Chapter 19: Pan's True Power
These new soldiers were all lined up just outside of their vehicles, their weapons raised, all of them were masked and anonymous. Pan stood the furthest forward, with Sofia and Yaiko just behind her. Further behind them, Holline was standing right in front of Noca, defending him. The Saiyan man had managed to get back to his feet, but he was still leaning against the wall, unable to keep control of his balance. His energy was slowly coming back, but that didn't mean his pain had subsided.
The area had fallen silent, aside from the continued running of the water, and the rustling of trees and bushes in the wind. Tension filled the air, but no one had any patience left. Pan charged forward, going for the soldiers right ahead of her, but all of them began to open fire upon Pan's movement, and the girl instantly learned how advanced their weapons were.
Rather than bullets, it was apparent that these weapons used some form of lasers. Pan seemed to find the tech reminiscent of something she had experienced before, and it wouldn't have been surprising if that was the case. A laser bolt struck her shoulder, and she could feel it singe against her skin as it burned through her top. Pan adjusted her movement, twisting and flying through the oncoming fire and managed to land right in front of one of the soldiers.
She punched them in the chest, throwing them back into the side of one of their vehicles and she turned as another soldier moved to face her. That soldier began to unload their weapon, rapidly firing on the girl and Pan threw her arms up in a block and focussed her energy forward, like a form of shield, managing to reduce the pain of those bolts, but there was still a heat as they hit her.
At the same time, Sofia and Yaiko were avoiding and blocking laser bolts against themselves. Sofia was going out of her way to make sure she avoided them all, while Yaiko went for a sort of forceful approach by moving forward to try and move into his attack quicker. He dodged past some bolts and moved close to a soldier, but they unleashed a heap of fire right down towards Yaiko and the teen had to dive and roll to the side to avoid the bolts. He managed to get to a position where he could spring towards the soldier and punched them in the head, knocking them down.
As soon as Yaiko landed another couple of soldiers had advanced on him with rapid fire. Yaiko was struck in the back, feeling the singe, and he had to dive and roll forward to gain a little distance to refocus.
Sofia, on the other hand, was doing a rather good job at keeping her distance and dodging around, but she wasn't advancing or trying to attack. She instead focussed on drawing out a few soldiers so that the pack split, meaning that the enemies were spread a little more evenly.
So, with Yaiko and Pan both fighting close to the jets, and Sofia moving into a more open space with her opponents, that meant that some of them were beginning to advance towards Holline as she stood defensively in front of her friend. They began firing her way, and Holline soon learned what kind of effect those laser bolts had. She winced in pain as a bolt struck her shoulder and she stumbled back. Noca tried to move forward to assist her but he was struck by three bolts to the chest and he fell back against the wall. Not only were the bolts hot but they had power upon impact, especially if you weren't prepared for it.
Pan seemed to be the most effective fighter going up against those soldiers, she was continuing to showcase her speed and acrobatic tendencies while in combat. Two soldiers rushed towards Pan and the Saiyan managed to dive forward past a spray of gunfire, and she leapt towards the first soldier, smashing her foot flat in their face and then she swept her leg to the other soldier and kicked them in the side of the head.
She landed down and another soldier started firing towards her and Pan flared up her aura, launching a small Ki blast towards them, then she charged forward, throwing a punch and smacking them in the head. Three soldiers downed in very quick succession and Pan was feeling pretty good about herself. She turned around and saw four of them running towards her. Pan took a deep breath and focussed ahead. She released the breath and rushed them.
She leapt up, dropping down and punching the soldier to her right in the head, and then she dropped down low kicking her leg out at the solider to the left, tripping him forward and then she flipped back, kicking that same soldier up in the head. She landed on her feet and sprung towards the remaining two soldiers, grabbing them by their heads and she pushed them down to the ground, head-first. To finish she rolled forward and looked back over her shoulder at those seven soldiers she took out and noticed they were already returning to their feet.
Pan cursed and turned around, clenching her fists, ready to continue her onslaught. They had proved to be tougher than she initially thought.
