Disclaimer: If You've been keeping up with the story so far, then you know
the routine, and I won't subject to needless rambling, so on with the show!
Let's begin "The Dark Palace: One way ticket to Hell! Pack light and enjoy
your stay". Roll it, monkeys!
The Dark Palace. It was the new name of what had once been Kami's Lookout. Now it had become a demonic tower that looked like it had sprouted right from the fiery depths of Hell itself, gleaming black like a metallic scar against the bright morning light. It was several miles it height, and design reflected a heavy gothic influence. This hellish tower was quickly becoming feared by the humans of Earth who journeyed too close to the evil tower, some being taken captive by Majin Buu/Cell hybrids that served the masters of this house of evil, some being eaten alive, some slowly killed by the sadistic creatures known simply as the Hybrids, some fairing even worse.
The men who were taken were usually either put to work in the hazardous labs and factories within the dark palace, or used to entertain the warriors by having them fight to the death in blood soaked arenas, being injected with violence stimulating hallucinogens and several kinds of stimulant narcotics, blended into a fiendish cocktail that turned soft- hearted gentleman and generally good people into savage animals who usually went insane from a combination of both their actions and the pharmaceutical potions they were injected with. They were all given vests containing a small supply of the drug that drove them into bloody frenzies, which, with the push of a button, would be pumped through tubes leading into their jugulars from a container on the back of the vest. When the drug hit their systems, not only would they become no more than wild animals mentally and emotionally, they would undergo a physical change as well as the mental one: they would develop saber tooth-like fangs, and thick, serrated claws as long as a persons forearm. The battles were vicious, savage, and all the more entertaining for the demonic mutants laughing and cackling from the seats, cheering on the human they betted on, sometimes collecting a fortune after the match, sometimes more broke than a Chinese vase after a herd of bulls stormed over it. The victors were further changed and enhanced, while the losers became food for the victors. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. These were the only rules here. Sometimes girls would be used for the arena, but the warriors had "other" ideas for them. They usually weren't as lucky as the guys.
A warrior would walk up and down a line of captured women, all shackled in irons, stripped naked and treated like so much dirt. Sometimes warriors would drink their blood like water, like wine, acting like some kind of crazed vampire, and sometimes, they would end up being forced to share their favor with the warriors, and not just one on one either. There was one Hybrid who had over dozen slave girls, all wearing heavy iron collars, all connect to him by heavy, barbed steel chains that was connected to his wrist. He dragged them around with him everywhere, and usually beat up, violate, or EAT any stragglers who held things up. Lets just say he wasn't the most patient of Hybrids. He would sell his "wares" to fellow Hybrids, and watch the girls entertain his comrades. If they did a good job, they were rewarded by being left alone for the day, and even allowed to move about the palace freely, of course aware that meant they were easy pickings for any other Hybrid that passed by, and even by one of the Three Beasts, the death god Hurakan, the perverse cyber-demon Cynenba, and the new guy, Vegeta Metallix, formerly Vegeta, prince of all Saiyins. Life was the worst for the women, and many wished they had a gun...they could take the easy way out, cowards way out be damned! This was how desperate they were.
As a young woman coward against a wall, a trio of Hybrids was advancing on her, chuckling insanely, licking their lips. A rather thin one was licking a rather nasty looking dagger with a glazed over look in his eye. The young women let off a high-pitched shriek that seemed to only excite them even more. As they begun to reach out and grab her, Hurakan himself simply faded into existence, minus his armor, but retaining his usual robes, looking rather disgusted, and pointed at the trio with a sour grimace plastered on his face. He simply barked, "No", and the Hybrids blew apart, spraying the young women with tissues, blood and other fluids, the dagger of the thin one clattered to the floor, burnt black as though by intense flame. Hurakan let out an angry sigh and walked over to the shell- shocked girl and stared at her with a sad look in his sunken red eyes, a small tear running down the oil black skin of his cheek.
He reached up to his shoulders and undid his cape, swinging it around and draping it around the girl, who was all but swallowed up by the twenty-foot long cape, startling her out of her shock. She took one look and the creature looking her right in the eye- who, by the way, was wiping the organic slime off of her with a telekinetically suspended cloth- and screamed. Hurakan smiled sadly and whispered in a soft and endearing tone, "Hush, child, I am nothing like the rumors describe. I despise the idea of taking a woman against their will. In fact, it sickens me to no end, and as a matter of fact, what my creations have done here today is going get them a beating most sour". The young woman stopped screaming abruptly, and simply stared into Hurakan's ruby-like eyes, simply and completely amazed at two things: he really was like nothing ever seen on Earth, but not so hideous looking in all honesty, just...odd looking. Plus, he saved her from a fate worse than death, in her opinion. She then did something that surprised them both: she hopped up and hugged him around the neck, making the death god turn white. He wasn't afraid, but in fact he was blushing! That's right, blushing! The guy has white blood, which turns black when it's exposed directly to the atmosphere (which is why it was deep black when Piccolo smashed his head to bits).
Hurakan had a nervous grin spreading from ear hole to ear hole. Having a rather attractive, NAKED (well almost naked) young women wrapping her slender arms around his huge neck with a surprising amount of force, whose cleavage was pressing into his exposed chest, all quite enjoyable, wasn't helping the bulge in his baggy pants at all. He felt her crying into his shoulder, her silky hair tickling his scaly face (by the way, her hair was a glistening amber color) sobbing out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you" over an over again. He should have fastened the damn cape around her. He decided to simply let her cry, sighing nervously as she continued to sob and whisper choking "thank you's" into his neck. The poor thing started to hiccup, which was a surprising turn-on for the death god, because he could swear she was kissing his neck AS she hiccupped.
Well, now, this is new, Hurakan thought to himself warily as the young woman continued to kiss the gill-like ridges on Hurakan's neck. He was just about to set her down on the floor and try to explain he wasn't that kind of man, when a delicious feeling exploded along the nerves in his neck, freezing him in place like he was made of cold stone. 'By creation's light, now she's LICKING the flesh between my neck ridges! OH, wonderful! Doesn't she know that's a particularly sensitive area for my species?! No, I guess not', the now shivering Death God painfully realized as he struggled to retain some semblance of genuine coherent thought. He gripped the girl's shoulders sternly, but never got a word out, as she planted a searing kiss on his dark snout. That completely tore it!
