Metal
Chapter 82: Holds None And All
The bleached burlap sack fell out of his grip quick enough to avoid being gripped by his fists.
'You?' Nappa's voice came from a deep, disgusted, and spiteful place, shooting out of his lungs like phlegm. Bardock even hopped back a step as if there was a spray. 'Nearly thirty years go by- and here you are?'
After checking to make sure his hands were calm at his sides, Bardock took another step backward. They couldn't be too far from their ship. 'Here I am.' If he grabbed Kakarot now and ran, they stood a good chance of getting there and launching the hell off this planet. 'Happy to see me?'
In his peripheral vision, Bardock saw Kakarot back away from the cart, attention aimed to its top- and away from Bardock's barely concealed rage. His son's consistent ability to tune out at the worst times was infuriating.
Lounging above them on the cart's pile, Turles tipped his head towards them, squinting. 'Who the hell are you guys?' As he eyed Kakarot, his peripheral vision tracked the fur rippling around the tail wrapped around Bardock's waist. 'Long lost cousins of mine?'
Two Saiyans. 'Unlikely,' Bardock bit out, swinging his attention back to Nappa. Judging by his tone, it seemed that Nappa's companion wouldn't be an issue. As for the old Saiyan himself though… there was something sharp in his gaze. Obsessive. Possessive.
'You saved us a lot of trouble coming here,' Nappa spoke freely. 'Vegeta'll be pleased.'
A drop of sweat rolled down the side of Bardock's neck, meshing into his jumpsuit. Another name he had hoped to never hear again. 'I'm not sure I understand.'
'The trouble of tracking you down.' Nappa encroached on Bardock and shifted his gaze to the left, down the length of the cart. 'You and…'
The older Saiyan's face visibly dropped at the sight of Kakarot. 'You and… that's your son.' It had to be. Their hair was nearly identical.
Two rogue thoughts connected in his brain. Nappa's eyes went white.. 'So he's… Raditz's brother?'
Turles's posture incrementally tightened, pulling him off of the pile. 'What? Seriously?' He sneered down at Kakarot. 'You're Raditz's brother?'
Kakarot said nothing as he stepped back, gaze hardening. 'I don't really know either of you,' he said carefully, glancing between Nappa and Turles, 'and I don't think you two know me.'
'Kakarot,' Bardock suddenly barked, grabbing his son's attention. 'To me.'
By some miracle, Kakarot obeyed immediately and moved behind Bardock. They only had one chance to get out of this without a fight. 'Okay-' Bardock quickly inhaled. 'This is what's going to happen. Kakarot and I are going to walk away, and you two are going to keep on doing…' he frowned at the cart. '... whatever you two are doing.'
Nappa started smirking halfway through Bardock's wishful speaking. 'Don't get ahead of yourself. Nothing happens until Vegeta gets word of what's going on here.' His hand began rising to his head. 'I'm sure he'll be very interested to hear what you two have been up to. So, I'll-'
In a second, Bardock lunged sideways, scattering the pile of metal in his arms and throwing a small ball of ki across his body towards Nappa's head. In that same second, however, Nappa's hand flew to his head and cupped his scouter. The attack, intending as nothing more than a precise jab, detonated and died against Nappa's skin.
Nappa hissed as he dropped his right arm, fingers twitching away from the small circular burn mark on the back of his hand, grimace infected by a sadist's joy. 'Quick of you.'
'Kakarot- leave now.' Bardock said, the beginnings of his aura kicking away the scrap metal scattered around his feet. 'Get to the ship and prep it for launch.'
Moving away from the cart, Nappa pressed his scouter once and stopped, staking his feet into the ground. Dark yellow energy appeared and began to circle his feet.
'Now?' Kakarot balked. 'Without you?'
'I wouldn't want you here for this. And someone needs to get the ship ready,' Bardock added, 'after all.'
'But-' His son caught himself. 'You staying-'
'I don't plan on dying here. I'll meet you at the ship.' Bardock half-turned his head and gave a tight, short nod. 'Go.'
Kakarot froze until that last utterance; now steeling himself, he nodded back to his father and blasted off to their right. Slivers of light blue ki fluttered in his wake like leaves.
'Turles?' Nappa said aloud without taking his eyes off Bardock.
On top of the pile, Turles perked up again. 'What?'
'Get Kakarot. Bring him back here, alive.'
'Yeah?' Turles hesitated for a moment, long enough for Bardock to notice an imminent twitch of annoyance from Nappa. 'Okay.' The darker-skinned Saiyan shook himself free of junk, stretched, and flew into the air with as much enthusiasm as an unhappy child- but still, he flew off in Kakarot's direction.
0o0o0
Bardock watched Nappa survey Kakarot and Turles leave, one after another, like two correlated events, preceding and succeeding each other.
'Are you surprised I didn't go after your son?'
'I saw your face.'
Nappa turned back to Bardock, grinning, a warped mirror of the disgust radiating from Bardock's face. 'You're sick, Nappa,' Bardock spat. 'You were sick before King Vegeta lifted you into his court, you stayed sick while serving him, then Frieza, and you're just as sick now.' His armor felt loose. 'And here I was hoping you were dead.'
The old Saiyan's grin widened, splitting his face even further. 'To answer my question- your son is weak. He would have been no fun.'
'Really?' Bardock failed to block the doubt from his voice. 'And you could tell all that from a minute spent with him?'
Nappa's arms lowered to his sides, hands curling into veiny, gnarled fists. 'He hid behind you like a coward. Ran like one, too.'
'I protect him,' Bardock's own guard, both arms held out parallel to the ground, slowly clicked into their natural position in front of him. 'As long as I live, I'll keep doing that.'
'You would have done that if you didn't try to destroy my scouter.' The swirling yellow energy around Nappa's feet began to lash out whips, slapping and coiling across the gray ground around him. 'You might have even protected yourself, too.'
Bardock held back from pumping his aura any further. 'I don't need protection from a tailless Saiyan- even if I'm flying blind.'
Though Nappa twinged at part of Bardock's comment, he replied to its second part. 'Blind?... Right. You don't have a scouter.' Something worked itself across the old Saiyan's face. Bardock was fairly sure he hadn't noticed he wasn't wearing anything over his eyes until it had been pointed out to him. Even thirty years ago, Nappa wasn't known for his perceptiveness. He was a grunt in the purest, fullest expression of the word possible, even if the titles had continued to pile onto him during his time in King Vegeta's court. Brutality came as easy to him as breathing. The job of clearing entire civilizations suited him instead of the other way around.
As one of the elites long ago pulled into the ranks of the PTO for the purpose of giving the Saiyans a good name in the galaxy, Bardock was the complete opposite. The job hadn't been for him. He had been for the job.
'Go on. Use your scouter.'
Nappa's eyebrows continued to lift. 'To get a reading?'
'I know you want to.'
For a moment Nappa's aura calmed, roped back into its circle of a cage. Then, Nappa took the scouter from his head and crushed it between his fingers. 'Wouldn't capture your power level, probably,' he said, letting the metal debris pass between his fingers like sand. 'It's a cheap grunt model. Couldn't go above 30,000, maybe 40,000. But now that Vegeta's been called, it's served its purpose.'
Bardock narrowed his eyes. 'Then-'
The ground underneath their feet shook the slightest bit.
