Been awhile people. Hope you enjoy this!
Battleground Coliseum
Dragon vs Jarik- Winner: Dragon
Those words flashed on the four giant screens of the arena as Zane was victorious is his fight against Jarik, but the entire arena was silent after watching what they just saw. Jarik, while alive, is bloodied and unconscious as the medics start rushing him to the back. D'Lon wants to go after them, but she was by headset to stay. Meanwhile, Zane, with droplets of Jarik's blood on his face, filled with regret and self-loathing, can barely look at the enraged Scalli as he quietly approaches Zane. He stops and looks face to face at Zane, both about the same height with almost similar builds, although Scalli is more muscular.
"You know…, starts talking Scalli with contempt in his voice, "I thought you were an okay guy, way different from the other woman. But I can see you Saiyans are really pieces of work."
"I…but…aren't yo-you a Saiyan too?", questions Zane, but couldn't really speck up due to shame.
"Barely, because I never did that to anybody that didn't deserve it.", Scalli says as he put his face close to Zane, "If this weren't a tournament, I'd beat the crap out of you, until you never wanna fight again."
"I didn't mean..!", shouts Zane before Scalli interrupts.
"Didn't mean!? Than why is Jarik like that!?", shouts Scalli pointing at the direction Jarik was carried off to.
Zane didn't have anything to say, but looked down at his feet, but Scalli had more to say, "I hope you do make it pass the next round… because I'm not letting anyone get their hands on you until I do."
Scalli walks to the exit where the medics took Jarik too, as Zane stares at him until Scalli disappears behind the door. Zane walks back to where he entered from as few shouts from the audience jeered at him.
"What was that!?"
"What happened to Jarik!?"
"You better not have killed him!"
"I knew that man! He didn't deserve that!"
Zane looks at his hand and sees bits of blood on his knuckles. He didn't even notice them the first time, yet there it was. He slowly walks to entrance and looks back at the arena, where people are still fighting. He thinks to himself, would he still come here, if he knew what he was going to do? Zane figure disappears behind the door.
Infirmary
On a hospital bed, hooked up to medical equipment is Jarik, healing yet alive. He's currently asleep as people are standing by his bedside, Scalli and Dait, the Super Skrull. Dait looks at the Jarik's sleeping body and smiles a bit.
"For as long as I known you too, you guys can heal up quickly.", comments Dait.
"I remember. We were trying to pick a fight with you have you've arrived because we heard you were strong. Jarik here got his butt handed to him. ", fondly says Scalli laughs a bit, "Man he got up quick though. Me however, was fighting on par with you."
"For a moment.", corrects Dait, "By the end, you were so tired, I could have easily flicked you and your undefeated record would have ended before it began."
"Don't remember.", nonchalantly says Scalli, "But I remember Jarik immediately came after you after recovering."
"If your caretaker hadn't come, you both would have been defeated together.", coolly asserts Dait as Scalli flashes a smirk.
"Maybe.", says Scalli as the suddenly slams open, as D'Lon appears behind it.
"How is he!?", worryingly asks D'Lon as she looks at Jarik's still healing body.
"Good.", announces Scalli, "If that guys had hit him a bit more harder, who knows how Jarik could have been."
"I see.", says D'Lon as she walks to Jarik's bedside, "It's good that nothing more serious happened."
"Dait, you're fighting that guy next right?", asks Scalli with a more serious tone.
"Yes.", answers Dait as he looks at the window by the bed, "Dragon of Earth. Those people from that planet have always been troublesome. To the point where my kind had to copy their powers in order to defeat them."
"I heard there are strong guys there. Maybe I'll go there one day.", says Scalli as he looks at the same window.
There is a moment of silence in the room, as Dait knows that that's not all Scalli wanted to say. He can feel from Scalli's tone that there is more that he wants to say but can't. Dait have a feeling on what it is.
"Anything else you want to say, Scalli?", asks Dait as he turns to Scalli.
After about a few seconds of silence, Scalli turns back to Dait and asks him, "Sorry, but can you throw the match?"
