THE OTHER WORLD SAGA
Chapter 4 - Revenge of the Punished!
A few hours later...
"...and that's how I ended up here, hehe," Goku finished his prolonged story of his life since Chi-Chi's marriage, the last time his adopted Grandfather had the pleasure of seeing him.
If one would think that Goku was flippant for details, they would be sorely mistaken. Throughout the past hours of detailed recollection of his life since that time, he hadn't skipped much, and tried to comically act out certain scenes of which he felt were of great importance to help portray it visually. From the time of Raditz's arrival, his struggle with the Saiyan prince, to his battles against Freiza and his empire, along with the entire endeavor with the Androids and Cell, Goku finished to the part where he caused the sacrificial deaths of himself and King Kai.
"Hmmmm, doesn't seem you're using your head as much as you should, Goku," Grandpa Gohan spoke sagely, but also held a grin of knowing humor, "not like that's ever been your strong suit mind you, but you seem to be lacking rational thought throughout most of your exploits."
"Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha! Well, if you have any advice on what I should have done better at, I'm all ears, Grandpa," Goku laughed sheepishly, nervous beads of sweat perforated his brows, as he physically admitted his errors in judgement throughout his tale.
"Well for one, you don't seem to look for opportunities to end threats before they become a problem for everybody. The way you described on how you handled Freiza was reckless, even for you. You risked your life to satiate your lust for battle, and then you risked your friends' safety by not using the power you had to end his impending threat," Grandpa Gohan spoke held a bit of reprimand, but enough to chuckle, knowing full well how he expected Goku to have acted and acted accordingly, just as he did when he was a child.
"Yeah, uh, I guess I wasn't thinking that clearly, hehe!" Goku scratched his chin, acknowledging that it could have been handled better. In his head, he relied mostly on instinct and his gut to get through tough spots. It worked...most of the time, and things usually turned out well. But as Grandpa Gohan spoke, it became apparent he didn't really rely on his own intelligence that he withheld.
"You also didn't take your medicine, despite you clearly knowing the symptoms of the foretold disease your friend Trunks. Had it not been for Vegeta's interference, you most likely would have died," Grandpa Gohan shrugged his shoulders knowingly.
"I-I guess I was so caught up with training, I didn't think of me getting sick was a problem. I thought it was just heartburn from all the bacon I had last night, but I guess it was worse than that," Goku nervously chuckled, remembering that close call. He barely recovered from his illness and was haunted by nightmares of the Androids ransacking his home, hurting his family and friends, with him being helpless to stop their imminent assassination on his own life.
"Why didn't you and Gohan go help Piccolo when the Androids were being targeted by Cell? If you have transported the Androids to the Lookout, the creature wouldn't have been able to find them, and you would have stalled the monster from evolving further," Goku's foster grandparent pointed out intuitively.
Slumping his shoulders, Goku asked in a weary tone, "Anything else, Grandpa?"
"Why didn't you move Cell's exploding body somewhere more barren? Surely you could have went to any planet within the galaxy that you could sense, couldn't you?" The elderly man inquired, wearing a truly baffled expression upon his wrinkly features.
"I have to lock onto a familiar energy signature. Unless I haven't been there before, its almost impossible for me to use Instant Transmission unless I recognize the proximate energy that I'm selecting," Goku explained calmly, raising his gaze back to his grandfather's, using his right hand for emphasis. A sheepish smile donned on him, but he no longer felt as bad as he did when being reprimanded for obvious mistakes he made. Now he, he felt, he had a legitimate reason, "King Kai's planet is the most recognizable signature, and I've gone back and forth from there before. It seemed like the most logical choice to make, under the circumstances, that is, hehehehe!"
"Well, I don't think you're off that bad, Goku," Son Gohan spoke with a smile, letting the issues of his adopted grandson's past, just being thankful he could see him again, "it sounded like you lived a good life, and you fought your hardest for those you cared about. The only thing I think that should have been done differently, would be taking more charge of your family, and being a part of their lives. You have a tendency for wandering off and going on an adventure on your own. The days of childhood are over, I'm afraid to say. If you continue to be on your own, you will soon find yourself very much alone. Take it from this old man's word, that if you don't have family, then all of your ambitions, all of your dreams, will mean nothing if you do not carry on that legacy with love and pride in your loved ones."
Goku bowed his head, a sense of guilt for once, clouded his mind. He remembered what Master Roshi spoke of, about his ability to have turned into an Oozaru when his eyes met the full moon's rays. At the time, he had dismissed the initial dawning of what had happened to his adopted grandfather, during the one night he couldn't' remember what he had done when the full moon was out. It had...haunted him...for years within his dreams, until his mind completely forgot about it, as other crises took precedence.
But now...he felt he owed his kind, gentle grandfather.
"Grandpa...about what happened to you. How you got here...it was, because of-" Goku began to speak, before seeing the elderly man hold a hand up, interrupting Goku's awkward confession, while staring at him knowingly.
"I know what you're going to say, Goku, but I don't think you should apologize for it," smiling, his white mustache curled up as his eyes twinkled with appreciation, "what happened to me, happened for a reason. Whether it was your rampage as a giant ape, it would have been me in bed. My years were few, and I was blessed to have the opportunity in raising you. Never believe that our meeting upon the eve of arriving on Earth was ever an omen to me. It was the best thing that this old man could have asked for."
Goku felt tears well up to his eyes. He wanted to reject what the old man said, and insist on blaming him, but he couldn't. The happiness and sincerity gleaming from the old eyes of the man whom raised him and took care of him at his most vulnerable state. Despite having died, he had also been able to be there for some important moments of his life, including his marriage with Chi-Chi. In the end, this man didn't loathe death but welcomed it.
Reaching out with strong arms, Goku embraced his grandfather, and cried happily over the shorter man's shoulder, "Thank you, Grandpa! Thank you for everything you've done for me!"
"That's fine, Goku, that's fine," the elderly man spoke with a wide smile on his face, patting the back of the larger and much older Goku, "now, why don't we take a break from our chit-chat...and discuss some things after lunch?"
An ominous loud growl echoed in compliance from Goku, causing him to reach back and rub his stomach in acknowledgement, "Yeah! I guess its that time again, isn't it?!"
Elsewhere, someone else's stomach growled loudly, in compliance with another one.
"Guess its that time again, hm?" Hanassia asked her husband with a cheeky grin, as she rolled the spit over the large fire, of reptilian origin again.
"Didn't we eat, like, five hours ago?" Bardock inquired, even as his tongue licked over his chapped lips, eyeing the smoldering smorgasbord that his wife was cooking.
"Feels like forever, doesn't it?" Hanassia spoke dreamily, as her own eyes widened with delight at how the large lump of skewered meat was turning out.
"Like since we've seen our son?" Bardock inquired off-topically, one brow arching, as he garnered the attention of his mate.
After a minute's pause, Hanassia gave a belated sigh, as she turned to regard Bardock curious eyes, "This about Kakarot, isn't it?"
"It sure isn't Hell about Raditz," Bardock joked with a wry grin, earning a chuckle from his wife.
After spinning the meat a few times, Hanassia gave a backhanded gesture of Ki, snuffing out the flames and allowing the food to settle. Taking a cross-armed stance, she regarded her husband, for a few moments, realizing the uncanny resemblance Kakarot had in comparison to herself and Raditz. The only real thing that separated her husband and her youngest offspring was the defined scar on his lower left jawline.
"What's Kakarot like around you?" Hanassia asked first, "considering besides a few days of rest in between each month, all we do is train with our kid respectively before we trade off."
Chuckling, Bardock rubbed his chin thoughtfully, closing his eyes with reverie as he squatted on a nearby hand-made chair, carved out of obsidian stone, "Well, for one thing he's tenacious. He's got an attitude I only wished Raditz had. Despite his idiotic banter and antics he often makes, I can find a bit of my younger self in him. Even if he whines near the end, I can respect his ability to persevere in the face of overwhelming adversity. Even in the first month, despite how many times he died or fell down, he always found a way to pick himself back up. I guess stubborn would be an understatement to describe his get-go personality."
"Sounds a bit what I expected him to be, away from my oversight," Hanassia smiled with pride as her eyes closed, re-opening them when she described her own time spent with her son, "during his time spent undergoing the most gruesome and painful exercises I could comprehend, never once did he back down. He may have questioned, he may have complained a little, but he never gave up. I'm pretty sure once the Tournament comes around, he'll be able to fight on any battlefield under any scenario laid out before him."
"What exactly HAVE you been doing with Kakarot's training?" Bardock asked with an exaggerated tone. A bead of sweat crawled down his scalp in emphasis of the fear he had for any form of Hanassia's training exercises, "is it the same which you put Raditz through?"
"Exactly. I don't give special privileges to either of my sons, even if they can't pick up the pace," the female Saiyan sternly stared at her male counterpart, shifting her right heel idly as she spoke, "if they can't handle running a hundred laps with the weights I've given them, then they'll just have to keep running until they complete the assignment."
"Hanassia...those weights are over ten tons each," Bardock grimaced, having recalled when he himself tried them out for his own personal training, "you didn't use the armored weight suits, did you?"
Pouting her lips, Hanassia glared back at her scar-faced mate, "And if I did?"
"Hanassia, that's over one hundred tons! Making them run a thousand laps with that kind of pressure is beyond torture!" Bardock spoke aghast, his eyes comically bulging as he shook a fist towards her.
Her only response was a undignified huff, shifting her head to the side and propping her chin to the air, "If they can't handle a little weight plus some ol' fashioned running, they shouldn't do it at all."