He bent forward quicker than you or I can blink, almost dislodging the "thankful" vixen from his neck, but before she could lose her grip, he whipped himself backward, throwing her into the air, eliciting a surprised scream from her. Hurakan held out his arms, and leaped into the air, catching the startled woman and landing with a cat's grace...right on top of a Hybrid that had almost completely regenerated, squishing him into bloody paste yet again. The Hybrids arm was twitching now and again, and a choked voice just manage to squeeze out, "I hate you". Hurakan gave the glob of slime a look that said, 'likewise', and spoke to the wide-eyed woman who looked like a small child in his tree trunk arms, "Well my dear, care to join me for a meeting that myself and my lieutenants are holding? After word, we're holding a little party, and I was wondering if you'd like to join us?"
She blinked a few times and answered in a rather bubbly tone, "A party?! Me? But I haven't got anything to wear!" The last part came out a semi- whine, prompting this response, and a lady-killer smile from the charming God of Death, "Well, we shall just have to see what the future holds, yes? By the way, miss what's your name?" The girl was a bit surprised that something...someone like Hurakan would be concerned about her name, but despite her reluctance she answered "Angelique". Hurakan raised a scaly eyebrow and purred, "Angelique, the perfect name for an angel", making Angelique blush fiercely, and giggle softly. Hurakan slid her onto his gigantic shoulder so that she was sitting, and whispered energetically, "Well, Angelique hold tightly, beautiful one, for...interesting times are soon upon us", and sped of leaving a fire trail.
The same Hybrid he stomped on had yet again come close to regenerating when he snarled out some particularly nasty Namekian curses, with an Ice-Jin (that's Freeza's race!) comment about how he was such a hypocrite. He was revealed to be the thin one with the dagger. As he reached for his dagger, a massive fireball screamed down the hall and collided the Hybrid and his companions. They screamed bloody murder just before they were reduced to scattered sub-dimensions, the dagger joining its owner in oblivion. As the dust that used to be the Hybrid trio settled, a deep and angry voice boomed through the hallway, "Maybe so. But at least I'm not you!" As the echoing voice faded, a familiar figure walked out of a darkened hallway, a hideous snarl dominating his blue metal face. Cynenba growled for a few minutes, then spoke to no one as he ground out, "So we're still lieutenants, huh? I don't frigging think so, Death God. Oh, how I don't fucking think so!" and teleported away.
Unbeknownst to Cynenba, he had been watched by a pair of cold golden eyes from a dark corner, evil glee reflecting off of them. The owner of the eyes adjusted his deep blue metal helmet and smiled demonically to himself and thought, 'NOW, things start to get good! Ha ha!'
As Goku and company approached the Dark Palace, they couldn't comprehend the scope and magnitude of what they were looking at. It was looking at something from somebody's nightmares and a techno-indulgent architects fantasies come alive. Goten was stunned, Trunks and Gohan looked sick to their stomachs at what had been the floating palace of Earth's previous guardian, but Goku was as mad as bull in a ketchup factory. He was going to make somebody pay for desecrating Kami's Lookout if it killed him! Goku felt a wicked strong KI signature coming from a balcony high on the side of the tower. The balcony itself was so huge it looked like it could support a baseball stadium with room to spare. He sped off toward it, intent on introducing his boots to somebody's rectum very, very badly! The others were hard pressed to keep up with the level 3 Super Saiyin, all amazed that Goku still hadn't yet lost power. In fact, it had been steadily growing, slowly but surely. As they closed in on their target, they all felt like someone was sliding ice down their spines, and couldn't stop shivering. What greeted them when they arrived at the "Dark Palace" didn't help matters any, either.
The palace was a deep ashen black, made entirely of a demonically crafted metal that reflected light like glass. The whole palace was like a huge black gash against the sky, ripped open freshly as though by Shinigami himself, the Japanese god of death. It had a very jagged and gothic style to its design, complete with parapets, dark towers rising from the main structure of the palace, each one fit to called a palace onto themselves. To sum it up, the palace was like a gigantic, dark cyber-punk version of Barador, the mythical fortress featured in Tolkien's famous trilogy, Lord of The Rings. It even had its own version of the grotesque Orcs lining the battlements, some sticking their heads out of the tall windows to spy the newcomers, grinning like feral beasts. They made Goku's skin crawl, because every single one of these goons looked like Janenba, but heavy on influences from Majin Buu and Cell as well.
Trunks caught up with Goku, a stern look dominating the demi-Saiyins face, framed by his lavender hair. He snarled at the balcony, glaring daggers at the reception committee, being nearly a hundred on the strange freaks that kept on smiling at them, the twisted Cynenba, who himself didn't look one bit happy, and what was rather odd, was a rather cheerful looking Hurakan. What was odd about him at the moment was the young woman sitting on his giant left shoulder, whispering in his ear hole, occasionally giggling, wrapped up in a cloak that was several dozen sizes too big for her, seemingly swallowing her up. She moved a strand of amber colored hair behind her ear, and suddenly caught sight of Trunks, who was snarling like a rabid dog. She recoiled in fear at the demi-Saiyins snarling, hugging onto Hurakan's armory neck, causing the death god to turn to look at her. He mouthed something that Trunks couldn't hear, but could really care little about because one thing was certain: He was going to TEAR Hurakan to bloody ribbons, plan or no fucking plan!
He reached behind his back and began to slowly draw his sword, eyes bulging with something border lining between righteous anger and berserker rage, boring holes into Hurakan's forehead. He began to float down to the balcony, snarling and spitting with rage, power building to a roar. The goons that had gathered on the balcony with Hurakan and the other CFB (creepy frigging bastard) stared for a stunned moment, and then shifted into battle poses, but Cynenba holding a hand for them to hold their place. "Let's see what this pretty boy will do, boys. Just take it easy. He's no threat", Cynenba said, chuckling under the last part. 'Not a threat, am I?' Trunks thought to himself angrily. He disagreed, and now it was time to explain his reasons why.
