Nameksei-Before Freezer
Chapter 6
By Cremrock
The brightly colored insect alighted on a blue-blade of grass, and then, with eight brilliant rainbow-colored wings fluttering in the breeze, the insect propelled itself into the air. It's segmented body twirled as two tiny antennae probed the air around it, it's multi-lensed eyes spying a new chunk of material to rest on in it's never ending search for food. This terrain was different from the normal life on Nameksei. It was cold and metallic, although of course, the insect had no idea what these things were. It sensed familiar warmth coming from a large pink lump mostly buried under some debris in a huge gaping hole in a section of the ground. The insect fluttered down to it, after all, it had nothing to fear.
The insect's species was adored by the Nameksei-jin. It could rest itself on any of them without worry, for there was an ancient Nameksei-jin tradition that believed a visit from such an insect would symbolize good luck, for the insect itself was very rare. With the respect for life that most of the Nameksei-jin had, they never slapped or swatted at an insect, knowing that they had just as much of a right to live as they themselves did. The insect consisted almost entirely on plant matter and harmed nothing else, not being a carnivore or parasite.
There was a slight twitch below the tiny insect's feet, and with a loud rumble, the debris around the lump exploded outwards, as the insect realized it was standing on something that was very much alive. It still had no fear though, taking in a face with huge purple lips, pink spike-like horns, and flabby, loose looking skin. It also appeared to have odd, black skin that stretched up to it's neck, down to it's waist, and above it's shoulders, but of course, the insect had no idea that it was looking at armor. As if making a bridge, an open palm was tentatively held next to the muscle it was on. The insect decided to explore this curiosity, and walked onto the open, outstretched hand… after all, the inhabitants had never harmed it before. Perhaps this was a path that would lead to food. A slight twitching made the insect's instincts for survival kick in, but it was too late. It's last sensation was one brief, intense moment of pain as the hand closed with a quick clutching motion, terminating the insect's existence with an audible crunching sound.
Smetllack felt a liquid in his closed palm, and grinned slightly, opening it, gazing down at its contents. All that remained of the foolish insect was a brownish-yellow ichor, and a few brilliant rainbow colored wings. He wasn't sure if it was peaceful or was intending to suck his blood or one of some other repulsive thing insects do. It didn't matter to him. He did so love to kill things. An innocent person here, a soldier there… terminating an entire planet's population, he didn't care. He reveled in the surge of power he felt, and never tired of it. Whether listening to another creature's dying screams, or not even giving them a chance by crushing their head, or the hunt and the chase… he didn't care. It was fun. And against all odds, he was still alive. Alive to kill again, yet another sign that the galaxy approved of what he was doing, eliminating the weak and serving Master Freezer.
Smetllack gazed up through the massive hole in the roof of the ship, transfixed for a moment by realizing that he was finally on the planet they had been aiming for. Better still, he was relatively unhurt. Blood trickled from a gash above his left eye, but he ignored it. He had sustained far worse. He reached his hand behind a device enclosing his right ear, fumbling for a button. The device itself wrapped around his right temple, ending with a green piece of translucent crystal covering his right eye. A moment later Smetllack heard the beep and then the hiss of static, indicating that his scouter was working.
"Hmmph. I'd better check to see if that weakling is still alive in the engine core…"
"Ideo? Ideo! Come in!" Smetllack barked harshly, putting a hand around the scouter again and clicking the button three times rhythmically, the best way to attempt an override on a scouter. The hiss of static continued, but this time a faint groan was heard, followed by a sinister, clicking voice. Smetllack grinned, not so much because his comrade was alive but because it meant he'd have help fixing the ship and have someone to watch his back. He also had things to discuss. "We need to decide upon our plan of action, Ideo. When can we-" An explosion rocked in the background, as Ideo's urgent voice cut him off. Smetllack growled. His comrade was lucky that it was something as urgent as an explosion, as if he had been interrupted before he would not have hesitated to punish his underling. The fool wasn't much weaker then he was, but his purpose in life was to kill those weaker then he. He grinned coldly. Still, he couldn't kill Ideo yet. Maybe later. He hoped that when they got back to Freezer Planet #36, he would be ordered to do so. He looked forward to it.
