Chapter Four
Wells of energy were all around him, and yet it meant nothing because all he could focus on were the three large wells that were up in the air, moving too quickly for him to see much less coherently follow.
Ben took in a long breath, conceptualising all the fear in his mind into a ball; with the breath out, he cast the ball outwards, not too far, because there was the chance that he might hit an innocent with the ball of fear and the unlikely risk that he might cause a heart-attack.
It worked, the fear subsided but just as quickly he could feel a new fear starting to bubble up. Kami had said, during their telepathic training, that emotion was better off-loaded into a copy in the Astral Plane rather than sending it away; but Ben, it had been proved in the last two months, was not an adept when it came to manipulations in the Astral Plane. He hadn't yet get to the point where he could push himself in.
But he would learn. He would be like Kami and the Masters, powerful enough that he might be able to stand up to the Demon King if it were needed. Not now, though, because now he knew the Masters had been right in when they'd told them that they wouldn't be fighting the Demon King, instead they would handle the city below.
There was a crash and they there were within sight: The Demon King, tall and green, and Master Krillin, shorter and wearing orange, hair tied in a wolf knot and his face uncharacteristically stern as he moved. The Demon King swiped and Master Krillin shot back, gaining distance before he punched; a blue-green syrupy membraned shot out and wrapped around the Demon King, but he was quick to disentangle himself.
The Master must have known this would be the case, because the split second was enough that he was able to drive forward again, sending a fist out that landed. The Demon King shot back and then punched, his arm stretching and clipping the Master as he tried to dodge. Master Yamcha chose that moment to appear and he was bathed in a red syrup, concentrated around his hands and shaped as claws.
"—Fist!" Ben heard and then Master Yamcha was moving too quickly for him to follow, too fast for the Demon King to follow because each time there was a swipe, there was a reaction, pain writing itself across the Demon's features.
And then it was over and the Demon King drove forward, punching and sending Master Yamcha flying back; the Master caught himself only to have to jump to the side as there was a flash of colour, an energy ball having erupted from the Demon's mouth.
Go! Ben's mind shouted as he realised that he'd just been gaping at the fight. He looked away even as he heard the fighting continued, saw the arcs of light and discharges as they moved further up into the sky but he didn't focus on any of that, instead he focused on the ball of energy that was steadily moving toward a building.
He jumped off the roof, pulling in energy from his well and pushing it towards momentum; all at once he was flying rather quickly, with the wind rushing at his and the freezing rain slapping harshly against his skin. A second in flight and he saw that he wouldn't be able to reach the energy ball and stop it in time, instead he had to change tasks; he stopped and pushed energy towards his hands, he didn't even collect it too long before his hand thrust outward and small balls of energy was flew to where the Demon's ball would be.
One of Ben's balls hit the Demon's attack and the things cause a cascade of detonations, they were too close to the building and portion of the building was blown away, wells of power suddenly disappearing as people died.
His stomach fell, his mind going silent as he stared at the damaged he'd wrought. A chunk of the building was gone, fire having erupted in places and people screaming as they tried to find a way out. He hadn't thought, instead letting instinct drive him and he'd over estimated how closely he'd lined his energy ball and their explosive potential.
Not five minutes since everything had started and there was already so much damage, a portion of it because of him.
Help! Help the people!
"Right, right," Ben muttered, balling the emotion that made him stricken and throwing it into the Astral Plane without care.
He flew forward and down, heading towards a building before he stopped, glaring at the sky and already collecting energy and sending out; his salvo was more spread out this time, but it was too far apart and he missed the ball entirely. There was another flash of light from a detonation and wells that disappeared.
He looked at the building and then up in the air where flashes of light occurred at intervals. The Demon King was trying to destroy the city and he was succeeding because there were energy balls sent raining down and only being stopped by the other members of the guard.
He looked in the direction he knew buildings had been destroyed; if he moved from his spot, choosing to save the innocents, then it was likely that more portions of the city might be destroy. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to condense this to raw numbers and choose the action that would save the highest number of people.
He landed on a building, doing his best at not watching the Gero building, instead focusing on shooting beams out of the sky before they could get too close to another building.
Five minutes passed before three sleek black jets slid through the air, missiles shooting out and forcing the three combatants to scatter; there was a scream and then two missiles detonated, there was no flickering out of any well, which meant the Master and the Demon King were still alive. The cracks of rotors filled the air and helicopters appeared, much slower and choosing a much further vantage point than the jets, while still firing missiles when the Demon King was further up in the sky.