'You must feel pretty strong to stay here,' Nappa growled, legs pushing apart and furrowing into the gray earth. 'To do that with me- you must be cocky.' As the dark yellow aura around the old Saiyan's feet again began to lash out, Nappa drew his arms back, propping them away from his hips. 'So I'll do you one last favor before I crush your neck beneath my boot. The last time my power level was recorded- before I nearly tasted death- my power…'
The ground began to shake horribly, fissures in the ground cracking away from Nappa all while his voice stretched and tightened, mirroring the pale, almost unreal lurching of his neck.
'It was… FIVE MILLION!'
The area around Nappa suddenly exploded, throwing gray dust and dirt into the air and sending out a massive wave of force. Smoke rushed out, in, and soon enough, a shallow crater three times as wide as where his aura had circled previously opened up around him. Yellow arcs as thick as Bardock's arms swiped through the air around him, framing the superbright and pressing Nappa, exerting force in every direction, while their master stood behind a sheen of dark yellow aura.
His presence did let up for one comment, however; the old Saiyan laughed through the wind at what he saw of his opponent. 'You're actually going to fight?'
Leg drawn back behind him, Bardock straightened, pulling his nimble blue aura away from his feet. His energy formed a small shadow sitting against Nappa's larger one… though both brushed against each other lazily, as if they couldn't be bothered to fight each other.
'I figure-' Bardock threw his arms out to his sides, collecting bright blue energy in both hands, '-I might as try a hell of a lot more than that!'
Bardock's body phased out of sight, and in the next instant, Nappa pivoted, slamming his heavy legs into the dirt and crossing his arms as a point-blank wave of energy shot through his aura and slammed against him, pushing him back- an inch. Ignoring any burning sensation, Nappa grinned and shot forward, aura propelling him, and slammed into Bardock, crushing him into the ground. The earth groaned as Bardock's back threw up a shockwave choked with dirt. Blinking rapidly, Bardock rolled, narrowly avoiding a yellow-streaked boot aimed for his abdomen. Nappa pursued, stomping two, three more times, but Bardock scrambled and pushed hands-and-feet off the ground and into the air, aura leaving a blue trail in his wake.
'YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME!' Nappa roared as his yellow form shot into the air after him, right elbow cocked back, but mere feet away from Bardock, the Saiyan vanished, leaving behind a fading outline of blue. His surging yellow energy lurched to a stop, bounced back and forth, and then reeled downward, trailing a hurdling Nappa as he was buried head-first in the ground.
Breathing deeply, Bardock drew back his right fist and hovered further into the air. His left arm, hit awkwardly by Nappa's charge, twitched as he forced it to his side. Not the worst opening to this. Though certainly not his best, either.
The old Saiyan wasted no time detonating the gray earth around him and righting himself, blood trailing from the spot on the back of his head where Bardock's fist had crashed down. His right arm, slightly burned skin running down its front, was held behind him.
'This is not going to go like you think,' Bardock warned him, blue aura billowing faster around him. 'Give up now, and I'll beat you bad enough so that Vegeta won't kill you for letting me escape.'
Nappa's entire aura seemed to hinge, like a crude jaw laughing. 'I think this is going exactly as I want it!' Nappa roared back. Behind him, his arm twitched. 'Down to the second!…'
Bardock's eyes widened as a mass of light bloomed behind Nappa. Ducking, he blasted to the left as an oval-shaped yellow energy ball was flung at him from Nappa's left arm, spinning through the air like a disc. After getting a second glance at it as it passed, Bardock realized how freaking far away he needed to be, and so dove to the earth, hands held over his head, as the air was sucked away from his skin.
The explosion was just as bad as he feared, but had just short enough of a reach where he could only feel superheated air washing over him.
'Woah!' Bardock jumped backward as Nappa's fist, its glove white stained with gray, passed mere inches away from his face. The old Saiyan, roaring like a beast, unleashed an onslaught of close-combat strikes and swings. The ground, broken up by the residual energy of the earlier blast, proved hard for Bardock to use his superior agility on. His spirited defense became more spirited than a defense. Another attack and another dodge, and Bardock stumbled and fell to one knee, eyes wild as Nappa turned.
'Hraaagh!' Nappa's thick leg swung out in a half-circle, just barely missing a ducking Bardock. When his right leg circled back to him, Nappa spun, bent, and threw out his left, this time catching his opponent on his shoulder and slamming bone.
Bardock's teeth slammed together as the blow forced him back, but he still made sure to thrust his hand into the gray ground. As another shockwave passed over their heads, golden flames yearning to touch them, Bardock halted his momentum, and threw his left leg up similar to how Nappa had. His foot cleanly struck Nappa in the chest, producing that tell-tale sound of armor or bone splitting-
Which was quickly drowned out as Nappa gripped Bardock by his ankle and wrenched him into the air above him. 'RAAAAH!' Nappa screamed as Bardock flew in an arc and crashed face-first into the rock. Blood fell from Bardock's face as Nappa lifted him by the back of his head and slammed him to the earth again, again, and again. Bardock's mind swirled between overwhelming pain and the numb absence of it, all punctured by Nappa's vicious, joyous words- 'Vegeta'll- have- nothing left!'
0o0o0
As soon as their black and angular ship came into view, Kakarot wasted no time in landing and pulling down the boarding ladder. Scampering up, he spun around as soon as he was in, and grabbed the ladder to wind it back into the ship.
The haptic resistance of Turles holding it in place registered to Kakarot before he even realized who he was looking at. He stared at the darker-skinned Saiyan as he tugged- uselessly- on the ladder again.
Turles smirked. 'Going somewhere?'
So this was happening. At least the ship hadn't been blown up. Yet. Kakarot made a show of letting go of the ladder and kneeling back. 'As long as you're holding that ladder- no. What do you want?'
'What do I want?' Turles's fingers curled tighter around the ladder. 'For starters, I don't want to fight you. I'd rather have you come down and talk to me face-to-face. My neck will start hurting if I have to stare up at you for any longer.'
'That's it?'
To demonstrate his good intentions, Turles lifted his hands from the lander- though that did nothing to dampen the wicked mischievousness on his face. 'Come on.'
The ship's floor started to chill Kakarot's legs. There was a good chance that, regardless of what he chose, he would have to fight this Saiyan to get this ship off the ground. Still- he preferred to do that standing on solid ground rather than up here.
Turles stepped back as Kakarot landed at the foot of the ladder, ill-fitting white PTO armor clanking against his body. The other Saiyan looked only slightly better- even though his armor had more than its fair share of patched and fused old cracks and breaks, the black jumpsuit underneath was unblemished and of a fine stitched quality.
'Do you have a name?' Kakarot glared.
'Curious?'
'Not really.'
'It's Turles,' the dark-skinned Saiyan responded, grinning further. 'And I have to say- we look a hell of a lot similar.'
'So we do.'
'Could be that I'm your brother, you know.' Turles shifted his eyes to the left, one head turn away from glancing back at an explosion in the distance. A weak wave of wind rushed past them, followed by a weaker echo of the blast, which did nothing more than flit through their hair. 'That guy back there- he was your father, right?'
Kakarot glowered at him. 'He would have told me if you were my brother, if that's what you're wondering.'
'Oh?' Turles snorted. 'Is that what you think? As if Saiyans weren't notorious for siring children they aren't aware of.'
