--- The Phoenix Chronicles ---

Chapter 18 - Boot Camp Hell

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The group stood assembled in the hangar bay, as the Icebreaker settled into a holding pattern in orbit around the location of the sixth dragon ball. The two green-skinned beings known as Flute and Viola were preparing the drop ship for planet fall, under the eager eye of the young Saiyan woman Pi, and the mildly curious eyes of her male counterpart Kaen, the latter of which stretching in preparation.

Their Aisu 'commander' Frost had already made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of going into battle, citing the reason that, given their track record thus far with recovering the dragon balls, a quick getaway might be needed, and thus he had to be ready for that eventuality; added to that was the fact the world below assured a fairly heavy concentration of Cold Empire forces, and the Icebreaker was stolen property.

It would appear that not everyone on board was as reluctant, though, as the sound of fast approaching footsteps attested to, along with the cry of, "Wait! Can I come with you?" The voice was that of the young Neko-Jin Kat, skidding to a halt outside Flute's ship, wearing the new outfit she'd bought: a tight black sleeveless top and tight black pants, both leather-look, if not leather, with matching boots and combat gloves; the only difference was the addition of a strikingly familiar black trench coat.

When Flute made no attempt to stop her, she turned to her adopted brother for his opinion; Kaen, in turn, looked to Pi for an answer. When the dark haired girl just smiled and nodded, Kaen shrugged, "'K, just make sure you don't get in my way." This roughly translated into 'Sure, welcome aboard.'

When the young redhead jumped on, not wishing to delay them any longer, Flute called out, "Anyone else coming?"

Kat just shook her head, though the gesture was wasted on the Namek's back, as she replied, "Nope. Avery made it perfectly clear that the last adventure we had was quite enough for him, so he's sitting this one out." Flute made no response to this, merely setting the ship into planet fall, eliciting an 'eep' from the young catgirl, and a glare at his back; again, the gesture was wasted.

o-o-o

The ship made an easy landing in a remote valley, and, in a change of pace, Flute was the first one off the ship, his would-be shadow Viola on his tail; Kaen waited behind for the two girls. When the three walked up, they noticed Flute crouched on the edge of a cliff, a slight grimace on his face; for him, that equated to a full-blown scowl. Grinning a little, Kaen whispered, for safety's sake, "That good huh?"

The green man made no reply, merely watching over what could only be a large encampment of Cold Empire forces; a training camp, by the look of things. Kaen had to physically restrain himself from breaking out into evil laughter, and even Pi had to fight off giddy excitement. Turning back, Flute asked dryly, "The dragon ball is down there; any ideas?"

Kaen's grin just widened, "Of course, but I don't think you'd like my idea..."

Flute's reply was a sharp, "Anything that will not cause the dragon ball to be destroyed is fine at this point; there is a reason I cannot allow that."

His eyes scanning the camp below the ridge, Kaen asked quietly, "So, any ideas as to a rough location, so we can leave that part intact?"

"We could cause a distraction further down, or attack them without ki attacks," Pi added.

Flute inclined his head towards the large tent in the centre - the commander's tent - as he replied, "In there, as far as I can tell."

"I'll get it," Kat piped up, breaking the others from their musing. Slipping her coat off, she cast her gaze over the others, adding, "Gimme a minute to get close enough, then make a diversion somewhere else in the camp, 'k?" When they nodded their agreement, she collected a small amount of dark ki in her hand, raising it above her head and releasing it with a whispered, "Eclipse." As a shroud of darkness settled over the area - a surprisingly large area for the little ki she used - another whispered technique was heard; "Cloak of Shadows."

"You have sixty seconds," Flute commented to the darkness, knowing the cat girl's sharp hearing would pick it up, as she slipped away from the group and into the camp.

"You know, this is almost too easy," Pi muttered, "You can tell they're rookies; if they knew any better, they'd realise it's a set up." Kaen just nodded his agreement, the gesture lost to the surrounding darkness.

Kat slipped into the tent, her sharp feline eyes searching inside for the dragon ball. Spotting the commander stumbling around, she felt a grin slide onto her face, but pressed on, mildly panicking with the knowledge her time was almost up; it had taken her longer to sneak into the camp than she'd guessed. Spotting the ball on an ornate looking pedestal, she quickly snatched it, racing out of the tent as fast as she could; a flare of ki at the edge of her senses informed her that the time for stealth had passed. Her minute was up.

