Metal
Chapter 86: The Ground Will Give
'So?' Chi-Chi, guard tensed, waited another long second. 'Are you going to attack me, or not?'
She wasn't sure why she was still trying to talk her way out of a fight. Suno was growling and stamping the ground like a beast. Yet enough time had passed that Chi-Chi felt her friend's hesitation, as hard as that may be to believe. She didn't know whether this was good or bad.
She did, however, get a good idea while waiting. With a careful slide, Chi-Chi swept her back foot across the floor and pushed Retu further behind her- and through the door. Better to fight outside in the brighter, larger chamber than in here. It'd be easier to keep Retu out of harm's way out there, too.
The instant she stepped back herself, Suno broke her silence. 'Teacher.'
A chill shot down Chi-Chi's spine. 'Why are you calling me that?'
'Teachhheeeer. Teeeecheeerrr.' Suno's voice, grating and garbled like falling gravel, advanced piecemeal as Suno herself began to walk forward, steps steadying as she went. Suddenly she stopped. 'Teacher....'
Chi-Chi gulped. Does… is she?... She couldn't help but feel some hope. 'Do you… recognize me?...'
Suno displayed her first bit of joy- a sick, twisted smile that cut straight through her skin to her teeth and bones. But as soon as it appeared it disappeared with a flash as Suno's blood-red aura screamed around her and she plunged towards her, blasting apart the doorway with her aura. Her battle cry echoed between Chi-Chi's ears as their fists first met. 'Baraaagggh!'
Fighting was what she expected; Chi-Chi felt some relief as she traveled backward with the force of the blow, feet just skidding against the ground until she rose into the air alongside her red Kaioken aura. Without any pause Suno followed her, charging through the air haphazardly but quickly. Chi-Chi was caught by a number of glancing blows before she was able to whip around and slam her leg against Suno's back, launching her across the massive chamber. To her surprise, her student wasn't able to stop herself before crashing into the floor, throwing dust and chunks of concrete into the air.
'Hmph!'
The sound of something cutting through the air reached Chi-Chi's ears, and with a quick lurch, she flew higher into the air, just avoiding a pair of whips, snapping with charged electrical energy. She tried to identify who had launched the attack, but as quickly as they lashed upward, the whips snapped back to the ground, retreating into the darkness of the lab Suno had barreled out of.
'And that is?... the third, then.' she breathed. Chi-Chi drifted farther into the center of the room, attention constantly shifting back-and-forth, left-and-right. 'Great… just my luck.'
Her head snapped to her left: out of the smoke and dust, Suno stomped forward, aura flattening piles of rubble. Fighting two enemies from two different angles usually did not make for a winning fight. She needed to defeat one, then quickly move on to the second.
'Alright, then!' Chi-Chi's shouted voice was blasted from the room as her aura bloomed around her. Her energy raged in the air like a superheated meteor; veins raised across her skin and her hair flung out behind her, sweat wicking from its tips. 'BRING IT ON!'
0o0o0
Nappa, back flush to the wall, snarled as his fingers dug into his forearms. Pain coursed through his limbs like blood through his arteries. Deterring whoever was trying to get to the bridge would have been easy if he wasn't injured. But the beating Bardock and his coward son had dished out still weighed on him, sapping his breath and slowing his speed. His lungs labored after every blast he had lobbed down the approach to this part of the station.
But… Vegeta's counting on me. Nappa's fingers curled further, pressing against aching muscle. I can't give up the bridge. I won't. Not again… He closed his eyes, breathing hard. I won't.
'Hey! Tough guy!'
Nappa flinched as a familiar deep voice floated down the hall. It must have been some trick. This was the last place he'd expect to run into… that person...
Cautiously, Nappa peaked around the wall. 'Recoome?' His tired mind was shot with frenetic energy. Is the Ginyu Force nearby, too? They tend to come as a unit. Does this mean those guys were in those PTO ships coming here? Nappa's eyes narrowed on Recoome as he stepped fully into the hallway. 'What the hell happened to you?' he asked, eyeing his prosthetic legs.
'So it is you!' Recoome clapped his hands together. 'Been awhile, Nappa.'
Nappa's attention lingered on Recoome's legs. 'Yeah…' His gaze shot to Recoome's face. 'Ginyu's nearby, isn't he?'
A flat look crossed Recoome's face. 'Eh?'
There was then banging from his end of the hall- the sound of two pipes crashing together. Recoome's expression widened. 'Oh- oh, yeah.' He made a show of looking around. 'Yep… he's here.'
Something stank. And Nappa was far enough away from Recoome that he couldn't rule him out. 'So you're here to bring me and Vegeta in? Or are you going after Bardock and Kakarot? Maybe all four of us?'
'Huh? Who?'
Another loud, almost frantic banging came from Recoome's end, this time even bucking the grate underneath the red-haired giant's feet. 'Ow!'
Recoome hadn't said that. Nappa glared down the length of the hallway. 'What- who's under your feet?'
'N-nothing! No one! In fact!' Recoome's aura hummed into existence, vivid, flowing pink. 'Your face!'
Nappa laid a hand to his bald head. 'What?'
'Hyaaagh!' With a cry Recoome closed the gap between him and Nappa. 'Recoooomeeee…. KICK!' A leg shot out from underneath him and landed square on Nappa's jaw, wrenching back the Saiyan's head. But that initial blow only served to enrage Nappa; his rage quickly righted him and he easily caught the next strike aimed for his cracked chestplate.
'You're dead,' Nappa growled as he pulled Recoome's arm closer, grappling it. The red-haired giant tried to use his barely superior weight to pull Nappa off his feet, but the Saiyan was surer with his footing and kept upright. They were both massive coils of tendons and stone-cut muscle, but the surrounding metalwork bent more to Nappa's pressure and presence.
'You're dead!' Recoome shouted back as dark yellow energy swallowed the air around them. Arcing power surged around Nappa's free right arm as he brought it across his body, crashing his fist against Recoome's shoulder. He staggered, then fell to one knee as Nappa beat the left side of his body with his fists, body bounding and falling like an ape, pummelling Recoome into the floor. One last blow snapped and cracked Recoome's head into the metal, spraying blood from a cut in his cheek.
Nappa caught his breath as he involuntarily staggered a step backward. 'Huah… huah… now… stay…' Before he could finish his sentence, Recoome began to stir from his splayed out position on the ground. '...Stay… stay dead?' This… this shouldn't be possible! He was never this strong!
A globule of blood was spat onto the floor as Recoome held himself off the floor with one arm. 'You punch hard,' he cleared his mouth, eyes wincing from pain. 'But I've been punched harder.'
