I woke up with much more enthusiasm than normal. I suited up, went out into the woods to hunt; I came back with a large bear and cooked it up, saving half of it for later. I then flew off to Stryker's place which was far bigger than I remember it, guess a million dollars can get you a pretty big house. I didn't even bother knocking or ringing the doorbell, I just sensed Stryker's energy and flew to the window that was his. I hovered below the window and suppressed my power, then I tapped on the window a bit. He came over and opened it, just in time for me to pop out and scare him, which probably wasn't a good idea considering he reacted with a blast; I deflected it and reassured him.
"Woah, Stryker, calm down buddy, it's just me."
"Don't. Ever! Do that again."
"Noted." I flew in and sat down on a nearby chair.
"So, why are you here?"
"Nothing much, just wondering when you want to get started on planet hopping."
"Soon I guess. But we need a plan, I don't have a pod, so I can't travel with you every time."
"Oh, it's easy. I'll just give you the coordinates so you can teleport. By the way, that reminds me, could you teach me some soul magic soon?"
"Guess, that would work. Yeah, I can teach you, we can try a quick lesson right now, let's start with basic stuff, fire magic. Here, allow me to show you, slowly." Before he began, he summoned a gold star and touched it, then it disappeared. He held out his hand and a tiny little flame appeared, slowly swirling around and around until it manifested into a full fireball. He then proceeded to show off by closing his fist and spreading his hand out to reveal 5 tiny flames on his fingertips; he then extinguished them and proceeded to explain. "Alright, the process is similar to creating ki orbs, but the energy is different. Hold out your hand and feel your energy, feel where it splits into something different." I closed my eyes and searched through my energy, all of it feeling pretty uniform, but then, I felt it, right around the center of my chest, a reserve of energy that felt different from the rest.
"I think I feel it Stryker."
"Good, now imagine that energy like a single river flowing through the ocean of your normal energy, but imagine it... alive, and burning." I closed my eyes and imagined it flowing from its reserve, through my arm, like a warm river; I then felt it right under the palm of my hand, so I released. When I opened my eyes, I saw a tiny flicker of flame in my hand, almost like a candle fire.
"Wow, is that what's supposed to happen?"
"Yeah! That's amazing! Granted, I wouldn't expect anything less from you." I smirked and tried to increase the size of the flame; as I concentrated, it got bigger, turning into a fireball, but it suddenly felt like a dam burst, and the new magical energy I had began to flow out uncontrollably, creating an eruption of flame. I freaked out and tried to close both my hands around the fire pillar, creating a ki shield, but I could feel it about to break; Stryker then closed his hands around mine, making another energy shield. "Cherik, control your energy, reduce it." I concentrated as hard as I could to fix the break in the energy dam, after that was finished, I reduced the size of the flame until it retreated back into my hand and back into the reserve. We turned off our shields, but before we could take a breather, we powered up and used the wind to extinguish the furniture, curtains and especially ceiling.
"Ummm, oops?"
"Don't worry, I kinda figured you would get over excited and torch the place; that's why I made a save point before we started."
"Wait what?" He summoned the gold star and touched it.
"Yeah, that's amazing! But don't try to increase the size of it too much, you're not used to magic yet and it could grow out of control." I nodded and extinguished the flame, feeling the energy flow back into its reserve. "Now, I want you to practice this, but make sure you're away from anything flammable in case it goes out of control; think of it like this, your soul is like a muscle, train it little by little and it'll get stronger and more efficient, strain it too much at the beginning and it can cause bad things to happen."
"Got it. Wow, I didn't know I could do this, thanks." I concentrated and brought out the flame, faster this time, then extinguished it; I did this about 10 more times before I decided to stop and get to business. "So, the royal family will be the ones assigning us planets to go to, they have a schedule made and deadlines as well in order to keep everything from falling into chaos."
"When do we get our first mission?"
"Cellio said first thing in the morning." We both suddenly got a beep on our scouters; we checked them and sure enough, it was our first assignment. "Oh hey, I know this place. This is the first planet Cellio and I stopped by on our first trip to Cauliferon. My ship should be able to get there in about a week from now."
"Orrrr, maybe Alphys and your scientists souped up the engines of your space pods and now you can get there in like, half an hour."
