us, telling me we were in low orbit, just below the clouds.
The horizon was a mess of flashing lights as the Reach struggled to keep ahold of the planet. Our fleet bombarded the surface of the planet, supporting our armies as they advanced to clear through the resistance. We had conquered large swaths of land, slaughtering armies and civilians alike since not all managed to evacuate in time. Some places still held out, like the mountain, though there weren't many left already.
This was the last planet before we hit a shield world, so it was going to serve as a staging ground. Armies on this front were being sent here along with their fleets, before long we would hold this planet by virtue of outnumbering the Reach a million to one.
"We're going to find you a decent opponent," Bardock informed, a hand going up to tap his scouter before he flew off back down to the surface, heading towards a major battlefield. A port city under siege by the army, though calling it a city was a bit of a stretch at this point. Only a few buildings remained upright The number of buildings still standing could be counted on one hand, and by the end of the day, I'm doubting that any would as the army bombarded the city.
There were no clear lines of which force occupied which part of the city. I saw blaster fire traded from street to street, tanks rolling up and leveling buildings as drones flew above the city, battling it out for air superiority. The city had a washed-out look to it now, having suffered glass storms for nearly a week, wearing down all the paint and shine a city had. Now, it was a dull gray of concrete, black with soot and smoke where it wasn't.
At the center of it all, as it fired a missile from its shoulder that took out an entire city block, the heat from the blast illuminating its dark armor. A vanguard unit.
"How strong is it?" I asked, staring at my new enemy. It didn't have the silver outline, so it wasn't an enhanced scarab. Cautious excitement hummed in my veins. It was a vanguard unit, but, with my oozaru form then I could win. If what I needed was a kick in the butt to tap into that power without transforming, then this would do the trick.
"70,000," Bardock answered before he pressed his scouter to the side of my face before pulling out another deep green one. I confirmed the power level with a tap of my fingers, stretching some to get the last traces of exhaustion from my body. "Do you think you can win? Without backup?" He asked, making me pause.
The technique I was thinking of...it could multiply my power by ten, easy. So, my power level would be 65,000. So, I would be at a disadvantage, though a small one. One thing that I noticed with the fight between Vegeta and the scarabs was that hundreds of points in power level got treated similarly to single points back when I was fighting saibamen. So, that 5000 pl difference wouldn't be as much as it sounded.
"I can win," I said, confident in my victory. A few short years ago, I would have stared at Bardock like he grew a second head that started singing if he tried to put me against a vanguard scarab. Or I would have assumed that this was his newest tactic in getting me killed. Now that I was stronger, that I had hundreds of fights underneath my belt, now that I could control my oozaru form, I felt confident. 70,000 power level or not, I could win.
"Then get down there then. Our side is getting slaughtered," he said, a smirk on his face as I blasted off towards my new enemy. Was our side getting slaughtered? I could never tell in city battles. As I flew, I turned on the friendly-enemy function, the Frieza-force soldiers highlighted with purple while non-Frieza-force were highlighted with red. There was a lot more purple than red, but the purple seemed to be dying in droves as the vanguard unit reduced another block to a crater.
I needed to grasp that power. I needed to do it without the Power Ball either, the form I sought was connected to the oozaru from, but the Power Ball was a crutch. I blasted towards the vanguard scarab, summoning ki to my palms as I reached deep within myself, searching for that massive well of power that lurked within.
Nothing. I wasn't feeling the pressure yet. I threw the ki blasts at the vanguard, the black scarab twisted midair, sensing the attacks to blast them away with a shot of plasma. It was no contest between the ki and plasma, forcing me to duck below the attack as I sailed forward, feeling the heat on my back. I gathered more ki in my hands, feeling my heart rate start to pick up -- there was no way that it wasn't.
I was fighting a vanguard unit on my own. No backup. The only times we had taken one down before was with a team effort and we were all in oozaru form, so none of us remembered the fight afterward.
"I can win," I told myself, clasping my hands together, gritting my teeth as I searched for the power of the oozaru form, only to find nothing. "Ka…" I clasped my hands together, dodging another blast of plasma that came close enough that my hair got singed. "Me…"
The vanguard didn't sit and wait for me. Its thrusters grew by half, blasting forward to meet me. It's shoulder pads lifted up, revealing a half dozen missiles that it wasted no time to launch at me.
"Ha...me…" I bit out, dashing to the side to see that the missiles homed in on me. The ki in my hands compressed just as fast as I poured ki into it, making it more volatile and unstable. Especially when I dove into a hollowed husk of a building, one of the missiles not managing to follow me through and exploding. An explosion shook the world behind me, heat and dust washing over me as half a block was reduced to ashes, killing allies and enemies alike.
The vanguard darted in front of me, intent on cutting me off, but instead, it offered a perfect target. It raised its arms to fire off a blast of plasma, but I thrust my hands out first, "HAAA!" A torrent of blue erupted from my hands, a ball of ki racing towards the vanguard scarab. It hit dead center, enveloping it full of light as I rapidly approached it.
"I can win!" I shouted, still flying forward, rapidly closing the distance between us until I nearly flew face-first into the scarab. I came close enough that I noticed that there wasn't so much as a scratch on its armor. I was too weak to hurt it. But that would change. That would change soon enough. I flipped over the scarab, twisting mid-air to fire off a ki blast directly into its scarab, only for its legs to shoot out at me faster than I could blink. I felt pain in my arm, but I completed my attack.
An explosion rocked the scarab, putting up smoke that hid the missiles. I thought they would have completed their path, but it seemed they were smart enough not to home in on the one that fired them. I wonder how many scarabs fell for that tactic before they implemented that bit of software. Forced to retreat, I dashed off, the missiles still following me.
Again, I searched for the well of power inside, digging deep as my heart began to pound against my ribs so hard that it threatened to punch through them. My shoulder stung, hot blood trailing down my arm from where I got stabbed, my shoulder pad doing nothing to stop the damage. Still, it didn't surge from deep within granting me awesome power. It wasn't enough. Not yet.
As I sailed through the air, diving into another building, I twisted to look behind me, uncaring when I went through a wall. Dozens of ki blasts erupted from my palms, most of them missing but some of them hit and that was enough. Light-filled my vision, flames washing over me as a weird wall of air traveled through me as some of the missiles detonated. The building I flew in was demolished, the explosion taking out a quarter of the city it felt like as I sailed through the flames, gritting my teeth to power through the heat, shooting forward like a speeding bullet.
I escaped the explosion, my armor fairing worse than I did. It glowed in some places, the material melting onto my skin that felt more uncomfortable than painful. Searching for the missiles, I flew some distance, firing around the city to discover that the explosion had detonated all of them. Good. Now, where was the scarab-
It didn't take long to find it. The vanguard scarab hung above the city, small blasters forming along its shoulders and legs that fired off dozens of needle-thin blasts of plasma, each one hitting a Frieza-force soldier in the head, killing them instantly. Its hands were normal blasters, each once firing at saucer-shaped drones in the sky above, helping establish air superiority for the Reach.
It had completely forgotten about me. Or it thought those missiles would be enough to kill me. That was...infuriating.
"Come on," I hissed, trying to grasp the power of the oozaru form. I felt it deep within, but I couldn't coax it out of me. What did I have to do to harness it? I was already fighting a vanguard scarab! Was it not enough? I-
No, Bardock is right. Now wasn't the time for thinking. I needed to crank up the pressure, put myself in a do or die moment, and hope that the awesome power within me decided to appear.
"Ka...me...ha...me...Haa!" I screamed, launching the ki attack at the scarab, throwing my all into the attack. It turned around long before my attack came anywhere near, one of its blasters firing to meet my Kamehameha. The matching blue attacks clashed against each other, light dancing in the fading light as I poured more and more ki into my attack, trying to force the plasma back.
Only the plasma pushed my attack back. First by an inch, then a foot, then ten, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't so much as stall its advance towards me. Tsking to myself, I cut off my attack, flying out of the way of the plasma blast that carved a building behind me in half, crushing a detachment of Frieza-force soldiers below.
I wasn't going to win in a power contest, that much was clear.
"Come on then!" I shouted at the scarab, my face twisting into a snarl as I rushed towards it. Ki coated my hands, sharpening into a wicked point about six inches from the tip of my middle finger, the edges just as sharp. I spun out of the way of a plasma blast, then another as I rapidly closed the distance between us. A wordless roar ripped from my throat as I neared.
The plasma gun compressed into a sword that rushed to meet me halfway. It moved so fast I could barely follow it, little more than a blur as it rushed towards me.
If this wasn't enough...then I was going to get cut in half.
I moved to block the attack even as I noticed a distinct lack of power surging through my veins. The blue ki that covered my hand met the edge of the vanguard's sword, sparks flying as they clashed. I felt the sharp bite of pain in my hand, the familiar sensation of a blade lodged in bone, but it was better than getting my hand cut off, that was certain. The ki coating my hand managed to stop it from going any further, but that was it.
"Weak," the vanguard commented, a plasma gun forming on its shoulder, a light blue pinprick of plasma seemed to be all I could see. If I didn't move right now, then I was going to die.
Again, the power of the oozaru failed to manifest as I lurched forward, careless of the blade sawing through a bone in my hand so I could kick off the scarab. My feet impacted against its chest, pushing it back ever so slightly. That was enough with my sudden shift in position that the bead of plasma only grazed the side of my skull instead of punching through my forehead. The smell of burnt hair filled my nostrils as I darted backward to put some distance between us. The miniature gun proved to be quick on the reload as it fired another bead of plasma that I couldn't entirely dodge. I bit back a shout of pain as it carved a tunnel through my thigh, the intense heat cauterizing the wound so it didn't bleed.
I couldn't win in close quarters combat either, I realized, going back in for a second try. This time, I went to deflect the blade instead of trying to block it, having significantly more success with that as the sword sailed overhead, cutting my hair in half. I would look stupid, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "Rahhh!" I shouted, striking at the scarab, my ki coated hand carving a line down its armor, sparking going up. All I managed to do was create a thin groove that smoothed over instantly. Undeterred, I attacked again, staying so close that the shoulder gun couldn't get a sho-
I forgot about the legs, I realized a moment too late. The legs from the scarab on the vanguard's back lifted up, firing off two yellow blasts of energy. Both of them punch through my stomach, my armor doing absolutely nothing to slow them. A strangled gasp escaped me, but even as agony radiated from my gut, I kept my hands coated in ki long enough to block an overhand swing meant to cut me in half. I felt the blade slice into my hands, but they held even as I shot down towards the ground.
I gathered myself, fighting through the pain like I did so many times before, managing to slow my fall just enough to make sure I didn't die on impact. I busted through the street, landing in the sewers some dozen feet below. The dust obscured me for a moment, but I saw the bright blue light behind the cloud. After everything I had done, I doubted that it was heaven. I grit my teeth, pushing through the pain, and flipped myself out of the way of the attack. Heat washed over me, digging a hole where I was a second before.
"You dead?" Bardock asked in my ear, somewhere up above. From the sound of it, he got involved in the dog fight in the skies to alleviate his boredom.
"Not yet," I answered, wiping blood from my mouth. This wasn't enough either. I was losing the fight, that much was certain, but if I fled right now, then I would survive. That wasn't enough. I needed a do or die situation.
Sucking in a deep breath, ignoring how the holes in my stomach burned, I clasped my hands together, "Kamehameha!" I shouted, launching the ki attack to announce my survival. Almost instantly, I felt the scarab stop my attack dead in its tracks, but I expected that. I cut off my Kamehameha, throwing myself to the side as I dodged the stream of plasma. It followed me as I flew close to the ground, carving along the street before I turned into a building -- I thought since it was filled with Reach soldiers that it would stop, but it carved the building in half, making it collapse on itself and kill everything in it.
If I couldn't overpower it, and I couldn't beat it in a CQC, then that left being tricky.
As the building collapsed behind me, I summoned upon my ki, still trying to coax the power of the oozaru from me. "Riot Javelin," I said, flying upwards as I formed two of the attack in my hands. Thanks to my scouter, I knew exactly where the vanguard was.
"Wait, I never taught you that- have you been stealing my techniques?!" Bardock demanded, sounding like I actually caught him off guard. Despite it all, I found a small laugh bubble out of me as I prepared myself for what could be the final clash. My near misses were getting closer each time. After this...I was done for.
"Sorry, the Reach is jamming our com-kishhhh," I said, ending the call. If Bardock was going to save me before, then he wasn't going to now. I didn't have a safety net anymore. Good.
As soon as I burst through the cloud of dust that covered a couple of blocks, I saw the vanguard. It picked up on the energy reading of my attack because it whipped around to face me. It turned its blaster to me again and fired off another shot, this time I threw one of the Riot Javelins, waiting for it to slam into the plasma blast before I threw the other one.
Bardock designed the Riot Javelin for this moment, to take advantage of the opening enemies provided when they were stationary, waiting for their attack to finish him off. It funneled through the plasma blast, uncaring of how powerful it was before the first one began to lose its steam. The bulge in the displace plasma kept going, the second still fresh and it kept going all the way to the source of the plasma.
I dodged out of the way of the plasmablast just as the second Riot Javelin impacted, causing a huge explosion. My scouter picked up on the vanguard thrown backward through the air but unfortunately still alive. Knowing that this was my only shot, I raced forward, forming another Riot Javelin in my hands.
The vanguard had the same idea. It blasted through the smoke that hung in the air, revealing that the bottom part of its arm was gone for a few short moments. Liquid metal capped over the missing limb before stretching out, replacing everything below the elbow. Some parts of the body thinned to do it, but the result was the same. My last-ditch effort managed no lasting damage.
Even still, I pressed myself forward, "Riot Javelin," I roared, throwing the attack, unsurprised as it washed over the vanguard's chest. The arm that was metal from the elbow down lengthened into a sword, it raced towards me at speeds that I could hope to dodge. If it didn't happen now, then I was-
My thoughts were cut off when the sword stabbed through my stomach, folding me in half. I bit back a scream, looking into its yellow-tinted eyes to see that they were filled with nothing. Whoever was in the suit, they were gone. That was...irritating. The Reach-
Again, any rational thought was wiped from my head as I felt the blade shift inside of me. In every direction, I felt needles as thick as my finger erupted from the blade, skewering my insides in a dozen places. Blood lurched out of my mouth, filling the mask that covered my face as I struggled to remain conscious. I looked down to see some of the needles poked out through my armor, all of them bright red with blood.
"Die," the vanguard said, the needles drawing back into the sword before it began to wrap around me, gripping me fully so I couldn't escape. I gripped its arm as hard as I could, trying to do...something. I could do it. I had to be able to do it. I-
The scarab threw me down, everything was a blur as the wind roared in my ears. I felt myself slam into the roof of a still-standing building, I punched through the top floor and through the next fifty floors, each just as painful as the last, until I slammed into the bottom hard enough that the entire foundation gave way. The building collapsed, hundreds of thousands of tons falling down on top of me, the dust so thick that without my mask I would have suffocated.
"Tarble, you alive?! Tarble, speak to me!" Bardock roared in my ear, my mask filled with blood so I couldn't respond.
I...couldn't do it. What...that was...what an absolute joke. I fought for years, clawed my way up from barely avoiding an infiltration mission to mid-class. To becoming the second strongest on Bardock's squad. I mastered my oozaru transformation, I was so close to becoming elite-class. And...my second lease on life...thrown away because I couldn't pull a power up I knew existed out of my ass.
Despite it all, despite my lungs filling with blood because I'm pretty sure they got stabbed too, I laughed. It was a wretched gargling sound.
"N-not yet," I rasped, commanding my body to move. I pushed against the rubble that fell on top of me, every movement making me increasingly aware of the puddle of blood forming around me. Even as weak as I was, I felt the rubble shift, but not enough. It still wasn't enough. No matter how hard I pushed, it still wasn't enough.
"You are? Good, I'm coming your way to save your dumb ass. Stay there and don't die," Bardock ordered, his tone unusually serious.
I coughed, more blood filling my mask. So, I was also looking at drowning in my own blood as a possible death. I...should wait for Bardock to save me. If he went oozaru, he could win. If he got to me fast enough and tossed me into a healing pod, then there was a chance I could survive. But...that would mean...I wasn't going to be able to go on the mission. I was the second strongest member of his squad, it was already a suicide mission to begin with, but without me...
No. No, I wasn't going to let that happen. I wasn't going to let myself die here. I wasn't going to fail at something I know can be done. I- No, enough thinking. It was time to do or die.
I cupped my hands, the flickering light of my ki illuminating the pitch-black darkness I found myself in. I took in a breath that sent waves of agony coursing through me, "ka...me…" I coughed, the ball of ki in my hands growing stronger. "Ha...me…" It was nothing compared to the ones earlier, but it would do the trick.
"Ha!" I yelled, shooting upwards and carving a hole in the rubble. I forced myself up, using my fading ki to float, to my feet. As the attack faded, having done its job, I looked down to see...huh...that was a lot of blood. My blood.
"You idiot! Stay down, and let me deal with-"
Say something cool, "d-don't get involved in my fights." Nailed it. I turned my attention to the sky above me, the vanguard scarab hovering directly above. Did I hit it with my attack? I hope so. I licked my lips, the taste of copper heavy on my tongue as I glared up at the scarab. My hands curled into fists, blood flowing out of me in rivers -- it could have just floated there and I probably would have died soon enough. But that wasn't enough for it.
Both of its arms and chest melded into one giant plasma cannon. As strong as it was, there might not be much of a city left when it hit. Or me, for that matter.
"Just sit back, and watch me do this," I told Bardock, glaring at the scarab. I was going to do this. I had to. Death was absolutely certain if I didn't, and I was going to live. No matter what. So, success was the only option. I had to do it. I-
I let out a breath, closing my eyes as I pushed my thoughts away. No thinking about what-ifs, success or failure, or anything like that. I turned my attention away from the fight, ignoring the growing orb of plasma that was about to lay waste to this city along with the armies. I focused solely on that feeling of power that the oozaru transformation offered. The exact moment I felt the strength flow through my veins when I transformed.
I imagined it flowing into me again, trying to imagine it flooding my veins so my strength would increase tenfold. I imagined it working again and again and again. I pictured the well of power in me surging up to fill my flagging strength and make me stronger than ever. A thousand times, I imagined it working.
On the thousandth and first time, I summoned upon that power. For two days, I became intimately familiar with it, I felt my strength grew as I began to transform without the aid of Blutz waves. In my mind, time seemed to slow down as the ball of plasma leapt from the gun, a giant torrent of plasma racing towards me, but it seemed to move at a snail's pace.
I sucked at juggling in my past life. Generally, anything that involved hand-eye coordination, I failed at. It was a random thought but one that lead me to a much more relevant one.
Why was I trying to juggle three things at once? I failed every time I tried before, in this life and the last. I mean, I could physically juggle with this body, but what I was trying to juggle, physical stuff didn't matter. It was all mental. Stopping the transformation, maintaining conscious thought, summoning upon the strength of going oozaru -- doing all three was too much for me. I juggled all three and one was dropped eventually.
But, these things weren't physical balls. They were aspects of a problem. If juggling all three was too much…
Then how about juggling two and a half?
I felt a red mist descend on my mind, a primal fury boiling in my chest as the rage of the oozaru infected every thought. The pain from my wounds was lost in a sea of agony. It felt like my blood was boiling in my veins, so hot that I could combust at any second. Every bone ached, humming with a primal power that was too great for this small body to contain. There weren't words to describe the sheer agony that was driving me insane.
The only thing worse than the pain was the maddening rage. My face twisted into a snarl even as I cupped my hands to my side, a growl rumbling from deep inside me.
"DIE!" I screamed, forming a Kamehameha and launching it at the piece of fucking shit alien that stabbed me. Our attacks clashed, mine looking more purple as I poured my rage into the attack, feeling the sudden awe-inspiring strength fill me until the point of overflowing. Lightning crackled where the attacks met, clashing against the fucked up building around, getting dust and other shit on my eyes.
I managed to stop the attack dead in its tracks, but that wasn't enough for me. I was getting my ass handed to me all this time, and now it was my turn to get my licks in. "FUCK! YOU!" I roared, blood sloshing in my mask but I was beyond giving a crap. I pushed the attack back, a crazed grin appeared on my face as I finally made some headway. "FUCK YOU!" I screamed again, pushing the scarab back even more.
A wordless scream of rage, pain, and hate ripped from my throat as I put my all into the attack. The plasma was pushed back by another inch, then a foot, then ten and by that time I already got the ball rolling so it was too late to stop it. My attack washed over the scarab, carving a line through the clouds behind it. And yet, the piece of shit didn't have the decency to die like that. My scouter still picked up its presence within my attack.
"That's good," I said, cutting off my attack as I leapt up with enough force that the ground cracked underneath me. "You went and scrambled my guts, and I'm lookin' to return the fucking favor!" I yelled, punching through the sound barrier, closing the distance between both of us in a split second. My attack hadn't even faded by the time I was on top of it.
It definitely felt my attack this time -- parts of it glowed a cherry red, the bottom half of its arm was gone again. I managed to take off a leg too. Good. I hoped it hurt.
I punched the vanguard in the face, metal cracking underneath the blow, something in my hand giving way but I didn't care. All I cared about was that sweet, delicious feeling of fucking up its face. The scarab shot to the side -- before, I doubt I would have been able to follow it with my eyes, but now it seemed to be moving almost painfully slow. It tried to correct its path with its boosters, but that barely managed to slow it down before I was on top of it.
I looked into its eyes, seeing shock behind the yellow-tinted lenses a moment before I flipped and axe-kicked the scarab in the chest. The thick armor warped underneath the blow, unable to absorb it, before the scarab shot down to the ground through a building like I had moments before.
Unlike the scarab, I was a firm believer in double-tapping. I raised both hands above my head, my ki a dark purple as forced it into a ball. It wanted to show off by taking me out with a city? Well, two can play at that game. I couldn't care less about the Frieza-forces still in the city, they should blame themselves for being stupid enough to stick around on my battleground.
The ball of ki got bigger and bigger as I poured more and more power into it, ignoring Bardock shouting in my ear. Whatever it was, it could wait-
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of green a split second before it hit the ball of ki above me. Before, when I was so very weak, I wouldn't have been able to dodge, but now I managed it easily. The blast of green energy sailed harmlessly by -- my cruel smile twisting into a snarl of rage as I whipped around on the source.
A woman that almost appeared to look like a saiyan if it weren't for its reddish skin tone. Its hair was long, black and wavy, its lips full and bright red, its eyes just as black as its hair. All of that played second fiddle to the black and green skin-tight outfit that clung to it with white boots and gloves. At the center of its chest was a white circle with a symbol inside of it. A green circle with two bars on top and below it.
The Green Lantern symbol.
"Oh shit."
...
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"Stay small," I repeated, trembling with exertion. It was like trying to make my heart stop beating -- going oozaru in response to blutz waves was a natural reaction, just like a surge of adrenaline before a fight, or drooling when you were hungry and a huge meal was in front of you. I mean, it was a little different because of the whole, you know, becoming a giant ape but the principle was the same.
"S-stay...small!" I bit out, sweat dripping down my face as I fought the growth. In response to my words, I grew another inch. That one proved to be the point of no return, I grew another inch, then a foot, then a yard and the next thing I knew I was over a hundred feet tall despite fighting the transformation with every tooth and nail that I had.
The sigh I let out hit the walls of the crater I was in with explosive force, sand spilling down in an avalanche to cover my boots. Grumbling to myself, I pulled myself free before I undid the transformation, feeling myself shrink back down. Again, I tried to fight it.
I tried to keep hold of that feeling of power that the oozaru form offered, that intoxicating feeling that made me feel like I was invincible. My body shrunk just as fast as it grew, the transformation following biological triggers, only to hesitate when I approached my normal height.
"Hrrrg!" I grunted, gritting my teeth, my vision tinted red not just from my oozaru form, but I'm pretty sure another blood vessel popped in my eye. I grasped that feeling of power with all my strength, trying to keep hold of it as the transformation began to fade. I felt it slipping between my fingers like grains of sand, no matter how tightly I squeezed, I couldn't keep hold of it.
Then the transformation faded entirely. Sweat poured off my body, my exhaustion enough to drive me to my knees as I ignored more displaced sand that flooded over my hands and feet. My breathing was ragged, my body pushed to its absolute limit. It felt that way for the past two days of this training.
Worse, I had absolutely no idea if I was doing it right. I couldn't tell if I had made any progress at all. I gained better control over my oozaru form, but that was about it. And it was useless against what resided in that mountain.
Even still, I wiped my face with my forearm, pushed myself back to my feet and looked up at the Power Ball hanging overhead. I braced myself against the transformation, slowing it to a crawl. The feeling of power began to course through my veins, my bone-deep exhaustion vanishing without a trace, replaced by strength. My senses got sharper, I could feel my strength doubling, then tripling and so on.
It was possible. I just had to figure out how to harness it. "Ahhhhh," I let out a low groan as I furled into myself, clenching my hands so hard that my palms bled. My fists shook from exertion, my nails growing longer, fur appearing on my arms. "HNNNNNGGH!" I grit my teeth, trying to push the transformation down, clutching at the power that it gave me, trying to separate the two.
The fur on my arms began to recede, leaving behind bare skin. That was progress. I was making progress! Now, to keep going…! "Ugghhhh," I groaned, feeling the power of the oozaru form begin to slip out of my fingers like smoke in the wind. Just a little bit was enough, all I needed was proof that it was possible. That would convince Vegeta to give me a little more time to master the technique. I needed something to prove that I hadn't wasted two days.
"Come on," I yelled, feeling myself start to transform again as I kept hold of the power. The instincts of the oozaru form bashed against my control, demanding that I let go and lay waste to everything. It was like I was fighting on two fronts and I was losing on both of them. That never stopped me from pulling out a win before, and I wouldn't let it stop me now.
I grew an inch, then another, but fur didn't grow anywhere I could see. My teeth were a little too sharp, my vision was tinted red, there were traces of the transformation but I think I was keeping the worst of them at- then I grew another inch, forcing me to clamp down on transformation, losing my grip on the power and felt myself weaken as I shrunk.
"No," I had time to curse as my control over both weakened until I was forced to choose to maintain control over my oozaru form. I shot to over a hundred feet tall, nearly losing my balance since my tail was still fed through the armor to protect it. I stumbled back, breathing heavily, probably breathing in more sand than air at this point.
Slowly, I nodded to myself, "again." I told myself, forcing myself to shrink back down, clutching at the power with all of my strength. Again, I tried to maintain control of both, only to manage neither. Exactly like I had for the past two days with no rest.
"Still stuck on that, huh?" I heard a voice ask, making me lookup. Bardock floated down the deep crater I used as my training ground, peeling off a black mask as he did so. Up above us both were one of the shields around the HQ to keep out a glass storm that raged on the surface of the planet. Already, the effects of the storms were having an effect on the planet -- wildlife and plants were being flayed alive, the same for our soldiers if they didn't get back soon enough.
Now, we were forced to rely on rations and corpses for food, our supply line our lifeline to continue fighting on this planet.
I tried to speak but my throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper, forcing me to nod my head instead. I coughed a few times when Bardock answered, clearing my throat so I could say, "it's possible. I'm so close, but I just…" I didn't know how to put it in words, trailing off in a frustrated huff.
Bardock nodded, looking like he believed me. "I saw, you can hold the transformation off for about a minute now." He said, getting a disbelieving look from me.
A minute? That was it? It felt so much longer, though. It felt like I've been down here for forever and a day.
Bardock tossed a water bottle at me, I caught it and gulped down the contents, not realizing how thirsty I was until water rushed down my throat. "How much longer do you think it'll take?" Bardock asked as I poured some of the water on top of my head to cool myself down.
I looked down in response, which was all that Bardock needed to know. A sigh escaped as he scratched at his scarred cheek. "We're running out of time, Tarble. Ran into Vegeta today," he said with some amusement, "well… let's say that I doubt we have another day before he decides he's waited long enough."
A day? No, less than a day. It was nearly nighttime now. That… "I can do it," I insisted, my lips pressing together into a thin line. "I just need a little more time, then I can do it." The image of it was so clear in my head, the form that I strode to achieve, but the road getting there wasn't as simple as I thought it was.
Bardock let out a huff, "I actually believe you." He told me, getting a sharp look from me. "The others are saying it's impossible, so they're searching for stuff like a way in or intel on what exactly we'll be facing, but I think it's possible. I just don't know if you can do it before I get executed-"
"I can," I interjected, my hands curling into fists as I forced myself to my feet. I felt like one giant pulled muscle, my body screaming for rest but I've spent years ignoring my limits pleas for me to stop. "I just…!"
I didn't know how to put my relationship with Bardock into words. He was my caretaker before he became my teammate, and most of that time I thought he was trying to murder me. For years, I followed his orders, no matter how little sense they made until I found myself obeying without thinking about it. I trusted him as my leader. I trusted that he wouldn't throw my life away unless there was no other choice.
I trusted Bardock. Period.
Vegeta, my brother by blood even if no one acknowledged it, wanted to kill him.
"Yeah," Bardock agreed, knowing what I was trying to say. "I got overeager. I saw an opportunity and didn't think it through. Guess King Vegeta and his clone have it out for me."
"Why?" I asked, not sure what exactly what 'why' I was asking him.
Bardock fell silent, taking a seat on the sand as he offered a careless shrug. "I have my reasons for killing Nappa," he answered without answering my question. Something churned in my gut, my jaw clenching at the half answer. He purposely wasn't answering my main 'why.' Why did he think King Vegeta and Vegeta were out to get him?
Saiyans didn't have a law of justice. The general consensus was on murder was 'you should have been stronger to stop yourself from dying.' Bardock killing Nappa was hardly against our laws, but he was right, Vegeta did seem to have it out for Bardock. So, maybe the better why was why they were out to get him?
But that wasn't why my stomach churned as I wiped my mouth, finishing off the water. It seemed as much as I trusted Bardock, he didn't trust me anywhere near as much.
I pushed the issue to the side, not wanting to think about it anymore. I had bigger problems to worry about -- like my suicide mission without mastering this new technique. I took in a deep breath, blinking a few times before I looked up at the Power Ball hanging above. The transformation started instantly, forcing me to brace myself against the rage of the oozaru form while trying my best to keep hold of the power.
I focused on the feeling of that power coursing through me, searing the sensation of my power doubling and tripling and quadrupling and so on into my brain. That was the key. If I could tap into that feeling, then I could do this. I struggled against the transformation, seconds ticking by as I ignored Bardock watching me.
I fought against it with everything that I had, I struggled to maintain my hold on my sanity, stopping the transformation and keeping hold of the power, only for the latter two to slip out of my hands when I nearly lost my grip on the first. I found myself over a hundred feet tall again, biting back a frustrated growl as I renewed the fight again, and again I was met with the same result.
"Hm," Bardock hummed, sounding amused. I glared at him, seeing him smirk in response. "Do you know what your problem is?" He asked in a tone that told me that he apparently knew the secret to the technique. I let out a sigh, knowing exactly what he was about to say.
""You think too much,"" I said at the same time he did. Luckily, he was more amused than annoyed at me mocking him. He pushed himself to his feet, brushing sand off his butt as he walked over. "How confident are you that you can do it this way?" He asked, approaching me.
I hesitated before I answered. I knew it was possible. I was absolutely certain of it. I could feel myself keeping hold of the power despite not being a giant ape, so it could be done. I just had to figure out a way to keep it.
"I'm certain," I confirmed with a nod. Bardock looked at me for a long moment before patted me on top of my head.
"In that case," Bardock started, "you need to stop thinking and let your body do the work for you. Going at it like this won't do any good, you need a fight to make up break through your limits."