"That was the right side of the engine core! We're going to lose it all if I don't get it repaired, I could use some help! We can scout around and talk afterwards!" Ideo's voice chimed with urgency, as Smetllack grumbled an acknowledgement and started running to the engine room, blasting through the humongous chunks of metal blocking his path. If he had his way, they would exterminate the inhabitants of this planet and then take their technology, maybe even having the planet in shape for Freezer to sell, which would be a double bonus. He smiled, smashing through a jammed door. Soon…
Karacol ducked, narrowly avoiding a ki blast that lanced over his forehead, coming so close that some of the sweat on his forehead turned to steam. He glanced around, off-balance. Where was he? What was going on? It appeared he was in one of the villages on Nameksei. Behind him, a harsh laugh echoed, as he turned around and spied a figure charging for another ki blast. His eyes widened in shock as he recognized the figure. Standing on his feet with a demented look, Neru raised his arms and threw another ki blast, which Karacol had no choice but to dodge. The look on the older Nameksei-jin's face was almost feral, and he grinned harshly.
"Why don't you just roll over and die, Karacol? You know that if I let you live you're going to continue to hurt people…" Neru screamed wildly, and the warrior seemed darker, almost looking… evil. Karacol ducked another ki blast, and rolled to the left. His voice was sad, desperate even.
"Neru! Please! Don't kill me! I never meant to hurt anyone!" Karacol pleaded. Neru laughed harshly.
"Don't try to save your sorry hide with tricks, brother! I have sworn that I WILL kill you! And nothing can stop me! Now if you don't want to die, fight! Fight, fool!" As the events continued and Neru came ever closer to breaking through his defenses, Karacol realized he had no choice, and began preparing to fling a ki blast at Neru. Their fight continued, Brother against brother, Nameksei-jin against Nameksei-jin. Karacol dodged two more ki blasts, which seemed darker then Neru's normal blasts, and dived to the left, hurling his own ki. Neru jumped out of the way just as a figure appeared on the horizon. The ki blast streaked towards the figure. Karacol's eyes bulged in shock as he recognized the figure, even while Neru began a dark and horrible laugh as the sky seemed to get darker.
"NO!" Karacol screamed. A moment later there was an explosion, and ignoring Neru, Karacol ran up to the figure lying on the ground after the explosion. His heart was racing, and he hoped that what was transpiring wasn't happening, but it was. What he saw chilled his blood, Dende was lying on a patch of now dead grass, very badly burned, his eyes clenched shut, and his face frozen in an expression of horror. He was quite obviously dead. Karacol threw himself to the ground and wept, even as Neru walked up behind him.
"You see now, what you've done, what you're always doing. Hurting everything you touch. Why do you even exist?" Neru questioned, but now his face looked considerably different. His antennae were longer and more angular, and his face looked graver, paler even, almost as if he was the oldest Nameksei-jin alive as he stared at Karacol, his eyes burning into the younger Nameksei-jin.
"You killed Dende." The words burned into more then just Karacol's mind. They burned into his soul. Karacol glanced around frantically as more Nameksei-jin surrounded him, all of them staring with cold, burning eyes, chanting along with Neru.
"You killed Dende! You killed Dende! You killed Dende!"
"No! It was an accident, I never meant to…" Karacol pleaded, but his single, faint voice was drowned out by the hundred other voices. He hung his head, closing his eyes for a moment, trying to block the world around him out.
"Look at yourself, then decide." A grave voice echoed from above, and Karacol opened his eyes and suddenly found himself in the Saichoro's hut, surrounded by the elders of Nameksei, with Dende's lifeless body neatly arranged in front of him. But this was different. A cold, eerie blue sphere of flame that seemed to hang from the ceiling lighted the place. The Nameksei-jin were horrifying, all of them, each one with much longer then usual teeth, ears so long that some of them appeared to touch the ceiling, darkened skin seeming to intensify deep cranial ridges, and those same, darkened eyes, each pair seeming to burn directly into Karacol. He glanced down at Dende, but the child's body was no longer burned, instead it looked much worse. It looked similar to the way Karacol had last seen Dende, but without the bandages, and there were even more cuts, and the child's sad, lifeless face covered in purple blood. His robe was saturated purple as well, and the child looked horrifyingly injured. Karacol gazed upwards, tears in his eyes, as the Saichoro stared at him. And then, oddly enough, he began to smile.
