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Ich Will
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The Capsule Corps Orbiter, above Earth…
Bristling, Chi Chi angrily stormed across the main cabin of the Orbiter. "That… Stupid! …Namek…" She muttered. Coming to the end of the cabin, she turned about and stomped back the other way. "'We'll send you what you need,' he says…" Chi Chi punched the wall, leaving a small dent in the aluminum paneling. It was one among many.
"Feel better?"
Chi Chi's expression contorted. "No!" She punched the wall again for emphasis. Chi Chi glowered for a moment. "Gohan!" She yelled. "Gohan, has anyone called us yet?"
Trunks' voice echoed up from rear of the ship. "He's up in the control--Ooop!"
"Found ya!" Interrupted Goten's high pitched squeal. Laughter and several thumps ensued.
"Boys!" Yelled Chi Chi, her voice taking on an unnatural base. "No fighting!"
Her threat echoed through the ship for a moment.
"Sorry…" The unseen boys sullenly replied.
Pursing her lips in frustration, Chi Chi shook her head and purposefully walked out of the cabin. After climbing down a short ladder and stepping through an open airlock, she found herself in the Orbiter's main control room. Chi Chi scowled. Several bulkheads had been opened up on the far wall, and miscellaneous circuitry and other pieces of equipment lay scattered around the floor. Gohan, however, was not in sight. "Gohan…" Chi Chi paused for a moment. "Gohan!"
"Hn?" Something thudded behind one of the bulkheads, and Gohan's gritty face appeared where a panel had been removed. "Oh!" Replied the boy. "Hi Mom! What's up?"
"We are," Chi Chi deadpanned. Gohan laughed, despite having already heard Trunks and Goten beat the joke to death. Gohan's good humor own deepened Chi Chi's scowl. "Gohan," she continued, "has Piccolo called yet?"
"Aaahhh…" Gohan eyed the side of bulkhead for a moment. "No, I don't think so."
"Has anyone called us?"
"Nope," Gohan responded, with much more certainty to his voice.
Chi Chi sighed in defeat. "Have they even bothered sending anything up at all?"
Gohan shook his head. "No. There still busy doing… Well, whatever they're doing with that Saiyan girl down there. I called them once. Bulma's mom answered, and, well, she said they were still down in the lab."
Chi Chi remained silent for a moment.
"So anything new going on up here?" Gohan cheerfully asked.
Chi Chi looked her son in the eyes. "Gohan, what on Earth are you doing?"
Gohan opened his mouth, but caught himself before he actually responded. Self consciously, he glanced around at the back of the bulkhead. "Ah, well…" The boy took one last pause. "You see Mom, I was looking through the bridge supply compartment--it's over there by the communications monitors--and I found the spec books for bridge systems. I started flipping through them, trying to figure out all the diagrams, and, uh…" Lying on his side, Gohan did his best to shrug. "Do… You need me to come out for something?"
An exasperated sigh escaped Chi Chi.
"Don't worry, Mom," Gohan hastily reassured. "If I'm reading everything right, I've only been looking around the auxiliary systems! Y'know, the back-ups."
Chi Chi's eyes narrowed. "And if you're reading something wrong?"
Gohan blinked, and pursed his lips to the side. "Er…"
"Gohan, do you remember the lecture I gave you after you 'disassembled' my oven?"
Gohan needed no further warning. "Ah, maybe I should take another look at those specs…" Gohan's head quickly disappeared behind the bulkhead.
Rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration, Chi Chi made her way back to the main cabin.
"Saiyans are tenacious," began a voice upon her arrival. "At whatever they choose to do with their lives."
Drawn from her reverie, Chi Chi cast an annoyed glance to the side. "You would know…"
"Hn." Vegeta grunted, but did not look back. The Saiyan Prince was standing in the corner of the cabin, leaning against a bulkhead, and staring intently out a porthole window. It was a post he had not abandoned since the ship had achieved a stable orbit.
"And taking apart a spaceship won't help him get into the good schools…" Her annoyance slowly fading, Chi Chi walked to the porthole beside Vegeta. The dark side of the Earth slowly rotated below them. "That's gotten you into trouble a lot, hasn't it," Chi Chi quietly observed.
"But gotten us back out as often as not," Vegeta concluded. "You humans have shown the same knack far more often than I would have expected."
Chi Chi exhaled slowly, and watched the planet turn. "…But you're still worried," she prompted.
