*Chapter Six*
Gohan grabbed Anai's arm and they ran for Bulma's room. They found Bulma quivering in the corner, Chibi Trunks held tight against her. Trunks stood in front of the hole that had smashed out of the wall, defending his mother from a small pack of about thirty creatures with his sword.
The hellhounds themselves made Gohan freeze in terror. There were about the size of a black bear, with shaggy, coarse fur. Some were jet black, others orange and red, and some were even a purplish color. Their ears were long and pointed, while somehow their eyes glowed a deep, abysmal black. Their teeth were as long as a man's finger and white and yellowish saliva foamed in their huge mouths.
Nemie, Goku and Vegeta arrived just after Gohan and Anai.
"Shoot for the head!" Anai shouted. "They'll only die if you hit their heads hard enough!"
"We've got to drive them out into the open!" Nemie wasted no time in transforming to Super Saiyan and charging up an attack. She balled up her fists close to her waist before bringing her hands up in front of her face, wrists crossed and fingers curled. "AaaaahhhhhhhhHHHHHHAAAAAA!" Immediately, a huge ball of energy shot at the animals. Before it made contact with any hound, it shattered into dozens of smaller blasts. The smaller ones pelted the demons, scorching them and pushing them backwards out the hole.
Anai, Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta were not far behind in turning Super Saiyan. Trunks was a little too occupied to concentrate fully.
Anai took flight over the animals and began striking them with lots of small blazing bursts of ki, driving them out even more.
Outside, in the open, it was a whole different story. Blasts went flying, and one-by-one the dogs went down, howling in agony.
As Vegeta kicked the last one down, they all began to relax.
"Wait." Nemie said. She looked around at the dead bodies of the creatures. "This many hellhounds couldn't have wandered here on their own. Hounds need a guide when going any distance." She slowly raised her eyes to the sky and whispered a curse.
Anai followed her gaze and her breath caught in her throat. "Pichu."
There, floating twenty feet above their heads, was a woman. She was absurdly tall; maybe eight or nine feet. Her deep blue, almost black hair hung unkempt to her shoulders. Her eyes were a wild iridescent color that glinted a hundred different shades. Her skin was darkly tanned, and muscles bulged beneath her clothes.
Anai didn't wait for Pichu to do or say anything. She stepped back from the group and crouched into a fighting position. She cupped her hands and brought them to one side of her body.
"Ka...me..."
Gohan stared at her. She was charging a Kamehameha Wave!
"Ha..."
"Ah, so here are the little scoundrels. We were wondering when we'd get to see you again." Pichu chuckled, ignoring Anai's obvious power surge.
"Me..."
"Everybody down!" Nemie cried at the last second. Immediately, they all jumped out of the way.
"HA!" Anai thrust her hands forward and an immense ball of energy raced toward Pichu.
Unconcernedly, Pichu faced the sphere of yellow fire and held out one hand. She caught the blast easily and tossed it back at Anai as if it was a baseball.
Nemie was on it with a deflection burst that sent the Kamehameha Wave bouncing like a pinball machine. Eventually, it died out.
"It wasn't big enough!" Anai scolded herself.
The others immediately began attacking Pichu. Trunks punched at her face, Vegeta went for the stomach, Gohan and Goku got her from behind, and Nemie and Anai searched for an opportunity to shoot another blast.
Pichu struggled to fend off all of them, but somehow, she did it. She swatted Trunks away like he was a fly, kicked Vegeta in the face, and grabbed Gohan and Goku by the necks and swung them around before letting go. They sailed a few hundred feet before smashing into the ground.
Nemie gritted her teeth and charged up another one of her shatter attacks. She charged it up for a good thirty seconds while Trunks and Anai battled Pichu and the others began to recover.
When Nemie finally let the blast go, she roared in fierce determination of taking Pichu down. The energy ball burst, sending little fireballs in all directions. Most of them hit Pichu, but three or four missed their target and pelted Trunks and Anai.
Trunks cried out as a burst singed his cheek, and another burned his side, but he shook it off and drew his sword. Anai fired a Renzoku Energy Dan, the machine-gun like explosions actually damaging Pichu. Anai held back when Trunks dove for Pichu's head.
Pichu dodged and spun around, only to come face to face with Gohan. Goku stood directly behind him. Together, they knocked Pichu out of the air with a powerful Masenko. As she fell, Trunks came down on her with lightning speed. He sliced cleanly into her shoulder, but no sooner did the blade make contact with her skin, she disappeared.
Trunks tumbled to the ground, but turned his plummet into a roll and jumped back to his feet, sword at the ready.
"Ryukin took her back." Nemie said cautiously. "I think the threat is over for now."
"Good." Trunks sheathed his sword and rushed back into the house to see about Bulma.
Vegeta turned on Nemie as soon as Trunks was gone. "You said it would take her at least three days to create another pack of hellhounds! It only took her ONE DAY!"
"Ryukin must be siphoning energy from somewhere and feeding it into Pichu." Anai reasoned.
"What? How is that possible?" Goku asked.
"One of Ryukin's special techniques is draining energy from living things and using it to charge up other soldiers." Nemie explained. "The upside to that is he can't use it on himself. The downside is that there is no limit to his channeling powers."
"You never told us that!" Vegeta accused. "What else have you neglected to tell us? For all we know, you could be working for the enemy!"
"Who do you think you are?!" Nemie asked, anger painting her face. "You have no right to blame us!"
"On the contrary, I have every right to blame you." Vegeta countered, just as angry. "You two are the reasons all of this is happening anyway! Nothing good ever came from a woman. Two is twice as bad."
Nemie's eyes blazed with hatred now. "Just listen to yourself! You pompous, senseless, utterly BLIND FOOL!"
Vegeta snapped. He lunged at Nemie, attempting to strike her face.
Anai stepped between them at the last second and caught Vegeta's fist. "If you want to fight one of us, you've got to deal with the other one too. Step down, Vegeta, before you get in over your head."
"You two are nothing but insolent children!" He growled.
"Stop it, all of you!" Gohan ordered. "We've got to stick together! We have no hope of defeating Ryukin if we're too busy fighting each other!"
Nemie, Anai and Vegeta stood there, glaring at each other for a few minutes. Finally, Nemie relaxed.
"I'm going back to bed."
