Author: Nadz
Email: vegitto02 at yahoo dot com

Disclaimer:
The title "DragonTek" is owned by the author.
Any characters owned by the producers of Tekkaman, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, or Rurouni Kenshin are, of course, the property of those respective individuals or companies. Any original characters are strictly owned by the author of this fan fiction.
The story line of the entire DragonTek series is also owned strictly by me.
This story may not be distributed to anybody without the author's permission. However, the author does encourage you to welcome your friends to read DragonTek on FanFiction dot net. Much thanks...

DragonTek (Part III: The Vengeance Saga)

Chapter 36 – The Search Culminates

"It's here," Shinjo said as he focused his scouter on the patch of ice just below. A hundred feet below him lay the remains of a solid glacier. The man estimated it to be seventy feet high and thousands of feet wide. Shinjo admired its size and its mighty appearance, and he relaxed as he stood on its hard surface.

'I've never even seen a glacier in person, let alone feel one,' he thought as he examined the icy structure resting underneath his feet. He was currently in the northern regions of Alaska and realized that this glacier must be part of the Harding Ice Field. His scouter continued to scan the area for the exact location, and when it detected it, Shinjo proceeded to conduct a local search of the ball.

As he looked, he witnessed and admired the intricate ice structures crafted by nature. He continued to search, encountering more and more of these structures. Soon, he lost himself within the glacier, losing focus on his mission. Everything seemed so peaceful there; the sight of the beautiful ice structures could easily ease one's pain. Yet, those structures began to haunt him as they melted into shapes resembling his crew. Shinjo's eyes grew as he imagined his slain friends break out from the natural sculptures. They began to approach him with friendly eyes and warm smiles.

"Gecko… Rubiko… Peric…" Shinjo choked, lost in his vision. "Namite… Junto…"

"You're all back," he whispered happily to himself, but his smile soon turned sad as he saw them disappear silently, one by one. "My men… don't go…"

As they slowly vanished, a chunk of ice collapsed just in front of the teary-eyed Shinjo. The last vision he saw of them was their looking down at the freshly fallen ice right in front of him. Looking to the same place, he gasped in shock at what he saw – atop the pile lay the one-star Dragonball.

'Blade… help me,' Miyuki begged as she lay on the ground, too weak to move. Even if she had the strength to dodge, Scimitar would just follow her and finish her off quickly. There was no hope left for her; she weakly raised her short sword, hoping that it might have an effect.

"Die!" Scimitar roared as he was twenty feet away from the fallen girl.

"What?" he yelled as he noticed that his blade wasn't there anymore. Stopping just above Miyuki, he noticed his blade being carried away by a flash of yellowish-white energy. Scimitar looked at his hilt in surprise and realized that the energy flash had cut off most of his blade. He looked around, searching for the source of the attack, but he could not locate it. Soon, a ball of energy headed directly towards him, and he jumped out of the way. The energy ball crashed into the side of a nearby spore plant, blowing it apart.

"Girl, that's the second time I've had to save you," the young woman scolded as she jumped down in front of Miyuki, lying on the ground in both shock and happiness. "You better learn how to fight."

"Saki…" Miyuki trailed, quickly recognizing the girl. "Thank you…"

"Not a problem," she replied, brushing her hair away from her eyes.

"Lookie here," Scimitar sneered. "Another bitch to fuck up."

"It really irritates me that you continually call every woman you see a 'bitch,'" she fired back. "It does nothing but insult us and makes us realize how much of a moron you really are."

"You think I give a fuck?" he shot back. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to bury you."

"Whatever you say, whore," Scimitar laughed as he took a swipe at Saki with his broken blade. The girl dodged easily and shot a chi blast in his face. Scimitar staggered backwards as he held his eye; she had hit a vulnerable spot in his armor.

"That's what you get for being a bastard," she sneered.

'If only I had my weapon,' Scimitar thought, wondering how he would beat this girl when she could shoot bolts of energy from her hands. 'Am I outclassed here? No, I can beat her with my bare fists.'

