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Chapter 26
The flight so far had been silent except for the billowing of the wind as the human and saiyan prince streaked through the green sky of Planet Namek. The human warrior looked over at his unlikely ally and shook his head again at the thought the two were actually working together. It had only been a month and half ago that the two had fought to both of their near deaths on Earth, in which both warriors had sworn to kill the other if they ever got the chance. Only a few days ago, the two had been again locked in battle with each other and threatening to kill the other.
In the end though, Tien had been forced to spare the saiyan prince in order to steal back the four Namek Dragon Balls that the evil tyrant Frieza now possessed. It physically made the human sick to his stomach, but as his friend Nail had said, he must suffer the lesser of two evils for now if he wished to revive his fallen friends.
Looking in to his reluctant partner's face, Tien tried to figure out what the saiyan was thinking as they flew towards their mutual enemy's lair. However any emotions the prince felt at the moment were obscured by the constant apathetic mask he wore when he wasn't mocking his opponents in battle. Tien himself knew that same mask, for he often worn the same one while he was an assassin for the Crane Hermit. It was a defense mechanism to help keep from ever getting to close anyone, to keep yourself emotionally detached so you could do what you had to do to survive and complete the mission.
There was only one person that had gotten him to remove his mask, one person that had finally broken through to him. That person was also a saiyan, but one that was the complete opposite of the flame haired saiyan in front of him. Goku had shown him that it was ok to have emotions. That it was okay to care about other people. That it didn't make you weaker, that having friends and caring about them actually made you stronger.
Goku would no doubt have given the prince a second chance, a chance for him to take off his mask just like he had with Tien. It was because of the saiyan from Earth's influence on changing his own life that Tien had spared Vegeta in the first place. But did the saiyan really deserve a chance to change? The three eyed human knew it was slightly hypocritical for him to attempt to deny another person the same chance he had gotten at redemption, but Vegeta was different. He was responsible for the murder of their friends! Even Goku hadn't forgiven King Piccolo for the death of Krillin and Master Roshi at the hands of the Demon King and his minions.
Shaking off of his reflective mindset, Tien decided to focus his mind on the task at hand. According to Vegeta, Frieza would keep the Dragon Balls in his flagship, where the evil tyrant would also be present. Both warriors had to concede that they we're not strong enough to confront the insane lizard head on yet, so this mission would be one of stealth. They would have to infiltrate the ship, find where the Dragon Balls were being kept, and then distract Frieza and his men long enough to escape out of Frieza's grasp.
Tien wasn't sure of their ability to pull off this theft. For one, he would be completely reliant on Vegeta to guide him through the ship and get past the ship's security and guards. Trusting the saiyan prince made the human warrior more than a little apprehensive. The only thing that Tien could see that stood in the way of the flame haired saiyan betraying him while they were in enemy's territory was the hope that Vegeta thought he couldn't escape with his life without the triclop's help.
"We should proceed on foot from here," stated Tien emotionlessly, finally breaking the silence that had hung over them for the entire flight. All of he received in the form of a reply was a grunt and the two halted their flight and quickly descended towards the ground.
Once their feet had touched down, Tien quickly asked, "You have mastered hiding your energy haven't you?"
Laughing at the human, Vegeta replied, "Of course I have! If you weakling humans can master a technique, so can a Saiyan Elite!"
Just rolling his eyes, Tien motioned for the saiyan to follow him as he took off running full speed towards where he sensed the enormous dark energy that he knew belonged to Frieza. The demon's energy signature was unlike any Tien had ever felt. The only one he had ever felt that had even remotely came close to containing the same overwhelming repugnance and vileness that the space tyrant's energy held was Vegeta's.
The two ran for several minutes, swiftly moving over the hilly terrain that covered the entire Planet. The blue grass under their feet waved furiously as they made contact with the ground, but they only remained there for a spilt second before bounding forward again leaving gusts of wind in their wake. After a few more minutes of running, they two unlikely allies reached the edge of a steep cliff.
