Dragonball Z

Alter Age

Legend Returns

"YOU BASTARD!" Myra screamed, rushing right at Turles and taking a big swing at him with her right, only to see him side-slip her blow and feel all the air get knocked out of her lungs when the warrior drove a knee right into her stomach, causing her to lurch forward and spit up blood. "Urk!"

Now back to full, fighting fitness and more powerful than ever, Turles smirked down at the adolescent now hunched over his leg. "Now don't fret. You should be happy I killed him first… since I've spared him the pain and despair of watching what I'm about to do to you." Swiftly removing his leg from the Hera's gut, the man then drew back his arm and smashed the stunned girl in the side. The force of his blow generated a deafening crack that reverberated across the sky, while simultaneous hurtling the stricken girl across the barren countryside. As her body proceeded to slow, Turles promptly darted after her.

Appearing over her body, the warrior raised both his arms over his head, locked his fingers together, and slammed them down into her stomach. The crushing blow resonated with a second thunderclap that had Myra cry out in pain, before she was sent plummeting towards the ground, which she collided with catastrophic force. Her landing was so violent, it caused not only the ground to rupture, but also sent a geyser of dust and rubble shooting over two dozen stories into the sky.

Chuckling at seeing the enormous crater form in the country's surface, the hovering Saiyan rogue then saw his scouter beep at him, which caused him to turn around to see Neiz, Dore and Salza all flying towards him in a line.

"You're going to pay for that, you asshole!" Dore roared from behind his Zalt-seijin partner, as the fastest warrior in the group led the charge towards the spiky haired pirate.

Shaking his head at how slow the three men were all moving from his point of view, Turles decided to show them who was top dog and bolted towards them. Moving faster than any of their eyes could track, the Saiyan blasted right past Neiz- appearing as nothing but a gust of wind to the warrior- before eventually reaching the Beppa-seijin and slamming his palm into the wrestler's face. The green warrior could only give a muffled yelp of shock as he was grabbed by the face and sent flying backwards, as Turles dragged the hapless fighter through the sky, past a stunned Salza, and back towards the Tree of Might.

Without even slowing down, the pirate leader viciously slammed Dore's HEAD into the trunk, punching a human-sized divot into the wood and burying the Beppa's face into it. Following a dull crunch and a blast of dust, Turles then released his hand from the warrior's head to reveal he'd shattered the poor guy's helmet. As the protective head gear fell away, it revealed a bloodied and unconscious Dore pinned against the side of the tower. Eyes blank and mouth agape, the hapless wrestler eventually dislodged from the side of the tree and dropped towards the ground.

Snickering at taking down the three fighters with such ease, Turles then casually turned around to see Neiz charging towards him.

With his body surrounded by a field of crackling purple lightning and an infuriated expression slapped over his face, the fully powered up Zalt-seijin roared as he flew right at Turles, determined to end the mercenary for good. "YOU'RE DEAD!" Neiz screamed, thrusting his fist towards the man at speeds greater than sound.

Appearing completely unfazed, Turles casually zipped to the side, vanishing from in front of Neiz and causing him to overshoot his previous position. Tracking the fast-moving mercenary, the brown-skinned fighter snarled and gave chase, a sonic boom ringing out as he sharply changed directions and rocketed after the pirate.

Flying backwards with his arms casually crossed in front of him, the criminal leader smiled as he watched the glowing squad member shoot towards him as a mass of vibrant light. Waiting for him to catch up while he cruised across the clouds, Turles then shot skywards in a blur, causing Neiz's kick to miss before the tall fighter's purple aura intensified and he pursued once again.

An observing Salza looked on with a nervous expression in play as a perilous cat-and-mouse game between the two began, in which he saw the purple bolt that was his friend streak across the sky in an attempt to catch the dark blur that was his target. Back and forth they traveled, zipping in multiple directions and leaving respective vapor trails in their wake. Whenever it appeared Neiz was about to catch up to his foe, the Saiyan would just shoot off in another direction, leaving the alien fighter in his dust, before the lightning imbued hero decided to follow.

After about a minute of tauntingly avoiding all of Neiz's attempts to land a hit, Turles then decided for one more run- lapping around the entire tree at a casual speed, while the brown warrior zoomed after him at top gear. With his arms out like a plane and head down as he looked under him to see the purple bolt of his opponent right on his tail, the pirate sped on and on, before eventually choosing to make his move.

Just as Neiz looked as though he was about to catch his foe for the twentieth time in a row, he suddenly noticed Turles vanish in a flicker. A split second later, the tall, speedy warrior was blindsided midflight when the pirate unexpectedly charged at him from the side and nailed him across the face with a hook- smashing him across the sky and dispelling his aura.

Neiz spiraled through the air before colliding with the side of the massive Tree of Might- a shout of pain leaving his stunned lips. The instant he collided with the wood, Turles dropped down from above and smashed an axe-kick right on top of him, sending the man into the roots and smashing his body into one of the large arcs protruding from the bottom of the tree.

When the dust cleared and Turles saw Neiz lying in the large crater formed in the root he'd been promptly embedded in- his armor cracked in multiple places and his body sprawled out in a state of unconsciousness, the Saiyan rogue smirked.

"With this fruit, I'll become the most powerful warrior the universe has ever seen. And every living creature in existence will come to know Turles as their rightful king and ruler," the pirate exclaimed, puffing his chest out as his ego and assurance of his victory skyrocketed. He then turned his gaze skywards and chuckled. "You weaklings are so pathetic. Now that I've become like this, neither one of you has a hope in hell of stopping me. Who knows? Perhaps after I crush Emperor Cold and his family, I'll take my conquest even further… and overthrow the Gods themselves."

Just as the arrogant villain was about to start daydreaming, a loud crack rang out when he felt something hard and small slam into his back. Blinking at the humming sound that filled his ears, he then looked over his shoulder to see Salza floating behind him- having charged in and rammed his purple, energy blade surrounding his arm into the Saiyan's back. Or at least attempted to.

Because while his attack had pierced through Turles's back armor, his blade had ended up being blunted against the man's back muscles. While the blade itself had cut into his skin, it'd gone shallow, meaning that all Salza could do was float there and attempt to push his sword through.

But try as he might, his hand would not budge. When he realized that his sneak attack had been rendered ineffective, the captain looked up at the Saiyan rogue with a start.

"No way…" the man choked out, feeling a sense of terror grip him when he saw the mercenary glaring back at him over his broken shoulder guard.

Turles's frown deepened. "Really? Is that it?" Just before the Saiyan could turn around, Salza removed his arm from the warrior's back plating and leapt out of reach as fast as he could. Seeing the terrified look on the captain's face, the rogue chuckled and lifted his arms. "Come on. You have to do a lot better than that, my friend."

Salza, shivering as he floated several yards away from the Saiyan pirate, clenched his teeth as his blade continued humming loud. "Grr… I wouldn't get cocky if I were you! Just because you've gotten a bit stronger than before, doesn't mean you'll be able to win against us, pirate scum."

"Hmph. A bit stronger, you say?" Turles repeated, raising a hand and looking down at it thoughtfully. He then flexed the fingers of said hand testingly. "If I was to make an educated guess as to how much I've evolved, I'd say that I've already far surpassed Frieza's first form. At this rate, if I was to eat a few more fruits from the Tree of Might, I'll easily be able to eclipse the great tyrant's full power… as well as that of his family members. It's only a matter of time."

