Gine was sitting on a bench in her ship's locker room, gearing up for the mission. The Saiyan mercenary currently had her shirt, pants, and boots on, and she was in the process of wrapping her steel gauntlets around her wrists. As she puts on her last gauntlet, Aya spoke to Gine through their ship's speakers.
"We have arrived at your destination. Your route guidance is now finished."
Gine let out a chuckle as she moved to one of the other lockers to get her breastplate. "I think that joke implies that I was the one who flew us to this Earth. Make more sense next time, robot."
Aya laughed. "Someone has to provide the humor around here. You certainly don't contribute to that sphere of our workspace."
"I have jokes too, thank you," Gine said as she placed the armor around her torso and is in the process of strapping herself in.
"Trash-talk does not count."
"It's still humor," Gine retorted as she was finished strapping in her armor.
"No, humor is the quality of being amusing or comical. Your 'jokes' are often little more than cheap shots at best."
"It's not my fault that some people can't take a joke," Gine said as she rummaged around her locker for the rest of her gear.
"That's not the point Gine. You need to be more festive. Smile a little more. Otherwise, you will end up like that Batman imposter with a bow from Earth-1 and no one wants to see that."
"At least he gets the job done. And from my experience, smiling like a slack-jawed idiot never helped anything," Gine retorted.
"I'm not saying that you should be grinning and laughing all the time, but you should at least consider the health benefits of smiling at least fifteen percent more often. My research indicates that it will lower your blood pressure, relieve stress, and most importantly, improve your mood."
"That's funny, because my blood boils and I scream internally every time you talk about it, so it can't be all good. But tell you what, I'll consider it only if you shut up about it until after this mission. Okay?"
"I suppose I can abide by those parameters. In that case, you should know that I've been tapping into Central City's communications systems, including police dispatch, ever since we arrived. After sifting through thousands of communiques, I discovered that a metahuman fitting Solomon Grundy's description is currently robbing a diamond exchange and is taking hostages."
"That was easy. It's time to work for that paycheck then."
"Be sure to mind the hostages, Gine. I would rather we minimize any collateral damage."
"I'm not an amateur, Aya. I'll keep a look out," Gine replied with a tired tone one gives to a nagging mother. The Saiyan's hand then grabbed a sheathed knife from the back of the locker. The blade resembled a kitchen knife with a single edge and a wide face. The handle was well made with a white ivory-like material and had a noticeable curve for ease in combat.
When Gine unsheathed the knife, she saw its black blade in full. It definitely resembled the kitchen knives of Earth except that the blade was colored jet black. Despite its confused civilian/combat design, however, the knife could possibly be the sharpest blade in the multiverse. At the very least it was the toughest as the blade was forged from Katchin, the strongest metal in Gine's universe.
However, that wasn't what Gine thought about every time she looked at the blade.
First and foremost, it was a wedding gift from her late husband. The only thing that Gine took with her during that fateful day.
Before
It was an hour after noon when everything went wrong.
Gine was at work in the kitchen on the mess hall designated for mid-class warriors. While most low-class Saiyans like Gine weren't permitted to eat at higher level cafeterias, their kitchens were still in need of dedicated cooks to sate the appetites of hundreds of Saiyans. As any profession outside of the military wasn't held in high regard by most Saiyans, most of these cooks are either alien serfs or low-class Saiyans who are deemed too weak for combat. Naturally, Gine was in the latter category after leaving the army.
It was also a particularly chaotic day too. Any given afternoon in the mess often is with many Saiyans eating, drinking, and fighting. Today was even more troublesome than usual as Lord Frieza recently recalled every Saiyan working for him back to the homeworld. The last squads were already in the system, so the mess hall is overcrowded with ravenous and drunk Saiyan warriors. The kitchen staff is both overworked by the additional workload and stressed out due to the increased volume of Saiyans outside the kitchen. Alcohol and natural Saiyan aggression are often an explosive combination, and the more Saiyans you put together in a room, the more likely a fight is going to break out.
This is definitely the worst day she ever had on the job, Gine thought. Considering the average day for the Saiyan woman included taunts, harassment from customers, and the occasional death threat, that says something. It doesn't help that the noise level in the mess has become even more unpleasant to the ears.
Lord Frieza better had a good reason to order all these brutes back to the planet. Otherwise, Gine will... write a strongly worded letter... to herself... as there is no freedom of speech in this empire.
Gine sighed to herself as she was busy boiling a pot of soup. "I need a better outlet," she said under her breath, "Perhaps I should spend a few credits on that erotica mag..."
Suddenly, the door to the kitchen was slammed opened. That got Gine's attention as she and her coworkers stared at this intruder, who was none other than Bardock.
Bardock was currently on his knees. The Saiyan warrior was bruised and bleeding all over. His armor and clothes were badly damaged, and he was wearing a new red headband that vaguely smelled like iron. The man was also very delirious as began to slur incoherent words.
"G-Gine... What, I need to... Gine!", the man said scatterbrained.
"Who let this low-class bum in?!", a Saiyan overseer shouted to his staff. He looked over to the bouncer he hired recently, a rather muscular Zalt-seijin, and told her, "Get this bastard out of here!"
The tall salamander lady walked over to Bardock and forcefully grabbed him by the arm before yanking him up. Fortunately for the wounded Saiyan, his wife rushed to his side and swiped the bouncer's hand away from him.
Gine turned to her pissed off boss and said, "I'm sorry, but he's... a friend of mine. I'll escort him out the back, I promise."
The Saiyan man growled. "Just get him out of my sight!"
"Thank you, sir!", Gine said with a respectful bow before wrapping her husband's arm around her shoulders. Supporting Bardock as they walked, Gine managed to get him to the back door while her coworkers stare at them both.
As Gine and Bardock went out the door, the overseer shouted at them, "What are you waiting for?! The food won't cook itself!"
His shouts woke the cooks right out of their haze as they scrambled to get back to their stations. The overseer looked down to the floor and shook his head. "I swear, this job is gonna be the death of me..."
The back door led to an alleyway. Gine sat Bardock against the wall as she tended to his injuries with the first aid kit she nabbed on her way out. She removed her husband's headband before proceeding to wash his face with a water bottle.
Gine was currently treating a bruise on Bardock's right temple with an antibiotic wipe and offered him a pill with her other hand. "Take this. It will make you feel better."
"T-Thanks love...", Bardock said shaking before taking the medicine and putting it in his mouth. He washed the pill down with water.
Looking at her beloved with concern, Gine asked, "I didn't even know that you were back by now. Did you get into a fight? What happened?"
Bardock was starting recollect his marbles when he told Gine, "We were attacked on the way here, Gine. We were hit hard."
"Gods... you were ambushed?", Gine said, her voice shaking in concern. "By whom? How's the rest of the guys faring? How..."
"Gine... Gine...", Bardock hushed her panicking wife, "Slow down. I can only answer one question at a time."
"I'm sorry," Gine paused to clean another bruise before continuing, "So what happened to you?"
"Frieza, he... he sent Dodoria and his thugs to kill me," the Saiyan said grimly.
"What?! That doesn't... why would he do that?!", Gine shouted in alarm and stopped what she was doing, "You weren't doing anything treasonous, right?"
"Of course not!", Bardock shouted back out of instinct. The man then remembered how he got to this situation in the first place. He sighed. "Actually... that's not far off."
"Gods Bardock, what did you do?"