He summoned the power of his ancestors, the mighty Saiyin warriors of legend, and transformed into a Super Saiyin. Every hair on his head sprang to life and stuck straight up after turning a molten gold, shining and burning like a star. His now crystal blue eyes narrowed on the Death God, ascending to Level 2 almost automatically in a lightning fast flash of gold- white light. But he was far from done. Far from done, indeed. As Goku had done when he faced down Majin Buu for the first time, and as he had done on the World of the Kais, and as his father, Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyins had done....Trunks Briefs ascended to Super Saiyin Three.
He felt every muscle in his body clench like he was suffering some kind of full body wracking spasm or cramp, tightening to a painful degree beyond mortal words. He felt like his own body was tearing itself apart, but he didn't care about that, or many other things right now, except one thing, that thing being revenge, pure and simple. He felt his Ki rise so suddenly, so rapidly, he thought that he was going to explode, but yet he pushed his power even further, delved even deeper into himself till he found that ancient power, and took all his rage, all his sorrow, all his heart break and betrayal, all of the famous Saiyin pride he inherited from his wayward father, his very heart and soul, and all of the love for his fallen friends and family and poured it out for the whole world to see.
Suddenly, it clicked. He smiled like a wild beast that had finally satisfied a hunger that ached forever, a pain that could never be satiated by the thoughts or desires of any sane person being fulfilled, let alone an average soul. He screamed triumph all the way to Other World and beyond. So great had Trunks power become that his power was felt by Dabura, the former demon king, who Hurakan had mercifully spared during his visit to the now leveled check-in station, roaring his support for the newest of ultra elite Saiyin, praying to every deity in creation that this new power would send the dark violator of those he called friend to the lowest pits of Hell, for Dabura would be there to meet him, and find some satisfaction, personally. The Demon King prayed that the souls of his stolen friends would soon find peace. As he began walking away from the rubble that had become the graves for so many Oni who were just doing their jobs, and even the Grand Kai, he lowered his golden eyes to the Oni girl who had taken a quick shining to the burly demon. He smiled sadly at her, noticing she was wiping a tear from her eye. He gestured with his head and she began following him down Snake Way, a large duffle bag flung over her small shoulders.
They had taken no more then five steps when a deep, silk smooth voice cheerily quipped out of the blue, "Lovely day, isn't it?" The two stopped in mid-step, startled by the mystery voice that had greeted them. They looked every which way but couldn't see one single solitary soul, if you will pardon the badly timed pun. All of the souls that had come to Other World recently were lost, so to speak, and had to make their own way, some going back to Earth, some going to Hell instead of Heaven, and vice versa, simply because they got bad directions. Thanks to Hurakan, the afterlife was in utter and complete chaos. Dabura felt like killing somebody, and whoever decided to ask such a moronic question was going to be introduced to his boot heel.
"Introduce me to your boot heel? Well now, that's not a very friendly thought if I ever read one! How rude!" The voice said again, faking insult. The owner of the voice materialized right behind the Oni girl and grabbed her attractive behind in a huge hand and squeezed. She squealed in fright and whipped around, attempting to slap the offender, only to freeze an inch or two from the demonic visage that smiled disarmingly at her. Dabura turned also, but threw a haymaker that sent the unknown monster flying...until he stopped himself in mid-flight, and lowered his thrown back head, smiling like the cat that ate the proverbial canary. He floated back down to Snake Way, grinning from behind the sweeping V shaped face guard of his dark blue helmet, yellow eyes wide with wild glee. Now that Dabura could get a good look at him, even more was revealed about this lecherous creep.
He had a navy blue cape just as massive as Hurakan's, but embroidered in black, which appeared like a great swath of mid-evening sky had been stuck to him, flapping and fluttering as though a gentle breeze were flowing under it, but there was no wind on Snake Way. The cape was pulled to the hollow of his neck, where it was pinned to his chest by a skull shaped ornament. He wore a body suit of oil black leather with a shirt of like- colored chain mail, all enhanced by midnight blue armor covering almost all of his legs, his gigantic chest and pecks, and fore arms. The armor on his shoulders were wide and somewhat bulbous, adorned with bestial claws running along the rim of the shoulder armor, with spoon head shaped pieces attached about halfway out from where the shoulder pieces joined the rest of the armor. All of this armor and leather and chain mail were covering a beast that stood a head over Dabura, and had three times as much muscle.
His face was the worst part. From beneath the V shaped face piece, a pair of ice-cold golden eyes stared intently at the two people staring fearfully at the scaly face of the eyes owner. A rather feminine bang of pink hair stuck out from beneath the faceplate, lessening the impact of his appearance quite a bit. It even got a round of hysterical giggles from the Oni girl, who fell over in stitches. Both Dabura and the bizarre being just stared at her like she had just sprouted a second head and a couple extra breasts and in unison asked, "What the fuck is her problem?" She answered, struggling between the giggles and belly laughing, "He...hehehehe...h-h-h- hasssss p-p-pink h-h-hair-hahahahahaha!"
Dabura looked was at a loss for words, but the stranger was worse off. He face vaulted and fell over, smashing a small crater into Snake Way, feet twitching here and there. He pulled his legs to his chest and kicked out, launching to his feet. Where he was smiling like a loon before, he was now snarling like a rabid animal. He focused his snarl at the Oni girl, planning to have her on a spit if he had anything to say about it. No one made fun of his hair. 'It's not fair', he thought. Why did the rest of his people have a deep bluish black color to their hair, and he got stuck with cotton candy pink hair? Cotton candy pink! It was enough to make a Dark God sick to his five stomachs. He was V'Raal Talgarin, damn it! Nobody laughed at him and got away with it. Just ask those that dared to. They wouldn't be providing an answer very quickly, well, at least not in this life.
He was going to be civil and just toss them to Hurakan, but now they got his dander up, and he was in the mood for Oni soup. For good Oni soup, you just have to "tenderize" the meat very, VERY well. V'Raal started stomping toward the still laughing Oni girl, and the now defensive demon king, intent on gutting them with rusty spoons. He reached behind his head and clasped something in his armored fist. That something was the handle of a sword, and was quickly slid out of its concealed sheath. The hilt was rather simple, two nasty crescent shaped blades at either end of the hilt. The blade was puny to look at, a deep shade of watery blue, engraved with what looked like an old form of Japanese, but began to slide outward, like it was coming out the hilt, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case, as the blade had gone from a measly two feet, to well over thirty long, and four feet wide. When the blade had finished extending, the sword resembled a huge katana, making the dark monster look vaguely like a samurai, especially when he turned to face them sideways, gripping the handle with both huge fists.