D'Lon immediately turns her head to Scalli, as words she did not expect him to say came out. Scalli, who took the tournament the most serious out of all of them, who had such high pride for fighting and competition, was asking someone to throw a fight. She thought he might have said something else, but she can tell from the stern look on Dait, that Scalli really did ask him to throw the fight.
"I'm guessing you want to avenge Jarik.", sighs Dait as he turns to the door, "You know, those are word I never though you say."
"I screwed up in the past, with what happened with Rami when she needed me the most…", reflects Scalli who eyes glances at Jarik's resting body, "at the very least, I can do this to at least start talking to Jarik again. I really miss this idiot to be honest."
"You're just as much as an idiot, if not more.", adds D'Lon.
"The point is…", continues Scalli, annoyed, "I know how strong you are Dait and I can feel how strong that guy is. He can't win. Za- Dragon can't win against you. So at least, let him win so I can fight him."
With a faint sigh, Dait starts walking towards as reflects on his experiences with Scalli, Jarik, and the people of Battleground. He was once a member of Skrull empire, as a normal foot soldier who once had several encounters with members the Avengers and survived each. That vitality he had ended up getting him called up to do a Super Skrull experiment on behalf of the empire, but something went wrong, and he ended up with only one hand and limited use of his newfound powers.
Abandoned by the empire as an armless failed Super Skrull, Dait travels all over the galaxy and eventually found himself in Battleground. Hearing stories of fights where winners are granted great wealth and prestige on the planet, he made a name for himself all over the city as an experienced warrior with one arm. His reputation caused Scalli and Jarik to confront him, in order to make names for themselves. While the fight was interrupted, Scalli and Jarik would come to him for training, as they wanted to become stronger.
Scalli would improve and be recruited by Gim, but Jarik would get left behind and did his best to catch up to Scalli under Dait. After the tragic incident that befell Rami, Dait would help Jarik to manage the orphanage in Rami's place. While Dait could have moved up the sections along with Scalli, the upper sections are filled with former noble Kree, who would look down on Dait, so Dait felt comfortable in the lower ones with Jarik.
"You're not the only one who want to avenge him, Scalli.", states Dait as he put his hand on the door handle, "For years, I took care of him and the children your caretaker left behind. All of them, are worried for him. The ones you grew up with and the ones Jarik took care of."
Dait turns his head to Scalli, "One reason why he entered the tournament now is because he felt he was finally around your level. The other… is because he felt he can achieve far enough in this fight, that he can support the orphanage for ten more years."
Dait turns to Jarik and continues, "He couldn't, so I'll do it for him."
Private Room
In a private room on another side of coliseum from the infirmary, Zane is sitting down on a bed, head down and twirling his fingers around with a bit of anxiousness. In the room with him is Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four and Gim, a former champion of the tournament and in charge of Zane's participation in the tournament. Gim, being from Section 99 and met Jarik several times, doesn't know what to say. While he wants to scold Zane about Jarik, he knew how dangerous this tournament can be and technically, he on Zane's side due to promising Palace, the organizer of Section 99 preliminaries and his old friend, that he would help whoever wins and becomes the Section 99 representative to advance far in the Battleground tournament. Thankfully for him, Johnny Storm breaks the tension in the room.
"Sooo… should we… talk about this?", asks Johnny with a hesitant tone, "I'm not really good at this kind of stuff, so can I like, get a hotdog or whatever you guys have here, while you do the rest?"
"Do what you want .", answers Gim as he regains a bit of composure, "What happened back there? I didn't think you were the kind to severely injure another like that."
Zane looks up to Gim, with a regretful look on his eyes as Gim continues, "While stuff like this happen before and I want to say stuff like this can't be helped and part of the tournament… you were looking like you were trying to kill him."
"I don't know what happened.", Zane quickly said as he turn his head to the window to his right side, "I just… lost it."
"Lost it?", questions Gim as he approaches Zane, who turns to him, "Losing your composure after Jarik started taking advantage, I can see, but your aggression, it was monstrous."
"Not gonna lie, you scared the holy crap out of me.", adds Johnny with a uncomfortable face, "I'm surprised you didn't transform and grew horns and black wings."