At that moment a last burst of white scorched from the lights above them before they shut off entirely, plunging the hallway into darkness. Nappa's head instinctually whipped around to the bridge; he saw the door to it was sealed. 'No!' He dashed over and pounded on the metal. 'Bastards!' They cut the power! He swung around, fuming down the gloomy corridor, seeing no trace of Recoome.
'You bastards! Arrgghhh!' Stomping forward at full speed, Nappa raced down the corridor, aura lighting his way. 'I'll kill you! I will!'
0o0o0
The heavy pounding of footsteps rushed towards them but Bez kept his breathing under control and gripped a pipe in the dark to still himself. Sure enough Nappa charged right above their heads and continued on blindly. He waited for the stomping to fade into the endless echoing of the station before he let out a small sigh and relaxed onto the metal girding behind him. 'Well- that was close.'
'Sure was.' Recoome's red hair, the only visible part of him in the extreme darkness they were in, brushed against the metal grate above their heads. 'Good catch with his scouter, too- he'd have trouble tracking us down even if the lights were still on.'
'Yeah.' Bez listened to a far-off clunk to make sure it echoed into the ambiance. 'Props to you, too. I can't believe you fit down here.'
'Neither can I.'
'Huh?'
'What?'
'You didn't think you could slip into here?'
'Have you seen me?'
'Err.' Bez tried to shift his legs around but only managed to bunch them up under a different metal strut. 'You, uh… you took a gamble, then? What would have happened if Nappa saw you trying to squeeze your way into here?'
He saw Recoome's outline shift- he shrugged. 'I dunno.'
Even though they were only separated by a few feet in this crawlspace of wires and pipe, the darkness made it feel like miles. Their collective silence contributed, too. Together they sat and listened to the station's creaking and aching while hunched under a walkway. With enough time Bez felt hidden enough to make a few unseen, unflattering faces at his ally.
'Well- what now?' Recoome eventually asked. 'Can you power on the bridge again so we can contact Launch?'
'Uhh…' Bez chuckled as he fumbled in the dark and handed something to Recoome. Frayed mesh and wire filled his hands. 'I don't think I can repair what I did. But I do have an idea for the next-best-thing.'
Bez's hands wandered again until there was a click of a switch being flicked. Red light spilled from little oval-shaped holes in the under-passage they were crammed into. And to their left a narrow tunnel led further into the station's guts.
'Emergency lights,' Bez explained. 'We can use these to get to some kind of service hub where, hopefully, we'll be able to find some way to communicate with the rest of the station. And at the very least we won't have to stumble through the dark to get there.'
'Huh.' Recoome's mouth bridged and shut. 'Huh.'
'What?'
'Feels like… it feels like I'm forgetting something.'
'Down here with the pipes? You're sure?'
'Eh.' Recoome shrugged again. 'You're probably right. Probably nothing. Lead on.'
Bez nodded as he started shimmying forward. 'Watch your step. Or knee, or crawl, or… whatever.'
0o0o0
His father's arm shot across Kakarot's path. 'Stop. You hear that?'
The station had been eerily quiet since leaving the records room. Kakarot peered down the corridor ahead. Another section of the station with broken lighting; he couldn't see anything definite beyond the dull shapes of the paneling defining the width of the passage. Stagnant, pressing dark, and shapes… a moving shape… that sound...
'That's definitely humming,' Bardock decided, dropping his hand from his ear.
Kakarot pointed forward. 'And that's definitely a person, too.'
The station seemed to grow even more quiet as the humming drew nearer, bouncing off walls and floors like waves falling forward. The pattern was simple, short, and repetitive, but timed impeccably so that it stopped and started with the same sound: the whistle of air sliding across metal.
'Son,' Bardock's hand clasped his shoulder. 'Do me a favor and back up with me. I don't like us being the only people in the light. And stick that data disk into your pants.'
Numb, Kakarot complied. Their backward steps sounded muffled in the face of the sharp and clear melody sweeping across the corridor to them. Its composer's head tilted among the gloom but otherwise seemed unconcerned about their backtrack. With even less caution they strolled into the light- eyes closed, arms crossed.
'So- I heard son before,' Launch said, smirking as she imagined their faces. She had made a little game for himself as she walked what had seemed to be an endless hallway- what would these Saiyanas look like? Big, tall, ugly, squat? Thick, thin, drooping, thundering? Brash, handsome, lean and pallid? Bald? Hair to their feet? She really had no idea what to expect. She'd seen a lot of variety in the Saiyans she'd met. So she had a lot of funny ideas in her head. 'Do I sense a bond between you two?'
Bardock growled, rolling it into a long, almost sighing grunt. 'Dumb of me. Who are you?'
'Just an everyday citizen of the galaxy,' Launch said, trying her best to summon some whimsicality into her voice. 'Going from place to place, fight to fight, to spread good.'
'Spreading good? What kind of hell planet are you from?'
Launch deigned his response with a smirk. 'Your son's been quiet so far. He stunned?'
'Shut up!' Keeping his cool with Kakarot's tendency to space out was hard enough without other people pointing it out. He elbowed him. 'You gonna say something, or-'
Kakarot pushed aside his father's elbow, lips pressing together. His eyes were practically glued to this person.
'... Kakarot?' Bardock muttered.
Launch's face flattened. 'Hmm? That was odd. That sounded like a name.' Her eyebrows lifted, as if she was reconsidering something. 'That was a name.' Her eyes opened- and locked with Kakarot's.
A long second weighed on them. 'Well,' Launch said finally. 'I… I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.'
'...Launch,' Kakarot said, mouth moving slowly, like he was remembering how to speak. 'I…'
'So you know my name.' Her eyes traced Kakarot's shape. 'So you're probably Kakarot- but you can't be Kakarot, because he's dead.' Launch's face creased and curved, chasing some clarity as to what was going on. 'But you know my name,' she repeated.
'Alright,' Bardock stepped in front of his son. 'I think there's been a misunderstanding. I have never met you before in my life,' he gestured to his chest, 'and he has the bad habit of staring at strangers for too long,' gesturing to his son, 'so if you'll just move aside-'
'Who are you?' Launch's attention snapped to him. 'Are you Kakarot's dad?'
'My son isn't named Kakarot,' Bardock said, voice bordering on a growl. 'You're confusing him with someone else.'
'He said my name.'
'He has a big mouth!'
Metal creaked as Launch's pose shifted, feet pressing to the ground and arms raising. 'Whoever you are- step aside. I'd like to talk to your son directly.'
Bardock mimicked her pose. 'No. Now move aside.'
'Not giving me an inch, eh? Then why should I do the same for you?'