Shaking with anger and fear, the blond captain of the squadron growled. "You think we'll let that happen? Because as long as I still have breath in my body, I'm not letting you get off this planet alive."

Hearing this, Turles shot the man a smirk. "Oh, really? Well, I'd like to see you try and stop me." He then brought his other hand up and rapped it against his cracked chest armor. "You may be a weakling, but you're a brave weakling nonetheless. And since I'm a man of good sport and fair play, I'll let you have one free shot at me. Right here." Following this, he then drew an 'X' against his armor with his finger and grinned broadly. "Don't hold back now. Because if you miss, I'm not going to give you another chance."

Sneering through his jaws as he felt beads of sweat roll down his face, an enraged Salza then took a deep breath as he allowed his energy to concentrate around his hands. His energy blade receding as his pink aura burst around him, the blue-skinned warrior then gave a low growl as his power capped at its absolute max level. "Alright! If that's the way you want it!" Without an ounce of hesitation, the blond haired captain swung his right arm forward, gripped its wrist with his left, straightened all fingers, and let Turles have it. "SEISHIN FURASSHU!" (Spirit Flash)

A blinding golden light then erupted from Salza's outstretched hand as a spear-shaped blast shot straight towards Turles. It impacted near instantaneously, causing a deafening explosion to engulf the floating Saiyan and seemingly incinerate every trace of him. As a massive fireball filled the sky and blanketed the area in smoke, the captain of the squadron narrowed his eyes on the area ahead of him and remained on guard. When he saw the wall of hot ash lift from the vicinity, his jaw dropped when he saw the Saiyan pirate still floating in place- smoke wafting off of his chest armor where he'd been hit, yet remaining completely unharmed.

When he saw Salza's startled face emerge from the other side of the veil of flames, an unperturbed Turles smiled coyly, lifted his right hand, and brushed some dust off of his broken shoulder accent. He then lowered said arm and just floated there for a few seconds, allowing the startled captain's shock to run full circle.

Once the allotted time had passed, the stationary Turles commented. "Nice light show."

Before Salza could make a comment, the Saiyan floating a distance from him suddenly vanished, before he was unexpectedly smashed in the face by the pirate flying into him with a head butt. The blow struck with a clap of a shockwave, drawing blood from the blonde captain's forehead as he was sent spinning backwards through the air for quite a distance.

Initially knocked into a daze, when the squadron leader eventually shook himself back into a conscious state, Salza clenched his teeth, growled, and halted his momentum with a sharp blast of ki. Body stopping instantly midflight, the wounded man with blood now running down the center of his face thrust both hands out and produced two large, purple energy blades around his hands. The laser swords extending to even longer than normal and humming loudly, the squad leader panted heavily and, through a slightly blurry vision, charged forward.

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Salza roared, rushing towards Turles with his duel blades activated as the Goku-look-a-like floated in place with a cocky grin in play.

From there, Salza proceeded to lash out at the warrior with all the fury and rage he could muster. Shouts and yells echoed across the sky as he attempted to hit Turles and cut him in half. But even with anger and rage driving his assault forward, the Saiyan pirate still held an edge in speed and dexterity over the smaller warrior, who he allowed to go full ham on him as he casually avoided and slipped around every slash and chop of his arms. Purple flashes filled the sky as Salza chased Turles round in circles, trying over and over again to land at least one honest to goodness strike against the evil rogue.

"Damn you! Damn you! DAMN YOU!" Salza roared between strikes, sharply changing directions and blasting after his foe, taking another couple of swings at him. When he saw the Saiyan casually slip around his blows, the blond warrior barked. "You won't win! YOU WON'T!"

Unfortunately for him, his efforts were completely fruitless, and all he got for his troubles was a bout of laughs from a thoroughly amused Turles, who floated just out of reach of the furious and bleeding Salza.

Clearly he was toying with the man.

Meanwhile, as the battle was unfolding overhead, down on the ground about a mile or so away from the Tree of Might, with her face in the dirt and her body thoroughly battered, a still miraculously conscious Myra painfully pushed herself out of the dust. Bleeding from her mouth, forehead, and sporting a new multiple of bruises, the stricken teenager shakily pulled herself up and shook her head.

Vision slightly blurry as pain racked her entire body, the wounded Hera slowly looked over her shoulder. Through the broken visor of her scouter, she saw up in the sky her team leader chasing after Turles with a string of vicious attacks. Seeing the pirate casually avoiding every one while her captain desperately tried to land a blow, caused the dazed Myra to snarl through bloodied teeth as her fingers dug into the dirt.

"Y-You… You'll pay… for what you did… to him-" she hissed, tears building in the corners of her eyes as she glared up at the Saiyan thug in the sky as he toyed with Salza, dodging his sword strikes before eventually backhanding the man away in a mocking manner. The strike drew blood, but the captain of the squadron continued attacking. "YOU'LL PAY!" Her green aura exploding around her, the wounded Myra stood up, clenched her fists, and blasted into the sky, towards the Saiyan's back.

As Turles was busy dancing between all of Salza's thrusts and slashes, he seemed completely unaware of the newly recovered Hera charging at him from behind. When the girl conjured up a spear and swung it forward to impale the man in the back, she was then stopped in her tracks when the Saiyan spun around and parried her thrust with a swing from his forearm. Sparks flying as he pushed back against Myra as she glared daggers at him, the pirate smirked broadly before pushing her off.

From there, both Salza and Myra attacked- striking out at the Saiyan from two directions.

OOO

(Meanwhile)

As the two elite warriors of Cooler's band desperately tried to bring down the now seemingly unstoppable Turles- who continued to toy with them and laugh at their pitiful attempts to stop him- down at the base of the Tree of Might, a figure was stirring.

Among the thick, towering roots and rolling, barren hills being crushed beneath them, the three other members of the squadron were currently in various states of defeat and consciousness.

Neiz, having been the most recent fighter to be taken out, was still lying sprawled out in a crater of his own making- embedded in one of the large tree roots protruding from the western side of the edifice. From the way his body was twitching, while his face remained devoid of expression, it was clear he was out like a light.

Dore was currently lying in a ditch at the very base of the tree, having simply fallen from where he'd been shoved into the side. No longer sporting a helmet or scouter, the badly injured Beppa-seijin had recently regained consciousness. Broken, weakened, and woozy, the man dragged his body along the ground with his arms, attempting to army crawl to a more advantageous position at the top of a hill. But judging from how bad he was bleeding, it was clear that he was in a pretty bad way. A skull fracture and a concussion was not something easy to shake off.

And as for Gohan, the boy was in a far worse state. Lying atop a raised section of earth in a sprawled out position, the youngster was struggling to breathe due to the massive hole in his gut- put there by his opponent. Fingers clawing at the ground, eyes tightly shut, and blood dripping from his mouth, the youngster panted and wheezed at an agonizing rate- every so often giving out a low groan against the enormous amounts of pain shooting through his system.

So far he'd been lying in that state for some time, bleeding out, completely unconscious, and teetering on the edge of death. It was a miracle that he was even alive in the first place, given how big the hole in his body actually was. Nevertheless, it was clear to anyone who could see him that if he didn't get any help soon, he was going to be in a lot of trouble.

As a matter of fact, help was on its way.

