Chapter 12: Divide and Conquer
With their knowledge of the aliens being slightly limited, Krillin had figured that just about any kind of off-the-wall theory that could've arisen during the meeting would've been fair game. The only possibility that Krillin hadn't been prepared for was the startling revelation from the Saiyan prince.
"Wait a second," Krillin leaned his head to the side, looking a bit incredulous. "How could you possibly know, Vegeta? Old friends of yours?"
"Calm down, let me explain," he chided him, walking over to the steps leading up to the throne, addressing the entire congregation.
"How do you know this man, Vegeta?" Endymion was looking as skeptical as any of them. His continuing distrust of the Saiyan was obvious in his tone.
"I never knew him personally," he began. "He came into contact with the Saiyan race back when I was only a few years old. I don't remember much about him, but my father told me extensively about how notorious he was while he was among our kind."
"What's his name?" Michiru asked.
"Damos," Vegeta continued. "He's a mercenary, much like the people of our race were. But there was more to him than just fighting instincts and battle prowess. He was also a genius of a scientist, mostly within biology and genetics."
"Genetics…Is that how he got this idea for eternal life?" Gohan wondered.
"It's not immortality, per se, but the process he devised is pretty close in terms of genetic longevity. From what my father told me, he was able to surgically modify the cellular structures of a subject, adding various artificial proteins and micro-organisms to them. Once the modified cells became active, they could continually survive off of their own self-generated secretions, and they could function efficiently without the necessity of excessive nourishment. As the subject's normal cells began to die off, the modified cells would reproduce to replace them. Within a relatively short time span, every organ within the subject's body would be able to infinitely sustain itself without the fear of time and old age extinguishing their work. Thus, you could create an immortal soldier, though certainly not an invulnerable one."
"Now that's a lot to swallow…" Krillin mused. "The guy's gotta be a super-genius to figure out how to come up with a cocktail mix like that."
"I wouldn't mind some of that treatment myself," Yamcha added. "Keeping my awesome looks around for eternity would work out for everyone!"
"Except for the women, I'm sure, Yamcha…" Chaozu mumbled.
Vegeta scowled and continued. "Anyway, he presented the plan to my father in hopes of selling it to our army. Naturally, some of the warriors jumped at the chance of immortality. It was with great reluctance that my father accepted Damos's ideas, though he restricted the testing to only the most willing volunteers. He was still uncertain that such tampering with a creature's cells could've been risk-free."
"I suppose this is the part where you say he was correct?" Krillin chimed in.
"Yes, his fears were well-founded. The first batch of volunteers was infused with Damos's cellular modifications, and at first, the process was a success – they reported boosts in energy, awareness, and stamina. It was after Damos received his first set of payments that things begin to go wrong."
"What happened?" Tenshinhan asked. "Did the soldiers end up dying?"
"Worse," Vegeta continued. "Their minds began to snap because of the malfunctioning cells, causing them all to experience some kind of paranoid mania that made them as dangerous to themselves as they were to us. My father told me about how they began babbling incoherently, experiencing frequent hallucinations, and suddenly attacking other Saiyans for no apparent reason. That wasn't the end of it either; their bodies began to deteriorate, bones collapsing on themselves and layers of skin shedding from their exteriors. Eventually, we were forced to put them out of their misery."
Krillin shuddered; he wondered if that had been the only act of mercy that the Saiyans had ever committed.
"What happened to Damos?" Chaozu asked him.
"He attempted to explain the setback and offered follow-up research on the modification techniques, but my father would have none of it. As far as he was concerned, he had seven dead warriors and lighter coffers thanks to Damos's failed immortality fomula. He ordered Damos's banishment from the planet."
"Banishment?" Haruka looked surprised. "You actually let him live?"
"Well, in a way," Vegeta laughed lightly. "He was stuffed onto a low-tech transport and shot out into space like a missile. There were bets going as to whether or nor he'd survive his trip through the atmosphere. It was a fitting fate for such an incompetent warrior. We assumed that he'd rot out in the coldness of space, suffocating slowly in his space pod."
"Looks like you should've been a bit more direct," Yamcha snorted. "This whole thing could've been avoided otherwise."
"That was one of my father's few mistakes," Vegeta replied. "If I were of age and on my father's throne, I would've personally vaporized him. As it was, I was only two years old at the time."
"But if you shot him out into space in a cubicle," Hotaru mused. "How is it that he's shown up centuries later with an army at his disposal?"
"Think somebody picked him up at some point?" Tenshinhan nodded in her direction. "I assume that Saiyans weren't the only ones able to travel through space by that point."
"I'm not sure who would welcome such a treacherous leech aboard their ship," Vegeta snuffed, his brow sinking into thought. "But from what I can remember, interstellar traffic was heavy around my world during the time; Damos could've been rescued by anybody."
"What about Frieza?" Piccolo ventured as Krillin struggled to keep up with the unfolding story. This was getting a bit complicated for his liking. "The enemies we've fought so far possess similar garb, fighting techniques, and technology that the soldiers the Frieza used to attack Namek."
"Frieza?" Haruka asked with an arched eyebrow. "Do I want to know?"
"You'd rather not," Krillin shook his head, feeling his body quivering slightly upon remembering the near-death and death he'd endured at the hands of Frieza. He'd tried to banish a lot of it from his memory since his revival, but he'd experienced quite a few nightmares since the incident. "Let's just say that in our time period, he was a ruthless overlord that was bent on conquering the Universe. He had enough power to do it too…he could vaporize entire planets with just the bat of an eye."
Haruka looked intrigued but nonetheless said nothing, preferring to continue on about the current enemy.
"If the army had something to do with Damos's rescue, then Frieza himself never went through with his questionable gene therapy," Vegeta continued. "Or perhaps he was never informed about Damos's retrieval at all. If Damos promised his rescuers the secret to eternal life in exchange for protection – and I'm willing to bet that he did – then he could've easily ensnared a large number of soldiers under his wing. After all, considering the sheer size of the army, a few battalions of soldiers could've slipped out of the rankings unnoticed to follow Damos and his crazy ideas."
"And more were recruited and treated with the process as time went on…" Michiru added. "It's no surprise that his forces seem endless. And if Tridyx had been modified like he claimed to be, then he must've perfected the technique at some point."
Vegeta sighed lowly, glancing back up at the group.
"Nevertheless, despite our foes being immortal, they are far from invincible. Despite their bodily longevity, they can be killed as the Namek demonstrated for us."
"It's still pretty surreal…almost unbelievable," Krillin said, shaking his head slowly. "If this guy perfected the process, it's kinda disturbing to think of how many people had to die in order for him to do it. They could've gone out even worse than those first Saiyan test volunteers."
"His set of ethics may be lower than even Frieza's, but that just tells us that he'll stoop to anything to keep us from coming out of this alive," Piccolo responded. "It's a good trait to know…we'll just have to act the same way if it comes down to it."
"But for now, I suggest we concentrate on the more urgent matters at hand," Endymion advised. "Damos, or whoever he is, can wait for a while. If we're to stick to this current plan, then it would be wise to enact it as soon as possible. Vegeta, your contributions are…appreciated."
"Hah," Vegeta scoffed, his visible arrogance restored. "I'm just making sure we're all on the same page. I'd like to keep my teammates as competent as possible, just in case."
"In any event…" Piccolo stepped in front of the prince to cut off any potential hostile exchanges. Krillin smirked with admiration at Piccolo's sense of control, his assertion of his leadership. Without his mediation abilities for a good long while, relations with the new allies were going to be more difficult to keep up with. "I agree with the king. Michiru, your power can activate the time portal, correct?"
"Of course, as long as you can take me to it," she nodded.
"That won't be a problem."
"Very well," Endymion treaded past the groups, heading for the throne room entrance. "I'll leave the rest of the recovery mission to your discretion then. Good luck to the two of you. As for the rest of you, I'd like my daughter, Haruka, and Hotaru to give you a tour of the intelligence command center in about a half hour. Further strategizing can take place if needed."
"Yes, Endymion," Haruka and Hotaru bowed respectfully; the king returned the gesture and exited the room, the huge double doors of the throne room slamming shut behind him.
Krillin gazed after the king, mulling over the anxiety that had been present within him during the whole meeting.
"He does pretty well for himself and the rest of you, all things considered."
"He's been more involved with the army in these past weeks than he's ever been before," Hotaru told him. "You should've seen him before I healed him last night. He wasn't in the best of shape."
"Piccolo," Michiru walked up to the stoic Namek. "I suggest we leave right away. It could take some effort to get through whatever defenses are lying between the palace and the time portal."
"Certainly," Piccolo agreed. "I'll meet you at the front gates; I've got a few last minute things to take care of, as I'm sure you do."
"Thank you," she politely said; Piccolo acknowledged her and stalked wordlessly out of the throne room. Krillin smirked as he sized up to the two – Piccolo had found a perfect travel companion for his shining personality. Michiru was very business-like, but more on the quiet side and obviously extremely intelligent. It may've been something worth taking interest in – it fit nicely with her slender, elegant form, something that Krillin could never get enough of. But for the moment, he guessed that she wanted to say her good-byes to Haruka and Hotaru, which was fine by him. The rest of his friends were beginning to disperse.
"Michiru, take care of yourself, and good luck!" Krillin called back as he approached the throne room doors.
"Try not to let Piccolo's attitude get to you," Yamcha offered as well. "He may act a bit cold at times, but I'd definitely trust him to watch my back."
"Thanks, I'll try to remember that," she replied, albeit slightly uneasily.
* * *
"Take care, Michiru," ChibiUsa hugged her around the waist, smiling up at her. "Just think – after you get those Dragonballs, we can wish Puu and the others back to life!"
"I'll do my best, princess," she smiled warmly, returning the hug. "Go ahead and catch up with the others; I believe you have a promise to keep."
"That's right!" she glanced back at the others and spotted Gohan talking with Chaozu and Tenshinhan near the throne room doors. Vegeta had already taken off, and Yamcha and Krillin were leaving as well. She looked immensely relieved that she didn't miss him. "Gohan, wait up!!"
She hurried down to the boy, greeting him warmly with a semi-dreamy smile on her face. Michiru rolled her eyes in amusement – Hotaru hadn't been kidding about her infatuation with the child warrior.
"I wish I could go with you…" Hotaru looked drearily up at her. "I'll miss you, Michiru-mama, please come back okay…"
Michiru kissed her forehead and smiled reassuringly at her.
"Relax, Hotaru, you've got nothing to worry about," she said to her. "Once we make it back into the past, we'll be free from any kind of enemy danger. The only thing I'll have to worry about during the search is exhaustion, which I think is a bit preferable to battling alien hordes, don't you agree?"
The remark lifted Hotaru's mood, and she nodded in agreement.
"There you go," Michiru hugged her tightly. "I'll see if I can bring you two a few gifts from the Old Era, things we can't find anymore around here."
"Thank you, Michiru-mama!" Hotaru laughed aloud, her love for simple little gifts still rivaling that of the princess. She pulled away from Michiru, scurrying to the entrance of the throne room, probably to catch up with ChibiUsa and Gohan. As the doors shut, it left her with her beloved, who was looking decidedly annoying and upset at Michiru's decision.
"Haruka…" Michiru said to her as Haruka folded her arms. "You know that this is the only way."
"I should be the one going," Haruka responded with irritation. "We still have to make sure that Piccolo is as honest and noble as he claims to be. He could just be trying to abandon us, or worse."
Michiru kissed Haruka on the cheek as she spoke, attempting to reassure her.
"I can do that job just as well, thank you very much," she teased her. "Besides, you've got your hands full with the rest of them, especially the Saiyan."
Haruka's anger flared around her as Vegeta came to mind, her hatred of him extremely deep.
"I can't believe what he said to me…" she fumed. "I just wanted to slice his throat open on the spot, and I probably would've if you hadn't stopped me."
"His arrogance can be dealt with later," Michiru calmly said. "He's provided us with valuable information, and despite his own motivations for fighting with us, we'll need his help."
"If you say so…but if he gets in my way even once…"
"Fiery today, aren't you?" Michiru caressed her cheek, hugging her beloved tightly and kissing her one last time. "Save it for your own duties, Haruka. I'll be back in one piece, I promise."
Heavy-hearted, Michiru turned away and exited the throne room, her mind clear. As much as she didn't want to leave the battleground that she should've been defending, Michiru had to admit that she didn't regret jumping at the chance to revive the others, however far-fetched the Dragonball story may've been.
She strolled down the hallway, drawing out her transformation stick. She supposed it could've been worse – she could've gotten stuck with one of the Roving Eyes Pair, as she likened to Krillin and Yamcha. That would've made things interesting, probably amusing, but she at least took comfort in Piccolo's abilities to efficiently complete the search.
But that Damos though. Whoever he was and whatever his connection to the Saiyan race may've been, he was a marked man as far as she was concerned. He possessed the vile arrogance to play God with his scientific devilry; if he'd existed for over ten centuries as Vegeta's story implied, who knew how many other worlds his fleet of infestation had destroyed. Earth could've been just another stone in the road for him.
But after this search mission was over, Michiru would be more than glad to dish out justice to the maniacal overlord, and she and the other Sailor Soldiers would make sure that this was the last planet he contaminated.
* * *
"Tenshinhan," Piccolo's voice rang out as the warrior watched Choazu, Gohan, Hotaru, and Endymion's daughter wander off down the hall. She'd offered to keep her promise of showing Gohan around the palace, thought she seemed a little annoyed at the idea of Choazu and Hotaru tagging along; whatever her reasons, Tenshinhan wasn't certain. Piccolo's continued presence within the palace walls surprised him though – he expected the Namek to be at the front gates by now. "I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor? You?" he replied. "I don't think I've ever heard you say anything like that. What's the problem?"
"I want you to take charge of things around here until I get back from the trip," Piccolo continued. "I don't trust things to hold up between our two groups with Haruka's paranoia and Vegeta's foul mouth. If you would, try to keep things in line from our side."
Tenshinhan didn't know what to say. It was an unusual request, and he certainly didn't think that Piccolo would ask him of all people.
"Hold on a moment," he protested. "I'm not cut out to be any kind of leader. What about Gohan, or Krillin? They've been in bigger pressure situations, and they're a bit more sociable than I am."
"They also don't have the battle experience or perceptive wit needed to lead an attack force," Piccolo responded. "I'm sure you're aware that despite our power, we can't just go out there and try to annihilate every last soldier we came across; we'd be exhausted and worn out in no time at all. This is going to require careful strategy from us, and I think you can do quite well for yourself compared to the others."
"I, I, uh," Tenshinhan didn't know how to respond, though he could see Piccolo's viewpoint more than he could agree with his own self-doubts. Most of what he'd stated was true. "Alright, I'll try to keep things level here while you're gone. I don't think it's going to be easy earning their respect – I didn't save their lives like you and Gohan did."
"On the contrary," Piccolo patted Tenshinhan's shoulder reassuringly. "I think your tranquility and sense of inner control will earn you the respect you need among the other Sailor Soldiers and the king. Trust me, Tenshinhan, I wouldn't be asking this of you if I had the slightest doubt."
"I'll take your word for it. Good luck in your search, Piccolo."
"I wish the same to you," He glanced over Tenshinhan's shoulder, spotting Haruka exiting the throne room, a somewhat irritated and tense look on her face. "You may need it more than I will."
Without another word, Piccolo stalked down the hallway and out of sight.
Tenshinhan sighed to himself, still uncertain about his new role. As always, Piccolo's logic was sensible enough to at least convince him to go along with the strategy, but it was a part he'd yet to play in his lifetime. He had never considered himself a leader or anything close to one. His mindset had always been that of a student, a fighter that constantly learned from the environment around him.
Haruka stepped past toward him, breaking his thoughts.
"You look distraught," she began, placing her hands in her pockets and glancing over Tenshinhan's firm build. "Did your green friend have some sage advice to give you?"
"In a way," he nodded, attempting to appear as friendly as possible. Aside from the king and the guard captain, Haruka seemed to be unofficially heading up the remaining Sailor Soldiers. "Although I could say the same about you. I have a feeling you have some issues of your own to deal with."
"Perceptive," she acknowledged, the irritation on her face still as firm as before. "I can see why Piccolo trusts you over the others...Tenshinhan, wasn't it?"
"Yes; it's good to meet you face to face, Haruka," he extended a hand toward the Sailor Soldier, who reluctantly shook with him.
"I witnessed some of your handiwork back on the battlefield," Haruka replied, still looking as if she was studying the tall fighter, trying to feel his motives and personality out. "Your energy attack was similar to Piccolo's and Son Gohan's; tell me, have all of you trained together to acquire such techniques?"
"That particular part," Tenshinhan cleared his throat before continuing. This was a fortunate break for him – if she was interested in the history of the Z Warriors, he could forge at least a bond of respect with her by a little story-telling. "Is a long story. If you'd like to hear about our history, I'd be more than happy."
She nodded slowly, motioning for Tenshinhan to follow her down the hall.
"I'm actually a bit more interested in how well the seven of you can perform on the battlefield," she replied. "If we're going into combat anytime soon, I'd rather not have any surprises out of any of you."
Strict, business-like, and an ice queen. Tenshinhan mused. If Michiru was anything like her, then Piccolo was going to be in for a long search. But he could still respect that sort of attitude in the midst of a melee – a stern attitude most often begot concentration and better performance against an enemy. It reminded him of his own mindset in a way.
"If you insist," he replied. "As long as you don't mind reciprocating."
She glanced back at Tenshinhan with a bit of intrigue.
"Of course not, though I did ask first. Perhaps we could enlighten each other on the way to the command center."
"Lead the way."
* * *
The courtyard was much calmer than the night before, much to Piccolo's relief. The refugees were milling about the fields, conversing with each other and attempting to erect better shelters for themselves. Piccolo could see inward fear within most of them as he glanced around at their pale faces, but he admired the tenacity of the ones who continued the daily mundane tasks even with death encroaching them from all sides. As he passed closer to a few collections of bystanders, his acute hearing picked up some interesting dialogue.
"Did you hear about the battle last night? I heard there was going to be another assault on the palace."
"Did the Sailor Soldiers stop them?"
"So I've heard, but they haven't been out and about all day. I don't get it – since we came here, not a day has gone by where they haven't been out here helping us or keeping our spirits up."
"There could be something big going on inside, you know. War planning and such."
"If anyone can bail us out of this mess, it's them. I just wish I could've seen them come back after winning that fight yesterday. It's reassuring, when they're around, you know?"
"Did anyone see them return last night?"
"No, but considering the frenzy that was going on in here, they probably slipped through unnoticed. Besides, if we're still in one piece, they must've been victorious!"
"You're probably right."
Piccolo was relieved as he listened in on the bantering pair. Whether by luck of by some deceit from the military, the refugees had learned nothing about the disastrous outcome of the previous night's battle before he, Gohan, and Krillin managed to turn the tide. He knew that the ruse wouldn't last forever – it would take a significant amount of time before he and Neptune could recover all seven Dragonballs – but hopefully the soldiers would be able to keep things under control until their return. The last thing the fledgling forces needed was a riot by disheveled civilians.
He stopped at the gateway to the defense wall to wait for Sailor Neptune. Considering the extravagance of her battle gear, that could've been some time. Why anyone would go to such lengths for a brutal battle was beyond Piccolo's logic, but perhaps that was the custom for the female soldiers in the future. If that were the case, he was certainly embarrassed to have known about it – a fight was a bloody, savage clash of powerful foes, not a beauty contest.
In the interim, all he had for company were a pair of young-looking sentries bearing polished silver pikes. They stood on either side of the doorway, serving as guard patrol.
