The Deception--Chapter 24
By Elbereth in April
Vegeta finished throwing a rapid succession of ki blasts and then zoomed in with an upper-handed punch to the jaw that sent Frieza reeling into Zarbon, who kneed him in the kidneys.
Vegeta looked over at Kakkarot and met his eyes for the first time. Kakkarot waited expectantly for him to say. . . anything. "Um. . . be right back."
Kakkarot blinked as Vegeta disappeared into the hallway. That hadn't been what he was expecting.
_________ __________
Tory nodded at Vegeta's sudden appearance in front of him. "Tory, can you let up on Frieza for awhile? Safely?"
Tory considered this. Frieza had almost transformed a number of times, until Tory had subtly convinced him otherwise. Frieza hadn't thought about it recently; he seemed to believe that not transforming was his own idea, and had decided he must have a good reason for not doing it. The pressure on Tory had been getting lighter and easier.
"I think so."
Vegeta smirked. "Good. I got another job for you. Go to the science lab and meet my woman and the Queen. The onna's going to set up some sort of portal to get us all off the ship. I need you to contact our allies when she's done and tell them to go there and get out. Course most of them are here fighting, but you can sort of sift through and find the rest, can't you?"
Tory nodded.
"So. We have limited time cause this fight's going to blow up the ship soon, I think. Get going."
"Vegeta. . ." He paused, then smiled. "You're really good at this stuff, you know? Good luck."
"Thanks. You too." They exchanged grins and left.
_________ ________
Bulma, Lori, Colyte, and Queen Siane made their way to the science lab without too much incident. They were stopped once by one of Frieza's henchmen, but Siane took him out herself.
Once inside the lab, Bulma looked around. There were three scientists there, who had stopped working some time ago to watch Frieza's fight via overhead ship's monitors. The one in the middle was rooting for Frieza. The other two were silent.
"Kill the tall one with the tail," she instructed Colyte softly.
With one bound he was across the room and had sunk his claws into the unsuspecting alien's back. He gurgled a bit and died. The other two jumped away in shock.
Bulma clapped her hands. They turned to stare at her. "It's all right, Gunther, Prowlr. We're taking over. And I have a job for you to help me with."
Gunther blinked and grinned. "All right!"
Prowlr stroked the fur on his face and smiled slowly. "Very good."
They got to work.
__________ __________
Just outside the armory, Tory met up with Dodoria. Dodoria stopped him. "I heard that Vegeta broke loose and is fighting Lord Frieza! Is that true?"
Tory nodded. "Above us. You can hardly miss it."
"Well, don't just stand there, baka! Come with me to help them!" he ordered.
"You know, I could persuade you to go away. I could even get you to fight against Frieza instead of for him. But when you get right down to it, I *really* don't like you. So I think I'll just kill you instead."
This was delivered in a voice level and dangerous enough to make Dodoria flinch back. "What?"
Tory powered up.
__________ __________
Kakkarot dove out of the way of Frieza's energy blast, pulling Zarbon along with him, as he wasn't moving fast enough. He pushed Zarbon away, rolled, and came up firing. Frieza dodged.
Vegeta announced his re-entrance to the room by shouting "Final Flash!" and attacking Frieza.
Kakkarot watched him.
__________ __________
Colyte guarded the door while Lori and Siane assisted Bulma, Prowlr, and a man with a goatee who'd come out of a back room. Gunther was downloading any research they might need to take with them. She'd sent out a signal over the computer to some of the other scientists (there were 20 of them in all) who were on their side to come right away.
____________ __________
Dodoria sneered at Tory, who faced him calmly. The large pink alien flung himself at Tory, who didn't move. Three feet from him, Dodoria hit an invisible mental wall with a teeth-rattling thud, and was thrown backwards, hard.
Dodoria lumbered to his feet, shook his head a bit, then snarled. "Come and fight like a man!" He began punching at the wall.