'Because I'll punch you.'
'Never heard that before.' Launch made a wry face as she continued searching Bardock's expression. What was she seeing? Fear? Parental bravery? Both?
'You know what?' Launch side-stepped, opening up space to her right in the hallway. 'You can go. Your son has to stay, though.'
'Seriously?' Bardock half-grinned. 'Who in their right mind would take that deal? As selfish as I can be, I'm not going to let you kill my son.' Hands settled on his back. He wondered what Kakarot looked like right now.
Launch gripped her side and laughed. Really laughed. Her red aura blazed outward with every burst of air leaving her lungs. 'Yeah? That so? And who's going to stop me from doing that? You?' She eyed the cracks in Bardock's armor and the discolored bruises on his exposed skin. 'You don't look particularly fresh. If anything-'
Mid-bleat, a wave of energy hit her aura, staggering her several feet back. Feet scrabbled against the grate as across the room, a yawning blue-purple aura filled the air, licking the walls, floor, and ceiling. 'You know,' Bardock said conversationally, as if he wasn't surrounded by a true ocean of energy, 'I haven't fully healed yet, but yes- I was thinking me.'
The cockiness on Launch's face shifted into something more sporting. 'This is happening?' she said, excitement building in her voice. 'Two Saiyans in one day? Is this actually happening?'
'If you don't back down.'
'Hah!' Launch's aura exploded off of her, slapping against the hallway's confines. 'It totally is! Saiyans sure are stubborn!'
0o0o0
Chi-Chi dashed backward seconds before a flash filled her vision. A cone of pure energy, red and explosive, erupted from Suno, blasting apart the floor of the chamber. She stumbled on a few falling slabs of concrete before wrenching on an unconscious Retu's arm and flying them into the air. Luckily, while the base of the chamber collapsed like a sinkhole, most of the metal platforms higher up were still sound. She breathed a sigh of relief as she laid Retu down on one.
Close… far too close. At the edge of the platform she peered down. That blast had unleashed carnage on the base below- but, interestingly, it had also blown out more of the wall to the lab Suno had charged out from. Artificial white light now revealed what had previously been in darkness: a series of consoles, wires, cables… all centered around a giant and green opaque tube. If Chi-Chi didn't know better she would have thought it was some sort of person-sized test tube… but that was crazy, wasn't it?
Then again; Chi-Chi turned her attention back to her chamber's bottom. Out of a cloud of debris Suno staggered out, coughing, hissing, but still very much surrounded by raging ki. Mind control was pretty out there. Though the fight up until this point had been pretty… weird. Suno wasn't particularly skilled while in whatever state she was in. Who knows what else might be going on here?
'Heeeeey!' The voice from earlier blared from speakers somewhere in the room. 'Your order is to kill! Wanton destruction is not a part of that!'
Chi-Chi's gaze remained on Suno. If she was being directed or controlled by the admonishment, or even aware of it, her shambling gait and wild swinging of her head didn't show it. She's more like a wild beast than anything thinking… which means…
An unbidden idea sprung into Chi-Chi's head. That could work.
'Be right back, Retu!' She shouted as her red aura, flames springing from her skin, enveloped her and thrummed air towards the ground. Suno's head shot up, eyes wild, and with a leap she lurched into the air, aura dragging behind her.
The chamber's metal walls shuddered as they careened towards each other- but at the last second Chi-Chi darted to her right and avoided Suno's charge. Her opponent struggled to correct her momentum and turn, and in that time Chi-Chi landed on the rubble-strewn ground and crammed her hands together.
Ground churned underneath her feet as her aura blossomed outwards and folded around her arms. A red orb filled her grip, pressed against her skin, as she attentively watched the air above. To her not-surprise she saw Suno finish righting herself and loop around, screaming through the air back towards her. Whatever was compelling her wasn't smart enough to recognize a beam attack, which would give Chi-Chi the chance to land one good concussive hit.
She frowned a bit as she realized that, if this was successful, Suno would be in a lot of pain. Well... Her muscles clenched, bringing her coiled attack forward. I'll have to apologize later!
'Hyaa!' A solid red beam sprung from her hands, blasting apart smoke and debris and dust. As predicted, Suno made no move to dodge- she couldn't. The loping attack hit her head on and detonated. Huge waves of energy blew through the air and flattened the rubble surrounding Chi-Chi. Even she staggered some, falling back a few steps as her aura wavered around her.
'Crap,' she muttered as she steadied herself, shaking loose dust from her gi. 'That may have been too much.'
A heavy thunk came from somewhere nearby, startling Chi-Chi. With a push of her aura the air around her cleared. Snow-white tufts of fabric were peeking out from behind a nearby pile of rubble. Chi-Chi cautiously trudged over, guard tensed.
It was Suno, alright. Unconscious and bloodied from her attack but otherwise okay: she seemed to be breathing. Chi-Chi bent down to confirm that her heart was beating, too, but as her hand started reaching forward she froze. The bands of ivory wrapping around Suno's head were clinging to her skull even tighter now. The sharp ends- they were digging into her friend's head, pricking her skin and drawing bright crimson blood to drape across her face. It definitely hadn't been doing that before, right?
Chi-Chi redirected her hand to Suno's head- but before she could reach forward, a sudden surge of wind knocked her onto her back. Out of nowhere red lightning soared down from the chamber's ceiling and electrified Suno. Chi-Chi scrambled backward as the lightning condensed, wrapped around Suno, until it sprang into the circlet and the red gem at its center. Suno's body convulsed, but as the last of the lightning disappeared her limbs stiffened and she sat up, eyes bouncing around in her skull, but nonetheless rising alongside her body.
She was no less injured- Chi-Chi could see the bruises and wounds laid across her body, the tears in her gi, and the blood pouring from her face- but she was standing the same as she had before Chi-Chi's attack.
'Graaagggh!'
0o0o0
From his shadowed upper catwalk in the main room, Kochin watched over his buttons and dials. It was a little bit more art than science to control how much energy the subject received when she needed a little pick-up- too little and she'd be caught out, but too much and her heart might stop. He was more concerned, however, that the subject's opponent hadn't shown any signs of slowing down: her energy reading had remained roughly consistent throughout the fight. He was starting to grow worried…
'Kishi!' Kochin yelled as he swung his head over the nearest railing. 'You finish connecting the cables together?'
At the bottom of a room Kishi's green color stood out against the dull grays and blacks. 'Yes!' He replied, standing out of a hole. 'Everything is connected and ready!'
'And how are your whips doing out there?'
'...uhh... I… forget they were there!'
'Well... alright!' Kochin scratched at his bald scalp. 'But it's good the cables are sorted out!' He pointed to the gaping hole in the room where the door used to be. 'Now get out there and help!'
