In a mountainous region overlooking the village of Celeron, Tenshinhan trained. He now possessed power he could only have dreamed of at one point. It wasn't the way he wanted to attain it, though. It felt like cheating in a way. But after everything he had been through recently, he found himself not really minding the shortcuts.
As the days wore on after the mess with Xeon, Tenshinhan found the memories of what the tyrant did while in his body began to surface. He loathed thinking of what may have happened had Yamucha not stopped him in time.
Tenshinhan cursed and pushed himself harder. He was never one to be helpless. But from the first appearance of the androids until that point, that's all he had been. After gaining that one fluke victory over Goku so many years ago, he had been left far behind. His latest foray into battle was especially embarrassing. He wasn't even able to be a good decoy against Majin Buu while he battled with Gohan. Goku, as he did so many times before, had arrived just in time to be the hero.
Having pushed himself passed the point of exhaustion; Tenshinhan flopped to the ground, and wiped his sweat soaked brow. Before he brought his hand down, he stopped to gaze at the manacles that adorned his wrists. At one time, the source of power for a despot, they now made sure that the days of Tenshinhan being an unwitting spectator while others fought for the fate of the world were over.
With a self-assured smile, he reclined on the soft grass beneath him. Recovering from his rigorous training regiment and watching the clouds roll by in the sky; he allowed his mind began to wander. He wondered whatever became of Yamucha. The one time desert bandit departed Roshi's island quite hastily. He remembered the despondent look Puar had on her face. He tried to reassure her as best as he could, but he worried as well. From what Puar told him, Yamucha hadn't been acting himself for quite some time.
His mind skipped from there to Chaozu and their new friend, Kassex. Kassex was quite an...interesting person, to say the least. He could tell she had the potential to become a very powerful mage. But the knowledge of her spells left much to be desired and her practice sessions were nothing short of terrifying (mainly why Tenshinhan was always training in the mountains...made a good excuse to get away from her). Still, she was a good person overall. And she and Chaozu looked to be very close.
The thought of that made him think about someone he was once close to but lost touch with because of several mitigating circumstances. Maybe it was time he finally tracked down Lunch and got reacquainted.
Tenshinhan snapped out of his revere and shot up into a ready position as he felt a twinge at his senses. He was no longer alone...
Dreamweaver Studios Presents
Dragonball Z:
Vicious Circle
Part 4
'I am an idiot. I am such an idiot.'
The thoughts echoed through Yamucha's head over and over again, as he carried the unconscious Saiyan female to Korin's tower. As he got closer and closer, the thought that he was making a big mistake grew.
His Humanity battled fiercely with his common sense. On the one hand, this woman was gravely injured. He couldn't just sit by and let her die, knowing he could save her life. On the other hand, she was a part of the bane to his existence. She was one of them...she was one of Vegeta's people. Outside of Goku, every Saiyan they met wrought death and destruction down upon them all. If he were to leave her alone and she did die, that would solve the problem before it even began.
The thing was, every Saiyan they had the misfortune of meeting was male. He had no idea how this first encounter with a Saiyan female would go. As he fought her before, he figured even if she were in top shape fighting at full power, she still wouldn't stand a chance against him if she chose to start any trouble...trouble that could've been avoided right from the beginning if he had left her alone.
Round and round his thought processes went. The situation left him confused. He knew what the sensible thing to do in that situation was, and yet there he was doing the opposite. All of that left him with one conclusion...
'I am an idiot. I am such an idiot.'
Well...there was no turning back now. Korin's Tower was coming into view. Yamucha dispersed the aura to slow himself and expertly flew through the wide window. So many changes had taken place in the world and with him. With Korin's Tower, though, it looked as though time forgot to affect it. Everything was exactly the same as it was when he, Tenshinhan, Kuririn and Chaozu first scaled its heights. It left him longing, once again, for younger days, but he didn't have long to dwell on his thoughts.
"Hey, Yamucha. Been a long time," the short, stocky and somewhat cowardly sword-wielding martial artist known as Yajirobe greeted.
"Hey Yajirobe," Yamucha returned.
Yajirobe took notice of the rather stunning (and rather stunned) woman cradled in Yamucha's arms. He nudged Yamucha's arm with a wicked grin. "I've heard of picking up girls before, but isn't this a little ridiculous?"
"Ha ha," Yamucha deadpanned. He set the unconscious woman down onto the ground gently. "She isn't my type. Trust me..."
