Author notes: I apologize for the lengthy hiatuses. I've been writing this story for a long time, huh? Almost as long as I've been not writing it. Wow. Life finds a lot of ways to interfere. I won't disturb you with the details, but some of it was good and some of it was bad. The good outweighs the bad. Anyways, I hope I can return to a more regular upload schedule. Hope you like the story, this chapter went through about a dozen rewrites for outcomes and tones, and then correcting errors... If I missed anything obvious let me know.
Human Limitations, Chapter 21:
The leader of the Ginyu Force glanced to his right side as the ginger giant Recoome screeched to a halt midair. The embattled bruiser was burnt and scratched head to toe, his armor ripped apart save for a few scraps on the shoulders and stomach, where he'd managed to at least ward away some of the monster Ape's blast with upraised arms, and otherwise looked as though he'd just run a marathon.
With a startled snort of frustration, he darted backwards as yet another blast from the mouth of the monster ripped the air, powerful, but slow enough that the two could still barely dodge it with their fantastic speed.
The Saiyan Ape beat its chest once as if enraged, and leapt forward, it's half opened fists extending towards them in a savage swipe, missing them only to spray massive chunks of the planet's crust in all directions.
Ginyu dodged expertly, smashing through a large boulder and diving below the wave of stone or directing them away through well-practiced skills of telekinesis, meanwhile Recoome attacked each rock that flew his way like it was a challenge, digging his way through the rain of rocks with a multitude of grunts, until he landed next to the Captain in a crouch stood slowly, dusting off his hands with a cocksure grin.
The ape lifted off the ground in a stupor, for a moment leaning forward onto it's heavy knuckles in a bestial fashion. It's sloped brow furrowed, peering this way and that with gleaming red eyes full of rage, but no appearance of intelligence whatsoever. The captain squinted discerningly for an instant before he took flight again, calculating his chances of survival swiftly in his head.
"Good to see you still among the living after a blast like that!"
"As if I'd be killed by a big dumb monkey! I'd rather die! " the massive man hollered. A couple teeth flew out of his lopsided grimace a second later in a clump of bloody spittle, as he and the captain were forced to duck under yet another massive flow of energy that inexplicably missed.
Recoome panted, seeming a bit strained as he picked up the pace.
'Dumb monkey' is right," Ginyu sneered condescendingly. "- overwhelmingly powerful as this Turles may be, a Saiyan in this form is little more than an animal, not a soldier. He's just thrashing about with no strategy at all..."
"He's got good instincts, though! Just like a beast! No choice but to keep running, for now... But, you have a plan to win, right Cap'n?" Recoome grinned hopefully, as he struggled to keep pace with the Captain.
"Of course I do, Recoome! Ever has my motto been 'constant vigilance', and ever shall it be!" the captain laughed wildly, taking flight once more, but keeping purposefully away from the Oozaru's line of sight for the moment, just in time for his own eyes to catch sight of two figures struggling their way out of the rubble below.
"There's Jeice and Burter! They're alive too!" Recoome sighted at the same time, sounding elated.
"Good spotting Recoome! Lets keep them that way! We'll flank this monkey bastard and provide concentrated fire, on my signal!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!"
The two banked their turns in perfect midair synchronization and cut all hell loose with a flyby assault launching thousands of projectiles that crashed resoundingly against their target's enormous torso, followed up by a savage roar as the Captain's final blast struck dangerously the near the base of the tail, impacting of of a massive armored fauld, but causing it to leap away in a moment of panic.
Ginyu snorted again in disappointment, recalculating his chances. "That armor is certainly effective at protecting one's vitals. Must be the new experimental model, since it didn't shatter on impact. But where the hell did he get his hands on a shipment-"
The Great Ape turned again, eyes flashing like a cornered beast as another roar-induced shock-wave ripped through the air, it's passage visibly marked by the floating debris pushed to either side as it passed, allowing the Ginyu Force members to dodge with less difficulty.
Behind them, the massive beast finally caught sight of them, rumbling deep in it's chest as it slowly built up speed into a baboon-like four legged gallop, swiftly gaining on them and negating any advantage of distance. The Ginyu force turned with a swiftly issued command, leading the monster around again and gaining distance, narrowly avoiding being swatted out of the air by a truck sized fist that surely would have crushed whatever living creature it struck.
"NOW!"
On cue, Ginyu and Recoome fired in unison, striking the beast in both eyes while it's guard was down, causing it to flail back even further and crouch, curling it's massive frame into a ball as it's momentum carving yet another wide scar in the battleground. Behind the blinded beast, the tag-team of Burter and Jeice finally erupted from the ground and took to the air at top speed again.
"That should buy us some time! Okay, Ginyu Force! Fall into formation, and follow my lead!"
"Aye, Cap'n Ginyu!"