A longer-than-usual silence accompanied another rush of wind passing over them, and through a thin haze of gray dust, Kakarot spotted the increasing mirth on Turles's face. 'As if- as if you aren't aware of it! Your face says it all! You really think your father would have told you, don't you?' Turles laughed high and mighty like a dark stormcloud. 'Who are you? What's your name?' He crossed his arms, satisfied. 'Who is "Raditz's brother"?'
Wind again passed over them- though this time it came from Kakarot as a small aura lit around him, small swirls of dark blue laying and waving through the air. 'I think I've had enough of this conversation.'
'Woah!' Turles, either unable or unwilling to stop smiling, exclaimed. 'No need to blow your top. I wasn't kidding about not wanting to fight you earlier. I think that's the last thing either of us wants- and the first thing our bosses would want.'
Suspicion crystalized in Kakarot's eyes. 'Our bosses?'
Turles jabbed his finger over his shoulder. 'Those two back there. My guy, Nappa, asked me to stop you from leaving- with the clear implication that I should fight you if necessary. And your father probably wants you to pick him up, right?'
After a second spent staring, Kakarot nodded. 'More or less.'
'Hah.' Turles shook his head like he was hearing a joke he'd heard a thousand times. 'Could have predicted that to the word. We mean nothing to those two.'
Energy danced around Kakarot. His entire aura seemed ready to explode. 'And what makes you so sure of that?'
'What makes me so sure?' Turles asked. He turned and threw his left arm towards the far-off battle, where yellow and blue color bloomed and unseen strikes sent shockwaves into space. 'It's because those two are different Saiyans than us. They're the old kind, the ones who served in the PTO because they got a thrill from holding power over someone else's life even if someone else held power over theirs. They're dumb, selfish, and greedy.' Turles turned back to Kakarot. 'And they care nothing about others- let alone, us.'
The aura around Kakarot continued to hold back, rippling inwards. 'You seem to know a lot about that way of life,' Kakarot noted, no accusation in his voice.
'Maybe I do.' Turles crossed his arms. 'I've been forced to live with them for a while. So while I may hate them- I can understand them. And I can tell you that the best move for both of us would be to leave on this ship, together.'
Kakarot frowned. 'As if I'd trust you.'
'No trust needed.' Turles started walking forward. 'We leave together, and at the first planet we reach, you can dump me if you're having trouble sleeping at night.' He stopped a few feet away from Kakarot, eyes boring into his. 'I only want to get away from here and those cretins. And I also know that you want to fight as much as I do. This isn't our battle. I'm not going to die for Nappa, and you're not going to die for cruel old Dad-'
With a resounding CRAAACK,' Kakarot's blue-shrouded fist slammed into Turles's cheek, wrenching his dark-skinned body to the right. Kakarot pursued and slammed his left fist again into Turles's cheek, then his right again, and continued this until Turles regrouped and caught a punch aimed for gut between his torso and his right arm. Crimson blood ran down Turles's cheeks, gushing from cuts and his nose, and stained his yellow teeth.
'So that's your decision?' Turles snarled as he and Kakarot grappled against each other. With a growl, he dodged out of the way of Kakarot's right fist and trapped it under his left arm. 'Didn't figure you for a fool! But I guess even I have off-'
A collision a hundred times more brutal than any of Kakarot's punches pummeled through the air as Kakarot smashed his forehead into Turles's, stunning his opponent and freeing his limbs. More blood splattered against Kakarot's skin as he rushed forward, locked his hands together, and lifted his arms.
Turles stumbled backward as a great blue aura rose into the air, racing across the sky like a coming storm. Every ounce of energy collected around Kakarot''s hands, forming one rounded point where all reality seemed to draw into. At the last second, Kakarot rose into the air like a great and terrible specter, crackling energy on the verge of exploding.
'Hyaaaaaagh!' A mighty roar unleashed itself as Kakarot swung down, ramming the full force of his body, aura, and knuckles against Turles's skull once more. He felt bone bend, perhaps even crack with his blow. Whatever balance was left in his opponent's body disappeared as his head and eyes rolled. A second later, panting and blinded by the residue of his fading aura, Kakarot heard Turles's body clunk to the gray earth.'
0o0o0
Blood coating his vision, Bardock blinked and rolled, catching Nappa's stomp with a cross-block. The ground shifted, then buckled underneath him as what was first intended as a light hit became shrouded with yellow-black energy as Nappa increased the force pressing down on him. Bardock, nearly pinned, threw his entire aura into resisting the boot working to crush his forearms. Blue and yellow hummed and cut into each other, crashing together with such force that shards of energy shot out from the two Saiyans like bullets ricocheting, as Nappa's leg incrementally moved down, inch-by-inch.
For all the demeaning things Bardock had thought and said about Nappa, it could never be denied that he was, quite possibly, the largest and beefiest Saiyan he'd ever known. In a battle this even, with so little between them… to be trapped under him…
Bardock figured he had about a minute before this pin would be permanent. There was more to winning a fight than sheer musculature, though.
'You didn't answer me before,' he growled through clenched teeth, hair rippling through his aura. 'Where's your tail, Nappa?'
A twitch similar to earlier rode through Nappa's body, though nothing strong enough to give Bardock an opening. Worse, Nappa's lips were pressed together with so much force that it seemed they had been stitched and fused together.
'You're not much of a Saiyan anymore, are you?'
'Shut up!' Nappa's voice roared, his words hitting Bardock alongside another surge of force. Ribs started to bend. 'You know nothing about what it is to be a Saiyan! Nothing!'
'You think that?' Bardock's voice cut through the chaos, even as his body continued to lose the battle. 'When you know nothing of what I did for our race? For assholes and murders and sadists, all?'
'You're a traitor!' Nappa's boot pressed down even further, touching Bardock's arms to his chest. Blue started to flatten under the weight of yellow. 'I know where you were assigned!' Nappa screamed. 'You were supposed to be on Planet Vegeta- and yet here you are! If you were doing your duty, you would have died alongside your people!'
'I fought on Planet Vegeta!' Bardock yelled, head tilting back as his lungs labored to expand his chest. 'And I fought- I fought against Frieza!'
The flinch came- Nappa's boot slid off of Bardock's guard to his right, and as if oblivious that this had happened, Nappa dimmed his aura and cooled his face.
'What?' he whispered.
'BRAAHAAAH!' With a roar, Bardock rushed off the ground and slammed his entire body against Nappa, throwing back the old Saiyan, and before he could recover, he zipped behind him and grabbed him by his shoulders. The bloodlust boiled back into Nappa, but he struggled to free himself as Bardock pulled further back on his arms and kept them pinned, sticking harmlessly away from him.
Nappa threw his entire weight back and forth, trying to use his superior frame to knock them both over, but Bardock used his nimbleness to keep them upright and hold his grip. Their aura again slammed into each other, but this time around, they fought on a more equal playing field.
'Not so tough without gravity behind your boot, huh?' Bardock shouted into Nappa's ear as his opponent threw his head back to headbutt him.
'You think this is fair!?' Nappa growled. 'You think you'll be able to keep this up?!'
'No.' Bardock suddenly yanked Nappa to the right. 'But, then, I don't need to.'
They finished their turn; not far off, Kakarot stood, arms pressed together and palms facing them, as blue energy collected in his hands. His entire body was tensed, aura clinging to his skin, as his cold eyes met Nappa's.
'He came back!?'
Kaaaakaaaaroooot!' Bardock shouted over Nappa's shoulder as his blue aura exploded, throwing up a wall of energy behind Nappa. 'Make your father proud- zap 'im!'