The guard on the right seemed a bit distracted – he was glancing off into the fields, the pike loosely held in his gloved hand. His partner seemed a bit more in awe as his met the intimidating Namek. Piccolo initially paid him no mind – he was more focused on keeping an eye out for Sailor Neptune.
The youth's nervous voice broke the silence a few moments later.
"They were telling us about you…the guys with the strength of ten thousand warriors," he said as Piccolo turned his head toward him. "They implied that you would be our saviors from all of this."
"Saviors?" Piccolo narrowed his eyes. "You've lost faith in your old heroines already?"
The guard shrank back a bit, growing increasingly timid.
"Well, the Sailor Soldiers, they've, err…"
Piccolo shook his head slowly.
"I dislike warriors depend on others in a fight and shrink to nothing when their idols fall," he said with irritation. "You have combat training if I'm not mistaken."
The guard nodded but said nothing.
"Then you are not totally helpless against these enemies; not at all. There may come a time where all of us have to band together to repel these parasites. Even with the Sailor Soldiers, our group can't exterminate all of them on our own."
"But there are so many of them, and they're too tough for swords and spears to go through."
Piccolo glanced over the stuttering soldier, softening his gaze to a bit to calm the youth's nerves.
"Just keep your courage up and your spear high," he reassured him. "That will be all you need."
That seemed to strengthen his resolve as he nodded briskly and tightened his grip on the spear, returning his attention to his duties.
"Did you think of that all by yourself?" A female voice called down from the top of the wall. Piccolo spotted his partner casually leaning against one of the spires, an amused smile on her face. He couldn't help but be surprised – Michiru had changed into her elaborate battle garb quicker than he thought was humanly possible.
"You're early," he flatly said.
"What, did you expect me to take extra time dazzling myself up for you?" Sailor Neptune laughed, holding up a rod-shaped ornament with an oddly-engraved sphere topping it. "Not while I possess this. Each of us has one – it gives us the ability to instantly transform into our battle outfits."
Piccolo snuffed; that made a bit more sense. He was curious as to how such sorcery was possible, but he decided to save that question for another time. He lifted himself into the air and touched down next to hear on the wall.
"Are you fully prepared?"
"Unless you'd prefer carrying some luggage with you," Sailor Neptune replied. "I can go and pack a few if it's to your liking."
Piccolo smirked.
"That won't be necessary," he shook his head. "This shouldn't take very long; you can live off of what you find there."
"As long as I have a good place to eat and a comfortable bed," she told him. "Now, can you remember the way back to the time gate?"
"Indeed," he answered. He should've remembered – if he didn't, it would be quite embarrassing for his pride considering his commendable sense of direction. "How adept are you at flight?"
Neptune looked a bit uncertain.
"All of us only recently managed to begin slow and steady flight in a straight line. Considering how fast you got here, you'd leave me in the dust."
"A slow crawl may not be such a bad idea," Piccolo explained. "It'll keep us from being noticed by the sentries down below. But just watch your back just in case."
"Huh, I thought that was your job," she snidely remarked. "You know, the master not leaving the treasures out for the thieves to steal?"
"Touché," Piccolo replied. "Still bitter about that?"
"I think you're in for a surprise if you continue to underestimate my abilities," she lifted herself straight up – though with significant effort – into the air, motioning for him to follow. "Well, master, shall we? Oh, and if you would, I'd prefer if you fly in front of me."
Piccolo flinched visibly at the sarcasm, which sparked another laugh out of Neptune. Nevertheless, he lifted himself up to her level, nodding toward the southeast.
"It's in that direction," Piccolo explained.
"The enemy will no doubt have found it by now," Neptune ventured. "But only the power of the Sailor Soldiers or another incredibly holy power can trigger the gate. Setsuna designed them that way."
Piccolo was pleased, impressed by the foresight and intelligence of their recruiter. Once she was revived, Sailor Pluto would no doubt become a valuable asset despite her affinities for old Kami.
They started off on their way, soaring slowly – almost too slowly for Piccolo's liking – across the devastated city, ascending a bit to keep out of the sight of any enemies hiding on the ground. Suppressing their energy completely was impossible as long as they were flying, but running the tiny risk of being spotted in the air was a better option then simply charging through a populated combat zone.
From what Piccolo could sense through the haze of active ki that still permeated the atmosphere, there were still some smaller energies skittering around in the wreckage of the city below them. They were probably survivors of the chaos, still looking for a place to hide from the infestation that was corroding the city. Neptune seemed to scanning the ground below them for any signs of life as well, though Piccolo doubted that any civilian would be brave or foolish enough to expose themselves in broad daylight to the alien soldiers around them.
"It all looks the same…" Neptune noted with a depressed tone. Piccolo concurred – the aliens had done a remarkable job of wiping out the entire city in a relatively short time span. He'd seen similar desolation during his brief excursion on Namek – the lifelessness, the eerie silence that accompanied and followed a massacre…it had been one of the most uncomfortable experiences he'd ever been through. And considering the multitudes more of civilians that inhabited Crystal Tokyo, the feeling had to be amplified tenfold with Sailor Neptune.
"This trainer that you spoke of," she asked him. "Is he really as knowledgeable as you say?"
He smiled approvingly – despite her grief, she knew when to put it aside for a greater purpose. Such behavior befitted a good warrior.
"Lord Kaio trained most of our group at one point," Piccolo explained, recalling his own unique experiences on the tiny planetoid. "I just hope your friends are humorous people, or they won't get very far."
Neptune looked totally thrown off by the comment, so Piccolo moved on.
"When we return to the past, I'll ask the Guardian of the Earth to deliver a message to Lord Enma, the ruler of the other side. I'll have him ask for your friends to be admitted to Lord Kaio's world for special training prior to our collecting all of the Dragonballs."
"Setsuna wouldn't approve of further tampering with the time line," Neptune pointed out. "Especially the time line of the afterlife."
"It's the only way for them to be granted an audience with Lord Kaio, and besides, since they'll be revived either way, there shouldn't be much change to the timeline. They'll only be coming back with greater strength and ability than before."
"Is it really that much of an improvement?"
"Even though the powers of your group are different from ours, I'm certain that something can be arranged. The only question I have at this point is what to do to get the rest of you into fighting shape."
"What's the point of me getting into 'fighting shape' if I have you to protect me?" The look in her eyes as she said that startled him a bit, and it must've been visible because she started laughing. "You're too easy to fool, Piccolo. That's one advantage I have over you."
"I'm being serious!" he quickly blurted out. Composing himself, he continued. "Nothing personal, but you're dealing with a much more sophisticated fighting style than magic tricks."
"Magic tricks?" The humor vanished from Sailor Neptune's face; she looked a little insulted. "You haven't even seen us in action yet; it's a bit unfair to judge us on what you don't know."
"Endymion explained enough to me last night about your powers to make some fair assumptions," Piccolo replied. "Believe me; it's going to take a lot more than that to stop these warriors. You have to learn how to beat them at their own game: ki warfare."
"Please, teacher," she mock-asked him. "Educate your ignorant student."
Ignoring the sarcasm, he went on.
"Your life or death cam be determined by whether or not you can put up a quick attack or defense with ki; needless to say, your ki can be more easily utilized than your powers. You may be able to get away with charging a long-winded attack on the grunts out here, but the more powerful soldiers aren't going to wait around while you power up."
Neptune still didn't look convinced; in fact, she looked even more annoyed.
"Nothing personal," she shot back. "But the last thing I'm willing to do is to swap my powers for a karate uniform. You have your own ways of fighting, Piccolo; we have ours. Considering how far our ways have gotten us up until now, I'm hardly looking for any replacements."
Your 'ways' nearly got you reduced to ashes last night. He kept that comment to himself, not wanting to raise any more tension between the two of them. As the flight continued in silence throughout the clear afternoon sky, Piccolo's mind was still churning with ideas. There was no other way around it – Neptune had to learn how fight against ki warfare if she was to be of any substantial use on the battlefield. In conjunction with her current abilities, a little training would go a long way for her.
Necessity is the mother of all invention. He smirked to himself as he cast a glance at her. Piccolo decided that he would convince Sailor Neptune that some new skills were needed, one way or another.
* * *
Infernia leaned against the doorframe of Archives I-3 as the general pounded away at the keyboard in front of him. He scowled in frustration as the computer's memory banks returned unfavorable results to him.
"No, no, no!!" He smashed the console in with his fists, causing sparks to fly from the ruined data retrieval unit. "Dammit…nothing, nothing at all! How can this be?!"
Infernia smirked, sauntering over to him. The fiery look in Damos's eyes whenever he was enraged was mesmerizing to a degree. She'd seen that same expression in his face during battle countless times before, including the occasion where he'd personally led an undermanned assault on a complex where she and her team had been pinned down by heavily armored shock troopers. He'd saved her life that day…she hadn't looked at him as a general since then, but as an equal, and much, much more.
She laid a hand on his armored shoulder, shaking her head as he glanced with surprise back in her direction.
"Frustrated at something, sir?"
"Infernia!" Damos composed himself, standing up and clearing his throat. "I didn't expect you to be finished filing those reports so early. The neuro-shock took a lot out of you yesterday."
Infernia's stomach tightened, a growl escaping her mouth. True, her head was still pounding after the punishment the general had made her endure after the failure of the capture mission. She had been incensed at first when Damos had sentenced her to go through the torture, but thinking it over had made her realize that her suffering was the fault of those mystery warriors, especially the cursed boy…
Damos looked her over.
"You're the one who seems to have the frustration all of a sudden," he observed, stroking her gold hair with a smile. "You're still not upset at me for performing my own duties yesterday, are you?"
Infernia slammed her fist into the side of the door frame, cracking the metal.
"We had them…we would have had them burned and in ashes if that damn, damn kid hadn't showed up! He ruined everything, my victory, my pleasure in melting the princess into nothing…The next time I see him or any of those bastards, I'm going to tear their intestines out…"
"Calm yourself, fireball," Damos put a hand on the back of her hand, rubbing it softly. Infernia enjoyed it, closing her eyes and letting the anger seep away from her. "You'll have your chance soon…I promise you."
She smiled, turning her head slightly toward him as she heard a small sizzling noise.
"You'll burn your hands doing that," she reminded him, but he shook his head.
"Skin heals itself quickly," he replied, stroking her hair a bit more. "Besides, I need your mind focused here for the moment. I'm doing a bit of research regarding our new friends from the photos you took on your scouter."
"Have you found anything interesting? Are they humans?"
"The one who chased you…" he slowly said, showing her the picture on the pale red monitor. "He bares a striking resemblance to one of my first clients - the king of the Saiyans, Vegeta. I've been trying to run profile matches with some of the more eccentric drifters throughout the galaxy, but so far, I haven't even come close to a match."
"The Saiyans?!" Infernia arched an eyebrow in surprise, staring closely at the armored thug in the monitor. "But the rest of them are dead! The warlord Frieza destroyed the Saiyans ages ago, every last one! Could their king have lived this long?"
Damos shook his head as he studied the picture.
"The facial features and the hair are nearly identical," He said as Infernia clicked on the monitor circuitry, enlarging the image. Though she hadn't taken much of a glance before, this particular fighter looked formidable enough by his figure and intimidating eyes. "But the King Vegeta that I knew all those centuries ago was definitely much larger and more formidable-looking than this person. It could not be him, Infernia – Frieza did indeed murder King Vegeta and the Saiyan race. Whoever this fighter is, he obviously takes after their old ways."
"Perhaps a distant relation of the king's who escaped Frieza's wrath," Infernia ventured. "Could he have seized copies of your genetics testing and perfected the modification on his own?"
"No, I left no existing data left on that planet before I was banished," Damos explained. "If I was going to be exiled from the planet Vegeta, I wasn't about to let my work be replicated by their scientists. As for his relations, King Vegeta did have a son – when I was petitioning for the first experiments on the Saiyans, I saw him. He couldn't have been more than two years old at the time, though his resemblance to his father was nearly unmistakable. But I highly doubt that Frieza let him live either."
"His armor bears such similarities with ours," Infernia noted, scratching her chin. "Though the absence of shoulder-guards would mean he got it from a Rank-Twelve officer or higher."
"And no such official is stationed on the planet besides Bortyx, and his armor is the Horde's black color," Damos mused. A brief silence followed as both warriors pondered the possibilities. Finally, Damos's head jerked upward, his eyes bright. "Wait…didn't you say that a Namek was also among the attacking group?"
"Yes," Infernia nodded. "A Namek, the King Vegeta-look-alike, a doll-type being, and four other humans. Though I can't believe that I actually saw a living Namek warrior. After all, that race has been--"
"Extinct for thousands of years…" Damos finished for her, nodding his head slowly. "I would know; I helped to eradicate the remnant of their kind from this universe. No Namek has a life-span that long. I think I may be on to something here…that may indeed have been King Vegeta's son that chased you out of the battlefield."
Infernia glanced at the general with confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
"When I was studying the profile of the Sailor Soldiers that our field scouts had obtained at the onset of the war, I noticed a remarkable attribute of one of them…Sailor Pluto, I believe it was."
"Sailor Pluto…" Infernia tried to recall the name. "Ah, yes; she was the last one that Tridyx slew."
"Perhaps she managed to insert her own handiwork before her demise," Damos hypothesized. "According to the preliminary data on Sailor Pluto, she had the uncanny ability to manipulate time…"
Infernia snuffed.
"I'm surprised that she didn't use the ability to save her friends during our battle. Are you suggesting she brought these warriors here from the Earth's past? If that were the case, how do you account for the presence of the Namek and the supposed Saiyan prince?"
"I don't know, but it's the only viable explanation that I can think of for the moment," Damos replied. He tapped his scouter a few times, opening a link to the Communications. "This is General Damos, priority-one message. Respond."
"This is Communications, sir," The officer at the other end responded. "Relay your message."
"The classified scouter data transmitted to Analysis during the third hour of Shift One yesterday," Damos proceeded. "It is to be uploaded to the banks of all issued scouters at once with all available information regarding the subjects."
"Understood," The officer replied. "Any additional data, sir?"
"Yes, indeed," Damos answered. "A bounty of a fifty percent rations increase and a ten thousand unit increase in pay will go to the soldier who brings me one of these warriors, dead or alive."
"Understood, sir," The officer cut the link; Damos smiled with satisfaction.
"Problem solved, Damos?" Infernia asked. "From the potential power-readouts I received on my scouter from each of those warriors, there's no way a simple infantryman's going to be cashing in on that reward. If Tridyx couldn't defeat one of them…"
"It will be sufficient for now," Damos reassured her. "It will at least give the men some incentive to fight these warriors – no fighter, no matter how strong, can battle higher numbers forever."
He stood up, moving toward the door.
"Would you like to accompany me, fireball?" He offered his hand to her. "I must visit our guest to discuss this matter a bit further. If Sailor Pluto devised this plan, I'm certain that her queen must've had knowledge of it. Perhaps a bit of convincing can enable us to extract some information from her about these warriors."
"It sickens me to look at that pathetic human," Infernia crossed her arms, disgust and revulsion on her face. "You can do well without my presence."
Damos leaned in closer, kissing Infernia on her fiery cheek, surprising her slightly. Usually, he was strict about such orders to his captain – his latest boost in spirit must've been affecting his mentality slightly.
"As much as you may detest it," Damos said softly. "I must insist upon it. You may be the first one to try and convince her first, if you prefer."
Infernia's eyes lit up; she smiled back toward Damos.
"You certainly know how to convince a girl," she teased him. "May I use whatever methods I think of?"
"Just remember, we need her alive, Infernia," Damos stepped aside, allowing her to step through the entranceway. "After you, fireball."
* * *
Zebus crushed a small rock underneath his boot, his body sore and his mood vile. The neuro-shock treatment wasn't kind to anybody, least of all Trisgammans. Electrical energy of any kind disrupted their cellular structures momentarily, and prolonged exposure to such energy within the torture chamber had given him sensory disorientation for hours afterward.
Damos and Infernia should've counted themselves fortunate that they transferred him back to Earth for recon duty with his counterparts – had he remained aboard the Terror, he probably would've torn their throats out in his rage.
"Come now, brother, do the past day's events still bother you?" Jevor's hissing tone interrupted his frustrations. Technically, Jevor and Barista weren't his brothers, but being the only three Trisgammans left in the universe, it was a title that definitely stuck. "The arrival of those mystery warriors was nothing you could've predicted, so why do you let it wear on your mind?"
Zebus turned back to his fellow Trisgamman. To be honest, he hadn't cared much about the arrival of the new warriors – such things could've been dealt with in time. The punishment dealt to him after their return to the Terror, on the other hand, angered him to no end. Jevor's mentioning of it only served to fuel his rage.
"Cut the eloquence, Jevor," Zebus hissed at him, pounding at a piece of rubble with a meaty fist. "We were cheated of our victory, and I of glory when those fools showed up. And despite the fact that I had no place in the command structure during the ordeal, I was stuck in that damn chamber!"
He shattered the rock with his next blow, the dust from the break hitting him in the face.
Jevor rested a maroon-scaled hand on Zebus's armored shoulder.
"At least your 'commander' got hers as well. Take pride in that, my brother," he reassured him.
Zebus wasn't convinced, his strands of cilia tightened against each other as he spat a mucous ball onto the ground.
"And where did Captain Infernia end up at the night's end?" Zebus grumbled. "Probably back in the general's bedchamber, living it up while I have to deal with the taunts of my 'comrades' in the dredges of the Terror's mess halls. Jevor…we're a laughing-stock in that fleet…"
"Coming from a race that nearly destroyed this fleet all that time ago will do that to us," Jevor nodded, stroking his cilia and rotating his globular eyes. "We were young then…Damos raised us, not expecting us to find out the truth of what he did to our people."
"We were a condition!" Zebus exploded, energizing and launching a ki ball into the air. It exploded in mid-flight as Zebus screamed. "We were part of a payment!! We were given over to Damos along with the bounty for our planet. I can still remember the words of their employer back then when we were first brought aboard the Terror: 'Use them as you please, just make sure they don't breed."
The imposing Barista stood from his position, his scarred eye gleaming in the sunlight.
"Not payment…" His raspy, cracking voice bellowed. "Not slaves…Trisgammans!!!"
Zebus stared at Barista's viciously scarred throat, the result of being on the front lines during an ambush several dozen years ago. His voice and right eye hadn't been the same since.
"Tell that to the general…" Zebus glanced around at the wasteland that had once been Crystal Tokyo. Not much was left of the area, nor were there any life signs around anywhere; with the scouter scan complete, they'd be due back to the Landing Zone to report to Commander Bortyx shortly. "One day, Jevor…one day, I'll get my revenge on that bastard…one day very soon!"
"Revenge can wait, brother, at least until the proper opportunity presents itself," Jevor replied, peering over the horizon and scanning with his scouter. "For now, let's finish our sensor sweep and get out of this wasteland."
But just as Zebus reactivated his scouter, Jevor called both of them.
"Two faint power readings approaching! Prepare to engage!"
The three Trisgammans dropped to the ground and took cover behind the rubble, looking for a surprise attack. But when Zebus spotted the two approaching fliers, he signaled for his counterparts to hold attack, going so far as to grab Jevor's arm as he was charging an energy blast. Zebus recognized them immediately – it was the Namek and the Sailor Soldier he'd nearly killed.
"What are you doing?!" Jevor griped as the two flew past them without noticing. "I had a perfect shot at them!"
Zebus glanced slit-eyed at the passing pair, wondering and thinking. After the battle the previous night, Zebus imagined that all of them would barricade themselves inside the palace and reorganize. But what were these two doing together, way out in the middle of nowhere, away from any kind of support? And where exactly did they think they were going?
