I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.

Chapter 17: Tie Breakers

I growled as I picked myself up from the dirt, Aldaris had out foxed me again in the speed department, but his blow hadn't hurt that much. While he was faster, and his power felt a great deal bigger, his physical strength and ki energy wasn't much, so I figured I could at least wear him out. That and it was beyond obvious that he wasn't used to this kind of energy output yet, if he had any experience beyond a month or two I would probably be in the afterlife now. It had been probably about an hour since the battle had started, and the only thing that had changed was his power level going up. I hadn't chanced a big blast or beam yet. It would end the battle, but I wasn't sure I was going to be able to hit him at the speed he was going. I was going to have to ground him first, and that would take awhile. Since his power was bigger than mine, he could now risk a physical encounter with me, I had expected the opposite. I panted slightly as I rose up again, and I was really hoping that he was getting tired at this point. He didn't seem to be wavering much, I felt I might have to risk the big one very soon.

"Running low boy? You can give up anytime now!" he sneered.

"Keep dreaming about beating me freak show, I can keep this up all day!" I declared.

"You're the one who is out of breath, and you're trying to tell me you can keep up? Prove it!"

"But he can Aldaris!" Kerrigan shouted from afar. I glanced her way, knowing she was bluffing on my behalf to get the advantage on him.

"Sure he can! It just shows like the sun through these dark clouds of ash!" he laughed at her.

"Don't you see his tail, arrogant Protoss?" she asked with a smirk.

"What about his little monkey tail? It's green now instead of brown...so what?"

"Any infested being retains regeneration ability like any Zerg, didn't you know that?" she asked.

"What of it, witch?" he said with a frown.

"The regeneration is what allows the Zerg to keep fighting at full strength until the last breath is taken away by the enemy!" Kerrigan claimed, full bluff. I grinned slightly; she knew that wasn't going to work as I wasn't very infested now. I only had a little bit of extra stamina, not enough to continue a fight all day like this. But if he was desperate enough, he would go on the attack instead of me. That meant all I had to do was evade him until he wore down, and that was always easier then attacking. Quite the opposite way that this fight had been going. I had been the aggressor and quite honestly, I was not making any progress with it.

"Not only that Aldaris… it is said that the longer a Saiyan fights, the stronger he becomes!" Damn I didn't even have to tell her that one. It seemed her constant telepathic watch on me worked in my favor today, because Aldaris suddenly frowned and sped towards me.

"Time to find out, boy!" he shouted and punched forward. I grinned more and phased out as he did, appearing behind him and firing a ki blast that struck him in the back. Score one for Kerrigan. He jumped up quickly and tried the same tactic, only this time the ki blast I fired bounced off his shield again. I evaded a few more attacks, blocking most of them before flip kicking him in the chin. He was stunned, and it gave me the second I needed to charge my power.

I flipped around as I charged my favorite attack with both energies, "Super Galic Gun!" The beam shredded the ground in front of him and struck just as I heard him scream in agony. I smirked very Vegeta like when I saw him lying in the dirt. Well that's that, maybe I can get his crew to take me home. I walked towards the ship just as the assistant started backing up the ramp. Kerrigan had been nearby, but I didn't see her now, until the assistant's head started rolling without the body, which collapsed in a heap. Kerrigan came down from the top of the ramp, ready to go inside the ship.

"Let's get outta here!" I said happily.

"Hold it Verto! This ship is for Jim! Remember, you can't escape, he could kill you with a thought even partially infested!" she said in a very serious tone.

I rubbed the back of my head as I grinned, "Heh! Whoops, I forgot about that!"

She rolled her eyes slightly, "Well at least you gave me some credit for getting Aldaris to make a mistake like that! Score brownie points for you!" I laughed along with her until I sensed a high Psi presence in the air. I scanned around but didn't see or hear anything moving.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know! I don't think I got him...I still sense his energy!" I said with a low tone. Damn! How did he survive that, Vegeta killed one with ease back on Earth once he was down. So did I even when they were all attacking me, and some without my energy! I know he didn't have his energy shield up, it would have bounced off! And the plasma shield wouldn't have mattered! Where is he?

