We've been flying for a week now in our pods, on our way to Cauliferon, my original home planet.
"So, Cellio. How is home?" I asked him through the communications channel we had open.
"I can only remember it while Zoltris ruled it. But from what i've seen, it's actually a really nice place. One thing you're gonna have to get used to though, the gravity there is about 5x greater than earth's."
"Only 5? I've survived in 10 for about 3 months. I think i can handle 5 pretty well."
"Good, we won't have to wait for you to get accustomed then."
"Anyway, how long until we get there?"
"It's gonna be quite the wait. We've still got about a month and a half to go."
"A month and a half?! How are we gonna survive in space that long? These ships seem to only have 2 weeks worth of supplies."
"Don't worry, i'm putting into account the stops we'll be taking on the way there. These things do need to refuel and we do need to stretch and train a bit."
"Alright, i see. So, an intergalactic road trip with my brother. This is gonna be fun."
"Yeah, it'll give us a chance to catch up after all these years."
"So, how old were you when they sent me off into space?"
"I was only about 4. I still remember though, i knew we would see each other again, somehow. Mom and dad had looks of saddened pride on their faces."
"Speaking of which, how are they? I've always wanted to meet them."
"They were very respectable fighters, well, dad was anyway. Mom was more of a battlefield rescuer; she would transport warriors away from battle if they were too injured. Dad though, he's the captain of the Elite royal guard, his power level is the second strongest on the planet, the strongest of course is the king. Well, now that you're gonna be there, the king will be second strongest, super saiyan and all."
"Yeah. Wait, does that mean that i'll be king?!" I asked with a lot of worry in my voice, not ready for taking on the responsibility of ruling a planet.
"Well, if you want to be and if you beat the former king in battle. That's the only way to overtake the throne."
"Then no thank you, i'm good."
"Heh, thought so." We flew for a few more hours until we spotted a planet that seemed to be highly civilized, with visible buildings in the atmosphere.
"Say, Cellio. You think we can stop by? Maybe restock our supplies?"
"Sure, i'm getting kinda tired of sitting anyway and i do need to restore the oxygen levels, mine are running pretty low."
"So we're stopping there?"
"Yep. I actually stopped here a few times on missions, they should know me by now." We flew to the planet and suddenly radio frequencies began reaching us.
"State pod numbers and business." I had no idea what to do, but Cellio did it for me, i somehow heard his frequency as well.
"Pods 88432 and 88434 requesting landing for refuel."
"Very well, landing pads 3 and 5 are open, welcome Saiyans."
"How did he know we were saiyans?"
"It's the beginning of our pod number. Saiyans are designated number 88 at the beginning of their pods, the numbers after are just the pod number. Yours is 88432, mine was two after yours."
"I see. So, where do we land?"
"Don't worry, just type in the coordinates and autopilot will do the rest."
"And they are?"
" 45.23 west 83.24 north, that's where you'll be landing. Word of advice, just let me do the talking, unless they talk to you directly, don't say anything, i'll put on the act."
"Got it." Somehow i found out how to type the coordinates and just like that we cruised along to the landing pad, making no damage at all due to the amazing shock absorbers of the things. We stepped out and i was surprised at the fact that multiple different aliens were kneeling at the foot of the landing pads; i looked to my left and saw Cellio getting out of his pod. We walked down the stairs where the people parted the way for us to pass, we met together about a few feet away and suddenly a small, blue alien dude with the same armor as us and a crest on his head with a lizard like face approached.
"Ah, Cellio, how nice of you to join us again. Who might this be? I've never seen him before."
"He's my brother, Cherik, the reason you haven't seen him is because he's been sent on missions on other sides of the galaxy except this one. We decided to meet up and we are now on our way back to Cauliferon to await our next mission; we just stopped by for supplies."
"Yes, yes, of course. Please, do stay awhile in our luxurious hotel, we'll have your ships ready and stocked in a few hours."
"Sounds good to me, come on bro." We walked to a building that seemed super fancy and did of course look like a hotel, there was even a pool on the roof. We walked in and immediately, the front desk clerk came up to us with a key in hand and a nervous smile on his face.