As multiple blasts and sonic booms rung out across the sky as Myra and Salza clashed with the newly empowered Saiyan criminal, hopping up onto the low sweeping plateau wedged between the roots of the massive tree, the three small forms of Kida, Rei and Riko scampered over to where they saw the child was lying. Having witnessed what'd happened and sensed his once large power level drop like a stone, the trio of kitsune-seijin made sure to finish up what they'd been doing, before hurrying down to the bottom of the tree to assist the youngest member of the squad.

When they arrived at the small divot where he was lying, the youngsters were understandably shocked. Finding the child that'd come to their rescue with his team, lying there with a hole in his stomach and on the brink of death, was not something that they were hoping to deal with. Kida rushed over to the unconscious boy and kneeled next to him, placing a hand over his shoulder and checking his vitals with her other.

As her friends Riko and Rei came up behind her, the blue kitsune shook her head when she looked at the youngster's face. "His life force is fading. This… This isn't good."

Riko, carrying a large sack of something over her shoulder that hadn't been there before, gazed down at her friend in worry. "Can we save him?"

"What can we do?" Rei asked, at the same time looking between her friends.

Frowning as she gripped Gohan's shoulder tightly, Kida then proceeded to lightly shake the hybrid to get a reaction from him. "Please. Please, wake up. You have to wake up." Flinching when another sonic boom went off close overhead and glancing upwards, the blue fox girl clenched her teeth and shook the boy harder. "Please, Gohan-kun. That… man. That monster… if… if you don't stop him now… he's going to come down and kill us. All of us. We won't be able to stop him. Y-You have to get up…"

Seeing the boy's face tighten and a low groan leave his bloodied lips, Rei's expression became that of frustration and fright. "It's no good. He's too badly hurt. He can't hear you."

"W-We have to keep trying," Riko spoke up, her voice carrying a weight of desperation behind it.

Another explosion rang out nearby, so close that it caused all three children to jump and look behind them in alarm. What followed soon after that blast was a loud scream from Myra, as the female member of the squad had a kick slam into her stomach, which then sent her dropping out of the sky. Seeing her body violently smash into the landscape below, the group of kitsune-seijin couldn't help but feel their stomach tighten and their hearts stop dead.

Salza, by some miracle, was now the only one left.

Due to being so caught up in the battle that was now happening, the trio of girls completely missed the sight of Gohan's fists clenching in the dirt, and his expression twisting into one of discomfort and anger. At the same time, a hot steam started to rise off of his body, slowly but surely filling the air above him as it wafted off of his skin.

Gritting her teeth nervously, Kida turned to Riko and held a hand out to her. "Quickly! Give me one of those fruits!"

The brown haired fox girl blinked in surprise. "Huh? Y-You want me to-"

"Just give it! Quick!" the chief's daughter barked, her face steeled into one of resolve.

Hearing her urgency, the orange-furred child quickly swung the sack around and opened it up, revealing she'd been carrying a whole bunch of the same fruits that Turles had grabbed earlier. Judging from how many there were and that they were filling up every inch of the bag- practically squishing against one another in the process- it was safe to say that the trio of clever youngsters had managed to pluck every single one out of the cave without the pirate or the squadron noticing.

After grabbing the top fruit and tossing it to Kida, the blue haired kitsune then took a deep breath and turned to face Gohan. Upon looking at his lips and confirming that he was in no state to chew anything while unconscious, the kitsune took a bite out of the fruit and chewed it up for him. Once she was sure the fruit had been mashed up enough, she then leaned over Gohan, grabbed his chin, nudged open his mouth, and pressed her lips to his.

She then proceeded to feed him mouth-to-mouth, making sure the boy swallowed the fruit she'd readied, before pulling away moments later. Watching the youngster struggle momentarily to get it down, she, Rei and Riko held their breaths and observed…

OOO

(Meanwhile)

Salza, having taken far more damage than before, yet still trucking along at a painful rate, darted forward with a battle cry and swung his right arm down at the smirking Turles in a last, ditch effort to cut him in half. However, just as his arm was close to carving through the man's chest, the Saiyan's large hand suddenly shot up and caught his wrist- stopping his blade dead.

Casually holding it back with very little difficulty, it seemed like the rogue was about to take full advantage of the captain's failed attack to end him once and for all. But before the pirate could do anything, the wily squadron leader snarled and swung his left knee up towards the warrior's torso, slamming it into him and causing him to lurch forward. The grunt of surprise Turles gave out came mostly thanks to the fact that Salza, coating his leg in the same purple energy he did to his hand, had managed to form a blade at the end of his knee, and drive it straight through the man's armor around his stomach- effectively impaling him.

Feeling the energy blade dig into his flesh as the captain forced it through, Turles then gave an angry snarl and looked up to see Salza flash him a cocky grin. "You sneaky bastard." Not liking that reaction one bit, the Saiyan promptly tightened his grip over the captain's arm until a loud crack echoed out. This was then followed by a pained scream from the officer as he felt his arm break, which in turn caused the energy blade surrounding his right arm to dissipate. "That move's going to cost you."

Smacking the warrior's leg away with his free hand while still holding onto Salza's now broken forearm, Turles then proceeded to lay into the man with repeated blows from his fist. Dull thuds and crunches echoed across the sky as the rogue drove his knuckles into the hapless blonde's body, smashing him in the stomach a few times and causing him to spit up blood. Upon delivering a total of twelve blows to the smaller warrior's frame, Turles then decided to finish him by swinging him over and then tossing him towards the ground below.

Watching the man plummet from the air, the Saiyan then swung his other arm forward, opened his hand, and- with a grunt of effort- unleashed a rain of bright pink energy blasts from his palm. The cluster of small ki attacks erupted from his limb and rained down on Salza from multiple directions, homing in on his falling body and striking him. The man gave out a cry of terror as the hail of blasts pushed him out of the sky and towards the floor at speed, the volley of continuous attacks stacking on the damage before effectively driving him into the planet's surface. Multiple explosions then went up as the remaining blasts bombarded the landscape, leaving a thick cloud of dust hanging in the air.

Lowering his arm and spitting in disgust, Turles shook his head. "Lucky shot. But that won't happen again." Upon seeing the cloud of smoke lift and spotting Salza's unconscious body lying at the bottom of multiple craters- his armor smashed up and spandex incinerated in multiple places, the Saiyan pirate promptly turned his attention elsewhere.

Down on the ground where she had fallen, Myra was struggling to get back up again. Bleeding from multiple wounds and cuts- particularly one over her right eye- the orange-haired tomboy fighter growled as she attempted to claw her way across the roots. Upon rolling onto her back to sit up, the adolescent suddenly gave a loud yelp when a foot slammed into her back stomach and pushed her down, whereupon she found herself staring up at the smirking for of Turles.

The man chuckled as he looked down at the heavily breathing girl. "Did you think I would forget about what you did to me back there? Smashing my head in while your little, Saiyan friend had me pinned to the floor."

Myra, clenching her teeth as her hands grabbed the man's ankle, glared up at the pirate. "I never… ngh… even considered the idea." She then mustered a smirk. "And for the record… I'd gladly do it again…"

Turles clicked his tongue and shook his head. "A feisty one, aren't you. Good. Because this'll be no fun if you don't put up some sort of a fight." He then leaned forward and rested an arm over his knee, at the same time giving the struggling teenager a menacing glare- like a wolf glaring down a trapped, little lamb. "Tell me… has that runt had you yet?"

