The Vicious Gods Wrath
Chapter 13: Practice Makes Perfect
1 Hour After Tech-Tech Invasion
"The occupation of the planet is complete, sir," Shisami reports with a kneel before his master, the grinning, satisfied hologram of Sorbet. "Both of the twins are in custody and kept under heavy medication as per your orders. They shall not wake until you deem it fit."
A laugh of controlled but clear glee escapes Sorbet's lips. "Excellent, soldier, truly excellent. As you know, I had a great many reservations about all of this, too many variables to account and most of which boding poorly. But you have, as always, gone above and beyond in service to the Empire. We have great things in store for you, Shisami."
The soldier notices the 'we' in his statement and remembers how Sorbet withheld something during the program offering. Leaving Shisami to wonder if his newly improved body and battle with the brothers is but the first step in a larger plan. Surely so, otherwise the two defectors would have lost their heads instead of requiring mandatory imprisonment. He decides to try his luck and find out who else he's referring to. "If I may ask sir, who is the second person you've planned this out with?"
Sorbet says nothing as he taps on a console from where he is at the moment, prompting the doors of the room to seal shut with a security scan examining every inch of it. No doubt to ensure nothing of what's to come. "I apologize, but what I'm about to tell you is the most guarded secret within the Organization. One which cannot become known to anyone but a select few, a group which you're the latest member of."
"I will hold my tongue on the matter, sir,"
"See that you do," Another voice suddenly appears from Sorbet's end though the person behind it has yet to appear. Not that he needs to, Shisami recognizes it instantly, how could he not? It belonged to the greatest warrior in the universe, the one to bring it all to heel under his iron fist. He is also dead, that much he is certain of. And yet... "Any leaks, even a slight slip of the tongue, will greatly displease me, something I am certain you won't dare to do."
Then he appears, Lord Freeza, vastly different looking than what Shisami and the rest of the universe know him to appear. Yet there is no mistaking the posture, the contracted red-eyes or that distinct voice. In sheer awe, he gawkes at the most powerful being in the universe, only recomposing himself hastily after a few moments.
"L-Lord Freeza!"
"The one and only," Freeza chuckles at this and with a subtle wave of his hand gestures for the brute to rise to his feet. Shisami complies. "And you are Shisami, yes? The most skilled warrior ever produced by my Empire and the first to survive the cyborg procedure. Your performance against the twins impressed me greatly, truly you've demonstrated the capabilities our cybernetic program will afford us in the future."
"T-thank you... my lord." He manages to stutter out.
"But truth be told, I've had my eye on you for quite a while. You've locked in more hours in the gravity chamber than any other soldier since they were introduced, you've reached higher mastery of the device than your peers and your desire for combat would put a Saiyan to shame. Not just anyone would subject themselves to a dangerous experiment to attain greater strength after all. It is for these reasons that I've chosen you as my sparring partner."
Shisami, nearly frozen in his place blinks once. "What?"
Freeza smirks grimly. "As I've said, I've chosen you for my sparring partner. For you see, I was the first in the Organization to employ the use the gravity machine for my own purposes, it and the power dampening fields were originally created for me. Unfortunately, the machine isn't as effective as it once was, my gains from training with it have lessened considerably. Now I've found myself in need of a strong fighter to aid me in my own training. You're the only one capable of this."
"Besides the twins, you mean?"
"If they survive the procedure, then yes, they will join us. But I will not mourn their loss should they die on the operating tables," A steely edge seeps into Freeza's previously casual voice. Not that Shisami can blame him for it, traitors were rumored to be the cause of his downfall over a decade prior. "But let us not waste time with ponderings of the future, for I require a worthy opponent now to take me to new heights, and a vessel presently waits to deliver you right to me."
"My lord," Shisami matches his true master's grin. "It will be my pleasure."
6 Months Later
Freeza clenches his jaw as he stands atop a 5 story tall glacier as he exchanges punches and kicks with Shisami, each one managing to crack the very old ice beneath their feet with the -30 temperature constantly assaulting their bodies. Yet they both ignore it, letting the adrenaline and their natural sturdiness deal with that as their attacks seemingly blink in and out of existence with each constant between them releasing shock waves throughout the area.
Shisami fires a mouth blast prompting Freeza to take to the sky, avoiding it before firing off a quick succession of death beams aimed at his sparring partner. Shisami, though not with the same easy, jumps out of their way and falls into the ocean with the crumbling glacier following him down. The tyrant glares at the sea beneath him eerily reminded of a similar situation he found himself before.
"I'll not fall for that again," As expected, two red orbs of energy fly out of the sea depths and charge right at him. Instead of standing there as he did on Namek. He puts as much distance between himself and the orbs as possible though Shisami still manages to nearly land a kick to his face from above, only missing it by inches. "A good effort but someone else beat you to it already."
