CrimZon Universe
Season 1 – Rebirth
Episode 12 – Thanks
Harbinger Scout Ship, Deep Space…
Far away from the planet Aeon, stationed in an asteroid field since their arrival, the lone harbinger vessel quietly observed the siege their mercenaries were laying under the command of Ouros. The crew members of the scout ship were but tasked to examine and access the situation using the ship's long-range sensors and sneaking in spy drones the size of house flies to acquire visual confirmation on the ground. But what the crew had witnessed from the safety of their ship, was far beyond what they had predicted.
The short skirmish between the red unknown warrior and Ouros and his comrades; the sizeable strike team of the natives now stationed in the mainland; the encounter of 2 incredible powerful soldiers against the rest of cyclops; the duel between the mercenary leader and another soldier of equal strength; and finally, the titanic climax currently taking place - 2 beings, radiating in gold, generating enough destruction that could destroy the very world they stand on 10 times over; they are the source of their uneasiness.
Out of the countless alien races the harbingers have accumulated in order to combat the incoming threat, the cyclops mercenaries were by far their best. And unfortunately for them, the only other groups they knew who can perform the same feats were the enemies knocking on the doorstep of their galaxy.
Taking the city now, was out of the question; they are not prepared.
On the ship's bridge, the shipmaster, same in appearance as his superior aboard their fleet's flagship, made a call to retreat out of the system and return back on their own, leaving Ouros and his comrades behind. Any further action to be taken against the planet would be futile in just one ship.
And so, in seconds, the crew prepare to leave, and after a tear in space opens big enough for their ship to enter, they left without a trace, willing to make the 1-day trip back to their fleet, rather than stay behind and risk being destroyed.
Mountain Region, outer edge….
On the precipice of death, yet hanging on the threads of life, Ouros awakens with his eye partially blurred, staring straight up at a thunder clouds roaring overhead, and feeling the ground beneath him tremble.
What…happened?
Without even having to look, he knew his own state is in shambles – mangled beyond recognition. The absence of his limbs was apparent due to the searing pain produced and even under the process of regeneration, it persists.
So I'm still alive…how…disappointing.
Despair is the only thought on his mind, not because he lost to someone, but rather he managed to completely fail in his mission and lose his entire team.
Vard is dead, Azure, Gunnar, and Shade are unresponsive, and the last he saw Teal she was incinerated by the energy blast sent by his fated opponent. He blames himself for his own incompetence; underestimating the enemy and dismissing the prophecy he was given as mere air. Now, he was in no condition to do anything, much less accomplishing their assignment. He failed, plain as day, and he takes it as it is with humility.
But suddenly, the sound of dirt and rock crunched as though something was crawling towards him, caught his ears, along with a familiar voice.
"My…lord!"
To his right, with his eyes filled with disbelief, he sees Teal alive but weak and was all but one arm and half a torso; the rest of her made up of exposed muscles tendons and exoskeleton shells.
Among his group, Ouros knew Teal's regenerative powers were only second to his brother, but he never knew the extent of her abilities until now – recovering from being nearly incinerated.
"You've…survived." He uttered, coughing up specks of blood afterward.
But this one piece of good news sparks a chuckling laughter to ignite, ignoring his physical torment.
For Teal, who was pushing through her physical torment, this was the first time she saw him outside his cold hard, calculated demeanor.
Eventually, his comes back around; but they both turn their sights to the chaotic landscape brewing over the ever-erupting mountain region, plagued by flashes of bright lights; vaporizing all into dust.
Ouros directs his attention and his senses to identify of the disturbance. The first one he sensed was the one armed with metal and felt the same lifeless yet bloodlust presence which nearly killed him. The second one was familiar – it was the red warrior; the first threatening combatant he had seen within the short time he spent in this world. There, he came across a revelation. In his mind, he contemplates to himself on the words of the oracle once more.
In 20 years I would arrive at a crossroad; one side will be my death, and the other, my life's purpose. I had thought this 'star' and the 'golden one' are one and the same. But I am not so sure. I believe, one side has the star, and the other, has the one who I must not anger and shines in gold...if I follow this logic, then I have already chosen the wrong side. But that would mean the star…must be-
Mountain Region…
At the center of the destruction, Erb and Zeph pin one another down with locked fists, both struggling to overpower the other while maintaining their stance, only letting their golden aura conflict each other.
Erb soon pulls him in with a right kick square to his abdomen, breaking his grip, allowing himself to send him flying.
Yet in a bizarre display of acrobatics, he watches the cyborg use one arm, transforms it into a cannon, and fires a short concussive burst upward, pushing himself downward, closer to the ground. Afterward, he dug his other arm into the ground, slowing his speed, and then stopping himself completely.