"If you were a man, I'd fight you like one," Tory retorted. "But you're just a disgusting, boot-licking. . ."
"You're afraid to fight me face-to-face!"
Tory sighed. "All right." The wall fell abruptly, making Dodoria stagger forward. Tory double-kicked him, in the chest and then the head, and then he rammed his fist into his stomach. Dodoria doubled over and Tory judo- chopped him on the back of the neck.
Dodoria fell over. Tory stepped back and waited as he groaned and slowly got back up.
"You're just weak," Tory said. "And I'm in a hurry. So let's end this right now."
"I am not weak!" Dodoria yelled. "Nobody ever gives me the respect I deserve!"
"I know. You're smarter than you look."
"That's right!" Then he frowned.
"Yes, well, that's not saying much, you see."
Dodoria yelled again, opening his mouth very wide. Then a blast of firey energy came out of his mouth, headed for Tory. Who raised his hand, and narrowed his eyes.
The fire was deflected just inches from his face, and sprang backwards toward Dodoria, whose eyes widened in shock just before the blast hit him, knocking him against the far wall.
Tory kept his hand raised, and turned his palm facing out. Glowing ki energy blazed from it and hit Dodoria in one outward-spreading wave.
Dodoria's eyes glazed over as his body started to smoke. The energy cut through him, leaving a gaping hole in his chest, right though where his heart and lungs used to be. Clearly, they weren't there now. Dodoria was dead.
Tory brushed himself off and walked on to the science wing. When he opened the door to the lab, he found a dark, silver mirror set up against one wall and 12 scientists, including Bulma, milling around it. Then he realized it wasn't a mirror, but--something else. Flat, shiny, oval, with dials on the side that Vegeta's onna was fussing over.
"Is that the portal?" he asked Lori. She nodded, smiling at him.
"You! You're a good guy? You helped capture me!"
Tory bowed to the Saiyan Queen. "I'm sorry about that, Lady," he apologized sincerely. "Matters were out of my hands. I tried to keep you from harm, but I couldn't stop it. And I couldn't let Frieza know I was Vegeta's spy."
She smiled at him then and patted his shoulder. "That's all right, I understand. Anyway, everything will be OK now that Vegeta has begun the true battle against Frieza."
"As you say, Lady."
"Tory!" Bulma called, and he went over to her. "We're ready to open it up. Can you call all our friends here? And before we let them through, can you make sure they really *are* friends?"
He nodded. "I checked all the Saiyans already, but I'll make sure of everyone else."
"Good! Let's begin."
_____________ __________
Twenty-seven Saiyans kept bumping into each other in the crowded room as they tried to watch the fight through the hole in the ceiling.
It took a couple tries for Tory to get someone's attention. His listener turned out to be Nappa.
"Hey, it's me. You all need to come to the Woman's lab. It's time to go down to Vegeta-sei. The ship won't hold out much longer."
"But what about Prince Vegeta and Kakkarot? And Zarbon?"
"They'll be following. I've already sent most of the scientists through. . . and the cooks, a couple engineers, one of the pilots, a couple armorers, the custodians, some doctors. . . um, you get the point, the non- combatants. Now it's time for the warriors, and then they'll go last."
". . .oh."
"Can I count on you to bring the other Saiyans?"
Nappa saluted to thin air. Thenessen looked at him strangely. "Of course!" He marched forward and waved his hand in front of Van's face.
"What?"
"Tory says we all have to go to the science lab." He explained the situation to Van and the other ring-leaders. They nodded.
"If that is what the Prince wants, we'll go," Van said. He whistled and got the attention of all the others and explained everything again.
Sekot looked worried. "You're sure he won't have any problems coming after us?"
"The Prince can handle himself," Traigo responded in a reassuring tone. Kwil nodded.
So they all trooped out the door, following orders.
____________ ___________
"Kakkarot!"
Distracted, Kakkarot let Frieza nail him in the stomach with his tail. With the breath knocked out of him, it took a minute to answer. "Yeah, what, Tory?"
