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 Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 15: Kanassa
I awoke the next morning feeling quite refreshed, despite the fact that I was about to sleep for three weeks. Tossing the rag of a blanket aside, I noticed Fasha was already dressed and out of bed. I yawned and stood up, stretching a little bit. Then I dressed in my blue top, white-gold armor and boots. Slipping the gloves on, I left the bedroom and entered the rest of the household. The rest of the crew was in there as well, last minute discussions before departure.
"Well look who's finally up, I thought we'd have to haul him out ourselves!" Tora joked.
"You coulda just woke me up if you were in a hurry," I said with a slight frown.
"Well now that he is up, I'd like to get some food before we head out. It's gonna be a long trip," Bardock stood up and headed for the door. He gave me a strange glance when he walked by, one that resembled curiosity and fear at the same time. Down in the bar, we took a seat, despite the silent crowd staring at us. The purple-headed bartender walked over and took an order of food down as the ramblings continued amongst the crowd.
"Why's that elite mingling with low levels?"
"Look at that trash, why'd Frieza promote him anyway?"
I sighed slightly, I just didn't fit in anywhere without dispute. That's when a group of ten elites strolled into the door, all of their uniforms similar to mine, and power level wise roughly around five to eight thousand for each of them. I wasn't that good at detecting numbers rather than just raw ki so it was only a guess. They were right around or slightly above my own suppressed level but were below Bardock's.
"What a dump!" one shouted.
"Packed with low level garbage, might as well have them all out on the street!" The glares and comments that were directed towards us quickly shifted to them.
"Well, this could get interesting," Tora said.
"What are you staring at, low level?" One elite asked as he grabbed a third class who was wearing rather messed up armor. He threw him to the ground an instant later, breaking a table and disrupting the activity that was at it. In this case, it was an arm wrestling match between a second class and a first class. Not much was said or done after that, and the elites went around the room picking on random Saiyans, stealing their food, kissing their women, general rowdy and unacceptable behavior.
"What a bunch of punks," I muttered out loud.
"No kidding, if they come over here I'd be glad to re-arrange their faces!" Shugesh said, taking a bite of his food that had just arrived. I tuned out the activity of the group and focused on my food. Eating went rather un-eventful, until one of the elites came over and picked up Fasha by the back of her armor, holding her up in the air.
"Hey lemme go!" she yelled, getting our attention.
"Look at this trashy woman! I've never seen such a slut, your place is in the home watching the children and cooking the food! You don't belong in a warrior's garb, now take it off!" he ordered with a ridiculous laugh. With that said, he grabbed her by the tail, and she went limp just like that. Bardock and Tora were already on their feet, Shugesh and Borgos weren't far behind, and since I was next to Fasha, all I did was spin around and shoot them the death glare from hell.
"Put her down right now," Bardock growled a warning.
"What are you going to do low level, fight me for her?"
"If I must," Bardock cracked his knuckles. I could see where this was going in a big hurry, so I stepped in before it got really ugly.
"Let go of her, or I will do something about it. And trust me, you won't like it," I said calmly.
"Well what do you know, an elite in a room full of trash. You should come with us kid, this place isn't fitting for you and our kind!" a crony stepped up with a cold handshake.
"Offer declined, I'm staying where I am, and you are the ones that are leaving. These are my friends, and you will go through me before you touch them!" I retorted. The sight of the leading elite gripping Fasha's tail started to make my blood rush.
"You really shouldn't be associating with trash, Lord Frieza and King Vegeta would frown upon that."
"Funny, they didn't seem to care last I checked. But at least they don't act like a bunch of punk fools that loaf around and chicken out when the tough missions come along!" I smirked when their expressions changed quickly.
"Fine then, low level. We challenge you and your crew to a duel, right here and now!" the leader said, letting go of Fasha and her tail finally. I grinned slightly, my Saiyan pride just got insulted, and now it was ready to do something about it.
"No, I will take you all myself."
"This kid must be insane, he's only got a power level of fifty-eight hundred! There's no way he could take even one of us, never mind all of us! Maybe in a few years he could do it though," another laughed with his finger on his scouter.
"It's your death wish kid, but very well, time to pay the price!" the leader shouted as his fist came forward. I made no attempt to block it or even move, and he caught me straight across the face. I noticed my cheeks didn't give an inch nevermind give me any pain, these guys were that weak. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Frieza didn't do anything either.
"Huh?" the group said in confusion. The leader didn't, he was too busy tending to his now broken fingers, wrist and arm.