"Good question, I think the signal is coming from over there!" she pointed out. We walked over to see Aldaris on the ground, not moving.

"Huh?" we both asked as the energy spiked again. Then I was suddenly hit hard in the back of the head by something. I turned as I hit the ground to see Aldaris appear again, but he was also on the ground next to me.

"What's wrong boy? You look surprised to see me, and after all you only killed a phantom!" I looked back to see he was right, the fake Aldaris vanished into thin air.

"So that wasn't you I was fighting?" I asked.

"I've been here the whole time, you were just a bit too slow on your great attack. Long enough for me to leave a phantom trail when you turned around and fired. Good thing I did, that certainly would have done me some damage...maybe. Hahahahahaha! Commander, if you're listening I want you to lift off! I don't want my ship damaged, otherwise, where will we put his carcass? Muahahahaha!" he laughed again, fueling my determination.

-

"Perhaps you didn't hear me or her earlier, I can go all day! So consider that a little rest break you managed to take!" I said, spitting blood from my mouth and dropping into a fighting stance.

"I have many more surprises for you boy! I think its time for you to see another!" He started charging a Psi blast in his left palm, and I prepared to either dodge or block, depending on the power he had. Then his right hand starting charging some power as well, this energy wasn't blue like everything else had been, it was golden. Normally I didn't care what color it was, except no Psi energy I had used had ever been anything but blue to this point. I sensed that the Psi blast was lower in power than most of them had been, but the other felt like a ki blast.

Since when did he learn to control that? It was still weak on both ends, so I didn't think much of it considering what all he had already done today. The ki in his other palm rose noticeably along with his Psi blast, more than I thought he might be able to do. I felt part of the Psi that he wasn't using adding to the ki blast, much like when I healed someone by using only Psi. I hadn't played around with that much except for when I was training with Gohan, but healing with only Psi energy could regenerate ki as long as I was focused on it enough. This wasn't something I could do to myself though, only to others. Somehow Aldaris had figured out how to do exactly that and thus was making his ki blast stronger by literally changing Psi into ki. Both blasts shimmered in his hands as I sensed what was going on, preparing to dodge or deflect depending on what happened. Then he brought his palms together. Oh, that. The energy slowly mixed together and turned teal green shortly before it fired.

Okay, we're dodging this one. As he fired it, I thought I sensed his power drop. The energy in his beam also felt lower than it had been, almost as it was ready. I didn't have time to think about that as I leapt into the air and out of the way, only to see his hands shift and the green beam following me, gaining on my trail quickly. I weaved towards the sky before dropping back down, just past the tip of it. He kept its track on me and weaved around, allowing it to gain speed and reach to just within a few feet of me. I phased out just as it should have hit, only to discover his eyes managed to follow me, and I only bought a few seconds of time.

Damn, and I know he isn't dumb enough to chop himself in half like Frieza did, guess its time to fight fire with fire. I powered up and sped forward until I had a good quarter mile lead on it. Time to see if my training has paid off any. I charged ki with one hand and Psi with the other, bringing them out at the same point just as I stopped and turned, right in line with the beam and Aldaris.

"Final Flash!" The identical beams smashed into each other and ate the ground away in the process. My power drained fast since I wasn't Super Mystic, but I stayed up and kicking, powering more energy into it, hoping his power would deplete faster. So much energy collided that I couldn't tell anyway, and I shut off my beam when I thought I would collapse, so I could get out of the way. It turned out he had shut his off as well, and the power ball sat and floated there for a moment before blowing up and leaving a crater most meteorites would be jealous of. I dropped to one knee, wiped out and panting. I stared across the field at Aldaris and sensed his powers. His energy had also dropped considerably, and it seemed that his low amount of ki was used up, resulting in his very quick exhaustion. Since he had been literally creating ki from Psi, it had gone down as well.