The air died around them as an immense wave of wind washed over Bardock and Nappa, rushing from the plain's other end. To their left, Nappa spied his cart be knocked over, spilling its loot across the gray plains. This was always a shit planet.
The old Saiyan closed his eyes as a spiraling blue ki wave slammed into his gut; the rest of his senses followed his sight into darkness.
0o0o0
Kakarot huffed in the wake of so much energy leaving his body, not to mention how draining it was to call on that much energy with as little warning as he got. Showing up at the battlefield after quickly moving the ship here meant that he had only a few seconds to make sense of the bizarre grapple between Bardock and Nappa. It was only when they began to shake, bodies and auras pressing into each other, did he get a glimpse of how wide open both of them were.
An old memory- almost from another life- flashed through his mind. Seeing that human do the same to his brother. Seeing himself do the same to his brother.
But it was brushed aside as his father's voice rung through his head, snapping his arms towards his target like a sprung trap. The big Saiyan, held in place, could do nothing as energy roared from his palms, spun into a beam, and crashed into him. A massive explosion rang out then, wind cutting back against Kakarot, and left behind a drifting cloud of smoke and dust.
Kakarot glanced back to make sure the ship was okay, and then plunged forward. It didn't take long to find his father. Hunched over a rock upturned by his attack, Bardock panted. His gaze was sharpened away from him, to his right and Kakarot's left: Nappa's body was sprawled out on the ground, limbs splayed in all directions. Kakarot saw the slightest movement from his chest.
'He's still breathing,' Bardock informed him, hissing as he wobbled off the rock. His legs weren't fully extended; some pain was shaking them. 'Gets hit full-on by a blast, with no ability to defend himself, and he lives.' Bardock cursed. 'You weren't holding back, were you?'
Kakarot looked back at Nappa. 'No. I wasn't.'
'Nothing can be done about that, then. We need to leave, now, before Vegeta shows up.'
'We're not going to kill him?'
Bardock hobbled closer, left arm twitching. Looking closer, Kakarot saw that the lower half of the limb was marred with burned and bloody skin. 'It got caught up in the blast,' His father explained, noticing his gaze. 'But nothing can be done about that, either. We need to go.'
To get the ball rolling, Bardock started to jog out of the cloud the way Kakarot came in- and got about five feet before he yelped, leg twisting underneath, and began to fall. Kakarot appeared in front of him, hoisted him onto his shoulders, and carried him out. For a moment he forgot about how tired he was as his father's grip tightened around his collar.
'Thanks, Kakarot.'
'You're different from Raditz.'
'Raditz?' They passed out of the dust cloud. The ship, black and angular, looked like an exposed rock in a field. 'What makes you say that?'
Kakarot's gaze lifted to the sky- to the dull-colored air and the hundreds of trillions of planets that laid behind it. 'Let's get on the ship and get going. Then- we'll talk.'
0o0o0
'Hey. You.'
Mark, with his oats-filled spoon halfway to his mouth, forgot to stop his arm and flung a glob of gray against the metal wall behind him. 'Launch?' he whispered, rapidly untangling himself from his gruel. 'What's-'
She cut him off with a slight nod of her head, and then stepped back in the dorm's doorway and pointed down the hall to her left. 'Follow me.'
He sat on his bed frozen for a few more seconds before Launch, out of sight and her voice more distant, said, "Now, please.' So he set his bowl down and ran out into the hallway.
'Hey- hey, what's up with this?' he asked once he caught up to Launch. 'What's going on?'
'I need your brain for a minute.'
They entered the ship's cockpit. Mark had a vague idea that Bez and Recoome had agreed to do some sparring for the next hour. As such, the ship's autopilot was engaged- to where, though, Mark didn't know. Bez was the navigator and knew how to use the star charts on the ship's computer, not him.
Launch stepped up to the main console. With a flick of her wrist, a projected map of the galaxy popped into the space between them. 'I need you to answer a few questions for me.'
'It involves the map?' Mark asked, glancing back at the cockpit's entrance. 'I think Bez-'
'Bez hasn't poured over the files like you,' Launch cut him off. With another flick of her wrist, some definition was added to the projection
'From what he told me, this red mark is where we are,' she said, pointing, 'and this purple outline encloses PTO space. So, as you can see, we're currently skirting around it.'
Mark leaned forward. He could indeed see a red mark near the top of the map traveling some ways beyond a purple line that ran nearly horizontal across the galaxy's upper swath. He could also see a blue dot in the map's top right corner- Earth, he assumed.
His eyes drew a line from there to the red mark. He was a long way from home. Wonder… wonder if Videl's okay...
'Hey,' Launch's hand dove through the projection and cupped Mark by his jaw. 'No daydreaming until you answer my question. You said the Saiyans were probably outside PTO space, right? Did Bulma's report say anything else?'
'Well… I can't think of anything else,' Mark muttered as Launch's hands pressed on his cheeks. 'Just the standard stuff. Saiyans are bloodthirsty, dangerous, like to-'
'Woah, woah- hold on,' Launch stopped him, taking away her hand and stepping past the projection to his side. 'The only quality time I've spent with a Saiyan was beating the crap of one when it turned into a giant ape. What'd you say they're like?'
'The report- Bulma describes them as vicious, cruel, and proud. Warriors with big egos. That sort of thing.'
'Egos, huh?...' Launch half-turned to the projection. 'Interesting…'
'What are you thinking?' Mark suddenly blurted out, before realizing he had asked a question he probably shouldn't. Not that Launch would hurt him, or anything, but if she wanted his opinion, she would have, uh… uh, she's… staring at me.
A thin smile rested on Launch's lips. 'What am I thinking?' she repeated. 'I'm thinking that warriors with big egos can't go very long without forcing others to recognize that.'
'Also- also, they're very domineering,' Mark added, remembering something. 'Bulma talked about how one particular Saiyan, Vegeta, had demanded absolute fealty and access to what she knew. He demanded that she be a… total servant, or something.'
'Interesting…' Launch walked through the projection and dismissed it by pressing a button on the console. 'Wish she- or Tien, or Yamcha- had talked more about this when I was still on Earth… but, whatever.' She turned to Mark. 'As for you- thank you.'
His face visibly dropped. 'Huh? You're thanking me?'
'Yes.'
'Well… thank you for thanking me.'
'Okay. Get out.' She paused. 'And get Bez.'
0o0o0
'Launch?' Bez called as he swung into the cockpit. A sweaty towel was wrapped around his neck. 'You called for me?'
She was seated in the right pilot's chair, swiveled around to face him, and had her right thumb cocked to the projected galaxy to her right. 'Take a look.'
As he walked closer, suspicious of anything Launch did before consulting him, he noticed that a series of scribbling had been done on the map. Alongside the red marker noting where they were and the PTO's purple border, several spots were circled with green.
'I've had some interesting conversations with Recoome and Mark.' She leaned back in her chair; hoarse squeaking filled the air. 'The big guy told me that the Saiyans don't have a home planet to return to: it got destroyed.' She stared at him for a moment. 'Like yours, I guess.'
'Right,' Bez said dryly. 'It's a common event for the soldiers that make their way into the PTO's army. You either survive a purge by helping to kill your neighbors, or you die with them. There is no in-between.'
'Dark.'
