Chapter 2: Gourmet's Blood Rubies

Age 749

"Get back to work you worthless maggot!" The guard screamed angrily as he stomped brutally on the back of Azure's unprotected head, driving his face into the mud. Azure stifled a growl and fought the urge to retaliate, knowing any show of resistance could prove disastrous to the current goal. He and Roshi had been in the village for three days now and Azure's patience had been worn thin on the very night he had arrived in the village.

Upon entering the village, Azure had detected three hostile presences in an alley a couple streets over. When he went to investigate he had found three of Gourmet's goons brutalizing a girl about Penny's age. At that moment Azure had realized a flaw in his plan. He had planned to take the villagers out of the village, but not how to weaken Gourmet's forces for when the inevitable battle began. Azure decided that in the dead of night, starting with these three, some of the nightly patrols would disappear.

The guard finally stopped stomping on Azure and allowed Azure to crawl back to his hands and knees. Azure was just about to push back up to his feet when a whip cracked across his back. "Stop playing in the mud, brat, and start mining those rubies!" A new guard screamed as he began whipping Azure tirelessly. Azure and Roshi had discovered that the guards would always be beating someone, their favorites to beat were the ones that tried to act tough, so Azure had been getting beaten since his first day in the pits. Roshi was playing the part of concerned grandfather and was kept out of the pits most days due to him being a "weak old man" who couldn't work the mines. This was done according to their plan, as Roshi would be in a better position to convince the villagers to flee, he also was able to keep a flare gun concealed on himself just in case they needed to push their time table. Azure had asked Tights to convince her friend Jaco to implement this particular measure, making it seem like it was his own "Super Elite" idea. Azure has tried to convince the Galactic Patrolman to spar with him before, but that has always ended with Jaco rushing away with some excuse or other.

The sun began to set, bringing an end to the work for the day and Roshi walked calmly into the pits to where Azure lay bleeding from the abuse he had absorbed that day. Azure was in a crouched position one knee hovering barely off the ground the other tucked against his shoulder. It looked as though Azure was about to stand, but Roshi could tell that the boy had lost consciousness at last. Even the villagers were appalled by the brutality the guards were showing Azure. It seemed that Azure alone was earning all of the punishment that would normally have been spread over the entire workforce, and then some. Roshi half carried half dragged Azure back to where they were staying while in the village and carefully cleaned and dressed his injuries. There were about three hundred and fifty villagers, over the last two nights they had managed to sneak twenty five of them out to Gyumao. Roshi just finished setting Azure to bed so the boy could recover when he heard a knock on his door. Roshi moved to answer it and let the three men inside.

"It's getting worse Master." The first man said. "They actually managed to knock him out this time. If this persists, they will kill him soon." Roshi nodded his head solemnly thinking back to what he had promised Bulma before they had left Frypan.

"His patience may not last that long." The second man said. "I saw it today, his whole body tensed when the first guard stopped him. The boy will snap in a couple days, at most." Again Roshi nodded.

"I agree." Roshi said softly. "We continue tonight as planned, gather the group that is leaving, but also spread the word quietly that we may have to make a mass exodus soon."

"What will the signal be?" The third asked.

"A flare. If Azure losses his cool, there will be no stopping him from tearing through the guards. And frankly I don't want to stop him. It is taking all of my discipline to keep myself back with what I am forced to witness. If I fire the flare, you villagers will have to leave together calmly and orderly. Some of our allies on the outside will join you and escort you to Pleasant Valley, where Mount Frypan once stood." The three men nodded as one and silently left the house to do their part for the night's activities. An hour later, Azure awoke and winced slightly as he got slowly out of bed. A quick glance out the window told him Roshi should still be busy getting the night's escapees out, he still had time to remove some of the patrols before Roshi's return.