Flute stood up on the ridge, flaring his ki both to signal Kat, and to draw every scouter in the camp to his location; time was up. Kaen followed suit, but he carried through with creating a proper 'distraction', making, and firing, a Supernova into the camp, completely obliterating one of the tents; 9 soldiers died in the blaze.

The light suddenly came back in the camp. There was no fade in; one second, total darkness, the next, midday light. With the legion temporarily blinded, Kat raced through the camp, trusting the ki sense her brother taught her to be her eyes; with her night vision, she herself had been blinded with everyone else.

There was a crush of bodies as vision returned to the legion; a standard case of divide-and-conquer. Close to three-dozen troupes swarmed each member of the group, all dealt with in their own fashion. As the troupes descended on her, Viola focused her ki inwards, glowing for a moment as she crackled with lightning, before her physical form faded out, leaving a humanoid being made of pure lightning, and the soldiers found out the hard way that her latest technique was rather... shocking.

Clutched her hands together into a hammer blow, Pi charged her hands with ki, slamming them into the ground with a cry of, "Titan's Maw!" The ground opened up under a cluster of enemies, four managing to scramble out of the jaws of earth before they closed; twenty-two others weren't nearly as lucky.

Charging a ball of energy into a fist he lobbed it over his head, shouting the name of "Cluster Bomb!" The ball of ki exploded into four, slightly smaller balls, all different colours, which fell into the throng of enemies. Three exploded in a surge of ki, while the fourth erupted into a haze of vapour, searing the flesh of those caught. When the attack died down, thirteen more of the troupes had been killed; an unlucky number, to be sure.

After such a display of power, the counter attack was, put simply, pathetic. Kat ducked and weaved between enemies, pulling up short one second, diving above or below a body the next, until she made her way back to the cliff without a single attack being landed. Kaen, on the other hand, just sidestepped the attacks lazily, before sending them sprawling with a kiai, a flare of ki, and a sourly muttered, "Pfft. Rookies."

As Kat skidded to a halt in front of Flute, she held out the dragon ball, previously clutched tightly to her chest, and chirped, "See? Told you I'd get it!" Flute just tucked the ball into his coat, the two Saiyans inclining their heads towards their sister, matching smirks on their faces as the crush of bodies descended again.

Deciding some vast population control was in order, Kaen prepared his trademark attack - well, the newest version of anyway - but instead of focusing the energy into a contained wave of energy, released it in more of a spray with a cry of "Chaos Inferno!" A massive cone of flame fired from his hands, spreading out in a sixty-degree angle in all directions, and catching no less than thirty men.

Viola just fired a series of ki blasts, her Static Field technique, and while only four were unfortunate enough to be killed, it did serve its purpose; it kept others back. Pi focused her ki into the ground again, this time using Gaia Disruption, and exploding the ground beneath a cluster, killing seven and stunning another nine. Of the remaining troupes not otherwise busy, a cluster or three attempted to off the Namek and the girl, but found their efforts in vain; even while distracted, Flute and Kat were well aware of their surroundings, and more than capable of defending themselves.

With the soldiers momentarily distracted, Kat charged a ball of dark ki in either hand, releasing them to hover beside her, and in an odd feat, the light from said balls created shadows on either side of her. As she cried out "Shadow Clone Technique!" the ki seemed to pass through her body, feeding into the shadows they created, and from those shadows emerged dark copies of her, mimicking her appearance completely, except completely black.

The Shadow Warriors moved to either side of her, facing the troupes like a pair of guards, and raised their hands, firing off a wave of Black Lightning in either direction, eliminating a total of thirty-six would-be attackers, and causing a rare look of shock to flood her brother's face.

Flute threw both his hands forward, the first two fingers on each extended, firing a Demon Corkscrew with each hand; his Demon Twister technique. The rail blasts drilled through twelve men each, leaving a smoking hole through their chests before impacting with the ground, exploding with a shower of earth.