The Oni girl had long stopped laughing, and was now hugging onto Dabura with a death grip, quite content with never letting go. V'Raal sneered at them and darkly snarled, "So, who wants to be a victim? Any volunteers?!" and charged at the two, a barely visible blur, even to Dabura. He appeared right behind then and leaped high into the air, raising his sword above his head. Just when he was about to bring the blade down onto Dabura's head in a savage downward stroke, V'Raal seemed to freeze but a few inches from his intended target, a look that was a mix of shock and a hint of fear spreading across his scaly blue face. Dabura and the Oni girl turned around and freaked, both falling rather hard onto their posteriors. After rubbing away so discomfort, they realized that the monstrous stranger that had confronted them looked like he had seen a ghost. Plus, he was staring past them at something. They turned to see what he was frozen by, and felt like they were frozen themselves. What they were looking at was a gold-armored version of their would-be killer!
This one had armor that looked almost identical to the first guy, but was golden with many blood red jewels embedded in it, embroidered and trimmed in a variety of precious metals molded into flowing organic shapes. The only differences in the armor the two beings wore was that the new guy had two long, metal digits sticking out of the toe of each boot, a set of four long oily black blades sticking out of each four arm and shin, and the shape of the helmet. The helmet of the new guy resembled something worn by a shogun that had a miniature flying saucer with twice the newcomer's shoulders width touched down right on top of the helmet, and then fused with it. His red striped black cape seemed to by held aloft behind him, as he floated toward the blue guy, a forced smile stretching the flesh of his deep yellow scaled face. It was a cross between something like an iguana and some kind of insect, though more reptilian that insectile. The deep set, blood red eyes seemed to bore right through the lot of them, and gleamed with an icy ferocity that was coated in refined and arrogant calm.
"Well, well, V'Raal, still being a trouble making bastard, are we?" the golden monster rumbled. His voice had a slight accent to it, something like an English accent, but his voice was unearthly deep, and had the vague feeling of deep breath being exhaled as he talked. As Dabura watched, the one called V'Raal got some measure of composure back and looked right into the newcomers eyes and slowly asked, in a rather shaky and frightened voice, unlike his voice earlier, full of bravado and energy, "H-how are y- you doing, t-t-today...F-f-father?" The golden one, who was now known to be V'Raal's father, looked at V'Raal and glared at him. As he did so, a transparent field of greenish energy engulfed him, and then shot outward at V'Raal, smashing into him like a comet hitting a planet surface, and sent him flying till he was out of sight. The newcomer looked at Dabura and the Oni girl with a now genuine smile, a friendly one at that, and proudly shouted, "Greetings, young ones! I am Darkore Talgarin, Father to the Dark Lord, V'Raal Talgarin, the ditz I just sent flying, Lord of the Empire of Eternal Night, supreme master of the Dark Force army, and a member of the greatest collection of superior beings in all of the Omniverse. I am one of twelve who have yet to be fully gathered, another of which being the entity called Hurakan, even though he is unaware of such a position. Our name is spoken throughout existence, whispered in dark places and feared as though we were evil itself, which perhaps we are. We are...THE DARK GODS!!"
As that name echoed throughout Other World, Dabura couldn't help his blood from freezing solid at the mention of that name, a name he did not know himself, but somehow felt in his deepest being that this name was old, very old. He knew by a strange instinctive knowledge that the Dark Gods were something to be starkly terrified of. As he shivered in his boots, eyes staring wide at the golden armored Dark God, V'Raal appeared out of nowhere, wobbling uncontrollably as though he were threatening to pass out, armor smoking and singed slightly from his father's power burst. He managed to straighten himself out enough to barely squeak out, "Always the showman, eh, pops?" He then promptly passed out and flopped unceremoniously onto his back, eyes rolling around in his sockets, as his demonic looking parent broke into a devilish cackle that would have made a corpses skin crawl. As he laughed, the entire group faded away until they disappeared entirely, reappearing on the giant balcony that was being shaken apart by an ascending Super Saiyin. As they faded into existence, Darkore walked over to the stoically calm and statue still Hurakan, who had noticed him...or so we thought. Hurakan looked over his shoulder at Darkore, who was quite surprised, but then became even more surprised when Hurakan spoke up and sternly said, somehow being heard over the entire racket that Trunks was making as he ascended, "I don't like being manipulated Darkore Talgarin, and I HATE being spied upon. Next time you want to keep tabs on me, do it yourself and not that twisted spawn of yours. Battle me, insult me, mock me, study me in a lab, even engage me in casual conversation should the spirit move you, but never think that just because your lackey gave me the power that I have, that I am blind to you".
Darkore was speechless. Hurakan had known of him the entire time it seems like, and had known that V'Raal and he had been tracking his activities. Damn, this kid was a hell of a lot more alert than most! And he wasn't stupid either. Sharp like a freshly forged dagger, this one! He recovered expertly and calmly walked up to Hurakan till they were side by side. His cape seemed to wrap around him for a second, then opened up and revealed Darkore holding a massive bag of popcorn and quipped, "Like some?" The Death God looked to the popcorn, as did Angelique. Hurakan smiled and said "sure". He reached into the bag and removed a massive wad of popcorn, almost half the bag, and smiled as he said "Thanks", and held his hand out so Angelique could take some herself. This eliciting a mock whine from Darkore, "Hey! Greedy!" but who himself smiled, and softly announced, "Welcome to the Dark Gods...brother". Darkore also offered some to Cynenba who had walked over to them and asked what was going on. He was also informed he was going to be joining the Dark Gods, to which he gave a resounding, "OH HELL YEAH!" As three of the Dark Gods watched Trunks ascend while eating popcorn, they all had one unified thought: "Where in the seven hells had Vegeta Metallix gotten to?!"
Author's Note: I finally have this chapter finished, and duly apologize for not having it done ages ago. College does tend to get in the way of personal endeavors. I hope you all enjoy, or have enjoyed reading this chapter, as I have enjoyed presenting it to you. As always, R&R, praise, criticize, flame, adore, all are welcome! Get ready for "Cruel Discoveries, Bloody Rampage!"