"The pressure just got to me and I just didn't want to lose, then suddenly… my body just started moving on its own.", Zane tries to explain, which garners confused looks from Johnny and Gim, "I can't explain it. It felt like something inside me just took over."
"Were you being controlled? Cause that happened quite a lot.", says Johnny.
"It's not mind control. Just gave in to your basic instincts is all.", a mysterious voice says from behind.
All eyes turn to the person who was standing in front of the open door, the Saiyan Pirate, Kolra. Nobody even heard her coming in, let alone the door opening. Zane immediately gets up and prepares himself mentally for a fight. Kolra however, showed no signs of fighting against them.
"Sayins?", mispronounced Johnny as Kolra glares at him, but continues her words.
"We Saiyans are warriors, fighters, and live for violence. We go around conquering planets for two things, money and to satisfy our lust for battle. So, as you can see. ", says Kolra with a small smirk on her face, "we are a very aggressive race of superior beings."
"What so superior about messing with people's homes?", questions Johnny as he gives Kolra a dirty look.
"Don't worry. I'm not in the business of conquering. I'm more in the lines of stealing and killing.", adds Kolra as she steps closer to Zane, "You know, my first impression of you was that of a failure who lost all ounce of his Saiyan blood, but from what I saw…"
In a flash, Kolra passed by both Jonny Storm and Gim, without them even noticing, and suddenly in Zane's face as she continues her talk, "…it's alive in you. I'm so glad, the human hasn't pacified you completely. The glorious Saiyan blood still lives in you."
Zane tries to back away, surprised by Kolra's speed, but failed to notice behind him as he trips over the bed on the ground on the other side. Johnny and Gim turn and try to grab her, but she disappears out of their sight again. As Zane starts getting back up, Kolra was behind him, leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
"Although you're still too weak. Too weak to even keep up with me. However, since you beat one of my men, your level will do.", mockingly comments Kolra with a small laugh at the end.
"What do you want?", questions Zane as he continues to stare intensely at Kolra.
"Simple. When I found out my brother still alive, I was hoping he would join me and show this galaxy…", Kolra starts explaining before changing the lasts part, "or rather, this universe, the Saiyans exist. The Saiyans are alive and create a mark of terror upon every single galaxy we can get to."
Zane looks at her with a confused look as she reads his expression and explains herself, "When I young, I was sent to obliterate the population of this planet of fishman. My power was closest to our prince at the time, so they figured this would be a good test for me before sending me to stronger planets. However, the planet where I arrived to…"
Kolra's voice cracks a bit, as she quickly turns her head away from Zane, Johnny, and Gim. They couldn't see her face, but Zane felt something as she starts emitting ki. Her ki was dark, full of hate and anger, like if Zane walks towards now, he'll feel like he is suffocating in the ocean floor. Zane shifts his head a bit as sees a look of pure intensity of Kolra's eyes, but she eventually regains her composure, turns her head back to Zane and continues.
"I arrived at a planet of pathetic, ignorant red man who says that Saiyan race doesn't exist. That what I was saying is a lie and that, even if it's true, I must be the last one remaining.", Kolra says with a lot of contempt in her tone, "I traveled back to where Planet Vegeta was supposed to exist, but… it wasn't there anymore. It disappears, like it never existed."
There was slight tone of sadness and suffering from the last sentence Kolra said, but the other three didn't notice as she quickly hid it and continues her talk, "I eventually found a pirate crew, whose captain was subpar, so I did them a favor of getting rid of him and installing myself as that ship's captain and made a vow. If the universe forgot about the Saiyans. If the legacy of the Saiyans, truly never existed in this universe…"
Kolra starts walking to Zane, who he puts up a stance, and declares with determination, "I will forge a new legacy for the Saiyans. Where nobody will ever forget who the Saiyans are once I'm done. That's a promise."
Zane is taken back by this woman. While the methods she using Zane disagrees with, Zane can feel her iron will from the words she spoken, her body language, even her eyes. Part of Zane felt for her. He didn't know he was a Saiyan until this week, Scalli as well, but Kolra, she knew who she was at the beginning, and just like that, she was alone with nobody knowing what she is and just written her race as make-believe. He wonders, what was her reaction to himself and Scali being alive? Living proof that Saiyans really did exist.
