"Yarrow, wait!" the blonde woman behind me cried. "This really is the Prince of Saiyans!"
"Get back, Arula. All of you stay back! This one's mine," the man declared. "The rest of you deal with the others. We could use the parts, so try to avoid totally obliterating the ship if the crew won't come out." He smirked at me. "Let us hope they can fly."
"You have no idea," I replied, angling my body and twirling my sword once with my hand before extending it in front of me. "Tell you what: I've been in space for a few weeks and I was getting a little cooped up, but I'll try not to cut off any of your limbs. Though I can't promise my concentration won't slip if our vessel gets blown up. I suffered a lot of nitpicking to get it in working order."
"Enough," Yarrow growled before he dove at me.
He fired ki blasts ahead of himself, forcing me to either shift or use my sword to block them. I chose the latter, dispersing the attacks with two quick slices, but it left my weapon arm occupied for the only few milliseconds my opponent needed to get past my guard and strike. Or at least attempt to—I deflected the rapid succession of punches he launched at my face with my free arm, then got my sword up and parried with the flat of my blade.
He hesitated slightly after the edge grazed the side of his hand and I grabbed his wrist, slashing the sword over in an arc towards his shoulder. He jerked his other hand up to knock my aim off-course and roundhouse kicked with his other leg, aiming for my open ribs.
I released his arm and pulled back to avoid the blow and then spun into a kick of my own, heel aiming for the side of his head, but he caught my boot with his palm and pushed, hurling me back. I caught myself in the air and thrust my sword arm up to again hold him off. He rushed at me as if to bowl me down but I kept firm when we contacted, pushing against his arms once more with the flat of my blade as the steel ground against the unflinching material of his bracers.
"Not bad," he growled, smirking.
Summoning a burst of strength, I shoved back against him and it created enough space for me to get a few good swings at him. The first missed, but the second was close enough to nick one of his bound coils of hair and he was instantly scowling again.
"Hey!" he admonished as he continued to dodge.
"Sorry. I was aiming…" I leapt ahead and, tossing my sword to my other hand, used my free one to punch at him. "… for your face!"
My knuckles collided square on, avoiding smashing his scouter by mere inches, and it flung him back a good several feet through the air before he righted himself.
Blood trickled from a split on his lip. He wiped it away with a thumb, narrowing his eyes. He tensed, ready to come back at me when a voice made him hesitate.
"Hey! Are you sure you wanna take him by yourself?" a voice somewhere between childhood and manhood called out.
From the corner of my eye I noticed the boy from earlier, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old by Earth measurements, hovering nearby. Yarrow's posture relaxed a little and he rolled his eyes, but I could see he didn't entirely release me from his peripheral attention as he shot a glance at his companion.
"Don't you have anything better to do than insult me, boy? Like doing what I ordered you to?" he said.
"I wasn't trying to help or anything. Just if Swordie started chopping you up into little pieces, wouldn't you want someone to avenge you? 'Cause I could do that if, y'know, you're off your game today and you die."
"Oi! How many times have I told you not to talk to me like that, you brat! Go assist Raab and the others or so help me, I'll station you on the dumping pile for a week!"
"You can't station me anywhere if you're in cubes!" the boy chortled. Yarrow seemed about to respond when another presence interrupted.
"Come on, man. Even if there's more of them than us, if you're fighting the leader you can't have two to yourself," Goten said to me.
The boy whirled around and damn near squeaked when he realized Goten was behind him.
"Hey 'Ten," I acknowledged, echoing Yarrow's caution and keeping my opponent within my own peripheral vision while talking to Goten. "You're welcome to fight the kid too, but I wouldn't say five on one is great odds, buddy."
Goten stuck his thumb out and pointed it over his shoulder. "Yeah, of course not. That's why I brought backup. Y'know, so these guys don't all have to go up against me alone and get their asses kicked simultaneously. Wanted to spare their pride a bit."
"So, stranger," Yarrow interjected, "are these your warriors, then?"
