Chapter 2: The Past Life
Author's Comments: I seriously got Mirage's personality almost wrong last time; I think I can explain it… Hopefully.
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Legend stirred, his eyes opening, finding himself in a cot-like bed, though behind glass. When he tried to make sense of his surroundings, he noticed that his body… Was different. Way different. He felt like a child. In fact, he was one, a baby.
A man stared back at him. One of his eyes was scarred, and he had an interesting moustache. His clothes seemed to be that of a man of importance. He was obviously a Saiyan. A man right next to him smiled, trying to get a look. "He's quite promising, my Lord, Paragus…"
"He's strong, just like his father. Yes, you'll grow to be a great warrior someday, my son… Broly."
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Legend awoke, finding that Mirage was slapping him in the face with her tail. "Get up, Legend… How long do you Saiyans sleep? It's bad enough that you have huge stomachs."
Legend pushed the tail away, groaning. "Mirage, I have having a dream…"
"That explains the noises. You were muttering to yourself things like 'father', 'Paragus', 'promising', 'great warrior', and 'Broly'."
Broly suddenly blinked, sitting up, as Mirage silently got off his bed. "Well… In that dream, I was a baby. My father was there, another man called him 'Paragus', and also referred to him as a 'Lord'. He… Called me 'Broly'."
Mirage shrugged, walking out the door. "Another vegetable pun. Your race is a strange one."
At the same time, Legend wondered what was up with Mirage's mood.
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As Legend came into the main room, Eggman Nega got off his chair, smiling eagerly. "Ah, Legend, I see Mirage decided to wake you… Or might I refer to you as 'Broly', from now on, eh? Security cameras can be handy. I won't call you by what this 'Paragus' named you, but if you want to think yourself as 'Broly', that's perfectly fine. Makes you seem more like a Saiyan, anyways. And Mirage is in the training room, you train with her. I should warn you… She's not very happy."
Legend crossed his arms. "I was wondering why she was in a different mood. What did you do?"
"I, uh… Kinda forced her to be nice on your first meeting, through remote controlled devices attached to her body, which connect to the nerves, and thus to the brain, and... It's too complex. She's never that nice around strangers, so I had to make sure you two started off well. That was a bit of a foolish move on my part, when it comes to Mirage's side."
Legend sighed, walking off to the training room. "I'll see what I can do, then."
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As Legend entered the virtual-reality training room, he quickly swerved his head to avoid a knife coming at him. Mirage was standing a few meters away, armed with a few knives, and a quarterstaff at her side. "Very good reflexes, for someone with no fighting experience whatsoever."
Legend smiled, remarking, "And you're a very good knife thrower, Mirage."
Mirage threw the rest of them, and Legend dodged easily. "Stop trying to compliment me. A good fighter does not compliment his opponent in the middle of a battle, except in a sparring match."
"And I suppose YOU know all about fighting?"
"More than you do. This chamber only simulates injures and other crap, so you can't really 'die' here. Thus, I can beat the crap out of you as much as I like."
On a good inspection of the chamber, it seemed to be simulating a grassy field, with a trench off to the east, and several large rocks.
Mirage's agility was surprising, as she dashed at Legend, quarterstaff armed, and she performed a few quick swings. Legend blocked these with his arms, and even caught the last one, snapping the staff in two. Mirage's anger-fueled attack continued, going for hand-to-hand combat this time, going in with several swift kicks. There was no point trying to throw or use Legend's body weight in any other way, as it was completely pointless, as Legend was just too damn big, much taller and bulkier than the average human. Legend blocked every one of these, much to her surprise. "My turn."
He turned the tables with a few kicks of his own, with enough power to force Mirage to dodge. His blocking speed was good, but Legend's kicks weren't that fast, but still enough to keep Mirage on her toes. Legend followed up with a few punches. Mirage noticed that his attacks were surprisingly fluid, more than any new fighter could do. Then, the shocker came. Practically on instinct, Legend opened his palm, firing out a green ki shot that Mirage barely rolled to the side to avoid, and it destroyed one of the rocks.
Mirage didn't believe it. It was almost as if Legend was learning to fight AS he fought, even though she wasn't teaching him anything! It was like fighting was instinctive for Saiyans. She knew she had to end this, and fast. But she couldn't get close to Legend. She dived into the trench, and kept moving. Legend was one step behind her, though, and he stayed on the side, firing more shots at her, blasting the trench and missing Mirage every time. Mirage suddenly stopped, making her a sitting duck, which Legend fired at. "Chaos Shield!"
Broly's shots hit something, all right. But it wasn't Mirage.
Mirage suddenly grinned, jumping out, and out stretching her hand towards Legend. "Chaos… TEMPEST!"
