Chapter 6: A Group of Liars (Redone)
Bardock was leading the group to the entrance to the cave, when a sudden tail blocked their way. Halting in frustration, Bardock looked for the source of the tail. To his shock, Udana glared at them, followed by Pila and Spina. Bardock fought the rising confusion inside him.
"Hey, what was that for?!" Kakarot snapped.
Bad idea, he could get himself killed! Be careful, my son, Bardock thought, anxiety growing inside him.
"We changed our minds. You will not leave this cave, at least not alive. We will kill you for what you have done to our cave! Starting with you," Udana growled, pointing at Bardock with a huge claw.
"Then, I will rip you limb from limb. Bone from bone. Until you are nothing more than a measly pile of ash! Starting with you!" Spina hissed, throwing her head in the direction of Tien.
"I will stab you with my tail, until you are dust! Starting with you!" Pila snarled, whipping his tail at Kakarot and nearly hitting him.
"Fine, you want to play rough...let's play rough!" Kakarot snapped, he then began taking off his shirt, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Kakarot, what are you doing?!" Bardock asked in shock.
"Taking off my weighted clothing. I'll need to be as quick as possible when fighting Pila. He nearly killed me while I stood there. Taking off this clothing helps me be a lot more agile," Kakarot said, taking off his shirt. It landed on the ground with a loud crash, causing the spirits to hiss in anger. Kakarot shrugged and took off his boots, then his arm bands. "There, done."
"K - Kakarot, how many kilos is that?" Bardock asked, stunned.
"About 5,000," Kakarot replied, "Why?"
"5,000?! Kakarot, are you insane?!" Vegeta snapped.
"We don't have any time to worry about that! Vegeta, would you mind helping me with Pila?" Kakarot asked, getting into a fighting position, then dodging a tail swing.
"Not at all. I just love getting attacked by angry spirits. But if it'll shut you up, then fine," Vegeta said.
"Vegeta, this is no time to get cocky. Let's get these spirits!" Kakarot said, he then leaped at the spirits with the Saiyan prince not far behind him.
It felt kind of weird to see the Saiyan prince fighting beside his son. He had no time to ponder on this as he had to dodge a very powerful blow from Udana. The wolf spirit's eyes were full of hatred directed at him. Bardock frowned in concentration as he dodged an attack from behind. Udana then yowled and tried to squash Bardock beneath him.
Bardock dodged, then Udana hissed and began a series of powerful strikes at Bardock. Suddenly, Gohan grabbed the wolf spirit's tail and pulled him backwards. Udana snarled and slammed a huge paw on Gohan's back. Gohan's gasp of pain was muffled from the way the paw hit him. Bardock instantly tried to fight the wolf spirit off of Gohan.
Goku heard his son gasp in pain and turned around. To his shock, Bardock was trying to get the beast off of Gohan. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on his back. He looked at saw that Pila had hit him with his tail...hard. Goku tried to get to his feet, but the beast has him pinned.
"Don't even think about it!" Vegeta shouted, startling everyone in the cave. The Saiyan prince had a huge boulder in his arms and he chucked it at the angry spirit. Pila snarled and tried to get a hold on Vegeta, his eyes blazing.
"Hell no! Nobody would want to be in those jaws!" Vegeta said as he dodged out of the way of Pila's attack.
Pila snarled and went back to Goku, who was still struggling to get up. Pila pinned him down and prepared to do the killing blow. But, Goku was smart, just as Pila put his jaws over him, Goku pushed the spirit's jaws back. Pila let out a surprised noise and spat Goku out.
All in a day's work! Goku thought.
"Wait, don't get cocky, Goku! It could get you killed!" Goku said to himself as he dodged out of the way of Pila's attack. Pila snarled and trampled Vegeta. Goku heard a muffled hummph! from him, but other than that, he didn't sound like he was in any pain.
"Are you okay, Vegeta?!" Goku called.
"Apart from being trampled, I'm good!" Vegeta snapped back in a muffled shout.
Goku chuckled and jumped on Pila's back. "WHEEEEE!" Goku shouted as he rode Pila like he was a horse at a rodeo.
Suddenly, Pila stopped, sending Goku flying into a wall. Goku felt a large rock collapse on him, causing him to cry out in more shock than pain. Pila began crushing the rock, causing Goku to wail out in agony. Pila seemed satisfied and began to crush it harder. Goku was shocked by the amount of pain he was feeling. But he would not give up, he never would, no matter what it took!