Not quite far enough to be out of firing range, our vessel hovered in the background, no longer moving as its near-black exterior glinted dully in the sun. Several feet behind Goten, quickly surrounded by the remaining three of Yarrow's entourage, were Bardock, Daikon, and Ravi.
"They came out on their own quite readily," the unnamed old man said, eyes locked on my companions though he spoke to his superior.
"Hmph. Good enough, I suppose." Yarrow paused and narrowed his eyes. "Saiyans…"
"No doubt about it, Boss! They all look like fighters, too," the scarred woman replied.
"Saiyans or not, that man is claiming to be the prince. Such opposition cannot go unchallenged. We have enough on our plate as it is," the old man said further. The last of the three, the pale man, continued his silence but he dared a glance past my companions at me.
Yarrow waved his hand. "Yes, yes. Both of you, do as you see fit."
"You aren't going to ask us what we think? I'd say you ought to have some concern about your own welfare, if you bothered to use that scouter for more than decoration," Bardock said with a slight smile, more than I recalled ever having seen on his face yet.
I looked at Ravi and raised an eyebrow.
"Did you not just get out of the captain's chair? You're leaving the ship a sitting duck like that," I said.
"Anyone who thinks they can get a piece out of it will have to go through me. Besides, it's been ages since I got to punch a Saiyan."
"I sincerely hope you're out here to prevent that damn ship from taking one more iota of damage, and not just because you want to punch Saiyans. Get the damn ship to safety."
She grinned and then turned away. "Sorry. Didn't catch that. The wind is too loud up here," she said into the positively gentle breeze. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
The old man's voice cut through the air. "Selry, concentrate on the young man before you. Yan, take the man with the scar. Kassav—"
"I want the captain," the scarred woman, presumably Kassav herself, cut in.
"As captain he is likely second in command to the man claiming to be the prince. And you yourself are still only third in command of our own company for a reason."
"Heh. He is a she, Raab. You might be first lieutenant but your eyes are clearly shit. Give me a crack at her."
A dismissive wave in their general direction from Yarrow caught me eye. "What did I tell you two about the squabbling? Take care of things while I'm busy so you don't tempt me to give Selry both your jobs. And make sure Arula stays out of the battle, why don't you." Then he snapped his fingers and returned his focus to me, balling his hands into fists and setted into a stance. "So, where were we?"
"I was punching you in the face," I said, lifting my guard.
"That you were… I suppose I ought to return the favour!" he decided before rushing at me once more.
I thrust my sword forward with one arm as soon as he got close, narrowly missing his head as he swerved to one side to pass by unscathed, but the adjustment threw off the strength of his incoming punch and I deflected it with my palm. But this left both my arms out long enough for him to quickly jerk his knee up and hit me in the stomach. I rolled with the blow but with surprising speed, he swung his elbow around and hit the side of my head, knocking me away by several feet through the air.
I caught myself, flipping to get reoriented, and charged right back at him. He braced himself to avoid the sharp end of my blade, but at the last second I spun the guard and drove both the pommel and my fist into his stomach.
I aimed for his face again with my other hand but he blocked it with his palm. Then, grabbing my sword arm, he yanked me forward and slammed his forehead into mine, but after the split second of pain I got my leg up and hit him with my calf in the ball of his shoulder hard enough to feel his arm shift a little from its socket. He released my right arm, but kept hold of my left as he spun and pulled me over his head and then threw me downwards through the air.
By the time I recovered from the brief disorientation the trees were dangerously close so I righted myself and used my ki to halt my trajectory. The blast of energy on my surroundings flattened the trees beneath and blew a crater into the earth as I shot back up just in time to block Yarrow's incoming attack as he dove down at me. I used the flat of the blade to protect my face and his left fist it, ringing through the sword in a single metallic note. The impact reverberated onwards into my body as the power of the blow forced my boots into the dirt and widened the crater beneath us, but both my weapon and the strength of my defense were steadfast.
