Episode Twenty-Five
'Pyrrhic Victory'
Anavill saw Captain Soda start to fall to the ground after being struck by the alien's tail, but the alien didn't let her land. Instead he caught her by the neck then flung her through the air over his shoulder. She flew twenty feet easily and hit the ground hard.
No one said anything, everyone just stared for a moment.
There was nothing anyone could do now. Even Master Roshi was powerless, rising to his feet but having no energy left to bulk up again.
Then the Guard with the radio shouted, "Target is still alive, repeat target is still alive!"
The other surviving Guard began firing, those with blasters used them, there were maybe five guns and three blasters going off and the alien ignored all of it.
Bocan rushed in with Pastel right behind him, they were careful to avoid friendly fire and Bocan launched a flawless roundhouse kick but the alien captain ducked under it and came up behind Bocan during the instant his back was turned and punched through Bocan's chest. His fist was covered in blood and gore when it emerged from the brave fighter's chest as he tried to scream but only released a gurgling cry of agony.
It was drowned out by Pastel's agonized shriek when that gore-covered hand opened up and blasted her with a wave of silver energy before she could so much as blink.
Her scream ended quickly and the alien flung Bocan off of his arm with practiced skill.
Anavill felt something inside her snap as she saw half her team lying dead in the street. She felt her own energy blaze and she was engulfed in white light, she saw Gurein's own yellow aura burning like fire around him and the two of them charged together.
Gurein arrived first, his blows flew faster than Anavill could follow as did the alien's deflections. Anavill saw the alien's tail shoot towards Gurein's throat as she entered the fray, she grasped and pulled on the tail and tore so hard it should have come off.
But the alien leader was much stronger than she was and her attempts to stop his tail only resulted in her going along for the ride and watching in terror as it snaked its way around Gurein's neck, tightened and then twitched.
The nomadic warrior's neck snapped to the side and he stopped moving instantly.
The tail flew upwards, flinging Gurein into the air and Anavill along with him when she lost her grip. She tried to steady herself in the air before she ended up coming down on her face. For just a moment the whole world seemed all but frozen in time and for that moment that seemed to last forever she could see Master Roshi, looking shrunken and old again, powering up a Kamehameha wave that wouldn't be enough to save her, she could see the Royal Guard had finally broken and were scrambling to get through the hole in the door and escape deeper into the shelter, she could see the alien leader wasn't on the ground anymore, and she felt rather than saw that he'd somehow gotten above her.
And she saw the oncoming golden light. She knew it was Master Trunks and as she felt the impact of the alien's tail slamming into her lower back as she heard and felt the shattering of her armor she felt incredible pain but somehow also a strange sort of satisfaction.
Master Trunks is almost here. So I guess it's all right.
She'd done her job. She'd helped protect humanity. She'd helped hold back the alien attackers and give Trunks the time he needed to come back. In her heart she felt satisfied, even though her other senses were exploding with pain as the strike from the tail sent her back to the ground even faster than she'd ascended into the air.
She screamed and then she felt nothing.
Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z
There have been a great many understatements declared throughout the universe, and if one were to say that Captain Kalt was displeased they would be making one to rival all others.
He discarded the fifth carcass and advanced on the remaining earthling, the elderly one who had apparently shrunk.
"So you transform too." Kalt said, his voice devoid of any pleasantness, "Interesting. No wonder you could hide your power levels from us. Ah but you and those filthy monkeys must have gotten along so well, two treacherous species united on one planet."
The old man was gathering a massive amount of energy, but even without his scouter Kalt knew it wasn't as strong as the blast that had destroyed his armor and slaughtered the remainder of his men. He scoffed, "Give it up, earthling! You don't stand a chance so just die and save me the trouble!"
"I may not stand much of a chance, but I'd rather die on my feet than on my knees. So if you're wantin' me to beg you can forget it!"
"Oh I'm past that." Kalt assured him. "All I care about now is killing you and your entire filthy race!"
He saw the yellow star approaching and ignored it, Another Earthling trick he thought as rage turned his vision red. He raised his hand and gathered energy of his own, "I'll blast that whole structure, I'll destroy you all with a single blast!"
The old man thrust his hands forward and a torrent of blue light erupted and shot towards Kalt who let it clash with the ball of silver light he'd been storing above his head. He focused more intensely on it, gathering more of his own energy and fighting to let it absorb the blue energy.