"The only physical way for them to run with those on, is to undergo Super Saiyan transformation. Even trained as they are, that's brutal, especially a thousand laps with that on their bodies," Bardock glared at his wife pointedly.
"You're one to talk!" Hanassia glared with blazing eyes of fury, as she pointed her own hand at the squatting veteran Saiyan, "did you even give them a break once? How many times have they died under the stress of fighting toe-to-toe with you for a whole month?!"
"How many times have they died under your training, huh?!" Bardock bit back, standing straight up, his body leaning precariously forward, with both his wife and himself locking foreheads with intense anger.
Then, after nearly an entire minute, a dead silence was brought over them.
Sweat began to bead down both of their foreheads, as they both realized something.
"I-I...uh...lost count," Hanassia admitted first.
"Yeah...me too," Bardock hung his head with shame, realizing he might have killed his sons through the fierce training beyond what he could perceive to be possible.
Breaking the silence, another pair of thunderous growls echoed from the Saiyan couple, drawing their attention away from their discussion.
"I'll serve food then," Hanassia shifted herself briskly to the spit, and immediately began to pull the barbecued meat out, and placing it on rudimentary stone plates, "you should call for Raditz, or else he'll give us an earful about leaving him out of mealtime again."
"Fine," Bardock spoke with a dramatic sigh. Lifting himself into the air, he flooded his lungs and his vocal chords with energy, augmenting them, until he felt he reached the appropriate volume. Rearing his head back, he cupped his hands over his mouth, before his voice boomed out, "RAAAAAAAAAAADIIIIIIIIIIIIIITZ! TIME TO EAT!"
As his voice shook the landscape for miles, and carried on further than that, there was a brief silence. Which extended from seconds into minutes, causing Bardock to furrow his brows with confusion. Cupping his hands again, he roared out, "RAAAAAAAAAAAADIIIIIIIIIIIIIITZ! FOOD IS BEING SERVED! GET OVER HERE NOW!"
Within then next few seconds, a billowing voice responded from the horizon.
"I'M...BUSY!" Raditz's distantly projected voice called out in frustration.
"Busy?" Bardock arched a brow with expected confusion. Looking down to Hanassia, he shrugged his shoulders in emphasis, unsure of what to do.
"Just tell him I'll save him a small portion," Hanassia sighed aloud, irritated that her eldest didn't come as called upon.
"Alright, will do-" Bardock began to say, before something unfolded.
A distant cry could be heard, as Raditz's signature could be felt at the epicenter, projecting a blazing wind of immense force that struck the mountain home Bardock and Hanassia sat upon.
"What is he trying to do?!" Hanassia asked over the billow of fierce wind, flourishing her and her mate's hair wildly, rattling the stone plates that held the gargantuan sized servings. It felt as if a storm was brewing in the distance, with Raditz at its epicenter, with dark clouds forming overhead as lightning cracked and thundered fiercely around him.
"Hm...well what do you know?" Bardock smirked with a hint of pride, crossing his arms as he looked straight into the flowing force of heat and energy whisking past him, "Raditz may have finally mastered it..."
"Mastered what?" Hanassia asked, not knowing exactly what sharp perception her husband had discovered.
"Its nothing," Bardock spoke with a wry grin, shrugging as he turned his back on the distant black storm in the distance, "he'll be along shortly. He's almost done testing out the results..."
"If you say so," Hanassia briefly sighed reluctantly, as she squatted down and began to gorge herself on her own portion, with her husband joining her shortly.
KRAK-KOOM!
KRAK-KOOM!
KRAK-KOOM!
The air was ripe with violent energy. Even for Hell, the Ki being projected by this particular Super Saiyan, was unusually stifling. Crackling bolts of yellow hued tendrils of energy lashed out at the surrounding durable mineral formations, causing orange-red explosions in their spastic series of projections from Raditz's body. The wind howled and formed an insidious twister of golden flames, igniting the very air as it continued to billow out from Raditz's being.
All the while, his voice screamed out in earnest, with passion and ferocity.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! NRRRRAAAAAAAAAA!" His voice penetrated the air's deafening, thunderous storm raging around the rise of his powerful energy, exuding the golden aura that blazed and crackled around his body with thick jabs of bio-electricity. His teeth ground tightly in between the intense cries from his augmented lungs and vocal chord.
The one thing that changed about him, in particular, was his muscle mass. Already a large proportionately sized Saiyan, his Super Saiyan form had already increase and defined the mass of muscle around his body. As the bio-electricity poured out and discharged from his pores, one thing became apparent: His body just got bigger, and bigger!
Having already mastered the Ascended State nearly three years ago, Raditz had attempted to use the third state of the Super Saiyan's power, and had failed to control its large mass, time and time again. But today, something in his bones and blood told him, that he was going to succeed. If not to keep his parents off his back for being the weakest among them, then to show Kakarot who the REAL strongest Super Saiyan was between the two of them.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" With a final roar, the whites of Raditz's eyes finally reclaimed its color, and his body settled into the largest state the Super Saiyan form could afford; the Ultra State. Balling his fists, he felt audible sparks of energy course in between his knuckles, blasting the air with concussive reflex. Twisting his body around, audible cracks within his body's enhanced state sounded like a cacophony of bodily thunder, from within his massive muscular frame. He noted that he was easily a meter taller, the height ascent properly disposition the majority of his newfound power.
Every contraction, over time, became less and less painful. The abundantly enlarged arms became less heavy, and his speed began to increase each time he assumed this form for longer periods of time. What used to be a burden, like the enormous armor of weights his mother would encumber upon him, his base's forms enhanced stamina and intense bouts with his father in his Ascended Super Saiyan form allowed him to gain the control and flexibility he desired using against swifter enemies. His hair stood up, coursing with intense electrical currents, flowing in the air as if bathed in luminescent transparent water, that waved and crackled with intensity.
"This power...is freaking amazing! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Raditz shouted aloud, laughing with incredible joy as his voice boomed like thunder. Even as the storm itself had softened into an ominous overcast of dark clouds, and the winds ceased blowing, the constant projections of raw bio-electric power from the Ultra-Super Saiyan's body continued to flow abundantly.
To test his power, he raised a fist towards a distant landscape, even farther away from his mountain home but just enough within No Man's Land he wouldn't disrupt the natural balance of neutrality between the Territories.
His fist began to spark, crackling with vibrant white-blue intensity, as he shifted his wrist to face upwards. Then, he raised his two forefingers upwards, sending a critical distortion within Hell's geomagnetic field, creating an Explosive Wave.
That is when everything within the horizon went white.
A deafening white blast engulfed everything within a ten kilometer radius, razing it, incinerating it, before crushing it into the ground as an excess of sheer concussive force blazed forth. A streak of orange-yellow flames billowed out, as a massive mushroom cloud blew forth, striking into the dense black-red atmosphere of Hell overcasting over Raditz's proximity.
Even as the excess force and flames washed over Raditz, the Ultra-Super Saiyan could only feel a tickling sensation at the fraction of power he just discharged. As the smoke would clear, he saw a city sized crater and beyond where he struck a damaging blow to the landscape bordering everyone's favorite neutral ground.
"Kakarot, I don't know about you, but one thing is clear," raising his fist up, before his face, he stared into the blackened sky, clenching it with an audible crack of bio-electrical force, "if we face each other on the ring, six months from now, I can assure you that your victory will be cut short. The only one winning this Tournament, IS ME!"
A distant rise of enormous power caught the attention of Cell.
As his hovering form peered, the total yield of explosive red-yellow flames unfolded towards the perimeter of his self-proclaimed territory, sending alarmingly destructive concussive waves and fire in his direction. While it wouldn't pose any immediate critical alarm to his person, he'd rather not be needlessly touched by someone else's attack.
Narrowing his eyes, a brief glow of red exuded from his eyes, as he sent out a psychic wave of telekinesis, halting the explosion in its entirety. Appearing to have been frozen in motion, Cell raised a hand out, clenching it tightly with his fist...
SHOOP-KRAK-KOOM!...before collapsing the force of kinetic and pyrotechnic energy in on itself, creating a transparent implosion directly within the air, allowing the dust and rocks to settle afterwards.
As his eyes returned to its memorable pair of scarlet irises, he looked at his hand and smiled, clenching and releasing his hand with visible satisfaction.
"I think I have a perfect grasp...of the limits of my powers," he muttered to himself, flexing his camoflauged-muscular arms, punching out a few rapid one-twos, before swinging his body around and did the same with his legs, kicking a number of flurries, "ha! If I have calculated correctly, within a mere six months time, I can now contend with the likes of Vegeta and Gohan, as well as that disgusting Pikkon. I may not have the raw power they possess, but with my vast array of abilities and my intellect, I can outfight anyone in the Tournament. Even that disreputable father and mother of Goku."
As thoughts turned to Goku, Cell allowed himself to lower down onto the red-black mineral with an audible, squeaky clank. Raising right, chalk-white hand to cup his chin, he began to ponder the riddle that was Son Goku. Unlike his lesser counterparts, all of which were pre-programmed to seek out Goku to the ends of the Earth in order to annihilate him, his only goal was to reach his Perfect Form. After that, his only real desire was to test the limits of his capabilities, enjoy them to the fullest, before destroying what planets and life that no longer interested him.
His encounter with Gohan and Vegeta changed that.