The Demon noticed this and quickly angled the fight so that it was downward, landing in the streets and fighting it out with the Masters where only they could follow. They were far enough that they were specks on the ground, and then they were in the air between buildings with the Demon on the backfoot; then they were further up and then they were suddenly in front of Ben moving faster than he could collect himself to put distance between himself and them.
The Demon wove under a punch from Master Yamcha, pushed the man up with his body and the lunged forward at Ben; he moved to dodge but the green claws was already his neck—Master Krillin was suddenly there, his hand pushing the Demons to the side. It had been a feint to get Master Krillin near because the Demon drove a knee forward and it landed.
The Demon's hands clasped together and slammed against Master Krillin's back, sending him ploughing down and through the ceiling of the building below. The Demon glared, his eyes glowing and Ben's training kicked in. He fell to the side and rolled to his feet before driving forward, punching; the Demon King stepped to the side, getting closer and the kicking. Ben had seen it coming and he'd pulled in energy, all of it to his stomach to fortify his body, and yet it still hurt. He was thrown back, his energy reserves having dipped beyond anything he'd felt in such a short period.
And then he screamed as he slammed against something hard, feeling it yield and then pieces run over his skin, all of them parting it. He slammed against the ground, skidding back and slamming into something hard before he finally stopped. He tried to get up, but pain flashed at points all over his body.
It was too much too quickly, but he'd been trained. He curled all the pain into a ball and shoved it into the Astral Plane, pushing himself to his feet and looking around him. He was in an empty office building with a section of the glass that looked beyond gone.
The Demon King and the Masters were back in the air, fighting and dodging the military as though one of them hadn't just been punched through a building. All the while he was barely holding on, his well almost empty from the one kick from the Demon King.
The goal is beyond that, he thought. Is there even a chance that we might be able to reach it?
888
"We didn't lose anyone," said Yamcha. "At least no one in the Guard. We still couldn't help the damage that he was able to inflict on the city."
"He was holding back," I said, looking out at the Lookout. There were forty of our students stretched out on the ground, most of them sparring while others were in deep meditative trances, no doubt traversing the Astral Plane. "He fought one of the students and the kid wasn't killed by his kick."
"He is trying to better our defences," Chiaotzu said, hanging in the air, his telekinetic membrane surrounding him. "If he killed them after just two months he'd be doing a disservice to his goal of protecting the Earth."
I let out a long breath, after returning from our sabbatical in the Time Chamber, I'd traversed the Astral Plane and connected to Kami's cache of information. From there I learned the intricacies of the plan with the North Kai and the plan he'd quickly put together when Piccolo had threatened to leave the Earth, going back to Namek.
"I still don't like the way he's going about it," I said, repeating something I'd said numerous times in the past two months. Ever since the possibility that there might be other sets of dragon balls in the universe, I'd had it in mind to just do the Earth a favour and kill Piccolo, instead seeking out planet Namek's dragon balls.
But I'd been beat by circumstance. We didn't have a space-faring ship yet. The only ships we had were ones we couldn't entirely understand and Piccolo's which needed a lot of repairs, not that Bulma will have been willing to part with it.
"We can't change that," Chiaotzu quickly said. "Thankfully at least it's working. We know that the Gero Foundation's done work on their fire power and it could help us when we have to fight the Saiyans."
"Yeah," muttered Yamcha. "But I don't like how they weren't exactly particular with who they were shooting at during the fight."
"They're testing things out," said Chiaotzu and he had a scowl set. "The magic behind the whole bullet thing has waned enough that it's possible they can see it as a viable measure." He looked in my direction. "I told you something like this might happen."
"I know and I don't doubt my decision," I said. "If protecting the Earth means that I might die, I'm all for it. At least my machinations aren't putting innocent lives at risk."
Chiaotzu looked as though he'd be struck and I could see Yamcha looking between us, as though he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what. Chiaotzu took a long breath, closing his eyes before he opened them and looked at our students.
"The word of the attack is just starting to pass throughout the world," said Chiaotzu, it was better for the both of us I we stopped this before it devolved. "I think we have a day or two, leaving them reeling before we can recruit another batch."
"I'll get on that," said Yamcha. "Matter of fact, Krillin. We should be getting to Bulma's. See how she's been doing and what ideas she might have with the little peek of the Gero's tech."