"I would be a fool not to be." Vegeta let his statement hang in the air.
"Your son is awake, again," Chi Chi began, trying to change the subject.
"I noticed. As is yours."
"I don't think Gohan even fell asleep to begin with," muttered Chi Chi.
"Nor have you," interjected Vegeta. "Or I, before you say it."
Chi Chi blew a stray strand of hair from her face. "To be young," she muttered to herself. "None of them seem to care, much. Just another game…"
"That is only because they do not understand the situation…" Vegeta's voice trailed off. "None of them, I'm afraid."
"I'm sure Bulma's got things under control," mumbled Chi Chi.
Vegeta's voice fell to a whisper. "I wish I could believe that. I wish I believed anything right now…"
Chi Chi glanced over at the Saiyan.
"I've been thinking," mumbled Vegeta. "There has been nothing else I can do… When I was young, we knew of Black Brand Saiyans, but we had not experienced them. Nearly two hundred years had passed since our last encounter with them…"
Vegeta's faced hardened and he seemed to stare past the planet below. "It was a well known story. An asteroid sized space hulk had been spotted moving outside the gravity wells towards Vegeta-sei. It was an ancient build. Moving too fast to be adrift. A team was dispatched to intercept it. Guard Captain Deleon led sixteen of his hand-picked guards onto the hulk. The Royal elite. Equipped with the best the armories had to offer."
Chi Chi frowned, and returned her gaze to her porthole.
Vegeta grunted. "They boarded the space hulk, hoping to find out why it was behaving as it did. What they found were Neomegas. Brutes. Twenty feet tall, gray, heavily muscled, and controlled by a brain the size of a toddler's fist. Barely rational at best, and completely unsociable. They'd as soon beat each other with clubs as they would even look at each other."
Chi Chi kept her comment to herself.
"They were a space-faring trace by chance alone. They made amusing pets in certain quarters… They should not have been a threat," Vegeta concluded. He paused, still showing no sign of emotion. "No Saiyan left that ship alive."
A guttural sound escaped Vegeta's throat. "The story says the Neomegas were stronger than they should have. As royalty, I had access to the original scouter recordings of the mission. They were stronger, but that wasn't what made the difference. On that hulk, they roamed in packs…
"Deleon's soldiers began getting picked off, so he ordered them to pull back. Most of the survivors did. But one didn't. He went Oozaru, and turned and fought." Some strength began returning to Vegeta's voice. "Hearing the fight over the scouters, Deleon rushed his troops back into the fray. The Neomegas fell back under the onslaught. The Saiyans cheered. The Oozaru killed two of them before they knew what hit them…"
Vegeta fell silent for a moment. "The soldier had caught Auto Mutation Syndrome. Deleon ordered his remaining soldiers back to their shuttles. But the Neomegas cut them off. The Saiyans were scattered. They were tired, hurt, and on the verge of panic. More succumbed to the sickness.
"I listened to it once," Vegeta muttered, whispering once again. "A soldier named Napier. She was wounded, and Deleon and two others were carrying her down one of the corridors. She screamed, and they dropped her." Vegeta's voice wavered. "She was catching it. As they watched, the brand was growing along here face. She begged them to kill her. Before she lost control and it became too late. But it already was. They couldn't risk setting the virus free…"
"You said the ship was headed for your planet?" Chi Chi prompted, interrupting for the first time.
"It was," Vegeta solemnly confirmed. "The last transition we received from the guards was from Deleon himself. He relayed the audio tracks recorded by his scouter, and a personal message to the King. He told the King to stay off the space hulk. To keep everyone off the space hulk." Vegeta heaved a sigh. "Deleon took the fall. Somehow, he activated whatever was left of the ancient wreck's engines, and powered the ship into the nearest gravity well. He programmed an auto-pilot sequence to pilot the ship past Vegeta-sei, and to follow the gravity well until it hit the Badlands."
Though afraid to ask, Chi Chi did so anyway. "Badlands?"
"Sectors of space made uninhabitable by Auto Mutation Syndrome. Those particular Badlands became much bigger after Deleon's space hulk got there…"
Chi Chi swallowed, obviously steeling herself. "Well, I'm sure that won't happen here."