The Dark Palace. It was the new name of what had once been Kami's Lookout. Now it had become a demonic tower that looked like it had sprouted right from the fiery depths of Hell itself, gleaming black like a metallic scar against the bright morning light. It was several miles it height, and design reflected a heavy gothic influence. This hellish tower was quickly becoming feared by the humans of Earth who journeyed too close to the evil tower, some being taken captive by Majin Buu/Cell hybrids that served the masters of this house of evil, some being eaten alive, some slowly killed by the sadistic creatures known simply as the Hybrids, some fairing even worse.
The men who were taken were usually either put to work in the hazardous labs and factories within the dark palace, or used to entertain the warriors by having them fight to the death in blood soaked arenas, being injected with violence stimulating hallucinogens and several kinds of stimulant narcotics, blended into a fiendish cocktail that turned soft- hearted gentleman and generally good people into savage animals who usually went insane from a combination of both their actions and the pharmaceutical potions they were injected with. They were all given vests containing a small supply of the drug that drove them into bloody frenzies, which, with the push of a button, would be pumped through tubes leading into their jugulars from a container on the back of the vest. When the drug hit their systems, not only would they become no more than wild animals mentally and emotionally, they would undergo a physical change as well as the mental one: they would develop saber tooth-like fangs, and thick, serrated claws as long as a persons forearm. The battles were vicious, savage, and all the more entertaining for the demonic mutants laughing and cackling from the seats, cheering on the human they betted on, sometimes collecting a fortune after the match, sometimes more broke than a Chinese vase after a herd of bulls stormed over it. The victors were further changed and enhanced, while the losers became food for the victors. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. These were the only rules here. Sometimes girls would be used for the arena, but the warriors had "other" ideas for them. They usually weren't as lucky as the guys.
A warrior would walk up and down a line of captured women, all shackled in irons, stripped naked and treated like so much dirt. Sometimes warriors would drink their blood like water, like wine, acting like some kind of crazed vampire, and sometimes, they would end up being forced to share their favor with the warriors, and not just one on one either. There was one Hybrid who had over dozen slave girls, all wearing heavy iron collars, all connect to him by heavy, barbed steel chains that was connected to his wrist. He dragged them around with him everywhere, and usually beat up, violate, or EAT any stragglers who held things up. Lets just say he wasn't the most patient of Hybrids. He would sell his "wares" to fellow Hybrids, and watch the girls entertain his comrades. If they did a good job, they were rewarded by being left alone for the day, and even allowed to move about the palace freely, of course aware that meant they were easy pickings for any other Hybrid that passed by, and even by one of the Three Beasts, the death god Hurakan, the perverse cyber-demon Cynenba, and the new guy, Vegeta Metallix, formerly Vegeta, prince of all Saiyins. Life was the worst for the women, and many wished they had a gun...they could take the easy way out, cowards way out be damned! This was how desperate they were.
As a young woman coward against a wall, a trio of Hybrids was advancing on her, chuckling insanely, licking their lips. A rather thin one was licking a rather nasty looking dagger with a glazed over look in his eye. The young women let off a high-pitched shriek that seemed to only excite them even more. As they begun to reach out and grab her, Hurakan himself simply faded into existence, minus his armor, but retaining his usual robes, looking rather disgusted, and pointed at the trio with a sour grimace plastered on his face. He simply barked, "No", and the Hybrids blew apart, spraying the young women with tissues, blood and other fluids, the dagger of the thin one clattered to the floor, burnt black as though by intense flame. Hurakan let out an angry sigh and walked over to the shell- shocked girl and stared at her with a sad look in his sunken red eyes, a small tear running down the oil black skin of his cheek.
He reached up to his shoulders and undid his cape, swinging it around and draping it around the girl, who was all but swallowed up by the twenty-foot long cape, startling her out of her shock. She took one look and the creature looking her right in the eye- who, by the way, was wiping the organic slime off of her with a telekinetically suspended cloth- and screamed. Hurakan smiled sadly and whispered in a soft and endearing tone, "Hush, child, I am nothing like the rumors describe. I despise the idea of taking a woman against their will. In fact, it sickens me to no end, and as a matter of fact, what my creations have done here today is going get them a beating most sour". The young woman stopped screaming abruptly, and simply stared into Hurakan's ruby-like eyes, simply and completely amazed at two things: he really was like nothing ever seen on Earth, but not so hideous looking in all honesty, just...odd looking. Plus, he saved her from a fate worse than death, in her opinion. She then did something that surprised them both: she hopped up and hugged him around the neck, making the death god turn white. He wasn't afraid, but in fact he was blushing! That's right, blushing! The guy has white blood, which turns black when it's exposed directly to the atmosphere (which is why it was deep black when Piccolo smashed his head to bits).
Hurakan had a nervous grin spreading from ear hole to ear hole. Having a rather attractive, NAKED (well almost naked) young women wrapping her slender arms around his huge neck with a surprising amount of force, whose cleavage was pressing into his exposed chest, all quite enjoyable, wasn't helping the bulge in his baggy pants at all. He felt her crying into his shoulder, her silky hair tickling his scaly face (by the way, her hair was a glistening amber color) sobbing out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you" over an over again. He should have fastened the damn cape around her. He decided to simply let her cry, sighing nervously as she continued to sob and whisper choking "thank you's" into his neck. The poor thing started to hiccup, which was a surprising turn-on for the death god, because he could swear she was kissing his neck AS she hiccupped.
Well, now, this is new, Hurakan thought to himself warily as the young woman continued to kiss the gill-like ridges on Hurakan's neck. He was just about to set her down on the floor and try to explain he wasn't that kind of man, when a delicious feeling exploded along the nerves in his neck, freezing him in place like he was made of cold stone. 'By creation's light, now she's LICKING the flesh between my neck ridges! OH, wonderful! Doesn't she know that's a particularly sensitive area for my species?! No, I guess not', the now shivering Death God painfully realized as he struggled to retain some semblance of genuine coherent thought. He gripped the girl's shoulders sternly, but never got a word out, as she planted a searing kiss on his dark snout. That completely tore it!