This next question caught Myra slightly off guard, as the girl looked up at the pirate with wide eyes. "W-What?"

"I'm asking if the boy had his first time with you. Seeing as how members of our race mature at a far greater rate than most other alien species in order to propagate and survive on hostile worlds, Saiyans are able to mate at much younger ages than normal," Turles explained, at the same time glancing the girl over as he kept his foot firmly in place. He then licked his lips when he saw the Hera's full, ample chest heave against his boot. "Looking at you, I'd be surprised if he or any of those other boys on your crew haven't had their way with you yet."

Myra snarled as the fingers of her right hand tightened around the man's ankle, while her left fist punched the back of his heel to no avail. "Quit screwing around, sicko! You think that just because… ngh… you beat the five of us… grr… with the help of some magical apple… means that you can take this universe from Lord Cooler?" She then shot the man a bloody grin of amusement. "If that's the case, then you're… even dumber than you look."

"Ha. Still got a nasty set of teeth on you, I see," Turles chuckled as he set a hand on his hips and shrugged. "If I were you, I'd try not to get on my bad side. After seeing what I did to your friends after only taking one bite from the fruit of the Tree of Might, you should probably have a good idea of what two… three… or even a whole grove can do for me. As long as I have this tree and its fruit… I will be unstoppable. No one in this universe will be able to challenge me."

Hearing this, Myra then cocked an eyebrow. "So… that fruit you got… came from inside that tree?"

Turles chuckled, "I think that's already been clearly established. Yes."

"Okay. Good to know," Myra replied, before casually raising her hand and pointing it straight at the Saiyan's face.

Just when the rogue thought the girl was going to shoot at him, he suddenly saw the Hera move her hand at the last second, before firing off a bright red blast from her palm. Feeling the attack shoot past his shoulder, the bandit leader looked around in alarm to see the ball of energy rocket up through the sky, arc inside the massive cave system of the Tree of Might, before detonating with incredible force. From every single cave entrance circling the tree's main trunks, a colossal, bright plume of fire erupted outwards, sending woods, twigs and splinters flying everywhere, before smoke and embers started to gush into the sky.

The sight of the entire tree's interior being set alight caused Turles to gape in shock, as he knew that it was in that part of the tree where the fruits were being grown. With the explosion practically incinerating everything inside, including his ship, the Saiyan was soon left with the horrifying realization that both the fruits and the seeds needed to cultivate the tree were now gone.

Upon seeing the flames continue erupting from within the tree like a volcano, the mercenary leader bit his teeth together hard, before wheeling around and glaring down at Myra- who he saw was smirking up at her.

"Oops. I think my hand slipped," the Hera chuckled.

Veins popping up along his forehead as his rage boiled, Turles suddenly forced his foot further on top of the girl and proceeded to crush her ribs, causing her to cry out in pain before then leaning down and grabbing her by the throat. He then picked her up and brought her face right to his, at the same time throttling the adolescent and causing the girl to claw at his wrists. But despite her best efforts, the man's strength was still leagues above her own.

"You're going to pay for that, bitch," the now very furious rogue growled in a low voice- one dripping with malice and ill intent. Feeling the wide-eyed female gasp and strike his wrists repeatedly in an effort to get him to release her, the Saiyan tightened his grip, at the same time baring his teeth in a dark manner. "Since it's been a few weeks since my last woman, I'm going to use you until I'm fully satisfied. By the time I'm done, you'll be begging me for death." He then grinned in a sickly manner as he tightened his grip on the girl's throat, watching as her eyes stared back down at him in terror. "You belong to me now, girl."

As she stared back at the clearly enraged man's manic face and perverse grin, Myra felt her heart stop for a moment. That was until she suddenly saw a blip appear on her scouter, which caused her to blink in surprise before a grin once again formed on her lips. "I wouldn't… be so sure," the girl whispered in a strained, raspy voice.

Initially balking in confusion at her remark, Turles's cracked scouter suddenly beeped a warning arrow at him, prompting the warrior to release Myra's neck, straighten up, and wheel around in alarm. The moment his eyes trained across the landscape and towards the base of the half burning Tree of Might, he immediately became aware of a fierce wind blasting him in the face- with waves of dust being sent rippling across the region for over a mile in all directions.

From where the pirate stood, it looked as though a tornado was forming at the spot at the base of the tree, as a cloud of dust could be seen whirling in the eye of the gale. However, through the veils of debris and splinters tumbling through the twisting curls and waves of wind, both the Saiyan bandit and the downed Myra spotted the miraculously alive Gohan standing atop the crest of the tree root he'd landed on.

Wound in his chest healed, his body hunched over, and hair whipping violently in an upward direction from the wind tearing forth from his form, the child stood in the center of a miniature hurricane, which only seemed to grow larger and more intense as the seconds ticked by. Due to the sheer force of energy coming off of him, the kitsune children Kida, Rei and Riko had been forced to take cover behind the root he was standing on, and were now watching with stunned eyes as the youngest member of Cooler's elite squad staggered into view of their planet's attacker.

Moments upon making his revived presence known to the warriors on the battlefield, the invisible forces blasting off of the hybrid's body suddenly gained color and mass. First a dense, hot steam began gushing out of his skin to fill the air around him, which then transformed into a fierce, burning white aura. The field of energy kicked up around his body with such strength that it practically tore into the wooded platform beneath him and ripped a crater into it. A split second later however, as a red, radioactive glow began to pulse from Gohan's body, his white aura started expanding and fluctuating.

At the same time, the scouters on Turles and Myra's faces started going completely haywire, throwing up new numbers and warning lights that they'd never seen before. Both warriors gaped in astonishment when they saw the child's power skyrocketing, with the Saiyan pirate removing his foot from the female's torso to gape at the pillar of white fire billowing in the distance, and the boy standing at the heart of it.

"W-What the hell is going on?" Turles gasped, seeing the number of zeroes on his screen increasing at an alarming rate. "His battle power… it's… it's over two million!" Sweat breaking out on his face, the man then took a cautious step back when he saw the number go up even further. "A-And it's still fucking increasing! How?!"

Myra blinked when she saw Gohan's body lurch forward, his arms swaying in front of him as more and more energy began to pour from his body. "G-Gohan-kun?"

Upon swaying under the tempest of power now tearing from his tiny form, the demi-Saiyan then peered up from under the whipping masses of his black hair. When he did, he revealed to the startled Turles, Myra and the kitsune-seijin, a face twisted into one of fury and anger. The emotions strewn across his profile in that moment burned with such unbridled ire, it looked as though his skin was about to split right down the center. And through the heat gushing from his body and causing the air around him to tremble, the hybrid revealed his once charcoal eyes had disappeared- blending into the whites of his sclera.

The instant the child's glare landed upon Turles and his wounded best friend- Myra- lying beneath his foot, Gohan took in a deep gulp of air, before throwing back his head and letting out a mighty howl of anger. "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" His scream shook the land and pierced the sky above, before his cry of war was drowned out by the roar of his aura, which suddenly tripled in size and his muscles bulked up. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

The numbers on Turles's scouter screaming in the pirate's ear as the reading skyrocketed, the rogue Saiyan then blinked in alarm when he saw the screen glitch out several times. A split second later his unit eventually exploded against the side of his face.