"Wait for a moment, Jevor," Zebus let the two pass ahead and out of sight. The scouters still read them though – two faint battle powers at 500 each. He knew better than to trust the machine though – as evidenced by their battle last night, their enemies could alter their powers somehow, fooling the scouters on exact readings. "We're going to follow them and see what they're up to."
"Sailor Soldier," Barista grumbled, confused. "And unknown…why not destroy?"
"I have a feeling that they're up to something…" Zebus motioned for Jevor and Barista and to follow him into the air. "We'll kill them later, but for curiosity's sake, let's find out why our friends are going so far away from their palace. What out in this wasteland could be so important to them?"
"Excellent point, brother," Jevor nodded; he and Barista took to the air, and they flew a good distance behind the Namek and the Sailor Soldier, so as not to be noticed.
It was quite a turn of luck for him – only good things would be in store if they could eliminate a Sailor Soldier and one of the mystery warriors in one fell swoop. Zebus would use the opportunity to release all of his frustrations and negativity on those two, with each ki blast or punch or kick. And when Zebus would finish with them, he would be back to himself again – cunning, eager, and full of guile for whatever lay ahead for him.
He would especially thank the remains of the Sailor Soldier for getting him back on track.
* * *
ChibiUsa stepped off of the elevator and into the command center, staring around at the bustling activity. Each of the soldiers in the room glanced over at the elevator, acknowledging the presence of the princess and the other remaining Sailor Soldiers with a solemn bow or salute. She returned the gesture, much to the satisfaction of Haruka – learning to become better suited within the command structure had been something the Outer Soldier leader had been teaching her during the war.
She heard the elevator next to theirs open, and five of the six Z Warriors stepped out onto the steel entrance platform overlooking the semi-circular chamber. Vegeta was nowhere to be found among the group, but Tenshinhan and Krillin had given their assurances that the Saiyan prince wasn't too far away, off on his own probably cracking the heads of a few aliens. It had been slightly relieving to hear that he had some animosity toward the alien leader; it ensured that he wouldn't stab them in the back on a whim. Someone of Vegeta's hot temperament seemed to place revenge and personal grudges ahead of petty arrogance.
"Not too bad," Yamcha nodded as he glanced around.
Gohan looked slightly more amazed.
"Incredible…this one room controls all the military forces?"
"It's more of a guiding center, really," Hotaru answered him. "A lot of radio transmissions and updates are cycled through here and reported to the royalty and troop commanders. Think of it as a nerve center."
"Looks a little cramped if you ask me," Krillin grumbled as he glanced around the low-ceiling chamber. Tenshinhan looked to be agreement – the room obviously wasn't built for people with his large, towering frame. As he stepped onto the platform and surveyed the room, his head nearly touched the polished, stainless steel ceiling.
"This place wasn't made to be a lounge," Haruka replied to Krillin. She nodded to ChibiUsa to lead them down the stairs and into the center of the room. Tenshinhan lead the others after them, a few of the passing soldiers glancing curiously at the unique fighters that had come to their aid.
Despite her many frequent visits to the chamber over the recent weeks, she was still amazed at how fluid the information gathering and transfer process went even in the midst of a huge battle. But for all its capabilities, the initial massacres of soldiers and civilians within the city hadn't left much radio traffic to receive, which, despite the more obvious assumption, drove the agents crazy with boredom and uncertainty.
Most of the communication officers that were assigned to the chamber wanted something to do down beneath all of the action – it was their only means of getting updates to the war occurring above ground. Glancing around at some of them now confirmed this; some of them had taken to chatting lowly amongst themselves, which was unheard of in previous, more exciting days.
The princess led the group to a long, stainless steel table in the center of the room. A large section of the display monitors covering the walls had been devoted to serving the officers usually seated at the table. There were cushioned wooden chairs lining the left and right sides of it, and one larger, ornate chair sat at the head of it. She'd sat there before – only the royalty or head commanders were allowed.
Looking past the towering piece of furniture, ChibiUsa spotted Captain Benson standing nearby, cataloguing something on a notepad. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't even notice the group approach until ChibiUsa seated herself in the elaborate chair. With her parents absent, she was technically in command of the briefing.
"Ah, Princess, and all of you!" He said with a friendly bow. "King Endymion is off overseeing the refortification of the southern flank. He sends his regards, and he's informed me about the search for these…Dragonballs to revive the others. I'm relieved to hear that such mystic relics exist even in the Old Era."
Chaozu hovered up into the air and glanced at some of the neon-colored maps displayed on several of the monitors.
"We didn't see any soldiers when we were flying in last night."
"We recalled most of them," ChibiUsa explained. "The power of those aliens last night was too great to risk with the standard soldiers. Since the danger has passed, we've reopened the lines surrounding the palace."
"This way, if they attempt another ambush, we'll at least be ready to defend the ground," Haruka finished, inviting the others in the group to take some seats.
"Gohan, you can come and sit next to me if you'd like," ChibiUsa cheerily said. A stern gaze from Haruka stopped that thought. Instantly realizing her mistake, she returned to Gohan. "I, I mean the seat next to Hotaru or Haruka…silly me, I keep forgetting about that rule…"
The boy looked indifferent.
"That's okay, I can stay standing. It doesn't look like there are enough seats to go around for all of us anyway."
"If you insist," Haruka shrugged as the others took their seats. Gohan lifted himself into the air and hovered in place with his legs crossed, getting a clearer look at the monitor. The princess tossed him another glance as she attempted to clear her reddening face. He still seemed oblivious to the pass, which confused her. She would've imagined that he would've caught on at this point. Things hadn't exactly gone well with the tour she was supposed to give him a bit earlier – because of Chaozu and Hotaru's company and their chattering, there hadn't been much time to explore even the first floor.
Ah, well…I'll get my chance later, when I show him another tour…maybe I'll pick tonight during the sunset, it'll be the perfect chance…
"Princess?" Benson's voice interrupted her scheming as he began to discuss with the group. "We're ready to begin."
"O...of course!" she sputtered. "What has been happening since the battle last night?"
Benson tapped a few buttons on a remote, bringing up a flat, overhead map of the palace on the large viewscreen.
"Our remaining scouts have delivered sporadic reports of more enemy reinforcements arriving since four this morning; they've established strong resistance points about ten miles outside the palace in all directions, using many of the ruined buildings and some makeshift campgrounds for cover."
He clicked a few more buttons, and several groups of red blips flashed onto the screen, each of them a short distance from the palace.
"Don't tell me that these are the actual numbers," Krillin chimed in as he studied the screen.
"Don't be ridiculous," Benson replied. "The latest scouting info places each brigade from roughly fifty to eighty enemy units, though more could have accumulated by now. We have fifty of our strongest soldiers assigned to each side of the palace, surrounding it from all sides. With any luck, we should be able to hold the enemy at bay for a while, should they decide to attack. Have all of you decided on a course of action?"
Tenshinhan rose from his chair, clearing his throat and addressing everyone. It looked like a bit of a surprise for his teammates, judging from their expressions.
"From what I can gather, it would be best to refrain from making a direct attack on the enemy until the other Sailor Soldiers have been revived and when we can get a better idea of where we can hit them hardest."
"Where would you imagine we could do that though?" Yamcha asked, looking around at the group. "No offense, but it's not like these guys have any kind of obvious weakness to exploit; I'd say that our best bet is going after one of those troop-carrying ships you guys mentioned earlier."
"Indeed," Haruka nodded. "But that would require a good amount of navigation and battling over something that's not a definite guarantee. Even if we managed to capture or sneak aboard one of the ships, we still wouldn't know what kind of opposition to expect aboard their supposed fleet."
"Not to mention that it would leave a great deal of the palace exposed to an encroaching enemy force. Maybe we should just stick to getting these guys off our backs first," Tenshinhan suggested. "If we can drive them away from the palace, we can get some breathing room to work with."
"Not a bad idea…" ChibiUsa mused thoughtfully. "Driving away a few of the hordes away may only increase their tenacity even further, but I would say that it's better than standing around waiting for them to smother us."
"I suppose you'll be doing this yourself then, Tenshinhan?" Haruka objected as she stood up, a commanding heir about her. "We don't have the resources or morale among the soldiers to launch that kind of campaign. It would be too risky even with back-up to launch an attack on a heavily fortified enemy embankment."
"Who said we needed back-up?" Yamcha retorted. "We've handled much worse than those losers out there. We must've dropped at least twenty last night during our excursion. Clearing out a few of those strongholds won't be a problem."
"How confident…we could very well be walking into a deathtrap if we assault those outposts directly! Who is to say that they don't have a few surprises of their own inside those entrenchments?" Haruka said with obvious annoyance.
"What would you suggest that we do then, Haruka?" Captain Benson inquired.
"Obtain information, scout out the areas for possible weaknesses before we directly attack," she replied. "Knowing a bit about our enemies before flying headstrong into them would give us more of an edge, increasing our chances of victory."
"I would be inclined to agree," Hotaru said, albeit softly, in her low-key manner as always. "We've seen these aliens coordinate powerful strikes with extreme precision; they would be too well prepared to be taken down by only a few of us."
"But we can't just sit on our hands either," Krillin noted. "If we stand around too long collecting data and not acting, it might make them think that we're weak enough to take down."
"It falls to the princess then," Benson nodded toward ChibiUsa, whose shoulders sagged. She was hoping this wouldn't happen, especially over so delicate an issue. But as the royalty, she would have final say in the decision-making. "What sort of action shall we take, my lady?"
She massaged one of her temples, debating furiously in her mind. Both ideas seemed viable to an extent, yet they both had a few possible flaws to them. She hated uncertainty in this sort of situation…
Her musings were cut short as one of the communication officers came rushing over to Captain Benson.
"The western flank has fallen under attack; they're taking heavy fire!" he hurriedly told him.
"What…?! How many units?" The captain was taken aback by the report, but he nevertheless remained in control of himself and hurried over to the workstation of the flushed officer. ChibiUsa leaped out of her chair and joined them, her comrades close behind. She spotted a miniaturized version of the map they were just gazing at on the officer's monitor, indicating a breach on the western end of the palace.
"Uncertain, sir, thirty on the ground at least, several more attacking from the air. We've lost radio contact with the commanders."
"What was their latest status report?"
"It wasn't clear, though all indications point to an ambush along the minor ridge that separated the northern and western garrisons. Both battalions have been thrown into confusion because of the attack. The last spurt of static said that they were pinned down, taking casualties."
"Dammit…" Benson shook his head. "Put all garrisons on alert, but inform the northern squads to hold their positions. We can't risk splitting our defenses and allowing an opening at the palace gates. They've got to hold their ground…"
This is my cue, I suppose. ChibiUsa clutched her locket tightly in her hand, turning toward Hotaru and Haruka.
"Come on, we've got to reinforce them!" The two nodded approvingly toward her bravado, Haruka drawing out her transformation stick.
"I've been waiting for this…" Haruka muttered as the trio charged back toward the elevators. Before anyone else could say a word, they were into the right-hand lift and on their way back to the surface.
"At least thirty units, you guys," ChibiUsa glanced back at the two of them. "Think we can handle all of them?"
"Well, those senzu beans have revitalized our strength completely," Hotaru noted. "I've felt better than I did even before this whole war began. I'd say we have a good chance of winning!"
"Need you mention that, Hotaru?" Haruka said with irritation; ChibiUsa chuckled at her pride rearing itself again. "Either way, I just hope we can count on our partners for help…"
"Relax, Haruka," The princess reassured her. "If we get into trouble, they'll be there to bail us out, especially Gohan."
"I hope your intuition is right…"
"Moon Crystal Power!!"
* * *
"Reckless fools!" Tenshinhan shouted as the doors to the elevator closed. "Captain, what's the fastest route to the western garrison?"
"Take the spare elevator to the surface and follow the hall left and to the end," he answered, throwing on a headset. "You should find a security door on the way there; you could probably fly straight out to the conflict zone from there. I'll stay here and attempt to reestablish radio contact with the lines."
"Let's go!" Tenshinhan was the first one up the stairs and onto the lift; the others followed close behind him. He hit the transport controls rapidly as the heavy steel doors slowly slid closed. The motors thrummed to life, carrying the armored lift up to the palace grounds. He still couldn't believe it – how could those three hope to defeat an entire battalion of enemies? It was insanity…did no rationality exist within their skulls?
"I've never seen you so forceful before, Ten," Chaozu hovered up next him, drawing his tense mind away from the Sailor Soldiers' boldness. "Is everything okay?"
Tenshinhan smiled back at his old friend, silently agreeing with his statement about his new leadership prowess.
"Someone has to take charge," he replied. "Being backed against the wall is one thing, but being backed against the wall without a plan is even worse."
"Well said," Yamcha punched him in the shoulder. "I'd trust your instincts in a heartbeat, Ten."
"Just stay focused on the fight and not our teammates and I'll be glad to lead you, Yamcha," he responded. "That goes for you too, Krillin."
"Err, right, Ten; I don't know what you could be talking about…" Krillin laughed as he primed himself. "So, how exactly are we going to go about this? None of us ever had to deal with a free-for-all sort of situation before."
"The best we can, Krillin," Gohan nodded. "We've all got a sense for ki, right? All we've got to do is stay alert and be quick about taking them out, and we'll win easily!"
"Just like your dad," Krillin replied. "Making it sound so easy…"
"Well, let's get some kind of strategy anyhow," Tenshinhan suggested. "Chaozu, Krillin, would you mind assisting me and taking out some of the aerial fighters?"
"Wherever you go, I'll be right behind you, Ten," Chaozu nodded.
"If it keeps me from getting mauled on the ground," Krillin replied. "Besides, a good Taiyoken technique could stop them easily."
"Exactly," Tenshinhan agreed as the elevator slid to a halt. As soon as the steel doors opened, all of them were off at super speed, zipping past palace attendants and wandering guards at the speed of light. Moments later, Tenshinhan spotted the Sailor Soldiers just about to exit the side door that Benson had mentioned. They were all in their battle garb – though how that was possible, he didn't know – and they were all somewhat surprised as the five Z Warriors appeared in front of them, seemingly out of thin air to their eyes. ChibiMoon was so caught off-guard that she yelped and fell over to the ground, her eyes wide.
"Leaving without us?" Yamcha inquired, powering himself up.
"Not at all," Sailor Uranus kicked the heavy door open, letting sunlight spill into the hall way as she surveyed the horizon. The defense wall wasn't far from their position, and a bit further beyond it, Tenshinhan was able to spot ki beams flashing near a series of dilapidated buildings bordering the ruined city. "Good, the defenses are still holding."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Krillin shoved past all of them and soared upward at a high rate of speed toward the battlefield, Yamcha close behind him.
"Hey!! Hold on a second!" Uranus called after them, causing the two to stop in mid-flight. "Aren't you guys forgetting something? The three of us aren't as capable in the air as the five of you are!"
"Then we'll have to improvise," Tenshinhan nodded, finding no alternative with time of the essence. Uranus was probably going to hate him for it though. "We'll have to carry you guys there if we want to make it in time. Gohan, Yamcha, think you guys can lend me a hand?"
ChibiMoon looked ecstatic at the idea of being carried by Gohan, immediately agreeing to the idea. Tenshinhan rolled his eyes at that – why was it that even ten centuries after their era had passed, women still had to act so strangely around men? Hotaru also let Yamcha take her around the waist and lift off with her in tow, though she acted much more sensible about it than her counterpart. After securing the two Sailor Soldiers, Gohan and Yamcha were off with Krillin following close behind. Chaozu remained behind, waiting for Tenshinhan. Uranus, however, vehemently opposed the idea.
"Absolutely not! I'd rather fly to the battlefield myself than be towed there like a piece of baggage!"
Tenshinhan sighed to himself.
"Sorry, Sailor Uranus, but we don't have time for this," Speeding around behind her, Tenshinhan wrapped his arms around her waist and rocketed into the air with Chaozu behind him. He sped off as quickly as possible, Uranus squirming all the while.
"Hey!! Put me down, Tenshinhan!! I order you to take me down and let me get there myself! I swear I'm going to tear that third eye out once we get there!!"
Thankfully, Chaozu was able to freeze her body in place with his psychic abilities to spare Tenshinhan any more aches and bruises. She gave him no further trouble during the flight, but he suddenly remembered Piccolo's last piece of advice.
"Good luck…" He muttered to himself as he observed the anger on Sailor Uranus's face. "Am I sure going to need it…"
* * *
Stupid, stupid, stupid… Vegeta shook his head as he monitored the battle from high atop one of Crystal Tokyo's smaller towers. Entrenched within the walls of their ruined city, the humans were indeed holding their own against their assailants, and Vegeta could understand why. From what he could tell by his senses, the home forces outnumbered their enemies by a significant amount. On the few streets where the fight was occurring, the structures were damaged somewhat, but they remained intact, providing ample cover from any aerial assaults. Vegeta had nearly laughed at the blunder in strategic planning – someone had obviously been a tad overzealous on the enemy side, and while they may've caught the sword-wielders in an ambush, there was certainly room for the humans to recover and beat back their attackers on the ground.
Below, he spotted the Silver Millennium brats and their hires taking off for the battlefield, obviously to provide assistance to their comrades. Vegeta let out a light chuckle; it would be interesting to witness the combination of both forces in battle. And despite the scanter battle powers of Kakarotto's son and the others, they would make Sailor Uranus and her two companions look weaker than they already were.
As the group sped rapidly toward the fight, Vegeta shrugged his shoulders, lifting himself into the air. With the assistance of their forces, the alien besiegers would have no chance of victory – he decided to entertain himself by watching the team in action against hardened warriors. He only hoped that this sort of blundering wasn't all that Damos was capable of.
It still seemed too surreal that Damos would be alive after so many centuries, but Vegeta was certain that the coordinator of this assault on Earth was him – the evidence was too strong to point elsewhere, and only someone as foolish as Damos would even tamper with the idea of genetic longevity.
"I only hope I get the chance to duel with you before this conflict ends," he said to himself as he casually floated toward the battlefield. "Whatever the Saiyans before me didn't finish, I certainly will."
* * *
"Not a moment too soon…" Gohan heard Sailor ChibiMoon mutter as they reached the strip of road that served as one of the combat zones. They dropped down onto the rooftop of a small store, ducking down and observing the action below them.
The road was thin, limiting movement from the figures below them, and various pieces of rubble were scattered over the area. Below them, Gohan spotted several Crystal Tokyo soldiers locked in combat with armored mercenaries. The larger ones were clashing fist and sword with some of the aliens in the streets, fighting mostly to stalemates. Other Crystal Tokyo soldiers were taking cover inside the buildings to dodge incoming ki beams from flying or gun-wielding soldiers that were scattered around the sidewalks.
"A lot like Frieza's soldiers, alright…" Gohan remarked as he studied their unsuspecting enemies. Glancing upward, he spotted several aerial soldiers descending from above. "Look out!"
Gohan snared ChibiMoon by her arm and literally jerked her off the ground and away from a barrage of ki beams that exploded against the roof, taking several chunks out of it. The impact threw Gohan onto his back, ChibiMoon falling on top of him. As she found herself staring eye to eye with the young Saiyan hybrid, she quickly jumped to her feet.
"Ah! Err, thank you, Gohan!" she covered her face with her gloved hands, her skin turning red. "That was a close call…"
Gohan hurried over to the edge of the roof with her, the fliers swooping away for another pass. The sweep of ki blasts had been absorbed by most of the surrounding architecture, but several of the sword-wielders on the street had been downed by the aerial attackers, allowing the mercenaries a free charge across the street toward the hiding area for the besieged soldiers.
