Disclaimer, in case it wasn't obvious. I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or really any other property. Thank you.
The Cataylst
Act IV
Chapter 48: Facade
Turles: Three Weeks Later
Money was of no object. That was something Turles knew about currency on this planet. It was sincerely easy to acquire. You took it from the humans, as they had no means of really stopping you, and then you spent it as necessary. What most people didn't understand was power went beyond just the strength from within. Power was every facet of life. To be powerful meant to behave as someone with power. While he was on this miserable, backwards mudball, he opted to wear the clothing of the elites and the respected. Dress the part, and you become the part. It was something he learned quite well when he was ripping pieces of armour from Frieza's elites long before he first planted the Tree of Might.
A human was measuring him from the side for another suit as Turles's eyes looked through the primitive fabric store. Humans were soft, that was something he'd come to realize in his time on this miserable planet. Even the strongest humans could barely hold a handle to any warrior from space. The Namekian even outpaced the local populace, and his species were a group of helpless pacifists.
"Are you done yet?" Turles asked, his voice laced with irritated.
The tailor looked up at him nervously.
"I'm almost finished, Mister Turles," he responded quickly.
The few exceptions to the rule of human weakness were a scattering of Kakarot's friends, and his wife Chi-Chi. There was little wonder why his nephew wasn't totally hopeless, and it was the fact he'd taken on some of the only half decent genes on the planet. There was the curious fact of course that their species were biologically compatible in the first place. Was this how their race would die? With a whimper? Being absorbed into this population of weaklings and cowards? It was disgusting.
And the greatest Saiyan alive, Kakarot, is a simpleton who thinks of nothing but his next meal and his next training session. So is that what you wanted, Bardock? Is that why he is your favourite? Because he's too stupid to be burdened with broader questions?
Raditz was getting soft as well. Even if his elder brother was far less advanced in the disease that his planet seemed to spread to them. Vegeta hadn't been seen by him in weeks, but he could sense his power growing. There was a guess on Turles's part however, that the longer the three of them were separate from one another, the weaker the others would get. Worse, he might get infected with this miserable compassion that they all seem to demonstrate.
I did save my nephew-
Something close to fear gripped his heart when he realized he'd stepped in as a benefactor to stop Vegeta's outrage some months ago. Even now while training he was forced to fight everyone but Kakarot with kid's gloves. Worse, he agreed to it, all for the opportunity to reach the goal of becoming a Super Saiyan. But what did that matter if he became a shell of who he was on the way to becoming that?
Training at the Capsule Corporation was going to be an edge that he tried to use to his advantage, Turles was sure that Vegeta had a distinct benefit from being there. Of course the woman Bulma wouldn't let him within a square kilometre of the building with Kakarot around. It'd devolve into a fight rapidly. But there were things that immediately came to mind as useful.
Proper training clothes were difficult to find for the most part, no one had any standardized Planet Trade Uniforms of any type, or anything similar to it. Except that he was reasonably sure that he'd seen Vegeta's uniform, repaired, if not his armour. And then there were a host of other technologies there. It was interesting, wasn't it? Technologies such as a Dragon Radar, which he'd learned about from his own eyes and from Raditz. Apparently Kakarot collected six of the Dragon Balls already.
And I only have one option if a fight comes between Kakarot and myself.
It meant that the best means of acquiring pieces of what he wanted was to avoid direct conflict. Plans were already coming together as the tailor finally stood up, looking at him nervously.
"When?" Turles demanded, wanting to know when his suit would be finished.
"T-three weeks at the moment because-"
An irritated noise left Turles as he stared down the tailor.
"T-two weeks, I'm sorry I misspoke. I was thinking-"
"Of the other people's suits. You got it confused. You forgot that I'm ahead in line," Turles chuckled, brushing past him. "And if anything is off. You already know you'll regret it."
The terrified attendant at the front counter was just quivering as Turles walked past, wanting to expand his wardrobe was entirely for the long game he was playing. When he walked outside the sports car which had hit him was splayed out across two levels of traffic. Five unconscious bodies lay strewn about, and several unoccupied vehicles. The fresh mountain air filled his lungs of the nice, out of the way community. Apparently this was a vacation spot for some of North City's richest. There were still people staring at the spectacle of it all.
"No killing, Turles. It's not allowed. No stealing Turles, it's against the law."
The fact these morons were still breathing was infuriating to him. Even Raditz supported this little moratorium on killing these rats. Which was the whole reason he came to this blasted place, so he could at least blend into these cretins in such a way as to manipulate them.
"What the hell are you doing in the street?! My car man!"
A half smirk emerged across Turles's face as the original driver, who was barely pulling himself up from the side of the road, staring at him in absolute terror. The brown haired male's pants began to be soiled as a wet line rolled down his leg. A chuckle emerged from Turles's chest before he stopped next to the car. The engine was utterly destroyed from where it made an impact on his leg. If he hadn't noticed at the last minute, it'd have torn his pants from one of his favourite suits so far.
"That damage looks pretty bad, you should really watch where you're going," Turles remarked, tracing his hand over the hood before pulling his suit jacket together and beginning to do up the buttons. "After all, you never know who you're going to run into. Now, can I get an apology?"
"'m... 'm..." struggling to speak, the gash on his head becoming more prevalent as he spoke, the man just stuttered. "'m s-so-sorry."
"Oh? That's very kind of you. It looks like you'll need fresh pants. And you've got blood all over that shirt? That's terrible friend. But you're in luck, there is a tailor right over there-" Turles turned and pointed his thumb at the shop. "See? Today isn't so bad after all."
Hovering in the air, Turles's smile disappeared as he stared back at the man.
