The Vicious Gods Wrath
Chapter 18: War Fronts Part 2
West City
"Run!"
"They're right behind us!"
"Where's mister Satan?!"
These are but a few of the many screams unleashed from a group of over 30 fleeing civilians as they run with all the speed their feet can muster as a group of cackling PTOs pursue them like a swarm of vicious hornets in the sky. Their maniacal laughs and frightening abilities only giving further incentive to run faster for the scared citizens. But their meager speed is not enough, and soon the enemy catches up with them.
These hunters savor their easy prey, slowly and deliberately they charge their blasts of ki with the energy pulsating around the open palms of their hands. The gathered energies convulse and in the next few moments, the Empire soldiers expect to find this group of Earthling's incinerated to ash. Yet, second's fraction before the beams leave the palms, their hands wildly and without reason, violently jerk in other direction, causing the troopers to cut down their own men instead.
"What in the name of the great God was that-" The soldier's curse, like the man speaking it, dies unspoken as a white, blur brings down the full brunt of it's figure on top of the man's neck like a guillotine. The troopers whole body comes crashing down with a sickening crunching noise into the street below. His comrades finally see the one responsible and their mouths promptly hang open in disbelief. A child, sickly white with red blotches on his cheeks floats there, unafraid of them if his determined look is anything to go by.
They open fire on the tiny Earthling before them and only a single raised finger comes as a response from their enemy. But it might as well have been a powerful gust of wind, for several nearby pieces of large debris and destroyed cars are flung at the beams via the boy's telekinetic power. A blue hue surrounds the boy's body and the PTO men find themselves completely frozen in mid-air.
The Earth warrior brings his fingers closer together, causing the five aliens to suddenly smash into one another, awkwardly forming a ball of sorts composed of their own bodies. A gargled noise of strained grunts, curses, and growls comes from the tangled mess of bodies. With another flick, the ball levitates to the child who grins mischievously at them, tilting his leg back. Moments later, they're adrift in the cold vacuum of space, such is the speed of the boys blow, and so they float and one by one, dislodge from one another, gasping for air to no avail.
Back on the ground, Chiaotzu tries to sense the state of the trooper's he's just launched away from the planet, yet try as he might, he can't feel a thing outside the city limits. He can't feel Master Roshi or Gohan or Goten or Trunks or anything but everyone fighting in West City, friend, and foe. Something about this makes him feel very uneasy...
The murmurs of the civilians he's just saved bring his attention back to the matter at hand. Turning around, he notices them staring at him some in awe, others in fear.
"It's okay folks," He raises his hands diplomatically. "I know what I just did looked... Weird to you, but I'm here to help."
"Weird?" An older gentlemen echoes, one of the few not too surprised by this display. "Son, the whole world's been nothing but weird for years now. Seeing a kid do... that ain't exactly gonna send me over the edge."
"Speak for yourself!" A frightened woman speaks up next. "How do we know he's not one of these... aliens trying to trick us into letting our guards down."
"If the kid wanted to kill us he sure as heck would've done it already. You already forget what he just did?" The woman scowls at him but remains silent. "Sides, I recognize him from when a couple aliens crashed in East City. He and a bunch of others went to fight em before all the reporters got killed."
At least, someone remembers that. Chiaotzu is thankful that Mister Satan didn't, by some miracle, take the credit for that as well. "The mister over there is right. Me and my friends are trying to stop this invasion too, but we can't fight freely until everyone else is out of the city. We've set up an evacuation spot nearby, my friend here's going to help you get there safely."
Their brief calm is shattered when a sudden explosion happening on the 10th floor of nearby buildings almost sends them scattering in dozens of different directions. Knowing that would only complicate matters, Chiaotzu uses his telekinesis to freeza the group and swiftly lift them to safety.
Three beings emerge from the smoking building top, two immediately recognized as invaders by everyone given their peculiar looking armor with the third distinctly human. Descending towards the ground, the human elbows one of the soldiers behind him, knocking two of his tusks out before spinning around to palm strike the other one right through a building. Reaching the ground, the human lands on his feet while the remaining alien falls on his head, yelping in pain and still clenching his bleeding mouth. The human casually kicks him in the head, silencing him and walks up to Chiaotzu.