'What!?' Kishi tried to shrink back into the gloomy hole. 'You want me to go out there? Have you seen out there?'
As if to emphasize his point a sprawling chunk of rubble flew in and smashed into a console, sending sparks flying and wire spinning. But Kochin was unperturbed. 'You go out there and help! I only have so many charges left for the one you brought in, and once she's down, who do you think is going to get killed next!'
'Uhh… who?'
'The strongest one left!'
'...'
'You!' Kochin tossed a book down at him. 'So get out there!'
'Y-yes, sir!'
To his relief the bio-warrior did what it was created to do and followed his order- Kishi hesitantly but ultimately went out. But still Kochin felt that he was delaying a bad end to this all. If things didn't get better soon…
'...Kochin?' Dr. Wheelo said softly over a nearby speaker. 'How is the fight going? Have we won?'
His assistant hung onto the railing for a second. His old gray hands knotted like an old tree growing around a pipe. 'No. We haven't. I… I'm not sure what we're doing now will be enough.'
Silence. Then: 'What more can we do?'
'I will bring the last subject here and prepare you for the process.' He turned to the speaker, even though he knew Wheelo was speaking to him from the tank downstairs. 'I fear the procedure is our only option at this point.'
'I… I see. And even though we haven't tested the method yet… circumstances make it necessary?'
'It's do or die, Dr. Wheelo.' Kochin tucked his mottled lab coat into his pants and started descending a nearby ladder. 'Let's get you into your suit.'
0o0o0
'Welp.' Launch said. 'Let's get this over with.'
In a burst of speed she zoomed forward with her red aura and delivered three precise, quick, devastating strikes. Her first, a side-sweeping palm, knocked aside Bardock's rapidly rising arms. Her second dug into Bardock's side, kicking him to the left and off-balance. And her third came as she gripped the heaving Saiyan by his shoulders and crashed a super-charged knee into his gut. Flesh and muscle gave way to her blow and a high-pitched whimper escaped from her opponent's foaming lips.
In three strikes it was over.
Bardock sank to his knees, teeth scraping together, body coiling to protect itself. 'Ow… ow…' Spittle leaked from his mouth as he tried and failed to get a full breath, deterred by the rhythmic pain pulsing through his body. 'I… I can't believe…'
With a stern frown Launch stepped away, drawing her knee back. Her red aura calmed. 'That was a little bit of a letdown.'
'What… can I say…' Bardock said, body shaking from the pain, yet he managed to lift his head and face her. 'I'm… I'm not at 100%, you know…'
Launch rolled her eyes. 'Right.'
A quick kick punted Bardock to her side. Kakarot watched his father dent the corridor's wall and crumple to the metal flooring.
'So.' Launch held out her right hand towards Bardock. Energy glowed from her skin. 'Do I need to kill him?'
Kakarot stared dumbly at her. 'What do you mean?'
'Are you going to play nice and save your father's life- that's what I mean.'
'What do you want?'
Launch grinned at him as she flexed the fingers of her palm. 'I want a lot of things. I want to know a lot of things. And I think you can help me with both.'
'That's it? Questions?' Kakarot glanced quickly at his father. 'Well- ask then.'
'Question one: you are Kakarot, right?'
Instinctively, Kakarot looked to his father for guidance, but Launch's hand glowed ominously and drew his attention back. 'Nuh uh uh,' she tsked, shaking her head. 'Look at me as you answer. Are you Kakarot?'
'...Yes.'
'Good!' Launch commended him. 'Was that so hard?'
Kakarot resisted the urge to share a glance with his father. 'Considering the circumstances…' he mumbled.
'Question two: how are you here? How are you alive?'
Metal groaned to Launch's right. 'Now… hold on,' Bardock said, heaving through his words. He turned so that his shoulder was against the wall and could just barely turn his head towards Launch. 'He- he doesn't know everything he'd need to know to explain-'
A snap of Launch's aura reverberated off them and cowed them into silence. 'Did I ask you to speak?' Launch asked, staring daggers at Bardock.
'...No.'
She glanced back to Kakarot. 'Well?'
Kakarot's face was muted, demure. 'You wouldn't believe me.'
'I'll be the judge of that,' Launch snarled. 'Fess up.'
Fingers curled at Kakarot's side even as he tossed his head- away from Launch 'I was in Hell with my father, and we were revived. That's it.'
Launch studied Kakarot; suspicion floated freely in her eyes. 'Well, you're right. I don't believe you- except for the part where you're in Hell.'
'How else can I be alive?' Kakarot pressed, suddenly glaring at her. 'If you're so convinced that I'm Kakarot.'
'Dunno.' Launch's gaze turned on Bardock. 'He telling the truth, dad?'
'... For the most part, yes,' Bardock said, adjusting again so that he could lean his back against the wall. 'Minus a few details here and there.'
'Like?'
'We didn't revive ourselves. Some dude did it for us… supposedly.'
'"Some dude"?' Launch repeated, mocking his word choice. '"Supposedly"? What the hell does that mean?'
'We don't exactly know how we were revived,' Bardock said, stifling a pained groan. 'We made a deal. The guy promised to get us revived.'
A stray wind pushed down the hallway, blowing past Launch. Her yellow-blue hair wavered as her right hand dropped away from Bardock- though none of her coiled tenseness left her pose. Her interrogation was proving much more convoluted than she anticipated. 'So someone you didn't know in Hell got you revived? What was their name?' Her eyes narrowed. 'And why? Why get revived?'
Bardock flashed his teeth at her. 'What, do you want our whole life story while we're at it?'
'Considering that you came back to live it again, yes.'
'I'll start from the beginning, then!' Bardock said, irritation grating his teeth as he propped himself off the wall. 'When I was six and I skinned my knee, dear old dad put on my cleats and laced them tight-'
Launch's aura flared as she swung back to him, eyes drowning in vitriol. But the impact of her intimidation was overshadowed by the entire station shaking around them. 'The hell?' She said, swaying to keep on her feet.
Bardock's attention drifted to the darkened corridor behind Launch. 'Felt like ships landing.'
Launch scowled at him. 'Explain.'
'Those were attack pods piercing the station. PTO tends to do that when they assault someplace.'
'Oh?' The sound of Bez's voice flashed through Launch's mind. That would be the actual PTO. I guess it's been long enough for them to catch-up.
'Hey.' Kakarot, who had watched intently as Launch and her father had traded unpleasantries, stepped forward. 'There are people hunting for us right now. Are you prepared to fight them?'
Launch's brows rose. 'Yeah? What are you saying?'
