DISCLAIMER: Neither DBZ or Sailor Moon are owned by me. Any characters in this story are the property of their original creators. (Example... Akira Toriyama owns Trunks, Naoko Takeuchi owns Ami, and I own Rosemary, Angelica, or Chamomile, though I'd be willing to trade. XD)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a sequel to Love In A Ruined World, my Mirai Trunks/Ami romance fic from last year. (The Trunks in this fanfic is Mirai Trunks, and the Bulma in this fic is from Mirai Trunks' future timeline.) If you haven't read Love In A Ruined World, you can still read this, but you might be confused, so if you want to read the first fic in the series, it's in my profile. In the continuity of both series, this fic takes place after Mirai Trunks goes back to the future after the Cell Saga, and after the SuperS season in the Sailor Moon continuum.
Reviewer Thanks-
Erica: Trunks vs. Pandemonium... you should like very, very much. I promise... and don't worry, I think I just made fun of Robbie like, a lot. Or something.
Zyppora: It is a good movie... I'm glad you like the chapter! Pandemonium and Trunks will be a one-on-one battle, don't worry...
GracedAngel1854: Yay! Yes, you must see the movie... ALL must see the movie! No, wait, all must read my fic...
Robbie: I don't suck... water sucks! It really really sucks! Waaaaaater sucks! It really really sucks! Gaaaaaaaaaaaatorade.... Gaaaaaaaaaaaatorade...
Gabby: Thanks for telling everyone! hugs Now that my monitor's back, I'm ready to continue! This'll be a great chapter, I promise!
---
For several seconds, neither Trunks nor Pandemonium made an action, or even spoke a single word. They stood silent, staring across the short, yet seemingly eternally vast distance between the two of them. And then, without warning, Trunks made the first move, soaring across the vast expanse at an incredible velocity and sending a screaming kick at Pandemonium's head. Pandemonium smirked and moved to the side in the split-second between the moment when Trunks took first flight and when his kick was launched. As Trunks' leg soared through empty space, his other leg leapt off of the ground and came toward Pandemonium from the other side. This time, Pandemonium grabbed Trunks' boot with both hands, stopping Trunks' leg in mid-air and briefly upsetting Trunks' balance. Trunks was undeterred as he pushed his left leg even further toward Pandemonium's head, as Pandemonium could be seen straining to hold it back. With a final push, Trunks knocked Pandemonium's hand away, but before his leg could come swooping toward the warrior's head, Pandemonium leapt back and gave a tiny smirk, causing Trunks to mutter a singular curse under his breath.
"Those kicks were impressive, I'll admit," Pandemonium said. "It took quite a bit of strength to hold back the second one... you're proving to be quite an interesting challenge."
Trunks didn't dignify Pandemonium's taunt with a verbal response, instead choosing to point his arms at Pandemonium and launch a flurry of several ki blasts. Pandemonium smiled and extended his own arm, which began to shine brightly with a lavender glow. As Trunks' blasts hurtled toward him, Pandemonium fired several large magical energy spheres out of his extended palm. Trunks watched as his ki blasts were sucked into Pandemonium's energy spheres, which then detonated with a bright, purple flash, temporarily blinding Trunks and showering him with both magical and ki-based energy. When he lifted his head once more, he could hear Pandemonium's voice calling behind him.
"I hope you liked that last attack, Trunks... and I hope you like this even more!"
Trunks turned around and looked up. He could see Pandemonium hovering just next to him, ready to strike. However, Trunks quickly realized that it would be too late to defend himself, as Pandemonium's right foot came crashing into his face quicker than even the mighty Ascended Saiyan could respond. The force of the kick sent Trunks skidding back several feet before he brought himself to a stop, still standing, but obviously stunned.
"Why didn't I see that coming?" Trunks thought, wiping away a thin stream of blood that was now trickling down from his lower lip. "Pandemonium's magical energy aura must be extremely intense, but there are instances that I can't even sense him... what in the world is going on?"
---
Down below on Earth, the siege of Nihimo Town was just beginning, and the Senshi, Rose, Angela, and Cammy could only watch in horror as Exeter's uniformed squads began to attack the townspeople, some even breaking into nearby houses. Patrick watched as well, with a grim look on his face, but not a fearful one like the Senshi and the girls were displaying.
"We've got to stop this right now!" Sailor Moon declared. "We can't let anyone in this village get hurt!"
Sailor Mars nodded, and then fired a bright beam of flames at two fighters who were about to attack a group of children. The flames disintegrated the fighters in an instant, and the children quickly ran back inside their house.
"These guys aren't going to be very hard to beat," said Sailor Mercury. "The problem is that there are so many of them..."
"And we're surrounded!" Cammy shrieked. A group of about fifty of the fighters had encircled the nine heroes, and were tightly closing around them, guns at the ready. Everyone, including Patrick, took fighting stances, preparing for the worst.
