I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to any of the music pieces you may see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 11: Saiyan, Not Mutant
Once we appeared outside, I got a good look at Zed's beast. It was a huge black snake-like dragon, at least a thousand feet long and probably two hundred in diameter. The ki coming off the thing was impressive too.
"Ah, the Saiyans show themselves. Kind of odd to find such great warriors out here. No matter, I've encountered your kind before, and you are no match for Serpentarra!" Zed declared.
"Well see about that!" Gohan yelled, powering up. Serpentarra then fired a large red eye beam straight at us. "Deflect that, it could damage the core of this world!" Gohan shouted. Trunks was on top of things as he shot a beam to counter and canceled it out.
"Gohan, let's just finish it off if we can't let a stray beam hit the planet surface! What's the point in trying to fight it if we can just deep-fry it? It's obvious that thing doesn't excel in hand to hand combat!" I shouted.
"Good plan, everyone aim at the head!" Gohan suggested.
"You hear that you ugly red queer? We're gonna have roasted dragon for lunch!" I shouted up with a grin.
"Argh! Wipe them all out Serpentarra!" Zed roared.
"Kamehame..." Gohan and Goten began.
Trunks and I started our own, "Galic gun...FIRE!"
"HAAAA!" We all fired at once, sending two red beams and two blue beams straight at the dragon's head. Right before they hit, the beast fired a large beam from its mouth to counter it, and our attack stopped gaining. They combined into a golden collision with the dragon's red beam and struggled against it.
"Guys, pour more energy into your blasts! Focus!" Gohan shouted. I dumped some more in, increasing the size of my blast, as did Trunks and the others. The dragon suddenly swelled in size from the rear and the swelling flowed forward to its mouth and spewed out a stronger beam that began to knock ours back.
"No way! I didn't think they were this powerful!" I heard Goten and Trunks shout.
"Then let's show them who they're messing with!" I yelled out, turning Super Saiyan and pouring the new ki into the blast. Both boys along with Gohan followed my lead, putting so much energy into the blast that it pushed the red beam back into the mouth of the dragon. The resulting explosion was blinding. When the smoke cleared, Serpentarra's head, as well as half its body, had been vaporized. I checked for signs of it or Zed's ki signal, but both were gone. Letting out a slight sigh, I looked over at Trunks, giving him thumbs up.
"We did it!" Goten yelled happily.
"Hey that was your first real challenge that you defeated!" Gohan pointed out.
"Please, it doesn't count. It was a joint venture," I said.
The rangers appeared behind us, "Thank you for saving this world, I don't think we could've beat that beast," Jason said, shaking Gohan's hand. Gohan, dropping out of Super mode, shook back. The other rangers came up to shake hands and give thanks, Kimberly came up to me and shook her head.
"If you come back again, work on your manners Verto. Here's an incentive," she said, bending down and planting a kiss on my cheek.No, I did not just get kissed by the pink ranger! Then again, if something positive did have to come from this, that was it. After she got back up and rejoined her group, I heard Goten and Trunks giggling.
I shot a glare at them, "What's so funny?"
"Verto got a girlfriend, Verto got a Girlfriend!" They began to chant.
Blushing a little, I let my pride try to surface, "I do not! She just caught me off guard!" I denied.
"You do too like her! Maybe mom can make another time machine or something so you can date her!" Trunks laughed at me.
"Whatever!" I muttered. Suddenly a large blue portal appeared in front of the command center.
"That must be your cue to go, make it home safe!" Jason said.
"Thanks, we will!" Gohan yelled back, entering the portal, me and the boys followed and the portal closed behind us.
"Thank god were out of there!" I said loudly.
"Oh it wasn't that bad was it?" Gohan asked.
"Live with a college roommate that watches it everyday and even cheers them on. Then you will know the true meaning of lame," I said.
"Verto's right Gohan, that was pretty stupid, the beast was kind of cool. Looked better after we cut it in half, Hahahaha!" Trunks laughed.
The portal around us shifted to red in color and opened another hole within a few seconds.
"I guess that's where to go next I suppose, lets go guys." Gohan said, exiting through the hole. I frowned slightly, So enthusiastic. We followed and the portal closed and vanished behind us. We were in a dark alley, the sky was a yellowish orange color. The buildings nearby had some serious wear and tear on them. All of a sudden we heard a loud female like scream behind us. Running in the general direction of it, we arrived at a dark corner to see five men surrounding a woman. They had removed her jacket and it looked like this was going to turn into a very bad situation for her.
"Stop right there!" Gohan shouted.
