--- The Phoenix Chronicles ---
Chapter 25 - Springing the Trap
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Kaen grinned in spite of himself as he stood on the bridge of the Icebreaker, observing the vast nothingness of space as the ship sped to its next destination. In an attempt to salvage what was left of the Saiyan race, a relay signal had been sent out, providing a series of safe recon points for Saiyan refugees, pickup points for any and all remaining Saiyan ships, all of them safe from the Cold Empire; and many of them worlds he himself had freed during his travels. One of the planets was special, however, and it was this planet they were headed to now; he remembered how much fun he had last time he was there, prompting the grin.
Frost maintained his vigil over the controls; with the creators of the ship onboard, things had gone a lot more smoothly, with fewer hiccups (however, with a Nekojin and a Torijin on board, it was impossible for there to be no hiccups). By Kaen's request, Kat was managing the twins' training session for the day, putting them through a low power/high technique workout.
With the hiss of an automatic door opening, Avarrdo and Kellre strode on to the bridge, the latter asking, "How much farther from the bait planet?"
Frost just responded simply, "Half an hour at the most."
"I should go see how the pests are doing then shouldn't I?" Kaen asked, more to himself than anything, as he walked off.
Avarrdo chuckled, "Save your strength boy."
Kaen just waved lazily over his shoulder, "Why? I've got plenty of it."
Turning from her departing mate, Pi asked curiously, "Bait planet?"
Avarrdo nodded to himself, replying, "It would seem Frieza has declared open season on Saiyans as a whole, even handing out rewards to those who successfully kill our kind. To this end, we left the co-ordinates of the first 'safe world' un-coded on purpose, to see who we could flush out."
"It's a fairly standard strategy," Avery supplied, "If you think there's going to be a trap, the best way to make sure it to spring it, and be prepared to catch the bar before it snaps down on your back."
"That's why we're doing it," Kellre added, "Because, I think we have more than enough capable hands on board to break a few heads; not to say the other Saiyans can't take care of themselves, but we do have some of the strongest right here, and if we don't do this now, chances are they'll have all the fun before we get there."
Avery just rolled his eyes, replying sarcastically, "We couldn't have that could we?"
All Saiyans present just grinned, replying together, "Of course not!" before bursting into laughter, and, seemingly to spite himself, Avery couldn't help joining in; Frost just shook his head, if only to hide the grin on his own face.
Kaen walked back in shortly after, this time with Kat and the twins in tow; no sooner had the terrors set foot in the room when they cried, "Are we there yet?"
"Almost," Frost replied, "Whoever is headed down, hop on the transporter." Kaen was quick to hop on, followed just as quickly by Pi, Kat, and the twins. Looking at each other and sharing a nod, Avarrdo, Kellre and Truniz joined them. "Anyone else game?" Frost asked; Avery, the only person left in the room beside himself, just waved his hand lazily. With a nod, Frost began entering the commands, "Alright then, hang on now, you'll be there momentarily." With that, they were enveloped by a blue light, and beamed down to the planet's surface.
o-o-o
When the light faded, they were on the surface of a scorched world, lifeless and still, save for the occasional lava spout. Looking around, Avarrdo mused, "Hmm, extreme volcanic activity that, in several years, might be able to support life again. This has all the hallmarks of your work alright." The last remark was aimed at his son.
Said son just shrugged, "One of my tech tests. I was curious just how powerful it was."
"I assumed as much," he replied dryly.
"No style..." Truniz muttered.
"Hey, I was fifteen, and it seemed like a good idea at the time." Kaen defended himself hotly.
"Well then," Kellre interrupted, "Let's not keep them waiting." With no more words needed, the group took off to the east; on a dead world, it's not hard to find the few signs of life that would be their enemy.
o-o-o
As they neared the area the concentration of power came from, they could see a group of just seven blue-skinned beings, decked out in Cold Empire armour. Grinning, Kaen muttered, "This looks promising..." before turning to the others, commented, "Better not keep them waiting; that would be rude." The group landed on the ground, Kaen a mere step in front of Pi, who stood just behind him to his left, and Oran, Lime, and Kat (who had shifted her appearance mid-flight to look Saiyan) stood further being him to the right. Kellre stood behind his daughter, on the left, and Avarrdo was behind Kaen on the right; Truniz was in the middle of the both of them.