"And the next time I see you, some friendly advice? Run."
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Goku:
Gohan, Tien, and Krillin had packed it in for the day so far. The only one's left over were Piccolo and Raditz. As he guessed, today was one of the days which Turles had opted not to show up. After yesterday Goku was kind of glad, Tien was trying to provoke Turles and it nearly ended badly for the both of them. It's not like he outwardly blamed Tien for it honestly, given that Turles remarked that "even with three eyes, you can't see me" after Tien missed a block and got cracked in the head. Overall, he really didn't like the negativity.
But there was something that was definitely true. Turles was every bit as powerful as he expected him to be. Prior to his transformation into a Super Saiyan, he guessed his brother even had an edge when they were training. As soon as he changed into a Super Saiyan however, it was very quickly apparent where Turles's limits were. But the same thing happened to Piccolo. And right now, the same thing was happening to Raditz, even without his transformation.
A tired, exhausted Saiyan was propped up against a tree staring back at him as he laboured. To be fair, they'd been training all day at the highest intensity that Raditz could do. And Raditz had an extremely impressive level of power, there was no doubt about that. The problem was simply that he wasn't as strong as Piccolo, Vegeta, or Turles. It was hard not to get bored, and he may have accidentally demonstrated how little effort he was putting into the fight so far.
"You know, we can wind it down for the day," Goku offered, smiling reassuringly as he did. "You look a bit winded-"
"How dare you Kakarot," Raditz laboured in turn, pushing away from the tree before shaking his mane of hair behind his head as he tried to rile himself back up. "I've only just gotten started."
Yea... you kinda haven't. You're kinda near the end of your rope there...
"I think it's okay Raditz," Goku laughed. "I mean, you really have been putting out a crazy amount of energy all day. We should head home and get something to eat. I mean, even Gohan's pretty finished-"
"You've not even trained with the Namek yet today," Raditz breathed. "That's if you've still got the strength once I'm through with you."
Casting a sideways glance to Piccolo, the Namekian stared back at Raditz before looking back at him, clearly unimpressed by what was unfolding. The translation was clear to Goku, which was saying something.
"We don't have time for this."
The dismissive stare Piccolo had cast in his direction was almost painful. Really, the reason this training session had dragged out the entire day was because he didn't want to make Raditz feel like he was falling behind. He could really see Raditz's drive to improve, and he had improved, but just overwhelming him out the gate wasn't going to help his moral. Out of everyone he was interacting with since he got back, Raditz and Piccolo felt like they had his back more than anyone. It was weird to think he needed people having his back, but with Turles and Vegeta here... They weren't exactly the best of people.
I really enjoy fighting Turles and Vegeta though. Man, those guys are on another level of intensity-
In all honesty, if he had to pick between the two, he'd easily pick Vegeta. Fighting Turles felt weird, given that they looked the same. It was just too weird.
In a rush of speed, Raditz took off towards him, roaring as he did. With power greater than he'd demonstrated on Namek, his elder brother threw a hard punch towards him. Piccolo was right. Dodging it faster than Raditz could follow, Goku dropped an elbow into his brother's sternum. Hanging in the air, he saw him gag for air, his eyes almost hollowing out before he trembled for several moments.
"Sorry about that," Goku said nervously. "Really had me there for a second."
"Don't. Mock... Me," Raditz wheezed before his entire body collapsed onto the ground, his face planting into the grass as he just held his stomach.
"My turn?" Piccolo asked openly, tossing his cape and turban aside as they thud on the ground behind them.
Piccolo was a whole other story to Raditz, but Goku knew Piccolo, and knew exactly what he was capable of. His power had been outpacing Raditz despite them being similar in strength, and he knew why. Raditz didn't train as well as Piccolo, or Turles, and he was willing to bet he wasn't as good at it as Vegeta too. Which was something he had been trying to work with him today on. If these Androids were coming, they were going to need Raditz, just like they were going to need everyone. But Raditz was a significant warrior, and one day, he could even be as good as him.
Well... probably not.
It didn't mean that he didn't want him to get there though! It'd be great if Raditz could really put up the kind of fight that Goku wanted, after all, they were brothers. And it was weird, that he really did kind of think of him as a brother now.
Nodding to Piccolo, he did spare another look towards Raditz who was starting to get up, looking resentful as he did. He was going to need to talk to him about how to progress. Raditz definitely knew how to fight, but he was really relying on being a Saiyan to make himself effective. Years of fighting under Nappa and Vegeta probably didn't exactly make him able to seize the initiative. Really, if it wasn't for his time fighting on Earth, or his time training with Krillin and Gohan on their way to Namek, Goku really didn't think he'd have progressed at all from where he was when they first met. And Raditz was way stronger than him when they first met. In fact, he was way stronger than Piccolo.
But within a year, Piccolo beat him.
And now, even though he and Piccolo hadn't been too far apart on Namek, even without Demon Ken, Raditz was falling behind Piccolo again. Smiling, Goku nodded to his brother respectfully. He could really see the drive in his brother, and that meant
Yea, we're going to change that.
Without noticing it, Goku felt the air swirl around him briefly before he looked forward, seeing only Piccolo's knuckles. When they landed he felt his head spin before his entire body followed, flipping through the air before landing on his feet. Shaking off the dizziness he incurred from the blow, Goku blinked several times as Piccolo raised his guard.
"Enough of that. We've only got an hour or two before you're going to run off crying for food, and I need to sharpen my edge. Give me all you've got, Goku," Piccolo demanded, smiling wolfishly as he did.
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Raditz:
Pathetic.
