The Hand that
Feeds me. Chapter 13.
For the ancient Greeks, the greatest victory of all
was when your enemy, upon seeing you approach, hiked up his skirts ( by the
time of the Romans, they still hadn't invented pants), turned around dropping
his weapons and RAN!
It took him little
time to reason out where his class would be taught. After he got there, he
positioned himself outside, next to the door, waiting for the lesson to be
over. Crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, Vegeta smirked and looked
outside to pass the time.
Which in turn made him
frown; the windows were pitch-black, darkened.
That was something
he'd never seen before.
But, he didn't dwell
on it; class was over, and his fellow 'students' came pouring out of the room.
He waited till the last
batch came out. They didn't even notice him!
"Won't you at least
say hi, Mawi?"
The boy froze, turning
back slowly.
"Vegeta." was all he
said.
It was enough. Some
other boys turned to look also, then hastily moved to the side. The fat kid -
the orange Posson - kept to Mawi's side, which was good. Vegeta could take them
both.
He smirked again,
pushing off and sauntering over to Mawi. The purple boy in turn pressed his
notebook into the fat boy's arms and waited casually.
They came to a stand
off, a distance of three paces, the fat boy discretely retreating, blending in
with the gathering spectators. They stared at the other, both with a look of
confidence and complete ease that was too practiced to be real. The silence was
eerie; even the boys to the side kept quiet. Only a whisper could be heard
here, then there as some of the more ignorant asked what was up.
Finally, Mawi broke
the spell.
"You're not going to
do something stupid again, are you Vegeta?"
The Saiyi-jin prince
scowled. "No," he snapped, before remembering he held the trump card.
"That is, maybe. Why
don't we just find out?"
Mawi smirked back, his
foot moved,.. and they were at each other. Children screamed wildly, jeering
them on as the two came together.
A fake, and Mawi
lounged.
Vegeta sidestepped the
bigger boy, punching as the bigger kid lunged past, but Mawi turned, using his
elbow and following up with a hook with the other arm. The Saiyi-jin blocked
the first few punches, but finally let one pass his defence, allowing Mawi to bury
his fist in his ribcage. Vegeta almost laughed out loud, bringing up is own leg
in a roundhouse and knocking Mawi violently to the side.
Sure, he'd felt it; it
hurt. But if that was the best the stocky alien creep could do, Mawi's days
were numbered.
Turning slowly, he
watched in malevolent fascination as Mawi picked himself off the floor,
obviously favouring his bruised ribs. The rest of the boys were all screaming
now, jumping up and down, telling Mawi not to give up; they wanted the
entertainment to last.
Feeling good for the
first time in a long while, the prince cocked his head to the side as he
grinned widely.
That was enough to set
the other boy off again. It was almost too easy; Vegeta jumped, kicked, and
caught the stocky boy straight in the jaw. Bits and pieces flew as the elder
boy's head snapped back, before his whole massive body crumbled to the floor.
Mawi lay still a
moment, then coughed. Something was wrong with the shape of his head. And, as
he put his hands under his shoulders and picked himself up, little drops of
blood and other, un-identifiable stuff started dripping down.
The screaming died
down, more and more boys loosing their mirth as it was replaced with disgust.
Vegeta wasn't done yet though. Raising his hand, he gathered his ki for one
powerful, deadly blast.
Some kids murmured,
others stepped back, but the Saiyi-jin pointedly ignored them, getting ready,
turning his back just a little more. None of them had better get any ideas.
But one did.
With a blood-piercing
wail, the fat Posson ran straight at the Saiji-jin prince, still clutching the
notebook to himself. He was slow though, and Vegeta easily sidestepped, firing
the blast through fatty's back. It came straight out the other side, right
through the note-pad in a papery fountain.
"Toughhh!"
Twisting back around,
Vegeta frowned at Mawi.
The boy had made it
back to his knees, trying desperately to stand. His jaw looked all wrong and
blood was coming from his ears.