Upon getting a closer look at him, the gathered civilians notice his third eye and most consider running again. Taking a moment to examine the group of people gathered, the three-eyed man places his hand on Chiaotzu's head and smiles. "You've done a good job finding these people, old friend. I'll escort them to Bulma, as for you, go deeper into the city and check for any stragglers left out there."
"Will do!" Chiatzo salutes Tien. "Follow my friend here and he'll get you to safety in no time. And don't worry, he might look scary but trust me, he's one of the good guys."
They reluctantly nod, still feeling unsure about both him given their suspicious looks, still, when Tien levitates off the ground, they don't hesitate to follow him. Chiaozu flies off as well in the opposite direction, hoping to find any stragglers left unaccounted for.
Flying trough several abandoned blocks, Chiaotzu cannot help but feel a sense of foreboding loneliness along the way despite knowing full well that many are still trapped in this war-zone of a city. While far from the first, not the first time he's fought alien invaders, they've never fought in such a populated area where civilians are constantly in danger. Always it happened once the damage was already done or far away from it, but that luxury is not afforded to them this time.
An explosion going off nearby catches the boys attention with a pair of familiar ki signatures he recognizes as belonging to Yamcha and Krillin respectively. Quickening the speed of his flight, he arrives to find both of his friends fighting in mid-air against two squads of PTO soldiers, four a piece. Beneath them, he spots a large gathering of children hiding behind a few destroyed, smoking cars.
One of the soldiers tries to take Krillin from the back, Chiaotzu puts a stop to it with a swift Dodon Ray, carving a football-sized, smoking hole through the invader's chest. A sole gasp of pain and misery escapes his lips before Chiaotzu puts an end to him, delivering a spine shattering kick to his neck, breaking it instantly. The three Earth warriors dispatch the rest of the enemy with the same relative ease in mere moments.
"Y'know, even with everything going to hell around us, it's nice to to feel useful in this kind of stuff for once." Says Yamcha.
"I'd feel better about it if our necks were only one's in danger," Krillin answers, sighing in relief at the children still patiently waiting for them down below. "We've been looking for you guys for a while now."
"Sorry about leaving you guys back when all this started, but Tien figured they'd hit the stadium with so many people there. Which they did," A cold shiver runs down his spine at the memory of the burning building and the countless people lost inside of it. "But we're doing better now! Bulma's setup an evacuation place with Yajirobe, they're handing out capsules with cars, trucks, anything that'll get people out faster."
Yamcha grins wolfishly. "I wonder if Bulma's killed Yajirobe yet. You just know he's gonna be whinning through it all. Where'd they set this up?"
"Just a few blocks away from here," Chiaotzu points to the east. "It shouldn't take us more than a few minutes to get there, especially if Tien's drawing all the aliens attention."
"Sounds good, let me just calm these kids down a little and we'll move out." Krillin floats over to the car behind the children and bus driver hide behind to inform them of the news, earning pleased smiles on their relieved faces. "Okay, let's go!"
Both Chiaotzu and Yamcha nod with the latter heading to the end of the line while the former flies upward to give them some areal cover from any more nasty surprises most assuredly lying in wait for them.
Meanwhile
"There, there, just a little bit further." Bulma gently tells an elderly woman clinging to her hand while she and her granddaughter help her onto one of Bulma's Capsule Corp buses. A slow endeavor due to the grandmothers hunched back and her blindness causing her to jab everything close by with her cane and walk forward with constant trepidation. All around them, similar sights can be found all throughout. Civilians climbing into all of the various vehicles both theirs and Bulma's given to them from the many capsules she keeps on her person. From motorcycles to cars to trucks to even a couple planes, in a situation like this anything that will help the citizens get out faster and safer is welcome to them.
"A-are... are we there yet..?" The woman asks in her old, tender voice as Bulma and her granddaughter gently lead her into the back of the truck where over a dozen other people are sitting in, waiting to move out of the city. She takes a step on a small pair of iron stairs dangling off the entrance and immediately freezes in place. "W-why is the ground shaking...?"