That was what he was thinking to himself as his arms remained crossed on their flight back to Kakarot's home. For all he'd done to improve his strength, even he could see himself falling behind the Namek, let alone Prince Vegeta or Turles. Strength was all important, the ability to fight was the ability to be powerful. Everything hinged on his ability to acquire the power to obtain his revenge. Any time he thought he could pass on the idea of getting even with Vegeta, he only needed to be reminded in his dreams of Violet's body laying in the rocks, torn up by Nappa's blast. Worst of all they did it only because he was weak.
And now he was being reminded of that weakness. Kakarot didn't even take him seriously. Not even the Earthlings took him seriously. Certainly, he could defeat Tien, Krillin, or any of Kakarot's other dim-whitted friends, but he was already dragging behind the Namekian again. He was able to watch it for the last two hours as the Namek and Kakarot moved so quickly he could barely follow. Worse, he watched near the end where the intensity had increased to the point where all he was doing was following splashes of energy and motion, he couldn't even keep up with the whole engagement.
Silence dominated the entire flight as Raditz kept his arms crossed, his eyes peeled ahead.
At least when Kakarot and Turles fought, I could understand not being strong enough to follow. But this is ridiculous. I am the elder brother, and Kakarot and Turles make me look like a fool.
"Hey," Kakarot's voice opened up from his right.
Blinking, Raditz turned his attention finally to Kakarot himself, who was smiling back at him before he was gestured to stop.
Turning his body and pushing his ki against his flight path, Raditz came to a halt in the air as his larger frame turned to Kakarot when he did the same.
I have superseded the power of almost every Saiyan whose ever lived. But I live in the shadow of a golden god. I live in the shadow of a Prince. And I live in the shadow of a man whose eaten the fruit of the Gods.
"What?" Raditz answered shortly.
"I was just thinking that maybe we should talk about your... well, training. You know that stuff we were doing today-"
If there were barbed spines, they'd have come out as Raditz nearly sneered at Kakarot. It was immediate, a reflex from his time in the Planet Trade. Being the one compilable for failure meant being the one sent off to a suicide mission, or summary punishment.
"My training? Why not focus on the three eyed fool's training, or bald-head? They're clearly the least among our little group," Raditz fired back immediately.
Strangely, Kakarot didn't respond angrily, or with accusation, he didn't even go into a remark about how far behind he was, despite being the eldest.
"And I think they're doing the best they can," Kakarot said, smiling back at him. "I'm thinking of leaving Piccolo to train with Tien, Krillin, and Gohan next week... I guess with Turles too. I wanna see what you can do, just you and me. We can really push things to the fullest. I bet you'll even come up with some surprises for me."
It took almost a second for the words to settle in. Even as he was speaking them, Raditz was waiting for some barbed jab. Instead, it was an offer for them to train together for a week without anyone else. To train alongside Kakarot, a Super Saiyan. A Super Saiyan who was going to throttle himself, just like he had today. It was painful to realize he was so inferior not just to Kakarot, but every other Saiyan alive. It was even worse when you realized that your brother had been toying with you out of pity. At least Turles would have given him the dignity of a quick, clean loss in training.
"I am gratified by your offer, brother. But it's very clear that I am unable to keep up with you. I cannot even keep my honour intact when we face off. You toyed with me today as if I was nothing."
"I promise not to hold back," Kakarot said bluntly. "Just you, and me. We'll see how far you can push yourself. I think you can grow much faster than you are now, and I want to see it."
The sincerity in his brother's voice was a stranger to him. It wasn't unrecognizable, but it was so out of the ordinary of what he'd seen since Kakarot's victory over Frieza on Namek. It was intimidating to think that he was going to have to fight Kakarot at his fullest, alone. But why should it be? A Saiyan was supposed to rise to a challenge of a difficult battle. Nodding slowly a few seconds later, the older brother turned back towards their original destination.
"Your wife will kill us if we're late," he informed. "And I was looking forward to-"
What was that?
Two powers were spiking. Kakarot's head shot to the side as well, his eyes widening as well.
Turles and... Vegeta.
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Vegeta:
Something faint had appeared outside in his senses. The gravity room was still thrumming to life as Vegeta felt the weight of the world seemingly bearing down on him. Several training robots of the woman's design were in the room with him, trying to increase the difficulty of his training. It was pitiful, really, but at least it gave him some extra circular activity to take part in beyond trying to adjust himself to the extreme conditions he'd placed himself in. That flicker of power nearby wasn't anything to be concerned about. What were the odds it was anything of any real degree of strength? Besides, it could be the woman's dismal mate Yamcha.
That was a name he didn't use externally. A human killed by Saibamen. And oh he was definitely back and far stronger than when he died. The only problem was that he was still absolutely pitiful. Perhaps if he was lucky he'd be a warmup for Captain Ginyu. Maybe Burter could beat him even. It wasn't very impressive at all, and it was little wonder to Vegeta that Yamcha would be among those massacred by the Androids when they arrived.
Opening the door to his training room, Vegeta's eyes spied the human arriving as expected, his feet touching down as the woman walked out of the Capsule Corporation building to meet him. It was easy to spot that she was trying to put on a performance for the human warrior. It didn't take much to notice she'd changed her clothes and hair to better impress the human male now that he was here.
Pitiful.
She made eye contact with him briefly before giving him a cheeky smile. It was enough for Vegeta to just growl, before hitting the button for the door to lift back into place. The red light behind him reemerged.
I'm going to have to get better at noticing that weakling arriving here.