Yelping when the glass shattered over his left eye, the spiky haired warrior then snapped his astonished gaze towards the boy. "W-What the fuck? No way!" His exclamation was a combination of both fright and disbelief.

There was reason for his incredulity. Before his scouter exploded, Turles swore the last number he saw jump up on screen was close to five million. But that couldn't be right.

It just couldn't.

Gohan's sudden and very startling power increase sent a concussive shockwave rippling across the entire countryside- fracturing the ground for a mile in every direction, obliterating a couple of nearby tree roots, and splintering several more. After the hot, white flames licking at his body shot into the sky in a pillar of energy that caused the canopy of the Tree of Might to part violently under the force of his rage, Gohan- his body initially drawn back with his battle cry and black hair whipping about wildly above his head- then leant forward and vanished with a crack of wind.

Turles, jaw dropping when he saw the kid disappear into thin air, was unable to respond when Gohan suddenly reappeared directly in front of him, swung his leg back, and nailed him in the chest with a sharp kick. The blow hit with the force of a train and sent the rogue shooting across the landscape at breakneck speeds. The instant the sonic boom from his takeoff cracked the root where the pirate had been standing, the burning child flared his energy cloak and vanished with another whip-crack.

From Myra's point of view, she had no idea what'd happened. All she heard was a loud bang followed by Turles flying off into the distance, leaving her blinking in astonishment at the airspace that his body had previously been occupying.

As for the Saiyan, the man was unable to do anything as his ragdoll of a form was sent tumbling through the air over and over. His body literally bounced across hills and roots for over three miles, before he eventually managed to come to a grinding stop. With a quick burst of ki, the dazed Turles effectively halted his momentum- only to wheel about when he saw Gohan reappear directly alongside him, his aura blasting around him in a wild vortex. Before the adult could even raise any sort of defense, the demi-Saiyan drew back his arm, took aim, and slammed it across the pirate's face, knocking him back with such force that he was sent back flipping through several massive roots stretching out from the Tree of Might.

With the arcing bridges and pillars for over a mile exploding into clouds of splinters as the rogue warrior barreled through them like they weren't even there, Turles was unable to stop until he eventually slammed into a plateau- utterly annihilating it with his impact. As the slabs of rock and earth that made up the barren tor caved in on the hole formed by the Saiyan rogue, the dust and rubble was then blasted away when Turles powered up and shot into the sky. Trailing pink energy as his own aura flared around him, the Goku-doppelganger stopped at a high enough altitude over the landscape and glared in the direction his opponent had last been.

Eyes wide in panic and his teeth clenched angrily, the now even more noticeably damaged warrior stared ahead of him in alarm. "Fuck! What in the hell has gotten into him?! That brat should be beaten and broken! How the fuck is he still standing?!" Turles shouted, completely lost as to how the young Saiyan was not only still alive, but had managed to come back from the brink of death even stronger than ever.

And what the heck was up with his aggression? It was completely off the rails from what it was before.

Recoiling when he spotted the white bolt of his young opponent screaming across the landscape towards him- the force of the child's flight over the valleys causing the ground he passed over to cave in and detonate under the sheer amounts of power he was exuding- the Saiyan pirate swung his left arm overhead, and quickly produced a hot, ball of crackling flames around his palm. After the mass of burning energy rapidly increased in size and reached critical mass, Turles then threw his arm forward and pitched the sphere of flames towards his approaching target.

"TAKE THIS! SHINE SHOT!" Turles bellowed, his attack giving off a sizzling roar as it left his hand in a wide arc.

His fireball struck the incoming Gohan like a comet- detonating with a thunderous blast. When the sky shook under the force of the explosion and the flash of orange fire incinerated everything in range of the massive blast, Turles thought for sure he'd managed to stop his opponent dead in his tracks. The cocky pirate then balked in horror when he saw the wall of flames in front of him part sharply, and the golden flames of his opponent come tearing out of it- as if the attack didn't faze him at all.

"WHAT?!" Turles shouted, swinging his arms up to defend himself, only to get smashed in the face by the boy appearing in front of him and nailing him with a crushing left hook.

Bell rung, the Saiyan pirate was knocked clear across the sky, until Gohan darted over him, locked his hands overhead, and drove a hammer blow into his chest. The attack slammed into his torso and sent the man straight into the planet's surface. When he disappeared underneath a plume of dust and debris, the child floated in place high above the land, reared back his head, before throwing it forward and unleashing a gargantuan, golden blast from his mouth. His attack shot into the cloud and the countryside, causing a blinding light to radiate from the impact point, which then branched out across the entire country in the form of multiple golden fractures in the tectonic plate.

The moment the planet's plate fractured, an explosion similar to a nuclear warhead going off detonated from the point where Gohan had fired his beam into the ground. When that explosion rocked the area and sent tidal shockwaves tearing across the hemisphere, not only did the conscious members of Cooler's Armored Squadron and Kida's group have to duck and cover, but the Tree of Might was literally bent over sideways from the monstrous gale that slammed into it.

Even from orbit, Shira and her crew stationed on the bridge of The Comet, could see the golden dome of the explosion practically swallow up an area the size of a large county.

When the flames and shaking eventually settled down and a gargantuan, black cloud of smoke was left hanging in the sky, down on the planet below, Turles could be seen pulling himself out of a pile of rubble at the edge of a lake of molten rock and earth. As the ground burned and simmered from the intense heat of the attack, the now thoroughly scorched and battered Saiyan gasped as he looked across the completely ravaged battlefield in front of him.

Bleeding from his hairline, nose and mouth, and his entire right arm, chest and torso exposed and seared from taking the brunt of that ridiculous explosion- as evident by the multiple black patches on his flesh- the panting Turles kept his right eye shut as he gaped at the molten field at his feet. Spotting the hundred meter wide fissure lying in the ground in the center of it, the walls of which were dripping rock- transformed into hot slurry- the man was lucky to have dodged that blast.

"This… This is all wrong," the pirate wheezed, another trickle of blood running out of his mouth before he coughed up more. He then struggled to his feet, swaying in the process, before eventually reaching up with his left arm and gripping his scorched right arm. "There's no way… that kid… should be this strong. What the hell kind of Saiyan is he?"

Was he even a Saiyan at all?

Never in his life had the rogue ever encountered or heard of another member of his race that could not only dramatically increase their battle power over the course of an entire fight, but also miraculously survive and regenerate from wounds that would've killed an ordinary alien. The fact that he was even able to match him- let alone stand- after being so thoroughly outclassed and thrashed before, boggled the pirate something fierce. The gap in their strength had been so enormous you could've fit an entire planet between them, but for some unexplainable reason the kid was back on his feet, glowing gold, and completely going to town on him.

So how?

"This brat… he's no ordinary Saiyan," Turles snarled, unable to hide the pain racking his body as he stood there, trembling in place and clenching his shoulder. "He's some sort of freak. A monster."

"Look who's talking."

Eyes widening, Turles looked over his shoulder to see Gohan's form drop down from the clouds and touch down on the clearing across from him. Seeing the white flames still surrounding his body and tearing violently through the air, the Saiyan rogue then watched through beads of nervous sweat rolling down his face as the white in the child's eyes once again became filled with two irises.