Erb sensed his aura spike and saw him make use of the same cannon arm, now pointed at him. The red saiyan leans back as far as he could, avoids an incoming beam. Next, he hunches back forward, only to be welcomed by a second one. He bobs left, soon sprints beneath it as low as possible while sustaining his aura shield to avoid the intense heat, and when he reached his opponent, he throws a left uppercut and connects with a satisfying slam; however, he couldn't manage to send the cyborg soldier flying; instead he withstood it, and grabs hold of the red warrior's forearm, keeping him in place, and pointing the end of his fully charged cannon towards him.
With what little room Erb had, he made use of his tail, wraps it around Zeph's right leg and pulls him aside, robbing him of his footing, and sequentially, clenches the barrel of the cannon and directs it upward, just in time before it discharged into a deafening drum. Before it ceased, he uses his right hand, holds onto the cyborg's other arm, and using what he learned from Trunks, he throws him over his shoulder and onto the ground, back first, causing him to bounce off the surface, and sends him off with a push kick square on his sides.
Still, he gives chase, passes him completely, raising his fist as high as he could, readying a punch to sunder him to sleep once and for all. However, he meets the barrel end of his cannon once more, this time from the cyborg's other arm, already charged up. He skips back to ditch his position, but instead of expecting the same attack, a bright white light ignites, blinding him.
Erb rubs his eyes as he felt them burning, yet, suddenly, a solid object impacts his forehead with tremendous force. With what little visibility he had, he caught sight of the cyborg's face close to his own and suspected he was hit by the metal piece on around the man's head.
Burdened by a painstaking headache, he hit the ground, and the shock almost knocks him out; vision darkened, hearing dampened.
By the time the light in his eyes returned, he spots the cyborg coming down with a jab strike to his face. Using his weight, he rolls sideways and then to his feet, evading his death. Lady luck smiles on him as Zeph was struggling to bring his arm out of the hole he made and within the short time, Erb takes a sprinting position, flexes his already fatigued leg muscles, and throws himself into a shoulder charge. He cleanly tackles his opponent with his left shoulder pressed against his abdomen, and together they bulldozed into everything and anything in their way – boulders, hills, even into one of the dome-shaped mountains, digging deep inside, and soon after burst right back out.
Erb, knowing full well he was in a position to be countered, applies one last push, getting him off himself, and throws a swift kick, digging Zeph into one last natural structure, and finally ends it with a well-placed energy volley, vaporizing the target area.
But in spite of his efforts, he knew better than to expect his foe would stay down from one simple ki-blast – and it was made clear from the fact that he could still sense his presence, strong and unwavering despite being on a sort of auto-pilot mindset. Shortly later, he spots the burial ground undergoing a mini-quake, and instantly it erupts with the cyborg bursting out and landing on his feet, drenched in blood and sweat.
This time, however, he shows signs of exhaustion from his staggering stance and even breathing out from his mouth more often. In the eyes of the red Saiyan, he couldn't help but be amazed, not by his durability, but by his willpower. He deliberately had been aiming for his head, hoping to put him to sleep with one swift attempt – using the shock and vibration to rattle his brain into unconsciousness, or at least to slow his movement. He succeeds in the latter; but unfortunately, the killer-machine man remained standing, still in his Super Saiyan 2 form, despite his flesh parts sustaining more damage than his nearly indestructible armored limbs and headpiece.
Regardless, compared to himself, he fares no better; his own body wasn't going to last long. Despite his physical defense boosted by super saiyan, his knuckles are nearly broken from repeatedly hitting the metal pieces and felt parts of his bones being dent from defending against his punches.
Suddenly, he observes Zeph cannon arms returning to normal, and whips them outward, palms open, with sparks of flickering light flying out into countless crackling lightning bolts, all scurrying to the shocked red fighter in a frenzy.
Not wanting to get hit, he takes a complete vertical flight, dodging the first volley successfully under his feet. However, after looking down, he sees them curving upward, now on his trail, with several more lightning bolts ringing out from the cyborg. Repurposing his old tactics, Erb charges a dragon fist in hopes of destroying them in unison, though this time he plans to send the brunt of it to where his opponent stands.
He soars higher, up into the cloud, adding more difficulty for his opponent to track him. When he starts to notice his breathing had become more stagnant due to the lack of oxygen in the air, he veers over his shoulder. There, the bolts burst through the clouds in clusters – just the way he wants them. Hurdling it as usual, the red pillar spews out of his fist, flies downward and almost made contact with energy bolts. However, in a surprising twist, all of the bolts dodged around his counter and continued their approach, unhindered in the slightest. Left undefended, the red Saiyan meets the full extent of the bombardment high above the planet's lowest atmosphere in a blaze of white light.
