Note: I do not own Dragonball Z or any of the characters in this story, excepting Serrik Zash and any other characters not found in the Dragonball Z anime or Manga.

This is my first fic, so feel free to read and review. I'm planning on about 7-9 chapters, regardless, but I would welcome feedback, positive or negative.

Warning: This chapter is going to be graphic.

A Story Of Things To Come

Chapter Three : Melee in Amenbo

I remeber it vividly - the day this chaos started. I was staying with Tien until I could control my power well enough to not destroy my apartment trying to enter it. I had just woken up from my fourth day outside the time chamber, and I was still basking in the glory of being one of the strongest beings alive. I had breakfast - coffee, an apple, and a piece of sourdough - and I was getting ready to spar with Tien and Chao-Tsu in the gravity chamber - he had decided that after seeing my results, high gravity wasn't a bad way to go, as had most of my colleagues - when we were summoned to the lookout by Piccolo. I raced Tien through the skies, with him as an unwilling participant in my exuberance - he dourly noted that if Piccolo had summoned us there was likely trouble. I considered this, and began racing for the lookout at top speed - I could not BELIEVE that trouble had found me so soon, especially with no ki massive enough to be concerned about with the exception of my allies across the entire planet, but that seemed to be what had happened. I landed at the lookout and rushed to find Piccolo.

"Over here" I heard his gruff voice call out. "Krillin, Yamcha and Gohan are already here. Before I forget, Gohan, meet Serrik, and vice versa."

Gohan stood up and held out his hand. "Wow... you're pretty strong. I was wondering what that was that I felt."

I shook his hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance. You're not all that bad yourself. You feel almost as strong as your father was."

Gohan shook his head. "IS. As strong as my father IS."

I looked at Piccolo and raised an eyebrow, wondering if Gohan was in denial. Piccolo just looked at me and shook his head, and I proceeded to nevermind. I then noted the map Piccolo held in his hands. "So... what's the situation?"

"Not sure" Piccolo grunted. "All I know is that there have been several massive explosions on Amenbo Island, and there is no cause I can detect."

"So what, theres a mad bomber on the loose?" Tien asked.

"Not sure, but this doesn't strike me as a bomber. Its all high rise buildings and they're all localized in one spot. Someone just after a single target would have done better recon than just finding the general area the target lived in, and someone who loved distruction would have planted bombs in more than just one area. This almost looks like someone with an insane level of power blowing apart a city... but thats impossible. None of us sense ANYTHING. Right?

We all nodded in agreement.

Krillin gestured toward the sky. "Could it be someone in orbit blasting the cities?"

Piccolo shook his head. "We would be able to feel that."

I got a bewildered look on my face. "What if they're just too far off to sense?"

Yamcha sighed. "It doesn't work that way. The rule is that precision plus power multiplied by distance is how much is detracted from the concentration needed to hide your power. We would be able to sense him no matter how far away he was, unless he was just taking potshots."

Piccolo nodded in agreement. "And even so, we would be able to sense the incoming energy. But I don't sense anything. It's almost like conventional weapons fire... except that conventional weapons don't pack that much punch, and it's too little punch for a nuclear weapon. I just don't understand it, and I REALLY don't like it, but we don't have much choice. We'll meet on this mountain," he pointed to a hill south of town, "In half an hour."

I suddenly remembered that we were one person short. "Hey... Uhhh, Piccolo... where's Vegeta?"

Piccolo snorted derisively. "The 'Prince' can't be bothered to interrupt his training schedule with something this 'trivial'."

I tried to resist the urge to laugh, but to no avail. Piccolo scowled. "Half an hour!"

We met on the hilltop half an hour later, and just as I landed, a massive explosion took a skyscraper near me to the ground. I stood in awestruck terror for a moment before realizing that I now also held the power to do that, quite easily as a matter of fact.

Piccolo looked toward the explosion, worried. "Thats definitely not from orbit... lets check the most recent blast area. Move cautiously... we still don't know whats doing this."

We flew cautiously, as a group, trying to watch every direction at once. The hulks of twisted metal that had once been the frames of buildings were burned and blackened. We saw a few huddled groups of survivors trying to hide from us, and I wondered what could have scared them so. What could have destroyed their lives. I was getting angry, angry at whatever had done this to people who had done nothing to deserve it.