He stiffened and went Super Saiyan two. He used all of his strength and sent Pila flying into a wall. Pila crumpled to the ground with a powerful thump. Goku smiled and wiped his mouth, surprised to see blood on his hand. He smiled and watched as Pila got back up.
"You are powerful, Pila. Let's see how powerful you can get," Goku said, turning Super Saiyan God.
Pila hissed and growled, slowly turning larger. Goku watched as he grew taller than anything he had ever seen. The cave roof opened as Pila continued to grow. Udana looked shocked and Spina abandoned Tien and Piccolo and ran next to Udana.
"Nobody has ever pushed Pila that far! These guys must be more powerful than we expected, eh?" Spina whispered.
"Yes, we need to be more careful with how we attack these people!" Udana replied.
"What are we going to do about this?" Spina asked.
"We'll just have to fight harder, we can't let them leave the cave alive! No matter what, Pila should help with that..." Udana growled.
"You won't destroy us! I won't let you!" Bardock snapped, causing everyone to turn to him. His eyes were blazing in anger. "I won't let you hurt us, or kill us for that matter! Leave the killing to me! Also, if you even were 'spirits', you do a very poor job at it. Nobody would want to have you all as guardians! You're not fooling anyone!"
Tien looked at Bardock in shock. What could he mean by... they're not spirits? Of course they're spirits! Or...are they shape shifters? Really powerful shape shifters? No, that's not possible...unless...no! There's no way that they went to the same school as Puar and Oolong! Tien thought in amazement. There was no time to ponder on this, as Bardock sent out a powerful energy blast.
The "spirits" snarled and tried to dodge, but they were each hit with it. Udana hissed and quickly decreased in size to reveal a small wolf. Spina was revealed as a tiny cat, she kind of looked like Puar, except that she had orange fur. Pila was revealed to be an ant-like creature. Tien was shocked at what had just been discovered. That explained why he did not know any of these names.
"Damnit! We were discovered!" Udana growled, his eyes blazing.
"I knew it! I knew they were shape shifters!" Tien said.
"That doesn't explain their strength, or how long they stayed in their forms," Goku said, "Oolong and Puar can only stay in their forms for five minutes. We were here for way more than five minutes."
"We are advanced, stupid! We can maintain our forms for one full day. When we saw you enter the cave, we thought we would try out our abilities and strength on you! And you actually fell for it!" Pila said, his eyes triumphant.
Vegeta glared at the shape shifters in fury. He had actually been fearing for everyone's life when these shape shifters had attacked. He had been worried about the people around him. He had been worried that the cave would actually crash down. And to find out that he had been fooled by some silly Puars and Oolongs was embarrassing and annoying. He looked around and saw Tien's eyes were full of shock and fury. Goku looked angry, but also confused.
"Why in the hell would you ever think about doing that to us?! Who the hell are you?!" Vegeta said, his anger taking over.
"When did you get here?" Pila asked.
Vegeta paused for a moment, surprised that they didn't realize who he was. The the realization made him even more pissed. They didn't even know I was here!Vegeta thought, pretty sure that steam was coming out of his ears.
"I am Vegeta! Former prince of the Saiyans. I'm surprised you didn't even notice me. I was here the whole time!"
"Oh, Udana, did you notice this guy?" Pila asked. Udana looked Vegeta over and shook his head. "See, Udana would have noticed you if you were here the whole time. You must be lying. And we don't appreciate liars."
"What are you going to do? Kill me? Capture me?" Vegeta said, pretending to be afraid. Goku cast a warning glance, but Vegeta ignored him.
"You think you are so-"
Suddenly he was cut off, as Udana lunged at Vegeta, knocking him off-balance. His eyes widened with sheer shock and disbelief. Udana growled and stalked forward, looking bigger than he used to. Vegeta felt an all-too familiar warm, sticky feeling on his leg. He looked down and saw blood. He looked up and saw Bardock preparing another powerful energy blast. Vegeta was soon brought back to the pain in his leg as he felt a burning sensation. The wound was oozing out blood, creating a large puddle beneath him. The world seemed to spin, but Vegeta shook it off. He would not fall because of some silly leg wound.
But his body didn't seem to want to confirm that. Vegeta frowned and shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He felt his anger rising and turned Super Saiyan. He smiled and instantly charged at Udana, causing the shape shifter to laugh.
"You think that will hurt me? It's just brighter looking hair!" Udana laughed.