"Seriously?! That is awesome! Let me suit up and we can get going." I went home and put on my armor, I then went back to Stryker's place where my space pod, polished and fitted with a new engine, was waiting for me. I climbed in and punched in the coordinates, soon enough, I was blasted into space and flew much faster than when Cellio and I first began to fly. I got a call and answered it.
"Hey Cherik, as you're about to arrive, it's best if you lower the throttle via a lever on your right hand side. Do it slowly so that you don't pierce through the planet on impact."
"I see the lever. Don't worry about me, I've got it under control." About 25 minutes later, I decided to lower the speed until I was at the normal velocity and 5 more minutes later, I got the transmission."
"State your pod number and business." I didn't freeze like last time and managed to remember my pod number.
"Pod number 88432 requesting landing for diplomatic mission."
"Landing pad 12 is clear for landing at coordinates 50.21 West, 80.5 North. Welcome, Saiyan." I activated landing mode and put the coordinates in. I landed and climbed out of my pod; just like last time, multiple aliens were kneeling at the foot of the landing pad, I simply walked down the stairs and through the crowd that parted its way for me to pass. I was stopped by an alien with armor that also had a crest on the side.
"Landing pod 88432, designated to the saiyan Cherik, is this correct?"
"Yeah, that's correct."
"The king has heard and accepted your request for this, diplomatic mission you speak of. Come, follow me."
"Actually, I also have another friend arriving very shortly, I need him here as well. May I request just one more minute? As well as a circle about 10 feet away from me in either direction until he arrives?"
"But of course. I assume you have your reasons for the circle." Everyone around me cleared a circle that was 10 feet away from me in any direction; I turned on my scouter and sent a signal to Stryker, telling him to come to my location. Shortly, in a puff of yellow smoke, he arrived and landed within the circle.
"Before any questions are asked, this is my friend Stryker, intergalactic ambassador for the planet known as Earth." After the formalities were out of the way, we walked among the crowds and at times I felt sorry because I heard a few explosions coming from scouters, so I decided to lower my power after the 10th one exploded and so did Stryker. We arrived at a monorail and were ushered into a private car where it took off; after about a minute, a white, stone palace appeared into view. We arrived another minute after seeing the palace and were escorted to the throne room. The room was big and it had blue banners hanging from the ceiling and gold decor everywhere; at the back of the room, sitting on a gold and red velvet throne was someone who looked mostly human, except for the fact that he had dark gray skin color. He was quite a big alien, in width as well as height, was dressed in pretty generic kingly attire that one would see on earth. The most surprising part though, is that he got up off his throne to bow to me instead of the other way around.
"Welcome to my planet Cherik of Cauliferon. Tell me, what business is there to discuss, and who is it accompanying you?"
"My name is Stryker, I hail from the planet known as Earth and am its intergalactic ambassador, newly appointed mind you."
"Now, the main reason I came is to tell you these three words. Zoltris is dead." He gasped in shock at this revilation, obviously news of the war hadn't hit this far yet.
"How did he die? Did he succumb to illness? Supernova explosion?"
"No. He was slain, during a great war."
"Between him and who?"
"The saiyans. Now, before anything drastic happens, allow me to tell you. We grew tired of living under his boot and for years they planned to overthrow him, and once I arrived to my homeworld, everything changed. By my hand was the tyrant slain, and I come here to offer you peace among the worlds he enslaved, no longer oppressed by his iron grasp. Will you be one of the first to accept this offer?" He thought about it for a moment, but finally gave a smile and walked down the stairs to shake my hand firmly.
"It's about time somebody put that lizard in his place. I accept your offer and will be communicating with Cauliferon shortly."
"Thank you, now then; my friend here also has something to say."
"I wish for you to be the first of many planets that associates a connection with Earth. As you may now know, it is quite a secluded planet, with mildly advanced technology; befriending you and others would help greatly."
"I accept this offer as well. My, what a momentous day."
"Thank you, I'll give you the coordinates and announce you to the people so they won't freak out." After the announcement, the king contacted Cauliferon which has been blowing up, figuratively, once we sent out more and more saiyans. Within a week, the planet became allies with earth and they helped them begin researching intergalactic travel; Alphys was even appointed head government scientist due to her amazing technological advances beyond Earth's normal capabilities, almost, if not already on par with what the other planets have developed.
