Chapter 9: Stopping the Ape
The Oozaru relaxed and the moment settled. No one made a sound. No one moved. The air was filled with an uneasy silence as the Oozaru slowly begun to shift and looked up, Dazir falling into its view once again. The monster grits its teeth and growled deeply, stepping forward towards the little old man. Dazir stepped back, stumbling and falling down, and with that the Oozaru was set off, breaking into a run and charging towards Dazir.
Android #17 reacted instantly to fly down and grab Dazir, dropping him out of the way. The little old man cowered and backed off, seeing the giant transformed Noca crash into the rocks. #17 looked down on him.
"Leave, now," he demanded. Dazir looked up and chuckled nervously. The android couldn't tell if this was something Dazir had wanted to see. Meanwhile, Shai and Zala were hidden away, still relatively near to the camping spot. They looked to each other.
"We need to go," Shai said, grabbing Zala's arm and rushing off into the woods.
"Wait, did you leave it back there? Like Omega wanted?" Zala asked, stalling them. Shai got annoyed with Zala and grabbed his arm again.
"Yes, now come on!"
The two rushed away, unnoticed by anybody else. Yento also remained near the camp, and he was slowly backing away into the forest, his eyes fixed on the monster that stood before him. He couldn't quite contemplate what he was seeing. It was new. It was crazy. And it was scary. Yento turned and broke into a run, not thinking to even try and go back for his magic wielding Master. For a moment Yento saw clarity, and in that moment, he stopped running, for only a few seconds. He looked back at the Oozaru again, for a few seconds, and then he turned away again and continued running.
#17 had rushed out into the open again, hoping that he could somehow draw the Oozaru's attention, but he wasn't a fan of being crushed by a giant Saiyan. He knew what he could do to stop it, but it would never be easy. #17 breathed deeply and charged towards the Oozaru's back end, aiming for the tail.
The Android didn't notice that Dazir had moved from his spot, running out into the open again and attempting to use his magic on the giant monster again. This caught the Oozaru's attention, and the magic did nothing. Whatever had happened in that transformation had changed Noca's power. It was something new and far more intense. Dazir found his own magic flying back at him and he had to dodge. Because of this movement from the Oozaru, #17 had missed his target. He turned and saw Dazir as the Oozaru opened its mouth, appearing to charge up an energy blast. #17 knew that was dangerous and charged down in, grabbing onto Dazir and narrowly avoiding the energy wave as it swept through the trees, obliterating the ground. #17 flew through the carnage and reached another rocky area, dropping the old man down on a ledge.
"Leave, or I won't save you next time," #17 yelled into Dazir's face before turning around and blasting off back towards the Oozaru Noca. The Oozaru didn't see #17 fly off with Dazir so it assumed the target had been taken out and now turned around to see who else it could find. It was angry and slammed a hand into the rocks. Nearby, Holline was watching the madness and tried to find somewhere to run away but even though she wasn't nearby, Oozaru Noca's heightened senses picked up the movement and the monster instantly rushed towards the girl. She screamed as the ape came closer. Holline tried to make her way down the rocks, but slipped and fell, hurting herself into the process.
She was clumsily trying to get to safety, so the Oozaru was never going to lose track of her. She managed to get to her feet and rush towards the woods quickly, hoping that the monster would stay near the mountains. The thumping of its feet on the ground was shaking everything and Holline was losing her balance. The huge looming shadow terrified her, but she didn't want to look back and kept moving.
#17 returned very quickly and threw a Ki blast into the Oozaru's back. The monster turned and swiped towards the android and #17 cursed when he realised, he had an open target and could have gone for the tail. He thought about Holline's safety first, which wasn't a bad thing, but he could have ended the whole ordeal quicker. Holline looked up at the giant creature as it swung its arms around trying to swat #17 away like a bug. She was frozen from fear and couldn't bring herself to move. Her legs were trembling, and she just wanted to collapse and curl up into a ball, but when the Oozaru opened its mouth again, firing an energy wave that soared into the air, she finally found her energy and turned, running into the dark woods, to safety.