Vegeta had more than enough with this stupid creature. He fired an energy blast at Udana, and sent him flying into a wall. The shape shifter hissed in shock and collapsed to the ground. Blood pooled beneath him, courtesy of having his leg shot off. Vegeta grinned as the creature tried to raise himself to his paws, but failed... miserably.
"Udana!" Pila screeched, running to the wolf shape shifter. Anger flared in his eyes and he glared at Vegeta. Vegeta laughed and powered up another energy blast.
Goku watched Vegeta powering up another energy blast and noticed the increase in the shape shifter's power. "Vegeta! Be careful!" Goku shouted.
"Why should I? It's just a sha-" Vegeta began, when suddenly, Pila sprang at him. Vegeta barely even had time to dodge out of the way. Goku looked to Bardock and saw him preparing to blast Spina, who was charging at him. Goku looked to Gohan who was beside Piccolo, trying to keep the wall of the cave from crashing down on them.
Gohan felt his muscles straining as he tried to keep up the wall of the cave. "Piccolo!" Gohan said, turning to his former mentor.
"Yes, what is it, Gohan?" Piccolo asked, clearly fighting for breath.
"We need to use an energy blast! It might be the only way to keep the walls up!" Gohan shouted, the screeching of the cave making it hard to hear himself think, much less talk.
"I was thinking the same thing!" Piccolo said, beginning to charge up a powerful energy blast. Gohan did as well. He wished that he didn't have to use this, but it was the only way to stop the cave from falling in...or, it would make the cave collapse in faster, but it was the only way to at least try to stop it. He felt the power surging through him as he began the powerful energy blast. He watched in satisfaction as the cave-in stopped with only a small crackle of rocks. Then, the dust cleared revealing that they had made an opening for their escape.
These spirits were not going to hurt them today! That was when he noticed that they had been scammed. He felt anger surging over him like a tidal wave.
"Hey, Piccolo, I think it's time we kicked some ass," Gohan said, pissed off.
"Oh, that's it! How dare they fool us like this?!" Piccolo snapped, powering up.
Gohan watched as Piccolo charged Udana, snapping his neck. There was a sickening thud as Piccolo dropped the shape shifter's body. The whole cave fell silent as they all stared at Piccolo in shock. He looked around at all the shocked faces, a smile on his face.
"You all will be next, if you don't leave!" Piccolo snapped at the shape shifters.
The shape shifters glared at him for a moment, then quickly grabbed Udana's body and fled. The entire group watched as the shape shifters fled out of sight.
"So, what do we do now?" Bardock asked.
"Who knows? What do you think, Bardock? Do you still want to destroy the Earth?" Goku asked accusingly.
"Oh, is that what this is about? No, I never meant any harm..." Bardock said, sighing.
"Then why did you come here?" Gohan asked, feeling confused. He could tell that Goku was confused as well.
"What did you want with us?"
"I wanted to see if my son was alive. Turns out I was right," Bardock said.
"You... wanted to meet me?" Goku whispered.
Gohan had never seen his father so shocked, well... never mind that, he had seen him shocked plenty of times. Bardock smiled and nodded at Goku, then turned to Gohan.
"I wish I had met you before you had grown up. Same with you, Kakarot. I can't believe my son got married and had kids and I wasn't even here to see it. And Goten, you look just like your father, it's incredible. Make him proud. You too, Gohan. I assume you have?" Bardock said, smiling.
"O-Of course, Bardock," Gohan said, surprised at how peaceful he could be.
"And you, Prince Vegeta, I never expected you to be here, with my son of all people. It is truly been an honor." Bardock said, with reverence.
That was the first time Gohan had ever seen Vegeta embarrassed.
"It's nothing important."
"What do you mean?" Bardock asked, confusion in his eyes.
"You see...I'm no longer a prince. I have long removed that title. Please, just call me Vegeta." Vegeta said, a kind smile on his face.
"Oh...I guess I can see why you would do that. Do you have any children?" Bardock asked.
"Yes, one child," Vegeta replied.
"What is their name?" Bardock asked, clearly surprised.
"Trunks, his name is Trunks," Vegeta replied.
"Trunks? Not Vegeta? How come?" Bardock said, aghast.
"There's no point in it anymore. Besides, I should have the right to name my son whatever I want." Vegeta replied, a bemused smile on his face.
"Of course, I understand, Vegeta. Now, let's get out of here." Bardock said.
"Yes, I agree." Vegeta said amicably, and they left the cave, and went into the light.
Thanks again, RoyalBlueRoses