An Unburdened Fury
Chapter 66: Moving Forward
There was a brief period after the cataclysmic events they felt where nothing and no one stirred. Yamcha glanced around to the other Z Fighters' pondering faces and, as usual, felt out of place given his lack of curiosity. Really, he wanted to get things over with here so he could be back on Earth with the Saiyans. They'd be a better buffer between whatever that was and them.
"We...keep going right?" He asked aloud as much of a fool as he felt. "I don't feel anything else. To be honest, I think we should hurry. Something's not right."
Tien frowned slightly but he nodded. "I agree. No point in wasting time wondering what that was. We'll keep our senses peeled but it looks like it's over. For now at least."
"Activity in the local vicinity is returning to baseline." 16 added as he made his way out of the hut. "Let's move."
Eighteen took that as the cue to leave as she stood up and stretched. She was followed by the Herans and then the rest.
"Was it exciting for you?" Zangya muttered to the Android as they left the hut.
Eighteen snorted. "I was on the edge of my seat."
"Real gripping narration those boys provided." The Heran woman laughed. "How long have you known them? Not to pry, you seem a bit out of place."
Eighteen waved it off. "Not long at all. I didn't know any of them a month ago."
"Really? How the hell did you end up here?"
"Bulma asked me to come along." The blonde said, skipping right past their initial meeting, as she pointed to the younger one who was currently talking with Kogu and the future Bulma. "They needed some muscle so here I am."
Zangya looked surprised at that and gave her a quick once more before some forgotten thought seemed to rear it head and she tapped her own.
"Ah, right, because you're an Android."
She was indignant at the ease with which the alien figured her out but one glance at Bulma had her think twice. "She told you?"
"Yeah. Cooler wasn't lying about a big threat out there. Gero's made an army of Androids and they're spreading. Bulma thought it prudent to tell me so I'm not surprised and have things end badly." Eighteen thought that made sense. They were ostensibly helping each other; no need to rock the boat hiding that. "Also, your name is a number so, y'know, it was kind of inevitable we'd figure it out."
Ah, right. "He kept that convention in space?"
"Yeah. Every single one we ever talked to had a number for a name." Zangya pointed to 16. "Big guy is also kind of obvious even without the number."
"He's an older model. Purely mechanical from what Bulma told me." She responded. She was surprised at how defensive she sounded. "If we're talking about a lack of subtlety, you guys and Cooler have some tension."
"That obvious?" She scoffed. "It can't be help, I guess. We're only together from a few catastrophic strokes of bad luck. He's trying to force us under his thumb."
"Should you be talking like that so openly?" Eighteen understood the rebellious streak intimately but Cooler wasn't that far out of earshot. "You three seem afraid to fight him."
Zangya barked a laugh at that but it was a brief, mirthless one. "It's not really him so much." She pointed up. "The danger is up there. Fighting will bring it down on our heads."
Behind them, Bujin slid in next to Yamcha and Krillin. "Was that an inherent ability of your race or was it a technique?"
"What, sensing ki?" Yamcha asked with a tilt of his head. "It's something we all learned early in our training."
Krillin gestured at the other Galaxy Soldiers. "Do none of you know how to?"
"Ah, our former leader did but he was never one for teaching. He just kinda gave us some vague not-quite instructions the couple times we asked." Those were awkward times. Like Broly's brain just froze when they asked. "Sorry if this is too forward, but could you give me some pointers on how you perform your sensing ability? I feel that will be useful in the future."
The two looked at each and gave a quick shrug. The monk smiled at Bujin. "Sure, happy to help!"
It was a brisk journey to the fifth ball. Despite their intermingling, the two groups retreated into their own soon after leaving the latest village. Bujin was the last to separate after some some quick lessons on sensing ki. Cooler flew between them. A wall neither side was brave enough to approach.
Kogu spun the fourth dragonball on the tip of his finger. Things were going smooth otherwise save for whatever the hell got everybody's attention earlier. Too smooth. He eyed Cooler warily. Betraying and stealing the wishes from the Earthlings wasn't something he would normally object to, they've done their fair share of that as pirates, but the Arcosian was acting too much like Bojack for his taste.
He didn't want to go through that. He wouldn't go through that. Not again.
He bounced the orb up, caught it, and smoothly transitioned it to an under arm grip. He was stronger since then, they all were, but Cooler was more than a match for them when they fought and the former emperor hadn't rested on his laurels. Could they beat him now?
Would they have to?
He moved closer to Zangya, well out of Cooler's earshot, and bumped his shoulder into her. The woman was lost in thought and let out a small gasp at the sudden touch. When she saw that it was just him, she punched him in the shoulder with a pout.
"Out of all the times to do that!" She hissed at him as he laughed at her.
