Ares Denetsu
*****
Return to the Ground
It was a corpse.
It was a slimy, rotting, putrid corpse.
And it was wielding a VERY dangerous sword.
Rei fumbled along the wall of stone she was pressed against, trying to feel for one of the heavy torch-holders embedded in the wall.
Gohan, glowing bright gold with the enormous energy of a Super Saiya-jin, thrust his hands out in front of him, fingers crooked in a certain way.
Rei had seen this move before, from Mirai no Gohan, and, though she was struck by an intense wave of longing and nostalgia, she dove down a handy stairwell, crumpling at the foot of the five steps to cover her head.
"KAME…"
She closed her eyes tightly and curled up into a neat ball, plugging her ears with her pinkies as she kept her hands wrapped around the back of her skull and neck.
"HAME…"
She almost felt sorry for the poor corpse…
"HA!!"
A smell not unlike an overripe fruit bursting burned into the air and she heard a distinctive splattering noise, indicating the creature had been executed.
"Aw, shitdamn," she heard Gohan mutter and she slowly stood up, tiptoeing up the steps to see him shake his bare arms; slime, tendons, muscles, and half-decayed organs slipped off the muscles in his arm and he looked somewhat sickened. "This is, hands-down, the grossest thing that has EVER happened to me."
Rei grinned. "_I_ ducked," she told him loftily and he carefully scooped a piece of wet, pliable heart off his cheek, casually flicking it onto her nose. With a frown, she scraped it off; to his disappointment, she was barely fazed. Instead, she glanced at him and stuck her tongue out, blowing him a raspberry.
He responded with the like.
And, joy of joys, another corpse came from the shadows.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another…
(*)
"GET OOOOFF MEEEEE!!!!" Super Sailor Venus shrieked, having been caught at the bottom of the graceless pile of groaning people. However, her face being squished against a nasty smelling floor, it came out garbled, strangled, and basically sounding like it had been run through a verbal blender.
Super Sailor Jupiter, being on top of the pile, flipped off, landing on her feet. Sighing, she grabbed Yamucha's sleeveless gi and Puar's tail, hauling the two off with immense strength.
Trunks slid off, gently picking Mercury up by her waist and setting her down carefully on her feet.
Ginzishou hovered above the lot, watching Venus shove Juunanagou off of her with a bright red face.
"Well," Venus said after a moment, "we're here."
(*)
"KAMEHAMEHA!!"
"Damn it, why don't you stay _down_?!"
Gohan grinned in satisfaction as more of the veritable army of corpses were wiped away, absently shaking his intestine-covered hand to get said intestines off it. Rei was currently beating the…slime…out of a corpse with a torch-holder she could barely lift with her small hands.
Then something very strange happened.
All of the corpses, whether they were smudges on the walls, ceiling, and floor or not, were literally absorbed into whatever stone surface they could reach.
Sickly fascinated, the two backed up until their backs were touching; Gohan had his hand held out before him, cupped and ready to deal out another Kamehameha or a Masenko, whichever he felt necessary; Rei crouched on one leg, holding the makeshift weapon in her hands like a baseball bat, cocked over one shoulder.
"Okay…what the heck's going on?" Rei asked slowly, jerking her left leg up as a piece of liver she had been standing on slipped between the cracks of the stone beneath her feet.
"I don't know, exactly, Rei-chan," Gohan swallowed, "but it's been my experience that whenever the bad guys retreat, something even worse is coming."
"Peachy. My life sucks."
"Join the club."
There were no sounds aside from the ragged breathing of Rei and no lights aside from the soft sheen of Gohan. It was too still.
" 'The calm before the storm,' " Rei quipped and Gohan agreed, reaching out to grab her wet hand with his wet hand, interlocking their fingers to comfort the both of them.
She glanced back at him, startled, seeing his profile, lips hard and taut, eyes narrowed, eyebrows lowered. Out of the corner of his green eyes, he saw her staring at him, mouth pursed in a little 'o' of surprise. He smiled, a quick upward twitch of his lips.
"It'll be fine, Rei-chan," he assured her gently, as much to himself as to her.
She smiled back at him, leaning against him as they both sighed a collective moan, sliding to the ground in a sitting position, backs to each other. "Thank-you, Gohan-kun," she whispered.
He blushed a little, shyly ducking his head even though she couldn't see his face.
"Do you have a plan?" she asked after a moment and he murmured in reply: "I can't do anything about that."
Rei shivered a little, wanting more than anything to be Super Sailor Mars again.
He felt her shiver, the shuddering motion brought about by the intense chill vibrating into his own body. That he _could_ do something about. He extended his aura so that it encircled her as well, warming up the area distinctively.
She smiled again, gratefully, relaxing back against him.
(*)
A whimper pushed its way between Chichi's lips and she winced, feeling the corded tension in her arm mounting, threatening to snap her lower arm in half.