The next morning, as Azure was entering the pit, he heard a group of guards cackling. Azure knew that Roshi was still watching him but that didn't stop him from turning to see what had the guards in such a good mood. They had one of the young women of the village cornered and were being blatantly obvious about their intentions. Azure's instincts told him that if he interfered there would be no returning to the subtle plan they had working right now, but he also knew that if he did nothing, she would be assaulted. Glancing apologetically at Roshi, Azure walked over to the six guards with the woman and grabbed two of them by the head and slammed them together. There was a stunned few seconds which had the entire village processing what had just happened. Azure quickly took down the four other guards and grabbed the woman and turned. A flare shot into the sky and exploded alerting the help on the outside that the plan had changed. The remaining guards did two things, most began firing at Azure, while some radioed that the villagers were rebelling. The villagers made a rapid, only slightly panicked retreat towards Roshi, who tossed aside the flare gun and directed the villagers to ten men he had prepared to help him smuggle everyone out. With the villagers now able to take care of getting themselves out, Roshi turned to where he had last seen Azure and couldn't find him at first. A series of explosions inside the pit told him where he had gone. Roshi turned from the pit and rushed to meet the advancing forces to hopefully halt their advance until Gyumao could arrive. Azure had told him a contingency plan and he had accepted it readily. Azure would first deal with any soldiers in and around the pit, then try to find Raven. Roshi would hold the line until Gyumao arrived then move to take out the Major. Gyumao, being ideal against large numbers and tanks, would handle most of the soldiers until the two secondary threats were dealt with, then the three of them would take Gourmet together if possible.

Azure rushed through the mines. He had close to fifty men chasing him. He had passed a dozen workers who had arrived before him and had directed them away from his path and pursers and had told them to leave the village. Azure arrived in a large chamber that was currently the end of the line, a dead end.

"Wrong turn you annoying rat!" One of the men chasing him called as the fifty men forced their way into the chamber. "Nowhere left to run." They leveled their guns at Azure who smirked and sped past them all. Once at their backs, and outside the chamber he called back.

"Maybe that was the plan!" Azure lit and tossed a single stick of dynamite into the group of men and ran back towards the exit. The chamber was filled with explosives so they would be able to eventually start tunneling again, but now he had used them to collapse the entire mine. Azure and the other workers had been slowly spreading the explosives across the entire mine system so that a single stick would light up the entire mine in a chain that would collapse most of the area that could be used as a battlefield. Azure was pushing himself to his absolute limit trying to stay ahead of the explosions that were singing his socks. Azure leapt for the exit as the charge right next to him detonated. Something impacted his left shoulder and he sprawled onto the ground, just barely able to watch as most of the village and its surrounding fields were riddled with explosions and became scarred with bloody trenches.

Roshi was standing before the approaching force, wondering how he would slow them down without expending all of his energy in a massive Kamehameha. Suddenly the ground around him began to shake and it was only his exceptional reflexes that allowed him to jump out of the way of the explosions that would have consumed him had he been any more distracted. Roshi landed and was able to watch as the ground was riddled with yet more explosions from the mines below. All of the tanks, and about half of the foot soldiers were wiped out as the ground collapsed on them.

"Nat bad for an on the fly plan huh?" Azure panted as he stepped up next to where Roshi stood. Gyumao arriving at about the same time.

"You just handled about half of this problem. Now it is reasonable for me to handle the rest all at once. We just need to funnel them." Roshi replied.

"That shouldn't be too hard, Master." Gyumao commented, pointing towards the enemy troops. "They seem to have a relatively straight path right for us, pretty smooth one too."

"That wasn't planned by the way." Azure gasped out. Roshi looked over at the younger of his companions. There was no way he was already that worn out. Roshi was about to ask what had happened when he saw something red sticking out of Azures left shoulder.

"You should fall back son." Roshi said to Azure. "You've been injured. Go help lead the villagers back to Pleasant Valley."

"No way. I just found a reason I have to stay." Azure was looking at the sky. The Major was on a floating platform flying high above the enemy troops. "Unless either of you can fly, I'm the only one who can get up there."

"Go, but be careful. Your left arm is hurt badly, any worse and the damage could be permanent." Roshi warned as Azure tossed the capsule that contained his hover board. As Azure mounted it and flew to meet the Major Roshi glanced at Gyumao before turning back to the approaching troops. "Step back Gyumao. I'm going to use the Kamehameha." Gyumao stepped back and watched as his Master's body suddenly expanded into his Muscle Form and took up a familiar position. "Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!" Roshi called as he thrust his palms forward and fired the same beam that had destroyed Mount Frypan. Above them Azure had seen the whole thing and smirked at the potential use of learning that technique. Gyumao stepped back up to Roshi's side as Roshi returned to his normal state. The two shared a glance before charging into the few remaining soldiers and then into the castle.

"An injured child is the best they could send to face me?" The Major snarled. "These rebels are worse off than I thought."