"It's just the trucks engine grandma." Her granddaughter warmly assures her. Getting a nod from her, the grandmother climbs slowly into the truck, clenching her cane tightly and taking a seat next to a family of four huddled together. Her granddaughter is the last one on board, sitting near her grandmother, she shakes Bulma's hand.
"Thank you for everything Miss Briefs, we never would've gotten out of here without your capsules."
"Don't mention it." Bulma gives the much younger woman a warm smile. "Just stay safe and whatever you do, don't come back here for anything. Understood?"
"Understood."
Moving up to the driver's seat, Bulma finds a perpetually sulking Yajirobe sitting there, holding the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles are turning white. "Can I finally leave?"
"Yes, you can go," She sighs in mix of exasperation and relief. Ever since the attack started, Yajirobe has consistently complained or made it a point to voice just how right he was for predicting this. If he wasn't so quick on his feet with regards to getting people to the vehicles, Bulma would've cut him down with his own sword. "Remember, you're leading these people to safety, so don't drive out of here like a psycho and crash, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah..." He grumbles and promptly begins driving off with several other vehicles from cars to trucks to motorcycles following suit, the latest of a few caravans already sent away from here. A small portion of the populace, but it's something and with the Dragon Ball's, any loss of life here is sure to be temporary at best. She reaches into her pocket and finds a single capsule left.
"Better make this one count," She tosses it and to her relief, finds another truck inside, one capable of carrying several dozen more people inside. With it and the two busses left, quite a few people will hopefully get out of her in one piece. "Okay, everyone, time to get inside-"
The cracking of the ground dangerously close to their location cuts her off and sends the somewhat orderly people waiting around into a panic. Glancing at the source of the disturbance, Bulma notices the foundations of the building crumble to pieces, leaving about 20 stories worth of metal, glass, and concrete to slowly come crashing down on their heads like a lethal domino.
"Come on!" She yells to the advancing horde. "Get inside, get inside now before it comes down on us!"
The creaking of the crumbling structure halts when out of nowhere, Bulma spots Tien Shinhan holding the upper section of it at bay by pressing his back against it.
"Hurry it up!" He yells out to her. "They'll be here any second-"
Flying around and over the skyscraper, two dozen PTO soldiers hover in the air in front of Tien and unleash a barrage of ki blasts at him. Bulma can do nothing but watch helplessly as his entire body becomes overwhelmed in ki blasts, explosions and a massive cloud of smoke. Their assault knocks chunks off the falling building, sending massive slabs of rock hurtling down towards the fleeing people.
"TRI-BEAM! HHHHHHAAAAAAA!"
Through the smoke and barrage of attacks, Tien's voice reverberates like the roar of a mighty lion when a blast of his own, far more powerful and wider in scope, erupts from the palms of his hands, engulfing the suddenly screaming invaders in the wave of ki. A moment later, there's little left of them but tiny pieces of charred armor and flesh carried away by the wind. It's only then that Bulma notices an extra pair of arms growing out of Tien's back, holding the building up while his usual hands form a distinct diamond shape.
The gathered crowd bursts into cheers and relieved sighs, both of which Bulma finds herself swept up in, very grateful for her old friend's timely intervention.
"Bulma!" Hearing another familiar face coming, Bulma turns her attention to the street and spots Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Krillin escorting a class of kids. Just when the latter two arrive, she grabs them in one-armed bear hugs.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," She squeezes harder, managing to make both Yamcha and Krillin gasp for air. She let's go. "Are you guys okay?"
"Oh yeah..." Yamcha pounds at his chest for air. "Its just been a while... since I did this kind of stuff..."
"You mean these?" Krillin points to the wounds on his head. "This is nothing, just some scratch marks."
Tien lands next to them. "Are the transports still getting out safely?"
"Surprisingly yeah. In fact, this is the first attack we've gotten since you two left to scout out the city."
"Yeah, we're fine Tien," Yamcha speaks up, his words oozing with sarcasm. "Thanks for asking. Your concerns really touching."
"Please, I knew you guys were fine." The three-eyed fighter smirks with a cockiness that could rival her husband's. "We might not be punching out Beerus anytime soon, but I know we can handle this rabble easily enough."