Ummm...who...exactly was I going to fight, in that case? "Put this on," Bardock said, smacking a mask over my face, a small bubble forming around my head to keep shards of glass out of my eyes and ears. They didn't hurt that much, but they were irritating as all hell to dig out of your ears. With that, Bardock secured his own mask before we flew upwards through the shield that covered a mile-wide crater that was just as deep.
"Where are we going?" I asked as we plunged into a raging glass storm. Sand and glass battered us at every angle, so thick that I couldn't see Bardock's face when I glanced up. I couldn't even tell which direction we were going. Bardock didn't answer in favor of continuing to go up. We left the dust cloud, it continued to rage underneath us, telling me we were in low orbit, just below the clouds.
The horizon was a mess of flashing lights as the Reach struggled to keep ahold of the planet. Our fleet bombarded the surface of the planet, supporting our armies as they advanced to clear through the resistance. We had conquered large swaths of land, slaughtering armies and civilians alike since not all managed to evacuate in time. Some places still held out, like the mountain, though there weren't many left already.
This was the last planet before we hit a shield world, so it was going to serve as a staging ground. Armies on this front were being sent here along with their fleets, before long we would hold this planet by virtue of outnumbering the Reach a million to one.
"We're going to find you a decent opponent," Bardock informed, a hand going up to tap his scouter before he flew off back down to the surface, heading towards a major battlefield. A port city under siege by the army, though calling it a city was a bit of a stretch at this point. Only a few buildings remained upright The number of buildings still standing could be counted on one hand, and by the end of the day, I'm doubting that any would as the army bombarded the city.
There were no clear lines of which force occupied which part of the city. I saw blaster fire traded from street to street, tanks rolling up and leveling buildings as drones flew above the city, battling it out for air superiority. The city had a washed-out look to it now, having suffered glass storms for nearly a week, wearing down all the paint and shine a city had. Now, it was a dull gray of concrete, black with soot and smoke where it wasn't.
At the center of it all, as it fired a missile from its shoulder that took out an entire city block, the heat from the blast illuminating its dark armor. A vanguard unit.
"How strong is it?" I asked, staring at my new enemy. It didn't have the silver outline, so it wasn't an enhanced scarab. Cautious excitement hummed in my veins. It was a vanguard unit, but, with my oozaru form then I could win. If what I needed was a kick in the butt to tap into that power without transforming, then this would do the trick.
"70,000," Bardock answered before he pressed his scouter to the side of my face before pulling out another deep green one. I confirmed the power level with a tap of my fingers, stretching some to get the last traces of exhaustion from my body. "Do you think you can win? Without backup?" He asked, making me pause.
The technique I was thinking of...it could multiply my power by ten, easy. So, my power level would be 65,000. So, I would be at a disadvantage, though a small one. One thing that I noticed with the fight between Vegeta and the scarabs was that hundreds of points in power level got treated similarly to single points back when I was fighting saibamen. So, that 5000 pl difference wouldn't be as much as it sounded.
"I can win," I said, confident in my victory. A few short years ago, I would have stared at Bardock like he grew a second head that started singing if he tried to put me against a vanguard scarab. Or I would have assumed that this was his newest tactic in getting me killed. Now that I was stronger, that I had hundreds of fights underneath my belt, now that I could control my oozaru form, I felt confident. 70,000 power level or not, I could win.
"Then get down there then. Our side is getting slaughtered," he said, a smirk on his face as I blasted off towards my new enemy. Was our side getting slaughtered? I could never tell in city battles. As I flew, I turned on the friendly-enemy function, the Frieza-force soldiers highlighted with purple while non-Frieza-force were highlighted with red. There was a lot more purple than red, but the purple seemed to be dying in droves as the vanguard unit reduced another block to a crater.
I needed to grasp that power. I needed to do it without the Power Ball either, the form I sought was connected to the oozaru from, but the Power Ball was a crutch. I blasted towards the vanguard scarab, summoning ki to my palms as I reached deep within myself, searching for that massive well of power that lurked within.
Nothing. I wasn't feeling the pressure yet. I threw the ki blasts at the vanguard, the black scarab twisted midair, sensing the attacks to blast them away with a shot of plasma. It was no contest between the ki and plasma, forcing me to duck below the attack as I sailed forward, feeling the heat on my back. I gathered more ki in my hands, feeling my heart rate start to pick up -- there was no way that it wasn't.
I was fighting a vanguard unit on my own. No backup. The only times we had taken one down before was with a team effort and we were all in oozaru form, so none of us remembered the fight afterward.
"I can win," I told myself, clasping my hands together, gritting my teeth as I searched for the power of the oozaru form, only to find nothing. "Ka…" I clasped my hands together, dodging another blast of plasma that came close enough that my hair got singed. "Me…"
The vanguard didn't sit and wait for me. Its thrusters grew by half, blasting forward to meet me. It's shoulder pads lifted up, revealing a half dozen missiles that it wasted no time to launch at me.
"Ha...me…" I bit out, dashing to the side to see that the missiles homed in on me. The ki in my hands compressed just as fast as I poured ki into it, making it more volatile and unstable. Especially when I dove into a hollowed husk of a building, one of the missiles not managing to follow me through and exploding. An explosion shook the world behind me, heat and dust washing over me as half a block was reduced to ashes, killing allies and enemies alike.
The vanguard darted in front of me, intent on cutting me off, but instead, it offered a perfect target. It raised its arms to fire off a blast of plasma, but I thrust my hands out first, "HAAA!" A torrent of blue erupted from my hands, a ball of ki racing towards the vanguard scarab. It hit dead center, enveloping it full of light as I rapidly approached it.
"I can win!" I shouted, still flying forward, rapidly closing the distance between us until I nearly flew face-first into the scarab. I came close enough that I noticed that there wasn't so much as a scratch on its armor. I was too weak to hurt it. But that would change. That would change soon enough. I flipped over the scarab, twisting mid-air to fire off a ki blast directly into its scarab, only for its legs to shoot out at me faster than I could blink. I felt pain in my arm, but I completed my attack.
An explosion rocked the scarab, putting up smoke that hid the missiles. I thought they would have completed their path, but it seemed they were smart enough not to home in on the one that fired them. I wonder how many scarabs fell for that tactic before they implemented that bit of software. Forced to retreat, I dashed off, the missiles still following me.
Again, I searched for the well of power inside, digging deep as my heart began to pound against my ribs so hard that it threatened to punch through them. My shoulder stung, hot blood trailing down my arm from where I got stabbed, my shoulder pad doing nothing to stop the damage. Still, it didn't surge from deep within granting me awesome power. It wasn't enough. Not yet.
As I sailed through the air, diving into another building, I twisted to look behind me, uncaring when I went through a wall. Dozens of ki blasts erupted from my palms, most of them missing but some of them hit and that was enough. Light-filled my vision, flames washing over me as a weird wall of air traveled through me as some of the missiles detonated. The building I flew in was demolished, the explosion taking out a quarter of the city it felt like as I sailed through the flames, gritting my teeth to power through the heat, shooting forward like a speeding bullet.
I escaped the explosion, my armor fairing worse than I did. It glowed in some places, the material melting onto my skin that felt more uncomfortable than painful. Searching for the missiles, I flew some distance, firing around the city to discover that the explosion had detonated all of them. Good. Now, where was the scarab-
It didn't take long to find it. The vanguard scarab hung above the city, small blasters forming along its shoulders and legs that fired off dozens of needle-thin blasts of plasma, each one hitting a Frieza-force soldier in the head, killing them instantly. Its hands were normal blasters, each once firing at saucer-shaped drones in the sky above, helping establish air superiority for the Reach.
It had completely forgotten about me. Or it thought those missiles would be enough to kill me. That was...infuriating.
"Come on," I hissed, trying to grasp the power of the oozaru form. I felt it deep within, but I couldn't coax it out of me. What did I have to do to harness it? I was already fighting a vanguard scarab! Was it not enough? I-
No, Bardock is right. Now wasn't the time for thinking. I needed to crank up the pressure, put myself in a do or die moment, and hope that the awesome power within me decided to appear.
"Ka...me...ha...me...Haa!" I screamed, launching the ki attack at the scarab, throwing my all into the attack. It turned around long before my attack came anywhere near, one of its blasters firing to meet my Kamehameha. The matching blue attacks clashed against each other, light dancing in the fading light as I poured more and more ki into my attack, trying to force the plasma back.
Only the plasma pushed my attack back. First by an inch, then a foot, then ten, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't so much as stall its advance towards me. Tsking to myself, I cut off my attack, flying out of the way of the plasma blast that carved a building behind me in half, crushing a detachment of Frieza-force soldiers below.
I wasn't going to win in a power contest, that much was clear.
"Come on then!" I shouted at the scarab, my face twisting into a snarl as I rushed towards it. Ki coated my hands, sharpening into a wicked point about six inches from the tip of my middle finger, the edges just as sharp. I spun out of the way of a plasma blast, then another as I rapidly closed the distance between us. A wordless roar ripped from my throat as I neared.
The plasma gun compressed into a sword that rushed to meet me halfway. It moved so fast I could barely follow it, little more than a blur as it rushed towards me.
If this wasn't enough...then I was going to get cut in half.
I moved to block the attack even as I noticed a distinct lack of power surging through my veins. The blue ki that covered my hand met the edge of the vanguard's sword, sparks flying as they clashed. I felt the sharp bite of pain in my hand, the familiar sensation of a blade lodged in bone, but it was better than getting my hand cut off, that was certain. The ki coating my hand managed to stop it from going any further, but that was it.
"Weak," the vanguard commented, a plasma gun forming on its shoulder, a light blue pinprick of plasma seemed to be all I could see. If I didn't move right now, then I was going to die.
Again, the power of the oozaru failed to manifest as I lurched forward, careless of the blade sawing through a bone in my hand so I could kick off the scarab. My feet impacted against its chest, pushing it back ever so slightly. That was enough with my sudden shift in position that the bead of plasma only grazed the side of my skull instead of punching through my forehead. The smell of burnt hair filled my nostrils as I darted backward to put some distance between us. The miniature gun proved to be quick on the reload as it fired another bead of plasma that I couldn't entirely dodge. I bit back a shout of pain as it carved a tunnel through my thigh, the intense heat cauterizing the wound so it didn't bleed.
I couldn't win in close quarters combat either, I realized, going back in for a second try. This time, I went to deflect the blade instead of trying to block it, having significantly more success with that as the sword sailed overhead, cutting my hair in half. I would look stupid, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "Rahhh!" I shouted, striking at the scarab, my ki coated hand carving a line down its armor, sparking going up. All I managed to do was create a thin groove that smoothed over instantly. Undeterred, I attacked again, staying so close that the shoulder gun couldn't get a sho-
I forgot about the legs, I realized a moment too late. The legs from the scarab on the vanguard's back lifted up, firing off two yellow blasts of energy. Both of them punch through my stomach, my armor doing absolutely nothing to slow them. A strangled gasp escaped me, but even as agony radiated from my gut, I kept my hands coated in ki long enough to block an overhand swing meant to cut me in half. I felt the blade slice into my hands, but they held even as I shot down towards the ground.
I gathered myself, fighting through the pain like I did so many times before, managing to slow my fall just enough to make sure I didn't die on impact. I busted through the street, landing in the sewers some dozen feet below. The dust obscured me for a moment, but I saw the bright blue light behind the cloud. After everything I had done, I doubted that it was heaven. I grit my teeth, pushing through the pain, and flipped myself out of the way of the attack. Heat washed over me, digging a hole where I was a second before.
"You dead?" Bardock asked in my ear, somewhere up above. From the sound of it, he got involved in the dog fight in the skies to alleviate his boredom.
"Not yet," I answered, wiping blood from my mouth. This wasn't enough either. I was losing the fight, that much was certain, but if I fled right now, then I would survive. That wasn't enough. I needed a do or die situation.
Sucking in a deep breath, ignoring how the holes in my stomach burned, I clasped my hands together, "Kamehameha!" I shouted, launching the ki attack to announce my survival. Almost instantly, I felt the scarab stop my attack dead in its tracks, but I expected that. I cut off my Kamehameha, throwing myself to the side as I dodged the stream of plasma. It followed me as I flew close to the ground, carving along the street before I turned into a building -- I thought since it was filled with Reach soldiers that it would stop, but it carved the building in half, making it collapse on itself and kill everything in it.
If I couldn't overpower it, and I couldn't beat it in a CQC, then that left being tricky.
As the building collapsed behind me, I summoned upon my ki, still trying to coax the power of the oozaru from me. "Riot Javelin," I said, flying upwards as I formed two of the attack in my hands. Thanks to my scouter, I knew exactly where the vanguard was.
"Wait, I never taught you that- have you been stealing my techniques?!" Bardock demanded, sounding like I actually caught him off guard. Despite it all, I found a small laugh bubble out of me as I prepared myself for what could be the final clash. My near misses were getting closer each time. After this...I was done for.
"Sorry, the Reach is jamming our com-kishhhh," I said, ending the call. If Bardock was going to save me before, then he wasn't going to now. I didn't have a safety net anymore. Good.
As soon as I burst through the cloud of dust that covered a couple of blocks, I saw the vanguard. It picked up on the energy reading of my attack because it whipped around to face me. It turned its blaster to me again and fired off another shot, this time I threw one of the Riot Javelins, waiting for it to slam into the plasma blast before I threw the other one.
Bardock designed the Riot Javelin for this moment, to take advantage of the opening enemies provided when they were stationary, waiting for their attack to finish him off. It funneled through the plasma blast, uncaring of how powerful it was before the first one began to lose its steam. The bulge in the displace plasma kept going, the second still fresh and it kept going all the way to the source of the plasma.
I dodged out of the way of the plasmablast just as the second Riot Javelin impacted, causing a huge explosion. My scouter picked up on the vanguard thrown backward through the air but unfortunately still alive. Knowing that this was my only shot, I raced forward, forming another Riot Javelin in my hands.
The vanguard had the same idea. It blasted through the smoke that hung in the air, revealing that the bottom part of its arm was gone for a few short moments. Liquid metal capped over the missing limb before stretching out, replacing everything below the elbow. Some parts of the body thinned to do it, but the result was the same. My last-ditch effort managed no lasting damage.
Even still, I pressed myself forward, "Riot Javelin," I roared, throwing the attack, unsurprised as it washed over the vanguard's chest. The arm that was metal from the elbow down lengthened into a sword, it raced towards me at speeds that I could hope to dodge. If it didn't happen now, then I was-
My thoughts were cut off when the sword stabbed through my stomach, folding me in half. I bit back a scream, looking into its yellow-tinted eyes to see that they were filled with nothing. Whoever was in the suit, they were gone. That was...irritating. The Reach-
Again, any rational thought was wiped from my head as I felt the blade shift inside of me. In every direction, I felt needles as thick as my finger erupted from the blade, skewering my insides in a dozen places. Blood lurched out of my mouth, filling the mask that covered my face as I struggled to remain conscious. I looked down to see some of the needles poked out through my armor, all of them bright red with blood.
"Die," the vanguard said, the needles drawing back into the sword before it began to wrap around me, gripping me fully so I couldn't escape. I gripped its arm as hard as I could, trying to do...something. I could do it. I had to be able to do it. I-
The scarab threw me down, everything was a blur as the wind roared in my ears. I felt myself slam into the roof of a still-standing building, I punched through the top floor and through the next fifty floors, each just as painful as the last, until I slammed into the bottom hard enough that the entire foundation gave way. The building collapsed, hundreds of thousands of tons falling down on top of me, the dust so thick that without my mask I would have suffocated.
"Tarble, you alive?! Tarble, speak to me!" Bardock roared in my ear, my mask filled with blood so I couldn't respond.
I...couldn't do it. What...that was...what an absolute joke. I fought for years, clawed my way up from barely avoiding an infiltration mission to mid-class. To becoming the second strongest on Bardock's squad. I mastered my oozaru transformation, I was so close to becoming elite-class. And...my second lease on life...thrown away because I couldn't pull a power up I knew existed out of my ass.
Despite it all, despite my lungs filling with blood because I'm pretty sure they got stabbed too, I laughed. It was a wretched gargling sound.
"N-not yet," I rasped, commanding my body to move. I pushed against the rubble that fell on top of me, every movement making me increasingly aware of the puddle of blood forming around me. Even as weak as I was, I felt the rubble shift, but not enough. It still wasn't enough. No matter how hard I pushed, it still wasn't enough.
"You are? Good, I'm coming your way to save your dumb ass. Stay there and don't die," Bardock ordered, his tone unusually serious.
I coughed, more blood filling my mask. So, I was also looking at drowning in my own blood as a possible death. I...should wait for Bardock to save me. If he went oozaru, he could win. If he got to me fast enough and tossed me into a healing pod, then there was a chance I could survive. But...that would mean...I wasn't going to be able to go on the mission. I was the second strongest member of his squad, it was already a suicide mission to begin with, but without me...
No. No, I wasn't going to let that happen. I wasn't going to let myself die here. I wasn't going to fail at something I know can be done. I- No, enough thinking. It was time to do or die.
I cupped my hands, the flickering light of my ki illuminating the pitch-black darkness I found myself in. I took in a breath that sent waves of agony coursing through me, "ka...me…" I coughed, the ball of ki in my hands growing stronger. "Ha...me…" It was nothing compared to the ones earlier, but it would do the trick.
"Ha!" I yelled, shooting upwards and carving a hole in the rubble. I forced myself up, using my fading ki to float, to my feet. As the attack faded, having done its job, I looked down to see...huh...that was a lot of blood. My blood.
"You idiot! Stay down, and let me deal with-"
Say something cool, "d-don't get involved in my fights." Nailed it. I turned my attention to the sky above me, the vanguard scarab hovering directly above. Did I hit it with my attack? I hope so. I licked my lips, the taste of copper heavy on my tongue as I glared up at the scarab. My hands curled into fists, blood flowing out of me in rivers -- it could have just floated there and I probably would have died soon enough. But that wasn't enough for it.
Both of its arms and chest melded into one giant plasma cannon. As strong as it was, there might not be much of a city left when it hit. Or me, for that matter.
"Just sit back, and watch me do this," I told Bardock, glaring at the scarab. I was going to do this. I had to. Death was absolutely certain if I didn't, and I was going to live. No matter what. So, success was the only option. I had to do it. I-
I let out a breath, closing my eyes as I pushed my thoughts away. No thinking about what-ifs, success or failure, or anything like that. I turned my attention away from the fight, ignoring the growing orb of plasma that was about to lay waste to this city along with the armies. I focused solely on that feeling of power that the oozaru transformation offered. The exact moment I felt the strength flow through my veins when I transformed.
I imagined it flowing into me again, trying to imagine it flooding my veins so my strength would increase tenfold. I imagined it working again and again and again. I pictured the well of power in me surging up to fill my flagging strength and make me stronger than ever. A thousand times, I imagined it working.
On the thousandth and first time, I summoned upon that power. For two days, I became intimately familiar with it, I felt my strength grew as I began to transform without the aid of Blutz waves. In my mind, time seemed to slow down as the ball of plasma leapt from the gun, a giant torrent of plasma racing towards me, but it seemed to move at a snail's pace.
I sucked at juggling in my past life. Generally, anything that involved hand-eye coordination, I failed at. It was a random thought but one that lead me to a much more relevant one.
Why was I trying to juggle three things at once? I failed every time I tried before, in this life and the last. I mean, I could physically juggle with this body, but what I was trying to juggle, physical stuff didn't matter. It was all mental. Stopping the transformation, maintaining conscious thought, summoning upon the strength of going oozaru -- doing all three was too much for me. I juggled all three and one was dropped eventually.
But, these things weren't physical balls. They were aspects of a problem. If juggling all three was too much…
Then how about juggling two and a half?
I felt a red mist descend on my mind, a primal fury boiling in my chest as the rage of the oozaru infected every thought. The pain from my wounds was lost in a sea of agony. It felt like my blood was boiling in my veins, so hot that I could combust at any second. Every bone ached, humming with a primal power that was too great for this small body to contain. There weren't words to describe the sheer agony that was driving me insane.
The only thing worse than the pain was the maddening rage. My face twisted into a snarl even as I cupped my hands to my side, a growl rumbling from deep inside me.
"DIE!" I screamed, forming a Kamehameha and launching it at the piece of fucking shit alien that stabbed me. Our attacks clashed, mine looking more purple as I poured my rage into the attack, feeling the sudden awe-inspiring strength fill me until the point of overflowing. Lightning crackled where the attacks met, clashing against the fucked up building around, getting dust and other shit on my eyes.
I managed to stop the attack dead in its tracks, but that wasn't enough for me. I was getting my ass handed to me all this time, and now it was my turn to get my licks in. "FUCK! YOU!" I roared, blood sloshing in my mask but I was beyond giving a crap. I pushed the attack back, a crazed grin appeared on my face as I finally made some headway. "FUCK YOU!" I screamed again, pushing the scarab back even more.
A wordless scream of rage, pain, and hate ripped from my throat as I put my all into the attack. The plasma was pushed back by another inch, then a foot, then ten and by that time I already got the ball rolling so it was too late to stop it. My attack washed over the scarab, carving a line through the clouds behind it. And yet, the piece of shit didn't have the decency to die like that. My scouter still picked up its presence within my attack.
"That's good," I said, cutting off my attack as I leapt up with enough force that the ground cracked underneath me. "You went and scrambled my guts, and I'm lookin' to return the fucking favor!" I yelled, punching through the sound barrier, closing the distance between both of us in a split second. My attack hadn't even faded by the time I was on top of it.
It definitely felt my attack this time -- parts of it glowed a cherry red, the bottom half of its arm was gone again. I managed to take off a leg too. Good. I hoped it hurt.
I punched the vanguard in the face, metal cracking underneath the blow, something in my hand giving way but I didn't care. All I cared about was that sweet, delicious feeling of fucking up its face. The scarab shot to the side -- before, I doubt I would have been able to follow it with my eyes, but now it seemed to be moving almost painfully slow. It tried to correct its path with its boosters, but that barely managed to slow it down before I was on top of it.
I looked into its eyes, seeing shock behind the yellow-tinted lenses a moment before I flipped and axe-kicked the scarab in the chest. The thick armor warped underneath the blow, unable to absorb it, before the scarab shot down to the ground through a building like I had moments before.
Unlike the scarab, I was a firm believer in double-tapping. I raised both hands above my head, my ki a dark purple as forced it into a ball. It wanted to show off by taking me out with a city? Well, two can play at that game. I couldn't care less about the Frieza-forces still in the city, they should blame themselves for being stupid enough to stick around on my battleground.
The ball of ki got bigger and bigger as I poured more and more power into it, ignoring Bardock shouting in my ear. Whatever it was, it could wait-
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of green a split second before it hit the ball of ki above me. Before, when I was so very weak, I wouldn't have been able to dodge, but now I managed it easily. The blast of green energy sailed harmlessly by -- my cruel smile twisting into a snarl of rage as I whipped around on the source.
A woman that almost appeared to look like a saiyan if it weren't for its reddish skin tone. Its hair was long, black and wavy, its lips full and bright red, its eyes just as black as its hair. All of that played second fiddle to the black and green skin-tight outfit that clung to it with white boots and gloves. At the center of its chest was a white circle with a symbol inside of it. A green circle with two bars on top and below it.
The Green Lantern symbol.
"Oh shit."
...
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tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
He's a Saiyan, they tend to fight even when in dire conditions.
Eyes on the Prize
- Location
- USA
"Rahhhhh!" I screamed, launching the ball of purple ki at the Green Lantern. The Lantern glowed with a deep green light, its jaw clenched as it raised a fist, the deep green ring on its finger glowing as a construct emerged from it. A giant hand that simply cupped the ball of ki before diverting its path to the side. Snarling, I tried to bring it back on path, but the ki ball was too heavy, for lack of a better word. The damn thing sailed off into the distance, exploding when it hit the ground-
Huh. That explosion would have taken out a lot more than a city. Neat.
"Alet all Frieza-forces, we have a Green Lantern planetside. I repeat, we have a Green Lantern planetside at my location," Bardock shouted in my ear. His voice was annoying as all hell, so I grabbed my scouter and crushed it as I glared in absolute fury at the Green Lantern that interrupted my fight.
"Enough," it said, its giant hand retracting as it clenched its jaw. Its gaze swept over the carcass of the city below us, something in its gaze hardening. "First, the Reach takes over my home and now Frieza wants to destroy it?" It wasn't rage that filled it, but the glowing around it grew more intense.
I didn't care enough to listen to it. I shot forward as it clenched its hand into a fist so that the ring was facing the sky. Even through the thick haze of rage that filled my mind, I recognized the expression of pure determination as it turned to face the ring at me as I closed the distance between us in a blink of an eye.
"No. I won't allow it," it said, a wall forming between us. I fist slammed into it hard enough that I felt a knuckle busted, but my attack was stopped cold. I punched it again to get the same result. Snarling, I coated my hands in ki, forming a blade and thrust it against the wall of green light. This time, I managed to break my fingers.
"Your kind has taken enough from me. From this galaxy. I don't care what the Guardians say, I'm putting an end to it," It declared, pushing me back so suddenly my head nearly face planted on the wall. I kicked off of it, forming a ki blast in my hands as I snarled down at the Lantern. The wall condensed into a whip that lashed out at me. I flipped out of the way, gritting my teeth as I fought back against the growing rage that seemed to boil in my chest.
"Taken enough from you?!" I shouted as I threw the ki ball at it, forcing it to dodge as I kept launching them at it. "Are you kidding me?!" I followed after the Lantern, seeing her dodge and weave out of the way from plasma fire from the ground forces. The drones up above started to drift down, turning their attention to the highest threat. The rage in my chest boiled over as they fired upon my enemy.
"Done get involved in my fights!" I roared at them, firing machine gun blasts of ki that ripped through Reach and Frieza-force drones alike. Explosions lit up the sky, the Lantern turning around to face me, the whip that emerged from its ring lashed out towards me, coiling to subdue me.
"Tarble, disengage, we need back up-" Bardock yelled from down below, having turned into his oozaru form so his voice easily reached me over the explosions. I clenched my fist as I dodged out of the way of the whip, forming another ki blast in my hands as I looked down at him.
"I said don't get involved!" I yelled at him, launching a ki blast at him. A warning shot. The only one he would get.
"You truly are a savage species. Does your kind crave anything other than death and destruction?" The Lantern asked, making me round on it as my attack washed over Bardock. I blasted off towards it, ki coating my hands as I tried to get in close. Lanterns, all they had was their rings, without them then they were whatever weak species they happened to be, so pathetic that they couldn't rely on their own power. I'd like to see it use that ring after I cut off its hands.
The whip split off into two twin beams of light, both of them moving independently to entangle me. They were little more than blurs, crashing through buildings, rubble raining down- all of a sudden they stopped when the Lantern shot down so fast I could barely see it, a scoop of green light catching the rubble below. Where they would have crashed was a squad of Frieza-force soldiers. They repaid its kindness by firing at it, the glow around it protected it from the lasers.
It tossed the rubble to the side, firing off a half dozen shots of green light. The entire squad went down in a half-second. It just saved those soldiers. It's enemy. That was...that was…
"You've got to be kidding me," I snarled, cupping my hands as something beyond rage pushed me to go even further. Something beyond hate. My wounds ached, blood still spilling from me, from a dozen different places, but whatever the feeling that filled me was, it pushed me beyond the point of caring.
"KamehameHA!" I shouted, firing off the attack, a torrent of purple rushing down towards the Lantern. It looked up, I couldn't see its face, but I can't imagine that it would be surprised. If the Reach had managed to crack out scouter tech, then undoubtedly the Lanterns had too. As I expected, the Lantern rushed out of the way, a half dozen cocoons trailing behind her, protecting the squad from the blast.
The Lantern turned towards me, settling down on a ruined street, a cloud of dust unable to hide the green glow that surrounded it. "Y- They are your comrades!" It screamed at me, something other than grim determination in its voice. It sounded horrified. It dropped the Frieza-force squad- it was the aliens from before, the ones that I borrowed the scouter from a couple of days ago.
"So?!" Shout back at her, firing ki blast after ki blast at her, peppering the street below with explosions. More dust kicked up, but I still saw the bubble shield that it erected around it and the squad. "They knew the risks. They knew what they were getting into when they signed up! It's their choice to fight and kill, so they have no right to complain if they get killed!" I screamed, cupping my hands above my head as I formed another massive ki blast.
For years, that was my justification for...everything. When I fought, I only killed soldiers. They fought back. They made the choice to pick up a gun instead of fleeing for their lives. At the very least, I could respect that and kill them with a clean conscious. Civilians? The ones that fled their home planets in fear, that relied on those soldiers to fight and die so they could escape? They…-
This wasn't the time for introspection.
"You-" whatever it was about to respond with was cut off as a blast of plasma raced towards me. I barely managed to get out of the way in time, twisting in the air, feeling the heat wash over the back of my neck. I didn't need my scouter to know who it was.
"You're not dead? Good!" I shouted, darting towards the source. The vanguard scarab entrenched itself into a half-collapsed building that looked like it was neatly cut in half, one section still standing while the other fell. It fired another shot as I flew towards it, "Riot Javelin!" It seemed that it had learned its lesson because that's all I had to do to make it abandon the stream of plasma, despite never forming the attack.
It realized its mistake too late. I closed the distance between us in a moment, it tried to form a sword, but it wasn't quick enough. Ki coated my hand as I got in close, driving my fist into its gut, the liquid metal unable to keep me out. Red blood splashed onto my hand, and a wild smile found its way onto my face. "Hurts don't it?" I asked, copying what it did and sending spikes of ki in every direction.
"Ugh-!" The vanguard grunted in pain as its insides were skewered, I could feel nanites flooding over my hand, biting at it to break it down to repair the damage. I doubt this tactic would work on everyone -- the scarab itself was what provided the strength, beneath the armor, a weak species merely served as a convenient host.
I yanked my hand out, blood erupting from the wound that the liquid metal already started to flood the wound, capping off intestines and blood vessels. I didn't know the science behind it, but scarabs needed a living host. That armor got noticeably thinner to plug up the damage, less liquid metal to go around for armor, which was why it was getting so easy to punch through. It was getting weaker.
I raised a hand to finish it off, only to be cut off when a green blast hit me in the back, sending me flying. The breath was knocked from my lungs, my armor cracked and chipped, but I was fine. It...it was using nonlethal attacks.
The Green Lantern shot forward as the vanguard got rid of its artificial arm and leg, the metal pumping into a single plasma gun on its one arm. "Kaylark! Double strike!" The vanguard shouted a split second before it fired a massive blast of plasma. The Green Lantern looked back, faltering in her single-minded pursuit of me to look back, but still managing to dodge the blast. It still pressed forward, clinging to the attack close enough that an inch more it would get hit by it.
Three tendrils of light erupted from its ring, telling me what the tactic was. Dodge and get wrapped up, stay and get hit by plasma and a Green Lantern.
"Fine then, I'll take you both on then!" I roared defiantly, forming a Riot Javelin in my hand that I launched at the plasma blast as I rushed forward to meet them halfway. The Riot Javelin was absorbed into the plasma, the stream warping as it traveled upstream, bulging just enough that it hit the Green Lantern. It jerked away, its attention faltering for a split second, and that was enough.
I aimed myself towards her, speeding off like a bullet, ki coating my hands. Tendrils of light lashed out at me, forcing me to dodge- Another tendril split off from one that nearly grabbed me, wrapping around my ankle. My eyes widened, feeling the wind against my face as it sent me flying, crashing through a building.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed at the tendril, trying to tear it, only for it to split apart again, stretching out to my other ankle. I couldn't break it, I was going to have to cut my foot off. Raising my hand, I brought it down to sever my foot at the shin, only for another tendril to catch my wrist before I could complete the motion.
