The Last Warrior

Chapter 11: The New Z Warriors

By: Daniel Graffio

April 24, 2005

BAM! Slade sailed backwards, slamming into the padded wall of the training room. As he fell forward from the impact, not even missing a beat, he put his hands down and performed a series of flips and somersaults which showed more balance, grace, and precision than even the greatest gymnast. He finally fell back into place in front of his opponent Kado. Slade had been sparring for the past few weeks with him and the rest of the rebels in the base, with the exception of Page, who stated he couldn't keep up anyway. The gravity in the room was now at 65G, at Slade's insistence. It was hard for him to move, but he was slowly but surely getting used to it. Kado was unaffected by the change, as Page had developed a special anti-gravity belt, which negated the affect of the gravity enhancer. Kado was moving as easily as if he were outside. Slade enjoyed the challenge.

"That was a good kick." he said, rubbing his stomach, "But you're a bit slow with the delivery. If the gravity was normal, I doubt you'd have touched me."

"Sounds like your making excuses boss." said Kado, smiling.

"Oh, a challenge is it?" Slade laughed as he sprung back into battle. Even at 65 times the gravity of Earth, Slade was moving faster than Kado. The others stood watching as their new leader landed various attacks on his opponent at an incredible speed. Soon Slade noticed that his opponent couldn't take anymore and relented. He helped him stay on his feet, and made sure he wasn't too badly hurt.

"All right there?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm ok." Kado said, rubbing the various parts of him that were in pain. "I'm just kinda disappointed is all."

"What d'you mean?" asked Slade

"Well, it's just..." Kado began, then he looked away as if he was almost ashamed, "You're so fast. Even though you're being pushed down by all this gravity and I'm not, I still can't beat you."

Slade looked deep in thought for a few minutes, then asked,

"Tell me, what's on your mind when you're fighting against me?"

Kado looked back to him, a bit surprised at this, but was put at ease by Slade's look of genuine interest.

"Well, I just think about what I said before. How fast you are in this gravity, and that I better concentrate or else I'm gonna get creamed."

"And that's what makes you lose your concentration." said Slade, matter-of-factly.

Kado looked incredibly confused, so Slade saw he needed to explain more.

"You're concentrating so hard on following what I do, where I might go, this and that, you're making your mind too cluttered. You think you're gonna lose before you even fight me, and since you're trying so to make sure that doesn't happen, you can't really concentrate. Basically, you're trying to hard."

"Well...what should I do?" asked Kado.

"Obviously you have to get your mind cleared up." Slade said, smirking.

"How?"

"Think about something peaceful, a thing or place that can put your mind at ease. Can you do that?" said Slade.

Kado nodded, and then shut his eyes. He thought about the town he had lived in before Kane had taken the Earth. It was a peaceful mountain town. The townsfolk were kind, and the scenery was beautiful. He remembered the river he and his father used to fish at. It felt like being in a dream. He reopened his eyes with a look of utter contentment. Slade was still smiling.

"Feel good?" he asked.

"Yeah." replied Kado in an almost dreamy voice.

"Good. HAAA!" Slade threw a punch right at Kado's face. The young man blocked it, and the next one, and then a kick aimed at his temple. Slade continued to attack faster and faster until he finally landed a hard right into Kado's abdomen.

"That was really good." Slade said, smiling still.

Kado coughed a bit. He was doubled over and on his knees from the punch, but he looked up at Slade with bright eyes and a wide smile.

"I..I could almost see what you were going to do." he stammered.

Slade helped him up, dusted him off a bit and said.

"You're learning."

Slade then went to the door which opened for him and he exited the room. Inside the control room, everyone was having the same idea, though no one spoke it. Eve seeing everyone in agreement rushed out the door to catch up to Slade. She met him halfway back to his room.

"Slade!" she called to him. He stopped without turning around.

"Yeah?"

"I need to ask you something."

"I know what it is." he said, surprising her a bit, "You want me to teach you to fight the way I do right?" He turned around, smiling at her warmly. She nodded, smirking almost like he did, which made him smile wider.