I gave a nod and the both of us tore through the sky. Yamcha shot me looks at times but he didn't say anything throughout our flight. We were regulars enough that we bypassed many of the security measures in place and were quickly in Bulma's personal lab where the Namekian ship stood as the centrepiece with a myriad of people working on it.
"Guys," she said with a smile. "What do I owe the visit?" She looked a little harried, but there was an excited glint in her eyes.
"The first attack happened last night," said Yamcha. "Piccolo attacked a coastal city just north of the North Capitol."
Bulma's smile disappeared. "Anyone dead?"
"Just civilians," Yamcha said. "Some of our people got roughed up but it wasn't too bad. Anyway, the Gero Foundation showed some new tech during the clean-up, body suits that help people flying but they didn't look like they had any sort of propulsion system. Enhanced strength and I think they could manipulate the telekinetic force to a small degree."
"Of course, they can," Bulma muttered, running a hand over her face. "Clever bastards."
"Clever how?" I asked, curious even with the mix of emotions I felt whenever I thought about the people who'd died.
"Gero knows about the Astral Plane," she said. "I have a person there feeding me intel. Not pretty," she said, "but he's doing it too at Capsule Corp. It would be naïve if I didn't play the games too. Anyway, he's clever because this way he isn't interacting with magic in anyway.
"He's using alien technology as a driver to his innovation while I've been limiting myself to the Namekian ship's engine. It's like you guys in a respect, it pulls in energy from seemingly thin air; this is impossible, of course, but it isn't and it's happening and I think the particular witch that did the spell is strong enough that I can't find them on the Astral Plane much less break their work."
"You could ask Chiaotzu to break it for you," said Yamcha.
Bulma frowned and then let out a breath. "There's another spell there, too," she said. "Now that you've mentioned it my mind sees it as an avenue, but I still don't know where he is so it's…Give me a sec."
I followed and pushed myself into the Astral Plane. We were so close together that our ranges overlapped, but that I'd built physical barriers around my mind meant I couldn't see what she was doing; I focused and a window opened that gave me a view of beyond, but immediately it disappeared as my avatars moved, replacing the 'damaged' area with thicker walls.
I wouldn't be able to see and help her with my current configuration of avatars, and with how long it had taken to set them up, I wasn't willing to mess with them and risk breaking what I'd one. I pulled back and watched as she and Yamcha stood in space, distant expressions on them while they worked beyond.
"Okay this is boring," I muttered to myself and then started to look around. I didn't get too close because I could see from the twists of expression from the Capsule Corp workers, how they were angry and apprehensive and confused at my presence; the ship was several leagues larger than me, standing on thick white legs that ended at sharp points that dug into the floor.
Beyond the legs was an opened hatched and when I looked down I could see a panel on the floor. There were thick tubes running from the ground into the ship and when I looked, the tubes led off to large glass panels filled with a variety of liquids; there were another set of tubes but these were much thinner and they were connected to a series of large and bulky computers.
There was another room to the lab but it was closed off, the only point that I could see through being a thick pane of glass. Beyond was another mess of tubes, all of them littered across the room, moving through the walls and towards points I couldn't see; they were all connected to an invisible membrane on a sphere which held a spinning metallic ball with smaller marbles sized balls on it, they shone with a white light.
"Is that the engine?" I asked a woman that was looking at the glass and jotting down notes on a tablet.
She gave me a long-suffering look before she nodded.
"What are the tubes for?" I asked, ignoring that I was interrupting her. I didn't know anything about science but the engine was so different from anything I knew that it was interesting.
"The ship can wirelessly transfer energy," the woman said. "But that function only happens when it's in the engine room. We haven't figure out why, yet, we think it might be magic but figuring it out has been…hard. We're using the… 'tubes' to keep the ship functioning.
"The panels on the end of the tube absorb the light being cast by the small balls, converting it into electricity. It runs through the tubes and is fed off into slot in the engine room's walls."
"Okay," I said. The woman stopped looking at me and then looked back down at her notes. "Why is it odd?" The woman sighed as she looked at me. "What the ship is doing? Bulma said it was pulling in power from seemingly nowhere."
The woman gave me a long look, probably aghast before she said, "It breaks how the world works. It implies that energy can be created."
"Can't it?" I asked.
"No," she said. "It cannot. Energy can only be changed from one form into another," she said. "Potential energy into kinetic into sound, heat all other forms. It's the basis to which the universe works."