The reappearance of his normal gaze, indicating the child had regained his senses, caused Gohan's glare to intensify as he shot daggers towards his stricken and frightened opponent. "You and your gang have attacked peaceful planets, slaughtered whole villages and cities, and tormented people who were too weak to even defend themselves. For you- stealing, robbing, and killing is more than just an act of survival. For you, it's nothing but a game… and that makes me sick." Saying this out loud had the boy's serious face become even angrier. "If you think I'm a monster, then you're nothing more than a twisted, heartless beast, trying hard to be something he isn't."

Turles, shivering as his teeth bit hard against each other, shot the boy a foul look. "Insolent little brat. How dare you!" Reaching behind him and unfastening his tail, the Saiyan rogue pulled out the fruit he still had on him. Without a moment of pause or hesitation, he then opened his mouth wide, took a couple of big chomps out of its flesh, and swallowed- downing over half of the fruit with one gulp. Upon feeling the fruit pass through him and setting the remains of it behind him, his body bulked up violently, his injuries healed, and his aura exploded around him. Feeling his power skyrocketing and sending a blast of wind ripping across the countryside had the stationary Gohan frown, while the rogue adult in the half-ruined battle armor laughed. "Hahaha! So you like to talk trash, huh? Well what do you think of me now, huh, you little shit?! ARE YOU SCARED?!"

In response, all the angry Gohan could do was scoff. "Not one bit." Seeing Turles's grin vanish, the child clenched his fists as his anger started to climb once again. "You called my friends weak and pathetic… and looked down your nose at them. But the only pathetic one I see here, is you." He then narrowed his eyes and snarled. "You may be a warrior and a member of a strong, infamous alien race, yet the only way you can gain strength is by stealing it from others. Instead of earning it through hard work like everybody else, you rob entire worlds of their power and have it hand fed to you on a silver platter. There's nothing more pitiful than someone who has to eat their courage from a piece of fruit grown on a magical tree," Gohan growled, his anger rising to a new level as his aura suddenly flared up and howled around him.

However, as his power level increased, Turles watched as a rather unexpected and startling transformation took place. The pirate felt his eyes widen when he saw the boy's white aura suddenly change color and become gold, with the flames intensifying and whipping upwards fiercely. This evolution not only gave the hybrid's skin a yellowish hue and caused his muscles to bulk up, but also added a reddish tone to his wild, long black hair, which billowed upwards with the increased draft of his power.

The shockwave resulting from this power up was biblical- rupturing the floor at his feet and fracturing the ground for quite a distance. As loose debris and rock lying in the area started to levitate into the air under the boy's power, the child soon became surrounded by the red glow again inside of his aura, intensifying his energy's crimson shade.

"You think I'm scared of you, Turles? Gutless creep! You think I'm scared?!" Gohan then clenched his teeth, before yelling at the top of his lungs, "I'LL SHOW YOU HOW SCARED I AAAAAAAM!"

Before Turles could properly take his stance, he suddenly saw the ground explode in front of him as Gohan suddenly bolted forward in a blur. His golden aura roaring around him like the thrust from a rocket, the child screamed as he charged straight at the pirate, swung back his right fist, and threw a big haymaker at his opponent.

Unlike before, the rogue was prepared to catch it this time. However, the second the boy's fist slammed into his open palm and a colossal shockwave rang out between them, Turles felt every single bone in his left arm fracture all at once, before he himself was sent flying back like a missile. The warrior cried out as his body flew back across the smoldering valleys behind him- his pinkish aura dissipating as he tumbled and rolled through the air, completely out of control. When he eventually managed to recover part way across the lava-covered bed of land left behind in the wake of Gohan's mouth-energy wave, the pirate slowed his momentum, swung his good hand forward, and unleashed a torrent of pink energy blasts towards the boy.

The hybrid of course, upon crouching down on all fours on the ground following his impressive haymaker, zipped out of the way at blinding speeds so that the barrage of countless ki blasts launched from Turles's hand ended up hitting nothing. While the clearing he'd previously been standing on got devastated by the salvo, Gohan himself managed to dart around and slam into the stunned pirate from the side, smashing him towards the floor.

After Turles's body splashed through a pool of molten earth and kicked up a wave of magma, the fully powered-up and enraged Gohan dove right on after him, and slammed both of his feet into the adult's stomach. The monstrous blow plunged both warriors into the boiling hot pool and caused a depth charge-like splash that covered a range of over two hundred feet in all directions. It was almost like a volcano had just gone off.

When the wall of rock and melted earth cascaded back down to the floor, the pirate's body eventually came flying out of it and straight up into the sky.

Sporting newly made burns, with the entire top portion of his armor gone, the battered Turles gasped when he saw Gohan's form explode out of the rain of lava and rocket towards him at full speed. Retreating to a high enough altitude, the desperate Saiyan mercenary growled and quickly lobbed a ki blast at the hybrid, only to watch it bounce off the kid's face before the youngster shot forward and blitzed right through him. A loud crack rang out as the rogue was sent into an upward spin, before he was hit again from the side, then again from the other, and then the other.

Soon, Turles was being hit from multiple directions by the golden mass that was his opponent, hitting him over and over like a ball in a pinball machine. A few seconds of being battered about the sky, the thoroughly bruised and beaten down mercenary was then sent blasting across the skies by a vicious hit to the back.

Pursuing his foe, Gohan caught up to him and nailed him again, smashing him in the face with a wild hook and sending him falling into the root-covered countryside far below. After bouncing off of a few of the wooden bridges standing outside of the molten crater a few clicks east of the tree, Turles performed a brisk backflip and touched down atop a large plateau- slamming his feet and one good hand into the floor to slow his body. Digging several trenches through the earth with his limbs, the heavily bleeding Turles took a deep breath before looking up through a swollen eye.

"Gragh! That does it, you son of a bitch!" Turles shouted, his left arm dangling at his side, useless and purple from the multiple bones broken all the way up to his shoulder. Reacting quickly, the warrior reached back with his right hand, grabbed what was left of the only fruit left in his possession, and swung it up to his mouth. "This time I'm coming at you with everything I've got!" Taking another massive bite, the man then crammed the entire fruit into his mouth, stuffing it in and swallowing the whole thing.

The moment he did, not only did his wounds immediately heal, his muscles also bulked up once more and receded, before his pink aura erupted around him. The density of his glow thickened as bolts of pink lightning also zapped around him, creating an electrical bio-field on top of his original aura. As his energy howled loudly, Turles also gave off a scream of his own, as his power level skyrocketed to heights no ordinary warrior had ever achieved before.

As soon as his energy stabilized, the infuriated man with veins pulsing on his temples looked down to see Gohan's golden form bolting towards him. When he saw the child with wild, reddish black hair appear before him with his fist drawn back, Turles smirked broadly before promptly crossing his arms. The moment he did, a thick, transparent pink energy shield formed directly in front of him, popping up just in time for the hybrid's fist to strike it.

When Gohan's fist collided with the barrier and Turles gave a shout, the pirate sent the glowing boy blasting backwards at breakneck speeds when the film detonated. After descending a couple of stories, the child halted his momentum with a sharp burst of ki, leaving the perturbed youngster glaring up at the Saiyan pirate.