On the whole, the seven blue-skinned creatures looked about equal to them; their power level was slightly lower, but that was to be expected. 'This would almost be a fair fight,' Kaen thought to himself, fighting back a bastardly grin, 'If the lot of us weren't holding back over half our power.'
The leader of the blue soldiers spoke up, sneering, "I was wondering when you monkeys would start showing up."
"Well," Kaen replied mockingly, "As the guests of honour, we do need to be fashionably late."
The leader just barked a laugh, "Idiots. Your transmission was easy to translate, no matter the static. What kind of fool broadcasts information like that on an open network? Frieza wants you all hunted down and killed like the animals you are; being in one place just makes the job easier."
"Actually," Kellre replied in a lecturing tone, "That information was just bait to draw you away from the real locations we're gathering our forces. That 'static', as you called it, is actually Saiyan battle code, created purely for the purpose of being relayed over open networks safely; none of the Cold Empire computers or technicians know of it's existence."
"And don't bother trying to radio this in to anyone," Avarrdo added, "I think you'll find you're being jammed."
"Oh, one last thing," Truniz smirked, "Your scouters are only showing us at 10 of our actual power levels, thanks to a little ability called 'ki suppression'."
Their leader laughed again, but it wasn't quite as confident as last time, "Yeah right."
"Actually sir," one of the others pointed out, "We are being jammed sir."
The leader shook his head, "Anyone can do that; the rest of it is a bluff."
"A bluff, eh?" Kaen grinned, turning to the others, "Shall we?" The other Saiyan men just looked back at him with feral grins, as did Pi, so he turned back around, bending his knees slightly and clenching his fists as he focused on bringing his power to the fore, mirrored by the others; he didn't bother taking it beyond. A red aura flared into life around Kaen, seeming to feed off the surrounding environment. Seconds later, a deep green aura flared up around Pi, followed by light blue, white, and golden auras around Avarrdo, Truniz, and Kellre, respectively.
As the roar from five mouths began rising, so too did loose pieces of the environment, rocks of increasing sizes being lifted into the air as the flood of power began digging deeper into the already volatile ground. It was about now that all seven of the enemies' scouters exploded, one after another, and yet their power kept rising. Finally, with one massive shout, their energy levels capped out, creating minor tornados around each of them, before the wind died down, the airborne rocks falling back to the ground, and the aura's around the five combatants receded to feint glows; Kaen's eyes and hair had also taken on a mild rust-like tinge, and Pi's a faint green glow.
It was Pi that broke the standoff, making a single fist out of both hands, and slamming it into the ground with a cry of "Aftershock!" Seeing this, their seven foes took to the air moments before the ground below them exploded, the shards of earth causing superfluous damage at best.
Taking advantage of their airborne foes, Kaen charged ki in both of his hands, flinging it towards them with a shout of, "Firestorm!" Despite the ensuing shower of ki, only two of them were actually struck by the wave of blasts, and even then came out relatively unscathed, their armour smoking slightly.
The seven enemies attacked as one, firing down powerful dark blasts with a shout of "Death Rain!" The group of Saiyans (Kat included as a near-Saiyan) all dove out of the way of the onslaught, but Truniz and Avarrdo were unfortunate enough to take some splash damage; minor damage, but annoying nonetheless.
Summoning her own brand of dark ki, Kat attempted to call forth a pair of her Shadow Warriors, but she was interrupted by another blast from above. Diving out of the way, she lost her focus, the ki dispersing as she cursed, "Damnit!" Looking around, she noticed the three older Saiyan men were nowhere to be seen before, with a sudden flare of ki, they appeared behind the group of enemies, Truniz hitting one with a hammer-blow, Avarrdo round-house kicking another, and Kellre catching a third across the face with an elbow, stunning them, and knocking them to the ground.