"Okay," I said and then I held out a hand, pulling in energy and pushing it into a ball. "It's not exactly creation but I think it might be like the thing the engine's doing. I'm pulling energy from my well and reforming it into an energy ball; but I can feel as my well is being slowly restored. I don't know where that energy is coming from, but it might be created."
"That's…" The woman shook her head. "Okay," she said, breathing slower and closing her eyes. "Okay. Okay. The world isn't working the way I think it should be working. It's not the world that's the problem, instead it's how I view it."
She opened her eyes.
"Can you give me a moment?" she said. "I'll be right back."
I nodded and watched the spinning ball beyond. When she returned, she was wearing a very large headpiece, she tsked under her breath.
"I don't know why I didn't make the connection even sooner," she said.
She looked at the ball and I heard a beeping coming from the headpiece. She started jotting down more notes.
"It works similar to you," the woman said. "Similar to what the files say is true for the alien Raditz. Thinking on it, this is strictly a hypothesis, I think that you might be a beacon of some kind, getting in energy from another dimension."
"You too," I interrupted. She stopped to look at me. I repeated, "You too. You have a connection to this other dimension. Your well is smaller than mine, but you have a well. With a bit of training, you could be able to use that energy to do everything a Ki practitioner can."
"Which is what exactly?" she asked.
I shrugged. "Fortify your body to become stronger, faster or more resilient, create energy balls or form clones, increase brain function—though that's harder—flight and I've heard that magic is just an offshoot of the Ki Arts, and I don't think there are limits to what it can do."
"Energy into other forms of energy, probably into matter too," she said. She suddenly took in a large breath and, looking excited, said, "Why haven't I thought about this before…unless, of course." She jotted down fervently on her notes and then smiled at Krillin. "Thank you," she said. "This has helped me."
I nodded, a little off put that I didn't know how I had helped, but pushed it aside. Bulma and Yamcha had returned from the Astral Plane, disturbed by the woman who'd jotted down the notes. Yamcha moved away from the two and towards me.
"It's Mr Popo's magic," he said. "He's very hard to escape. He's powerful. Noticed that some of his work is on me too while I was trying to disentangle the threads on Bulma."
I let out a long sigh.
"I'm starting to get a little tired of all the mental spells that are affecting us," I muttered. "It's holding things up. Do you think it would be a good idea if we wiped the slate clean? I'm sure Baba could manage it."
Yamcha shrugged. "I'm not good with big plans," he said. "I'll leave that to you and Chiaotzu."
"I'll look into it," I said.
888
"Kami," muttered Tien as he stared. It was a strange sight, seeing the planet. It was very much large and yet it was so small. So much so that no doubt it would be able to see the curvature of the place as he stood on the planet.
"You think we'll be able to fly up there?" asked Goku. "None of the strange magic on Snake Way?"
Tien shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Test it out?"
Goku nodded and then took a breath. He shook his head. "Nope, can't fly," he said. "Maybe we're supposed to jump."
He didn't even think twice before he bent low and then pushed himself up. He moved faster than he should have and then faster still. He couldn't stop himself and the hit the side of the planet face first.
Jump high enough and the effect of the planet's gravity took effect? he thought before he too jumped and felt the enormous amount of pull exerted by the planet.
He pulled energy to stop himself but there was just too much force pulling him and it wasn't enough. He twisted and landed feet first, feeling a twinge running through his legs but landing with much more grace than Goku. He grinned at the man who was slowly moving to find his feet with great difficulty.
"By the Kais," said a sharp voice. "I thought it would take you longer to get here. Let's begin the training. Catch the monkey," the small golden bug pointed towards a monkey.
"King Kai?" said Goku.
"No," said the bug. "Gregory. King Kai's busy. He won't train you lot until he sees you're worth the time. Now get to it."
"Fine. Fine," Tien muttered. He pulled energy, more than he should have to move around, but said monkey didn't seem to be having that much trouble. "This is going take forever, isn't it," he muttered as he watched Goku moving beside him.
"Yeah," said Goku. "Just wish they'd had the decency to feed us before the training began. Two months," he said. "I don't think I've ever gone that long without eating."
"No one has," said Tien. "But these bodies don't exactly get hungry and though they tired it's not to any effect."
"Sure, that's true," said Goku, a whine in his voice. "But that doesn't mean we won't be able to taste it any. And that's all there is to it?"
Tien couldn't hold back his snort. "You actually taste?" he said. "With all that breathing in, I thought your tongue was dead."
