Chapter Nine:
Looking up from their new vantage point, flat on their backs, the teenagers saw Osiris, dusty but not the least bit harmed, floating inside a globe of electric blue ki. And his power was rising.
"I will give you two ten seconds to run or power up." the vampire said, his confident smirk replaced with a blank look. "That is all the mercy I give you. But if you run, you had better hide very well. I'll come for you."
They stood up. Trunks looked at Goten. Goten looked at Trunks. If they had learned nothing else from their fathers, they had learned about honor. And saiyajin pride.
Running was cowardly. They didn't consider it for a second.
Trunks looked back up at Osiris. "That ten seconds is the worst mistake you ever made, my friend."
Osiris didn't look afraid in the least. "Seven seconds now, boy."
Not wasting another second, they put their arms out in the pose one more time, falling into the perfectly remembered rhythm, even after all these years.
"Ready?"
Goten nodded to his friend.
"Fuuu..." they stepped toward each other.
Osiris gazed at them. Their ten seconds were up, actually. But he was curious as to what these boys would do to try and save themselves.
"Sion!" they reached the middle and their arms snapped aside in perfect symmetry.
"HA!!" back to the middle, their fingers met, and a huge dome of ki sprang almost out of no where, obscuring them from sight.
But Osiris caught a brief glimpse of two figures becoming one, and that figure suddenly become powerful.
"Kakarott!!" Vegeta screamed. Goku's eyes were glazed over, far away. He hadn't moved for close to five minutes. The whole time, Vegeta had been shouting at him.
Dende was sitting next to Vegeta, a very concerned look on his face as he glanced over Goku for the hundredth time, wondering what had happened.
"Is shouting really required, Vegeta?" he asked, noticeably wincing at Vegeta's voice. "He's not coming around. I don't have any idea what's happened to him, but that isn't helping."
"Shut up, namek!" Vegeta growled. "It's not as if your doing anything to help either!"
"Here, try this!" old Kaio-shin said, and another crystal ball instantly appeared and floated over to Vegeta, Kaio-bit, Dende, and King Kai, who were all watching Goku. In it was a very clear picture of the battle on earth.
"What good will that do, you old fart!?" Vegeta yelled. He was much more worried about Goku than he intended to let on, and that made him more angry than he usually got anymore. "We're trying to revive Kakarott, not watch that idiot on earth!"
"Just look into the ball. You'll see." he said with a smile.
Vegeta, grumbling but curious as to what the old Kai meant, did as he said, and promptly gasped out loud.
"Kakarott!" he yelled out, mingled with the startled gasps of the others.
Clearly visible in the crystal ball, a wavering wraith of Goku floated next to Osiris. And it was clear from the way the vampire acted that Goku wasn't visible to him at all.
"What is going on!?" Vegeta yelled. "How can Kakarott be there and here at the same time!? That's not possible!"
"It's just astral projection." old Kaio-shin said with a sigh. "An easy enough trick, if you know how. Our vampire friend would be able to see him, though, if he really concentrated."
"Astral projection?" Vegeta said, confused. "You mean, out of body teleportation?"
"That's what he means all right!" King Kai said with a smile. "Wow, I didn't know Goku had been training his mind so much! That's a very hard technique for a mortal to learn, especially that fast. It has nothing to do with ki, only with your mind. I wonder how he was able to do it so well?"
"Perhaps it was brought on when he saw what was happening to Goten?" Dende speculated. "I mean, could extreme emotion have such an effect?"
King Kai shrugged. "I suppose anything's possible. But that's still amazing! Most gods can't even do that trick."
"So..." Vegeta began. "Kakarott would be invisible to all mortal eyes?"
This time Kaio-bit interjected. "Yes, he would, unless a mortal was of a different origin, magical. For instance, I believe his student Uubu may be able to see his spirit faintly, because he is a reincarnated being. And if Osiris were paying attention to anyone other than Goten and Trunks, he could definitely see it. But the only way someone can combat a spirit is to leave their own body, and that I'm certain Osiris won't do, not if Trunks and Goten are around to destroy it once he's out."
Vegeta nodded, although little of what Kaio-bit had said mattered to him. All he had wanted to know was if Goten and Trunks would be able to see him. Suffice to say that they would not.
"But what good can he possibly do?" Vegeta asked.
Kaio-bit was about to answer, but suddenly a bright flash of light filled the crystal, and they all turned their eyes towards it.
Osiris looked with curiosity into the bright globe of light. He had seen something like this before, although he couldn't remember where. It was some sort of power up, at least that much was certain. The amount of ki inside the bubble had skyrocketed from the boy's previous levels. Perhaps it would be enough to give him a real fight, if he kept down to half power or less.