6 months after my first mission, Stryker and I have allied around 20 planets alone; and according to Cellio, the other saiyans have allied around 400 planets; but there were around 60 that decided to remain lone planets and they would rule themselves without help. During these months, I was also learning more soul magic and Cellio decided to get in on this as well; within the months I managed to master fire manipulation, healing and basic weapon summoning while Cellio mastered fire and weapons, but still struggles with healing. The three of us have kept up our training ever since the war and we've gotten much stronger, and Stryker has managed to keep up for the most part.
Today, I was just training by myself, sending out ki spheres that would attack at random moments in order to sharpen my speed and reaction; suddenly, I got a call on my scouter from Cellio and just dissipated the spheres.
"Hey bro, what's up?"
"We just got a contact from one of the solo planets. Three wolf-like guys that want to face the ones who defeated Zoltris."
"So, they want us to fight them. We're gonna need Stryker too, he'll be a big help."
"Yeah, I saw their coordinates and at normal pod speed, the trip time is about an hour, so you might wanna hurry." We hung up and I flew to Stryker's place; knocking on his window frantically.
"Cherik, what's wrong?"
"There are guys from another planet wanting to fight us, and by us I mean you, me and Cellio. They'll be on Cauliferon within the hour, so we gotta move." He didn't hesitate before nodding his head.
"I'll get some senzu beans. Korin taught me how to grow them and with magical help, I can mass produce them." He ran off and about a minute later, he came back with a small pouch full of beans. "You think 15 is gonna be enough?" I gave a smirk.
"Yeah, I think so. Let's go." He held out his arm and I grabbed it; we were instantly teleported to Cauliferon, right in front of Cellio.
"Oh, you're here. Good, we've got to prepare, we don't know how strong they'll be."
"Want me to set up a save point? If anything goes completely wrong, I can bring myself back and warn you guys."
"Yeah, make one, but don't use it unless one of us tells you or you think it's completely necessary. By the way, nobody is gonna interfere, we've got the battle all to ourselves."
"Got it." He made a save point and we just stood there, waiting. Surprisingly, it only took half an hour before we could hear something flying through the air, but we couldn't sense anything and we couldn't pick it up on our scouters. We looked around before seeing, what seemed like a red, blue and yellow rocket van that also seemed very post apocalyptic. We followed the van until it landed in an open space; we powered up to our maximum in base form and just waited. Jumping from the van were 3 wolf men, coincidentally, they were also red, yellow and blue, but I was getting a really creepy vibe from the yellow one. The blue one, who I assumed was the leader, walked forward to talk to us.
"So, you must be the ones who defeated Zoltris?"
"Yeah, we organized the war and fought him head on, with the killing blow being dealt by me."
"Impressive. So, who are you exactly?"
"My name is Cherik, this here is my brother Cellio, and this is my human friend Stryker. Now then, mind telling us who you are?"
"Certainly. I am Bergamo, together with my brothers Basil," he pointed to the red one, "and Lavender;" the yellow one, "we are. The trio of danger!"
"So, from my brother's report, you guys want to fight us?"
"Yes, we want to see just what you're capable of. In case you didn't know, we wanted to defeat Zoltris ourselves, but you beat us to the punch."
"Fine, whenever you're ready, let's fight." Without even talking, the three of us knew what to do; Stryker would go after Basil, Cellio would get Bergamo and I would go for Lavender. We charged forward, each one focusing on an opponent, but they knew we would rush them, so they began jumping everywhere, surrounding us within a sort of triangle, too fast for us to know where they were. They were closing in, landing blow after blow, but suddenly Stryker's face lit up.
"Guys, stop trying to sense their energy, sense their souls, they can't hide that," I understood and switched to magical energy sensing, and it was like I could see them clear as day, at the same time we all punched in our own specific spots and threw them away from each other.
"Together they're a threat, alone they're manageable, let's go!" We each went to our own opponent, but the fight wasn't as easy as we thought. As I fought against Lavender, I could tell he was holding back, so I really cut loose and went super right in the middle of the fight. My transformation caught him off guard as well as the other two, which gave Stryker and Cellio enough time to transform as well, with Stryker going soul charge. The tides turned heavily, and I was pummeling him, but he then kicked me off when I was open and began to breathe out purple clouds.