She didn't stop until it sounded like the carnage was further away. She fell to her knees and started to cry, believing that she had lost Noca completely. This wasn't something she knew he was capable of, Noca had never mentioned it and she had no idea what could have caused such a terrible thing to happen. She was too engrossed by her own fear and sadness that she didn't noticed when things fell silent. At least not right away. She wiped away some tears and started to hear rustling above her. She looked up to see birds flying out of the trees and moving away. Even some of the woodland animals were running past her and away. That's when she heard a rushing noise behind her, accompanied by some quick thumps. The monster was coming for her. She stood up and started to run again as she could see the creature coming ever closer.
While trying to run through the darkness, trying to avoid fallen branches, logs, and rocks on the ground, Holline tripped and fell flat, turning around to see the monster as it slowed, coming to a halt and looking down on her. Holline was breathing very heavily and trying to get words out but there weren't any sounds, just breaths. Eventually she said something.
"Noca…"
The Oozaru stopped and growled, leaning closer. Holline tried to back up as it got closer to her. She could feel it's breath like a gust of wind. She sobbed and closed her eyes. The Oozaru grit its teeth and growled again, lifting a hand slowly. The next thing Holline felt was the contact of skin on her own and the wind sweeping through her hair. She opened her eyes and saw she was in #17's arms. He flew her to another mountainous ledge and set her down. He was looking worse for wear. A couple of cuts on his face, and his clothes were roughed up and damaged.
"Are you ok?" She asked. #17 nodded.
"You?" #17 asked, looking down at her legs. One of Holline's trouser legs had been torn a little and her knee was bleeding. Holline looked down and noticed, suddenly the pain kicked in and she knelt down slightly. "Rest up here, I need to try and stop him," #17 said, his tone turning very serious.
Holline reacted and stood up quickly, her leg basically giving out.
"You're not going to kill him, are you?" She asked frantically.
"No. Of course not. No. I'll just cut off his tail," #17 assured her, but that didn't seem to make sense in Holline's head. She just looked back at him with a furrowed brow. "That's why he transformed. A Saiyan that still has their tail will become this creature when there's a full moon. I guess in all his thirteen years this is the first full moon the kid got to look at."
"Like a were-wolf? Or a man-wolf?" Holline questioned. #17 turned back to her and nodded. "That'll put him back to normal?"
#17 nodded again and turned to face towards the monster, whom was looking around on the ground trying to find its targets. #17 told the girl to stay put and blasted off back towards the Oozaru. Holline walked to the edge of where she was standing and looked out at the android. She stood incredibly still but couldn't shake off the anxious and terrified feeling. She knew it wasn't unreasonable to feel like that considering the current predicament, but when she looked out and saw that thing, as far as she was concerned, it just wasn't Noca. That's what was messing with her the most.
The whole scenario was odd, and new, and just not the kind of thing she had ever expected to witness in her life. She wanted to run away and hide, find somewhere to curl up and cry, but her love for her friend and determination to see him safe again kept her standing right there, watching on as this person, or android rather, risked their life to protect her and save her friend.
Her eyes were being opened to more of the world and even though she wanted to be there for Noca in every possible way, she wasn't sure she could handle it all. But those weren't thoughts she could focus on. She needed to remain in the moment, in case she was somehow needed.
#17 flew right up to the Oozaru and knew he needed to do something to get to that tail. It was the only way to sort things out without causing too much damage. There was no way of naturally beating this thing and it would just cause too much damage if left to rampage through the night. The habitats of so much wildlife was at risk. The Android dodged out of the way as one of the Oozaru's large arms swiped down towards him. He moved closer to the monster so that it would be harder for it to get any hits in.
#17 started to move down and tried to wrap around and get to the tail, he powered up some energy around his arm, preparing to reach his target. With a sudden swift movement, the ape kicked back, striking the android and throwing him into some trees. The Oozaru lost balance when doing this and fell forward, landing hard. #17 got back to his feet and shot from the trees, flying right for the tail.