"Shivalik?" The Green Lantern asked, its voice faint. It wasn't even paying any attention to me, even as it wrapped another tendril around my free wrist. I pulled and struggled, thrashing against the restraints, but I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even rip my hands off to escape. A wordless roar of rage escaped me, my efforts to escape growing more intense. "Is that you? But you're-"
The fucking vanguard lowered its helmet, revealing a similar-looking alien with curly black hair. They almost looked like saiyans. "I had to do it!" The alien defended tears in its eyes. "The Frieza-force was coming, and we weren't done evacuating civilians. They needed volunteers to buy time for them to escape."
The Green Lantern looked stricken, opening its mouth to say something, only to close it a moment later. I continued to thrash in my restraints, making her look at me, but she kept me restrained with no visible effort. Fucking power rings.
When it didn't continue, the scarab did. "But, the evacuation ships-! Those savages opened fire on them! They're gone. Sharee, Mavalick -- they're all gone, Kaylark. Because of them," it jabbed a finger in my direction, but the Green Lantern stared at the scarab, its expression betraying nothing. "At the very least, I want vengeance! For my family. For your family! Please, help-"
"Where," the Green Lantern interrupted slowly, turning its attention back to the scarab. "Did we hide when the Reach stopped pretending to be our saviors and enslaved our kind?" It asked, its tone carefully blank- Ah. Scarabs couldn't access long term memories. They could emulate a person perfectly if stuck on the same host for a long period of time, but it couldn't access memories.
And, just like that, the tearful expression vanished. The scarab turned its canon to the Green Lantern, "you are in direct violation of the treaty, Green Lantern by entering Reach controlled space. This breach has already been recorded and sent to the highest authorities," it informed, its voice emotionless. "However, this unit has been authorized to offer the temporary agreement of assistance in removing the Frieza-force presence on planet D'xe, in exchange, the Reach will not declare the treaty violated, thus null and void."
For a long moment, the battlefield seemed to go quiet as the Green Lantern seemed to think on the offer, all except for my screaming as I thrashed in the restraints.
"I'm a Green Lantern," the alien chose to answer, setting its jaw. "For what little time I still wear this ring, I will hold true to everything that the Green Lanterns stand for. Truth, justice -- we are the shield of the galaxy against evil, and I will not falter because of Guardians have gone back on that oath."
That was answer enough.
A blast of plasma formed in the cannon, aimed at the Green Lantern. The Lantern glared down at the scarab that possessed its friend, a silent challenge. If it would have shot, I would never know. A yellow laser hit the scarab in the side of the head, without its armor, it went straight through. Instantly, the scarab began to drop, falling to the ground.
"No!" The Lantern cried, her concentration failing at the sight. It was enough that the tendrils that held me vanished, fading into nothing as it rushed to catch its dead friend. I looked over to see it was Bardock that had fired the shot, an energy rifle in his hands. He tossed the weapon to the side, a look of disgust on his face before he glanced over at me despite the distance between us.
'Stay. Down.' He pulled off his mask to mouth the words at me.
Stay down? I pushed myself up again, blood seeping from me so there was already a fair bit of it where I fell. My organs...had a lot more in common with a pincushion than I ever wanted them to. But that was fine. I could walk it off. More importantly, I had a fight to win.
I drew upon my ki, pushing my strength to its absolute limit -- I had taken some damage, sure, but I wasn't out of this fight! Stay down?! Like hell, I would! Instead of listening to Bardock, I blasted off towards the Green Lantern, who caught the corpse of its friend. It was distracted, giving me the perfect chance to finish it off.
Ki gathered in my hands, a ball of light forming between them, "ka...me…" This one didn't feel as strong as the one before when I was pushing back the scarab. I was losing steam. I had to finish this fast. "Ha...me...HA!" I yelled, firing off the attack. I knew she blocked my attack when it blasted outwards like it was washing over something a lot bigger than a 5'5 alien. Seeing as my surprise attack failed, I cut off the attack to see that it formed a protective bubble around the Green Lantern.
I swallowed a mouth full of blood, my head feeling light. Did my time-out for a minute or two killed the adrenaline rush? It didn't matter. I just had to get another one.
"Do you really believe any of that crap?" I spat at her, darting towards it. The Lantern clenched it's jaw, hiding behind the bubble as I punched it hard enough that it went flying through a building, my already broken fingers were pulverized from the blow. I followed it through the tunnel it made, punching it again. Not so much as a crack. "The shield that protects the galaxy from evil? Then where in the hell has your order been?!" I roared, punching the bubble again, this time hard enough that my wrist broke.
It hurt. But I was used to pain. I was used to pushing through it, digging deep, and pulling a win out of my ass. Scrambled organs or not, I wasn't going to lose this fight.
The Lantern's eyes narrowed, telling me I had hit a nerve. "For years, the Reach has been begging for help as we butchered our way across their empire and the Green Lanterns refused to answer the call!" I punched the shield again, letting my rage fuel me. The haze that covered my mind like a thick fog seemed to get thicker -- I welcomed it. The rage helped with the pain.
"The Guardians didn't want to break the treaty!" the Lantern started to answer, but I didn't care to hear its excuses. I was absolutely sick and tired of hearing excuses. Especially my own.
"They wanted their enemies to soften each other up!" I roared at it, punching it so hard my arm snapped under the force of my blow. That was fine. My muscles were powerful enough to keep the broken bones in place. I could still fight. "And how many died for it?! How many billions are dead? How many species have been eradicated because your order decided to stand back and fucking watch?!"
The Green Lantern glared at me, it's lips pressing together into a thin line as I punched the shield again, sending it crashing into another building. "That's why I'm here! I couldn't bear to watch this slaughter anymore," it argued, this time it flew out of the way of my next punch. Was I making progress then? I had to be! With renewed vigor, I gave chase to the Lantern.
"Liar!" I spat, spotting another excuse for what it was. "You only came because this is your planet! You were happy to stay fucked off when it was other species getting butchered to the last," I accused, forming a ki blast in my hands, throwing it at the bloodstain. No damage. "It's always easy to ignore it when it's someone else staring genocide in the face."
"That's not-" It started to argue, doubt appearing on its face as it retreated through the building, flying up into the air.
"You're a liar. And a hypocrite! I bet you fucking patted yourself on the back when you decided to come here against orders, huh?!" I snarled, follow after it. "Like you hadn't stood by for years like the Guardians did. And why didn't you help? Why didn't you save anyone?! Because they were enslaved by the Reach? That's a reason good enough for the defenders of the fucking galaxy to twiddle their fucking thumbs and let billions of people die?"
The Green Lantern's eyes widened as I neared, my eyes blurry from the wind shear. I slammed a fist into the bloodstain, and still not seeing so much as a crack. "You-"
This wasn't an argument. I could care less about her excuses, "and now you come here, saving both sides, refusing to use lethal force because of some holier than thou bullshit! Don't fuck with me with your half-assed resolve-" the rest of my rant was interrupted by blood erupting from my mouth. My mask filled up, forcing me to come to a stop to lift it up so it could all drain out. My vision swam, my head felt so light it could float off my shoulders, but more blood coming up my throat kept me grounded.
My strength was fading. The power of the oozaru form was seeping out of with every drop of blood. And I was bleeding rivers. It soaked my legs, covered my armor -- I think it was only slowing because I was running out of blood to bleed.
"You're crying," the Green Lantern noted, stopping some distance away. I looked up, a hand going to my eyes to feel a wetness that wasn't blood. Tears streamed down my face, over my mask, the sorrow I felt stabbing the one organ the scarab had missed -- my heart.
How much of that applied to me? I refused to kill civilians and patted myself on the back for it even as those same civilians died by the hands of another while I did nothing to stop it. I slaughtered soldiers, telling myself that it was different because they chose to fight back. I've watched hundreds of millions die, maybe billions after four years -- how many of them could I saved had I tried? If I did anything other than look away and pretend my hands were clean of innocent blood because I wasn't the one snuffing out their life?
"No, I'm not!" I shouted, swallowing more blood as I fired rapid ki blasts at the Green Lantern. Its expression was something worse than from determination. Its eyes were filled with pity. "Shut up!" The bluish balls of ki that impacted against the bubble offered up a smokescreen to hide that the others didn't go flying off into the distance but hovered around it.
"Hellzone Gre-nade!" I coughed, more blood coming up my throat, but it wasn't as much this time. That...was probably really bad, wasn't it? The explosions that lit up the sky forced me away, unable to withstand the force of them. I covered my eyes, squinting and my heart falling when I saw a green glow that moved through the clouds of dust.
I...wasn't able to put so much as a scratch on its shield. With the power of the oozaru, my strength multiplied by ten. I couldn't do a thing. About any of it.
"Ring...scan him," the Lantern ordered, clearing the smoke, its voice soft. Its eyes were filled to the brim with pity, but not even that could hide the resolve in them. Despite being an alien, I couldn't help but think that it looked like a saiyan.
-Scan complete. Saiyan child, four years old due to cultural practice of growing children in gestation tanks for first three years of life. Identified as Tarble, second son to Vegeta the Third, king of the saiyan race. Currently has a bounty of fifty million credits placed by the Reach for participating in the first strike that instigated the Reach-Trade Organization war.-The ring answered.
Wait, wait, wait. Those three years I spent in the gestation tank didn't count? I was four years old again? And I had a bounty?!
"Four years old, huh?" The Lantern asked, the pity melting away from her eyes, replaced by firm resolve. "That's pretty young for a saiyan, isn't it? For my race, you would still be a baby...you were a baby by your own people's standards when you destroyed Rockoroad."
"And you've only ever known war since then," It noted as the green glow intensified. It set its jaw, narrowing its eyes as it took in a deep breath. "But you're right. I was coming here with half-assed resolve. Even as they took my ring after I kicked you all off this planet, I was going to be satisfied with my choice. I was going to spend the rest of my life thinking it was the right choice."
The Lantern expanded its bubble, letting the corpse floating with its fall. "And it is the right choice. I just made it four years too late." Its ring glowed with a piercing light.
-Extreme willpower detected- the ring beeped as she started to fly forward. A calm pace towards me. I blinked to clear my vision, trying to ready myself for a fight, but I felt my newfound strength slip between my fingers.
"Disengage safety lock," it ordered calmly.
- Error, the first law of the Green Lantern crops: lethal force is not- the ring started to protest before cutting itself off with -error, extreme willpower has been detected-
"Disengage. The. Safety lock," the Lantern repeated, clenching its hand into a fist. Now the bubble was so close that I could touch it if I reached out. The ring sputtered for a moment, trying to deny the order but, after a moment, it caved.
-Safety lock has been disengaged. Lethal force has been enabled.- The ring said, making the Lantern blink slowly, taking in a deep breath before it was released in a long sigh.
"Thank you," it said, sounding like it meant it. "Now I know what I must do. I won't meekly hand over my ring when this planet has been liberated. Not when there are so many suffering the same fate. If the Guardians want my ring, then they can pry it from my cold dead finger." The alien stood tall, striking an impressive figure with the green suit clinging to its curves.
"I won't stand idle any longer, and I will not take half measures to ensure the galaxy's safety. I won't flinch at the cost that must be paid. No matter how bloody. From this moment on, no matter what race they might be, or to what empire they serve, whenever an innocent cries out for help, I. Will. Answer!" It declared resolutely, pointing its fist at me. Without the bubble, I would probably be able to touch it.
"Do you have any final words, Tarble?" It asked, its voice sounding far away despite being so close.
"Stop wasting my time and get on with it," I answered with as much dignity as I could muster. My breathing was even, my heart wasn't pounding at my chest anymore. Everything pointed towards me accepting my death. I might have, I don't know anymore. I didn't so much as blink, staring up at the Lantern with just as much resolve that shone in its.
"I am Kaylark, princess of planet D'xe," Kaylark said, a light building in its ring. "In spite of your savage race, you have shown wisdom Tarble. It does not forgive the countless murders you have committed, but know that your death lays the foundation for peace."
I took in a slow breath, watching the light build. The battle for the city still raged beneath us, but it all sounded so far away.
Move.
I jerked my head to the side the same moment the beam of light leaped from the ring, a thin needle-like point that would have gone through the center of my forehead. I summoned up a weak ki blast to lob at her, it did exactly nothing to the bubble, but that wasn't the point. I fought tooth and nail to live nearly every single day of my life, I didn't have it in me to not die fighting at this point.
"Tarble! Don't you die, because I'm going to kill you when this is done!" I heard Bardock roared in his oozaru formed, light escaping his gaping maw. He fired the blast at the Green Lantern, ki enveloping it. I don't think it would do anything to it, but it gave me time to put some distance between us.
"I...ah...whatever, he can't hear me," I started, flying back as I blinked to clear my hazy vision. The power I felt earlier was all but gone, leaving bone-deep exhaustion in its place. The light faded as Bardock let the attack end, revealing that the Green Lantern was untouched. Its bubble protected it from the blast.
There were no real lessons about the Green Lanterns from the tank. For the most part, I knew what everyone else knew. Power rings, batteries, bobbleheads for bosses and so on. However, I recalled something as Kaylark took aim at Bardock. Not so much a memory or a lesson, so I couldn't tell if I learned it before the tank or not.
The biggest handicap that the Lanterns had was that they couldn't kill. Kaylark just removed that handicap.
"Bardock, she can kill!" I screamed, my voice hoarse. Bardock didn't move, summoning upon another ki breath attack as he crouched low, ready for a counter-attack. If he heard me, then I couldn't tell. I had to assume that he didn't. If I was wrong, and he couldn't hear me, then he was going to die. He was going to get himself killed. I...I couldn't let that happen.
But I couldn't break through that bubble. The Riot Javelin hadn't worked, a Kamehameha didn't have the piercing power. A Special Beam Cannon? No, that wouldn't work either -- it wasn't that much stronger than a Kamehameha, and its piercing power was less than a Riot Javelin. I needed…!
I needed something new.
I might- it was probably the lightheadedness, feeling dizzy as I floated in the air behind the Green Lantern as it moved to attack Bardock, his ki attack washing over its shield like water. An idea formed for a new technique, or, rather, combining a bunch of ideas to hopefully make it more powerful.
The compressed power of a Kamehameha. The piercing power of a Riot Javelin. The coils of the Special Beam Cannon to enhance both. How it would look appeared in my mind, this time it was based on no memories or lessons. I cupped my hands to my side, drawing upon the last dregs of my ki, tapping out whatever was left of the oozaru power and funneling it to my hands. My hands almost mirrored each other, my broken fingers bent, a deep blue light forming.
I compressed the ki, spinning it, letting beads of it form on the tips of my fingers which would increase the rotation. The tip would be pointed instead of a flat ball, but still wide enough to have some stopping power.
Like I did so many times before, I pictured myself using the technique a thousand times. On the thousandth and first, I thrust my hands out and unleashed it. It looked exactly how I pictured it, a pillar of dark blue ki, wrapped around it was coils of white from my fingers that extended all the way to the tip.
The Green Lantern turned around even as it weathered Bardock's attack, stopping to raise its fist at me. In its eyes glowed the symbol on its chest, the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps. My nameless attack slammed into the bubble, grinding against the surface. Gritting my teeth, I pumped more power into it, even as Bardock's attack came to an end.
It forced the Lantern back, still grinding away at the bubble, trying to find purchase but finding none. The Lantern's ring glowed again, getting ready to fire off another attack, this one I doubt I could dodge. It was do or die again, and I wouldn't die here. I poured whatever I had left into the attack, straining to so much as fly at the same time.
Then my attack lurched forward. The bubble didn't break, it didn't shatter into a million pieces, my attack didn't grind away at it until it forced its way through. The bubble simply vanished, winked out like a light being flipped off.
My attack punched through the Lanterns chest, right where its symbol was, nearly fitting the white space perfectly. It pierced it through completely, carving a tunnel through a few buildings behind it before I let the attack end. The Lanterns corpse fell to the ground, bouncing when it landed, dead instantly.
I won. I killed a Green Lantern. I...really wasn't expecting that to work.
"I...need to name...that attack," I muttered, the last of my strength gone, the feeling of wind on my face was the last thing I was aware of before everything went black.
…
"I don't believe it," Bardock muttered, ending the oozaru transformation, though he kept the Power Ball in the air just in case there were any saiyans besieging the city. Tarble fell from the sky, probably dead from the wounds he took. And fought through. Bardock flew to catch him, expecting the worst.
Even if he was dead, going out by killing a Green Lantern...Bardock hated to admit it, but the kid would go down as a legend. Killing a Green Lantern, unleashing a move Bardock had never seen before after tapping into the oozaru power without transforming -- sure, the technique had some kinks to work out, but that...Wrath State was something else entirely.
The oozaru transformation was a saiyans strength. Tarble created a way to master that power and take none of the drawbacks of having an oversized body.
"Ha...the Power Ball might be obsolete soon enough," Bardock said with some amusement, flying up to Tarble. He worked on that technique for years, tirelessly learning and studying Bultz waves so he could mimic them. The Power Ball, if his plans failed, was going to be how he made his mark on the saiyan race, so long after he was dead, his name would be spoken in the same breath as legends like Matillo or King Vegeta the First. Saiyans that carved their name in history.
He caught Tarble before he got the ground, noting just how pale he was underneath drying blood, dust, and soot. The boy was drenched in his own blood, he probably didn't have enough left in him to fill a canteen at this point. Tarble was limp in his arms, his head rolling to the side. Bardock looked down at the kid, a sigh of...something escaping him as he floated down to the ground, uncaring of the battle for the city. Without the scarab, the defensive forces had no chance. They would get mopped up soon enough.
Bardock touched down next to the Green Lantern's corpse. It's deep green and black suit with white gloves and boots was gone, revealing a pure white bodysuit not dissimilar to the ones that the Frieza-force wore, though it was mostly red at this point from the gaping hole where it's chest was supposed to be. It's ring still on its finger.
The shield hadn't broken, it had simply disappeared.
"Looks like the Guardians screwed you one last time," Bardock said, kicking the corpse to make sure it was dead. For all their power, they were little more than slaves to the Guardians. Not unlike the saiyans with Frieza, Bardock admitted to himself. Except all of their power was borrowed from a glorified battery. The Guardians imposed their restrictions onto the ring, and when they were broken, they denied access to it -- the Green Lanterns were completely at the mercy of the Guardians, unable to so much as rise up.
Then Bardock's gaze fell to the ring. The idea of wearing a power ring disgusted him, especially now he saw just how easy whatever power it offered could be taken away. But...that was one hell of a trophy. The ring of the first Green Lantern ever killed at saiyan hands. He crouched down, yanking the ring off and looked down at the dull green ring. It was hard to believe it contained so much power.
"Supreme...ultra d-death at-attack?" Bardock heard muttering below him, soft, just barely above a whisper. At first, Bardock thought it might be the Green Lantern, but he doubted it could manage to speak without any lungs. That left- Bardock looked down at Tarble to see the kid's lips moving ever so slightly as he mumbled to himself, "P-plus ultra death cy-cyclone. Dr-drill?"
He was alive. Barely. And spending what could be his last moments trying to name his new attack. Despite himself, Bardock let out a laugh as he smiled -- because of course, he would. "Fasha said I should teach you a way to solve your problems other than bashing your head against them, but I can't imagine you'll run into anything tougher than your head now." He admitted, using his scouter to learn Tarble's condition. It came as no shock that he was in critical condition, needing immediate medical treatment.
Bardock looked down at the kid, his chest barely moving as he took in small gasps of air. A thought occurred to him as he looked down, a thought that became more frequent over the years. At first, the thought was born of frustration, almost constantly on his mind back when the kid was getting demolished by saibamen. Then, for years he hadn't had the thought at all as Tarble proved his worth again and again whenever the chips were down. In the past year, that thought returned, this time it was twinged with worry.
He should kill Tarble.
One way or the other, Tarble was going to be an obstacle. Whether he wanted to be one or not. Bardock hadn't expected him to get so strong so fast, going from nothing to the second strongest member of the team before he hit his first growth spurt. In the past year, as Tarble rapidly grew in strength, it was clear that he would one day join the elite-class. Maybe before Bardock did. Then he would be apart of the royal family.
And that was the crux of the issue, wasn't it?
Letting him die here would almost be a kindness. He died taking out a Green Lantern, tapped into a power of the oozaru form in a way that had never been done before -- this was one hell of a high note to go out on. If he died now, then he died a warrior's death that any saiyan would be proud of. King Vegeta might even acknowledge him postmortem if only because of the prestige.
Would it be kinder to let him die from his wounds now? It would certainly make things easier down the line for himself, that Bardock was certain.
"Bardock!" Fasha yelled through his scouter, "we're about to arrive, so hold on a little longer." She continued, prompting another sigh from Bardock. This time he knew what it was. He made his decision.
"No need. Tarble took out the vanguard unit and the Green Lantern," Bardock said with a wiry grin, wondering if he should have saved that info until after they arrived just so he could see their faces. But, he needed them to know before it was too late. "Leek, get over here. We need a healing pod and we needed it yesterday. I'll meet you halfway."
"Wait, wait, wait," Shugesh started, Bardock could practically see the disbelief that he wore. Bardock couldn't blame him for that. "Hold up. You aren't going to just move on like you didn't say what you just said. Tarble killed a Green Lantern?" He asked for clarification, a chorus from the rest of the team echoing his question as they raced to the city.
"Yes. I'll give you details later -- better yet, you'll get to hear it from Tarble if Leek gets his ass over here before he bleeds out." Bardock said, his tone cutting off any arguments. He would be bombarded with questions soon enough, not just from his team but from-
"Bardock!" The Brat Prince shouted from above, making him lookup. Prince Vegeta landed hard enough that the already battered street cracked on impact, his expression a furious snarl that it seemed both siblings inherited by their father. Vegeta opened his mouth to bark out an order, only for his words to flee him when his eyes fell on his brother. His eyes widened an expression that Bardock never thought he would see on the face of the royal bloodline passed over his face.
Huh, would you look at that, Bardock thought at seeing an expression of fear on Vegeta's face when his eyes landed on his dying brother. That, Bardock hadn't expected. Everyone knew about the near unnatural closeness between father and son the Vegeta's shared -- Bardock understood it better than most having raised Raditz, but he hadn't expected that same closeness was shared between siblings.
"Tarble! Is he?" Bardock would have laughed if he wasn't very aware that despite being so small, the prince was still twice as strong as him. He even sounded afraid. Honestly, it was hilarious.
"Not yet," Bardock answered, pressing down on his scouter again. "Leek, where are you?" He demanded to know from his pilot. For what Leek lacked in fighting ability, he more than made up for with skill in a spaceship. Others looked down on him for it, but skill was skill and Bardock knew he could rely on the working-class saiyan. Until now, apparently. "Leek! Does anyone know where Leek is? We need a healing pod!"
There was silence. Bardock's brow furrowed, "Fasha, Tora, Shugesh? Borgos?" Bardock tried the usually silent saiyan as well and still getting nothing.
"Bardock, what is going on? Are your useless team coming or not," Vegeta snarled at him, looking like he was about to blast him. Odd were, knowing his temperament, the only thing saving him right now was that he was holding Tarble. "And where is the Green Lantern?"
Bardock kicked the corpse, "there's the Lantern. And can you contact anyone on your scouter? I'm getting nothing on mine." Bardock asked, a frown tugging at his lips. He paid Vegeta's stunned expression no mind -- what was going on with his scouter? Was it busted? It couldn't be, it worked literally a minute ago. "Vegeta, is your scouter working?" He pressed, snapping the boy out of his shock.
Vegeta managed to tear his gaze off the corpse, a hand went up to his scouter. "Na- is anyone there? Raditz?" He tried, a beat of...well, calling it silence was a bit of a stretch considering all the explosions throughout the city, but after a moment Vegeta looked at him with confusion. So no one was picking up for him either.
"Did the Lantern do something?" Vegeta asked, and that was a good question. Bardock thought about it before he shook his head.
"I doubt it. It was giving dramatic speeches then Tarble killed it. Unless it was on some kind of delay, I don't think it was the Lantern that knocked out our coms," Bardock dismissed with a shake of his head. He looked down at Tarble, the boy's lips still moving but no words came out. He...didn't have a lot of time left. They needed a healing pod. Now.
"The Reach must have done it, but we don't have time to stand around. Does your ship have a healing pod?" Bardock asked, floating up. Vegeta looked like a sharp retort was on his tongue, but he glanced at Tarble and swallowed it.
"I do," Vegeta said, wearing an expression of grim determination. "Keep up," he said before blasting up towards the sky, Bardock hot on his heels- Bardock was forced to dodge out of the way of a Frieza-force drone suddenly went still in the air. He looked behind him, his confusion only grew when he saw all of the Frieza-force drones were slowly falling. Tens of thousands of them raining to the ground, the Reach drones crashing into them.
Whatever knocked their scouters offline was impacting their drones too? Bardock wished he understood technobabble to have an idea of what could do that. The why was obvious enough. Communication was vital to a battlefield, whether it was a small team like his or an army numbering in the millions. Without it, a frontline would fall apart.
Bardock followed after the prince, Tarble in his arms, as a sinking feeling formed in his gut. He couldn't tell how far whatever it was spread, but it was for the entire planet then the Reach must be planning some kind of offensive. He pressed down on his scouter, doing a general scan -- he could still get power levels, so it seemed that only the communication aspect was taken out.
He spotted four familiar ones heading their way. "My team is incoming," Bardock yelled, a frown still on his lips. His team numbered seven, including Leek. He was missing a member.
"If they can't keep up then I'll take my brother and leave the rest of you trash behind," Vegeta swore, still trailing ahead. The ground below them passed in a blur -- another city could be seen in the distance, illuminated by the countless fires that raged. If it was an offensive, then he doubted it would be there. A stronghold.
The mountain. At the very least, they had a scarab that broke the hundred thousand in there, and that was just what they revealed. If they had another...ten in there? Between the lack of communication, those ten scarabs could completely change the tide of the battle for this planet.
"Bardock!" Tora called out, falling in line alongside him with the others. "We were trying to reach you but-"
"Coms are out," Bardock finished for him with a nod, spotting the others with him. Everyone except Leek. Fasha flew beside him, looking down at Tarble with a concerned expression. Gine rubbed off on her more than she was willing to admit -- she had a soft spot for kids. Or, at the very least, she had one for Tarble. "Get ready for a fight when we get to the ship. The Reach has to be planning something."
"Figured as much. Hows the kid?" Tora questioned as Bardock spotted the mountain in the distance. It really was stupidly huge.
"Dying," Bardock answer honestly. "You should have seen the fight, though. He figured out a way to do it," he added lowly, making Tora's eyes widened and earning a sharp look from Fasha.
"Does the prince know?" Fasha asked so quietly that her voice was nearly lost in the wind. Bardock shook his head -- that was one card that Bardock wanted to have up his sleeve as long as possible. He spent years learning how to control his oozaru form, he finally got the hang of it months before he agreed to be taught by Nappa.
It was a mistake to kill him, Bardock reflected. He had wanted to take out a powerful ally for a man that would one day be his enemy. Who already considered him one. So, when he saw the chance to rob King Vegeta of a powerful saiyan and a good general, he took it. He crushed his throat and stomped on his head to cover his tracks.
The plan was to figure it out himself then teach the rest of his team. Nappa deciding to teach all of them had been a surprise. A generous offer by a royal bootlicker -- odds were Nappa was planning to kill him and write it off as a training accident. Now, with this new power that seemed to be even greater than the oozaru transformation, that was a card Bardock wanted to keep hidden up his sleeve as long as he possibly could.
"No, and we need to make sure it stays that way," Bardock said just as quietly as they rapidly approached the base. "We make up some excuse why Tarble can't teach it to anyone but us, and we keep it a secret for as long as we can. I'm not ready to take the throne yet," Bardock admitted.
But he would, soon enough. King Vegeta sat on his throne back on planet Vegeta, getting fat and lazy, so secure in his title as king he hadn't participated in a single battle this entire war. Prince Vegeta was going to be an issue, already he was stronger than his father, but if push came to shove, between the Wrath State and his team, Bardock was confident they could win that fight.
Then Tarble...time would tell.
"Got it, we'll blame it on Frieza," Fasha agreed. All ways a favored person to blame for anything. Bardock nodded, already thinking of a quick excuse. Something something, Frieza won't like it, something something blowing up the saiyan race, something something just do what I say. Whatever he went with, the results would stay the same.
He and his team were going to have one hell of a leg up on King Vegeta when the time came. It might not be soon, it may still be years from now, the day he walked up those steps, sat his ass in that throne and became king of the saiyans might not come until after the war was over. But it would come. That much, Bardock was certain.
"Am I the only one still stuck on the kid killing a Green Lantern?" Shugesh spoke up, still looking stunned by the revelation. "Because the kid killed a Green Lantern. I mean, I knew the kid was a freak of nature, but this is something else. A Green Lantern. Hey, do you think that's going to be enough to make them declare war?"
Bardock shook his head, "it sounded like the Lantern was acting on its own. The Guardians are probably going to say as much even if it wasn't, and I doubt that the Reach is going to call them on it." The war, despite going on for four years now, was still barely kicking off. They hadn't hit any of the Reach's core worlds yet and the Reach was doing a better job hitting the Trade Organizations wallet than controlled planets.
"That doesn't matter right now, we need to get the little super saiyan down for a nap," Fasha said, blasting off even faster, a silent challenge for them to go even faster. Bardock and the rest of the team obliged, racing towards the HQ, the mountain off in the distance, a looming threat. Bardock half expected that the HQ would be a hole in the ground, but the sizable encampment was still standing.
It housed hundreds of thousands, serving as a base of operations for an army that numbered in the millions. It was bigger than the city that it was based outside of, a large bubble shield protecting it from glass storms. Vegeta lead them to the docking area since most ships were in orbit, it was a lot smaller than one would assume. The saiyan prince went down first, an alien running up to him.
"Sir-ah!" Was all it managed to get out before Vegeta raised a hand and blasted the alien, by the time the blinding flash of light was done there wasn't anything left of it. Seemed that the prince wasn't in the mood for interruptions.
"This way," Vegeta snarled, dashing into the without touching the ground, flying into the ship. Bardock and the rest followed him, sailing through a bulkhead door that had a hole burned through it since the prince didn't want to wait. Within seconds, Bardock found the familiar sight of the healing pods, rows upon rows of them.
Bardock wasted no time throwing Tarble into one of them, an extremely familiar sight of watching the battered kid be submerged in healing fluid. He turned his attention to the diagnostics screen and blanched -- his organs were skewered, stomach acid burns on those skewered organs, extreme blood loss, and a long list of serious but less life-threatening injuries. The kid really took a beating this time.
"He's going to survive," Bardock said, not sure who he was talking to. Himself, maybe. "I've done worse to him, and he survived that, so he just needs some time." The words sounded like a lie to his own ears. Could the healing pod undo this amount of damage? It worked miracles before, bringing Tarble and the team from the brink of death more than once, but that was just broken bones and stuff. This was…
"Heh, and knowing him he'll sleep for the next month," Shugesh chuckled, getting a grin from Fasha. Bardock didn't know how the kid managed it either. He felt restless after a few short hours of sleep, but Tarble found a way to sleep for weeks on end between missions. Honestly, it was almost impressive.
"If he dies then so do all of you," Vegeta threatened, putting an end to the hopeful air the room held. The bite-sized prince turned around, his expression a cold mask that looked suspiciously like his fathers. "You, Bardock, explain what happened." He ordered, the or else going unsaid. This was why he hated dealing with the royal family.
