Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ, otherwise it would never be an underage TV show…
Warning: Violence, as in more than usual. Plus blood/gore stuff.
CHAPTER 15: INFERNAL RAGE OF THE LION OF FIRE
Something beeped. A long pink tail hit a button and a screen flashed on. "Sir, we'll reach Chikyuu-sei's atmosphere soon."
"Very well, prepare for landing at the source of the highest powerlevels… the Saiyans must be there."
"Yes, sir." The screen shut off.
"Ah, finally…" The tall, horned creature known and feared throughout the universe as King Cold rose from his chair and left his quarters, heading for the control room.
The heads of his commanders turned his way and they greeted him. He glanced to the large glass sphere that looked out to outside of the ship, seeing a blue-green planet instead of the usual black-with-white-dots.
"Have you located the place on this ball of mud where the highest powerlevels are?"
"Yes, sir. We're heading for them."
"Good."
"Where did you leave my gloves?"
"Nani?" Vegeta looked to Turles "I haven't done anything with them. Check the room we slept in, you must have left them there." And he went back to watching Raditz practise with his new-found favourite weapon. He thought of himself that he needed more skill with the blade.
Actually Vegeta didn't really understand why he would want to train with a weapon, but as the axe had saved them twice already… he didn't mind.
"Oh, there they are… Er… how the hell did you manage to… nevermind, I don't think I'm going to use them anymore." Turles's voice sounded from inside.
"Shouldn't have laid them so close to us." Vegeta chuckled some.
"Spare me the details." He walked back outside.
Turles watched his little brother along with his Prince, noticing his aim was surprisingly good, considering how short time he had to practise with the axe. When, in the field next to the small house, a scarecrow's head was neatly chopped off by one throw of the blade, he involuntarily rubbed over his own neck. "Not bad, bro…"
"Heh… thanks." He caught the axe back up after the spinning double-bladed weapon had made a turn in the air and came back in a boomerang-like circle.
"Hm… if you can manage to make it as quick as a ki blast, it might become very convenient."
"If I surprise my opponent, I already got that advancement of speed, Turles. Who would expect a Saiyan using a weapon? Besides, that ki blast-speed doesn't really matter in a close-hand battle. And it doesn't need any energy to use either, except for some strength, agility, and skill."
"True…"
"Perhaps you can try to combine your ki into your weapon…"
The Saiyans looked to Piccolo who had suddenly spoken. "What?"
The green-skinned warrior looked up to Raditz "Like a ki blast, but don't just throw the ki at your opponent, add it to the strength of the blade. Though, I think you already tried manipulating the blade with your ki, otherwise it wouldn't have returned like that…"
"Heh… yeah. Didn't feel like go searching it every time in that field. I'm not practising with this weapon to just lose it after using it once."
Piccolo kept his silence again and merely nodded in agreement, then he went back to his 'state of meditation'. But suddenly his eyes shot back open with an not-so-happy expression. "Nani? … What a powerlevel…"
"What? What do you mean?" Turles asked looking to him.
"There's an… enormous powerlevel with several other very strong powerlevels heading this way, from outer space."
"…… Frieza." Vegeta growled.
"I can't believe that bastard got here that fast… that large ship of him should have at least taken another few days to get here!" Raditz put his axe back on its 'secret place' behind his back.
"Yeah… but who else could it be." said Turles looking thoughtful.
"We'll soon find out." replied Vegeta, looking up to the sky as a shining star-like object had suddenly appeared in the morning sky.
The large circular ship landed in the middle of a forest, a few miles from the picked-up power readings. Several soldiers swarmed out to check out if the neighbourhood was safe, not that it was truly necessary, but formalities…
King Cold left the ship, followed by several high-ranking officers. He looked around to his soldiers who were eagerly awaiting his orders. He pointed to a group of soldiers "You stay here and guard the ship."
To several stronger and higher-ranked soldiers, he ordered "You go scout the area and search for that black creature… capture it if possible and bring it here, otherwise report to me. And the rest goes with me to get the Saiyans."
The soldiers nodded obediently.
"Sir?"
Cold looked to the officer, one of those appointed to guard the ship "What?"
"We noticed the arrival of a space pod… May we go check it out?"
"A few, not too much. Don't leave the ship unguarded, got it?"
"Yes, sir." He went off with a few other soldiers, while the second group spread in search for the mystical creature. King Cold himself went with his group of soldiers towards the sensed powerlevels. Several of the rest went back inside while others guarded the ship outside.
"So this is Chikyuu-sei…" He brushed some white strands out of his face, stretched some out, glad to be finally out of that cramped space of the pod.