Glancing down again, he saw that the ki was beginning to recede, into the shape of one fighter.
So, he thought, it's a fusion technique, not a power up at all.
The bright light now receded to form an aura, surrounding a teenage boy with spiky black hair, striped with lavender. The boy was wearing a vest with yellow trim and white pants, tied at the calf.
"Hey, hey, hey!!" he yelled. "Gotenks is back, and badder than ever!" Gotenks flashed a V with two fingers. "Time to do some serious ass kickin'!"
"What is this?" Osiris said after a pause. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. "I can't decide wether to be annoyed or to laugh."
Gotenks frowned and showed both middle fingers to the vampire. "Don't worry, you'll be crying soon, asshole, then you won't have to worry about it!"
One eyebrow raised itself on the vampire's forehead. "You must be joking. With that pitiful energy level of yours?"
Gotenks only smiled. "Oh, don't worry about that. I've got tons of power, just waiting for me to bring it out!"
"Well, get it over with already." the vampire said, now a trifle annoyed. "Your ten seconds is long up, you know. Your surviving now on my patience!"
Without a word, Gotenks' hair immediately flashed gold, his muscles expanded slightly, and his eyes went blue-green. But he didn't stop.
"HaaaaAAAAAAAA....!!!!" he began to scream, his fists clenched at his sides, muscles knotted in effort. The aura that surrounded him thickened and swirled as his hair began to grow. The energy swirled inward, faster and faster.
A smile spread across Osiris' face. "Well, well. It seems I will get a fight after all." the complete absence of emotion that had plagued him after being nearly killed by Gohan had edged away as the prospect of a good fight had become more possible, and now it was almost totally eclipsed by expectation.
But before he got a chance to think further on it, he suddenly noticed the presence of Son Goku's spirit immediately next to him, the feeling of his ki hitting him like a brick wall.
"What the hell..." he began, and then pain eclipsed his mind.
Vegeta and the gods watched in mixed awe and horror as Goku's spirit literally clamped onto Osiris' head and began to crush.
"What is he doing!?" Vegeta yelled out. Since the whole thing had started, Vegeta hadn't lowered his voice past a dull roar.
"He's trying to put as much pain on Osiris' consciousness as possible." Dende said in sudden realization. "Right?"
King Kai nodded. "He's trying to force him from his body, I think, so that Gotenks can destroy it with no resistance. Then Osiris' spirit will be without a body, much less dangerous, maybe even harmless."
Vegeta said nothing, just continued to stare in awe at the crystal ball.
Goku had actually been practicing the art of astral projection for quite some time. But it was hard, and he had only gotten complete control of it just now, brought on by the shock of seeing Goten hurt, he had simply willed himself there.
He had been able to intrude in the vampire's mind without much trouble, and it had worked like a charm. Seeing someone that was able to break into his trance had apparently startled Osiris so badly that he had stopped sucking the blood out of Goten soon enough to leave him alive.
What he was doing now was more of a gamble. He didn't know if he could force Osiris from his body, no matter how much pain he put him in, and he certainly didn't know what he would do once the vampire was out.
But the boys were almost done powering up.
And at the same second, Osiris' screams stopped.
You should have been smarter than to get into a psychic battle with a vampire, whoever you are. The voice came in Goku's head.
Then he felt a huge force act on him, and he was painfully thrust away, so fast that the earth didn't just fade, it disappeared. And he was rocketed back into his body so hard that it threw him and dug a furrow in the dirt.
the first word he heard when he opened his eyes was a familiar one.
"Kakarott!" Vegeta yelled, and ran over to the only other pure blooded saiyajin left alive. "What the hell happened!?"
Goku sat painfully up, and saw the reason for Vegeta's worry. His spirit had been thrown back to his body with such force that when he had reentered it, he had been knocked to the ground and slid for almost twenty feet, leaving a long trench underneath him.
"Geeze, I've got one hell of a headache." he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "That.... hurt."
"Will you shut up about your hollow head and tell me what happened!?" Vegeta was practically screaming.
Goku stopped rubbing his eyes and glanced up. "He's strong, Kami, he's strong." he said, wincing. "As soon as he got over being surprised, he just threw me back like I was a fly."
Goku stood up, completely ignoring the other's questions for the moment, and walked over to the crystal ball, where he promptly sat back down and watched the fight.
"I hope those boys are careful." he said with a sigh.
Gotenks was finished powering up. He stood at level three, looking up at Osiris curiously.
The vampire was grumbling and cursing while rubbing his head, as if he had a migraine. Since the boys weren't able to see Goku's spirit, they had no idea what had taken place. All they saw was Osiris with a headache.
"What's wrong with you!?" the fused warrior called up. "My power giving you a headache?" he chuckled.
Osiris put his hands down with a grimace. "You must be joking. That pathetic power level?"