"Time to head out. We've been monitoring the energy from your fight, and the ship's structure has reached critical. You don't have more than three minutes to get out of here."
"How?" Kakkarot asked, feeling panicked, watching Vegeta keep Frieza pinned against the wall as Zarbon struggled to get up off the floor.
"Didn't Vegeta tell you? Through the portal Bulma set up. You three have to get down to her lab so we can all transport over to Vegeta-sei. Everyone's gone through now except me, her, the Queen, and you three. Oh, and. . ."
"Send Bulma and the Queen down now!"
"They won't go until Vegeta comes."
"But when we go, Frieza will follow!"
"Um, just a second."
Kakkarot saw Vegeta back away from Frieza as his eyes partly lost focus and knew Tory was talking to him. Vegeta scowled at what he heard. Kakkarot darted back in to keep Frieza away from Vegeta to give him time to talk.
__________ _________
"Bulma."
She lifted her head and smiled because she couldn't help it when she heard his voice. "Yes?"
"You all have to go now. You know Frieza will follow us when we come. You have to be ready on the other side to shut it down as soon as I come through. I'll hold Frieza long enough for Kakkarot and Zarbon to go, and then I'll jump through. All right?"
Bulma didn't like this at all. "But Vegeta, what if. . ."
"You know that's the way it has to be."
Bulma pouted, even though Vegeta couldn't see her. But she was a logical girl, and she saw the sense in the plan. "OK. It'll be hard convincing your mother, but OK."
__________ _________
Vegeta ended his conversation and looked around. Kakkarot was exchanging blows with the lizard, and Zarbon had just managed to stand up. He was wobbling slightly. Vegeta sidled over and told him the plan. "Right," Zarbon said.
"You lead," Vegeta ordered.
Zarbon knew he was fast running out of energy to fight, so he reluctantly agreed. He headed for the hole in the floor.
Vegeta gave him a good head start, then went to stand beside Kakkarot. 'Now for the chase,' he thought.
By Elbereth in April
Vegeta finished throwing a rapid succession of ki blasts and then zoomed in with an upper-handed punch to the jaw that sent Frieza reeling into Zarbon, who kneed him in the kidneys.
Vegeta looked over at Kakkarot and met his eyes for the first time. Kakkarot waited expectantly for him to say. . . anything. "Um. . . be right back."
Kakkarot blinked as Vegeta disappeared into the hallway. That hadn't been what he was expecting.
_________ __________
Tory nodded at Vegeta's sudden appearance in front of him. "Tory, can you let up on Frieza for awhile? Safely?"
Tory considered this. Frieza had almost transformed a number of times, until Tory had subtly convinced him otherwise. Frieza hadn't thought about it recently; he seemed to believe that not transforming was his own idea, and had decided he must have a good reason for not doing it. The pressure on Tory had been getting lighter and easier.
"I think so."
Vegeta smirked. "Good. I got another job for you. Go to the science lab and meet my woman and the Queen. The onna's going to set up some sort of portal to get us all off the ship. I need you to contact our allies when she's done and tell them to go there and get out. Course most of them are here fighting, but you can sort of sift through and find the rest, can't you?"
Tory nodded.
"So. We have limited time cause this fight's going to blow up the ship soon, I think. Get going."
"Vegeta. . ." He paused, then smiled. "You're really good at this stuff, you know? Good luck."
"Thanks. You too." They exchanged grins and left.
_________ ________
Bulma, Lori, Colyte, and Queen Siane made their way to the science lab without too much incident. They were stopped once by one of Frieza's henchmen, but Siane took him out herself.
Once inside the lab, Bulma looked around. There were three scientists there, who had stopped working some time ago to watch Frieza's fight via overhead ship's monitors. The one in the middle was rooting for Frieza. The other two were silent.
"Kill the tall one with the tail," she instructed Colyte softly.
With one bound he was across the room and had sunk his claws into the unsuspecting alien's back. He gurgled a bit and died. The other two jumped away in shock.