He had harbored a hope that once he became mid-class, things would change. For him, and for his team. Instead, it was just more of the same.
Bardock opened his mouth to obey the order, only to be cut off as the ground shook. Not the kind of shake from tectonic plates shifting around, or the aftershocks of a bomb. But the kind of shaking that felt like the entire planet was about to fall apart. Bardock's heart went still in his chest, a suspicion making the blood freeze in his veins. Without a word, he shot out of the med bay, going to a convenient window that let him look up at the mountain.
Was it glowing?
The ship shook, and that was all he needed. Knocking off comms and now this? He had been purging planets for decades, he knew a trap when he saw one. Whatever was coming, it was big. Too big. Every instinct he had told him to get away, that this wasn't a foe to be fought but something else entirely.
"We need to get the ship in orbit!" Bardock shouted, whipping around at Vegeta, whose mouth was open to shot off another demand or something. "Now! Tell the pilot to get us out of here. Team, we're pushing the ship into orbit." He ordered, his team moving instantly to follow him out. The brat prince shouted something, but Bardock didn't care. The pilot would have to seal the ship if whatever alien was flying it didn't want to get ventilated.
"What's going on?" Tora asked, getting underneath the ship as chaos started all around them. The shields shimmered, trying to maintain their shape as the planet shook underfoot. Lesser species weren't able to remain standing, makeshift buildings were falling apart. Some soldiers were running around, shouting the same question that Tora just asked.
"I don't know," Bardock answered, starting to fly. Between him and his team, it was a simple task to lift the ship off the ground. "But whatevers coming is going to wipe this place off the face of the map." He didn't know if it was a scarab, a weapon or what. Regardless, the shaking didn't bode well.
"H-hey! You're leaving? Take us with you!" An alien shouted, pointing at them. It looked like a saiyan but lacked a tail. It was really weird just how many aliens looked like saiyans sometimes. Its shouting made other aliens look over at them, some of them running forward to what could be a safe boat.
They didn't have any time to wait for aliens to get on. In response, Bardock raised a hand as they flew higher into the sky. An energy blast formed in his hand, aimed at the alien that spoke out first. A group of them formed up, their mouths open to say something but Bardock didn't have time to hear it. He fired the energy blast wiping them all out.
Unsurprisingly, the aliens didn't take kindly to that. "Get back here!" One shouted as others rushed to get on the few ships in the docks, it fired its gun at him. Bardock just tsked as he backhanded the energy blast to the side before he returned the favor.
"Let's get out of here before one gets a lucky hit in," Shugesh commented as they continued to sail higher. The landing gear began to slide upwards, the thrusters flaring to life. He got a nod of agreement from Bardock as he willed himself up faster, busting through the energy shield and sailing up towards the atmosphere. Bardock found himself looking over at the mountain -- it was defiantly glowing.
However, now that he was so high, rapidly approaching the clouds, he looked down and saw that the damage wasn't centered around the HQ. Bardock watched as a jet of magma erupted to the surface, the ground splitting apart near the HQ, a portion of it breaking off into a chasm that seemed to never end.
The planet was shaking itself apart. How-
"They blew up the planet's core!" Bardock realized, his eyes going wide. Worse, the coms were still out so he couldn't tell anyone. The signs were there -- the entire planet looked like it was falling apart, but he knew there was going to be an explosive finish. He let go of the ship, the team following him to circle around to the docking bay. Banging on the metal door, he looked up at where the cameras were but, a few seconds passed and nothing happened.
No, something did happen. The ship started to pick up speed. The brat planned to leave them all behind.
Bardock clenched his jaw behind his mask, going to the cockpit where he would be able to look in. Predictably, he saw an alien behind the wheel but behind it was Vegeta. The brat glared at him even as he smirked arrogantly like there was absolutely nothing he could do now. Vegeta couldn't see it, but that didn't mean there wasn't a cruel smirk on Bardock's face as he formed an energy ball in his hand.
A clear threat. Let my team on or we all die.
Vegeta's face twisted into an expression of rage. For a moment, Bardock half expected Vegeta to call him out on his bluff. The only issue was, Bardock wasn't bluffing. Dying here wasn't the death that he wanted for him or his team, but if it took out that arrogant brat, then it was completely worth it.
Then, after long enough that Bardock thought that silence might be his answer, Vegeta gave him a curt nod. The pilot pressed a button, prompting Bardock to glance at Tora out of the corner of his eye, to see his friend giving him a nod. The door was opened. Bardock wasted no time to get back inside the ship, the others following him.
Vegeta was waiting for him when he got there, the bulkhead door sealing shut behind them. Bardock ruthlessly crushed the anger he felt in favor of focusing on the issue at hand.
"The Reach blew up the planet's core," he started, cutting off the brat. Really, why couldn't he take after his brother more than his father? "We need to get out of this system. Fast," Bardock continued, brushing past the prince to go tell the pilot himself. How big would the explosion be? Where was the safe distance? Bardock had no idea.
"You forget your place, Bardock," Vegeta snarled at him, a threat in his tone. Bardock came to a stop, looking at the boy before his eyes flickered over to Fasha. She gave him a nod before disappearing down the other hallway to make her way to the pilot while he was stuck dealing with a temper tantrum. "You do not order me around. You do not threaten me, trash."
They couldn't fight here. For one, the ship would be destroyed so they would all lose. With his entire team here, without the oozaru transformation, they had a chance. A lot of them would die, but they could win. At least for a little while.
"I'm sorry, my prince," Bardock said, biting back...a lot of things he wanted to say. There were few people that irritated Bardock as much as the prince did. Though, admittedly, most of that stemmed from his lack of ability to murder the child. And the fact that said child was stronger than him.
"Do you think a simple apology is enough?" Vegeta questioned, baring his teeth in a feral smirk. "I am your prince! At the very least, you shouldn't be standing over me as you beg for my forgiveness."
The mission, the team, then pride. Bardock had to remind himself of the words he told Tarble, a code that he forged in blood and pain. A code that made him and his team employees of the month for the past ten years.
Bardock dropped to a knee, bringing him to nearly eye level-
"Lower," Vegeta snapped, making Bardock grit his teeth. The mission, the team, then pride -- again, Bardock was forced to remind himself. Obediently, under the gazes of the prince and his team, Bardock dropped to both knees and lowered his head- he allowed his face to bounce off the ground when Vegeta stepped on the back of his head. Tora made a noise of rage, going to do something, but Bardock held up a hand to stop him. Though, he suspected it was through the combined might of Borgos and Shugesh that kept Tora from launching himself at the prince. "There. Much better. Do you remember where you belong now?"
The mission, the team, then pride. "I do," Bardock lied. When he ascended to the throne, Vegeta's death wasn't going to be a clean one. He wouldn't die a warrior's death. He would die screaming, Bardock swore to himself.
"Very good, Bardock," Vegeta praised, a smile in his voice as he ground his heel into the back of his head. "Now, beg me for forgiveness. Seeing you like this had put me in a good mood -- if you do a good job of it, I might even let you live."
"..." The mission, the team, then pride. "I-" Bardock started before Shugesh interrupted him.
"The planet!" He exclaimed, gesturing to a window. Vegeta looked over, whatever he saw was enough to let Bardock escape from underneath his boot -- before he turned his attention to what was on the other side of the window, Bardock spared a fantasy of wrapping his hands around Vegeta's throat to strangle him. He pushed the fantasy to the side with practiced ease and looked at the planet. It was growing more distant by the second, but even from so far away, lines of lava could be seen.
Entire oceans were gone, a cloud of ash covering some of the planet, landmasses had shifted or were gone entirely. The signs of destruction grew -- lines of red became oceans of lava, the dull sandy color of the planet was black, giant lightning storms appeared. Before his very eyes, Bardock was watching the death of a planet.
Then it simply started falling apart. There was no great explosion that he expected but it was a lot like a string pulled too tight. The tension grew to be too much until it snapped. Chunks of the planet flew away, breaking apart the atmosphere. Others drifted apart, leaving nearly half of the planet whole. None of it happened instantly either -- they must have stood in front of the window for hours, watching the planet shake itself apart.
"Why would they do that?" Borgos asked in his usually soft voice.
"Because...they wanted to deny us a staging ground," Bardock answered, his lips curling up into a smile. The Reach destroyed a planet to inconvenience the Frieza-force, to stretch their supply lines when they assured the shield world. They killed millions of their own soldiers to buy time. They did it because a planet and those armies were expendable.
This war...for the past four years, that was just the prelude.
The real war started now.
...
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Huh. That explosion would have taken out a lot more than a city. Neat.
"Alet all Frieza-forces, we have a Green Lantern planetside. I repeat, we have a Green Lantern planetside at my location," Bardock shouted in my ear. His voice was annoying as all hell, so I grabbed my scouter and crushed it as I glared in absolute fury at the Green Lantern that interrupted my fight.
"Enough," it said, its giant hand retracting as it clenched its jaw. Its gaze swept over the carcass of the city below us, something in its gaze hardening. "First, the Reach takes over my home and now Frieza wants to destroy it?" It wasn't rage that filled it, but the glowing around it grew more intense.
I didn't care enough to listen to it. I shot forward as it clenched its hand into a fist so that the ring was facing the sky. Even through the thick haze of rage that filled my mind, I recognized the expression of pure determination as it turned to face the ring at me as I closed the distance between us in a blink of an eye.
"No. I won't allow it," it said, a wall forming between us. I fist slammed into it hard enough that I felt a knuckle busted, but my attack was stopped cold. I punched it again to get the same result. Snarling, I coated my hands in ki, forming a blade and thrust it against the wall of green light. This time, I managed to break my fingers.
"Your kind has taken enough from me. From this galaxy. I don't care what the Guardians say, I'm putting an end to it," It declared, pushing me back so suddenly my head nearly face planted on the wall. I kicked off of it, forming a ki blast in my hands as I snarled down at the Lantern. The wall condensed into a whip that lashed out at me. I flipped out of the way, gritting my teeth as I fought back against the growing rage that seemed to boil in my chest.
"Taken enough from you?!" I shouted as I threw the ki ball at it, forcing it to dodge as I kept launching them at it. "Are you kidding me?!" I followed after the Lantern, seeing her dodge and weave out of the way from plasma fire from the ground forces. The drones up above started to drift down, turning their attention to the highest threat. The rage in my chest boiled over as they fired upon my enemy.
"Done get involved in my fights!" I roared at them, firing machine gun blasts of ki that ripped through Reach and Frieza-force drones alike. Explosions lit up the sky, the Lantern turning around to face me, the whip that emerged from its ring lashed out towards me, coiling to subdue me.
"Tarble, disengage, we need back up-" Bardock yelled from down below, having turned into his oozaru form so his voice easily reached me over the explosions. I clenched my fist as I dodged out of the way of the whip, forming another ki blast in my hands as I looked down at him.
"I said don't get involved!" I yelled at him, launching a ki blast at him. A warning shot. The only one he would get.
"You truly are a savage species. Does your kind crave anything other than death and destruction?" The Lantern asked, making me round on it as my attack washed over Bardock. I blasted off towards it, ki coating my hands as I tried to get in close. Lanterns, all they had was their rings, without them then they were whatever weak species they happened to be, so pathetic that they couldn't rely on their own power. I'd like to see it use that ring after I cut off its hands.
The whip split off into two twin beams of light, both of them moving independently to entangle me. They were little more than blurs, crashing through buildings, rubble raining down- all of a sudden they stopped when the Lantern shot down so fast I could barely see it, a scoop of green light catching the rubble below. Where they would have crashed was a squad of Frieza-force soldiers. They repaid its kindness by firing at it, the glow around it protected it from the lasers.
It tossed the rubble to the side, firing off a half dozen shots of green light. The entire squad went down in a half-second. It just saved those soldiers. It's enemy. That was...that was…
"You've got to be kidding me," I snarled, cupping my hands as something beyond rage pushed me to go even further. Something beyond hate. My wounds ached, blood still spilling from me, from a dozen different places, but whatever the feeling that filled me was, it pushed me beyond the point of caring.
"KamehameHA!" I shouted, firing off the attack, a torrent of purple rushing down towards the Lantern. It looked up, I couldn't see its face, but I can't imagine that it would be surprised. If the Reach had managed to crack out scouter tech, then undoubtedly the Lanterns had too. As I expected, the Lantern rushed out of the way, a half dozen cocoons trailing behind her, protecting the squad from the blast.
The Lantern turned towards me, settling down on a ruined street, a cloud of dust unable to hide the green glow that surrounded it. "Y- They are your comrades!" It screamed at me, something other than grim determination in its voice. It sounded horrified. It dropped the Frieza-force squad- it was the aliens from before, the ones that I borrowed the scouter from a couple of days ago.
"So?!" Shout back at her, firing ki blast after ki blast at her, peppering the street below with explosions. More dust kicked up, but I still saw the bubble shield that it erected around it and the squad. "They knew the risks. They knew what they were getting into when they signed up! It's their choice to fight and kill, so they have no right to complain if they get killed!" I screamed, cupping my hands above my head as I formed another massive ki blast.
For years, that was my justification for...everything. When I fought, I only killed soldiers. They fought back. They made the choice to pick up a gun instead of fleeing for their lives. At the very least, I could respect that and kill them with a clean conscious. Civilians? The ones that fled their home planets in fear, that relied on those soldiers to fight and die so they could escape? They…-
This wasn't the time for introspection.
"You-" whatever it was about to respond with was cut off as a blast of plasma raced towards me. I barely managed to get out of the way in time, twisting in the air, feeling the heat wash over the back of my neck. I didn't need my scouter to know who it was.
"You're not dead? Good!" I shouted, darting towards the source. The vanguard scarab entrenched itself into a half-collapsed building that looked like it was neatly cut in half, one section still standing while the other fell. It fired another shot as I flew towards it, "Riot Javelin!" It seemed that it had learned its lesson because that's all I had to do to make it abandon the stream of plasma, despite never forming the attack.
It realized its mistake too late. I closed the distance between us in a moment, it tried to form a sword, but it wasn't quick enough. Ki coated my hand as I got in close, driving my fist into its gut, the liquid metal unable to keep me out. Red blood splashed onto my hand, and a wild smile found its way onto my face. "Hurts don't it?" I asked, copying what it did and sending spikes of ki in every direction.
"Ugh-!" The vanguard grunted in pain as its insides were skewered, I could feel nanites flooding over my hand, biting at it to break it down to repair the damage. I doubt this tactic would work on everyone -- the scarab itself was what provided the strength, beneath the armor, a weak species merely served as a convenient host.
I yanked my hand out, blood erupting from the wound that the liquid metal already started to flood the wound, capping off intestines and blood vessels. I didn't know the science behind it, but scarabs needed a living host. That armor got noticeably thinner to plug up the damage, less liquid metal to go around for armor, which was why it was getting so easy to punch through. It was getting weaker.
I raised a hand to finish it off, only to be cut off when a green blast hit me in the back, sending me flying. The breath was knocked from my lungs, my armor cracked and chipped, but I was fine. It...it was using nonlethal attacks.
The Green Lantern shot forward as the vanguard got rid of its artificial arm and leg, the metal pumping into a single plasma gun on its one arm. "Kaylark! Double strike!" The vanguard shouted a split second before it fired a massive blast of plasma. The Green Lantern looked back, faltering in her single-minded pursuit of me to look back, but still managing to dodge the blast. It still pressed forward, clinging to the attack close enough that an inch more it would get hit by it.
Three tendrils of light erupted from its ring, telling me what the tactic was. Dodge and get wrapped up, stay and get hit by plasma and a Green Lantern.
"Fine then, I'll take you both on then!" I roared defiantly, forming a Riot Javelin in my hand that I launched at the plasma blast as I rushed forward to meet them halfway. The Riot Javelin was absorbed into the plasma, the stream warping as it traveled upstream, bulging just enough that it hit the Green Lantern. It jerked away, its attention faltering for a split second, and that was enough.
I aimed myself towards her, speeding off like a bullet, ki coating my hands. Tendrils of light lashed out at me, forcing me to dodge- Another tendril split off from one that nearly grabbed me, wrapping around my ankle. My eyes widened, feeling the wind against my face as it sent me flying, crashing through a building.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed at the tendril, trying to tear it, only for it to split apart again, stretching out to my other ankle. I couldn't break it, I was going to have to cut my foot off. Raising my hand, I brought it down to sever my foot at the shin, only for another tendril to catch my wrist before I could complete the motion.
"Shivalik?" The Green Lantern asked, its voice faint. It wasn't even paying any attention to me, even as it wrapped another tendril around my free wrist. I pulled and struggled, thrashing against the restraints, but I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even rip my hands off to escape. A wordless roar of rage escaped me, my efforts to escape growing more intense. "Is that you? But you're-"
The fucking vanguard lowered its helmet, revealing a similar-looking alien with curly black hair. They almost looked like saiyans. "I had to do it!" The alien defended tears in its eyes. "The Frieza-force was coming, and we weren't done evacuating civilians. They needed volunteers to buy time for them to escape."
The Green Lantern looked stricken, opening its mouth to say something, only to close it a moment later. I continued to thrash in my restraints, making her look at me, but she kept me restrained with no visible effort. Fucking power rings.
When it didn't continue, the scarab did. "But, the evacuation ships-! Those savages opened fire on them! They're gone. Sharee, Mavalick -- they're all gone, Kaylark. Because of them," it jabbed a finger in my direction, but the Green Lantern stared at the scarab, its expression betraying nothing. "At the very least, I want vengeance! For my family. For your family! Please, help-"
"Where," the Green Lantern interrupted slowly, turning its attention back to the scarab. "Did we hide when the Reach stopped pretending to be our saviors and enslaved our kind?" It asked, its tone carefully blank- Ah. Scarabs couldn't access long term memories. They could emulate a person perfectly if stuck on the same host for a long period of time, but it couldn't access memories.
And, just like that, the tearful expression vanished. The scarab turned its canon to the Green Lantern, "you are in direct violation of the treaty, Green Lantern by entering Reach controlled space. This breach has already been recorded and sent to the highest authorities," it informed, its voice emotionless. "However, this unit has been authorized to offer the temporary agreement of assistance in removing the Frieza-force presence on planet D'xe, in exchange, the Reach will not declare the treaty violated, thus null and void."
For a long moment, the battlefield seemed to go quiet as the Green Lantern seemed to think on the offer, all except for my screaming as I thrashed in the restraints.
"I'm a Green Lantern," the alien chose to answer, setting its jaw. "For what little time I still wear this ring, I will hold true to everything that the Green Lanterns stand for. Truth, justice -- we are the shield of the galaxy against evil, and I will not falter because of Guardians have gone back on that oath."
That was answer enough.
A blast of plasma formed in the cannon, aimed at the Green Lantern. The Lantern glared down at the scarab that possessed its friend, a silent challenge. If it would have shot, I would never know. A yellow laser hit the scarab in the side of the head, without its armor, it went straight through. Instantly, the scarab began to drop, falling to the ground.
"No!" The Lantern cried, her concentration failing at the sight. It was enough that the tendrils that held me vanished, fading into nothing as it rushed to catch its dead friend. I looked over to see it was Bardock that had fired the shot, an energy rifle in his hands. He tossed the weapon to the side, a look of disgust on his face before he glanced over at me despite the distance between us.
'Stay. Down.' He pulled off his mask to mouth the words at me.
Stay down? I pushed myself up again, blood seeping from me so there was already a fair bit of it where I fell. My organs...had a lot more in common with a pincushion than I ever wanted them to. But that was fine. I could walk it off. More importantly, I had a fight to win.
I drew upon my ki, pushing my strength to its absolute limit -- I had taken some damage, sure, but I wasn't out of this fight! Stay down?! Like hell, I would! Instead of listening to Bardock, I blasted off towards the Green Lantern, who caught the corpse of its friend. It was distracted, giving me the perfect chance to finish it off.
Ki gathered in my hands, a ball of light forming between them, "ka...me…" This one didn't feel as strong as the one before when I was pushing back the scarab. I was losing steam. I had to finish this fast. "Ha...me...HA!" I yelled, firing off the attack. I knew she blocked my attack when it blasted outwards like it was washing over something a lot bigger than a 5'5 alien. Seeing as my surprise attack failed, I cut off the attack to see that it formed a protective bubble around the Green Lantern.
I swallowed a mouth full of blood, my head feeling light. Did my time-out for a minute or two killed the adrenaline rush? It didn't matter. I just had to get another one.
"Do you really believe any of that crap?" I spat at her, darting towards it. The Lantern clenched it's jaw, hiding behind the bubble as I punched it hard enough that it went flying through a building, my already broken fingers were pulverized from the blow. I followed it through the tunnel it made, punching it again. Not so much as a crack. "The shield that protects the galaxy from evil? Then where in the hell has your order been?!" I roared, punching the bubble again, this time hard enough that my wrist broke.
It hurt. But I was used to pain. I was used to pushing through it, digging deep, and pulling a win out of my ass. Scrambled organs or not, I wasn't going to lose this fight.
The Lantern's eyes narrowed, telling me I had hit a nerve. "For years, the Reach has been begging for help as we butchered our way across their empire and the Green Lanterns refused to answer the call!" I punched the shield again, letting my rage fuel me. The haze that covered my mind like a thick fog seemed to get thicker -- I welcomed it. The rage helped with the pain.
"The Guardians didn't want to break the treaty!" the Lantern started to answer, but I didn't care to hear its excuses. I was absolutely sick and tired of hearing excuses. Especially my own.
"They wanted their enemies to soften each other up!" I roared at it, punching it so hard my arm snapped under the force of my blow. That was fine. My muscles were powerful enough to keep the broken bones in place. I could still fight. "And how many died for it?! How many billions are dead? How many species have been eradicated because your order decided to stand back and fucking watch?!"
The Green Lantern glared at me, it's lips pressing together into a thin line as I punched the shield again, sending it crashing into another building. "That's why I'm here! I couldn't bear to watch this slaughter anymore," it argued, this time it flew out of the way of my next punch. Was I making progress then? I had to be! With renewed vigor, I gave chase to the Lantern.
"Liar!" I spat, spotting another excuse for what it was. "You only came because this is your planet! You were happy to stay fucked off when it was other species getting butchered to the last," I accused, forming a ki blast in my hands, throwing it at the bloodstain. No damage. "It's always easy to ignore it when it's someone else staring genocide in the face."
"That's not-" It started to argue, doubt appearing on its face as it retreated through the building, flying up into the air.
"You're a liar. And a hypocrite! I bet you fucking patted yourself on the back when you decided to come here against orders, huh?!" I snarled, follow after it. "Like you hadn't stood by for years like the Guardians did. And why didn't you help? Why didn't you save anyone?! Because they were enslaved by the Reach? That's a reason good enough for the defenders of the fucking galaxy to twiddle their fucking thumbs and let billions of people die?"
The Green Lantern's eyes widened as I neared, my eyes blurry from the wind shear. I slammed a fist into the bloodstain, and still not seeing so much as a crack. "You-"
This wasn't an argument. I could care less about her excuses, "and now you come here, saving both sides, refusing to use lethal force because of some holier than thou bullshit! Don't fuck with me with your half-assed resolve-" the rest of my rant was interrupted by blood erupting from my mouth. My mask filled up, forcing me to come to a stop to lift it up so it could all drain out. My vision swam, my head felt so light it could float off my shoulders, but more blood coming up my throat kept me grounded.
My strength was fading. The power of the oozaru form was seeping out of with every drop of blood. And I was bleeding rivers. It soaked my legs, covered my armor -- I think it was only slowing because I was running out of blood to bleed.
"You're crying," the Green Lantern noted, stopping some distance away. I looked up, a hand going to my eyes to feel a wetness that wasn't blood. Tears streamed down my face, over my mask, the sorrow I felt stabbing the one organ the scarab had missed -- my heart.
How much of that applied to me? I refused to kill civilians and patted myself on the back for it even as those same civilians died by the hands of another while I did nothing to stop it. I slaughtered soldiers, telling myself that it was different because they chose to fight back. I've watched hundreds of millions die, maybe billions after four years -- how many of them could I saved had I tried? If I did anything other than look away and pretend my hands were clean of innocent blood because I wasn't the one snuffing out their life?
"No, I'm not!" I shouted, swallowing more blood as I fired rapid ki blasts at the Green Lantern. Its expression was something worse than from determination. Its eyes were filled with pity. "Shut up!" The bluish balls of ki that impacted against the bubble offered up a smokescreen to hide that the others didn't go flying off into the distance but hovered around it.
"Hellzone Gre-nade!" I coughed, more blood coming up my throat, but it wasn't as much this time. That...was probably really bad, wasn't it? The explosions that lit up the sky forced me away, unable to withstand the force of them. I covered my eyes, squinting and my heart falling when I saw a green glow that moved through the clouds of dust.
I...wasn't able to put so much as a scratch on its shield. With the power of the oozaru, my strength multiplied by ten. I couldn't do a thing. About any of it.
"Ring...scan him," the Lantern ordered, clearing the smoke, its voice soft. Its eyes were filled to the brim with pity, but not even that could hide the resolve in them. Despite being an alien, I couldn't help but think that it looked like a saiyan.
-Scan complete. Saiyan child, four years old due to cultural practice of growing children in gestation tanks for first three years of life. Identified as Tarble, second son to Vegeta the Third, king of the saiyan race. Currently has a bounty of fifty million credits placed by the Reach for participating in the first strike that instigated the Reach-Trade Organization war.-The ring answered.
Wait, wait, wait. Those three years I spent in the gestation tank didn't count? I was four years old again? And I had a bounty?!
"Four years old, huh?" The Lantern asked, the pity melting away from her eyes, replaced by firm resolve. "That's pretty young for a saiyan, isn't it? For my race, you would still be a baby...you were a baby by your own people's standards when you destroyed Rockoroad."
"And you've only ever known war since then," It noted as the green glow intensified. It set its jaw, narrowing its eyes as it took in a deep breath. "But you're right. I was coming here with half-assed resolve. Even as they took my ring after I kicked you all off this planet, I was going to be satisfied with my choice. I was going to spend the rest of my life thinking it was the right choice."
The Lantern expanded its bubble, letting the corpse floating with its fall. "And it is the right choice. I just made it four years too late." Its ring glowed with a piercing light.
-Extreme willpower detected- the ring beeped as she started to fly forward. A calm pace towards me. I blinked to clear my vision, trying to ready myself for a fight, but I felt my newfound strength slip between my fingers.
"Disengage safety lock," it ordered calmly.
- Error, the first law of the Green Lantern crops: lethal force is not- the ring started to protest before cutting itself off with -error, extreme willpower has been detected-
"Disengage. The. Safety lock," the Lantern repeated, clenching its hand into a fist. Now the bubble was so close that I could touch it if I reached out. The ring sputtered for a moment, trying to deny the order but, after a moment, it caved.
-Safety lock has been disengaged. Lethal force has been enabled.- The ring said, making the Lantern blink slowly, taking in a deep breath before it was released in a long sigh.
"Thank you," it said, sounding like it meant it. "Now I know what I must do. I won't meekly hand over my ring when this planet has been liberated. Not when there are so many suffering the same fate. If the Guardians want my ring, then they can pry it from my cold dead finger." The alien stood tall, striking an impressive figure with the green suit clinging to its curves.
"I won't stand idle any longer, and I will not take half measures to ensure the galaxy's safety. I won't flinch at the cost that must be paid. No matter how bloody. From this moment on, no matter what race they might be, or to what empire they serve, whenever an innocent cries out for help, I. Will. Answer!" It declared resolutely, pointing its fist at me. Without the bubble, I would probably be able to touch it.
"Do you have any final words, Tarble?" It asked, its voice sounding far away despite being so close.
"Stop wasting my time and get on with it," I answered with as much dignity as I could muster. My breathing was even, my heart wasn't pounding at my chest anymore. Everything pointed towards me accepting my death. I might have, I don't know anymore. I didn't so much as blink, staring up at the Lantern with just as much resolve that shone in its.
"I am Kaylark, princess of planet D'xe," Kaylark said, a light building in its ring. "In spite of your savage race, you have shown wisdom Tarble. It does not forgive the countless murders you have committed, but know that your death lays the foundation for peace."
I took in a slow breath, watching the light build. The battle for the city still raged beneath us, but it all sounded so far away.
Move.
I jerked my head to the side the same moment the beam of light leaped from the ring, a thin needle-like point that would have gone through the center of my forehead. I summoned up a weak ki blast to lob at her, it did exactly nothing to the bubble, but that wasn't the point. I fought tooth and nail to live nearly every single day of my life, I didn't have it in me to not die fighting at this point.
"Tarble! Don't you die, because I'm going to kill you when this is done!" I heard Bardock roared in his oozaru formed, light escaping his gaping maw. He fired the blast at the Green Lantern, ki enveloping it. I don't think it would do anything to it, but it gave me time to put some distance between us.
"I...ah...whatever, he can't hear me," I started, flying back as I blinked to clear my hazy vision. The power I felt earlier was all but gone, leaving bone-deep exhaustion in its place. The light faded as Bardock let the attack end, revealing that the Green Lantern was untouched. Its bubble protected it from the blast.
There were no real lessons about the Green Lanterns from the tank. For the most part, I knew what everyone else knew. Power rings, batteries, bobbleheads for bosses and so on. However, I recalled something as Kaylark took aim at Bardock. Not so much a memory or a lesson, so I couldn't tell if I learned it before the tank or not.
The biggest handicap that the Lanterns had was that they couldn't kill. Kaylark just removed that handicap.
"Bardock, she can kill!" I screamed, my voice hoarse. Bardock didn't move, summoning upon another ki breath attack as he crouched low, ready for a counter-attack. If he heard me, then I couldn't tell. I had to assume that he didn't. If I was wrong, and he couldn't hear me, then he was going to die. He was going to get himself killed. I...I couldn't let that happen.
But I couldn't break through that bubble. The Riot Javelin hadn't worked, a Kamehameha didn't have the piercing power. A Special Beam Cannon? No, that wouldn't work either -- it wasn't that much stronger than a Kamehameha, and its piercing power was less than a Riot Javelin. I needed…!
I needed something new.
I might- it was probably the lightheadedness, feeling dizzy as I floated in the air behind the Green Lantern as it moved to attack Bardock, his ki attack washing over its shield like water. An idea formed for a new technique, or, rather, combining a bunch of ideas to hopefully make it more powerful.
The compressed power of a Kamehameha. The piercing power of a Riot Javelin. The coils of the Special Beam Cannon to enhance both. How it would look appeared in my mind, this time it was based on no memories or lessons. I cupped my hands to my side, drawing upon the last dregs of my ki, tapping out whatever was left of the oozaru power and funneling it to my hands. My hands almost mirrored each other, my broken fingers bent, a deep blue light forming.
I compressed the ki, spinning it, letting beads of it form on the tips of my fingers which would increase the rotation. The tip would be pointed instead of a flat ball, but still wide enough to have some stopping power.
Like I did so many times before, I pictured myself using the technique a thousand times. On the thousandth and first, I thrust my hands out and unleashed it. It looked exactly how I pictured it, a pillar of dark blue ki, wrapped around it was coils of white from my fingers that extended all the way to the tip.
The Green Lantern turned around even as it weathered Bardock's attack, stopping to raise its fist at me. In its eyes glowed the symbol on its chest, the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps. My nameless attack slammed into the bubble, grinding against the surface. Gritting my teeth, I pumped more power into it, even as Bardock's attack came to an end.
It forced the Lantern back, still grinding away at the bubble, trying to find purchase but finding none. The Lantern's ring glowed again, getting ready to fire off another attack, this one I doubt I could dodge. It was do or die again, and I wouldn't die here. I poured whatever I had left into the attack, straining to so much as fly at the same time.