Jeice had noticed the larger ship landing on the planet's surface before him. "Can't be Frieza… But who is it then? Must be someone of the Cold family, so King Cold himself, or Cooler…"
He turned, hearing something move in the bushes. "… But I guess I'll soon find out…" He smirked.
Piccolo stood up "They've landed… and several, under which that huge ki level, are headed this way." He took his weighted cape and turban off, throwing them aside.
"Just great…" said Vegeta, just sliding his armour on.
"At least we'll go down in a fight…" remarked Turles.
Vegeta growled "It seems like you're happy with that… I'm not… Like you said, Raditz, we still have to avenge our people; we can hardly do that if we're fucking dead!"
"But we can't run either. Heh… we'll have to see…"
"We're ready…" spoke Raditz, as they saw the first soldiers stepping out of the green of the forest and heading towards them.
"Plan:…" said Vegeta, getting in a fighting position "… Kill them as gruesome and painful as possible."
The other two Saiyans smirked "Hai, Ouji-sama."
The soldiers charged, and gained an unsuspected warm welcome. If you think a Saiyan gives up that easily… Think again.
When King Cold arrived, he was just in time to duck before getting hit by a scorched, unidentifiable body-part.
"But… I thought one of them was badly wounded, sir, they're all in… perfect condition, apparently." noted his highest elite soldier, a perfectly humanoid-looking creature next to the fact that his skin was somewhere between dark brown and black, his hair was fully white and his ears were more pointed than you would expect by a human.
"According to the scouter message, yes… how's this possible… but it doesn't matter. Those were low-elites anyway, just send some stronger soldiers."
"Yes, sir." The officer made a hand gesture to several soldiers beside him and they charged, not daring to think twice with the Cold tyrant watching. But they met the same fate as their predecessors. Scattered around the formerly so peaceful grass field lay severed, torched and torn apart corpses and body parts on the deep, newly-coloured crimson soil, sinking in a thick carpet of mist which hung low over the ground.
"We seemed to have underestimated these Saiyans…"
"Yes… But sir, let me and my men handle this, not those lower weaklings!"
"Fine."
The silence that suddenly reigned was merely disturbed by the heavy breathing of four warriors standing in the middle of the bloodbath-turned field. One swallowed "We won?"
"Can't be… this was just the vanguard…"
"Great…… er, Vegeta, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine… that last bastard busted my armour though…" The sound of something metallic or more synthetic hitting the ground.
"And you, Piccolo?"
"I'm alright, Turles…"
"Oh really… you're missing your lower arm."
"It's nothing."
"If you say so."
"You think they're waiting for something?"
"Don't know, little brother… I guess they'll be sending in the higher-ranked elites. At least, a lot stronger soldiers than these."
"And we still don't know who's attacking us, actually…"
The high officer left the greenery of the forest, he smirked 'Heh, true, those Saiyans could defend themselves very well, but against a top elite like me… this will be a piece of cake.' He was followed by several other soldiers, and even King Cold stepped out into the open.
"Nani? King Cold! What the fuck is he doing here?" The shortest of the group yelled.
"I was around, little monkeys… I have come to claim what my son has lost. You can just surrender now… but where would the fun be then? Amuse me." He signalled to the officer to attack.
As the dark-skinned warrior neared, Turles stepped forward "I'll take on this one…"
"But Turles, you…… I can perfectly fight that kisama too." Raditz protested and went up to his side.
Turles turned his head aside to look to the longhaired warrior "No, little brother. Indeed, you have fought well now, but this one is different from the former soldiers, he carries the uniform of a higher elite… I don't think even I stand a real chance against him, but… Raditz… protect our Prince."
Raditz kept silence this time and gave a slight nod, taking a few steps back. Turles turned back to the soldier who went into a charge, and he took on a fighting stance, readying to take the incoming blow.
Not that it had really prepared him, the high elite was a lot faster than the Saiyan, even if he was incredibly skilled for a supposed low-class. He kneed hard into his guts, causing him to bend over the soldier's knee, coughing up blood with wide eyes. The soldier smirked and stabbed his elbow hard down in his neck, slamming the Saiyan into the ground. He took a few steps back as he watches him struggle to his feet.
"Turles, let me…"
Turles held his hand up to silence his brother and gave a slight shake with his head. He spit out a bit of blood and looked to his opponent with rage in his eyes, his tail swayed agitated from side to side behind him. The soldier wasn't intimidated in the least, merely continued to smirk.
Turles growled and jumped into the air, charging a ki blast. But the soldier followed quickly after him, faded out of sight in speed and reappeared right in front of him before he saw the opportunity to fire his blast. He was too slow to block and blow after blow landed.
The Saiyan hit the ground again, a crater in the crimson-coloured grass.