Scimitar lunged for Saki, and the two began to duke it out. Scimitar landed in several punches, but his armor prevented him from being as fast as Saki, who had a gift for speed. She managed to strike him with more effectiveness and efficiency.

"Do you really think it was a good idea to bring Saki along?" Noal asked as he continued to watch the battle on his monitor. He knew better than to interfere with a fight amongst Tekkamen. The Blue Earth may have had speed, but it wouldn't have a chance against them in close combat, where quick maneuverability counted. Aki felt guilty for almost having watched Miyuki die, but that is why Saki had come – to help if necessary.

"I mean, the girl just woke up before we left," Noal continued.

"I know, but didn't you see the look in her eyes?" Aki replied. "She clearly wanted to fight against the enemy after what they had done to her. I think we can use all the help we can get. Besides, her medical report was very positive. In fact, I think we can go and help…"

"Forget it, Aki," Noal cut her off. "The best bet is to stay here."

"You always say that," an annoyed Aki muttered.

"So what? If they need a working escape method, we're right here to help them."

"So, the island continent of Australia," Alena muttered to herself as she dove from the sky and zeroed in on the location of the two-star Dragonball. She enjoyed going in order; the one-star ball would be her next target. Alena looked at the heavily forested area below her; she estimated that she was pretty far away from Sydney, but she was nowhere near the Australian Outback desert. The girl lowered herself to the ground, walking through the brush as she proceeded towards the object of her desire.

"What the?" she asked herself several minutes as she came to an especially covered area in the forest. Small huts were spread sparsely around the area, and she watched the natives go about their daily business. Some were repairing damage done to their huts; others were bringing in fish that they had caught. Life seemed so normal here for them; it was as if they had no idea about the Radam invasion.

"Aborigines," she said to herself. It really amazed her that they were still around after all these centuries. They appeared to be simple people but were highly intelligent in their own right. Choosing to remove themselves from the metropolitan culture, they continued to live in peace and harmony with nature.

"I'll change their peaceful ways very quickly," she said as she stepped into their shelter. The natives, now aware of her presence, soon gathered around her as they watched her every more. The village elder, a man of about eighty years of age, stepped out of his hut and approached the young woman. He squinted at her in suspicion as he looked at the dried blood on her legs and the sheathed sword on her belt.

"Hello," greeted Alena.

"What do you want?" the man demanded in English. In his own language, he warned his people about the potential danger this girl brought. The children winced upon hearing this, and they stayed close to their parents as they watched the strange Japanese girl.

"You have something like this," Alena said as she pulled out and showed him the three-star Dragonball. The elder cautiously approached to examine the ball, but Alena put it back in her pouch.

"I want the one you have," she purred.

"I don't know what you are talking about," the elder responded. "I've never seen anything like it."

"You're lying," she flashed her red irises. "And let me tell you something… I don't like liars."

"How dare you insult me," grumbled the elder.

"If you give the ball to me, I may spare your villagers," she warned. "If you don't, then I'll make this green grass turn very red. I am not new to ending people's lives prematurely."

"In here," Giru squeaked as he pointed towards the hut next to that of the elder. He certainly knew about Alena's viciousness, and he did not want to see it happen to these people. If the girl were to stick to her words, Giru would have saved these natives from certain death.

"Good, Giru," Alena smiled as she brushed past the elder and walked towards the appropriate hut.

The elder yelled for several of his men to stop her, and Alena frowned. Three men ran up to her with spears, but she quickly drew her sword and finished them with one swipe. She shook her head as she saw their wives run towards them, screaming with horror. The three dying men convulsed on the ground, struggling to breathe, their faces showing agony. Several of the terrified children ran into their own huts, but their mothers stayed beside their husbands, who waited for the elder's orders. Alena entered the hut.

'That girl… if I send any more men out to her, she will just kill them,' he thought as tears welled into his eyes. 'I know that my men would risk their lives for me anytime, but I cannot ruin their families like that. My father had given me that ball many years ago before he passed away, saying that it was a gift from our gods. I kept it for many years, hoping that it would bring us the rains we needed. And for many years, it did. But I cannot send more people to their deaths just for a treasure token like that. My father wouldn't want me to do it, either. Let the devil have it; god will save us.'