Then my attack lurched forward. The bubble didn't break, it didn't shatter into a million pieces, my attack didn't grind away at it until it forced its way through. The bubble simply vanished, winked out like a light being flipped off.
My attack punched through the Lanterns chest, right where its symbol was, nearly fitting the white space perfectly. It pierced it through completely, carving a tunnel through a few buildings behind it before I let the attack end. The Lanterns corpse fell to the ground, bouncing when it landed, dead instantly.
I won. I killed a Green Lantern. I...really wasn't expecting that to work.
"I...need to name...that attack," I muttered, the last of my strength gone, the feeling of wind on my face was the last thing I was aware of before everything went black.
…
"I don't believe it," Bardock muttered, ending the oozaru transformation, though he kept the Power Ball in the air just in case there were any saiyans besieging the city. Tarble fell from the sky, probably dead from the wounds he took. And fought through. Bardock flew to catch him, expecting the worst.
Even if he was dead, going out by killing a Green Lantern...Bardock hated to admit it, but the kid would go down as a legend. Killing a Green Lantern, unleashing a move Bardock had never seen before after tapping into the oozaru power without transforming -- sure, the technique had some kinks to work out, but that...Wrath State was something else entirely.
The oozaru transformation was a saiyans strength. Tarble created a way to master that power and take none of the drawbacks of having an oversized body.
"Ha...the Power Ball might be obsolete soon enough," Bardock said with some amusement, flying up to Tarble. He worked on that technique for years, tirelessly learning and studying Bultz waves so he could mimic them. The Power Ball, if his plans failed, was going to be how he made his mark on the saiyan race, so long after he was dead, his name would be spoken in the same breath as legends like Matillo or King Vegeta the First. Saiyans that carved their name in history.
He caught Tarble before he got the ground, noting just how pale he was underneath drying blood, dust, and soot. The boy was drenched in his own blood, he probably didn't have enough left in him to fill a canteen at this point. Tarble was limp in his arms, his head rolling to the side. Bardock looked down at the kid, a sigh of...something escaping him as he floated down to the ground, uncaring of the battle for the city. Without the scarab, the defensive forces had no chance. They would get mopped up soon enough.
Bardock touched down next to the Green Lantern's corpse. It's deep green and black suit with white gloves and boots was gone, revealing a pure white bodysuit not dissimilar to the ones that the Frieza-force wore, though it was mostly red at this point from the gaping hole where it's chest was supposed to be. It's ring still on its finger.
The shield hadn't broken, it had simply disappeared.
"Looks like the Guardians screwed you one last time," Bardock said, kicking the corpse to make sure it was dead. For all their power, they were little more than slaves to the Guardians. Not unlike the saiyans with Frieza, Bardock admitted to himself. Except all of their power was borrowed from a glorified battery. The Guardians imposed their restrictions onto the ring, and when they were broken, they denied access to it -- the Green Lanterns were completely at the mercy of the Guardians, unable to so much as rise up.
Then Bardock's gaze fell to the ring. The idea of wearing a power ring disgusted him, especially now he saw just how easy whatever power it offered could be taken away. But...that was one hell of a trophy. The ring of the first Green Lantern ever killed at saiyan hands. He crouched down, yanking the ring off and looked down at the dull green ring. It was hard to believe it contained so much power.
"Supreme...ultra d-death at-attack?" Bardock heard muttering below him, soft, just barely above a whisper. At first, Bardock thought it might be the Green Lantern, but he doubted it could manage to speak without any lungs. That left- Bardock looked down at Tarble to see the kid's lips moving ever so slightly as he mumbled to himself, "P-plus ultra death cy-cyclone. Dr-drill?"
He was alive. Barely. And spending what could be his last moments trying to name his new attack. Despite himself, Bardock let out a laugh as he smiled -- because of course, he would. "Fasha said I should teach you a way to solve your problems other than bashing your head against them, but I can't imagine you'll run into anything tougher than your head now." He admitted, using his scouter to learn Tarble's condition. It came as no shock that he was in critical condition, needing immediate medical treatment.
Bardock looked down at the kid, his chest barely moving as he took in small gasps of air. A thought occurred to him as he looked down, a thought that became more frequent over the years. At first, the thought was born of frustration, almost constantly on his mind back when the kid was getting demolished by saibamen. Then, for years he hadn't had the thought at all as Tarble proved his worth again and again whenever the chips were down. In the past year, that thought returned, this time it was twinged with worry.
He should kill Tarble.
One way or the other, Tarble was going to be an obstacle. Whether he wanted to be one or not. Bardock hadn't expected him to get so strong so fast, going from nothing to the second strongest member of the team before he hit his first growth spurt. In the past year, as Tarble rapidly grew in strength, it was clear that he would one day join the elite-class. Maybe before Bardock did. Then he would be apart of the royal family.
And that was the crux of the issue, wasn't it?
Letting him die here would almost be a kindness. He died taking out a Green Lantern, tapped into a power of the oozaru form in a way that had never been done before -- this was one hell of a high note to go out on. If he died now, then he died a warrior's death that any saiyan would be proud of. King Vegeta might even acknowledge him postmortem if only because of the prestige.
Would it be kinder to let him die from his wounds now? It would certainly make things easier down the line for himself, that Bardock was certain.
"Bardock!" Fasha yelled through his scouter, "we're about to arrive, so hold on a little longer." She continued, prompting another sigh from Bardock. This time he knew what it was. He made his decision.
"No need. Tarble took out the vanguard unit and the Green Lantern," Bardock said with a wiry grin, wondering if he should have saved that info until after they arrived just so he could see their faces. But, he needed them to know before it was too late. "Leek, get over here. We need a healing pod and we needed it yesterday. I'll meet you halfway."
"Wait, wait, wait," Shugesh started, Bardock could practically see the disbelief that he wore. Bardock couldn't blame him for that. "Hold up. You aren't going to just move on like you didn't say what you just said. Tarble killed a Green Lantern?" He asked for clarification, a chorus from the rest of the team echoing his question as they raced to the city.
"Yes. I'll give you details later -- better yet, you'll get to hear it from Tarble if Leek gets his ass over here before he bleeds out." Bardock said, his tone cutting off any arguments. He would be bombarded with questions soon enough, not just from his team but from-
"Bardock!" The Brat Prince shouted from above, making him lookup. Prince Vegeta landed hard enough that the already battered street cracked on impact, his expression a furious snarl that it seemed both siblings inherited by their father. Vegeta opened his mouth to bark out an order, only for his words to flee him when his eyes fell on his brother. His eyes widened an expression that Bardock never thought he would see on the face of the royal bloodline passed over his face.
Huh, would you look at that, Bardock thought at seeing an expression of fear on Vegeta's face when his eyes landed on his dying brother. That, Bardock hadn't expected. Everyone knew about the near unnatural closeness between father and son the Vegeta's shared -- Bardock understood it better than most having raised Raditz, but he hadn't expected that same closeness was shared between siblings.
"Tarble! Is he?" Bardock would have laughed if he wasn't very aware that despite being so small, the prince was still twice as strong as him. He even sounded afraid. Honestly, it was hilarious.
"Not yet," Bardock answered, pressing down on his scouter again. "Leek, where are you?" He demanded to know from his pilot. For what Leek lacked in fighting ability, he more than made up for with skill in a spaceship. Others looked down on him for it, but skill was skill and Bardock knew he could rely on the working-class saiyan. Until now, apparently. "Leek! Does anyone know where Leek is? We need a healing pod!"
There was silence. Bardock's brow furrowed, "Fasha, Tora, Shugesh? Borgos?" Bardock tried the usually silent saiyan as well and still getting nothing.
"Bardock, what is going on? Are your useless team coming or not," Vegeta snarled at him, looking like he was about to blast him. Odd were, knowing his temperament, the only thing saving him right now was that he was holding Tarble. "And where is the Green Lantern?"
Bardock kicked the corpse, "there's the Lantern. And can you contact anyone on your scouter? I'm getting nothing on mine." Bardock asked, a frown tugging at his lips. He paid Vegeta's stunned expression no mind -- what was going on with his scouter? Was it busted? It couldn't be, it worked literally a minute ago. "Vegeta, is your scouter working?" He pressed, snapping the boy out of his shock.
Vegeta managed to tear his gaze off the corpse, a hand went up to his scouter. "Na- is anyone there? Raditz?" He tried, a beat of...well, calling it silence was a bit of a stretch considering all the explosions throughout the city, but after a moment Vegeta looked at him with confusion. So no one was picking up for him either.
"Did the Lantern do something?" Vegeta asked, and that was a good question. Bardock thought about it before he shook his head.
"I doubt it. It was giving dramatic speeches then Tarble killed it. Unless it was on some kind of delay, I don't think it was the Lantern that knocked out our coms," Bardock dismissed with a shake of his head. He looked down at Tarble, the boy's lips still moving but no words came out. He...didn't have a lot of time left. They needed a healing pod. Now.
"The Reach must have done it, but we don't have time to stand around. Does your ship have a healing pod?" Bardock asked, floating up. Vegeta looked like a sharp retort was on his tongue, but he glanced at Tarble and swallowed it.
"I do," Vegeta said, wearing an expression of grim determination. "Keep up," he said before blasting up towards the sky, Bardock hot on his heels- Bardock was forced to dodge out of the way of a Frieza-force drone suddenly went still in the air. He looked behind him, his confusion only grew when he saw all of the Frieza-force drones were slowly falling. Tens of thousands of them raining to the ground, the Reach drones crashing into them.
Whatever knocked their scouters offline was impacting their drones too? Bardock wished he understood technobabble to have an idea of what could do that. The why was obvious enough. Communication was vital to a battlefield, whether it was a small team like his or an army numbering in the millions. Without it, a frontline would fall apart.
Bardock followed after the prince, Tarble in his arms, as a sinking feeling formed in his gut. He couldn't tell how far whatever it was spread, but it was for the entire planet then the Reach must be planning some kind of offensive. He pressed down on his scouter, doing a general scan -- he could still get power levels, so it seemed that only the communication aspect was taken out.
He spotted four familiar ones heading their way. "My team is incoming," Bardock yelled, a frown still on his lips. His team numbered seven, including Leek. He was missing a member.
"If they can't keep up then I'll take my brother and leave the rest of you trash behind," Vegeta swore, still trailing ahead. The ground below them passed in a blur -- another city could be seen in the distance, illuminated by the countless fires that raged. If it was an offensive, then he doubted it would be there. A stronghold.
The mountain. At the very least, they had a scarab that broke the hundred thousand in there, and that was just what they revealed. If they had another...ten in there? Between the lack of communication, those ten scarabs could completely change the tide of the battle for this planet.
"Bardock!" Tora called out, falling in line alongside him with the others. "We were trying to reach you but-"
"Coms are out," Bardock finished for him with a nod, spotting the others with him. Everyone except Leek. Fasha flew beside him, looking down at Tarble with a concerned expression. Gine rubbed off on her more than she was willing to admit -- she had a soft spot for kids. Or, at the very least, she had one for Tarble. "Get ready for a fight when we get to the ship. The Reach has to be planning something."
"Figured as much. Hows the kid?" Tora questioned as Bardock spotted the mountain in the distance. It really was stupidly huge.
"Dying," Bardock answer honestly. "You should have seen the fight, though. He figured out a way to do it," he added lowly, making Tora's eyes widened and earning a sharp look from Fasha.
"Does the prince know?" Fasha asked so quietly that her voice was nearly lost in the wind. Bardock shook his head -- that was one card that Bardock wanted to have up his sleeve as long as possible. He spent years learning how to control his oozaru form, he finally got the hang of it months before he agreed to be taught by Nappa.
It was a mistake to kill him, Bardock reflected. He had wanted to take out a powerful ally for a man that would one day be his enemy. Who already considered him one. So, when he saw the chance to rob King Vegeta of a powerful saiyan and a good general, he took it. He crushed his throat and stomped on his head to cover his tracks.
The plan was to figure it out himself then teach the rest of his team. Nappa deciding to teach all of them had been a surprise. A generous offer by a royal bootlicker -- odds were Nappa was planning to kill him and write it off as a training accident. Now, with this new power that seemed to be even greater than the oozaru transformation, that was a card Bardock wanted to keep hidden up his sleeve as long as he possibly could.
"No, and we need to make sure it stays that way," Bardock said just as quietly as they rapidly approached the base. "We make up some excuse why Tarble can't teach it to anyone but us, and we keep it a secret for as long as we can. I'm not ready to take the throne yet," Bardock admitted.
But he would, soon enough. King Vegeta sat on his throne back on planet Vegeta, getting fat and lazy, so secure in his title as king he hadn't participated in a single battle this entire war. Prince Vegeta was going to be an issue, already he was stronger than his father, but if push came to shove, between the Wrath State and his team, Bardock was confident they could win that fight.
Then Tarble...time would tell.
"Got it, we'll blame it on Frieza," Fasha agreed. All ways a favored person to blame for anything. Bardock nodded, already thinking of a quick excuse. Something something, Frieza won't like it, something something blowing up the saiyan race, something something just do what I say. Whatever he went with, the results would stay the same.
He and his team were going to have one hell of a leg up on King Vegeta when the time came. It might not be soon, it may still be years from now, the day he walked up those steps, sat his ass in that throne and became king of the saiyans might not come until after the war was over. But it would come. That much, Bardock was certain.
"Am I the only one still stuck on the kid killing a Green Lantern?" Shugesh spoke up, still looking stunned by the revelation. "Because the kid killed a Green Lantern. I mean, I knew the kid was a freak of nature, but this is something else. A Green Lantern. Hey, do you think that's going to be enough to make them declare war?"
Bardock shook his head, "it sounded like the Lantern was acting on its own. The Guardians are probably going to say as much even if it wasn't, and I doubt that the Reach is going to call them on it." The war, despite going on for four years now, was still barely kicking off. They hadn't hit any of the Reach's core worlds yet and the Reach was doing a better job hitting the Trade Organizations wallet than controlled planets.
"That doesn't matter right now, we need to get the little super saiyan down for a nap," Fasha said, blasting off even faster, a silent challenge for them to go even faster. Bardock and the rest of the team obliged, racing towards the HQ, the mountain off in the distance, a looming threat. Bardock half expected that the HQ would be a hole in the ground, but the sizable encampment was still standing.
It housed hundreds of thousands, serving as a base of operations for an army that numbered in the millions. It was bigger than the city that it was based outside of, a large bubble shield protecting it from glass storms. Vegeta lead them to the docking area since most ships were in orbit, it was a lot smaller than one would assume. The saiyan prince went down first, an alien running up to him.
"Sir-ah!" Was all it managed to get out before Vegeta raised a hand and blasted the alien, by the time the blinding flash of light was done there wasn't anything left of it. Seemed that the prince wasn't in the mood for interruptions.
"This way," Vegeta snarled, dashing into the without touching the ground, flying into the ship. Bardock and the rest followed him, sailing through a bulkhead door that had a hole burned through it since the prince didn't want to wait. Within seconds, Bardock found the familiar sight of the healing pods, rows upon rows of them.
Bardock wasted no time throwing Tarble into one of them, an extremely familiar sight of watching the battered kid be submerged in healing fluid. He turned his attention to the diagnostics screen and blanched -- his organs were skewered, stomach acid burns on those skewered organs, extreme blood loss, and a long list of serious but less life-threatening injuries. The kid really took a beating this time.
"He's going to survive," Bardock said, not sure who he was talking to. Himself, maybe. "I've done worse to him, and he survived that, so he just needs some time." The words sounded like a lie to his own ears. Could the healing pod undo this amount of damage? It worked miracles before, bringing Tarble and the team from the brink of death more than once, but that was just broken bones and stuff. This was…
"Heh, and knowing him he'll sleep for the next month," Shugesh chuckled, getting a grin from Fasha. Bardock didn't know how the kid managed it either. He felt restless after a few short hours of sleep, but Tarble found a way to sleep for weeks on end between missions. Honestly, it was almost impressive.
"If he dies then so do all of you," Vegeta threatened, putting an end to the hopeful air the room held. The bite-sized prince turned around, his expression a cold mask that looked suspiciously like his fathers. "You, Bardock, explain what happened." He ordered, the or else going unsaid. This was why he hated dealing with the royal family.
He had harbored a hope that once he became mid-class, things would change. For him, and for his team. Instead, it was just more of the same.
Bardock opened his mouth to obey the order, only to be cut off as the ground shook. Not the kind of shake from tectonic plates shifting around, or the aftershocks of a bomb. But the kind of shaking that felt like the entire planet was about to fall apart. Bardock's heart went still in his chest, a suspicion making the blood freeze in his veins. Without a word, he shot out of the med bay, going to a convenient window that let him look up at the mountain.
Was it glowing?
The ship shook, and that was all he needed. Knocking off comms and now this? He had been purging planets for decades, he knew a trap when he saw one. Whatever was coming, it was big. Too big. Every instinct he had told him to get away, that this wasn't a foe to be fought but something else entirely.
"We need to get the ship in orbit!" Bardock shouted, whipping around at Vegeta, whose mouth was open to shot off another demand or something. "Now! Tell the pilot to get us out of here. Team, we're pushing the ship into orbit." He ordered, his team moving instantly to follow him out. The brat prince shouted something, but Bardock didn't care. The pilot would have to seal the ship if whatever alien was flying it didn't want to get ventilated.
"What's going on?" Tora asked, getting underneath the ship as chaos started all around them. The shields shimmered, trying to maintain their shape as the planet shook underfoot. Lesser species weren't able to remain standing, makeshift buildings were falling apart. Some soldiers were running around, shouting the same question that Tora just asked.
"I don't know," Bardock answered, starting to fly. Between him and his team, it was a simple task to lift the ship off the ground. "But whatevers coming is going to wipe this place off the face of the map." He didn't know if it was a scarab, a weapon or what. Regardless, the shaking didn't bode well.
"H-hey! You're leaving? Take us with you!" An alien shouted, pointing at them. It looked like a saiyan but lacked a tail. It was really weird just how many aliens looked like saiyans sometimes. Its shouting made other aliens look over at them, some of them running forward to what could be a safe boat.
They didn't have any time to wait for aliens to get on. In response, Bardock raised a hand as they flew higher into the sky. An energy blast formed in his hand, aimed at the alien that spoke out first. A group of them formed up, their mouths open to say something but Bardock didn't have time to hear it. He fired the energy blast wiping them all out.
Unsurprisingly, the aliens didn't take kindly to that. "Get back here!" One shouted as others rushed to get on the few ships in the docks, it fired its gun at him. Bardock just tsked as he backhanded the energy blast to the side before he returned the favor.
"Let's get out of here before one gets a lucky hit in," Shugesh commented as they continued to sail higher. The landing gear began to slide upwards, the thrusters flaring to life. He got a nod of agreement from Bardock as he willed himself up faster, busting through the energy shield and sailing up towards the atmosphere. Bardock found himself looking over at the mountain -- it was defiantly glowing.
However, now that he was so high, rapidly approaching the clouds, he looked down and saw that the damage wasn't centered around the HQ. Bardock watched as a jet of magma erupted to the surface, the ground splitting apart near the HQ, a portion of it breaking off into a chasm that seemed to never end.
The planet was shaking itself apart. How-
"They blew up the planet's core!" Bardock realized, his eyes going wide. Worse, the coms were still out so he couldn't tell anyone. The signs were there -- the entire planet looked like it was falling apart, but he knew there was going to be an explosive finish. He let go of the ship, the team following him to circle around to the docking bay. Banging on the metal door, he looked up at where the cameras were but, a few seconds passed and nothing happened.
No, something did happen. The ship started to pick up speed. The brat planned to leave them all behind.
Bardock clenched his jaw behind his mask, going to the cockpit where he would be able to look in. Predictably, he saw an alien behind the wheel but behind it was Vegeta. The brat glared at him even as he smirked arrogantly like there was absolutely nothing he could do now. Vegeta couldn't see it, but that didn't mean there wasn't a cruel smirk on Bardock's face as he formed an energy ball in his hand.
A clear threat. Let my team on or we all die.
Vegeta's face twisted into an expression of rage. For a moment, Bardock half expected Vegeta to call him out on his bluff. The only issue was, Bardock wasn't bluffing. Dying here wasn't the death that he wanted for him or his team, but if it took out that arrogant brat, then it was completely worth it.
Then, after long enough that Bardock thought that silence might be his answer, Vegeta gave him a curt nod. The pilot pressed a button, prompting Bardock to glance at Tora out of the corner of his eye, to see his friend giving him a nod. The door was opened. Bardock wasted no time to get back inside the ship, the others following him.
Vegeta was waiting for him when he got there, the bulkhead door sealing shut behind them. Bardock ruthlessly crushed the anger he felt in favor of focusing on the issue at hand.
"The Reach blew up the planet's core," he started, cutting off the brat. Really, why couldn't he take after his brother more than his father? "We need to get out of this system. Fast," Bardock continued, brushing past the prince to go tell the pilot himself. How big would the explosion be? Where was the safe distance? Bardock had no idea.
"You forget your place, Bardock," Vegeta snarled at him, a threat in his tone. Bardock came to a stop, looking at the boy before his eyes flickered over to Fasha. She gave him a nod before disappearing down the other hallway to make her way to the pilot while he was stuck dealing with a temper tantrum. "You do not order me around. You do not threaten me, trash."
They couldn't fight here. For one, the ship would be destroyed so they would all lose. With his entire team here, without the oozaru transformation, they had a chance. A lot of them would die, but they could win. At least for a little while.
"I'm sorry, my prince," Bardock said, biting back...a lot of things he wanted to say. There were few people that irritated Bardock as much as the prince did. Though, admittedly, most of that stemmed from his lack of ability to murder the child. And the fact that said child was stronger than him.
"Do you think a simple apology is enough?" Vegeta questioned, baring his teeth in a feral smirk. "I am your prince! At the very least, you shouldn't be standing over me as you beg for my forgiveness."
The mission, the team, then pride. Bardock had to remind himself of the words he told Tarble, a code that he forged in blood and pain. A code that made him and his team employees of the month for the past ten years.
Bardock dropped to a knee, bringing him to nearly eye level-
"Lower," Vegeta snapped, making Bardock grit his teeth. The mission, the team, then pride -- again, Bardock was forced to remind himself. Obediently, under the gazes of the prince and his team, Bardock dropped to both knees and lowered his head- he allowed his face to bounce off the ground when Vegeta stepped on the back of his head. Tora made a noise of rage, going to do something, but Bardock held up a hand to stop him. Though, he suspected it was through the combined might of Borgos and Shugesh that kept Tora from launching himself at the prince. "There. Much better. Do you remember where you belong now?"
The mission, the team, then pride. "I do," Bardock lied. When he ascended to the throne, Vegeta's death wasn't going to be a clean one. He wouldn't die a warrior's death. He would die screaming, Bardock swore to himself.
"Very good, Bardock," Vegeta praised, a smile in his voice as he ground his heel into the back of his head. "Now, beg me for forgiveness. Seeing you like this had put me in a good mood -- if you do a good job of it, I might even let you live."
"..." The mission, the team, then pride. "I-" Bardock started before Shugesh interrupted him.
"The planet!" He exclaimed, gesturing to a window. Vegeta looked over, whatever he saw was enough to let Bardock escape from underneath his boot -- before he turned his attention to what was on the other side of the window, Bardock spared a fantasy of wrapping his hands around Vegeta's throat to strangle him. He pushed the fantasy to the side with practiced ease and looked at the planet. It was growing more distant by the second, but even from so far away, lines of lava could be seen.
Entire oceans were gone, a cloud of ash covering some of the planet, landmasses had shifted or were gone entirely. The signs of destruction grew -- lines of red became oceans of lava, the dull sandy color of the planet was black, giant lightning storms appeared. Before his very eyes, Bardock was watching the death of a planet.
Then it simply started falling apart. There was no great explosion that he expected but it was a lot like a string pulled too tight. The tension grew to be too much until it snapped. Chunks of the planet flew away, breaking apart the atmosphere. Others drifted apart, leaving nearly half of the planet whole. None of it happened instantly either -- they must have stood in front of the window for hours, watching the planet shake itself apart.
"Why would they do that?" Borgos asked in his usually soft voice.
"Because...they wanted to deny us a staging ground," Bardock answered, his lips curling up into a smile. The Reach destroyed a planet to inconvenience the Frieza-force, to stretch their supply lines when they assured the shield world. They killed millions of their own soldiers to buy time. They did it because a planet and those armies were expendable.
This war...for the past four years, that was just the prelude.
The real war started now.
...
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
- Argentina
Honestly, I can't wait for Bardock to kill Vegeta, just to see King Vegeta's reaction.
Lifeandlice
Practitioning side-character
- Location
- Usa
The duality of man has never been more apparent
- Location
- Massachusetts
I don't remember guardians being able to do that? I mean maybe somewhere in the contradictory canon of comics it shows up but I feel in general that they can't just shut the ring off or else we'd see them doing it way more often. Don't they run off a charge and the guardians just control the charger?
Lifeandlice
Practitioning side-character
- Location
- Usa
Once you have enough willpower that the symbol is appearing in your eyes there really isn't all that much you can't do.
And as for The Guardians, The power batteries, and such...well that's an absolute mess at the best of times.
- Location
- In My Parlour like a Good Arachne
- Pronouns
- She, her
Well seeing as the Guardians are still the same idiots that had made unthinking robots uphold the laws they decreed and ended up killing off an entire sector before they realized their folly. Yes they uave Kill Switches for the Green Rings and yes they have used them many a time before.
Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
At the cost of it barely being 'you' doing things. All the subtle gradations of feeling, personality and thought get washed away in the face of an all consuming and all justifying purpose.
If I see those eyes in any color my response is 'Goddammit, he/she is Cthulhu now. Everybody out of the universe'.
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- Location
- USA
While they can't do anything about the actual power, they can fry the supercomputer that manages it. That's what they did with Alan's ring in the backstory.
Lifeandlice
Practitioning side-character
- Location
- Usa
Oh yeah make no mistake once you reach that point the question of if it's still really you opens up.
The only way you can really be farther is by being bound to your respective emotional entity and that's because that's a completely alien mindset from anything else in the Galaxy at that point.
Eyes filled with Awe
- Location
- USA
Someone was tapping on the glass of my healing pod. The vibrations ran through me, almost enough to break me free of the deep sleep I found myself in. My eyes fluttered, letting catch a glimpse of green healing fluid, but not much else. I tried again, my eyelids feeling like they were made of lead before I gave up after a few seconds-
"Wake up!" Someone yelled, banging on the surface hard enough that the glass cracked and the entire pod shook. My eyes shot open, though I had to blink a few times to see that it was Vegeta hammering away at the tank, a small leak of healing fluid from the cracked glass.
"Vegeta?" I questioned, swallowing a yawn as I shook off the vestiges of sleep. I stretched out my arms, hearing a few muffled pops before I cracked my neck. Since I spent so much time in a healing pod, I could roughly guess that I had been in here for some time. Longer than normal for me.
"You're up. Finally. You've been out of it for a month," Vegeta scowled, doing the draining procedures so the healing fluid began to drain out the pod. An entire month? Not counting my time in the gestation tank, that was my longest stay in a healing pod. So far, at least.
Then I recalled why I was in the healing pod in the first place. My hands went down to my broken armor, using a bit of ki to open it up to inspect my stomach. Just above my bellybutton was a thin long line where the scarab stabbed. Though, there didn't seem to be any other scars from where he turned my insides into a pincushion.
The action brought my attention to my hands. Over the years, due to constant abuse, my fingers became a little crooked from the constant breaks and fractures. Now they were all straightened out, so someone must have reset them while I was out. My attention was stolen when the pod cracked open, letting me get out to see that Vegeta was staring at me with an odd expression on his face.
An odd mixture of pride and jealousy. Before I could ask what was wrong, he held out a necklace with a...oh. Yeah. The Green Lantern. I killed it, didn't I?
Numbly, I took the necklace, feeling the deceptive weight to the small green ring. The necklace was made of beads of some metal that didn't look like aluminum-
"It's Nth metal," he informed, getting a sharp look from me. Nth metal? The stuff the Thangarians used? "I got it from Father," he said, smirking at my stunned look. "Don't look so shocked. You're the first saiyan to ever kill a Green Lantern. It would be an insult to your honor to give anything less."
Numbly, I looked down at the necklace, a sense of awe filling me. Nth metal was incredibly valuable. I didn't know all of its properties, but it's what gave the Thangarian empire their strength. It allowed people to fly with enough of it, and stuff like that. So, it was probably little more than a decorative piece since I could already do that, but that didn't change it was one of the most coveted metals in the galaxy.
Then the ring...one of the most powerful tools in the galaxy. I looked at the emblem emblazoned on the front, an emblem that inspired hope and fear to everyone in the galaxy. For the briefest of seconds, I considered putting it on. At my absolute strongest, I hadn't been able to put so much as a scratch on its shields. I dismissed the idea in favor of putting the necklace on, displaying a fierce grin for Vegeta to see.
"Does this mean…?" I asked after a moment, my heart going still in my chest. Vegeta's smirk became a full-blown smile. He looked happier than I did as if the universe itself had proved him right and everyone else wrong. It took a moment for confirmation to sink in, and even as it did, it would be days before I really believed it.
I was being welcomed into the royal family. The thing that I fought to achieve for so long, from battlefield to battlefield, from planet to planet, nearly dying more times than I could possibly count. The gallons of sweat and blood I spilled, the hundreds of bones I've broken -- I pushed myself to my absolute limit in every fight, clawing and biting for every single scrap of strength, and each time I came back a little stronger.
All for this. To be able to call my father, Father. To call my mother, Mother. To call Vegeta my brother. To have a family.
And it was being handed to me.
"I…" I started, not having the words. I don't know what I was trying to say. A hand reached up to my necklace, gripping it so tightly that I spared a worry that it might break. King Vegeta was welcoming me into the family because I killed a Green Lantern. I was the first to do it. That was the merit that made him acknowledge me.
But I wasn't the one that killed the Green Lantern. Not really. It was the Guardians. They turned the ring off, which made the bubble shield disappear. Before that, my attack wasn't doing anything. I'm pretty sure they saved my life too because I saw it take aim at me, a second later and I would be the dead one instead of it- instead of Kaylark.
"Not yet," I decided more to myself than to Vegeta. I couldn't accept my place now. Not based on a misunderstanding. I stared at Vegeta, his shocked expression turning grave as he met my gaze. "I'm not elite-class yet. I know it could take a few years, but I don't want to earn my place by getting lucky once."
Vegeta didn't say anything, his expression serious, so I continued, half rambling to get my thoughts out. "I can't accept being a part of the royal family how I am now. I-, if you still want me, I can accept it when I'm strong enough. But not before. I...I'm sorry." I finished lamely, feeling that words weren't enough. Joining the royal family was something that I desired since I found myself in this life, but...I couldn't accept it. Not when it's been handed to me.
He let out a small breath, "I suppose you wouldn't have gotten this far without growing a spine at some point." Vegeta accepted my decision with a firm nod, sounding disappointed but not unhappy. A smirk played at the edge of his lips after a moment, "though, I suppose we won't have to wait much longer. Here, take this."
I caught the scouter he tossed my way, a sinking suspicion on what he was trying to show me. I attached the deep red scouter to the side of my head, switched it to self-scan and pressed the button. The power level reader went up. And up. And up and up. The milliseconds that it took to break through six thousand seemed to last an eternity. After four years, I was nearly used to a small jump in pl after a major fight or spar.