One of the men glanced up and snickered, "And what do you and your kids plan on doing about it if we don't?" He then pulled a knife from behind his back.
"Keep going and find out jerk!" Goten shouted at him. I glanced over at Goten's sudden demeanor, sensing that he had a morality problem with this particular situation. That was fine though, I did too.
"Oooo look! A scary toddler, I'm shaking in my boots!" another one taunted. The knife guy rushed at Gohan, only to get the knife knocked out of his hand by Goten before being picked up and thrown into the wall behind the other punks. Goten stood ready for the next assault, but it never came.
The other four instantly panicked, "Dude, that kid's a mutant! I bet they all are! Run!" one shouted. The rest of them grabbed their fallen comrade and fled the scene like scolded dogs.
Gohan's eyes narrowed, "Mutant?" Goten went over to the woman sitting on a pile of trash where the men dropped her.
"You okay lady?" he held out his hand to offer some help. Instead, her eyes went wide and she went running too, in the same direction of the punks.
"Someone help, a mutant is after me!" she screamed some more before running off into the distance.
"Did I just miss something?" Gohan asked.
"What got into her?" Trunks added.
"Mutants? Worn down city, skittish people. Well if the trend is any sign of things to come, I think I know where we are," I started, adding up the information, "There are humans here that develop special powers I bet. Not all of them do, so the ones that are different are referred to as mutants."
Gohan raised an eyebrow, "You mean like us?"
"No, but some of the abilities might be similar. For example one here may shoot fire from his hands, another could freeze things, a few can fly. Maybe turn into metal or manipulate odd things, control the weather. Things like that, not totally natural," I explained.
"Are the mutants bad?" Goten asked.
"Yes and no, most of them probably just seek acceptance and don't get it so they hide their powers. Some might give up on that and become evil as a result of a world that hates and doesn't understand them. Others may form similar groups, but do not promote violence, possibly fight evil mutants. Since that old wizard happened to drop us in on something I had seen on TV before, who's to say he didn't do it again. He did claim that he knew about me remember? And there's only one show I can think of about a group called the X-men. This might be they're world. The X stands for their leader Charles Xavier, a mutant in a wheelchair, he can read and control people's minds, but doesn't use his powers in a bad way. He started a school for such mutants to learn to control their abilities so they can live peacefully with normal humans. The X-men are his students that protect mankind from the evil mutants and such threats. This is my best guess though, I could be wrong," I explained.
"Another TV show eh?" Gohan asked.
"Started off as a comic book series, but yeah. A good one at least, beats the hell outta power rangers!" I added. Before Gohan could ask another question, we heard an explosion and some alarms go off in a nearby street. Rushing out to the street we saw several huge robots land on the far side of the street. A couple of rugged looking people stood on the other side, each of them had notably higher ki than any other nearby human.
"Mutants Sighted, initiating arrest!" One of the robots said.
"Oh yeah, definitely the X-men world," I remarked.
"What are those things Verto?" Gohan asked.
"Those are Sentinels, designed for capturing and or killing mutants. They can fire laser beams out their eyes and hands, not to mention they're size makes them pretty strong," I said in a low voice.
We heard people shouting from afar, "They stole food from our market! Make them pay!"
One of the supposed mutants stood forward and pleaded with the crowd, "We're just trying to live, the city has taken everything from us just because were a little different. You would be doing the same thing!"
"No I wouldn't, I'd rather shoot myself then to live as a filthy mutant!" The taunting continued for a few minutes.
"Wow, these people are really mean to them!" Goten said in awe. Just then more robots came flying in, totaling fifteen or so.
"Verto, can they beat all those robots?" Gohan asked.
"While we don't know what they can do yet, I'm guessing no." I said, thinking what he was and letting my power level rise a little. Just then a black jet flew in and landed atop one of the tall buildings. I sensed five strong ki signals exit the jet and jump down in front of us. It was the X-men themselves, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Gambit and Rogue. An absurdly good guess, Captain Claws even has the yellow spandex on.
"Looks like the tin cans are stirring up trouble again Cyc," Wolverine grunted.
Storm looked back at the four of us, "You four should run and take cover so not to be hurt!".
"Mutants detected, members of the Xavier organization. Seek and capture, destroy if necessary," one of the Sentinels flashed and beeped to its counterparts.
"Looks like you hit this one right on the head Verto," Gohan noted.
"Yeah, I hate being right sometimes," I said with a grin.
"I wonder, you ever see a show about us. It's possible right?" he asked, even though he was probably only joking. My eyes widened slightly in surprise, but I declined to answer as the battle had started.