"Did you hit me, I couldn't tell. I thought a gust of wind went by," I smirked big time now. The group snarled and attacked all at once, punching and kicking in random places quickly before falling back in pain. There I was, a lonely soldier, surrounded by ten fools that just hurt themselves, as I once again didn't try to block anything.
"Man, what is he?"
"That's no ordinary kid!"
"Guys, shouldn't you be leaving right about now? This place is getting crowded, and the occupancy rating just went down by ten!" I yelled at them, picking one up and hurling him towards the door. The door was already open then, courtesy of a few low levels that had been watching the battle. Number one went flying out the door and landed on the pavement type surface, moaning and groaning. I shoved my knee into number two's chest and kicked number three in the arm, before throwing them out as well. Number four and five met similar fates, only I think their backs were broken before I threw them. Six and seven had recovered and attempted an attack on me at this point. I struck one across the face, bending his nose the wrong way and making it bleed a lot. The other landed behind me and knife hand chopped my head, and I heard his bones shatter when he hit my skull simply because he tried just a little too hard. They soon joined their friends on the street pile that was forming. Numbers eight and nine attacked as well, while number ten got behind me and grabbed my tail.
"Oh no! Verto!" Fasha yelled from across the room. I punched eight so hard that he went flying out the door and bounced over the pile of bodies. Nine got kicked into the ceiling, and then backhanded out the door. A hard squeeze hit my tail, and I used it to flip him around to the front. He was surprised to say the least, and I saw this was the leader that broke his entire arm just a minute ago. He sent a backhand to my advancing forearm, breaking his other hand in the process. I grabbed his tail and squeezed lightly, and he went limp. Then I squeezed harder and heard a few pops of bones breaking inside of it.
"Never touch my tail! Now get out and never come back!" I shouted in anger, twirling the body by the tail and tossing him out the door. I heard a sickening thud when he landed, and his ki slipped to almost nothing. Damnit Verto, get a hold of yourself, you're letting your Saiyan side take over again! Argh, I don't care, you don't hurt my friends! This mental argument went on with myself for a few seconds while a loud barrage of clapping sounded from the room, coming from the same Saiyans that had insulted me at every corner.
"Wow kid, I've never seen a pack of elites thrown out like that before!" Tora said, joining in the applause. Somehow I know that's going to come back on me though.
"Okay knuckleheads, show's over. We need to get going!" Bardock ordered, leading the way out the door. I trailed behind listening to all the cheering and the pats on the back I was getting and bringing out a slight smile.
I walked by the elite pile, almost regretting what I had just done, but I had to get one last line in, "Don't ever touch her again, otherwise you will die next time!"
-
We found out that I actually got a space pod to myself this time, though I was a bit disappointed, as was Fasha. But then Vegeta wanted me to stay away from that kind of activity, maybe it's for the best. As the pod lifted off and instantly bumped up to sub-light speed, I pondered over what I had just done back at the bar.
Why the hell did I just suddenly lose my temper like that? Sure I would have done something, but not like that. It was like the Saiyan beast inside of me took total control, and I even enjoyed beating the stuffing out of those ten goons. I don't like to hurt others, unless they're evil. But weren't they evil, or at least horribly cruel? True they deserved some of their own medicine, but then, why did I enjoy that so much? Hmmm, maybe Vegeta was right on the mark, maybe he did want me to become more of a Saiyan then I was. Maybe it's a teenager thing, I did make a few outbursts a lot when I was human, but I never did anything like that. Hell I stayed out of fights if I could. Maybe it's this place; something about this planet has been giving me extra urges. A beeping sound went off and a button flashed green. I pressed it, and my window became some kind of video screen. Bardock sat in his pod, looking right back at me through the screen.
"Kid, there's something I need to know before we go through with this. Have you ever battled under your transformed state?" That question threw me a little bit, and I wasn't sure how to answer.
"Why do you ask?"
"Let's just cut to the chase kid, I nabbed a scouter reading on you last night when you were sleeping. Since you can't really control your ki level when your out like a light, I figured I could get an accurate reading. It read around two million. I knew you were hiding your power, and I figured out you faked pain with Frieza, but good god! What the hell are you?"
I sighed with a frown, "Can we have this discussion another time Bardock, I know you fear my strength. I can't say I blame you for that, but I'm trying to keep it a secret, its bad enough Fasha already knows!"
Bardock seemed to accept that, "Tell me something then kid, are you a legendary Super Saiyan?"
I grinned slightly, "I'm a bit more than that, but for your purposes, that's close enough."
Bardock looked relieved and even more worried at the same time, "You're not gonna dog on us and kill us for knowing your secret are you?"
I gave him a confused look, "No Bardock, I consider you a friend and a good leader. I'm just trying to get back to where I belong," I quickly shut up, realizing that I had just said too much. It was far too late, he already heard it.