"Oh, I'm not just an injured child." Azure said boastfully. "I'm an incredibly injured child who is dangerously reckless." Azure then sped towards the large man and used a feint to trick the man into making a large swing for Azure's seemingly unprotected left shoulder. When Azure saw his feint had worked, he quickly rolled off his board and allowed it's fall recovery system to catch him before rapidly ascending and flipping to land a powerful double-palm strike to the Major's face, sending him stumbling backwards off his outdated hover device. Azure took a moment to recover as he watched the Major impact the ground and made sure he was not going to get back up. Azure had underestimated how much that maneuver would take out of him in his current state. "Guess I'm hurt worse than I thought." Azure mumbled as he flinched from another stab of pain shooting through his system. Azure began a slow flight into the castle, he still had to try to help against Gourmet after all.

à

The villagers reached the edge of their village without any trouble, but that was where their luck ended. Raven stood in the center of the gate, with ten soldiers blocking it, and her, from them.

"Trapped and abandoned. What will you bumpkins do now?" Raven purred as she casually inspected the pistol she held. The crowd of villagers began to murmur uncertainly when a shadow flashed across the crowd.

"Have no fear earthlings, for you are protected by me, the Super Elite Galactic Patrolman, Jaco!" Raven, the soldiers, and the villagers all turned to the source of the voice. There, standing atop one of the gateposts was a diminutive alien with a light blue face, purple skin, and big, yellow, insect-like eyes. The alien, called Jaco apparently, was standing with one leg bent slightly, his back turned to them, though he was looking over his left shoulder at them, and both arms raised in the air, his hands almost making the finger-pistol gesture, the left arm was raised slightly higher than the right. Unknown to them was that this was what Jaco referred to as the "Super Elite Pose" and that he would strike it whenever he deemed it relevant. Raven had seen enough and fired at the strange Jaco, spurring her men to do the same. Jaco used cleverness and some expert marksmanship with his blaster pistol to counter their number advantage. About two minutes after Jaco had appeared, Raven and her ten men were bound and unconscious. "Now then, if some of you would be so kind as to help me transport the prisoners, we should really get going." Jaco said to the stunned and very confused villagers.

à

"We're in trouble." Gyumao said softly between heaving breaths. Roshi had used more power than he had thought on that last Kamehameha and was running low after having tried two weaker ones to no effect against the elastic body of Gourmet's monstrous form.

"I know. If only I were a couple decades younger, I'd still have the energy to whoop this arrogant fool of a king." Roshi said as he tried to steady himself after his latest failed attempt.

"Maybe I can help?" Azure said, startling the older two with his sudden arrival. "I still have plenty of energy, it's just this stupid injury that's messing with me. If you tell me the basics of the Kamehameha, combined with my having seen it, I should be able to pull it off. I may overdo it, but better that then it not working." Roshi considered this then relented.

"Basically put, it's just gathering all the latent energy in your body, focusing it into the palm of your hands, than releasing it all at once in the form of a massive beam. I'm not sure if just knowing that will be enough for you to learn it though. It took me fifty years to create the Kamehameha wave." Roshi paused for a moment. "Then again I did just see Goku pick it up that easily so maybe it will be enough."

Azure nodded and focused on doing what was instructed. "You two distract him as much as you can while I charge this. Don't do anything too reckless though, I don't know what you two have left." The pair nodded and charged in to engage Gyumao while Azure forced his body to move how he had seen Roshi do earlier. "Ka…" Gyumao tackled Gourmet causing the purple monster to stumble back a few steps before batting Gyumao away with a massive right uppercut. "Me…." Roshi dropped in from above, attempting to cross-chop the back of Gourmet's neck, but simply bounced off the blubbery body of the mutated king. "Ha….." Gyumao was back on his feet and charged again, this time he readied his ax to try to chop into Gourmet's head, Roshi recovered in the air and kicked off the wall rushing back in to deliver a flying kick to the back of Gourmet's head. Azure's left arm burned as the thing embedded in his shoulder shifted as he slid his foot forward. "Me…" Gourmet knocked Gyumao's ax spinning into the air where it stuck into the stone celling, then grabbed Gyumao's extended arm and delivered a shoulder toss that sent Gyumao flying into Roshi and them both crashing into the wall Roshi had just kicked off of. Azure felt something was wrong with the power in his hands, he had botched the wave somehow, but he could work with this. Azure rushed forward and jumped. As he got right next to Gourmet's head, Gourmet turned and closed his mouth around Azure in an attempt to swallow him. "HA!" Azure screamed and released the botched attack. The energy exploded violently in all directions, but was mostly contained since he had been inside Gourmet's annoyingly durable body. Azure was blasted from Gourmet's mouth by the force of the explosion and crashed through the far wall, and the wall after that.