Another Sentinel dropped in right between the X-men and us and fired laser beams out of its hands at them. And soon it was an all out battle. The mutants who were to be arrested got zapped and tied up by metal ropes from a couple of Sentinels and were taken away. The X-men were fighting the rest of them, and getting beat up a little, but taking down a few sentinels as well, especially when Gambit was throwing charged cards and Wolverine was leaping at them with his adamantium claws. One bot punched at Rogue, she caught its huge fist by the finger and proceeded in swinging it around in the air. However before she could release, the bot blasted her point blank and she dropped out of the air like a rock and hit the ground hard.
"I think we may have to help them out Gohan," I started to say. Then the same bot came down at Rogue with its huge foot, not stopping, I knew the impact would not be pretty. Before I could move though, Gohan sped in and grabbed Rogue up off the ground and carried her to safety. Laying her down gently, he turned to stare down the sentinel. The bot came after him only to get its head knocked off by Gohan's fist. When that happened, all of the bots and X-men stopped to notice, not to mention the onlookers. Then the bots started flashing and beeping again.
"Unregistered mutants sighted! Scanning with possible matches to rumored mutants...no match found! Apprehend mutants!"
"Trunks, Goten, go!" I shouted as I attacked one of the closest robots. I met it in the air and punched it in the chest plate. It flew back pretty far but came back at me and shot laser beams. I countered with a blast of my own and blew it up. One laser grazed my side, stinging a little bit, but nothing major. I did take note of it though. Another robot was standing over Cyclops, who was blasting the hell out of it with his eye beam, not having much effect at all. I sent another blast at it's neck, decapitating it and thus it exploded. Another one came toward me from above but at a sluggish pace. I flew straight at it like an arrow and plowed right through its chest and out the other side, then turned and blasted it into debris.
I looked around, Trunks and Goten were making mince meat out of the other ones as well, relieving the tired X-men. Gohan was in the process of trying to wake Rogue up, as she had been knocked unconscious. Me and the boys landed next to him as Wolverine was cutting apart the last Sentinel.
"Hey, wake up!" Gohan urged on, and as if she heard she snapped awake.
"Ooo my knight in shining armor is cute!" Rogue said cooing.
Gohan turned red, "Uh, are you ok? Miss?"
I laughed, "Careful there Gohan, she just might kiss you!" Goten and Trunks gagged immediately, Gohan just turned even redder.
"The kid is right Suga, I owe ya for saving my skin! Oh but I shouldn't, don't wanna hurt ya. Shucks, maybe next time," Rogue said, standing.
"Thanks for helping us with those sentinels, had you not been here I'm not sure if we could have beaten them all, anything we can do for fellow mutants?" Cyclops asked as he walked up. Oh shit, they think were mutants, I let the thought ring through my head for a moment. Well I might be with the ape transformation, but we're still Saiyans not from this world, the truth is better. Its not like they haven't dealt with aliens, I compromised with myself and spoke before Gohan had the chance.
"Actually Cyclops, we're not mutants, were Saiyans," I said, as simple as I could. If only things were that simple. Wolverine already had me dumped on the ground with those sharp ass claws in my face before I could react. Had I known the man-beast was going to do that, he wouldn't have gotten me on the ground. I inwardly cursed myself for allowing it to happen.
"Ok bub, start spilling the beans, what the hell is a Saiyan, and how did you know his name?" he growled.
"Well he sure cuts to the chase," Trunks said.
"He probably just guessed cause you called him Cyc, the kid could hear you no problem Wolvie. And he shoots beams out his eyes, therefore Cyclops. It ain't all that hard to figure out suga," Rogue said, pulling up on his shoulder.
Wolverine did let up a little bit, but kept his claws about a foot away from me anyway, "Well?"
"Gohan, you're better at history lessons, fill grumpy in," I snorted the last part, showing plenty of resistance given the situation.
"Ok, see what a Saiyan is..." Gohan began telling them the typical what the hell is a Saiyan answer. I noticed he left out the details about Super Saiyans, but we hadn't used that transformation here yet so no harm. Throughout a full ten minute, detail heavy conversation, I mentally prayed that he wouldn't mention anything special about me. Luckily, he didn't.
"..and then we got stuck here, right before those robots showed up," Gohan finished.
"So what do you have to defeat here?" Storm asked after introducing herself.
"That I'm not sure of, I can't sense any extremely high power levels except for around here. Unless it has something to do with those robots. They have no ki, or life energy, to sense," Gohan said, curiously tugging at that subject.