The elder saw Alena come out of the hut with a satisfied and relieved expression on her face. In her right hand, she held the marvelous orange ball that he had cherished for so many years. The natives growled at her angrily, cursing her to the best of their ability, but they did not even dare to take a step towards her. Alena realized this and pointed to the slain men.

"This was the result of your lack of compliance," she shook her head at the elder.

"It was the work of a heartless animal," he returned, and Alena unsheathed her sword.

"We all are animals, ultimately," she smiled, narrowing her eye. "Useless monkeys, we are."

Stepping towards the man, she playfully brandished her sword. The old man glowered at her but refused to answer. Instead, he knelt before her approaching figure and lifted his head up high. Closing his eyes, he decided to take his death as a sacrifice to those three men who died for him today.

"You, too, wish to end your life by my hand?" she asked, raising her left eyebrow. The man refused to respond; he only clenched his jaw as he felt the tip of her sword prick the skin of his throat. Alena moved the blade down gently, cutting a light scratch into his flesh. The man shut his eyes tightly, ready for the final thrust. Alena stared at the man for over a minute, and she retracted her sword.

"You have earned more time to live," she whispered, her lips trembling. The elder slowly opened his eyes, watching the girl in disbelief. She was staring at the slain men, whose children were crying over their fallen bodies. The children hugged the bloodied bodies of their fathers tightly, and tears of suffering rolled down their cheeks. Their cries of pain pierced through her ears, and her eyelids flinched.

"What have I done?" she whispered to herself, realizing that she felt not an ounce of joy. Rather, she felt horrified – horrified that she was the cause of so much agony. Her legs feeling weak, Alena backed away and slowly fell to her knees. The elder stayed frozen as he witnessed the girl touch the ground for support and hold her face in her hands.

"God, what have I done?" she whispered to herself, feeling a small tear gather in her own eye.

"Rubiko… Peric… Gecko… Namite… Junto… Your sacrifices will not be in vain…"

This phrase continuously repeated in Shinjo's mind as he tearfully made his way to the location of the two-star ball. In fact, his scouter picked up that the remaining six balls had gathered in one place. The only logical explanation was…

"Alena," Shinjo whispered, flying towards her. "Their deaths will not be in vain."

The girl felt the tight lump in her throat as the tears made their way down her face.

"Why… why am I doing this?" she whispered softly to herself. "Why have I killed so many?"

The village elder slowly stood to his feet, observing the murderer breaking down. Alena looked up, only to see the man glaring at her with a confused expression. He could see the wetness that had spread across her cheeks, but he refused to speak or move.

"I didn't want to hurt anybody," she whimpered, looking sadly at him. "I never wanted to…"

'How can such a beast show such emotions?' the elder wondered, clenching his fist tightly.

"I have caused so much suffering," she continued to cry, "and so much death."

"You are Radam, Alena – that is why you must kill them. You are with our family now, and you must do as we say," a voice echoed through her head. "You are one of us, Alena… you are one of us…"

"No," she choked. "I am not one of you… I will never be one of you…"

"You already are, and you won't be able to escape it… they are the enemy, Alena… not us…"

Alena tried to protest, but a feeling of pain seared through her skull. The villagers watched in shock as the girl grabbed her head and screamed with all her might. Her body fell to the ground, and the girl begged for the torment to stop. A red glow outlined her body as she continued to convulse.

"The pain will end… when you become a Radam again…"

Even when trying her best to resist, Alena's will eventually gave out, and the pain faded away. The girl ceased her screaming and snapped back to attention. Standing up, she picked up Kotukari, and slowly, a smile appeared across her lips as she stared at the elder. The human side of her nature had once again been subdued.

"You know why I let you live?" she grinned at the elder, who only returned a stern expression. "I let you live so that you can spend the remaining years of your life knowing that those men died for you and your little treasure. You will always remember their loyalty, but you won't be able to forget the fact that you did nothing but watch them perish."