Kogu lifted his empty hand in a placating gesture. "I wasn't trying to scare you, I just got an idea I wanted to run past you."
"You want to steal the wishes from Cooler?" She interrupted.
"We should ste- uh," The swordsman was left sputtering at the abrupt undercutting. "Yeah, how'd you know?"
"You're not an idea guy." She inadvertently parroted from his thoughts earlier in the day. She gestured vaguely in the air in his direction. "You have, like, three ideas max and that's one of them. Piss off the other guy and get the loot? You love that shit."
The swordsman couldn't help but grin at the idea. "I only do it cuz it works."
"Right." She drew out the word to tell him that she didn't believe his reasoning. He wasn't going to fight her on that. "To tell you the truth, I was thinking along the same lines anyways. The main problems are getting everybody else on board and distracting Cooler enough to get the wishes done. With Broly back, he wouldn't-"
"You two should pay a bit more attention."
"Fuck!" The two Herans nearly jumped out of their skin when Bujin spoke up. Kogu actually dropped the ball and had to do some quick acrobatics to catch the ball before it was accidentally lost.
The woman shut her eyes and put her hands to her temples. She let out a long sigh to vent some of the anxiety and patted her hair down. Two scares so close to each other had gotten it frazzled.
"Either of you two scare me again, I will lose it."
"Apologies." Bujin replied sincerely. "It wasn't my intention."
Zangya opened an eye and her anger fell away. "No, no, just...stress is all."
Kogu rejoined them. "That's normal when you're planning a coup."
"Not so loud." She hissed. "Last thing we need is him hearing us."
"There's no way he doesn't suspect something." The diminutive Heran said as he glanced at the Arcosian. The child, Gohan, tried to approach the Frost Demon but Tien managed to catch him and pull him back. "You don't get to be an emperor for long without having good instincts for these things."
"Who says he does?" The swordsman replied. "He could just as easily be there by might. I mean, any one of us could rule a planet if we had the desire."
"And then have poison in our next meal. It takes more than strength to hold a throne." Bujin shot back. "Don't pretend you haven't felt his eyes on you the entire time we've been on Namek."
"Settle down, you two." Zangya said and, to her irritation, they did so without any push back. "Bujin's got a point. We need to err on the side of paranoia here." She gestured to the Arcosian. "It looks like he's trying to tighten the leash. It'll be much harder to coordinate with Bulma and the Earthlings. We need to find a way to get plans in motion without him catching wind."
There was about a minute of silence between them as they collectively thought on how to move forward.
"One of us could play a traitor."
Kogu and Zangya's heads snapped to the smallest Hera with flabbergasted expressions.
"Even I wouldn't think of something so ballsy, Bujin."
"Every bone in my body is telling me to shut this down right now. Explain." She added.
"If you were surrounded on all sides by potential threats, including your own people, and one of them offered to sabotage or gain intel, wouldn't you jump at the chance?" When they didn't object, he continued. "Cooler gives me the impression of arrogance but I know he's smart enough to know that he most likely won't be able to do this alone. It's why he's grooming Gohan."
Kogu's face scrunched up. "Who?"
The diminutive Hera looked at Zangya as if to verify if the question had actually been asked. She shrugged.
"The kid." He confirmed.
"...the one flirting with the blond?"
Bujin sighed with disappointment. Zangya rolled her eyes at the swordsman though she was glad it was Kogu who said that since it saved her the embarrassment and she could laugh at it which she did.
"I'm going to assume that's a joke for your sake. Cooler will probably use him as a hostage or even convert him if he's successful enough." That'd make them hesitate. The Earthlings were tightly knit from what he could see and they wouldn't risk angering them given their Android allies. "With a traitor alongside, he might feel he's safer and relax ever so much."
"Which might allow us to slip past him." She finished. "I hate how much sense this is making, Bujin, because it sounds like the traitor wouldn't be me or Kogu."
"Correct. He sees you as a direct threat to his position and wouldn't trust you."
"That makes sense for her but why not me?" The swordsman questioned. "I'm stronger so if he tries to backstab me, I can fight back. There's less risk there."
"That's the problem. He can't guarantee killing you immediately if things go sideways." The smallest Heran swallowed a lump in his throat. "He can with me. Even with Guru's help, my gut tells me the gap between Cooler and I is insurmountable. I'm easily disposable."
"You don't think he sees you as a threat." Kogu stated.
"I've seen how he looks at me. I know he doesn't see me as a threat."
Her gut was right. This wasn't an idea worth pursuing. "No, no, this is too much of a risk." To say nothing of the guilt if she let him go and he threw his life away. "You might just as easily give us away as you will hinder him and then you'd die for nothing."
"Perhaps." He conceded. "But the risk is worth it."