Red and blue aura burst to life with a snap-hiss, and the Red Magma and the Blue Hurricane were not slow to fall in-line again behind the Big Bruiser and the eponymous Captain Ginyu. The only member arriving late to the roll call would be the small, round, lime green, toad-like one who'd so far somehow avoided earning himself a more flattering nickname. Guldo flew in from wherever he'd been hiding and hovered slightly behind the Blue Hurricane's massive legs, panting for breath slightly.
In fact, every member of the Ginyu Force, with the exception of the Captain and Guldo, looked about as torn up and worn out as Recoome, but in far lower spirits.
"SCATTER!" Ginyu called out, and the squadron split five ways, parting in the air below the massive falling frame even as it's thick arm swung below like an axe, seeking the spot they'd been a moment before.
Perhaps a deep survival instinct brought on by painful experience made the ape more wary a fighter than before, but it now seemed to take greater notice of their attacks and strategies. A massive paw intercepted the next blast aimed for it's eyes, returning fire with a mouth blast and leaping into the air in the same motion. Ginyu turned and rejoined formation to fire a collective energy shot at the Saiyan's tail as they passed, only to see it twist in midair to land on it's back, tail underneath it's body.
Ginyu scoffed at it's attempts and charged his power in his left fist, flying away from the rest of the group and unleashing a wide, unfocused heavy barrage of attacks once more at the enemy lying flat on it's back, striking with massive explosions and enough force to shunt the Saiyan deeper into the ground where it landed mostly unscathed, but extremely enraged.
The flash of light signalling the explosive breath attack came not a second later, scattering them again in it's wake, followed by another and another, a volley of energy spewing from the crater below like a white hot volcano boiling over.
"Damn! It's not working!"
Ginyu picked up speed and banked, making as much distance as he could from the battle zone while keeping his peripheral vision fixed on the Saiyan Ape as it recovered quickly from his attack. While he was focusing his attention behind him, his ears suddenly prickled as he was aware of his subordinates muted chatter as they lagged behind his speed.
"... Are we just running away right now?" Burter whispered to the red second in command. Guldo interrupted.
"You're damn right we're running!" Guldo stammered, a cold sweat running off his bumpy hairless brow. "Why wouldn't we, with that freak is chasing us? To hell with fighting it! Just tell me, since when could a monkey ever give us this much trouble?!"
Ginyu grit his teeth uncomfortably, realizing he was not necessarily intended to be able hear their chatter from this far ahead. And more disturbingly, he agreed with Guldo's sentiment. No Saiyan had ever been this powerful.
Jeice was next to speak, after what seemed like a nervous pause.
"Guldo's right. He's an absolute freak! He has some kind of... of super-power! Even together, and with the Captain, we couldn't hold off that barrage. We won't last much longer the next time we have to clash head on. We should call in reinforcements..."
"Reinforcements? Our top of the line scouters were destroyed in an instant! There aren't going to be any reinforcements, we can't even send out a memo now..." Burter hissed, his mouth forming a grim line.
"Well, actually, w-we could use the communicators on-board the ships..." Guldo continued the thought with a slight whimper that didn't escape his captain's sharp ears.
"Yeah? And call who!? We're the Ginyu force, for crying out loud!" Recoome snapped at the bugged-eyed green dwarf. "It's just one damned monkey we're up against!"
"Yeah, and d'you want to be killed by a damn monkey, mate?"Jeice snapped back. "We'd be laughed out of our own funerals if that happened... There must be at least a dozen elite captains around Dodoria's level stationed just a system away, with full regiments-"
"What?! You'd rather give guys like that the glory? No way, man, We've got a reputation to uphold here! Freeza only keeps us around because he wants the best, and WE'RE the best in the universe!" Burter hissed.
Recoome grunted his assent. The giant bruiser picked up speed and drew even with the captain.
"If you want you can stand back and watch the real men fight, Jeice!" he said, sticking out his massive tongue. "We're strong enough to take down this stupid monkey on our own, right Captain!?"
Jeice's red face blanched almost as white as his hair.
"Recoome! Why you-! How could you tattle on me like this, you big ruddy idiot-"
Ginyu glanced back over his men, silencing the childish chatter in an instant with a look of steely certainty.
Suddenly, the Captain turned around, gliding to a stop in midair. The other members skidded to a halt, taken by surprise. Ginyu hovered silently with his left hand idly stroking his narrow chin, staring past them into the distance.
"Those two are back again."
As one, the members of the Ginyu force turned in midair and gawked as they realized what the Captain had said was true. As they had been focused on evading the monster, it had given up on chasing them in order to deal with the other two fighters, whose identities they couldn't be sure of... Except that they were strong enough to hold the monstrous Saiyan at bay.
"What the heck is it doin'?" Jeice said seemingly thunderstruck. "It's just sitting there! Doin' nothing at all while it's gettin' pummeled!"