The shell of Gokuu showed no emotion on his handsome face; no helpless sorrow, no sadistic glee, nothing at all flittered across his face to indicate Gokuu was feeling anything.
But, then again, he wasn't Gokuu.
"Let…me go…whoever you are," she gritted, tears stinging her eyes. The child inside of her womb was deathly still, unmoving and, for the most terrifying of moments, she thought he had died. With the small amount of ki existing in her body, she desperately 'felt' the child and she was relieved briefly to feel a life force in him, though something was missing…almost like a soul.
That was it, she realized as 'Gokuu' lifted his other hand, the unused one, wrapping it tightly around her neck, preparing to squeeze it tightly. Someone had stolen Gokuu's soul…
The kitchen door slammed open, snapping off the hinges as Vejiita, Tenshinhann, Kuririn, and Roshi burst into the small kitchen; Chichi could distantly hear Lunch, Chou-zu, and Juuhachigou trying to hush a sobbing infant Trunks.
"It…he's not…," Chichi gagged, crimson blood dripping from her wrist where the pearly white bone had broken her skin; the liquid also dripped silently from the corner of her lip. She gasped sharply, feeling the pretend Gokuu tighten his grip on her neck.
And then her world went dark.
(*)
Gokuu grasped the temples of his new body's head, gasping out in blinding pain. Chichi was hurting, she was bleeding…
Goten fell on his knees beside his not-yet-father, who had dropped to all fours, eyes wide and panicked.
Selenity brought her hands up to her mouth, closing her eyes and concentrating. Faintly, she felt the pain that was striking Gokuu numb, though it felt like nothing more than a pinprick to her senses. "You've bonded with Chichi," she said after a moment, "and someone's trying to kill her…oh, God. That's what Metallia's up to." Selenity looked at Goten, her face shocked and drawn. "She resurrected Gokuu and placed his soul here…because she's going to use his body…to kill…Chichi and you…she," the blonde woman swallowed thickly, "wants to fight Gohan, and she hopes by killing all those dear to him using a loved one will push him over the edge. She wants to fight someone insane, like her."
"What about Cell?" Goten inquired, casting worried looks at his shaking father, "What does she want with him?"
Selenity made a sour face. "Trust me, you don't want to know what the first one is."
Goten paled and got a sickened look on his features.
"However," Selenity continued, "she hopes that by using the…uh, first thing, she can produce a race of super-powerful beings of evil and destruction…if she and Cell reproduce, she can control the universe with another being of pure evil, with their spawn dominating planets." Selenity shuddered. "I hate delving into that bitch's mind."
"You cussed," Goten said admiringly and she smirked.
"I'm older than old, kid, I know enough bad words to make a grunge artist swoon."
"Don't call me kid!"
The two stopped arguing swiftly, seeing Gokuu let his hands fall limply to the grass, palms upturned.
The dirt turned brown in one small, round spot where a tear slid down his face.
"Chichi-chan…"
(*)
"Poor fools…"
"Hmmm? Oh, are you still bothering about that idiotic little Saiya-jin boy? Koibito, I thought we had more important things to do than think about those two little prisoners…"
"Not now, Metallia."
Metallia pouted and turned around, flouncing the raven hair of her stolen body as Cell studied a hologram hovering before him.
"You said you had found a way to bring out the true hate in Gohan," the sinister android spoke.
Metallia smiled evilly. "That I did, love. Poor boy…Mommy and widdle bwuver will be dead, dead, dead as doornails, killed by Daddy!" She grinned widely, eyes glinting insanely. "Dead, dead, dead, dead!" she sang, laughing madly.
Cell smiled, malicious and malignant. "Perfect."
"Just like you," Metallia purred.
The shadows pulsed.
Ick. Eww. Why do I write scenes like that? At least I didn't get TOO gross with it, right, folks? Whew.
'Member, review!
How d'you like it? And as soon as I finish "Ares Denetsu", I'm gonna put up an acknowledgements section where I thank everyone who reviewed!
Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.
90%DevilChild calls me P-chan.
I'm called Palla by others, or P. Mongoose Palla, or Mongoose Palla.
…
But my friends call me insane!
[PS~ I don't know how many times I've said this, but…review! Knowing people care about this helps my self-esteem, which, in turn, helps me write faster! Review! Review!]
[PSS~ And if you already review, thanks so much! This story's for you!]
DISCLAIMER:
The Sailor Senshi are © to Takeuchi Naoko-san, Kodansha, DiC, Cloverway, Toei Animation, Mixx Entertainment, etc.
The Dragonball characters are © to Toriyama Akira-san, Shogakun (?), FUNimation, Toei Animation, Viz Entertainment, etc.
"Ares Denetsu" in its entirety, all situations and plot devices thus far, is © to myself, referred to on-line as PallaPlease or Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.