'Recoome has a saying, right? "Way of the galaxy.' Bez's eyes flashed. 'Though- my planet was actually purged. If I remember correctly, the Saiyan's home planet was destroyed by a comet, or meteor-'
'Whatever,' Launch interrupted him. 'Doesn't really matter to me how it got destroyed. What matters is that it's gone. The Saiyans don't have an obvious place to return to after getting wrecked in a battle, understand? Especially if they're not working with the PTO.'
Launch wheeled around in her chair. 'Which brings us to the map. These spots,' Launch pointed to, 'are major planets that exist outside of the PTO, from what I could get from the sieve we have in the PTO web. They do limited trade, or something like that, and are partners… or something.'
Some of Bez's earlier skepticism returned to his face. 'Kind of. A lot of planets outside the PTO are, quite frankly, awful. There's a reason why the PTO doesn't own them, after all. They go after the nice planets first.'
'Even so-' Launch's gaze shot to Bez- 'after the thrashing they got on Earth, the Saiyans must have made their way to one of these planets. Moreover, there's probably a good chance they stuck around if they couldn't get back into PTO space.'
Bez frowned as he scratched his neck. 'Sure…'
'So my question is this: which one of these systems would the Saiyans hunker down on for several months?'
'That's… kinda unknowable, Launch.' The frown on Bez's face deepened. 'There are a lot of worlds out there.'
'That's exactly my point, though,' Launch argued, jabbing her thumb again. 'There are tons and tons of worlds- worlds that have no meaning and no significance to anyone except to those who live there- but I find it hard to believe that the Saiyans, and especially someone like Vegeta, would have picked a planet at random.'
'So you're saying that whatever planet the Saiyans ended up on was probably picked for a reason.'
Launch leaned back. 'That's it, yeah. And, if I had to guess, they've stayed on that planet, or at least in the area, since then.'
Drawn into her theory, Bez sat in the pilot chair on the map's other side and studied the map more closely. 'Here,' he said, pointing towards the top of the map. 'We've spent this entire trip going the same way the Capsule Corp.'s satellites determined the Saiyans' ships had gone. Roughly… left, on this map, across the edge of the galaxy.'
His eyes tightened a fraction, eyeing the green circles laid across their ship's path. 'There's something else, actually.'
'Huh? What? About what?'
'The Saiyans.' Standing, Bez briefly glanced out the cockpit's viewport. 'The Saiyans were elite but not super-elite… but they had a nasty reputation that soldiers like me- soldiers underneath them- caught wind of from time to time.' He looked back at Launch. 'There was one particular thing you never mentioned in their presence unless you were on your hands and knees. Vegeta is… well. he's sorta royalty.'
'Royalty?' Launch repeated, her voice thick. 'What, like a prince or something?'
'I think a Prince, yes,' Bez confirmed. 'He had some kind of position on his home planet- before it blew up, obviously.'
'Huh.' Launch opened and closed her mouth. 'That's something Bulma definitely didn't ever mention.'
'It's unlikely Vegeta would have mentioned it to her,' Bez said. 'It very rarely came up when he dealt with others in the PTO. I only know about it because I heard from others that it got people killed sometimes.'
'What does that mean?'
Bez shrugged. 'Dunno. I was never killed by the Saiyans. I just knew to steer clear of them.'
The room's white lighting flickered for a few moments as Launch drew back in her seat, her face showing that she was considering something. Something of an idea was coming together… but, still, she needed more time.
'Alright.' Her eyes jumped to Bez. 'Thanks. Now leave, please.'
Bez's expression squished as his mouth rose and his forehead fell. 'You're done with your uncharacteristic grilling, then?'
'There's nothing uncharacteristic about it,' Launch rebutted. 'There's only so much more time I can stand on this ship, and today's the day my body won't let me train. So I really don't want to waste any more time we have out here, because if we don't get somewhere soon- well, let's try to avoid not doing that.'
'That's not exactly what I was pointing out,' Bez said, moving towards the cockpit's exit. 'I was more surprised that you had come to me- and Recoome, apparently- looking for answers.'
Launch huffed. 'Well, I'm the captain, aren't I? This mission is my responsibility.'
Whatever grasp Bez had on their conversation was lost as, over the space of a few seconds, his confused face elicited the same expression on Launch's. 'It's surprising to hear you say that,' he said finally.
'Yeah, okay,' Launch brushed him off, glaring at a wall. 'Go.'
0o0o0
The air was cold, cutting, and thin, but even so, Vegeta's flight through the air never rose beyond a measured, almost laconic pace. The message he had received from Nappa via scouter was simple- he was prompted to come to them. Nothing else was said; no context was given. Something must have come up while they were trudging from village to village, taking and piling onto their cart as Vegeta had commanded them.
So either the PTO had landed on the planet or they were killing each other. Vegeta was no fool. He knew there was bad blood between Nappa and Turles. That had been true of any two Saiyans that had served under him. It had been the same with Raditz. But it was not Vegeta's responsibility to sort out their differences; they were not children. Though that would not prevent him from stepping in to reestablish control and obedience if necessary. They would always follow his word first and betray it last.
The air began to grow thicker, colored faint brown with swirling dirt, as Vegeta's scouter told him he was close. Looking to the ground, he saw plumes of earth wavering in the air, all spilling away from a central location farther ahead. There, Vegeta noted that the land curved into itself. A crater. A battle had taken place, then. And by the look of things, he was arriving well after it had ended.
The dirt-choked air parted around him as he descended. His scouter beeped and chirped, scanning the area, and guided Vegeta's head to his left. A reading led him through the dust until a wide, brawny outline appeared, shifting and turning on the ground.
Vegeta's pace quickened as he broke through the last of the haze. Nappa was on all fours, heaving into the ground.
'Get up.'
His voice, as sparse as it could possibly be while still conveying his leashed anger, rattled his companion. Sinewy neck twisting, Nappa swung his head around. 'Vegeta-'
'I am not going to ask a second time.'
With that Nappa stood, wincing as his right leg seized for a second, and righted himself towards Vegeta. 'It wasn't Turles,' he breathed, as if he was reading his mind.
'Then who was it?'
Nappa's eyes jumped past Vegeta's for a second, trying to discern something in the distance. 'Bardock.'
'Bardock?' Vegeta's mouth twisted as he repeated the name. 'The old elite? Are you lying to me, Nappa? He's been dead for nearly thirty years.'
'I fought him.' Nappa looked hopelessly at his Prince. 'I don't know what to say. I thought the same- I thought he was dead. But he's alive- and he's with Kakarot.'
An errant wind blew across the ground, and tracking the swath of brown moving past him, Vegeta's face hardened, sharpened, like rock being shaped. 'Kakarot. You mean- he's with Kakarot? Raditz's brother?'
'That's what Bardock called him, anyway.' Nappa coughed into his arm, dislodging a few drops of blood from his lips. 'Haven't seen Kakarot before, but their hair was too similar to not be…'
Vegeta's face turned and jumped from point to point, searching for something in the landscape. Soon enough his blue aura rippled out and cleared the smoke from around them. 'You lost, then,' he said. 'Where did they go?'
'Probably to their ship.' Nappa winced again as he stepped closer to Vegeta. 'Though-' Nappa blinked, remembering. 'Turles was supposed to stop Kakarot from getting there.'
'What?' Vegeta whipped his head back to Nappa. 'What do you mean? You didn't fight both of them?'
'I fought Bardock,' Nappa explained. 'And I sent Turles to handle Kakarot by himself.'