"No thats not it, I think the flash from the attack leaves it blind for a moment." his partner squinted into the distance.
"Why the heck is it just sitting there creepily glaring at us, then?" Guldo continued, still panting for breath.
"It's a dominance display. Monkeys do that to protect their territory." Ginyu commented astutely, with a hint of a sneer.
"Huh. He was doin' just fine protecting his territory before. Why'd it stop? Not that I'm complaining, I mean." Jeice sighed in relief, cracking a smile.
"True. At least now we have a free moment to think strategically." Ginyu hummed, crossing his arms. "Whatever the case, it's probably running low on stamina too, and needs to catch it's breath before the next round..."
"Hah. You know what? It seems to me like the big pea-brain forgot why it was chasing us." Recoomed grunted.
"Could be like you say, Recoome. Maybe it doesn't care about us anymore now that we've moved farther away..." Burter suggested.
"Gods, I hope so." Guldo shivered. "That damn thing almost killed me, like, fifteen times by accident. I've never had to hold my breath so long before." The smallest member of the Ginyu Force let out a frog-like groan, beads of sweat dripping from his double chin to his armor.
"I told you this before, Guldo, you ought to pick up more weights and less sandwich platters." Burter scoffed, smirking despite his own shaken resolve.
Guldo's green complexion reddened with shame and he growled at the verbal barb, but then suddenly he let out a resigned groan, pushing the palms of his hands over his second pair of eye-sockets.
"You know what, you blue buffoon? FINE! If I make it out of here alive, I'll never eat another bag of chips, I'll lose the gut, and then I'll blast past you on our next fitness test!"
"Yeah, right! You, challenging the fastest in the universe? Tell me another joke, stumpy legs..." Burter murmured, rapping his knuckles on Guldo's head. "Not even with time freeze."
"Alright, listen up!" The Ginyu force captain snarled, cutting through the team's chatter in an instant.
"If more patrols could get down here, we could bring a whole regiment of Freeza's army against this freak of nature, but it's just us; And that's the way it has to be!" Ginyu grunted, teeth gritting.
"There's no denying this is one tough sucker, and tougher in his transformed state! I estimate his fighting power right now at over 200,000. Although, I'd place his I.Q. at only about 15 points."
That brought a nervous chuckle or two, even as his men paled slightly at the thought of a power greater than their captain.
"If those numbers seem too daunting, just remember, a Saiyan's weak points is his tail! Blast that away, and he's less than a tenth the man he used to be! This filthy son-of-a Saiyan thinks he's hot shit, but he's never crossed us paths with the likes of US before, especially not all at once! We are the galaxy's finest ever five-man fighting force! Together, we're worth more than the sum of our parts! WHO are WE!?"
"THE GINYU FORCE!" They answered in unison.
"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT WE ARE!" Ginyu spun in midair and thrust out his spread hands, cutting his signature solo pose, lowering his horned head menacingly at the end as they all struck a pose together in perfect sync.
They should have been watching the battle. If even one of them had been keeping an eye out during the captain's speech, they would have realized that Turles was not merely standing still, but charging a more powerful attack. With the Captain's signature pose being looking between his legs and mooning his opponent, he had about a split second to realize something was wrong before a massive blast of energy scorched through the dead center of the team formation, drawn in by the most tempting target in the universe.
"OH GOD My BUTT!" he screamed, turning out of controll in midair, "This CAN'T BE! NOOOOOOOOOooo!"
The initial front of the blast first eradicated his buttcheeks and blasted away Jeice and Burter, and on the other side slammed Recoome's body into Guldo with the concussive force of the blast wave.
As Guldo blinked and opened his eyes in the small, dark crevice he found himself, he almost forgot how he had gotten in that position.
Well, almost. He still had the afterimage of that disintegrating ass burnt into his retinas by the explosion. Even if it wasn't he'd never be able to forget it. He shuddered, then shuddered again at the touch of cold stone surrounding him.
His surroundings were so still and quiet, so removed from the gravity of the situation, he thought he might have accidentally frozen time. It was with that distant thought that he realized the pain in his ribs and spinal cord, the terrible straining in his lungs, and feeling returned to his whole body at once with a painful throb.
The small alien soldier sucked a wheezing and shallow breath inwards, heart thrashing against ribs aching with each beat, and immediately choked and coughed in the dust surrounding him as he rolled to orient himself. There was not that much air to be had in the tight space. Immediately, the sensation of movement and gravity The darkness in front of his eyes was accentuated by a white flash of pain across his vision that had him leaning against the wall of rock for support. He didn't know what was happening. Sound slowly returned. Rumblings, above and below and deafeningly loud, caused his breathing to quicken despite the stabs of pain that came with it.