With a growl he shot out his other hand onto the blade and threw his weight into it, intending to use the edge against me as his sudden move thrust it too close to my face and neck. I quickly lifted my other hand and put my palm on the flat and pushed back. Though my own grip was carefully placed enough so that I didn't get cut, Yarrow's right hand was wrapped right around and blood dripped from where it sliced the base of his fingers.
We struggled that way for a few moments, me slowly gaining inches and he just barely giving way. The ground beneath our heels cracked.
"You're strong," he grit out. The readout on his scouter continued to blink and shift, but he ignored it. "Perhaps it would be a shame to kill you. Arula seems to be quite convinced of your veracity as well."
"And you're not?"
"Unless you defeat me, my answer to that question is meaningless. And you will not defeat me. You haven't even pushed me to half my strength."
"Then I suppose I don't have an excuse to not kick things up!" I said, spiking my ki. I could see my own aura blazing in my peripheral vision as I used the burst of power to toss him off and put him on the defensive.
He stumbled backwards, clumsily dodging or deflecting my attacks with his bracers that were starting to show deeper gouges each time he was forced to parry a blow head on. I knew that if I hadn't drawn my sword, he'd be having a much easier time instead of constantly being forced to avoid what could cripple him with a few well-placed strikes.
I could see that it was tiring him, too. Physically, he seemed to have plenty of stamina left, but the irritation of being unable to get within arm's length of me was clear on his face.
On a particularly vehement slash, Yarrow must have caught his footing on a fallen tree because he began to topple. However, he used the momentum to flip himself, twice, one hand propelling him off the ground and as he came back up a more comfortable distance away he put up both his palms and fired a flurry of energy spheres at me.
Some were aimed directly at me, blocked easily enough, but some were purposefully off-target and they hit the upturned dirt and vegetation around me, kicking up powdered earth and smoke.
I quickly took a defensive stance. He was no doubt banking on the plumes and dust being enough to help him get past my guard, but it was a window of mere seconds, and he still wasn't—
He came in lower than expected, immediately dropping to swipe his leg and knock my own out from under me. As I went down I twisted enough to suspend myself with the hand that still gripped my sword by pressing it into the dirt, then kept rotating until my knee was braced too and I was able to avoid the punch he thundered into the ground where I had been moments before. However, I was left at an awkward angle to retaliate fasts enough and he kicked me in the stomach, sending me flying until I felt myself obliterate through one tree and then hit a second, snapping the trunk.
It wasn't quite broken in two. But when Yarrow ran at me once more, I dropped away to avoid his attack and took the opportunity to dart under and around to use his own inertia against him, grabbing a fistful of his hair and smashing his head into the tree, whereupon the poor plant couldn't handle the force of a Saiyan skull and completely splintered.
I didn't strike at his back, instead giving him a split second to recover as he whirled around. Shards of pale wood dusted his hair and shoulders and he sluffed them off with a furious swipe of his hand. However, he took the time to adjust his still-intact scouter with a careful little movement.
I rolled my shoulder and got a satisfying pop out of it before I resettled into my stance.
Yarrow exhaled, then lifted his fists once more before spiking his energy.
I held steady, waiting for him to make the first move as his aura raged higher and higher. His face was determined, annoyed, eager for the challenge—
And then completely dumbfounded, flinching as his scouter popped apart with a burst of glass and the whole thing fell away in pieces.
The battlefield was quiet, save the distant sound in the background of our companions in combat, as the man stayed frozen in his state of surprise. Then he stared at me properly and a look of complete indignation came over him.
"You… you broke my scouter!" he accused. "You broke it!"
"Uh," I replied, "I think you broke it powering up like that. If you were going to get upset over that kind of thing you shouldn't have worn it."
He scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Upset? Upset? You smashed my face into a tree and you broke my fucking scouter! Do you have any idea how much care I've had to take keeping it in good condition? How long it took me to fix after the last idiot broke it, and then you just come along and shatter it in a single blow?"
"Uh—"
"Eight days! It took me over a week! And now it's absolutely destroyed, and you almost got glass in my eye! I cannot believe this." He slashed his arm through the air. "That does it! You want your ass kicked at full power, then fine!"