*****
Return to the Ground
It was a corpse.
It was a slimy, rotting, putrid corpse.
And it was wielding a VERY dangerous sword.
Rei fumbled along the wall of stone she was pressed against, trying to feel for one of the heavy torch-holders embedded in the wall.
Gohan, glowing bright gold with the enormous energy of a Super Saiya-jin, thrust his hands out in front of him, fingers crooked in a certain way.
Rei had seen this move before, from Mirai no Gohan, and, though she was struck by an intense wave of longing and nostalgia, she dove down a handy stairwell, crumpling at the foot of the five steps to cover her head.
"KAME…"
She closed her eyes tightly and curled up into a neat ball, plugging her ears with her pinkies as she kept her hands wrapped around the back of her skull and neck.
"HAME…"
She almost felt sorry for the poor corpse…
"HA!!"
A smell not unlike an overripe fruit bursting burned into the air and she heard a distinctive splattering noise, indicating the creature had been executed.
"Aw, shitdamn," she heard Gohan mutter and she slowly stood up, tiptoeing up the steps to see him shake his bare arms; slime, tendons, muscles, and half-decayed organs slipped off the muscles in his arm and he looked somewhat sickened. "This is, hands-down, the grossest thing that has EVER happened to me."
Rei grinned. "_I_ ducked," she told him loftily and he carefully scooped a piece of wet, pliable heart off his cheek, casually flicking it onto her nose. With a frown, she scraped it off; to his disappointment, she was barely fazed. Instead, she glanced at him and stuck her tongue out, blowing him a raspberry.
He responded with the like.
And, joy of joys, another corpse came from the shadows.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another…
(*)
"GET OOOOFF MEEEEE!!!!" Super Sailor Venus shrieked, having been caught at the bottom of the graceless pile of groaning people. However, her face being squished against a nasty smelling floor, it came out garbled, strangled, and basically sounding like it had been run through a verbal blender.
Super Sailor Jupiter, being on top of the pile, flipped off, landing on her feet. Sighing, she grabbed Yamucha's sleeveless gi and Puar's tail, hauling the two off with immense strength.
Trunks slid off, gently picking Mercury up by her waist and setting her down carefully on her feet.
Ginzishou hovered above the lot, watching Venus shove Juunanagou off of her with a bright red face.
"Well," Venus said after a moment, "we're here."
(*)
"KAMEHAMEHA!!"
"Damn it, why don't you stay _down_?!"
Gohan grinned in satisfaction as more of the veritable army of corpses were wiped away, absently shaking his intestine-covered hand to get said intestines off it. Rei was currently beating the…slime…out of a corpse with a torch-holder she could barely lift with her small hands.
Then something very strange happened.
All of the corpses, whether they were smudges on the walls, ceiling, and floor or not, were literally absorbed into whatever stone surface they could reach.
Sickly fascinated, the two backed up until their backs were touching; Gohan had his hand held out before him, cupped and ready to deal out another Kamehameha or a Masenko, whichever he felt necessary; Rei crouched on one leg, holding the makeshift weapon in her hands like a baseball bat, cocked over one shoulder.
"Okay…what the heck's going on?" Rei asked slowly, jerking her left leg up as a piece of liver she had been standing on slipped between the cracks of the stone beneath her feet.
"I don't know, exactly, Rei-chan," Gohan swallowed, "but it's been my experience that whenever the bad guys retreat, something even worse is coming."
"Peachy. My life sucks."
"Join the club."
There were no sounds aside from the ragged breathing of Rei and no lights aside from the soft sheen of Gohan. It was too still.
" 'The calm before the storm,' " Rei quipped and Gohan agreed, reaching out to grab her wet hand with his wet hand, interlocking their fingers to comfort the both of them.
She glanced back at him, startled, seeing his profile, lips hard and taut, eyes narrowed, eyebrows lowered. Out of the corner of his green eyes, he saw her staring at him, mouth pursed in a little 'o' of surprise. He smiled, a quick upward twitch of his lips.
"It'll be fine, Rei-chan," he assured her gently, as much to himself as to her.
She smiled back at him, leaning against him as they both sighed a collective moan, sliding to the ground in a sitting position, backs to each other. "Thank-you, Gohan-kun," she whispered.
He blushed a little, shyly ducking his head even though she couldn't see his face.
"Do you have a plan?" she asked after a moment and he murmured in reply: "I can't do anything about that."
Rei shivered a little, wanting more than anything to be Super Sailor Mars again.
He felt her shiver, the shuddering motion brought about by the intense chill vibrating into his own body. That he _could_ do something about. He extended his aura so that it encircled her as well, warming up the area distinctively.
She smiled again, gratefully, relaxing back against him.
(*)
A whimper pushed its way between Chichi's lips and she winced, feeling the corded tension in her arm mounting, threatening to snap her lower arm in half.