As he did so fumblingly his boot slipped, pushing it's way through the heavy loose gravel at the bottom of the underground hollow he had found himself in, which seemed to be loosening and falling deeper into the ground. At the same time, he felt what had seemed a solid wall and ceiling above him lurch and shift, rapidly falling into nothingness and replaced with a curtain of sand.
He desperately tapped at his ear to beg for help.
"C-Captain! Do you read me? Burter? Recoome! Jeice! Aaanyone!?"
There was no response. He realized why as his own finger poked bluntly at his external eardrum. 'Oh, That's right' part of him remembered idly... his scouter implant had exploded.
"Damn it, I don't want to die here! HEY! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"
All around him the planet rumbled violently, some forceful attacks from above pounding downwards and compacting the bedrock into tons of sand and stone shrapnel, at times barely missing him and at other times forcing him to change course as an opening closed off. He couldn't muster enough energy to blast through like the others might have. He only survived thanks to his ability, stopping time and clambering quickly from hollow to hollow, lighting the way ahead with his aura.
"Come on, don't stop moving," he encouraged himself, "There must be a way!"
The quakes never stopped, shivering intensely, but his body shook with terror too much to even notice. Almost too late, he caught a glimpse of the dim light above him, visible through a narrow crack in the rock, and was quickly blocked out by a massive mudslide.
He leaped for the gap, and found himself almost immediately drowning in a mucky quagmire that sucked at his limbs and made movement difficult even in the frozen time where he now absolutely couldn't breath in, or else sure death awaited.
The shoulder-pads of his armor got in the way, forcing him to shed it quickly, as he pushed every bit of his strength, every last ounce of oxygen in his lungs towards the slender opening with the frantic motions of a drowning swimmer. He forced himself back into militaristic drill and focused, used more muscle and skill than he'd used in years.
So close, he thought. So close. His right hand finally poked through and he felt heated air without wind or movement on his fingertips.
His body started to slow down. Although he couldn't sink in the frozen time, the loose and quickly moving particles held fast by his power, it was becoming clear he would not break free on his own.
His power began slipping. He tasted mud in his mouth that in moments would be sucked into his lungs, surely killing him. Time began to move at a horrible crawl, as the irony of his perception actually speeding up as he approached death struck another pang of fear in his soul. He wished he had never woken up just to witness this. He wished he had never come to this planet. He wished someone would give him a hand and pull him out and he wanted to scream as the terrible pressure mounted around him but letting out his breath would make that his last utterance, as his hand began to drift to the side in the now flowing river of quicksand...
Finally pushing through to where his mouth could taste the fresh air, Guldo gasped raggedly as his lungs expanded from being almost flat to what must have been twice their size, and he began hyperventilating, and then laughing with sheer relief. How many minutes he had managed to hold his breath during that hellish struggle he didn't know, and in truth no time would have passed in the world outside his time stop, but he could only gasp as he caught sight of an enormous gloved hand and massive arm reaching down before his narrow, mud smudged field of view.
"Up and at 'em ya little booger!" Recoome grinned, pulling his arm to drag him out of the quagmire with a wet squelching noise.
Recoome! He laughed madly and wheezed a sigh of breathless joy, deflating forward onto his round gut. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he might have coughed out a pebble at some point.
"At last! I can breathe, a-at last! I'm still alive! I'm not dead! Gahahahaaa!"
"Ew, whats wrong with your face? Were you crying... Are those what tears look like in your species?" Recoome laughed, and Guldos mood immediately soured as he grit his teeth.
"Shut up! I just, uh, sneezed. From... from my eyeballs." He grumbled, glaring up at his rescuer. "Whats wrong with MY face? What happened to YOU?"
It was clear at a glance that, as the military parlance in the planet trade held, 'shit had gone south fast'. Not only was he now completely bald, he was mostly naked and almost completely toothless, and the right half of his face seemed almost melted by the purplish burn scar now trailing from his ear to his shoulder and nipple.
"Eh, doesn't matter. I know a great plastic surgeon," Recoome let out a snort, and Guldo was immediately startled as a loud metallic thud struck the ground behind him.
"GAH! Wait, why is your ship here?"
"Get in. I've already set the coordinates."
Guldo blinked all four eyes blearily. Recoome sounded serious.
"...What?"
"You heard me." Recoome repeated, no trace of his usual smirk. "Captain's down, and so are Jeice and Burter. I'm now the ranking officer, and I've decided this mission is FUBAR. So I need someone to go send a message to Freeza, and the only one left is you."
"Wait, you're... You're sacrificing yourself for me? That is really touching."
"Don't be a moron, snot-ball. We both know I'm a magnet for damage, and with all these blasts flying around, chances are anyone in an attack ball is gonna be a big target. I can't get outta here until the battle's over. You on the other hand, once you clear the atmosphere you can start moving and fast."
"Right... No air in space." Guldo nodded blankly. "If it's just a matter of stopping time and redirecting the ship away from blasts, I... I think I can do that, yeah."