His energy was pouring out of him now, the ground starting to quake beneath us. Fractured earth hovered into the air and dust swirled. The scent of ozone drifted through the breeze and I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing until I did.
Yarrow's aura burst into gold flames and his hair, though it didn't stand up quite the same due to the style, blazed like the sun.
"You can become a Super Saiyan!" I exclaimed.
He shifted his weight from one side to another, as if feeling out his enhanced strength. His teal eyes locked on mine and he smirked.
"That's pretty impressive!" I continued. "How did you learn to do that?"
His expression was damn near triumphant as he raised his hand in the air, clenching it. "This power came to me while I battled against Frieza's armies. I, what remained of my squadron and the fellow Saiyans I'd taken under my wing were cornered on an enemy planet and vastly outnumbered. I realized that my people needed a leader—needed someone to show them the true courage of a Saiyan and that it would not be our last stand. I burst onto the field of battle with the wrath of the gods within me and—"
"And you turned Super Saiyan and took down the entire army yourself."
"I was going to say that," he snorted. "Ah, well. But I guess the story doesn't matter to a dead man, now does it? So, what shall your final words be before I tear you apart, stranger?"
Relaxing my posture, I reached over my shoulder and put my sword back into its sheath. Then I shrugged the contraption off and with a click of a button, returned it to its capsule and hung it back on the chain around my neck.
Yarrow stared at the space where my sword had vanished from existence, wearing the same expression of barely-concealed puzzlement that he'd had when I'd drawn it. It was among the range of reactions people normally had to seeing Capsule technology for the first time, and I'd have been lying if it wasn't amusing on some level.
"You're… surrendering?" he said.
"You're almost making me feel bad about this," I replied, ignoring his question.
"What?"
Wasting no time on preamble, I powered up and with a brilliant flash of light, I turned into a Super Saiyan of my own.
"No. No! This is ridiculous! You're only half Saiyan and no older than my sister!" Yarrow cried, jabbing his finger in my direction.
"Oh, so you believe me now? Would it help if I tell you some of my friends can transform like this too?"
"I've had enough of your insolent talk!"
And with that, he shot into the air, climbing higher and higher as he began firing a barrage of ki attacks at me.
I followed after him, skimming by the blasts unsinged and hearing them smack into the ruined earth below until we were high enough for the sound to fade away and I finally caught up to my opponent.
Even though I'd been training with a sword for years, I was naturally faster in hand-to-hand combat, and was glad for it when Yarrow and I clashed. He had greater speed than I'd anticipated in this form—then again, I hadn't anticipated any of the survivors being able to go Super Saiyan at all. Was he the only one?
We went back and forth with a flurry of blows, neither making a mistake nor yielding. But after a minute of impasse and I considered summoning more power, he overshot one of his punches so I moved aside to roundhouse kick him in the head. Just in time, he used his other hand to catch my leg and attempt to throw me as he had earlier, but I flexed and pulled forward, grabbing onto his armour so that I could use it as leverage to smash my other knee into his jaw.
He let go of me while reeling back and, making a few motions with my hands, I fired my Burning Attack into the space between us. I saw him get his arms up in the brief second before the blaze hit him and with a roar, he dispelled the force of the attack by splitting it down the middle, escaping with only a moderate singe on his arms.
Without sparing a second he was forming energy spheres of his own again—but this time, there were two in his hands and one large one in front of his chest. When he let go, they came at me in a triad, seemingly drawing power from each other.
I flew upwards to dodge the first, but to my surprise it took a sharp angle from its original trajectory to follow me. I swerved again only for it to continue. The one in the centre was growing in size as it pursued me and its attendants shrank, and I could've sworn it was speeding up at the same time.
The longer I wait to destroy it, the stronger it must get! With that realization I ground my flight to a halt, watching the attack head right for me. I angled my body and stuck one arm out in front of me, flaring my ki at the instant the sphere hit me and detonated.
My skin seared. My arm took the brunt of the damage, but nothing was broken or charred when the smoke dissipated.