He bent forward quicker than you or I can blink, almost dislodging the "thankful" vixen from his neck, but before she could lose her grip, he whipped himself backward, throwing her into the air, eliciting a surprised scream from her. Hurakan held out his arms, and leaped into the air, catching the startled woman and landing with a cat's grace...right on top of a Hybrid that had almost completely regenerated, squishing him into bloody paste yet again. The Hybrids arm was twitching now and again, and a choked voice just manage to squeeze out, "I hate you". Hurakan gave the glob of slime a look that said, 'likewise', and spoke to the wide-eyed woman who looked like a small child in his tree trunk arms, "Well my dear, care to join me for a meeting that myself and my lieutenants are holding? After word, we're holding a little party, and I was wondering if you'd like to join us?"
She blinked a few times and answered in a rather bubbly tone, "A party?! Me? But I haven't got anything to wear!" The last part came out a semi- whine, prompting this response, and a lady-killer smile from the charming God of Death, "Well, we shall just have to see what the future holds, yes? By the way, miss what's your name?" The girl was a bit surprised that something...someone like Hurakan would be concerned about her name, but despite her reluctance she answered "Angelique". Hurakan raised a scaly eyebrow and purred, "Angelique, the perfect name for an angel", making Angelique blush fiercely, and giggle softly. Hurakan slid her onto his gigantic shoulder so that she was sitting, and whispered energetically, "Well, Angelique hold tightly, beautiful one, for...interesting times are soon upon us", and sped of leaving a fire trail.
The same Hybrid he stomped on had yet again come close to regenerating when he snarled out some particularly nasty Namekian curses, with an Ice-Jin (that's Freeza's race!) comment about how he was such a hypocrite. He was revealed to be the thin one with the dagger. As he reached for his dagger, a massive fireball screamed down the hall and collided the Hybrid and his companions. They screamed bloody murder just before they were reduced to scattered sub-dimensions, the dagger joining its owner in oblivion. As the dust that used to be the Hybrid trio settled, a deep and angry voice boomed through the hallway, "Maybe so. But at least I'm not you!" As the echoing voice faded, a familiar figure walked out of a darkened hallway, a hideous snarl dominating his blue metal face. Cynenba growled for a few minutes, then spoke to no one as he ground out, "So we're still lieutenants, huh? I don't frigging think so, Death God. Oh, how I don't fucking think so!" and teleported away.
Unbeknownst to Cynenba, he had been watched by a pair of cold golden eyes from a dark corner, evil glee reflecting off of them. The owner of the eyes adjusted his deep blue metal helmet and smiled demonically to himself and thought, 'NOW, things start to get good! Ha ha!'
As Goku and company approached the Dark Palace, they couldn't comprehend the scope and magnitude of what they were looking at. It was looking at something from somebody's nightmares and a techno-indulgent architects fantasies come alive. Goten was stunned, Trunks and Gohan looked sick to their stomachs at what had been the floating palace of Earth's previous guardian, but Goku was as mad as bull in a ketchup factory. He was going to make somebody pay for desecrating Kami's Lookout if it killed him! Goku felt a wicked strong KI signature coming from a balcony high on the side of the tower. The balcony itself was so huge it looked like it could support a baseball stadium with room to spare. He sped off toward it, intent on introducing his boots to somebody's rectum very, very badly! The others were hard pressed to keep up with the level 3 Super Saiyin, all amazed that Goku still hadn't yet lost power. In fact, it had been steadily growing, slowly but surely. As they closed in on their target, they all felt like someone was sliding ice down their spines, and couldn't stop shivering. What greeted them when they arrived at the "Dark Palace" didn't help matters any, either.
The palace was a deep ashen black, made entirely of a demonically crafted metal that reflected light like glass. The whole palace was like a huge black gash against the sky, ripped open freshly as though by Shinigami himself, the Japanese god of death. It had a very jagged and gothic style to its design, complete with parapets, dark towers rising from the main structure of the palace, each one fit to called a palace onto themselves. To sum it up, the palace was like a gigantic, dark cyber-punk version of Barador, the mythical fortress featured in Tolkien's famous trilogy, Lord of The Rings. It even had its own version of the grotesque Orcs lining the battlements, some sticking their heads out of the tall windows to spy the newcomers, grinning like feral beasts. They made Goku's skin crawl, because every single one of these goons looked like Janenba, but heavy on influences from Majin Buu and Cell as well.
Trunks caught up with Goku, a stern look dominating the demi-Saiyins face, framed by his lavender hair. He snarled at the balcony, glaring daggers at the reception committee, being nearly a hundred on the strange freaks that kept on smiling at them, the twisted Cynenba, who himself didn't look one bit happy, and what was rather odd, was a rather cheerful looking Hurakan. What was odd about him at the moment was the young woman sitting on his giant left shoulder, whispering in his ear hole, occasionally giggling, wrapped up in a cloak that was several dozen sizes too big for her, seemingly swallowing her up. She moved a strand of amber colored hair behind her ear, and suddenly caught sight of Trunks, who was snarling like a rabid dog. She recoiled in fear at the demi-Saiyins snarling, hugging onto Hurakan's armory neck, causing the death god to turn to look at her. He mouthed something that Trunks couldn't hear, but could really care little about because one thing was certain: He was going to TEAR Hurakan to bloody ribbons, plan or no fucking plan!
He reached behind his back and began to slowly draw his sword, eyes bulging with something border lining between righteous anger and berserker rage, boring holes into Hurakan's forehead. He began to float down to the balcony, snarling and spitting with rage, power building to a roar. The goons that had gathered on the balcony with Hurakan and the other CFB (creepy frigging bastard) stared for a stunned moment, and then shifted into battle poses, but Cynenba holding a hand for them to hold their place. "Let's see what this pretty boy will do, boys. Just take it easy. He's no threat", Cynenba said, chuckling under the last part. 'Not a threat, am I?' Trunks thought to himself angrily. He disagreed, and now it was time to explain his reasons why.
He summoned the power of his ancestors, the mighty Saiyin warriors of legend, and transformed into a Super Saiyin. Every hair on his head sprang to life and stuck straight up after turning a molten gold, shining and burning like a star. His now crystal blue eyes narrowed on the Death God, ascending to Level 2 almost automatically in a lightning fast flash of gold- white light. But he was far from done. Far from done, indeed. As Goku had done when he faced down Majin Buu for the first time, and as he had done on the World of the Kais, and as his father, Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyins had done....Trunks Briefs ascended to Super Saiyin Three.