"Oh, Trunks..." Sailor Mercury thought, briefly looking up into the sky, and the space beyond, where she knew her beloved Trunks would be fighting to save the people below. "My only hope is that you will come back safely... I promise we'll take care of everything down here..."
---
Pandemonium and Trunks were back to square one, facing each other at a distance of just a few feet apart. The only difference now was that Trunks had a bloody lower lip, which didn't seem to effect Trunks as he prepared to make his next strike. But it was Pandemonium who struck next, pointing both of his arms toward Trunks and firing off several of the lavender spheres which he'd used to absorb Trunks' ki blasts. As the spheres rushed toward him, an idea immediately rushed into Trunks' brain.
"If he can absorb my blasts with those purple things, maybe I can absorb his purple things with my blasts!" Trunks thought. He pointed his arms at the spheres and fired several blasts of ki, hoping that his theory was correct. The blasts rushed forward and were immediately swallowed up by Pandemonium's magical energy spheres, which then coalesced into one large, lavender globe. Trunks gasped as he realized he'd committed a potentially fatal error, and then screamed as the blast hit his body and detonated, engulfing him with potent magical energy and causing a searing wave of pain to course through his flesh. "Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
Through the mist created by the aftermath of the blast, Trunks could see Pandemonium swooping toward him, ready to strike yet another blow. Trunks shook off the intense pain caused by Pandemonium's earlier blast, realizing that to let Pandemonium strike him yet again may tip the balance of the fight overwhelmingly in Pandemonium's favor, and that was something that Trunks just couldn't let happen. At the last moment, he ducked under Pandemonium, driving his fist into the warrior's unsuspecting stomach. Pandemonium, clearly surprised by Trunks' blow, stopped in mid-flight and doubled over with a sharp intake of breath. Trunks seized this opportunity as well, leaping above Pandemonium and driving his elbow into his opponent's spine, causing Pandemonium to fall to the ground on his knees, still gasping for breath. Now that the mist was gone, Trunks had a clear shot at Pandemonium. He pulled back his arms and began gathering his ki energy, focusing it into a single point, just in front of his outstretched palms.
"I've got to finish him now! Ka.... me... ha... me..."
With a loud yell, Pandemonium suddenly leapt up and spun around, blasting Trunks with a golden array of lightning that hit several points on Trunks' body, from his legs all the way down to his head. The intense blast of magical energy immediately stopped Trunks' attack and sent him flying backward. His body hit the cold, metallic floor of the room, with his back making the very first impact, knocking the wind out of Trunks as well. He skidded across the room, desperately trying to regain his balance. Suddenly, he could see Pandemonium hovering over him, his entire body lit up with a bright, red glow. Desperately, Trunks flailed out his arm, hitting Pandemonium in the shoulder with a small ball of ki. Clenching his teeth in pain, Pandemonium placed his hands on Trunks' chest and fired a huge blast of magical energy, driving Trunks into the floor and causing him to come to almost a complete stop. As soon as he hit the ground, Trunks could feel an incredible sensation of pain, centered directly on top of his chest. He looked down and immediately saw the horrifying truth. A huge hole had been burned directly in the center of Trunks' black tanktop, and within the hole he could see a large, blistering burn in his chest, where several layers of skin and flesh had been seared away by Pandemonium's brutal blast. He tried to stand, but before he could, Pandemonium was standing right over him, his boot lifted high above Trunks' chest. When Pandemonium's foot came down, Trunks let out a loud, agonized cry of pain, as if his entire body was on fire. Pandemonium's foot pressed down even deeper, further aggravating the scalded wound. Trunks could see streams of white fluid running down the sides of his chest, pus from the blisters that were being crushed and ripped asunder by the sole of Pandemonium's boot, crushing into the deadly burn.
"This is... one of the most horrible pains... I've ever felt," Trunks thought, still screaming as Pandemonium's foot crushed into his body. "I've got to get up, or I'm finished!"
"That's it, you pathetic fool... squirm under me... know that it is I who am causing you this pain!" Pandemonium shouted proudly, knowing that he was winning the fight against the Ascended Saiyan, something no one else had been able to achieve once Trunks had reached the Ascended stage. "I see no end in sight to your suffering..."
---
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
"Mars Flame Sniper!"
"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"
"Venus Love Chain Encircle!"
The four Inner Senshi, knowing that if they concentrated their attacks they might not be able to hit all of their foes at once, blasted the fighters rushing toward them with their unrefined magical attacks. The fighters rushed blindly into the streams of magical energy and were all blasted to the ground as the attacks slammed into them. The attacks had taken out half of the squad, but the other half quickly charged the Senshi from the other side, opening fire with blasts of energy from their guns. The blasts rained down on the girls and Patrick, quickly throwing up large clouds of dust and energy explosions that confused everyone around.
"I'm hit!" Rose shouted, clutching her leg after having taken a hit from an energy beam fired from one of the guns. She blindly launched one of her thorny vines into the smoke and dust, binding two of the uniformed fighters together before quickly crushing them into unconsciousness. When the smoke cleared, Rose sighed, relieved that she hadn't accidentally attacked one of her friends.