Jumping back from the hot zone a little, Pi raised both hands above her head, crying out, "Share your energy with me!" A pale blue ball began to form in the air above and between her hands, and steadily grew larger as more and more of the planet's energy answered the call.

Smirking at his mate, Kaen commented, "Don't worry Pi, I'll keep them busy." He raised his hands as if her were praying, and with a small flare of ki, a fire burst to life on the ground in front of him, reaching waist height. However, as he threw his hands apart, the flames spread rapidly to either side, defying logic as they curved around the soldiers, trapping them in the blaze as the Fire Wall reached completion; several soldiers found out the hard way that there was no way out of the cage, as the fire was surprisingly solid, and grew to any height needed to prevent escape.

"Perhaps we should use this time to leave?" Flute suggested.

Kaen just barked a laugh, "Leave? While we're winning?"

An unknown voice called out from behind him, "Ever heard of giving up while you're ahead?" The voice was gravely, grating, and almost assuredly belonged to one of Frieza's Elite; the commander of the camp had chosen to make himself known.

Without turning around, but keeping his sixth sense locked on the man should he try anything, Kaen just shrugged a reply, "I don't run from a fight, especially from the likes of you Dodoria." The pink skinned warrior just chuckled, running his hand over his head as though he had hair, brushing along the spikes of his skull, before crossing his arms over his chest, the form fitting armour revealing his built, but not overweight, frame. Turning around finally, Kaen remarked, "You're a long way from home pinko."

Dodoria just smirked, "Well, well, well. If it isn't a wayward pair of monkeys? I'd say I've had to crush far too many of your kind already, but you can never kill too many monkeys, and a couple more won't hurt."

Still smirking, but wordlessly urging Kat to get behind him, Kaen replied, "You can try, but I assure you, I'm no easy meat. Better men than you have tried, and failed, to get rid of me."

Dodoria just slipped into his stance, his gaze focused on the Saiyan male before him as he chuckled again, "We'll see, monkey. We'll see..."

With his gaze focused on Kaen, he somehow managed to miss the, now large, ball of pale blue ki hovering above Pi's outstretched hands. Turning her attack away from the penned enemies, she shouted, "Chew on this you tub of lard!" As the Gaia Bomb sped towards him, Dodoria made to dodge, but the blast impacted too close for it to matter, launching his battered, burnt body back towards the camp. Grunting in satisfaction, Pi muttered, "I hate being called a monkey." Kaen just wrapped an arm around her, smirking pridefully.

Looking over the damage, Flute remarked, "I think it's time we left."

Kaen, however, shook his head in disagreement, saying, "That pen won't hold forever. I say we mop up first."

Flute shook his head in turn, locking eyes in a battle of wits, "Leave them. We have what we came for, and I wish to find the final dragon ball as soon as possible."

Growling a little, Kaen just replied, "Then go on ahead; leave my pod behind if you're in that much of a hurry. I've already left too many witnesses to get back to Frieza, and I will not leave any more."

Yielding, Flute just gave him a discerning frown, muttering sourly, "Do what you must and be quick about it," before taking off for his ship, the now solid Viola following in his wake.

Turning to the two girls, just muttered almost softly, "Go on, I won't be a minute." Kat started to leave, but she paused again when she noticed that Pi wasn't budging. With another low growl, Kaen turned away from them and back to the remaining sixty-odd soldiers penned off by his flames. He closed his eyes, a golden aura erupting around him as he flared into his golden form, and he slowly raised his clenched right hand, muttering lowly, "No witnesses..."

Opening both his eyes, and his hand, a pure black ball of ki rapidly formed before his palm, seemingly absorbing the light around it, and he fired it instantly. The Gravity Cannon lived up to its name; sucking the soldiers into the artificial singularity it created, leaving no trace behind that they'd even been there.

His hair fading back to black, he turned back to the girls, almost smiling as he said, "Well, let's go."

Pi scratched her cheek for a minute, commenting, "That's a new one. How come you've never shown me that before?"

This time he did smile as he replied, "Well, can't really use it in friendly combat; it has the nasty drawback of being quite fatal."

Latching onto his arm as the three headed back to the drop ship, she just cried out, "Well, you'll just have to show me how you do it sometime outside of sparring then won't you?"

End Chapter 18

To be continued...