Still, traveling down towards Zeph, the dragon fist finally touches down, encompassing the intended mark, creating a red and gold mushroom cloud and a shockwave powerful enough to finally flatten everything around the target for hundreds of miles.
For a short time, after both successive explosions took place, silence returns, and the clouds dispersed and again reform, leaving just enough room for what little sunlight remained before setting over the horizon.
The almost synchronizing explosions left both fighters critically injured; Erb being near to the threshold of a coma. Yet, in the very depths of his soul, the essence he had only known since his reawakening to his strange reality, since his time sparring with the Saiyan swordsman, since the point he steps foot on a different world - his fighting spirit - continues to burn as an unyielding ember over a dying flame representing his physical form. But now, as the notion of defeat crawls up his spine, as though a stab to the back was inevitable, his will transforms the fire he held, into an uncontrollable storm of fire and lightning - a storm he needed to let out.
Falling back to the planet like a shooting star, dragon hybrid opens his eyes, watches the ground closing in on him, and threw all caution to the wind, repositioning himself upright, and just before he lands, he let his aura rampage out while hurling a punch to the ground. The massive violent pressure cushions his descent, and his own man-made earthquake that rang out ruined the brief period of peace that was produced earlier.
After enduring the shocks to his body, Erb screams out in a thrilling war cry, and at the same time, he caught the attention of Zeph, still driven by his cybernetic enhancements, but now finally getting weaker from his stagnant aura output.
Driven by a battle-enraging urge, the fiery outworlder launches himself on his foe one last thing, intent on finishing him. As Erb drew closer and closer, close enough for Zeph to initiate a counter swing, he slightly tilts his head to the side, moving past the incoming blow by a hair's width, and plants the knuckles of his left hand at the center of his abdomen. His blow travel through the soldier and the air pressure generated unearths the ground behind him into jagged spikes as though hell was digging itself out. After the metal man was sent back, in a split second the red saiyan follows and delivers his dragon fist one more time, engulfing the soldier in a red trail of pure devastation, hollering out as his own essence of life drains away, barraging his victim with every ounce of it.
When his technique was about to dissipate Erb swiftly enters and meets Zeph still standing in place, withstanding with all his might. Using his left arm, he lands the one last punch against the boy's forehead, finally feeling his bones breaking under the stress, but pushes through the splintering agony to bring the soldier down head first, imprinting him on the smoldering ground producing a seismic attack strong enough to disperse the dragon fist early, and a bell toll that rang through the entire valley, bringing to an end to their fist-fight.
Erb, standing victorious at last, lets his legs finally give away, and collapses to the ground on his back. He is left breathing exhaustingly as his aching muscles and his enraged aura dies down till he could no longer budge. The rush he was on disappears from his system, and from where he is laid, he witnesses the last ray of light from the sun dying over the horizon, and he is now veiled in this world's darkness.
Yet, he was at peace and an uplifting sense of joy washes over his fatigued self. And for some baffling reason, he couldn't figure out why he felt so. Other than having suffered several serious injuries, broken bones, torn tendons, and some internal bleeding, he was smiling like this was nothing. Was it because he won? Or is it because he truly did suffer worse during his past life? Even though he lost his memories, his flesh and bones still knew emotional pain, loss, anger, annoyance, love, happiness, content, and many more. But this was new to him – or to some extent, he wasn't familiar with it - and he couldn't stop himself from grinning.
Then it dawns on him.
His sparring matches with Trunks and his fight with the Cyclops, both didn't provide him with the challenges he needed to push himself – to fight with everything he had; to test himself. Those events pushed him past him to use more strength and thus made him stronger in the process. But the young man lying beside him, asleep and silent, made him well aware of his own full extent, leading him to apply far more effort than he could have imagined himself being able to produce, and now, he had nothing else to give back – he was spent.
Because of this, he neither hates nor treats Zeph as an enemy; instead, he respects him and is grateful to have met him.
"Don't know if your listening - or awake…just wanted to say…thanks..." In a weak voice, he conveyed his gratitude to his fellow man, humbly, and shuts his eyes, gradually dwelling into a deep sleep on top of the now cooled soft ground.
For once, he knew without a doubt, he was going to enjoy a long, relaxing slumber.
Nearing the Mountain Region…
Breezing over treetops at breakneck speed, the superhuman private, Raix, dashes towards to what used to be the mountain region in his golden state, but with an additional passenger on him; lying on his arms is his superior, Roza.