"Go ahead!" He laughed as he felt his own energy consuming the blue blast, "Give me more! Feed the destruction of your own species! Give me all of your energy and die old man!"
The blue blast stopped, the aged earthling fell to his knees panting with exhaustion and Kalt spared a moment to smirk.
"On your knees after all, eh? Fitting. Now, let's see how you like my Silver Sunburst!"
The Arcosian captain hovered in midair and raised his hand above his head, the ball of white light he'd gathered taking on the appearance of a silver star as he hurtled it towards the old man and the metal doors behind which he suspected all of the humans had hidden.
He laughed insanely as his energy shot towards the building and then his laughter stopped as abruptly as the ball of silver fire disappeared.
Kalt stared down at the spiky yellow hair and burning yellow aura of what he could only assume was a Super Saiyan, and suddenly he remembered what his temper had made him forget . . .
I can't fly away, the ship was damaged by the traitorous Iwatian, Kalt thought, besides if Chillax wasn't fast enough to escape I'll never make it.
That was all Kalt had time to think before the Saiyan flew up to him and slammed its head into his, cracking his dome. He flew backwards, clutching his damaged head with one hand and throwing a punch with the other but the Saiyan took his fist and held it up above his head so that his face and Kalt's were close. Kalt looked into deadly empty white eyes.
Then the Saiyan crushed Kalt's fist in his own.
Kalt screamed in agony, he threw a pointless punch for the Saiyan's face but a second hand caught his fist and crushed that one too.
The pain was incredible, Kalt had almost forgotten what real pain felt like before today and now he had received an infuriating reminder from a traitor's blast, and now two fresh reminders from a being he had no hope of overcoming.
He roared in pain as the Saiyan released his limp hands. It felt as if every bone in them had been crushed to powder, but the Arcosian captain turned for his ship and tried to fly for it.
He felt the hand grasp his tail and start to pull him back. He kicked and he screamed but the quiet warrior just glared with empty white eyes until it had pulled him back far enough to place its hand on his throat and then quiet his screams forever with one last squeeze.
Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z
Genora stared wide-eyed at the dead captain.
She swallowed a lump in her throat and began entering data into her terminal. "Scan for power level," she told the computer. The scan exceeded the ship's capacity, that meant it was even higher than Lord Frieza's power had been since the ship's Scouting device had been designed to handle power levels up to Lord Frieza's level.
So this is a Saiyan, the Appullatien thought, Terrifying monkeys.
"Computer then dispatch complete records to New Arcoss. Dispatch Captain Kalt's final message . . . and crew's personal messages to family." Genora ordered, keying in sequences to make sure that the Twins wouldn't mistake this for just some casual report.
The green Appullatien sighed as the computer set about doing her bidding. She thought about her fallen friends, she thought about her dead sisters, both Orenga, murdered by Kalt and Gareno who'd been killed in the fighting. Only Genora had remained aboard the ship, and now even if she wanted to she couldn't use it to escape.
Not with a gaping hole in the side of it.
She felt strange. Part of her felt sick knowing that so many people who had been a part of her every day life were gone. She felt sick but she didn't feel sad. Not really.
And not just because she knew she'd be following them shortly, either. Actually she was glad she hadn't died just yet, somehow something in her brain thought 'haha, I got to live a little bit longer' and she felt a little bit sicker because of it.
But the PTO hired its operators for their computer skill not for courage, so so what if she was a coward? So what if she was glad to still be alive when more than half a hundred better warriors had fallen?
She threw up.
She wiped her mouth then watched as the computer completed her final commands.
She was glad. She was glad.
Wasn't she?
It wasn't like she'd wanted to die out there with the rest of them . . . it wasn't that she felt guilty for surviving.
It's the wait. She realized as her stomach lurched again. The others didn't have to wait to die. They just died.
She wasn't much of a fighter, but she stood up and laughed mirthlessly. She'd seen the slow sadistic way that Saiyan scum had murdered her Captain. She wouldn't go that way.
She headed for the armory, hoping there'd be at least one blaster left.
"Wait for me, Orenga, Gareno . . . I won't be far behind." Genora muttered, but no filthy sadistic monkey would torture her. She'd go out on her own terms.
Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z
Trunks had been racing, it seemed utterly impossible to him that the fighting in the city could be so quick. It couldn't have lasted more than five minutes.