Meanwhile, Patrick had frozen several of the fighters in a block of ice, but was suddenly hit in the back of the head by a blast from one of their guns, knocking him face down on the ground and leaving him helpless to a barrage of kicks and stomps directed toward him by several of the fighters still standing after the Senshi's initial attacks.
"Die, vile traitor!" shouted one of the fighters as he stomped the back of Patrick's head. "You'll never see the light of day again!"
"That's what you think!" shouted Cammy, charging the group of fighters head on and blasting them away from Patrick with a gust of wind fired from her palm. The fighters were blown into the side of a building by the powerful gale, all of them knocked unconscious on impact. Cammy extended a hand to help Patrick up from the ground, but he simply shrugged it off and stood up on his own.
"You didn't tell me you had wind powers," Patrick groaned as he brushed some of the dirt from his clothes.
"Of course I do!" Cammy replied indignantly. "They're way more powerful than that Elfartzad, or what ever his name's powers, that's for sure."
As Cammy and Patrick rushed over to help eliminate the rest of the fighters, Angela could see something out of the corner of her eye that made her gasp with horror.
"Rose!" Angela shouted to her older sister, who was standing right next to her, blasting away another squad of uniformed men. "About five of those guys just ran into Chris' house!"
"That's terrible, but we've got to beat these guys before we do anything about Chris," Rose replied, nodding over to the Senshi. "I've just about got these guys cleaned up, and the Sailor Senshi took out the rest of them... don't worry, Angela, we'll get to Chris sooner or la-"
"He's got a little sister! She could be killed!" Angela shrieked, charging down the street toward Chris' house. "You guys can do what you want, but I know who I'm helping!"
---
The pain was becoming almost too much for Trunks to bear, and he felt like he could pass out at any moment. That's when he reached up and grabbed Pandemonium's knee as firmly as he could, and then twisted it with all of his might. The loud popping noise, accompanied by a loud scream from Pandemonium, indicated to Trunks immediately that he had accomplished what he'd wanted to do. He could feel Pandemonium's foot rising up from his chest, and felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his body. As Pandemonium grimaced, still clutching his injured knee, Trunks leapt up and kicked Pandemonium in the neck, a tactic that he'd used to finish off Frieza so long ago. The kick knocked Pandemonium backward nearly halfway to the wall, and Trunks took advantage again, leaping up and flying toward Pandemonium, littering the floor below with ki blasts fired nearly instantaneously, one after the other. As Trunks flew over Pandemonium, he must have hit him with at least a dozen blasts, and then continued back toward the wall, forming a line of blasts that extended halfway across the room, with Pandemonium somewhere in the middle. The flash from all of the blasts lit up the entire room with a bright blue light, and when the light faded, Trunks could see Pandemonium, struggling to pick himself up off of the ground. When he finally stood up, it was with a stagger that lasted for several seconds as Trunks floated gently down to the ground behind him.
"I'm surprised you're still breathing," Trunks said as Pandemonium turned to face him, breathing in loud, heaving gasps. "A kick like the one you took crushed Frieza's windpipe."
"I believe... you've already found me... to be a foe unlike any you've faced before, my friend," said Pandemonium, smiling as he regained his composure. "Certainly one a lot stronger than that pathetic fool Frieza, who used ki for his attacks and ki for his defense. Energywise, I'm not that much more powerful than someone like Frieza... and probably less powerful than you are right now. But the difference between us gives me the advantage... my magic against your ki, Trunks. Actually, it's a bit of both, a small amount of ki mixed in with my extremely refined magic here and there. You've noticed how my blasts were able to absorb yours, am I correct?"
"I'm not here to hold a conversation with you, Pandemonium," Trunks replied, an angry stare on his face. "I'm here to end your life."
"And you're sure ending my life will save the life of your miserable bitch and her pathetic little friends back on Earth?" Pandemonium asked.As soon as he had finished his sentence, Trunks leapt upon him, furiously striking at Pandemonium with an intense flurry of kicks and punches. Instead of dodging, Pandemonium flared up his magical aura and used the sides of his hands to block Trunks' punches, and his knees to deflect Trunks' kicks, his right knee fully recovered after Trunks' attack just minutes before. Trunks, realizing that his blows weren't coming even close to hurting Pandemonium, stopped his rain of blows and stepped a few feet back. Pandemonium took one step forward before continuing his speech.
"Like I said, Trunks... killing me will do absolutely nothing," said Pandemonium.
"But killing your superiors will," Trunks replied, his teeth and his fists clenched in anger. "Who I'll vanquish as soon as I'm finished with you!"