"You shouldn't be," Vegeta countered, a hollow note ringing in his voice. "As I said, I've been thinking…" Vegeta remained silent for a long moment. "No less than five Saiyans caught Auto Mutation Syndrome on that ship. Two in battle, two while retreating, at least one other unaccounted for. We never knew why. We Saiyans…" Vegeta's voice trailed off. "We've never figured out how we catch Auto Mutation Syndrome… Only that we do."
Vegeta paused another moment. "There's only one explanation for loosing so many warriors at once. Auto Mutation Syndrome was already on board the space hulk. The Neomegas had it… There is simply no other explanation."
Chi Chi glanced nervously to the side. "But… If they did, wouldn't one of your soldiers have recognized--"
"How?" Interrupted Vegeta. "By their black brands? Why should Auto Mutation Syndrome affect Neomegas the same way it affects Saiyans? It would not brand them the same way it does us. It would not transform them the same way. And… It would not make them act the same way…"
Chi Chi suppressed a shudder and stared coldly out the window.
"Bulma sometimes chides others for fearing what they do not understand," said Vegeta, with a haunting note to his voice. "For all she thinks she knows, the woman is still a fool. The unknown is the most dangerous element of all… There is no reason to believe that anyone down there is safe. We know nothing of how Auto Mutation Syndrome is spread. We do not know if Humans can catch it… How to know if they have…" Vegeta trailed off one last time. "Or what it will do to them when they do…"
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The plains outside of West City...
With a scowl on his face, Tien stared intently at the mesa range ahead of him. Below him lay a rolling expanse of uninhabited grasslands. Tien wanted the fight at the mesas. They were already far from any major habitations, but fights over unobstructed territory tended to move alarmingly fast. The mesas would give the fight some measure of containment...
Without any warning, Tien found himself in a headlock and forced into a rapid descent. Before he could react, the Human was driven headfirst into the ground. The impact jarred Tien, while the beast rolled away from the impact.
Spitting out topsoil, Tien pushed himself up. As he did, two gloved hands grabbed his head, and slammed it right back down. Sputtering, Tien found himself pulled back up by the back of his shirt. A forearm shot followed immediately, striking him at the base of his neck. While Tien was still down, the beast kneed him repeatedly in the back.
"Kyaaa!" Furious, Tien rolled aside an launched a ki blast at the beast. Caught off guard, the beast was knocked away. It quickly regained its footing, but not before Tien had done the same.
"I thought we had a deal," yelled Tien as he fell into a fighting stance. "We fight where I choose! What happened to the deal?!"
Making no attempt to respond, the beast snarled and charged forward. Tien was forced to block a fury of punches, being driven back in spite of himself. Taking control of the situation, Tien grabbed one of the incoming fists, and held on to it. As the beast's rhythm was thrown off, Tien twisted his whole body around and back-kicked the beast across the field.
Tien landed, panting slightly. "That... He didn't even try to talk! ...Oh, Kami, he's loosing whatever control he had..." Gritting his teeth, Tien took to the air and charged the beast.
The beast, however, was ready from him. From a crouched position, the beast extended its arm at the airborne fighter. "Hgrreeeaa!" Tien took the blast full on, and was sent sprawling upwards. The beast pressed his advantage, teleporting above Tien and ax kicking him back to the ground.
Tien landed hard, leaving a crater in the loosely packed soil. Snarling, the beast dove, preparing to ram Tien deeper into the Earth.
"Dodonpa!" Having rolled over, Tien pointed his finger and launched a thin streak of ki. Caught up in the battle lust, the beast made no attempt to dodge the attack, and let it strike it in its chest. The ensuing explosion sent the beast spiraling upward.
Fist extended, Tien rushed the beast. Before the beast could reset itself, Tien's fist crashed across its face. Tien's follow through took him past the beast, where he drew back and backhanded it back to the ground.
The beast landed on all fours, snarling furiously. Letting ki gather around its claws, the beast leapt to the air. Flying towards Tien, it threw one of the ki balls. Tien dodged it, only to be struck by the second one. Momentarily stunned, Tien was speared by the beast.
Tien grunted as he was once again driven into the ground. Regaining his breath, he raised his knees to kick the beast off of him. As he did, the beast flipped away of its own accord. Tien jumped back to his feet, only to receive a kick in the back.
Tien tumbled forward, knowing full well the beast would be ready for him when he got up. To counter this, Tien rolled forward to his feet, and immediately jumped up. Tien flipped backwards, landing behind the beast. The beast whirled around just in time to block Tien's blow. Lunging forward, the beast pressed its own attack, trying to regain the advantage. The fury of the blows drove Tien back, and the beast managed to land an inside kick.