'Tssk!' Vegeta hissed as he lifted a hand to his scouter. 'Turles can't be trusted out of your sight, ever, Nappa. There's a good chance he's with those two as we speak. I would expect-'
Vegeta halted, attention focusing on the glass visor held over his left eye. 'Well. There's one reading left in this area other than yours.' He glanced at Nappa. 'It's weak, but it's there. So I would assume Turles lost, too.'
More shame than Nappa knew what to do with colored his cheeks. 'I guess so.'
The battlefield had cleared up some by then; Nappa could now see the gouge made in the land by Kakarot's last-minute attack. Beyond that though, he thought he could see a small dent in the land, maybe made by something heavy resting there like a boulder- or a ship.
'Find Turles and stay with him,' Vegeta said, turning away from Nappa. 'Bardock and Kakarot must be already off-planet, but that does not mean we can't catch-up with them.' Vegeta checked his scouter again, running down a list. 'I will go back to base and bring our pods back here. First thing we are going to do is head out after them.'
'Immediately?' Nappa asked, feeling unsteady on his feet. One fight in a day was plenty. He wasn't sure if he had enough left in him for a second.
Vegeta glanced back at him- and for the first time, all the killing edge in his face was fashioned towards Nappa. He recognized it all too well. That look had killed sentients stronger than him and done worse to those weaker.
'Our mission has not changed while on this wretched rock,' Vegeta intoned to him. 'I aim to unite the Saiyans before everything is said and done… and that includes those who have worked against me, living or dead.' Vegeta's gaze swept past towards the distance again. 'It cannot be coincidence; that warrior we fought on Earth mentioned Raditz, and now we have run into the brother he was supposed to have retrieved from Earth. This is all linked- in what way I don't know yet, but if you really did encounter Bardock and Kakarot, then they must know something that we don't. How, for example, Bardock survived our planet's destruction. And how Kakarot left Earth without his brother- or without the humans, who were the only ones to leave the planet after Raditz arrived.'
Inch-by-inch, Vegeta's gaze returned to Nappa. The tautness of it choked him. 'So we will find them and get our answers. And as for you-'
He looked away. 'I trust it will not happen again.'
Nappa forced himself to give a deep nod. 'I understand, my Prince.'
He waited for Vegeta to say anything, do anything, that acknowledged the lengths he had gone to serve him. The lengths he had gone to win. But it was Earth all over again. For his patience the Prince rose into the sky and left without a word.
0o0o0
The console beeped long after Bardock, grimacing as he wrapped his right arm in gauze, deduced what was going to happen. His idiot son still looked and studied the read-out. 'They're following us.'
'Makes sense,' Bardock grumbled. 'I would.'
Past the cockpit's glass, space zipped past them as their ship barrelled through space. The records base wasn't that far off- maybe a day or so away- but Bardock knew that their shuttle wasn't nearly as fast as the pods Vegeta and his lapdogs would be using. It was going to be tight. Very tight. And that was before they would even reach the station. Once they were inside, with Vegeta and his goons minutes behind them… Bardock had no idea how they were going to pull this off.
Bardock grunted as he shifted his arm across his body, laying it against his torso. He was understandably anxious- just like how he got before a rough mission, way back when. Only this time the ship he was riding in couldn't knock him out for a few months. Distraction would have to do for the next twenty-four hours. Maybe a nap.
He glanced at Kakarot. His son was still hunched over the console. 'You mentioned Raditz earlier?'
'Hmm?' Kakarot straightened and leaned away from the controls. When he turned to Bardock, his face was somewhat distant. 'Raditz?'
'On the planet before,' Bardock clarified. 'Your comment. You said I'm nothing like Raditz.'
'Oh.' Kakarot's eyes grew a little more focused. 'That. Yeah- you're not really like him.'
'Care to explain?'
Arms crossing, Kakarot settled further back in his chair. 'Well, for one- you've never hit me.'
Bardock's face tightened as he frowned. 'That doesn't sound right. I've slapped you around a few times.'
'No- I mean he really hit me,' Kakarot emphasized, frowning to match his father's expression. 'Like, hurting me.'
'To be clear, son,' Bardock said in a thin voice, 'the only reason I haven't hit you that hard yet is because you haven't deserved it.'
It was said a bit more forcefully than he wanted, and faced with something he couldn't read in his son's expression, Bardock turned his cheek. For some reason he felt… ashamed? He couldn't place it. But he didn't like what he saw in Kakarot, regardless if the core message of what he said was true.
'You're not really a Saiyan…' Bardock muttered, still not looking at him. 'Neither was Raditz, of course- neither of you grew up among other Saiyans, among your family, and on your homeworld. What he did to you wasn't what I would have done.'
Out of the corner of his vision, Bardock saw the slightest dip in Kakarot's posture, like a sail releasing its wind. 'I'm not sure of that.' Kakarot slumped in his seat. 'You know why I was on Earth, right?'
'Of course I know,' Bardock said, his eyes locking with Kakarot's. Again, he had spoken more forcefully than he had intended. Had to blame it on the pulsing pain coming from his arm. 'I remember when they had first told me- that you were going to be taken away from your mother and I and sent to some dirtball I had never heard of before.'
Some confusion lingered around Kakarot's eyes. 'Taken?'
'That's the word,' Bardock said, hissing as he adjusted his left arm. 'Taken. Because we had no choice for where you were going and what you were going to do. That decision was made for us by the royalty and the PTO. It…' Bardock momentarily balled his right hand into a fist. 'It was the same with Raditz.'
Kakarot's frown hovered on his face. 'I don't understand.'
'No,' Bardock said, drawing out a sigh, 'I guess you wouldn't.' He rubbed his jaw and leaned closer to Kakarot. 'Right- about a decade before you were born, the PTO came to the Saiyans' home, Planet Vegeta.'
'Planet Vegeta?' Kakarot repeated. 'Didn't that Saiyan mention a Vegeta?'
'He was talking about Prince Vegeta. He's royalty- or was, anyway- anyway,' Bardock got his thoughts back on track, 'the PTO did something different from what they usually do- killing or enslaving- when they found our species. Our King then negotiated a deal with them. We Saiyans had a warrior society: when we weren't slaughtering other sentients on our planet, we were killing each other. What the PTO offered, however, was a way to channel that culture-wide bloodlust towards more… productive activities.' Bardock wrinkled his nose. 'In their view. They were always in need of soldiers to do the dirty work of destroying civilizations on planets marked for sale. Saiyans, when given armor, tech, and supplies, were more than willing to do that.'
'Or…' Bardock stopped himself for a second. 'Most of us were. It wasn't my favorite job in the world. My parents actually wanted me to stay on-planet. But I was a well-known elite, and the King at that time asked me to put together a team to serve at the PTO's leisure. He trusted me, in other words, to put on a good face for our race. And so I did.'
Judging by his son's reaction, he had said that last line too quickly. 'Just like that?' Kakarot questioned, eyes wide. 'You agreed to go into space and… kill?'
'It wasn't like it was any different from what I was doing on Planet Vegeta,' Bardock explained. 'And a lot of good came out of it, too. I met your mother in space, after all, and with my work I was able to give us a much better life than what we had grown up with. Better-' he stopped. 'Better than yours, I guess. But there was a cost to it. The children of elites- of a lot of Saiyans- were taken away from their parents and sent to fulfill low-priority contracts for the PTO. Raditz was sent to a planet. He spent the first six years of his life on a world where the sun burns your skin off and the natives eat their young.' Bardock shook his head. 'He wasn't quite right when he got back. And you spent… well, your entire life on this Earth. There was a cost,' he reiterated.
