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 57: Clone Wars
Bring the violence
It's significant
To the life
If you've ever known anyone
Bring the violence
It's significant
To the life
Can you feel it?
"Verto! What's going on over there, I sense two of you and two of Vegeta?!" Gohan asked through the scouter.
"Then your senses are working just fine. Watch yourself out there, I'll contact you later once I'm finished with this!" I said calmly, shutting the scouter off. "You might want to stealth and get out of here," I said to Zeratul without turning. I sensed his energy signal vanish almost as I said it. The two Vegeta's both powered up to Super Saiyan two within seconds of each other. The reality of two of them in the same place seemed to get to both of them as they flew at each other. They felt pretty even, but the Zerg version seemed to have more energy, not to mention some regeneration. As those two tore a path through the dead and blasted lands, the other me stepped forward to only ten feet away.
"So, you have gotten a little stronger since we last met," he said.
"You have no idea," I said, waiting for him to make the first move.
"It doesn't matter if you got a months worth of training or not, you can't compete with my power now that you are no longer with the Zerg. Gohan is the only real threat to us, and he will be taken care of shortly. But for now, you are going to pay for what you've done to me!" he boasted, powering up. He hit Super Mystic quickly, and his energy did indeed feel stronger than mine at that level.
I managed to keep cool though, "So it's back to the Overmind's control huh, what happened to those plans of destroying him yourself?" I asked.
"Thanks to you I'm stuck with him forever! He had to give me a new body as you must know by now, and it's impossible to break his grip on me because of it. You had the potential power to overwhelm him all along, but you don't know how to use it, only I did! If you had only cooperated and combined with me, we might have been able to access it, but its impossible now. It'll take years of training to get there again. I doubt he's going to give me that kind of time before getting rid of me! It's your fault, and I'm going to make you pay!" he declared, charging up a big mixed blast behind him. I didn't move, waiting for him to complete his attack. I considered powering up for it, but I felt I better save as much energy as possible. He's going for the win right off the bat, I guess I'll oblige.
"Aren't you going to power up and give me a classic show down?" he asked with a grin.
"No need for it, punk! But I will give you something to chew on for awhile!" I said, gathering only Psi energy into my one hand.
"Good enough for me fool! Super Galic Gun!" he shouted.
The green beam rushed towards me as I fired the white blast I had in my hand, "Feedback!" The beam slammed into my feedback ball, and quickly shrank into it. The white blast grew slightly until the beam was gone, before shrinking down to normal again.
"Oh no, not that!" the other Verto panicked. I smiled slightly and sent it his way even more quickly. He phased out just as it arrived, reappearing in the air gasping for breath. I stopped the feedback ball where it was, letting it hover back to me slowly.
"How in the hell did you learn that?" he asked, watching the ball and me at the same time.
"Practice makes perfect. Unlike Zeratul's version, this one is stronger and can take anything you throw at it. How do you think I beat Aldaris so easily?" I asked, tossing the ball up and down in my right hand.
"So that's how you did it," he said, flying around slowly. I launched the ball towards him again and allowed it to chase him down while I controlled it. He flew around in circles to avoid the white ball, unable to gain more than fifty feet worth of ground. He then stopped directly ahead of me and flew my direction. I recognized the sudden shift in pattern, he was going to try to get me to hit myself with it and make it backfire. Nice plan, except it won't work. I stayed calm and let the ball follow him all the way to me. He had a dark grin on his face as he phased out again, not five feet away. The ball came back to me at the speed I had allowed it, making contact and through me and out of my backside without delay. He felt surprised to say the least while he floated up in the air. I sent the ball into the skies and held it there without his notice, he was still busy gasping at me.
How do you sleep
When you live with your lies
Out of your mouth
Up from your mind
That kind of thinking
Starts a chain reaction
You are a time bomb ticking away
You need to release
What you're feeling inside
Let out the beast
That you're trying to hide
Step right up and be a part of the action
Get your game face on
Because it's time to play
You're pushing and fighting your way
You're ripping it UP!!!
"How did you do that?" he shouted down.
"It's easy when you're not evil," I said with a chuckle. He growled loudly and charged another big blast. I was prepared to send it back in the same way, except he then turned the other way.