Kakarot exchanged a long, searching look with his father. Bardock initially seemed surprised, but after a moment nodded and hung his head. 'We need to get off this station,' Kakarot continued. 'You, obviously, need to talk longer with us to get your answers. Get what I'm saying?'
'Not really,' Launch said dryly. 'What, are you offering yourselves up as my prisoners?'
'You think we can fight off who's coming after us?'
She despised the look Kakarot floated towards her: cocky and assuming but true. They were weak and they knew it. And they expected her to protect them from Vegeta and the PTO?
'Sounds like a bad deal,' Launch said bluntly. 'I'm not doing you any favors.'
'But- umph- you'd be doing yourself a favor,' Kakarot reasoned. 'You want us.'
Launch grunted. 'Nah.'
'And you want to beat us up yourselves.'
'Hah! That's… that's, uhh…' Launch tailed off into silence. Was it really that obvious? She kept bunching and loosening her fists, eager to throw another punch after trouncing the other Saiyan so quickly. And Kakarot, here- he represented so much grief. So much anger and death and misfortune all because he was an alien maniac who preyed on the weak and killed for fun. She wanted nothing more to strike him again, and again, until he was nothing but a twitching form on the metal grate flooring. She wanted that. The galaxy deserved that.
Launch closed her eyes and through her nose let out a long exhale. It wasn't fair that she had to make this choice under these circumstances. If she didn't take them now, chances are she really would lose them to Vegeta or the PTO- forever.
Her thoughts screeched to a halt. Not just me. All of us. She had nearly forgotten- she had forgotten her crew for a time. But they were risking their lives for this moment and her chance to make this decision, whatever it may be. And she realized that she could never make a definitive choice here, under these circumstances, without them.
'You're a terrible person,' Launch said slowly, staring down Kakarot, 'and I will never forget what you did while you were on Earth. But at the end of the day it's not my decision to do what I want with you.'
Relief crossed Kakarot's face; he exchanged a hopeful look with his father. 'So you're-'
'Because I would kill you right now,' Launch added, fists bunching one last time before she let them relapse into simple hands. 'If it was solely my choice. But others have earned a right to weigh-in.'
Bardock shifted to her right. 'On what?'
'On your fate? Life, death, crime, punishment- whatever. Not my specialty.' Launch moved to her left and turned, facing Bardock arms crossed. 'So I'll be the delivery person on this one. Kakarot, grab your dad and help him walk.'
Kakarot moved forward once given permission and let his father wrap one arm around his shoulders. 'And so-' he said, standing them both, '-we're leaving?'
'Oh yes,' Launch said in a measured voice. 'And you're going to be walking every step in front of me in case I need a bodyshield.'
'Going where?' Kakarot asked. 'To Earth?'
'Shut it! Get moving!'
The two Saiyans hung close as Launch barked at them to advance. Kakarot couldn't believe they'd scraped through this. Vegeta would have probably killed them or worse. The PTO? Probably worse than that. What were the chances they'd run into Earthlings here, let alone someone Kakarot knew of, who would be pretty much the only people in the galaxy who would let them live? Not likely. Not believable, either.
But we may actually live to see another day… With his free hand Kakarot scratched the hem of his pants and felt the disk slide around in an inside pocket. Hard to believe that we may actually have enough to bargain for our lives, too…
Unseen by Launch, Kakarot met Bardock's eyes and saw his father squeeze a hand into a fist. You might get your wish, Dad. We might figure out what they've done to Raditz...
0o0o0
The air choked his lungs as Yamcha swung through smoke and ash, desperately trying to find his way past the city carnage below. It was like that day so many years ago when King Piccolo brought death here. West City was burning once again. And this time there wouldn't be anyone to put out the fires.
Yamcha's grip on Bulma tightened as he tried to swallow his guilt. Already the injured cries were fading from his hearing. Either he was moving fast enough or they were dying. Or they were dying. The words echoed in his head worse than any cry had. But what choice did he have? He had no idea what was going on beyond the Red Ribbon Army wiping a city off a map. For what reason? What cause? And even if he knew why he had used most of his energy getting here in time. His strength was ebbing. He couldn't fight as long as he was ferrying away Bulma, too.
Bulma… Habitually his hand slid up to the crook of her neck, searching for a pulse. Finding one never made him feel any less terrified. Unconscious people were usually unconscious for a reason. She must have been injured in some way he couldn't see, feel, tell. And the longer they fled, the longer she would go without proper attention- not this frantic, worried prodding he was doing while speeding through suffocating air.
But he couldn't even think about where to go, who to ask for help from- the air was thick and filled with flame. Those Androids could be anywhere. He couldn't sense them- that he was sure of now, after wracking his ki senses for minutes and minutes on end as he flew blind through the smoke. They were stealthy- and they were strong. The few blows he'd received had ached in a way Yamcha hadn't felt in years. If he had been a full power, and he wasn't carrying Bulma, and if he wasn't fleeing through black air, he still wouldn't win against them. He was sure of it. The taste of dread in his mouth was too strong. Dread. Dread, dread, dread-
'Leaving so soon, Yamcha?'
The air around Yamcha congealed as Android 20 blurred into his path. Old eyes watched his arms. 'Bulma Briefs and I have unfinished business.'
Unconsciously Yamcha wrapped her closer to him. 'Leave her out of this,' he said in a low voice. 'She's not a fighter- not like us.'
'I do not care for whether she can defend herself.' Gero's vision snapped to him. 'She is a threat and must be eliminated. Just the same as you.'
The air shifted again but Yamcha had guessed right for once in his life: as Android 19 swung through the smoke behind him, Yamcha dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding being clipped by the massive Android's elbow. He had assumed Gero would try and distract him while his lackey attacked him from behind. Now that they were both out in the open, however, and above him? Yamcha could do something before dashing off again.
Occluded red light lit in the storm as Yamcha swung his arms out- dropping Bulma- and slammed his palms together. 'RAPID KAMEHAMEHA!'
A blast three times as wide as anything Yamcha had ever launched erupted from his hands, blasting upward in the widest, most obscene arc imaginable. The storm of ki showered the Androids. That was all Yamcha saw as he dropped his arms and dove for Bulma. He caught her comfortably halfway to the ground.
Alright… That would slow them down at most. They could still track him. He scanned the horizon: closer to the ground it was easier to see the land below the haze. City in every direction, fire, screaming, dust… except for one. In the distance the last of West City's urban landscape gave way to sand and water. The ocean! With Bulma pressed against him, he charged forward. This may be my only shot!
0o0o0
Breathe… just breathe.