"Fine, I'll teach you. But I'll warn you now that it won't be easy. Even the basic's are gonna be difficult."

"We're tougher than you may think buddy." Eve said, pumping her fist in the air.

Slade laughed.

"Oh, don't I know it." he said, "We'll start tomorrow then, I need some rest."

Tomorrow came quickly, and every day that followed it seemed long and arduous for the band of fighters, but they all agreed it was worth it. Slade had taught them basic attack patterns, how to sense the energy or "Ki" of others, The Zanzoken technique (which is the process of using one's own ki to close the gap almost instantaneously with the enemy), how to hide and increase their power levels at will, and even how to fly. Eve found that when she was in control of how she flew, she liked it more then being carried. Then came the day where Slade promised to teach them how to use their ki as a weapon. He decided to do it a good distance away from the base so as not to attract attention to what would undoubtedly be a good number of explosions. Slade sat them all down and explained.

"Ki attacks shouldn't be too hard for you guys to handle. You all remember how to raise your power right?" They nodded, "Well after you accomplish that, all you have to do is force that ki into one spot, and then release it, like a gun. The easiest place to do this is probably the hands." He charged up a small blast, and fired it. It smashed through several trees before making a small explosion.

"You can also fire your ki from your eyes," He said, eye-lasering a small bug. "And you can fire it out of you mouth."

"Like you did to Kane?" said Glenn.

"Yeah, that looked like it hurt." said Kado. Everyone laughed.

"Ok ok." said Slade, trying to calm them all down, though still smiling himself, "Now that was easy, but the more ki you put into an attack, the more destructive it becomes, but make sure you don't put too much in, or you'll leave yourself exhausted. Also, the more you try to put into the attack, the longer it can take to pull off."

"Like that thing you did on the robot?" said Ena.

"Yeah, the Kamehameha wave. That took me about 3 months to get right when I first learned it. And if you believe it the man who taught it into my family had to practice for 50 years before getting it right."

"Wow." said everyone at the same time.

"I know. Anyway, there are a ton of different techniques that can be done when you know the basics of it. Who knows? You guys might make up some of your own attacks. Well, go ahead and try."

They practiced for the remainder of the afternoon. At first many of them only managed to make small balls that only could singe the bark of the trees, but after awhile they started to get the hang of it. Aiden made a ball that went through five trees before fizzling out. Eve broke down one of the larger trees with an impressive blast. Glenn and Kado were working on eye-lasering specific leaves on the trees. Ena and Una had managed to create to smaller blasts and push them into one. Slade saw that the landscape would soon look like a war zone, and was glad they were so far away from the base. The sun soon set, and Slade decided to keep them all out there for another day to make sure they had gotten it down perfectly. Slade decided to take a break from everyone and sat down on a rock a little away from where they had built camp. He was just staring at the stars when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw Aiden, thankfully smiling.

"What's up big man?" said Slade.

"Well, I just figured you and me should start over." said Aiden, "I know I've been to nice to you, but I figure after you've taught us all these things, the least I can do is stop treating you like dirt."

Slade smiled.

"Sounds good to me." He held out his hand, "Friends?"

Aiden took his hand and shook it firmly.

"Friends." He smiled wider, "I wanna show you something." He said excitedly. Slade watched as he lifted his hand in the air, and began concentrating his ki. It formed like a small disc above his palm, then it grew wider and wider until it was about 7 feet in diameter. Slade was quite impressed.

"Destructo Disk!" Aiden said, throwing the disk. It sliced cleanly through several more trees before shooting into the sky and disappearing.

"Wow," Slade said, "That's one way to take down a tree."

He and Aiden shared a laugh.

"That really was incredible though." said Slade, "Did you invent that technique?"

"No actually," said Aiden, "My dad actually taught me about it, though he could never do it."

"Is that why you've kept it a secret?"

"Yeah, I couldn't do it either until now."

"So, who did develop it?" asked Slade.