Combating Gohan, initially, was an interesting game due to the boy's obvious latent powers. He goaded him, tried to push all of the power he had out, using every tactic of cruelty and evil at his possession in order to further encourage the rage boiling deep within the recesses of the pacifistic shell that covered his Saiyan instincts so well. When he crushed 16's skull, he unexpectedly broke the dam on the young Super Saiyan's emotional psyche, and unleashed the overwhelming storm of power he possessed all along.
Being toyed with was absolutely humiliating. He used every technique, every strategy, and every form of force to overwhelm the boy's lack of experience. But time and again, Gohan's use of the ascended Super Saiyan transformation, was as natural as breathing the air around him. Beaten, bloodied, and on the verge of defeat, he devised a plan to take them all down. He knew the probability of regenerating from the blast was slim to none, but in his daze of desperation, he had no other plan to defeat them all, bar Gohan's current level of strength.
Even as the mighty warrior, just as a child as he knew him to be, gave up, his father came forth. Like an eternal nightmare, the image of Goku transporting him away from ultimate vengeance burned him up, just as the force from within blew him to atoms along with the righteous Super Saiyan. The only boon was that he had survived unharmed, plus gained a significant boost in strength while regaining his prized Perfect Form. It had only been unfortunate he couldn't kill everyone in the blast, and only Goku and his precious Kai went down with him.
It was delicious to have claimed the boy from the future's life, just as it had been the other time within his timeline. His meddling infuriated him, and delayed the inevitable destruction the world had.
Unfortunately, he never had a chance to test his reborn Perfect Form's powers. Vegeta, an obstacle to his goals and desires, arrived with regained fury, crushed him with awakened powers of his own and blasted him into obliteration. Thus he has been sentenced to the godforsaken wasteland of boredom and tedious existence known as Hell. It was unbelievable timing that Goku suggested the Tournament, otherwise he would have decided to cause mayhem across Other Space, destroying every planet he found within his sights until his opposition would end his life, and restart the cycle over again.
The only threats to him, however, were the obvious:
Pikkon, heralding champion of the Western Galaxy and Lap Dog to the Grand Kai himself. His power and technique were definitely at Vegeta's level, and held a bit more poise and control. This was demonstrated in having specifically aimed towards places that would cause his body to react without forcing him to die or use instinctive regeneration to recover. After observing him, however, it was obvious that Pikkon felt content with his current peak of abilities and cared nothing for training daily. It gave him a distinct advantage over him, since that time he sneaked upon him, realizing with great pride he was able to conceal his presence and get so close for so long before being discovered.
Next was Bardock, the father of the miserable Saiyan prodigy, and grandfather to the boy whom humiliated him to begin with. Knowing nothing of his exploits other than what Freiza's DNA allowed him to know, he was the one Saiyan that stood up to the galactic tyrant and failed to destroy him. However, from his gathered intelligence of the happenings in Hell, it appeared that the commando had awakened his true potential upon a happenstance reunion with him in Hell, joined shortly after with his wife, whom was of no concern to himself. His power and battle drive was measured to be equal to Vegeta's, due to the incredible daily training he places him in, and the plethora of experienced battlefields he's endured in the past in life.
Finally, despite being outclassed currently, Son Goku was the last potential opponent whom he measured to be the ire of this upcoming Tournament. He always found a way to impress, to endure, to overcome, and to prevent the victories he sorely deserved in the past. If not by physical intervention, then by merely existing, he had found a way to undermine his plans.
With a dark laugh, Cell generated his aura with a sudden thunderclap of golden energy and bio-electricity. Dancing and waving from his pores, the Bio-Androids spoke in a dark, assured tone to himself, "Goku, you will not be saved by anyone. This Tournament is my key to returning to the world of the living and wiping out those petty creatures you call your friends. Trunks, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Gohan...and especially you, Vegeta, will die by my hands!"
Three Days Later...
Within the following three days, Goku only spent an hour or so time with his biological family, and spent the majority of the time with his adopted grandfather. Having learned that he, among all the others gracing the planet's surface deigned as the Grand Kai's, have been granted the privilege of being one of the few pupils to train under the strongest of the Kais. While it only had been for a few months, it had taught him more than he could have dreamed of learning in three of his lifetimes. Since then, he taught Goku a few techniques and methods of mental control to better harness his Saiyan instincts at will, rather than lose himself to it.
When the third day had passed, the Grand Kai announced the broadcast of the so-called Intergalactic Tournament taking place on Earth. With nothing but training consecutively for the past half year at their hardest, it was a nice break from the usual tedious routines. Also, considering the hubbub going around about Goku's presence as one of the only exceptional fighters to grace the Grand Kai's personal attention, as well has having defeated not only the Northern Galaxy's tyrant of Terror, but also the Eastern Galaxy's overseer, Freiza and Cooler.
Rumor of the strength of Earth's champions within the Sol System spread around, from the lowliest of fighters to the champions of planets, each of them were awaiting to see a grandiose battle of the ages take place before them.
Unfortunately, this caused the foreseen overpopulation of Heaven's future contenders to overpopulate the planet, dotting out the grassline
"Alright, alright, no crowding!" West Kai snarled out at a few fighters, waving his arms at the cluster of confusion nearly a dozen fighters were creating.
"You there, I see you! No sitting on your fellow contenders!" East Kai yelled in an aghast tone, as one of the larger fighters had sat on half a dozen fellow entities, nearly squeezing the life out of them.
"No shouting, please keep things pleasant!" South Kai raised his voice, trying to soothe the aggression and anxiety the crowd of combatant-turned-audience as they all struggled to get good spots.
As the volume of the crowd continued to grow, King Kai's brows scrunched together in an angry scowl behind his oval-shaped shades. Veins began to protrude along his skin, and a low growl of irritiation built within his chest. Just as the crowd seemed incapable of being controlled, King Kai saw the Grand Kai coming out of his house, allowing him the absolute authority he needed.
"ALL OF YOU SHUT YOUR TRAPS! THE GRAND KAI IS HERE NOW!" He bellowed out with augmented vocal chords, ringing the air with his irritated and frustrated voice.
All went silent, reverently, as the Grand Kai took the center stage on his front lawn.
On his right was the prestigious Pikkon, Champion of the West Galaxy, whom had served him dutifully and loyally for ages. He stood stoically and without any form of emotion to the current situation. To him, being next to someone as deified, powerful, and wise as the Grand Kai was one of the greatest honors he could acquire in this life within the afterlife.
To Pikkon's right was none other than Son Goku, Champion of the North Galaxy, one of deeds and talents that haven't been witnessed in ages. He smiled widely, and couldn't help but wave at the crowd, catching the eyes of many, as well as his own adopted grandfather sitting near the front of the line. He couldn't feel more excited to see his friends participate in a Tournament, and only hoped that the others were as impressed with their skills as he would be.
Grand Kai's other, left flank had two other fighters of importance.
To the immediate left was a Konatsian with human-looking features, named Rao, Champion of the South Galaxy. What could be seen behind a crimson hood and cloak, over an attire of beige, brown, and black trappings dating to a much more ancient time. He appeared to be a fair skinned alien that had violet locks of hair that appeared almost feathery in texture and appearance, running fully over his head in a Mohawk style. With black eyes, vaguely hidden by the shadow of his hood, the man's visage was as impassive as Pikkon's, but held no pleasure or displeasure for being put on front stage next to the Grand Kai.
And finally, to Rao's left, was an orange haired, blue-skinned Herasian woman named Aosai, Champion of the East Galaxy. With fists on her hips, the Herasian smiled enthusiastically back at the crowd, smirking at the occasional hoots and hollers sent her way. It was natural, as her appearance was appealing to nearly any race, due to the hourglass shape of her body's well toned and femininely desirable visage. A soft complexion of ocean blue skin, as smooth and glistening as marble, with a pair of piercing emerald eyes, only enhancing the visual appeal with a pair of exotic, knife-shaped ears, adorned with golden hooped earrings. Long orange locks, as smooth as silk and with a subtle curling flown throughout, the long mass of hair was raised up into a high-rise ponytail, to allow it to hang loosely down to her bare lower back. Her attire only consisted of a sleeveless black jacket with red trimming, overlaying a red sash that wrapped around her bountifully sized chest, leaving her waistline bare, just above a red kama skirt with black trimming enrapturing over a pair of black leggings and a pair of black boots with golden trimming.
Though the crowd has momentarily lapsed into silence, there was a stream of murmurs of awe, wonder, curiousness, and gossip spreading among the fighters of noble and righteous deeds about the four standing heroes, from all four corners of the Universe.
Before any questions could be uttered forth or between each of the other contestants, the Grand Kai's voice called out to them, "So, who here is anxious for the Other World Tournament?!"
A synchronized follow-up roar from the entire planet shook the air with excitement and anticipation. It felt as if every tongue, every alien, every warrior to have graced the hallowed land of the Grand Kai's domain shouted with blood-pumped enthusiasm.
"Whoo-hoo! Yeah! Hahahahahaha! WHOOOOOOOOH!~" Goku laugh with joy, as he joined in the cheering innocently, earning the precarious side glances of mixed feelings from the other Galactic Champions.
"Alright, y'all! Settle down," the Grand Kai waved his hand, causing everyone to settle back to near silence. He then began to shuffle and reach around his person within the depths of his ceremonial attire, "just...let me...find...my...reeeeeeee...mote, aha! Found it!"
With a profound click, something dramatic happened. The planet shook, causing the less unprepared contestants to fall upon one another, sending a series of comical domino collapses to erupt from the planet's sea of viewers.
