TORA

Chapter 102: Face It


The trees shivered and seemed to roll with another flow of force and energy moving past. Both Kakarot and his father were staring into the treeline, searching for anyone who might be searching for them.

'My gut's all tangled up,' Bardock said. 'Are we far enough from the fight?'

Kakarot looked behind them — golden streaks and curves of wind formed and exploded in the distant air. 'Far enough for what?' Kakarot asked.

'To hide.'

'Sure.'

Bardock surged towards the trees. 'Come on, then. I think people are watching but they aren't watching us. Let's find a boulder to crawl under before that changes.'

0o0o0

They had crept forward slowly, staying low to the pine-needle choked earth and half-bent brush. Even within the forest the scenery was being slowly changed by the far-off fight, bending and twisting into shapes unrecognizable. Some trees were tilting sideways, westward, staying stubbornly upright even as successive waves of force nudged them closer and closer to the ground.

Another crack sounded, jerking the scenery and throwing plant matter into the air. After a second Rush, prone, lifted his head and scanned his surroundings. 'We're okay,' he called back.

Chi-Chi, Yamcha, Retu, and Suno were in a similar position to him, chins nearly resting on the ground. They followed his example and slowly got up, from sitting to crouching to standing.

Rush motioned them forward — they headed towards a break in the forest, where a slight ledge lifted above the pine trees. A small opening peered out on a grassy plain broken by impact craters, earth sheared of grass, and the intermittent flood of energy. After a wave of light, they saw it — they say him.

'Traveler,' Chi-Chi muttered. At this distance he was no more than a blaze of light.

'We have to wait here,' Rush advised them, crouching. 'We have to wait until we have the chance to strike. As they are now, their strength…'

His hesitance to finish that sentence was obliterated by an errant shockwave, ripping leaves from the trees and pressing them all closer to the ground. Stray light pulsed past soon afterward, and as the sound finally died away Yamcha twisted and gaped forward, watching the far-off inferno churn and twist towards the sky. What… what can we do here? What are we doing here?

0o0o0

A span of weighted time wore on the air, seemingly dragging Piccolo and Tien and Android 19 all towards the ground inch-by-inch. Seconds where nothing was said and nothing moved save for the wind and Launch ambient movement backward, away from the fight. Her eyes jumped between the combatants. She breathed. 'Alright.'

A split-second later, the air whipped into chaos. Acting on some pre-agreed plan Tien dashed straight towards 19, red Kaioken aura blazing, while Piccolo veered to the side, circling with a burst of ki. 19 chose to engage Tien, meeting the charge head-on.

A thunderous cruuuum rang through the pummeled valley, shaking rubble from the cliffsides and enveloping the air with unrestrained energy. In that storm Tien and 19 pushed against each other fist-to-fist, veins bulging and metal shimmering. Tien's entire arm flexed, curling into the point-of-contact at his fist, but despite all his effort, he couldn't make 19 budge.

So Tien smirked.

Cutting through the storm Piccolo, yellow aura crackling and condensing into sparks, rushed through spin-kicking 19's head, whipping the android into a mad plummet. Both Piccolo and Tien floated up out of the dissipating energy cloud and watched their opponent slam into the earth.

'Feel anything when you hit him?' Tien asked, catching his breath. 'Anything break?'

'He didn't, but my foot didn't either, which I guess is a win,' Piccolo growled. 'He's just as durable as before. We won't be able to outhit him.'

'Sticking to the plan, then?'

Piccolo drew out his right arm, straightening his fingers to a point, and slowly pulled on his ki. Yellow bands of energy traveled up his limb, like electricity funneling up a pylon. Then with one long fluid motion, Piccolo brought the tip of his pointer and middle finger to his forehead. 'I'll pierce his armor. All you have to do is keep him busy.'

Tien gave a muted laugh. 'Shouldn't be too hard. A few minutes, right?'

'Or however long you can give me.'

'Understood.' Their eyes swept across the ground. 19 was rising into the air to meet them again. 'Better put some distance between you and him until you're ready.'

Piccolo nodded and surged higher in the air. For a split second… huh. Tien watched the stray electricity jump off of Piccolo's hand, growing in number and intensity with every passing second. Brings back memories.

SHOOM. Tien's outline disappeared as 19's beefy arm charged through, scattering his afterimage. From above Tien then surged down in a crimson streak, slamming two heavy kicks into 19's head. 'It's time Gero's paid for everything he's done! It's time he paid for Chiaotzu!' His hands locked together in a triangle and energy flooded into the shape.

'TRI-BEAM, HAH!'

0o0o0

Mid-flight Launch was thrown off-balance by a wave of force. Turning she saw a pillar of yellow light surge towards the ground, carving an even shape in the land. Recognize that one. Alright, Launch… where…

Her eyes scanned the thinning forest below her before spotting a small crater. Hah!

The trees wavered as she landed in a quiet release of force, settling at the edge of the impact site. After a second spent studying the area for any lurking combatants, she jumped and slid down the crater's side, falling to her knees beside a half-buried Rayne. Her eyes and eyebrows were knitting together, sweat pooling on her right arm as it pressed feebly against the churned dirt. 'Ow,' she muttered, half-conscious. 'Ow, ow, ow… ow…'

'Here.' Launch tipped her pouch and dropped a Senzu bean into Rayne's mouth. She then gave Rayne's jaw a good manual crank.

A blink. Rayne's eyes opened fully, clear of any pained confusion. 'I…' She sat up, easily freeing herself of the ground, examining her marked but unharmed body. 'How did?...'

Smiling, Launch threw and caught her pouch. 'Has it really been that long?'

Rayne caught the pouch's shape. 'Oh. Right.' She stood and brushed dirt from her torn gi. 'Senzus. They feel rare nowadays.'

'Until this pouch goes up in flames, they aren't,' Launch said. 'Speaking of — that's your job now.'

'Huh?'

Rayne caught the Senzu pouch. 'Huh?' she repeated.

'Find Krillin and make sure he's okay,' Launch said, already turning. 'I'm sure he's caught and strung up Gero by now… but that doesn't mean he won't be tired, right?'

'I don't understand what's going on.'

Another brilliant yellow shape cut through the air, shoving everything in sight with a split-second of force and light before passing. 'Tien and Piccolo are taking down Gero's lackey. I'm heading over.'

'To help?' Rayne blurted out, forgetting who she was talking to.

'Hell no!' Launch's Kaioken aura roared into life, arching her posture like a great and mighty tree. 'To do it myself!'

Energy blasted past and droned on as Rayne wavered back, then regained her footing, watching Launch fly back to the battle. Concern lingered on her face, but with a grip of her newly gained pouch, refocused on the task at hand. She lifted into the air and began flying over the immediate forest. Alright Krillin… where are you...