"Here you are gentlemen, your room key, the presidential suite, enjoy yourselves." Cellio took the key and we took the elevator up to the top and found our room. The place was enormous, it was about twice as big as my house back on earth, with fancy furniture, an amazing view, jacuzzi's in both bathrooms and so many other things i can't even describe it.
"Holy crap! I've always been too poor to even afford anything close to this back on Earth, this is like an entirely different dimension for me." Cellio laughed and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah, these are the benefits of being in Zoltris's army, it's nice, but knowing that they're only doing this out of fear gives it a bittersweet feel to it, that's why we're planning the revolution, to give us the former recognition we deserve. Anyway, I've got to make a call back to the king, need to tell him that I found you."
"Isn't your scouter able to be traced?"
"That's the thing, us resistance members modified our scouters to block the transmission signal whenever necessary, so that only other resistance members get the signal."
"Cool, can you do that with mine?"
"Yeah, it's not hard. But we have to get back to Cauliferon before it can happen."
"Fair enough." As he called and reported, i took the time to wash up a bit in the fanciest bathroom ever. When I got out, i heard the other bathroom in use and knew that Cellio was doing the same thing. On one end of the room was a television that covered the entire wall, I turned it on and was amazed at the picture and sound quality, as well as the ungodly amount of channels there are. Cellio came out of the bathroom with the same type of robe I had on and sat down on the other end of the couch.
"So, we've got about 3 hours before our ships are ready. What do you wanna do?"
"Do they have a training area here?" He smirked at my comment.
"You really are a Saiyan. Yeah, they have super durable training rooms below the hotel, designed to even take punishment from Zoltris himself."
"Does he ever use them?"
"Nope, I've heard he's never trained a day in his life."
"That give us the advantage then."
"Well, you'd better suit up, we're heading down."
"Got it." I went to grab my armor, but realized that it reeked due to the fighting and sitting in it for a week.
"Hey bro! You got any spares? These things stink."
"They have spare bodysuits in the room closets, just take one. Armor though, I'll send them down for washing." I went to my room and took out a bodysuit that was similar to mine, except for the fact that it was a dark gray, there were also gloves and boots, which i put on as well. I left my room and saw that Cellio was changed as well and giving our armor to, what looked like a robot. "They'll be clean within the hour and they'll send them back up to our rooms."
"Sweet. Now what are we waiting for? Let's go train."
"Follow me." We went down the hall to the elevator and Cellio pressed a button that was labled TL. "It stands for training level. It's not often used, but it's still kept in order." We made it and the room was essentially a gym, but it could fit like, 10 earth gyms within it and it was about 30 feet high. There were weights and other training equipment surrounding the place, but there was also a 100x100 foot cage in the center with nothing inside of it.
"So i'm guessing that the cage is where we're gonna train?"
"You got it, don't worry about breaking anything, the cage is made out of the same things our ships are, it can stand an enormous amount of abuse, so go wild; just no Nova Blasts alright?"
"Got it. Let's go then!" We ran in and the training began. He lowered his power to about 10% higher than mine so that I could properly train and become stronger. I began by first, trying to catch him, but he was just too fast.
"C'mon Cherik, you can't expect to win by fighting like that." I considered going super saiyan, but i realized i wouldn't get stronger that way, so i stayed in base and kept chasing him. After about 5 minutes, i got the hang of his pattern and managed to surprise him from behind and slam him into the ground.
"How's that huh?" He rose up and dusted himself off, obviously not sustaining much damage, but still was scratched.
"Alright, not bad. Now let's begin with the actual fighting." We got into battle poses and then flew right towards each other, our punches collided hard enough to shake the room and temporarily flicker the lights.
"Maybe we should turn it down a bit."
"Maybe, or we can just not do that hard of a punch clash."
"Well, if this thing collapses, I don't think we'll be paying for it."