Aiden reached into a pocket inside the jacket he was wearing. He pulled out a well-preserved, but very old looking photo. He handed it to Slade. It was a picture of a couple with a small child. The woman had blonde hair and was very beautiful. The man was much shorter than the woman and had puffy black hair and six small dots on his head. The girl looked like a combination between the two so it was obvious she was their daughter. Aiden pointed at the man.

"This guy is the one who developed it." he said, "His name was Krillen. I don't really know what generation of family his is, but I know I'm related to him."

"Interesting." said Slade, then smiled slightly at the thought which hit his head, one not his own, the voice of Goku.

"Good ol' Krillen, best friend I ever had."

Slade handed the picture back and returned to his star gazing. A question then came to him, so he posed it to his new friend.

"So Aiden, how did all of you come together anyway?"

Aiden looked at him a little surprised for a second, then stared off into the distance a bit.

"Well, most of us have known each other for a long time. We were from the same town. Me, Ena and Una, Page..."

"Eve?" Slade interrupted.

"Her too." said Aiden, sounding a little sad.

"She told me a bit about her past, what happened to her family and all."

"Yeah, she told us about what happened to you." said Aiden, Slade found this didn't bother him; it was more a relief than anything.

"Well, at least now I don't have to repeat it." he said.

"Eve and I have been friends ever since we were little, she was like the little sister I never had. I've always tried to look out for her, and the others." Aiden explained, "When Kane attacked our town, all the adults forced us to run. We were supposed to take refuge in mountains around our town, and we were told not to look back."

He sighed and continued.

"Eve didn't listen. She ran back towards our home, and I went after her. We both saw that cloud of smoke that used to be our village. I can still hear her screaming for her parents. I promised myself from that day that I'd keep her safe no matter what."

"Are you in love with her?" Slade asked suddenly, not looking at him. Aiden looked almost shocked at the idea, and then laughed.

"In love? No no, we're not like that at all. I don't think I could ever see her like that." He smiled again, "Besides, I think she might have a thing for you."

Slade shifted uncomfortably a bit, which Aiden took note of, as Eve might like to know. The young Saiyan quickly changed the subject.

"So what about Glenn and Kado?"

"Kado we met when we were younger, he was just like us. His town had been wiped out by Kane's armies, so we took him in. He was only about 5 I think." said Aiden, "As for Glenn, he was actually a Kane soldier for awhile. We used to bribe him for info and supplies, until eventually he couldn't take the military anymore and joined up with us."

"Really?" Slade said, with a note of great interest.

"Yeah, you think I gave you hell, Eve and the others still don't let me hear the end of how I acted around Glenn." Aiden laughed, a short almost helpless laugh. Slade laughed back, and patted Aiden's back.

"Hey, you were just trying to look out for everyone." Slade said, "I'm sure even then they knew you, and are grateful for it."

"Slade..." said Aiden, smiling. Slade yawned and stretched.

"Well, I'm tired from all this teaching and stuff. G'night!" and he walked off towards the camp, Aiden watching him go.

Slade kept them in the forest for two more days. Everyone had mastered the basics of ki attacks before then, but Slade wanted to also teach them how to block the attacks by making a shield out of their own ki. This had to be careful work, so as not to injure anyone. When they all returned to the base, every one of them felt ready to take on Kane himself.

"Soon we're gonna be public enemy number one." Ena said laughing.

"Well, we might have to settle for two, behind the 'evil monster Saiyan'?" said Eve, smirking at Slade, who looked at her and growled like a wolf. She faked a shriek and a faint, getting a laugh out of everyone.

"Regardless of where we are on the list," Kado said, "Kane's still gonna learn to fear the...the...say, this group doesn't have a name does it?"

"We've never quite been able to agree on one," said Eve. "But now that we have our new leader, maybe he can pick one for us."

All eyes turned to Slade, who began to think. Once again, the young fighter heard a voice in his head that was not his own. It was Gohan's this time.

"I think I may have an idea."

"Yeah, I like it." said Slade after a minute. He then looked at them all and said with a definite tone of authority, "From now on, this group will be known as, The Z warriors."