The Oozaru turned around and opened its mouth, another large energy wave exploded from within and #17 had to dodge out of the way of the large attack, but it didn't stop. The Oozaru moved its head while continuing the blast, attempting to hit #17. The android continued to fly, just out of reach of the energy, but the blast was tearing up at the ground around and ruining everything. #17 was starting to get angry and knew something had to be done.
He knew the Oozaru wouldn't be able to keep the blast going for too long, so he had to wait just a little bit longer and then find the right moment to strike. Soon enough, the wave stopped and #17 threw an energy wave up at the Oozaru's face. There wasn't a lot of power in it, the android just wanted to distract it so that he could get to the tail. The blast hit the Oozaru in the face and it let out a roar as it jumped up and landed down on the ground with a huge thud. The ground shook and #17 lost his balance and as he went to fly up a large hand came down with another thud.
In this distance, Holline saw this and was sure that #17 had just been flattened by the Oozaru, but almost immediately after the Oozaru reacted with a pained roar and pulled its hand away, revealing #17 with a green energy ball around his body. The monster crawled away, making sure to face #17, not exposing the tail. The monster roared again, trying to assert dominance as #17 let his energy barrier fade away. He fell to the ground, to his knees and breathed deeply. He stood up again as the Oozaru dug its hand into the ground and snarled, moving up, ready into a charging position. #17 chuckled and powered up Ki around both his hand.
The Oozaru clenched both hands into the ground and pulled up as it powered up more energy in its mouth. #17 stepped back a couple of time, planning to wait until the very last moment to fly away from the attack, or in for his own attack. But what happened next wasn't predictable for either Oozaru or android.
"Hey!" Yelled a voice from the distance. Not too far, but not too near. It was Holline, standing on that ledge. Her hands cupped around her mouth, with a determined expression plastered on her face. She took a deep breath and yelled out again. "Come over here, monster!"
The Oozaru seemed to react to her worlds and snarled again before letting out another tremendous roar. It turned, kicked back in the dirt and broke into a charge. Holline's hands fell to her sides as she didn't anticipate what she would do next but hoped that #17 saw what to do. The android chuckled as he jumped up and flew after the Oozaru, he reached where he was going for the whole time and sliced with both hands in a scissor like motion.
All of a sudden, the Oozaru stopped and let out a huge pained cry as it looked back. It was wide-eyed and clearly feeling the loss of its tail. It was basically screaming out as it stumbled around drunkenly, stepping all over the place. #17 jumped away and flew up to get to safety as the monster started to shrink and fell forward. The fur started to vanish as the monster returned to the size of a human pre-teen.
Silence fell over the area and Holline let out a relieved sigh and fell to her knees, finally overcome with emotion and letting it flow. She quickly wiped it away and tried to find a way down to the valley to check and see if Noca really was ok. #17 had dropped from the sky and stood beside Noca's naked body. He looked down at the kid and then at all the damage that had been caused. Saiyans really were dangerous.
Holline had managed to get down and ran over to Noca and dropped to the ground beside him. She quickly realised that he was naked, and she pulled away, feeling a bit awkward.
"Is he ok?" She asked, still worried that something would go wrong. #17 nodded.
"He'll be fine once he has rested for a bit," #17 took off his jacket and wrapped it around Noca and lifted him up. Holline looked around at the mess.
"Where's our stuff?" She asked, nervously, worried that it had been damaged or lost.
"Let's get to safety and then I'll come back and find it all," #17 said, He told Holline to hold on to him as he flew off with both kids and set them down somewhere safe and away from the damaged area. He then flew off back towards their former campsite to gather all of their stuff. Holline sat beside Noca as he slept wrapped up in #17's jacket. She watched him, he seemed to be sleeping really peacefully, which was pretty much a first on this journey, but it was probably because all of that action had exhausted him. Holline lay closer to her friend and ended up drifting off before #17 returned.
