Disclaimer: Woulda, coulda, shoulda, but I didn't buy DBZ or any of the other things I used in this story. Well, actually, I couldn't of, since DB is almost older than me, and to be honest, I wouldn't really want to own anything on cartoon network. But that's beside the point.
Cryos and the others went deeper and deeper into the caves. The way was lit by a floating ball that Mewtwo had created. It shone a bright, but eerie, purple in the darkness.
But on the upside he was getting to catch up with his sister. He and Zeethra hadn't seen each other in several years, and there was a lot of catching up to do. She and Mewtwo had also found a universe where a tyrannical dictator much like this universe's Empire had taken control from the Republic and the Jedi Knights.
Unlike Cryos, however, she had taken a much larger hand in bringing him down and building the new government. So much so that they had appointed her prime minister. Her term in office was almost up, and although there was no doubt that she could be reelected, she planned to not run and stay on as an advisor to the new prime minister.
Cryos was very impressed. Having worked with Liea and Luke and seeing just how much work it was to run a fledgling government he wanted no part of it. He was perfectly happy cleaning up the minor disasters that seemed to be an epidemic across the New Republic.
Pahrac came back from one of his scouting trips up ahead. He had no problem with the dark. Kenbrid were born and raised in total blackness, so they were naturally good at finding their way through caves. The snake-like alien slithered over to Cryos and spoke in his extremely creepy dual voice. It had both a high part like a child and a deep growling portion to it. Even after hearing it for several years, it was eerie. "Cryos, the way ahead is blocked by a strange gateway, I cannot move it or find any way to open it."
"Well, let's take a look." Cryos created his own light ball out of an energy bomb and flew ahead. He found the gate that Pahrac had told him about, but it had opened itself. The bars that formed the door seemed to be made from bone of some kind, they had retracted into the wall and posed no problem to get past.
Cryos lead the way into the cavern past the gate, Zeethra followed, along with Mewtwo while Pahrac slithered along in the back. "I don't like this, the stones smell strange."
"Probably because this whole planet is just a big ball of space dust." Zeethra commented.
"No, it is not that. it is more like…" He stopped and scratched at the ground for a moment. "The stones live!!" He shouted.
"What are you talking about?" Cryos asked.
"We are in the gullet of a beast! We must flee!"
As if it had heard him, the bone bars, now unmistakable as teeth, slammed shut over the exit and a strange smell started to fill the cave.
"Acid!" Pahrac shouted and slithered over to Cryos. For some reason, the mutant Kelbrid had never been able to learn to fly, even though he was more than powerful enough.
Cryos picked him up by the scruff of his neck and levitated his feet off the ground. Well, that was a temporary solution.
Zeethra tried blasting the teeth, but her attacks just scattered on the shiny surface.
"Mewtwo, can you teleport us past this thing?" Cryos asked the feline creature.
No, I do not know how large it is. My powers cannot even detect it, very similar to the creature Draco named Stiney.
Meanwhile, the walls were shiny and slick with acid, and pools were starting to form on the ground.
"Well if this caves no good, we'll make a new one." Cryos blasted the wall with a small energy blast, but when the dust cleared, there was barely a scratch in the wall. He tried again with a much bigger bomb, but nothing. "That's not good…"
"Cryos," Zeethra said. "Do you remember that attack we came up with as kids?"
"Witch one?" They had been quite mischievous children, and had devised quite a few ways to cause trouble.
"The one where two energy bombs hitting the same place at the same time make a REALLY big explosion."
Cryos thought, nodded, and said "Good idea." He tossed Pahrac to Mewtwo and created a bomb. "Mewtwo, we need a target."
A tiny point of light flickered into existence a few hundred feet down the cave.
"Ok," Zeethra started.
"On the count of three," Cryos continued.
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three!"
Twin energy bombs spiraled outward at the tiny target. The first explosion was small, neither of the energy bombs were very powerful, but after a moment, a much larger explosion rocked the cave.
Something about identical energy bombs caused the explosion to resonate, causing a blast extremely well suited for destroying armor.
Bulma had figured it all out once, but all they needed to know was that it worked.
The group hovered over to the blast zone. The creature that had been trying to hold them has disintegrated from the explosion back, leaving the cave clear.
And I thought I was the psychic one here. Mewtwo commented on their synchronized countdown.
Cryos ignored him. "Lets move on, we don't have a lot of time left."
"Only ten more hours." Elfour commented, "How time seems to fly when you're saving the galaxy."
The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful, except for when Draca decided it would be funny to cause a minor cave in.
Between the dead-ends, the natural cave ins, and Draca-related mishaps, the trip took almost five hours, much longer than Cryos would have cared for.
But finally, the small, confined cave opened up into a large cavern. Pahrac sniffed and announced. "There are many creatures in the darkness, watching us."
I sense nothing. Mewtwo responded.
"Yes, but that's happened before." Zeethra said.
"Just be ready for anything." Cryos interrupted before they could start fighting.
As they walked on, the cavern got ever bigger. Soon, no matter how bright Mewtwo's light ball was they couldn't see the walls.
In the distance, they began to hear hissing and scratching sounds, like small animals shuffling. Pahrac suddenly stopped moving and let out a warning growl.
At that instant, Cryos saw something move at the edge of his vision. He turned and fired an energy blast. The resulting explosion lit up a multitude of small, twisted looking creatures. They had hands, claws, tentacles, snake-bodies, and every combination of strange appendages you could picture.
Mewtwo waved his arms, but the creatures didn't even flinch.
"Bad?" Cryos asked.
Bad. he confirmed. They are immune even to my telekinesis.
"Then I would suggest you stop trying to be fancy and just use normal attacks!" Pahrac shouted as he ripped one creature in half while another one with teeth sprouting from its wings was chewing on his back. The Kelbrid seemed to go into a frenzy, biting, slashing, even spitting acid at the little monsters.
The others weren't doing so badly either.
Cryos and Zeethra were back to back tearing them up one after another.
Mewtwo seemed to be working on something; he had levitated up over the battle and was meditating inside a force field bubble.
Suddenly, his eyes opened and the ground erupted in a sort of reverse avalanche. Small stones flew at the speed of sound as they ripped through the tiny army of genetic mistakes.
Once the stones had killed most of the creatures, they began to spiral around Cryos and the others. The remaining creatures squealed and attacked the tornado of stone, only to be torn to shreds.
Finally, only a single monster was left. It looked at its fallen comrades, seemed to think about attacking, but turned away to slither off into the darkness instead.
Mewtwo let the tornado fall and settled to the ground, momentarily drained of strength.
They all sighed in relief for about five seconds then the creature that had escaped screamed in fright from the shadows. Its cry was cut off abruptly with a sickening squish sound.
They all glared into the darkness until they began to hear footsteps. Finally, the figure was in sight.
They let out a collective gasp of shock, even Pahrac. The person in front of them was a shriveled mummy, he smiled with cracked lips, revealing shattered and yellow teeth.
"I can't stand cowardice." He said, shaking the limp creature in his hand. "But even the week serve a purpose."
The mummy squeezed the creature in his claw-like grip, and small lightning bolts began to ripple from it to his arm. They watched in horror as the creature was reduced to a dried-up husk and the mummy became something *almost* human.
Cryos cried out in shock as he recognized the face. "No," he whispered. "it's not possible…"
"Oh, but it is, Cryos. It certainly has been awhile, but no length of time is too much for Darth Posh…"