0o0o0

The world shuddered, dust spiking from the ground, whole plates of the earth fracturing and rushing apart, as Traveler's golden aura slammed against Raditz's white-hot barrier. Like an enraged, super-charged hornet Traveler spun and stabbed and wheeled around the ball, each strike getting a little closer to his goal, each press reaching a little further in, each impact jolting Raditz's outstretched limbs even harder.

'STOP DELAYING!' Traveler barked, winding back his elbow for another booming crack against the barrier. 'FACE ME OR SUBMIT!'

Dum. Dum. Dum. Within his barrier Raditz had his eyes closed, flesh and metal both vibrating and humming from the storm outside. Within, he was calm. Collected. He felt his heartbeat slip and align and slip again to synchronize with the rhythmic blows from outside. The heart, Raditz thought. My heart. It's still here.

Dum. Dum. Why did he think it was ever gone? He resisted the urge to retract one of his hands, the limbs keeping his barrier up, to feel his chest. Search the dividing line between metal and flesh. Find where the heart was. Find the old engine, pumping still — pumping now.

Dum. A hard shock passed through Raditz's body, reaching through his being and triggering some sort of sensual stress to emanate from his mechanical parts. Energy stress, he realized. He'd purchased all the time he could. Bits and pieces were flowing through his consciousness now — the pace growing with every second gained. Sense of being. Wholeness. All he needed to do was buy more time.

Without opening his eyes, he sensed and saw his opponent's face contort to ghoulish extremes, shadow and ugliness patterning his thin face. The fist was thrown forward with all his weight, yellow-brilliant energy sparking off it ready to blow. It careened wildly towards the barrier, a sure enough strike against a target that didn't move.

Raditz seized his moment. In a single motion he opened his eyes, lowered his barrier with a great sucking sound, and deftly dodged to his left, missing the strike by inches. Then he turned and grabbed his opponent from behind, both arms locking around the outstretched, energy-charged limb, forcing it to remain extended.

'Hralht!?' In that moment Raditz didn't process whatever sense was contained in his opponent's surprised, enraged snarling. Instead he closed his eyes and focused.

Both remained motionless in the air, the wind having calmed to a reasonable pace after minutes of frenzied lashing. It was a false reprieve. Left with nothing to strike and nowhere to go, wild energy shot from Traveler's right fist, hand shaking and trembling from the unused energy. Like a flame the energy started burning and jumping farther, feasting on the open air. The slightest pale color of fear passed over Traveler's face as Raditz let a small pulse of blue ki pass through his arms. That blue phased into Traveler's outstretched arm halfway down the forearm from his crackling yellow fist. Silence reigned for a moment, then was torn apart by a cataclysmic release of pure incinerating energy.

0o0o0

'Slowly now…' Rayne held an arm under Krillin as he half-sat off the ground, chewing. 'Slowly… okay.' He swallowed, grimacing. Better?'

Krillin blinked, shook his head, and quickly got to his feet. He scanned the edges of the crater they were in. 'Are we?-'

'We're okay,' Rayne said, standing beside him. 'I checked the area before coming down. We're — you're safe. You had passed out. I gave you a senzu.'

Tension drained out of Krillin's muscles. '...You're right.' His grimace didn't fade. 'But still… we've got issues.'

'I know.' Rayne found a weak smile. 'If we keep eating senzus at this rate, we'll run out before we take out just one android, let alone all the others.'

'Everyone else…' Krillin repeated, muttering. Without any verbal agreement they both climbed out of the crater and examined the surrounding trees, Krillin searching for something much more familiar to him.

'Damn it,' Krillin finally spoke up. 'He really did leave. Gero ran.'

Rayne sighed. 'Hiding again, then. If we can't sense him, and if he finds a hole and stops throwing out any signals Bulma can trace…'

A breeze swept across them, from the east. Krillin looked that way, unseeing but tracing the outlines of a distant, titanic fight. Suspicion tore at his face. Unwanted but convincing speculation.

'You know, Gero can absorb energy,' Krillin said.

'I might have known that already, but if I did, I forgot. What — did he absorb yours?'

'That's not…' Krillin turned, trying to scan the planet between them and the far-off clash. If I was Gero, facing what I know, saying those things...

'Krillin?' Rayne was studying his face. 'What?'

Bulma's words from earlier cut into Krillin's mind. He's not running anytime soon. 'If I was Gero — if I understand Gero right — I wouldn't run.'

'Against all of us? You think he's going to stand and fight?'

Krillin opened and closed his mouth, pressing his lips into a thin line. 'I think—'

A more immediate eruption of energy tore through the forest, bending tree trunks and throwing a storm of needles and leaves against them. In the distance, a plume of yellow cut into the sky.

'Come on!' Rayne tugged Krillin into the air. 'Let's help!'

0o0o0

The deafening explosion, for all its might and fury, could not disguise the next blow. A single strike rang in the air, a clap heard for miles and miles on, piercing the heavens and rocking the earth before the much greater impact. Dust and smoke exploded into the sky, drifting wayless beside the day's noon light. A swing of an arm cleared the air between him and his target. From high above, Traveler, bruised, cut, and clothes streaked and torn by battle, still shimmered with an incredible luminosity.

His teal eyes surgically searched and locked on the speck below him. He descended.

Hands clawed into the dirt just in front of Traveler's feet. Raditz lay sprawled out on the ground, head twisted and raised as if he was drowning in a body of water, limbs either half-submerged or pressing weakly into the ground. Breath was pained and shallow — his eyes were closed, eyelids twitching.

Traveler stepped around the scrabbling hands. 'Can't have that… can't have that,' he muttered, stopping at Raditz's side. One leg he planted onto Raditz's back, crushing the android's body back into the dirt. The other he placed beside his opponent; his hands lowered and gripped Raditz's left arm, hands spaced evenly apart.

There was no satisfaction in Traveler's face as he rolled his shoulders and slowly pulled Raditz's arm up towards him. Raditz's head shook and swung to the left, only able to glance up with the left side of his face. Terror bled into his remaining natural right eye.

'You need to be defanged,' Traveler said, voice detached from the growing force being exerted on Raditz's arm. Flesh and metal alike began to shift in unnatural directions. 'With your infinite energy core, given enough time to catch your breath… you can fight forever.' Three sets of fingers trembled, but Traveler hardened his posture and forced his hands to grip even tighter. 'I can't.'

'No… please!' Raditz's throat transformed his words into a guttural, pained thing. 'My… arm! It's!...'