Wonder why? The woman did seem very lovely...except for those bruises...The bruises weren't all that out of place on her, though. From her well-toned body, and somewhat calloused knuckles, it wasn't hard to deduce that she was a martial artist herself. Must've been quite a fight she was involved in.
Fortunately, the bruises did nothing to obstruct her comely face. Yajirobe smiled deviously, appreciating her ample bosom as it rose and fell with her ragged breathing. The black body suit she wore was torn at the waist, revealing a fine toned stomach and...wait...what was that draped across her torso?
"A tail? You mean she's a Saiyan???"
Yamucha smiled. "Heh...that's exactly how I reacted."
"Except for Goku, we haven't exactly had the best luck with these Saiyans," Yajirobe pointed out. "What are you gonna do with her?"
Yamucha paused momentarily, then said, "Well...she hasn't done anything yet to show that she's a threat to anyone. A part of me wants to just let her die, but that wouldn't be right. So, I'm going to help her get better, first. I'll deal with her if she does turn out to be dangerous."
"I'm glad to hear that." A small cat-like creature with a cane appeared from beyond a corner.
Yamucha bowed in respect, "Master Korin."
"I know you've been going through a lot of changes because of what you went through with the android, Neo, and that anger you've been holding on to for so long." He used his free paw to toss Yamucha a senzu bean. "I'm glad you haven't changed so much that you forgot how to do the right thing."
Yamucha caught the thrown bean and said with a smug look, "That's what separates us from the savages."
He knelt down and picked up the prone form half way, so that she was sitting up, her back leaning upon him. He squeezed her cheeks to part her mouth and stuck the bean in. The female warrior chose that time to regain consciousness. Seeing her predicament, she began to struggle and tried to remove the foreign object from her mouth. With a bit of a sigh, Yamucha clamped onto her face covering her mouth and with his free hand slugged her in the stomach, forcing her to swallow. Once the bean was downed, he released her.
She shot up and roared, her mighty aura flaring to life as she transformed into Super Saiyan mode. Yamucha stood also, waiting for her to make the first move, ready to take her back down if need be.
As the Saiyan woman poised herself to pounce on her perceived foe, something in her mind clicked. She stopped to check herself out and noticed something very important. "I...I'm not in pain anymore?" She looked at her arms, which were bloodied and quite dirty, but no longer appeared to have any wounds on them. She turned her gaze from her own body to the strange man standing before her, clearly confused. He merely huffed and turned his back on her.
Feeling more bewildered than threatened, her battle aura died and her spiky, golden hair fell dark brown and limp again.
"Good to see you finally realized you were among friends," Korin spoke up.
The woman looked down at Korin, "Where am I? Who are you people?"
"My name is Korin. Right now, you're in my place. That man over there is called Yamucha. He saved your life."
She looked back toward him, "...He did?"
Yajirobe nudged the white feline-person, "Hey, you didn't introduce me!"
"Oh, be quiet," went Korin.
This wasn't something the woman was accustomed to. She had kill or be killed drilled deep into her head. The strong conquer and the weak are crushed. The battle that left her in that critical condition certainly was proof of that. But this man...he certainly was stronger than she was. Yet, he went out of his way to help her recover. To put it mildly, she was very taken aback by his kindness.
She went up to him with her head lowered and her tail swaying behind her nervously. She found it hard to speak at first, but she forced the words to come out, "Thank you..."
It was Yamucha's turn to be taken aback. He looked at her, "...w-what?"
She looked at him directly, "Thank you. I owe you my life."
Clearly, this response wasn't what he expected. "Er...you're welcome. Wow...a gracious Saiyan. I must admit I'm very impressed. What's your name?"
"Krao. I take it you've dealt with Saiyans before?"
Yamucha nodded, "Quite a few of them. Most of them weren't very friendly. And to be honest, none of them have your manners. Goku's an okay guy, but he may as well have been raised by a pack of wolves. I won't even mention that Vegeta."
Krao's face darkened at the mention of the Saiyan Prince's name. "Vegeta...that bastard...he was the one who nearly killed me...and to think my group and I came to Earth to warn him of danger. I don't care what it takes, I want him to pay for what he did to me."
Yamucha's ears perked up as he heard that. "Really???" He smiled and continued, "Krao, I think this is the start of a very...fulfilling friendship..."
Night had fallen on the new Saiyan planet. Chisha had showed Goku and his group to their room, and what a glorious room it was. Even Vegeta was impressed by the immaculateness of the place. It was better than any of the living areas in the Capsule Corp building.