"Super Galic Gun!" he shouted again, shooting the beam at the planet surface. Blowing up the planet, aw crap! I powered up to intercept it, but it was moving way too fast to stop. Just inches away from the ground, he turned his hands upward suddenly, forcing the beam to soar into the skies and hit a distant asteroid in space. It lit up the sky slightly, but he was staring at his hands in surprise.
"Why did you interfere, it's the only way to stop him!" he said loudly. I rose into the air while he seemed to talk to himself, I had a pretty good idea who he was speaking to.
"Why do you care about the planet, you're going to kill off the Protoss anyway! Trust me, I know this is the only way to stop him!" he shouted at the air. A big ki blast came my way from behind, so I moved out of the way just as it arrived, seeing it strike the other Verto and send him to the ground. I spun to see a battered Vegeta, the Zerg version. He wasn't standing there very long before another beaten up and armored Vegeta tackled him from behind as they rolled around in the dirt. He sure wasn't aiming for me. Zerg-Verto was struggling to get up for a moment, his own ally's attack had bruised him pretty good since he was blindsided.
"Argh, he still isn't letting me fight my own battles!" he groaned as I stepped closer.
"You blowing up the planet and killing the Protoss isn't part of his plans. I'm surprised you didn't know what they were, because I learned about them through his link! You kill all the Protoss and it ruins his sick ideas! As far as blowing up the planet to beat me, that won't work either!" I said sharply.
"The Protoss are worthless, he only wants to harness the power of the Saiyans!" he said, his teeth clenched.
"Wrong-o," I said, shaking a finger at him, "He obviously didn't tell you everything. Think about their potential, think about what Aldaris pulled off with only his Psionic power. Now picture someone like us being able to channel the power of Broly and Aldaris in one combined force!" He let that fly through his head a few times before realizing what it meant.
"Impossible, we're the only ones who can pull it off. Gohan can't even harness its full potential!"
"Oh really, well he apparently understands enough thanks to spying on us long enough to figure it out!" I said, bringing the feedback ball back down from the skies undetected. "I'll say this only once, abandon that freak and help us fight him, we can worry about the rest later, and I can show you how to remove the Zerg genes from your body and how to dump your evil feelings! Only then would I consider rejoining with you, otherwise I will destroy you here and now!" I warned, holding the feedback ball about thirty feet above him.
"Forget that, learn to be a worthless pacifist like you all over again, I'd rather die!"
"So be it," I sighed, dropping the white blast right onto his head. White lightning erupted while he screamed in shock, trying to get out of it. He was on the ground just a moment later, struggling as the Psi bolts struck with undying fury. I powered up now, combining my energy and shooting into Super Mystic.
I pulled up a massive amount of energy, more than enough to finish him off in this weakened state, "Super Galic Gun!"
"NOOOO!" he screamed as my stronger green beam smashed into him. His body lifted off the ground as my negative feeling towards him increased the intensity of the feedback affect. I discontinued my beam as his body surrounded itself with green and white auras and explosions, causing him loads of pain. His signal dropped and his body started to crumble apart, the Zerg cells melted right off while this happened. Even as his body vanished, his signal did not, What the hell is happening to him? The violent light show continued until a dark purple form of only energy emerged underneath the green and white. It took the shape of clear cloud, coloring the air inside dark. The energy from the Feedback-Galic gun came back towards me like it was reflected. I quickly sidestepped and reabsorbed it with the green sword, keeping clear and positive as I did so it didn't harm me. I separated the feedback ball from the Galic gun energy and held it in the sword, turning it very light green. The dark energy cloud then soared off into the air once released, vanishing into the sky. I felt it leave the planet quickly, and lost it in the darkness of space.
One thought reached my mind from an outside source, "We'll meet again, and next time I will destroy you for what you've done!" I sighed as the signal vanished, hoping that it would never come to pass.
-
I watched the two versions of Vegeta fight it out for awhile, neither one really gained ground on the other. They did beat the living crap out of each other though. It wasn't until both Saiyans shot up to Super Saiyan three that I noticed a difference. Infested Vegeta recovered much faster and his energy remained high whereas the original Vegeta had burned his up. They went at it a little more, this time the infested one gaining the upper hand and slowly beating him down. He started charging something that would give Vegeta more than a headache when I jumped in. I extracted the ki from the sword and watched, as it turned white from the Feedback effect that was still within it, as I hadn't disposed of it to save energy. I tossed the sword like a spear right at the infested Vegeta. He dropped to the ground in pain as it impaled him through the knee before turning his energy against him. I gave Vegeta a hand up before we both trudged over to the fallen infested Saiyan. I could hear him cursing and struggling with his predicament.