Bulma clapped her hands. They turned to stare at her. "It's all right, Gunther, Prowlr. We're taking over. And I have a job for you to help me with."
Gunther blinked and grinned. "All right!"
Prowlr stroked the fur on his face and smiled slowly. "Very good."
They got to work.
__________ __________
Just outside the armory, Tory met up with Dodoria. Dodoria stopped him. "I heard that Vegeta broke loose and is fighting Lord Frieza! Is that true?"
Tory nodded. "Above us. You can hardly miss it."
"Well, don't just stand there, baka! Come with me to help them!" he ordered.
"You know, I could persuade you to go away. I could even get you to fight against Frieza instead of for him. But when you get right down to it, I *really* don't like you. So I think I'll just kill you instead."
This was delivered in a voice level and dangerous enough to make Dodoria flinch back. "What?"
Tory powered up.
__________ __________
Kakkarot dove out of the way of Frieza's energy blast, pulling Zarbon along with him, as he wasn't moving fast enough. He pushed Zarbon away, rolled, and came up firing. Frieza dodged.
Vegeta announced his re-entrance to the room by shouting "Final Flash!" and attacking Frieza.
Kakkarot watched him.
__________ __________
Colyte guarded the door while Lori and Siane assisted Bulma, Prowlr, and a man with a goatee who'd come out of a back room. Gunther was downloading any research they might need to take with them. She'd sent out a signal over the computer to some of the other scientists (there were 20 of them in all) who were on their side to come right away.
____________ __________
Dodoria sneered at Tory, who faced him calmly. The large pink alien flung himself at Tory, who didn't move. Three feet from him, Dodoria hit an invisible mental wall with a teeth-rattling thud, and was thrown backwards, hard.
Dodoria lumbered to his feet, shook his head a bit, then snarled. "Come and fight like a man!" He began punching at the wall.
"If you were a man, I'd fight you like one," Tory retorted. "But you're just a disgusting, boot-licking. . ."
"You're afraid to fight me face-to-face!"
Tory sighed. "All right." The wall fell abruptly, making Dodoria stagger forward. Tory double-kicked him, in the chest and then the head, and then he rammed his fist into his stomach. Dodoria doubled over and Tory judo- chopped him on the back of the neck.
Dodoria fell over. Tory stepped back and waited as he groaned and slowly got back up.
"You're just weak," Tory said. "And I'm in a hurry. So let's end this right now."
"I am not weak!" Dodoria yelled. "Nobody ever gives me the respect I deserve!"
"I know. You're smarter than you look."
"That's right!" Then he frowned.
"Yes, well, that's not saying much, you see."
Dodoria yelled again, opening his mouth very wide. Then a blast of firey energy came out of his mouth, headed for Tory. Who raised his hand, and narrowed his eyes.
The fire was deflected just inches from his face, and sprang backwards toward Dodoria, whose eyes widened in shock just before the blast hit him, knocking him against the far wall.
Tory kept his hand raised, and turned his palm facing out. Glowing ki energy blazed from it and hit Dodoria in one outward-spreading wave.
Dodoria's eyes glazed over as his body started to smoke. The energy cut through him, leaving a gaping hole in his chest, right though where his heart and lungs used to be. Clearly, they weren't there now. Dodoria was dead.
Tory brushed himself off and walked on to the science wing. When he opened the door to the lab, he found a dark, silver mirror set up against one wall and 12 scientists, including Bulma, milling around it. Then he realized it wasn't a mirror, but--something else. Flat, shiny, oval, with dials on the side that Vegeta's onna was fussing over.
"Is that the portal?" he asked Lori. She nodded, smiling at him.
"You! You're a good guy? You helped capture me!"
Tory bowed to the Saiyan Queen. "I'm sorry about that, Lady," he apologized sincerely. "Matters were out of my hands. I tried to keep you from harm, but I couldn't stop it. And I couldn't let Frieza know I was Vegeta's spy."