The emerald on her chest glowed, as some sort of 'arrow' seemed to shoot out, and hit Legend in the chest. Legend groaned in agony, as he felt something tear out of his torso. Well, not exactly 'tear', more like disappear, something that he couldn't describe. Then he saw what it was. Mirage was holding Legend's beating heart, grinning, as if she meant to say, "checkmate."
Legend faded out of consciousness.
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"Wake up, Legend…"
Legend groaned, as he woke up on the cold, hard floor of the deactivated VR chamber. Surely enough, the real room was bland and grey. Mirage tapped her feet impatiently. "I didn't expect you to put up that much of a fight. You didn't see my Chaos Shield and Chaos Tempest coming, though. If you want to know, the Chaos Shield will stop anything even beyond a nuclear blast. Chaos Tempest allows me to 'teleport' something nearby to another location nearby. And anything within anything is no exception, like body parts."
Legend got up, pretty interested. "Not bad. You're a good fighter. Seriously, what's with the sudden attitude change?"
"Before? Nega had the guts to mess with my mind. Now? You nearly kicked my ass, I'm actually impressed. If Nega didn't pre-program that skill into you, then it must mean he didn't need to. I think Saiyans are just naturally good at fighting, if your demonstration was any indication."
Legend got up, and Mirage opened the door, looking back at the Saiyan. "You know what? I actually think 'Broly' is the better name. 'Legend' is just too… Unoriginal."
Legend burst into laughter, crossing his arms. "I have NO idea on originality, but I sure like the name more. 'Broly' it is!"
As Broly followed Mirage out of the room, the hedgecat warned him, "We may be 'partners', but don't expect me to be nice to you because of that. Am I clear?"
"Crystal. But even so, you didn't say you WOULDN'T be nice to me, now, did you?"
Mirage was amazed that Broly was still joking around. Nega did tell her that he somehow was unable to modify his 'personality'; otherwise he would be no different than her. It's as if he looked up to her like a little brother would. She shrugged it off, however, leaving it for another time.
"Legend, Mirage! Come over here, there's something I want to show you!"
The pair dashed off to the main room.
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"Who are they?"
Broly stared at the screen, showing Chaos Combination fighting against Erazor. Nega explained, "This, is Chaos Combination, an organization formed from some of the world's greatest fighters. They are fighting against a genie, Erazor Djinn." He also did a quick summary of who each member they could see, was.
Mirage wasn't impressed. "Erazor isn't that tough. All he has for show is that sword of his."
Broly, however, when Erazor used the Seven World Rings, could sense his power. "I'm not so sure."
Indeed, Erazor suddenly transformed into Alf Layala-wa Layla, and some of his foes changed to match. And, two others entered the fray, which caught Broly's eye. "They're… Saiyans?!? Who are they?"
Nega gave his straightest answer. "Both survivors of the planet Vegeta's destruction. Son Goku and Vegeta. Goku's Saiyan name was 'Kakarot', though he bumped his head as a child and lived like a normal human, yet grew up to be a incredible fighter, and the first Super Saiyan in centuries. Vegeta is the son of the late king Vegeta, named after his father and the planet itself. Both of them have families and offspring of their own, and probably the only two surviving full-blooded Saiyans… You being an exception."
The name 'Kakarot' resonated with Broly's mind perfectly. "Kakarot… That name sounds oddly familiar."
Before Nega could ask about that, the battle was over. Mirage walked away, really having not given a damn. Broly smiled, shaking his head as he followed her. He had a feeling. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was good. "Hey, Mirage… I look forward to training with you again. After all… Who else to actually train me but you? You're the better fighter."
Mirage had a sudden smile on her face, as she opened the door. "Thanks… Broly." She had enjoyed that match as well, and wasn't willing to hold back next time. She was going to train him hard.
To Be Continued
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Author's Comments: Yep, I've gone and done it. Yes, this IS Broly from the DBZ movies (Quite frankly, he's the star of three of them). No, he's not as nuts at the moment. This is a slightly different version of Broly, one that WASN'T born with Goku crying right next to him, hours on end. Well, sort-of. It'll make sense when I explain it all. I'm going to make sure Harley/Breech gets her input in so I don't screw up. I just hope I didn't go TOO far with the meanness on Mirage's part.
Breech: "Just for the record, I have no idea about anything to do with DragonBall Z. I only know about Sonic."
Cronosonic: WHOA! Where'd you come from?
Breech: "Just finished reading this. It's pretty good! Also, being grammatically anal, I will advise that you double-check your work by reading it. Spell-checks don't always work for typos."
Cronosonic: So much for MS Word. Heh… She's put her approval stamp on Mirage's attitude, so that's all right. I hope you people enjoyed reading this!