'It's mostly metal anyway…' Traveler felt his heart thrashing against his ribs. Some of Raditz's fingers were indeed flesh. Pale, and cold, like they weren't even being used. 'Just like you. Mostly metal.' Something shut off in Traveler's eyes. The more he hesitated the more he spoke for himself. 'You're a tool to me. I need you broken. I need you alive.'

'PLEASE!' Raditz practically screamed, his volume only capped by the excruciating pain burning through his body. Every part of him was in agony, in denial of an imminent, grievous injury. 'An entire… limb!? Are you!... AUGGHHHH!'

Metal plating ripped loose down the bicep's bottom. At the shoulder, wires, blood, and black ichor sprayed out of the armpit. The unraveling of a working limb into flesh-covered metal bits. Traveler swallowed a sudden urge to throw up. One more tug…

Energy boomed across the ground, sweeping past Traveler. The first wave of wind knocked him off center, staggering him away from Raditz — the second wave carried a pink missile, energy swarming around a spin kick knocking Traveler out of the crater. The sting of the blow seized his senses as he careened. He huffed, flaming his aura, and stopped upside-down in midair.

Rush hulked over Raditz, body fully extended in what must have been a long-charged blow. Rippling muscles underneath his tanned skin, thick collared shirt, and jeans. He released a deep breath before straightening and slowly lifting into the air.

'You,' Traveler said. He slowly began to rotate.

'Here I am.' Rush got level with his enemy. 'Here to fulfill my promise.'

'Remember what I said?' Traveler's breath carried raw yellow energy, billowing out from his mouth. 'You will try.'

There were no more words to be said; anything Traveler would have wanted to say, floating in his mind, was drowned out by the beating in his chest. His veins and sinews ached for force — his body cried for battle. His transformation demanded it.

He scanned the area. A crater, a field, far-off forest. Still no one. Still no reason to hold back.

Arcing pink aura roared around Rush. No reason not to end this, here and now.

Traveler smirked and bent forward, arms forming a ring from his chest. 'You really are deluded... Thinking!…' Hands clenched, and his golden aura struck out in every direction, fanning and flaming, pulled along by a maelstrom. 'That you'll live through this!'

Sweat wicked off of Rush temples as the wind picked up. He did his best to turn his body sideways and raise a guard. 'Maybe…'

0o0o0

Energy still shimmered in the air after the zip forward. One instant Rush was beside them — the next, he was far ahead, out of the forest and standing toe-to-toe with Traveler. Chi-Chi's eyes widened. 'So that's his full power?'

'If it isn't, it's getting close to it,' Retu murmured, shivering despite what the moment required. That was too much energy, too quickly, too close-up. Sparkles of pink wavered through the air and thinned out of sight.

Yamcha frowned towards the standoff. Rush had gone to all that effort to knock Traveler away with that kick, only to float up into the air. No pursuit or charge… Means… His eyes followed an invisible line back to the ground — the crater.

Suddenly Yamcha stood. 'He's making space — Rush moved the fight away from Raditz. We need to — to do something.'

Suno stood out of a bush to get a better view of the far-off crater. 'Do what? What's "something"?'

Yamcha opened his mouth to respond, but realized he had nothing to say. He turned to Chi-Chi. There was doubt in her eyes, too — not the same of his, of a different kind. He again opened his mouth —

'Something is nothing.'

A new voice cut through the forest, making the four of them freeze. Out of the brush, between them and the battling plain, strode a scarred and grizzled man. Of a healthy tan but with skin stretched across his tall frame in the most economical, muscle-per-inch manner imaginable. It had been a long time where someone's physical presence had stood out to Yamcha. Ki didn't track with posture and presence anymore… or at least that's what Yamcha thought before now.

His eyes studied the stranger's folded arms and high chin. His jagged, wild black hair and sharp nose. No — it wasn't just his size. It was the memory he invoked for all of them. That… it wasn't him, Yamcha knew it couldn't have been. His eyes confirmed that — slightly different. But, then?... Why?...

'I'll repeat myself.' Bardock's cold gaze calmly passed over them, one after another. 'None of you are so much as going to move.'

Yamcha's hands balled into fists. Why… Why does he look so similar? 'You're a Saiyan, aren't you?'

Bardock sneered. 'Does it matter?'

'You look a lot like someone we don't like,' Suno said in a low voice. She had moved in front of a lost-looking Retu — in a protective gesture, she realized and quickly tucked into the back of her mind. Not now. 'So, yes — it does matter.'

With a roll of his neck Bardock dismissed repeating himself. 'You understand what's happening here, don't you?'

'Not really,' Yamcha bit back. He noticed out of the corner of his vision, Chi-Chi hadn't moved. 'Wanna spell it out for us?'

'I've put myself between you and Raditz. What do you think?'

'We have to get through you to get to him,' Chi-Chi said, her voice surprisingly stern. She rose off of the ground, body gripped by determination. 'So we will.'

Bardock met Chi-Chi's gaze — he stared back with an out-of-place familiarity for a long second. 'Hmm. I get it. And I'm sure you get, seeing as I'm Raditz's father.'

'Father?' Yamcha repeated, disbelieving. 'You're kidding, right?' The wheels started turning in his head. 'That — so you're Kakarot's father, too?' His mind skipped along. 'Where were you when your sons were leveling entire cities a few years back?'

Bardock rolled his upper body again with an exasperated sigh. 'Again, if I don't have to, I'd rather not answer all these quest—'

Crack. Swallowed by the Kaioken's red aura, Chi-Chi had sped forward, cracking her fist against Bardock's jaw. Her entire face radiated with rage as she pulled back her left fist and swung an uppercut. 'Screw you!'

The blow shook the forest, rocking Yamcha back. 'I—' he glanced in every direction for a split-second before looking back at Retu and Suno. 'We'll distract this guy! You guys need to get to Raditz and end this!' He didn't wait for them to respond. Calling on his own Kaioken, Yamcha sailed forward, chasing Bardock and Chi-Chi's back-and-forth curving right against the forest.

Sounds of combat filled the air, then were deadened by the main event rocketing into action in the plain. Suno shook the hesitance from her body and spun, grabbing Retu's hand. His dazed eyes found hers. 'You heard him!' She pulled them forward. 'Come on!'

0o0o0

A wave of red and pink lashed through the forest, throwing light between the trees. From his spot at the edge of the tall grass, Kakarot kept crouched, grimacing towards the nearer fight. His father telling him to stay put like this while he went out to do his part. It made Kakarot angry, made him!...

Two figures shot past him, swinging towards his right. Kakarot jumped up and blinked, then dashed to intercept. No you don't!

From behind, he swung through the air and dived with his right elbow, body aimed straight towards the pair. At the last second, the red-haired one caught wind of his surprise attack — in one motion she managed to shove the other way and fall backward before he had even hit her, giving her time to raise her arms.