The room's training program started up again immediately as Vegeta took to levitate himself, before firing a ki blast into the training dummies. In a flash of light the bolt started to pass between the dummies as Vegeta took to dodging it in the x150 gravity environment. A sharp motion in the air as the bolt moved past him almost made Vegeta lose control. It took only a second longer before he collided with the bolt itself, unprepared. The blast sent his body flipping into the ground before his body dented into the reinforced floor.
Gritting his teeth as the training robots rotated their position in the air above him, each one changing their focus to throw him off his next attempt, Vegeta just brushed the back of his bare hand against his lip for a moment, checking for blood. No sign of it, good. It meant less to clean up later. Rising to his feet again, the Prince braced himself as he stared down the robots, forming his next ki blast.
There was another flicker of energy, no bigger than the last. Probably just that fool Yamcha again, leaving with the woman for some reason. It wasn't his concern any longer, it was time to train.
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Bulma:
"Yamcha," Bulma said, her voice sounding almost relieved to see him.
There'd just been so much going on. She'd been working on two more projects to improve the space ship and its gravity room. There were repairs to do on some of the training equipment as well. Then there was her other project to find out how to synthesize Saiyan blood given the more recent incident at the hospital. That was also being just having the stress of knowing that even with Frieza gone, his family was lingering in space because Goku let them go. Then there was the other problem they had lingering across the planet, namely, Turles.
She knew Goku wanted to think the best of people, and after what happened with Raditz turning over a new leaf... well, she didn't think that monster she was with on Namek was capable of that. What made it all the worse was the fact he was wearing Goku's face.
"Hey babe," her on again off again boyfriend greeted her with a big smile.
There was something she'd also been neglecting for months. That was herself. She'd been spending almost no time looking after her own emotional needs, or even her physical ones. Everything was about trying to keep it together beyond that. It was almost impossible to relax either feeling under threat all the time.
Still, she decided to dress casually. That meant T-shirt, had her hair down, and just her jeans. They were going to just go have dinner, go and see a movie, and maybe she could live like a normal person for an evening. Especially now that Goku was back on the planet, and that Vegeta was here. Maybe it was just a placebo, she had no guarantee that Vegeta was going to keep his word. Well, she actually had things riding against it after their last encounter.
He's such a jerk.
As Yamcha started to approach, Bulma's eyes turned towards the space ship only to see Vegeta standing in the doorway, eyeing Yamcha briefly before looking at her. When their eyes met Bulma felt her own lip turn up as. So, he was doing his job. Being the guard dog she wanted him to be was something which only let her relax a bit more.
Good boy.
"I was worried I'd overdress," Yamcha chuckled. "I mean, anything other than my fighting gi these days seems to be overdoing it. I don't think I've been training this hard in years."
He did seem a bit tired, and Bulma turned her smile towards him. One thing Yamcha always lacked was drive, and it was a total kill to any fun they could be having at the time. But right now she could tell he was at the least driven enough to be training again. And training with some degree of seriousness. Of course knowing that you were going to be murdered if you didn't was probably a big motivator.
"So you've been training with Goku and Krillin? I heard from Krillin last week they were pretty intense out there."
A reluctant, nervous smile crossed Yamcha's lips as he closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head.
"Well, not exactly... I mean, I'm training really hard right now, almost all day every day. But I tried going out there a few weeks ago. Those guys are intense. I mean they're training harder than I've ever seen. But going out there every day? I don't know how they do it. So uhhhh-"
And there came the kill of the joy she was worried about. Her own eyes dimmed as Yamcha fumbled over himself. Yep, this was what she'd tied herself to since she was a teenager. Of course Yamcha was lagging behind them and not training with them... because he wasn't training with them. How obvious was that? How did she understand it better than he did?
"Are you being serious right now?" she asked, her voice sounding disappointed. "Yamcha, aren't there killer robots coming for everyone?"
"Well, yea. But I mean let's be real, Goku's going to be the one to who really fights most of them off. And we've got Piccolo if that doesn't work. I'm going to be on the bench for the most part anyway. But I'm training lots right now. I've gotta at least try to keep up with Tien and Krillin a bit."
It was a subject she didn't want to talk about for the rest of the night now. Her eyes continued to stare at him dimly before she just sighed, pulling her purse straps over her shoulder and securing it. Well, this put a damper on the entire evening, and that meant it was time to move on. She was going to eat at a nice restaurant, watch a mediocre movie, and then come home with or without Yamcha depending on what mood she had. Even if he was acting like a loser again, she was still inclined to come home with Yamcha for the night.
At least its a warm body... Wait. Did I forget to finish the new training suit for Vegeta? Ugh... I just need to turn the electronic carbonization machine on before I go.
"Hold on a second," Bulma remarked. "I've just got to turn on something before I go. I nearly forgot."
"Nearly forgot what?"
"I've replicated and improved on a lot of Vegeta's old equipment. He uses it for training," Bulma explained while walking quickly back into the lobby of Capsule Corporation.
"Wow, you really seem to be going through a lot of effort to help Vegeta. Training equipment, space ships, gravity rooms..."
"Oh please. He wasn't going to walk away from the space ship. And it's a trade, he's protecting the property while he's here."
"He's protecting the property?" Yamcha blinked. "What? I can't? You know I'll keep you safe Bulma."
A sideways glance cast in his direction as Bulma kept her lips tight. It wasn't going to be an end of the world argument if they decided to start it up, but realistically she didn't want to anyway. It was going to be simple enough to just pass on this. All the knucklehead had to do was not bring it up again after they moved on from the subject, and they could go have dinner, and then go see the stupid movie, and then her evening would end up back here. Was that really so hard?
"Oh I know," Bulma commented. "Then just think of it as Vegeta being on vacation here. And he really wants to fight anyone who comes here to cause trouble."