Piccolo felt air pass in and out of his lungs, and even though he knew that was a false sensation, he felt his being steady. Within the confines of his mind he knew commanded total control- even if he sometimes felt that wasn't the case. There was a certain… permeability to this space, he'd come to realize. The specter of his father's will had chanted here hundreds of times, filling his head with delusions and dreams not his own. Kami had visited early in his life, hoping to alter his course with thinly veiled contempt for him and his father. Even in the afterlife he now realized that he had had an encounter with his "grandfather", Katas, who had sought to poison his thoughts. So many had tried to use him as a tool in this place.
What had failed him in those moments had been his certainty in his being. No matter how he had come to exist or what his origins were, he was not a puppet. No matter how convincing those sweet whispers could be, they had no power over him. As long as he remembered that he was Piccolo- that he forged his own path- he was done being beholden to ghosts.
That was proving a better motivator than anything else. The mystery of why Kami had fallen into his coma had faded: in its place, he now cared for resolution. Kami had committed a lifetime of harm to him knowingly or not due to others' actions. Revenge was not the right word. But in seeking to affirm the surety of his identity, he had to acknowledge what he truly desired. He wished to see Kami repent.
But first he would have to reach him. The Pendulum Room had offered the needed isolation and peace. Now he needed to drive forward.
Another steady breath passed through him, moving alongside his ki. Beyond his closed eyes laid the round barrier- swirling, molten silver and glossy black, holding its space stubbornly among the undefined expanse surrounding it.
'Here… here.'
Piccolo found himself muttering as his attention scanned the barrier's exterior. Touches of mist clung to it. Manifestations of his probing. The sheen remained undimmed and unobscured. It was a foreign object here, and yet resisted him as well as something endemic would have. Flashes of his father rushed through the space, his hate spilling into the air, but with a grunt, Piccolo cleared his thoughts. There was no place-
Here is where I would begin.
-for old grudges and-
Seconds passed before Piccolo's being froze, interpreting what he had thought. That had not been his voice and it had not been an old, twisted memory. Slowly, dreading, he centered his vision with his virtual body and opened his eyes. An outline- a shape, a memory, a feeling- was pacing in front of the barrier, left-to-right, hand sliding against its glossy exterior.
He felt an urge to reach out, call for it, but he bit his tongue and kept his arms pressed to his legs. The specter paid him no mind as it slowed to a stop and faced the barrier. Then it walked through. Spectral robes wavered in the air as the barrier swallowed it.
Piccolo listened to the silence to reassure him that nothing had changed. But that had not been him.
Eyes straining, he rose to his feet and strode over to where the specter had passed through the barrier. He laid his hand against it, waiting for some kind of change. But the swirling barrier remained as still as ever.
'Damn it…' Piccolo growled under his breath.
He had to be missing something. If it was as simple as walking through at the juncture, he would have discovered that point months ago. There was something he was missing, some connection...
Piccolo's heartbeat stilled with clarity. Connection. Even when separated, he was connected immutably with Kami. Their bond had been used countless times by the old Guardian to swoop in uninvited into his mind. It was a tainted, darkened, vile part of himself that he had always loathed. A tether to what he hated. But a tether was exactly what he needed now.
Opening his consciousness further, Piccolo felt himself diving, falling into himself as he focused on the feeling of his hand against the barrier. Some touch of Kami had to be present in it. He felt a plunge across his body, like falling into a pool of frigid water, but he kept diving, swarmed by more and more unknown, tumbling, shaking, shuddering, aching to rise back to familiar waters, but he pressed on, fumbling in the dark, in the cold and unseen and tugged.
Open. The measure of his voice. Its passage.
Piccolo?
Open.
You're certain?
Yes.
…
Okay.
Piccolo's head bucked as his eyes blinked open, feeling the press of the barrier against his hand… until it simply wasn't there. All across this space the barrier was gone, freeing the undefined to stretch from horizon to horizon yet again. In the center of where it had been, the specter waited by a bed, thrumming and shimmering in place. Piccolo felt someone beckoning him to come closer. He sensed patience.
He wasn't sure whether he was still in his mind- he wasn't sure whether the frailty and weakness he saw when he approached was driven by his own vindictive imagination. But in spite of this, a bed-ridden and sickly Kami drew a shuddering breath and laid his ancient eyes upon Piccolo like he was reconnecting with an old friend.
'Hello, Piccolo.'
0o0o0
He could smell them long before he saw them. Perhaps he might have beaten them here if he had hurried. But once he had lost contact with Nappa he knew it was a matter of time before they cornered him. Best to face fate willingly, in a place of his choosing. On the way he entered what had been some sort of common area cleared of furniture and fittings if the rust stains on the floor were any indication. There, he stopped and waited, eyes trained on the opposing open doorway. A faulty light flickered there, straining to keep the dark at bay.
They approached single-file, appearances lit like figures traversing a storm. He had heard only the faintest rumors about who they were. Something of a parallel squad to the Ginyu Force. But he really didn't know for certain anything worth getting his facts wrong over, and considering that they seemed content to filter in, he decided to remain silent.
'You're Vegeta, aren't you?'
There were three of them- one tall, burly green one, one lithe, thin, bug-headed orange one, and one just a few inches taller than himself, blue-skinned, leading them to him. They wore uniforms Vegeta had never seen in the PTO: a curved pauldron covered their left shoulders instead of the more typical two flat ones on either side, and they wore purple jumpsuits and yellow breastplates.
Vegeta's gaze drew back to the apparent leader. From what he could remember, he looked like Jeice with shorter hair and a different hue to his skin.
'I am,' he answered to their apparent leader. 'I've never seen you three in the PTO before.'
Salza cracked a wide smile, relishing something unapparent to Vegeta. 'We are the Armored Squadron, here on behalf of Lord Cooler, Emperor of the known and unknown galaxy.'
Vegeta's mask dropped for a moment. '...'
'You seem confused, Vegeta.'
Vegeta kept his silence. Cooler- Frieza's brother is ruling the galaxy now? When did this occur? Under what circumstances? Is Frieza dead?... Their method of skirting the PTO whenever possible had cost them valuable information. If he had known Frieza was no longer ruling…
'You are confused, aren't you?' Salza condescended, cutting into his thoughts. 'Were you not aware that Cooler has taken his rightful place atop the PTO?'
'You know about me,' Vegeta spoke up, ignoring Salza's question. 'And yet I've never met you before. Should I assume that Cooler has inherited the glut of the Empire from his brother?'
Salza smugly shook his head. 'If by glut you mean information, then yes. I've read your file. Frieza paid special attention to your comings and goings.'
Vegeta snorted. 'Figures.'