"Kyeheheheh, try to get me with my poison gas; even if it comes in contact with your skin, you'll absorb it and be completely paralyzed in mere minutes." He breathed a could on each fist and lunged at me; I could only react in one way, I gave myself an energy gauntlet in each hand and blocked his punches while giving him damage. I kicked him away momentarily to survey the fight; Stryker and Basil seemed to be evenly matched with Stryker blocking the energy bullet hell that Basil was kicking his way, but I could see Cellio was having trouble against a... bigger Bergamo.
"Oh no, this cannot be good."
"Don't lose focus of the battle." I turned too late before I was punched in the gut, past my armor, with a poison fist and then repeatedly beaten; I didn't give up just yet, I powered up to my full super saiyan strength and blasted him away. The pain that was coursing through me was excrutiating, but I had an idea; I used my own healing magic and it began to work, slowly driving the poison out of me, but not fast enough for he came back and all I could do was dodge. I decided to stop playing and jumped into super saiyan 2, completely overwhelming the wolf, but as I kicked him into a mountain, I fell to my knees, the poison coming further and I hadn't noticed it.
"D-damn it. I c-can't lose now." Through blurry vision, I could see him stumbling to me, still talking.
"You shouldn't have done whatever it is you did; the more power you use, the faster my poison gas courses through you. Kyeheheheh." It was then I had a realization.
'Wait a minute. Poison gas, gas is flammable and in high quantities, explosive. Flammable..." He was about to deliver a finishing blow, but I powered down to base and met his fist with a fireball, causing the gas around it to burst into a small explosion. In his confusion, I decided to spin kick him with an energy boot and healed myself some more in order to last the fight. He did exactly what I had planned and covered himself in a big cloud of gas.
"Man, I thought dogs were smart, but I guess you proved that theory wrong." I flew all over the place as he tried to catch me, all the while he had a gas trail following him; once I thought the chase had gone on long enough, I hit him with a small energy shield around me, directly into the enormous purple cloud. "I win." I threw a fireball, just the size of a baseball into the cloud and it exploded in one big flash. I charged my ki in order to clear the smoke and I saw him unconscious, lying in a huge crater. I healed myself fully and turned to the others; Stryker had finished off Basil and was now helping Cellio fight a huge Bergamo. I jumped in next to a super saiyan 2 Cellio to help out.
"Bro, what happened to make this guy so huge?"
"He absorbs all damage that he receives and he uses it to power himself up and grow bigger."
"Then let's use that to our advantage." I powered into super saiyan 2 as well and began to fly around, hitting him everywhere, sure enough he was growing, but he was also getting slower. The other two knew my plan and just stayed at the ready for when I gave the signal. Once I thought he was at a big enough height, I shouted out to them.
"Now!" They flew up to me, we zipped around to his back and pushed him over, we then charged up our signatures into one combined attack; Stryker and I combined out beams into a golden blue swirl while at the same time pushing Cellio's Solar Crusher with more power and speed. Behind the light, I could see Bergamo turning around only to be hit right in the face with our attack. We ended the assault and powered down to assess what just happened. There were signs of battle everywhere; broken rock formations, craters in the ground, scorch marks all over the place, and of course, 3 unconscious enemies.
"Man, they were tough, but we were better." I held out both my fists and they each fist bumped me. We waited a few minutes before they regained consciousness and Bergamo talked again.
"Well, that proves it. You three are the strongest, we'll keep you in mind if we ever need help with anything. Come brothers, let's go." We said goodbye and they left on their space van.
"What do you guys think? Will we run into them again?"
"Maybe not, they were pretty tough and they seem to be able to handle their own. If it wasn't for us being able to go super, we probably would have lost."
"Yeah, and Stryker, thanks for showing me how to do magic, fire manipulation saved me big time when fighting lavender."
"No problem and I see you took advantage of your healing too."
"Yeah. So, I think we should go home; you wanna come hang out on Earth for a bit bro?"
"Sure, I'll tag along, why not." We grabbed onto Stryker and were teleported back to Earth for a bit of relaxation time, wondering what we'll face next.