Goku shrugged. "Chi-Chi got me into it," he said. "Going out and eating at the fancy places. It's nice, though it does nothing to fill me up."
Tien opened his mouth to speak when a sharp voice said, "Enough talking. Work. Any slower and I'm going to release the hounds."
With a sigh, Tien pushed all his focus into chasing after the monkey lumbering in front of them.
888
"Wiping the slate clean?" said Baba.
I nodded. We were in a large and ostentatious room that overlooked Witch city below us, a sprawling city that was a mixture of nature and cityscape.
The woman, Master Roshi's sister, hung in the air, a purple shroud surrounding her and holding her aloft, turned to look at me.
"That's impossible," she said, an air of finality in her voice.
"What? Why?" I said.
"Because it would take too much time collecting energy and gearing it to that purpose," she said. "I don't know the grade of spells out there, but, in the least, three hundred years before the energy gathered is enough to break most of the spells in the world. Not to mention that that's not taking into account the grade of spell the Great Dragon, Shenron, or the Genie, Mr Popo, might cast."
I let out a sigh. "No offense," I said. "But witch's spell are really stalling our progress. Bulma's spending most of her time trying to wade past mental intrusion than actually working on whatever she's working on. I just hoped there might be a simple solution to all of this."
Baba gave me a long look before she said, "There is." I looked at her expectantly. "The dragon balls."
At that there was a flood of information, at her words avenues I'd never thought about opened. Why didn't we just use the dragon balls to solve all of our problems, with the dragon balls it was possible that we could wish away the threat of the Saiyans, avoiding the need for—
I shook my head as I was hit by a wave of confusion. I was aware that I'd been thinking in a direction, but what that direction was, was hard to tell.
Baba hummed. "It's stronger than I thought, then," she said.
"What's stronger," I said before I paused. "I'm being affected by a spell, aren't I?"
Baba nodded.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "My idea was really good, too, wasn't it?"
"It would have made things easier, yes," said Baba.
"If you heard it, why don't you push it into action?" I asked.
"Because I don't want to go against whatever defences might be in effect if I try to go against what the previous Kami wanted," she said. "I'm sure he had his reasons, or at least his people had their reasons for the restrictions. I'm wary to go against them."
"Guess I have no choice but to accept that," I muttered. "Could you at least help with Bulma and her people? Open up the road so that they can work faster?"
"I'll have one of my witches work with them," she said.
"Thank you, Great Witch," I said. "Have you heard from Oolong? It's been two months. He should have gathered the dragon balls by now."
"Last I heard he was trying to steal one of them from a museum," said Baba. "My brother tells me he was quite enjoying himself, saying he hasn't stolen anything in quite a while. But that was a few weeks ago. People from the School of the Transforming Arts might be after him round about now."
"He'll love that even more," I said, grinning. "It's good that he's at least having fun in all of this."
Baba snorted. "As though you weren't," she said. "From what Master Roshi tells me, you seem to have found a rhythm with everything that's been pushed into action."
I shrugged. "I haven't really had time to think about it," I said. "But something about training the younger generation brings me a measure of fulfilment. Though that's quickly countered by the knowledge that we're no doubt setting them up for their slaughter."
"You're a morbid one, aren't you," Baba muttered. "It surprised me that you're one of my brothers. It makes a little more sense that you'd be one of Shen's."
"I'm gonna leave before you insult me anymore," I muttered. "Thank you for the audience, Great Witch."
888
"Things didn't go as planned," said Chiaotzu. "Gero showed some of his work but not enough. All the jets are things I've seen, things he's shown the military."
Piccolo was frowning, hands folded and looking out beyond the Lookout. "I didn't expect they'd be so powerful," he said. "Or that they would complement each other so effectively."
Chiaotzu shrugged. "It's not a bother. A few rotations and you can attack them, again," said Chiaotzu. "I want more than anything to read his mind, know for certain if he'll pool his creations when we fight with the Saiyans, but leaving this place…"
"I know," said Piccolo. He took a breath. "Give me a location and I'll move in the direction. I'll read his mind. Maybe put your fears to rest."
Chiaotzu gave a nod and looked, using the power of Guardian to see all throughout the Earth until he found a location. He gave the location to Piccolo and the man flew off, disappearing into the world beneath.
It would be a year before he could step off the Lookout, any sooner and the magic forming between him and Mr Popo was liable to break, undoing the magic that sealed tight the Earth from otherworldly dimensions, and threatening an invasion of a different sort.