She smiled at him then and patted his shoulder. "That's all right, I understand. Anyway, everything will be OK now that Vegeta has begun the true battle against Frieza."
"As you say, Lady."
"Tory!" Bulma called, and he went over to her. "We're ready to open it up. Can you call all our friends here? And before we let them through, can you make sure they really *are* friends?"
He nodded. "I checked all the Saiyans already, but I'll make sure of everyone else."
"Good! Let's begin."
_____________ __________
Twenty-seven Saiyans kept bumping into each other in the crowded room as they tried to watch the fight through the hole in the ceiling.
It took a couple tries for Tory to get someone's attention. His listener turned out to be Nappa.
"Hey, it's me. You all need to come to the Woman's lab. It's time to go down to Vegeta-sei. The ship won't hold out much longer."
"But what about Prince Vegeta and Kakkarot? And Zarbon?"
"They'll be following. I've already sent most of the scientists through. . . and the cooks, a couple engineers, one of the pilots, a couple armorers, the custodians, some doctors. . . um, you get the point, the non- combatants. Now it's time for the warriors, and then they'll go last."
". . .oh."
"Can I count on you to bring the other Saiyans?"
Nappa saluted to thin air. Thenessen looked at him strangely. "Of course!" He marched forward and waved his hand in front of Van's face.
"What?"
"Tory says we all have to go to the science lab." He explained the situation to Van and the other ring-leaders. They nodded.
"If that is what the Prince wants, we'll go," Van said. He whistled and got the attention of all the others and explained everything again.
Sekot looked worried. "You're sure he won't have any problems coming after us?"
"The Prince can handle himself," Traigo responded in a reassuring tone. Kwil nodded.
So they all trooped out the door, following orders.
____________ ___________
"Kakkarot!"
Distracted, Kakkarot let Frieza nail him in the stomach with his tail. With the breath knocked out of him, it took a minute to answer. "Yeah, what, Tory?"
"Time to head out. We've been monitoring the energy from your fight, and the ship's structure has reached critical. You don't have more than three minutes to get out of here."
"How?" Kakkarot asked, feeling panicked, watching Vegeta keep Frieza pinned against the wall as Zarbon struggled to get up off the floor.
"Didn't Vegeta tell you? Through the portal Bulma set up. You three have to get down to her lab so we can all transport over to Vegeta-sei. Everyone's gone through now except me, her, the Queen, and you three. Oh, and. . ."
"Send Bulma and the Queen down now!"
"They won't go until Vegeta comes."
"But when we go, Frieza will follow!"
"Um, just a second."
Kakkarot saw Vegeta back away from Frieza as his eyes partly lost focus and knew Tory was talking to him. Vegeta scowled at what he heard. Kakkarot darted back in to keep Frieza away from Vegeta to give him time to talk.
__________ _________
"Bulma."
She lifted her head and smiled because she couldn't help it when she heard his voice. "Yes?"
"You all have to go now. You know Frieza will follow us when we come. You have to be ready on the other side to shut it down as soon as I come through. I'll hold Frieza long enough for Kakkarot and Zarbon to go, and then I'll jump through. All right?"
Bulma didn't like this at all. "But Vegeta, what if. . ."
"You know that's the way it has to be."
Bulma pouted, even though Vegeta couldn't see her. But she was a logical girl, and she saw the sense in the plan. "OK. It'll be hard convincing your mother, but OK."
__________ _________
Vegeta ended his conversation and looked around. Kakkarot was exchanging blows with the lizard, and Zarbon had just managed to stand up. He was wobbling slightly. Vegeta sidled over and told him the plan. "Right," Zarbon said.
"You lead," Vegeta ordered.
Zarbon knew he was fast running out of energy to fight, so he reluctantly agreed. He headed for the hole in the floor.
Vegeta gave him a good head start, then went to stand beside Kakkarot. 'Now for the chase,' he thought.