By the time Azure stubbornly made it to his feet, Gyumao and Roshi were already approaching, followed by Tights. Azure grinned as they ran up to him. "I win." He gasped out.

"You are an idiot Azure." Tights said without a hint of hesitance. "If I had known what you were planning to do here I would have stopped you before you ever got into this village." Azure however reached over his left shoulder and pulled. He revealed a bloodied ruby that had been embedded in his shoulder.

"Look sis, a McGuffin and title for the novelization of what happened here that you're gonna write. A Blood Ruby." Azure sassed before promptly passing out. Azure next woke up inside a strange tank looking through the liquid and the glass he could see his parents and Tights standing beside a Capsule Corp. Employee he recognized as Gina. Gina had helped raise him and had also trained him in the basics of medicine, engineering and martial arts when he first displayed an interest in those fields. The fluid drained after the people outside noticed he was awake. After the fluid was drained the glass opened and Azure was able to climb out.

"Amazing. He was only in there for four hours, yet he seems to be completely restored." Doctor Briefs exclaimed. "Gina, you really have out done yourself this time."

"Maybe, but that still doesn't mean the hospitals will allow me to install these, since I won't share the formula for the fluid." Gina said, annoyance clear in her voice. Gina was a rather tiny woman, but Azure knew she was still stronger than he was, by far. Gina had dark brown, almost black, hair and her eyes were as black as charcoal. "Anyway, I'm just glad you trusted me to put Azure in here. I'm not sure we could have fixed that left arm otherwise." Gina said gently to the Briefs before rounding on Azure. "And YOU! You should know better than to just yank things out of your own back like that, you can't get the proper leverage or angle to ensure you don't do any further damage!" Azure stared at his feet, he viewed Gina as a sort of second mom, so having her berate him was sobering. It was when he looked down however that he realized he was standing in a room full of people quite naked. He glanced around and saw it was only his family, minus Bulma, Gina, Roshi, and Gyumao, so he was able to shrug off any embarrassment he might have felt otherwise. "Now go get dressed then we can make sure you're really back to one hundred percent, the machine says you are, but we should still make sure." Gina added softer. Azure did as he was told and after some simple exercises he was released from the temporary med bay that was in Pleasant Valley. As he stepped outside Azure spotted Roshi sitting in a chair smoking his pipe. Roshi had left shortly after Azure had begun his exercises so Azure had decided to track him down to ask about what had happened with the Kamehameha. As he approached however he noticed Bulma marching up to Roshi, fire in her eyes.

"Letch! You told me Azure would catch up to me!" Bulma screamed as she stopped right in front of Roshi. "You!" Azure walked up and poked Bulma in the center of her back, interrupting her tirade. "Azure! You're okay!"

"Of course I am, why must you always sound so surprised by that?" Azure mock pouted. "Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't get to catch back up with you. This whole thing took a little longer than I expected is all. Honestly." Bulma didn't look like she believed him but let the subject drop.

"Fine. But you are going to make it up to me by letting me borrow your Hover Board whenever I want now. And I'm going to get the full story from Tights." Bulma said ending the argument.

"How about I just make you your own hover board instead? That way you don't need to take mine. As for Tights, well she may not tell you what happened. I think she plans on writing a book about it, if the others don't mind." Bulma huffed and stormed away leaving a chuckling Azure and Roshi alone. "So I have a couple questions about my Kamehameha." Azure admitted as he turned his focus to Roshi.

"I figured you would. You will have to tell me what happened as I didn't see it myself. But that can wait. I have talked to your parents and they have agreed to let you come stay on my island to train if you want to. You would be there until the next Tenkaichi Budokai, at least."

"Sounds great. I was thinking about asking for training anyway. I have been looking for a master since the last one. Though I suppose I could have asked Gina to train me some more." Azure stated before agreeing to train with Roshi. He went to talk to his parents and sisters before leaving, as well as thanking those who had answered his summons for aid. Mrs. Briefs pulled out a capsule and revealed it to be the Jet Azure had been working on before he left. She had finished it for him and he was grateful since Roshi had just admitted he had no way to get them back without calling Baby Gamera, the spinning flying turtle Azure had thought he had hallucinated before. Roshi and Azure got into the two person jet and took off.

~A/N~

I do not own Dragon Ball in any format.

So Azure is of to train with Roshi. Lets see how this affects the coming tournament. After all, this would not be Azure's first appearance in one.

As usual, I appreciate feedback in any form you choose to give it. See you next chapter!