Grass shot back as their limbs connected, crashing together to the ground. Kakarot found it easy to use his other arm to quickly grab his opponent's wrists and pin them to the side. He got a good look at her face — she was stunningly familiar.

'Who are you?' He asked, momentarily forgetting where he was, what he was doing, and all battle sense.

Suno nearly exploded. 'GET OFF!' A surge of energy shoved Kakarot into the air, helping him evade a few red ki blasts shot after him. As he weaved and skidded to his right, his vision caught the second figure getting off the ground. He stretched his back with an unusual deliberateness, faint aura swirling up and down the curve of his back, before lifting his head and locking eyes with him. Black, exceedingly wide pupils.

A stillness settled over Kakarot's chest. Another person setting off another tumble of flashes in his mind.

'I can't believe it,' Retu breathed, holding a hand over his chest as he felt his lungs ache from that simple act. 'You… you're actually!... Alive? How?'

There was something still off about this guy, and some memory Kakarot felt he was missing that forced him to stay quiet. Somehow speaking at all felt grossly irresponsible. He turned to the other —

TUNK. On instinct, Kakarot had raised his guard around his gut, catching with his left arm at the expense of terrible pain a blow. His feet dug through the grass and dirt and his body wracked with momentum as Suno took a heavy breath. Her blazing red aura whipped off every inch of Kakarot, as she kept her right fist lodged against him.

'I know what you did to him,' Suno said, quiet enough that only they could hear. 'I wasn't there the first time, you know, but I heard what you did to him. How his body was laid on the ring. It was sick… you're sick.'

Kakarot's energy and blue aura rose but no matter what he did, Suno's fist remained pressed against his block. He glanced over her shoulder — he quickly looked away from that other as pain sawed into his forehead. His name… don't try to remember his name… there's pain there…

Even more red aura exploded off Suno, flattening grass around them. 'I've had dreams of what I'm about to do to you! Making you pay for what you did!'

Kakarot closed his eyes, feeling his breathing speed up. Suddenly it made a lot of sense to keep fighting and fighting until they stopped shouting. Then he'd ask them all the questions he wanted. He didn't need to win. He just needed to buy time. He needed… to make them stop talking.

0o0o0

Energy cracked across the sky, scattering wind and errant leaves from the air. Steadied by his own breathing, Rush remained motionless, body propped both arms which had just fired a concentrated blast of pink ki. In the wake of sound coming and leaving from this spot, he waited with his eyes closed.

One… two… three…

A whooshing hit the air behind Rush. He sprung, dodging a fist skating inches from his head and throwing back a punch of his own. His knuckles cracked against Traveler's jaw, jarring the golden warrior, and was swiftly followed by a quick kick across his gut. Energy fluttered between them.

Despite Rush's two clean blows, Traveler was only pushed ten feet away through the air. But for the first time, Rush saw what he had wanted to see on his opponent's face — cold malice.

Traveler spent a long moment wiping a lick of blood down the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. 'You've got a vague idea of how I fight,' he remarked.

Rush smirked. 'I wouldn't have started—'

'That wasn't an invitation for you to talk,' Traveler said quickly, aggressively, face twitching. 'I'd prefer you shut up before you're beaten, and then I interrogate you, and then I kill you.'

'Is it any wonder you have no allies here—'

Traveler dissipated. Rush swung, slashing his elbow through the air behind him in tune to that same sound of near-instant movement, but mid-swing that same sound came from the other direction. A split-second needed to readjust his guard led to Traveler grappling him from the front, twisting his right arm behind his back and keeping his left restrained at his side. When Traveler leaned in, he came at an angle to avoid a headbutt.

'Shut. Up.' Traveler seethed into his ear. 'You've watched me fight before, haven't you? I mean when I've really fought, you've seen me. When was it?' Traveler tightened his grip on Rush's arms, causing his captive's face to twist. 'Because it wasn't in my time. No one lived when I fought then. No one human.'

Rush avoided Traveler's boring eyes. 'You can't — you can't make me —'

'Oh?' Traveler twisted — hard. Rush's body squirmed futilely, snake-like and involuntary. 'Can't you answer? Explain it away? Because there's no other option.'

Energy surged between them — Rush's pink aura pushing against Traveler's golden yellow. At no point did that yellow seem threatened. 'You watched me fight the Saiyans,' Traveler spoke, his voice carrying something akin to victory through it. 'You saw all.'

Traveler wrenched, kneeing Rush in the gut — air and spittle rocketed over his shoulder. 'So that's how long you've been festering in this timeline, burrowing deeper into their reality, rotting them — good people — as you go… little, puny parasite.'

Sun shone through the midday air as natural ambiance seeped in during this lull. Far-off birds chirping. The air had slowed around Rush. Tension remained in his body. An odd calm.

Traveler's aura stormed out as a precaution, pushing aside the brief repose. 'Up here, your thralls can't help you.'

Rush raised his head, just a few inches allowed by Traveler's full-body grapple. 'That so?'

'No one is going to approach me as I am now. Monstrous,' Traveler pronounced, his face warped by something so far unexpressed.

'Good.' Heat suddenly touched every square inch of Traveler. He hesitated for a moment, felt the trajectory of that sensation, and threw Rush out of his grip, holding out his twitching hands. Red rashes ran up and down his palms and inner forearms, mottled with the telltale pattern of burns.

Traveler slowly looked from his hands to his opponent. 'What are you?-'

Rush spun and appeared before him, pink aura mixed with red — flames, Traveler realized. Underneath the two cloaks of substance Rush appeared changed, flesh flexing and trembling in an almost viscous manner.

A strike lanced out, missing Traveler's head by inches and singing the hairs on his neck. A flurry of moves followed, each swing of Rush's appendages carrying a superheated swath of air. Traveler grunted and pulsed backward, forcing Rush to remain in place.

Both arms seemed to cock at Rush's sides, then rose above him and swung down. Visible only through their massively warping heat lines, a column of superheated air swung through the air, forcing Traveler to frantically dodge to his left, stray hairs obliterated by the air's passage. Farther behind a flock of birds dodged too late, and through the middle a line of feathered motion turned into charred and blackened things and started plummeting to earth.

The Earth! Traveler correctly guessed what Rush would do — he glanced and saw his arms raised once again, aiming towards the ground. With a pull on his golden energy Traveler appeared in the path of the attack, raised both arms to prepare a blast —

Rush faded from place on the precipice of throwing down his arms. Traveler had a split-second to realize this before two arms latched around his neck.