"That would require defeating me, Trunks... and you seem to be assuming you can, though I clearly have the upper hand in this little battle. Remember, Trunks, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and-"
Trunks had once again had enough, pointing his hand at Pandemonium's head and firing a small ball of blue ki. As the ball hit Pandemonium's chin, it made a loud smacking noise and then disappeared. At the same time, Pandemonium's head snapped back, to the point where it was looking straight up at the ceiling of the room, hundreds of feet above. Trunks didn't take time to see if the blast had done any damage, instead, rushing forward and leaping high above Pandemonium, pulling back his arms and preparing to fire a huge blast downward, one that would hopefully end the fight once and for all."Ka...me...ha...me...HA!!!"
Pandemonium had done nothing to stop Trunks this time, simply staring up at Trunks as he fired the huge blast of ki from his palms. As the gigantic blast drew closer and closer to Pandemonium, Trunks' eyes widened, hoping that this time, the Kamehameha wave would reach its target and end the fight once and for all. Time itself seemed to slow as the blast got close to Pandemonium. Suddenly, with a bright flash, Pandemonium's lavender energy aura swelled out into a bright dome that blocked the Kamehameha wave up against it, spreading it out into a wide, bowl-shaped inverse dome of blue ki as the blast was deflected. Trunks' expression of hope became one of shock and then terror as a lavender beam of magical energy suddenly emerged from the dome and began to push Trunks' blast back toward him. Trunks looked down toward the ground and intensified his ki blast, pushing Pandemonium's beam back into the dome. With a smile, Pandemonium licked his lips and then blinked, intensifying his own aura even further and causing the beam to emerge once more, pushing Trunks' beam all the way out to the halfway point between himself and the struggling half-Saiyan. Again, Trunks strengthened his Kamehameha, but almost instantaneously, Pandemonium responded by strengthening his own beam, pushing back the Kamehameha even further and leaving just a few feet between Trunks' hands and the end of his Kamehameha wave. Trunks flew upward toward the ceiling, giving ground to Pandemonium's beam as it got stronger and stronger, pushing Trunks' own blast more and more. Sweat was now pouring down Trunks' face as he put even more power into his Kamehameha wave, pushing it all the way back down to halfway between himself and Pandemonium once more. His entire body convulsed as he struggled to generate even more energy, his powers strained like they had never been before.
"I can't let Pandemonium's attack hit me... I'm putting nearly all of my power into this attack... if it doesn't get through, I'm finished!" Trunks thought frantically. Trunks looked up and realized that he was only a few feet away from the ceiling, and he would no longer be able to give ground to Pandemonium's attack.
Down below, Pandemonium increased the energy level of his aura yet again, effortlessly strengthening his beam, which had once again pushed to within inches of Trunks' body. Trunks' eyes widened as he realized he could strengthen his Kamehameha wave no more, and his body was being pressed almost to its limit. He began to hang his head as he resigned himself to his fate.
"There's... got to be something I can do..." Trunks thought, "but even if there is, will I have time enough to pull it off? This battle has taken a serious turn for the worse..."
---
Angela rushed into Chris' living room just as the uniformed fighters had backed the boy and his mother into a corner, guns all pointed at the shivering pair. Chris' sister Kiara was sitting helplessly in her crib, crying intensely.
"Those bastards!" Angela thought, running toward the five men who were about to exterminate Chris and his mother. "Hey! You guys!"
The five turned around just in time to be on the receiving end of a powerful magical blast from Angela that disintegrated them all in an instant, leaving Chris and his mother huddled in the corner, staring up at her.
"An...gela?" Chris asked, slowly standing up and adjusting the rims of his glasses. "Is that you?"
"Of course it is!" Angela replied, a smile appearing on her face. "Are you guys alright?"
Chris' mother nodded, standing up and running over to Kiara's crib. She gently picked up the toddler and cradled her in her arms, quietly whispering to her that everything would be alright.
"I'm glad Kiara's okay too," Angela said, smiling as the young girl's tears quickly ceased. "The village is under attack..."
"I sorta figured that out when those guys came in," Chris said, sighing and looking straight into Angela's eyes, who were at approximately the same height as his own. "Are your sisters here too?"
"Yeah... they're fighting the rest of those creeps outside," Angela said, though with a slight amount of trepidation in her voice. "I just hope no one in the village gets hurt before we finish all of those bad guys..."
Angela briefly glanced over at Chris' mother, who was still cradling Kiara in her arms, before turning back to Chris.
"Angela, you... you saved my life," said Chris, a slight blush appearing on his face. "I, um... I... uh... thanks."
Angela giggled, before stroking her hand across Chris' cheek, causing an even brighter blush to appear."It was nothing, really... I'm just glad you and your sister and your mother aren't hurt," said Angela, pulling her hand away and putting it back up to her own cheek, where she had developed a blush of her own. "I could... I could stay here to protect you guys... if you want..."
"No, you should probably go help out your sisters... they need your help a lot more than I do," Chris said reluctantly, though he secretly did want Angela to stay. "Those guys probably won't come after us again..."
"But... I'd feel really badly if they did," said Angela, her lips curving into a smirk. "I could... I could just stay for a few minutes... you know, to make sure they don't come back. You don't... mind, do you?"