'The cost was that you couldn't have a family?' Kakarot questioned, his face bordering on a glare. 'Not that you killed people?'
'Hey, son,' Bardock gestured and grabbed his son's attention, 'it's what I was born into. I grew up around killing. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it, and I knew how to do it. So when the PTO came knocking, I answered.'
'And you killed a lot of people?' Kakarot wound his fingers together, forming a human knot with his hands.
'I did.'
The ship's light fixtures above them briefly flickered, shadowing their faces. In between two flashes Kakarot nudged backward. 'I did, too… but I don't think as many as you, or Raditz.'
'Saiyan society changed,' Bardock sighed again. 'I'm not sure how exactly, but it did, and there was a small chance to stop that. If I had succeeded, I would have been able to keep you on Planet Vegeta with your mom and I. We learned our lesson with Raditz. Eventually, you would have started working with us- and things would have been better. But, instead, I died.'
'Yeah?'
He thought he saw one last question brimming on Kakarot's face, but in the span of a breath it had passed. So he nodded, and stood.
'I need to rest if we're going to have a shot at this,' Bardock said, glancing out through the viewport. 'If we get into another fight, that is. Keep us on track towards the base and wake me if anything happens- alright?'
Still something waited on Kakarot's face, but his son turned away towards the console. 'Alright.'
Bardock thought it best to leave it unasked and walked out of the cockpit. The deceased know he has things better left unsaid, too.
0o0o0
With pure wonder dancing across his face, Mark lifted his right hand. A bead of white, glowing like a glistening pearl, sat in his palm. 'This… this is ki?'
Sitting across from Mark in the same cross-legged sitting position he was in, Bez dipped his head. 'That it is. Now you know what Recoome is talking about.'
Stupefied, Mark turned his hand upside down and tried to shake the bead off of him to no success. 'It's just… sticking there!' he marveled.
'That's what ki does until you make it go somewhere.'
He shot Bez an extremely interested look. 'Go somewhere?'
BRANG. Both Bez and Mark shot up as a horrible banging sound rushed through the common area. To their left- and to her credit, because they hadn't seen or heard anything- Launch rose from the metal tray she had banged into the canteen table. 'Mission meeting, everyone, now!'
'Huh?' Recoome's head poked around a corner from somewhere inside the gravity chamber. 'Wha?'
Launch flexed an impressively muscled arm and finger at him. 'You too, muscle-head!'
Several seconds later, Mark, Bez, and Recoome were sat at the canteen table, staring across at a standing Launch. She seemed to consider them. Then, slowly, she lifted her hands away from the table. 'Okay… I'll be right back.' And she walked from the room.
'She's going to bring back another tray to slap us with,' Bez bet as soon as he thought she was out-of-earshot. 'I would be shocked if that wasn't the case.'
'She's probably going to yell at us…' Mark said as his head fell into his arms. 'She finally broke, and now we're gonna get it.'
'I bet she's bringing a cream for my butt.'
Bez glanced to his right, as did Mark as he leaned forward to look around the purple alien. 'What?' they asked simultaneously.
BRANG. Again, Launch had reentered the room and banged something against the table- only this time it wasn't a metal tray, but it was four of them, with something on-
'Food?' Bez muttered, in disbelief as Launch slid a tray in front of him. 'Food?'
'Not goo or gruel?' Mark said in a similar state to Bez. He absentmindedly accepted a fork and knife from Launch. 'Real food?'
A loud inhale came from their right; Recoome whipped back his head, nose wrinkling. 'I know that smell anywhere! Pork and greens!'
Bez glanced back at his tray. It was, actually, pork and greens. A bunch of vegetables, all… suspiciously fresh-looking. Wait...
'How did you make this food?...' he asked, slowly lifting his gaze to Launch.
'I know my fair share of recipes- and hid my fair share of food on the ship,' she said as she sat and eyed the fourth tray for herself.
'But… Bulma specifically said to only eat the-'
Launch cut him off by lightly tapping her fork to her tray. 'Do you want fresh cooked food or not?'
'I do,' Bez reluctantly conceded.
'How is this warm?' Mark asked, holding his hands above his tray. 'The only microwave oven is in here.'
'I had a disagreement with the goop machine,' Launch answered. 'Long story short- we're rationing goop from now on.'
'Oh.'
'Hold on-' Recoome suddenly set his utensils down. 'What's the occasion?'
'The occasion?' Launch held his gaze. She… smiled? 'The occasion is that I figured out where the Saiyans are- after talking it over with Chiaotzu, that is.'
Mark dropped his fork. 'What? Really?'
'Yup.' Launch speared a hunk of pork and popped it into her mouth. 'Which means- we're going to be doing a whole lot of training and planning over the next day before we reach them,' she said through her chewing.
'Next day?' Now Bez dropped his fork. 'You mean tomorrow? We're meeting them tomorrow? Are you kidding?'
With a loud swallow, Launch wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, leaned over her tray, and pressed the side of her fist- the side that wasn't holding her fork- into the table's cold metal. 'We find and fight them tomorrow. And I've never been more serious in my life.'
Some part of the ship's air system must have malfunctioned then- and Bez didn't want to think about the possibility that Launch had called on her aura- because a wave of wind washed over him, Recoome, and Mark, slightly tussling their clothes. Nevermind that Launch's blue-yellow hair didn't shift at all. It must have been the vents. Must have. The heating system must have been on the fritz, too, because it got cold as hell.
'Well?' Launch looked at them like they were crazy and scooted back in her seat so she'd have more room to gesture at the table. 'Dig in!'
0o0o0
'But seriously,' Bez said to Launch once the meal was done and he got the chance to pull her aside. 'What's going on?'
She gave him an innocent, neutral look. 'What's going on is exactly what I said.'
'I find that hard to believe.'
Confronted with the steady doubt in Bez's look, a crack formed in Launch's neutral expression. A smile-sized crack. 'I'm just that good.'
'Explain, then,' he said, crossing his arms, his patience non-existent. 'Explain to me how you could have possibly figured this out.'
'You want an explanation?' She paused. 'Here are the main techniques: I sketched out a rough area where Vegeta's gang would be, and then checked PTO chatter for where their boss, Cooler, is.'
'How?'
'First I searched for planets that didn't appear on PTO chatter, for one. Then I searched for any troop movements or trips being made by any high-up PTO forces.'
'Why?'
Launch held up two fingers. 'Reason number one: the Saiyans are hiding. There's no other credible conclusion if we know they're not on great terms with the PTO and that they haven't appeared on any comm chatter. And if they're hiding, they'd want to be on a planet as remote and disconnected from the larger galaxy as possible.
As for reason number two, I figured the PTO would be looking for them.'
'And?' Bez prompted her. 'Why would you think- well, any of that?'
'Something stuck out about what Recoome said to me,' she explained, slowing her speech. 'No one on his team had a super good idea of what the mission on Namek was supposed to be, apparently. I know Bulma thinks the Saiyans misled the PTO so that they'd come after us. Well- isn't there a good chance that the PTO would be coming after them if that was true after what happened on Namek?'
'And you have evidence of that?'
Launch grinned. 'Not much- if you don't count the fact that the PTO's new boss, Cooler, is hanging around this section of the galaxy doing some inspections. Your sieve on that PTO relay is coming in handy.'