"Dragonball approaching," Giru suddenly piped up.

"You interrupted me, runt?" she asked fiercely, but her vexation was assuaged as Giru turned around and showed her the panel of the Dragon Radar embedded into his body. Alena saw that the remaining ball, the one-star ball, was mysteriously moving and approaching her.

"That could mean only one thing," she said to herself. "Somebody already has the one-star ball, and that somebody is approaching here in order to find the two-star ball… or… all of the Dragonballs that I have in my pouch right now."

Alena was so lost in her thoughts that she did not even realize the villagers quickly escape into the surrounding woods. When she came to her senses, she realized that she didn't even care. Once she secured the one-star ball in her possession, the entire planet would kneel to Radam without opposition.

"You fight rather well, Blade," Masamune said as he struck his adversary yet again.

"Thanks," Blade muttered as he realized that he had been in the guise of Tekkaman Blade for over thirty minutes now. 'Have I lost the time limit? Did Aki fix it for me?'

"It's a pity that we couldn't have sparred under more friendly circumstances… oh, my mistake; we must have when we were aboard the Argos," Masamune continued.

"You knew my father, Kouzou, didn't you?" Blade asked as he parried.

"As a matter of fact, I did. We were good friends, I suppose," Masamune said as he swung for Blade's face. Takaya blocked it in stride and tried to get around to Masamune's backside, hoping to injure his shoulder blade. Masamune anticipated the attack and whirled around, countering Blade's move.

Meanwhile, the mid-air battle between Saki and Scimitar continued. The Radam warrior directed a kick towards her midsection, but Saki easily evaded it and blasted her opponent with a power ball. Scimitar was knocked backwards, and he growled at the girl.

"You aren't much of an opponent without your sword," she chuckled.

"Eat shit, bitch!" Scimitar roared as he underwent a Phoenix transformation. Saki watched wide-eyed as the monster shot towards her with dazzling speed; his body was covered in light brown energy.

'There's only way to counter this,' Saki thought as she made herself stay in place.

"Harlot!" Scimitar laughed as he quickly approached Saki. At the right moment, Saki raised herself in the air and shot a strong chi blast at the Tekkaman zooming by below her. The forceful blast hit Scimitar squarely in the back, and the monster lost control. Scimitar realized that he was going to crash straight into the ground as he began to plummet diagonally. Looking far behind him, he saw Saki standing in stance with a smug smile pasted on her face.

"Shouldn't you be paying attention to me?" another voice said to him.

"What?" Scimitar said as he turned his head to face forward, but it was already to late. Tekkaman Rapier had already flown up under him, and she drilled her short sword into one of the Voltekker beam cells exposed in his midsection. Rapier watched in satisfaction as the Radam crashed into the street below, creating a small crater in the asphalt.

"Bitches…" he moaned as he tried to remove the weapon embedded in his belly. The armor had protected his vital regions, so the wound was by no means lethal. However, if he didn't bandage it up quickly, he would bleed to death. Scimitar weakly got to his knees and slowly levitated into the air.

"Masamune…" he called out. "I'm hurt… we have to go…"

"I'm not going back without these two dead," Masamune replied as he broke away from Blade.

"Please, Masamune," Scimitar pleaded. "Or else I'll bleed to death…"

"Why don't you just go alone?"

"Do you want to face them… with three to one odds?" Scimitar reasoned. "Let's go, now!"

"Pitiful moron," Masamune said as he brushed past Blade and headed towards his comrade. "Lord Omega is not going to be pleased at your failure. You're lucky that I'm even going with you."

"I know, now spare the speech, Masamune," Scimitar rasped. Turning towards the others, he rudely said, "I'll be back to shove your heads up your own asses. I'm going to fuck you bitches up real—"

Saki silenced him as she fired an energy ball at his face. He quickly turned around and headed for the Orbital Ring. Masamune gave one last look at Blade and followed suit. The sun began to set.