He spins his whole body in the air and lands a kick to Shisami's gut, knocking him back a bit though he quickly regains his bearings and with his outstretched hand fires a charge a ball of Ki thrice the size of his own body and fires it at Freeza. Knowing it could end up disrupting the suppression field if simply swatted away, he instead forms his own attack of equal strength and size. The two balls collide, erupting in a brilliant explosion of light, canceling each other out.
Shisami doesn't waste a moment and charges towards his master head first through the still dissipating explosion. Freeza narrowly stops his attack by grappling his horns and proceeds to spin in the air, tossing Shisami into a nearby glacier after building up enough momentum. Not entirely pleased with the pace of today's training, the tyrant brings up his holo-computer and with a few button presses commands the nearby ship to send in the others just as Shisami emerges from the glacier.
"You'll be getting some assistance shortly, no use in letting perfectly good training partners go to waste after all."
Shisami casually cracks the various bones of his neck and fingers. "In all honesty, sir, I would greatly prefer they remain away. I do not appreciate them getting in my way during our practices."
"Better you start getting used to them sooner rather than later. The three of you will be my strongest lieutenants during a vital mission and you all dying due to an inability to cooperate would be a colossal waste," Freeza reminds him just as the two hear the sound barrier shatter above them, accompanied by a powerful gust of wind, the smirking twins appear in-between Freeza and Shisami, bowing before him respectfully.
"Lord Freeza! How may we, the Abo & Kado brothers serve you?" They declare in unison with their heads lowered.
"Same as last time, you are to fuse and attack me with Shisami," Freeza in the direction of his initial sparring partner floating opposite of him. Clearly, the two do not like Shisami any more than he likes them, judging by the glares they aim at the red giant.
"Do we have to Lord Freeza?" They ask in unison, still scowling at Shisami. "We don't like him very much at all, he tries to do everything by himself. No sense of teamwork at all!"
"Unlike you two buffoons I'm more than capable of handling matters myself, whereas neither of you could possibly compete with us without fusing," Shisami matches their glares, talking down to them like a teacher does to a pair of trouble making students. No doubt Shisami has some practice in doing so to other, younger scholars.
"There was a time I'd vaporize someone for questioning my orders, I really have gotten too nice for my own good," Freeza rubs the throbing temples of his skull, annoyed with himself almost as much as he is with them. "Enough! You'll do as I command whether you like it or not, now stop wasting time and get on with it!"
His yell sends shivers down the spines of the twins, prompting them to bow over and over in the sky. "Forgive us Lord Freeza!" Not wanting to incur his wrath once more, they get into their fusion position and after a bright, purple light envelops them, they emerge as the fused being Aka. Instantly, much of Freeza's annoyance vanishes, replaced by the eagerness of battle.
With all their auras flashing, his men charge at him. Freeza flies backward, managing to avoid and block all their punches and kicks. Not wanting to get caught in a tedious routine as before, Freeza elbows Aka in the face temporarily stunning him before firing some eye beams at Shisami, getting him to back off as well. Quickly wrapping his tail around Aka's throat, he uses him as a meat shield to intercept a kick from Shisami before blasting the red giant away with a Ki wave.
Stopping his brief struggling to break free of Freeza's grip, Aka instead charges his signature green Ki blast from the depths of his throat and into his mouth at the unsuspecting tyrant, engulfing his entire upper body in it, allowing himself to escape from the tail hold. Without delay Aka claps his hands together, forming a spiraling, green colored ball of energy and tosses it at his master with his cackling reverberating through the sky.
Dozens of disk-shaped, fire looking Ki blasts emerge from it most of which head towards Freeza while others scatter around the surrounding area. Shisami, once again picking himself up out of a crater looks upward and is shocked to find himself once again under attack. "Oh dear!" He quickly crouches in-place, extending both his arms outward and forms a protective bubble around himself which absorbs the attack.
Freeza, on the other hand, meets the attacks head on, flying towards the cackling Aka while swatting the blasts away with a quick flurry of hand jabs before driving his fist into the fused beings gut, sending a red fountain of blood to burst forth from Aka's mouth. The overlord follows this up with a quick uppercut then kicks him away to the side, right into Shisami at the precise moment he lowers his bubble shield defense.
"Get off me, you uneducated buffoon!" Shisami pushes the coughing Aka off him, clearly irritated not only by his reckless attack but the third time he's found himself buried in a glacier. "Amazing how one's fusion increases their power but not the number of brain cells, then again, I assume there must be some to multiply in the first place!"
"This coming from the guy who's spent more time playing in the snow than fighting," Sneers Aka and the two once again explode into a mutual barrage of verbal back and forth with the ever-present possibility of escalating into physical violence. And not of the productive sort Freeza engineered them for, either.
"This isn't working," Freeza looks on in disdain and irritants at his failing sparring partners, regretting the inclusion of the twins when he and Shisami operated perfectly with one another. Precisely the reason he wanted more extensive personality rewrites on the twins to ensure better obedience. Doctor Kafka warned against it, as it would only complicate and already deadly surgery, for the organic brain is used to transfer information such as memories and skills over to the new, mechanical one, even the slight alterations he made mantaroy made the good doctor practically break out in even harder, cold sweat during the operation.