But the scouter blew passed 6500. Then it hit 7000. My heart went still in my chest as the scouter kept going. It went past 7500 in a split second. It hit 8000 but it still didn't stop. It only took a second before it read 8450. It stayed there, blinking at me, marking myself as a priority threat.
That was nearly a 2000 point jump. By far the biggest jump so far. 1550 points. That's all it would take before I hit elite-class.
"Oh," I muttered, stunned by the jump in strength. I didn't really feel that powerful compared to before. I was stronger than Bardock now. I was nearly as strong as Queen Teach, and she was the strongest mid-class. Actually, at this point, she was probably elite-class too. "Wow."
Vegeta let out a short laugh at my reaction, sounding genuinely amused by my dumbfounded expression. "That does sum up most people's reactions so far," he commented, crossing his arms. "Most saiyans don't see jumps in power like that until they hit their second growth spurt," he informed, getting a slow nod from me.
Saiyans grew in bursts. For the first twelve years, we looked like four years old. At twelve, we had our first growth spurt, growing to appear eight years old. Then, at sixteen, we grew into full-sized adults, and it was there that the biggest jump in power came from. An adult body could handle greater strain, its reach was longer, it was more powerful and so on. After that, at twenty, there was a final growth spurt that was much smaller, as if to finalize some changes.
A saiyan with a power level of over a hundred was considered mid-class, so by the time he hit his second growth spurt, his power level would be over 5000. The exact jump in power varied from saiyan to saiyan but most experienced a jump between two or three thousand. And I hadn't even experienced my first growth spurt yet. I wouldn't for another f-...eight years since the time in the gestation tank didn't count.
Vegeta let out a small breath, "but, if that's your decision, then at the very least we won't be waiting long. Now, come on little brother, you've been asleep for a while and the situation has changed."
...You know, after four years of war, I was used to getting punched. I wasn't used to getting punched in the feelings.
Swallowing back emotion, I nodded, "what's changed?" I asked as Vegeta dramatically turned around, his red cape fluttering out as he went to walk out of the room. I fell in line behind him, only for him to glare at me over his shoulder as he slowed- oh.
Swallowing back more emotion, I walked beside my brother before he answered. "For starters, the Reach blew up planet D'xe," he informed casually as we stepped out of the medical bay. It took a split second to process that, and upon seeing my confusion, Vegeta explained as we walked. "They detonated some manner of an explosive device inside the planet's core. It shook itself apart, killing our armies and theirs. We were one of the few to make it off."
That was...kinda insane. They blew up a planet? "They wanted to deny us a staging ground to attack planet Sereall. And prevent Lord Frieza from reselling the planet," I muttered to myself, my mind racing. Having spent years behind enemy lines, I learned the value of supplies. A fleet, especially one the size of on in the Frieza-force, needed near-constant maintenance, supplies, and fuel. Not to mention the food, water, and ammo for the armies they transported.
Destroying planet D'xe meant that the staging ground for our invasion of planet Sereal had to be pushed back to planet...I don't remember. The one with the pink sky. That stretched our supply lines rather far. Stretched supply lines had a nasty habit of snapping when tugged a little too far. For a small squad like the one I was on, it didn't really mean much being cut off. For an army that numbered in the millions? That was very different.
I caught Vegeta giving me an odd look, prompting me to shrug my shoulders, "I learned a lot about this stuff from Bardock…" I trailed off, it suddenly clicking what Vegeta said earlier. "Is my team…?"
Vegeta's expression soured at the mention of Bardock, but he nodded all the same. "They're all alive. Wait, no, there was that low-class pilot. He hasn't come back yet, so he's probably dead."
Leek was dead? That was...not that surprising, I guess. As the planets ramped up their defenses, his skills as a pilot meant less and less as we were forced to base jump to planets to avoid getting shot down. I guess he either got shot down, or he didn't make it off the planet in time. I would have to get the story from Bardock later.
"Anyway, we've been prepping our assault on planet Sereall here," there was a hungry edge to his voice, his expression becoming a little more sinister. "There is going to be a great battle coming, little brother. Frieza has assigned ten fleets to the assault, and the armies number in the hundreds of millions."
Fleets? I questioned as we walked by a window. I stopped where I was when I saw what was on the other side. The vacuum of space served as a black backdrop behind thousands of ships. Tens of thousands, maybe. Nearly all of them were the standard saucer-shaped spaceships of varying sizes, but there were more than a few other kinds mixed in. Some were shaped like bricks, others were elegant and soft curves, while one was a liberated beetle shaped flagship.
Just looking at it, I could believe what he said. The standard fleet in the Frieza-force was somewhere around a couple of hundred ships, give or take a hundred. There were thousands hovering around a planet that my team had conquered. In those ships were armies, heavy weaponry, drones -- everything we could possibly want when assaulting a planet. And…
"How prepared is the Reach?" I can't imagine that they were unprepared. If Lord Frieza is pulling this kind of firepower and numbers from the other fronts, then he must think it was necessary. He intended planet Sereall to be where the Frieza-force breaks through their defensive lines, to carve our way through to their core worlds.
Vegeta cackled, telling me all that I needed to know. Despite myself, I felt a grin tugging at the edges of my lips.
"Our probes tell us that they've reinforced the planet heavily. They've recalled five of their fleets and stationed a number of their scarabs there." Vegeta explained, excitement clear in his tone.
"So, they want a decisive battle," I theorized, tearing my gaze from the incredibly powerful force we had gathered. We started walking again, all the while I tried to picture the battle to come. The Reach would have defense platforms. In orbit and on the planet. A dozen vanguard scarabs would be enough to stall an army, but if they had hundreds...or thousands… "This could determine the outcome of the war."
I can't imagine the Reach would be so short-sided to put all their chips on us not taking Sereall, but if we did take it, and quickly, that would put them on the backfoot. Provided that the invasion never lost its momentum, we could end this war in about ten years or so. Maybe less.
"Yes, that is what the admirals have been saying," Vegeta confirmed with a nod of his head as we walked. A group of saiyans approached from the other end, right up until they saw us. They dropped to a knee, bowing their heads low as we passed. As soon as we walked by, I heard them whisper to each other.
"That was the low-class prince," one whispered to another, his voice tinged with awe. That nickname...was sticking around, was it?
"Did you see that necklace-" A bulkhead door cut off the response from the woman, her voice filled with wonder.
I glanced behind me, caught off guard by the sheer reverence in their tone. It was like they were meeting a celebrity or...well… I guess since saiyans didn't care to create any form of entertainment besides fighting, I was the closest thing to a celebrity my race had. That was...weird.
"Don't waste your time with them," Vegeta chided. "If you stop and stare at everyone that gives you the respect and fear you're due, you'll never do anything at all."
"Right," I agreed, moving on from the subject even as I saw a six-armed furry alien come to a stop before stepping out of our way, his feline head bowing out of respect when he looked at me. "When do we attack?" I asked, returning the nod and tried not to think about how weird it was to have this kind of respect aimed my way.
"Soon. We depart when Frieza shows up," Vegeta answered, getting another sharp look from me.
"Lord Frieza? Is he participating in the attack?" I asked, surprised by the news. So far, he played a relatively minor role in the way. More often than not, he was filling in the role that the Frieza-force did -- taking planets to be sold to customers, though instead of purging the natives, he enslaved them. Those natives, rather than being sold on the galactic market, were turned into soldiers.
"Perhaps. Some think so, but I doubt it. He's probably here to watch," Vegeta dismissed with more than a little venom in his tone. Though, that was in line with what I've heard about Lord Frieza.
"Well, if he does participate, then we can't lose," I figured with a small shake of my head. Lord Frieza was so powerful that his power level was unknown. Despite advancements in scouter tech, none could measure the sheer breadth of Lord Frieza's might. All we knew was that his power level was at least 10 million. 10 million. At least. He was more than a thousand times stronger than me. At least.
Vegeta huffed but didn't argue the point. None could deny that Lord Frieza was one hell of an equalizer.
"Well, it looks like the little Super Saiyan is up from his nap," I heard Fasha announce her presence before Vegeta could respond. I looked over at her as she crossed a hallway, Shugesh behind her with a broad smile on his face. She reached out to rub the top of my head, and, now, I realized that I was stronger. It wasn't so much that she seemed to be moving slow, but it felt like I had all the time in the galaxy to dodge the action.
I didn't, though. She rubbed the top of my head hard enough that I'm pretty sure I was missing a few hairs by the time she was done. "And look at that, you have a trophy and everything-"
"We were speaking," Vegeta cut her off, looking down at Fasha even though she had about two feet on him. Fasha glanced over at Vegeta, her friendly smile still there but her gaze was sharp as a knife. I glanced between them, it was impossible to not notice the tension between them. Well...given that last time I was conscious, Vegeta was trying to execute Bardock, and apparently, he was still alive, so I'm guessing something went down while I was in the pod.
"My apologies, my prince," Fasha said, her tone so polite that it was clear that she was being sarcastic. Vegeta glowered at her, her mocking not going unnoticed. I didn't say anything at all, more shocked than anything. What happened while I was out? Fasha mocking Vegeta, to his face no less, was the very last thing I expected her to do. And she wouldn't do it unless she felt like she could get away with it.
"But," she continued, turning her attention back to me, "I thought that since you're up, you'd like to come with me to the mess hall. The rest of the team is there," she explained, then glancing back at Vegeta, "yours too."
I nodded, wanting to get Bardock's take on all of this. Then I realized who was with me. Just because Bardock was alive, that didn't mean that Vegeta didn't want to kill him.
"I'll come," Vegeta announced, striding forward, forcing Shugesh to step out of the way or Vegeta would have gone through him. I started to follow a split second later, Fasha resting a hand on the top of my head as we walked together. She sent me a smirk as she patted my head, reaching down with her other hand to inspect my trophy.
"So, this is a Lantern ring," Fasha muttered, nearly strangling me to bring it closer to inspect. "Never thought I'd see one up close and personal."
"That's the most powerful weapon in the galaxy?" Shugesh commented, sounding disappointed. "Where's the battery?"
"I don't know," I admitted, letting them inspect the ring. "But it's stronger than it looks. Kaylark nearly killed me with it," I explained, looking up at the ring for a moment. I was kinda out of it when she aimed it at my face, but even still, I could recall her speech with perfect clarity.
"She managed to overpower the no-kill setting on the ring that the Guardians set. It started to glitch out and say stuff like 'extreme willpower detected' and if she hadn't died, then she was going to kill every member of the Frieza-force and the Reach on her home planet," I explained, smiling lightly at the memory. I'm pretty sure I said a lot of things when I was fighting, but her retort had been flawless.
"Sounds like someone has a crush," Fasha teased while Shugesh snickered at my expense. I shot both of them a look while I pulled my necklace out of Fasha's grasp-
"Of course he doesn't! As if any saiyan would want to mate with an alien!" Vegeta snapped, glaring at all three of us as he whipped around, spinning on his heel.
"I don't," I said, wanting to cut off a retort that I knew was on Fasha's lips. "She…" She was going to kill me. And my team. And everyone else. She wasn't just going to clear the planet, but she was going to take the fight to the Frieza-force and the Reach at the same time. She was going to take on the entire galaxy. If I had to put my thoughts on her in words, then… "Kaylark was a worthy enemy."
"High praise coming from the Super Saiyan," Fasha continued to tease, ignoring Vegeta's outburst, who just huffed in annoyance while nodding.
"I'm not the Super Saiyan," I protested with a shake of my head. The Super Saiyan was a myth...oh.
Oh...
Well...I guess that explains why my partial transformation didn't work like I thought it would. I was missing a pretty big step. I had to be a Super Saiyan first. Holy shit, the Super Saiyan was real...
"Enough dawdling," Vegeta snapped, walking faster towards the cafeteria and breaking me out of my stupor. At that, we all rushed to obey, turning a corner. Vegeta walked next to me the entire way, edging out Fasha. I don't know what happened, but they really didn't like each other.
After that, it didn't take long to reach the cafeteria. As soon as we entered the sizable room made to serve thousands of soldiers at once, it seemed to fall silent. Borgos stood up, bringing our attention to the table that Bardock had claimed before we started walking towards him. It felt like every single set of eyes was on me, that every whisper was about me. I didn't need my enhanced hearing to know they were talking about the ring around my neck and how I got it.
"You're up. Finally," Bardock said to me, but his gaze never left Vegeta. His arms were crossed, leaning back in his chair while a mountain of used plates and bowls flanked him. I glanced between them, feeling...uncertain but unsurprised.
My team and my brother didn't like each other. And I didn't like that.
Bardock stared at me for a moment as Tora went to pack me on the back hard enough that he probably would have broken my spine a couple of years ago. Borgos shoved a plate of food in my direction, munching on his own meal. Bardock's eyes dipped to the ring hanging around my neck before his nostrils flared, not out of annoyance.
"Spiral Buster," he said, earning a blink from me.
"What?" I asked, not sure what he was talking about.
"That attack you used on the Green Lantern. Call it Spiral Buster," he said, smirking at my surprised expression. I mulled over the name, thinking that it fit it pretty well. I nodded, accepting the name to my new technique. It was better than anything I could come up with on my own.
"What happened to Leek?" I asked as a saiyan around Vegeta's age walked up to him. His hair was crazily long, dipping down past his waist in thick spiky locks of hair. Bardock glanced at the two as they talked before he answered. "We don't know. Our coms got cut on...the last planet we were on, and we never heard from him before the planet collapsed on itself. It's been a month with nothing, so he's probably dead."
Oh. Well…"I hope he went out like a warrior, at least," I muttered, grabbing some of the food stacked up on the plate and munching on it thoughtfully. I wasn't exactly close to Leek. He was never on the ground, in the thick of it like the rest of us, but he was more than just a ride to and from missions.
"Hm," Bardock agreed before he turned his attention to the saiyan with the really long hair. "Raditz, let's go. Gine was wanting to talk to us. As a family," Bardock said suddenly standing, getting Raditz, his son apparently, to turn around. Judging by the expression on his face, Raditz was caught just as much off guard by the sudden announcement as I was.
Raditz glanced at Vegeta, who barely noticed as he glared at Bardock, "er, sure?" He said, glancing at Vegeta, probably to make sure he didn't make his disagreement known with a ki attack. When he said nothing, Raditz started to walk away with Bardock, only for him to pause, glancing at me over his shoulder.
"And don't you go twiddling your thumbs until we attack Sereall. Find something productive to do-" Bardock started but he was quick to cut himself off when Vegeta prepped a ki attack in his hands, his face twisted into a snarl.
"Know your place Bardock, or do I have to remind you over it?" He spat, the raw hate in his tone catching me off guard. "My brother is stronger than you now. You don't have the right to give him orders," he snarled, so furious that I half expected him to let loose his attack and kill everyone here.
Bardock frowned, but cocked his head to the side, "oh? I'm still his team leader, aren't I? And he's not a member of the royal family yet." He commented and, it was really weird what my brain decided to latch onto during that exchange. Yet. I wasn't a member of the royal family yet. Bardock fully believed that I was going to become an elite-class. That was oddly reassuring, in a way.
But the rest of his retort implied he knew I wouldn't accept Vegeta's offer to be raised into the family.
"You-" Vegeta cursed, the light glowing brightly as he prepared to fire his attack off. I saw Tora go tense, ready to either attack or dodge, while I knew the others were doing the same behind me. The thousand or so others, the ones nearby looked nervous, while the ones further away seemed confused about what was happening.
If Vegeta would have fired his shot, we would never know because of every single scouter in the room, in the entire army, beeping to display a message.
Lord Frieza's ship has entered the system.
Instantly, the light from Vegeta's ki attack died. The palpable tension between them vanished, replaced by a very different kind of tension. Lord Frieza was here. That fact seemed to give the air itself weight that barred down on all of us. On the faces of aliens, I saw cold sweats appear on foreheads, a few shuffling in their seats. The mere fact that he was in the same system as us was enough to plunge a cafeteria filled to the absolute brim with soldiers from countless different species into total silence.
Then my scouter beeped with another message. A message that also appeared on Bardocks and Vegeta's scouters.
Report to Lord Frieza's ship.
"Oh, shit," I muttered, summing up the situation rather nicely. I had been summoned to Lord Frieza's ship. How did he know I was using this scouter? I just got it! And, more importantly, why would he possibly be summoning us? Could it be about the Green Lanterns? Oh...oh no…
Just because my species thought that the more powerful opponents the better, that didn't mean that opinion was shared with the rest of the Frieza-force. Actually, most would consider fighting several extremely powerful opponents at once a bad thing. Was Frieza one of those aliens? Had...oh no…
"Did the Green Lanterns declare war on us?" I asked, turning to Bardock and Vegeta, who looked just as lost as me. Had me killing Kaylark provoked the Green Lantern Corps?! Even with Lord Frieza, fighting the Reach and Green Lanterns at the same time could only end one way. Bardock cocked an eyebrow at the question before he shook his head, putting my fears to rest.
"No. The story they're going with was that it acted on its own," he dismissed as he started making his way to the door. If people were staring at me before, then they certainly were now. Fasha patted me on the back as we walked by, her expression grave. The others looked the same, though Tora gave a reassuring nod to me and Bardock.
So, they were telling the truth. The only problem was, it sounded like a lie. Maybe that was what Lord Frieza wanted to speak to us about?
"Tarble," Vegeta said as we neared the door, eyeing my ruined armor. "You can't greet Frieza dressed like that." He pointed out, and he wasn't wrong. Saiyans weren't ones for appearances, but when you're meeting someone like Lord Frieza…
"But we don't have any-"
"You there, slave," Vegeta snapped at one of the onlookers as we made to leave the cafeteria. A ferret looking alien snapped to attention, clearly confused at who Vegeta was addressing, but then it realized he was talking to it.
"Slave-? But I'm not-" It started to protest, but Vegeta kept going.
"Fetch my brother new armor and an undersuit. Now," Vegeta growled, the or else going unsaid as we walked out the room. "We will be at the docking port. Don't make us wait." He ordered as we strode through the door, the alien looked stunned but an expression of resigned acceptance appeared.
"Y-yes...master…?" It muttered before the bulkhead doors slid shut behind us. As soon as it did, I blew out a small breath, glancing at Vegeta and Bardock. Both looked completely calm, pointedly not looking at each other, but I knew their minds were racing just as fast as mine was.
"So, there haven't been any signs that the Green Lanterns are jumping in?" I asked, breaking the heavy silence. Both of them glanced at me, while Vegeta shook his head, Bardock spoke.
"None. But, I've heard they're raising a ruckus over Frieza ramping up his slaver tendencies, and he's stepping on the toes of a lot of neighbors," Bardock said with a small shrug. "Nothing certain though. The biggest thing holding them back from declaring on us would be that they would be allies by proxy with the Reach. A lot of bad blood there, and the Guardian's have long memories."
Vegeta scoffed, "cowards. They should simply attack the Reach as well."
I nodded, thinking that would be best for the war effort. A three-way fight sounded a lot better than a two vs one scenario.
"That's a can of worms that they don't want to open," I guessed, frowning as we neared an airlock. "Because if we hate the Green Lanterns more than we hate each other…" Then the Green Lanterns would certainly lose. There was a good possibility of it too since the Reach and Trade Organization were business partners for centuries and four years of war didn't erase that history.
"What is a worm?" Vegeta asked, giving me a hungry look. Ah, we left the cafeteria before we could eat.
"It's a small bug about the size of my finger. Slimy and they live in the dirt," I answered distractedly, coming to a stop at the airlock. A moment later, I heard the sound of footsteps and labored breathing. Glancing over, I saw the alien from before rushing towards us, armor and clothing in his hands.
"You're late," Vegeta commented, making the alien flinch as it hunched over, panting.
"Y-" It started to snap at my brother but thought better of it. "I am sorry," it spoke, swallowing a sharp retort. Vegeta smirked before he turned his attention back to me as Bardock continued into the airlock. "Get dressed, we'll wait for you on the other side." With that, it was just me and the alien.
"Thanks…" I said, taking the clothing and armor from it. This was really awkward, wasn't it? "Just avoid Vegeta for a couple of days, and he'll forget about it, okay?" I offered weakly, shrugging off my broken armor, cracked wristbands and shinguards.
"Will that work?" It asked, sounding hopeful, looking away as I got dressed. My undersuit was a solid black full-length one now, fully covering my arms and legs. My armor was the same model as before, so feeding my tail through it was just as uncomfortable as it always was. After everything was replaced, I tested my limits as I gave it a nod.
Truth be told, I had no idea. "Probably," I said instead. "Just avoid him, and maybe ditch your scouter. I don't think he has your name or anything, so you should be in the clear."
"Thank you tiny saiyan!" It said, its tail wagging happily behind it. "Don't let Frieza kill you, tiny saiyan!" The wolf alien panted, turning around to leave me to my potential fate. Not wanting to keep the others waiting, much, much, much less Lord Frieza, I quickly stepped into the airlock, slapped on a mask and air tank, and started the decompression process. With a few moments, I was floating in space, spotting Barock and Vegeta waiting for me.
"Let's go," Bardock said, flying upward to Lord Frieza's ship. Even in the sea of ships that hung in high orbit of the planet, it was impossible to mistake Lord Frieza's ship. It wasn't the largest, the most imposing, the most elegant or anything. A simple saucer-shaped ship, a design so similar to the standard ship, only the colors were off. Instead of yellow floaters and windows, they were a deep purple.
My heart started to pound in my chest with every inch we flew closer to Lord Frieza's ship. If space wasn't so cold, I probably would have started sweating. His ship was at the center, surrounded by much larger ships, one of which seemed impossibly huge, bigger than a city on D'xe, but I couldn't look away from Lord Frieza's ship.
It didn't take anywhere near long enough to reach it, but at the same time, the short minute-long flight seemed to last for three eternities. Eventually, we reached the airlock that cracked open as we approached. Flying inside, I looked at the sealed bulkhead doors as the room pressurized around us. I think it said a lot when none of us removed our masks even as the door before us opened.
Inside was a small yellow alien with a head shaped like a sideways oval, almost as wide as its small shoulders. A pair of antenna rested between its far apart eyes, its wide mouth was stretched into a pleasant smile. It hovered in the air, but it was easy to tell that we were probably the same height.
"Greetings, saiyans," it said, its hands resting behind its back. It wore Frieza-force armor, though a different model than mine. It was a deep green on the shoulder pads, and a small section covered its stomach. It wore some sort of skirt that didn't stretch far enough to cover its green boots. "Lord Frieza has been expecting you."
With a lingering glance on me, or rather my necklace, the alien turned around and started floating down a hall. We followed in silence, the tension nearly unbearable. Each step brought us closer to Lord Frieza, the silence as we walked was deafening. At the end of the hallway, I saw a simple, but large door. I didn't know how I knew, but I could feel Lord Frieza on the other side of that door. Every single hair stood on end like I was being zapped with electricity.
As we approached, the door slid open. The first thing we saw was an alien kneeling on the floor, the sounds of heavy sobs reaching my ears. The alien nearly looked like a saiyan woman, only its skin was a grayish blue marked with weird-looking symbols up its exposed arms, reaching its face all the way up to its solid black eyes.
"I don't know why you're crying, girl," a cold voice casually remarked, sounding more amused than annoyed. "I've kept every promise that I've made so far, have I not?"
The alien tried to control its sobs, wiping tears away as it's bottom lip trembled. It gave a shaky nod, daring to look up as we entered the room. My gaze drifted to where it was looking, seeing the back of a floating chair, the tip of a stark while tail dangling out of it. It was obvious who sat inside it, elevated above everyone else in the control room.
"B-but-" It tried to argue, swiftly looking down at the floor as it knelt with both knees on the ground.
"What did I promise when I arrived at your barren planet?" The voice of one of the most powerful living beings in the galaxy interjected.
A sob wracked the alien's body before it managed to answer. "You promised that you would destroy our cities if we did not give our magic users to you," it answered. It was obvious where this was going.
"And did I keep that promise when you refused?" The voice questioned, knowing the answer.
"Y-you did," the alien sobbed.
"What did I promise you would happen if you tried to escape?" The voice questioned casually, uncaring as the alien broke down in another wave of tears. This time, it took it much longer to answer the question.
"You p-promised that y-you'd kill half of us at random," the alien answered. Judging by the tormented sob that ripped from its throat, I'm guessing something that it cared for didn't survive the decimation.
"And I did exactly that. Such a shame about your mother, I was actually hoping that she would be one of the lucky ones," the voice commented, its- his tail flicking back and forth lazily. "My point is that I've kept every single promise I've made to you so far, haven't I?"
The alien swallowed a sharp retort before it nodded slowly, "you have...Lord Frieza."
"Is it asking for too much for you to believe me when I promise you that you'll be reunited with that adorable little sister of yours once your role is done?" Lord Frieza asked, almost sounding wounded by the lack of trust.
The alien visibly steeled itself before answering. "It is not, Lord Frieza. P-please forgive me for my doubts," the alien said, bowing so low its head nearly touched the ground.
Lord Frieza didn't answer in favor of spinning his chair around to face the three of us. His throne blocked the view of his lower half, all except his tail hanging out of the edge. His skin was a stark white, except for black lines that traced his eyes before stretching down over his sharp cheekbones and all the way down it his jaw. His jawline was strong, his chin jutting out stubbornly so it almost looked like it point.
Instead of hair, the top of his head was a glossy purple orb, the same was true for his shoulders with a thinner bar of it that covered the top of his forearm. He was fairly muscular, similar to my and Bardock's builds over ridiculously muscled like some saiyans were.
He...was smaller than I imagined him. I could tell even though he was sitting in a chair that hovered above us.
"One of the first lessons daddy taught me about power was to always keep your promises," Lord Frieza said, his smile just a little too sharp, his eyes dark red eyes practically glowing as he looked down at us. "No matter how small, ridiculous, or difficult -- you always have to do exactly as you say. Otherwise, no one will ever take you seriously."
Now that he was looking at us, I...the only thing I could compare it to was a memory I recalled from before the tank. I was in an ocean, some kind of boat next to me. There was no land for as far as the eye could see all around me, in every direction. Then, for no reason, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea what was beneath me. That the ocean was miles deep, so dark that the sun's light couldn't penetrate the darkness and I had no idea what was down there.
Meeting Lord Frieza's gaze was a lot like that moment.
"Thank you for the lesson, Lord Frieza," I heard myself say, dropping into a bow. I lowered my head, thumping my fist against my heart.
Lord Frieza let out a small laugh, "hohoho! How very polite of you," he commented and...that laugh...really didn't fit him at all. "A funny thing about you saiyans -- I believe you're the first who can call me by my proper title without grimacing Tarble."
I looked up sharply. Somehow it shocked me that he knew my name. He called me up here, but if I had to put it into words, I figured I would be beneath his notice even if I was standing right in front of him.
Then he turned his attention to Bardock, "hello again Bardock. You haven't disappointed at all since the last time we met. Your team has been employees of the year for...ten years now?" Lord Frieza asked with a small chuckle, "and Ginyu was so sure he was going to beat you this year."
Bardock bowed his head similar to how I did a moment before, "you honor me, Lord Frieza."
"Not at all," Frieza dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I simply recognize good work when I see it. Hm...I suppose you are entitled to a reward." Lord Frieza said, his smile a little too sharp to be called friendly. "What would you like Bardock? Another planet? You did use your last reward on a weak planet for your son to purge… Perhaps something for you rather than your family?"
Oh, yeah. I forgot that Bardock had a second son that went on an infiltration mission. When no one said anything about it after a couple of years, I just assumed that he died.
"The only thing I can ask for is more challenging missions, Lord Frieza," Bardock said. It was only because I was so much smaller than him that I saw the grin tugging at the edge of his lips. If I had to describe his expression in a word, it would be satisfied. The same look that he wore when a plan came together and we were victorious.
"Hohoho!" Lord Frieza let out a laugh that came from his stomach, despite how it sounded I think it was a genuine laugh. "And this is why you're my favorite monkey Bardock! I try to give you a reward for your hard work and you ask for more work." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vegeta go very still at that. So still it was like his heart went still in his chest. And...was Lord Frieza ignoring him?
"But, if it's work that you seek…" Lord Frieza smiled at us, "then perhaps a promotion is in order? Ginyu, please come in."
My stomach started to do flips in my stomach. I wasn't just meeting Lord Frieza, but Captain Ginyu as well?!
No sooner than the words left Lord Frieza's mouth, Captain Ginyu appeared. The doors slid open behind us, I looked over just in time to catch a glimpse of a blur rush through the crack. It flipped over us fast enough I felt displaced air rustled my hair, and when I looked back, Captain Ginyu settled into his signature pose -- his arms fanned out, the tips of his fingers pointed to the ground while he was crouched down. The only difference was, it wasn't a purple-skinned alien with black horns.
Instead, it was a large alien with stark white skin, except for large black marks that surrounded it's glowing red eyes that fanned out into matching points at its temple. Its hair was long, brushing its shoulders in a wild mane. It was clean-shaven, revealing a confident grin -- it almost looked out of place on the fierce-looking body immaculately dressed in a Frieza-force armor. It made the thick spikes emerging from one vambrace, which kept a long chain with a hook on it in place, stand out that much more.
"How can I be of service, Lord Frieza?" Captain Ginyu said, turning to Lord Frieza.
"I wanted your opinion on something," Lord Frieza said, his tail lazily flicking back and forth. "How do you think Bardock would fit in the Ginyu squad?"
Bardock's head snapped to Lord Frieza and I heard Vegeta suck in a sharp breath next to me. I just blinked in surprise as Captain Ginyu gave Bardock a once over, pinching his chiseled chin between his thick fingers as he hummed in thought. Bardock was going to join the Ginyu squad? Wait, but what about our squad? What-
"Hm, the saiyans will make up a significant portion of our forces over the next few years, so it would be nice to have a saiyan for diversity reasons...and I know Bardock does good work despite his power level…" Ginyu said, his mannerisms and his body clashing rather terribly. I couldn't help but wonder who that body once belonged to before Captain Ginyu stole it. Then he nodded, apparently satisfied. "I think Bardock would make an absolutely wonderful addition to the Ginyu squad!"
I looked up at Bardock to see a smirk that all but consumed his face, his gaze not looking at Ginyu but something far off in the distance. "I'll happily join if you accept me, Captain Ginyu," he said, doing another small bow and I head...grinding teeth? I glanced over to see a deadly glare pinned on Bardock from Vegeta. I guess it was because now he couldn't kill him without any consequences anymore.
I still didn't understand the chain of command, but everyone knew that the Ginyu squad was only second to Lord Frieza himself. I also didn't know where Vegeta, or myself for that matter, stood on that chain but I'm guessing by the sound of grinding teeth that he wasn't high enough to kill Bardock. That was.. great, actually.
I'd much rather Bardock be on another team than risk Vegeta killing him at a moment's notice. .
"One thing first!" Captain Ginyu blurted suddenly, getting a look from all of us, Lord Frieza included. "I must see you pose! Posing is quite possibly the most important aspect of being a member of the Ginyu squad! The entire Frieza-force- no, the entire galaxy knows us for our signature poses. I'm afraid that if you can't do that much, then I cannot allow you to join."
I…what?
While I was trying to wrap my head around that, Lord Frieza chuckled lightly as Bardock nodded. He glanced at me for a split second before he nodded at Captain Ginyu. "Fine. What do you want me to do?" He asked, stepping forward.
Captain Ginyu seemed to think for a moment before he nodded to himself, "stand behind me and go like this." He said, T-posing with one leg raised to his waist, his expression deadly serious so I swallowed the laugh that tried to escape me. Vegeta did the same from the sounds of it with a little less success while Lord Frieza watched on, his expression betraying his amusement.
