Scraped from
here.
Since threads are now limited to 20 pages, this is the second part of Saiyan Quest. Considering that the original was rapidly heading towards 80 pages, I figured it was time to start a new thread.
Previous Thread:
http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/4250&page=76
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"If that's all." You say to the demon. " I'll be going now."
"Of course." She answers. " I'm sure that you have a lot to do before we have our battle. Try not to kill Syana, I really would much prefer that she lived to join me."
You don't say anything, merely taking off into the sky. Your hand moves to the buttons of your scouter, quickly pin-pointing Syana and Karako, but not Seria. You didn't really expect to find Seria though. You're going to have to find some way to do it, you'll need a chance to talk to her before this battle begins. But first thing is first... Syana.
You quickly catch up with the girl, she was making good time but she was also badly hurt and exhausted from the wounds she took. You descend slowly to the ground and see that Karako seems to have recovered enough to be supporting herself with the help of her friend.
"You saved me..." Karako says. Her voice is tiny, you can hear the shock as well as the sheer numbness in her tone.
"Not intentionally." You growl. " If Syana hadn't come I wouldn't have bothered to ether. But I didn't want her to die to pay for your mistakes."
I've made quite enough of those myself You add in the privacy of your mind. Syana is still in her released form, the golden chains still moving around her, almost dancing. Her wound has stopped bleeding and she seems to have gone to some effort to heal it but its still open.
"Its useless..." Karako says, lowering her head. " That demon is stronger than anything I've ever met... and it said that it used to be one of us...? That can't be, why would Inku do something like that? It doesn't make any sense..."
Syana is silent, but her skin is a pale hue and that only seems to be partly due to blood loss. The demon's words to her reverberate in your head. ''Soon, you will be like me.''
Not if I can help it. You think, clenching your fists.
I'll get you out of this, Syana.
Out-loud, you simply say.
"Let's find out just what Inku has been up to, shall we?"
Karako nods slowly. You can see the harsh set of her eyes.
"That sounds like a very good idea. Syana... can you heal me?"
"I don't know." Syana says. " You said yourself that the demon that hurt you before had some kind of nullifying effect on healing magic. I don't know if I could overcome that even if I were at my best. But I'm quite clearly not at my best. Since I was...released... my powers have been going crazy. I can hardly control them... I can fight. But healing requires a far more delicate touch. I don't known if I could still do it."
"Damn it." Karako says. " I'm worthless like this. There has to be some way that I can help."
"Just tell me where I can find Inku." You say. " Or failing that, Seria. There are things I need to discuss with both of them."
"I don't know... Karako says. "Inku's probably about the city somewhere but unless you can attune that scouter of yours to magic I doubt you'd be able to find him if he didn't want you to. Maybe Garos could help. As for Seria... I don't know. No one's seen her for a few days now. We don't have any idea what she's doing."
Probably training. You would guess. If she expects to take on the high demon in two days, she would have to make her own preparations. If her time-stop works the way that you suspect it does, she could cram a whole lot more than just two days of training into the time before the battle. Of course, that still won't be enough judging by what you saw of the high-demon but Seria doesn't know that.
"All right." You say. " Is there anyone who would know where ether of the two of them are?"
"Garos would probably be able to tell you about Seria." Karako says. " I don't know about anything else, but Seria would probably be able to help you find Inku."
"Right." You say. " I'm going to go on up ahead and talk to Garos. I want you two to gather the avatars and try to get them to work together -- I know they'll all have felt the same pulse of magic that you did so we have proof now. Don't let them rush off to fight her alone, Karako you know how that ends. Kill a few of you have to."
"Wait, what?" Karako splutters but you're already speeding away towards the city. Moments later, you land in the gardens of the palace, seeing a swarm of avatars who for once aren't paying any attention to you at all. They're all looking off towards the distance -- towards the high demon -- and you can hear muffled conversations.
"What is it?"
"Some kind of demon?"
"Don't be silly, that's far too powerful to be a demon..."
You ignore then conversation as you press past the avatars and make your way to the workshop where you expect to find Garos. Opening the door, you find that he is indeed down there, but he seems to be working on something new. Curious, you examine it from afar before revealing your presence.
Its the bow that he had out earlier, but he appears to have dissembled it. The wooden body isn't wood at all, but rather metal made up to look like wood. Inside, you can see circuits and wires running all over the place and Garos seems to be working on replacing some of them. To the left, there's a pile of arrows, they look normal but somehow you find yourself doubting that.