Gine's husband looked down sullenly as he began to explain, "Remember that mission in Kanassa from a month ago?"
"The one where you fell into a coma for a few days," Gine murmured as she looked away briefly thinking about that terrible memory, "Yes, I remember..."
"The alien bastard who struck me somehow imparted his psychic abilities to me," Bardock said annoyed as he remembered the week-long headaches that followed after waking up.
"What are you saying?"
Bardock sighed. There was no easy way to say this. "I can see the future."
"Can you... elaborate?", Gine mumbled confused by what her husband just said. Perhaps that blow to the head damaged him more that she thought.
"I know this difficult to believe, but it's true. I've been having... visions all across time. They were difficult to control at first, but eventually they led me to a particular event in the future."
"Go on."
Bardock sighed. "I saw Frieza... that bastard was cackling like a madman as he watched our planet explode."
Gine was taken aback by this. She spoke back hesitantly, "Do you mean..."
"Yeah...", Bardock said with scary certainty, "Frieza has betrayed us. He's is going to destroy our planet and all of us in it."
Gine was at a loss for words. The Saiyan woman took a step back and said, "I... that's just... that doesn't even begin to make any sense! Our people served Lord Frieza loyally for years! He may be a warmongering psychopath, but he wouldn't..."
Bardock stood up. "Keep your voice down! Someone might hear you."
Gine calmed down. "I'm sorry, but... how do you know these visions are true? For all you know, that alien might have just drugged you or something and this is just a side effect."
"I'm aware of that possibility. But have you ever stopped to consider why Frieza recalled every Saiyan back to Planet Vegeta?"
"I'm sure he has a good reason," Gine answered hesitantly, "Like... I don't know. He wants us all to invade another galaxy, or he's giving us a reward for all we done for him, or maybe he wants to marry the prettiest among us. Anything's more likely than getting rid of us for no reason!"
Bardock stepped back and pointed at her. "That reaction right there is why me and my crew started to investigate the Frieza's forces in secret. At first, we were just looking for anything that could validate my visions, but when Frieza ordered all our people back to Planet Vegeta, we knew something was up. So, we made a detour. We bribed an archivist and discovered a recording with the real reason why Frieza gave the order."
"Where is this recording now?"
"Dodoria destroyed it," Bardock answered with an irritated growl in his voice, "Somehow, Frieza knew about our investigation, and he sent his top thug to kill us and destroy the evidence before we could show it to anyone. He... killed them all, Gine... our friends... and that pink monster left me for dead on top of their bodies."
Gine gasped and held her hands over her mouth in shock. She lowered them and asked, "Fasha, Tora... they're all..."
"They're gone," Bardock stated as he suppressed his grief over his fallen comrades, "Frieza sent his men to kill us so that our people won't be warned of his betrayal. I know don't have any proof, but I do have my word. You gotta believe me, Gine."
Tears started form in her eyes as panic began to set within Gine. She can't believe that this was happening. She didn't want to believe that something so horrible could happen to her or her people, but Bardock would never lie to her about something like this. If her husband said that Frieza tried to have him killed to prevent him from spreading word about his betrayal, then she believed him. That, and the fact that Bardock showed up to her place of work badly wounded is compelling enough evidence for the Saiyan woman.
However, this confirmation by no means gave Gine any comfort about the situation.
Gine began to hyperventilate as her head began to spin. "Oh gods... oh gods... oh gods..."
"Gine..."
"This can't be happening... this can't be happening!", Gine said as she spiraled into hysteria, "What are we going to do, Bardock? How are we gonna..."
"Gine!", Bardock shouted as he grabbed his wife's shoulders. With a more calming tone, Bardock told Gine, "Get ahold of yourself! It's going to be alright."
"How could you say that?!", Gine said shrieking, "Frieza is going to blow us all up at any moment, and there's nothing we could do about it!"
"I know, but... I have a plan," Bardock said trying to sound as confident as possible to his scared wife.
"You do?", Gine murmured as she tried to stuff back a tear.
"I'll make sure that Frieza won't get away with this, but we have to survive first," he explained calmly.
"Survive? You mean escape the planet?", Gine asked to which Bardock answered with a nod, "How do we... What about Raditz? Shouldn't we look for him first?"
"Raditz is still off-world with Prince Vegeta. I checked. They must be having communication problems or something."
"Shouldn't we warn others, then? If Frieza's going to destroy the planet, people ought know about it."
Bardock shook his head dismissively. "No one's gonna believe a conspiracy theory from a couple of low-class Saiyans without any evidence. At best, we'll get laughed off. At worst, we'd be executed for treason. And frankly, there's no one else on this planet that I'd risk sticking my neck out for. We need to think about ourselves, Gine."
Gine hung her head in shame. Although she was treated like dirt by her people for most of her life, Gine was still proud to be a Saiyan. In her heart, she knew that Bardock was right about the futility of trying to warn the rest of her people. Even if they did believe them, Frieza just might destroy the planet sooner if he so much as thought that the Saiyans were on to him. Whether she liked it or not, Planet Vegeta was doomed. By the end of this, the Saiyans will be an endangered species, and that thought unnerved Gine greatly.
But like Bardock said, they really didn't have a choice in the matter. It was either escape or die, and Gine needed to survive for her children's sake as they were still out amongst the stars.
"What's the plan?", Gine asked eyeing her husband reluctantly.
Bardock let go of his wife and explained, "We need to steal a pod from one of the hangars in the city. They're going to be well-guarded, so we'll have to move quickly and quietly if we are to escape before Frieza blows up the planet."
"But there are riots all over the street ever since the warriors returned," Gine pointed out, "How can we get there in time?"
"We'll just have to try to avoid the bigger crowds and fight anyone who gets in our way," Bardock the got out a sheathed knife from his belt, "You might need this."
Gine looked at her knife. Bardock must have looked for her in their home first and grabbed it before coming here. Her hand moved to take the knife, but the Saiyan woman flinched when her fingers were an inch away from the blade. Gine was never really good at fighting, and she disliked the idea of having to take a life. However, this was a life or death situation.
Gine mustered up whatever courage she had and grabbed the knife from her husband's hand.
Bardock held her hand and said, "Follow me, and stick close, okay?"
Gine nodded with fear still tingling down her spine as her husband led them out of the alley and into the wild and chaotic streets.
Now
Sometimes, Gine couldn't believe that she was ever that person. So innocent... and weak.
It made her sick to her stomach to think that she was ever that naive enough to think that she could ever get by in life without having to fight for herself, and that weakness was what got Bardock killed. When she realized this, Gine swore to herself that she would never become a victim ever again.
She wanted to bury the woman she was in the past where it belongs. So far, that attitude worked out well for Gine... for the most part.
While Gine was busy stewing in her thoughts and memories, she didn't take notice of the robotic voice nagging her in the periphery of her hearing. "Gine? Gine! My dear, this is concerning. Are you having another flashback? Should I call your therapist?"
"What therapist?", Gine remarked before sheathing her knife and strapping it to her pants.
"The therapist we discussed about last week? The one that we both agreed to schedule an appointment with? The one you keep avoiding? That therapist."
"Well, we've been plenty busy this week with all the bounties and jobs we've been doing. Besides, I have better things to do than talk about my feelings with some pampered quack."
"I suppose you're right. It's not like you have an ulterior motive to accept more missions just as I was scheduling a session," Aya spoke sarcastically.