What rose from the back of the mansion that the Grand Kai lived was an immense, comically skyscraper sized television. The speakers alone, at regular volume, seem to carry across the entire planet, and echo across Other Space to the denizens of Other World, both of Heaven and Hell. The resolution of the screen was surreal, as if watching real life with even more crystal clear resolution than any known TV back at Earth. That is, for any TV that Goku bothered to watch when he wasn't busy training.
"WHOA!" Goku nearly fell back onto his haunches, his eyes bulging out and looking up at tall screen, "I-ITS HUGE!"
"Yup, was looking for a reason to test this bad boy out, hehe!" The Grand Kai smiled to himself wryly, placing the remote back within his right sleeve.
Just as the screen locked onto what looked like a series of oscillating arenas of obscure appearance, Goku realized that they must be tuned into the Tournament right now. As he leaned back to sit down, he found that a floating chair of alabaster color and crimson cushion greeted him, allowing him to fall back in a relaxed position.
"Now all of you cheerleaders for an audience back there keep quiet and enjoy! I'm getting the feeling this is going to be an interesting Tourney, ya know?!" The Grand Kai barked over his shoulder with a commanding tone, causing all further murmurs to be hushed to whispers. However, a certain knowing within his tone caused the hovering Kais, floating distantly above the crowd, to watch on with curiosity at the massive screen before them.
Did the Grand Kai know something they didn't?
As the Intergalactic Tournament started its first battle, it was painful and sad to watch. A man, built up on nothing but lies and propaganda from the media was torn down with ease, and Goku cringed as he saw Vegeta expend not one single iota of his energy in beating the esteemed figurehead champion. Even in the end, Goku could make out the threat he made to him in order for him to break, and bring him to utter ruin.
"Wow...that was...uh...disappointing," The Grand Kai muttered aloud, a bead of sweat coming down his brow, as if feeling the eyes of bored viewers behind him glaring daggers at his back. Leaning his hover chair over, he asked Goku with a hushed tone, "is this going to be like the whole Tourney, or am I watching the highlights at the moment?"
"No, of course not! Ahahahahaha!" Goku laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with reflex. Following up with the Grand Kai's return to viewing the gigantic screen, the embarrassed Saiyan facepalmed, "nice going, Vegeta...you could have just let him down easy, but you had to get him to be humiliated, didn't you?"
Pikkon sideglanced him with mild irritation before fixating his eyes back at the screen, hoping to see a much more entertaining battle later on.
Unsurprisingly to Goku, yet to the polar opposite to the other viewers, they did.
The display from the three eyed contestant, Tien Shinhan, displaying the legendary Kaio-ken astounded much of the crowd in awe, with gasps of shock and confusion. It appeared as if the Saiyan prodigy wasn't the only one to have served as a pupil to the legendary King Kai himself. As the battle dragged on, all four Champions watched on with interest.
"Wow! Tien's gotten a long ways in a short amount of time!" Goku smiled with enthusiasm as he saw him trade blows with Trunks, crossing arms with nothing but praise for his old rival, "even at times two, he's able to contend with Trunks pretty well."
"Glad to see King Kai finally taught such a reputable looking man," the Grand Kai smiled with enjoyment, recognizing the crimson aura that pulsed around the muscular human to be unmistakably King Kai's very own technique, "nice job teachin' that spry kid something useful, King Kai."
Appearing overhead, the Kais hovered over the seats, materializing hovering cushions to seat their rotund buttocks. All of them looked on with smiles and surprised expressions, especially the King Kai himself.
"I had never imagined Tien to have reached a level of control and ease with the Kaio-ken that Goku or myself could use. Its as if that is his own primary transformation, just as the Super Saiyan form is to Goku and Vegeta," King Kai thought as he watched on with both awe and pride.
When Tien shouted out a times fifteen multiplication, the power became vividly emblazoned to the point of sending a blinding flash on the screen. From there, Goku and the Kais' eyes widened dramatically, as they saw him overpowering the known warrior prodigy that is Trunks. The force vividly shook through the speakers that the three-eyed martial artist laid upon the Saiyan, before smashing him into the arena once more. When he went in for the kill however, a sudden ignition of golden energy burst from the boy's pores, electrifying and blazing his hair, as he shifted his body around in a perfect 180 degree pivot and dealt a KO punch to Tien's face, sending him spiraling with the shockwave that sent him down to the ocean's surface below.
"Huh, looks likes Trunks improved as well," Goku spoke with approval, still wincing at the punch that was dealt to Tien.
"Explosion Fist!" The Grand Kai uttered dramatically as he made a feigning punch towards the screen, laughing heartily as leaned back in his tall chair, "that was some show! Its just unfortunate that we didn't see more of a proper battle between the Super Saiyan form and the Kaio-ken!"
"Yeah...unfortunate," King Kai sighed, more with relief that his bald-headed disciple hadn't overdone his body like Goku had in the past. Kaio-ken, while compatible with himself more naturally, was still stressful for himself to use and far more for people like Goku. Unlike the Saiyans, his human physiology adapted to self-harm a bit slower than the tailed-donned aliens.
"I-I'm impressed, King Kai!" the South Kai spoke as he adjusted his crooked white shades, his face perspiring with sweat as the East Kai's was, "this is my first time seeing it used on someone other than you. Its truly impressive what kind of power that other disciple has."
"Yeah, it is," the East Kai spoke in concurrence.
"Big deal, its not like that power stopped Freiza," the West Kai snarkily commented offhandedly, visibly putting up a good show of his unimpressed attitude. Little did he know, that his tell was the shaking ankles vibrating underneath the cushion he crossed his legs upon.
"Sure thing, West...sure thing," King Kai snickered, quieting down as the next fight began shortly.
For Goku, it was one of awe and nostalgia. Gohan, his son whom he placed as Earth's strongest hope next to Vegeta, and Piccolo, his enemy turned rival whom progressed to becoming a best friend to him. He trained his son, kept him safe, and was always there for him whenever he wasn't. Seeing the two stare at each other with such respect and understanding...gave Goku a bit of envy within his gut, not being the one to face him on the arena, instead of Piccolo.
And then, they took off.
Even though neither of them were using full strength, their skill and prestige of which they displayed was impressive to say the least. Blow for blow, each one used their own unique abilities to gain an upper hand. It impressed all the agility that the boy used to get around the Namekian, whom also seemed to deal some vicious blows to the young Saiyan-hybrid, but tanked them regardless of his much smaller frame.
When Gohan transformed into a Super Saiyan, Goku took note that Piccolo's stoic face not flinching an inch of what he faced. What was he planning?
Then, the following actions caused the entire audience on Grand Kai's planet to gape with shock.
Piccolo merely dropped his weighted armor, and sent enormous shockwaves within the ocean's surface below. With a follow-up release of energy, having been perpetually sealed by the simple woven garments, Piccolo appeared to be as strong as Gohan currently was. Goku himself, having starting to sift his senses beyond the fabric of Other Space, could actually feel a glimmer of Piccolo's power. It appeared to be as strong as his own!
This caused King Kai's eyes widen comically behind his shades, along with the other three Kais, while the Grand Kai laughed with amusement.
Pikkon, however, felt a bead of sweat crawl down his scalp and his eyes widen with shock. Piccolo, this Namekian, was using the same method as he trained under to gain even higher pinnacles of strength. How strong were these warriors of Earth truly?
As the battle raged, they appeared to be evenly matched. Fist met fist, knee met knee, elbow met elbow, the shockwaves perpetually lighting up the sky with vibrant flashes of thunder and bio-electricity. They moved with speeds only a few in the contenders' midst could track, and with a ferocity few of them could match with such ease.
Then, Piccolo seemed to land a flurry of blows, before heading down towards the ocean's surface, throwing him towards it the surface with incredible strength, making recovery nigh impossible.
Goku, for once, felt himself on the edge of his seat, seeing Gohan falling outside his reach and his senses feeling what lied beyond the TV screen. Gritting his teeth, Goku spoke aloud with a determined tone, "Don't give up, son!"
In that instant, whether by coincidence or not, Gohan spread out his arms and let out a startling battle cry. The volume echoed the cry of the young Super Saiyan warrior, sending audible and memorable pulsing sonic waves to stretch all the way to Other World beyond the Grand Kai's planet. The force caused the water around the artificial construct that was Battle Island to raise the waves high in the air, powered by the sheer power projection, as Gohan put himself to near his maximum potential as a Full-Powered Super Saiyan.
Then, within an instant, Gohan struck Piccolo's chest, like a golden rocket hitting a hillside. The force thrummed across Other Space through the TV's speakers, as the water flew upon Earth's dockside audience, and the screen momentarily blurred from the moisture and energy collection upon it. As it passed on, Gohan carried his unconscious friend across the ramp, with a wide smile on his face.
Sighing with relief, Goku leaned back in his seat, glad to have seen Gohan make it past the fight intact.
"You worried 'ur young'en not make it into the finals, hm?" The Grand Kai asked, not even turning his head from his reclined position to note Goku's relaxing muscles retract from the momentary tension he felt.
"Actually, yeah," Goku scratched his head as he smiled respectfully to the Grand Kai, "my son is about as close to Piccolo as he would be to me. He took care of him when I wasn't there, and they developed a special bond. Sometimes, I fear his inhibitions of hurting his friends would hold him back from winning friendly competitions. Though I'm glad he made it in time..."