Gotenks' smile became a snarl. "I'll show you how pathetic it is."
"Words won't win this fight for you, you know." the vampire smirked and crossed his arms, looking down at the boys.
"Very true." Gotenks flew upwards even as the words left his mouth.
"Gohan." Uubu began, having to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind. "Are they fighting yet?"
Gohan shook his head. "Something must be going on, but I can't tell. I don't think they're fighting."
Gohan and Uubu had quickly outdistanced the others, simply because their higher ki power made them faster, and they were in a hurry to get to the battle field. The ki sensing situation seemed to be getting a little better, and they could sense that Gotenks was the one getting ready to fight Osiris.
Arda flew along beside the two warriors, arms crossed, staring ahead into the rain that was now coming down in sheets. He had no aura, and didn't seem to be using ki to fly at all. Consequentially, he was the only one who was wet. He hadn't said a word since they started flying, but now he broke the silence.
"King Kai told me that warriors on this planet tend to value honor above all else." he glanced sidelong at Gohan. "Is that true?"
The demi saiyajin thought for a second, then nodded. "I guess so."
Arda nodded his head. "And you find it more honorable to fight enemies one on one, and let them power up, right?"
Gohan remembered his father allowing Frieza to power up to 100%, almost costing himself the victory, and nodded again.
"Well, I'm going to ask you to throw all that out the window for this battle."
Gohan had been staring off into the storm, but now he glanced over at the vampire, wide eyed.
"What do you mean? Why?"
"Well, for one thing," Arda began with a sigh, "you can't possibly conceive of how powerful Osiris is at full strength. You beat him when he was fighting me, but he was only at half power then. For another, even if your powers were perfectly even, he's much too fast. Trust me, it's very unpleasant to have your jaw broken by a hand you never saw."
He turned to look at Gohan again and smiled. "But you should already know that."
"Yeah." Gohan said shortly.
"I don't expect you to do it." Arda said. "If honor means that much to you. But I had to at least ask, and let you know what we're in for."
Gohan nodded slightly, but he said nothing. They were almost at the battle field.
"How far back are the others?" Uubu asked suddenly.
"Pretty far." Gohan said. "But it doesn't matter. The best thing we can do is finish this quickly so the others don't have to get involved."
"Yes." Arda said. "Your friends are strong, but in this situation, they would only be in the way."
Gohan looked reproachfully at the vampire. "What about you?" he said, called upon to defend his friends. "As I recall, you didn't fare so well against him yourself... Arda, wasn't it?"
Arda looked back at him. "Did I say I was going to fight?"
"What?" Gohan said, startled. "Then why the hell did you come with us!?"
Soft laughter drifted over, barely audible over the wind. "I'm kidding." he said shortly. "I have a score to settle with Osiris. A number of scores, actually. But I have other... talents that could be of use. If you recall, I did save your life less than an hour ago... Gohan, wasn't it?" he said, smirking as he intentionally mocked the saiyajin.
Gohan growled. "You're pushing it, you know? This isn't the time."
Arda put his hands in front of him in a gesture of peace, still smiling. "Calm down. I'm in just as much danger here as you, remember? Probably more." he said, the smile beginning to waver. "You at least have the power to protect yourself. He's quite a bit stronger than me."
Gohan sighed heavily. "Still, you just show up and already your mocking me?"
"Sorry." Arda said shortly, crossing his arms again.
"Hnn." Gohan grunted and turned away.
Gotenks was very strong. Probably the strongest of all the people on earth except for Gohan and Uubu. But when he flew at Osiris, he still found himself sailing back towards the earth as a fist as white and as hard as solid marble hit his face faster than the eye could see.
There was a tremendous crash as the fused warrior hit the ground: feet first. He had managed to right himself on the way down, but a great deal of the cockiness had left his voice. Now he was back where he had started from, slowly standing and looking up at the smiling vampire.
"Lucky punch!" he called out. "I could have blocked that, but I'm holding back."
This was, of course, a complete bluff as Gotenks tried to distract the vampire for long enough to think of a sufficient strategy. He had flown as fast as he possibly could, but apparently Osiris was faster.
"I guess I'll have to lower my power even more." he said in an exasperated sense, mostly to get Gotenks angry. He really had no intention of lowering his power, because then if any of the boy's allies showed up, he would be too low to power up in time to fight. But it was a bit fun taunting the boy.
"You just keep talking while I start fighting." Gotenks laughed, and flew back up again.
Osiris' eyes widened a bit with his smile. The boy was trying another frontal assault when the first had already failed? Stupid.
The fused boys were only feet away, and Osiris drew back his fist with a short sigh.