"ChibiMoon, let's dive on them, surprise them from above!" Gohan suggested brightly.
"Huh? You mean, jump on them from way up here?" She peered over the edge of the roof. It wasn't long drop by any means compared to what she was used to recently, but it was enough to make her legs wobbly again.
"Yeah, we'll take them completely by surprise!" Gohan convinces her, grabbing her hand and diving over the edge of the roof.
"Gohan, wait a minute, wahh!!!!" She screamed as she flew over the edge of the rooftop toward the advancing mob. "Let go of my arm, I can fly from here!"
Gohan obliged, suspending himself in mid-air and raising both arms above his head.
"Masenko....HAA!!!" A reddish-gold ki beam exploded from his hands, slamming into several of the charging mercenaries on the right flank. Most of them flew backwards into the ground and impacted into the walls of buildings across the street. Gohan pumped his arm, proud of his handiwork.
ChibiMoon had fallen for several more feet before she'd apparently let gravity take its course. Gohan was at first afraid that she wasn't able to fly correctly, but as she extended she leg and charged a bit of energy into it, he spotted her attack.
"Sailor ChibiMoon Kick!!" She slammed the heel of her boot into the jaw of one of the larger mercenaries, sending him bowling into several of his comrades. As she dropped down to the ground, much of the advancing mob had been thrown into disarray, allowing the Crystal Tokyo soldiers to emerge from their entrenchments and make a counter-attack. Gohan dropped down, roundhousing an unsuspecting alien from behind and uppercutting a gun-toting grunt that was too close. ChibiMoon appeared next to him, holding up a small scepter in the direction of a groggy mercenary.
"ChibiMoon….Pink Sugar Heart Attack!!" At her command, a stream of hollow pink hearts flew from the orb of the scepter, pounding the alien in the chest. Gohan stared in a brief moment of confusion at the attack, which seemed to be doing nothing more than irritating the alien, who was attempting to swat away the small hearts as if they were mosquitoes. "Oh, no, it's not working!"
Before the burly alien could recover, Gohan leapt forward and cracked the alien in the jaw with a flying kick, shattering the bone on impact and sending the alien flying backward onto the ground, motionless.
ChibiMoon sheepishly looked at her scepter.
"Well, I, uh," She stammered. "It was a fluke! It's usually a lot stronger than that!"
Gohan just looked at her, more confused than ever. He'd sensed nearly zero energy emanating from the attack, and besides that, it just didn't even look threatening from even his perspective. It was just a stream of pink hearts!
By this point, the Crystal Tokyo soldiers had crossed the street in force, relentlessly attacking and hacking at the surviving aliens. Their steel swords, though primitive against the ki techniques the alien soldiers were using, were strong enough to pierce the armor protecting their enemies, and with the added momentum, most of the aliens were left dead in a matter of half a minute.
As the last of the mercenaries fell and the Crystal Tokyo soldiers thanked the princess and her escort for their help, Gohan spotted Yamcha and Sailor Saturn dashing forward from the west end of the street, each of them with urgent looks on their faces. Gohan and Sailor ChibiMoon were quick to hurry over to them.
"They're getting overrun over there!" Yamcha announced as the four met. "We're going to need all the help we can get."
"The bulk of the soldiers are entrenched inside the industrial complex further up the way," Saturn continued as she held up her glaive, the end of it covered in blood. "Tenshinhan, Krillin, and Chaozu are taking care of the ones in the air, but they're about to storm the area unless we give them some back up."
"What about Sailor Uranus?" ChibiMoon worriedly asked.
"I only caught a glimpse of her, but she chose to try to dissipate the masses with some of her attacks," Saturn explained. "And she seemed awfully upset at Tenshinhan and Choazu when they landed for some reason."
"In any event, we should clear the road for them, wouldn't you agree, Gohan?" Yamcha smirked, charging a white field of energy around his body. "After all, that's what we're here for, right?"
Gohan nodded firmly, and the foursome hurried back the way Saturn and Yamcha had come from. Gohan motioned for Yamcha to slow up a bit to keep the Sailor Soldiers from falling behind.
"ChibiMoon, were you okay back there?" Gohan asked during their flight. "That attack of yours didn't seem too effective."
"Err, well, it's kind of selective sometimes, but I can keep it under control from now on!" She stammered in response. "It's kind of hairy out here. I'm not used to this…"
"Don't worry, just use your senses!" Gohan suggested matter-of-factly.
"Senses…?" ChibiMoon replied uneasily.
"Yeah, sense for the enemy's ki and you'll know where they're coming at you! It's easy; we do it all the time whenever we fight."
"Err…yeah, THOSE senses, of course! Where's my head at today…" She absently said, laughing it off.
"Up...in the clouds, like always…!" Saturn laughed through panting as she hurried to keep up with them.
"Saturn?" Gohan ran alongside her. "Are you okay? You look a little faint."
"Faint, me?" Saturn replied, stumbling a bit in her steps. "I'm just not used to this much running…I'm not much of an endurance athlete, as you might say."
"It's okay; I'll give you a hand!" Gohan powered himself for flight and snared Sailor Saturn by the waist, picking her up and flaring up the road.
"Hey! Gohan, this isn't necessary, I can make it!" Saturn reacted with surprise, nearly dropping her glaive as Gohan soared upward a bit with her in tow. "I'm not used to this sort of treat--, err, transportation!"
Gohan clutched onto Saturn's waist tightly, soaring forward and hoping they would be in time to assist Sailor Uranus.
* * *
Hey, what is she thinking…?! ChibiMoon glared after Saturn as Gohan flew forward with her, holding onto her tightly. How dare she try to butt in on my catch!! It was just like today when I wanted to show him the palace…that little…
Yamcha called back to her, breaking her focus.
"ChibiMoon, you comfortable with high-speed flying?" he asked as he backflipped behind her and proceeded to airlift her to the battle site. "We'll get there quicker at this rate."
ChibiMoon squirmed uncomfortably at first, but relaxed eventually as she focused on the upcoming battle and she was going to use those 'senses' that Gohan had been talking about. She had to admit that Yamcha wasn't bad either – she would've probably gone for him out of the rest had she not had her eyes set on Gohan – but she still glanced over in Saturn's direction with fury.
She's blushing! How could she?! She fumed, nearly visibly. Gohan is my catch, not hers! Oh, she will pay, how she will pay…
* * *
"Uranus….Space Sword Blaster!!"
The arc of energy from the Space Sword ripped through the lines of mercenaries charging in her direction, fatally piercing several and wounding a few others. It was merely a distraction at this point however – she could spot twenty more enemies descending from the sky onto her location. Her sword arm was getting weary, and the Crystal Tokyo Special Forces were being worn down as the enemies were encroaching all around them. The tightness of the area had limited the number of attacks from the air, but the ferocity of the ground forces had more than compensated for it. Several minutes more and she wasn't sure if they could hold the line.
"Kamehameha!!"
"Dodompa Ray!!"
Two brilliant beams of energy – one a dazzling blue and the other a fiery red – descended from the sky and literally blew the approaching fliers out of the sky, sending them spiraling downward into the streets below. Uranus glanced upward and spotted Krillin and Chaozu keenly guarding the skies, moving to engage a few surviving aerial soldiers that had evaded their notice.
"Cover your eyes!!!" A powerful voice from above commanded to the Crystal Tokyo Special Forces below them. Felling another weaker alien with her Space Sword, Uranus shot her gaze toward the voice's source. She spotted Tenshinhan floating directly in front of the sun, his hands in a triangle formation. For some reason, the sun seemed to be getting brighter all of a sudden. It was then that Sailor Uranus realized what Tenshinhan was doing.
He's amplifying the sun's rays. What's he--?
"Taiyoken!!" Sailor Uranus dove down as an immense beam of sunlight shot down from the sky. From the positioning of the Crystal Tokyo Special Forces, they were mostly hit with the back of the beam; the enemies took the impact full force.
"Aggghh!!!"
"The light!!!!"
"Ahhh, my eyes!!!"
He's blinded them!
Seizing the opportunity, Uranus motioned to the defending soldiers, who were wisely shielding their eyes from the brunt of the beam.
"Forward!!"
Uranus led the charge, and the dozens of surviving Crystal Tokyo soldiers who'd been previously been backed against the wall dashed forward with rage toward their vulnerable enemies, hacking and stabbing with their swords at the enemies' armor and exposed limbs and heads. Uranus launched a World Shaking and Space Sword Blaster attack that cleared the field down the right flank. Before she knew it, they were turning the enemy back, the blinded mercenaries in full retreat from the small complex, some taking to the skies and others fleeing across the street into the neighboring buildings.
Uranus smiled with satisfaction as she glanced at the retreating enemies. Those that took to the skies were promptly met by Krillin, Chaozu, and Tenshinhan, who almost effortlessly slammed them down to earth with powerful punching and kicking combinations.
I can't let any of them escape…! She led her force out into the street in pursuit of the ones who'd taken the ground road for retreat, but as they reached the middle of the road, she called them off – the few who'd managed to slip away had been intercepted by Yamcha, Gohan, Saturn, and ChibiMoon, who were dispatching the vulnerable aliens easily. Before long, the Crystal Tokyo soldiers and their allies were the only living fighters on the road.
"We're victorious! We've won!"
"They're all gone! I can't believe it!"
Uranus couldn't believe it either, but as she glanced around at the celebrating soldiers and at the multitude of dead alien mercenaries, she was forced to accept it – the powers of the Z Warriors mixed with their own powers had turned the tide in the fight, and thanks largely to them, the western flank would hold.
Weary from the battle, she walked over to Sailor ChibiMoon and the others.
"Having fun?" Gohan joked as he took in a deep breath. Uranus grumbled under her breath – Gohan and Yamcha weren't so much as out of breath, even after battling the fleeing soldiers.
"What about in the other direction?" she asked.
"All taken care of!" ChibiMoon proudly reported, sauntering closely to the Saiyan hybrid. "Thanks to Gohan!"
"Thanks to him?" Sailor Uranus stared at the boy in disbelief. "How?"
"Yep!" ChibiMoon stared at him almost dreamily. "He took out at least a dozen with one blast! After we attacked them, we gave the soldiers enough time to recover and attack!"
"A dozen…?" Uranus glanced at Gohan, dumbfounded.
"Well, I'd say more like fourteen or sixteen, maybe," he answered nonchalantly. Uranus felt her pride sinking. It took at least three powerful attacks from her to defeat that many enemies and it had taken a lot out of her in the process. How strong was a kid who could do that without any effort?
Saturn didn't look too convinced of a total victory as she glanced around at the bodies.
"All of these guys are foot soldiers, though," she noted. "Who could've given the order to attack the western garrison?"
"It wouldn't make much sense to attack only one section of the palace without assailing the others," Uranus hypothesized. "Maybe a member of the command structure around here got a bit eager?"
"Could be," Yamcha agreed. "I'd imagine that a commander for these guys must be close by…Gohan, let's split up and scan for hidden energy signatures. I'll go and tell the others in the air."
"Got it! Do you guys want to come with me?" Gohan offered to the remaining Sailor Soldiers as Yamcha took off.
"I'll be supervising the soldiers out here," Uranus declined, motioning back to the still-celebrating Crystal Tokyo Special Forces. "If the three of you go, be careful. Try not to get ambushed by surviving enemies."
"Don't worry, Uranus! As long as Gohan's here, he'll protect us!" ChibiMoon cheerily replied. "Come on, Saturn!"
"ChibiMoon…" She lightly shook her head, but held up her glaive. "Alright, let's go searching. Oh, and we'll walk this time, Gohan, thank you very much."
The joke made Gohan's face turn red in embarrassment in front of Sailor Uranus, and he chuckled a bit as he hurried along the way, the two Sailor Soldiers close behind him.
Uranus rolled her eyes, wondering what Saturn had meant by that by that remark. Before she could go back to calm the raucous soldiers, Tenshinhan dropped down next to her, still looking full of vigor.
"The first of many victories." He greeted her.
"Hopefully," Uranus nodded back toward him. "That was an impressive technique you executed back there. I nearly didn't see it coming."
"Thanks, it's called the Taiyoken," Tenshinhan explained. "But I wanted to congratulate you as well; your fighting skills and prowess back there were very commendable."
"It's what I'm trained to do."
"I was impressed all the same…commander," He extended his hand toward hers.
Commander? She hadn't expected that amount of respect out of him despite his well-mannered and proper nature. And as she glanced up at Tenshinhan's face, she saw sincerity, and a willingness to give her respect in exchange for earning some from her.
"Thanks…Tenshinhan," She shook his hand, smiling toward her ally. "By the way…sorry about your jaw earlier."
Tenshinhan chuckled a bit, rubbing a sore spot on his left jaw.
"Don't mention it," he smiled. "I'll just have to let Yamcha carry you from battle to battle from now on!"
Despite his effort, Sailor Uranus didn't see the humor.
* * *
Piccolo tossed the body of another soldier away as Sailor Neptune launched a Deep Submerge attack that effectively finished the remaining squad of gun-toters. It was strange; they hadn't encountered such technology from the alien mercenaries as of yet. The energy-firing guns seemed to be connected to an armored pack on their back, probably some kind of generator. Either way, the more rapid-fire style of energy attacks had nearly caught her off-guard when they first engaged the soldiers guarding the closed time portal. Were it not for her agility and reflexes, she would've been roasted alive by the beams.
"That looks like all of them," Piccolo said as he glanced around. He lifted up the body of one soldier whose head he'd blown off with a powerful ki blast. He glanced at the marking of the white over-garment that the alien was wearing. "Looks like some kind of science team. The scouters they were wearing looked somewhat more advanced as well."
Is there nothing that slips his attention? Neptune mused as she scanned the area for any signs of life. There were no civilians so far outside of the palace, but the enemies had apparently discovered the sealed time gate and sent several squads of soldiers to keep watch over it and do a bit of research on whatever it was. Fortunately, as she observed the floating crimson orb, it didn't look like they'd been able to open it up.
"It's not safe for this to be left here out in the open," She said as she and Piccolo faced the silent time gate.
"Could they get this open if they tried?" Piccolo asked.
"It's doubtful," Neptune replied as she began letting energy flow through her. Piccolo stepped back as her body began to glow a deep turquoise shade. "I don't think these monsters have the holy power necessary to energize Sailor Pluto's time gates. I don't even think that your power is pure enough to open this portal."
She let the energy flow out of her body, surrounding the time portal with the same incandescent haze. Closing her eyes and focusing on the silent orb, she released all of the energy from her body, and when she opened up her eyes once again, the orb had expanded into a vertical swirling disk of energy, discharging thunderbolts around it as it awaited the entrance of the two warriors.
"Not bad," Piccolo nodded approvingly. "How long will this stay open after we go through?"
"Not for too long," Neptune said as she stepped towards it. "We've taken care of all of the enemies within the area as far as I can tell, unless your 'senses' tell differently."
Piccolo smirked at that.
"Nothing's here that I can detect," he answered, motioning toward the portal with his arm. "And if I can't sense it, I doubt that it's around here. Ladies first, Sailor Neptune."
"Thank you, teacher," she teased him as she stepped through the portal.
Next stop, the Old Era…
* * *
"By the Pit…they've murdered nearly twenty soldiers by themselves! Remarkable!" Jevor noted as he observed the carnage surrounding them. Zebus had to concur – they'd witnessed the ambush, and none of the patrolling officers had seen it coming.
The Namek had deftly eliminated several of the soldiers patrolling farthest away from the odd crimson anomaly on the hill, and the Sailor Soldier had followed up by attacking the remaining scientists from behind, thoroughly eradicating them with a few of her magic attacks. Before Zebus could count the fatalities, the entire field had been cleared and the two attackers had somehow transformed the anomaly into some sort of gateway.
"What…?" Barista's rumbling voice inquired as the three Trisgammans watched from the second level of a nearby building. "Unusual…"
"Indeed…" Jevor stepped away from the window, deactivating his scouter. "I managed to catch some of the conversation. That little crimson sphere, disk, or whatever is some kind of timewarp."
Zebus scratched his chin, watching the two warriors converse in front of the floating disk.
"It does make sense," He nodded, leading his two comrades down the stairwell that let out on the bottom level. "Nameks have been dead for centuries. If the Crystal Tokyo soldiers wanted to fetch a Namek warrior for their aid, a time portal would be an ideal solution…but why return at this point?"
"Indeed," Jevor agreed as the trio stepped out into the afternoon sun. The Namek warrior was vanishing into the disk after his comrade, and the portal remained open even after his entry. The energy that the Sailor Soldier had used to open it was still active according to Zebus's scouter, and it would be for another minute or so at the least. "And why would the Sailor Soldier follow the Namek? Could she be deserting?"
"Doubtful," Zebus muttered. "This was the same one who returned alone to the battle last night despite there being no chance of victory. Believe me, that one is too fiery to understand desertion."
"Follow…..destroy?" Barista suggested as he moved toward the disk.
"I would say so; let's at least see where they're going and find out why," Zebus suggested. "Let's leave enough time for them to get moving on the other side, and we'll be right behind them undetected!"
Allowing the energy powering the portal to dissipate a bit further, the three Trisgammans finally rushed inside, swept away from the ruined city and into the crimson haze of the time gate, tumbling through the darkness toward whatever time period awaited them.
* * *
Kami had meditated and pondered long and hard about the current situation occurring in the future. Considering the unstable make-up of the time stream, he supposed that almost anything was possible. But as his uncertainty had prevailed over his mind over the past day, Kami had decided to tend to the shrine to alleviate his weary mind.
The last thing he expected, however, was to see Piccolo and one of the Sailor Soldiers descending from the steps of the shrine, where the time portal still rested. Standing from his work in the flora patches, Kami rushed over to the pair to see if he was hallucinating. Piccolo's deep tone proved that he wasn't.
"Kami, it's good to see you."
"Piccolo? What has happened? Have you achieved victory?"
"No time to explain, old man," Piccolo cut him off as he glanced at his companion. "I have a favor to ask."
* * *
"Checkmate," Sailor Mercury said to Sailor Venus as she closed the virtual projector on her visor. The holographic chess board vanished from sight, and Sailor Venus sighed in exasperation. "That's twenty games in a row, Venus. Are you ready to take a break?"
"I give up, Ami," She smiled as she shook her comrade's hand. "I've tried every trick that I could think of and I still couldn't even force a stalemate."
Pluto smiled as she sat cross-legged on the long line. It was only about a quarter mile to go until they reached the Seat of Judgment, though while Pluto was able to last the excruciatingly long wait, Jupiter looked about ready to throw herself off of the bridge. She'd been pacing back and forth for about two hours straight, wringing her hair and sighing heavily.
"Two more hours and I'm going to…" Jupiter muttered.
"Kill yourself?" Mars joked as she ceased her meditations momentarily. "Jupiter, we are dead after all…"
"Need you remind me, Rei?" Jupiter dropped down, shaking her head as she tried desperately to find something to do to overcome the boredom. "Maybe this is my punishment, or part of it anyway."
"Excuse me, Sailor Pluto?" One of the armored cloud-riders that had been guarding them since Jupiter and Venus's little fighting incident called over to her. She turned her head in his direction, wondering what was going on now.
"Yes?" She answered, standing as the cloud-rider floated over to her.
"We just received a message from the Judgment Seat," He informed her. "It took them a while to dig it up out of the archives, but you apparently have a special summons receipt from over ten centuries ago. You're to be taken there immediately."
"Excuse me?" Pluto was dumbstruck. "Ten centuries ago?"
"Indeed," The cloud-rider nodded. "If you can inform your comrades and follow me toward the front of the line, we can get this all straightened out."