"You know what to say, right? Ginyu squadron destroyed. One Saiyan found, two Zenarkyan scientists survived the purge. Their old research into power mutations was intact, and it worked. Now, none of this is good news for Freeza and he needs to know yesterday, got it squirt?"
Guldo nodded sharply. The pounding in his chest of his misshapen heart began to waver, and he felt something stinging his eyes that wasn't sand or muck.
"I'm going to live! Victory is mine! Screw you, Burter! Yes!" He pumped a fist in the air, crying tears of sheer joy.
"So does that mean you're giving up chips, losing the gut, and passing the fitness exam, or whatever?" Recoome smirked.
"What? Why would I do that?"
"Oh, just your promise from earlier." Recoome grimaced, squinting down at him again.
"Who cares? He's dead, who cares?!" Guldo snapped.
"Whatever, tubby. Now get in the damn pod. Here, I'll give you a boost."
"Wha- WHOAH!"
The metal door slammed shut before he could even get seated, and then the pod roughly jerked upwards, but not by the engines.
"Heave-HOI!" was all Recoome said before turning in place once and letting fly. His 'boost' carried Guldo in the ship high into the upper atmosphere, vanishing into the red fog just in time to avoid being struck by the massive explosive cloud that scoured the nearby area into a flat wasteland. The blast took Recoome with it with a grunt of surprise before he had time to react.
"Tch. Figures he'd miss when it would benefit us." Raditz snarled, watching the pod rapidly dart away from the errant blast launched by the Saiyan ape.
The boost of power was not quite enough to make them even with the transformed Turles in an even fight, but it was a massive change from their abilities before, allowing them to outlast the ill-fated Ginyus. Even with the two of them vastly increasing their powers however, they found themselves pushed to the limit each minute the fight dragged on, opting often for hit-and-run fighting tactics over prolonged combat, relying on their enemy to attack wildly and overextend himself and open up weak points.
Raditz called out to his brother, drifting inwards as they banked their turn midair. The two fired ki blasts in unison that made the ape leap back, buying them precious seconds to think.
"Kakarot, one of the Ginyu made a break for it! Thankfully they don't seem to know our identities, thanks to your scheme, but still! We need to finish this fast so Vegeta has time to modify the plans! Think we can keep up this pace, brother?"
"Not a problem. I can feel his strength, but strength can't compensate for everything. His bulky body may not slow him down, but it makes stuff like the fingers, ears and eyes a much bigger target. If we focus only on sensitive areas instead of aiming for a knockout blow we can leave him wide open!"
"A death of one thousand cuts, eh? It opens us up to a lot in the meanwhile."
"Not a thousand cuts, divide and conquer! If his body is the size of an army, we just make sure it works against itself!"
"Hmph. Could work," Raditz pondered all the things that could go wrong with the plan.
At that moment a giant fist slammed into the younger Saiyan with terrible suddenness, slamming him face first down against a slab of rock.
"Kakarot!"
"Ow." Goku pried himself out of the imprint of his outline just in time to back-flip away from the follow up punch, leaving Turles' arm implanted up to the wrist in solid rock. "Okay then, we'll plan as we go!"
Without wasting another moment thinking about it, Goku darted forward up the massive arm as easily as though it was a flat path, one that wasn't trying to catch and crush him with the other hand, and struck underneath Turles' nose, drawing a gout of blood from one nostril accompanied by a piercing shriek of annoyance- only to roll to the side as yet another blast from the mouth of the monster ripped the air, powerful, but just predictable enough that they could still barely dodge it with planning and speed.
Raditz swooped in at the last instant, his sledgehammer fist strike seemingly coming from nowhere as the ape reeled, flying off balance only to be pushed once again, the other Saiyan distracting him while Raditz took his chance, going for the throat as planned. The ape realized too late, his elongated jaw providing the perfect cover as Raditz appeared, grabbing his chin to swing in like a gymnast redirect the full momentum of his charge towards his attack with both feet planted firmly. The ape reeled, it's hands going to it's adams-apple. It was all it could do to let out a hoarse roar. There would be no more breathing fire for a while, a few moments with less to worry about.
At the same instant, Goku vanished and struck the bones at the base of it's neck from a high-speed approach, connecting with both fists outstretched. It looked painful but was not nearly enough to crack the bones beneath, only cause pain and disorientation. The beast was far from being broken yet. Their coordinated attack continued as they each darted in and then vanished to either gain distance or attack from another angle. This attack continued for a while, until he seemed to grow frustrated with swatting at them and leaped into the air, catching them below him with a blast of energy from his mouth that they narrowly dodged at the last second, that was strong enough to lift him further into the air momentarily.