Tien once again rolled to his feet, this time wiping some blood form the corner of his mouth. Though he hated to admit it, he was worried. The surprise of the beast's initial attack had worn off, yet the beast still managed to hold the advantage. Frantically, his mind searched for a pattern behind the beast's attack style, and a strategy that could counter it.
That's when he noticed an energy spike in the distance. An Oozaru energy spike. And a corresponding drop in a Namek ki signature. A dramatic drop. Tien's face fell. "Piccolo!"
Tien's attention was violently brought back to the fight at hand by a strong kick to his gut. With the wind knocked out of him, Tien staggered backwards. The beast wasted no time in pressing the assault, and punched Tien in the face while the human was still falling back. A succession of haymakers kept Tien reeling.
Slightly desperate, Tien let himself loose his footing, and consequently rolled backwards. As Tien kept his backwards momentum, the beast continued its approach to keep pace. Tien flipped backwards again, regaining his balance in the process.
Having gained ground due to Tein's misstep, the beast flew forward, with both arms drawn and ready. As the beast leaned into its punch, Tien grabbed the forward arm, while at the same time swiveling to the side, and grabbing the beast's other arm. Tien lowered his head, and pulled both his arms backward. Before the beast could even register what was happening, it was snapped forward, and its face cracked against the top of Tien's skull.
The beast instantly recoiled backward, screaming, and using both hands to clutch its shattered nose. Knowing the beast would soon recover, Tien leapt forward to finish the job. A roundhouse to the face sent the unsuspecting beast careening across the field.
Tien however, didn't have any chance to crow over his victory. In the distance, Piccolo's signature was just stabilizing, while the Oozaru felt more powerful than before. Growling, Tien took to the air, flying at top speed toward the new battle.
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The southern edge of the plains...
"Gheeaah!"
Piccolo snarled, once again wrenching at the Saiyan's head. His only reward was another yelp, and a backlash of power washing against him. But this time, the backlash didn't fade after the initial spike. This didn't come as any surprise to Piccolo, who had known he was fighting a loosing battle since the beginning. Not that he wouldn't try anyway.
The Saiyan's energy spiked a second time, driving Piccolo off her. Grunting, Piccolo responded with a swift kick to the girl's head. The blow knocked the girl to the ground. Yet it did nothing to counteract the power flowing into her, which was growing ever greater..
Laying in a shallow crater, the Saiyan pushed herself up. Blinking the dust out of her eyes, she stared at her hands, a look of helplessness etched on her face. "Teah... Corre teah..."
A sudden blow knocked her back down. The next thing the Saiyan saw was a battle-worn, green skinned alien staring down at her, with its hand wrapped around her neck. She let out a single startled gasped before its grip tightened, crushing her windpipe.
"You can't fight if you can't breath," growled Piccolo, glaring at the Saiyan and arguing against the inevitable. The Saiyan stared hopelessly back at him, her hands futily grasping his, and her mouth open in a silent, airless scream. Piccolo's expression only hardened. "So pass out already!"
In a last ditch effort, Piccolo powered up with everything he had. The Saiyan's aura all but vanished against his, and her eyes rolled up.
And glowed red.
A renewed surge of energy washed over Piccolo, tearing through his defenses. Screaming in pain and denial, Piccolo attempted to hold on, only to have his hand begin to burn off. The surge increased, scalding Piccolo, and flinging him towards a nearby mesa.
As he pushed himself up, Piccolo grunted in exertion. "At least," he gasped out, "I got her... Away from the city. Now we just..." Clutching his burned arm, Piccolo looked up, and his mouth dropped open. "No..."
Unlike Tien, Piccolo had seen an Oozaru before. It had been many years ago, but the sight was still ingrained in his mind. It always would be. But the monster that now stood before him was not like the Oozaru he had seen. It was, ragged, mangy, and just more feral than a regular Oozru. More importantly, it was larger, more powerful, and there was a glint of recognition in its eyes.
Its transformation complete, the Oozaru lifted its arms and roared in rage. Piccolo, as if enthralled, simply watched, frozen in place. The beast's bellowing ceased, and it looked down. As a low rumble escaped its throat, its eye locked onto Piccolo.