Yaiko was dealing with things as best as he could. He found himself surrounded by a number of soldiers and tried to go at them with full force. He flashed towards the first soldier as they prepared to fire their weapon, and Yaiko smacked the gun up into the soldier's face and jumped up, kicking him with both feet. He used the momentum from the kick to push off and moved two other soldiers. He held out his arms, managing to clothesline both of them, taking them into the ground.
Before he could stand up again, he was shot in the back a couple of times by a couple of soldiers and fell forward, pushing himself into a roll. He swirled around and threw out two Ki blasts, one with each hand, striking both of those soldiers. They were knocked back but Yaiko heard some movement behind him, and the two soldiers he had knocked down were returning to their feet. Yaiko swung around quickly, with his leg sweeping, and he took out both soldiers, watching them clatter into each other and fall to the ground.
The teen turned around again but was quickly struck in the face with the butt of a gun and he stumbled back, gripping onto his face. That same soldier quickly brought his gun down and fired into Yaiko's chest a few times knocking him back to the ground. Luckily, Yaiko had his energy powered up enough to defend him, but the impact was still there. The other soldiers returned to their feet and started to surround Yaiko firing down on him.
Yaiko needed to get out of the situation, and quickly. He focussed his energy, pulled it in, and let out an explosive wave that knocked all of the soldiers off of their feet. The teen followed that up by jumping up and moving very quickly to charge to one soldier. He swung a leg towards one of them, kicking them in the gut, and then he sprung away to another soldier in the air, slamming them to the ground. He then turned around firing a barrage of Ki blasts at the others, knocking them down as well.
At the end of that move Yaiko dropped to the ground as four soldiers dropped down around him, but a few more had advanced. He looked around, taking in the number, noticing that the others were returning to their feet. Whatever protective gear they had was surely helping them, but that wasn't all. These soldiers were far more resilient that the others.
Sofia knew that, she was well aware of the existence of those soldiers. Unfortunately, she had never really seen them in action, and never expected to come up against them herself. Either way, she wasn't certain she could do the best job up against them at that time. The last little conflict with Joji had left her feeling a tad worse for wear. She was feeling wiped out, but if she had the chance to rest up a little bit, she knew it would only be a matter of time before she could get herself back into fighting shape.
So that's what her intention was when those soldiers started to advance on her. She continued to dart back and create space between herself and the advancing troops. She had no plans to spring into any sort of attack at that time and had to focus on evasion and self-preservation, even though she hated leaving Yaiko to go up against a group by himself. She knew he would struggle, but there wasn't much she could do.
She found herself backing up more to where Noca and Holline were sitting, with the red head still standing her ground in front of Noca, hoping that Pan would be able to do her best to hold them off from reaching Noca, but if any did manage to sneak by and filter towards them Holline would stand up and fight her hardest until Noca was in a position to fight for himself.
Fortunately, that time seemed to be arriving sooner than Holline had expected. Noca was already back to his feet and managing to stand without swaying or falling down, and he even managed to flash back to Super Saiyan. He wasn't going to let everyone else fight for him and he would do his part to help, even if he was still in pain. After all, most of it was happening because of him.
He moved up beside Holline and placed a hand on her shoulder. Holline turned, surprised to see him not only standing, but powered up to Super Saiyan.
"Noca, what are you doing? You should keep resting!" Holline exclaimed upon seeing him. Noca scoffed and smirked.
"I'll be fine, go and help Sofia," Noca said, motioning to the blonde as she continued to dart away from the soldiers advancing on her. Holline watched and then looked to Noca, ready to protest. "They aren't coming here so don't worry, I can defend myself. Just go help her, and tell her to take Yaiko and hide in the village…"
"What?" Holline questioned, surprised. "Don't they need to be apprehended or something?"
"There's more to this, and Sofia knows that. She's willing to tell us, but not if she's captured," Noca explained, and he seemed to look up towards the water tower. Holline glanced up quickly but didn't notice anything. She just nodded, accepting Noca's instructions, and she darted over to where Sofia was. Noca kept his eyes locked on the water tower as he moved out away from the building a little bit.