"Bulma-!"
"Have you heard anything about the movie we're going to see? I heard its got a cameo from that Oaf Mark Satan," Bulma cut in as she started to walk more briskly towards her lab.
Turning the corner before Yamcha could get another word in, she pulled up her keycard to swipe past the door, and noticed the security door to her lab. Or lack of said door. She froze in place as Yamcha followed in her footsteps.
"I can totally defend..." Yamcha stopped as he looked at the massive steel doors laying in front of them.
Standing in the midst of the lab, Bulma could see the biggest thing she wanted to prevent from coming on her property save Frieza's brother and father. Holding a capsule in his hand, Turles was admiring it before looking over her work bench.
It took her several seconds to realize what she was looking at. Her heart started racing before she felt anger swell up in her chest.
"Get the Hell away from my work!"
There was a pause before the Saiyan's head turned towards them. Two dark eyes seemed to stare straight through her as he held a capsule in his hand. It was enough to drown her anger immediately as Turles stood there. The black suit he was wearing seemed fitting, because right now she was sure she was staring down the devil himself.
Flipping the capsule in the air and catching it, Turles started to walk towards them as she heard a nervous sound come out of Yamcha as he leaned in towards her.
"We need to go."
The last bit of her resolve bit back as she turned to look at Yamcha, feeling her anger peer through.
"This is my house. This is my lab. I'm not going to let him just walk in here and take my stuff," she whispered back, her voice filled with a mixture of fear and irritation.
He didn't have the right to just be here, or to take her things.
"Quite a lab here. I can see all the little projects you've been working on. I'm not much of a scientist, but I do appreciate the finer arts to the craft. It doesn't take a scientist to see a drawing on the wall which looks like a space ship, or to figure out how you've been reverse engineering Saiyan Armour," Turles remarked. "And though I'm comfortably dressed at the moment. I would like a new suit tailored for me. One that's a bit more traditional, for my people. And you've been doing such a good job for Vegeta-"
"You can't just come in here like this," Bulma fired at him immediately.
"Bulma, maybe you should just give him-"
Another furious glare shot back in Yamcha's direction, quieting him down immediately.
The fear in his eyes reflected her own, but she couldn't just give in to this monster.
"How did you get in here?" Bulma asked after a second.
"Oh? I saw you were busy and decided not to disturb you," Turles remarked simply. "I slipped in the back door. You must forgive the mess, I forgot to ask you for the key so I simply let myself in."
When he stopped in front of them, she couldn't stop trembling. Instinctively she grabbed the arm he'd broken so ruthlessly before, as if a phantom pain came back into it. The worst part about him was how he wore Goku's face like a mask. All the goodness, generosity, and eagerness Goku had towards life was vacant in the dead eyes of this monster. It was replaced by suppressed savagery, selfishness and greed. Since Yamcha didn't know he was here, that meant Vegeta probably didn't either. Her fist balled as she tried to keep herself under control.
"You can put that capsule back and get out," she ordered as sternly as she could, even as she heard her voice crack. "Goku and the others haven't turned their back on you yet, but the longer you're here the more they're going to know exactly how evil you are. I'm not going to help you at all."
All the cards just went on the table.
Even Turles blinked at the remark, and she could tell that whatever she said had left him a bit taken back. She could almost sense Yamcha's nervousness spike at the remark as well. The shocked expression gave way to something that made her skin crawl. The fake smile stretched across his lips trying to hide his venomous response. Those empty eyes filled with something closer to malice at her before his eyes shifted to Yamcha and then back to her.
"And here I was trying to be a gentlemen," Turles's words slithered to the surface as he turned his attention back to the laboratory. "I do keep my word, human. I promised Kakarot I wouldn't kill anyone or inflict unnecessary harm. And by Saiyan right, the strongest Saiyan gives the orders. It's such a shame that I'll need to borrow more of this equipment then."
"You don't even know which Capsule is what," Bulma interjected, feeling her skin starting to crawl.
"That is why it's a shame, I'm going to need to borrowall of it then. I'll be sure to return the unnecessary equipment," when his face turned to her, she understood the threat immediately. "It's such a tragedy you've kept all of this precious technology for Vegeta. Raditz, Kakarot, and my nephew would benefit greatly from it-"
"Goku doesn't need my help to get stronger," she countered immediately. "He wouldn't use any of this anyway. I'm not holding out against Goku-"
When he turned his head away from her he started to walk back towards her workbench, tracing his hand along equipment as he went. It was almost like he was tainting all her projects even by being there.
"You're just holding out against me then? Well, I'm flattered," he chuckled. "And here I was worried that you didn't hold me in such high regard. To be so exclusive from everyone else, I must be your favourite Saiyan. Oh no wait, that would be Vegeta, wouldn't it? Though clearly your not entirely exclusive with Vegeta, are you?"
He knows Vegeta's not coming because he's kept his power suppressed.
Despite Vegeta's... shortcomings, she knew he had been keeping his eye out, there was evidence for that only minutes ago. He'd already knew she was helping Vegeta, and the remark that Vegeta was her favourite was meant to be as much a jab against her, as it was against Yamcha. Of course the fact he was implying she was a whore on the other hand, was enough to make
"Well I guess we should just leave Turles to whatever it is he's doing, or maybe we should go grab Vegeta-"
Turles froze in place before narrowing his eyes on Yamcha.
Yamcha, why can't you just keep your mouth shut?
Bulma recoiled as Turles started approaching them again.
"Well, running to grab Vegeta? While I'm still here no less? Is that any way to treat your guest?"