"Turles!" Raditz ran towards his brother, but looked just up in time in mid-run to see the elite charging up a blast aimed towards him. His eyes widened as he heard a blast being fired… but the blow never came. He looked in surprised amazement as the soldier hit the ground… headless.
"N-nani?" He looked aside to where the saving blast had come from. "… Jeice?"
The red-skinned warrior grinned "Hey, mate…"
Raditz decided to not further question his strange presence and quickly went to check on his brother. "Turles? Come on, wake up.." Turles gave a soft groan, indicating he was still alive. Raditz sighed mentally and stood up to glare menacingly to the remaining soldiers and the tyrant himself. He noticed in the corner of his eyes that Piccolo gave Turles another one of those senzu beans, and stood beside him now as well.
'Hmph…I can't believe this, what is that fool thinking, those Saiyans are mine now.' The Cold tyrant sneered with contempt to the white-haired newcomer.
But he was disturbed in his line of thought as suddenly one of his soldiers he sent out to find the 'creature' neared him with wide, crazy eyes, foaming at his mouth and running like the Devil was hot on his heels. He would have ran right into King Cold if it wasn't for an elite to grab him, trying to calm him down.
"What the fuck's wrong with you, man? I……… my god…" The elite quickly dropped the poor man, fear written in his eyes. Maggots crawled out from the skin of the body that hit the ground. "H-He was … d-dead!" The elite, joined in by several other soldiers, screamed in horror as the corpse continued to decay further and further in front of their eyes, like a sick, twisted horror movie run forward. Even King Cold was shocked beyond anything. Everyone ran out into the open field, away from that cursed place, while the Saiyans and the Namek watched non-comprehending.
A sharp claw was placed on the metal-hard, black shoulder "You missed one, my Lord…"
"He won't come far…" The lupine demon face smirked maliciously "… I'm starting to remember more and more of my past, like my ancient magic."
The female demon grinned as she looked around to the corpses, maimed, slaughtered and shattered beyond all recognition. "It seems like… All the better, my Lord."
He started to walk further into the forest, towards where he sensed his soon-to-be new victims. But Kira stepped in front of him. Bardock looked to her questioningly.
"You'll leave that lizard creature alone…"
"Nani? But that kisama is going to kill my sons and my prince!"
"He might… we'll see."
Bardock growled "I'm going to make him curse the day he was born."
"Oh, he will… you can be certain of that."
"But…"
"No. You won't meddle in this… And I'm a time demon for something, trust me on this."
He sighed "Fine. But I'll kill him if it goes too far."
"You will kill him when I say so. But you won't even have to…" Kira turned. "Well, let's go then, you don't want to miss the spectacle, do you?" She had that strange, triumphant smile again.
Bardock raised a pure black eyebrow, shook his head and followed the dragon-winged girl.
After King Cold got over his initial shock from the utmost strange incident, he turned fuming with rage to the Saiyans. "You… You have something to do with this!"
"But… what the fuck are you talking about?" Vegeta snapped back, "Crazy bakayaro!"
"That black creature! It helped you out before! But it won't save your hide this time, you're coming with me now. The only thing you monkeys are good for are to fuck and to beat and I will see to it personally that you get both of it more than enough!" he grinned insanely "And as you have seriously pissed me off now… we'll do the latter right away."
In the blink of an eye, the large tyrant stood right in front of the Saiyan Prince and gave him a punch in the guts, followed by a hard kick, which sent him into the wall and knocked the breath out of his body.
"Vegeta!" Raditz screamed angrily and broke in a wild charge towards King Cold.
"Stay out of this, baka monkey, you'll turn will come…" He raised his hand almost lazily and fired a large blast towards the warrior.
But Raditz didn't feel the blast, for the second time… Jeice had jumped in front of him and caught the blast up with his body. "JEICE!"
The ex-Ginyu member fell limp down on the ground. Raditz immediately crouched by his side and turned him around, taking him in his arms. "No… why… why did you do this, I…"
Jeice smiled softly up to him "I… I don't even know myself… I just somehow had to… wanted to… protect you… I don't know exactly what it means, but we're bounded with each other… But … Rad…" he slipped into unconsciousness, his body going fully limp now.
Raditz closed his eyes shut, small tears slipping down from the corners, and gritted his teeth in anger.
A mocking laugh came from the lizard tyrant. "Oh no, did I hurt him? What a fool… Must have been fully crazy to just jump in front of a blast… the poor boy was nuts."
A dangerous, low growl erupted from deep within the Saiyan's throat "Kisama…" He rose slowly from the ground, not looking up "He… sacrificed himself for me… that's something a fool like you would never understand…" The Saiyan's shoulders shuddered.