Sofia was still backing up away from those soldiers but was surprised to see the sudden appearance of a couple of Ki blasts that slammed down on the ground in front of the soldiers, and then Holline flew in, punching one soldier into another and then jumping up and landing down with a kick on another. Once she was on the ground she darted back and landed next to Sofia.
"I didn't need the help," Sofia said, sounding slightly flustered, but there was a tone in there that said she was a little appreciative.
"Then you'll hate what I have to say next," Holline replied. The two young women continued to dodge oncoming shots from those soldiers. "You need to take Yaiko and head back to the Kayu village," Holline said, bringing up Noca's suggestion. Sofia seemed surprised by that.
"Why would we do that?" Sofia questioned, looking towards Yaiko to gauge how he was doing in his fight. She looked back to Holline and saw her glance towards the water tower, but again, there was nothing to see.
"I've learned to trust when Noca has a feeling, and it's best you two get to safety, so we can all talk once this is over," Holline suggested, moving to dodge some more shots and then fire a Ki blast towards the soldiers to create some sort of smoke cloud.
"I guess you're right," Sofia said, sighing and backing up a little more. She looked forward to where the smoke cloud was, as it started to dissipate and saw the soldiers moving through. "Cover me while I get to Yaiko," Sofia requested as she darted forward, towards those soldiers. Holline threw a couple of Ki blasts and then darted through as well, hoping that the attention would be drawn her way instead.
The soldiers raised their weapons as Sofia drew close but then the Ki blasts slammed down in front of them and yet again their visions were impaired, and Sofia managed to get through them and move closer to Yaiko. Holline dropped in as the smoke cleared and she started to fight against them, knocking them down, while Sofia moved on.
The blonde interrupted the soldiers advancing around Yaiko when she kicked one in the head and spun around to slam her fists down on the head of another and then dropped beside Yaiko.
"We have to go," She told the teen. She grabbed Yaiko's arm and attempted to move, but the teen seemed to stand strong and stopped her from taking him anywhere.
"No, I can fight them," Yaiko said, confidently. Sofia grabbed his arm with both of her hands.
"We can't let them capture us. We need to go," Sofia said, taking a very commanding tone with him. Soldiers continued to fire at them and Yaiko became distracted by the look on Sofia's face. He had never seen her act like how she had that day. She had been mean to him in the past, nice to him when no one else was around, defended him from the bullying from others, but this was a very different woman. She seemed rebellious and it was a whole new demeanour. Now, the intensity he was reading from her told him he should listen, and not argue.
He let her drag him as the shots continued to fire at them and he turned around to defend them by firing Ki blast back at the soldiers. They rushed towards the buildings, to get some cover and as they did so something seemed to fire down from a higher point and strike the ground in front of the soldiers. A few of them stopped to see what it was but they were suddenly shocked by a small explosion that knocked them off of their feet. Sofia looked up to the water tower and could see the glint of something.
Upon a closer inspection she noticed it was someone with a snipe rifle, firing down on the soldiers. Sofia started to understand that it must have been what Noca was worried about, and why he warned Holline to advise the duo to leave. They were already implicated in the crimes of the past week and they needed to avoid capture if Noca was to learn the truth. Sofia promised she would tell both Yaiko and Noca, and that is exactly what she would do, but first it was all about self-preservation.
"Yaiko, we need to go back to that village, and hide until this all blows over, ok?" Sofia said, grabbing Yaiko by the shoulders and looking him in the eyes. Yaiko seemed a little vacant as he stared at her, almost as if the thrill of fighting sunk away and he was reminded of Sofia's lie to him. "I will explain everything."
Up on the water tower, the person firing their weapon down and assisting the fighters on the ground was none other than Brie Wagasi of the Secret Service. She had been ordered to come out here to find out what was going on and apprehend any criminals she could, what she didn't realise was that it looked like the fighters were working with two of the criminals, but now a bunch of soldiers had started firing on them again, and where had the other two criminals vanished to. It was all an odd and stressful situation, but Brie was a professional and would do her duty.
For now, she was aware that those soldiers were a threat, and she did her best to assist the fighters on the ground by putting her great marksman skills to use. She utilised every type of bullet she had to create an awkward and uncomfortable situation for those soldiers, shooting down on them with explosive bullets, stun bullets, anything that would make them easier targets for the fighters.