Yarrow wasted no time and was immediately charging up in my direction. I waited for him to draw close, leaving myself in that position until he was only a foot away and then I shifted, using a burst of energy to move under his next strike and slam my fist and shoulder into his stomach.
The counterforce to his own inertia was strong enough that he was plummeting back to the ground far below, a rapidly shrinking form until I saw the strength of the impact disperse onto the planet's surface like an oversized cannonball. Even from my height I could see the fresh crater, within visible distance of the one I'd created earlier.
But my victory was short-lived. I felt his energy rocketing back up through the sky a moment later—the man was persistent.
This time, he didn't come straight for me. When he neared, he slowed down, locking eyes with me when he eventually stopped, just out of hand-to-hand distance across from me.
"Is that… all you've got?" he growled between heavy breaths, both his armour and his body quite scuffed from the fall. A wound on his cheek had split open and trickled fresh blood.
"I don't think you want to see all I've got." Based on the fluctuations in his ki and his physical condition, he wasn't used to sustaining this form. But that didn't mean he couldn't still be a threat. He was already tiring, and if I could just continue to exhaust him…
"I've had enough of you," he repeated, and he angled his body away from me and thrust his arm up.
He was forming another ball of ki, but instead of letting it go, he kept pouring power into it, forcing it to amass larger and larger. Soon it was bigger than I was, bigger than a space pod, eating up my vision of the sky as it ballooned, enough to swallow a spaceship and he still didn't stop.
"Hey! You shouldn't fire that, you could endanger the planet!" I called out.
"Then maybe you should get off it!" he roared, aura dropping and gold hair fading as he released the supermassive bomb in my direction.
I wouldn't be able to block it. Even if I Ascended, the entirety of Yarrow's strength had been condensed into the sphere and I could take significant damage if I opposed it head-on.
But Ascended, I could redirect it.
I had only seconds until it struck. I could already feel the heat, but I raised my energy as fast as I could manage until its own fire eclipsed that from the outside and all I could feel was the burn, and the crackle of electricity down my spine as I moved away from the centre of the blast point and charged my energy into the behemoth to deflect its path and, with any luck, destabilize it.
The weight of the mass pushed back, but when I refused to let up I felt something shift and then it was soaring over me, spurting bits of fire as it went, and then it had passed.
I exhaled. Yarrow, though still in the sky, was no longer a Super Saiyan. I glanced back to watch his attack go, making sure it was headed upwards toward the atmosphere. Hopefully I hadn't weakened it to where it wouldn't last just a minute longer and detonate away from the others still in the sky somewhere—
There they were, both my friends and the survivors, thankfully spread out but some of them far too close to the attack and my stomach plummeted. Someone was crying out words of warning as I watched them dart out of reach just in time. Fuck, I'd been so careless.
But even when I accounted for all the ki signatures, familiar and new alike, I could see that Ravi's ship was still there, still unmoving, not in the direct course of the attack but too close to not sustain damage, and no matter how fast I was I would not have been fast enough to push the vessel to safety as I watched the peripheral wake of the supernova engulf it in flames.
The collision of the large spacecraft with the deadly mass proved too much to handle for both of them. Yarrow's attack careened away and with a shockwave I could feel from here it burst, lighting up the sky in a display of fireworks that filled my field of vision.
Our spaceship did not detonate in the sky. It was blown away from the explosion, chunks of metal violently ripping from the hull as it began hurtling downwards at terrifying speed, shedding pieces of itself and trailing thick plumes of smoke.
If it struck the planet's surface at that velocity there would be nothing left of it. We would be stranded until Goku and Gohan found us and—
But someone was already flying after it. Because of course there would be. Of course the very same person who'd ignored my warning to not leave it on the battlefield was going to go try and save the damn stupid garbage heap that she barely seemed to care for otherwise. And if she couldn't slow it down, its weight would pulverize bone and tissue alike upon impact with the ground.
Getting Yarrow's surrender would have to wait. I sped off in the direction of the plunging spacecraft and hoped less than a minute was enough time to save it.