"You're sure your sisters don't... don't need your help?" Chris asked, though the growing smile on his face betrayed the fact that he really wanted Angela to stay. Angela, immediately sensing this, lifted the tips of her fingers to Chris' lips, covering up the smile while at the same time, feeling the warmth on Chris' cheeks as he blushed even more.
"I insist," Angela replied, sliding her fingers away. "Besides, Cammy would be really mad if I let anything happen to your little sister."
With only a slight giggle, Angela sat down on the living room couch. Chris sat down next to her, his blush still clearly evident as his mother set Kiara back in her crib and turned toward them.
"You know, Chris, you're keeping Angela from helping the other villagers," said Chris' mother.
"She made me let her stay, I swear!" Chris shouted, his head quickly turning back and forth from Angela to his mother. "She wants to make sure Kiara's safe... really..."
"Right," said Chris' mother, walking over to Angela and smiling at her. "Thank you for saving our lives..."
"Thank you for being my friend," Angela whispered back, turning to Chris. "That goes for you too..."
"You're welcome, Angela..."
---
After defeating the rest of the uniformed fighters in the town square, the Senshi, Rose, Cammy, and Patrick dispersed to destroy the other fighters that were attacking townspeople in their houses. Cammy went with Patrick to make sure he wouldn't join in the destruction, while Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury rushed off together to the town hall, where both girls knew that the mayor would certainly be targeted.
"We'd better hurry..." Sailor Mercury said as the two Senshi rushed up to the town hall, destroying any of the fighters that were unlucky enough to meet them on the way. "If anything happens to the mayor, the town could fall into chaos!"
Sailor Moon nodded, pushing open the door as hard as she could. As soon as the two girls reached the lobby, they gasped as they realized it had been flooded with dozens of uniformed fighters, swarming the lobby and wrecking everything they could find.
"Well, it's time to go to work!" Sailor Moon shouted, taking out her henshin stick and pointing it at the legions of fighters. "You will not harm anyone in this town, for I am Sailor Moon, champion of justice! And in the name of the Moon, I will punish-"
Several green blasts slammed into Sailor Moon at the same time, knocking her out of the building and flat on her back on the ground. As she struggled to her feet, the fighters rushed toward Sailor Mercury, who was now in the lobby all by herself. Remembering what Trunks had told her about channeling energy, she used her magical energy to form four small, glowing spheres of blue light in front of her body, which she then tossed into the crowd of fighters. The spheres detonated on impact, and within seconds, all of the uniformed men had been frozen into four large blocks of ice that filled the lobby, chilling the air around them. Just as Sailor Mercury began to celebrate, Sailor Moon stumbled into the lobby, clutching her head and groaning audibly.
"What did I miss?" Sailor Moon said, her head bowed as she winced from the damage she'd taken. "Lousy jerks, interrupting my-"
"It's over, Sailor Moon," Sailor Mercury said, pointing at the blocks of ice. Groans and the sound of teeth chattering could faintly be heard coming from the ice as Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury walked past them toward the stairs leading to the mayor's office.
"That was pretty good, Ami..." Sailor Moon said, smiling at her blue-haired comrade. "You froze them all with just one attack..."
"Yes, but it took a significant amount of my energy," Sailor Mercury said, a slight weariness in her voice. "It'll take me a while before I'm able to use it again..."
"I just hope the mayor's alright," said Sailor Moon, pushing open the door to his office. "Mr. Mayor, are you-"
"They've got my daughter!" shouted the mayor, pointing at the back of the room, behind his desk. There, two of the fighters were holding a struggling teenage girl in place by her arms, while yet another man had a hand clamped over the girl's mouth, with another hand pointing a blaster ray at the terrified girl's head. Sailor Mercury immediately recognized the girl as the messenger sent to retrieve Trunks the last time she and the other Senshi had come to Nihimo Town.
"So that girl is also the mayor's daughter..." Sailor Mercury thought. "I didn't know he had one... you learn something new everyday... we have to save her!"
"Just the ones we wanted to see," said the fighter who had the blaster pointed at the teenage girl's head. "You two had better tell your friends to surrender... or this poor girl is going to die a very, very quick death."
---
Pandemonium's blast continued to push toward Trunks, to the point where Trunks could barely see his own Kamehameha wave in front of his hands.
"If I don't do something right now, I'm through..." Trunks said quietly to himself. "I can't push his blast back... my only chance is to try and get out of the way!"
Without hesitation, Trunks abandoned his own blast, swooping out of the way just as Pandemonium's huge magical energy beam barreled through. Trunks floated down several dozen feet, expecting the next thing he would see to be Pandemonium's huge blast exploding harmlessly against the ceiling. But instead, he saw the blast stop just inches away from the ceiling, seemingly frozen in time as Trunks watched it in shock.