Not quite what I planned, but the same effect. His Psi was still considerable, but I felt it had taken a bigger drop than mine had. Both of my energies were down quite a bit, ki a little lower because I hadn't reburied my Psi yet. Sure would help if I could have mastered that Psi energy before today, though the whole fused energy thing is probably not helping. I flew forward a little to stare him down a little closer.

"What's wrong old man, a little low on energy?" I mocked what he had said earlier.

"Not low enough to be defeated yet!" he grunted back. I noticed his breath was coming just as hard as mine was at this point. Awesome, now I just need him to sit still for a few seconds and I got him!

"I blast you again, and its bye bye you know!" I said with a grin.

"Perhaps, but let's see if you can pull it off before making snap judgments!" he replied, powering up as I did. A sudden rush of Psi energy flooded the air above me. I barely registered it before blue lightning came down and struck through and around me. It hurt horribly, like I was being stabbed, and truthfully I was. I powered up to fight it off, sensing little give as he used his Psi Storm to strike me several times. I grunted and cringed, it hurt even more as I struggled to move. Then I saw some sort of green object fly through the air towards us. I didn't pay much attention to it, and Aldaris didn't even see it. Since he was Protoss and I was Saiyan, I could hear it flying through the air, and feel the air vibrate a bit as well. I don't think he even sensed it in either way since he was so focused on me. It landed on him and exploded, spraying a green mist around him. Then he suddenly dropped and froze, like he was paralyzed. The Psi Storm released right away, smoke plumes came off of my partially infested skin as I relaxed a bit. When the mist cleared, I saw that he was covered in some sort of green slime, a slime I recognized because it was once used on me. Score two for Kerrigan. It was Kerrigan's ensnare technique, one that paralyzed its victim temporarily, long enough for one to say, blow their heads off. He struggled with the slime, but barely twitched though his Psi was very erratic.

"Damn you! I should have killed you the moment I saw you all those years ago!" Aldaris managed to say. Kerrigan walked up slightly close, still a good fifteen feet away.

"Well you didn't, foolish Protoss! Good luck getting out of that one. Verto, fire when your ready, you won't get any more phantoms out of him now!"

"You know, I normally don't like to be helped that much in battle. It's a Saiyan pride thing, but I won't hold it against you!" I sent through my thoughts as I started charging another Galic Gun, all ki this time. I fired directly at him as Kerrigan backed off. The beam took a few seconds to get there, and I spotted movement flash in front of Aldaris's fallen body. Some sort of blue light appeared in front of him, and a pair of Zealots appeared. One stood in front of my beam and the other started cutting Aldaris's green net. Pair of fools. I sent more power down the beam so Aldaris couldn't get out of the way, I couldn't afford that now. The first Zealot didn't even make the beam deflect, so despite his effort, he got vaporized. The second managed to tear part of the net open, and I felt Aldaris' power surge. My beam suddenly bounced off of his Psi shield just as the other Zealot got fried. I growled as I watched my beam race into the sky and off the planet.

"Luckily I have more help than you, little monkey!"

"You're bound to run out of lucky breaks some time!" I shouted back. Damn, might have to seriously consider risking a transformation. I don't know if I can make it now that I'm tired, but its crunch time and so far, too little progress. I then realized that I lost sight of Kerrigan. Worried that I may have fried her as well, I glanced around to find her signature. I didn't feel it anywhere, and Aldaris realized who I was looking for and started laughing loudly.

"Now that's funny! You killed your only source of help trying to beat me!" he laughed. Something appeared behind him, but it looked like just blank air. Then a pair of green arms with Talons on them appeared right around Aldaris and grabbed him into a chokehold. The figure decloaked completely and I saw it was Kerrigan. Wow, I forgot she could do that. Her wing like talons started stabbing him at regular intervals, piercing his skin only slightly. Aldaris struggled with her grasp, shouting all kinds of curses as I flew closer.