What Brie failed to notice was that Sofia and Yaiko had left the fighting area and were hiding out in the cover of one of the derelict buildings, while Holline and Pan were the only two doing any actual fighting out there. Noca remained stood by the building, as a Super Saiyan, waiting to see if anyone advanced on him. He stood with as much strength as he could muster but it wasn't looking great. He was far too weakened and needed a big rest.
No one was about to offer him that opportunity. Noca was so distracted by his pain and the fighting going on in front of him that he failed to notice something so obvious and clear. Pan sensed some movement beyond the building, and even Holline felt a familiar presence. The girls were too distracted to look for it, so there was nothing they could do.
The source of the familiar presence very quickly revealed itself as a beaten, bloodied, bruised, and enraged Shai jumped out from a hidden position from within the abandoned town. He had taken his time to return to the conflict ever since Pan left him to re-join her friends, and even though he was looking in a rather rough condition he still appeared to have a lot of fight left in him, and he was ready to show that to Noca. He jumped down in front of the Saiyan man and proved to be quite the imposing presence.
Noca took a step back as Shai moved forward, attempting to thrown down a strong punch on the already weakened Saiyan. Noca had to move quickly to do something and all her could think to do was raise his arms above himself, but due to his injured state he was unable to put enough strength into the block and Shai smashed through his arms, knocking Noca down into the ground. Noca landed in a heap, gripping his left arm in pain and tried to push himself away from Shai, but the brute moved forward.
"That kid failed to finish his mission, so I guess I'm gonna be the one to finally end you!" Shai yelled, making his presence known to the others around him. Pan heard and recognised his voice, as did Holline, and even from their hidden spot, Sofia and Yaiko could see Shai through a gap in the boarded-up window. But the situation had grown difficult for everyone. Sofia and Yaiko continued to remain hidden, while the soldiers had begun to encircle Pan and Holline, surrounding them, with their weapons raised and fixed on the targets. They could only look on as Noca attempted to stand up for himself.
He managed to jump back to his feet and darted towards Shai, attempted to fire a fist up into the brute's face, but Shai caught Noca's wrist and gripped tightly. He lifted Noca up and before giving the Saiyan any sort of chance to make his own move he punched Noca in the face, smashing him back down into the ground. The Saiyan hit the ground and managed to immediately power up his Ki enough to jump up and moved back. He darted back closer to the building behind him and moved into a defensive position. Shai just casually sauntered closer to Noca.
The young Saiyan was in a very tough position, he barely had the energy to defend himself and he was losing his balance, almost as if he was about to collapse and lose consciousness. He was feeling faint and the pain was getting to him. He could hardly keep his aura flared up around him. Shai knew he was in the advantageous position, and it amused him.
"This is pathetic. I didn't think it would be this easy. Seems like half the job has already been done," Shai said, smirking as he continued closer to Noca. The Saiyan powered up a Ki blast and went to swing it into Shai's face but the brute just swatted Noca's arm away, letting the Ki blast sail into the distance. He then lifted a leg and smashed a strong kick against Noca's chest, throwing him back against the wall.
As Pan and Holline saw what happened they flinched and froze on the spot.
"Noca!" Pan yelled, a hint of fear and pain in her voice. Holline brought a hand to her mouth. The soldiers started to move in closer to them.
Shai's eyes went wide for a moment, but his smirk crawled across his face again and he scoffed, breaking into a chuckle. Noca felt a really sharp pain in his right side as he smashed into the wall and it felt like for a brief moment all of reality drained from the moment. He coughed, bringing up blood and as he realised it was blood, he was brought back into reality and suddenly his body was overcome with an excruciating pain, but he didn't even know why.
Everything started to feel fuzzy for Noca and he slowly brought his right hand to his side and felt around his hip, but he found he couldn't explore too much because it was just far too painful. He winced and started to shake. The colour drained from his face and he was feeling even more faint than before. Noca could hear the faint sound of screaming from a distance and he managed to look to the right to see the group of soldiers and in the middle, looking distraught, was his girlfriend, Pan.