Gine shook her head dismissively and asked, "Where are we with the Grundy situation?"
"You know, I researched that deflecting a topic is often a sign of mental uncertainty."
"And I researched that we are hired to hunt down a psychotic meta zombie. When can we get to that?"
"In that case, I should inform you that I was tailing a most curious sight."
"Go on."
"It was a speedster, specifically the Kid Flash of Earth-1. Considering fighting metahuman criminals is his MO, I followed him closely, cloaked of course, to where we were heading of all places. Based on a visual scan, it seems that he and his compatriot, the Citizen Steel of Earth-1, are currently engaging Solomon Grundy."
"Is this going to affect our bottom line?", Gine questioned her AI.
"Based on a live feed of their fight, it seems that are heroes have just evacuated the hostages for us and they seem to subduing Grundy... never mind. It seems that the tide of battle has turned. Solomon Grundy is currently exhibiting a combat proficiency that is not consistent with the information we have on him. He seems to possess reflexes quick enough to keep up with a speedster."
"Intriguing...", Gine muttered to herself before grabbing her mask and making her way towards a nearby airlock. She put on her scary white mask then opened the airlock. As the Interceptor was high in the sky, a surge of air was sucked through the formerly pressurized space.
"Kid Flash has just been stabbed in the abdomen!", Aya screamed to get through the sound of rapid air.
"How's that my problem? He's a speedster! He'll be fine!"
"That's the least of my worries! With how the battle is proceeding so far, I calculate only a 13.4 percent chance that they would actually succeed and only a 45.4 percent chance that would even survive this!"
Gine sighed and replied, "Look, I'll see what I can do for those two! If they get themselves killed, that's their problem!"
"And the cops?"
Gine sighed even more agitated, "I'll look out for them too, I guess!"
"Fair enough! Should I join you?! I could assemble my mobile platform in..."
"It's just one oversized zombie! I can take him! Just watch my back from up here!"
"Aye, Aye!"
"Well then...", Gine whispered to herself before taking a breath and diving down to the skies below. After the initial flight from the ship, Gine stilled her ki and allowed herself free fall through the clouds to build up momentum.
As the winds whipped across Gine's body, the comm-link in her ear began to ring in Aya's voice. "CCPD has just entered the building with weapons hot. The situation is escalating, Gine. The probability for disaster is..."
"Not very good! I get it!", Gine shrugged off before whispering to herself, "No one else is going to die because of me..."
"Aw, you do care!"
"That's supposed to be private Aya!"
The AI laughed amusingly."Shall I ping his location to your mask's HUD?"
"No need!", Gine yelled before closing her eyes and using her ki sensing technique to sense the life force of Solomon Grundy.
Through this ability, Gine can feel the life forces, or ki, of almost all the city's inhabitants. Through practice and conditioning, Gine managed to hone this technique to the point where she could detect a specific person just by their unique ki signatures. However, due to Grundy's undead nature it was actually impossible to detect his ki signature as he is technically not truly alive. As a result, beings like him are "invisible" to this technique.
But that complication could never slow down an experienced mercenary like Gine.
The Saiyan did the next best thing. As an interdimensional mercenary, Gine has much experience with various doppelgangers across the known multiverse. She's just so happened to have met versions of Kid Flash and Citizen Steel before, so all the Saiyan had to do was hone in on their specific ki signatures. Sure enough, Gine managed to sort through the millions of life forces in Central City to find the two people she knows is at Grundy's location.
"Gotcha."
Adjusting her orientation and trajectory towards the mental target she established, Gine opened her eyes and accelerated her dive by using her ki to drape herself in a blazing blue aura. This boost in speed managed to help Gine get within inches from the roof in nine seconds. By the tenth second, the mercenary managed to use both her superhuman strength and her momentum to crash through solid concrete and make her grand entrance.
Taking a quick scan around the area, Gine could see that the Grundy situation is already a complete mess. She could see Kid Flash bleeding out in the corner, Grundy throwing two of his knives at the very squishy human cops, and Steel ineffectually trying to intercept the speeding blades with his slow metal body.
"Time to show these humans how it's done," the Saiyan thought before she channeled her ki into her feet. When Gine was only a few feet away from the ground, she quickly shifted from a head-first dive to a more upright position. Thanks to her superhuman strength, Gine managed to land on her feet with the only real damage being to the tiled floor she just cracked open. However, Gine also released the ki she stored up the moment her feet impacted the floor.
This release of energy manifested in a kiai, a concussive wave that shot out in every direction like an explosion. As Gine performed a textbook superhero landing, her kiai managed to forcefully push everything in the building back, including the people. The cops were knocked off their feet and slid across the floor on their backs. Both Steel and Grundy, despite their immense strength, tripped on themselves as the concussive force was great enough to throw the two titans off balance. Most important of all, however, was that the kiai managed to knock the throwing knives Grundy threw off course and scatter safely into the floor.
With all eyes on her, Gine stood up straight and cracked her knuckles in preparation for the upcoming fight. Grundy looked at her with unusual intelligence in his eyes as he spoke, "Who the hell are you?"
Gine smirked smugly behind her mask as she answered, "I'm just the monkey hired to take you down."
"Well said. Very 'badass'," Aya spoke with an encouraging tone.
Gine's brief smile disappeared as she whispered irritably into her communicator, "Quiet Aya! I'm in the zone."
"Sorry!"
Steel walked over to Detective West and the other officers while supporting a limping Kid Flash over his shoulder. Nate asked Joe, "You have any idea who she is?"
Joe shook his head as he stared at this masked individual, "I'm about as lost as you are."
"You, ugh, think she's on our side?", Wally asked, wincing in pain.
"She better. We're equipped to deal with one super strong meta, not two."
"Whoever she is, you think she's single?", Nate asked absentmindedly as he 'observed' Gine's figure. Joe and Wally glared at the former Legend with a look that can only be described with the look that can only be described with the word, 'Seriously?'. Nate noticed the two's disapproval and asked, "What?"
Meanwhile, Solomon Grundy, still in the persona of Cyrus Gold, eyed up his new opponent and scoffed. "Hired, eh? Who, pray tell, did I piss off this time? Let me guess. Black Mask? Tobias Whale? Or perhaps that crazy old bat from my Earth. What was his name again? Thomas?"
Gine shook her head. "Just someone who has questions for you."
"So you want to take me in?", Gold said with a dismissive smile, "And how are you gonna do that?"
Gine cracked her knuckles and tensed up. "By beating you into pulp!"
The Saiyan suddenly flew at the hulking zombie, tackling him with superhuman force before flying through the roof and smashing another hole into it. As Gine took their perp with her, Joe looked over to the rest of his fellow officers, "Try to follow them as best you can. We don't wanna lose them."
The officers nodded as they rushed outside to get to their squad cars. Joe looked over to Kid Flash and Steel. He looked at the gaping wound in his son's gut with concern lighting his eyes. "Do you think you can make it to STAR Labs from here?"
Nate shook his head. "It's over ten blocks away, and Wally's not in the best shape to move. I think it's best if he rests up here and let his healing factor do the rest."
Joe nodded shakily. "Yeah, I, uh, think that's for the best."
Kid Flash looked over to Joe, slightly lowering his head in shame. "Dad..."
Joe patted his son in the shoulder. "You did good here, Wally. Just rest here for now. We'll take it from here."