Stepping forward, the Oozaru opened its mouth and expelled a large blast of ki. Forced back into action, Piccolo raised his good arm and threw up a ki shield. The shield, however, was almost immediately overrun, and Piccolo was driven back into a rock outcropping.
Grunting, Piccolo struggled to escape the rubble. Throwing aside a boulder that had landed on top of him, Piccolo caught a brief glimpse of the sky. Only a second later, he was again engulfed in ki. The second blast burned away the rubble and drove Piccolo deep into the ground.
Coughing, Piccolo looked up the shaft he was now embedded in. As soon as he did, a shadow crossed over the entrance. "Hyaaah!" Raising his arm, Piccolo screamed and launched a preemptive assault.
On the surface, the beast extended its arm, and caught the blast in the palm of its hand. It bared its teeth, and a ball of its own ki began to form in the hand.
Panting in exertion, Piccolo stared at the gathering attack. He was cornered, his own blast had done nothing, and he was in no condition to receive more punishment. And with those thoughts running through his mind, Piccolo grinned.
Throwing himself to the air, Piccolo charged the beast. His movement hadn't even registered in the beast's mind when he slammed into the gathering ki ball. The unfinished attack violently exploded, sending a backlash of ki against the beast. Caught by surprise, the Oozaru staggered backwards. Before he had even recovered himself, Piccolo let loose with a ki blast of his own. This time, the beast was unable to block the blast, and was knocked to the ground.
Scrambling to its feet, the Oozaru roared furiously at Piccolo.
The Namek's response was three simple words. "Special. Beam." Pulling his fingers away from his forehead, Piccolo coldly took aim. "Cannon!"
Roaring, the Oozaru rushed heedlessly forward. But its charge was cut short when the corkscrew blast struck the shoulder of its armor. The beast staggered back a step, trying to fight through the blast. Narrowing its eyes, the beast glared at its attacker. The beast took a forced step forward, and then roared in pain as the blast breached the armor and tore through its shoulder blade.
The shoulder pad of the armor was ripped away, and the Oozaru taken off its feet and sent spinning backwards. Thoroughly spent, Piccolo cut the blast, and let his arm drop to his side. "Now," he muttered, between labored breaths, "to get rid of the tail..."
As if awoken by Piccolo's words, the Oozaru's eyes snapped open. Snarling furiously, it shoved itself to its feet, and charged Piccolo. Muscle mass had already begun reforming around the wound, and the beast seemed completely unaffected by it. For his part, the Namek could only gape in shock before the beast was upon him.
The first blow was a downward strike that drove Piccolo into the ground. In its fury, the beast's second blow fell short, crashing into the ground just in front of the Namek. The ground recoiled, tossing Piccolo back up into the air. Piccolo had the presence of mind to dodge the Oozaru's mouth, but a third sideswipe sent him careening into and through a mesa.
As he came to a halt at the base of a rock formation, Piccolo struggled to focus his eyes. Through a dust filled haze, he could see the Oozaru charging him, running almost on all fours. The beast's eyes were focused solely on him, and it was starting to foam at the mouth.
Then without warning, the beast gave out a strangled grunt, and stumbled forward, skidding across the valley floor. Pushing himself to a sitting position, Piccolo blinked and tried once again to focus his vision. The beast reared back, only to get batted to the side. Through the dust, Piccolo began to make out a white haze, which began to quickly move towards him.
"Piccolo!" Cried out Tien as he skid to a stop. "You okay?!"
Piccolo grunted in acknowledgment. "Nice timing..." Straining, Piccolo stretched out his hand. Grasping it, Tien hauled him out of the rubble.
Tien's eyes widened as he saw the condition of the Namek's other arm. "I repeat, are you all right?"
"Yeah," replied Piccolo as he tried to regain his balance. "Just give me a min--Look out!"
Throwing his weight backward, Piccolo pulled Tien and himself back against the rock outcropping. A fraction of a second later, the spot where they had been standing was engulfed in energy.
"Thanks," muttered Tien. "That's what I get for being in a hurry..."
A loud roar filled the air, and the Oozaru's head appeared over the outcropping.
Reacting on impulse, Tien jumped backwards and formed a rounded triangle between his hands. "Tri--Beam Cannon!" The blast struck the Oozaru in its face, whipping its head back and throwing it off balance. "Haaaaahhh!" Even while he recovered from the first blast's recoil, Tien fired again. The second blast struck lower, and sent the Oozaru careening across the landscape.