"I see you didn't expect your Namekian friend to be so strong," the Grand Kai chuckled with a subtle knowing, causing Goku to furrow his brows in confusion, "I guess you placed a lot of faith in them, and they took your words a lot more to heart than you thought. Friendship like that...is rare to come by, for any being in the Universe. You have a rare talent, Son Goku. Remember your heart and your conviction, and just place commitment and action behind it. You will go to farther heights than even I will when you've reached your peak."
A somber silence eclipsed any reply Goku had, feeling a warm flush of bashfulness work its way onto his cheeks. Even though the Grand Kai wasn't his grandfather, the man acted like another Master Roshi he never had the opportunity of meeting before. He knew so much about him, about went around the galaxy in comparison to his mentor, King Kai, that he felt in awe of his wisdom and captivated by his words. They held weight and meaning. And he knew he would always treasure them.
When the final battle occurred, Goku was intrigued and fascinated. Yamcha and Krillin both showed to be quite advanced for their levels he left them at, with Yamcha even overpowering the expert dwarf. Within a series of dramatic and diverse uses of Ki and martial art techniques, Krillin used the Multi-body technique and landed a triumvirate series of strikes on his person, and hurtling the poor man into the ocean far below.
"Huh, seems they're all that much stronger! I guess," Goku smiled wider, upon noting the fights of what he saw of the people he trusted in keeping the Earth safe in his stead, "I guess I felt worried over nothing then..."
As the broadcast came to an intermission, the Grand Kai snapped his right hand in the air, causing the air to light up with a sky full of snacks, landing gracefully upon the laps of all the onlooking fighters, including the Kais and the four Galactic Champions.
"Everyone snack up," the Grand Kai spoke smiled with a knowing smirk hidden behind his white beard, "I feel like you won't be able to get another chance in the next round..."
"It seems that those dreaded Super Saiyans and their friends have gotten stronger," King Cold spoke ruefully, as he sat upon a red-black rock he used as a seat, watching on at the static-filled orb. With low quality, and only being sixty inches in diamater it was the only form of entertainment that Hell had been provided accordingly across the various territories. These "Televised-Spheres," however rarely showed anything of interest other than sports events and cooking channels. This time, however, was a bit more intriguing, if not dreadful, for the to-be contestants of Hell.
"You don't need to remind me, I can see it with my own eyes, thank you!" Freiza snarled, as he crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes scrutinizing the chosen broadcast they had left to view, "if nothing else, this is a waste of time. I need to plot a way to get ahead of those other powerhouses if I am to regain my body."
"Ha!" Cooler scoffed behind him, his body leaning against the rock formation enclosing their little circle of hidden red den they've chosen to call their home. He smirked wryly and scrutinized his brother with disdain, "as if you could weasel your way through the Tournament. If you think you actually stand a chance, you have more than that miserable Bardock and his family. Warriors of all forms we have yet still to encounter have been building their strength up for centuries longer than you've retained that ridiculous amount of pitiful power you possess."
"Don't taunt me, Cooler, or I'll crush you!" Freiza lashed out verbally, causing his father to roll his eyes, as he stretched his face with both of his hands.
"What has our family become since death? We're nothing but punching bags for those dreaded Saiyans, and we can't do anything as we please, with the Grand Kai's watchful eyes, as he sends his lap dogs to put us in our place. We have no more power, no more prestige, no wealth. We're as low as the common filth that overpopulate this damned wasteland," Cold lamented, pitying himself and speaking the truth that their family's eternal fate lied.
Cooler, however rolled his eyes at his younger brother's taunt as he did with his father's cowardice and self pity. He knew he was destined for greatness, and to become the strongest among all beings in the Universe. He had nearly won his quest of vengeance against Goku too...until he turned his own power against him, overcoming him to the utter brink of annihilation, plunging him into the boring and tedious life he had to spend with his worthless family.
If only there was a way...if only...
"Looks like quite the battle," Bardock commented, taking a brief break from whatever exercise he and his wife were undergoing, watching the latest broadcast their T.O. provided. So far, they became intrigued to see Prince Vegeta to have grown so much and become such a strong warrior, with even a Saiyan offspring rivaling his strength.
"Mhm," Hanassia hummed with idle interest, as she cranked yet another spit of barbecued lizard meat, looking over her shoulder as she tried to find a particular Saiyan child of hers around, "have you seen Raditz?"
"Nah, he still hasn't come back from the wastes," Bardock spoke, as he kept his eyes glued to the T.O. until it went into intermission, causing him to lean back on his carved out stone chair with a sigh, "strange how that boy went from whiny and lazy to stubborn and persevering. Maybe some of Kakarot's spirit rubbed off of him?"
"Its about time for that boy, I swear," the female Saiyan rolled her eyes as she kept cranking, reminded of the times she had to spend mothering him in life as a child as well in Hell, "that boy's gutless and cocky nature has always kept him on the bottom. Maybe a little lesson of humility or a drive to become better than our youngest son has struck a nerve in that thick head of his.
"Get that food done quick, I want to eat something while I watch the Semi-Finals," Bardock waved his hand at his wife.
"What was that, Bardock?! I don't think I heard you correctly?!" Hanassia snarled, her eyes glazed with anger and her hair standing up with comical rage directed to her mate.
With a sigh, Bardock spoke in a deliberately exaggerated tone, "May you please serve lunch soon so I may enjoy your wonderful company, Hanassia?"
"No need to be a kiss-ass, but close enough," Hanassia rolled her eyes before smiling, pulling the meat off the fire, defusing the flames promptly as she prepared the food once more.
"Hah...Hah...Hah...Hah..." Raditz, still clad in his Ultra-Super Saiyan form, felt his body now straining. He wanted to push himself personally to the limits of what he felt he could bear, without the weight of his parents' extreme methods and scrutiny on his backside. So, for the last three days, he decided to push as far as his stamina would last with this improved and mastered form would allow.
He faintly heard the distant cries of a familiar brat, one of which he remembered landing a sore strike in his gut.
"That brat," he snarled out, as he huffed, looking up into the sky. His eyes furrowed and felt his sore, calloused palms clench into fists at the thought of him, being his brother's son.
With an angry twitch of his jaw, he stomped the earth, causing it to indent ten meters into the earth, adding along with the dozens of fissures, trenches, and large craters from his three day long training session.
"Kakarot...I swear...I'm going to beat you!" Raditz growled as he glared at the sky, knowing the whole real reason of this Tournament was for him. It wasn't to gain a body. It was to beat the one weakling that beat him.
Kakarot's defeat at that moment, was the best goal the proud eldest son of Bardock and Hanassia, could wish to achieve.
And he would do so, at any cost!
"That Gohan still makes good progress," Cell observed from the distance, having ascended up just beneath the red smokey film that represented Hell's atmosphere. For the past three days, he made sure he felt confident that he refined all of his techniques, polished his strategies for every scenario, and prepared every contingency he would concieve for the upcoming the Tournament.
As a reward to himself, he felt obligated to watch the broadcast from afar, using his enhanced hearing and senses to give him the visual picture he needed to view of the Earth's most recent Tournament, "even Piccolo. Trunks, Tien, and even Yamcha and Krillin. So good to see that their experience with my battles against them didn't dull their senses. That's fine."
Smiling darkly, her narrowed his gaze at the horizon, as he chuckled with a knowing of what he would do when he achieved his revival, "After all, they'll need every bit of fight in them in order to hope to survive my wrath!"
As the fights finally renewed, Goku couldn't wait to see them all in action.
Even though Krillin was by far outclassed by the three other fighters, he hoped that he would do his best, regardless of his odds. Rocking his seat back and forth, like an impatient child, Goku begged for the rockets for which the contestants were confined within, elaborately designed to take them to modified arenas underneath the island's surface to fight "Alien" opponents.
However, when they did reach their destination, Goku could feel real power emanating from them, even through the fabric of Other Space. As they approached his friends and attacked, they were clearly enemies. New ones, with a malicious intent, and for some reason, knew their targets, even calling Gohan out by his own name as his own son. What was going on, he could only wonder.
"O-Oh no!" King Kai's voice trembled behind him, causing the four Galactic Champions to turn, with the exception of the Grand Kai himself, watching with ignorant bliss and enjoyment.
"Why are they there?! Why are they there?!" West Kai cried out in terror, his lone eye blinking with stark terror and fear.
South Kai trembled as he pointed at one of the views that the TV oscillated to, speaking aloud in fearful remembrance, "Its him! He really did come back!"
"How did this happen?!" the East Kai cried out, her hands grasping her rotund face, shaking it with confounded disbelief.
"What are you all talking about?!" Goku looked back at the screen, showing a dark smiling, blue-skinned and orange haired man sitting in front of the face of a large clock tower, "who is he?"
"I don't recognize him, but he wears garments of an outcast and a criminal," Aosai commented, speaking for the first time, and with no smile on her angular face, as her eyes briefly cast disdain at the image of the entity and his cohorts, "clearly they must have been exiled long ago."
"You're not too far off the mark, young lady," the Grand Kai huffed, turning his seat around, just in time as the mug shot of the scar-faced Herasian grinned with maliciousness at the nearest camera within the bowels of Battle Island II, "his name is Bojack the Unbound. He was cast out of the Herasian military when they found his methods to be too barbaric and his notable attempts of seizing power from the Royal House. In retaliation, he destroyed the entirety of the Herasian race, save for a couple hundred of his fanatical followers of his. They were called the Galaxy Soldiers, and within Bojack's command, they ransacked the Eastern Galaxy, and prepared to scourge it before heading to the other galaxies. That day...pirates clashed with gods!"