"You can have the honors," I said.
"Gladly," Vegeta growled, charging a big bang attack just for his counterpart.
"It doesn't matter if you destroy me, you won't beat the Overmind. I'll be back soon to take care of you!" the infested Saiyan grumbled in defiance.
"We'll just see about that!" Vegeta growled, firing. The blue ball exploded on impact, leaving nothing but just a few smoldering Zerg cells in a good-sized crater.
"Good riddance!" Vegeta growled, powering down as I helped him stay on his feet.
"Verto to Gohan, do you read?" I asked, pressing the scouter button. He didn't answer, but I heard a lot of activity on the other end. Mostly shockwaves and sonic booms followed by a lot of pain filled groans. I guessed that his scouter must have been knocked off for me to hear anything and also not get a response from him. The big hint of trouble was how many Kamehamehas I heard being chanted. I scanned that area of the planet, getting back a lot of big ki signals and one mixed one, meaning Gohan. It was too far away to determine who was fighting who, but I had a good clue.
"Looks like we need to get a move on," I said, lifting into the air, Vegeta followed quickly.
Interlude 57.1 –Outnumbered-
Gohan sighed as he cut the connection with himself and Verto. He had sensed another Verto and Vegeta arrive there along with a fierce Zerg signal mixed in with them. Verto's new training outta take care of that problem quickly! He and Goku had entered the Hive full of red Zerg a moment ago, but hadn't found the Cerebrate yet. Gohan blasted a hole in the flooring of the first level, seeing the big opening in the ground leading to the bottom.
"Wow, so they live underground. Hey this looks like a hotel on the inside!" Goku noted blankly.
"I doubt any of the rooms have a view dad," Gohan groaned slightly.
"No food either, bummer," he laughed slightly.
"Verto said bottom floor, right?" Gohan asked, getting back to the mission at hand.
"Yeah I think so," Goku replied. They encountered little Zerg at all on the slow descent down, as most of them were in battle with the Protoss. Gohan found the chamber quickly as they landed, proceeding inside and catching sight of the Cerebrate.
"Intruders! Come my pets, eradicate them!" the red Cerebrate called out. Gohan charged a quick green blast and threw it at the glowing creature, killing it instantly as it passed through and exploded. The energy within it dimmed out, signaling that it was indeed dead.
"Well that was easy," Gohan noted. Goku's eyes narrowed instantly as he sensed something else outside.
"I think we need to get back to your grandpa, Gohan," he said with caution. Gohan picked up a bunch of new energy signals outside, all of them familiar and all of them tainted with Zerg.
"Oh boy, this could be bad," he said. They ran out of the chamber and shot through the crumbling Hive, avoiding large chunks of dead Zerg debris on the way out. Once on top, no Protoss fleet was nearby, except for the burning wreckage scattered about. They found Bardock in a defensive stance on the ground, powered up to Super Saiyan two.
"What is it grandpa?" Gohan asked as he landed.
"I'm not sure, I didn't even sense them until they were on top of me," he said in a sour tone. Gohan barely turned up to see a potent ki blast come their way. All three Saiyans jumped up and out of the way, allowing the blast to blow up the rest of the hive, whatever was left anyway.
"Who's there?" Goku shouted. Smoke had clouded his vision of the source of the energy, but several figures emerged from it, seven of them. The smoke cleared, revealing their identities to an extent.
"Oh man, I can sense their evil energy, this is going to be tough," Goku said in all seriousness.
"What the, Kakarot? My crew?" Bardock asked.
"Huh, how did they get Goten and Trunks?" Gohan asked.
"What is the matter gentlemen, see something you didn't expect?" an evil voice belonging to Goku's opposite asked.