The shell of Gokuu showed no emotion on his handsome face; no helpless sorrow, no sadistic glee, nothing at all flittered across his face to indicate Gokuu was feeling anything.
But, then again, he wasn't Gokuu.
"Let…me go…whoever you are," she gritted, tears stinging her eyes. The child inside of her womb was deathly still, unmoving and, for the most terrifying of moments, she thought he had died. With the small amount of ki existing in her body, she desperately 'felt' the child and she was relieved briefly to feel a life force in him, though something was missing…almost like a soul.
That was it, she realized as 'Gokuu' lifted his other hand, the unused one, wrapping it tightly around her neck, preparing to squeeze it tightly. Someone had stolen Gokuu's soul…
The kitchen door slammed open, snapping off the hinges as Vejiita, Tenshinhann, Kuririn, and Roshi burst into the small kitchen; Chichi could distantly hear Lunch, Chou-zu, and Juuhachigou trying to hush a sobbing infant Trunks.
"It…he's not…," Chichi gagged, crimson blood dripping from her wrist where the pearly white bone had broken her skin; the liquid also dripped silently from the corner of her lip. She gasped sharply, feeling the pretend Gokuu tighten his grip on her neck.
And then her world went dark.
(*)
Gokuu grasped the temples of his new body's head, gasping out in blinding pain. Chichi was hurting, she was bleeding…
Goten fell on his knees beside his not-yet-father, who had dropped to all fours, eyes wide and panicked.
Selenity brought her hands up to her mouth, closing her eyes and concentrating. Faintly, she felt the pain that was striking Gokuu numb, though it felt like nothing more than a pinprick to her senses. "You've bonded with Chichi," she said after a moment, "and someone's trying to kill her…oh, God. That's what Metallia's up to." Selenity looked at Goten, her face shocked and drawn. "She resurrected Gokuu and placed his soul here…because she's going to use his body…to kill…Chichi and you…she," the blonde woman swallowed thickly, "wants to fight Gohan, and she hopes by killing all those dear to him using a loved one will push him over the edge. She wants to fight someone insane, like her."
"What about Cell?" Goten inquired, casting worried looks at his shaking father, "What does she want with him?"
Selenity made a sour face. "Trust me, you don't want to know what the first one is."
Goten paled and got a sickened look on his features.
"However," Selenity continued, "she hopes that by using the…uh, first thing, she can produce a race of super-powerful beings of evil and destruction…if she and Cell reproduce, she can control the universe with another being of pure evil, with their spawn dominating planets." Selenity shuddered. "I hate delving into that bitch's mind."
"You cussed," Goten said admiringly and she smirked.
"I'm older than old, kid, I know enough bad words to make a grunge artist swoon."
"Don't call me kid!"
The two stopped arguing swiftly, seeing Gokuu let his hands fall limply to the grass, palms upturned.
The dirt turned brown in one small, round spot where a tear slid down his face.
"Chichi-chan…"
(*)
"Poor fools…"
"Hmmm? Oh, are you still bothering about that idiotic little Saiya-jin boy? Koibito, I thought we had more important things to do than think about those two little prisoners…"
"Not now, Metallia."
Metallia pouted and turned around, flouncing the raven hair of her stolen body as Cell studied a hologram hovering before him.
"You said you had found a way to bring out the true hate in Gohan," the sinister android spoke.
Metallia smiled evilly. "That I did, love. Poor boy…Mommy and widdle bwuver will be dead, dead, dead as doornails, killed by Daddy!" She grinned widely, eyes glinting insanely. "Dead, dead, dead, dead!" she sang, laughing madly.
Cell smiled, malicious and malignant. "Perfect."
"Just like you," Metallia purred.
The shadows pulsed.
Ick. Eww. Why do I write scenes like that? At least I didn't get TOO gross with it, right, folks? Whew.
'Member, review!
How d'you like it? And as soon as I finish "Ares Denetsu", I'm gonna put up an acknowledgements section where I thank everyone who reviewed!
Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.
90%DevilChild calls me P-chan.
I'm called Palla by others, or P. Mongoose Palla, or Mongoose Palla.
…
But my friends call me insane!
[PS~ I don't know how many times I've said this, but…review! Knowing people care about this helps my self-esteem, which, in turn, helps me write faster! Review! Review!]
[PSS~ And if you already review, thanks so much! This story's for you!]
DISCLAIMER:
The Sailor Senshi are © to Takeuchi Naoko-san, Kodansha, DiC, Cloverway, Toei Animation, Mixx Entertainment, etc.
The Dragonball characters are © to Toriyama Akira-san, Shogakun (?), FUNimation, Toei Animation, Viz Entertainment, etc.
"Ares Denetsu" in its entirety, all situations and plot devices thus far, is © to myself, referred to on-line as PallaPlease or Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.