Approximately 5 Centuries ago, Outer Rim of the Eastern Galaxy
The vacuum of space is said to be silent, and that no scream could be heard. Even in the eclipses of stars, the supernovas, and the implosions of moons that occurred within the wake of all victimized systems the Galaxy Soldiers left in their wake, not one cry could be heard within the eternally black canvas of stars that echoed seemingly for eternity.
But one group of noble, proud protectors of the Universe did. They heard all of their voices squandered and silenced, as suddenly as they were raided by the twisted and barbarous Bojack had upon his own planet of Hera.
They were, the Kais!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! A series of explosions lit up the atmosphere of a dead planet, being one of the last systems to stand between the overlapping space of the Eastern Galaxy and the proximate galaxies beyond. Mountain-sized ships detonated or plummeted from the sky, as four speeding figures, enraptured in white auras of white light moving in to take the pirate fleet off guard and take them head-on.
But five centuries ago, they weren't the rotund and nonchalant deities the Universe's Other Space knows them for. They were powerful, graceful, dexterous, cunning, and most of all, noble.
At the head of the four streaking, shooting star auras, was the Kai of the Northern Galaxy. Wearing the garments fitting his placement, a strong angular jawline, fixated with a pair of ocean blue eyes, matching the blue skin surrounding his muscularly defined form, hidden barely by the rippling black adorned uniform over him, standing at nearly six feet in height. Wearing a gaze of righteous fury and determination, he headed the offensive to Bojack's fleet.
"Let's go!" the North Kai ordered telepathically, as they bore upon a squadron of pink aura-enraptured Galaxy Soldiers, "South! Take them head-on!"
"Understood," A deep, respectable tone emitted from North's mind, as a salmon colored, ten foot tall Kai sped forth past his compatriots, just as the twenty-odd Herasians began to open fire a number of Ki blasts at their direction.
Stretching his arms out, the black glaring eyes expanded along with the rest of his body, as the once tall Kai turned into the quarter the size of a moon. This startled the incoming squadron of flying Herasians, forcing them to halt their attack and attempt a retreat, but were too slow. Large hands moved through the empty vacuum unimpeded, as they clapped with immense force, crushing all of the Galaxy Soldiers, while sending a reverberating shockwave towards a number of scrambling fighters heading their way.
Two other squadrons of tear-drop shaped snub fighters and space-suited Herasians flew towards their flanks, attempting to overwhelm them from the other sides.
"Head for the other cruisers, South! We'll take care of the other squadrons out here!" North urged as he and his fellow Kais took evasive maneuvers, as the enormous South Kai jettisoned forth, sending crippling punches into the infrastructures of the hardened shells of the outer hulls of mountain-sized battleships, and island-shaped gun-runner ships. They fell one after another, with barely any affect their firepower had upon his durable and massively sized state.
"East! Deflect their fire and send it towards them!" North ordered as he zig-zagged across space, leaving a silver trail of light in the wake of the powerful bursts of energy he left behind him.
"Right away!" East Kai responded, stopping her soaring pattern to appear in the middle of the vacuum. With a long mass of floating orange, silky hair flourishing down her back and all the way to her angular, hour-glass shaped waistline, the feminine Kai's yellow eyes glowed as she exerted her own unique power. Bending her hands and arms, as the beams of death discharged by Herasian foot soldier or from the moisture-shaped spaceship, they all bent and flowed across the black film of space, coalescing together into a single spherical mass.
Then, they discharged, in a rapid series of prisms, all of them ramming with bone-crushing force into the space-suited Galaxy Soldiers and into the fighters with explosive force, wiping out a great deal of the enemy that had previously had them dodging.
"Taken them down here!" East responded, briefly smiling at the blue-skinned experienced North, exchanging it back, before the two joined the West towards the thick of the battle from which South had engaged upon.
As they approached, despite South maintaining the majority of attention, a good dozen capital ships discharged emerald bolts of destructive energy at their positions. Causing them to swerve and maintain a safe distance.
"By the Supreme, they aren't letting us close enough to aid South!" West thought in an alarmed tone. His body build similar to North Kai, but a little bit more lithe and shorter, showing a more angled and shrunken jawline, fixed with a pair of hazel eyes.
"Worrying about it won't solve anything!" North thought with a berating tone briefly scowling at him which earned one just as nasty in return.
"Ohohoho! Excuse me Northy! I'm just trying not die out here!" South flailed his arms in emphasis.
"Why you-!" North was about to lash out, but was interrupted by a stream of blaster fire heading their way by the distant and proximate cruisers, capital ships, and gunner-ships.
"We all know you can't stand each other, but can you please concentrate on the task at hand?!" East snarled through her thoughts, as she glared heatedly at North and West, causing them to both realign themselves into dodging movements.
East herself waved her hands towards the mass of attacks, telepathically declaring, "I'm going to disengage their shields, and leave you two an opening to crash through the hulls! Got it?!"
"R-Right," West meekly nodded.
"Sorry," North bowed his head in sheepish apology.
"You should not be sorry, but rather ashamed, North," As she weaved her hands gracefully and dexterously across the space, the firepower began to be redirected into a single mass of pulsating energy, hovering just next to South's stalwart, enlarged form, "you were named the King by Grand Kai, after all! This is your mission to spearhead, not any of ours."
"I understand," North nodded, a smile lapsed over his face, as he nodded thankfully at the radiant East, "thank you."
"Don't thank me till this is over, King Kai!" She thought with pointed emphasis, clasping her hands together as most of the fire had halted momentarily from the enemy, "we still have an army to crush! Now...MOVE!"
When her hands waved out, so too did the small planetoid-sized orb of pulsing energy discharge in a vast webbed pattern, striking nearly the entirety of the ships set before them. The impacts shook, vibrated, and electrified the shields that held a transparent defense over the mineral-based hull, before dispersing in a cacophony of bright discharges of lightning and sparks in the midst of the battlefield.
It was then, that the two moved, like streaking comets of deified death towards their enemies.
West began to shimmer out of view, and rapidly appear and disappear across the vast expanse of ships, crashing through them, before exiting them, making the holes just large enough for North's follow-up attacks to their structures. Though he possessed speed, he didn't possess any of South's massive strength or North's raw power.
And that, was when North thought aloud his personally developed technique, "Kaio-ken!"
KRAK-KOOM! With his jet stream of silver, transcendent energy being left in his wake, trading out with a blazing streak of crimson, North moved with even greater speeds before. Piercing the hulls of the pock-marked vessels, like a knife across a body, a series of critical explosions erupted in the wake of the North's rampage, as he followed the West's path, repeatedly ramming his muscular frame through each mineralized ship before blasting his way back out.
North and West finally reunited next to East, both physically sighing from the effort of wreaking so much destruction across such a scale.
What was previously a series of Herasian automated, hulking vessels and fighter carriers, were now caked in flames and cracked all across the semi-circle that faced the four Kais.
"Time to end this!" South proclaimed, as he clapped his massive hands together, doubling his already impressive size, becoming nearly the size of an entire small moon. With massive fists bearing upon the wreaked vessels, South proceeded to shatter the many ships into shards, before they detonated in space, sending out dozens of Herasian bodies to fly out into the vacuum, before embracing a bitter and dark death.
"Where's Bojack?" West asked pointedly, as South mopped up the remaining few vessels, "I thought he was here with his fleet?"
"Was this all a distraction? A trap to lure us away?" East inquired, visibly widening her eyes as she thought that they might have been outmaneuvered by the terrible marauder.
"Let me find out," North quieted the shared thoughts of his friends, before focusing his mind's eye upon the void. There were only a few remaining vessels left, and South was preparing to launch his fists at them. As he focused on them he felt a faint trace of five signatures of the largest ruined vessel, the Harbinger, Bojack's flagship. He then, realized with a startling revelation what they were going to do, "South, look ou-!"
But his telepathic shout wouldn't reach him in time.
"NGH?!" South grunted inwardly as he saw four streaks of violet-black auras discharge from the deck of the last hull he was preparing to smash and all struck his massive body on different sides. One repelled his fist, the others, struck his face and his chest, producing large shockwaves that rippled the field of debris into barely recognizable fields of metal, bodies, and minerals.
As his body shrunk from the shock, South was narrowly caught by West's speeding frame, soon after being joined by North and East's battle readied forms.
The four aura-enraptured beings of sinister, black-violet Ki came to a halt, stopping a mere ten meters away from their forms, all powered up to the maximum. With sickly green skin enamoring their once blue complexion of ocean blue, the fiery red-haired lieutenants of Bojack's Galaxy Soldiers stood calmly and confidently before the four assembled deities.
"I can't read their thoughts! These aren't ordinary thugs that Bojack has under his wing," North analyzed as he gritted his teeth, glaring heatedly at the group. But then, his eyes softened the hardened gaze and his throat went dry. What began to approach them from the fiery fragment of the bridge which once housed the immensely sized capital ship, was none other than Bojack himself. His orange mane flowed back with a liquid grace, due to the vacuum surrounding them all, and a thin aura of violet-black energy kept him from suffering the fate of his lesser subordinates.
"So," Bojack's cruel, deep voice breached their thoughts against their will, unraveling the true extent of his powers, "it appears that you destroyed my fleet of weaklings. How unfortunate for them."
"Those were the last of your race! How could you laugh at their vain sacrifices so callously?!" North snarled through his own psychic rebuttal, but caused nothing but a sickening, amused chuckle from his enemy.