King Cold smirked as he confused it with sobs. But his grin faded as he noticed the Saiyan was laughing.
The Saiyan looked up, but his eyes weren't the same anymore, they were red as if someone had put them on fire. His strange, now sharp-fanged grin was scary to even King Cold, for it shone with pure evil and bloodlust. He raised his arm in a sudden move, pointing at Cold. "Bakayaro… no, you would never understand… but at least, I can let you understand the true concept of pain, agony and… eventually, but no way too soon, death…" His smirk grew "You're all mine now, isn't it ironic?"
"Y-You're crazy, you… baka monkey! Y-You.. You're no m-match for me!"
"If you believe so, why is your voice shaking?"
"N-Nani?" King Cold swallowed, but his anger quickly replaced his fear "You damned stupid animal, you will pay for your insolence!"
"Oh no… it is YOU who will pay." Another shudder went through the Saiyan's body.
'W-What the fuck is the matter with that monkey? I … I know that he's nothing compared to me, but… why the hell do I feel so… scared…No! This can't be. I'm NOT scared of a little monkey! He… he will have less talk if I let him see how his precious Prince dies, heh…'
King Cold turned and prepared a blast, aimed at the smaller Saiyan lying dazed on the ground with his back to the wall of the house. But he suddenly saw something explode in fire where the other Saiyan stood. His energy for the blast dissipated as he turned trembling to whatever was going on with wide eyes, a few droplets of sweat running over his ugly face.
The longhaired Saiyan was engulfed in a pillar of fire as he let out a terrifying, primal roar. A red creature shot out of the pillar, like a fire blast, heading with incredible speed to the tyrant. But for Cold himself everything seem to go in slow motion: this wasn't the Saiyan anymore, but a deadly, horrifying beast. For what others saw as a fire blast, he saw every detail of.
The creature's body would be an armour if it wasn't for the fact that it seemed to move. It wasn't still and looked like… liquid fire! It had the long mane of the Saiyan, but now it existed of deep yellow flames. But the face wasn't the Saiyan's at all… A fiery, ferocious lion. A Lion of Fire…
A searing hot pain tore through him. He screamed out in agony, the lion's claw had went right through his chest, but the mere fact of the burning creature standing so close to him already hurt enormously. Every part of his body seemed to stand on fire, the flames consumed him bit by bit. The agony seemed to continue for an eternity for the Cold tyrant… but suddenly stopped, only a painful, stinging feeling remained, and the hot feeling of the creature's near presence.
He tried to open his eyes, but the only thing he saw was flames… flames, and the creature standing in the middle of them, an insane, horrifying smirk on his face, his eyes infernos of malice. In his hand… claw… he held… an axe? '… I remember, that axe the Saiyan used… but… what does he want with it…' The flames from the background suddenly shot forward and snaked and whirled around his arm, over his hand and over the weapon.
'What the…'
More flames circled around the blade, shifting, changing, shaping it like a sculptor. The axe became larger and longer, and finally rose from the fire: a red, decorated with black and glowing white and yellows signs, halberd. In his other hand, he held a large sword, the handle was fully crimson red and seemed to move and shift under its wielder's claws, eager to obliterate and destroy the opponent who dared to stand up against its master. The blade glowed darkly and red lightning shot over the edges of the blade.
King Cold swallowed slowly 'This… this is just a nightmare! … must be! Please… just let me wake up now and let me laugh at the memory…'
But the creature laughed and spoke in a dark, evil voice, a twisted version of what once had been the Saiyan's voice "You fool… you still don't get it, do you? Ever believed in destiny? A little late now… for this is the end of yours!"
Searing, enormous pain and agony, all the way through and back again. But the flames devoured him fully now, starting from the two slashes: one as the sword cut through his waist and two as the halberd cleaved him in two from head to toe.
The entire fire blast had gone through him.
Turles, Vegeta and Piccolo couldn't believe what just has happened… As if they had blinked just when the explaining fragment of a second went past. Vegeta was alright… the fool had just hit him a bit too hard, that's all. He just had some headache.
On the side lay the body of Jeice, Piccolo went to check up on him "He's not dead…" He searched his pocket "My last one, heh, you're lucky…" He put the senzu bean in Jeice's mouth, who automatically chewed the strange thing in his mouth and swallowed.
Jeice opened his eyes surprised "… Huh? What the… er… thanks……… Raditz!" He shot upright "Where's Raditz?"
Everyone looked to the other side of the field, where they expected King Cold to stand… lay four strange piles of smoking ashes. Behind those… lay Raditz.
They blinked, Jeice and Vegeta quickly ran to the longhaired body lying in the grass.
A sigh "He's just unconscious…"