"Well the Sentinels have been very active lately. They've tracked down a lot of mutants and have them rounded up somewhere. We're not sure where though, we haven't been able to pinpoint their base," Cyclops cut in, "You may come back to the mansion with us, Professor Xavier might be able to help you out. And we'd be glad to let you stay for a little while. You did help us back there." Gohan glanced at me and the boys, and I dropped my power level ever so slightly to show my trust and approval, an older trick that Piccolo taught me. Sort of a mental nod without moving.
"Yeah that sounds fine. Can we get something to eat there, we haven't had any food for awhile and we've got quite the appetite," Gohan said with a sheepy grin on his face. I smirked slightly, wondering if Gohan was into mind reading. Though the way my stomach was singing, it wouldn't have been necessary.
"No problem, should be just enough there for one cute guy and three adorable kids. We haven't had time to go shopping lately with all the Sentinels roaming," Rogue said, giving Gohan the look over.
Gohan was blushing too much to realize what she actually said, so I handled it, "Hey guys, did Gohan forget to mention how much Saiyans eat? Let me put it simply, an army of a hundred men couldn't out eat the four of us in one meal. May I suggest the all you can eat buffet line?" Rogue and Gambit both allowed their jaws to drop, and if we could see them, I'm sure Cyclops' eyes were wide open as well. The boys giggled as Gohan put on the patented Son grin, scratching the back of his head.
"He's right, we tend to eat a little bit more than average."
"All right, we can eat in a few hours. First we return to headquarters and talk with Professor Xavier, he'll know what to do. He always does," Cyclops said once he found his voice. As if the ship heard him, the black jet dropped out of the sky and its stairs opened up.
As soon as we were in and seated, Cyclops took a seat in the front, "Ok Jean, I'll fly from here." I hadn't even noticed the extra ki signature, not to offend the X-men, but their ki signatures just weren't that high. Most of them were higher than someone like Videl or Mr. Satan, but the weaker ones couldn't be much that higher than Roshi.
Jean then turned in her chair and formally introduced herself, "Jean Gray."
Gohan started to explain what Saiyans were again before being cut off, "I already heard Gohan, no need for explanation," Jean said turning around again. When Gohan got confused on how she could've heard, I decided to test my own abilities.
"Gohan, this is Verto. Don't mind her, she has telepathic and telekinetic abilities, she probably just overheard us. In a matter or speaking," I thought to him directly. It was my first try to someone other than Piccolo, so I was glad to see it worked.
"Nice, so Piccolo taught you that? That'll be handy if we want to keep a conversation private," Gohan thought back, grinning slightly. Everyone else in the room looked confused as we nodded towards each other, even the boys.
"Yeah, I'm just trying to keep the one in yellow off our backs, he seems suspicious of everything," I replied.
"Oh okay, that makes sense," he whispered back. When I turned back, I noticed Wolverine send a glance in my direction, and then turned back around. Oh great, that plan just hit massive failure. Just what we needed, more of metal man's shit. At least he didn't hear me, though I'd bet Jean might have. I stared forward towards the red haired woman, but she didn't react physically.
After about twenty minutes, the jet descended sharply, "We're about there right now. Blackbird to X mansion," he said, pressing a button.
"McCoy here," a voice said on the other end.
"Beast, open the launch bay doors, and prepare for visitors. We'll meet in the war room."
"Actually Scott, there's something strange going on here as well. The professor is missing, and so is one of the small jets, we can talk in the war room," Beast explained. At the words "professor is missing", Wolverines claws shot out, as if to stab the words themselves.
"Okay, we will arrive in two minutes, blackbird out."
My tail unraveled itself, my curiosity stewing just as it did. Rogue and Gambit both gasped when my tail popped out of hiding around my waist.Ugh, more of the weird treatment, better get used to it. Even around people like this.
"What is that suga?" she asked.
"Oh just my tail, all Saiyans are both with tails remember? Mine just hasn't been removed," I explained.
"I thought having a tail was dangerous, that's how Gohan described it?" Storm asked from behind me.
"Me and Trunks' ...father, he let us keep ours, Trunks lost his accidentally when caught it in a door and pulled a little too hard. End of story," I raised my power level sharply before the others could ask about that lie. Gohan and Trunks accepted that, but of course Goten was confused. Recognizing the confused look and what it would lead to, I cut Goten off before he could ask the deadly question.
"Hey Goten, after we get something to eat, you wanna spar with me? I haven't had a chance to truly test my skills on anyone yet."
The confusion was instantly gone, "You mean it, really? Yay! I get to spar with Verto, I get to spar with Verto!" he chanted. I sighed,easy cure to a potentially bad problem. Jean gave me a narrow eyed glance, but just shook her head slightly and kept whatever she may have sensed to herself.