Energy flaring, Turles then flew down at the child and nailed the kid with a hook, striking him in the guard and knocking him down even further. This was then followed up by the youngster blasting up towards him and locking fists with the adult. Thuds and shockwaves began reverberating off of the pair as they began exchanging flurries of blows- their punches and kicks crisscrossing each other in a blur of movement as their two respective auras clashed.

Traveling across the sky and exchanging hundreds of attacks, Gohan then decided to make a big move. Checking a heavy kick from the newly empowered warrior, he then sprang up at him with a right punch, only to have it caught by Turles's big hand. Arm trapped, the child then threw his other hand, but had that punch caught as well, leaving both warriors growling at each other as they attempted to force the other Saiyan back.

Pink electricity crackling around him in a storm, the now evenly matched Turles grinned and chuckled through his teeth. "Heh-heh. Is that all… you've got?!" the man chuckled, before swinging his right leg back and slamming it into the boy's gut. A loud crunch rang out from the low blow, before the Saiyan adult raised his fists over his head and dropped a blow down on top of Gohan, sending the child down several levels.

Quickly rolling into an upright position and pulling up, the hybrid glared up in time to knock away a barrage of ki blasts, before getting clipped in the left shoulder and knocked back- the attack piercing his skin, scorching him, and forcing the kid to back off.

Turles laughed when he spotted the confused look on the child's face glaring back up at him. "HAHAHA! THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE POWER THE TREE OF MIGHT CAN GRANT!" the Saiyan cackled, at the same time holding out his arms as he glared down at the child. "I owe you a bit of thanks, brat! Because of all the wounds you've inflicted upon me, thanks to the Saiyan's natural ability to increase their strength after receiving critical, life-threatening damage, the power I've received from the fruit is even greater than it would've been had I been in top condition. All because of the Saiyan's Zenkai!"

Gohan, blinking a couple of times, then tilted his head. "Oh… so that's what it's called? Zenkai?" the child asked, causing Turles to recoil slightly at his response, before the boy then put on a big smile. "Thanks for the info." Closing his eyes and exhaling a big, lungful of air, the youngster then concentrated for a few moments- allowing a brief, split second of silence to calm his thoughts and steady his heartrate. Then, after inhaling sharply following a moment of meditation, the child then let out an ear-splitting scream. "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

His outcry echoed across the skies, before being drowned out by his aura exploding and expanding through the air, scorching it as steam also came spewing out of his body. His muscles tightened and quivered, his black hair whipped wildly above him, and the red, radioactive glow surrounding his body- which was indicative of his level of rage- increased in intensity.

Turles literally had to cover his face with his arm as he was knocked back by the force of the child's power up, which sent him skidding through the air under the hurricane force winds roaring from his body. During which time, the pirate watched in morbid disbelief as the searing hole the child had in his shoulder suddenly started to heal. First, the blackened patch faded. Then the muscle fibers under the flesh stitched back into place and enforced themselves. Moments later, the patch of skin over the area was speedily repaired, leaving no signs of a burn except for a light scar.

A split second later, a shockwave of force reverberated off of Gohan as he gave one, final surge of power, which exploded from him as his normal, bodily functions were effectively reignited. When his aura receded moments later and once again stabilized around him to a steady, yet fierce beat, the now fully-recharged and healed youngster shot a menacing grin towards the man floating high above him.

A relieved sigh left his lips. "Haaaah… there. I feel much better now," Gohan snarled through his teeth, before then taking a new stance.

Turles, completely dumbfounded by what he'd just witnessed, then barked down at the child. "You…? What the fuck did you just do? What the hell was that?"

"Oh? That?" Gohan asked, before then giving the perplexed warrior a shrug. "I just forced my body to heal the hole you made in my shoulder. I was feeling a little sluggish back there. But after letting off some steam, I'm feeling a lot lighter now."

Obviously that last bit of information was him talking shit just to rile up his opponent- and from the look on the mercenary's face it appeared to have worked.

The rogue Saiyan clenched his teeth as his brain spun round in circles, trying to make sense of what the boy was saying to him. After a few seconds of thought, Turles eventually happened upon an answer. "I can't believe it. This kid… he forcibly manipulated his energy in a way that he was able to hyper accelerate the reproduction of white blood cells and nitrogenous organic compounds in his body to speed up the healing process. He was able to fix the wound in his shoulder in an instant. That's fucking ridiculous!"

Though it seemed completely and utterly crazy, the cold hard reality was this. Not only did the boy manage to shake off the hit to his shoulder, but he was able to draw on the glucose and naturally recurring enzymes in his body to regenerate all of the wounds he'd received and recover from the main infliction.

While it was true there have been Saiyans capable of abnormally fast regeneration and healing capabilities in the past, due mostly in part to their superior biology, those cases had never been this extreme. Somehow this child had such a keen awareness of his body's natural makeup, physiology, and physical functions, that he was able to exploit all of its regenerative and adaptability traits with very little effort and seemingly no negative repercussions. It was almost like he had full control over every individual cell being pumped through his veins, as well as every nerve ending stretching from his head to his toes.

Turles racked his brain trying to come up with some kind of logical answer to this impossible conundrum. But no matter how deep he delved or how hard he looked, he was simply unable to come up with any, reasonable explanation… except one.

"I've heard of prodigies existing amongst the elites. But none like this one. This kid… he's more than just a genius… he's a super elite… a super prodigy. A talent born only once in an entire race's lifetime." The Saiyan's eyes then widened when he saw the glare being shot at him from the child as his aura flared up once again, signaling an attack was imminent. "Could it be…? Could this boy actually be… the legendary Super Saiyan? The apex Saiyan of myth? The fabled beast of our race said to appear once every thousand or so years?"

Sure, the idea was from a children's fairy tale and completely farfetched- but there was literally no other way to explain everything that was happening right now. What Turles was looking at was a true, living embodiment of that fairy tale. The resurrection of an ancient, apex predator. The alpha warrior of their race. A true legend born into this universe.

And right now, this true legend was pissed beyond all measure.

"You're done," Gohan shouted, his body loading up as his power shot through the roof.

As Turles slowly recovered from the shocking realization of his opponent's identity, Gohan wasted no more time and charged towards the pirate at full speed. His launch left a sonic boom in his wake as he bolted towards the Saiyan adult at such speed that the man lost complete sight of him. Before the rogue could even react, the adult felt his bones shake and his entire body bend forward as a pair of feet buried squarely into his torso, causing a massive shockwave to rock the planet's atmosphere.

Spitting up blood as his eyeballs nearly popped out, Turles then felt his body go shooting across the countryside, trailing pink and gold energy. Not knowing where the hell he was going due to having all sense and air knocked out of his chest cavity, the Saiyan was unable to stop himself when, a few seconds later, his body punched straight through the base of the Tree of Might. A literal earth-shaking shockwave then warped the entire tree, as not only did a colossal explosion of wood and splinters occur on both sides of where Turles entered and exited the trunk, but the entire tree ended up getting split in two from his impact.

As the two halves of the enormous, burning fig separated and proceeded to collapse across the landscape, Turles's body came shooting out the other side- minus the rest of his once ruined Saiyan Battle Armor. Wearing only his boots, gauntlet and black spandex shorts, the spiky haired warrior, bleeding from the mouth, quickly threw his body forward and hit the brakes. Skidding across the sky, the pirate drew back both his hands overhead and promptly powered up.