"The blast... it... stopped? But how? How did-"
Then, the blast swooped toward Trunks with incredible force and speed, slamming into his chest and rapidly pushing him down toward the floor. Trunks screamed as the huge blast burned away at his already badly-damaged chest, while disintegrating the rest of his tanktop and engulfing his arms as he futilely tried to push the huge beam away. Within seconds, the beam slammed into the ground, taking Trunks with it. A huge explosion of light soon followed, and Pandemonium finally let his energy aura fade slightly, turning toward the light to see the damage that his blast had caused.
"Trunks, if you didn't believe in magic before, you almost certainly must now..." Pandemonium said jokingly as the light and smoke faded. When he saw Trunks' silhouette still standing in the smoke, he was definitely shocked, but didn't show it, letting no sign of intimidation show even as the smoke cleared to show Trunks seemingly unaffected by the blast. A closer look, however, spoke differently, and when Pandemonium took that look, he couldn't help but let a victorious chuckle escape his lips. The blast had disintegrated Trunks' tanktop and had reopened several wounds Trunks had suffered in his battle with Nikashi, as well as having created several new ones, now dripping blood down his arms, his chest, and the side of his face. He was breathing quite heavily, and the large burn on his chest was smoldering one more, with the raggedness of Trunks' breaths indicating the immense pain that it was still causing him.
The most telling sign of the damage that had been done, however, was much more subtle, yet to someone like Pandemonium, who knew how to look for the signs that an opponent had been weakened, was a clear beacon that Trunks was in serious trouble. His bright golden aura of ki, which had been radiating strongly from Trunks' body during the fight, had begun to falter slightly, and the electricity encircling his body was far less intense than it had been just minutes ago. Trunks was clearly wounded, and the battle was definitely beginning to take its toll on the embattled half-Saiyan.
"My goodness, Trunks... you're looking a bit, dare I say... pale," said Pandemonium, looking Trunks up and down. "Could it be that you're... afraid?"
"I'm never afraid," Trunks said, flying at Pandemonium and striking the side of his face with a powerful punch, quicker than Pandemonium had expected, that nearly sent him reeling as he stumbled backward. Soon, another punch came in, hitting Pandemonium in the chest. And then, a kick to the face, shattering the cartilage in Pandemonium's nose and sending him flying through the air for dozens of yards before finally coming to a stop as Trunks launched a flurry of ki blasts his way. Pandemonium, his face now battered after Trunks' surprising assault, with blood gushing from his nose, put up his hand and engulfed Trunks' blast in a green fog that stopped them in place, suspending the beams of ki in its mysterious mist.
"Trunks, I've had enough of this fight, and enough of you!" Pandemonium shouted, waving his arm once more and causing the mist to begin swiftly floating toward Trunks. "I'm through with battles... now I want to begin the massacre!"
Trunks leapt above the cloud of mist, but the mist swirled up into the air, flying toward him even faster. He flew up higher to try and escape, but the mist followed him all around the room, no matter which direction he flew. Left, right, up, down, it didn't matter, the mist stalked him, and grew even faster with each turn. Infuriated, Trunks turned around and fired as large a blast as he could at the deadly cloud. The cloud stopped as the blast seemed to swim into it, quickly filling up the fog as the ki energy permeated it entirely. Suddenly, the cloud seemed to explode, but instead of disappearing, it became bright blue, now composed entirely of Trunks' ki itself. As Trunks stopped for a moment to ponder the transformed fog, it rushed toward him again, and Trunks was forced to begin rapidly flying around to avoid it. Watching from the ground, Pandemonium couldn't help as Trunks struggled to escape a cloud comprised entirely of his own ki energy.
"You see, Trunks, that's what magical energy can do!" Pandemonium shouted. "I can turn your pathetic ki against you and use it as a weapon! I can also assure you from experience that your blasts, while primitive and inferior to my own, do pack quite a wallop! Enjoy the take of your own medicine, Trunks!"
Trunks flew toward Pandemonium, hoping to swerve away at the last second and send the blast barreling into him, a last-ditch effort, but the only thing Trunks could think of at the moment. Pandemonium, however, was quite ready. As soon as Trunks was close, Pandemonium lunged forward and slammed his fist into Trunks' chest. Trunks screamed out in pain and flew back toward the energy mist, now helpless to escape its deadly energy.
"The oldest trick in the book," said Pandemonium, watching as Trunks fell toward his own blast. "But you can't use it against me, Trunks... I WROTE THE BOOK!"
Gathering up all of the energy he could, Trunks pushed himself upward at the absolute last moment, flying up harmlessly out of the mist's path as it washed over Pandemonium and detonated in a gigantic explosion. Pandemonium didn't even know what had hit him until he himself felt the immense pain of being inside the middle of his adversary's attack, its powerful ki ripping away at his flesh. Trunks dove into the cloud of smoke as it cleared, seeing Pandemonium on the ground on one knee, trying to shake off the effects of the blast. As he looked up, Trunks' foot slammed into his forehead, sending him hurtling through the air. Trunks followed him up, floating several feet away from Pandemonium and surveying the damage his own attack had done. Pandemonium's vest and brown pants had been only slightly singed by the attack. Through the burns Trunks could see bleeding wounds and blistered burns, as well as several cuts on Pandemonium's face opened up by the attack. Pandemonium's magical energy aura, however, remained exactly the same, not weakened the slightest bit. This made Trunks recoil, and when Pandemonium looked up, he was delighted to see the fear in Trunks' eyes.