From behind a supernova of heat erupted from every inch of Rush. His opponent fell lax in his grip. 'Maybe it did have a psychological effect after all,' Rush said, grinning. 'I always wondered what kind of trauma that burn across your forehead had done to you. You must have cried out at a young age, considering its size. Turns out it's good for an instant of hesitation.' He latched his hands and began pressing his forearms against Traveler's throat. Heat so hot began pouring out all around them that the nearest trees far down below began to tilt and wilt from the moisture loss. 'They never learn—'

It happened faster than Rush could perceive — one second, he had Traveler's dying body in his grip, and the next Traveler had spun around, golden aura crackling down up and down his body, and locked in a hand-to-hand grapple with him.

'You want to know how I got my scar?' In the light and surrounded by superheated air, Traveler's mangled skin almost seemed to glow. Rush struggled but failed to pull away from the growing golden yellow aura. 'My face was dragged across the surface of a star. I learned the lesson quickly. Heat, like ki, is just another thing you can repulse with your aura.'

True to his words a lattice-like coverage of golden yellow had formed around Traveler's body, carrying so much energy that Rush's hands began to singe from contact. 'You… I don't…' Rush struggled to say.

A sickening, crunching booom rang through the air. Traveler's right fist had driven halfway into Rush's gut. Spittle and blood sprayed and then dripped pathetically from Rush's mouth.

'I keep my promises. I'm going to kill you.'

Rush's bloodshot eyes focused on him, lost the image of that monstrous thing, and then spun as Traveler appeared below Rush and slammed a planet-breaking kick into him, shooting him into the sky. Traveler waited a moment below, then sped upward in pursuit.

0o0o0

A scythe of sparking blue-white energy swept across Piccolo's field of vision, like a band of sunlight falling from the clouds. The impact flattened the air, pushing Piccolo back as his arms remained taut and tensed, locked and propped together with his right arm aimed forward. Yellow energy sparked from his sharpened nails, casting stray lines into the wind.

Not for a second did his attention stray from his attack or the current battle. Farther away and below, 19 rose out of a massive smoke plume, hit dead-on but showing no signs of damage from the latest attack.

In the air above, Tien panted as his arms slackened from exhaustion. He spared a glance to Piccolo — A few more seconds. Launch had taken a heavy blow to give him that chance to throw another energy attack. Now…

19 had stopped rising. From a distance it was hard to tell where its black beady eyes were darting to. Rampant movement back and forth, then finally a turn of its body. Tien's eyes followed — he sighed in relief.

'Hey!' Rayne rose into the air beside Krillin, who seemed to be tensing for some sort of attack after a few seconds spent gazing in Piccolo direction. In contrast Rayne's red Kaioken aura began rolling off of her. 'Did you think we were done?'

19 said nothing. Unseen by his opponent, Piccolo slowly began inching closer, energy still circumventing up and down his arms.

Air split — Rayne and 19 collided in mid-air, heavy blows smashing into each other's guards. The frantic back-and-forth continued, red streaks of aura blasting impassively across metal body, until 19 swung around a punch and elbowed up, slamming into the bottom of Rayne's arm and jarring her limb. She pedaled backward, hissing not realizing until it was too late that 19 had followed her.

Two huge fists raised and slammed downward on Rayne's quickly raised guard, smashing through effortlessly. Barely a second passed before Tien swung into range from above, his own aura red and burning, and slammed a fist into 19's face, knuckles skinned and stripping blood from the force of the blow. 19 staggered back a few feet through the air and immediately glared back. Its left cheek was visibly dented.

Tien's heavy panting sunk through the air. He saw Krillin still out of position below. His eyes flicked up. Piccolo.

Yellow energy was almost exploding off of the Namekian, now perilously close to 19. Piccolo was still closing — he still needed time to approach; he needed two seconds. Tien only had one to give as he saw 19's strike pivoting from his core.

Inspiration shot through Tien. 'MULTIFORM!' At the last possible instant Tien's form split in two, just in time for one copy to be plowed by 19's limb, launching him towards the ground. 19 took a second to quickly gauge the appearance of the second Tien, and without any resistance dismissed the second Tien just as violently as the first.

Piccolo halted several feet behind 19. He allowed himself a wild smirk even as the android began to turn. Seconds gained.

'SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!' Near point-blank Piccolo unleashed his attack, yellow spiraling energy shooting from the fingertips of his right hand. 19's black eyes didn't change in the slightest as the beam hit its right abdomen, drilled through his clothes and towards his body, then seemed to stop, catch an angle, and all at once shoot right through. Shock as much as a non-human machine could express flashed through its body, as the force of the attack impaling it carried it far along its trajectory.

Nearly halfway across the river valley, the attack kinked and slammed awkwardly into the side of a small mountain, causing the entire thing to detonate. 19 disappeared into a maw of raw energy and dust.

Piccolo slowed his breathing. That was one way to make that attack hit. Get stupidly close.

From below, Krillin swung through the air, clearing the dust with a wave of energy from his left hand while his right remained above his head. Crisp yellow energy began spinning faster and faster into a disc.

19 was finally revealed, a third of its body gone and clearly struggling to stay in mid-air, arms shaking out of what would have been a proper guard. Krillin saw his chance. Defenseless!

'NOW! DES—'

'HEY!'

Higher above them all, Launch held both her hands above her, carrying with all her might and crackling red aura a huge oval of yellow energy. 'I'm sending this thing back to the stone age! ME! HYAAAH!'

With a mighty toss the ungainly attack swung downward, arcing towards an increasingly shaking 19. Dark eyes skipping and jerking for any sort of advantage — any way to avoid the massively sized ki attack. It gaped as 19 vanished from their sight.

Blinding light exploded from the attack in every direction. The valley shook, every rock and tree and alpine stream trembling — until it didn't. Sound and fury collapsed. Everything stopped moving jarringly abruptly.

Closest to their enemy, Krillin saw clearly what a sagging Launch and a far-off Piccolo couldn't. Standing in front of 19, emanating greed rather than any sort of altruistic instinct, Gero lowered his right hand, the red diode in its center blinking vividly even at a distance.

'Thank you for that,' Gero said, face locked into an unhinged grin. 'That'll be more than enough.' Then he zipped out of sight.

'What?!' Piccolo barked loud enough to carry across the entire battlefield. 'What just happened?! Was that Gero?!'

'DESTRUCTO DISC!' Krillin roared, throwing his waiting attack without thinking. It sailed through the air, humming with pure cutting energy, cleanly slicing through 19 at a diagonal. Both halves of the android cleanly separated and began their quick descent to the ground.