"By myself…", continues Kolra as Zane snaps back from his thoughts, "I can't do it. Not because of lack of strength, but lack of proof of others like me. How can I prove that others like me exist if I'm only one? So, I came here, looking for rumors of a fighter with incredible strength and a tail. Only to find two things, a disappointing little brother who lacks the bloodlust of a Saiyan and a lowly weak warrior whose playing hero."
Zane felt a sting in his heart, knowing she was right, he was weak. Compare to the power he felt from Scalli and Kolra, he was nowhere near their level. All of Zane's major victories, he didn't do it himself. While he managed to stun the Abomination, The Thing was one who did most of damage on him and finishing blow. Zane didn't even leave a scratch prior. He barely beat the arrow guy in the preliminaries, the other two guys took themselves. Common drug dealers, robbers, D-C level villains, Zane can easily beat them, but the other guys, there is no way with his current strength.
"You know Urid, while you are weak, unlike Scalli, you have that killer instant. That true Saiyan blood. That's what I need for my wish to come true.", says Kolra as she extends her hand, "Come with me and I'll make you strong. Stronger than any low class Saiyans that has ever been."
"What are you talking about?", asks Zane with a skeptical look.
"We Saiyans have no limits. You can injury us to the point of death, we come back stronger. Our bodies are meant to have unlimited power because we have something no other race can become."
A proud smirk appears on Kolra's face as she said that, which starts grazing Zane's curiosity about this "power".
"And what is this "power"", questions Zane as Kolra leans closer to his ear.
"The power of a Super Saiyan.", she whispers.
"Super-what?", says Zane.
"It is a legend that been passed over from generation to generation of Saiyans. A power only a few can obtain, although the means to obtain are uncertain.", admits Kolra as she steps away from Zane, "So what do you say? Help me show the universe the true power of the Saiyans and you get the power you know you want."
Zane looks at her hand and remembered what he thought about heroes and his place in the world. As a kid, he never thought about being a superhero, back when superheroes started emerging and everybody couldn't stop talking about them. He wasn't interested in heroes; he was more into fighting the older kids bothering him. Fighting was always in his blood. Maybe that's why he became a hero.
"You know, I have to say, I'm glad that you told me about all this.", smiles Zane which left everyone in the room confused with this action, "I was such a troublemaking kid and now I know why."
Zane places his hand to back of his head, "I also know why I became a hero now. To fight. It's a crappy reason, but I didn't realize why I did it till now. If you think about it, I'm not much of a hero if that's the reason."
Zane looks at Kolra, dead in the eyes, and says, "But I rather be a crappy hero than a Saiyan who goes around wrecking stuff just because they have issues."
The room fell silence after that. Kolra's face was at first surprised, her mouth unchanging, but her eyes widen. But slowly, her expression became that of silent fury, as the atmosphere felt cold. Zane felt Kolra's power rising and knew that he has no choice but to get ready for a fight.
Zane swiftly takes a few steps back, places his right fist into his left hand, and starts charging as Kolra notices and says, "You honestly think you that will do you any good?"
"Won't know unless I try.", response Zane.
Kolra stares at Zane for a second and unsettling smiles, "Okay, then let me try something."
Kolra spread her arms away from each other, "Hit me, right in my stomach."
Zane, confused, questions her, "The hell? What are you talking about?"
"Like I said. Hit me. Dead center.", calmly said Kolra, pointing at her midriff.
Zane doesn't know if she's serious or not, but he knew he must strike now and quickly before she can react. He took one strong step off the ground and was rapidly in front of Kolra. With a fully charged Spirit Punch, he hits Kolra where her finger is still pointing at.
Outside the building, the people who were walking underneath it, were throw into a panic as an explosion came from the third floor. Admit the screams of the startled, eyes were looking at the cloud of dust that came from the explosion. As it starts clearing, the people below can see Kolra, standing on nothing, still pointing at her midriff.
Inside the hole of the building, Zane, with his fist out, looks at Kolra's with a confused look on his face as he starts to process what happened. She was unharmed. In fact, there barely even a scratch, just a small red mark that turned back into her normal skin color in no time. His face changes into one of disbelief as he realizes that his most powerful attack, didn't do anything at all.