"You didn't kill him, you're thinking? Well, look at the evidence. Look at yourself." Karacol shuddered, wondering what the Saichoro meant, when he was aware that his hands felt very different from the rest of his skin. He swallowed and glanced down at his hands, screaming in terror immediately upon gazing at the awful sight. They were covered in purple blood. The world began to swirl away into dust, collapsing into a black void, which seemed to swallow the room up, until Karacol found himself surrounded by the darkness, although he was standing on nothingness. At his feet, Dende's body remained, which sickened Karacol. And then the chant began again, the awful chant that seemed to be following him, as about a hundred pairs of burning eyes, the people of Nameksei, illuminated the darkness. They were still accusing him. He looked around for support from anyone, anything, but found none, as everyone he ever knew continued the horrifying chant, burning it into his mind.
"You killed Dende! You killed Dende! You killed Dende!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Karacol wailed, trying to fight the awful sounds. But the Nameksei-jin still remained in the void with him, pointing those awful fingers and saying those horrifying words.
"You killed Dende! You killed Dende! You killed Dende!" And, then, quite abruptly, the voices stopped, as the Nameksei-jin faded away and disappeared, save one. Karacol glanced at Dende's body, and cried softly. He looked at the child's burnt and bloody face, as the two deaths had seemed to combine into one, causing him to feel even more sickened, mentally and physically.
Karacol screamed then, a torturing howl that seemed to express how he felt at that moment, as he realized the truth. He was a broken Nameksei-jin, mentally if not physically, and he held his face in his hands and began to cry, as a chilling wind seemed to wrap around him.
"Oh Dende… why… I didn't mean to… where did I go wrong… why… why?!"
Then, with utter simplicity, the dead child's eyes opened as he stared at Karacol, who reared back, terrified. The child said three simple words, each one biting into Karacol's heart like a knife.
"You killed me." Dende said chillingly, his voice a quiet whisper. Karacol screamed then, as the word's sunk into him even deeper. His cry seeming to shatter the black barrier that surrounded him and the child's corpse, and suddenly, with sickening sounds of broken bones and crisped, crackling flesh, the battered child's body stood up, staring at Karacol with cold eyes. The worst was yet to come.
"You already said you hated me. I'll never forgive you. Ever." And with that, quite cruelly, Dende's laughter rang through Karacol's ears. Then other voices joined in with their torture, as Karacol realized he was back in the village where the cycle had started, surrounded by the people of Nameksei. Muuri. Neru. Tulapas. The Saichoro. And others that he couldn't remember. They were all there, laughing at him and accusing him. The evil accusations and laughs completed destroyed what little resolve or sanity Karacol had left. He snapped as the laughter pounded inside him.
"Don't laugh! Stop it! Stop laughing!" Karacol screamed, as trained hands began to form ki. He began throwing ki balls, eliminating the figures in front of him, and the laughter began to die down as each Nameksei-jin died a gruesome death, a pile of dust here, a gaping hole through the chest there. Karacol wheezed, out of breath, gazing at the destruction before him. At last, there would be peace from the accusations. Karacol exhaled, reveling in the peace. Then a familiar laugh chilled him to the bone, as he spun around, a demented look in his eyes. The battered body of the child was still there, staring at Karacol, a sad look etched onto his face. But that wasn't what made Karacol's heart soften. The child looked his normal self, with light green skin, normal ears, and in perfect health. A tear ran down the side of his face, as he observed the bodies of everyone he loved.