As we entered the blast area for the most recent explosion, we noted two teenagers standing in the midst of the chaos, laughing. I remeber thinking that they must have cracked under the strain of their home going down in front of them. Such, as we later found out, was not the case.

One of the teenagers was a boy, with shoulder length black hair, a black shirt and jeans on, with a bandanna wrapped around his neck. He sported steel gray eyes, with a gaze that, even then, sent a shiver down my spine. The other was a girl, with a black and white horizontal striped shirt and a pair of black stockings, over which she wore a denim and a short denim skirt. The unnerving thing was that they both had those cold, steel blue eyes.

But perhaps the most interesting thing about them was their energy. It was too... stable. They could be felt, but their power did not rise and fall gently like a normal humans. Instead, it simply stayed at a flat rate, never ebbing or flowing.

The blonde laughed at her compatriot. "Do it again, Seventeen! That was sooo awesome."

The boy grinned at her. "Nonsense. I don't want to hog all the..." his voice trailed off as he noticed us. "Oh look, Eighteen, we have... guests."

The way he said that... it was unforgettable. It struck a chord of fear in my heart and made me want to turn tail and run, despite the fact that I still felt no power from them. Piccolo, however, was slightly less unnerved. "You there!" he barked at them. "Did you see how this happened?"

The boy, apparently named... Seventeen, for some odd reason, nodded and grinned like a jackal.

Piccolo snarled, "HOW DID IT HAPPEN!"

Seventeen laughed.

Piccolo's face contorted with rage. "HOW!"

Seventeen held out a hand to the nearest standing high rise. "Ooooh... about like this..." he said. And then, out of nowhere, with no warning, no sudden buildup of energy, no NOTHING, the boy shot out a blast of energy and leveled the building.

We all sat there, shocked, as the building began collapsing under its own weight. A dust cloud blew out from it, but it failed to disguise the silhouettes of the two terrors. They were laughing, almost giddily. And their eyes were glowing blue.

Piccolo seemed less than phased, which was more than I could say. I was still stunned... you're SUPPOSED to be able to feel a power like that. But Piccolo just grimaced and stated the obvious. "You're not human."

The girl - Eighteen - laughed. "This one's perceptive, Seventeen. Can I keep it? I've been looking for a pet."

Seventeen replied, "Go right ahead, eighteen, just remember that if you can't control it, you don't get to whine to me."

Eighteen stuck out her tongue and shot seventeen an evil glare. "I think he'll be a fun toy. And he won't break so easy as the ones before."

Yamcha gritted his teeth. "Ones before?"

Eighteen pointed to several craters on a wall of a building they had yet to blast. "These little human creatures don't hold together so well. Can't even take a little battle."

Tien looked on in open mouthed shock. "You... you're monsters!"

I couldn't help but agree, but I was too sickened by what I was seeing to say or do anything.

As we looked on, seventeen rushed over to a little boy who was making his way out of the rubble of their latest target, badly bruised but not too much worse for the wear.. "Hello, there, little girl. You look lost. Where's your mommy?"

The little boy only pointed to the rubble.

Seventeen looked troubled. "Oh, no... that won't do at all, now will it. Here, let me help you get her out."

An instant of hope shone in the childs eyes. "Really, mister?"

Seventeen put a benevolant look on his face. "Of course." For a moment our group held their collective breaths, as we contemplated the possibility of these creatures meerly being misguided. Perhaps, we thought, we might not have to fight after all. He looked toward the building. "I'll help... just like... THIS!" Instantly, energy beams shot from his eyes, causing an explosion in the rubble. I looked away, the bright, searing heat too much for my eyes. When I looked back, the rubble was reduced to a crater, and the child was gone.

"WHERE IS HE!" Krillin snarled.

Seventeen just jerked a hand over his shoulder... and I noted a new crater in the building.

And it was too much for me. I let out a scream that would make the damned turn in their graves, raising my power to the greatest possible level, using Myoken, using every ounce of strength I had, and I leapt foreward, smashing my hand into Seventeens face.

Or at least trying to. I was shocked at his speed, his agility. I hadn't laid a finger on him yet, and he was laughing at me as I struggled to hit him. My rage escalated and I tried even harder to hit him, but to no avail. He was simply too fast.