"You'd think after Gohan took out Freeza like a chump during his wedding stunt they'd wise up to not mess with our planet anymore," Krillin musses when he suddenly comes to a conclusion she hadn't even thought of until now. "Wait a minute... where is Gohan? Or Goten? Or Trunks? Or even Mister Buu?"
This realization hits Tien and Yamcha as well while Chiaotzu doesn't seem quite as surprised by their absence.
"You think there's more of these guys attacking other city's?" Yamcha asks.
"If they were fighting we'd have sensed them," Tien states matter of factly. "And yet... I can't sense anything outside the city. It's like there's... nothing left out there but us..."
"I thought I was the only one..." Chiaotzu speaks up and all of this suddenly sends an eerie chill down Bulma's spine. She knows the boys can handle anything, especially with Gohan there to take care of them. And yet... Something doesn't feel right...
Unbeknownst to the gathered warriors of Earth, a PTO soldier observes them from afar, hiding in one of the many ruined buildings nearby and concealing his ki signature to avoid detection. Using the zoom feature of his scouter, he reads their lips as per his training and has been listening to their conversation since it started. That's when he sees an incoming call from his master.
"Lord Sorbet."
"Trooper, how fares the siege of West City?"
"All according to plan master. Our forces have used the weak humans to wear down the enemy, even with their superior strength, they are most definitely not at their full power anymore."
"Very good," Master Sorbet states with grim satisfaction. "Contact what forces remain in the city and execute the F-Protocol. I want those Earthlings dead at your feet for when the real fighters show up."
"As you wish my Lord, we will not fail you." Ending communications with Sorbet, the scout checks the status of others via his gauntlet mounted holo-computer, managing to see their brainwave and heart rates through small emitters placed inside the scouters and in the armor. "120 left, less than I hoped for but it will do regardless."
Patching into their scouters, the trooper addresses them all at once. "Men! The time has come for Phase 2 of the attack! Converge on my position at once and prepare to execute the F-protocol, do not engage the enemy or provoke a single one of them before it is completed."
"Understood, sir!" All 120 state in unison, causing the trooper to wince in pain from listening to over a hundred loud, unanimous shouts. He zooms in on the group once more and sees that they're thankfully sticking together, for now, helping people onto the evacuation vehicles. His comrades quickly join him in the air above the evac zone, filling up the skies and though making no effort to attack anyone below.
"Heads up guys! We've got company!" Yamcha points at the small army assembled above them. He and his fellow warriors, minus Krillin, immediately go the back of the crowd of civilians, getting in their fighting poses while Bulma helps the last of the citizens onto the trucks.
"Bulma," Krillin addresses his friend after helping the last of the boys up onto the bus, his eyes never moving away from the PTOs. "We've gotten as many people out of here as we're going to which means we're going all out now. So just take everyone you can and run. Run as fast as you can and do not come back here under any circumstances, understood?"
Despite wanting with every fiber of her being to protest against this and stay behind to help, she knows she'll be of little use to them now. Accepting that her priorities lie with getting the last of the refugees she simply nods and runs to the drivers eat.
"Move out everyone!" The other vehicles oblige immediately, quickly they move out of the city not wanting to get in whatever madness is about to happen next. Bulma's is the last one to go with her taking a last glance from her rear view mirror at her friends as they prepare to battle what's left of the invading army. "Good luck everyone." She silently tells them before reving the trucks engine and driving away as fast as the vehicle will allow her, not wasting a moment to look back.
Krillin jumps into the air, landing in-between Yamcha and Chiaotzu before entering his fighting pose as well. To his and the others surprise, the enemy makes no attempt to attack. "They're just... standing there..."
"Yeah... And that bothers me..." Tien admits, his voice uncharacteristically cracking with fear.
"Soldiers!" One of the PTOs speaks up loudly enough for his voice to echoes several blocks throughout the abandoned West City. "Begin the F-protocol!"
"Sir, yes sir!" They once again declare in unison before positioning themselves a couple of feet apart from each other, every single one of them seemingly picking a partner of similar height. Earth's fighters look at them, not sure what they mean to do when they start performing a hauntingly familiar set of motions with their hands.