"I think you got that word wrong. Bulma, doesn't he mean intruder?" Yamcha asked nervously. "I mean not that we're trying to cause any trouble or anything. We really should just leave him to take what he wants and go."
That was enough for Bulma. Not that he take what he wanted. It was enough that Yamcha was trying to avoid conflict at all cost. Creatures like Turles fed on the fear of others. He was a bully, and he enjoyed watching other people squirm, and Bulma knew it. That was why she was trying to keep herself together this whole time, because running for it, or begging him not to take things, or just to take what he wanted and go, were all things that were going to do nothing but stroke his ego.
"Smart," Turles half laughed at her boyfriend before turning back to her lab.
What were her options?
He can't hurt me. Remember, if he does Goku will stop him. He's bluffing. I can do this.
Breathing in and out evenly, Bulma walked forward as briskly as she could.
"Hey, I told you to go!" Bulma declared.
A defensive motion of Turles's shoulders edged up as he tried not to growl. Ignoring her, he continued to walk towards her workspace, grabbing a capsule along the way.
"This looks important," he mocked before flipping it into one of his pockets.
No way. I'm not letting this happen.
Chasing after him as quickly as she could without running, she was about to grab him when Yamcha grabbed her arm, pulling her back. Another arm came around her stomach lifting her off the ground.
"Are you crazy?" Yamcha tried to say quietly as he held her in place, backtracking away with her.
"Let go of me! I'm not going to let him screw my life up anymore!" Bulma felt herself screaming.
"It's fine Bulma! Calm down!"
It's fine?!
The memory flooded back of Turles laughing at her as he broke her arm. It mixed with the same laugh he was giving them now.
I don't like it when my prey doesn't play by the rules.
And right now he was treating her like prey again. Her work was just something he could come in and take and not give a shit what anyone thought. He was laughing at her again now. It was impossible to handle. She kicked against Yamcha, trying to break loose.
"Bulma! You've gotta calm down!-"
It was enough to make her think she was going to rip out of her own skin to stop this thing in her home and work space.
"NO!" she finally shouted, turning to Yamcha, her eyes lit with fury. "This is my home, Yamcha! Let go of me or DO something."
Finally, her muscles gave out before she felt tears well on the sides of her eyes. All of the energy she'd used to struggle suddenly filled her chest as she felt a sob escape. There was nothing she could do as she felt herself tremble before she turned her head aside, trying to avoid looking like she was crying in front of this monster.
Taking several steps back while holding her, Yamcha put her down and turned to look at her.
"Everything's going to be fine..." Yamcha told her, and she could see a change in his look while staring at her.
Trying to wipe away the warm drops rolling down her cheeks, the blue haired heiress watched as Yamcha rose to his feet, marching towards Turles.
"Hey!"
The Saiyan stopped his arm before turning his head.
"You'll need to forgive my rudeness, but you're less intimidating than the woman. If you've got a problem, take it up with Vegeta after I leave."
Turning his head away, Turles reached for another capsule when Yamcha seemed to mutter something to himself. Bulma only caught the end of it. The tears stopped as her chest tightened when she realized what she'd heard.
"-Great and powerful Kami, look over me."
Taking several steps further, he reached out, grabbing Turles's shoulder roughly.
"I have a problem, Turles," Yamcha declared in the bravest voice he could muster.
There was a pause before Turles turned his head.
"Yes you do."
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Turles:
The hole in the side of the building was smouldering as Turles stepped through it. There was only ever one answer when someone called your bluff. You never bluffed without at least some teeth to back it up. The human didn't have the knives necessary to backup his bluff. As if he was going to let this trash touch him. The humans were very limited in their fighting capabilities. It's one thing that made them so deceptive. What was the main difference between a human and a Saiyan? Truthfully it wasn't much. Beyond a tail, he hadn't seen any marked difference between them at all.
Looking at the bleeding human staring up at him from the grass, Turles just walked towards the half bewildered human. No killing or permanent injuries were allowed of course, what Kakarot said went. But there had to be a price for interference. How Kakarot tolerated these humans, let alone Raditz or Vegeta, he couldn't understand. All of them were weak. Even the ones who displayed a willingness to fight were utterly incapable. This human had only come at him with any degree of bravery after thoroughly shaming himself. The ones who didn't understand their own weakness were just as bad, such as the blue haired witch back there.
It was like living on a planet full of ants, and being unable to step on them. Weak minded ants who he only needed to impress in any capacity because of his own agendas. Straightening out his suit as he thought ill of the cultures who'd respect it, Turles looked himself over, wanting to make sure Yamcha hadn't left a mark. Thankfully he'd avoided getting any blood on himself either.
Really, it was only two hits to get them this far, yet the human looked like he'd been fighting him for a day.
He couldn't finish him off anyway. Instead, Turles brushed his shoulder briefly, brushing some dust away.
"The next time you put a hand on a Saiyan, be sure you're ready to fight, human."
The air around him seemed to warp a second later as Turles sensed the energy around him distort. His eyes flashed for only the briefest moment before he felt something hard strike his right cheek. The heel of the foot which hit him dug in as the energy carried through to his entire body. In slowed time, he felt his mouth open uncontrollably as his body took off. When his body crashed into the wall surrounding the compound, he felt his shoulders brush through the concrete along with his head. Before he knew it his body had lodged itself into the side of a local automobile. The hovercar caught fire within a second of his impact before it exploded in a fuel laden blast.
It didn't hurt in the slightest. There was a throb in his cheek at most as his eyes stared up through the flames surrounding him.
The trace of energy which struck him was more than familiar. That was Vegeta.