With their knowledge of the aliens being slightly limited, Krillin had figured that just about any kind of off-the-wall theory that could've arisen during the meeting would've been fair game. The only possibility that Krillin hadn't been prepared for was the startling revelation from the Saiyan prince.
"Wait a second," Krillin leaned his head to the side, looking a bit incredulous. "How could you possibly know, Vegeta? Old friends of yours?"
"Calm down, let me explain," he chided him, walking over to the steps leading up to the throne, addressing the entire congregation.
"How do you know this man, Vegeta?" Endymion was looking as skeptical as any of them. His continuing distrust of the Saiyan was obvious in his tone.
"I never knew him personally," he began. "He came into contact with the Saiyan race back when I was only a few years old. I don't remember much about him, but my father told me extensively about how notorious he was while he was among our kind."
"What's his name?" Michiru asked.
"Damos," Vegeta continued. "He's a mercenary, much like the people of our race were. But there was more to him than just fighting instincts and battle prowess. He was also a genius of a scientist, mostly within biology and genetics."
"Genetics…Is that how he got this idea for eternal life?" Gohan wondered.
"It's not immortality, per se, but the process he devised is pretty close in terms of genetic longevity. From what my father told me, he was able to surgically modify the cellular structures of a subject, adding various artificial proteins and micro-organisms to them. Once the modified cells became active, they could continually survive off of their own self-generated secretions, and they could function efficiently without the necessity of excessive nourishment. As the subject's normal cells began to die off, the modified cells would reproduce to replace them. Within a relatively short time span, every organ within the subject's body would be able to infinitely sustain itself without the fear of time and old age extinguishing their work. Thus, you could create an immortal soldier, though certainly not an invulnerable one."
"Now that's a lot to swallow…" Krillin mused. "The guy's gotta be a super-genius to figure out how to come up with a cocktail mix like that."
"I wouldn't mind some of that treatment myself," Yamcha added. "Keeping my awesome looks around for eternity would work out for everyone!"
"Except for the women, I'm sure, Yamcha…" Chaozu mumbled.
Vegeta scowled and continued. "Anyway, he presented the plan to my father in hopes of selling it to our army. Naturally, some of the warriors jumped at the chance of immortality. It was with great reluctance that my father accepted Damos's ideas, though he restricted the testing to only the most willing volunteers. He was still uncertain that such tampering with a creature's cells could've been risk-free."
"I suppose this is the part where you say he was correct?" Krillin chimed in.
"Yes, his fears were well-founded. The first batch of volunteers was infused with Damos's cellular modifications, and at first, the process was a success – they reported boosts in energy, awareness, and stamina. It was after Damos received his first set of payments that things begin to go wrong."
"What happened?" Tenshinhan asked. "Did the soldiers end up dying?"
"Worse," Vegeta continued. "Their minds began to snap because of the malfunctioning cells, causing them all to experience some kind of paranoid mania that made them as dangerous to themselves as they were to us. My father told me about how they began babbling incoherently, experiencing frequent hallucinations, and suddenly attacking other Saiyans for no apparent reason. That wasn't the end of it either; their bodies began to deteriorate, bones collapsing on themselves and layers of skin shedding from their exteriors. Eventually, we were forced to put them out of their misery."
Krillin shuddered; he wondered if that had been the only act of mercy that the Saiyans had ever committed.
"What happened to Damos?" Chaozu asked him.
"He attempted to explain the setback and offered follow-up research on the modification techniques, but my father would have none of it. As far as he was concerned, he had seven dead warriors and lighter coffers thanks to Damos's failed immortality fomula. He ordered Damos's banishment from the planet."
"Banishment?" Haruka looked surprised. "You actually let him live?"
"Well, in a way," Vegeta laughed lightly. "He was stuffed onto a low-tech transport and shot out into space like a missile. There were bets going as to whether or nor he'd survive his trip through the atmosphere. It was a fitting fate for such an incompetent warrior. We assumed that he'd rot out in the coldness of space, suffocating slowly in his space pod."
"Looks like you should've been a bit more direct," Yamcha snorted. "This whole thing could've been avoided otherwise."
"That was one of my father's few mistakes," Vegeta replied. "If I were of age and on my father's throne, I would've personally vaporized him. As it was, I was only two years old at the time."
"But if you shot him out into space in a cubicle," Hotaru mused. "How is it that he's shown up centuries later with an army at his disposal?"
"Think somebody picked him up at some point?" Tenshinhan nodded in her direction. "I assume that Saiyans weren't the only ones able to travel through space by that point."
"I'm not sure who would welcome such a treacherous leech aboard their ship," Vegeta snuffed, his brow sinking into thought. "But from what I can remember, interstellar traffic was heavy around my world during the time; Damos could've been rescued by anybody."
"What about Frieza?" Piccolo ventured as Krillin struggled to keep up with the unfolding story. This was getting a bit complicated for his liking. "The enemies we've fought so far possess similar garb, fighting techniques, and technology that the soldiers the Frieza used to attack Namek."
"Frieza?" Haruka asked with an arched eyebrow. "Do I want to know?"
"You'd rather not," Krillin shook his head, feeling his body quivering slightly upon remembering the near-death and death he'd endured at the hands of Frieza. He'd tried to banish a lot of it from his memory since his revival, but he'd experienced quite a few nightmares since the incident. "Let's just say that in our time period, he was a ruthless overlord that was bent on conquering the Universe. He had enough power to do it too…he could vaporize entire planets with just the bat of an eye."
Haruka looked intrigued but nonetheless said nothing, preferring to continue on about the current enemy.
"If the army had something to do with Damos's rescue, then Frieza himself never went through with his questionable gene therapy," Vegeta continued. "Or perhaps he was never informed about Damos's retrieval at all. If Damos promised his rescuers the secret to eternal life in exchange for protection – and I'm willing to bet that he did – then he could've easily ensnared a large number of soldiers under his wing. After all, considering the sheer size of the army, a few battalions of soldiers could've slipped out of the rankings unnoticed to follow Damos and his crazy ideas."
"And more were recruited and treated with the process as time went on…" Michiru added. "It's no surprise that his forces seem endless. And if Tridyx had been modified like he claimed to be, then he must've perfected the technique at some point."
Vegeta sighed lowly, glancing back up at the group.
"Nevertheless, despite our foes being immortal, they are far from invincible. Despite their bodily longevity, they can be killed as the Namek demonstrated for us."
"It's still pretty surreal…almost unbelievable," Krillin said, shaking his head slowly. "If this guy perfected the process, it's kinda disturbing to think of how many people had to die in order for him to do it. They could've gone out even worse than those first Saiyan test volunteers."
"His set of ethics may be lower than even Frieza's, but that just tells us that he'll stoop to anything to keep us from coming out of this alive," Piccolo responded. "It's a good trait to know…we'll just have to act the same way if it comes down to it."
"But for now, I suggest we concentrate on the more urgent matters at hand," Endymion advised. "Damos, or whoever he is, can wait for a while. If we're to stick to this current plan, then it would be wise to enact it as soon as possible. Vegeta, your contributions are…appreciated."
"Hah," Vegeta scoffed, his visible arrogance restored. "I'm just making sure we're all on the same page. I'd like to keep my teammates as competent as possible, just in case."
"In any event…" Piccolo stepped in front of the prince to cut off any potential hostile exchanges. Krillin smirked with admiration at Piccolo's sense of control, his assertion of his leadership. Without his mediation abilities for a good long while, relations with the new allies were going to be more difficult to keep up with. "I agree with the king. Michiru, your power can activate the time portal, correct?"
"Of course, as long as you can take me to it," she nodded.
"That won't be a problem."
"Very well," Endymion treaded past the groups, heading for the throne room entrance. "I'll leave the rest of the recovery mission to your discretion then. Good luck to the two of you. As for the rest of you, I'd like my daughter, Haruka, and Hotaru to give you a tour of the intelligence command center in about a half hour. Further strategizing can take place if needed."
"Yes, Endymion," Haruka and Hotaru bowed respectfully; the king returned the gesture and exited the room, the huge double doors of the throne room slamming shut behind him.
Krillin gazed after the king, mulling over the anxiety that had been present within him during the whole meeting.
"He does pretty well for himself and the rest of you, all things considered."
"He's been more involved with the army in these past weeks than he's ever been before," Hotaru told him. "You should've seen him before I healed him last night. He wasn't in the best of shape."
"Piccolo," Michiru walked up to the stoic Namek. "I suggest we leave right away. It could take some effort to get through whatever defenses are lying between the palace and the time portal."
"Certainly," Piccolo agreed. "I'll meet you at the front gates; I've got a few last minute things to take care of, as I'm sure you do."
"Thank you," she politely said; Piccolo acknowledged her and stalked wordlessly out of the throne room. Krillin smirked as he sized up to the two – Piccolo had found a perfect travel companion for his shining personality. Michiru was very business-like, but more on the quiet side and obviously extremely intelligent. It may've been something worth taking interest in – it fit nicely with her slender, elegant form, something that Krillin could never get enough of. But for the moment, he guessed that she wanted to say her good-byes to Haruka and Hotaru, which was fine by him. The rest of his friends were beginning to disperse.
"Michiru, take care of yourself, and good luck!" Krillin called back as he approached the throne room doors.
"Try not to let Piccolo's attitude get to you," Yamcha offered as well. "He may act a bit cold at times, but I'd definitely trust him to watch my back."
"Thanks, I'll try to remember that," she replied, albeit slightly uneasily.
* * *
"Take care, Michiru," ChibiUsa hugged her around the waist, smiling up at her. "Just think – after you get those Dragonballs, we can wish Puu and the others back to life!"
"I'll do my best, princess," she smiled warmly, returning the hug. "Go ahead and catch up with the others; I believe you have a promise to keep."
"That's right!" she glanced back at the others and spotted Gohan talking with Chaozu and Tenshinhan near the throne room doors. Vegeta had already taken off, and Yamcha and Krillin were leaving as well. She looked immensely relieved that she didn't miss him. "Gohan, wait up!!"
She hurried down to the boy, greeting him warmly with a semi-dreamy smile on her face. Michiru rolled her eyes in amusement – Hotaru hadn't been kidding about her infatuation with the child warrior.
"I wish I could go with you…" Hotaru looked drearily up at her. "I'll miss you, Michiru-mama, please come back okay…"
Michiru kissed her forehead and smiled reassuringly at her.
"Relax, Hotaru, you've got nothing to worry about," she said to her. "Once we make it back into the past, we'll be free from any kind of enemy danger. The only thing I'll have to worry about during the search is exhaustion, which I think is a bit preferable to battling alien hordes, don't you agree?"
The remark lifted Hotaru's mood, and she nodded in agreement.
"There you go," Michiru hugged her tightly. "I'll see if I can bring you two a few gifts from the Old Era, things we can't find anymore around here."
"Thank you, Michiru-mama!" Hotaru laughed aloud, her love for simple little gifts still rivaling that of the princess. She pulled away from Michiru, scurrying to the entrance of the throne room, probably to catch up with ChibiUsa and Gohan. As the doors shut, it left her with her beloved, who was looking decidedly annoying and upset at Michiru's decision.
"Haruka…" Michiru said to her as Haruka folded her arms. "You know that this is the only way."
"I should be the one going," Haruka responded with irritation. "We still have to make sure that Piccolo is as honest and noble as he claims to be. He could just be trying to abandon us, or worse."
Michiru kissed Haruka on the cheek as she spoke, attempting to reassure her.
"I can do that job just as well, thank you very much," she teased her. "Besides, you've got your hands full with the rest of them, especially the Saiyan."
Haruka's anger flared around her as Vegeta came to mind, her hatred of him extremely deep.
"I can't believe what he said to me…" she fumed. "I just wanted to slice his throat open on the spot, and I probably would've if you hadn't stopped me."
"His arrogance can be dealt with later," Michiru calmly said. "He's provided us with valuable information, and despite his own motivations for fighting with us, we'll need his help."
"If you say so…but if he gets in my way even once…"
"Fiery today, aren't you?" Michiru caressed her cheek, hugging her beloved tightly and kissing her one last time. "Save it for your own duties, Haruka. I'll be back in one piece, I promise."
Heavy-hearted, Michiru turned away and exited the throne room, her mind clear. As much as she didn't want to leave the battleground that she should've been defending, Michiru had to admit that she didn't regret jumping at the chance to revive the others, however far-fetched the Dragonball story may've been.
She strolled down the hallway, drawing out her transformation stick. She supposed it could've been worse – she could've gotten stuck with one of the Roving Eyes Pair, as she likened to Krillin and Yamcha. That would've made things interesting, probably amusing, but she at least took comfort in Piccolo's abilities to efficiently complete the search.
But that Damos though. Whoever he was and whatever his connection to the Saiyan race may've been, he was a marked man as far as she was concerned. He possessed the vile arrogance to play God with his scientific devilry; if he'd existed for over ten centuries as Vegeta's story implied, who knew how many other worlds his fleet of infestation had destroyed. Earth could've been just another stone in the road for him.
But after this search mission was over, Michiru would be more than glad to dish out justice to the maniacal overlord, and she and the other Sailor Soldiers would make sure that this was the last planet he contaminated.
* * *
"Tenshinhan," Piccolo's voice rang out as the warrior watched Choazu, Gohan, Hotaru, and Endymion's daughter wander off down the hall. She'd offered to keep her promise of showing Gohan around the palace, thought she seemed a little annoyed at the idea of Choazu and Hotaru tagging along; whatever her reasons, Tenshinhan wasn't certain. Piccolo's continued presence within the palace walls surprised him though – he expected the Namek to be at the front gates by now. "I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor? You?" he replied. "I don't think I've ever heard you say anything like that. What's the problem?"
"I want you to take charge of things around here until I get back from the trip," Piccolo continued. "I don't trust things to hold up between our two groups with Haruka's paranoia and Vegeta's foul mouth. If you would, try to keep things in line from our side."
Tenshinhan didn't know what to say. It was an unusual request, and he certainly didn't think that Piccolo would ask him of all people.
"Hold on a moment," he protested. "I'm not cut out to be any kind of leader. What about Gohan, or Krillin? They've been in bigger pressure situations, and they're a bit more sociable than I am."
"They also don't have the battle experience or perceptive wit needed to lead an attack force," Piccolo responded. "I'm sure you're aware that despite our power, we can't just go out there and try to annihilate every last soldier we came across; we'd be exhausted and worn out in no time at all. This is going to require careful strategy from us, and I think you can do quite well for yourself compared to the others."
"I, I, uh," Tenshinhan didn't know how to respond, though he could see Piccolo's viewpoint more than he could agree with his own self-doubts. Most of what he'd stated was true. "Alright, I'll try to keep things level here while you're gone. I don't think it's going to be easy earning their respect – I didn't save their lives like you and Gohan did."
"On the contrary," Piccolo patted Tenshinhan's shoulder reassuringly. "I think your tranquility and sense of inner control will earn you the respect you need among the other Sailor Soldiers and the king. Trust me, Tenshinhan, I wouldn't be asking this of you if I had the slightest doubt."
"I'll take your word for it. Good luck in your search, Piccolo."
"I wish the same to you," He glanced over Tenshinhan's shoulder, spotting Haruka exiting the throne room, a somewhat irritated and tense look on her face. "You may need it more than I will."
Without another word, Piccolo stalked down the hallway and out of sight.
Tenshinhan sighed to himself, still uncertain about his new role. As always, Piccolo's logic was sensible enough to at least convince him to go along with the strategy, but it was a part he'd yet to play in his lifetime. He had never considered himself a leader or anything close to one. His mindset had always been that of a student, a fighter that constantly learned from the environment around him.
Haruka stepped past toward him, breaking his thoughts.
"You look distraught," she began, placing her hands in her pockets and glancing over Tenshinhan's firm build. "Did your green friend have some sage advice to give you?"
"In a way," he nodded, attempting to appear as friendly as possible. Aside from the king and the guard captain, Haruka seemed to be unofficially heading up the remaining Sailor Soldiers. "Although I could say the same about you. I have a feeling you have some issues of your own to deal with."
"Perceptive," she acknowledged, the irritation on her face still as firm as before. "I can see why Piccolo trusts you over the others...Tenshinhan, wasn't it?"
"Yes; it's good to meet you face to face, Haruka," he extended a hand toward the Sailor Soldier, who reluctantly shook with him.
"I witnessed some of your handiwork back on the battlefield," Haruka replied, still looking as if she was studying the tall fighter, trying to feel his motives and personality out. "Your energy attack was similar to Piccolo's and Son Gohan's; tell me, have all of you trained together to acquire such techniques?"
"That particular part," Tenshinhan cleared his throat before continuing. This was a fortunate break for him – if she was interested in the history of the Z Warriors, he could forge at least a bond of respect with her by a little story-telling. "Is a long story. If you'd like to hear about our history, I'd be more than happy."
She nodded slowly, motioning for Tenshinhan to follow her down the hall.
"I'm actually a bit more interested in how well the seven of you can perform on the battlefield," she replied. "If we're going into combat anytime soon, I'd rather not have any surprises out of any of you."
Strict, business-like, and an ice queen. Tenshinhan mused. If Michiru was anything like her, then Piccolo was going to be in for a long search. But he could still respect that sort of attitude in the midst of a melee – a stern attitude most often begot concentration and better performance against an enemy. It reminded him of his own mindset in a way.
"If you insist," he replied. "As long as you don't mind reciprocating."
She glanced back at Tenshinhan with a bit of intrigue.
"Of course not, though I did ask first. Perhaps we could enlighten each other on the way to the command center."
"Lead the way."
* * *
The courtyard was much calmer than the night before, much to Piccolo's relief. The refugees were milling about the fields, conversing with each other and attempting to erect better shelters for themselves. Piccolo could see inward fear within most of them as he glanced around at their pale faces, but he admired the tenacity of the ones who continued the daily mundane tasks even with death encroaching them from all sides. As he passed closer to a few collections of bystanders, his acute hearing picked up some interesting dialogue.
"Did you hear about the battle last night? I heard there was going to be another assault on the palace."
"Did the Sailor Soldiers stop them?"
"So I've heard, but they haven't been out and about all day. I don't get it – since we came here, not a day has gone by where they haven't been out here helping us or keeping our spirits up."
"There could be something big going on inside, you know. War planning and such."
"If anyone can bail us out of this mess, it's them. I just wish I could've seen them come back after winning that fight yesterday. It's reassuring, when they're around, you know?"
"Did anyone see them return last night?"
"No, but considering the frenzy that was going on in here, they probably slipped through unnoticed. Besides, if we're still in one piece, they must've been victorious!"
"You're probably right."
Piccolo was relieved as he listened in on the bantering pair. Whether by luck of by some deceit from the military, the refugees had learned nothing about the disastrous outcome of the previous night's battle before he, Gohan, and Krillin managed to turn the tide. He knew that the ruse wouldn't last forever – it would take a significant amount of time before he and Neptune could recover all seven Dragonballs – but hopefully the soldiers would be able to keep things under control until their return. The last thing the fledgling forces needed was a riot by disheveled civilians.
He stopped at the gateway to the defense wall to wait for Sailor Neptune. Considering the extravagance of her battle gear, that could've been some time. Why anyone would go to such lengths for a brutal battle was beyond Piccolo's logic, but perhaps that was the custom for the female soldiers in the future. If that were the case, he was certainly embarrassed to have known about it – a fight was a bloody, savage clash of powerful foes, not a beauty contest.
In the interim, all he had for company were a pair of young-looking sentries bearing polished silver pikes. They stood on either side of the doorway, serving as guard patrol.