"I don't get it!" Trunks thought. "I don't sense any weakening at all in his energy field... that blast I hit him with was at least as strong as the blast that hit me... wasn't it?"
---
"You let her go right now!" Sailor Moon shouted at the three fighters who were holding the mayor's daughter captive. "I'm warning you!"
"We'll be making the threats here," said the man holding the blaster to the girl's head. "Now, go and get your friends, or I'll blow this girl's head off right here, right now!"
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury stood still, not wanting to make any moves that could possibly endanger the young girl's life.
"If we try and attack, they could kill her!" Sailor Mercury thought frightfully, looking over at the mayor, who was shivering in the corner with tears streaming down his face. "I can't let her die, not in front of her own father... oh, Trunks would be able to save her in a second... he's always been able to save me..."
"If you... harm a single hair on her head..." Sailor Moon said, still pointing at the three fighters, "I'll tear all of you apart with my bare hands!"
"Once this girl is dead, it wouldn't matter," said the fighter, his gun pressing even deeper into the girl's skull. "Our lives mean nothing to us... the only thing that matters is our mission, and that's to defeat all of you and burn this village to the ground!"
"But we know that her life means quite a lot to the two of you, just like every pathetic human life on this pathetic dirtball excuse for a planet," said the man holding the girl's left arm. "And you wouldn't do anything that might endanger an innocent life, would you?"
Sailor Moon glanced angrily at the mayor, still cowering in the corner.
"Geez, I wish he'd do something to save his own daughter..." Sailor Moon thought annoyedly. She quickly shook her head. "No... he knows that if he tries anything, his daughter might get killed... and if we try anything..."
"Sailor Moon, I think it might be best if we... if we..." Sailor Mercury said, her voice beginning to stammer. "We can't surrender, can we? But we can't let this poor girl die, either..."
"If you don't go tell your friends to surrender to us right now, she's history, got it?" the man shouted impatiently, his grip tightening on the trigger of his gun. "You've got five seconds! Five! Four! Three!"
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury looked back and forth to one another, neither of them sure about what they could do to save the girl's life. Sailor Moon could see a tear streak down the side of Sailor Mercury's face as hopelessness began to sink in.
"Ami..."
"Two! One!"Suddenly, the girl somehow managed to free her mouth from her captor's grip, biting into his hand as hard as she could and thrashing back into the man's stomach, knocking him back toward the wall, the gun still in his hand. As the two men holding the girl moved to tackle her to the ground, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Moon rushed forward, seizing their chance to attack.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
"Moon Purification Panacea!"
The combined waves of magic washed over the two men, knocking them back into the wall before disintegrating them both. Meanwhile, the third fighter ran toward the mayor's daughter, a look of pure rage on his face.
"You little... I'll kill you!"
Before the Senshi could stop him, the man had his gun pointed directly at the head of the girl, who had been knocked down in the struggle. She looked down the barrel of the gun and let out a loud scream of terror, just as the mayor, who had been sitting in the corner of the room just seconds earlier, pushed his daughter out of the way, taking the full force of the blast directly to his chest. He hit the hard, wooden floor of the room and came to a rest, a smoldering hole in the middle of his chest. His eyes opened and closed as he fought for his life on the floor, blood pooling around him. His daughter rushed to his side, collapsing over him with tears streaming down her face.
"Daddy..." she gasped, her tears soaking the man's chest. "Oh, daddy..."
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury watched on in horror, and now, Sailor Mercury herself filled with rage as she ran toward the man who had shot the mayor, now preparing to shoot his daughter as she mourned over her father's fallen body. With one powerful kick, Sailor Mercury knocked the gun from the man's hand, and with another, the fighter was on the floor, blood streaming from his forehead from a cut created by Sailor Mercury's sharp heel when it had struck.
"You... you vicious murderer..." Sailor Mercury shouted, her hand pointed at the fighter's head. "You'll pay for what you've done!"
Before the man could utter a word of protest, a bone-chilling wave of cold washed over him, causing him to emit a loud scream as his body was frozen solid. Unlike the men downstairs, who had simply been encased in ice, this man had to endure the pain of every cell in his body freezing solid, his blood running cold and turning to slush within his veins. After about ten excruciating seconds of agony, the fighter was dead, frozen solid by Sailor Mercury's attack. The tired Senshi, her rage now spent, stumbled back into Sailor Moon's arms, a look of terror on her face.
"Oh my God... Sailor Moon, I think I-"
"It's okay, Ami... you... I understand how you felt... what that man did was horrible..."