'Frieza also paid special malice to the last addition to your file.' Salza said through his smile. Nothing could equal the satisfaction of holding information over another. 'He had some choice words to describe how your actions led to the obliteration of an entire PTO army and the deaths of Zarbon, Dodoria, and the entirety of the Ginyu Squad.'
Having dropped the neutral veil from his face once, Vegeta did not allow himself to do so again. But this information was just as shocking, if not more. The Earthlings were pitifully weak when they had fled FP083. He had assumed that they had either died or slipped away from the PTO's clutches considering that they hadn't been greeted by a pile of ash when they arrived on Earth a few years later. But to imagine that Frieza had lost almost his entire cadre of favored elites in one mission was nearly unthinkable. Incompetence alone could not do that.
Rage surged through Vegeta, sparking his blood. Another example of how much the debacle on Earth had set him back- cordoned off by that golden-haired vermin, he had never gotten the chance to question the Earthlings to his satisfaction. Knowledge had been denied to him.
'But I am not here for you,' Salza spoke again after enough silence had passed. 'My team and I are searching for someone else.' Salza's attention zeroed in on Vegeta's face. 'Someone fought you. You look weathered.'
'The blood?' A ghost of a frown touched Vegeta's face as he rubbed his gloves across his nose. Dark red crust and clots came back. 'Old news.'
'If you help me and my men find our assigned targets, I can personally promise you'll receive the biggest cell on our ship.'
So that was it. He had expected as much, but it was another thing to hear it. Perhaps Vegeta should have known better. If Nappa and Turles had stumbled blindly into Bardock and his brat, the PTO had probably learned of them long before then.
With a stoic expression, Vegeta pressed his mouth and eyes closed. 'You mean Bardock and Kakarot. What do you want with them?'
'So you will help?'
'No.'
The certainty of his utterance did not shake Salza's humored expression. 'And, pray tell, why not? Do you not value your own life?'
'I swore an oath to myself not too long ago that I would never serve another.' Vegeta's aura started to snake around him, traveling like thick lines of fog. 'Not you, not Frieza, and not Cooler.' His eyes opened, black pupils centered on the ground between them. 'Do you know what it's like to live as a slave? To live under someone who refuses to release you and uses you until you die?'
'My, my.' Salza gave a subtle nod to his squad and they started spreading across the room behind him. 'Someone has realized what power is. But in the face of that life can be no other way. I am not foolish enough to challenge and die against my master, Cooler. Rather, by serving him, I retain my trusted followers, just as he retains me. Like him, I wield authority over those weaker than myself; through him, I get what I want. So it is not slavery; it is service.'
Vegeta somehow chuckled. 'Ever a toady.'
'If Cooler did not command you, another would. Your arrogance prevents you from realizing that.'
'Ah.' Vegeta's head lifted, staring. 'But I am now powerful enough to reject that bargain.' Dark blue flooded across his end of the room, clawing at the floors and walls. 'And I will prove that to you now!'
Salza laughed. 'I'm sure you will! What with-'
'Boss!' Dore shouted from behind. 'His power level- check your scouter!'
'Hmm?' Salza's head whipped to the left side of his vision. One chick- '2 million?' He muttered. '3?' It climbed further and showed no signs of stopping. '4?'
'Prepare yourself, cowards! Vegeta roared across the room, voice worming through the storm of ki raging around him. 'For you are all about to witness a power never before seen in the galaxy!
0o0o0
Rubble was churned into the air as Suno was launched backward, arms bending with the force of the strike. One, two, three more kicks, boots crunching into her guard, landed, pressing her back foot-by-foot. With a cry of frustration and a flash of her aura Chi-Chi pushed herself from the ground and landed a final heavy hit with both her legs, slamming Suno's gut and wrenching her body towards her core. Her opponent's head now exposed, Chi-Chi landed and dashed forward, diving through the air with one fist outstretched, aiming at the circlet with the ruby-red center on Suno's forehead.
But Suno somehow reacted- with unforeseen speed she tucked her head and angled it backward, having her jaw take the brunt of the blow. Her entire body shuddered and was tossed by the impact, head whipping like a bobble-head, but Chi-Chi had missed her mark: glimpses of the circlet's gem center shone in the room's pale white light as its owner's body was flung across the room.
The shock of such a fast adjustment made Chi-Chi forget to reorient and she landed clumsily on her front and skidded across the concrete. Her knees felt wet; the heavy scent of iron and copper hung the air. This is insane! How'd she redirect like that!?
As Chi-Chi scrambled onto her feet, a rush of energy racing across the room pushed her onto her back. Red lightning pierced the cloud of dust and debris surrounding Suno and hit her like a lightning rod. Slowly, Suno started and lurched upright, laboring to her feet. 'Grrraaaghh…' Her blood-shot eyes landed on Chi-Chi. 'Teaacchhheeer…'
Red fell in waves from Suno's arms as she staggered forward, arms dangling from her sides. A normal person would have stopped by now to make sure they didn't lose the use of their limbs. But despite the absolute mangled state of her arms, the beast kept lurching forward, powered by nothing if not the red lightning flitting behind her like a spectral cape.
She was running out of options. The circlet had some kind of advanced self-preservation in effect: whatever reserve energy it or Suno had was purged to dodge whenever Chi-Chi went for it- no matter how injured Suno was. The alternative to not destroying that thing would be a long drawn-out fight. So, either Chi-Chi would run out of energy, or she would kill Suno.
Despite her aching body, Chi-Chi felt a sting of shock for thinking that. She couldn't- she wouldn't kill her. A hollow breath entered and exited her lungs. But I can't keep fighting like this, either. I'm not getting any fresher as this goes on. Fighting not to kill required precision through control that she wasn't sure she could keep up. It was hard to pull a punch at full strength. It would be easy to throw one too strong for Suno to survive.
What was she going to do?
Across her thoughts Suno stomped forward, arms regaining some strength and barely lifting in front of Suno. Her sickening red aura was growing again, spilling upward to the room's ceiling like a feeding flame. There really was no end to this as long as that lightning kept coming, wasn't there?
Wait… Chi-Chi's gaze drifted past Suno to the exposed lab beyond. That red lightning… It's coming from there, isn't it?
At the edge of her vision red energy shifted, pulling closer to the ground. She had been going about this all wrong. Why bother with the puppet when you could rush the puppeteer?
Chi-Chi smirked- and vanished as Suno's form swept through her afterimage, limbs tumbling and flailing. She appeared higher up in the air, muscles straining, and dove towards the exposed lab. Come on! Consoles and machinery were churning inside. She cocked her right hand across her body and filled it with energy. Here goes!-
A red wall of ki rose up from in front of Chi-Chi, forcing her to slam to a halt just inches away from impact. Whipping around she saw at the bottom of the wall Suno, hands pressed to the ground. What? Did she do this?