In a flare of energy, the twins burst off the ground, splitting up, only to spin in midair and tag-team the same opponent. Oran threw a flying kick to the man's face, and Lime did the same to his back, and with a sickening crack, the body spun uncontrollably, before crashing into the ground, shuddering a bit before dissolving into a slime-like substance; a quick glance at the remaining six showed they were glowing slightly. Grinning at each other, the twins cried out, "Cool!"
Kat raised her arms, clenched fists together, surrounded with dark ki. With a yell, she drew her fists back to either side, throwing them forward together and releasing the energy with a shout of "Titan's Shadow!" There were no obvious effects from her technique, save the shadow rushing along the ground; it was that shadow that was the attack. Of the three enemies standing on the ground, two of them managed to realise what was going on and take to the air before the invisible energy, to which the shadow reflected, destroyed them; one did not.
Seeing as it had worked so well last time, the twins tried the same trick again, but their foe had clearly learned their lesson, side-stepping at the last second, and causing the two to go careening into each other. Groaning to himself, Kaen called out, "Watch what you're doing next time would you?" The pair just rubbed their heads from their position on the ground, causing him to shake his head at them, 'and they were doing so well too...'
The three men opted to try something similar, only much less hazardous. Phasing in at the right time, Avarrdo delivered a punishing kick to his target's torso, followed by Truniz appearing behind him with a haymaker, which their foe was fast enough to spin around and catch; that, however, just left him open to the knee drop from above, courtesy of Kellre. Despite the severity of the beating, however, the target remained standing, albeit wobbling a little.
Pi levelled her hands at a further target, incinerating it with her Titan Burst technique. With three of their number killed, the remaining four tried to even the odds, but found their efforts for naught, as even Kat and the twins were able to evade the attacks, despite the surprising ferocity.
Charging towards one of them, Kaen drew his sword, the flame-styled blade glowing, if it could be called that, with black ki as he swung. Through value of shock alone, the blue-skinned warrior managed to dodge backwards, but, following through with the momentum, Kaen spun around, the blade changing colour to an orange glow as he planted it beneath his foe's ribs, grinning as he gloated, "That feel nice?" The man, however, was wounded, and quite possibly mortally so, but not dead, head butting him, and driving the sword out of his body.
As their opponent's pressed the attack again, they found themselves hard pressed to do any damage at all, let alone lasting damage; of the entire group, only Pi was hit, and even then, the worst she got was a kick to the chest, that hurt her pride more than anything. In retaliation, she kicked the man back, cracking him right on the skull; he was dazed, and there was no real damage done, but payback had been served.
The twins moved to attack again, this time choosing to attack at range, Oran using his Giga Cannon, and Lime her Blast Cannon. As the blasts streaked towards the enemies, they curved the beams at the last second, trying a different style of pincer move, but like the time before their foe saw it coming and dived out of the way; this time, however, there was no damage to themselves.
Kellre just laughed, "Pay attention you two, we'll show you how it'd done. Truniz?" The younger man nodded, phasing in behind one of the enemy soldiers, and delivering a punishing kick to its neck, sending it flying towards his brother. With a smirk, Kellre charged up a blast, waiting until the enemy was almost upon him before firing, with a shout of "Meteor Blast!" The deep orange blast slammed into their opponent's midsection, sending him skyward, where Avarrdo was waiting with an arm extended. With a matching smirk, he cried out, "Fission Wave!" The radioactive-green energy wave crashed into the blue man's back, driving him deep into the ground; while thoroughly thrashed, their opponent was still alive, albeit in a lot of pain.
Looking around, Kaen noticed one of the enemies trying to sneak attack Kat, who was in turn charging one of her attacks, so before the man could make contact, Kaen formed a chain of dark ki in his left hand, lashing out with it and binding the would-be attacker. Smirking as the man fought to break free, Kaen admonished, "It's not very nice to attack people in the back." The hand from which the whip extended began glowing red, as Kaen used one of his techniques to combine two of his attacks, firing a Nova Blast along the Hellfire Whip. The red beam traced it's way along the black chain, and with the target already bound, he had no hope to escape, and was consumed by the blaze.