The room was huge, probably five meters by five meters. It had two large beds pushed back to the wall in the center of the room. A dresser was against the wall next to the main door. The mirror attached to it was framed with a very intricate design that must've taken the sculptor many months to complete. That frame matched the frame of the beds as well. Opposite to the beds was an entertainment system, which matched the dresser and beds in design. The centerpiece to the system was a large 50" TV. Farthest into the room were two more doors. One door lead to a bathroom, the other to another room of similar design and dimensions for the boys to stay in. It rivaled the splendor of the entire town.
Goten and Trunks couldn't help but run to the window and take another look at the city. The view from their level was spectacular.
"Wow! This place is great!" exclaimed Goten. "It's a good thing we came too, isn't it, Trunks?"
"Yeah!" agreed Trunks. "I thought we were gonna fight against some strong guys, but this was pretty fun too."
"Not to mention that incredible food!" chimed Goku, referring to the large meal they had after their grand tour of the city. He found his spot on one of the beds and flopped down on it. "I think I could get used to this."
Vegeta had to say, everything was really good...too good. It was all quite...disarming. He had to hand it to the mastermind of this whole scheme. Whoever it was put in a lot of thought and effort into this charade. He was almost sorry they had to spoil everything.
Almost.
There was a twinge in Vegeta's senses that caught his attention. He turned to the main door, as did everyone else. Vegeta couldn't help but smile. "Heh...after all this they put together...after all the planning they had to have put into this, to get impatient now..." He shook his head.
"Yeah. I thought we would've had more time than this," added Goku. "I thought they would've at least waited until we were supposed to be sleeping."
There were a lot of energy readings outside of the door. None seemed particularly strong, but Vegeta knew better than to go just by that. However, even if the power levels he felt were accurate, the sheer number of them would make sure this was interesting.
"Hey dad," went Trunks. "Is it time for the fighting to start?"
Vegeta nodded, "Yes son. It's time for the fighting to start..."
"Well, well, well. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Tenshinhan assessed the situation he was in a thousand times, and every time, he came to one conclusion. He was in some deep crap. These three strange things just appeared, as if from nowhere and surrounded him. To make matters worse, he could tell there was a fourth one near by, but he couldn't tell how strong that fourth guy was.
One problem at a time...which in this case, were the three problems around him. If his memory served him right, these were the three demon creatures Xeon summoned to serve him. But they turned on Xeon and left him to fend for himself. Why would they be reappearing now?
Tenshinhan figured it couldn't hurt to ask. "What is it you want?"
One of the demons, G'nola he believed, spoke up with a non too pleasant smile on his face, "Why you, of course."
"What for?"
"Aren't you the inquisitive one? Well, if you're so curious, why don't you come with us quietly? I can assure you, all of your questions will be answered."
"Sounds interesting," Tenshinhan said, feigning interest. "But I'm afraid I'll have to decline your offer."
"But we insist!" said one of the demons behind him, suddenly sounding too close for comfort.
Instinctively, Tenshinhan tilted his head to the left just in time to see a fist whiz by. They must've thought they were dealing with an amateur. He planted his elbow in the sternum of the attacking demon and for good measure gave him a hard kick to the head that launched him into his comrade, knocking both out of commission for a brief second.
He used that small opening to make his escape, shooting himself skyward. The third demon, G'nola, wasn't about to let his prey escape however. He caught up with Tenshinhan and the two began trading blows. Tenshinhan knew, though, that he didn't have long before the other demons recovered and would gang up on him. He struck the would-be kidnapper with a roundhouse kick that put some distance between them. Unfortunately, he noticed too late the other demon that made his way behind him.
The triclops was clubbed back to earth, crashing in a plume of smoke. Keeping up the pressure, the three demons overhead rained down a maelstrom of energy blasts. Even with his new strength, it was too much for the man to bear, and he collapsed in a heap from the brunt of the onslaught.
"That's enough, you three. Well done."
Tenshinhan tried to cast his gaze towards the owner of the new voice he heard. He could place the other three from Xeon's, albeit hazy memory, but this one was a mystery. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to focus his vision. All he could make out was a light purple blob where the stranger's face was supposed to be.
It became too much of an effort for Tenshinhan to even hold his head up. Just before he totally blacked out, he heard the fourth person say, "Carry him along with us. He's going to be the linchpin in the hell we're going to unleash..."