"Seems you underestimated me again Templar! Now I take your head!" she said as she started pulling and twisting Aldaris by the neck. I heard a pop snap, but found it to be his elbow on her chest. She didn't let go though, if anything she squeezed tighter and stabbed harder.

"Foolish bitch! You still don't understand, do you? Let me show you!" His power erupted again, and lightning surrounded him and shocked Kerrigan. She screamed loudly and let go after a few moments.

"Seems you aren't as great as the captains of our great fleets think. Rather puny if you ask me!" he said. When he stepped after her, I shot a quick ki blast past his face, cutting across his cheek.

"Don't even think about it! You have to beat me first!" I shouted at him with a dark glare.

"You care for this pathetic creature? She follows the Overmind's will. Your power could never belong with their pitiful breed. Kindly allow me to exterminate this abomination so we can continue!" Aldaris suggested. He stepped on her chest harshly and started charging a Psi blast, and I knew I was too far away to stop him.

"No, don't do it!" I urged.

"You really care for this, thing?! Fine I'll spare her if you surrender!" Damn.

"Don't worry about me Verto, you can beat him, and I can always be revived by the Overmind!" Kerrigan called out.

"You can?" I asked. Even Aldaris looked miffed at this.

"Yes, even you can be. Any Zerg killed can be revived!" The look of sheer horror on Aldaris's face was one to take a photo of, but he quickly recovered.

"But he is only partially infested. I doubt he wants to lose the rest of his free will to that creature, and that I know of you haven't been killed yet. I just may want to try that out!" Aldaris said as he directed his blast towards her again, ready to fire. I weighed the options, none sounded appealing, even if I could stop him from this far away.

"I have been killed before, Aldaris. It was the same day that I defeated you and Tassadar at New Gettysburg on Tarsonis! Finish him Verto, he deserves it after what he did to your friend!" Kerrigan said, catching my attention.

"What did he do, and to who?" I asked in a cold sweat. Aldaris looked surprised that I didn't know, but then shot the wide blast at Kerrigan and vaporized her body. A word hit me just as I felt her energy die.

"Yet another worthless creature gone, the universe is a better place!" The word she sent me replayed a few times in my head before I grasped the full meaning of it.

"Videl."

I searched my mind for that connection I had with Videl. That feeling that made me feel somewhat good. That knowing that Videl was alive somewhere and just fine, ready to tease me about something or humiliate me at the drop of a hat. It played second fiddle to what I felt with Fasha, but it was still strong. Nothing but blank spots filled my mind and I didn't find it. When I knew it wasn't there, I lost my resolve and snapped.

-

I screamed louder than I thought I could as I grabbed the hidden power that made itself known. I was so pissed off that I thought I would rip my own head off just to feel better. I transformed instantly, and Aldaris' face went cold and numb with fear. I literally thought he turned white along with some of my hair. The added thought of Kerrigan being killed rather ruthlessly didn't help matters. I snarled and took both energies as high as they were going to go. Luckily I had found they were once again fused together and were pretty much stuck that way until I were to power down. I then flew at Aldaris as fast as possible, I couldn't wait to tear him apart. He powered back up as well, not backing down. I sensed his pure Psi power again, noting that it was just as high as my Super Mystic level, but wavering on control.

We engaged in a violent display of fists and kicks, everything hitting and little blocking if any. His blows took more of a toll on me than I thought they would. Mine hurt him more. Once we separated and I calmed down a little more, and realized how quickly my energy was draining. Aldaris wasn't in much better shape, but I guessed I had a few more minutes before I ran out of power. I wasn't sure about him, but his lack of experience seemed to be in my favor. I had been in battle for a long time before I transformed, so I didn't have a lot of power left to run on. That isn't a good thing when you aren't used to a transformation yet. His breathing was coming harder now, a definite sign of getting worn out, but didn't look like he was done yet. I paused in my assault, waiting for him to make the first move. I suddenly sensed a lot of Psi enter the air around me, churning like a coming explosion, but it was mostly invisible with a few violent flashes. I stared at the air above me, where I sensed most of it occurring.