Taking notes from their elders, Oran raised his hands again to fire off another Giga Cannon, as his sister phased in behind the man, distracting him with a kick to the back of the head; he, however, bore the brunt of the attacks with no sign of damage. With an evil smirk, the man called out, "Fools! Destroying us only makes the rest stronger!" As if trying to prove this fact, he grabbed hold of Lime's leg, throwing her at her brother, and the two collided painfully.
Scowling, Pi raced towards the one that had attacked the twins, drawing her sword. With a cry of "Zantetsuken!" she sped forward in a blur of light, slashing once with the green blade before sheathing it again. The blue creature floated there for a moment, as if unaffected, before simply falling in half, a look of shock frozen on the halves of his face.
As the twins panted out, "Thanks big sister," she just smiled at them, but in her eyes they could see the silent message about their need to learn more. However, they could tell she wasn't admonishing them, merely telling them; Kaen, on the other hand, would no doubt have a few choice words to say later on.
Seeing the twins safe, Kaen's dark whip lashed out again, catching one of the two remaining soldiers around the arm. As the alien struggled to free itself, having seen what happened the last time this whip bound anyone, Kaen raised his sword above his head, the point facing his opponent, as the blade began glowing white. Without warning, a gout of white flame, Balefire, burst forth from the sword, engulfing the man, and leaving nothing behind.
By coincidence or fate, the soldier wearing the markings of the leader was the only one remaining. Kellre dropped to the volcanic ground, taking up a stance that read something fierce, barking out to the others, "I need some time. His final form isn't going to be easy. Keep him occupied."
Shaking her head slightly, Kat muttered to herself, "I hope this works..." Taking a deep breath, she began moving her hands through a series of complex kata, slow at first, then building in speed, before, finally, she was engulfed in white energy (an oddity, considering her normal black ki), and the pillar of blinding light stretched far into the sky. Within seconds, bolts of white light began raining down from the sky, too fast and numerous to count, peppering the area where the one remaining soldier stood, before the rain of light, and the pillar that spawned it, faded out.
When the light died down, the bloodied, broken form of the leader remained, looking like he should have been dead at least ten times over, but he remained standing, shouting, "I will never die!" Sure enough, the wounds began to heal before their eyes, and it became all too clear that, in a short time, he would be as good as new again.
With no words spoken, Avarrdo and Truniz leapt upon him, each man grabbing an arm and twisting it behind his back to hold him in place, before Kellre signalled he was ready. Levelling his hand at the leader, they could see Kellre's eyes were blank, and completely white, and the two men dived out of the way as his cold, distant voice intoned, "Final Destiny." With a shuddering crack of sound, as if the ground itself were crying in pain, the area was enveloped in a thick haze, and when it faded, only Kellre remained, back to his normal self, bending down to pick up a simple glass orb.
Avarrdo was the first to return, musing, "So, that was the last of the Mer'pakann. They are supposedly immortal."
"Not this one," Kellre replied, crushing the orb between his hands, "Not any more."
Sheathing his sword, Kaen turned to where Kat had been standing, with the intention of praising her attack, but was surprised not to find her; instead, he noticed a ginger cat sitting there calmly, surrounded by what he assumed were the clothes she'd been wearing. Sensing his confusion, Pi looked over as well, rushing up to the kitten while almost squealing, "Ooooh, how cute!"
Sparing a glance for Kellre and his father, Kaen landed next to the cat, which promptly leapt onto his shoulder - a fair height, considering its size, or lack thereof - and perched there like a parrot. Landing next to him, Truniz commented, "Looks like the little Neko bit off more than she could chew."
"Hell of an attack though," Kaen nodded, before grinning as he added, "She's gonna be so pissed when she changes back, assuming she does of course."
"Which is why we must record this," Pi commented, calmly picking up the discarded clothes.
"You're pure evil," Kaen grinned, "I knew there was a reason I loved you."
A crackle came across the radio, the voice belonging to Frost. "We've been watching the whole battle, and we don't plan on missing a thing." He paused as the twins walked up, Pi using her minor healing skills on them while they were distracted with the cat on Kaen's shoulder, before asking, "Ready to come home?"
Kaen shrugged the shoulder the cat wasn't sitting on, "Looks that way." A slight buzz later, they were back on board the Icebreaker, and the older men slipped away to nurse their wounds in their own way, Avarrdo and Kellre with their mates, and Truniz with a drink or three.