"THAT'S IT! I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A SUPER SAIYAN OR SOME KIND OF SUPER DEMON! I'M PUTTING AN END TO ALL OF THIS!" the man screamed above the roar of his pink aura exploding around him. As a storm of pink lightning shot off of his evolved form and his field expanded outwards- scorching the air with its intensity- the man quickly gathered a mass of whitish pink ki above his palms, as he once again prepared to lay into his foe with a full power Calamity Blaster. "THIS BATTLE! YOUR FRIENDS! THIS PLANET! I'M WIPING EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM OUT WITH THIS ONE ATTACK!"

As Kida and her friends got the hell out of the way of the collapsing tree as its canopy broke through the clouds and proceeded to crash over the horizon, with Myra also quickly recovering and moving to rescue Neiz from the path of its trunk, Gohan's golden form could be seen shooting across the landscape and through the middle of the split tree. Passing through the middle of it, the boy was able to make it in time to the other side to see the strobe of pink light of his opponent blazing on the other side, which told him the final attack was coming.

Eyes burning with rage and desperation, the airborne warrior panted several times through several cracked ribs before, with one final scream of finality, he thrust his hands forward and launched his attack. "DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Turles screamed, his blast erupting from his hands and filling the entire sky in front of him, sending a pink comet of energy shooting towards the collapsing Tree of Might.

The light of his blast could be seen expanding across the entire horizon, the howl of its column deafening everything in range and blinding everything in sight. As the attack roared across the sky and parted the clouds, all Gohan saw was a wall of pinkish-white light thundering towards him, which had the youngster frown as he quickly focused his energy.

Put all of his power in front of him, the child's aura flared up as he collided headlong with the blast- his body smashing into it before plowing right through the tidal wave of energy as it practically swallowed him up. A split second later, just when it seemed like the attack was going to wipe Gohan from the face of the universe, Turles and the members of Cooler's Squadron all gaped in disbelief when they saw the biggest energy blast they'd ever seen get split down the center and shoot across the landscape in multiple, broken beams of light trailing off in separate directions.

Gohan meanwhile, his golden form burning as bright as a star, pushed through the blast without slowing down- and flew right towards its owner. Turles could only gape in disbelief as he watched the child dive through the torrential heart of his strongest attack, before eventually tackling him in the chest. The kid's impact with the Saiyan shook the sky as he knocked the pirate, leaving behind only a wall of smoke and a completely ruined, parasitic tree.

After the pair slammed into the ground a split second later, it saw Gohan pinning the warrior at the bottom of a massive, newly formed crater, with his knee in his chest and hands grabbing his head. With his aura still burning around him at full blast and the battered Turles lying beneath his tiny form, the demi-Saiyan child sneered at the man through a pair of angry, turquoise eyes, while the stricken pirate locked his hands around the kid's wrists and tried to pry them off of him. But try as he might, the mercenary no longer had the strength or power to do so.

All he could do was groan and cry out as Gohan's grip around his skull slowly, but surely tightened like a vice, causing the man's bones to creak as the pressure around his brain was steadily increased. When Turles felt the weight on his head increase again and the angry child increase the strength of his grip, the man then let out a cry of pain, as the surface of his protective plates began to crack in multiple places.

Eyes wide in horror as his mouth remained agape, Turles writhed under the wild boy's grip, who continued to snarl at him as his fingers dug into the flesh of his head and began to draw blood, which ran down the warrior's face.

Aura flaring once more as blasting the air, Gohan growled at the Saiyan as he attempted to rip his hands away, but failed. "You threatened my best friend! You were going to torture her, rape her… and kill her! But I'll make sure that never happens!" the child growled through his teeth, his eyes showing no hint of remorse as he tightened his hold on Turles's head and caused his skull to fracture again, blood beginning to run from the man's ears and eyes. "You're going to die here- on this planet, in this hole… and I'm going to watch it happen."

Fingers clawing helplessly at the child's monstrous grip, Turles cried and gasped out one last time, as darkness slowly started to creep over his bloodshot gaze. "W-Who… graahhh… the fuck… aaagh… are you?!"

The demi-Saiyan hero, clenching his jaw tightly, then gave the terrified Turles a murderous grin. In that moment, as his eyes turned feral and face twisted into that of a beast, the Saiyan rogue swore he was looking at the face of the devil. "I'm Gohan… and you're messing with the best, bitch." And then, with one last, decisive grunt, he ended it.

A loud squelch echoed out as Turles's entire head ruptured and exploded between Gohan's hands, splattering across the bottom of the crater and forming a shallow pool above the body. The amount of blood that splashed across the ground made it look like someone had either blown up a paint bucket or smashed a watermelon with a sledge hammer. All the bits of brain and fluid that managed to splatter across the demi-Saiyan's face as a result began running down his forehead and cheeks like war paint, giving the child a much more menacing and unsettling appearance. Upon feeling the mass in his grip explode and watching Turles's hands drop lifelessly to the ground after his life force vanished into oblivion, the child knew right then and there that his work was done.

Standing up, the glowing child slowly stepped off of the Saiyan's dead body and began to walk out of the crater. But after a few paces, Gohan suddenly felt the strength in his legs give out and he collapsed to his knees. As the flames of his aura vanished, his muscles decreased in size, and sweaty hair flopped down over his face, the last conscious thought the child had as his turquoise eyes went back to black and then glazed over, was this.

"Man… I'm starving…" Swaying a couple of times, the youngster put on a stupid smile before then keeling forward and collapsing into the dirt, falling into a peaceful slumber.

Silence then rained over the barren wasteland.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: Okay. Before anyone starts screaming 'Super Saiyan God' or 'Kaioken' based on my descriptions, the form Gohan actually took in this chapter is the Pseudo Super Saiyan form Goku used in his battle against Lord Slug, which is a form that involves the user tapping into his or her dormant Super Saiyan powers for a burst of strength. However, unlike Goku, due to his talent and being more in tune with his body, Gohan is able to use it naturally and control it.

Also, thanks to receiving a fruit from the Tree of Might while on the brink of near death, Gohan's manually controlled Zenkai trigger has evolved, allowing him to perform self-regeneration- but only to small extents. He can't exactly regenerate to the same degree as Namekians at this stage, just holes.

His durability has gone up and so has his battle senses.

So, just to retouch on the current power levels and so people can just get a general idea of where things stand right now, before the arrival of Vegeta and Nappa on Earth:

Cooler's Armored Squadron vs Turles (Round 1):

Salza – 185,000

Myra – 182,000

Neiz – 182,000

Dore – 180,000

Gohan – 170,000

Gohan (during battle) – 198,000

Turles – 250,000

Turles – 125,000 (fatigued)

Cooler's Armored Squadron vs Turles (Round 2):

Turles (after one bite of Tree of Might fruit) – 2,200,000

Turles (after half of Tree of Might fruit) – 22,000,000

Turles (after eating remaining fruit) – 44,000,000

Gohan (after one bite of Tree of Might Fruit) – 2,000,000

Gohan (Enraged) – 4,500,000

Pseudo Super Saiyan Gohan (Base x20) – 40,000,000

Pseudo Super Saiyan Gohan (post Zenkai) – 50,000,000

Gohan (new base) - 2,500,000

Frieza's Family:

Frieza (First Form): 530,000

Frieza (Second Form): 1,000,000

Cooler (4th/True Form Suppressed): 3,900,000

King Cold (Second Form): 150,000,000