How do you live without playing the game
Sit on the side and expect to keep, sane
Step right up and be a part of the action
Come get a piece of it before it's too late
Take a look around
You can't deny what you, see
We're living in a violent society
Well my brother let me show you a better way
Now get your game face on because it's time to play
You're pushing and fighting your way, you're ripping it up
Gohan gauged the power levels of his opponents as more of the surprise talks continued. The Zerg had sent out more infested Saiyan clones that included: Bardock, Tora, Shugesh, Borgos, Goku, Goten and Trunks. Seven in all, and a little stronger than the originals plus the slight regeneration. It wouldn't be like on earth where the infested Borgos could regenerate easily and had more power, this would be more like a normal Saiyan fight. The Overmind had made the mistake of adding more energy and less matter back then, much like his other agents, and thus it could be beaten. The newer and slightly more powerful versions of the Saiyans were a lot harder to beat, as they retained stronger bodies that didn't need a heavy dose of regeneration to be effective. Despite their added power, Gohan knew he was stronger than all of them, even at his base Mystic level. What concerned him was how many there were, and what should happen if he had to fight all of them at once. Going Super Mystic would solve that problem, but he was also trying to conserve energy for their next encounter with Broly. He knew very well they were going to run into him again. Guess I'll draw it out until Verto gets here, I'm gonna have to in order to save power for Broly.
"So how are we going to do this?" Bardock asked.
"Together!" Goku summed up quickly.
"Works for me, but were going to need to be careful and not burn up too much power. If you get the chance, try to take them out as fast as possible!" Gohan suggested.
A laugh filled the battlefield, "Unlikely, we will leave you in your graves today!" Infested Bardock cackled as his green tail swished behind him. Gohan powered up to his Mystic level maximum, fully intent to not resort to Psionic energy if he didn't have to. Goku now kicked up to Super Saiyan two, pulling up as much power as he could hold in that form. The infested Saiyans all powered up at the same time, to whatever maximum form each fighter had. Goku and the infested Kakarot seemed more than ready to take each other on, both at Super Saiyan two. Bardock and the infested Bardock wanted to do the same. That left Gohan with the rest of them as the fighter pairs took off into the air.
"Kid, surely you don't think you can take on all of us?" Infested Tora asked.
"I can and I will," Gohan said, standing ready for their move. Shugesh flew in quickly as soon as Gohan finished his answer. Gohan dodged and blocked Borgos"s flying punch. He kicked him away and deflected Tora's kick as he flew in. Shugesh and the boys jumped in as soon as Borgos came back, and it was five on Gohan as he moved just fast enough to block and deflect their attacks. He quickly planned to take them all out one at a time while they attacked him, trying to decipher who had more of a weakness that he could exploit. He targeted the cloned boys first, due to their lack of strength. He managed to get Shugesh and Borgos off of him with a few blocked kicks and over the back throws. He blasted Tora away from him and waited for the younger boys to fly in. He phased out as they arrived and double knife handed them in the back of the neck. They hit the ground hard and lay there for a moment. Gohan phased out again, this time near Shugesh. He kneed him hard in the face and grounded him with a nasty punch to the chest that removed some Zerg tissue just by the impact. Borgos got a similar treatment before he spotted Tora again. Gohan charged a Masenko just for him and let it fly. Tora dodged out of the way, right into Gohan's waiting fists as he made mince meat out of his upper body and head before sending him to the ground as well. A bright golden flash went off beneath him. Gohan looked to see a massive power up taking place, but it wasn't from the adult Saiyans. The bright golden dome of energy slowly faded, leaving behind a child Super Saiyan three. Oh great, should have known that was coming, Gohan thought as he groaned.
Bring the violence
It's significant
To the life
If you've ever known anyone
Bring the violence
It's significant
To the life
Can you feel it?
Infested Gotenks chuckled as he started pronouncing himself as the god of death, much to the chagrin of anyone nearby that stopped to witness it. Tora barked at him to get a move on as he recovered himself, barely getting the fused Zerg child to do much more than stretch a bit. Gohan smirked slightly, Same attitude also, this shouldn't be too bad then. He saw Gotenks stomp into a stance much like a sumo wrestler would, and then crossed his arms in front of his face.
"Super Ghost Machinegun!" Gotenks shouted out. Gohan was stunned slightly by the name of the attack, until a lot of white blobs spurted out of Gotenks" mouth at a high rate of speed. They all directed themselves at Gohan quickly much like machine gun fire. Gohan flew out of the way as the incoming white gobs exploded on contact with each other. Gotenks redirected his aim in Gohan's path of movement, tearing an explosive trail across the skies. Gohan frowned at this, he couldn't get down to Gotenks easily if he had to keep moving away from the ghosts. As he was flying away from the constant barrage of ghost attacks, Borgos came out of nowhere and blindsided him along with Shugesh. He managed to block their blows and avoid Tora flying in, but missed Gotenks' flip kick from behind, knocking Gohan's scouter off of his ear and somewhere in the field of battle. Gohan hit the ground hard as Gotenks landed in front of him and powered up with all of his energy.