"And where is that?"
"Bardock, can you make me a deal? I will reveal all of it to you soon and I'm not going to kill any of you. In return, can you not mention any more of this? My, father, is pretty tight about clamping down this subject. Right now I'm just trying to blend in and traveling with you guys on missions so I can get the money for a ship. I understand if you want me off, but I strongly suggest you keep me on the team, is that a deal?"
Bardock thought about it briefly, "Fine kid, but you and your father better explain this well when the time comes, I don't like being kept in the dark. Is there anything else I should know for the Kanassa trip? You never answered me about your ape form, and frankly I might not want to see it now!" I sighed, One more secret won't hurt, and he would find out anyway.
"Since you're going to find out anyway, I don't transform into an ape anymore. A power that I, acquired, negates it. So just send me ahead or behind or something so I don't get squished," I said as the gas jets started to turn on.
"You don't transform?! How? You have a tail! Oh never mind, I'm gonna get gray hairs trying to figure you out. Good night kid, see you at fish face central!" The screen blipped off and the gas vapors started to invade my lungs, putting me into hyper sleep instantly.
Interlude 15.1 –Engaged-
"She is? Really? Oh finally, GRANDCHILDREN!" Chichi celebrated as Bulma hung on the other line of her phone. Gohan and Goku had just come in from sparring and didn't hear any of the conversation, but they did see her dancing around the kitchen.
"Oh he's here right now Bulma, and I don't think he knows yet. She said she didn't tell him right? Oh okay, I'll tell him then, he does have a right to know after all! Bye Bulma!" Chichi hung up the phone with an evil grin displayed on her face.
"Uh mother?" Gohan looked at her, confused.
"What's going on Chichi?" Goku asked with the same confused look that his son had been using.
"Oh nothing much. Bulma just called to tell me something, something good, especially for Gohan," Chichi hung on the note she wanted to sing at the moment.
"Oh, what is it mom?"
"I thought you might know, it's something about your fiancée. Do you know?"
"Mom, I haven't truly proposed to her yet," Gohan said, scratching his head.
"But you mated with her didn't you Gohan, according to Vegeta that is the same thing," Goku nudged his red-faced son's ribs.
"Well did you or did you not elope? Tell me the truth son!" Chichi screeched.
Gohan held his head in slight shame, "Yes mom, but how did you know that?" Chichi uncovered the very top part of the dress like outfit she had on, showing a dull pair of bite marks right around her collarbone.
"How else mister? Your dear, innocent father lost control of himself and did that!" Goku took his turn to be embarrassed, hiding behind a chair.
"But you bit me back Chichi!" Goku claimed.
"That isn't the point! Well Gohan?" Chichi demanded. Gohan obliged and showed off the new red mark that was just under his training gi, accompanied by red blushing on his cheeks.
"Well then, since that is now settled, you want to know what I just heard? Do you know something about Videl that you'd like to tell us, or do you not know?"
"Other than the fact that she's Mr. Satan's daughter, I don't know what you're talking about," Gohan said in truth.
"Well that's no surprise. She went to Bulma first anyway, and she didn't want you to know until she was sure!" Chichi smiled slightly.
"Know what mom?"
"Yeah ChiChi, what is new about Videl?"
"Well Gohan, she's pregnant, you're going to be a daddy, and I'll finally have GRANDCHILDREN!"
THUD! No sound came from Gohan, until his head hit the floor, passed out cold.
-
I quickly found out why we had a meal before we left, three weeks of cold sleep really sucks! To me, no time had passed at all, like a standard sleep over the night. It was when I saw some dust on my armor plate and that I was a more than a little stiff, I got a feel for how long we were out for. The computer beeped like crazy until I was awake. In the window, Kanassa stood out as a large blue world in the vastness of space. On the other side of it, I could see a that it did have a moon, and it looked pretty full or close to full today. They sure know how to time this stuff.
"Alright team, rise and shine, we will be landing on the far side of the planet. The pods are already programmed with a deserted landing site, over and out!" Bardock's voice came on and went off just as fast. I hung on to the sides of the chair as the pod entered the atmosphere along side the other five. Suddenly I began to feel like I shouldn't have been there. After all it was a planet-clearing mission, and I didn't feel any excitement for wiping out a population, especially a peaceful one. But the feeling seemed a little distant, so I shook it off. The pod came through the blue sky and hit the dirt below with a lovely thud making me glad that I hadn't eaten in a long time.