Had he really taken so long traveling north? It felt insane, he could sense the energy coming from the city and while he couldn't sense the difference between the aliens and people he knew his fighters and he knew all eight of his students and Master Roshi had been alive up to and just after that blast.
But then Roshi had shrunk to a tenth of his previous power and suddenly a really strong energy disappeared all together. Then Soda's energy had disappeared.
Trunks wasn't entirely sure what happened to him after that, he'd already been flying as quickly as his Super Saiyan body could move but somehow his mind went blank.
He didn't see anything again until he saw the lifeless body of one of Frieza's people lying on the ground in front of him, its hands and throat crushed.
Trunks stared down in disgust and turned to look around and get a bearings on where he was.
He was at the now damaged doors of the shelter, he could see Rhyce, Kodva and Schip were emerging from a large hole blasted in the metal doors and he could see Roshi not far from him sitting and staring at him from behind black lensed sunglasses that betrayed nothing.
Trunks saw the four limp forms lying the street wearing the royal blue jumpsuits and white armor of the EDF.
Four he thought numbly. He saw Bocan and Pastel, he saw Gurein and Anavill. He saw Rhyce and the others come running, Rhyce of all people letting out a panicked shriek when she got close enough to see her brother.
Though Trunks realized he didn't blame her. Just because Rhyce was tough and aggressive most of the time didn't mean she wouldn't hurt seeing one of the most important people in her life lying still and lifeless on the ground.
But where's Soda? Trunks wondered, looking around at the devastation. He didn't need to ask what had happened, he could more or less tell the flow of the fighting from the scene before him, the only thing he wasn't certain about was how he'd arrived and what had killed the member of Frieza's race lying at his feet.
But he had a pretty good idea.
He tried to focus his senses to find Soda, but he couldn't sense her.
He did sense someone was still alive on the alien ship however.
He turned to look at his team and the small band of Royal Guard and regular military personnel beginning to emerge from the shelter. "Look for survivors!" Trunks ordered, "There's still one left. I'll handle him."
Rhyce didn't move from her brother's side, sobbing into his chest and Trunks had to repeat the order before Kodva snapped out a similar daze and started moving to check Bocan and Pastel, though Trunks was close enough to them to know it was pointless. Schip was already checking on Anavill.
Trunks turned towards the ship and flew for the hole blasted in its side.
Whatever did that must have been one hell of an attack . . . lucky it didn't destroy the whole thing, he thought.
His mother would be happy. Relatively speaking.
In truth today was hardly a day for celebrations, Earth's new defense force had been tested and at least half of them were lost.
But there were no Dragonballs to bring them back and until his mother could find New Namek there wouldn't be.
For now all Trunks could do was keep focusing on the threat at hand, for now there was still one enemy in that ship that needed to be taken care of.
He felt a cold chill running up his back as he flew in through the hole that had been blasted into the side of the ship. He couldn't tell what the white tiled room had been, maybe a sort of shower? It was full of what looked like one-person pods, most of them had glass windows that had been shattered by the blast.
Trunks could sense the remaining enemy and closed the distance quickly. The power was small so he felt no fear as he blasted open the door to confront his final foe.
The green skinned alien with a bulbous head that reminded Trunks somewhat of an octopus spun around, firing a blaster wildly and missing horribly.
Trunks glared at it and said, "You have one chance to surrender."
The alien answered in a feminine voice, though Trunks wasn't about to make any assumptions. The creature scowled at him, "Surrender? Why, so you can squeeze my head off like you did to the captain?"
"You'll be held and treated fairly until you can be returned to your masters, along with their promise never to bother this planet again."
"You think you can kill members of the Frost Clan and they'll just leave you be? They'll destroy you and this planet if they have to, and they'll destroy me too! Not a chance monkey scum!" The alien scowled at him and raised the blaster to its own head.
Trunks closed the distance and snatched the weapon away, ripping it off of the alien's hand and then holding the creature by its neck. "Well if you won't surrender consider yourself captured."
Trunks wasn't holding the alien's throat tightly enough to constrict its airways so it was able to answer, "I'll never tell you anything, monkey!"
"We'll see." Trunks said coldly. "We have ways of making you talk."
It was probably true.
To Be Continued . . .
Next Time on Dragon Ball COED . . . The fates of the Earth's Defenders are revealed, and conflicts erupt among the survivors over how to treat the prisoners. The survivors of the PTO discuss their chances of escaping, and Trunks makes it clear to his mother that they need Dragon Balls.