"Why would a King worry about peons who flock to him so mindlessly? They were obviously seeking a glorious end, and I granted it to them. Being destroyed by enemies, such as the gods themselves, was more than a glorifying end," Bojack responded with an amused grin, before snarling visibly, "not like those worms I burned to ash as I crushed my planet to dust!"
"You're insane!" East hissed internally while glaring angrily at the brute.
"I second that," South responded cheekily.
"Third," West stuck his tongue out at the brutish Herasian, causing the entity to glare daggers at him.
"Bojack...you claimed many, many, many lives over the past years, but no more! From this day forth," North Kai, rearing back his arms, declared mentally as a blinding flash of crimson fiery energy, "before this day is over, you will not claim another life again!"
"Bring it on, gods of the universe!" Bojack beckoned them with open arms, "show me what your powers of deified proportion can really do!"
Within a single moment, the battle regained momentum, and the powers clashed within the field of debris, hovering over a dead planet.
Streaks of crimson, white, violet, and black would collide, causing electrical discharges of energy to light up the empty mass of vacuum, blanketed only by the distant stars beyond. A symphony of vibrant explosions would ripple and continue to flow onward, crushing and shattering the graveyard of death that had been assumed not but minutes ago.
South Kai would find himself facing a nearly big Herasian chasing him, exchanging every explosively laced punch and kick for every one of South's. While South could feel an unnatural reservoir of energy that matched his own, and possibly exceeded it, he could sense that most of it was being used to protect himself from the vacuum surrounding them all. Using his own natural immunity to such affects, South would try and use grapples and body strikes to pressure the pirate, hopefully exhausting the shield of life that sustained him even in the midst of their intense struggle.
Bujin found him swerving in and out in the midst of an acrobatic duel with West Kai. The two vividly were disappearing and reappearing, sending intricate pulses of psychic energy towards each other, missing each of their targets by a hair's breath. When Bujin would send his psycho threads to catch him, West would simply teleport away, and land a strike to his flank. Likewise, when West charged, Bujin would sent discharges of telekinetic force, hurtling bits of debris hither and there, before following up with a flurry of thunderously rapid one-twos.
East Kai found herself taxed with fighting two opponents simultaneously. While Zangya would rush her from an angle, Kogu would employ a strike with his Devilish Blade. Only problem for the both of them, every time their auras would come within close proximity to East, they would find themselves being repelled or striking each other. Like a dancer fighting a pair of awkward amateurs, East would grace her hands melodiously across the black vacuum, as her own hair swirled majestically in her wake, while sending her two opponents tumbling helplessly around while they kept repeatedly charging at her from either side.
North Kai, elected the entitlement of King Kai by the Grand Kai nearly a century ago when having proven his mettle, strategic brilliance, courage, and wisdom in handling the Northern Galaxy as well as handling the others, took the fight to Bojack.
Despite powering up to maximum, he could feel Bojack toying with him. Every time he lashed out with a series of jabs, kicks, and discharges of Ki, Bojack would repel them and block them accordingly. The forces of their colliding fists were astounding, but it appeared to King Kai that his attacks were nothing but a joke to him. Then, he employed a cunning plan.
After ducking underneath a backhand sweep from Bojack's large left forearm, King Kai swerved his hands in to either side...
SHIIINK-SHIIINK!...forming a pair of giant crystal spikes, the size of mountain peaks, before thrusting them towards Bojack's body.
This forced the brute to raise his hands up and discharge a powerful dual set of emerald energy, ripping them apart, before they could connect to his muscular frame.
However, it did give King Kai the opening he needed to land a powerful Kaio-ken punch to the gut, causing him to stumble back from the vibrant connected strike, before being caught within a flurry of attacks.
Feeling his fists and legs throb with pain, as he struck against the nearly indestructible mountain of blue flesh and gypsy garbs, he backpedaled away to observe his handiwork, as he desperately maintained his crimson aura.
Smiling weakly, King Kai could see that he did cause some damage. Tears were abundant upon Bojack's form, as well as bruises and cuts, pocked across his flesh, with a dribble of blood leaking from his jaw. An angry pair of eyes locked onto the clever Kai, disdaining his own folly for falling into his trap.
"You think you're so clever, don't you, little god?" Bojack spoke with barely controlled rage through his mind, as the three Kais and four henchman of his clashed vividly around them with great intensity.
"Well I have been known to come up with some great jokes," King Kai prodded with a smirk.
"They are actually kind of tacky," the West spoke in the midst of his battle, landing a knee strike to Bujin's neck before whisking away before his enemy could retaliate, "and kind of lame..."
"I honestly have to side with West, North," South thought admittedly as he head-butted Bido, creating a crackling flash of light between the two of them, following up with a series of haymaker strikes, "they aren't in very good taste."
"Can you two shut it?!" East Kai thought as she gracefully flipped over the two assailants of hers, before kicking their backs, sending them tumbling into a pile of debris near to her. Smirking, she added, "but, they are right, in a way..."
"ALL OF YOU CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL!" King Kai bellowed inwardly, as veins protruded comically along his brows, as he balled his fists tightly with emphasis, "I swear by the Supreme, I will send your asses straight to Hell after this!"
"If you are done with your idiotic banter," Bojack interrupted, he shimmered in front of King Kai, landing a devastating knee kick to his gut before striking him solidly in the jaw, "I have some pain I want to give back to you!"
King Kai winced and coughed with each blow. His head rang with the spasms and force being dealt to his frame. The crimson flame of his Kaio-ken had nearly diminished to nothing, and Bojack was already on the offensive. He only had one plan left, and he knew it was a long shot. But he had no other choice! His body would break in two before he would revive his Kaio-ken back to full power.
As Bojack instigated another thrust of his massive arm, King Kai whisked away with a brief re-ignition of Kaio-ken's aura, distancing himself as he raised high above the other combatants. The gypsy pirate growled and took off after him, with a jettisoned tail of violet-black energy in his wake, as he rushed to catch the fleeing deity and wring his neck.
Before that occur, King Kai defused his Kaio-ken aura, and exchanged it with a celestial white one. Lowering his body swiftly to be perpendicular to the quickly ascending Bojack, he thrust out his palms before him, and sent a golden pulse of materialization force to strike Bojack dead-on.
What would hit Bojack would be as series of intricately designed blades, spears, clubs, and knives, all of them from different parts of the galaxy. Enraptured with energy, they hit him as a wave of energy bullets would, overwhelming his offensive and sending his body plummeting into football field size of debris, crashing with a powerful spray.
Raising his hand towards the mass of debris, he sent another pulse of materialization energy around the web of metal, minerals, and bodies, forming a large pair of cubes. With a clenching motion of his hand, a large metal box lapsed over the powerful entity.
Relaxing his body, he allowed himself to aimlessly in space, as his fellow Kais began to batter back their respective opponents, also following suit, sealing them up within cubes. Reinforced with the metal known as Katchin, the densest metal in the Universe, they knew no matter what stress the henchman of Bojack's used, wouldn't break them free.
"All done here," South spoke through his mind, as he sealed Bido away.
"Same here," West nodded with success on his face, sealing away Bujin for good.
"Mine too," East thought with satisfaction, as both Zangya and Kogu were also captured within the pair of durable prisons.
"Good," King Kai sighed, lighting his aura of white energy around him, wincing at the side-affects from his Kaio-ken, "I think I pushed it a little too much with my Kaio-ken. Should have relied on my strategy rather than take him head-on."
"Yeah, thanks by the way for leaving the lady to handle two of them," East rolled her eyes with irritation, "I give you one compliment and you let it go to your stupid head!"
"May all the hair on your head fall off some day, East. May it all fall off," King Kai joked, smirking, even through the pain as he floated towards the large box that contained Bojack.
C-CRACK! Even through the silence that space offered, all the Kais felt their blood go cold, as Bojack's aura blazed even darker and more malicious through his prison, causing it to fragment, and crack all around.
"H-H-How is this possible?!" South widened his eyes in alarm.
"T-T-The Katchin...is shattering!" East nearly screamed within her mind.
"Does anyone have a plan B?! SOMEONE tell me we have a plan for this!" West gasped with terror.
King Kai couldn't move. He couldn't think. He could only watch and witness as a star of black-emerald energy erupted from the football-field sized cage, revealing an enraged and very full-powered Bojack.
No words were uttered through his mind. He couldn't fathom the indignity of being imprisoned and outwitted by the gods. His teeth bore nothing but a dark smile and his eyes widened to the point of showing nothing but blood lust and insanity. He wanted to kill them all. Painfully. Slowly, and through the most gruesome manner he could conjure.
"BOJACK!" But a single, aged and commanding voice would interrupt all of their thoughts.
His single-minded focus temporarily re-adverted to deal with the interloper's voice, he could only recognize the faint presence of the highest of all gods call out his name: The Grand Kai.
"If you wish to do battle with me, and take the mantle of the Universe as your pilfer coffin, then accept my challenge! Allow my associate, West Kai, to transport you to the center of the Universe! There, you will have access to the gateway to every galaxy of your choosing, and ruin whatever worlds of your desire! Come now, or you will never face me on the battlefield, and be called by me forever to be a coward!" The thunderous voice bellowed out, causing all four Kais to stay silent and wait anxiously in trepidation at the sound of a very angry Grand Kai speaking through their minds, and Bojack's.
A painful silence elapsed, as the four weary and trembling Kais waited in fear and suspense.