"Heh, my thoughts too. Alright, let's go!" We truly began fighting now, flying all over the place, colliding punches, dodging other blows, getting hit as well, but it was all worth it. We trained for another two hours when we realized that our ships would be ready soon; we decided to stop and begin walking back to the elevator, battered, bruised, but trained.
"Jeez Cellio, you pack one hell of a punch. Is it normal to not be able to feel your arm from the elbow down?" I said this as I made my hand into a fist and opened it again, but didn't feel anything.
"I don't think it's normal. Actually, you might want to fix that soon."
"I'll just take a senzu when we get back to the room. I left the bag in the drawer next to my bed."
"Alright. By the way, don't feel too bad, I can't see a thing out of my left eye, and I think my left pinky is fractured." He moved it slightly and grimaced in pain. "Or maybe broken... How many of those beans do you have?"
"I have 6, but we need to use them sparingly. Our injuries aren't too bad, so we'll split one, it should be enough."
"Alright." We entered the elevator and made it to our room. I walked to the nightstand where I kept the senzu bag, pulled one of them out, broke it in half and threw one half to Cellio; almost immediately after eating it, my wounds were healed and I regained feeling in my arm, I felt a little more rested than normal, but not back to full strength.
"Hey, how's your eye and pinky?" I looked over and saw that his eye was back to normal and he was moving his finger just fine.
"Looks all good, still don't feel full strength though."
"Same here, guess that's the downside for half a bean, the injuries and other serious stuff get taken care of first and whatever is left goes into your strength and stamina."
"Here's your armor back, it's all cleaned and polished for you." He threw me my armor back, and even my leg modifications were looking brand new.
"Wow, these guys do a good job."
"Yeah, they do. Our ships'll be ready in a few minutes, so get ready." We changed, checked out and walked over to the pod bay where the mechanics were just about wrapping up. Almost 10 minutes later, one of the mechanics came up to us to say that they were ready.
"Sirs, everything is repaired and restocked, they are ready for flight once more." Cellio stood up and nodded at them, he then pushed a few buttons on his scouter, numbers flashed for a few seconds, then he talked.
"I just transferred payment. Will twenty thousand credits be enough?" His eyes widened at this.
"Why yes, that is more than enough. Thank you great Cellio." He bowed and moved out of the way for us to go to our pods. As I stepped into mine, I saw that it looked cleaned up and the monitor read that oxygen levels were at maximum and so was the intravenous food supply, I also hinted a lemon smell, that's when I saw the little air freshener on the dashboard.
"Heh, nice." We fired up our pods and went off once more. Cellio called me on a private line.
"So, how was it?"
"It seemed nice, but at the same time, I don't feel like I deserve it, they're just doing this out of fear, not respect."
"You're right, it ruins the feeling. Don't worry though, once we win against Zoltris, we'll get this life again, but this time out of respect and gratitude rather than fear and tyranny."
"I'd like that. What I wonder is, how come Zoltris never found earth?"
"My best guess is that it was too hidden, or its inhabitants weren't strong enough or technologically advanced enough."
"Makes sense, but if that were the case, wouldn't he just blow it up?"
"Yeah, you do make a fair point. Zoltris doesn't like waiting, either a planet is fit for him to conquer or he just blows it up. So i'm going with the fact that it was too hidden. Your pod wasn't meant to land on earth anyway, we programmed it for a different planet. We watched your pod daily, until one day, there was a supernova not too far from your pod, it took out the monitor we had on it and we assumed you died; but as luck would have it, you survived and managed to crash land on earth, which was actually a pretty good thing." Hearing that actually made me rethink my life a little bit.
"Wow, I just, that's... wow. Didn't know all the events of my life were caused by a star exploding."
"Life works weirdly that way." Suddenly I heard a beeping on my scouter and saw that it was Stryker calling me.
"Give me a minute bro, I gotta take this." He hung up and I answered the call, sure enough it was Stryker's voice on the other end.
"Cherik, you would not BELIEVE, the week I've had."
A/N: So this ties in with the ending of Strykertale, which, if you haven't read yet, I encourage you to, it's on my page. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, stay tuned for the next and I will see you all then. Peace.