"D…Dende, I'm sorry…" Karacol stammered. And then, the nightmare continued. The child's look turned into the same horrifying, evil grin that had been displayed before, normal green Nameksei-jin skin suddenly expanding back into the darker green, demented tone, as Dende's ears once again double in size, and the child's injuries reappeared. Karacol stared at Dende in shock.
"You see Karacol? You hurt everyone…" He said mockingly. Karacol screamed in rage and pierced through Dende's chest with a ki blast, leaving a bloodless hole as the child laughed, even though he was being completely burned, trapped in the intensity of the ki blast. Finally the child's laugh ended abruptly, as the child's blackened shadow of a skeleton, still in the ki beam, finally drifted away, the bones being unable to take any more heat and turning to dust. Then the dust too, faded away. Karacol surveyed the area around him, where every other Nameksei-jin lie dead. At last he could have peace. But then, despite the lack of bodies to convey them, the voices returned, and this time there was nothing he could do to stop them.
"You killed Dende!"
"You killed… me."
And, realizing he would never be free from the torment, Karacol screamed…
…And jolted awake, breathing quickly and rapidly, his pants and long beige colored vest drenched in sweat. He felt sore and terrible, his body aching, as if he had just trained for a long time. Upon standing up and inspecting the patch of blue grass he had apparently been asleep in, he observed that the grass was torn up, and judging by the nightmare he had just had, he had been thrashing around quite a bit during the torturous dream. He gazed up at the two visible stars of Nameksei. They had moved quite a bit since he had last checked them, and he quirked an antenna, wondering how he had managed to remember that after the events that had transpired involving Dende. But he refused to allow himself to cry. The nightmare had wracked his nerves and he still felt very sick, even unappreciated by all the Nameksei-jin on the planet, though this was far from true. But Karacol, saddened as he was and fervently hoping Dende was okay, knew one thing. From here, life could only go up. He walked into the trees, if no one was there to be his friend, then he had better keep himself busy, and though none of the other Nameksei-jin knew it, he loved nature. It was his deepest kept secret. For now, at least, it seemed as if it would be his salvation. He decided to get to work building some kind of shelter. Hard work would keep him from thinking of the past.
Neru sat at the table, quietly sipping on a glass of water, with his head hung low. Muuri was pacing, wondering just how to react. It had been difficult, but Neru had just told the elder everything that had happened. Everything. How Dende had gotten injured, how he had been unable to save him, how Karacol had pulled his prank and screwed it up royally, and how Neru, in a blind rage, had grabbed his brother by the neck and threatened to kill him if he ever returned. Neru was mad at himself by now, feeling guilty for his inability to keep Dende from getting injured and… he felt a twinge of sympathy for Karacol, and regretted the way he had reacted. He wasn't sure how he would react if he saw the other Nameksei-jin again, though. The quiet, dark part of Neru's mood that he tried to constantly eradicate with his guilt remained, and he found himself grinning slightly, even though he knew it was wrong. If he saw Karacol again, he doubted he'd kill him, just rough him up a bit. He shook his head, trying to eliminate that thought out of his mind as well. His rational mind told him that Karacol hadn't meant to hurt Dende at all, especially given his reaction, but there was that little nagging doubt reminding him that Karacol had indeed told Dende that he hated him long ago. What if that hatred had lived on? It would explain why he never talked to Dende…
Muuri interrupted these thoughts with a harumphing sound coming from deep within his throats, as he stared down at Neru. His face was stern, but he didn't look too angry, which didn't surprise Neru, even though he secretly hoped that Muuri was about to punish him. Muuri sighed, but he was glad Neru had told him the truth, and this was his job as the eldest Nameksei-jin in the village, to guide his people rather then having to speak with the Saichoro about every little thing… He sighed and locked his eyes with Neru's.
"Someone's going to have to find Karacol, don't you think? I mean, with the revival festival a little over a rotation away…" Neru nodded slowly, wanting to tell Muuri his true reasons for not wanting to find Karacol but worried that he wouldn't understand. So, he chose option two and sipped his water quietly, deciding to wait for what Muuri was going to say next. It surprised him, but the elder Nameksei-jin's suddenly twisted into an umbrella like shape, as he looked weary.