He felt every muscle in his body clench like he was suffering some kind of full body wracking spasm or cramp, tightening to a painful degree beyond mortal words. He felt like his own body was tearing itself apart, but he didn't care about that, or many other things right now, except one thing, that thing being revenge, pure and simple. He felt his Ki rise so suddenly, so rapidly, he thought that he was going to explode, but yet he pushed his power even further, delved even deeper into himself till he found that ancient power, and took all his rage, all his sorrow, all his heart break and betrayal, all of the famous Saiyin pride he inherited from his wayward father, his very heart and soul, and all of the love for his fallen friends and family and poured it out for the whole world to see.
Suddenly, it clicked. He smiled like a wild beast that had finally satisfied a hunger that ached forever, a pain that could never be satiated by the thoughts or desires of any sane person being fulfilled, let alone an average soul. He screamed triumph all the way to Other World and beyond. So great had Trunks power become that his power was felt by Dabura, the former demon king, who Hurakan had mercifully spared during his visit to the now leveled check-in station, roaring his support for the newest of ultra elite Saiyin, praying to every deity in creation that this new power would send the dark violator of those he called friend to the lowest pits of Hell, for Dabura would be there to meet him, and find some satisfaction, personally. The Demon King prayed that the souls of his stolen friends would soon find peace. As he began walking away from the rubble that had become the graves for so many Oni who were just doing their jobs, and even the Grand Kai, he lowered his golden eyes to the Oni girl who had taken a quick shining to the burly demon. He smiled sadly at her, noticing she was wiping a tear from her eye. He gestured with his head and she began following him down Snake Way, a large duffle bag flung over her small shoulders.
They had taken no more then five steps when a deep, silk smooth voice cheerily quipped out of the blue, "Lovely day, isn't it?" The two stopped in mid-step, startled by the mystery voice that had greeted them. They looked every which way but couldn't see one single solitary soul, if you will pardon the badly timed pun. All of the souls that had come to Other World recently were lost, so to speak, and had to make their own way, some going back to Earth, some going to Hell instead of Heaven, and vice versa, simply because they got bad directions. Thanks to Hurakan, the afterlife was in utter and complete chaos. Dabura felt like killing somebody, and whoever decided to ask such a moronic question was going to be introduced to his boot heel.
"Introduce me to your boot heel? Well now, that's not a very friendly thought if I ever read one! How rude!" The voice said again, faking insult. The owner of the voice materialized right behind the Oni girl and grabbed her attractive behind in a huge hand and squeezed. She squealed in fright and whipped around, attempting to slap the offender, only to freeze an inch or two from the demonic visage that smiled disarmingly at her. Dabura turned also, but threw a haymaker that sent the unknown monster flying...until he stopped himself in mid-flight, and lowered his thrown back head, smiling like the cat that ate the proverbial canary. He floated back down to Snake Way, grinning from behind the sweeping V shaped face guard of his dark blue helmet, yellow eyes wide with wild glee. Now that Dabura could get a good look at him, even more was revealed about this lecherous creep.
He had a navy blue cape just as massive as Hurakan's, but embroidered in black, which appeared like a great swath of mid-evening sky had been stuck to him, flapping and fluttering as though a gentle breeze were flowing under it, but there was no wind on Snake Way. The cape was pulled to the hollow of his neck, where it was pinned to his chest by a skull shaped ornament. He wore a body suit of oil black leather with a shirt of like- colored chain mail, all enhanced by midnight blue armor covering almost all of his legs, his gigantic chest and pecks, and fore arms. The armor on his shoulders were wide and somewhat bulbous, adorned with bestial claws running along the rim of the shoulder armor, with spoon head shaped pieces attached about halfway out from where the shoulder pieces joined the rest of the armor. All of this armor and leather and chain mail were covering a beast that stood a head over Dabura, and had three times as much muscle.
His face was the worst part. From beneath the V shaped face piece, a pair of ice-cold golden eyes stared intently at the two people staring fearfully at the scaly face of the eyes owner. A rather feminine bang of pink hair stuck out from beneath the faceplate, lessening the impact of his appearance quite a bit. It even got a round of hysterical giggles from the Oni girl, who fell over in stitches. Both Dabura and the bizarre being just stared at her like she had just sprouted a second head and a couple extra breasts and in unison asked, "What the fuck is her problem?" She answered, struggling between the giggles and belly laughing, "He...hehehehe...h-h-h- hasssss p-p-pink h-h-hair-hahahahahaha!"
Dabura looked was at a loss for words, but the stranger was worse off. He face vaulted and fell over, smashing a small crater into Snake Way, feet twitching here and there. He pulled his legs to his chest and kicked out, launching to his feet. Where he was smiling like a loon before, he was now snarling like a rabid animal. He focused his snarl at the Oni girl, planning to have her on a spit if he had anything to say about it. No one made fun of his hair. 'It's not fair', he thought. Why did the rest of his people have a deep bluish black color to their hair, and he got stuck with cotton candy pink hair? Cotton candy pink! It was enough to make a Dark God sick to his five stomachs. He was V'Raal Talgarin, damn it! Nobody laughed at him and got away with it. Just ask those that dared to. They wouldn't be providing an answer very quickly, well, at least not in this life.
He was going to be civil and just toss them to Hurakan, but now they got his dander up, and he was in the mood for Oni soup. For good Oni soup, you just have to "tenderize" the meat very, VERY well. V'Raal started stomping toward the still laughing Oni girl, and the now defensive demon king, intent on gutting them with rusty spoons. He reached behind his head and clasped something in his armored fist. That something was the handle of a sword, and was quickly slid out of its concealed sheath. The hilt was rather simple, two nasty crescent shaped blades at either end of the hilt. The blade was puny to look at, a deep shade of watery blue, engraved with what looked like an old form of Japanese, but began to slide outward, like it was coming out the hilt, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case, as the blade had gone from a measly two feet, to well over thirty long, and four feet wide. When the blade had finished extending, the sword resembled a huge katana, making the dark monster look vaguely like a samurai, especially when he turned to face them sideways, gripping the handle with both huge fists.