"Fffffuuuu..." Their knees get bent upward with their arms moving quickly to join together "Sssssuuuuuioooonnnnn..."
"Th-that can't be..." Chiaotzu mutters, frozen along with his friends as they realize the truth behind this F-protocol.
"D-damn it! Don't let them finish the dance!" Tien yells out to the others, snapping them out of their shock induced trances and together, they all fire several ki blasts at the PTOs, hoping to at the very least to kill some of them to even out the odds. But it is too late, for the 120 soldiers fingers join together and with a final yell. "Hhhhhaaaaaa!" Their bodies are enveloped into bright lights, blinding lights and from them, emerge 60 new fighters, all far more powerful than the sum of their parts and all of them ready more than capable of posing a true threat now.
Easily, these new fused beings dispel their enemies ki blasts and cackle confidently. "Take them down!" The leader, now fused with another one of his comrades orders them, knowing full well that their new and improved forms are but temporary. With their auras flaring up, the alien invaders descend on their enemies and immediately turn the tide in their favor. Before any of the Earthlings can react, half of the PTOs appear behind them and promptly go for the weakest of them: Yamcha and Chiaotzu.
While the scar-faced baseball player manages to somewhat hold his own, blocking or dodging some of their blows, the boy is not so lucky. Like a soccer ball, they kick him in-between each other, amused by his screams of pain as he's helpless to defend himself.
"Chiaotzu!" Yells Tien, reaching out to his friend before receiving rib cracking kick to his chest. The three-eyed fighter is sent rolling on the ground with five of them coming at him. Once more, he grows an extra pair of arms to give himself a better offense and defense, managing to hold their combined assault though still not being able to break free and help his friend.
Krillin, in comparison, manages to hold his own. Dancing around the fused soldiers attacks though failing to mount any kind of effective counter attack. Grabbing one of them by the leg, the bald monk uses him to smack four others away before cupping his hands together. "Ka... Me... Ha... Me... HA!"
His blue blast rushes at one of the soldiers performing his soccer routine on Chiaotzu, sending him flying right into another. The last of them, now pinning down Chiaotzu's head into the ground lets his guard down and begins charging his own blast at the monk for revenge. A costly mistake as the boy underneath his boot takes advantage of his lowered guard and fires a Dodon Ray clean through his skull. The fused soldier merely lets out a final pained gasp before defusing and falling down on the ground.
"You okay?" Krillin lands next to Chiaotzu, giving the weakest of their group some breathing room to recover.
"Y-yeah..." The boy replies in-between coughs, his head still spinning after so many blows landing on it.
Elsewhere, Yamcha finds himself in a similar situation, his many years of slacking off finally catching up to him as he finds himself pinned against a wall. Only able to block or narrowly avoid some of their blows though more hit the mark than not. A powerful uppercut to his gut quickly puts an end to his little resistance, sending him kneeling on the ground with blood gushing out of his throat.
Grabbing him by the hair, one of the PTOs smirks as he repeatedly punches the baseball player in the face. Seeing that he's done for, the soldier flings Yamcha into the air, then spin kicks him right through an entire building, sending him crashing into the street on the other side. Floating over to the smoking crater where the Earthling lies in, they land near his corpse and casually start kicking it to see if he's still breathing. Not a peep comes out of him despite the blows, letting them know that he truly is dead.
"Well, that was disappointing." States one of them. "I was hoping we'd get to test out this fusion thing a little more."
They all take their eyes off Yamcha's corpse, exchanging similar glances of disappointment. "Well, the other ones are still alive I think, we can do that on those guys-" A sudden yet strong pain silences the soldier as he falls on his knees, clenching his aching throat after receiving a quick jab to it from playing dead Yamcha. Before the others can react, the former scar-faced bandit charges a pair ki blasts in each hand and rams them into the faces of the enemy, blasting them away.
"Sorry... But I'm not dying... that easily... " Yamcha coughs the words out. Wounded yet still confident, he chuckles at the furious scowls sent his way from the remaining enemies before he takes off into the air, crashes through the glass of a building and lands next to Krillin and Chiaotzu, the remaining five enemies hot on his heels. "Krillin! Do your thing!"