The Saiyan Ape beat its chest once in a clear display of bestial rage, and angled itself downward in its fall , it's half opened fists extending towards them in a savage swipe, missing them only to spray massive chunks of the planet's crust in all directions, but in another burst of speed Raditz fired a diversionary blast at its eyes and made it flinch as his brother took the chance of vaulting over it's head and making a run down it's back, diving forward to tackle into it's tail.
"Hah, got your tail!" he laughed with a smirk, feeling the massive bones in the tail grind together slightly under his powerful grip.
It was not about to be made easy for him, as the grab couldn't paralyze Turles as it could a less powerful Saiyan, only cause him pain and make him angry enough to slam his tail down several times in succession with a whip-like motion, nearly crushing Goku to a pulp underneath it.
He grunted as he twisted to avoid that fate, voice straining as he held his clinch on the deadly tail with both arms. "NOW, RADITZ!"
Without another word the elder brother dove down rapidly from the cloud cover to drive an energy enhanced tackle into the beast's middle back, between the shoulders, managing to drive him down a short distance from the impact before he caught himself with a snarl.
The massive body suddenly lurched forward, landing on all fours with a crash. Goku grinned slightly as he felt the power level waver slightly, tapering off slowly until it began to approach a more manageable point.
"Nice kick, Raditz!"
The tail suddenly began thrashing again in a somewhat desperate motion, but Goku was able to control it's movement better now. Admittedly, the ape man was still far stronger than him, and he couldn't fully cut off Turles' power even with his strongest grip- but he knew the sensitive points, and how to make it painful regardless. While he held his tail he had the leverage he needed to tilt the scale in their favor.
He kicked off hard, trying to ensure more damage as well as add height to the leap, then dropped out of flight and landed hard again on the gigantic armored back. The sound of massive vertebrae and cartilage grinding together was drowned out by yet another furious roar- even if they couldn't break the massively thick bones, that had to have pinched a nerve or two. A sprained joint here, a strike to a pressure point there, a widening crack in the armor- They would whittle him down bit by bit, and then it would be done!
He panted for breath slightly, and smirked. He had almost forgotten the exhaustion of fighting in advanced gravity, the way it slammed you into the ground harder. Nonetheless the gravity seemed to work to his advantage as well, as the strain would carry over with Turles' increased growth.
Even as he thought it, Raditz found himself regretting letting his guard down and getting too close, as a gigantic hand suddenly reached back and tried to strike with a rapid slap that nearly pinned him to the ground, missing his full body but still catching his leg painfully.
"Shit- I got careless," Raditz cursed, quickly pulling himself out, before the massive fingers could close around his leg and make it far worse. He looked down as he flew and grimaced. While it was fortunately not broken, it was badly bruised. There would be no standing on that for a while, then.
"Damn it!" Goku grit his teeth, and locked his grip. "Alright, you wanna play rough?! HERE!"
The sound of rope-like muscle fibers going taught snapped through the air like the crack of a bullwhip, followed by the deep hollow thud of bone popping, twisting, dislocating. The battered Saiyan from earth stomped hard, digging his heels into the thick slab of stone below them, which was quickly growing deep fissures as the colossal wrestling match continued.
Yanking hard, he wound the massive tail over his shoulder and across his back, then turned and kicked off the ground, flying away as hard as he could, he pushed the Ki out of his feet and kicked off into the air in flight, resuming his pull and feeling the massive tail pull tight against his shoulder once again. The massive beast roared again, flailing and trying to turn and kill him. Massive blasts of energy just missed him, the much smaller Saiyan able to dodge simply by feeling the Ki and anticipating the direction of the attacks- And also, quite reasonably, Turles seemed reluctant to attack his own tail.
The young Saiyan winced as he felt something creak in his shoulder, bones strained to their utmost, muscles burning up with every instant he fought against the thrashing , impossible bulk.
Grunting with redoubled effort, he cranked up his Ki compression and expulsion until it was less like a man flying up and more like a rocket ship taking off, like he was turning into a Kamehameha, the sudden acceleration pushing hundreds of tons against the forces of a gravity much higher than anything ever seen on Earth, the flames of his aura pushing against the ground until it finally finished the damage to the fractured rocky plateau, quickly imploding underneath them.
With a furious sustaining scream, he slowly pushed himself into the air, still somehow maintaining his grip, and began to swing his arms carrying the massive form into a slow upwards spin, even as his searing hot aura singed away patches of fur.
Raditz flared his energy to it's peak, bringing his hands to his side as he halted in midair in the air behind the now flying ape. There was just enough time
His battlecry mingled with his brother's and together they launched an attack so much larger than any either had been capable of before that he let out a laugh, enjoying the combat once more for its own sake and forgetting what was at stake.
The blast was wider than normal, less concentrated than his previous beams, but with even more force. The power of the Tree of Might was nothing to trifle with it seemed, and Turles' ape form seemed to flatten against the brunt of it as though stunned, before the explosive shock-wave forced them all to take a step back.