Noca seemed to feel a small sense of relief at seeing that she was ok, somewhat, but he knew something was wrong. It was hard to comprehend anything at that moment. He looked forward to Shai in front of him and he was standing, wearing pride on his face. Noca's brow furrowed and he finally found the energy to look down at his right side and that's when he saw it.
Sticking out about a foot in front of Noca was a metal pipe, and as he followed it, he could see it was coming from inside of him. It was sharp on the end and covered in his blood. Noca coughed and gagged a little upon seeing it and then he looked up towards Shai again. He groaned and began attempting to move. He started to pull forward, but he wasn't getting anywhere. He had no energy to move and he was in far too much pain. He tried to power up his aura but found that it only sapped more energy. Somehow, he was still a Super Saiyan, but due to all his training with Vegeta he could maintain that form without wasting any energy as long as he was conscious.
Inside one of the other buildings, hidden away, Sofia and Yaiko were watching on, and they also seemed frozen from the shock. Neither seemed to know what they should do next. There was a part of Yaiko that wanted to stand up and go out there to fix things. He wanted to go out there and help, but Sofia gripped onto his arm, making sure he didn't go anywhere. But there was a reason she stopped Yaiko. She could feel something. A power. And it was rising. A power level was growing like never before, larger and larger. There was intensity in it, and Sofia knew there was no need to get involved.
The soldiers standing around Pan and Holline seemed to stand off, a tiny bit. They weren't as fixated on their targets after witnessing what had happened with Noca. It seemed to change the mood a lot. Even Brie, watching on from her perch was disgusted and shocked by what she saw happening. As far as she was concerned, they were kids, and it was all wrong.
The standing down of the soldiers meant they let their guard down a little bit, and they were completely unprepared when Pan suddenly let out an explosive wave of energy, knocking them all to their feet, and she charged towards Shai. She managed to smash a strong kick into the side of his head, flinging him into another building down the path in the town.
She immediately dropped down to the ground and rushed to Noca against the wall. She didn't know where to put her hands or what she could possibly do, and no words were coming out of her mouth. She moved close to her boyfriend, placing her hands on his face and looked into his eyes, even though she couldn't tell where they were looking. She started to tear up while looking at him. Noca started to smile, although it seemed like a great pain for him to do so.
"Hey… Pan…" Noca muttered, wincing as he spoke. "This hurts… a lot…"
"It's ok, Noca. It's ok, baby," Pan said, unsure of what she could possibly say that would help. She sniffled and seemed to tense up. She wasn't in control of her emotions and they were threatening to explode. Noca seemed to raise his bloodied right hand a little bit and Pan noticed. She gripped his hand and brought it up, kissing it, ignoring the blood it left on her face. "We're going to help you. We'll save you. You're going to alright."
"Pan…" Noca whispered, unable to make much of a real sound. Pan was beginning to sob as she looked at the terrible condition her boyfriend was in, and he still managed to have a smile on his face. "Don't worry…" Noca mumbled as he stared into her eyes, even though she was looking down. "Pan… look at me…" He said through a whisper.
She looked into his teal Super Saiyan eyes and he looked into her blue eyes. He continued to smile, and Pan tried to force herself to do so, just for him. Noca could see her tears and he scoffed.
"Don't cry…" He muttered, "and don't hold back…" he continued. Pan's brow furrowed and she saw that the Noca's energy was dwindling, she could feel it too. He wasn't going to remain conscious for very long.
There was some rustling from close by and Pan knew that Shai had returned to his feet, and he probably wasn't very happy. He moved towards them, but neither Pan or Noca turned to pay him any attention. Pan kept her eyes on Noca and noticed as his hair started to fade back to its natural dark brown, losing the Super Saiyan gold. She looked into his eyes again, seeing that they remained teal for a moment.
Noca leaned his head forward and pressed his forehead against Pan's.
"Let go… let it out…" Noca said, finding the strength to make his words clear. Pan couldn't see it because of their heads being pressed together but Noca's eyes closed, just as the teal returned to black, and he fell unconscious. She only noticed when she pulled away and saw Noca's head flop down. She shuddered, while keeping his hand gripped in hers.