Getting the bald monks attention, Krillin sees the five of them lined up fairly close to one another and quickly gathers the energy he needs in the palm of his hand. Shaping it into the form of a disk, he takes aim and with a mighty yell "Destructo Disk!" fires it Yamcha's pursuers who're still inside the building. His attack slices through them like a knife through better, cutting three of them right through the torso and hacking the remaining twos right and left arms respectively.
Knowing that their powers have faded considerably due to the loss of their limbs, Yamcha musters what strength he has and runs back into the building. "Wolf Fang Fist!" He unleashes a powerful series of quick jabs and palm strikes to both of the surviving aliens, hitting them as hard possible before knocking them out could with a single roundhouse kick to both their heads at once. He immediately crumbles to his knees, his breathing deep and pained. "That was... too close..."
On the opposite end of the street, Tien's stalemate with the enemy continues with three of them attacking him from the front and two from the back. It takes all his skill and concentration to manage an attack from five opponents at once, especially two right behind him but for a time he holds his own, not giving them an inch. That is, until the pair behind him takes hold of his extra back arms, holding them down too tightly for him to escape.
With some faint yet sinister chuckles, the duos auras flare up as the two quickly and brutally rip out the Earthlings arms right out of his back. Tien doesn't react immediately, the pain takes a moment to completely register for him in the heat of battle. His jaw clenches so tightly a faint voice of reason urges him to scream instead of breaking his own teeth. Yet the warrior does not relent, instead, with a silent, animal-like growl slips through before he pulls back his head and head-butts one of the three at the front with all his might.
A seething anger takes hold of him though his exterior remains stone cold as he fires off a beam through his third eye, blinding the second at the front while he catches the third one by the throat. Without a moment's hesitation or mercy, he snaps his neck with a single hand before grabbing the remaining one by the head and smashing it into the ground. The ones responsible for taking his extra arms back away from their opponent, discarding his torn off limbs to the ground as Tien slowly turns around to face them. Cracking the bones in his neck and simply tells them. "Die."
Putting his hands together into a diamond shape, the veins in his head and all throughout his body pop out with his rising ki as he takes aim and fires off his most powerful attack. "Neo Tri-Beam! HHHHAAAA!"An even wider, more powerful beam of yellow ki engulfs the two of them, though as he did to their comrades before, the end result is the same. They are both completely vaporized out of existence.
The adrenaline rush and anger soon leave him, causing the warrior to fall to his knees, panting heavily as he can feel the blood trickling down his back from the giant holes in it. To his relief, the others join back up with them though with the exception of Krillin, none of them are in particularly good shape. Yamcha struggles to both stand and breathes given his faintly shaking legs and raspy breathing. Chiaotzu can barely keep himself from passing out, his eyes struggling to stay open.
"This is... not good..." He tells the others before pushing himself back up. The PTO soldiers once again take to the sky, this time forming a circle of sorts all around the Earths fighters. With their auras flaring up, the cup their hands together and ready their various most powerful attacks, no doubt to finish off their weakened adversaries.
"At least, we got... Bulma and the people... out of here..." Yamcha speaks up with a chuckle, hoping to find some comfort in this dire situation.
"Then we've got no reason to hold back," Krillin tells him before raising his hand back up into the air, charging his ki into the largest Destructo Disk he can make. The others understand his intention and prepare their own attacks as well. Tien once more puts his hands into a diamond shape, his whole body tensing up under the strain of his increasing power. Yamcha forms a massive ball of yellow ki with small electric bursts in the palm of his hand, growling as he struggles to put every last ounce of power he has into it. Chiaotzu folds his arms with his index fingers stretched out as small lights of Ki gather into them.
The Earthlings auras increase, forming a larger white one just as the PTOs various once join together with their rising power. Everything in their vicinity starts shaking violently as if the strongest Earthquake ever to hit the planet is happening beneath them. Large chunks of the ground and buildings float up into the air, the ruined cars around them are crushed by their sheer power and glass all throughout the buildings shatters.