Bardock cocked his head for a moment, his hesitation getting a narrowed eyed glare from Captain Ginyu before he explained. "I don't mind, but with the rest of the squad, wouldn't I be in the center?" He asked, earning a blink from Captain Ginyu followed by a nod.
"You would. Otherwise, Reccome would block sight of you," Captain Ginyu confirmed.
"Then, if I'm in the center people would notice me first, and with your new body they could get the wrong idea that I'm the leader of the squad." Bardock elaborated, sounding as serious as he did when he was laying out a plan to take out an entrenched garrison sitting on antimatter grenades.
Captain Ginyu looked so shocked you'd think Bardock punched him in the gut, "you're right! I didn't think about that at all. I was in my old body for so long, I completely forgot that people wouldn't instantly recognize me. In that case-"
"We," Lord Frieza calmly interrupted, though not sharply. "Seem to have gotten sidetracked. Do you accept Bardock as a member of the Ginyu squad?"
Captain Ginyu gave a firm nod, "I do. We'll have to finalize some things and introduce him to the rest of the squad, but I know they'll welcome you with open arms Bardock! And maybe now we can finally start getting employee of the year now!" He said with a good-natured laugh, smacking Bardock on the shoulder hard enough I'm pretty sure he broke Bardock's arm. Oh, no, he just knocked it out of the socket.
"Excellent, then I suppose that leaves the matter of leadership with your old squad," Lord Frieza pointed out, his gaze drifting to me. "I believe Tarble would be a suitable candidate."
"What?" I blurted before I could stop myself, looking from Lord Frieza to Bardock. Bardock glanced at Lord Frieza first, then at me, his eyes narrowed into a glare. I take it that I wasn't his first pick to fill in his shoes. Which was fair, because I wasn't my first pick to fill his shoes. Tora was clearly the best choice since he was, you know, the vice-captain.
"Ah, modesty," Lord Frieza commented, looking like a cat right before he swallowed the canary whole. "I trait I admire in others, but never found much use for myself." Well...at least he was self-aware? Then he tilted his head slightly like he couldn't quite understand something. I just stared back, caught completely flat-footed by Lord Frieza himself.
Why would anyone think I should be leading a team of mid-class saiyans?
"He's been in a healing pod for the past month, Lord Frieza. I don't think he knows, yet," Bardock explained, earning a puzzled look from me. Then I glanced at Vegeta, who hadn't said a word so far, only to see a scowl so entrenched on his face I was half certain he was stuck looking like that.
"Know what?" I asked, making Lord Frieza nod to himself. Then his throne began to drift down from the platform he was on, my heart trying to lurch out of my mouth when I realized he was coming towards me.
"Ah, I see. You see Tarble, you've become rather famous while you were asleep," Lord Frieza explained, a jewel lighting up in his throne to reveal a hologram of...me? Yeah, it was me. It was a little hard to tell with all the blood and dust over me. The hologram showed me prepping an attack, the Spiral Buster, before it slammed into Kaylark's shield then killing her.
"That video has been making the rounds across the galaxy. Everyone loves watching Green Lanterns die, after all," Lord Frieza said with a small chuckle. "You already had considerable fame before that -- the low-class prince! So determined that he got himself beaten to death every day for months, destroyer of Rockoroad at three months old, and his battle power grows by leaps and bounds! From low-class to elite-class! Some have even started calling you the Legendary Super Saiyan."
"I…" I was famous? I mean, some saiyans knew me, but I figured they were mocking me. But… "I'm not the Legendary Super Saiyan," I denied with a shake of my head. I could picture what a Super Saiyan looked like -- a golden aura, turquoise eyes and the strength to shake a planet apart with its presence. That wasn't me. Not even close.
"I see," Lord Frieza said, sounding pleased. "Though, the point still stands. Now the galaxy knows you've killed a Green Lantern. You, Tarble, have become a very important mascot for my company. When people think of Saiyans, they aren't going to think of Bardock or your king. They're going to remember the boy saiyan that struck down a Green Lantern. They're going to think of you, Tarble."
Lord Frieza chuckled again, "and I wish to use that influence. I've lifted the population cap on your race. From three thousand to three million now that this generation is out of your gestation tanks. In another three years, that number could be three billion. Or more. The saiyan race will one day make up a considerable portion of my army, and I want you to be their face."
I swallowed thickly, trying to wrap my head around what he was saying. Me? The face of the saiyan race? That was...flat out insane. But...he…wanted me to be like Bardock. Despite only having a power level below 5000, Bardock was the employee of the year for years. When people thought of saiyans, they thought of him. Lord Frieza wanted me to fill in his shoes in every single way.
He wanted me to become employee of the year. He wanted me to become a leader that could win against impossible odds every single time. He wanted me to be Bardock.
"I...I won't let you down, Lord Frieza!" I stated, snapping off a salute as I felt an incredibly heavy weight settle on my shoulders. The burden of leadership. I stole a glance at Bardock to see he wore a neutral expression, but when he caught my look he gave me a small nod. I couldn't believe I had his approval for leadership, especially when Tora was his best friend, but I think he was glad I was taking this seriously.
And I was taking this seriously. If what Vegeta told me was true, then this war was really starting to ramp up. The battle for Sereall was going to be a bloodbath, and I was going to be leading B- my team into that meat grinder. Just like Bardock, I was going to have to make sure that we all came out of it alive.
"Polite, modest and earnest. If you keep it up Tarble, you might change my opinion on you monkeys," Lord Frieza said, his throne drifting back over to the alien that still rested on the floor. I managed to stifle a twitch at the racial slur, but Vegeta let out a huff that was nearly lost to the sound of him grinding his teeth. "Get up girl. With that business out of the way, I believe it's time for you to do your part."
He hadn't said anything to Vegeta at all, I noticed. Why call him up here if he was going to ignore him?
As the alien scrambled to its feet, Lord Frieza turned to us. "Join me on the observation deck. We're about to depart," he informed, flying over to the platform he resided on before. Captain Ginyu walked towards him, stepping up the platforms. Bardock followed a second later, with me following Bardock. He slowed just enough to place a hand on my shoulder to give it a firm squeeze, his expression deadly serious.
I nodded at him, confirming that I was going to take care of the squad. No matter what, I wouldn't let any of them die.
Once we were all on the platform, the alien girl included, we began to rise under the effect of some kind of gravity well. The observation deck proved to be an energy shield similar to the ones back on planet D'xe. Looking around, I saw...oh. That was a lot of ships.
Before, I only caught a small glimpse of how many ships we had in this grand fleet. There just weren't thousands, but tens of thousands. They seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see, the smaller ones hanging in lower orbit while the capital ships hung above. I didn't know much about ships, but I could recognize some classes -- capital ships, transports, cruisers and dreadnaughts. If we had even a fifth, no a tenth of this kind of firepower on D'xe, we would have taken it in a day. Or less.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Lord Frieza asked, catching my naked amazement. "I've had our shipyards working tirelessly for years now. We have an additional twenty fleets, and this will be some of their maiden voyage." I could believe that, easily.
"Some?" I asked, sweeping my gaze over an incredibly large spaceship. It was shaped like an arrowhead that must be a mile long at least.
"Three additional fleets, while the rest are being sent to reinforce the other fronts. Oh, and I did give one to my older brother as a gift," Lord Frieza said, laughing at a joke that only he knew. I didn't try to understand as I struggled to wrap my head around that. We had...thirteen fleets here? How big was this army? It had to number in the tens of millions at this point. Maybe a hundred million.
"Wow," I said, more or less summing up my thoughts. That weight that settled on my shoulders seemed to get that much heavier. This battle...wasn't going to be anything that I had ever experienced before. The sheer scale of it was absolutely unreal. I was seeing it with my own two eyes but I barely believed it.
"Now, girl, I believe it's time," Lord Frieza said, bringing our attention to the alien. It looked over us, its eyes lingering on me before it nodded. It turned towards the empty space before us, spreading its hands out wide as it began to chant in a language I didn't know. Wisps of green smoke began to emerge from its hands as its chanting grew louder. The louder it chanted, the more wisps of green smoke emerged until it was glowing with it. Then it was shining with a bright green glow.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see other glowing lights coming from other ships. I would have looked, but there was something happening in the distance. A green flame floating despite all logic, flickering there for a moment then it began to expand. Only it didn't get bigger. Like taking a match to the center of a piece of paper, the flame spread outwards rapidly. For a moment, I was confused about what exactly was happening.
Then, once the flame spread far enough, I saw a planet. A planet that made of metal -- any trace of green or oceans were stripped away in the name of progress. Even so far away, I could see the systematic lines of districts, the planet several shades of chrome. However, the planet Sereall didn't hold my attention for long.
Hovering in orbit around it wasn't one defense platform. There weren't two either. There wasn't even ten. There were twenty of them arranged in circles in defensive positions. Supporting it was the Reach's grand fleet. It wasn't as numerous as our own, but that didn't make it any less impressive.
There were thousands of ships arranged in defensive positions. The larger ones served front and center, dominating the formation while hundreds of smaller ships surrounded them to serve as support. At the very center of the formation was the biggest flagship I've seen in the past four years of war. The arrowhead-shaped ship had nothing on it. It was the shape of a scarab, but it was big enough that you could fit two of them inside.
It seemed that it wasn't a one-way view, because they began to shuffle ever so slightly. A golden light around Sereall began to form -- a shield. They had a shield that covered the entire planet. They had to be pretty confident that it would hold if they went out of their way to make sure that a sizable planet was completely covered. Not just covered, but even from so far away I could see that the shield was layered.
And we thought the mountain was going to be a tough nut to crack.
The green flame continued to spread outwards, the alien girl visibly struggling with exertion. Lord Frieza spared it a look before he spoke a single word.
"Advance."
Every single ship moved in unison, like a wall of artillery. The only thing I could hear as we moved through the portal was my heartbeat thundering in my ears. The flames stretched over miles, letting the entire grand fleet fly through at once. We continued to sail forward, the only sound in the observation deck was the aliens labored breathing, struggling to maintain the spell.
As we drew near, I saw things floating between us and the Reach armada. Mines. They were going to bleed us for every inch. I saw countless pricks of light that could only be their weapons going hot, but they didn't fire. Either we were out of range, or they were waiting for some unspoken signal.
"Stop."
As Lord Frieza gave the order, the grand fleet came to a halt, all of us having cleared the portal. No sooner as he gave the order, the alien girl collapsed in a heap, out cold. I couldn't bring myself to look away from our opponents to see the portal collapsing behind us. Our escape was cut off.
"Kikono, please bring up some oxygen masks and retrieve...whatever her name is," Lord Frieza ordered, breaking the oppressive silence. I barely noticed as the yellow alien from before put a mask in my hands, or that I put it on my face as it retrieved the unconscious alien. My mind was stuck on one thought.
This was unreal. This battle...I couldn't begin to imagine the sheer scale of what I was looking at. This..this had to be the biggest battle the galaxy had ever seen, right? Tens of thousands of ships, on both sides, defense platforms and...between the smaller ships were scarabs. Thousands of them, more than I had ever seen before.
Vanguard scarabs enhanced with silver scarabs. In the distance, I saw my first special class scarab. Its chest armor was a deep purple, the same shade as Lord Frieza, though it was trimmed with silver. An enhanced special class scarab. I wasn't close enough to scan it either, but I probably shouldn't in the first place. With this much force, my scouter would probably blow up.
I...had to lead my team through this? Was that even possible? And this was the battle for control of space, what was the ground battles going to look like? How many scarabs did they have planetside?
"Please lower the barrier," Lord Frieza ordered his tone calm. Smug almost. Instantly, the barrier dropped, exposing us to the vacuum of space. A small movement caught my eye and, somehow, I managed to bring myself to look at something other than our enemies.
I saw Lord Frieza raise a hand, a single finger outstretched. At the tip of it, a dark purple ball of ki formed, no bigger than the beads that made up my necklace. Black lightning crackled around it for a moment, it grew bigger for a split second. I glanced back at what he was aiming at just in time to see a thin purple beam rush towards the Reach's armada.
Lord Frieza swiped his hand to the side, the beam of light following the movement until it drew a line through the Reach defenses.
Then there was light.
There were no fiery explosions in space, but that didn't detract from the sight at all. Balls of light formed around where Lord Frieza fired off his nameless ki attack, Ships exploding with enough force that they caused a chain reaction. The explosions spread, far further than they should have, until the Reach armada was left decimated. With a single movement, he cut their numbers down to a tenth.
But that wasn't what made my jaw drop and my blood turned to ice in my veins.
Once the light show was over, the space around Sereall littered with debris only did it become clear that Lord Frieza hadn't just hit their ships and defense platforms. He had hit the planet itself. The golden shield was down, unable to withstand Lord Frieza's might, but the same could be said for the planet as well.
Where Lord Frieza's attack touched, the metal planet glowed at the edges where it began to slowly drift apart.
Lord Frieza had cut Sereall in half.
"Well then. I think that'll do for my debut," Lord Frieza said, laughing loudly as Sereall and the defenses meant to protect it fell apart.
…..
This chapter is one of the scenes that inspired me to write this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
…
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!
"Wake up!" Someone yelled, banging on the surface hard enough that the glass cracked and the entire pod shook. My eyes shot open, though I had to blink a few times to see that it was Vegeta hammering away at the tank, a small leak of healing fluid from the cracked glass.
"Vegeta?" I questioned, swallowing a yawn as I shook off the vestiges of sleep. I stretched out my arms, hearing a few muffled pops before I cracked my neck. Since I spent so much time in a healing pod, I could roughly guess that I had been in here for some time. Longer than normal for me.
"You're up. Finally. You've been out of it for a month," Vegeta scowled, doing the draining procedures so the healing fluid began to drain out the pod. An entire month? Not counting my time in the gestation tank, that was my longest stay in a healing pod. So far, at least.
Then I recalled why I was in the healing pod in the first place. My hands went down to my broken armor, using a bit of ki to open it up to inspect my stomach. Just above my bellybutton was a thin long line where the scarab stabbed. Though, there didn't seem to be any other scars from where he turned my insides into a pincushion.
The action brought my attention to my hands. Over the years, due to constant abuse, my fingers became a little crooked from the constant breaks and fractures. Now they were all straightened out, so someone must have reset them while I was out. My attention was stolen when the pod cracked open, letting me get out to see that Vegeta was staring at me with an odd expression on his face.
An odd mixture of pride and jealousy. Before I could ask what was wrong, he held out a necklace with a...oh. Yeah. The Green Lantern. I killed it, didn't I?
Numbly, I took the necklace, feeling the deceptive weight to the small green ring. The necklace was made of beads of some metal that didn't look like aluminum-
"It's Nth metal," he informed, getting a sharp look from me. Nth metal? The stuff the Thangarians used? "I got it from Father," he said, smirking at my stunned look. "Don't look so shocked. You're the first saiyan to ever kill a Green Lantern. It would be an insult to your honor to give anything less."
Numbly, I looked down at the necklace, a sense of awe filling me. Nth metal was incredibly valuable. I didn't know all of its properties, but it's what gave the Thangarian empire their strength. It allowed people to fly with enough of it, and stuff like that. So, it was probably little more than a decorative piece since I could already do that, but that didn't change it was one of the most coveted metals in the galaxy.
Then the ring...one of the most powerful tools in the galaxy. I looked at the emblem emblazoned on the front, an emblem that inspired hope and fear to everyone in the galaxy. For the briefest of seconds, I considered putting it on. At my absolute strongest, I hadn't been able to put so much as a scratch on its shields. I dismissed the idea in favor of putting the necklace on, displaying a fierce grin for Vegeta to see.
"Does this mean…?" I asked after a moment, my heart going still in my chest. Vegeta's smirk became a full-blown smile. He looked happier than I did as if the universe itself had proved him right and everyone else wrong. It took a moment for confirmation to sink in, and even as it did, it would be days before I really believed it.
I was being welcomed into the royal family. The thing that I fought to achieve for so long, from battlefield to battlefield, from planet to planet, nearly dying more times than I could possibly count. The gallons of sweat and blood I spilled, the hundreds of bones I've broken -- I pushed myself to my absolute limit in every fight, clawing and biting for every single scrap of strength, and each time I came back a little stronger.
All for this. To be able to call my father, Father. To call my mother, Mother. To call Vegeta my brother. To have a family.
And it was being handed to me.
"I…" I started, not having the words. I don't know what I was trying to say. A hand reached up to my necklace, gripping it so tightly that I spared a worry that it might break. King Vegeta was welcoming me into the family because I killed a Green Lantern. I was the first to do it. That was the merit that made him acknowledge me.
But I wasn't the one that killed the Green Lantern. Not really. It was the Guardians. They turned the ring off, which made the bubble shield disappear. Before that, my attack wasn't doing anything. I'm pretty sure they saved my life too because I saw it take aim at me, a second later and I would be the dead one instead of it- instead of Kaylark.
"Not yet," I decided more to myself than to Vegeta. I couldn't accept my place now. Not based on a misunderstanding. I stared at Vegeta, his shocked expression turning grave as he met my gaze. "I'm not elite-class yet. I know it could take a few years, but I don't want to earn my place by getting lucky once."
Vegeta didn't say anything, his expression serious, so I continued, half rambling to get my thoughts out. "I can't accept being a part of the royal family how I am now. I-, if you still want me, I can accept it when I'm strong enough. But not before. I...I'm sorry." I finished lamely, feeling that words weren't enough. Joining the royal family was something that I desired since I found myself in this life, but...I couldn't accept it. Not when it's been handed to me.
He let out a small breath, "I suppose you wouldn't have gotten this far without growing a spine at some point." Vegeta accepted my decision with a firm nod, sounding disappointed but not unhappy. A smirk played at the edge of his lips after a moment, "though, I suppose we won't have to wait much longer. Here, take this."
I caught the scouter he tossed my way, a sinking suspicion on what he was trying to show me. I attached the deep red scouter to the side of my head, switched it to self-scan and pressed the button. The power level reader went up. And up. And up and up. The milliseconds that it took to break through six thousand seemed to last an eternity. After four years, I was nearly used to a small jump in pl after a major fight or spar.
But the scouter blew passed 6500. Then it hit 7000. My heart went still in my chest as the scouter kept going. It went past 7500 in a split second. It hit 8000 but it still didn't stop. It only took a second before it read 8450. It stayed there, blinking at me, marking myself as a priority threat.
That was nearly a 2000 point jump. By far the biggest jump so far. 1550 points. That's all it would take before I hit elite-class.
"Oh," I muttered, stunned by the jump in strength. I didn't really feel that powerful compared to before. I was stronger than Bardock now. I was nearly as strong as Queen Teach, and she was the strongest mid-class. Actually, at this point, she was probably elite-class too. "Wow."
Vegeta let out a short laugh at my reaction, sounding genuinely amused by my dumbfounded expression. "That does sum up most people's reactions so far," he commented, crossing his arms. "Most saiyans don't see jumps in power like that until they hit their second growth spurt," he informed, getting a slow nod from me.
Saiyans grew in bursts. For the first twelve years, we looked like four years old. At twelve, we had our first growth spurt, growing to appear eight years old. Then, at sixteen, we grew into full-sized adults, and it was there that the biggest jump in power came from. An adult body could handle greater strain, its reach was longer, it was more powerful and so on. After that, at twenty, there was a final growth spurt that was much smaller, as if to finalize some changes.
A saiyan with a power level of over a hundred was considered mid-class, so by the time he hit his second growth spurt, his power level would be over 5000. The exact jump in power varied from saiyan to saiyan but most experienced a jump between two or three thousand. And I hadn't even experienced my first growth spurt yet. I wouldn't for another f-...eight years since the time in the gestation tank didn't count.
Vegeta let out a small breath, "but, if that's your decision, then at the very least we won't be waiting long. Now, come on little brother, you've been asleep for a while and the situation has changed."
...You know, after four years of war, I was used to getting punched. I wasn't used to getting punched in the feelings.
Swallowing back emotion, I nodded, "what's changed?" I asked as Vegeta dramatically turned around, his red cape fluttering out as he went to walk out of the room. I fell in line behind him, only for him to glare at me over his shoulder as he slowed- oh.
Swallowing back more emotion, I walked beside my brother before he answered. "For starters, the Reach blew up planet D'xe," he informed casually as we stepped out of the medical bay. It took a split second to process that, and upon seeing my confusion, Vegeta explained as we walked. "They detonated some manner of an explosive device inside the planet's core. It shook itself apart, killing our armies and theirs. We were one of the few to make it off."
That was...kinda insane. They blew up a planet? "They wanted to deny us a staging ground to attack planet Sereall. And prevent Lord Frieza from reselling the planet," I muttered to myself, my mind racing. Having spent years behind enemy lines, I learned the value of supplies. A fleet, especially one the size of on in the Frieza-force, needed near-constant maintenance, supplies, and fuel. Not to mention the food, water, and ammo for the armies they transported.
Destroying planet D'xe meant that the staging ground for our invasion of planet Sereal had to be pushed back to planet...I don't remember. The one with the pink sky. That stretched our supply lines rather far. Stretched supply lines had a nasty habit of snapping when tugged a little too far. For a small squad like the one I was on, it didn't really mean much being cut off. For an army that numbered in the millions? That was very different.
I caught Vegeta giving me an odd look, prompting me to shrug my shoulders, "I learned a lot about this stuff from Bardock…" I trailed off, it suddenly clicking what Vegeta said earlier. "Is my team…?"
Vegeta's expression soured at the mention of Bardock, but he nodded all the same. "They're all alive. Wait, no, there was that low-class pilot. He hasn't come back yet, so he's probably dead."
Leek was dead? That was...not that surprising, I guess. As the planets ramped up their defenses, his skills as a pilot meant less and less as we were forced to base jump to planets to avoid getting shot down. I guess he either got shot down, or he didn't make it off the planet in time. I would have to get the story from Bardock later.
"Anyway, we've been prepping our assault on planet Sereall here," there was a hungry edge to his voice, his expression becoming a little more sinister. "There is going to be a great battle coming, little brother. Frieza has assigned ten fleets to the assault, and the armies number in the hundreds of millions."
Fleets? I questioned as we walked by a window. I stopped where I was when I saw what was on the other side. The vacuum of space served as a black backdrop behind thousands of ships. Tens of thousands, maybe. Nearly all of them were the standard saucer-shaped spaceships of varying sizes, but there were more than a few other kinds mixed in. Some were shaped like bricks, others were elegant and soft curves, while one was a liberated beetle shaped flagship.
Just looking at it, I could believe what he said. The standard fleet in the Frieza-force was somewhere around a couple of hundred ships, give or take a hundred. There were thousands hovering around a planet that my team had conquered. In those ships were armies, heavy weaponry, drones -- everything we could possibly want when assaulting a planet. And…
"How prepared is the Reach?" I can't imagine that they were unprepared. If Lord Frieza is pulling this kind of firepower and numbers from the other fronts, then he must think it was necessary. He intended planet Sereall to be where the Frieza-force breaks through their defensive lines, to carve our way through to their core worlds.
Vegeta cackled, telling me all that I needed to know. Despite myself, I felt a grin tugging at the edges of my lips.
"Our probes tell us that they've reinforced the planet heavily. They've recalled five of their fleets and stationed a number of their scarabs there." Vegeta explained, excitement clear in his tone.
"So, they want a decisive battle," I theorized, tearing my gaze from the incredibly powerful force we had gathered. We started walking again, all the while I tried to picture the battle to come. The Reach would have defense platforms. In orbit and on the planet. A dozen vanguard scarabs would be enough to stall an army, but if they had hundreds...or thousands… "This could determine the outcome of the war."
I can't imagine the Reach would be so short-sided to put all their chips on us not taking Sereall, but if we did take it, and quickly, that would put them on the backfoot. Provided that the invasion never lost its momentum, we could end this war in about ten years or so. Maybe less.
"Yes, that is what the admirals have been saying," Vegeta confirmed with a nod of his head as we walked. A group of saiyans approached from the other end, right up until they saw us. They dropped to a knee, bowing their heads low as we passed. As soon as we walked by, I heard them whisper to each other.
"That was the low-class prince," one whispered to another, his voice tinged with awe. That nickname...was sticking around, was it?
"Did you see that necklace-" A bulkhead door cut off the response from the woman, her voice filled with wonder.
I glanced behind me, caught off guard by the sheer reverence in their tone. It was like they were meeting a celebrity or...well… I guess since saiyans didn't care to create any form of entertainment besides fighting, I was the closest thing to a celebrity my race had. That was...weird.
"Don't waste your time with them," Vegeta chided. "If you stop and stare at everyone that gives you the respect and fear you're due, you'll never do anything at all."
"Right," I agreed, moving on from the subject even as I saw a six-armed furry alien come to a stop before stepping out of our way, his feline head bowing out of respect when he looked at me. "When do we attack?" I asked, returning the nod and tried not to think about how weird it was to have this kind of respect aimed my way.
"Soon. We depart when Frieza shows up," Vegeta answered, getting another sharp look from me.
"Lord Frieza? Is he participating in the attack?" I asked, surprised by the news. So far, he played a relatively minor role in the way. More often than not, he was filling in the role that the Frieza-force did -- taking planets to be sold to customers, though instead of purging the natives, he enslaved them. Those natives, rather than being sold on the galactic market, were turned into soldiers.
"Perhaps. Some think so, but I doubt it. He's probably here to watch," Vegeta dismissed with more than a little venom in his tone. Though, that was in line with what I've heard about Lord Frieza.
"Well, if he does participate, then we can't lose," I figured with a small shake of my head. Lord Frieza was so powerful that his power level was unknown. Despite advancements in scouter tech, none could measure the sheer breadth of Lord Frieza's might. All we knew was that his power level was at least 10 million. 10 million. At least. He was more than a thousand times stronger than me. At least.
Vegeta huffed but didn't argue the point. None could deny that Lord Frieza was one hell of an equalizer.
"Well, it looks like the little Super Saiyan is up from his nap," I heard Fasha announce her presence before Vegeta could respond. I looked over at her as she crossed a hallway, Shugesh behind her with a broad smile on his face. She reached out to rub the top of my head, and, now, I realized that I was stronger. It wasn't so much that she seemed to be moving slow, but it felt like I had all the time in the galaxy to dodge the action.
I didn't, though. She rubbed the top of my head hard enough that I'm pretty sure I was missing a few hairs by the time she was done. "And look at that, you have a trophy and everything-"
"We were speaking," Vegeta cut her off, looking down at Fasha even though she had about two feet on him. Fasha glanced over at Vegeta, her friendly smile still there but her gaze was sharp as a knife. I glanced between them, it was impossible to not notice the tension between them. Well...given that last time I was conscious, Vegeta was trying to execute Bardock, and apparently, he was still alive, so I'm guessing something went down while I was in the pod.
"My apologies, my prince," Fasha said, her tone so polite that it was clear that she was being sarcastic. Vegeta glowered at her, her mocking not going unnoticed. I didn't say anything at all, more shocked than anything. What happened while I was out? Fasha mocking Vegeta, to his face no less, was the very last thing I expected her to do. And she wouldn't do it unless she felt like she could get away with it.
"But," she continued, turning her attention back to me, "I thought that since you're up, you'd like to come with me to the mess hall. The rest of the team is there," she explained, then glancing back at Vegeta, "yours too."
I nodded, wanting to get Bardock's take on all of this. Then I realized who was with me. Just because Bardock was alive, that didn't mean that Vegeta didn't want to kill him.
"I'll come," Vegeta announced, striding forward, forcing Shugesh to step out of the way or Vegeta would have gone through him. I started to follow a split second later, Fasha resting a hand on the top of my head as we walked together. She sent me a smirk as she patted my head, reaching down with her other hand to inspect my trophy.
"So, this is a Lantern ring," Fasha muttered, nearly strangling me to bring it closer to inspect. "Never thought I'd see one up close and personal."
"That's the most powerful weapon in the galaxy?" Shugesh commented, sounding disappointed. "Where's the battery?"
"I don't know," I admitted, letting them inspect the ring. "But it's stronger than it looks. Kaylark nearly killed me with it," I explained, looking up at the ring for a moment. I was kinda out of it when she aimed it at my face, but even still, I could recall her speech with perfect clarity.
"She managed to overpower the no-kill setting on the ring that the Guardians set. It started to glitch out and say stuff like 'extreme willpower detected' and if she hadn't died, then she was going to kill every member of the Frieza-force and the Reach on her home planet," I explained, smiling lightly at the memory. I'm pretty sure I said a lot of things when I was fighting, but her retort had been flawless.
"Sounds like someone has a crush," Fasha teased while Shugesh snickered at my expense. I shot both of them a look while I pulled my necklace out of Fasha's grasp-
"Of course he doesn't! As if any saiyan would want to mate with an alien!" Vegeta snapped, glaring at all three of us as he whipped around, spinning on his heel.
"I don't," I said, wanting to cut off a retort that I knew was on Fasha's lips. "She…" She was going to kill me. And my team. And everyone else. She wasn't just going to clear the planet, but she was going to take the fight to the Frieza-force and the Reach at the same time. She was going to take on the entire galaxy. If I had to put my thoughts on her in words, then… "Kaylark was a worthy enemy."
"High praise coming from the Super Saiyan," Fasha continued to tease, ignoring Vegeta's outburst, who just huffed in annoyance while nodding.
"I'm not the Super Saiyan," I protested with a shake of my head. The Super Saiyan was a myth...oh.
Oh...
Well...I guess that explains why my partial transformation didn't work like I thought it would. I was missing a pretty big step. I had to be a Super Saiyan first. Holy shit, the Super Saiyan was real...
"Enough dawdling," Vegeta snapped, walking faster towards the cafeteria and breaking me out of my stupor. At that, we all rushed to obey, turning a corner. Vegeta walked next to me the entire way, edging out Fasha. I don't know what happened, but they really didn't like each other.
After that, it didn't take long to reach the cafeteria. As soon as we entered the sizable room made to serve thousands of soldiers at once, it seemed to fall silent. Borgos stood up, bringing our attention to the table that Bardock had claimed before we started walking towards him. It felt like every single set of eyes was on me, that every whisper was about me. I didn't need my enhanced hearing to know they were talking about the ring around my neck and how I got it.
"You're up. Finally," Bardock said to me, but his gaze never left Vegeta. His arms were crossed, leaning back in his chair while a mountain of used plates and bowls flanked him. I glanced between them, feeling...uncertain but unsurprised.
My team and my brother didn't like each other. And I didn't like that.
Bardock stared at me for a moment as Tora went to pack me on the back hard enough that he probably would have broken my spine a couple of years ago. Borgos shoved a plate of food in my direction, munching on his own meal. Bardock's eyes dipped to the ring hanging around my neck before his nostrils flared, not out of annoyance.
"Spiral Buster," he said, earning a blink from me.
"What?" I asked, not sure what he was talking about.
"That attack you used on the Green Lantern. Call it Spiral Buster," he said, smirking at my surprised expression. I mulled over the name, thinking that it fit it pretty well. I nodded, accepting the name to my new technique. It was better than anything I could come up with on my own.
"What happened to Leek?" I asked as a saiyan around Vegeta's age walked up to him. His hair was crazily long, dipping down past his waist in thick spiky locks of hair. Bardock glanced at the two as they talked before he answered. "We don't know. Our coms got cut on...the last planet we were on, and we never heard from him before the planet collapsed on itself. It's been a month with nothing, so he's probably dead."
Oh. Well…"I hope he went out like a warrior, at least," I muttered, grabbing some of the food stacked up on the plate and munching on it thoughtfully. I wasn't exactly close to Leek. He was never on the ground, in the thick of it like the rest of us, but he was more than just a ride to and from missions.