The guard on the right seemed a bit distracted – he was glancing off into the fields, the pike loosely held in his gloved hand. His partner seemed a bit more in awe as his met the intimidating Namek. Piccolo initially paid him no mind – he was more focused on keeping an eye out for Sailor Neptune.
The youth's nervous voice broke the silence a few moments later.
"They were telling us about you…the guys with the strength of ten thousand warriors," he said as Piccolo turned his head toward him. "They implied that you would be our saviors from all of this."
"Saviors?" Piccolo narrowed his eyes. "You've lost faith in your old heroines already?"
The guard shrank back a bit, growing increasingly timid.
"Well, the Sailor Soldiers, they've, err…"
Piccolo shook his head slowly.
"I dislike warriors depend on others in a fight and shrink to nothing when their idols fall," he said with irritation. "You have combat training if I'm not mistaken."
The guard nodded but said nothing.
"Then you are not totally helpless against these enemies; not at all. There may come a time where all of us have to band together to repel these parasites. Even with the Sailor Soldiers, our group can't exterminate all of them on our own."
"But there are so many of them, and they're too tough for swords and spears to go through."
Piccolo glanced over the stuttering soldier, softening his gaze to a bit to calm the youth's nerves.
"Just keep your courage up and your spear high," he reassured him. "That will be all you need."
That seemed to strengthen his resolve as he nodded briskly and tightened his grip on the spear, returning his attention to his duties.
"Did you think of that all by yourself?" A female voice called down from the top of the wall. Piccolo spotted his partner casually leaning against one of the spires, an amused smile on her face. He couldn't help but be surprised – Michiru had changed into her elaborate battle garb quicker than he thought was humanly possible.
"You're early," he flatly said.
"What, did you expect me to take extra time dazzling myself up for you?" Sailor Neptune laughed, holding up a rod-shaped ornament with an oddly-engraved sphere topping it. "Not while I possess this. Each of us has one – it gives us the ability to instantly transform into our battle outfits."
Piccolo snuffed; that made a bit more sense. He was curious as to how such sorcery was possible, but he decided to save that question for another time. He lifted himself into the air and touched down next to hear on the wall.
"Are you fully prepared?"
"Unless you'd prefer carrying some luggage with you," Sailor Neptune replied. "I can go and pack a few if it's to your liking."
Piccolo smirked.
"That won't be necessary," he shook his head. "This shouldn't take very long; you can live off of what you find there."
"As long as I have a good place to eat and a comfortable bed," she told him. "Now, can you remember the way back to the time gate?"
"Indeed," he answered. He should've remembered – if he didn't, it would be quite embarrassing for his pride considering his commendable sense of direction. "How adept are you at flight?"
Neptune looked a bit uncertain.
"All of us only recently managed to begin slow and steady flight in a straight line. Considering how fast you got here, you'd leave me in the dust."
"A slow crawl may not be such a bad idea," Piccolo explained. "It'll keep us from being noticed by the sentries down below. But just watch your back just in case."
"Huh, I thought that was your job," she snidely remarked. "You know, the master not leaving the treasures out for the thieves to steal?"
"Touché," Piccolo replied. "Still bitter about that?"
"I think you're in for a surprise if you continue to underestimate my abilities," she lifted herself straight up – though with significant effort – into the air, motioning for him to follow. "Well, master, shall we? Oh, and if you would, I'd prefer if you fly in front of me."
Piccolo flinched visibly at the sarcasm, which sparked another laugh out of Neptune. Nevertheless, he lifted himself up to her level, nodding toward the southeast.
"It's in that direction," Piccolo explained.
"The enemy will no doubt have found it by now," Neptune ventured. "But only the power of the Sailor Soldiers or another incredibly holy power can trigger the gate. Setsuna designed them that way."
Piccolo was pleased, impressed by the foresight and intelligence of their recruiter. Once she was revived, Sailor Pluto would no doubt become a valuable asset despite her affinities for old Kami.
They started off on their way, soaring slowly – almost too slowly for Piccolo's liking – across the devastated city, ascending a bit to keep out of the sight of any enemies hiding on the ground. Suppressing their energy completely was impossible as long as they were flying, but running the tiny risk of being spotted in the air was a better option then simply charging through a populated combat zone.
From what Piccolo could sense through the haze of active ki that still permeated the atmosphere, there were still some smaller energies skittering around in the wreckage of the city below them. They were probably survivors of the chaos, still looking for a place to hide from the infestation that was corroding the city. Neptune seemed to scanning the ground below them for any signs of life as well, though Piccolo doubted that any civilian would be brave or foolish enough to expose themselves in broad daylight to the alien soldiers around them.
"It all looks the same…" Neptune noted with a depressed tone. Piccolo concurred – the aliens had done a remarkable job of wiping out the entire city in a relatively short time span. He'd seen similar desolation during his brief excursion on Namek – the lifelessness, the eerie silence that accompanied and followed a massacre…it had been one of the most uncomfortable experiences he'd ever been through. And considering the multitudes more of civilians that inhabited Crystal Tokyo, the feeling had to be amplified tenfold with Sailor Neptune.
"This trainer that you spoke of," she asked him. "Is he really as knowledgeable as you say?"
He smiled approvingly – despite her grief, she knew when to put it aside for a greater purpose. Such behavior befitted a good warrior.
"Lord Kaio trained most of our group at one point," Piccolo explained, recalling his own unique experiences on the tiny planetoid. "I just hope your friends are humorous people, or they won't get very far."
Neptune looked totally thrown off by the comment, so Piccolo moved on.
"When we return to the past, I'll ask the Guardian of the Earth to deliver a message to Lord Enma, the ruler of the other side. I'll have him ask for your friends to be admitted to Lord Kaio's world for special training prior to our collecting all of the Dragonballs."
"Setsuna wouldn't approve of further tampering with the time line," Neptune pointed out. "Especially the time line of the afterlife."
"It's the only way for them to be granted an audience with Lord Kaio, and besides, since they'll be revived either way, there shouldn't be much change to the timeline. They'll only be coming back with greater strength and ability than before."
"Is it really that much of an improvement?"
"Even though the powers of your group are different from ours, I'm certain that something can be arranged. The only question I have at this point is what to do to get the rest of you into fighting shape."
"What's the point of me getting into 'fighting shape' if I have you to protect me?" The look in her eyes as she said that startled him a bit, and it must've been visible because she started laughing. "You're too easy to fool, Piccolo. That's one advantage I have over you."
"I'm being serious!" he quickly blurted out. Composing himself, he continued. "Nothing personal, but you're dealing with a much more sophisticated fighting style than magic tricks."
"Magic tricks?" The humor vanished from Sailor Neptune's face; she looked a little insulted. "You haven't even seen us in action yet; it's a bit unfair to judge us on what you don't know."
"Endymion explained enough to me last night about your powers to make some fair assumptions," Piccolo replied. "Believe me; it's going to take a lot more than that to stop these warriors. You have to learn how to beat them at their own game: ki warfare."
"Please, teacher," she mock-asked him. "Educate your ignorant student."
Ignoring the sarcasm, he went on.
"Your life or death cam be determined by whether or not you can put up a quick attack or defense with ki; needless to say, your ki can be more easily utilized than your powers. You may be able to get away with charging a long-winded attack on the grunts out here, but the more powerful soldiers aren't going to wait around while you power up."
Neptune still didn't look convinced; in fact, she looked even more annoyed.
"Nothing personal," she shot back. "But the last thing I'm willing to do is to swap my powers for a karate uniform. You have your own ways of fighting, Piccolo; we have ours. Considering how far our ways have gotten us up until now, I'm hardly looking for any replacements."
Your 'ways' nearly got you reduced to ashes last night. He kept that comment to himself, not wanting to raise any more tension between the two of them. As the flight continued in silence throughout the clear afternoon sky, Piccolo's mind was still churning with ideas. There was no other way around it – Neptune had to learn how fight against ki warfare if she was to be of any substantial use on the battlefield. In conjunction with her current abilities, a little training would go a long way for her.
Necessity is the mother of all invention. He smirked to himself as he cast a glance at her. Piccolo decided that he would convince Sailor Neptune that some new skills were needed, one way or another.
* * *
Infernia leaned against the doorframe of Archives I-3 as the general pounded away at the keyboard in front of him. He scowled in frustration as the computer's memory banks returned unfavorable results to him.
"No, no, no!!" He smashed the console in with his fists, causing sparks to fly from the ruined data retrieval unit. "Dammit…nothing, nothing at all! How can this be?!"
Infernia smirked, sauntering over to him. The fiery look in Damos's eyes whenever he was enraged was mesmerizing to a degree. She'd seen that same expression in his face during battle countless times before, including the occasion where he'd personally led an undermanned assault on a complex where she and her team had been pinned down by heavily armored shock troopers. He'd saved her life that day…she hadn't looked at him as a general since then, but as an equal, and much, much more.
She laid a hand on his armored shoulder, shaking her head as he glanced with surprise back in her direction.
"Frustrated at something, sir?"
"Infernia!" Damos composed himself, standing up and clearing his throat. "I didn't expect you to be finished filing those reports so early. The neuro-shock took a lot out of you yesterday."
Infernia's stomach tightened, a growl escaping her mouth. True, her head was still pounding after the punishment the general had made her endure after the failure of the capture mission. She had been incensed at first when Damos had sentenced her to go through the torture, but thinking it over had made her realize that her suffering was the fault of those mystery warriors, especially the cursed boy…
Damos looked her over.
"You're the one who seems to have the frustration all of a sudden," he observed, stroking her gold hair with a smile. "You're still not upset at me for performing my own duties yesterday, are you?"
Infernia slammed her fist into the side of the door frame, cracking the metal.
"We had them…we would have had them burned and in ashes if that damn, damn kid hadn't showed up! He ruined everything, my victory, my pleasure in melting the princess into nothing…The next time I see him or any of those bastards, I'm going to tear their intestines out…"
"Calm yourself, fireball," Damos put a hand on the back of her hand, rubbing it softly. Infernia enjoyed it, closing her eyes and letting the anger seep away from her. "You'll have your chance soon…I promise you."
She smiled, turning her head slightly toward him as she heard a small sizzling noise.
"You'll burn your hands doing that," she reminded him, but he shook his head.
"Skin heals itself quickly," he replied, stroking her hair a bit more. "Besides, I need your mind focused here for the moment. I'm doing a bit of research regarding our new friends from the photos you took on your scouter."
"Have you found anything interesting? Are they humans?"
"The one who chased you…" he slowly said, showing her the picture on the pale red monitor. "He bares a striking resemblance to one of my first clients - the king of the Saiyans, Vegeta. I've been trying to run profile matches with some of the more eccentric drifters throughout the galaxy, but so far, I haven't even come close to a match."
"The Saiyans?!" Infernia arched an eyebrow in surprise, staring closely at the armored thug in the monitor. "But the rest of them are dead! The warlord Frieza destroyed the Saiyans ages ago, every last one! Could their king have lived this long?"
Damos shook his head as he studied the picture.
"The facial features and the hair are nearly identical," He said as Infernia clicked on the monitor circuitry, enlarging the image. Though she hadn't taken much of a glance before, this particular fighter looked formidable enough by his figure and intimidating eyes. "But the King Vegeta that I knew all those centuries ago was definitely much larger and more formidable-looking than this person. It could not be him, Infernia – Frieza did indeed murder King Vegeta and the Saiyan race. Whoever this fighter is, he obviously takes after their old ways."
"Perhaps a distant relation of the king's who escaped Frieza's wrath," Infernia ventured. "Could he have seized copies of your genetics testing and perfected the modification on his own?"
"No, I left no existing data left on that planet before I was banished," Damos explained. "If I was going to be exiled from the planet Vegeta, I wasn't about to let my work be replicated by their scientists. As for his relations, King Vegeta did have a son – when I was petitioning for the first experiments on the Saiyans, I saw him. He couldn't have been more than two years old at the time, though his resemblance to his father was nearly unmistakable. But I highly doubt that Frieza let him live either."
"His armor bears such similarities with ours," Infernia noted, scratching her chin. "Though the absence of shoulder-guards would mean he got it from a Rank-Twelve officer or higher."
"And no such official is stationed on the planet besides Bortyx, and his armor is the Horde's black color," Damos mused. A brief silence followed as both warriors pondered the possibilities. Finally, Damos's head jerked upward, his eyes bright. "Wait…didn't you say that a Namek was also among the attacking group?"
"Yes," Infernia nodded. "A Namek, the King Vegeta-look-alike, a doll-type being, and four other humans. Though I can't believe that I actually saw a living Namek warrior. After all, that race has been--"
"Extinct for thousands of years…" Damos finished for her, nodding his head slowly. "I would know; I helped to eradicate the remnant of their kind from this universe. No Namek has a life-span that long. I think I may be on to something here…that may indeed have been King Vegeta's son that chased you out of the battlefield."
Infernia glanced at the general with confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
"When I was studying the profile of the Sailor Soldiers that our field scouts had obtained at the onset of the war, I noticed a remarkable attribute of one of them…Sailor Pluto, I believe it was."
"Sailor Pluto…" Infernia tried to recall the name. "Ah, yes; she was the last one that Tridyx slew."
"Perhaps she managed to insert her own handiwork before her demise," Damos hypothesized. "According to the preliminary data on Sailor Pluto, she had the uncanny ability to manipulate time…"
Infernia snuffed.
"I'm surprised that she didn't use the ability to save her friends during our battle. Are you suggesting she brought these warriors here from the Earth's past? If that were the case, how do you account for the presence of the Namek and the supposed Saiyan prince?"
"I don't know, but it's the only viable explanation that I can think of for the moment," Damos replied. He tapped his scouter a few times, opening a link to the Communications. "This is General Damos, priority-one message. Respond."
"This is Communications, sir," The officer at the other end responded. "Relay your message."
"The classified scouter data transmitted to Analysis during the third hour of Shift One yesterday," Damos proceeded. "It is to be uploaded to the banks of all issued scouters at once with all available information regarding the subjects."
"Understood," The officer replied. "Any additional data, sir?"
"Yes, indeed," Damos answered. "A bounty of a fifty percent rations increase and a ten thousand unit increase in pay will go to the soldier who brings me one of these warriors, dead or alive."
"Understood, sir," The officer cut the link; Damos smiled with satisfaction.
"Problem solved, Damos?" Infernia asked. "From the potential power-readouts I received on my scouter from each of those warriors, there's no way a simple infantryman's going to be cashing in on that reward. If Tridyx couldn't defeat one of them…"
"It will be sufficient for now," Damos reassured her. "It will at least give the men some incentive to fight these warriors – no fighter, no matter how strong, can battle higher numbers forever."
He stood up, moving toward the door.
"Would you like to accompany me, fireball?" He offered his hand to her. "I must visit our guest to discuss this matter a bit further. If Sailor Pluto devised this plan, I'm certain that her queen must've had knowledge of it. Perhaps a bit of convincing can enable us to extract some information from her about these warriors."
"It sickens me to look at that pathetic human," Infernia crossed her arms, disgust and revulsion on her face. "You can do well without my presence."
Damos leaned in closer, kissing Infernia on her fiery cheek, surprising her slightly. Usually, he was strict about such orders to his captain – his latest boost in spirit must've been affecting his mentality slightly.
"As much as you may detest it," Damos said softly. "I must insist upon it. You may be the first one to try and convince her first, if you prefer."
Infernia's eyes lit up; she smiled back toward Damos.
"You certainly know how to convince a girl," she teased him. "May I use whatever methods I think of?"
"Just remember, we need her alive, Infernia," Damos stepped aside, allowing her to step through the entranceway. "After you, fireball."
* * *
Zebus crushed a small rock underneath his boot, his body sore and his mood vile. The neuro-shock treatment wasn't kind to anybody, least of all Trisgammans. Electrical energy of any kind disrupted their cellular structures momentarily, and prolonged exposure to such energy within the torture chamber had given him sensory disorientation for hours afterward.
Damos and Infernia should've counted themselves fortunate that they transferred him back to Earth for recon duty with his counterparts – had he remained aboard the Terror, he probably would've torn their throats out in his rage.
"Come now, brother, do the past day's events still bother you?" Jevor's hissing tone interrupted his frustrations. Technically, Jevor and Barista weren't his brothers, but being the only three Trisgammans left in the universe, it was a title that definitely stuck. "The arrival of those mystery warriors was nothing you could've predicted, so why do you let it wear on your mind?"
Zebus turned back to his fellow Trisgamman. To be honest, he hadn't cared much about the arrival of the new warriors – such things could've been dealt with in time. The punishment dealt to him after their return to the Terror, on the other hand, angered him to no end. Jevor's mentioning of it only served to fuel his rage.
"Cut the eloquence, Jevor," Zebus hissed at him, pounding at a piece of rubble with a meaty fist. "We were cheated of our victory, and I of glory when those fools showed up. And despite the fact that I had no place in the command structure during the ordeal, I was stuck in that damn chamber!"
He shattered the rock with his next blow, the dust from the break hitting him in the face.
Jevor rested a maroon-scaled hand on Zebus's armored shoulder.
"At least your 'commander' got hers as well. Take pride in that, my brother," he reassured him.
Zebus wasn't convinced, his strands of cilia tightened against each other as he spat a mucous ball onto the ground.
"And where did Captain Infernia end up at the night's end?" Zebus grumbled. "Probably back in the general's bedchamber, living it up while I have to deal with the taunts of my 'comrades' in the dredges of the Terror's mess halls. Jevor…we're a laughing-stock in that fleet…"
"Coming from a race that nearly destroyed this fleet all that time ago will do that to us," Jevor nodded, stroking his cilia and rotating his globular eyes. "We were young then…Damos raised us, not expecting us to find out the truth of what he did to our people."
"We were a condition!" Zebus exploded, energizing and launching a ki ball into the air. It exploded in mid-flight as Zebus screamed. "We were part of a payment!! We were given over to Damos along with the bounty for our planet. I can still remember the words of their employer back then when we were first brought aboard the Terror: 'Use them as you please, just make sure they don't breed."
The imposing Barista stood from his position, his scarred eye gleaming in the sunlight.
"Not payment…" His raspy, cracking voice bellowed. "Not slaves…Trisgammans!!!"
Zebus stared at Barista's viciously scarred throat, the result of being on the front lines during an ambush several dozen years ago. His voice and right eye hadn't been the same since.
"Tell that to the general…" Zebus glanced around at the wasteland that had once been Crystal Tokyo. Not much was left of the area, nor were there any life signs around anywhere; with the scouter scan complete, they'd be due back to the Landing Zone to report to Commander Bortyx shortly. "One day, Jevor…one day, I'll get my revenge on that bastard…one day very soon!"
"Revenge can wait, brother, at least until the proper opportunity presents itself," Jevor replied, peering over the horizon and scanning with his scouter. "For now, let's finish our sensor sweep and get out of this wasteland."
But just as Zebus reactivated his scouter, Jevor called both of them.
"Two faint power readings approaching! Prepare to engage!"
The three Trisgammans dropped to the ground and took cover behind the rubble, looking for a surprise attack. But when Zebus spotted the two approaching fliers, he signaled for his counterparts to hold attack, going so far as to grab Jevor's arm as he was charging an energy blast. Zebus recognized them immediately – it was the Namek and the Sailor Soldier he'd nearly killed.
"What are you doing?!" Jevor griped as the two flew past them without noticing. "I had a perfect shot at them!"
Zebus glanced slit-eyed at the passing pair, wondering and thinking. After the battle the previous night, Zebus imagined that all of them would barricade themselves inside the palace and reorganize. But what were these two doing together, way out in the middle of nowhere, away from any kind of support? And where exactly did they think they were going?