Wally sighed as he stared at the ground. The young hero scolded himself internally for getting into this position in the first place. Barry trusted him to take over as the Flash for him, but then he almost getting himself killed by the freak of the week. Barry would've done it better, he thought. It was another reminder to Wally that he is not yet the hero that this city deserved. All that Wally could do now was to reassure his distressed father with a nod and hope that he could do better next time.
Joe nodded back as he ran over to join his fellow officers.
Nate walked over slowly with Wally to nearby pillar with the intention of having his wounded friend rest on it for a while until his wound closes. "Don't worry buddy. You'll be back on your feet in no time."
Wally sighed. "I know."
Gine soared high into the air taking Gold with her, who was disoriented by the initial force of the Saiyan's strike. However, the zombie eventually regained his bearings as looked around confused by his current surroundings before looking down on Gine's torso. With rage flaring in his crimson eyes, Gold clenched both her fists above Gine's body before slamming them down on her back with inhuman force.
Although her durable Saiyan physiology prevented her spine from being broken, the force caused Gine to grunt in pain as she was forced to let go of her target and plummet into the city below, quickly reaching terminal velocity with the wind whiplashing her body after the blow. Without Gine holding him, Cyrus Gold began falling towards the city as well. Due to his immense mass, Gold was able to fall fast enough to catch up with the Gine and slam his massive fist against her chest. The punch caused Gine to crumple wildly into the air as she was propelled even faster into the ground.
Gine growled under her breath as she glared at the cackling Cyrus Gold. "Okay, that's it!"
As Gold raised both his fists to slam at Gine once again, the Saiyan used her ki flight technique to suspend herself in midair. The mercenary then channeled her ki into the palm of her hand, forming a bright blue ball of energy on it. The Saiyan then darted towards the descending brute as she arched that hand back to wind up her attack- a technique of Gine's known as Tyrant Lancer. Gold's mad grin disappeared as the Saiyan weaved around his massive fists and swung her palm right under his elbows. When the ki ball impacted his chest, it exploded into a chaotic burst of blue energy, consuming Gold's hulking body in a bright light before he was violently launched over the city in an arc of smoke.
Not relenting for even a second, Gine sped towards the screaming Cyrus Gold at supersonic speeds. Once Gine was within a few feet of the metahuman zombie, the Saiyan mercenary accelerated so fast that she seemed to have disappeared in a blink to the naked eye only to reappear right above Gold with her back turned. She then swiftly twirled around and impacted the back of her fist into Gold's head, twisting his body around as he was propelled into the streets below.
Before he could crash into the asphalt, however, Gine formed another ball of blue energy into her palm. The Saiyan performed another one of her techniques, the Spirit Javelin, and threw the ball of ki towards Cyrus Gold. The volatile energy ball crashed into the zombie's stomach, and once there, Gine stopped herself and closed her eyes.
The Saiyan then turned her focus towards the Spirit Javelin she launched. Using her finely honed control over her ki, Gine directed her energy attack to swerve Gold over the streets, scaring civilians and shaking cars as his body passed them. With a primal yell, Gine pushed her palm forward and directed her Spirit Javelin to propel Gold towards the hills outside the city to avoid any civilians. The Spirit Javelin crashed Grundy into one of the windmills in that area before detonating into a massive fiery cloud. The force of this explosion managed to rip several nearby windmills off the ground as they all scattered into the hills, creating deep furrows of dirt into the formerly scenic landscape.
Gine flew over to the scene and hovered above the ruined windmill field. When the smoke cleared, Gine saw a massive crater in the middle of the field. The dirt beneath her was charred with a few red hot embers throughout, and all the windmills in and near the crater were toppled with various levels of damage.
"That was... excessive," Aya told her friend with unease in her voice. As the Interceptor flew behind Gine, Aya continued, "Was that level of force truly necessary?"
Gine shrugged. "No one got hurt."
"Grundy might beg to differ."
"If he's as resilient as you say, Grundy should be able to take a blast like that."
"How do you know?"
Gine pointed at the crater. "Because that windmill over there is moving on it's own."
Back on the crater, Gold lifted said windmill over his head. With an enraged scowl over his face, the zombie held the entire windmill high before tossing the machine over several feet with a booming roar.
A thin veil of steam was now emanating from Gold's scorched skin. His clothes were burnt and in tatters, particularly his shirt, which was reduced into a few strips of cloth draping his muscular torso. Shouting in frustration, Gold ripped away the remnants of his shirt, leaving his torso bare. To add to his displeasure, Gold looked behind his back to see that all but two of his knives were lost in that explosion.
That fact hurt the former mobster the most.
Not able to hold in all of his burning hatred anymore, Cyrus Gold let out a primal roar loud enough to echo to the city below. "GET DOWN HERE! YOU COWARDLY BITCH! I'LL RIP YOU IN HALF!"
Gine let out a small laugh. "Looks like he's losing it."
Aya, being the more level-headed of the two, voiced her concerns. "I detect a 2.13 percent increase in muscle mass. His adrenal glands must have also been mutated from the Particle Accelerator Explosion. He's gotten stronger. Perhaps it's best if you let me use the ship's weapon systems to..."
"Negative," Gine told her with a firm voice, "I'm going to finish this fight."
"I am seriously against that course of action. We don't completely understand his powers or how strong he could be. I think it would better if we..."
"I've faced bigger, Aya," Gine countered, "I can handle him. Just standby and ready a holding cell when I'm done."
"I can't talk you out this, can I?"
"I'm a Saiyan and there's a fight waiting for me below. What do you think?"
Aya sighed. As she doesn't breathe, it's more of a symbolic mood indicator than anything else. "Just be careful."
"Copy that," Gine responded before floating down from the sky. She landed on the same, smoking crater as Gold a few seconds later. When her eyes met the zombie's own crimson irises, she taunted, "I'm guessing from that temper tantrum that you're not yet done with your beatdown. Am I right?"
Gold exhaled furiously. "I wouldn't mock, lady! I'm gonna kill you! How slow you want to go depends on how much you piss me off."
"If you say so. But if you don't mind my asking, how come you're speaking so good? My intel told me that you're just another unthinking brute."
"Your intel, eh? Shows what you know. You must be thinking of my idiot roommate, Grundy. Me, on the other hand, I'm the most dangerous bastard on two Earths! I've got moves like you've never seen!"
"That so?", Gine asked her curiosity piqued. She then raised both her fists. "You wanna back up that claim, or are you just a rotting bag of hot air?"
Gold responded by ripping his remaining knives off his back. With a pained scream, the zombie lifted one of them in the air before he threw it at Gine. Before it came close to Gine, however, another knife, a black one, sliced through the blade, cutting through the softer metal and left it clattering into the floor in pieces before flying past the undead brute.
Gold's eyes widened as he gasped, "What the hell?!"
"I don't mean to sound crude, but mine's bigger," Gine joked. Gold growled as he raised his other hand to throw his last knife. However, before he could go through the motions, his wrist was struck behind by Gine's knife.
"GAAAHH!", Gold screamed as the pain forced him to drop his knife. As he was clutching his injured arm, Gold noticed that the knife that Gine was halfway into his flesh, spilling his rotting black blood all over his wrist. The former mobster shuddered as he realized that his supposedly impenetrable flesh has been pierced easily by this black blade. "That's... that's impossible!"