Far away from that action, in the land of the Moori forest, Pan was up in her bedroom sitting at her desk, working away on her laptop. She was doing her best to get through the homework even though she would rather be doing anything else. It was Maths work, which she would typically do well with, thanks to her father, but she very rarely accepted any help as she got older, believing she was more than capable of getting it done on her own. After getting stuck on a particularly difficult algebraic equation she decided to give herself a well-deserved break and shut her laptop.
She got up and went to sit on her windowsill and looked out at the moon. A full moon that night, it was always fascinating to see those, especially with the knowledge of what would typically happen to Saiyan's in the event of a full moon. Luckily none of the Saiyans she knew no longer had their tails. No carnage and disruption on those nights, although it did affect the adults differently to the kids. Pan didn't know when those changes started but she and Bra would be the first of the Human-Saiyan hybrids to experience the changes that the female Saiyans went through. It was an odd thing to think about.
One thing that the full moon always seemed to help with was Pan's senses. She closed her eyes, taking in the night air and clearing her mind a little. That's when something sparked in her mind and instantly, she knew what it was. Her eyes snapped open and she looked into the distance.
"It's you again," She said to herself, leaning forward out of her window and hoping to see something, or feel something more. "It's been a while."
Pan relaxed, leaning against the window frame and she was now sitting on the windowsill with her leg dangling off a little. She closed her eyes and started to bask in the company she was in. She still had no idea what she was feeling, but there was as certain familiarity building and she started to take it in and just embrace the company. It made her feel happy, and comfortable. She wasn't sure she would ever understand it.
There was another spark in Pan's mind, and she felt something more. Anger and violence. Her eyes snapped open and she returned to her bedroom after losing balance on the windowsill. She continued to look out as these new feelings overcame her.
"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked, still talking to herself. There was pain and it was getting to her. She held her head and tried to shake off the feeling. She rushed out of her room and was about to go downstairs but the pain subsided and eventually dwindled away into a new peace. Pan felt cut off from the connection again and stood there trying to narrow in on it as it faded. "No."
Pan didn't realise how loud she had said that, and a voice called up to her.
"Pan?" It was Videl, "Are you ok up there?"
She sounded concerned about whatever was going on. Pan wasn't sure how to react and tried to come up with something.
"Uh… yeah, fine, just… wondering if I should get a snack," Pan lied, terribly. There was a pause and no reply from Videl immediately.
"Oh, ok," Videl responded, clearly not convinced but she seemed to brush it off. "Well, hopefully you come to a decision soon."
Pan chuckled nervously in response to that.
"Yeah, me too," Pan said as she slowly returned to her room and closed the door without making any more noise. She sighed and looked out of her window while leaning against the door. "Where did you go?"
She seemed really disappointed that she lost the connection again and walked back over to her window, grabbing her chair on the way and sat down, looking out. She put her hands on the windowsill and rested her head on them while continuing to look out.
"I wonder if I'll ever get to meet you?" Pan questioned as she smiled again, continuing to look out. She closed her eyes and continued to take in the fresh night air. "Someday…"
Meanwhile, far away from where Pan was, three people were training together. These three had been training together regularly for quite a while now. Two of them had been training together almost non-stop for the past 7 years. Locked in an intense spar were a young man with brown-skin and a black mohawk hairstyle, while the other was wearing a purple Gi and had green-skin, with antennae.
Piccolo was going toe-to-toe in a spar with Uub, while another man, wearing a light blue Gi, with a white belt, was watching the spar take place and monitoring everything that was happening. That man was none other than Son Goku. He looked up, with a smirk on his face, as he kept his attention fixed on the spar taking place before him.
The location was similar to the wastelands that Piccolo used to spend a lot of his time in, and similar to where the fight against Vegeta and Nappa had taken place all those years ago. Uub was firing energy blasts and desperately trying to land a hit on Piccolo as the experienced Namekian dodged around, almost easily.
The young man threw a large Ki blast down towards Piccolo with both hands and the Namekian phased from view, moving rapidly to avoid being hit and started to fly up towards Uub. Reacting anxiously, Uub continued to throw down Ki blasts but Piccolo swatted them away, reaching in front of Uub and spinning to try and kick him away. Uub ducked under the hit and went for an uppercut in Piccolo's face. The Namekian managed to pull away from the attempt and kicked Uub in the back.