"How would you even win him over?" Zangya asked. "There's no way he'd take you at your word. You'd need something."
Bujin smirked at that as he looked to Yamcha and Krillin. "I'm ahead of you there."
After the smaller Heran gave them a run down on what he learned regarding ki sensing, Zangya found herself struggling against the logic. This was incredibly useful and Cooler was smart enough to see the value in the skill. Some of the principles behind hiding their energy translated well to this technique. Hell, after the brief lessons, she and Kogu were already able to sense something from each other.
It held little precision and was incredibly easy to lose at the slightest deviation of concentration but it was there. The tyrant would snap this bait up and that will give them the opening they need to start putting their plan into motion.
"It's up to you." Bujin said to them. "I won't do it unless you two are on board."
Kogu eyed her. He would agree to whatever she said. Again, the responsibility weighed heavy on her shoulders. If this failed, if Bujin died, it would be on her.
"Be careful. Reviving you guys is too inconvenient to make it a regular thing." She joked though her anxiety was clear in her tone.
The diminutive Hera smiled. "Duly noted."
They arrived at the fifth village for the next Dragonball. The group opted to take a break after retrieving the sphere given that they had been traveling non-stop for hours now.
"...yeah, it turned out he was Goku and I's teacher, master Roshi." Krillin scratched at his face. "Looking back on it, I'm surprised I didn't catch onto it sooner."
Eighteen raised a skeptical brow. "The 'panties as bait' thing was a joke, right?"
"Uh, I wish it was." The monk laughed nervously. His mentor's perverseness was something to behold. Krillin was glad he never took on that particular habit. "To be fair to him, and I'm using that phrase loosely here, I think he let himself get distracted. I am his student."
She smirked. "Now is that a genuine belief or you trying to prop him up?"
"Ah, column A, column B?"
This time they both chuckled.
"Reminds me of some of the men I'd encounter in my younger years." She idly mentioned.
"You remember that? I was under the impression Gero wiped your memories."
"Not all of them. Bits and pieces persist. I remember Seventeen and I being homeless teens. We'd get into trouble trying to survive. As you can imagine, being a girl made me a target for perverts offering to 'save' me. Creepy bastards. We've broken our fair share of wandering hands." She scrunched her brows as she tried to remember a particular memory. "I think we kept track? Not sure."
"Ah, I'll be sure to warn Roshi not to try anything then."
"For his sake, he shouldn't."
Nearby, Yamcha groaned. "Gah, I wish Bulma never told us about Cooler."
Tien raised a brow. "You want to be surprised by him?"
"No!" The former bandit cried as he leaned back onto his hands. "It's just now I'm always nervous because it's like 'Is this when he kills us?', y'know?"
The tri-clops wanted to roll his eyes but he restrained himself. Even as strong as he was, his fellow martial artist still had that cowardly streak to him. The thing was that while it was more justifiable here, they knew precious little about the threat after all even with future Bulma's knowledge, the nerves were pointless. That fear would freeze him.
"Why is that? We already went through this when Nappa came to Earth, remember?"
"I mean, yeah, but we barely survived that and we had the Dragonballs!" He argued back.
"But we did survive." Tien pointed out. "And we do have a set right here." He gestured to their most recent grab.
"I know but-" Yamcha stopped mid-sentence as his friend put a hand to his shoulder.
"Those nerves will kill you before anyone here does. It's good to be alert and aware but don't let that fear overtake you." The former crane school student gave Yamcha a light squeeze and then tapped his back. "We'll persevere like every time before."
The long haired Z-fighter let out a calming breath. "You're right, thanks man."
"You're welcome."
"Cooler."
The Arcosian slowly opened his eyes and directed his gaze to who was speaking. It was the small one of Zangya's friends
"Hmm?"
There was a skill to being dismissive without saying a word. He liked to think he was masterful at it. The meek dwarf retreated into himself. He seemed so bold on the ship when with his comrades. A shield for the soft, cowardly thing within.
"There is a plan to steal the wishes from you."
His tail dropped, fracturing the ground between them, and the Heran flinched back. When Cooler's full attention bore down on him, he seemed to shrink further still.
"Tell me everything."
Author's Notes
Man, I do not like this chapter at all. It was like pulling teeth writing anything here. Writer's block hit me hard. This one is a bit fillerly but I wanted to get some pieces setup for the future and have some character interactions between the groups.
Anyways, writing will be slow over the holiday season, got lots of things to plan, so if a chapter seems late that's why.
Let me know what you think in a review!
Ent out!
Review Responses!
fightingchampion: Oh yeah, I plan for things to get mind numbingly stupid when we get to that level of power.
The Rocha: The thought to ask for that simply hasn't crossed his mind as a possibility. He is trying to grieve after a mentally and physically excruciating battle after all.