"Wait for a moment, Jevor," Zebus let the two pass ahead and out of sight. The scouters still read them though – two faint battle powers at 500 each. He knew better than to trust the machine though – as evidenced by their battle last night, their enemies could alter their powers somehow, fooling the scouters on exact readings. "We're going to follow them and see what they're up to."
"Sailor Soldier," Barista grumbled, confused. "And unknown…why not destroy?"
"I have a feeling that they're up to something…" Zebus motioned for Jevor and Barista and to follow him into the air. "We'll kill them later, but for curiosity's sake, let's find out why our friends are going so far away from their palace. What out in this wasteland could be so important to them?"
"Excellent point, brother," Jevor nodded; he and Barista took to the air, and they flew a good distance behind the Namek and the Sailor Soldier, so as not to be noticed.
It was quite a turn of luck for him – only good things would be in store if they could eliminate a Sailor Soldier and one of the mystery warriors in one fell swoop. Zebus would use the opportunity to release all of his frustrations and negativity on those two, with each ki blast or punch or kick. And when Zebus would finish with them, he would be back to himself again – cunning, eager, and full of guile for whatever lay ahead for him.
He would especially thank the remains of the Sailor Soldier for getting him back on track.
* * *
ChibiUsa stepped off of the elevator and into the command center, staring around at the bustling activity. Each of the soldiers in the room glanced over at the elevator, acknowledging the presence of the princess and the other remaining Sailor Soldiers with a solemn bow or salute. She returned the gesture, much to the satisfaction of Haruka – learning to become better suited within the command structure had been something the Outer Soldier leader had been teaching her during the war.
She heard the elevator next to theirs open, and five of the six Z Warriors stepped out onto the steel entrance platform overlooking the semi-circular chamber. Vegeta was nowhere to be found among the group, but Tenshinhan and Krillin had given their assurances that the Saiyan prince wasn't too far away, off on his own probably cracking the heads of a few aliens. It had been slightly relieving to hear that he had some animosity toward the alien leader; it ensured that he wouldn't stab them in the back on a whim. Someone of Vegeta's hot temperament seemed to place revenge and personal grudges ahead of petty arrogance.
"Not too bad," Yamcha nodded as he glanced around.
Gohan looked slightly more amazed.
"Incredible…this one room controls all the military forces?"
"It's more of a guiding center, really," Hotaru answered him. "A lot of radio transmissions and updates are cycled through here and reported to the royalty and troop commanders. Think of it as a nerve center."
"Looks a little cramped if you ask me," Krillin grumbled as he glanced around the low-ceiling chamber. Tenshinhan looked to be agreement – the room obviously wasn't built for people with his large, towering frame. As he stepped onto the platform and surveyed the room, his head nearly touched the polished, stainless steel ceiling.
"This place wasn't made to be a lounge," Haruka replied to Krillin. She nodded to ChibiUsa to lead them down the stairs and into the center of the room. Tenshinhan lead the others after them, a few of the passing soldiers glancing curiously at the unique fighters that had come to their aid.
Despite her many frequent visits to the chamber over the recent weeks, she was still amazed at how fluid the information gathering and transfer process went even in the midst of a huge battle. But for all its capabilities, the initial massacres of soldiers and civilians within the city hadn't left much radio traffic to receive, which, despite the more obvious assumption, drove the agents crazy with boredom and uncertainty.
Most of the communication officers that were assigned to the chamber wanted something to do down beneath all of the action – it was their only means of getting updates to the war occurring above ground. Glancing around at some of them now confirmed this; some of them had taken to chatting lowly amongst themselves, which was unheard of in previous, more exciting days.
The princess led the group to a long, stainless steel table in the center of the room. A large section of the display monitors covering the walls had been devoted to serving the officers usually seated at the table. There were cushioned wooden chairs lining the left and right sides of it, and one larger, ornate chair sat at the head of it. She'd sat there before – only the royalty or head commanders were allowed.
Looking past the towering piece of furniture, ChibiUsa spotted Captain Benson standing nearby, cataloguing something on a notepad. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't even notice the group approach until ChibiUsa seated herself in the elaborate chair. With her parents absent, she was technically in command of the briefing.
"Ah, Princess, and all of you!" He said with a friendly bow. "King Endymion is off overseeing the refortification of the southern flank. He sends his regards, and he's informed me about the search for these…Dragonballs to revive the others. I'm relieved to hear that such mystic relics exist even in the Old Era."
Chaozu hovered up into the air and glanced at some of the neon-colored maps displayed on several of the monitors.
"We didn't see any soldiers when we were flying in last night."
"We recalled most of them," ChibiUsa explained. "The power of those aliens last night was too great to risk with the standard soldiers. Since the danger has passed, we've reopened the lines surrounding the palace."
"This way, if they attempt another ambush, we'll at least be ready to defend the ground," Haruka finished, inviting the others in the group to take some seats.
"Gohan, you can come and sit next to me if you'd like," ChibiUsa cheerily said. A stern gaze from Haruka stopped that thought. Instantly realizing her mistake, she returned to Gohan. "I, I mean the seat next to Hotaru or Haruka…silly me, I keep forgetting about that rule…"
The boy looked indifferent.
"That's okay, I can stay standing. It doesn't look like there are enough seats to go around for all of us anyway."
"If you insist," Haruka shrugged as the others took their seats. Gohan lifted himself into the air and hovered in place with his legs crossed, getting a clearer look at the monitor. The princess tossed him another glance as she attempted to clear her reddening face. He still seemed oblivious to the pass, which confused her. She would've imagined that he would've caught on at this point. Things hadn't exactly gone well with the tour she was supposed to give him a bit earlier – because of Chaozu and Hotaru's company and their chattering, there hadn't been much time to explore even the first floor.
Ah, well…I'll get my chance later, when I show him another tour…maybe I'll pick tonight during the sunset, it'll be the perfect chance…
"Princess?" Benson's voice interrupted her scheming as he began to discuss with the group. "We're ready to begin."
"O...of course!" she sputtered. "What has been happening since the battle last night?"
Benson tapped a few buttons on a remote, bringing up a flat, overhead map of the palace on the large viewscreen.
"Our remaining scouts have delivered sporadic reports of more enemy reinforcements arriving since four this morning; they've established strong resistance points about ten miles outside the palace in all directions, using many of the ruined buildings and some makeshift campgrounds for cover."
He clicked a few more buttons, and several groups of red blips flashed onto the screen, each of them a short distance from the palace.
"Don't tell me that these are the actual numbers," Krillin chimed in as he studied the screen.
"Don't be ridiculous," Benson replied. "The latest scouting info places each brigade from roughly fifty to eighty enemy units, though more could have accumulated by now. We have fifty of our strongest soldiers assigned to each side of the palace, surrounding it from all sides. With any luck, we should be able to hold the enemy at bay for a while, should they decide to attack. Have all of you decided on a course of action?"
Tenshinhan rose from his chair, clearing his throat and addressing everyone. It looked like a bit of a surprise for his teammates, judging from their expressions.
"From what I can gather, it would be best to refrain from making a direct attack on the enemy until the other Sailor Soldiers have been revived and when we can get a better idea of where we can hit them hardest."
"Where would you imagine we could do that though?" Yamcha asked, looking around at the group. "No offense, but it's not like these guys have any kind of obvious weakness to exploit; I'd say that our best bet is going after one of those troop-carrying ships you guys mentioned earlier."
"Indeed," Haruka nodded. "But that would require a good amount of navigation and battling over something that's not a definite guarantee. Even if we managed to capture or sneak aboard one of the ships, we still wouldn't know what kind of opposition to expect aboard their supposed fleet."
"Not to mention that it would leave a great deal of the palace exposed to an encroaching enemy force. Maybe we should just stick to getting these guys off our backs first," Tenshinhan suggested. "If we can drive them away from the palace, we can get some breathing room to work with."
"Not a bad idea…" ChibiUsa mused thoughtfully. "Driving away a few of the hordes away may only increase their tenacity even further, but I would say that it's better than standing around waiting for them to smother us."
"I suppose you'll be doing this yourself then, Tenshinhan?" Haruka objected as she stood up, a commanding heir about her. "We don't have the resources or morale among the soldiers to launch that kind of campaign. It would be too risky even with back-up to launch an attack on a heavily fortified enemy embankment."
"Who said we needed back-up?" Yamcha retorted. "We've handled much worse than those losers out there. We must've dropped at least twenty last night during our excursion. Clearing out a few of those strongholds won't be a problem."
"How confident…we could very well be walking into a deathtrap if we assault those outposts directly! Who is to say that they don't have a few surprises of their own inside those entrenchments?" Haruka said with obvious annoyance.
"What would you suggest that we do then, Haruka?" Captain Benson inquired.
"Obtain information, scout out the areas for possible weaknesses before we directly attack," she replied. "Knowing a bit about our enemies before flying headstrong into them would give us more of an edge, increasing our chances of victory."
"I would be inclined to agree," Hotaru said, albeit softly, in her low-key manner as always. "We've seen these aliens coordinate powerful strikes with extreme precision; they would be too well prepared to be taken down by only a few of us."
"But we can't just sit on our hands either," Krillin noted. "If we stand around too long collecting data and not acting, it might make them think that we're weak enough to take down."
"It falls to the princess then," Benson nodded toward ChibiUsa, whose shoulders sagged. She was hoping this wouldn't happen, especially over so delicate an issue. But as the royalty, she would have final say in the decision-making. "What sort of action shall we take, my lady?"
She massaged one of her temples, debating furiously in her mind. Both ideas seemed viable to an extent, yet they both had a few possible flaws to them. She hated uncertainty in this sort of situation…
Her musings were cut short as one of the communication officers came rushing over to Captain Benson.
"The western flank has fallen under attack; they're taking heavy fire!" he hurriedly told him.
"What…?! How many units?" The captain was taken aback by the report, but he nevertheless remained in control of himself and hurried over to the workstation of the flushed officer. ChibiUsa leaped out of her chair and joined them, her comrades close behind. She spotted a miniaturized version of the map they were just gazing at on the officer's monitor, indicating a breach on the western end of the palace.
"Uncertain, sir, thirty on the ground at least, several more attacking from the air. We've lost radio contact with the commanders."
"What was their latest status report?"
"It wasn't clear, though all indications point to an ambush along the minor ridge that separated the northern and western garrisons. Both battalions have been thrown into confusion because of the attack. The last spurt of static said that they were pinned down, taking casualties."
"Dammit…" Benson shook his head. "Put all garrisons on alert, but inform the northern squads to hold their positions. We can't risk splitting our defenses and allowing an opening at the palace gates. They've got to hold their ground…"
This is my cue, I suppose. ChibiUsa clutched her locket tightly in her hand, turning toward Hotaru and Haruka.
"Come on, we've got to reinforce them!" The two nodded approvingly toward her bravado, Haruka drawing out her transformation stick.
"I've been waiting for this…" Haruka muttered as the trio charged back toward the elevators. Before anyone else could say a word, they were into the right-hand lift and on their way back to the surface.
"At least thirty units, you guys," ChibiUsa glanced back at the two of them. "Think we can handle all of them?"
"Well, those senzu beans have revitalized our strength completely," Hotaru noted. "I've felt better than I did even before this whole war began. I'd say we have a good chance of winning!"
"Need you mention that, Hotaru?" Haruka said with irritation; ChibiUsa chuckled at her pride rearing itself again. "Either way, I just hope we can count on our partners for help…"
"Relax, Haruka," The princess reassured her. "If we get into trouble, they'll be there to bail us out, especially Gohan."
"I hope your intuition is right…"
"Moon Crystal Power!!"
* * *
"Reckless fools!" Tenshinhan shouted as the doors to the elevator closed. "Captain, what's the fastest route to the western garrison?"
"Take the spare elevator to the surface and follow the hall left and to the end," he answered, throwing on a headset. "You should find a security door on the way there; you could probably fly straight out to the conflict zone from there. I'll stay here and attempt to reestablish radio contact with the lines."
"Let's go!" Tenshinhan was the first one up the stairs and onto the lift; the others followed close behind him. He hit the transport controls rapidly as the heavy steel doors slowly slid closed. The motors thrummed to life, carrying the armored lift up to the palace grounds. He still couldn't believe it – how could those three hope to defeat an entire battalion of enemies? It was insanity…did no rationality exist within their skulls?
"I've never seen you so forceful before, Ten," Chaozu hovered up next him, drawing his tense mind away from the Sailor Soldiers' boldness. "Is everything okay?"
Tenshinhan smiled back at his old friend, silently agreeing with his statement about his new leadership prowess.
"Someone has to take charge," he replied. "Being backed against the wall is one thing, but being backed against the wall without a plan is even worse."
"Well said," Yamcha punched him in the shoulder. "I'd trust your instincts in a heartbeat, Ten."
"Just stay focused on the fight and not our teammates and I'll be glad to lead you, Yamcha," he responded. "That goes for you too, Krillin."
"Err, right, Ten; I don't know what you could be talking about…" Krillin laughed as he primed himself. "So, how exactly are we going to go about this? None of us ever had to deal with a free-for-all sort of situation before."
"The best we can, Krillin," Gohan nodded. "We've all got a sense for ki, right? All we've got to do is stay alert and be quick about taking them out, and we'll win easily!"
"Just like your dad," Krillin replied. "Making it sound so easy…"
"Well, let's get some kind of strategy anyhow," Tenshinhan suggested. "Chaozu, Krillin, would you mind assisting me and taking out some of the aerial fighters?"
"Wherever you go, I'll be right behind you, Ten," Chaozu nodded.
"If it keeps me from getting mauled on the ground," Krillin replied. "Besides, a good Taiyoken technique could stop them easily."
"Exactly," Tenshinhan agreed as the elevator slid to a halt. As soon as the steel doors opened, all of them were off at super speed, zipping past palace attendants and wandering guards at the speed of light. Moments later, Tenshinhan spotted the Sailor Soldiers just about to exit the side door that Benson had mentioned. They were all in their battle garb – though how that was possible, he didn't know – and they were all somewhat surprised as the five Z Warriors appeared in front of them, seemingly out of thin air to their eyes. ChibiMoon was so caught off-guard that she yelped and fell over to the ground, her eyes wide.
"Leaving without us?" Yamcha inquired, powering himself up.
"Not at all," Sailor Uranus kicked the heavy door open, letting sunlight spill into the hall way as she surveyed the horizon. The defense wall wasn't far from their position, and a bit further beyond it, Tenshinhan was able to spot ki beams flashing near a series of dilapidated buildings bordering the ruined city. "Good, the defenses are still holding."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Krillin shoved past all of them and soared upward at a high rate of speed toward the battlefield, Yamcha close behind him.
"Hey!! Hold on a second!" Uranus called after them, causing the two to stop in mid-flight. "Aren't you guys forgetting something? The three of us aren't as capable in the air as the five of you are!"
"Then we'll have to improvise," Tenshinhan nodded, finding no alternative with time of the essence. Uranus was probably going to hate him for it though. "We'll have to carry you guys there if we want to make it in time. Gohan, Yamcha, think you guys can lend me a hand?"
ChibiMoon looked ecstatic at the idea of being carried by Gohan, immediately agreeing to the idea. Tenshinhan rolled his eyes at that – why was it that even ten centuries after their era had passed, women still had to act so strangely around men? Hotaru also let Yamcha take her around the waist and lift off with her in tow, though she acted much more sensible about it than her counterpart. After securing the two Sailor Soldiers, Gohan and Yamcha were off with Krillin following close behind. Chaozu remained behind, waiting for Tenshinhan. Uranus, however, vehemently opposed the idea.
"Absolutely not! I'd rather fly to the battlefield myself than be towed there like a piece of baggage!"
Tenshinhan sighed to himself.
"Sorry, Sailor Uranus, but we don't have time for this," Speeding around behind her, Tenshinhan wrapped his arms around her waist and rocketed into the air with Chaozu behind him. He sped off as quickly as possible, Uranus squirming all the while.
"Hey!! Put me down, Tenshinhan!! I order you to take me down and let me get there myself! I swear I'm going to tear that third eye out once we get there!!"
Thankfully, Chaozu was able to freeze her body in place with his psychic abilities to spare Tenshinhan any more aches and bruises. She gave him no further trouble during the flight, but he suddenly remembered Piccolo's last piece of advice.
"Good luck…" He muttered to himself as he observed the anger on Sailor Uranus's face. "Am I sure going to need it…"
* * *
Stupid, stupid, stupid… Vegeta shook his head as he monitored the battle from high atop one of Crystal Tokyo's smaller towers. Entrenched within the walls of their ruined city, the humans were indeed holding their own against their assailants, and Vegeta could understand why. From what he could tell by his senses, the home forces outnumbered their enemies by a significant amount. On the few streets where the fight was occurring, the structures were damaged somewhat, but they remained intact, providing ample cover from any aerial assaults. Vegeta had nearly laughed at the blunder in strategic planning – someone had obviously been a tad overzealous on the enemy side, and while they may've caught the sword-wielders in an ambush, there was certainly room for the humans to recover and beat back their attackers on the ground.
Below, he spotted the Silver Millennium brats and their hires taking off for the battlefield, obviously to provide assistance to their comrades. Vegeta let out a light chuckle; it would be interesting to witness the combination of both forces in battle. And despite the scanter battle powers of Kakarotto's son and the others, they would make Sailor Uranus and her two companions look weaker than they already were.
As the group sped rapidly toward the fight, Vegeta shrugged his shoulders, lifting himself into the air. With the assistance of their forces, the alien besiegers would have no chance of victory – he decided to entertain himself by watching the team in action against hardened warriors. He only hoped that this sort of blundering wasn't all that Damos was capable of.
It still seemed too surreal that Damos would be alive after so many centuries, but Vegeta was certain that the coordinator of this assault on Earth was him – the evidence was too strong to point elsewhere, and only someone as foolish as Damos would even tamper with the idea of genetic longevity.
"I only hope I get the chance to duel with you before this conflict ends," he said to himself as he casually floated toward the battlefield. "Whatever the Saiyans before me didn't finish, I certainly will."
* * *
"Not a moment too soon…" Gohan heard Sailor ChibiMoon mutter as they reached the strip of road that served as one of the combat zones. They dropped down onto the rooftop of a small store, ducking down and observing the action below them.
The road was thin, limiting movement from the figures below them, and various pieces of rubble were scattered over the area. Below them, Gohan spotted several Crystal Tokyo soldiers locked in combat with armored mercenaries. The larger ones were clashing fist and sword with some of the aliens in the streets, fighting mostly to stalemates. Other Crystal Tokyo soldiers were taking cover inside the buildings to dodge incoming ki beams from flying or gun-wielding soldiers that were scattered around the sidewalks.
"A lot like Frieza's soldiers, alright…" Gohan remarked as he studied their unsuspecting enemies. Glancing upward, he spotted several aerial soldiers descending from above. "Look out!"
Gohan snared ChibiMoon by her arm and literally jerked her off the ground and away from a barrage of ki beams that exploded against the roof, taking several chunks out of it. The impact threw Gohan onto his back, ChibiMoon falling on top of him. As she found herself staring eye to eye with the young Saiyan hybrid, she quickly jumped to her feet.
"Ah! Err, thank you, Gohan!" she covered her face with her gloved hands, her skin turning red. "That was a close call…"
Gohan hurried over to the edge of the roof with her, the fliers swooping away for another pass. The sweep of ki blasts had been absorbed by most of the surrounding architecture, but several of the sword-wielders on the street had been downed by the aerial attackers, allowing the mercenaries a free charge across the street toward the hiding area for the besieged soldiers.