"Is that what his name
was? Don't worry." Vegeta smirked, pointing his other hand. "You will get to
join his soon." And with that, he blasted the stocky alien straight in the
face.
Mawi, or what had once
been him fell back as his head exploded in a gale of crimson blood and yellow
bone. His remains spasm-ed a bit, but Vegeta had lost interest, turning back to
the fat, orange boy. He lay trembling on the floor, one elbow supporting him as
his other hand tried to stop the bleeding. The boy was staring up at him
wide-eyed, fear and pain obvious in his eyes.
Vegeta smirked; now this
was payback.
He was interrupted
though, by murmurs and soft foot-falls behind him. Whirling around, the little
Saiyi-jin snarled at the other boys. "Who's next then?"
They all stopped as
one.
Vegeta took a step
towards them, and several stepped back.
He took another one
and they broke, ignoring the fat boy's desperate pleadings; 'Don't go, he's
mad!', and 'please, help me!'.
Turning back, Vegeta
booted it in the side, disgusted. It cried out. For some twisted reason only
the dying could understand, it tried to reason with the Saiji-jin though.
"Don't do this,
please! You mustn't do this!"
Never in his life had
the prince met such cowardice; it was degrading.
Growling, Vegeta
lifted his head, exposing his neck and the ear-to-ear scar, speaking almost
softly.
"Do you see this?"
The wild look in the
Posson's eyes showed it did.
Vegeta smirked down on
the pathetic creature. "Let's see you try breathing without a windpipe."
-"I didn't do
anything!" It wailed. "I didn't want to. You started it!"
Feeling smug, Vegeta
barked a laugh. "Oh, no my friend. You've it all wrong. I am the one
that finishes it."
The creature's eyes
looked like they were going to bounce out of their sockets. Voice shacking in
horror, it seemed to accept it's fate. "You are mad."
With a sinister grin,
Vegeta lifted his leg, bringing it down in the fat boy's throat. The Posson
made a grab for his leg, but Vegeta just brought it down again, and again until
the gurgling noises stopped. Stepping out of the purplish smudge that was the
Posson's blood, Vegeta looked for someplace to clean his boot on.
Just then, he turned
to the sound of running feet. He was surprised as a whole squadron of soldiers
greeting him, but a little less when he noticed several of his classmates
peeping out from behind the soldiers.
Vegeta was suddenly
aware that the fight had taken quite a bit out of him; his legs were shacking
and he felt a little dizzy. But even without that he knew his chances of taking
out a group of grown soldiers were pretty close to zero.
Putting on an air of
confidence all the same, Vegeta spread his legs and crossed his arms. He moved
slowly the whole time though; making sure they would not interpretate his moves
as an attack.
He smirked at the
squad-leader, who was quite obviously eyeing Vegeta's previous 'opponents',
coming to the conclusion they were both beyond rescue.
"What kept all you
guys so long?" He asked the soldier, a sadistic glint coming to his voice.
"You missed all the
fun."
Vegeta chucked at
that, but then got the looks on the soldier's their faces; he couldn't help
himself.
He threw back his head
and laughed.
Empty space. The cold
black from outside seemed to want to seep in from his space ship's window. Giant,
empty, threatening nothing, right there on the other side of the glass. Some
might find the realisation threatening. But somehow, it only gave Bardock a
sense of piece. He didn't fear the nothingness; rather, he felt a part of it
out here, like a tiger felt to be a part of the grass that was. Bardock grinned
at his own reflection, but was looking beyond it. There, just at the edge of
vision it came.
Slowly, like a duck
that had been stuffing itself from it's own accord. But it came his way all the
same. It had the appearance of being poorly designed for space travel, and ever
poorer for battle. But then, who in their right minds would attack Freeza's
flagship? No-one. No one at all, or they would have to have a death wish. But
then Saiyi-jins were never known for their intelligence. On top of that,
Bardock reflected, Freeza had just managed to drive the entire 'monkey race'
over the top. It had taken their promise for future redemption. Taken the
one boy that represented the pride of their people.