"You're worried about how you're going to react if you see Karacol again, aren't you?" Muuri asked. Neru choked on his water in surprise, rearing up and staring at the elder with wide eyes.
"H… how did you know?" Neru requested urgently, setting his glass down on the table. Muuri sighed.
"Because I know how it feels to see someone you love hurt, and what a person's reaction is like afterwards… I felt about the same way you're feeling whenever Karacol had messed up and Dende had climbed the Saichoro's mountain… granted, that was a little different because Dende wasn't hurt nearly as bad, but…" Neru sighed, and slammed his glass down on the table, bottling up his rage. Muuri glanced up at the warrior in surprise, his eyes asking for an explanation. Neru glanced down at the table, his voice considerably darker then it had been a moment ago.
"That's… not all of it." He muttered. Muuri sighed.
"What else?" Neru sipped his water, ignoring Muuri's question for a moment and trying to decide whether to tell the elder or not.
"Dende told me one day that Karacol had said he hated him. That's why I'm so angry with him. I… I… What if he threw that rock on purpose?" Muuri glanced at him again, and their eyes meant. Neru was surprised to see a look of sorrow and regret in Muuri's eyes.
"So… you didn't know?" Muuri asked, a tinge of a melancholy sensation mixed in with his stern, wizened tone. Now Neru went on alert.
"Know what?" Muuri sighed and stood up, walking down to where a small trap-door lie in a corner of the room. He tugged it open, revealing a small, dug out, underground room. He walked down and returned presently with a bunch of paper. Nameksei-jin had their own paper, which wasn't made out of trees, but another ingenious adaptation of controlling their ki, much like the skill they normally used to create clothing, rather then having to harm a plant to get fibers.
"Karacol and Dende used to spend quite a bit of time together before Kargo was born, when they were both living here. These are some of Dende's "baby pictures", for lack of a better term." He pulled a particular one out and handed it to Neru. It was a bizarre mix of colors, but Neru chuckled as he recognized two splotches that could only be Nameksei-jin as understood through the eyes of a baby. One was vastly out of proportion in size to the other, so…
"Dende drew a picture of him with me?" Neru asked, wondering what the point of this was. Muuri shook his head and smiled slightly.
"Look at the back, Neru. You might find the answer to one of your questions…" He turned it around and gasped in surprise. There, written in very crude Nameksei-jin handwriting (Apparently Dende had just begun learning how to speak, read, and write during this time.) were two names, or rather, one name and one nickname, and despite the way he felt, still not convinced, he cracked a smile.
Dende and Kar-Kar. Muuri chuckled at Neru's smile.
"You see? Karacol used to spend a lot of time with Dende until about a year ago, when I had punished him. I should have noticed then, but I guess I didn't… It's my entire fault… They had been inseparable… I often wonder what it would look like if the three of you had done things together…" Muuri hung his head. Neru put a hand on the older Nameksei-jin's shoulder, and for the first time since Dende had been injured, his voice adopted a gentle tone.
"Don't think that. It's my fault he's run away now. I didn't realize it then, but he was just as sad as I was when he thought Dende had died. You… you just can't fake sorrow like the kind he expressed. That certainly doesn't look like the kind of emotion a person would show at the death of someone they hated… that's what I was thinking… I let my emotions cloud my judgement." Muuri nodded again, and the two sat there in silence for about a minute. Then, Neru spoke again, taking command and realizing something he had to do, difficult it might be.
"I need to talk with Karacol… He probably still thinks I'm going to kill him, or he'd have been back to check on Dende by now, if he doesn't hate him, as you say. I'm going to go find him and bring him back here, before he gets himself hurt out there or something. Muuri nodded.
"Could you check on Dende before you go? I'd have thought he'd be awake by now." Muuri requested, standing up and leaning on the table. Neru nodded, but as he turned around to enter Dende's room, he looked over his shoulder.
"Elder… do you think that I could… look at some more of Dende's pictures later?" Muuri chuckled, gathering up his crooked staff, which he rarely needed but sometimes liked to keep handy.