Suddenly, a fist slammed into my gut, and I tasted the coppery tang of blood in my mouth. Something as hard as steel clubbed me across the shoulders, and I fell, struggling to maintain consciousness. I writhed in pain, struggling to stay focussed. A kick to my lower back shattered that struggle, and I found myself sailing toward a lamppost, screaming at the top of my lungs. It hit me in my already hurting abdomen, and I was wrapped around it, falling limp to the ground like a rag doll. I looked at my friends, and through blurry vision, I saw that while Krillin and Gohan were slightly scared, Tien, Chao-Tsu, Yamcha and Piccolo were just plain old pissed. The four lept into action, and I tore my eyes away from the fight, trying to get to my feet to aid in it. I heard several impacts, sounding like stone hitting steel, which I assumed to be my comrades actually landing blows.

By the time I was on my feet, all of my friends were in the fight a little bit. The first thing I noted was Piccolo landing a blow on Eighteens head with his foot. She did a backflip, and followed him up into the air. Tien launched a blast at her, and she swatted it aside, spinning to kick Piccolo, who was no longer there. She spun all the way back around just in time to catch Tien by the arm and toss him into Krillin, who was charging in at Seventeen. The blow knocked him off course, and they fell in a tangle of limbs. Seventeen turned again just in time to leap out of the way of a Masenko beam Piccolo had prepared. By this time I had recovered enough to leap and kick Eighteen in the stomach, but she turned aside my kick and used a judo throw to toss me down into the concrete. I caught myself less than an inch above the concrete, and rolled out of the way to dodge a concrete shattering kick by Eighteen.

Meanwhile, seventeen was playing at the same game with Yamcha that he had with me, but Yamcha played it smarter than me and had Gohan launch a masenko at his back. He dodged aside, and for a moment it looked as if seventeen was going to finally take the brunt of a major attack, but he somehow erected some sort of energy absorbing shield, turning aside the masenko. By this time, however, Krillin and Tien had untangled themselves, and Tien placed a kick right on the back of seventeens head, which sent the android flying off into one of the heavily cratered buildings.

Krillin, meanwhile, had launched himself at Eighteen, and she leapt over him, spinning to kick him in midair. This freed me up from my rolling out of the way of Eighteens feet, and I got to my feet, stumbling. Tien lauched a blast at the swiveling eighteen, and she redirected her kick to turn his blast against Krillin, who was hit squarely with it and knocked into my lightpost cushion, screaming as he hit the steel, knocking the post over. He bowled end over end for a moment or two, then began trying to get back to his feet.

Eighteen had used this distraction to charge Gohan, but Piccolo managed to tackle her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw seventeen returning, a grimace of displeasure on his face. I reactivated my myoken, and charged seventeen, hoping to give the others enough time to disable eighteen as they swarmed her. Unfortunately, Seventeen was no longer in any mood for games, and turning aside my punch, used my arm to swing me over his head and down into the concrete. This was quickly followed by a kick to the face, which, though I blocked most of with my arm, still sent my flying into a wall.

Krillin was back on his feet by now, and leapt up into the air, over Eighteen. "MOVE!" he commanded, and everyone did, swarming Seventeen instead. Krillin used the oppertunity to launch a Kamehameha wave at Eighteen, and for once, it hit. Krillin didn't wait for the dust to clear before he zoomed in to strike again, and I saw him fly out just as quickly, as Eighteen smashed him in the face, and with some fear I noted that the beam didn't even really seem to phase her.

Seventeen was having some minor trouble coping with all the blows he was recieving, but still was holdig his own. Suddenly, Eighteen rushed over and used Piccolo as a bludgeon against gohan, sending them both into a building, at the same time kicking Tien in the opposite directiion. Yamcha was all alone against Seventeen, but he would not back down. For his trouble, he got a pair of fists in the face, one from each of the teens.

Seventeen laughed at us as we lay, broken in the rubble. "Hah! Wow... you were right, Eighteen. That was fun. We should find some more like this. They're fun to fight."

Eighteen considered. "Yes... but-"

Suddenly, a vaguely fammiliar voice rang out from the sky. "If its a fight you want, you've come to the right place. Prepare to taste my wrath!"

Looking up, I saw Vegeta, in some kind of armor. It was a most welcome sight.