No respite for the wicked, however, as Gine flew in while her opponent was distracted. She planted her fist into Gold's gut. As the zombie let out a pained gasp, Gine swung her fist upward to uppercut her opponent in the chin, lifting him off his feet and sending him to the air. Gine tried to continue her momentum by flying at Gold with her fist raised, however, the zombie managed to shake out of his pained haze through sheer hatred.
He managed to catch Gine's shoulders in midair with his giant hands, restraining her before slamming his head against her mask. With his enemy disoriented, Gold flipped around to drop both himself and Gine into the ground. Gold slammed Gine into the charred earth, spraying burnt dirt everywhere. With the Saiyan trapped under the hulking zombie, Gold laughed maliciously as he began to pound Gine with his fists.
Although the Saiyan warrior was made bloody and bruised after each brutal punch, Gine never lost her focus. Even though Gold's weight bearing down on her prevented Gine from getting back up, her arms and upper torso was free to move around now that Gold had let go of her. She also noticed that her knife was still embedded into the metahuman's bleeding wrist. Thanks to the training ingrained in both her mind and her muscles, Gine knew exactly what to do to regain the upper hand. All that she needed now is to remember the experiences that made her the way she is and channel the anger she keeps in her heart. Inhaling deeply, Gine's mind focused on the person she hated the most.
Even as Gine began her deep breaths, Gold continued to mercilessly punch her in the face, cracking her mask.
Gold continued to laugh. "You're one tough punching bag, I'll give you that! But you'll break! They always..."
Gold's last punch was interrupted when Gine swerved her head suddenly to avoid the zombie's fist. With his stabbed arm down, Gine locked one of her arms around Cyrus Gold's fist before he could react. Using her free hand, Gine quickly grabbed her knife, twisting it free from the zombie's oozing flesh, and ripping the blade out of his arm.
"GRRAAAHH!", Gold screamed as he arched out his back and grabbed pained wrist, which was spraying black blood everywhere. Now that her weapon is back in her hands, Gine thrusted her knife into Gold's side, piercing his tough ribs with ease. "You bitch!", he cursed as the zombie got up and hastily backed away from his enemy with the knife slowly sliding off his ribs.
As Gine got back up and sheathed her knife, she glared daggers at the wounded Gold as he nursed his bloody side with his bloody arm.
"I don't break!", Gine snarled back at him.
She then let out a monstrous roar as her entire body tensed up and a burning blue aura shined around the proud Saiyan warrior. This light actually managed to blind Cyrus Gold as he lifted his other hand to protect his eyes. "What the hell is this?! Who are you?!"
"I am a Saiyan!", the mercenary yelled before darting towards Cyrus Gold like a blazing blue meteor at twice the speed of sound. Gine then crashed into the undead brute, caving in half of his ribs, before being being buried into the crater. The bright blue bullet then shot out of the windmill fields and flying across the skies back into the city.
Gine dragged Gold through the upper level of a skyscraper, carving a trail of carnage and scaring the passersby before the blue meteor began to descend into the streets below. They eventually landed in the middle of a college football field, kicking up dirt and artificial grass as they crashed. The football team that was practicing in it fled immediately as Gine stood up and lifted Gold up by the neck.
"And you are nothing," Gine spat before punching Gold in the face, launching him towards the end of the field next to the goalpost.
After tumbling over the grassy field, Cyrus Gold groaned and pushed himself back up, kneeling at first as he felt something wet running down his cheek. The brute swiped his thumb over it, and he saw that his enemy drew blood with merely her fists. Continually frustrated that some woman managed to give him so much grief, Gold turned to Gine hatefully before breaking into a sprint towards her. With labored breath and foam dripping from his mouth, the zombie ran at speeds faster than an Olympic athlete as he charged towards his enemy with the single-minded intent of ripping the upstart apart with his bare hands.
Suddenly, however, Gine went from standing perfectly still to flying towards her opponent at speeds ten times faster than a military jet, cracking the air around her as the blue meteor created a massive sonic boom. To Gine, Gold may as well be moving in slow motion as she managed to close the distance between herself and him in one second. One half-second later, Gine planted her feet on the ground and channeled some of her ki into her fist, charging it with a bright blue glow.
Gine gritted her teeth and drove her glowing fist downward to one of Gold's knees. The force of this punch was so great that it bent the incredibly durable knee in a direction that it's not suppose to. The fist actually shaped the zombie's leg almost into a C shape.
"GOD! OH GOD NO!", Gold screamed pitifully as he limped back with his one good leg before just tipping over into his back. The wounded brute crawled into a fetal position as he clutched his mangled and nonfunctional leg. The former mobster was about to reach out and try to bending his knee back into its right shape, but then Gine picked him back up by the neck.
Gine exhaled, venting the anger she was hiding before screaming, "RAAAHH!"
She headbutted Gold so hard that her mask snapped in two. The fragments of the ruined mask slipped off Gine's face as Gold laid down with his eyes glazed over in disorientation and turning into their original silver color, reverting the zombie back into his more simple-minded Solomon Grundy persona.
Even with her target helpless on the ground, Gine glared at him with pure hatred as she knelt next to Grundy and began furiously beating his face in with her fists as Cyrus Gold did to her before. Each punch impacted against Grundy's face harder than the last, taxing his superhuman hide as his bruises grew more bloodier and his eyes began to turn black. The zombie's teeth began to splinter and his mouth ooze blood.
A blood red haze covered Gine's eyes as she vented her rage into the villain's face. She could feel his bones cracking under her knuckles, feel her hands wet with his blood... and her own.
On a primal level, Gine was excited by this violence, but this was by no means her first time. Whenever she allowed this rage to overtake her like this, Gine could just forget everything that she's been through. Bardock's death, the destruction of her home, all the horrible things that happened afterward- they were all swept away as Gine channeled that rage into a unthinking stream of power.
And this power made Gine feel whole again.
Gine felt that she had this zombie's pitiful life in her hands, and it felt great! The Saiyan woman went through her entire life under the mercy of men like Cyrus Gold, so why shouldn't she take some that power for herself?
After everything she's been through, that pleasure was her right!
Gine continued to beat in Grundy's face for another minute or two. If it wasn't for the zombie's superhuman strength, Grundy would've been dead by now with his face flattened and reduced to mush. But even then, Grundy couldn't survive Gine's beatdown for much longer as his face grew black with blood and inflamed with swelling.
After the twentieth or twenty-first punch, Gine raised her fist and charged it blue with ki, ready to deliver the killing blow and splatter Grundy's brains all over the grass. As Gine was bringing her fist down, however, a pair of slender hands gripped her arm, stopping the Saiyan from killing the villain. The rage-filled Gine looked back to see that it was Aya, in her human form, who was stopping her.
Aya looked deep into her friend's eyes with an air of concern behind her firm expression. Her big blue eyes pierced into Gine's soul as the AI simply pleaded, "Don't. You're better than this, Gine."
Looking back into her friend's eyes, the rage within Gine began to subside as the Saiyan calmed herself down with deep breaths. Aya let go of Gine as she stood back up and looked down to see what her blind rage had wrought.
The wounded zombie gasped and heaved as pain wracked his entire body. Tears began running down Grundy's cheeks, mixing with the blood on his face. "Stop... stop... don't hurt Grundy no more... Grundy will be good... Grundy promise... stop hurting Grundy... please..."
Shame replaced the anger within Gine as she heard the broken villain's pleas. The Saiyan looked down to her hands to see that they were stained with Grundy's black blood, a visible marker for her guilt.