"ChibiMoon, let's dive on them, surprise them from above!" Gohan suggested brightly.
"Huh? You mean, jump on them from way up here?" She peered over the edge of the roof. It wasn't long drop by any means compared to what she was used to recently, but it was enough to make her legs wobbly again.
"Yeah, we'll take them completely by surprise!" Gohan convinces her, grabbing her hand and diving over the edge of the roof.
"Gohan, wait a minute, wahh!!!!" She screamed as she flew over the edge of the rooftop toward the advancing mob. "Let go of my arm, I can fly from here!"
Gohan obliged, suspending himself in mid-air and raising both arms above his head.
"Masenko....HAA!!!" A reddish-gold ki beam exploded from his hands, slamming into several of the charging mercenaries on the right flank. Most of them flew backwards into the ground and impacted into the walls of buildings across the street. Gohan pumped his arm, proud of his handiwork.
ChibiMoon had fallen for several more feet before she'd apparently let gravity take its course. Gohan was at first afraid that she wasn't able to fly correctly, but as she extended she leg and charged a bit of energy into it, he spotted her attack.
"Sailor ChibiMoon Kick!!" She slammed the heel of her boot into the jaw of one of the larger mercenaries, sending him bowling into several of his comrades. As she dropped down to the ground, much of the advancing mob had been thrown into disarray, allowing the Crystal Tokyo soldiers to emerge from their entrenchments and make a counter-attack. Gohan dropped down, roundhousing an unsuspecting alien from behind and uppercutting a gun-toting grunt that was too close. ChibiMoon appeared next to him, holding up a small scepter in the direction of a groggy mercenary.
"ChibiMoon….Pink Sugar Heart Attack!!" At her command, a stream of hollow pink hearts flew from the orb of the scepter, pounding the alien in the chest. Gohan stared in a brief moment of confusion at the attack, which seemed to be doing nothing more than irritating the alien, who was attempting to swat away the small hearts as if they were mosquitoes. "Oh, no, it's not working!"
Before the burly alien could recover, Gohan leapt forward and cracked the alien in the jaw with a flying kick, shattering the bone on impact and sending the alien flying backward onto the ground, motionless.
ChibiMoon sheepishly looked at her scepter.
"Well, I, uh," She stammered. "It was a fluke! It's usually a lot stronger than that!"
Gohan just looked at her, more confused than ever. He'd sensed nearly zero energy emanating from the attack, and besides that, it just didn't even look threatening from even his perspective. It was just a stream of pink hearts!
By this point, the Crystal Tokyo soldiers had crossed the street in force, relentlessly attacking and hacking at the surviving aliens. Their steel swords, though primitive against the ki techniques the alien soldiers were using, were strong enough to pierce the armor protecting their enemies, and with the added momentum, most of the aliens were left dead in a matter of half a minute.
As the last of the mercenaries fell and the Crystal Tokyo soldiers thanked the princess and her escort for their help, Gohan spotted Yamcha and Sailor Saturn dashing forward from the west end of the street, each of them with urgent looks on their faces. Gohan and Sailor ChibiMoon were quick to hurry over to them.
"They're getting overrun over there!" Yamcha announced as the four met. "We're going to need all the help we can get."
"The bulk of the soldiers are entrenched inside the industrial complex further up the way," Saturn continued as she held up her glaive, the end of it covered in blood. "Tenshinhan, Krillin, and Chaozu are taking care of the ones in the air, but they're about to storm the area unless we give them some back up."
"What about Sailor Uranus?" ChibiMoon worriedly asked.
"I only caught a glimpse of her, but she chose to try to dissipate the masses with some of her attacks," Saturn explained. "And she seemed awfully upset at Tenshinhan and Choazu when they landed for some reason."
"In any event, we should clear the road for them, wouldn't you agree, Gohan?" Yamcha smirked, charging a white field of energy around his body. "After all, that's what we're here for, right?"
Gohan nodded firmly, and the foursome hurried back the way Saturn and Yamcha had come from. Gohan motioned for Yamcha to slow up a bit to keep the Sailor Soldiers from falling behind.
"ChibiMoon, were you okay back there?" Gohan asked during their flight. "That attack of yours didn't seem too effective."
"Err, well, it's kind of selective sometimes, but I can keep it under control from now on!" She stammered in response. "It's kind of hairy out here. I'm not used to this…"
"Don't worry, just use your senses!" Gohan suggested matter-of-factly.
"Senses…?" ChibiMoon replied uneasily.
"Yeah, sense for the enemy's ki and you'll know where they're coming at you! It's easy; we do it all the time whenever we fight."
"Err…yeah, THOSE senses, of course! Where's my head at today…" She absently said, laughing it off.
"Up...in the clouds, like always…!" Saturn laughed through panting as she hurried to keep up with them.
"Saturn?" Gohan ran alongside her. "Are you okay? You look a little faint."
"Faint, me?" Saturn replied, stumbling a bit in her steps. "I'm just not used to this much running…I'm not much of an endurance athlete, as you might say."
"It's okay; I'll give you a hand!" Gohan powered himself for flight and snared Sailor Saturn by the waist, picking her up and flaring up the road.
"Hey! Gohan, this isn't necessary, I can make it!" Saturn reacted with surprise, nearly dropping her glaive as Gohan soared upward a bit with her in tow. "I'm not used to this sort of treat--, err, transportation!"
Gohan clutched onto Saturn's waist tightly, soaring forward and hoping they would be in time to assist Sailor Uranus.
* * *
Hey, what is she thinking…?! ChibiMoon glared after Saturn as Gohan flew forward with her, holding onto her tightly. How dare she try to butt in on my catch!! It was just like today when I wanted to show him the palace…that little…
Yamcha called back to her, breaking her focus.
"ChibiMoon, you comfortable with high-speed flying?" he asked as he backflipped behind her and proceeded to airlift her to the battle site. "We'll get there quicker at this rate."
ChibiMoon squirmed uncomfortably at first, but relaxed eventually as she focused on the upcoming battle and she was going to use those 'senses' that Gohan had been talking about. She had to admit that Yamcha wasn't bad either – she would've probably gone for him out of the rest had she not had her eyes set on Gohan – but she still glanced over in Saturn's direction with fury.
She's blushing! How could she?! She fumed, nearly visibly. Gohan is my catch, not hers! Oh, she will pay, how she will pay…
* * *
"Uranus….Space Sword Blaster!!"
The arc of energy from the Space Sword ripped through the lines of mercenaries charging in her direction, fatally piercing several and wounding a few others. It was merely a distraction at this point however – she could spot twenty more enemies descending from the sky onto her location. Her sword arm was getting weary, and the Crystal Tokyo Special Forces were being worn down as the enemies were encroaching all around them. The tightness of the area had limited the number of attacks from the air, but the ferocity of the ground forces had more than compensated for it. Several minutes more and she wasn't sure if they could hold the line.
"Kamehameha!!"
"Dodompa Ray!!"
Two brilliant beams of energy – one a dazzling blue and the other a fiery red – descended from the sky and literally blew the approaching fliers out of the sky, sending them spiraling downward into the streets below. Uranus glanced upward and spotted Krillin and Chaozu keenly guarding the skies, moving to engage a few surviving aerial soldiers that had evaded their notice.
"Cover your eyes!!!" A powerful voice from above commanded to the Crystal Tokyo Special Forces below them. Felling another weaker alien with her Space Sword, Uranus shot her gaze toward the voice's source. She spotted Tenshinhan floating directly in front of the sun, his hands in a triangle formation. For some reason, the sun seemed to be getting brighter all of a sudden. It was then that Sailor Uranus realized what Tenshinhan was doing.
He's amplifying the sun's rays. What's he--?
"Taiyoken!!" Sailor Uranus dove down as an immense beam of sunlight shot down from the sky. From the positioning of the Crystal Tokyo Special Forces, they were mostly hit with the back of the beam; the enemies took the impact full force.
"Aggghh!!!"
"The light!!!!"
"Ahhh, my eyes!!!"
He's blinded them!
Seizing the opportunity, Uranus motioned to the defending soldiers, who were wisely shielding their eyes from the brunt of the beam.
"Forward!!"
Uranus led the charge, and the dozens of surviving Crystal Tokyo soldiers who'd been previously been backed against the wall dashed forward with rage toward their vulnerable enemies, hacking and stabbing with their swords at the enemies' armor and exposed limbs and heads. Uranus launched a World Shaking and Space Sword Blaster attack that cleared the field down the right flank. Before she knew it, they were turning the enemy back, the blinded mercenaries in full retreat from the small complex, some taking to the skies and others fleeing across the street into the neighboring buildings.
Uranus smiled with satisfaction as she glanced at the retreating enemies. Those that took to the skies were promptly met by Krillin, Chaozu, and Tenshinhan, who almost effortlessly slammed them down to earth with powerful punching and kicking combinations.
I can't let any of them escape…! She led her force out into the street in pursuit of the ones who'd taken the ground road for retreat, but as they reached the middle of the road, she called them off – the few who'd managed to slip away had been intercepted by Yamcha, Gohan, Saturn, and ChibiMoon, who were dispatching the vulnerable aliens easily. Before long, the Crystal Tokyo soldiers and their allies were the only living fighters on the road.
"We're victorious! We've won!"
"They're all gone! I can't believe it!"
Uranus couldn't believe it either, but as she glanced around at the celebrating soldiers and at the multitude of dead alien mercenaries, she was forced to accept it – the powers of the Z Warriors mixed with their own powers had turned the tide in the fight, and thanks largely to them, the western flank would hold.
Weary from the battle, she walked over to Sailor ChibiMoon and the others.
"Having fun?" Gohan joked as he took in a deep breath. Uranus grumbled under her breath – Gohan and Yamcha weren't so much as out of breath, even after battling the fleeing soldiers.
"What about in the other direction?" she asked.
"All taken care of!" ChibiMoon proudly reported, sauntering closely to the Saiyan hybrid. "Thanks to Gohan!"
"Thanks to him?" Sailor Uranus stared at the boy in disbelief. "How?"
"Yep!" ChibiMoon stared at him almost dreamily. "He took out at least a dozen with one blast! After we attacked them, we gave the soldiers enough time to recover and attack!"
"A dozen…?" Uranus glanced at Gohan, dumbfounded.
"Well, I'd say more like fourteen or sixteen, maybe," he answered nonchalantly. Uranus felt her pride sinking. It took at least three powerful attacks from her to defeat that many enemies and it had taken a lot out of her in the process. How strong was a kid who could do that without any effort?
Saturn didn't look too convinced of a total victory as she glanced around at the bodies.
"All of these guys are foot soldiers, though," she noted. "Who could've given the order to attack the western garrison?"
"It wouldn't make much sense to attack only one section of the palace without assailing the others," Uranus hypothesized. "Maybe a member of the command structure around here got a bit eager?"
"Could be," Yamcha agreed. "I'd imagine that a commander for these guys must be close by…Gohan, let's split up and scan for hidden energy signatures. I'll go and tell the others in the air."
"Got it! Do you guys want to come with me?" Gohan offered to the remaining Sailor Soldiers as Yamcha took off.
"I'll be supervising the soldiers out here," Uranus declined, motioning back to the still-celebrating Crystal Tokyo Special Forces. "If the three of you go, be careful. Try not to get ambushed by surviving enemies."
"Don't worry, Uranus! As long as Gohan's here, he'll protect us!" ChibiMoon cheerily replied. "Come on, Saturn!"
"ChibiMoon…" She lightly shook her head, but held up her glaive. "Alright, let's go searching. Oh, and we'll walk this time, Gohan, thank you very much."
The joke made Gohan's face turn red in embarrassment in front of Sailor Uranus, and he chuckled a bit as he hurried along the way, the two Sailor Soldiers close behind him.
Uranus rolled her eyes, wondering what Saturn had meant by that by that remark. Before she could go back to calm the raucous soldiers, Tenshinhan dropped down next to her, still looking full of vigor.
"The first of many victories." He greeted her.
"Hopefully," Uranus nodded back toward him. "That was an impressive technique you executed back there. I nearly didn't see it coming."
"Thanks, it's called the Taiyoken," Tenshinhan explained. "But I wanted to congratulate you as well; your fighting skills and prowess back there were very commendable."
"It's what I'm trained to do."
"I was impressed all the same…commander," He extended his hand toward hers.
Commander? She hadn't expected that amount of respect out of him despite his well-mannered and proper nature. And as she glanced up at Tenshinhan's face, she saw sincerity, and a willingness to give her respect in exchange for earning some from her.
"Thanks…Tenshinhan," She shook his hand, smiling toward her ally. "By the way…sorry about your jaw earlier."
Tenshinhan chuckled a bit, rubbing a sore spot on his left jaw.
"Don't mention it," he smiled. "I'll just have to let Yamcha carry you from battle to battle from now on!"
Despite his effort, Sailor Uranus didn't see the humor.
* * *
Piccolo tossed the body of another soldier away as Sailor Neptune launched a Deep Submerge attack that effectively finished the remaining squad of gun-toters. It was strange; they hadn't encountered such technology from the alien mercenaries as of yet. The energy-firing guns seemed to be connected to an armored pack on their back, probably some kind of generator. Either way, the more rapid-fire style of energy attacks had nearly caught her off-guard when they first engaged the soldiers guarding the closed time portal. Were it not for her agility and reflexes, she would've been roasted alive by the beams.
"That looks like all of them," Piccolo said as he glanced around. He lifted up the body of one soldier whose head he'd blown off with a powerful ki blast. He glanced at the marking of the white over-garment that the alien was wearing. "Looks like some kind of science team. The scouters they were wearing looked somewhat more advanced as well."
Is there nothing that slips his attention? Neptune mused as she scanned the area for any signs of life. There were no civilians so far outside of the palace, but the enemies had apparently discovered the sealed time gate and sent several squads of soldiers to keep watch over it and do a bit of research on whatever it was. Fortunately, as she observed the floating crimson orb, it didn't look like they'd been able to open it up.
"It's not safe for this to be left here out in the open," She said as she and Piccolo faced the silent time gate.
"Could they get this open if they tried?" Piccolo asked.
"It's doubtful," Neptune replied as she began letting energy flow through her. Piccolo stepped back as her body began to glow a deep turquoise shade. "I don't think these monsters have the holy power necessary to energize Sailor Pluto's time gates. I don't even think that your power is pure enough to open this portal."
She let the energy flow out of her body, surrounding the time portal with the same incandescent haze. Closing her eyes and focusing on the silent orb, she released all of the energy from her body, and when she opened up her eyes once again, the orb had expanded into a vertical swirling disk of energy, discharging thunderbolts around it as it awaited the entrance of the two warriors.
"Not bad," Piccolo nodded approvingly. "How long will this stay open after we go through?"
"Not for too long," Neptune said as she stepped towards it. "We've taken care of all of the enemies within the area as far as I can tell, unless your 'senses' tell differently."
Piccolo smirked at that.
"Nothing's here that I can detect," he answered, motioning toward the portal with his arm. "And if I can't sense it, I doubt that it's around here. Ladies first, Sailor Neptune."
"Thank you, teacher," she teased him as she stepped through the portal.
Next stop, the Old Era…
* * *
"By the Pit…they've murdered nearly twenty soldiers by themselves! Remarkable!" Jevor noted as he observed the carnage surrounding them. Zebus had to concur – they'd witnessed the ambush, and none of the patrolling officers had seen it coming.
The Namek had deftly eliminated several of the soldiers patrolling farthest away from the odd crimson anomaly on the hill, and the Sailor Soldier had followed up by attacking the remaining scientists from behind, thoroughly eradicating them with a few of her magic attacks. Before Zebus could count the fatalities, the entire field had been cleared and the two attackers had somehow transformed the anomaly into some sort of gateway.
"What…?" Barista's rumbling voice inquired as the three Trisgammans watched from the second level of a nearby building. "Unusual…"
"Indeed…" Jevor stepped away from the window, deactivating his scouter. "I managed to catch some of the conversation. That little crimson sphere, disk, or whatever is some kind of timewarp."
Zebus scratched his chin, watching the two warriors converse in front of the floating disk.
"It does make sense," He nodded, leading his two comrades down the stairwell that let out on the bottom level. "Nameks have been dead for centuries. If the Crystal Tokyo soldiers wanted to fetch a Namek warrior for their aid, a time portal would be an ideal solution…but why return at this point?"
"Indeed," Jevor agreed as the trio stepped out into the afternoon sun. The Namek warrior was vanishing into the disk after his comrade, and the portal remained open even after his entry. The energy that the Sailor Soldier had used to open it was still active according to Zebus's scouter, and it would be for another minute or so at the least. "And why would the Sailor Soldier follow the Namek? Could she be deserting?"
"Doubtful," Zebus muttered. "This was the same one who returned alone to the battle last night despite there being no chance of victory. Believe me, that one is too fiery to understand desertion."
"Follow…..destroy?" Barista suggested as he moved toward the disk.
"I would say so; let's at least see where they're going and find out why," Zebus suggested. "Let's leave enough time for them to get moving on the other side, and we'll be right behind them undetected!"
Allowing the energy powering the portal to dissipate a bit further, the three Trisgammans finally rushed inside, swept away from the ruined city and into the crimson haze of the time gate, tumbling through the darkness toward whatever time period awaited them.
* * *
Kami had meditated and pondered long and hard about the current situation occurring in the future. Considering the unstable make-up of the time stream, he supposed that almost anything was possible. But as his uncertainty had prevailed over his mind over the past day, Kami had decided to tend to the shrine to alleviate his weary mind.
The last thing he expected, however, was to see Piccolo and one of the Sailor Soldiers descending from the steps of the shrine, where the time portal still rested. Standing from his work in the flora patches, Kami rushed over to the pair to see if he was hallucinating. Piccolo's deep tone proved that he wasn't.
"Kami, it's good to see you."
"Piccolo? What has happened? Have you achieved victory?"
"No time to explain, old man," Piccolo cut him off as he glanced at his companion. "I have a favor to ask."
* * *
"Checkmate," Sailor Mercury said to Sailor Venus as she closed the virtual projector on her visor. The holographic chess board vanished from sight, and Sailor Venus sighed in exasperation. "That's twenty games in a row, Venus. Are you ready to take a break?"
"I give up, Ami," She smiled as she shook her comrade's hand. "I've tried every trick that I could think of and I still couldn't even force a stalemate."
Pluto smiled as she sat cross-legged on the long line. It was only about a quarter mile to go until they reached the Seat of Judgment, though while Pluto was able to last the excruciatingly long wait, Jupiter looked about ready to throw herself off of the bridge. She'd been pacing back and forth for about two hours straight, wringing her hair and sighing heavily.
"Two more hours and I'm going to…" Jupiter muttered.
"Kill yourself?" Mars joked as she ceased her meditations momentarily. "Jupiter, we are dead after all…"
"Need you remind me, Rei?" Jupiter dropped down, shaking her head as she tried desperately to find something to do to overcome the boredom. "Maybe this is my punishment, or part of it anyway."
"Excuse me, Sailor Pluto?" One of the armored cloud-riders that had been guarding them since Jupiter and Venus's little fighting incident called over to her. She turned her head in his direction, wondering what was going on now.
"Yes?" She answered, standing as the cloud-rider floated over to her.
"We just received a message from the Judgment Seat," He informed her. "It took them a while to dig it up out of the archives, but you apparently have a special summons receipt from over ten centuries ago. You're to be taken there immediately."
"Excuse me?" Pluto was dumbstruck. "Ten centuries ago?"
"Indeed," The cloud-rider nodded. "If you can inform your comrades and follow me toward the front of the line, we can get this all straightened out."