"We're entering the hanger now," Cyclops announced, though the sudden loss of daylight was a giveaway. Walking out, the hanger was pretty similar to the TV-anime series. A couple of jets and such, but nothing really stood out.
"Follow me," Jean said, taking the lead through a door and into a long hall. The floor was shiny silver, and the doors were marked with a big X on them, the hall was in an oval shape from wall to wall. Finally coming up to a big door, it opened and we stepped inside to kind of a lounge, with a large sphere in the middle of a bunch of chairs. Then I noticed two people sitting on the other side of the sphere, fussing with a computer control station of some sort. We got closer to see that one of them was huge and blue, covered in fur, Beast. The other was a teenage girl, probably about fourteen with a long yellow coat on with matching gloves. It had to be Jubilee, the girl who could shoot plasma energy from her hands. Beast stood and introduced himself and Jubilee to us, and got a crash course on what a Saiyan is in return.
"So Beast, any word from the professor?" Rogue asked.
"Only this message, and we haven't been able to listen to it yet. It was encrypted to turn on once Cyclops entered his command codes," the big blue man said. Cyclops went around to the control station and beckoned us take a seat around the sphere. He punched in a few buttons and the sphere blipped on, showing a three dimensional image of a bald man, and he spoke slowly.
"Greetings X-men, I have left on a journey to meet with Magneto. It seems he wants to discuss the Sentinel problem, and something else. As much as I would have wanted you to come with, you were needed elsewhere. I know of your Saiyan friends arrival, and I will assist once this chore is done. If I am not heard from within twenty-four hours, come to these ordinances in Tibet. It's where Magneto requested us meet. Allow your Saiyan friends to help in any endeavors you undertake, they can assist and protect you should the need arise, until then, farewell," And the head vanished.
"We found the message about forty minutes ago when Jubilee noticed that one of the jets were gone. He's been gone for about an hour according to the hanger's computer," Beast said solemnly.
My eyes narrowed almost in tune with Gohan's, "Gohan, have we even been here an hour?"
He kept his eyes forward, "No. How could anyone have known we would be here?"
"Good question," I replied silently.
"Now we have to wait for him to call or not call. I say we all fly down there and tear Magneto a new one. I bet he's just trying to get the Professor in a vulnerable spot to kill him, he's been trying to for years," Wolverine suggested, letting his claws fly out again.
"No Logan, best we wait for the news. If none comes then we go. Plus the Sentinels have been attacking mutants every night, we will be needed here," Storm said.
"So just sit around and wait, worst plan ever!" he grumbled as his claws retracted.
"Maybe you just need to cool it for awhile. Logan and Jubilee, take our guests to the nearest buffet line. From what I hear you better bring plenty of money as well," Cyclops ordered.
"Fine, we can take my jeep," said Wolverine, removing his yellow hood and disappearing for a minute before returning in street clothes. His blue hair stuck up in a fashion that almost rivaled a Saiyan's hair.
"Lets go get you monkeys fed," he said.
Gohan and I growled immediately, "Don't call us that," Gohan said. Logan gave off a slightly surprised glance, as if he hadn't expected that reaction from anyone other than the mirror.
"Don't call us monkeys, it insults the Saiyan heritage," I finished.
"Whatever," he grunted. I scowled after Logan said that, but shrugged it off and followed him to an elevator that took us upstairs and into a huge garage.
"The one over there," Logan said, pointing out an orange jeep. We piled in the backseat, and needless to say, it was a tight fit. I sat on one side, Gohan on the other side with Goten sitting on his lap, Trunks crammed onto the side of my seat and sat about halfway on it, mostly in the middle of the jeep. We had a silent drive for the first five minutes with that insult of Logan's was still fresh in the air.
Finally Jubilee spoke up, "So what kind of powers do you guys have? The kids seem a little young to have them."
"We're born with our powers and abilities, and really it isn't anything a normal human can't do with some time. All that we need to do is train to develop and use them correctly," Gohan explained. Goten was bouncing on his lap a little, happy to be eating soon.
"So what all can you guys do?" she pressed.
"Fly, super strength and speed, shoot energy blasts, and fight. Like I said, any human could do all that to with the proper training. The only thing with us is that it's sort of in our blood. We always love a good challenge, no matter how dangerous it is," Gohan laughed a little at the last part.
Jubilee let that information absorb, but before she could ask another question Logan stopped abruptly, "We're here."
Power levels:
Serpentarra: 170,000,000
Kamehameha-Galic Gun blast: 350,000,000
Mutants: 150-30,000(varies with abilities)
Sentinels: 25,000 each