"Wow," Frost commented, "That attack sure had some nasty backlash." The others noticed a floating sphere next to him; one of the recorder droids. Without warning, Kat, now more of a kitten, leapt off Kaen's shoulder towards Frost, and, through some twist of fate, landed on his head, sliding slightly on the crystalline blue carapace. A little unsure how to handle the situation, he carefully plucked Kat from his head and held her, musing, "Oh sure, now she's all over me..." With a sigh, he began absently stroking her fur, and, if her purring was evidence enough, she seemed to enjoy the attention; noticing that, he added, "Now I just feel cheap."
The others assembled all started grinning, Avery being the only one to make a sound as he barked a laugh. The sound of the birdman's voice drew Kat's attention, and the gaze she shot his way was somewhat predatory; he was, after all, a bird. "Ohh, this ought to be good..." Frost mused, as, leaping to the ground, the little cat began to stalk towards the birdman, pouncing when she got close enough, and sinking her tiny claws and teeth into his boot; neither actually dug in deep enough to reach the flesh beneath, however.
Releasing him, the little kitten apparently decided he was no longer prey, as she began rubbing against the same leg she'd attacked, her tail coiling around it. A wry grin on his face, Avery commented, "I don't know whether to be happy, surprised, or disturbed..."
Pi just giggled, I am so glad this is being recorded." Turning to Frost, she asked menacingly, "It is being recorded, right?" The Aisu just nodded nastily, and she became all smiles again, much to his relief.
Turning away from the birdman, much to his relief, Kat raced over to the meditating Flute, taking a running leap at his head; or, more specifically, the turban on top of, upon which she curled up, evidently quite comfortable. Despite herself, Viola couldn't help the giggle that escaped her mouth at the look on his face. Reaching up, the Namek caught Kat by the scruff of her neck, holding her at eye level as he mused, "The intensity of the attack caused her to revert to a more primitive form... Interesting." With that he calmly placed Kat upon Viola's head, wearing a smirk of his own; one that was quickly erased as, no sooner had he let go, she jumped back onto his head, seemingly just to spite him.
Giggling herself, Pi retrieved Kat from his head, tickling her belly, commenting, "Oh, she's so cute like this. It's a shame she can't stay this way." From her place resting in the crook of Pi's arm, Kat began batting at the fingers tickling her; her claws weren't extended, so it was clearly just a game.
Walking over to stand next to her, Kaen chuckled, "She is never going to live this down."
The twins zipped over, chirping, "Can we play with her? We promise we'll be careful."
Pi just looked at her mate, saying, "Your call."
He shrugged, "You hurt her, and I will have to kill you." It was quite obvious that he wouldn't in fact, actually kill them; just hurt them quite severely. Nodding, Lime carefully extracted Kat from Pi's grip, placing her on the ground, before both she and her brother began flicking weak balls of ki, about as damaging as crunched-up paper, at the little kitten, who attempted to bat them away in an odd feline version of soccer; she seemed to enjoy the game, as did they, by the way they were laughing.
"I wonder how long it'll last..." Pi mused.
"Well," Kaen replied thoughtfully, "I've had a bit of experience with backfiring attacks, and judging by the amount of power, I'd say she had at least an hour, or-" he paused, looking at the clock, before adding, "about forty to forty-five minutes left."
Pi just nodded, "Well, when she has about five minutes left, I'll take her, and her clothes, back to her room."
"Don't tell her what happened though," Kaen grinned.
She smirked back, "I don't plan on telling her anything beyond the basics."
Kaen cast an eye over the twins, still grinning as he commented, "They always did want a pet..."
"Well making one out of their sister isn't going to be too effective," Pi replied, a grin on her face as well. "Besides," she added, "I'm sure they need more training, if today's battle was any indication."
He nodded, "I know. They're too dependant on each other, so I might have to start training them separately, but that can wait until later; let them have their fun now." She nodded, smiling softly as she rested against him, his arm around her, as they watched the two children play; a mighty blow had been struck today, but what happened tomorrow, could wait for tomorrow.
End Chapter 25
To be continued...