0o0o0

In a single heartbeat Bardock caught the wind as it approached. The forest he was in pulsed as he dove, just avoiding a red-cloaked fist from cracking against his shoulder. Without thinking he wheeled further back, avoiding Yamcha's elbows as they swiped the air between them, fanged with ki-like canines and just as sharp. Five more movements like this occurred in quick succession, Bardock keeping Yamcha just out of reach with every swing.

On the eighth such movement, Bardock's back hit a tree.

'GRAAAAA!' Yamcha's hands slammed together and he dove forward, energy coiling around his arms and angled like a spectral spear. It was a longer wind-up than his previous attacks. Bardock seized his chance. The super-condensed red tip of Yamcha's aura shot forward and speared through Bardock's afterimage.

Yamcha's eyes widened in the slightest as Bardock rematerialized behind him, one hand choked with yellow energy, wound back —

At its farthest extent, someone grabbed his right arm. Bardock's gaze shot over his shoulder, staring at the women keeping him in place.

'You shouldn't have come,' Chi-Chi murmured, before her appearance was enveloped by the Kaioken. A supercharged fist rammed up into Bardock's jaw, followed by a heavy barrage of blows moving him farther into the air. As they passed beyond the treeline Bardock surged to his left and caught an extended arm with his armpit. Chi-Chi growled, plowed ahead with her other limb, and had that restrained by the same method.

Bardock wasted no time and swung. Their heads crashed together, two clashing red and blue auras slamming as violently together as their actual flesh and bone. Bardock's jaw ached with an old pain as he flinched and reeled back, only a little more collected than his opponent.

'That..' Chi-Chi struggled, form and position in the sky unsteady. 'Where'd you learn?... I've only ever seen…'

Bardock did his best to clear his vision and focus. With a wide and overexposed pullback, he lurched forward, arcing wildly with his arm. Even in her disoriented state Chi-Chi read the attack and managed to dodge sideways. To her surprise Bardock surged right past her.

Exactly as he wanted. Yamcha only saw at the last second the attack nominally aimed at Chi-Chi now barreling down on him and hastily raised his guard. The aura shook with contact and Bardock's momentum transferred to Yamcha, sending him back towards the ground.

'HEY!' Bardock turned just in time to get punched to his chest, then his arms, and finally his guard as he regained his balance. He called on his aura, and in an explosion of blue powered up, rocking the air around him. Chi-Chi was thrown back, but with an explosion of her own red aura centered his mass around her hips and surged back forward, slamming a clean two-feet kick into Bardock's sternum. She heard what she thought was Bardock's chest armor crack.

As Bardock tried to catch his breath he spied little flakes of material falling from the center of his chest. Damn it… damn it! Before he had time to even think an inch in the back of his head made him turn — a blue blast of energy bearing down on him from behind was quickly countered with a blast of pink ki, slowing the attack's speed, stalling.

Bardock was about to dodge when a similar itch cut across his consciousness. Half-turning he saw another blue attack barreling down on him from the other side. Again he pushed out a pink beam, meeting that blast head-on.

He caught a glimpse of Chi-Chi beyond the beam clash. He could tell where Yamcha was by the pressure bearing down on his other arm. They're too close! Too much energy!

Both of his opponents ramped up their attacks; the force pressing on Bardock doubled, then tripled, forcing more and more of his ki out of his body. Defending himself with both limbs from both angles meant he couldn't dodge without getting hit — staying longer —

The pressure intensified, cutting off Bardock's thoughts. His body began contracting inward, calling on every ounce of energy when he needed it most. Still he felt both attacks closing in. Sweat spilled and evaporated across his skin in a second — air became more sparse around him and took longer to get into his lungs.

In that pressure a split-second of silence finally entered Bardock's mind, delivering the clarity he long needed. Use it now, or die quicker. Your choice. He clenched and reared back his head, hands extending to their fullest lengths as pink energy danced between his fingertips.

'HAAAAAAAAAAA!'

0o0o0

Far above, energy boomed, shaking the grassy plain. Towards his right, light poured out of the forest in some wild display of unseen energy.

Raditz? Where is Raditz in this?

Kakarot lost focus for an instant. Hard knuckles dug into his cheek, pushing him back, back foot stumbling then pushing into the dirt. His vision blinked in and out.

'C'mon.' Beside him Retu balanced on his legs, red energy coursing up and down his body. His fist pulled back again. 'C'mon!'

Another blow clocked Kakarot, whipping his head to the right, blood shooting out from the corner of his mouth. His breath became strained and struggled — one hand beat again and again on his chest, like trying to start a ship's engine with sheer frustration. His words echoed in his mind and became his own. C'mon!

Retu swung forward, red aura darting through the air, and rammed a knee into Kakarot's right forearm. Several more quick, sharp blows followed, each one barely caught or deflected by Kakarot's one-armed defense. All the while his other hand beat beat beat. Drumming to life.

Air whooshed and Retu suddenly crouched, legs spinning a clean motion that swept Kakarot off his feet so quickly that the Saiyan spun upside down. As he watched his opponent pull back and prepare to slam an elbow into him with all his might, he stopped beating his chest.

Sound cracked with the clean deliverance of the blow — straight into Kakarot's two outstretched hands. They locked in place, each stunned, before Kakarot felt his aura pour back into him.

Focus. That's all it takes.

'I remember you know,' Kakarot said.

Shock electrified Retu as a fist quicker than he could follow slammed into his sternum, shaking every one of his ribs. Air flew out of his lungs as he tumbled across the field, rolling, turning, and eventually coming to rest on his back, body in agony from that one blow. Aura trickled away from his raised hand, fingertips becoming bare to the air. He was exhausted already just keeping up. Now, pain.

Retu shut his eyes and clawed his hand through the ground. 'Damn it… damn it!' Fingers ran futilely through the dirt. 'I'm too weak… again…'

Kakarot watched his opponent remain on the ground — not making any move to get up. The oddness wouldn't go away. Why was he here? Why was he fighting? Why — why did I do that to him, when I was younger? Break his spine… how is he even on his feet?

Focus. Focus. Focus.

Before Kakarot could react Suno materialized behind him and wrapped an arm around his neck. She wasn't as tall as him, but she had enough force to make him bend. He realized he couldn't breathe.

Tortured sound began to shoot out of Kakarot's mouth, his arms trying to grip Suno's Kaioken-enhanced arm.

'I think, If I wasn't choking you to death, I would be asking you questions right now.' Her voice made no effort to disguise the strain using the near-highest form she could access of the Kaioken inflicted on her body. Her aura was supercharged with power and light. 'I guess should. Could.'

Kakarot lowered further, dropping to one knee, his face growing red. Suno gritted her teeth. 'A guy who should be dead could maybe answer a few questions only he knew.' Veins on her arms bulged as she cranked the grip on Kakarot's neck one stage tighter. 'But in my view all that's important is that guy be who he should be. Dead, recompense for what you did to him. So I need to fix that.'