"DADDY!" screamed the teenage girl as her father breathed his last breath, and his heart finally stopped. As she collapsed over the fallen mayor's body, racked in intense sobs, Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury walked over to her, trying to comfort her as best they could.
"We're... we're so sorry..." Sailor Moon said sadly, her hand over her lips. Sailor Mercury wiped some of the tears away from the girl's face, causing her to look up, her eyes widening as she noticed Sailor Mercury crying as well.
"Why are... why are you crying?" asked the girl. "He wasn't... he wasn't your-"
"We could have saved him, and we failed..." Sailor Mercury said with a slight sniffle. "We.... we can't possibly-"
"It wasn't... it wasn't your fault..." said the girl, embracing Sailor Mercury, who gently returned her embrace. "I just... I just wish... I just wish daddy was... still... alive..."
"We should... probably go back and help the other Senshi," whispered Sailor Moon. Sailor Mercury smiled, and then gently shook her head.
"You go," Sailor Mercury replied, looking down at the mayor's daughter, now once again knelt over her father's body. "I'll... I'll just be a couple of minutes."
"Mm-hmm," Sailor Moon said with an understanding tone, nodding her head and solemnly leaving the room.
"This girl's father is going to be the last innocent person that dies at the hands of these sick people..." Sailor Mercury thought as she knelt next to the sobbing girl. "I promise..."
---
Trunks and Pandemonium were once again facing each other, but this time, they were hovering nearly a hundred feet in the air, halfway between the floor and the ceiling. Both of them knew that the first person to hit the ground would probably lose the fight, and neither of them wanted to be that person.
Trunks flew at Pandemonium, a deadly punch launched right at his face. As his fist slammed into Pandemonium's cheek, Trunks could feel Pandemonium's head twisting only slightly back, only getting the chance to dwell on that thought for a fraction of a second as Pandemonium replied with a punch of his own, striking Trunks in the same spot on his face. Trunks countered with yet another punch, and soon, the two warriors were rapidly trading punches and kicks in the air, blocking, dodging, trying desperately to gain whatever advantage they could at this critical stage of the fight. Finally, the two men leapt away from one another, pointing out their arms at the same time.
"Take this, and meet your doom!" shouted Pandemonium furiously, his hands lighting up with a lavender glow.
Trunks wordlessly formed two large blue spheres of energy in his own hands. After a second of silence, the two warriors fired off their blasts at the same time. Instead of absorbing Trunks' blasts, the beams of ki that Pandemonium had fired twisted harmlessly around Trunks' two spheres and headed directly for the half-Saiyan, a move that Trunks hadn't expected. Pandemonium's tactic, however, had left him susceptible to Trunks' blasts, which collided with him simultaneously, engulfing Pandemonium in a gigantic explosion. Trunks barely had time to rejoice before Pandemonium's own blast slammed into his body, creating a similar explosion. The two explosions created identical wisps of smoke that seemed to hover in place, but then quickly parted as Pandemonium and Trunks flew out of them, their energy auras pulsating brightly around their bodies.
As the two warriors flew toward each other on an inexorable collision course, the waves of ki surrounding them created a rippling effect that seemed to tear the very air around them. Finally, the two powerhouses collided head-on, and a gigantic explosion quickly rushed outward from their bodies, taking on the shape of a globe as it filled the entire room, causing the very walls of the space station to shudder in its wake. The huge wave of energy was a bright, pulsating blue aura, with bright, yellow bolts of electricity crackling all around it. When the wave had dissipated, the two warriors faced one another in the air once more. Their auras still pulsated brightly, with Pandemonium's lavender aura glowing stronger than ever, and the crackle of Trunks' electrical field still remained a familiar sound in the room, a fixture of his Ascended Saiyan state. It was perfectly clear that the two warriors had collided, but neither seemed to show any ill effects as they continued to hover, their bodies unwavering.
But after several seconds, something very strange happened to Trunks' electrical aura. It began to spark, and flash, and fade in and out. His golden glow also flashed in and out, going from bright to dim and then rapidly back again. Trunks let out a loud groan of pain, and his eyes suddenly rolled to the back of his head. His body then plummeted to the ground, his back hitting the metallic floor of the room with a loud, audible thud. Pandemonium hovered down to the ground and stood over Trunks as his eyes blinked open again. His electrical aura reappeared, along with his golden glow, but both of them now seemed terribly weak, as if Trunks' very life and soul had been severely drained. As Trunks tried to stand, a terrible pain filled his entire body, made even worse by Pandemonium, sadistically smiling down at Trunks as he struggled to get back on his feet.
"I do believe... you've lost, my friend," said Pandemonium.
For the first time since he'd become an Ascended Super Saiyan, Trunks was losing a battle... and he was beginning to realize it.
---
Oh my gosh, has Trunks really lost? At least the Senshi are doing well back in Nihimo Town, right? I guess you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out!