His breath stopped suddenly, however, when Gotenks suddenly pulled up, and spit something right in Osiris' face. At first he thought the boy was just mocking him, spitting in his face, but then he realized that this was impossible, because the boy had spit out something as big as he was himself.
The face of the Kamikaze Ghost had just formed when it crashed into him and exploded.
He cried out in pain and was driven back several feet by the blast, Gotenks' hysterical laughter following him for the span of seconds that felt like hours.
"Bastard..." he cursed under his breath. The explosion had caused momentary pain, but no real harm. The real problem was that he was quite suddenly very angry.
I have let my guard down too many times today, he mentally told himself, his quick vampiric brain managing complex trains if thought in seconds. I have no idea how so many powerful mortals all ended up on one planet, but I have underestimated them for the last time. Now, boy, you will be the first to know the real wrath of the vampire Osiris!!
His eyes had been closed against the blast, now they snapped open, and he dived through the smoke, smelling Gotenks' warm, mortal scent and feeling his ki, not needing to see the boy to know where he was.
He swung his open hand, and smiled as it closed around flesh. The boy's laughter was instantly cut off. Osiris guessed he had hit his mark and grabbed the neck.
He drove straight up, out of the smoke and mist that still lingered from the blast and into the semi-clear air. The rain was still pouring down, dripping off of Osiris like he was made of stone and sizzling as it fell into Gotenks' aura.
"Let go of me you asshole!" the boy screamed, clawing at Osiris' arm that held him prisoner by his neck. It was useless. He might as well have been clawing at wood.
"Foolish." Osiris whispered, his face pushed forward only inches from the boy's. "You are strong, young one, but you have no sense. You lack effective fighting style."
"I'll show you effective fighting style, you piece of shit LET ME GO!!!" Gotenks screamed and began to writhe and kick like a madman.
Osiris grimaced at the display, then calmly pulled his arm back and slammed his fist into Gotenks' face.
Gotenks flew back out of Osiris hand from the force of the blow, blood gushing from Kami knew how many facial wounds. But he was strong, as Osiris had said, and tough. Before he had moved twenty yards he stopped himself, and only a fraction of a second passed before he reversed his direction and flew back at his opponent.
The vampire smirked, prepared long before Gotenks got to him.
Gotenks was almost on top of Osiris when the boy's vision suddenly seemed to double, and he saw two vampires. He realized his mistake too late and stopped himself right between the two split forms, falling into the trap.
There was a brief chuckle, and both Osiris' irises began to spin.
Then the immeasurable pain filled his head, he fell out of any super saiyajin form, and blacked out.
Osiris could have finished off Trunks and Goten right there, but just as Gotenks blacked out, he sensed the closing kis of the three warriors at the head of the pack.
Gohan, Uubu, and Arda.
His smile fell, and he let the force that was torturing Gotenks stop, the boy falling, unheeded, to the ground. The two Osirises wordlessly and expressionlessly merged back together into one.
"So, they're coming back for more." he said quietly to himself, but this time he didn't smile.
Goku looked impatiently at the large hourglass Kaio-bit had conjured up. It's sand was just over half gone. Three hours to go until he could get back to earth.
He was even more agitated because the situation with sensing ki had improved a little. Just enough so that they could get vague sense of what was going on outside the frame of the crystal ball, but not quite enough to teleport.
Goku slammed his fist against the ground in frustration, causing the entire small planet to shake, disturbing everyone but Vegeta, who was sitting silently under a tree, far away from everyone but Goku.
"Kakarott, I don't recall you ever beating me in the matter of temper, but you sure must be trying." he looked sideways at the other saiyajin. They were sitting away from the gods, in the middle of the field where Gohan had first been given his Mystic ability.
"I just can't stand it." Goku said. "We're stuck up here helplessly, while everyone else has to fight for their lives! How can you stand it, Vegeta!?"
The saiyajin prince shrugged. "I was thinking about a hot meal, actually. What good will it do to worry about things beyond our control?"
Goku looked for a second at Vegeta, then sighed. "I thought I was supposed to be the calm one."
"Just keep trying, Kakarott." Vegeta smirked and leaned back against the tree.
In the silent Lower Hells, Morgoth sat silently in wait, staring at the spot where the doorway would appear.
The ground already was shooting up lightning, and in the flashed he could see the planet that the Golden Moon would appear on. Something was already happening there, apparently. He saw little snatches of a battle in the ray of lightning.
Three hours, no more.
And he would put a stop to whatever idiotic little disagreement they had as he ripped their throats out. He would laugh as their blood leaked out onto the soil of their planet, the planet they may even be fighting to save now.
He reached up and stroked the back of one of the gluttons with one foot long talon, a smile spreading across his face, the pits of fire in each eye glowing a little brighter.
It was going to be more fun than he had had in years.