Once it passed that point, the momentum and the sheer force of the combination technique launched the colossal form of the beast into the rocks, landing on its front with a massive noise of shifting rock and carrying it forward through everything in its path, splintering rocks and massive dead treetops before finally coming to a halt, gouging the earth as it went. True to form, the bigger body hit HARD as it fell, cratering the rock and earth into a canyon, but certainly taking a great deal of damage, it's massive weight distribution worked against it now.
The younger Saiyan slid to a shaky halt in midair as he joined Raditz, breathing hard. A few beads of sweat trailed down his brow mixing with blood from a shallow gash on his forehead. "Is it over?"
As they caught their breath from their vantage point they could see it was all worth it, as they observed the shrinking form of the semi conscious, and now very humanoid, Saiyan; Turles' tail was still attached, but it was hanging by a chunk of muscle and nothing more, and even if it could be healed later, there was no chance of keeping his transformation now.
"Oh yeah, it's over." Raditz sighed with an exhausted sneer, sharing a brief fist bump with the other Saiyan. The other Saiyan then proceeded to wince and withdraw his hand, which was bruised badly in several places.
A deep rumble punctuated the moment of camaraderie, and the damaged planet suddenly moved enough that the tree itself visibly shifted to the side.
"... Or maybe I spoke too soon." Raditz groaned. "We need to get back to the ships quickly."
"Oh no," Goku swallowed suddenly. "About the ships. They were buried under those rocks before, right? But they aren't there now. In fact it looks like the whole continent is turning itself inside out right about now."
"Damn! Wait, Turles's ship!" Raditz suddenly spun, eyes darting until he spotted the dull gleam of the over-sized spherical hull half submerged in dirt.
"Can you pilot that? The inside was a lot more complicated than your ship."
"If I had time to figure out the control scheme of an entirely new type of ship, which I don't, then yes. Fortunately for me I don't have to." Raditz glanced down at the prone body of their dazed and defeated, but not quite dead enemy.
In one quick motion he swooped down and grabbed hold of the back of Turles' chest-piece, dragging him up.
"Gragh... Un-hand me this instant." Turles groaned, snarling when he recovered fully and saw the devastation surrounding him, and snarling louder when he realized he was too weak to move. "M-my tail, its- No! You've ruined me!"
"It's only a tail." Goku muttered just loud enough to hear.
"A tail for a tail is an even trade. In fact, you should be thanking me. You get to live." Raditz sneered, though he was too exhausted to put much venom into his words.
The three Saiyans flew somewhat slower towards the ship's entrance hatch, which Turles almost reluctantly opened for them, revealing the massive domed room with the just as massive control console that could be seen from the outside.
Raditz stood by and looked intimidating as Turles pointed out the controls, and proceeded to unlock the pass-code protection and turn his keys with further prompting.
After a few tense moments of reprogramming the coordinates to their new destination, and a further few seconds where it seemed like the engines were pinned in the rock-bed, there was a low hum and the whole ship vibrated and lurched gently, almost more like an elevator moving between floors than the blurring fast motion that it actually was. Though the hull shielding itself held without issue, they were forced to think quickly to avoid some of the larger meteorite sized chunks of the moon that could have damaged their sensor array.
By the time they cleared the atmosphere and got a good look at the planet from outside, even Turles' bitter grumbling was silenced by the sight of the devastated world beneath them. Shattered fragments of the moon still hung suspended all too close to the planet as its gravitational pull drew the smaller chunks inward in a display of thousands of shooting stars, and the peeking through the hazy red halo of the atmosphere was an even larger conflagration that could have only been a massive volcanic eruption taking place. Near where the tree had been, what looked like an enormous mountain range was pushing itself out of the ground and shattering just as fast, the tectonic plates themselves becoming unstable and rendering the planet into an oblong shape, looking like it was ready to split open at either end.
"This planet was never meant to hold something as big as that damned tree in the first place. Its roots penetrated the crust all the way to the convection currents. The core is not going to hold much longer." Turles said almost morosely from where he was propped up in one of the command deck chairs.
By the time that the planet finally did erupt, they were far enough away that they could only see a minute flash of light on their screens.
"Damn. There goes the finest fruit salad I ever had," Turles groaned sarcastically, before glancing at the other two. "Any chance you managed to save one of those for seeding?"
"That is hardly your concern. This ship and everything on it is now property of Vegeta." Raditz shot back in an imperious tone.
Turles scoffed angrily, but stood to his feet with only minor stumbling. "Alright, fine. You guys won, I gracefully concede the match. Now unless you're gonna break your word and kill me, I'll just escort myself to the medical pods? I'd like to salvage whats left of my tail, if at all possible."
Raditz's fists and jaw clenched bitterly at the memory of his own tail being blasted off by the man in front of him, but his brother nudged him in the side with his elbow and gave him a look, so he relented.