Noticing that their powers have all tapped out as much as they're going to the Earthlings ready themselves for the no doubt devastating joint attacks of their enemy. Without warning, Chiaotzu makes his move but to the shock of everyone, he instead dispels the ki gathered in his fingers and flies a couple of feet above his comrades. "Guys, close your eyes now!" His hands go to the center of his face, each of his fingers spread out to his eyes and immediately, they recognize the technique. "SOLAR FLARE!"
A powerful and all consuming bright, white light erupts from the boy, engulfing everyone in the surrounding area in it and rendering all but his allies blind and dazed. Knowing that the enemy will fire soon regardless, the other fighters finish charging their attacks and together, fire them all.
"DESTRUCTO DISK!"
"SUPER SPIRIT BALL!"
"NEO TRI-BEAM!"
Outskirts of West City
"Come on, come on, pick up already... " Mutters Bulma as she tries to call Gohan's home to find out what exactly is keeping him and the boys away from assisting here. Yet every time she tries, she gets absolutely no connection. "Okay, maybe my folks." She dials up her parents back at Capsule Corp HQ and as with Gohan, nothing. She tries Chi-Chi, nothing, any number she tries to call, nothing.
"This must be their handy work," She concludes while flinging the phone out of the truck, growing even more furious at her predicament and the aliens. "They must've done something to the phones lines here. But still, someone would've noticed all this happening. Maybe an EMP to cause a planet-wide blackout? No, then the others would've sensed the guys fighting here."
Far to her left on the opposite end of the ocean where a similar cliff-side is located, she sees explosions going off in the distance, no doubt caused by Piccolo, 17 and 18s fight going on there if Tien's statement is to be believed. As she glances over at it, once again she feels like an idiot for not creating some way to warn the planet of alien threats before they happen, fully setting her mind to work on such a project once they deal with these invaders.
"Hey look! What's that light in the city?" She looks over to a bright, white light suddenly appearing where the evacuation zone one, no doubt caused by her friends battling with the enemy. She and all the gathered humans who are able to stare at it, slowing down their pace and hoping that the defenders responsible for rescuing them are doing well.
Yet their hopes are dashed as an even great, far more destructive light suddenly bursts from the evacuation zone. An ungodly gust of wind comes rushing in all directions from the ball of light, ripping trees from their roots, sending the ocean reeling back and nearly causing the entire caravan to either flying into the air at worst or knock over at best. As if a nuclear warhead suddenly went off, the ball of light simply keeps on growing. First, a few buildings vanish, then entire blocks and finally, half of the city itself is seemingly lost in the gargantuan blast.
Just as quickly as it came, it vanishes from sight and all that is left in its wake is a smoldering crater with nary a sign of life in it. The entire caravan comes to a screeching halt with many inside the trucks themselves either being let out to see or banging to be released. All look at the sight, frozen in silence at their destroyed lives, homes and even the heroes who risked their lives to save them. All present with the exception of Bulma take a moment of silence to mourn them, thankful for their efforts despite not even knowing any of their names.
Though she worries for their safety, Bulma, unlike the others present knows of the Dragon Balls, whatever these last shreds of Freeza's empire do today, she can confidently say it will not have a lasting effect.
I honest to God wasn't expecting to make the entire second half of War Fronts focused on the humans. But I had so much fun writing them dealing with this whole situation that I couldn't resist. So, expectedly there will be a War Fronts Part 3 that will conclude the other fights as well as setup the battle between the gods that will conclude this part of the story.
I've also decided to do a sequel to this story that will deal with the aftermath of these events, expect it to be very un-Dragon Ball like which will either work fine for some and piss of others. I myself and sick of any franchise sticking to the same formula because TAHTZ WUT DUR FRANCHIZE IZZZZ ABOOT! instead of looking into new types of stories and challenges for their characters to overcome. Yes, I'll admit this does have some very formulaic Dragon Ball things in it but I think I've done a good job of changing things up to keep it fresh.
As always, feel free to give me your thoughts both positive and negative if you have any. But please, for the love of my sanity spare me any "You didn't use the Japanese attack names!" or "These power levels are totally wrong!" comments.