There was a time in Gine's life where she thought that doing these kinds of actions were unthinkable, but that was a long time ago. The things that the Saiyan had seen, the things that she was forced to do in order to survive changed her. Made her cold inside. Turned her into someone she doesn't even recognize anymore. Gine didn't want to admit it, but she has became just another Saiyan thug, a stereotype that she used to hate when she was younger.
"Gine, don't... don't beat yourself up over this. Let's just go, alright? Our mission is finished," Aya spoke softly as she held on to her friend's shoulders.
Still shaking, Gine simply responded with a nod as she performed some breathing exercises. Aya took a step back and began to fly into the air. As the Interceptor uncloaked behind her, Aya stretched out her palm to project a ray of green light at Solomon Grundy, a tractor beam. The ship then opened its entrance hatch to allow Aya to fly into it with the prisoner. Gine took a little longer to go back, however. She needed a moment to compose herself.
"Get it together, Gine," she spoke harshly, "You've done worse than this! Don't fall apart now!"
Gine nearly began to hyperventilate as she tried to calm herself down. After a couple deep breaths, however, Gine quickly managed to center herself. She stilled her shaking and replaced her nervous expression by suppressing all her feelings, putting it into a box, shoving it into a deep well of shame, and locking it away. With that, all emotion exited Gine's face, her rough facade restored.
After exhaling one last time, Gine flew after Aya and entered her ship. The Interceptor closed its entrance hatch before flying towards the skies and disappearing into the clouds as it reactivated its cloaking device.
The mission, barring a few hiccups, was a success. Grundy was now on his way to be presented to Director Lawrence, wrapped up in a bow like a Christmas gift. Unbeknownst to the Saiyan, however, a few of CCPD's finest managed to arrive at the stadium's entrance but too late to stop Gine and Aya from taking Grundy from them. Led by Detective Joe West, the cops raced toward the center of the field to keep track of the invisible aircraft that is now making a visible trail through the clouds.
The officers in attendance had their mouths held wide opened, gasping at the sight that they had just witnessed. Even in a city filled with fantastic metahumans, two aliens abducting a zombie before flying off in their invisible plane was something new to most of the cops in the department.
Well... maybe not the alien bit.
One of the cops removed his sunglasses as he took in the view. He asked Joe, "Are we being invaded again?"
Joe sighed. By now, he knew when something big is about to go down. With Barry gone, Joe knew that this was going to be a rough one this time. He looked over to his fellow officer and answered, "I really hope not. It's not even fall yet."
In the Interceptor, Gine and Aya had just threw Solomon Grundy into one of their holding cells in the ship's brig, its lowest level. While this setup is a far cry from the more proper prisons in the larger universe, the brig allows the two mercenaries space to contain their captures until they could be transported to their clients. To aid in that purpose, these cells are equipped with power dampeners and are built strong enough to contain a Kryptonian.
After Aya had summoned some medical probes to sedate Grundy and attend to his injuries, Gine had walked off to the elevator and silently took the lift up to the main deck. Exiting the elevator, Gine removed the armor from her body and lazily dropping them to the floor before heading to the showers. After spending a few minutes to clean herself, the Saiyan walked out of the bathroom with just a green shirt and black shorts. However, she let out a big yawn as her eyelids were beginning to sag.
Gine was exhausted. Barring that short nap on the bar, the Saiyan hadn't properly slept for over twenty hours now. She was just that busy from all the contracts she had accepted this week. Even though Gine is almost invulnerable, she is not immune to the ravages of fatigue once the adrenaline wore off. That, and she had a lot on her troubled mind at the moment and would much rather sleep it off.
To that end, the Saiyan walked over to her ship's living room before taking a lazy drop into her couch. As Gine laid her body across the couch and rested her head on the arm cushion, Aya came to her in the form of one of her eye probes and told her, "You seem very injured from your last battle. We should perform a check-up this instant."
The Saiyan groaned. Gine was so tired that she barely had enough energy to open her eyes, so taking a nap was more important in her mind. "Don't bust your circuits over me. I'm fine," Aya ignored her friend's request and performed a medical scan across her body, briefly shining a green light into Gine's eyes, "You're not my mom, Aya."
"After all the times you stupidly risked your life, I may as well be!", the AI scolded, "You're currently experiencing a mild concussion. There are a few bone fractures and contusions, but nothing that rest or medicine can't fix."
"In that case...", Gine flipped her body to the side, disrupting Aya's scans. She closed her eyes and grumbled, "Let me get to it."
Aya sighed. "You're not invincible, Gine. If you allowed me to subdue Grundy with the ship's weapons, you could have been spared that beating. Your Saiyan physiology may be strong, but soon enough, your body won't be able to handle the intense punishment and stress you subject it to on a daily basis. You could get seriously injured or worse."
"I'm a Saiyan. If I'm not fighting, then I'm not living up to my full potential. I am a warrior to the genetic level. It's just what I am. It's what I'm supposed to be. There's no changing that."
"It's not about genetics, Gine! It's about you receiving these injuries on every mission even when you don't have to! You're starting to worry me."
"Don't," Gine said yawning, "I'm not another low-class weakling who breaks like a twig at the slightest pressure. I'm a survivor. I can handle anything."
Aya was silent for a moment. "You know, self-aggrandizing and bravado was never a good look on you. You could never pull it off right. Something's bothering you. I can tell. Do you want to talk about it? You've been through a lot today."
Gine shut her eyes tighter as she responded, "Nothing fazes me anymore. I just need a nap."
Aya's eye probe lingered in Gine for a while before looking down and flying away. "You can tell me anything. You know that, right?"
Gine remained silent. She pretended to have fallen asleep for a few minutes to fool Aya. The AI saw through this act fairly easily, but she knew by now that she can't get anything out of Gine if she didn't want to.
"Good night, my friend."
"Good night...", Gine said under her breath as she slowly allowed her drowsiness to overcome her.
In truth, Gine never had a good night's sleep in a long time. No matter how much she rested, the pain of Bardock's death will always be there in her broken heart for the rest of her life. That loss and the death of her oldest child will remind Gine of all her most painful moments. It will weigh her down with regret and thoughts of what could have been, and it will always remind the Saiyan of her failures and the flaws of her character.
"I wish I could just tell her," Gine thought to herself, "I wish I could tell Aya that Bardock's death made me feel empty inside, and that it's getting worse every day he isn't with me. I wish I could tell her that I'm scared that I might love again or that I hate myself for using my grief as an excuse to hurt others, but I can't. I'm a coward, and that's why I deserve this pain."
Aya hoped that she could help Gine relieve herself of these burdens one day, but the Saiyan knew better.
No matter how much she grew stronger physically, Gine will always remain that weakling who got her husband killed.
Before
After navigating through the chaotic streets of Planet Vegeta's capital city, Gine and Bardock managed to sneak into the eastern quarter's spaceport through a back entrance. After Bardock knocked out the guard in front of door (Gine made sure that he was laying down comfortably), the two Saiyans managed to sneak through this secure facility, avoiding other guards and cameras as they entered the pod launch bay.
Gine closed the door behind her, and Bardock rushed towards a nearby computer in an office. As his wife was playing the lookout, Bardock searched through the computer's files to see that all of the pods are currently locked down as per Frieza's orders.
Bardock smashed a chunk out of the desk as he cursed, "Damn it!"