"Be careful, Tien!" Ordered Piccolo. "Remember, we can't kill that thing!"
Breathing heavily, Tien looked up out of the corner of his eyes. "Don't worry, Piccolo. If it can survive with that hole in its shoulder, it could survive that..."
Piccolo grunted, and steadied himself against a rock outcropping. "Fair enough. What happened to Yamcha?"
Tien's gaze fell. "I had to leave him..."
"What?!"
Tien glanced up sharply. "Look at yourself, Piccolo! You weren't going to last much longer."
"I'll be fine in a minute--"
"It wasn't going to give you a minute," barked back Tien. "Look, we can't afford to loose anyone right now. Not with Vegeta and Gohan both out of the picture. Besides, Yamcha and I were far enough away that he shouldn't be--"
Once again, the two warriors were interrupted by the Oozaru's roar.
"We'll deal with Yamcha later. We know how to take down the Saiyan, so we'll focus on her first. Take point," ordered Piccolo. "I'll back you up, in..." His voice trailing off, Piccolo flexed his injured arm, uneasily. "...A little bit..."
An angry roar punctuated Piccolo's statement.
Tien nodded uneasily. "Awright... "
Lightly holding his arm, Piccolo watched s Tien took to the air. Just as Tien cleared the outcropping, a bolt of fire flashed across the sky. Piccolo winced, and looked back up just in time to see a black blur fly above him. Explosions followed only a second later.
"...Not good," he growled to himself. Involuntarily baring his teeth, Piccolo closed his eyes and began powering up. After a moment, his aura peaked, and a green glow enveloped his injured arm. When the glow faded, the burn marks had vanished. Piccolo experimentally clenched his fist a few time, scowled, and teleported away.
Piccolo reappeared behind the Oozaru's head. Already reared back, Piccolo backhanded the beast before it had even registered his presence. The blow jarred the beast, but nonetheless did not take it off its feet. Roaring, the beast whirled around and batted Piccolo to the ground in retaliation.
"Huuuaah!" Given an opening, Tien wasted no time in fighting back. With both arms outstretched, he let out a large, barely focused ki blast. The Oozaru was struck in the chest and driven back a step. However, as soon as the blast faded, the beast stepped back forward, and spit a fireball back at Tien. Tien was unable to avoid it, and was sent sprawling across the canyon.
Wiping the dust from his mouth, Piccolo jumped back to his feet and launched his own blast at the Oozaru. To Piccolo's surprise, the beast disappeared before the blast struck it. The beast reappeared some distance away, and its fists immediately began pummeling the ground below it. It only took Piccolo a moment to realize that the Oozaru had reappeared exactly where Tien had ended up, and a fraction of a second longer to figure out what it was doing.
Piccolo was about to rush to Tien's aid when he realized a third thing. The Oozaru was completely focused on Tien, and had its back towards Piccolo. Scowling, and doing his best to suppress his power, Piccolo put two fingers to his forehead. As the blast finished charging, Piccolo broke his cover darted forward. Aiming straight at the beast's tail, Piccolo thrust out his arm and cut loose.
The Oozaru immediately screamed in pain as the blast struck the base of its tail. However, the blast failed to cut through the tail. Instead, the power from the blast seemed to just convalesce, and then began arcing up the beast's back.
By this point, Piccolo's eye were wide in concern. The Oozaru began convulsing, and the energy form Piccolo's continued attack began discharging around it. The Oozaru struggled to steady itself, then threw back its arms and roared. The beast's aura flared, and energy began climbing back across Piccolo's blast. Before Piccolo could react, the feedback struck him, and explosions ripped across the length of the battlefield.
Coughing, Piccolo found himself scorched, and embedded in a pile of rubble. The entire area was filled with a dust, and Piccolo could vaguely make out sporadic flashes in the distance. As Piccolo pulled himself to his feet, he recognized Tien's signature in the same vicinity as the flashes. Tien's, and the Oozaru's.
"HYAAAAAAAAH!!!"
A shockwave ripped across the canyon floor, clearing the dust in its wake. Piccolo looked back towards the fight, and saw the Oozaru stagger forward. Tien yelled again, and everything behind the Oozaru disappeared behind a column of energy. The beast choked out a scream, and fell forward. By the time it hit the ground, it had already reverted to its Saiyan form.