Kakarot's face was growing purple and blue. He was slamming one hand on his chest. Suno prepared to yank.

Focus.

With one mighty blow, Kakarot slammed his fist into his own chest — with enough force to dislodge Suno from contact with his back. Losing her vice for an instant, Kakarot spun around and slammed his right fist into Suno's chest, breaking Suno's grip against the back of Kakarot's neck. Fingers broke apart and Suno stumbled backward, the strain of the Kaioken temporarily locking her muscles. Kakarot was gasping as he fell backward — kicking up as he did. The tip of his boot made full contact against Suno's chin, wrenching her head up and back.

Grass fluttered from the blow's force. Across a second Kakarot and then Suno fell on their backs. Even while still breathless, Kakarot had the good sense to crawl backward several paces before finally giving out from the exertion. He spun onto his belly and coughed, writhing on the ground, shivering and shuddering with every form of bodily repulsion and relief possible. Broken blood vessels streaked across his face, pocking his complexion.

His head swung, momentarily confused, even as his body reeled. He was facing the right way. He — he was gone from the crater.

'Raditz!' He half-croaked, half-screamed, head lurching towards the forest. 'Raditz!'

0o0o0

Waves of consciousness flowed forward and back over Raditz's mind, running over sharp rocks and plunging pools. Pain flashed through his being at a near-regular interval. As he took a breath and felt his lungs fill, the clouding sensation began to lessen. The haze of pain remained. The heart remained.

Raditz's eyes shot open suddenly, a jerk of pain ripping him back to reality. He gasped, clutched every limb and muscle, and gagged, finding his throat was full of blood. Roaring he rolled onto his belly, spitting and retching onto the grass. Plumes of bloody saliva shot out, then dripped from his mouth.

'Augh…' Raditz coughed out the last of the ichor, then grimaced as he tried to move his broken limb. Teeth ground into each other. 'Where… where am I?'

A wind rushed over the grass, directing Raditz's attention farther away. A pink glow emanated from the nearby forest. Raditz shook and stood, his left arm dangling oddly from his shoulder, flesh and metal pressed too much together, distorting the shape and color into a foreboding purple, blue, and black.

Waves of consciousness flowed over Raditz. The pain never ceased. Where… where are they? He walked.

0o0o0

Sense bled into one long streak of agony, his surroundings moving far too quickly for Rush to track. Blow after blow, crunch of his guts and bend of his arms and then —

Traveler materialized and caught Rush's batted body. Fingers dug into his neck, as Rush's arms flailed uselessly against the choking hand. High in the air they both curled. Rush arching his back, lungs shrinking, body pulsing, and Traveler hunching forward, energy throttled to the clenching fingers of his right hand.

They were far above the clouds. As energy churned around them, the wind came to a stop.

'I said I would,' Traveler spoke, barely opening his mouth. His flat teal eyes bored into Rush's desperate, frantically jumping blue eyes. Firm fingers wormed further into flesh.

Rush slammed his hands into Traveler's arm, furiously and futilely trying to free himself. Pink energy burst into the air only to be pushed aside by a flood of yellow aura.

On the precipice, Traveler hesitated. Rush's struggling was weakening, moment to moment. In more ideal circumstances, he would have let this… thing explain itself before its end. Why it was here, in this time. But he had left Raditz alone for too long. It was too dangerous and foolish to leave him unattended, even with just one working arm.

Long ago he had committed to this path — that of decisiveness. That of action. Conviction.

Traveler clenched. That crucial structure of matter in Rush's neck shrank and collapsed. The sound of cracking cartilage filled the air. Flesh oozed out between his clenched fingers. Momentum was with Traveler's hand as it pressed inward in fulfillment of ruin — then bizarrely, he clenched something else. Something hard.

Metal — that's metal.

The world and all its experiences seemed to bend away from Traveler, focusing his attention forward. Rush's windpipe was crushed, and Rush himself was still struggling against Traveler's grip. Weak and alive.

His mind raced uncontrollably from thought to thought. Then, from far below, another distant surge of energy caught Traveler's attention.

Both of them zipped out of sight.

0o0o0

Bardock's body convulsed with pain as his arms began pulling into his chest. The skin on his palms felt nonexistent, the flesh underneath in torturous pain. He could feel his body coming apart at the edges — passing as the blue blasts touched him.

A sudden flash of anger rushed through his limbs. Not again! Fingers curled against the searing blasts, his own energy barely keeping the duel blasts at bay. He yanked his head to the sky, panting and aching. Not now! Not yet!

From his flanks Yamcha and Chi-Chi watched their opponent wrench himself into the sky, dragging with him the pinning blasts. A surge of energy rushed from Bardock's body as he spun rapidly, shooting out his aura like blades, pink slicing apart the blue energy attacks just before contact. A difference of a few feet in detonation. Enough, Bardock thought.

The churn of energy erupted once torn apart. The forest around them rocked back on its feet, whole trees and swarms of leaves bouncing onto the ground, as even Yamcha and Chi-Chi were knocked onto the ground. A great roar clapped two times quickly, then died a long sigh as the air cautiously moved back towards the blast site, hanging over a newly-formed crater in the ground. Dust sifted and settled quickly.

Chi-Chi was still catching her breath as she saw Yamcha rising from a distance and quickly scaling the crater's ridge. She huffed and stumbled her way forward, hurrying.

Halfway there, she saw Yamcha flinch. He spun and warded aggressively at her, face contorting. 'GET AWAY! HE'S—'

His cry was cut off by a boom of wind, sending Chi-Chi's feet back through the ground. In the crater two figures quickly skidded backward out into the toppled forest, Bardock, half-conscious, lacerated, held under Raditz's remaining good right arm. Anger and raw agony bled from the android's face. Pain felt but unable to be expressed, all warped and made terrifying by the half-metal monstrosity struggling with it. Yamcha braced his arms as he felt his feet lose their grip on the ridge.

Being present was like a dream, only because he couldn't perceive any possible moment where he could have avoided the imminent attack. It simply happened. Maybe even before he realized Chi-Chi was screaming.

'DIE!' Raditz screeched as the palm of the arm carrying his father opened and unleashed a sporadic, frantic blast of pink ki — but simply too powerful and too scattershot, stray energy spiking in every direction, to avoid. Yamcha felt the air flee his lungs as even the shout made him lose his footing and start falling backward. His head tipped up with the motion, and with a last use of will pulled his head back down to witness the oncoming barrage.

Traveler's back was in front of him. He hadn't even felt the air move. An arm waved.