"Planet Kanassa, average power level of a Kanassan warrior is five thousand. Tracking power levels… there seems to be a severely lower number of high powers on the planet. All of them are located approximately two thousand miles to the west. Downloading to scouter…download complete, good luck Verto," the computer voice said, making me confused in an instant. I exited the pod and arose from the crater just as the others did.
"Did you guys get the same message I just did?" I asked.
"About the Kanassans being lower in number than they were and they're all over there a ways, yeah I got it," Tora said.
"Our last check on this planet showed two million citizens, my latest scan shows twenty thousand and dropping quickly," Fasha said, finger on her scouter. What the hell?
"Someone beat us to it?" Tora asked.
Bardock seemed to shake his head, "Well, if that's where they are, that's where we go! Whatever is killing the Kanassans may be our target as well, so keep your eyes open!" We lifted off and blasted towards the last area of Kanassans. Using my ki sense, I could find no other major power out there other than the Kanassans themselves, and they were getting slaughtered by something. Whatever that something was, I couldn't pick it up. I tried my scouter, but it kept picking up Kanassan only.
Okay, this could get ugly. Either we're facing something or someone that can hide their power, or there is little ki to sense in the first place. For some reason, I hope it isn't the latter.
The terrain started to get a little rough as we flew over it, signs of battle and massive troop movements. Then we came up to a deserted city that had been wiped out. Dead Kanassans lay everywhere and I sensed no activity from it at all. Most of the blue fish faces looked like they were beaten, bit and clawed to death, there was a lot of spilled blood. This doesn't feel right.
"Yo, Bardock, what do you think of all of this?" Tora shouted through the air. Bardock didn't answer and kept flying forward, straight for the last signals of Kanassans. We came to within a few miles of the place, and the ground was littered in blue bodies, but then I started seeing some strangely shaped purple ones. But then I realized they didn't look so strange anymore.
"Hold on guys!" I shouted.
"What kid, you see something?" Bardock asked.
"Wait here, I need to check something!" I shot downwards by shutting off my ki momentarily, and landed swiftly in the midst of dead bodies. The smell of death and blood filled the air, and it was tearing me in half. Half of me was sick, and half of me loved it. Rather than dispute which half was correct, I did my best to block it out and search for a purple one. I found one quickly, in the midst of a bunch of blue ones, and pulled it out by the leg. It looked like a dog, but the talons on its four legs told me otherwise. I pushed the dead Kanassan off the dog like creature, and jumped back when I saw its face and upper body. It's face revealed two dead but very green eyes, all kinds of teeth for show, several sharp fangs, and it's barely hairy backbone held bumpy like spikes for hardened protection.
My brain hit realization pretty fast, Oh shit, don't tell me! How in the hell did they get here? I stood motionless for a moment, silently feeling for the Kanassan's misery. It seems the timeline changed a hell of a lot more than we imagined, I'll need to speak with Vegeta as soon as we get back. With that thought in mind, I rose up to meet the others again, I held a grim look.
"What is it kid?" Bardock began.
"Let's hurry to the last stronghold of Kanassa, there's something here more fearful than Frieza himself!" I said the last part to get the point across and we flew off to the northwest, the powers of the last few thousand Kanassans were slipping away every minute.
-
We came up on a still smoking city, the last hundred or so blue victims were still fighting, their battle ki shining as bright as they could right before they silenced.
"Guys, don't kill the Kanassans yet. I need to know what they are fighting!" I shouted, jetting ahead of the crew, letting out my ki again. I was sick of holding it back and it sounded like I would want it out now. The result of which caused the wind to blow them back a little, and I heard all of their scouters blow up, save for mine. The Kanassans stiffened when I showed up, but almost looked relieved almost. Whatever they had been fighting had vanished into the shadows.
"You! You are one of the ape like creatures from the visions! You and your kind are here to kill us all!" One Kanassan began by pointing at me.
"Hey, I'm not here to kill you, what was it that you were fighting?" A few more Kanassans showed up next to him, charging ki into their palms. Damnit, how the hell am I going to get an answer at this rate?
"Easy brother, this is the peaceful one that didn't want to harm us in the dreams, remember? It was the other five that were after us. Sorry, young Saiyan, but I'm afraid you and your friends are too late. We're all that's left now, the strange creatures attacking us have made sure of that, and will be back soon for another round," a new blue fish man said. Judging by his attitude, I would have guessed him to be the leader.
"Have you killed any of them?" I asked.
"We have, but they have superior numbers and are wearing us down slowly, it is only a matter of time. Try as you might, I'm not sure even you can save us now," the leader said as if he knew me. Wanna bet? I thought out of instinct.
He stared directly into my eyes, "Yes I am sure of that!"