Looking past the fallen Saiyan, Piccolo saw Tien running at full speed toward the Saiyan. "Tien!" Piccolo instinctively called out. "Be careful! I don't know how, but the Saiyan is starting to--"
"I saw what happened," barked back Tien. As he ran, a red glow began forming around his hands. "But I know what I'm doing. She's not waking up again!" Rolling the Saiyan over, Tien grabbed her by the neck. The red glow around his hand pulsed through the Saiyan.
And then pulsed right back into him. Tien screamed inadvertently. Nonetheless, he kept his grip on the girl, and attempted to reassert the attack. His aura flared violently, and static bolts shot away from him.
Across the battlefield, Piccolo flinched away from the spectacle. "Tien!" He called out, shading his eyes. "Break off! Break off before--"
Before Piccolo could finish his warning, Tien's scream modulated and was then abruptly cut off. The feedback peaked, causing a massive explosion. Caught at the epicenter, Tien was driven into the heart of a nearby mesa. Further away, Piccolo was driven back a step and forced to shield his face from the debris. By the time he looked back, dust once again covered the canyon floor.
"Tien!" Piccolo called out frantically. "Are you okay?"
And angry roar answered Piccolo's call.
"No... Not again…"
Before Piccolo could react, a giant paw shot out of the dust clouds. The beast hit Piccolo in mid leap, and its momentum drove the Piccolo halfway into the ground. With dust billowing around it, the beast snarled angrily. Caught between the bedrock and the Oozaru's massive paw, Piccolo began struggling to get free. Upon seeing this, the beast seemed to snort, and then reared back its free hand.
"Geeuuuyaahhh!" In Desperation, Piccolo violently powered up. The beast recoiled in surprise, allowing Piccolo to escape its grip. Piccolo backpedaled away, and fired a few token blasts at the beast.
Enraged, but unhurt, the Oozaru leapt forward. Yet as it took to the air, so too did Piccolo. The Namek darted forward, and came up under the Oozaru. Grabbing hold of one of the articulations in the armor, Piccolo powered up, and threw all his energy into heaving the beast backwards. Overbalanced by its own momentum, Piccolo's throw sent the Oozaru crashing against a mesa.
"Tien!" Called Piccolo once again. "Wherever you are, get up! And hurry! We can't keep this--" Piccolo's ear twitched as he heard the subsonic roar of a ki surge. Instinctively, he through himself to the ground. A moment after he did, the Oozaru dashed over him.
Snarling, the beast slid to a stop. As quickly as he could Piccolo got back to his feet and into a defensive stance. Taking a few steps back, Piccolo hurriedly scanned the area, hoping to find some sign on Tien.
As if sensing Piccolo was distracted, the beast roared and began its charge. The roar instantly refocused Piccolo's attention. Gathering a ki ball in his hand, he lowered his stance, and prepared to dodge whatever the beast was planning. The beast quickened its pace and began rearing back its arm when something struck it in its back.
The Oozaru jerked forward, nearly loosing its step. Seizing the opportunity, Piccolo jumped to the side and fired off the ki blast he had been charging. The blast struck the beast in the shoulder, further off-balancing it. A third energy blast struck the beast from behind, finally taking it off its feet.
"Good work, Tien!" Congratulated Piccolo, while still keeping his eyes on the beast. "But we still need to--"
Piccolo was interrupted by an energy flare and the shattering of rocks behind him. Piccolo whirled around, and found himself facing a collapsed mesa. In the center of the rubble, a clenched fist, with a battered green and red gauntlet, had punched through a sheet of slate. Piccolo's eyes widened, and the remains of the rock shattered. As Piccolo watched, a coughing and dust covered Tien slowly dragged himself out of the rubble.
"...But..." Frantically, Piccolo glanced at the Oozaru, then back at Tien. "Then who--" Piccolo abruptly broke off as he recognized a nearby energy flare.
At the same time, across the field, the Oozaru pushed itself to its feet. Growling, it turned to face its new attacker.
Even Tien, as he braced himself against a rock outcropping, managed to sense the presence. "No..." He wheezed out. "He wasn't supposed to be here..."
Standing atop a mesa, with one arm stretched forward in an overly dramatic pose, stood a bestial figure clad in white. As the trio watched, its mouth drew back, revealing a fanged smile. "Krayback's a gritch, gritch!"
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