Freeza thought he
could cull the Saiyi-jins into submission. He thought he could beat them down
until none of them would ever again utter a word of rebellion. Like he'd done
to so many species, so many planets before.
But he war wrong;
there was one thing Freeza would never understand about them; a Saiyi-jin
fought. It was his life. And he would either fight with you or against you.
This, taking their crown
prince, had been the final straw, though. After this, no Saiyi-jin alive would
ever fight on the side of Freeza again.
The stupid lizard just
didn't know it yet.
Bardock checked his
frequency three times before he felt it was secure enough to call.
"Get me the king, now."
What? Saiyi-jins never had any use for manners. There was a grunt in response,
and it still took a while. But Bardock waited patiently. Finally, the King
himself answered in his ever-annoyed voice.
"What is it?" Instinctively,
the soldier sat up a little straighter.
"My king. They are
here." There was no need to specify who 'they' were. Every one knew.
The king grunted. "How
long will it take them to get here?"
-"Days. I estimate
another week."
This didn't seem to
please the king.
–"That long?" Bardock
blinked at his darkened control-panel. "Yes, my liege, at least. Is there a
problem?"
The king sighed
dejectedly. "Not really, I guess. At least it gives me time enough to recall
every one."
-"Everyone? You're
really recalling every Saiyi-jin alive?"
-"More then that. I've
even got some allies willing to chip in. Though I haven't recalled Nappa or his
squad."
That was a relieve,
and Bardock showed it. "My son's on his squad." The king didn't miss it, of
course. -"Not growing cowardly on me now, are you?"
Bardock didn't know if
the comment angered or scared him.
"No my king, but the boy's only eight, and
rather weak. He wouldn't stand much of a chance."
The king chuckled.
"Well that's not the reason I didn't recall
them, as long as you know. It's just that Nappa's so dumb he's likely to ask
Freeza shore leave to come help us. And actually mention we are going to
ambush them too."
Bardock laughed along,
feeling better for it. "He would too. He would indeed."
Their laughter died out,
and in turned awfully quiet. The king was supposed to dismiss him, of course,
but Bardock felt he had to do something back for the king. After all, even if
the man didn't admit to having done it wittedly, the king had put both Bardock's
sons their future save. His youngest had left on his purging-mission weeks ago.
And Bardock did understand; he had two sons, now save. As it stood, the king
had none. Swallowing once, he spoke up.
"So, how's the queen
doing then?"
The king growled at
that, angered. But Bardock had been expecting that. "None of your business."
With a sly grin, the
warrior put his motion forward –it was indeed a good thing the king did not see
his face, for the look would have surely betrayed him.
"Oh, my king, don't be
like that! After we pull this off well and all, I'll be a general at the very
least. Therefore, we might as well get
better acquainted now!"
-"If we pull this off."
The king spoke softly. "No matter. The woman's off somewhere, bad-tempered wench."
-"hmmm."
-"Not like I care. She's
been nothing but complaints, even after I gave her that left-wing command."
-"ehem?"
-"Did you know she's
even been roughing up guards? And she harassed the cook about some
matter or such to do with breakfast."
Bardock smiled. "Yeah.
I heard something like that."
-"Well, you soldiers gossip
too much. But it's a good thing she's made herself scarce; she was worse then
ever, last few days."
-"That's what they
told me too. They even said" Bardock gave a lopsided smile at his dashboard, "she
was acting so grouchy it was almost like she was with child."
The king sounded
angry. "Oh."
-"Well,
congratulations!"
It was quiet for a
while, but then the king was back to his old self.
-"What-ever! Mind your
own business soldier; go do something useful or something. You're dismissed!"
Bardock bit his lip. "Yes,
my king. At once."
Turning off the radio,
he let out a light chuckle. He really did like the king.