"Victory Cannon!" he shouted as the immense ki blast erupted from his throat. The beam tore a nasty path of destruction and hit Gohan straight on, leaving a large explosion. The light and smoke cleared shortly afterwards, but revealed an angry and frustrated Gohan, who's armor plating had torn and fallen off.
So much for saving energy, guess I'll have to take them down the hard way! He thought as his aura flared upwards. He dropped his ki level and called on his Psi energy, turning his eyes blue before he lit up with silver energy. The four infested Saiyans had to block against the fierce wind his transformation kicked up. He barely let them take in his new form before he phased out and reappeared directly behind Tora. One kick about took his head off before he threw him into the air and shot a big green blast at him. The explosion left nothing behind except ashes. Bardock and Goku both glanced up from their current fights to witness this, as did their counterparts. They had been having a Kamehameha duel between the four of them, but Gohan's sudden angry surge drew them away from each other to observe what was about to happen. Gohan moved as quickly as lightning to Borgos' position, letting his eyes see better days with his fists. A quick mixed energy blast decided his fate. Shugesh charged in from behind, only to be backhanded while Gohan stared forward at Gotenks. A back kick that almost went through Shugesh preceded the energy blast that killed him. Gotenks' eyes were wide in fear now as he took off to run the other way from Super Mystic Gohan. He ran into a brick wall as Gohan appeared in front of him and kicked him in the side. Gotenks flipped back up and rapidly threw numerous ki blasts at him. Every one of them missed and tore apart the dead lands behind.
"Oh crap," Gotenks managed to say before another kick hit his face. He didn't even see the green beam that finished him, but screamed until his body was gone when it hit.
Infested Bardock and Kakarot backed up now that their reinforcements were gone, seeing that were clearly outmatched by Gohan. They whispered to each other as Goku and Gohan checked on Bardock, who was a little beaten up.
"You okay, father?" Goku asked.
"Yes Kakarot, I'm fine, but I think those two are about to do something," Bardock shrugged off his son. Gohan narrowed his eyes as he pierced through their enemy's whispers, trying to figure out what they were up to. They dropped back to where they were lined up with each other but spread apart by easily a hundred feet, and their power levels were very close to one another. Fusion? No they are too far apart, what are they planning? Gohan spotted a white energy blast forming in Infested Bardock's hand when he realized what they were planning to do. He quickly pinpointed two distinct tails on his opponents. Oh no, if they transform as Super Saiyans… he barely thought out before the white blast made its way into the skies. He shot a quick energy beam to take it out, but missed when it suddenly dodged to the right. The great white blast shimmered into the sky and exploded, showering them all in its light. Gohan shot another beam at it just as he sensed them both start to change, destroying the fake moon on contact. To his great surprise, this didn't stop the change at all. He glanced over at his grandfather, trying to figure out why he didn't start to transform, seeing that Bardock had in fact not looked up at the fake moon. Two large shadows appeared over them as infested Bardock and Kakarot grew into huge apes with partially green and golden fur, their power levels shooting through the roof. Two loud roars followed the finished transformation, making Gohan wonder more how they pulled it off.
"It must the Zerg genes, they might be able to keep the transformation without the help of a moon. After all they can interfere with normal energy levels," Bardock noted, still shocked himself.
"Okay, anyone got any ideas on how to beat them?" Goku asked, scratching his head as he stared upwards.
"Anyway we can," Gohan whispered.
Power levels: (got a bunch of them)
Verto: 300,000,000; Super Mystic: 600,000,000
Zerg-Verto (SM): 620,000,000
Vegeta (SS2): 460,000,000; SS3: 570,000,000
Infested Vegeta (SS2): 475,000,000; SS3: 590,000,000
Goku (SS2): 470,000,000
Infested Kakarot (SS2): 475,000,000
Bardock (SS2): 440,000,000
Infested Bardock (SS2): 460,000,000
Gohan (Mystic): 580,000,000; SM: 700,000,000
Infested Gotenks (SS3): 540,000,000
Infested Tora (SS2): 450,000,000
Infested Borgos and Shugesh (SS2): 430,000,000 each
Infested Kakarot and Bardock (Golden Ape Form): TBD, but its going to be big.