Gine noticed her husband's distress. She placed her sheathed knife in her skirt pocket before the Saiyan woman ran to his side. She asked him, "What's wrong?"
"They shut off all the pods!", Bardock reacted frustrated, "The lockdown protocol is not letting me release any of them!"
"Here, let me try," Gine said as she politely pushed Bardock out of the way. After playing with the keyboard for a few moments, the red 'accessed denied' screen quickly blinked green as mechanical grinding sounded throughout the room. A few seconds later, two pods were loaded and ready to launch in the central chamber.
Bardock looked at her puzzled. "How did you do that?"
Gine shrugged sheepishly. "I take a few side-jobs for a smuggler friend every now and again. He taught me a few general hacking tricks."
"Lucky us," he deadpanned.
The two then walked towards the opened pods. Gine dusted off the seat of her pod as she looked back at her husband. "We should launch before anyone...", Gine then noticed the grim look on her husband's face. The only other time she ever saw him like that was when he was about to fight a losing battle. "Why are looking at me like that?"
Bardock sighed. "I'm not coming, Gine."
Confused, Gine asked, "Did you hit your head on the way here? In case you forgot, Frieza is going to destroy this planet!"
"I haven't forgotten," Bardock responded with frightening seriousness, "That's why I can't leave. I won't let that bastard get away with it."
A chill ran down the Saiyan woman's spine. Her throat was starting to feel dry as she said, "I don't understand."
"I never planned to go on the run, Gine. That's not my way. I only did all this for you."
"What are you saying?"
Bardock closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm staying. I'm going to fly up to Frieza's ship, and I'm gonna make him pay for betraying us. I want you to leave with the pod. Go to Kakarot. Run as far as you can from all of this."
Gine was shaken. She slowly walked towards her husband, saying, "You can't be serious. Frieza is the most powerful being in the universe! He has an entire army at his beck and call! You can't take him on alone, you'll die!"
"Then I'll die," Bardock responded somberly, "There are worse ways to go than dying in battle."
Gine couldn't hold it in anymore. She wrapped her arms around her husband's shoulders as she looked at him with begging eyes. Tears began running down her cheek as she told him, "Please... please don't do this to me. You don't have to throw your life away. We can leave all of this behind. Run away together. Please... we're not a family without you!"
Bardock wrapped one of his arms around her waist. The man wiped away one of her tears with his free thumb. "Even if I wanted to, Frieza's army would be able to detect a couple of pods escaping the planet. They'll shoot us down, Gine. This way, at least I would be able to distract them long enough for you to escape."
Gine began to huff uncontrollably. Tears streamed across her face as shook her head. "No... no... no... I can't accept this! I won't run away so that you could die for me! My life is not worth living without you..."
"This isn't a debate," Bardock said as firmly and calmly as he could, "I need you to live, Gine. If nothing else, do it for our sons. They need their mother. You're the only one who could do this."
"I'm not strong enough without you... I rather die...", Gine sobbed as she buried her face in her husband's chest. "Please... don't make me leave..."
Bardock could barely contain his own tears as he embraced his wife. He whispered into her ear, "Okay. Okay," Bardock then grabbed a syringe from his pocket and he stabbed it into his wife's shoulder before injecting Gine with a powerful sedative, "I'm sorry."
Gine tried to fight the drowsiness that overcame her body as Bardock carried her to the pod. She tried her best to keep her eyelids from closing as Bardock sat her down the pilot seat. "Bardock...", she whimpered, "Don't... please..."
Bardock took a moment to stare into his wife's watering eyes. Her eyes have always looked very beautiful to Bardock, so innocent. He could always see the things that no other Saiyan would ever show, soft things like compassion, empathy, and love. So much love that it made the Saiyan warrior want to vomit sometimes. But no matter how much Gine's weaknesses annoyed him, Bardock could never imagine being with anyone other than this beautiful woman, whose heart was too good for this race.
These thoughts filled his head even as he looked into those piercing, black orbs for the last time.
Her weakness must have been contagious, because Bardock finally confessed the things in his heart that his pride would never allow him to say until now. "Gine... you so much stronger than you think. You are the single most infuriating person I ever had to deal with in my life. Your naivete never ceases to astound me, and yet... I am in awe of you at the same time. You have a big heart, capable of so much love and kindess, and you never let life take that away from you no matter how much the others belittled you for it. That is the bravest thing I've ever seen in a person, and let no one tell you otherwise, understand?"
"Bardock...", Gine murmured weakly as she felt her consciousness drifting away, "Don't leave me..."
Bardock pushed a button inside the pod, allowing the door to close shut and seal the pod. By some miracle, Gine managed to overcome some of her drowsiness through sheer force of will. Without a belt to restrain her, Gine managed to throw herself off her seat. Gine breathed heavily as she tried to fight the drug's effects. She climbed up the pod's red window, and the Saiyan woman pressed herself against the glass to see her husband looking down on her with teary eyes and a sad smile. Gine tried breaking the window by slapping her palm against the glass, but she simply lacked the energy. When the Saiyan knew that she no longer had the strength, Gine started to break down crying.
"Why am I always so weak?", she thought to herself, "Why can't I do anything right?"
As the pod rumbled and its gears turn, Bardock knelt down and placed his hand over his wife's in the glass. He told her, "Don't hold yourself back because of me. You deserve to be happy. I love you, Gine. I always will."
"Bardock... don't... go...", Gine whispered as her second wind finally gave out just as the pod began shooting up into the skies. The Saiyan let go of the window and drifted into the darkness. "Don't..."
Now
"Go..."
Aya, now in her human form, leaned next to the couch as she wiped away a tear away from her friend's quivering cheek. The Saiyan was now crawling up in a ball with her true face now exposed in her sleeping expression. Without the veneer of a proud and drunken warrior, Gine was a grieving widow, still mourning the death of her husband even after all these years.
The AI looked down on her sadly as she leaned down and kissed Gine in the forehead.
Out of the blue, however, Aya received a notification that someone was making a call in the ship's private line. Usually, Aya would ignore such calls whenever she was attending to Gine, but this particular call came from someone labelled in her contacts as "Libby L.". It was an important enough call for the AI to step away from Gine to answer it.
Aya walked away from the living room to allow Gine to rest. She took the line to the kitchen and greeted her caller, "Director. If you are calling about Solomon Grundy, I am eager to report that he is under our custody. The Interceptor is currently en route to base."
"I know about the capture. Every news outlet in Central City heard about it," Lawrence coldly scolded.
"If you take offense to the collateral damage, I apologize but you should have specified that preference when you gave us the mission. You know about Gine's... tendencies."
"I suppose I should have expected something like this," she grumbled, "It's just that public scrutiny like this isn't productive for my organization's current task. Tell Gine this next time I give you two a mission."
"I'll be sure to let her know," Aya hummed before taking a brief look at her sleeping friend. Gine was still resting on the couch, so the AI spoke to Lawrence with a low whisper, "And about that task you mentioned, is that something that we should know about?"
"Is this line secured?"
A holographic screen materialized in front of Aya. She made a few motions with her hands to switch the call over to an encrypted line. "It is now."
"Grundy was just the beginning. My people have uncovered a conspiracy forming in the criminal underworld. I don't know who is involved or what their aim is, but I know that something big is on the horizon. Something sinister."
"That bad, huh?"