'Explain!' she shouted down.
Clumsily, Suno stood, red hair tangling across her face - and growled loud enough to deter Chi-Chi from speaking again.
Oh, right. Why would she expect a coherent response now?
Sucking in a breath Chi-Chi plummeted, aura coiling around her as she slammed into Suno's slow-moving guard. The red wall of ki wavered just feet away as Chi-Chi beat Suno into the ground, lodging her into the floor. She started to squirm and writhe like a wild animal under Chi-Chi's heavy boot. 'There! Now you can't go anywhere! So now you can see- I am sick and tired of this!' Her bulging right arm swung down towards Suno's head. 'This circlet most of all!'
Again- just like the wall- she was just nearly there when energy surged into the air around Suno, red lightning spraying from the circlet. Bands of light hit Chi-Chi's arms and smothered her in pain, racing up and down her skin like a roving flame. Her fingers curled and twisted as she gasped, fell to one knee, and threw her head back as red arcs continued to rope around her body. Shit! Red started to creep into her vision. Shit!
The circlet around Suno's head burst apart.
All at once the burrowing pain ceased and Chi-Chi fell forward, gasping through phlegmy coughs, and panted onto her friend. After a second of recovery she edged off and sat back. 'How…' She noticed the scraps of the ivory white band littering the ground around Suno. Who?...
Without knowing anyone was there Chi-Chi lifted her head skyward- past where the red wall should have been. Her savior, one hand pressed to his left temple, retracted his other hand away from her.
'Chiaotzu?...' Her beleaguered mind tried to make sense of the past few seconds. 'Telekinesis?...'
He offered her a small smile. 'Yeah… you okay?'
'I'm okay.'
'Good.' His gaze shifted to his left. 'Because we've got another fight on our hands.'
Chi-Chi followed his lead: the laboratory was in a state of flux, consoles shifting and machinery moving to open up the center of the room. Where the platform Chi-Chi had been on was someone else- someone she couldn't recognize stepping down, testing and twisting their limbs like a mechanic. And, beyond him… something else, giant, lumbering...
'Two, actually,' Chiaotzu added.
0o0o0
Felt like something was slapping his face. Cold, clammy, like a cold rag in the desert-
The world suddenly spun aright as Retu came to, eyes fluttering. He gaped at the person hovering over him. 'Suno?'
She was barely conscious, to say nothing of how she was barely propped over him, one ribboned and bloody arm pressed to the ground and holding her body above him like- like- like what?
'Hey,' she said weakly. Her sweat-stained hair draped from her head. Droplets fell and petered, cold and chilly on his skin. 'Just needed… to make sure you were up… before…'
Like a shield. 'What's going on?'
Suno seemed oblivious as the world around them quaked, shook, rolled. '...before.. before I… pass…' Her eyelids slid down and she collapsed on top of him.
'Suno!? What- wait…'
Retu realized that he was sitting against a rock, because once Suno fell- he saw it. Across the rubble-strewn and debris-filled chamber, a sparking, smoldering, barely working machine, nearly a third as tall as the room, arms crossed and metal paint chipping, stood its ground against-
His heart thudded in his chest like a cracked bell. No. That couldn't be… No...
The fighter squaring off against the machine showed their face for just a second while they repositioned. It was him, and it wasn't. Because Nam was never this strong; his aura didn't glow with sickly red. He never went without his white turban and never wore a metal headband. It wasn't him. It wasn't. No…
Salt filled his eyes and dipped, carving lines across his faces. 'Uncle…'
A/N: Hey all. Few notes. One, I fixed Maron's name to Marron across the entire fic. Two, I made some long-delayed changes to Recoome's dialogue in Chapter 80. Should read simpler now. Third, give me reviews! Kinda joking. But kinda not. I'm going through a bunch of original material and I'd love to hear people's thoughts on it. Fourth, Metal via chapter Under a Lifetime of Rain, is wrapping up soon. Stay hyped!
Fifth, I'm sorry for promising a chapter for last weekend and not delivering. As of late it's been difficult for me to write consistently. The world obviously has been odd but the bigger problem for me is that I'm quarantining with my family and there's always chatter and noise in my house nowadays. This is difficult for me as I can only really write when in total silence and alone. So I apologize that the pace of updating has slowed in the crux of such an important part of the story!
Reviews:
Cityracer: Hello again, friend! Let's get to it.
Always takes a little time for the adrenaline to wear off, right? They were still in battle mode xp
I 100% agree with what you said. FWIW I've also never seen the original movie, too, so I've leaned on my own interpretation and TFS a bit in this regard. But I also really liked focusing on the idea of this slightly silly scientist, Kochin, who likes to mess around with a guy who literally can't do anything because he's a brain in a jar- so he's forced to put up with his wacky companion.
Bardock has an interesting backstory in this for sure… also gonna plug some continuity stuff when I get there...
I like milk! Oat milk that is.
Glad you liked the Yamcha / Gero scene! And I fixed that thing you pointed out.
Chiaotzu is getting some spotlight soon… you'll see what I mean.
Having all the fights on the station has been an interesting backdrop to write against. Can't afford blasting when you're destroying all the oxygen along with you. So we've gotten more visceral, physical flows to combat. Glad you're enjoying the locale's flavoring!
Yeah, if Launch was there solely for Vegeta, she wouldn't have backed off in the way she did.
Kaioken is going to get some expansion very soon… just you wait. As always, thank you for the review!
Anonymous: Yep, Frappe got it bad. Also, yes, it's a Monkey Paw's situation. There's functionally no difference between canon Android 19 and rebuilt Eighter here. Gero just made Android 19 in Eighter's shape because Frappe's request gave him the impetus and starting idea to do that.
I imagine, like any technique, using one specific variation of ki (force, energy, fire, etc) has advantages and disadvantages relative to how versed your opponent is in countering it. I.e. someone who knows how to counter fire-ki attacks would be a bad match-up for Chi-Chi's fire moves, while someone who uses ice-ki attacks would be a good match-up. It's really a matter of how well versed each individual fighters is with that specific dimension of ki use.
Launch has nothing personal against Kakarot, but she does have a lot of generic loathing derived from her sympathy towards her friends.
Bardock is in for a wonderful cuisine surprise.
Suno's been a bit too committed to training to qualify as a well-adjusted person… there are a few reasons I can think of why this is going on… (post-saiyan stress and other social tension perhaps?)
I think I was going for some variation of the original, but I changed it to make it read a bit better.
Thank you for the review!