Pulling himself out of the burning wreckage, fire wreathed around his suit as he walked towards the hole his body made, an eerie calm falling over him as he did. When he stepped through the breach in the wall, the only thing he could do was stare directly at the figure standing where he had been only seconds later.
A cold breeze blew past him, as if generated by his ki as the fire around him was smothered within seconds.
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Vegeta:
The first sign something had gone wrong was the spike in energy which far surpassed that weakling Yamcha's maximum. The explosion he heard as he exited the training craft was further evidence that he'd clearly missed something in his watchful gaze over the compound. When he looked up and over, he could see Turles walked out of the building from a region which had no planned exit. A path of burnt and ruined grass lead to Yamcha's already beaten body.
Humans.
Clearly, Turles had infiltrated the facility by suppressing his power level. Truthfully, in the event that Turles did something as ill advised as come here uninvited, the Prince would have preferred to head him off before any kind of hostilities had been engaged. There were consequences right now on the Earth for fighting in a battle such as this, and Turles knew that. It meant Kakarot would be coming and getting involved in their business. He wasn't afraid of anyone, but he knew full well the power difference between them.
Pride had committed him to agree to the ridiculous terms of his agreement with the woman. Keeping his energy low as he blitzed towards Turles, Vegeta prepared himself to launch an attack.
"The next time you put a hand on a Saiyan, be sure you're ready to fight, human."
The words brushed past him in the air just as he lunged towards Turles, shooting his leg out in a straight kick towards Turles's head. In the split second before it landed he saw the other Saiyan's eyes light up. There was a split second where a response might come into play, but it looked like he caught Turles off guard. With a clap from the blow breaking the sound barrier, Turles's body was sent straight through the compound wall before a car exploded on the other side.
Landing on the grass a moment later, Vegeta was left standing there as he calculated on what was about to happen. A vengeful Turles was very probably going to explode out of that direction and begin his counterattack.
"Yamcha?" a voice emerged from the opening in the capsule corporation headquarters. The woman's head popped out, looking on in shock before she set eyes on him.
He turned his head to her before narrowing his eyes.
"Don't make my job harder. Get back inside. Now."
A shocked expression just filled her features before she looked towards the hole in the wall before her eyes opened in terror. If it was fast enough for her to follow, that meant that a charge wasn't happening. He didn't sense the disturbance in the energy of physical world around him to justify such a concern. When he turned his head to look towards the opening, what he saw did give a small amount of chill to his blood.
A looming figure appeared with its shadow cast by the flames behind it. A corona of fire wrapped around the figure in question. Two horns of Saiyan hair tipped upward, giving even Vegeta the perception that a Devil was emerging from the wreck. A cold wind emerged around them before the flames were seemingly smothered on their own. What was left behind as the flames dispersed and the air calmed in the air, was a cold looking Saiyan warrior.
Taking off his suit jacket, Turles cast it aside, the burnt ruin drifting into the air before it flopped to the earth. Pulling his shirt's sleeves up a second later, Vegeta watched as the other warrior just seemed to calmly go about his business.
"You know Vegeta," Turles's voice was bizarrely calm. "I've learned a lot since I've arrived on this planet. And one of those things is, is that everyone on this world tries to place a mask on themselves. They try to put up a facade of what they are..."
Rolling up his other sleeve, the Saiyan cracked his neck from side to side, before he reached up and started undoing his tie. Undoing it, he then proceeded to undo a button just below his collar before tossing the tie aside after pulling it over his head. Stretching his arms once, Vegeta just watched as he tried to guess Turles's intentions.
"You know Vegeta, that suit took two weeks for me to get. Most of them do. It's very disappointing that you just ruined it. And you ruined it because why? You were worried I'd kill that woman of yours?" Turles asked. "It doesn't matter anyway. You see Vegeta, this suit was important to me. They all are. They help me with the mask these humans fashion for themselves. You might say that you've chosen to take that away from me."
Wind started to pick up around them, but Vegeta knew full well it was power slowly starting to be released. A purple aura faintly started to appear as the ground started to rumble around them. Street lights and buildings in the background started to have their power flicker as bits of the earth tore up out of the ground and started to be pulled into the air. The aura started to swirl around his enemy as Vegeta felt himself become steeled for what was about to come.
Any mask that Turles had on was dropped. When he braced himself and his aura burst to life around him, pieces of the burning wrecked car behind him, as well as unbroken bits of the wall began to rip free. A feral cry started to emerge from the other Saiyan as the purple glow began to peak above him while hateful eyes started staring back at him.
His own aura flickered to life. Blue energies wrapped around him as Vegeta started to pull his own power to the surface.
In a blur of motion he could barely follow, Turles appeared in front of him, swinging his arm through towards him in a huge lariat. It caught Vegeta in the chest and throat, causing him to launch off his feet, flipping under Turles's arm before landing on his hands and feet. Slick black shoes were in front of him a second later. It was almost an exact repeat from when they'd arrived on Earth from Namek.
"And you'll regret that, Vegeta."
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Author's Notes:
Ah things boil over. Lol.
I think that there has kinda needed to be this moment since Goku got back. There was so much tension floating around, and Turles has been kind of in the waiting for his own little spat. I really like how this chapter came together, so hurray. I really like how Raditz, Turles, and Vegeta also are becoming increasingly distinct from one another, and they always have been, but creating that bigger distance makes them more appealing to write.
Also, if you're ever wondering where an update is at, the easiest way to find out is my user profile. It doesn't get updated every day, but any progress report is going to be there.