"Garos." You say, making him jump and spin to meet you. " Just what are you working on?"
After he's calmed down, he seems to decide to tell you the truth. " This is the weapon I got when I first became an avatar. Since then, I've improved it vastly in every way. I was working on some modifications for the upcoming fight."
"I wasn't aware an avatar can modify their own weapon." You say, coming to his side and peering down at the bow for a closer look.
"Usually we can't." Garos says. " As you may have guessed, I'm a special case. I'm a border-line combat-utility avatar. That means I get traits from both sides. I can't create stuff out of thin air, but I have a spark for machines and I can fix anything, given enough time."
"So why did you decide to modify your weapon now?" You ask, though you're pretty sure that you already know the answer. Sure enough, Garos replies.
"The high demon is active. We all felt it. Every avatar on this planet felt that. We have to be ready, we don't know when it will attack the city. I may not be the best with raw power but I can make do with what I have. Some avatars are gonna hole up and wait for it to be over, others are going to rush in and get themselves killed. Me? I prefer to dig in and wait for my chance."
You nod slowly, his explanation making quite a bit of sense. Its good to know that you won't have to worry about keeping him away from the fight -- since he's one of the few avatars you currently seem to have any real reason to trust as well as being the one with the best bet of getting your ship up and running again.
"But I'm sure that you didn't come here just to visit me." He says. " What brought you to my lab?"
"I need to find Inku." You say, deciding not to mention Syana's current situation just yet. It would only distract him and you don't want to have to deal with that right now. "And for that, I need to find Seria. Karako said that you may know where she is, or at least how to find her."
"Right." He says. " Let me think.... I may have a device that could help you..."
Without another word, he's away. Moving to the back of the lab and going through all the strange machines he seems to have stored therein. Several moments pass and you find yourself growing bored.
"Found it!" Garos says, with a triumphant shout. He comes back to you carrying a tiny data-disk the likes of which you found on the ship. Actually, it seems to be taken from the crashed warship originally.
"This is something that we've had setting here for a long time." Garos explains. " According to what we know, when the ships originally crashed here, an avatar made a wish to be able to detect demons from a very long way away. Inku created this thing. At first I didn't really know how to work it, but when you arrived and I saw that device you wear -- that scouter -- I was pretty confident just what it was for. Here, plug it in."
You do so, taking the device from his hands and slotting it into your scouter. You're not quite sure just what you're going to accomplish with this, it seems to be very old and you doubt it still works. To your surprise, it boots up fast and you see a tiny emblem appear on the screen before your eye. Its installing software. You frown at that, but let it finish. When it has, the disk ejects and your scouter has a new mode. You switch to it and it seems to be measuring magical energy -- though it doesn't give you exact readings. Instead, you just get a general impression of how powerful a target is. You focus in on Garos and to your surprise, he is actually much weaker than many of the avatars you've met. But he's ranked number three out of them all, you remember. So power clearly isn't everything when it comes to magic.
"Is it working?" He asks.
"Yes." You respond. " It'll take a couple of moments to get the hang of, but I can work with this."
"Right." He say. " If you're gonna be tracking Avatars with that, you'll need to know who's who. You ought to be able to distinguish the top three ranked avatars by our powers alone -- that's Seria, me and Syana."
"Right." You say, already having locked on to a power signature that seems to be Seria.
"Syana and Karako will be here soon. They're both hurt a bit, they may need some help."
"Right." He nods. " I'll do what I can."
"Good."
That said, you're off again. This time hunting down Seria. As you fly, you muse on just how much trouble you're going to keep this planet intact. In the past, you wouldn't have hesitated just to hold the city hostage until you got what you wanted and then left, but now you find that you're actually getting ready to fight against the high-demon with the locals. Just what has gotten into you lately? Its almost as though you care for these people...
Which is stupid, of course. They're not Saiyans. They're not worth caring for.
Before you can muse further on your strange actions since you landed here, you come up the place where Seria seems to be training. As you half expected, she's waiting for you, arms crossed. You land in front of her.
"I'm surprised that you were able to find me." She says.
"I had a bit of help." You reply. " There are some things that we need to discuss."
"We'll do it later." Seria says. "Right now, I need to remain focused. I felt the power spike that indicated the high demon was loose. I need to be ready to fight it when it comes for the city."