Another catastrophic explosion ripped through the former forest, flattening every left standing tree with finality and carving a path of ruin through the landscape. A jagged cone cut into the earth extending in opposite directions, smoke and light still running their course from the battlefield, diverted by hitting a brick wall of matter.

Traveler smirked and felt the weight in his hands. Rush rose and fell inches in Traveler's grip. His back had been to Raditz's attack — his face had faced the unimaginable pain. Shock simply passed from Rush's presence until nothing remained and everything either closed or gave way to gravity. Traveler lifted him once again, eyeing the ruin running down his torso from the smashed pulp of his neck, before deciding he'd had his fill.

Chi-Chi watched Traveler throw Rush to the side like a discarded plaything. Her breath caught. Rush landed by breaking a fallen tree branch in half. His back was charred beyond recognition, and on his side, his entire chest was colored gore. After a moment's hesitation, Chi-Chi stumbled and eventually ran over.

Across from Traveler, Raditz's agony bled into frustration — and fear. All of which Traveler ignored.

'If it was a human it'd be dead,' Traveler said in a low, warning voice, half-turning to Chi-Chi. 'Look at its throat — it's a machine. An android.'

Chi-Chi stopped a few feet once she saw it. Half of Rush's throat had been cleaved away, the edges hanging off his skin like torn paper, blood coating the entire wound. But beneath that mess was a clear pillar of segmented, shaped metal, rising through the back of his neck like an ornate support beam, stained red with viscera.

And yet his body still shook with stubborn life, even as his eyes remained closed to the world.

'Do you understand, Chi-Chi?' Traveler's entire aura roared around him, threatening to blow aside the weaker bystanders. Traveler did not look at her — he couldn't. 'That thing isn't yours. It doesn't even breathe.'

Several feet behind Traveler, Yamcha struggled to catch his breath on his backside, upper body propped up. He glanced back and forth between Chi-Chi and Traveler — back and forth — before finally forcing himself to look again at Rush. Even from a distance, it tripped something in Yamcha. Without thinking he scrambled back and dove down a displaced hillside, unnoticed by anyone watching.

Chi-Chi's hands remained at her side kneeling in front of Rush. She couldn't make herself touch him, she realized. She just watched him fidget.

The wind blew through, tugging at Traveler's gi. A red patch shone on his left shoulder, as he impassively watched Chi-Chi keep at arm's length from Rush. Golden aura calmly pulsed around him. An odd stability took hold of his face. Almost deserved, he realized. He slowly fixed his attention forward. Almost done.

In the destruction wrought by his hands Raditz hunched, pain and mechanical failure taking a toll on him. His left arm spun slowly, dangled half-severed from the rest of his body, a steady drip of black and red falling from his drooping fingers.

'Don't… don't let him scare you…' A voice Raditz initially thought wasn't there reached to him. Looking down he saw he had dropped his father on his back, eyes barely seeing. The voice labored on. 'Don't… let him beat you. You're stronger… stronger than anyone I've ever met,' Bardock said, speech weakening. 'And despite his power… he's weaker than he was before. Even…' Bardock's eyes closed, exhaustion taking him. 'Hah…'

Bardock had tried to reach up to Raditz — that motion now unsteadied him and sent him rolling down from Raditz's raised perch of untouched dirt, coming to a rest behind a half-vaporized tree trunk. Raditz mimed the words before thinking them. Don't let him scare you. He focused his attention on his opponent and turned away his injured side. I can outlast him.

Traveler shifted and bent, raising his guard. Gazes met. One more hit,' he thought. Then — it's finished. All of it.

0o0o0

He bent and spoke softly. 'My Lord?'

The chamber was draped in darkness and silence, lit from below by the reds and blues of the command deck, tapering into shadow towards the ceiling. The thin walkway was thin and unlit at the center. It was only at the edges that any light reached this place. It was only on the sides of the throne and Cooler's face where any color was present. Regal black and purple.

'Yes?' Cooler shifted, pushing different parts of him into darkness. 'What is it, Salza?'

'We've been monitoring the planet Earth as we approach, as you requested.' Salza's right leg and head remained parallel to the ground. 'Thus we have begun to receive various fluctuations in power levels. Our technicians think a battle is occurring.'

The Lord of the Known Galaxy stretched his neck, processing this information and considering what to ask next. 'The technicians have benchmarks, don't they?'

'But of course, Lord Cooler.'

'Well, how do these readings stack up to your power, Salza?'

'The majority are beneath consideration,' Salza paused, glaring at a spot on the floor. He knew he'd have to speak of this, but he wished he didn't feel so pathetic when stating it. 'One power level… registers far above mine, from what we can measure.'

Cooler straightened slightly. 'Is that so? This must be quite the fighter.'

'Indeed, Lord Cooler.'

'Does this power approach my own?'

'Our instruments cannot register power levels of that magnitude easily, my Lord. It will take some time to safely measure so as to not damage our equipment.'

'Hm.' Cooler settled into his throne. 'Keep on it. Until then, if anything changes, or if you accurately infer the power level of this stronger fighter, contact me.'

'Understood. Otherwise?...'

Cooler shifted again, leaning forward to place his pleased expression on his outstretched hand. 'Make sure Prince Vegeta is prepared to avenge his honor in three days. I'll be looking forward to the show.'

'I'll relay on your attitude.' Salza saluted, clicking his heels, and began to turn to leave… before stopping and facing Cooler again. 'One last thing. There was a slight delay with one of our troop carriers. A fight broke out between some of our soldiers preparing for departure on Cooler Planet 221. Some time was needed to pull troops to replace the dead, but even with that delay, the absence of one carrier won't significantly impact our show-of-force in three days.'

Cooler's attention wasn't pulled from whatever object in his imagination he was scrutinizing. 'I know men among our ranks fight, but that kind of carnage reminds me of my disgraced brother, Salza,' he said icily. 'Has the perpetrator been punished, or is this a matter I need to tend to myself?'

Salza hesitated for a moment, succeeding in finally drawing Cooler's eyes. 'It's… an odd situation, my Lord,' he said, frowning. 'I can give you more information once my agents have finished their initial fact-finding. The grunt who caused the fight was also the one to end it without killing too many of the other troops. That alone prevented him from being immediately expelled from the ranks. I'll have a picture of him to share with you soon.'

'No file?'

'They're recently enlisted.'

Cooler examined that fact, physically manifest in the air between him and Salza, before finally looking away and mouthing his curiosity. 'Odd indeed.'


As I'm sure you're all aware, this update is extremely delayed, so I've put aside my notes and regular review for the initial upload, and will be updating later with my thoughts of taking so damn long to put this new chapter out. Please do leave a review with any thoughts, though!