If Bojack took the bait, whatever challenge meant to the Universe's fate at this point in time, and have to face the mightiest of Kais to ever have existed. Even though none of them have fought alongside the Grand Kai, they knew of his power and what he was legendary for. If anyone had a chance of beating Bojack in combat, it would be him.
Then again, if Bojack called his bluff, he would tear apart the exhausted Kais, and rampage the Universe anyways, with the wrath of the Supreme Kais bearing down on the Grand Kai's head for failing in his duties, and the Kais', postmortem.
After seeing a thoughtful glimmer enter Bojack's eyes, his thoughts brought relief to the four Kais, "Very well, leader of the gods, I accept your challenge! I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart, and then come back for these wretched weaklings later!"
"You have to fist beat me, child!" the Grand Kai uttered in a mocking tone through his own thoughts, before cutting his "connection" off with Bojack, to redirect to the four Kais, "West Kai, I need you to transport him towards the center of the Universe. I'm going to buy you time so you can prepare the Nexus Prism!"
"W-Wait! You aren't going to kill Bojack?!" King Kai thought with alarm as he turned to the other Kais, as West hesitantly moved towards Bojack with haste.
"He deserves a punishment far worse than death. Though I will give him a battle, the outcome will not be to his enjoyment," the elderly Kai thought sagely, silencing the protests of the Kais respectively.
As West Kai looked up at the snarling Bojack, he briefly touched his shoulder, before the two of them winked out of view from the other three, leaving them to hear the remaining instructions.
"Now, transmit yourselves back to your own planets! The sooner you do so, the sooner you can start the ritual!" The Grand Kai thought with urgency.
"Right away," South Kai nodded with respect, before waving to the other fellow Kais, disappearing with a blinking motion.
East Kai followed, leaving King Kai to transmit to his own planet.
The Center of the Universe.
When one speaks of such a place, one would imagine a grandiose, clandestine world of unimaginable beauty or wonder. Or would perhaps grace your mind with the image of an enormous star, pulsing with the heartbeat as vibrant and alive as any rainbow cast on a skyline, or painted within black canvas of stars stretching as far as the eye can see.
It would be anything but beautiful.
Lying at the center, a decrepit red star lied within the center of a field of debris and death. It would carry on for miles, spanning for millions of miles, and withholding ships, pieces of planets, and many forms of life whom had mysteriously graced too close to this forbidden area of the Universe.
Surrounding on all sides, would be a ring of black holes, continually absorbing, crushing and transporting all forms of matter to and fro from this abandoned sector of the galaxy, untouched, nearly, by all entities.
Save for two.
The Grand Kai stood tall, his muscular frame wrapped by his ceremonial robes of his designated title, his beard flourishing through space, with a pair of black eyes hidden by a pair of shades. He had the aura of golden-hue of white and yellow flourishing from his frame, his body pulsating with strength as strong as any condensed star would have.
Then, as suddenly the second entry would appear, he would be left alone by his challenger.
Bojack's rippling pale, sickly green skin withheld a large body built for nothing but war. His large mane of orange hair now a brilliant shade of crimson blood, with his eyes projecting an emerald glare towards the Grand Kai. An aura of emerald-black energy wrapped around his body with protection and pulsation, thrumming as vast as the power beating within his heart.
No thoughts were exchanged between the two. Only glares, and knowing flexes of muscles, energies, and bones. There will be blood in the vacuum of space this day, and Bojack intended it to be the Grand Kai's.
Within the space of a single blink of an eye, the two struck each other's fists, causing what would be seen as a blast of blinding light to emit from both pair of strong, calloused knuckles. Power poured from within the faint gap of their fingers, as orbs of energy overlapped twice, thrice, and until five build-ups, before detonating point blank.
The explosion would have ripped apart a planet and through the solar system, as it expanded like a balloon of emerald-white force, dissipating as suddenly as it came, as it imploded within the wake of the vacuum.
Streaming out with incredible fury, the two combatants struck each other repeatedly with intense collision, causing enough friction between the two bodies to discharge fissures of lightning and collapses of transparent pressure. Blinking in and out, the silent duet of death continued to hail across the cosmos' centerpiece, like a battle between two forces, that would forever wage past their time spent in the emptiness of space.
Fist struck fist.
Knee struck knee.
Elbow struck elbow.
Forehead met forehead.
The clash continued to build in intensity, as fissures of terrifying power spread across the cosmos, producing planetary destructive tendrils of colliding and discharging fissures of bio-lightning. Every time the Grand Kai would strike Bojack's rippling frame, he would be struck back just as hard, into the black silk that wrapped over his body. The force would shatter moons, and barely phase the fighters, as they continued to trade mind-boggling blows while never leaving each others' gazes.
As they seperated, Grand Kai's cloak would rupture from the force, along with his hat, revealing his full body's form. Rippling with massive muscles, the Grand Kai was adorned with scars of various sorts. From blades, to burns, to broken bones, the Grand Kai's weathered body looked aged and refined over the thousands of years of his existence from legendary conflicts and epic wars within ancient times past. His eyes, now revealed after his shades shattered, glared with unyielding disdain and anger at Bojack. Yet, not a single blood and been drawn from his frame.
Likewise, Bojack's gargantuan frame had yet to show any sign of damage from the clash of flesh and Ki exerted by the Grand Kai. If anything, his eyes furrowed with confusion. The power welling within the deity seemed unending and everlasting, just like the force within his own soul. So why did he feel like the god whom challenged him was holding back?
His answer would come with a series of blips, as four familiar caskets of Katchin and other fine materials flowed towards the aging star at the epicenter of the Universe.
As the Herasian warrior's eyes widened, he felt himself being pulled into the star itself, as golden threads of enormous Ki began to draw him into the decrepit, pulsing force of fusion energy.
Locking glaring eyes at a pair of humored black ones, he realized he had been tricked. The center of the Universe was a prison, and he was being pulled in, along with the four imprisoned cohorts of his own. When he felt the searing heat lick at his body as he entered its mass, he swore inwardly he would wreak revenge against anyone the Kais had disciplined or cared for, and bleed the Universe dry.
As Bojack's body hit the center, along with his four Lieutenants, the star changed shape and glowed an ominous white-blue aura. Locked in perfect suspended animation, Bojack would be helpless as the Universe would continue to endure, as he and his minions would watch on for eternity, unable to lift a finger, and unable to conjure any form of aggression in retaliation.
Age 767, the Present
When the story had finished its tale, or what parts that Goku could gather, he among the other Champions were mind-boggled.
Not only a terror that the Kais couldn't have contended with effectively arrive on Earth, but he planned on striking at his own home planet, and targeted his son as part of his revenge scheme.
Aosai felt herself sweat beads of fright, remembering full well what she felt as her race perished nearly a half millennium after her own death. This became all the more of concern, especially one of the Kais was deceased.
Pikkon's eyes were also widened, though he did his best to restrain his features to show anything but alarm. He couldn't believe that Bojack was so strong, that the Grand Kai himself had invoked combat against him, and suggested sealing, rather than smiting him from the face of reality. What wisdom was in this? He couldn't understand, even if it wasn't his place to.
Rao remained utterly silent, one of the few who had control of his emotions and absorbed all that was told without flinching in fear. After all, he was dead, and they were in a world separate from theirs. Why would he care what would occur beyond his own control?
Though, one question plagued the Kais' minds. What caused Bojack to be released?
"Does anyone remember how that seal worked again?" King Kai asked aloud to his fellow deities, seeing them all rub their heads, with none of them quite figuring out how it worked. After all, it had been five hundred years since they've used it, and they never had to use it in their whole lives before and after that dreadful time. None of them seemed to place a finger on it.
With a belated sigh, the Grand Kai turned his chair pointedly back to the screen, saying aloud, "The fact Son Goku and King Kai are here, deceased, and robbed of life, means that King Kai's planet is also destroyed. The Nexus Prism was solely focused as a magic seal that was bound to the life force and the planetary integrity of four planets. The North, South, East, and West. If any one of them were lost, then the beast unlocked, and the seal would be undone."
"Uh-oh..." King Kai's mouth uttered dryly, as he realized at once what the other Kais did. Cell's blast destroyed the seal, the moment it killed him and destroyed the planet.
On the screen, Goku winced, as he heard an all too familiar voice cry out in despair and anger, right on the big screen TV that shook the heavens and the expansive Other Space.
"KAKAROT! YOU! ARE! THE! WORST! SUPER! SAIYAN! EVER!"
Looking on with horror, Goku couldn't bring himself to laugh, cry, or apologize. Vegeta had just heard the truth of his mistake from Bojack himself. Flopping onto his seat uselessly, he felt utterly and pitifully worthless. What had he done to the Universe?! Did he save it from Cell...or doom it to the wrath of Bojack?!
A/N: Excluding this tidbit, I've got a 15,700+ word count for this chapter. WOW! This was a big one.
At some points I felt that I should have stopped earlier, but I felt it more appropriate to cover everything in one go. I hope I answered a few questions, gave some interesting bids of cool action, and a nice few connection between unexplained mistakes made by the Kais in the past and the present. I had a lot of fun writing this out, in every part, so I hope you enjoy the read (and tolerate all the wordy mass it has, lol)
Also, if you have any requests for the upcoming Other World Tournament that will be happening in the next few chapters, please PM me with suggestions or leave it as a comment in your review.
I'll see you next in VC's 7th Chapter, so all you Vegeta Chronicles Fans, please catch me next time on Monday or Tuesday with the next submission of the most Epic clash of fists, flesh, and bones of the series yet!
Until then, I'll see you all next time on the next Other World Saga chapter! :)