"Sure, I'll leave them out for you. I'm going to go check on Tuno in a few minutes." Neru smiled.
"Thanks…" He mumbled. With that he entered Dende's room and froze in the doorway. Muuri observed Neru's stiffening.
"What's wrong Neru? You look as if you've seen a ghost!" Muuri said, trying to joke with Neru. But Neru's eyes had no look of humor inside them as he turned around, looking very concerned. He held Kargo in his arms now, but his concern wasn't for the baby, who was asleep, but for someone else.
"Dende's gone."
His muscles ached, and the child had wished he had stopped to get something to drink before leaving, but it was too late to worry about that now as he continued flying through the air. Dende sighed, not quite sure what was going on but knowing that Karacol was missing. He also had no idea how he had ended up in his bed, although he supposed he must have fallen asleep in mid-air and Neru had caught him... or something. After all, what else could have happened? He had overheard Muuri asking Neru where Karacol was, and at that moment had decided to go out and find him so that Neru wouldn't have to go look for him. Right now, his only thoughts were on finding Karacol so that his idol wouldn't get into trouble. He was slightly worried that Karacol might yell or scream at him, since he knew the older Nameksei-jin hated him, but he didn't care. He flew low over a large patch of trees, and sighted something that intrigued him. It looked almost like a Nameksei-jin house, at least to his three-year-old eyes, but there were large jagged holes punched into it. Thinking he might find Karacol there, he landed next to it, rubbing his tiny hands across the surface. It was cold to the touch. The curiosity of a child diverting him ever so slightly from his previous task, he decided to take a moment to explore this bizarre commodity.
Inside the ship, a myriad of alarms suddenly went off. Smetllack clasped his two massive hands over his ears as Ideo darted over and turned the alarm off, his diminutive form leaning over the one functioning monitor, surveying the readout. Smetllack crossed over and spun the lower-ranking alien around rudely, his dislike of the being just as strong, even though he had managed to save the engine core.
"What's going on?" He demanded. Ideo looked sheepish, his twin fangs on the sides of his mouth seeming to bite down further.
"It appears there is an intruder or life-form that has come in close contact with the ship. It's probably an animal or something, nothing to worry about." Smetllack growled, because his plan to destroy the hundred or so people on this planet depended on surprise. His ally may have been an excellent engineer, but he was a fool when it came to matters of command. No animal would be dumb enough to approach something as out-of-nature as the ship. That took intelligence. He rubbed two hands together and activated his scouter. It chimed a bit, and he glanced around the room before finally gazing at a wall. He laughed.
"It's a life form alright, but a power level that low could only be generated by a child or weakling. Let's go kill it, we may learn if the people of this planet have any special abilities or not, and we can't have anyone telling their friends that our ship is here. Ideo nodded. He didn't savor killing as much as his adversary did, but he… saw its uses. The two began racing through the hallways, towards the exit.
Dende knocked on the strange substance, wondering what the metal was. It certainly didn't feel like anything he had seen before, and he was still curious, even if Karacol wasn't inside the odd saucer-like structure. He knocked a tiny green fist on it again, giggling at the hollow sound it made. But then he heard heavy footsteps dashing up behind him, and before he could react a huge fist imbedded itself in the metal about a foot away from his face. Dende screamed in surprise, turning around and taking in a pink, flabby face that was grinning evilly at him. Had Dende been educated about space and planets yet, he might have realized that this was some kind of alien. But for now, only one thought crept into his mind, and that thought was, Monster! He ducked under the arm and started running, wailing at the top of his lungs and scared out of his wits, when he bumped into something and crashed to the ground. Standing in front of him now was a purple monster, smaller then the other but just as terrifying from Dende's perspective. He tried to run again but found himself cornered, his back against the wall of the ship, in an instant one pink hand was thrust against his chest, pinning him against the ship. He screamed again, taking in the cruel face with those terrifying spike-like horns on top. A moment later he gasped, as the pressure being exerted on him was making it difficult to breathe. The pink monster smiled, reveling in the next moment, when life would be extinguished from this foolish child. He decided that he might as well take a moment or two to terrify the child more and intensify his pleasure.