"Noca…" she muttered, but there was no response. She stepped back, letting go of his hand as it dropped down by his side. Her breath grew ragged and she had to force herself to look through her senses and confirm that he was still alive, and he was. He was still breathing, even if it was only a little, but the bloodied mess that was the love of her life was enough to enrage her further.
She stepped back, eyes locked on Noca, and flared her aura up around her, only this time it was golden. She turned around and looked to Shai who was standing there, wide smile on his face, even though he himself looked pretty beaten. She took in a very deep breath and let it out slowly. She closed her eyes and did it again, only at the end of it, as she opened her eyes her aura properly exploded out of her, raging like the fire within her at that moment. He hair was waving around as it started to rise up and her eyes were white for a moment, blank, nothing. She stepped forward and the ground trembled beneath her feet.
"I made it clear to you, you would never beat me," Pan mentioned as she moved closer to Shai. Her voice carried a confident yet threatening tone, and Shai's smirk began to fade. Pan stopped a few feet away from him and she threw her arms out, fists clenched, and she looked to the sky with her chest puffed out, and from within her there was an explosion of power once more. A blinding light illuminated the area and shook the entire valley.
Once everything died down and everyone was able to look ahead again, they could see, hovering just a few inches above the ground, with her eyes closed and arms down by her side, was Pan, and she had become a Super Saiyan. She opened her eyes, and they were still white for a moment as she moved closer to Shai again.
"Now I'll show you," Pan started as her pupils faded into view again, only this time they were teal, "the true power of an enraged Super Saiyan."
And then, shocking everyone in the area, there were sparks around Pan's body. Perhaps it had something to do with how her power was already reminiscent of her father's unlocked potential, or something else entirely, but Pan seemed to have ascended past a Super Saiyan, but it was also clearly apparent that she was in complete control. She knew she needed to make it quick, but she wanted to make Shai pay.
Holline noticed that all the soldiers were focussed on Pan and Shai, and none of them were paying her any attention so she had the moment she needed. She rushed away from the group and moved towards Noca. She wanted to check on her best friend and find out just what had happened to him and how bad it was. Pan, meanwhile, was more than capable of dealing with things herself, at least for the moment.
She continued to hover, slowly, towards Shai as he gingerly stepped away, definitely scared of the girl he had already lost to many times before. There were no more words to be spoke between the two, but Pan had a lot to say. She moved ever so swiftly to punch him square in the face, breaking his nose with the fastest strike in her life. The blood poured down and he brought both hands to his face.
As he did that, it created another clear opening for Pan, and the girl dropped down, punching out into Shai's gut causing him to bend over and spit up blood and saliva. Pan swiftly darted up, punching up into his face again and as she rose above him, she dropped down with both fists on his face again, in a hammering motion. Shai was knocked down flat on the ground and Pan jumped back to gain a little distance.
Shai started to return to his feet and Pan darted for him immediately again. She planted a strong foot into his gut, and he bent over, and from the force he was about to be flung away, but due to massive increase in Pan's speed and power she was equal to it. She phased behind him, kicking him in the lower back and that caused him to arch the other way. His back cracked and he let out a pained yelp. Pan flipped back to kick up into his head, knocking him into the air a little more. She then dropped down to the ground and immediately sprung back up towards him, punching up into his body, sending him flying higher. With her last move, she landed back on the ground safely and powered up a quick, yet powerful, Kamehameha and fired it up at the target.
The energy struck the target and launched Shai even further away. Pan didn't know if the attack was going to be enough to incapacitate him, or even kill him, but she was more interested in ending the conflict and helping Noca. She slowly looked down at the group of soldiers that remained standing and she began to advance on them.
Fear overcame the soldiers, and they all began firing erratically. It wasn't about the mission any longer, it was about self-preservation. Pan simply flared up her aura and advanced on them with such a speed that shot right through all the gunfire into the middle of the group, and she let out another explosive wave that knocked all of them back again, then she turned to their vehicles and fired two Ki blasts, destroying both, thus destroying their means of escape.