"Do what you want, but don't get any funny ideas. You will swear your services to Vegeta in person as soon as we meet him." Raditz growled quietly.
"Sure..." Turles drawled lazily, turning to limp out of the room, throwing a glance towards his doppelganger for a moment, but not saying anything to him just yet.
"By the way," he said at last, "If you're going to meet royalty after this, you should borrow some of my spare armor. I always kept a few nice outfits for impressing important clients, and frankly, you both need it more than I do. You look like like shit."
Raditz didn't bother to glance down or to the side, knowing that the filthy broken armor and tattered animal hides wouldn't cut it by the Prince's standards, but he didn't deign to answer, just stormed towards the direction of the armory before Goku could gather his wits and follow him.
"Hey, Kakarot was it?" Turles' voice caught him short before he could leave. "Thanks for not killing me when you had the chance. I'll be sure to pay it forward." he smirked, before hobbling out of the room, leaving him wondering what he'd meant by that.
A short while later, Goku met up with his older brother in the armory, which amounted to a spacious room with a row of showers and on the opposite side of a divider a row of broad steel lockers, about the size of a wardrobe each. While Raditz was busy slipping into a new black bodysuit that covered more than his old one, and looking through the available styles and sizes of armor, gloves and boots, Goku quickly darted in and rinsed himself off under some hot water. He didn't bother with any of the soaps that were available, the heated water was luxurious enough, he thought. Back home when he wanted a hot bath he or Chichi would build a fire under the tub.
When he was finished he looked for a towel and couldn't find one, and Raditz pointed him over to a large glass tube with a sliding door and a ceiling fan duct on the wall that blew hot air at him and seemed to siphon water from the air somehow.
"Wow. Fancy digs here. Our little ships didn't even have a toilet." Goku laughed.
"Actually it does, it's just not something you'd be using in hyper-sleep." Raditz muttered.
"Oh. Well I wish you'd told me that before we left."
Raditz wrinkled his nose at what he seemed to be implying.
"Just kidding." Goku added. "Although I did have to pee really bad by the time we landed..."
Strolling over to where Raditz was, Goku fiddled with the buttons on the lockers until with a little help from Raditz he managed to find a blue bodysuit with short sleeves. He'd also chosen an older, oddly tinted orange and green set with both shoulder-pads and waist-guards, and a pair of matching orange gloves and boots. It was a color scheme that worked for him somehow, and quite a contrast to the black and gold armor Raditz had found to wear.
"About that fight. Lets never do that again, alright?" Raditz glowered tiredly at his brother.
"What, you still doubted we'd be alright? After that ridiculously awesome power-up?"
"First of all, that was a damn miracle. If he hadn't brought the tree and it's fruit, we'd be extremely dead. What I doubt is your sanity, not your skill. There was no reason to take such risks."
Goku clicked his tongue as though annoyed, crossing his arms petulantly.
"Come on, don't tell me I'm the crazy one. You're the one who roped me into your crazy rebellion against Freeza. And you're the one who told me almost dying makes us stronger." Goku affected a pout of stern disapproval he'd seen Chichi make more than once.
"Are you- So that was the logic behind all that?! If this is your idea of combat pragmatism I don't know whether to be frightened or amused." he squinted back, scrutinizing him and deciding not to bring up the unusual conditions on the planet possibly effecting his brain.
"Oh come on, get over it already. You do this every time I come up with a plan, acting like I'm out of my mind and you know so much better."
"I wonder why that is." Raditz intoned drolly. "It might have something to do with your brain, but what do I know? It's not like I ever suffered brain damage as a child so who am I to talk..."
"Do you have to keep bringing that up so much? I may not be book-smart but I'm not that dumb, Raditz, especially compared to you. And honestly, If we couldn't beat Turles two against one, how would we even hope to fight Freeza? Think about it," Goku snorted and thumbed the side of his nose, checking to make sure it wasn't broken. He had gotten slammed face first into more rocks recently than usual.
"How would we..." Raditz repeated the words, gawped at him for a second silently, briefly tilted his head to the side, fought against a sudden primal urge to strangle his only family, and lastly found himself pinching the bridge of his nose as a chronic headache was forming.
"Are you alright? You're sorta twitching a lot." The younger Saiyan commented in a blase tone.
Raditz smirked slightly but his eye twitched again.
"An army, Kakarot. Led by Prince Vegeta, mightiest of our race. A really, really big army. That's how we'd fight."
Goku scratched the back of his head looking slightly dissatisfied. "I mean, I guess you could do that..." he sighed.
"You guess? You really thought I was sent out to get just you, and then we were going to call it a day and just pick a fight Freeza with just the four of us?"
Next Chapter: From Namek To Earth- and from Earth, on to the frying pan, and then on to the fire. It'l be another two perspective split chapters.