The Oni girl had long stopped laughing, and was now hugging onto Dabura with a death grip, quite content with never letting go. V'Raal sneered at them and darkly snarled, "So, who wants to be a victim? Any volunteers?!" and charged at the two, a barely visible blur, even to Dabura. He appeared right behind then and leaped high into the air, raising his sword above his head. Just when he was about to bring the blade down onto Dabura's head in a savage downward stroke, V'Raal seemed to freeze but a few inches from his intended target, a look that was a mix of shock and a hint of fear spreading across his scaly blue face. Dabura and the Oni girl turned around and freaked, both falling rather hard onto their posteriors. After rubbing away so discomfort, they realized that the monstrous stranger that had confronted them looked like he had seen a ghost. Plus, he was staring past them at something. They turned to see what he was frozen by, and felt like they were frozen themselves. What they were looking at was a gold-armored version of their would-be killer!
This one had armor that looked almost identical to the first guy, but was golden with many blood red jewels embedded in it, embroidered and trimmed in a variety of precious metals molded into flowing organic shapes. The only differences in the armor the two beings wore was that the new guy had two long, metal digits sticking out of the toe of each boot, a set of four long oily black blades sticking out of each four arm and shin, and the shape of the helmet. The helmet of the new guy resembled something worn by a shogun that had a miniature flying saucer with twice the newcomer's shoulders width touched down right on top of the helmet, and then fused with it. His red striped black cape seemed to by held aloft behind him, as he floated toward the blue guy, a forced smile stretching the flesh of his deep yellow scaled face. It was a cross between something like an iguana and some kind of insect, though more reptilian that insectile. The deep set, blood red eyes seemed to bore right through the lot of them, and gleamed with an icy ferocity that was coated in refined and arrogant calm.
"Well, well, V'Raal, still being a trouble making bastard, are we?" the golden monster rumbled. His voice had a slight accent to it, something like an English accent, but his voice was unearthly deep, and had the vague feeling of deep breath being exhaled as he talked. As Dabura watched, the one called V'Raal got some measure of composure back and looked right into the newcomers eyes and slowly asked, in a rather shaky and frightened voice, unlike his voice earlier, full of bravado and energy, "H-how are y- you doing, t-t-today...F-f-father?" The golden one, who was now known to be V'Raal's father, looked at V'Raal and glared at him. As he did so, a transparent field of greenish energy engulfed him, and then shot outward at V'Raal, smashing into him like a comet hitting a planet surface, and sent him flying till he was out of sight. The newcomer looked at Dabura and the Oni girl with a now genuine smile, a friendly one at that, and proudly shouted, "Greetings, young ones! I am Darkore Talgarin, Father to the Dark Lord, V'Raal Talgarin, the ditz I just sent flying, Lord of the Empire of Eternal Night, supreme master of the Dark Force army, and a member of the greatest collection of superior beings in all of the Omniverse. I am one of twelve who have yet to be fully gathered, another of which being the entity called Hurakan, even though he is unaware of such a position. Our name is spoken throughout existence, whispered in dark places and feared as though we were evil itself, which perhaps we are. We are...THE DARK GODS!!"
As that name echoed throughout Other World, Dabura couldn't help his blood from freezing solid at the mention of that name, a name he did not know himself, but somehow felt in his deepest being that this name was old, very old. He knew by a strange instinctive knowledge that the Dark Gods were something to be starkly terrified of. As he shivered in his boots, eyes staring wide at the golden armored Dark God, V'Raal appeared out of nowhere, wobbling uncontrollably as though he were threatening to pass out, armor smoking and singed slightly from his father's power burst. He managed to straighten himself out enough to barely squeak out, "Always the showman, eh, pops?" He then promptly passed out and flopped unceremoniously onto his back, eyes rolling around in his sockets, as his demonic looking parent broke into a devilish cackle that would have made a corpses skin crawl. As he laughed, the entire group faded away until they disappeared entirely, reappearing on the giant balcony that was being shaken apart by an ascending Super Saiyin. As they faded into existence, Darkore walked over to the stoically calm and statue still Hurakan, who had noticed him...or so we thought. Hurakan looked over his shoulder at Darkore, who was quite surprised, but then became even more surprised when Hurakan spoke up and sternly said, somehow being heard over the entire racket that Trunks was making as he ascended, "I don't like being manipulated Darkore Talgarin, and I HATE being spied upon. Next time you want to keep tabs on me, do it yourself and not that twisted spawn of yours. Battle me, insult me, mock me, study me in a lab, even engage me in casual conversation should the spirit move you, but never think that just because your lackey gave me the power that I have, that I am blind to you".
Darkore was speechless. Hurakan had known of him the entire time it seems like, and had known that V'Raal and he had been tracking his activities. Damn, this kid was a hell of a lot more alert than most! And he wasn't stupid either. Sharp like a freshly forged dagger, this one! He recovered expertly and calmly walked up to Hurakan till they were side by side. His cape seemed to wrap around him for a second, then opened up and revealed Darkore holding a massive bag of popcorn and quipped, "Like some?" The Death God looked to the popcorn, as did Angelique. Hurakan smiled and said "sure". He reached into the bag and removed a massive wad of popcorn, almost half the bag, and smiled as he said "Thanks", and held his hand out so Angelique could take some herself. This eliciting a mock whine from Darkore, "Hey! Greedy!" but who himself smiled, and softly announced, "Welcome to the Dark Gods...brother". Darkore also offered some to Cynenba who had walked over to them and asked what was going on. He was also informed he was going to be joining the Dark Gods, to which he gave a resounding, "OH HELL YEAH!" As three of the Dark Gods watched Trunks ascend while eating popcorn, they all had one unified thought: "Where in the seven hells had Vegeta Metallix gotten to?!"
Author's Note: I finally have this chapter finished, and duly apologize for not having it done ages ago. College does tend to get in the way of personal endeavors. I hope you all enjoy, or have enjoyed reading this chapter, as I have enjoyed presenting it to you. As always, R&R, praise, criticize, flame, adore, all are welcome! Get ready for "Cruel Discoveries, Bloody Rampage!"