"Hahahaha! Taste your defeat, boy!" he shouted at me with a hand raised. He dropped the hand, and the energy I sensed came down with it. Instantly I felt a lot of pain as blue bolts of lightning struck around and all over me. I wasn't too surprised though, it had worked before. I growled and powered up, spreading my own energy out and pushing his Psi lightning away with my aura. He stopped in surprise when his storm no longer did any damage.

"How?" he managed to ask. His technique had hurt despite being powered up, but it wasn't enough to make me back down.

"C'mon Aldaris, let's see who's got more power right now! All or nothing you fucking pussy!" I challenged as I dropped back to charge his death. He didn't look to be backing down, and started charging his powers into a mixed beam again. His ki rose a bit as he generated more of it with his Psi. As the energy mixed together again, his power took another nosedive as he did it, and this time I caught it. That was a mistake, his power just went down due to mixed energy! This is my chance, I thought as I sensed it. I summoned all of my energy and poured it into the blast.

"Super Galic Gun!" Like before, the two teal green beams smashed into each other and struggled. I quickly started running dry and pulled all power I could find to fire out. I sensed he might have been doing the same, but with barely any pure ki to run on and no Psi to back it up, his beam would fall apart. It only took a few moments before I ran out, and I dropped to the ground as I reverted to normal form. The beam continued until it couldn't anymore, but when I glanced up I saw that it went straight at Aldaris and didn't stop. He dodged aside, but the huge beam ripped an arm and a leg right off him as he was blown away from the explosion. I didn't feel him move much after that, but he was alive.

I think I understand a little better now, my power is more balanced. Though he might be stronger overall when using only his Psi. Using the power of mixed energies is more of a benefit when the two energies are equal! It helps me more than him because Protoss have a much lower amount of ki. He could generate more ki with his Psi, but it lowered his Psi more. Also helps that he isn't too good at this yet. I need more training, but it's a damn good thing that he didn't show up a week ago. Above us, the ship came down to land near him. A few soldiers hopped out and picked his non-moving body up on a stretcher. I heard him groan and saw him turn his head my way.

"This isn't over boy, mark my words!" he shouted just before he lost consciousness. Yeah, count on it! I thought back at him just as I fell asleep myself.

Power levels:

Verto (Mystic-Psi mode): 260,000,000 (unfused energies)

Super Galic Gun: 450,000,000; (tired): 210,000,000

Super Mystic Verto (tired): 420,000,000 (gradually drops)

Final attack on Aldaris: 360,000,000

Aldaris (base form): 300,000,000 (all Psi)

Super Aldaris (powered up, all Psi): 600,000,000; Mixed Beam: 440,000,000

Super Aldaris (weakened): 420,000,000

Final attack against Verto with mixed power: 310,000,000

A/N: It's a Draw! Well kind of, Verto is in slightly better shape so I guess you could say he won. How about a Draw…favoring Verto. As to why Aldaris looks to be so much stronger, it is with only his Psi energy. As explained in there, his power drops when he successfully combines both ki and Psi together. The ability to create ki from Psi is a complicated one and will be explained later. Had he not been foolish enough to try it, he more than likely would have won. Another factor is that he is still very new to this fighting style, he learns a lot from his fight with Shugesh, but is still not overly experienced with it. Final thought, or at least an answer to a question from some of you: for Verto's maximum Super Mystic power, take the regular Mystic power times 2. The number for Psi and ki is very much the same for Verto as mentioned, so a Super Mystic transformation doubles his power. I probably won't be breaking down power levels like this very much despite these different energies in use, but for the first few times I will. Psi against ki in a battle is generally no different than any other struggle, it depends on how it is used.

Next time on DBV: The Overmind decides to increase Verto's power by fusing him with his commanding Cerebrate. But Verto resists and accidentally locks himself up in his own mind, refusing to cooperate and making an incomplete fusion. By doing this, his mind cracks, and also locks part of his power away. Will Verto get his possessed body back? Stay Tuned.