'Inspections?' Bez repeated dryly. 'That's it?' He drew inward, thinking. 'That's not super compelling.'
'Come on. You really think those are just inspections?'
'Well, no, but the chances that he's doing something that doesn't involve the Saiyans is pretty high.' Bez gave her a flat look. 'This is all conjecture- especially the stuff about where the Saiyans would be.'
'Not all of it.' Launch said, tapping her finger against her temples. 'Don't you think it's likely that Vegeta's crew would want to find a spot to hide in after the thrashing they got? Some kind of place that's so far off the galactic map that no news gets in or out? Extremely local and isolated? That's what I would do in their shoes.'
'You're not a Saiyan,' Bez said in a low voice. Neither of us are. We wouldn't know for sure.'
'Sure, but we know-'
'Launch.' Bez collected his breath and sighed through his nose. 'We can't do this on guesses. When we act-' He threw out his arm to his right. 'When we act and reveal that we're out here to the entire galaxy, we have to be smart about it. Calculating. We need proof, we need a plan, and we need the chance that we survive this.'
'You're right.' Launch held up her hands like a bested competitor, which only made Bez more wary of what she was about to say. 'I don't have all those things- or should I say, I didn't until recently.'
Under his gaze, she drew up an electronic chit from her right side and flung a local map of the galaxy into the space to their right. 'Your sieve also snatched the smallest bit of traffic. A squadron of ships just left PTO space. Their trajectory?'
Launch slowed as her finger stopped just short of a blurry white star. 'This system, here. And there's nothing else there except for a measly little planet with a measly little off-world market.' Her finger moved to a purple-blue star just in front of the one she was pointing at. 'And this system has nothing except for a measly little abandoned PTO base- where four ships from the first system are heading towards as we speak.'
Bez's eyes narrowed. 'And how do you know all this?'
'Like I said before- your sieve is coming in handy.' The chit rolled around between Launch's fingers. 'You can check it all, if you want. It's all stored on the ship's computer.'
Bez was tempted to do just that. He probably would, later. But there was something else on his mind. 'So what you're saying is that, in reality, we're about to face down not only the Saiyans, but also the PTO?'
Launch nodded. 'I'm sure of it.'
'And you're sure this is a good idea?'
The chit rolled again between her fingers, and the projection disappeared from Launch's right. 'This is why we're here, right? And we have the element of surprise. Neither side should know- or even expect us- to show up. So if we play this right…'
Bez arched a brow. 'If we play this right, then?...
'We'll do what we should have done on the day they invaded. We'll kill them.'
Her words echoed faintly against the metal corridors of the ship. An old expression returned to Bez's face. 'So you're committed to that, then?'
'If I can pull it off,' Launch said honestly. 'Never a guarantee of that, but I'm stronger compared to when I started this trip, so…'
He had no idea what to make of her tapering off. 'I can only hope we're ready.'
And then he realized what she was thinking. In one smooth movement, she closed the distance between them and drew him into a hug. He went as stiff as a board.
'I know you're all ready,' she said, voice adamant. 'I'll tell you as much- as I'm doing now. If we're working together as a team, we're going to do this.' She separated from him, and like she was adjusting a vase, corrected his posture. 'The Saiyans are bad, bad people. They would have killed us if that time traveler hadn't come around. Getting rid of them will do the galaxy a lot of good.'
Bez found his gaze and directed it towards her. 'So this isn't about you trying to settle a grudge?'
'Well- it is,' Launch said, an easy smile on her lips. 'But if I'm going to ask everyone else on this ship to put their lives on the line, it has to also be for a good cause, right? And I definitely need to feed and treat them well beforehand- if we're going to be working together, that is.'
'Ah. Right.'
There must have been something of his mood on his face. 'You worry too much- and don't spend enough time training.' Launch clapped him on the back as she walked past him and headed towards- by the Kais, he knew it well by now- the gravity chamber. 'Be ready in about an hour. Today's going to be one hell of a work-out day.'
Bez tried to calm his breathing even as he heard some indiscernible growl and thunk from somewhere behind him. Someone may have yelled, 'my gooooo!' But he was far too worried to figure out if that had actually happened.
Kais, please help us.
0o0o0
A wide wall of monitors blinked and buzzed, some shifting and changing and some deathly monotonous, but all eventually flickered as new information fed into the mainframe. This ship had always been his eyes and ears. For every battle he fought on the edges of the galaxy, he had counted on his crew to alert him to what he, as one person, could not always see. His strength without a proportional amount of sight was meaningless. Thus, he never allowed a mission to happen unless the target and goals were present and clear.
Silhouetted by a blue glow, Cooler half-turned his head to his right. 'And you are sure this is them, Salza?'
His second bowed reverently, his blue hair even colored further by the screens' glow to his right. 'I would stake my life on it.'
'And you are prepared to chase them down?'
'Them and those chasing them,' Saiza swore. 'And, if it is not them, I will go to that planet and turn over every rock and hovel myself.'
Somewhere behind them, Cooler heard the chatter of his men- Salza's team. 'Then you have my blessing. Take the Armored Squadron and intercept, defeat, and capture all those you encounter. That is my order.'
Salza had held his bow through all of this. Now, he raised slightly, bowed again and straightened. 'It shall be done.' His head whipped to his left and marched off in that direction. 'Men!'
As the sounds of that chatter receded, Cooler's attention moved from where Salza had been to the wall of monitors in front of him. The image dominating the center of the multi-screen display was utterly unflattering. Bardock and his son, Kakarot, flitted in his vision as they hawked with some alien over some pile of scrap metal. But it was amazing what something as crude as this picture could capture. One snapshot, and their fates were sealed.
A/N: I think I got a little ambitious with the Friday deadline. Sorry! Hope you all enjoy this Saturday one, instead!
yasho360: You're right! It was kind of a long set-up chapter. That should be the last one for a very, very long time, though.
Would be interesting to see Recoome and Ginyu reunite...
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for the review!
TienFan99: Glad you enjoyed Chi-Chi and Yamcha's scenes! I really worked on those to make 'em just right.
All these conversations will be crucial going forward…
Thank you for the review! Hope you enjoy this chapter!
KagariAsuha: Thank you for the review! I really enjoyed Chi-Chi and Yamcha's scenes, too!
Anonymous: You are 100% going to see more of Retu/Suno next chapter. Stay tuned. As mentioned earlier, this was the last area-specific chapter.
You know, I don't think anyone is really aware that Recoome has become a Capsule Corp. gym rat. After coming to terms with that, I think Chiaotzu would have some interesting dialogue with him.
In Krillin's non-defense, it's not like his daughter has seen him fight at all. That might change going forward :^)
And speaking of Maron… you're right, it is supposed to be Marron, ugh! I forgot about Krillin's filler girlfriend. It's really dumb (and kind of weird) that they have such similar names… but, also, I guess the filler came before canon? Very odd. I may change all her mentions in this story to reflect the proper name, lol. We'll see.
IMO, yeah, her strength should have probably diminished considering she never trains or works out, really. I do think, however, now that she's gotten some super strength, it should be relatively easy for her to build back up to that strength level if she applied herself. So super-strength Bulma might not be gone forever. And that's to say nothing about the aspects of her increased strength that may have stuck around after her muscles weakened…
Thank you for the review! I hope this is not extortion, either!