Spoilers be ahead:
I've actually decided to amend a bunch of the plans I had to make this story really able to... continue at all. That's why I'm trying to narrow character focus, choose my plotlines to make prominent, and outright change plans. Even the current chapter wasn't originally in the plan, just a version of it that was going to happen way later. I figured it worked now, and I revamped it to fit. Originally, another plotline was going to resolve Turles's strength issue. Yea, that's getting addressed. And yea, I had a plan to address it for a while, namely because in my headcannon the reason Turles is stronger than normal right now, is because his body through a combination of the unnatural effects of the Tree of Might, and Dende healing him kept his power and body (despite not appearing so) in almost a Great Ape form. Remember, when I had this planned out years ago I was a lot younger with a different taste for different things. My justification was simply going to be if he transformed really in any way, it'd annihilate his base power. It'd be like reinstalling an operating system that's been corrupted. That's the way I always approached it. Hell, one of the many reasons this story went into hibernation is I eventually didn't like the idea.
Well, it's the one we're running with now. :P
Not intending to spoil too much, but in general since The Catalyst still is a project that may be too big to finish, I don't mind throwing out there a couple things I've had planned, or are coming up, at least in terms of these revamp chapters that are coming along, until I've righted the ship to be more in the direction I want it to go.
I'm also really excited for Slug and co. I've got to start introducing and building them up soon. But I can say the Slug Saga was one thing I genuinely always wish I'd carried through with.
Music notes:
I started in The Long Road listing off the kind of music which really helped inspire me to write certain characters. I'll be hopefully adding some notes in Chapter 49. Which will be being released in around two weeks.
And remember, reviews get the story updated. Without feedback knowing if people like or hate the story, it reduces the chances of updates. Apathy is the worst thing to get from your readers :\
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Reviewers:
Blade of Fury:
I really wanted to, and originally Tarble had a pretty massive role in The Catalyst. But remember how I mentioned I needed to dock the story to make it work? That may mean docking poor Tarble. Not that I want to do it! It's just already too big to finish. And even if I can't finish it, I'd like it to at least feel like its progressing. More characters = declined progression, especially if it focuses away from the core. When I restarted this, I had to ask myself, if I had to make The Catalyst about anything, who would it be about? I figured Turles, Vegeta, Goku, and Raditz really are the core focus, with Gohan and Piccolo playing pretty big roles as well. And remember each character comes with their own support cast eventually. It's just really big, and really hard to make that circle even bigger.
Landser03:
I'm glad at least some people were happy to see it back :P. I was bit surprised by the popularity of the story's return. I was hoping for more of course! But I was expecting less than 10 reviews. The overall number of people reading it was a bit surprising as well. I like to think that years of just writing TLR has tempered my writing a bit. It's also helped me get a better idea of what it takes to kinda make this story "work", even though its a fundamentally different story. I try to make all of my stories genuinely unique from one another. The Perfect Monster was a horror attack (body horror specifically), and I had a few I never started. I just like having more options in this story and a real different direction than TLR. So It's been really gratifying to see people still wanted to see more of The Catalyst. The last time I put a chapter up, even though it eventually got read, it was a bit slow to gain traction.
Guest:
It's so weird writing Turles and Vegeta in this man! Turles is a monster in TLR, but he's had such a different life it leads to different places. Vegeta's the same (sans the monster part lol). If anything they're actually closer to Utopia Vegeta and Turles. It's even more weird that the main baddies coming up for both TLR and The Catalyst are both Namekians, but with radically different motivations. Sigh. It's not gonna be easy :(
Pyromania101:
It's fun that your name comes up in the autocorrect now in my Writer, lol. Anyway, The shitheels of this story aren't through with their power plays yet! That's one fun thing about The Catalyst. The "good guys" are all disjointed and all allies of convenience. At least for the moment anyway.
OuterSpaceHooker:
It's been updated. Again no less.
MaxRideLover:
And will continue to be back as long as there is a reasonable enough level of popular demand. I've just had to kinda learn to temper my expectations. The Long Road is about x4-x5 times more read, and gets about x2-x5 reviews on average. I really felt The Catalyst wasn't really liked for the longest time, because people didn't like it nearly as much as The Long Road.
DarkFalconZ:
Only if its just low-key ;)
Super Mystic Gohan:
Nowhere near as strong. The Brass, Junia, and Taro of this world are going to be way earlier in their evolution before that fragment slid off. Meaning that Brass, Junia, and Taro are going to be really different characters, and that's enjoyable to me. Sane-Taro (well, Saner Taro) is gonna be a thing. So weird.
Dead Survivor:
Miss them no longer :O
Perfect Carnage:
Subtly seems weird?!
Luke:
This and The Long Road, amIright? :P
Peter1398:
Replied via PM. Twice. By accident. Lol... *and its only short compared to my other story's chapters. lol
Lauren:
More of my stories? It's a trap!... Do it! Lol. I'm genuinely glad that you enjoyed the read. I really only do this for the gratification of knowing people read it, they enjoy it, and they tell me what they think. I love writing in general, but it's the worst to write something no one wants to read. So thank you for letting me know! :D
If you're looking to read a pretty intense story which has battle scenes longer than most of the stories on this website, I recommend The Long Road. That story makes me want to die sometimes... 100+ page battle last time. Bleegh...
FireFnBrimstone:
It almost was the summary man. I sat down to write and several times and went "man, this is so much stuff, I just don't have time to write this all". There are some pretty massive moments waiting in the story to happen. I mean like **** happens, oh and then **** happens. And then The Catalysts do ****. :P
And it was totally true! I had to reread the god damn story just to get a sense of who those characters were again. Lol
Kacarrot:
You didn't need to way 2 years, now did you? ;)