Just as when the jumper landed, Raix learned of Erb's existence and of 2 other cyclops warriors from Lilith and Jav. Lilith made sure to point out Erb and Bulb were their friends but the last they saw Zeph and Roza was when they were fighting the alien mercenaries.
Shortly afterward, he sprints away to his teammate's location, leaving the kids under Tya's and Gabriel care.
But halfway out of the forest Raix's headgear picked up Roza's radio call and near a wide clearing he encounters her, eyes red from tears. After hearing about Zeph's going out of control, the 2 Cyclops being defeated, and Erb having saved her only to head back to deal with their friend, he chooses to power up to his golden form and hasten his trip. Still, his friend orders him to take her with him, and being the gentlemen - and friend - he was, he had no choice – or any opinion on the matter – but pick her up and rush on over.
In seconds, they enter the outer edge of the mountains, detecting no signs of danger within his vicinity, or anything for that matter – it was now a flat wasteland with small hill-like figures dotted everywhere, and a large trench leading to somewhere – left behind by Erb's dragon fist.
Roza, using her headpiece, tracks the weak signal broadcasted from Zeph's own personnel, and predicts his location to be at the end of the trench.
"Go down there," Roza said. "I think we'll find them past it."
"I hope you're right about this." He answered, but asked, "If we do find them, and let's say this 'Erb' fella is down for the count and Zeph is still crazy…what are we going to do?"
"We'll improvise."
"Oh great." he rolls his eyes.
Hearing his doubtful tone was what she expected from him, seeing as how neither of them was equipped to face a confrontation that made their boots shake. But they still had to try.
Judging from the lack of activity shown from the locator, they slow themselves down into jog and Roza was let down to follow.
As they traverse down the small valley, they brace themselves for any opposition they may face or from any other shockwaves that may pass by. But nothing happened, and that still placed them on edge. Not too long after, the beacon they have been following informs them they were 100 meters away. As they drew closer, they anxiety continues to rise, and it peaks from the moment they spot 2 figures standing above 2 more, lying on the ground. Standing over both their friend and the red fighter, are the 2 mercenaries, Ouros and Teal.
When they spot the aliens, the aliens coincidentally detected their presence as well.
Swiftly, Raix applies power into a single dash, getting him to arrive and face to face with them, leaving Roza to rush behind him to keep up, with her rapier out and her intentions clear. "Get away from them!"
Roza kept her eyes on Teal and Raix watches Ouros, staring him down.
But from their view, it seems neither of the mercenaries shows any signs of hostilities – in fact, Roza used her headpiece to retrieve vital readings from Zeph, revealing he was still alive but with major injuries, and see's Erb's chest moving as he breathes.
They're alive! She thought joyfully yet was perplexed over the alien's motive. They could have killed them any time? So why haven't they? Or did we just come by them in time?
Suddenly, the defeated leader of the mercenaries starts talking to them in a calm manner. "We no longer have any qualms with you or your friends. They are both alive, but barely."
"We can see that," Raix replied, and Roza comes in with a demand. "So why are you here then!?"
"To see what happened. And to meet with you."
"What for?" She beckoned.
"Two things. Firstly, what happened to my comrades who have attacked your base?"
Roza was about to refuse him his chance, but in an unexpected twist, Raix cuts in, answering him plainly. "Both the big one and the girl are alive. As for the small guy…well – "
Ouros finishes off his sentence. "Dead I presume?"
"- Yeah…that."
"I suspected as much…then in that case for the second-"
Ouros lowers himself down in a kneeling position, and raises both arms up, letting both of the native soldiers know he had no intentions of fighting.
"- We surrender."
Roza was albeit taken back and a bit tense by his harmless action and even more so from observing Teal – the one who was about to kill her - doing the same. Initially, she believed their little play was a trick to let their guard down. And yet, a gut-wrenching sensation was telling her otherwise.
Being attuned to magic allows her the same sensory abilities as Erb, but at a much greater degree – allowing her to peer into someone's true intention from simply reading their aura's behavior. With this, she analyzes their aura, and came to her conclusion - they were calm, yet agitated by their own physical ailments (evident by certain areas of their skin and shell still growing back), and far too weak to pose a threat to either of the soldiers. Still, without having to look at them, the first word to comes Roza's mind after he spoke, is sincere; he was being truthful. And so, under their military's rule of engagement - all combatants who surrender willingly must be treated as prisoners of war and are not to be harmed - she accepts the reality as the way it is, swallowing her hatred towards them and perform her duty as a soldier.
As for her spiky friend though, he came to the same conclusion, though, unlike her, he was still baffled and a little disappointed – he expected to go in fighting but now, it's over.
"…Um...ok."
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Canon Characters: (none)
OC characters: (none)