Yet as he watches them bicker, an idea suddenly comes to mind to force them into working together, his lips form a pleased grin before he stretches his hand towards them. With his purple aura surrounding him, the tyrant's hand illuminates with the power gathering in it.
Down below, the two arguing soldiers stop their squabbling and look up to find Freeza accumulating a vast amount of energy. While Aka has not had the time to properly learn Ki sensing, Freeza can practically hear Shisami's nervous gulp of fear as he understands the magnitude of the attack just fine.
"He... he aims to kill us..." Blurts out the red giant, earning a fearful look from Aka.
"Correction," Freeza gleefully shouts back. "Unless you two pool your strongest attacks to stop my own, then I'll kill you. As they say, there's nothing that gets enemies working together quite like a life and death situation."
The two fall deathly ill as they gawk at Freeza's steadily increasing power, for a few moments, he suspects they'll still refuse to cooperate. But when the two exchange hesitant glances, he knows his little ploy is quickly tearing through their petty squabbling.
"We work this once just we don't croak, okay?"
"For once we find common ground!"
Aka opens his mouth as much as he can, forming a fiery Ki ball a few inches away from it while Shisami charges his own strongest blast in-between his horns. Both strain themselves to their limits, their bodies tense up with their veins popping out alongside their gathering power. Above them, the grinning Freeza, pleased with their mutual cooperation fires his own blast, yet holds back just enough to challenge them without letting the fear of death evaporate away.
The two soldiers fire their own attacks as well with Aka's ball intercepting Freeza's beam, holding it back until Shisami's own attack comes in from behind, pushing it forward against Freeza's. The area shakes in the wake of this clash, a red hue surrounds it with the clashing beams still struggling to overcome each other, only slightly budging back and forth.
Knowing of the suppression fields limitations and with his objective achieved, Freeza forms a small ball with his free hand and flings it into the beam clash, disrupting the three attacks resulting in an explosion. Quickly checking the suppression fields integrity via his holo-computer, the tyrant notices that explosion nearly broke it, requiring some time to re-charge itself before it can continue to function at maximum capacity. "I suppose a small break will suffice."
He appears before the two panting soldiers, for once fully pleased with the events of their three-man sparring session. "As you can see, your cooperation saved your lives. I expect you'll keep this in mind for the battle to come."
"A... battle... you've yet to... fully speak to us... about... my lord..." Points out Shisami in-between deep breaths while Aka defuses back into Abo and Kado next to him.
"We've... got a pretty good idea... what planet Lord Freeza... means..." The twins answer in unison, getting the attention of the red giant next to them.
"Why didn't you... say anything sooner then...?"
"You didn't ask."
Shisami shoots a glare at the panting twins, reminded of why he doesn't particularly care for them. Freeza meanwhile, has another idea for how to ensure their brief cooperation isn't just a one-time thing. "Its true, the twins have met the individuals I've been training to fight against. In fact, half the reason you three received your cybernetic enhancements is to aid me solely in that endeavor. Which is precisely why he will inform you on the matter."
The tyrant turns around, heading towards another section of the planet to engage in some increased gravity exercise. "If either of you start to squabble again, I will crush your skulls to dust with but a glance, I've invested far too much time and money for you all to undermine this for me."
Vanishing from their sight, the three soldiers awkwardly look at one another, rubbing the backs of theirs heads. "So..." Begins Shisami. "What are these fighters like?"
The twins give each other knowing glances. "Children, powerful children who can fuse like us!"
"Don't forget the green one with the spiky shoulders Abo," Interjects his brother. "That one looked strong too."
"Oh yeah, then there was Prince Vegeta too, I think one of the kids was his son."
The two continue speaking over each other, running down more of the fighters from a short bald man with a blast capable of carving through anything, to a fat old man with a shell on his back to an orange wearing fellow who can turn his hair blonde. Shisami merely stares at him, his blood boiling in gleeful anticipation for these strong fighters.
Elsewhere...
"Mmmmm, cookies..." Mutters a cat like being while slumbering atop his floating bed with a white pajama covering most of him from his neck to his knees. The being twists and turns in his bed, mumbling more of food and other delicacies. Then, his dream shifts to that of a black void with only himself and another person there floating in front of him.
This someone appears mostly human to him yet with black, spiky hair and a brown colored monkey tail coming from his behind. The cat looks at this shrouded figure with interest before a red aura of fire erupts from his body. The Saiyan unleashes a roar mightier than any Oozaru, causing the cat to take a step back before the fiery aura explodes outward, consuming everything in the void.
Outside in the dreaming world, the cat twists and turns in his bed more frequently even shooting small Ki blasts from his paws before finally calming down with pained breaths escaping his lips. "Super... Saiyan... God..." The cat mumbles once more before stretching his hands a bit and returning to the land of dreams.
Beerus makes his first appearance in the story, and you all know where this is going given the timeline as of this chapter ;)