"You know what, I just realized something. It's doesn't matter how much nature of true Saiyan you can be.", says Kolra as she dust herself off, "What matters for Saiyan isn't blood, but power and you are really a disappointing waste of both blood and power."
She gathers energy into right hand and points it at Zane, "For the sake of the Saiyans' legend, it's best that erase you now, before you further disgrace that blood."
Kolra fires her energy attack at Zane, who tries stop it by firing back with his own, but Kolra's attack easily powers through Zane's. As the light from Kolra's attack faces Zane, a wall of fire appears right in front of Zane, as is disperses Kolra's attack.
"You know what, I agree with the kid. You do have issues.", says Johnny, whose body is partially covered in flames, "Is there a space therapist around here?"
Kolra sees the "4" on his chest of his blue uniform and remembers the stories and feats of the Fantastic Four, "I heard about you people. You're all supposed to be great defenders of the galaxy."
"That's us. The world's greatest superheroes, who have in the roster, the most interesting and handsomest man in the galaxy.", adds Johnny, with pride, "I'd go for universe, but I need to be humble sometimes."
Kolra flies back a bit and starts charging energy to both of her hands. Zane senses the power she's about to unleash and watches in awe of how much stronger Kolra can get. She is strong, too strong for anybody here, which is what Zane thought. But Zane underestimated The Human Torch.
"FLAME ON!", shouts Johnny, as his entire body is now covered in fire.
He starts charging his own attack in his hands, to which Zane starts backing away from due to how intense the heat is getting. Zane reads Johnny's power and almost trips over himself when he realizes that Johnny is stronger than what he imagined. Kolra fires her energy blast at the group as Johnny responses with his own fire-based blast. Both attacks clash, as the force from the collision shatters the windows of the surrounding area. Zane is blinded by the light of their blast, but can see to side Johnny focused, but smirking. Zane tries to see Kolra as he leans to the side and sees her focused as well but starting to struggle. She is powerful, but Johnny, in terms of energy attacks, is stronger.
Johnny's attack starts overpowering Kolra's, whose skin starts to feel hotter and hotter as Johnny's fire blast comes closer and closer. That is when Kolra knew that she couldn't win in terms of energy attacks. It enrages her, but she learned a long time ago that there always somebody stronger in this world. This is just a challenge she'll overcome one day.
Suddenly, Johnny's attack blasts straight through Kolra's, as Zane, Johnny, and Gim thought that Johnny roasted Kolra. That's when Zane senses her energy near them. He shifts his eyes to in front of Johnny, where Kolra has her fist wined back. She canceled her own attack so she can slip to the side of the fire blast and quickly sneak in front of them. Zane tried to catch her, but he was too slow as her fist moves towards Johnny's stomach, with the intent to kill.
That's when her fist stops. Zane watches as Kolra's was about an inch away from ending a life as Johnny and Gim realized that Kolra right in front of them. Kolra on the other hand, watches wide eye as something stopped her attack. It felt like she just punched a solid wall.
"Get the hell away from my brother!", shouts Susan Richards from behind the group.
Something pushes Kolra straight back to the air outside, as she felt an entire ship just collided with her body. She recovers and sees an angered Invisible Women, who's dead focused on Kolra. Kolra fires a barrage of energy blasts at her, but Susan raises her hand in front of them as all the attacks immediately disappears upon hitting her forcefield. Kolra's eyes are full of rage, but before she can make her next move, something pushes her to the ground. An invisible wall is crushing Kolra deep to the ground, who can barely withstand the force of the Invisible Women's forcefield. Susan eventually let Kolra go, who can barely stand as she struggles to get off the ground. Kolra slowly rise to the air, glaring deadly at both the siblings, before taking one last glance at Zane before flying away to parts unknown to them. She knew that at her current power, she'll lose. The universe is too big, she needs to be bigger.
As Kolra flies back to her crew, full of injures too shameful for her, she thought to herself, "I need to become it… the legend. That's the only way to accomplish my mission… my dream."
Next chapter! Saiyan vs Skrull!