"Let's just say that a 'friend' of mine has given me good reason to be worried. We have reason to believe that several metahumans and criminal organizations are connected to this. Several of them are already in Central City. It's only a matter of time before they make a big play, and I don't know how far this conspiracy goes."
"Do you want me to call the Green Lantern of this Earth? Last I checked, his schedule is clear, and he has experience in these kinds of matters."
"I rather not involve him on this one. My government is rather tense about aliens, and I rather not take the heat for bringing the Corps into this. No, I'm going to need to keep you and Gine close for this one."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea. Gine's been rather... unstable recently. Bringing her into a more intense environment may not be the best course of action."
"She better get her act together then, because your contract depends on how well you two bring me results."
Aya's expression became more indignant. Frowning, she talked back, "Isn't your planet overpopulated with superheroes? Just draft them to your cause, and leave Gine out of it!"
"Don't take that tone with me. You two signed a contract. Besides, I don't really have much of a pool to draw on. The Flash is missing. I can't trust the Green Arrow or his team. The Legends are incompetent. Batwoman won't return my calls, and Vixen has other commitments. In short, you two are the only assets I can rely on outside my organization. You're free agents, and it helps that you two can pass for a couple of mercenaries who stole some cutting edge tech. They're surprisingly okay with that cover."
"How very upstanding of you," Aya deadpanned.
Lawrence tisked in annoyance. "Just have your Saiyan ready, Aya. I have a feeling that we're going to need her soon."
"Understood."
Lawrence then ended the call on her end, cutting off the transmission.
Aya stared off to nowhere for a moment or two. Despite her nature as an artificial being, Aya's mind was rushed with a wave of anxiety and uncertainty. She was doubting herself, doubting her decision to enable Gine to take up a profession that played into the Saiyan's worst impulses. This doubt was amplified by Lawrence's tone and the coming storm she implied. If the situation was as bad as the AI was led to believe, Gine might be caught in a situation that might further aggravate the strain in her already fragile mind.
Aya would've solved this problem by terminating their contract with Lawrence, but from what little she knew about the director, she would probably go to the Saiyan directly for a job if her goal was that important to her. Gine would play into Lawrence's hands either way, so Aya had to go along for the ride to keep her friend safe.
She owed that Saiyan too much to abandon her now.
I hope you are liking how my story is playing out so far, and I hope that the story and character relationships are developing well. I'd hate for them come off as forced or awkward due to the rewrites and some of the fatigue that comes with it. I'll admit, I'm a bit anxious that my writing may not be as sharp as it was when I started, but I'm sticking with this new direction and hopefully forge ahead from here. Wish me luck.
Now for some notes for the story.
Last chapter, I promised I'll give more details about our lead's fighting abilities after her first fight in-story. Well, that passed so here it is.
As we all know, Gine is rather pathetic in the past with a meager power level and inexperience when it comes to fighting. However, she quickly rose above those humble beginnings. At the present day, she is about as strong as Goku was by the end of the Buu Saga. She is slightly stronger than that in my mind, however.
As for her moveset, Gine knows a number of her husband's old techniques, such as Spirit Javelin, Full Power Energy Wave, and Tyrant Lancer, which makes sense considering that Bardock would have trained with her back when they were in the army. She also learned a few more techniques as she learned from other teachers in between the present and past segments, and she knows a couple techniques based around her knife fighting. Gine does have an original technique of her own, which serves as her ultimate attack. It's called Maiden Blast, and although it's originally Pan's move, that's one of Gine's default moves in Dragon Ball Fusions, so I'm treating it like it's her original technique. As for her Super Saiyan forms, I'll keep it a secret for now. Needless to say, I will keep things simple early on in the story.
That's enough dilly-dallying for now, but because I love you guys so much, I'm gonna be dropping an after-credits scene before I go.
Thank you for the read, please leave a review, and most important of all, have a nice day.
Before
In the periphery of the Saiyan home system, a circular mothership was idling through the black void. Its telescopes were zooming in and observing the destruction of the Saiyan homeworld by the hands of the diabolical Frieza.
In the upper level of the mothership's command center, four figures can be seen staring at a few screens, which were recording Planet Vegeta's destruction. Three of them were elite soldiers garbed in violet spandex and sporting special lime green and white battlesuits with a single brown shoulder pad. One of these elite troopers was a muscular green skinned humanoid with long, black hair and wearing special helmet that sported a yellow scouter. The other was a tall amphibian alien with brown, scaly skin and a blue scouter over one of his yellow eyes. The last trooper was the captain, a slender blonde and blue skinned humanoid with a green scouter.
The fourth figure was a tailed humanoid floating around in a spherical chair. His figure was obscured by shadows, but his red eyes pierced through the darkness like that of an apex predator. His very presence alone exerts an air of fear and authority that chokes almost anyone he meets into obeying his will lest they suffer his wrath.
As the four watch Frieza's Supernova obliterate Planet Vegeta and the Saiyan race into oblivion, the ship's cameras were focused on a green suited Saiyan warrior who was foolish enough to challenge Lord Frieza and was the first to be disintegrated as a result.
The green skinned alien, Dore, pointed to the dying Saiyan. "That's the guy right there! Bardock!"
"He doesn't look so tough. Now he's space dust," the blue skinned alien, Salza, commented smugly in a strangely French accent, "And there goes the monkey farm. This is what I call live entertainment."
The alien captain then noticed a something flying away from the explosion at one of the screens. Salza's expression clenched up in worry as he exclaimed, "What's this? Something is getting away! Magnify the image!"
"I'm on it, Salza!", the amphibian, Neiz, complied as he worked on a monitor to focus on the phenomenon that his captain pointed out. All the screens were focused on a singular Saiyan pod that managed to get away from Frieza's genocide.
"I want an interior view as well!"
Neiz complied as he used the ships advanced scanners to look into the pod's occupant. One of the screens displayed an unconscious Gine lying next to the pilot seat. "That's it! Got it!", Neiz said proud of his computer skills.
"Now where does that monkey thinks she's going?"
Neiz looked at the monitor again. "It says that the pod's making it's way to some planet called Earth. Intercept course?"
"Yes," the blue skinned alien said coldly.
"Belay that order," the tailed alien countered as he floated away from the shadows. He was a purple skinned reptilian humanoid with white bio-plates covering his chest, wrists, thighs, and head barring his human looking face. He had red lines running down his eyes and to his cheeks, and over his head was some kind of blue gem that graced his head carapace like a crown jewel.
Salza tried to object, "But Lord Cooler, someone is escaping."
"Frieza's in charge of this quadrant," Cooler said scornfully at that name, "Let him clean up this mess. I've got seven planets to destroy by the end of the day. Why should I let myself fall behind schedule to correct his mistakes? Besides, it's just one Saiyan woman and a weak looking one at that. She's no threat to me."
Cooler then floated closer to the screens. Through holographic controls built into his chair, the alien overlord switched one of the screens to focus on Frieza as he laughed maniacally at the destruction he had wrought.
"Ah, look at him. He's so pleased with himself that he's blinded by his arrogant pride! That could be King Vegeta sitting in that pod for all he knows," Cooler turned to his subordinates after indulging in that resentful rant. He muttered under his breath, "You've got a lot to learn... little brother."
As the planet finally exploded in a horrific ball of fire, Cooler ordered his subordinates, "Let's get out of here."
By the way, Gine never reaches Earth in this story. At least, not in any meaningful duration of time.