The soldiers returned to their feet and started to aim towards the girl again but with a terrifying death glare they all seemed to give in, and they dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. Pan had won the day, but that wasn't important to her. She turned to face where Noca was and she rushed over to him. As she did, her aura died down and she seemed to drop into regular old Super Saiyan, although it wasn't clear how much control she had over the form or how long she could hold it.
As the girl rushed to Noca, Sofia and Yaiko took that as their cue to finally escape the scene and get to safety. At the same time, one of the soldiers was feeling a little brave and reached for his weapon again, but he was suddenly smacked in the back of the head by something hard. He turned around to see Brie standing there with her pistols drawn. She smirked and winked down at the soldier and aimed at the rest of them.
Brie's attention was gripped by something else very quickly, however. It was the arrival of another fighter. For a moment Brie aimed her weapons at the person and realised she recognised them. It was the same person that helped them back at the HQ. It was Uub. He looked to Brie as she moved to keep her weapons tracked on the soldiers again. She threw down a capsule that revealed a sort of cage for the soldiers to file into, so they could be safely imprisoned until Brie had assistance from the rest of her team, but even she understood there was something far more important to be dealing with.
Uub noticed that Pan and Holline were in one place, sat beside Noca, who was in a really bad way. Uub moved quickly, definitely showing some sign of concern at Noca's condition.
"What happened?" Uub asked, rushing to the trio and looking to see that Noca had been impaled against the wall. Holline was struggling to hold back her tears as she held Noca's bloodied hand in her own, while Pan was still trying to compose herself after the explosive moment she had gone through. Uub looked to Pan, who was still a Super Saiyan and then back to Noca. "He's still alive?"
"Barely…" Holline muttered, "Could you have shown up earlier to help?" She questioned, definitely a small tone of anger in her voice. Uub cleared his throat and held his tongue.
"We could get him to our HQ," Brie said, bringing the attention to her, suddenly. Pan hadn't even been aware of her presence and was instantly defensive. But Brie held her hands up to show she had put her weapons away. Pan calmed down. "We have a great medical expert, but… it might take too long to get there."
"We need to do something!" Holline exclaimed. Pan quickly moved to the red head's side and placed her hands on the girl's shoulders.
"We will, Holline. We will. We just need to act quickly," Pan said. Uub sighed and shook his head as he moved towards Noca and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hold on to me," He instructed the three women. "I'll take him to the lookout, Dende will help," he elaborated. Holline kept her hand on Noca's hand but grabbed Uub's arm as well. Pan walked over and place a hand on Uub's shoulder and then motioned for Brie to take her hand. Brie glanced back at the imprisoned soldiers but saw they weren't going anywhere. She grabbed Pan's hand.
Uub look at Noca, seeing that he was unconscious and then he looked down at the injury.
"Sorry, Noca. This is going to hurt a lot."
There was a snap, and all five of them vanished from that spot, leaving behind a blood puddle and a team of twenty imprisoned soldiers. A silence fell upon the area.
Meanwhile, somewhere further along down the river, if you followed it through the valley, and down to a part where it became wide, and opened into an even bigger river, resting against some rocks was the nearly unconscious body of Joji. He just about had enough energy to shake and opened his eyes. He realised he was still in water and gripped the rock, pulling himself up and jumping the riverbank, rolling out on the grass.
"What a day…" He muttered, laying on his back. He stared up at the sky and could swear he saw something flying across it and falling. He sat up and followed the spec as the thing smashed through some rocks nearby. Joji jumped up and rushed over. He looked into the pile of rocks and saw that it was Shai, and he looked far worse for wear.
Joji dragged out Shai's body and carried him over his shoulders.
"We gotta get you back to HQ. We need to tell Omega what happened," Joji muttered to himself as he lifted up slowly and flew off into the distance, while carrying the lump that was Shai.
No matter what, you just can't keep them down for good.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, this was a moment I had been planning for a while and I like to think I did a good job with it. If you have anything you want to say don't hesitate to leave a review or drop me a PM, whether it be some positive feedback, or constructive criticism, I'm happy to hear from you. Thanks for reading, see you next time!