I gave him a strange look, but got a quick explanation. "Yes boy, I can read your thoughts, and I know how strong you are compared to the rest of the universe at this point, and I believe your friends are here now!" The leader looked up in time to see Bardock and the crew drop out of flight and come swooping down, landing next to me.
"Go ahead and finish us off, it's what you monkeys do best!" the leader shouted at us, much to my surprise. The insult got its point across, and the crew fired dozens of ki blasts right by my ears, killing off the rest of the weakened Kanassans without resistance. I didn't fire though, I looked the other way for two reasons. First, I didn't really enjoy the whole killing off all those who are weaker, despite what my instincts had been doing lately. Two, a scattered ki reading started to make itself present.
"Whoa, instant barbeque! Anyone want charred fish?" Shugesh asked. Bardock turned around to me, but I kept my back to him, looking around us in quick glances towards the shadows of the remaining buildings.
"What's your deal kid, you have all this power and refuse to use it. Hell if I didn't know better I'd say you were an overpowered pacifist! I liked you better when you were trying to hide your power and astonished everyone with your absurd skill! You're too soft to be a Saiyan!" Bardock claimed. His words hurt me on the inside, but I had my reasons.
"You know, Vegeta tells me the same thing a lot, and I'll use my power when I need to. This is one of those times, look in the shadows!" I warned.
"What the hell are you talking about kid, there is nothing else here! Before you overloaded our scouters, we only picked up the Kanassans! Now they are gone, we're done here!" Bardock shouted angrily.
"Just trust me, and get in the air right now!" No one dared move, though I think fear held Bardock back from just striking me right there, I suppose I wasn't making much sense. I didn't need to though, seconds later a shadow emerged into a purple dog like creature, this time very much alive and very hungry looking.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" five voices shouted at once. I knew what it was, and I knew it had friends with it. Just as I thought, more of them appeared around us in a perimeter, about a dozen or so.
"Bardock, get into the air now, all of you! I'm about to release some of my power on these things, you don't want to get in the way, move it," I whispered loud enough for them to hear. That got the ball rolling, once the crew was in the air, I started my power up, letting the silver aura appear around me and flash with lightning violently. Instantly I felt great to have my hidden potential flow through me, kind of like being a Super Saiyan, the feeling of power was enticing. I pulled up about a tenth of my full power, figuring I didn't have much time for more. It was a great relief to my mind not to have to concentrate so much on keeping my power down. It also allowed me to focus better on the ambush that was likely to happen in just a few seconds. Just as I finished, the things rushed towards me in a bloodlust like rage. I jumped into the air just as they hit, making some of them crash into the each other, I brought my hands up to above my forehead as they did.
"Masenko, HA!" I shouted, letting the small golden blast go and hit dead center. I wiped out only eight of them in that shot, but the other four were injured. They hissed and started jumping at me, even though I was about twenty feet in the air. Some got close, even the one with only three legs and the stump gushing blood. I swooped down and power kicked the three-legged one, taking out its other leg and ripping it off. I kicked the next one in the face and shattered its teeth with my boot. One of the last two took advantage of the distraction and managed to get behind me, it's huge jaw coming around my arm and clamping down. Extreme pain hit as it tore down into my left arm muscles and bone. I powered up my aura again, knocking it off and throwing it backward with my ki. Another one of them jumped up and slashed at my midsection before I could react. It tore through the armor and hit my chest, drawing a little blood there. I kicked it away and got back into the air. All four lined up and ran forward, even the one missing two legs, waiting with drooling jaws.
"Ka, me, ha, me!" I started and chanted with my arms drawn, slowly flying forward and then floating downwards so I wouldn't hit the ground too badly.
I landed, "HAAA!" I shot the giant blue blast and hit the whole area the four creatures took up, and any scattered ki that was residing in the area vanished. The four remaining beasts were nothing but dust then, and the crew landed next to me. I felt disgusted with myself for allowing them the close proximity that they preferred; it obviously didn't help me much no matter how strong I was.
"Nice attack! You okay kid?" Tora asked. I was bleeding in several places, but I kept my composure and stood up, blocking some of the pain with my ki.
"What were those things?" Shugesh asked.
"That, is what me and Vegeta need to get home for, those were the Zerg!"
Power levels:
Verto (suppressed): 5,800, 10 percent power: 55,000,000
Bardock: 7,500
Tora: 5,600
Shugesh: 4,600
Borgos: 4,400
Fasha: 3,100
Saiyan Elites: 5,000-8,000 (varied)
Kanassans: 5,000
A/n: Now who saw that coming?……Yeah that's what I thought, Booya!
Zerg do not have detectable ki to measure, which is why I haven't put in any levels for them.