Uub rolled forward in the air and landed on a rock, turning around as Piccolo dropped in rapidly. Uub had to jump away to avoid being hit and let the Namekian crash right into the rocks, obliterating them. The rubble floated up and Uub tried to focus through it to see Piccolo's next move, but he had started to phase around and move so quickly that Uub couldn't quite focus his vision accurately enough. Piccolo had moved closer to Uub and managed to slam a strong right jab against Uub's cheek and knocked him flying back.
The young man powered out his aura to stop himself and took his arms to his side, rapidly powering up an attack.
"Kame-Hame," Uub started as the energy in his hands started to form. Piccolo charged forward and Uub threw his hands out "Ha."
Uub was about to fire the attack but Piccolo kicked his hands up, so the blast went soaring into the air and there was an easy opening for Piccolo. He jabbed forward towards Uub's chest, but the young man raised his leg so that Piccolo struck his knee. That didn't help too much as the punch was still strong and Uub reacted to the hit but managed to pull away and threw a barrage of blasts point blank at Piccolo. The Namekian did his best to swat every one of them away but they were getting a bit much, so he stopped it another way. He put up an energy barrier around his body, moving into a ball and then threw his arms and legs out. This threw the energy barrier out and Uub was knocked back again.
Goku watched Uub go rolling back through the air again but briefly set his foot down on a plateau and go blasting towards Piccolo again. The Saiyan was impressed by his student's will to keep going with it all and he was pleased that the young man had made tremendous progress. Goku's focus was soon snapped away for a second and he turned to look in a different direction entirely.
He raised an eyebrow and then smirk.
"Isn't that something," He muttered to himself. Goku turned back to look at the two fighters, "Hey guys, take a break."
Uub suddenly stopped and looked down to Goku with a confused expression. He looked up at Piccolo and saw that the Namekian had already dropped his stance and started to descend. Uub followed.
"Come on, Goku. I nearly had him!" Uub said, getting a bit annoyed. Goku chuckled, and Piccolo scoffed.
"You were getting a bit tired Uub, you were putting too much into your attack and losing stamina," Goku explained. "Yeah, you were evenly matched, to an extent, but Piccolo would have won in the end."
Piccolo snapped his fingers as his cape and turban reappeared on his body and he crossed his arms.
"This was a good sparring session though, I can see you've learned a lot since the last time I was here," Piccolo said, smirking, but that vanished as he turned back to Goku, "But why did you stop it?"
Goku looked at Piccolo with a knowing smile, Piccolo didn't get it, but the Saiyan clearly knew something that he didn't. Goku turned to face his student again.
"Give me a hundred laps around the wasteland, Uub," Goku instructed his student. Uub sighed but obliged and took off on a jog. Goku started to ascend to a higher point and looked out into the distance at the full moon. Piccolo joined him. "Do you feel that?"
"Feel what, Uub's growing power?" Piccolo questioned. Goku shook his head.
"I thought you wouldn't feel it. There's a new energy I'm sensing," Goku explained. Piccolo seemed tense.
"A threat?"
"No. This energy isn't that powerful, from what I can tell. At least not yet," Goku went on. Piccolo faced his friend and his brow furrowed.
"Who is it?"
"I have no idea, but from what I can tell they're a Saiyan, and that means their potential is endless," Goku continued. He looked down at Uub running around the wasteland. Piccolo looked at Goku and then down at Uub.
"I think you should keep your focus on training Uub before you go off looking for another student," Piccolo suggested. Goku laughed and looked at the moon again.
"I guess you're right."
Characters Seen/Mentioned in this Chapter:
Noca (OC)
Holline (OC)
Android #17
Dazir (OC)
Yento (OC)
Shai (OC)
Zala (OC)
Omega (OC) – Mentioned
Son Goku
Piccolo
Uub
Pan
Videl
Son Gohan Mentioned