"What's your name, boy!" He asked gruffly. Dende was surprised that he spoke in a tongue he knew, even though it wasn't Nameksei-jin. Behind the pink one, the purple monster sighed. He just wanted to see his partner kill the child and get it over with, as he enjoyed seeing a good killing as much as the next planet-seller, but didn't believe that the victims should be tortured as much. Business, after all, was business. The child gulped, sweat trickling down his face.
"D…Dende…" He said, his voice a terrified whisper. Smetllack smiled, as he was leading up to the moment when the terror would be most extreme in the child's eyes.
"And how old are you, Dende?" He asked, his voice a bit gentler but still maintaining a gruff tone. It was necessary for the final moment. Ideo rolled his eyes, wondering if his comrade had any semblance of a good joke. In their observation of the terrified Dende, they failed to notice the slight thud of feet creeping up behind them.
"Th…th…three years old…" Dende whispered, glancing around, still unsure of what this terrifying monster was going to do to him, although eating him stuck out first in his mind. The pink monster laughed harshly, which sent a chill through Dende, as he raised his free left hand into a fist, and raised it overhead.
"I regret to inform you that you're not going to live to see four!" He exclaimed cruelly, and with incredible speed, his fist descended towards the child's face. Dende closed his eyes, screaming, too scared even to shed some tears, while the monster's cruel laughter began to resound inside his ears. Suddenly, a pink and green blur smashed into the side of the pink monster. Dende didn't see what happened because his eyes were closed, but he felt a jarring vibration run through his entire body, and then the pressure of a huge hand squeezing his chest disappeared as he toppled to his knees, instinctively bracing himself with his hands. Right as the vibration had taken place, a fierce cry had echoed through his ears, followed by a thumping sound. This was all he knew, not having seen the green and pink blur that was his rescuer. All this left Dende thoroughly confused, but a moment later, he found himself hoisted to his feet, fairly quickly. He looked up and saw…
A purple hand suddenly dart above him and smack his rescuer in the face, before the child could identify him. The rescuer, who Dende had at least seen as a Nameksei-jin, went crashing against the back of the ship with a loud thud. The purple being charged at the Nameksei-jin sprawled on the ground, but was immediately sent flying to the right, as the Nameksei-jin swept his legs above him in a sloppy, yet effective kick from the ground. The Nameksei-jin jumped to his feet and looked at Dende, and that was when the child gasped in surprise, finally recognizing the person. It was Karacol, whose eyes were locked on the two monsters that lay sprawled on the ground, dazed, for the moment. Wasting no time, he spared Dende a sidelong glance, and for once, as he spoke, his tone was laced with seriousness.
"Dende, run awa-" Karacol didn't finish, because Smetllack delivered a fierce-fisted blow to the his chest, taking advantage of his attention towards Dende. He slammed back into the ship again, as he yelped in pain. Two huge pink hands grabbed Karacol around the chest and started squeezing, as Karacol's howl of pain became louder and louder, his eyes clenched shut. Dende froze, wanting to help Karacol but incredibly scared and having no idea what to do. At that moment, just as Karacol thought his chest was going to collapse inward, he remembered a technique. A moment later his eyes shot open and he caught Smetllack clean in the face with two glowing, white-hot beams that exploded from his eyes, a power all warrior Nameksei-jin possessed but rarely used. The alien dropped Karacol and yelped in pain, rubbing at his eyes. Ideo lunged at Karacol as Karacol threw his arms up, locking hands with the purple alien. Managing to subdue him, for the moment, Karacol glanced at Dende again, pleadingly, even as Smetllack began to get his bearings.
"I can't hold them off! Get out of here while you still can, Dende!" Spurred by the urgency in Karacol's voice, along with fear for what was going on, Dende had no choice. He turned and blasted off into the air, tears streaming down his face as the sound of flesh smashing against flesh reached his ears, followed by another intense Nameksei-jin scream of pain.
Special thanks to Tomo-chan, Dendeshe, and Neoslash for their assistance and suggestions on this chapter.