"Hm," Bardock agreed before he turned his attention to the saiyan with the really long hair. "Raditz, let's go. Gine was wanting to talk to us. As a family," Bardock said suddenly standing, getting Raditz, his son apparently, to turn around. Judging by the expression on his face, Raditz was caught just as much off guard by the sudden announcement as I was.
Raditz glanced at Vegeta, who barely noticed as he glared at Bardock, "er, sure?" He said, glancing at Vegeta, probably to make sure he didn't make his disagreement known with a ki attack. When he said nothing, Raditz started to walk away with Bardock, only for him to pause, glancing at me over his shoulder.
"And don't you go twiddling your thumbs until we attack Sereall. Find something productive to do-" Bardock started but he was quick to cut himself off when Vegeta prepped a ki attack in his hands, his face twisted into a snarl.
"Know your place Bardock, or do I have to remind you over it?" He spat, the raw hate in his tone catching me off guard. "My brother is stronger than you now. You don't have the right to give him orders," he snarled, so furious that I half expected him to let loose his attack and kill everyone here.
Bardock frowned, but cocked his head to the side, "oh? I'm still his team leader, aren't I? And he's not a member of the royal family yet." He commented and, it was really weird what my brain decided to latch onto during that exchange. Yet. I wasn't a member of the royal family yet. Bardock fully believed that I was going to become an elite-class. That was oddly reassuring, in a way.
But the rest of his retort implied he knew I wouldn't accept Vegeta's offer to be raised into the family.
"You-" Vegeta cursed, the light glowing brightly as he prepared to fire his attack off. I saw Tora go tense, ready to either attack or dodge, while I knew the others were doing the same behind me. The thousand or so others, the ones nearby looked nervous, while the ones further away seemed confused about what was happening.
If Vegeta would have fired his shot, we would never know because of every single scouter in the room, in the entire army, beeping to display a message.
Lord Frieza's ship has entered the system.
Instantly, the light from Vegeta's ki attack died. The palpable tension between them vanished, replaced by a very different kind of tension. Lord Frieza was here. That fact seemed to give the air itself weight that barred down on all of us. On the faces of aliens, I saw cold sweats appear on foreheads, a few shuffling in their seats. The mere fact that he was in the same system as us was enough to plunge a cafeteria filled to the absolute brim with soldiers from countless different species into total silence.
Then my scouter beeped with another message. A message that also appeared on Bardocks and Vegeta's scouters.
Report to Lord Frieza's ship.
"Oh, shit," I muttered, summing up the situation rather nicely. I had been summoned to Lord Frieza's ship. How did he know I was using this scouter? I just got it! And, more importantly, why would he possibly be summoning us? Could it be about the Green Lanterns? Oh...oh no…
Just because my species thought that the more powerful opponents the better, that didn't mean that opinion was shared with the rest of the Frieza-force. Actually, most would consider fighting several extremely powerful opponents at once a bad thing. Was Frieza one of those aliens? Had...oh no…
"Did the Green Lanterns declare war on us?" I asked, turning to Bardock and Vegeta, who looked just as lost as me. Had me killing Kaylark provoked the Green Lantern Corps?! Even with Lord Frieza, fighting the Reach and Green Lanterns at the same time could only end one way. Bardock cocked an eyebrow at the question before he shook his head, putting my fears to rest.
"No. The story they're going with was that it acted on its own," he dismissed as he started making his way to the door. If people were staring at me before, then they certainly were now. Fasha patted me on the back as we walked by, her expression grave. The others looked the same, though Tora gave a reassuring nod to me and Bardock.
So, they were telling the truth. The only problem was, it sounded like a lie. Maybe that was what Lord Frieza wanted to speak to us about?
"Tarble," Vegeta said as we neared the door, eyeing my ruined armor. "You can't greet Frieza dressed like that." He pointed out, and he wasn't wrong. Saiyans weren't ones for appearances, but when you're meeting someone like Lord Frieza…
"But we don't have any-"
"You there, slave," Vegeta snapped at one of the onlookers as we made to leave the cafeteria. A ferret looking alien snapped to attention, clearly confused at who Vegeta was addressing, but then it realized he was talking to it.
"Slave-? But I'm not-" It started to protest, but Vegeta kept going.
"Fetch my brother new armor and an undersuit. Now," Vegeta growled, the or else going unsaid as we walked out the room. "We will be at the docking port. Don't make us wait." He ordered as we strode through the door, the alien looked stunned but an expression of resigned acceptance appeared.
"Y-yes...master…?" It muttered before the bulkhead doors slid shut behind us. As soon as it did, I blew out a small breath, glancing at Vegeta and Bardock. Both looked completely calm, pointedly not looking at each other, but I knew their minds were racing just as fast as mine was.
"So, there haven't been any signs that the Green Lanterns are jumping in?" I asked, breaking the heavy silence. Both of them glanced at me, while Vegeta shook his head, Bardock spoke.
"None. But, I've heard they're raising a ruckus over Frieza ramping up his slaver tendencies, and he's stepping on the toes of a lot of neighbors," Bardock said with a small shrug. "Nothing certain though. The biggest thing holding them back from declaring on us would be that they would be allies by proxy with the Reach. A lot of bad blood there, and the Guardian's have long memories."
Vegeta scoffed, "cowards. They should simply attack the Reach as well."
I nodded, thinking that would be best for the war effort. A three-way fight sounded a lot better than a two vs one scenario.
"That's a can of worms that they don't want to open," I guessed, frowning as we neared an airlock. "Because if we hate the Green Lanterns more than we hate each other…" Then the Green Lanterns would certainly lose. There was a good possibility of it too since the Reach and Trade Organization were business partners for centuries and four years of war didn't erase that history.
"What is a worm?" Vegeta asked, giving me a hungry look. Ah, we left the cafeteria before we could eat.
"It's a small bug about the size of my finger. Slimy and they live in the dirt," I answered distractedly, coming to a stop at the airlock. A moment later, I heard the sound of footsteps and labored breathing. Glancing over, I saw the alien from before rushing towards us, armor and clothing in his hands.
"You're late," Vegeta commented, making the alien flinch as it hunched over, panting.
"Y-" It started to snap at my brother but thought better of it. "I am sorry," it spoke, swallowing a sharp retort. Vegeta smirked before he turned his attention back to me as Bardock continued into the airlock. "Get dressed, we'll wait for you on the other side." With that, it was just me and the alien.
"Thanks…" I said, taking the clothing and armor from it. This was really awkward, wasn't it? "Just avoid Vegeta for a couple of days, and he'll forget about it, okay?" I offered weakly, shrugging off my broken armor, cracked wristbands and shinguards.
"Will that work?" It asked, sounding hopeful, looking away as I got dressed. My undersuit was a solid black full-length one now, fully covering my arms and legs. My armor was the same model as before, so feeding my tail through it was just as uncomfortable as it always was. After everything was replaced, I tested my limits as I gave it a nod.
Truth be told, I had no idea. "Probably," I said instead. "Just avoid him, and maybe ditch your scouter. I don't think he has your name or anything, so you should be in the clear."
"Thank you tiny saiyan!" It said, its tail wagging happily behind it. "Don't let Frieza kill you, tiny saiyan!" The wolf alien panted, turning around to leave me to my potential fate. Not wanting to keep the others waiting, much, much, much less Lord Frieza, I quickly stepped into the airlock, slapped on a mask and air tank, and started the decompression process. With a few moments, I was floating in space, spotting Barock and Vegeta waiting for me.
"Let's go," Bardock said, flying upward to Lord Frieza's ship. Even in the sea of ships that hung in high orbit of the planet, it was impossible to mistake Lord Frieza's ship. It wasn't the largest, the most imposing, the most elegant or anything. A simple saucer-shaped ship, a design so similar to the standard ship, only the colors were off. Instead of yellow floaters and windows, they were a deep purple.
My heart started to pound in my chest with every inch we flew closer to Lord Frieza's ship. If space wasn't so cold, I probably would have started sweating. His ship was at the center, surrounded by much larger ships, one of which seemed impossibly huge, bigger than a city on D'xe, but I couldn't look away from Lord Frieza's ship.
It didn't take anywhere near long enough to reach it, but at the same time, the short minute-long flight seemed to last for three eternities. Eventually, we reached the airlock that cracked open as we approached. Flying inside, I looked at the sealed bulkhead doors as the room pressurized around us. I think it said a lot when none of us removed our masks even as the door before us opened.
Inside was a small yellow alien with a head shaped like a sideways oval, almost as wide as its small shoulders. A pair of antenna rested between its far apart eyes, its wide mouth was stretched into a pleasant smile. It hovered in the air, but it was easy to tell that we were probably the same height.
"Greetings, saiyans," it said, its hands resting behind its back. It wore Frieza-force armor, though a different model than mine. It was a deep green on the shoulder pads, and a small section covered its stomach. It wore some sort of skirt that didn't stretch far enough to cover its green boots. "Lord Frieza has been expecting you."
With a lingering glance on me, or rather my necklace, the alien turned around and started floating down a hall. We followed in silence, the tension nearly unbearable. Each step brought us closer to Lord Frieza, the silence as we walked was deafening. At the end of the hallway, I saw a simple, but large door. I didn't know how I knew, but I could feel Lord Frieza on the other side of that door. Every single hair stood on end like I was being zapped with electricity.
As we approached, the door slid open. The first thing we saw was an alien kneeling on the floor, the sounds of heavy sobs reaching my ears. The alien nearly looked like a saiyan woman, only its skin was a grayish blue marked with weird-looking symbols up its exposed arms, reaching its face all the way up to its solid black eyes.
"I don't know why you're crying, girl," a cold voice casually remarked, sounding more amused than annoyed. "I've kept every promise that I've made so far, have I not?"
The alien tried to control its sobs, wiping tears away as it's bottom lip trembled. It gave a shaky nod, daring to look up as we entered the room. My gaze drifted to where it was looking, seeing the back of a floating chair, the tip of a stark while tail dangling out of it. It was obvious who sat inside it, elevated above everyone else in the control room.
"B-but-" It tried to argue, swiftly looking down at the floor as it knelt with both knees on the ground.
"What did I promise when I arrived at your barren planet?" The voice of one of the most powerful living beings in the galaxy interjected.
A sob wracked the alien's body before it managed to answer. "You promised that you would destroy our cities if we did not give our magic users to you," it answered. It was obvious where this was going.
"And did I keep that promise when you refused?" The voice questioned, knowing the answer.
"Y-you did," the alien sobbed.
"What did I promise you would happen if you tried to escape?" The voice questioned casually, uncaring as the alien broke down in another wave of tears. This time, it took it much longer to answer the question.
"You p-promised that y-you'd kill half of us at random," the alien answered. Judging by the tormented sob that ripped from its throat, I'm guessing something that it cared for didn't survive the decimation.
"And I did exactly that. Such a shame about your mother, I was actually hoping that she would be one of the lucky ones," the voice commented, its- his tail flicking back and forth lazily. "My point is that I've kept every single promise I've made to you so far, haven't I?"
The alien swallowed a sharp retort before it nodded slowly, "you have...Lord Frieza."
"Is it asking for too much for you to believe me when I promise you that you'll be reunited with that adorable little sister of yours once your role is done?" Lord Frieza asked, almost sounding wounded by the lack of trust.
The alien visibly steeled itself before answering. "It is not, Lord Frieza. P-please forgive me for my doubts," the alien said, bowing so low its head nearly touched the ground.
Lord Frieza didn't answer in favor of spinning his chair around to face the three of us. His throne blocked the view of his lower half, all except his tail hanging out of the edge. His skin was a stark white, except for black lines that traced his eyes before stretching down over his sharp cheekbones and all the way down it his jaw. His jawline was strong, his chin jutting out stubbornly so it almost looked like it point.
Instead of hair, the top of his head was a glossy purple orb, the same was true for his shoulders with a thinner bar of it that covered the top of his forearm. He was fairly muscular, similar to my and Bardock's builds over ridiculously muscled like some saiyans were.
He...was smaller than I imagined him. I could tell even though he was sitting in a chair that hovered above us.
"One of the first lessons daddy taught me about power was to always keep your promises," Lord Frieza said, his smile just a little too sharp, his eyes dark red eyes practically glowing as he looked down at us. "No matter how small, ridiculous, or difficult -- you always have to do exactly as you say. Otherwise, no one will ever take you seriously."
Now that he was looking at us, I...the only thing I could compare it to was a memory I recalled from before the tank. I was in an ocean, some kind of boat next to me. There was no land for as far as the eye could see all around me, in every direction. Then, for no reason, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea what was beneath me. That the ocean was miles deep, so dark that the sun's light couldn't penetrate the darkness and I had no idea what was down there.
Meeting Lord Frieza's gaze was a lot like that moment.
"Thank you for the lesson, Lord Frieza," I heard myself say, dropping into a bow. I lowered my head, thumping my fist against my heart.
Lord Frieza let out a small laugh, "hohoho! How very polite of you," he commented and...that laugh...really didn't fit him at all. "A funny thing about you saiyans -- I believe you're the first who can call me by my proper title without grimacing Tarble."
I looked up sharply. Somehow it shocked me that he knew my name. He called me up here, but if I had to put it into words, I figured I would be beneath his notice even if I was standing right in front of him.
Then he turned his attention to Bardock, "hello again Bardock. You haven't disappointed at all since the last time we met. Your team has been employees of the year for...ten years now?" Lord Frieza asked with a small chuckle, "and Ginyu was so sure he was going to beat you this year."
Bardock bowed his head similar to how I did a moment before, "you honor me, Lord Frieza."
"Not at all," Frieza dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I simply recognize good work when I see it. Hm...I suppose you are entitled to a reward." Lord Frieza said, his smile a little too sharp to be called friendly. "What would you like Bardock? Another planet? You did use your last reward on a weak planet for your son to purge… Perhaps something for you rather than your family?"
Oh, yeah. I forgot that Bardock had a second son that went on an infiltration mission. When no one said anything about it after a couple of years, I just assumed that he died.
"The only thing I can ask for is more challenging missions, Lord Frieza," Bardock said. It was only because I was so much smaller than him that I saw the grin tugging at the edge of his lips. If I had to describe his expression in a word, it would be satisfied. The same look that he wore when a plan came together and we were victorious.
"Hohoho!" Lord Frieza let out a laugh that came from his stomach, despite how it sounded I think it was a genuine laugh. "And this is why you're my favorite monkey Bardock! I try to give you a reward for your hard work and you ask for more work." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vegeta go very still at that. So still it was like his heart went still in his chest. And...was Lord Frieza ignoring him?
"But, if it's work that you seek…" Lord Frieza smiled at us, "then perhaps a promotion is in order? Ginyu, please come in."
My stomach started to do flips in my stomach. I wasn't just meeting Lord Frieza, but Captain Ginyu as well?!
No sooner than the words left Lord Frieza's mouth, Captain Ginyu appeared. The doors slid open behind us, I looked over just in time to catch a glimpse of a blur rush through the crack. It flipped over us fast enough I felt displaced air rustled my hair, and when I looked back, Captain Ginyu settled into his signature pose -- his arms fanned out, the tips of his fingers pointed to the ground while he was crouched down. The only difference was, it wasn't a purple-skinned alien with black horns.
Instead, it was a large alien with stark white skin, except for large black marks that surrounded it's glowing red eyes that fanned out into matching points at its temple. Its hair was long, brushing its shoulders in a wild mane. It was clean-shaven, revealing a confident grin -- it almost looked out of place on the fierce-looking body immaculately dressed in a Frieza-force armor. It made the thick spikes emerging from one vambrace, which kept a long chain with a hook on it in place, stand out that much more.
"How can I be of service, Lord Frieza?" Captain Ginyu said, turning to Lord Frieza.
"I wanted your opinion on something," Lord Frieza said, his tail lazily flicking back and forth. "How do you think Bardock would fit in the Ginyu squad?"
Bardock's head snapped to Lord Frieza and I heard Vegeta suck in a sharp breath next to me. I just blinked in surprise as Captain Ginyu gave Bardock a once over, pinching his chiseled chin between his thick fingers as he hummed in thought. Bardock was going to join the Ginyu squad? Wait, but what about our squad? What-
"Hm, the saiyans will make up a significant portion of our forces over the next few years, so it would be nice to have a saiyan for diversity reasons...and I know Bardock does good work despite his power level…" Ginyu said, his mannerisms and his body clashing rather terribly. I couldn't help but wonder who that body once belonged to before Captain Ginyu stole it. Then he nodded, apparently satisfied. "I think Bardock would make an absolutely wonderful addition to the Ginyu squad!"
I looked up at Bardock to see a smirk that all but consumed his face, his gaze not looking at Ginyu but something far off in the distance. "I'll happily join if you accept me, Captain Ginyu," he said, doing another small bow and I head...grinding teeth? I glanced over to see a deadly glare pinned on Bardock from Vegeta. I guess it was because now he couldn't kill him without any consequences anymore.
I still didn't understand the chain of command, but everyone knew that the Ginyu squad was only second to Lord Frieza himself. I also didn't know where Vegeta, or myself for that matter, stood on that chain but I'm guessing by the sound of grinding teeth that he wasn't high enough to kill Bardock. That was.. great, actually.
I'd much rather Bardock be on another team than risk Vegeta killing him at a moment's notice. .
"One thing first!" Captain Ginyu blurted suddenly, getting a look from all of us, Lord Frieza included. "I must see you pose! Posing is quite possibly the most important aspect of being a member of the Ginyu squad! The entire Frieza-force- no, the entire galaxy knows us for our signature poses. I'm afraid that if you can't do that much, then I cannot allow you to join."
I…what?
While I was trying to wrap my head around that, Lord Frieza chuckled lightly as Bardock nodded. He glanced at me for a split second before he nodded at Captain Ginyu. "Fine. What do you want me to do?" He asked, stepping forward.
Captain Ginyu seemed to think for a moment before he nodded to himself, "stand behind me and go like this." He said, T-posing with one leg raised to his waist, his expression deadly serious so I swallowed the laugh that tried to escape me. Vegeta did the same from the sounds of it with a little less success while Lord Frieza watched on, his expression betraying his amusement.
Bardock cocked his head for a moment, his hesitation getting a narrowed eyed glare from Captain Ginyu before he explained. "I don't mind, but with the rest of the squad, wouldn't I be in the center?" He asked, earning a blink from Captain Ginyu followed by a nod.
"You would. Otherwise, Reccome would block sight of you," Captain Ginyu confirmed.
"Then, if I'm in the center people would notice me first, and with your new body they could get the wrong idea that I'm the leader of the squad." Bardock elaborated, sounding as serious as he did when he was laying out a plan to take out an entrenched garrison sitting on antimatter grenades.
Captain Ginyu looked so shocked you'd think Bardock punched him in the gut, "you're right! I didn't think about that at all. I was in my old body for so long, I completely forgot that people wouldn't instantly recognize me. In that case-"
"We," Lord Frieza calmly interrupted, though not sharply. "Seem to have gotten sidetracked. Do you accept Bardock as a member of the Ginyu squad?"
Captain Ginyu gave a firm nod, "I do. We'll have to finalize some things and introduce him to the rest of the squad, but I know they'll welcome you with open arms Bardock! And maybe now we can finally start getting employee of the year now!" He said with a good-natured laugh, smacking Bardock on the shoulder hard enough I'm pretty sure he broke Bardock's arm. Oh, no, he just knocked it out of the socket.
"Excellent, then I suppose that leaves the matter of leadership with your old squad," Lord Frieza pointed out, his gaze drifting to me. "I believe Tarble would be a suitable candidate."
"What?" I blurted before I could stop myself, looking from Lord Frieza to Bardock. Bardock glanced at Lord Frieza first, then at me, his eyes narrowed into a glare. I take it that I wasn't his first pick to fill in his shoes. Which was fair, because I wasn't my first pick to fill his shoes. Tora was clearly the best choice since he was, you know, the vice-captain.
"Ah, modesty," Lord Frieza commented, looking like a cat right before he swallowed the canary whole. "I trait I admire in others, but never found much use for myself." Well...at least he was self-aware? Then he tilted his head slightly like he couldn't quite understand something. I just stared back, caught completely flat-footed by Lord Frieza himself.
Why would anyone think I should be leading a team of mid-class saiyans?
"He's been in a healing pod for the past month, Lord Frieza. I don't think he knows, yet," Bardock explained, earning a puzzled look from me. Then I glanced at Vegeta, who hadn't said a word so far, only to see a scowl so entrenched on his face I was half certain he was stuck looking like that.
"Know what?" I asked, making Lord Frieza nod to himself. Then his throne began to drift down from the platform he was on, my heart trying to lurch out of my mouth when I realized he was coming towards me.
"Ah, I see. You see Tarble, you've become rather famous while you were asleep," Lord Frieza explained, a jewel lighting up in his throne to reveal a hologram of...me? Yeah, it was me. It was a little hard to tell with all the blood and dust over me. The hologram showed me prepping an attack, the Spiral Buster, before it slammed into Kaylark's shield then killing her.
"That video has been making the rounds across the galaxy. Everyone loves watching Green Lanterns die, after all," Lord Frieza said with a small chuckle. "You already had considerable fame before that -- the low-class prince! So determined that he got himself beaten to death every day for months, destroyer of Rockoroad at three months old, and his battle power grows by leaps and bounds! From low-class to elite-class! Some have even started calling you the Legendary Super Saiyan."
"I…" I was famous? I mean, some saiyans knew me, but I figured they were mocking me. But… "I'm not the Legendary Super Saiyan," I denied with a shake of my head. I could picture what a Super Saiyan looked like -- a golden aura, turquoise eyes and the strength to shake a planet apart with its presence. That wasn't me. Not even close.
"I see," Lord Frieza said, sounding pleased. "Though, the point still stands. Now the galaxy knows you've killed a Green Lantern. You, Tarble, have become a very important mascot for my company. When people think of Saiyans, they aren't going to think of Bardock or your king. They're going to remember the boy saiyan that struck down a Green Lantern. They're going to think of you, Tarble."
Lord Frieza chuckled again, "and I wish to use that influence. I've lifted the population cap on your race. From three thousand to three million now that this generation is out of your gestation tanks. In another three years, that number could be three billion. Or more. The saiyan race will one day make up a considerable portion of my army, and I want you to be their face."
I swallowed thickly, trying to wrap my head around what he was saying. Me? The face of the saiyan race? That was...flat out insane. But...he…wanted me to be like Bardock. Despite only having a power level below 5000, Bardock was the employee of the year for years. When people thought of saiyans, they thought of him. Lord Frieza wanted me to fill in his shoes in every single way.
He wanted me to become employee of the year. He wanted me to become a leader that could win against impossible odds every single time. He wanted me to be Bardock.
"I...I won't let you down, Lord Frieza!" I stated, snapping off a salute as I felt an incredibly heavy weight settle on my shoulders. The burden of leadership. I stole a glance at Bardock to see he wore a neutral expression, but when he caught my look he gave me a small nod. I couldn't believe I had his approval for leadership, especially when Tora was his best friend, but I think he was glad I was taking this seriously.
And I was taking this seriously. If what Vegeta told me was true, then this war was really starting to ramp up. The battle for Sereall was going to be a bloodbath, and I was going to be leading B- my team into that meat grinder. Just like Bardock, I was going to have to make sure that we all came out of it alive.
"Polite, modest and earnest. If you keep it up Tarble, you might change my opinion on you monkeys," Lord Frieza said, his throne drifting back over to the alien that still rested on the floor. I managed to stifle a twitch at the racial slur, but Vegeta let out a huff that was nearly lost to the sound of him grinding his teeth. "Get up girl. With that business out of the way, I believe it's time for you to do your part."
He hadn't said anything to Vegeta at all, I noticed. Why call him up here if he was going to ignore him?
As the alien scrambled to its feet, Lord Frieza turned to us. "Join me on the observation deck. We're about to depart," he informed, flying over to the platform he resided on before. Captain Ginyu walked towards him, stepping up the platforms. Bardock followed a second later, with me following Bardock. He slowed just enough to place a hand on my shoulder to give it a firm squeeze, his expression deadly serious.
I nodded at him, confirming that I was going to take care of the squad. No matter what, I wouldn't let any of them die.
Once we were all on the platform, the alien girl included, we began to rise under the effect of some kind of gravity well. The observation deck proved to be an energy shield similar to the ones back on planet D'xe. Looking around, I saw...oh. That was a lot of ships.
Before, I only caught a small glimpse of how many ships we had in this grand fleet. There just weren't thousands, but tens of thousands. They seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see, the smaller ones hanging in lower orbit while the capital ships hung above. I didn't know much about ships, but I could recognize some classes -- capital ships, transports, cruisers and dreadnaughts. If we had even a fifth, no a tenth of this kind of firepower on D'xe, we would have taken it in a day. Or less.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Lord Frieza asked, catching my naked amazement. "I've had our shipyards working tirelessly for years now. We have an additional twenty fleets, and this will be some of their maiden voyage." I could believe that, easily.
"Some?" I asked, sweeping my gaze over an incredibly large spaceship. It was shaped like an arrowhead that must be a mile long at least.
"Three additional fleets, while the rest are being sent to reinforce the other fronts. Oh, and I did give one to my older brother as a gift," Lord Frieza said, laughing at a joke that only he knew. I didn't try to understand as I struggled to wrap my head around that. We had...thirteen fleets here? How big was this army? It had to number in the tens of millions at this point. Maybe a hundred million.
"Wow," I said, more or less summing up my thoughts. That weight that settled on my shoulders seemed to get that much heavier. This battle...wasn't going to be anything that I had ever experienced before. The sheer scale of it was absolutely unreal. I was seeing it with my own two eyes but I barely believed it.
"Now, girl, I believe it's time," Lord Frieza said, bringing our attention to the alien. It looked over us, its eyes lingering on me before it nodded. It turned towards the empty space before us, spreading its hands out wide as it began to chant in a language I didn't know. Wisps of green smoke began to emerge from its hands as its chanting grew louder. The louder it chanted, the more wisps of green smoke emerged until it was glowing with it. Then it was shining with a bright green glow.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see other glowing lights coming from other ships. I would have looked, but there was something happening in the distance. A green flame floating despite all logic, flickering there for a moment then it began to expand. Only it didn't get bigger. Like taking a match to the center of a piece of paper, the flame spread outwards rapidly. For a moment, I was confused about what exactly was happening.
Then, once the flame spread far enough, I saw a planet. A planet that made of metal -- any trace of green or oceans were stripped away in the name of progress. Even so far away, I could see the systematic lines of districts, the planet several shades of chrome. However, the planet Sereall didn't hold my attention for long.
Hovering in orbit around it wasn't one defense platform. There weren't two either. There wasn't even ten. There were twenty of them arranged in circles in defensive positions. Supporting it was the Reach's grand fleet. It wasn't as numerous as our own, but that didn't make it any less impressive.
There were thousands of ships arranged in defensive positions. The larger ones served front and center, dominating the formation while hundreds of smaller ships surrounded them to serve as support. At the very center of the formation was the biggest flagship I've seen in the past four years of war. The arrowhead-shaped ship had nothing on it. It was the shape of a scarab, but it was big enough that you could fit two of them inside.
It seemed that it wasn't a one-way view, because they began to shuffle ever so slightly. A golden light around Sereall began to form -- a shield. They had a shield that covered the entire planet. They had to be pretty confident that it would hold if they went out of their way to make sure that a sizable planet was completely covered. Not just covered, but even from so far away I could see that the shield was layered.
And we thought the mountain was going to be a tough nut to crack.
The green flame continued to spread outwards, the alien girl visibly struggling with exertion. Lord Frieza spared it a look before he spoke a single word.
"Advance."
Every single ship moved in unison, like a wall of artillery. The only thing I could hear as we moved through the portal was my heartbeat thundering in my ears. The flames stretched over miles, letting the entire grand fleet fly through at once. We continued to sail forward, the only sound in the observation deck was the aliens labored breathing, struggling to maintain the spell.
As we drew near, I saw things floating between us and the Reach armada. Mines. They were going to bleed us for every inch. I saw countless pricks of light that could only be their weapons going hot, but they didn't fire. Either we were out of range, or they were waiting for some unspoken signal.
"Stop."
As Lord Frieza gave the order, the grand fleet came to a halt, all of us having cleared the portal. No sooner as he gave the order, the alien girl collapsed in a heap, out cold. I couldn't bring myself to look away from our opponents to see the portal collapsing behind us. Our escape was cut off.
"Kikono, please bring up some oxygen masks and retrieve...whatever her name is," Lord Frieza ordered, breaking the oppressive silence. I barely noticed as the yellow alien from before put a mask in my hands, or that I put it on my face as it retrieved the unconscious alien. My mind was stuck on one thought.
This was unreal. This battle...I couldn't begin to imagine the sheer scale of what I was looking at. This..this had to be the biggest battle the galaxy had ever seen, right? Tens of thousands of ships, on both sides, defense platforms and...between the smaller ships were scarabs. Thousands of them, more than I had ever seen before.
Vanguard scarabs enhanced with silver scarabs. In the distance, I saw my first special class scarab. Its chest armor was a deep purple, the same shade as Lord Frieza, though it was trimmed with silver. An enhanced special class scarab. I wasn't close enough to scan it either, but I probably shouldn't in the first place. With this much force, my scouter would probably blow up.
I...had to lead my team through this? Was that even possible? And this was the battle for control of space, what was the ground battles going to look like? How many scarabs did they have planetside?
"Please lower the barrier," Lord Frieza ordered his tone calm. Smug almost. Instantly, the barrier dropped, exposing us to the vacuum of space. A small movement caught my eye and, somehow, I managed to bring myself to look at something other than our enemies.
I saw Lord Frieza raise a hand, a single finger outstretched. At the tip of it, a dark purple ball of ki formed, no bigger than the beads that made up my necklace. Black lightning crackled around it for a moment, it grew bigger for a split second. I glanced back at what he was aiming at just in time to see a thin purple beam rush towards the Reach's armada.
Lord Frieza swiped his hand to the side, the beam of light following the movement until it drew a line through the Reach defenses.
Then there was light.
There were no fiery explosions in space, but that didn't detract from the sight at all. Balls of light formed around where Lord Frieza fired off his nameless ki attack, Ships exploding with enough force that they caused a chain reaction. The explosions spread, far further than they should have, until the Reach armada was left decimated. With a single movement, he cut their numbers down to a tenth.
But that wasn't what made my jaw drop and my blood turned to ice in my veins.
Once the light show was over, the space around Sereall littered with debris only did it become clear that Lord Frieza hadn't just hit their ships and defense platforms. He had hit the planet itself. The golden shield was down, unable to withstand Lord Frieza's might, but the same could be said for the planet as well.
Where Lord Frieza's attack touched, the metal planet glowed at the edges where it began to slowly drift apart.
Lord Frieza had cut Sereall in half.
"Well then. I think that'll do for my debut," Lord Frieza said, laughing loudly as Sereall and the defenses meant to protect it fell apart.
…..
This chapter is one of the scenes that inspired me to write this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
…
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
- Texas, United States
I know he's an evil slaver, xenocide, and all-around bad guy, but I can't help but root for Frieza here. I especially liked how he didn't pull the classic villain "and now I've killed you, so you're back with your family!" move. Enjoyable chapter all around.
Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Well, lets hope that Tarble's heart is pure? Because if He's gonna become the Legendary Super Saiyan.... Well, He'll need it.
- Location
- Ireland
Frieza was awesome here and all, but was that Lobo I saw Ginyu living in? Given his functional immortality combined with Ginyu's Ki abilities....damn. That's a nasty combo.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
It might just be a random Czarian, we don't know if Lobo has yet killed his specie.
darkkrusty
The Forsaken
- Location
- England
"My Heart is pure, Pure unadulterated Badass!"