Abruptly halting, Tien quickly grabbed hold of the saiyan warrior and dragged him to the ground. The prince was caught off guard and he snarled as the human slammed him hard into the ground. Vegeta opened his mouth to scold the idiotic human but Tien quickly hushed the saiyan and then motioned for him to peer over the cliff.
Still scowling from the human's foolish actions, the saiyan glanced over the edge to see what was so important that they stop immediately. Below where the lay, was a lagoon of the murky green water that dotted the surface of the planet and beyond the lagoon was the large round spaceship that was the signature design of the Cold family. The ship, which rested on the edge of a peninsula that stretched out partially into the lagoon, was surrounded by several guards who were adorned with the standard uniform of the Planet Trade Organization.
"If I hadn't stopped you, you would have run right into the open and we would have been caught," whispered Tien. "It looks like you're not such a monster of sensing energy as you thought."
"Shut up," seethed the saiyan as he slunk back down beside the human warrior.
"So, time for you to do your part and get us inside undetected," said Tien.
"I know, and I already know how to get us in," retorted Vegeta before smirking maliciously, "but I don't think you'll like it."
"Just spit it out," hissed the three eyed warrior.
"Well, from what I can see there are four guards around the ship," relayed Vegeta. "In order to get inside the ship, we're going to need two uniforms with helmets in order to hide our face while we traverse the inside of the ship. However, we can't just pick out two of the guards because it is very likely well been seen or the other guards well notice their comrades absence. So, we're going to have to take out all four of them at once. I figure your technique that allows you to make clones of yourself will fit the bill nicely for the task."
"Alright, let's do it," responded Tien with a second's hesitation.
The saiyan's eyebrow arched in surprise. "Really, I expected you are your righteous self to not want to kill those pathetic weaklings if you could help it."
Shrugging his shoulders, Tien curtly replied, "They work for Frieza, so they're no innocents. Besides it has to be done."
"Alright then I'll take the one to the South side of the ship," said Vegeta diverting his attention from his partner to sneak a look over the edge again to gauge the position of the guards. "You take the other three. Now hurry up and use your technique! We don't have all day!"
"If you were paying attention, you would have noticed that already had." The flame haired saiyan turned his head away from Frieza ship to find that three Tiens were crouched next to him. Again, Vegeta was caught off guard by the human's initiative. After spending the majority of his life being forced to work with imbeciles that had to be told everything, it was strange to work with someone that was already ahead of the curve.
"Alright, count to 60 in your head," ordered Vegeta. "When you get to 60, that's when we strike." The three Tiens all nodded before they all phased out of sight in unison, leaving the saiyan alone atop the cliff. Starting the mental timer to 60, Vegeta swiftly moved down the side of the cliff, and then ducked behind a large rock outcropping.
Quickly surveying the scene before him through a small gap in the rocks, the saiyan prince examined his prey. The man was a humanoid, similar in appearance to humans and saiyans, with the standard white armor with tan shoulder and thigh guards along with a long sleeve black undershirt and pants. The soldier also possessed a white helmet with a black visor, which was currently raised exposing his face. At the moment the guard was standing slightly turned away from where Vegeta was hiding and the rest of the guards had their back turned to his unfortunate victim. Unfortunately for the lackey, his power level was nowhere near high enough to challenge Vegeta's newly improved power.
"60," muttered Vegeta before he sprung from his hiding place faster than his victim could see. Before the guard's brain had computed that it had seen a slight blur in the corner of his eye, the saiyan prince had already broken his neck. The lifeless body crumpled to the ground and landed slightly on the prince's boot. Roughly kicking the body away, Vegeta scanned the area around to see the three Tiens standing over their own respective corpses.
One of the humans grabbed a body, which was also humanoid looking and had a helmet, and carried it over to where Vegeta stood over his victim. Once the three Tiens got there they quickly merged into one being again and quickly began taking off the armor of the corpse he was carrying. The saiyan prince swiftly stripped his corpse as well and took off his old, destroyed armor before slipping on the armor of the dead guard. While he didn't prefer wearing black under his armor, Vegeta decided he could bear it for now.
Looking over, the saiyan saw that Tien had already put on his newly acquired armor over his normal clothes and was about to put on the helmet before asking, "How are we hiding the bodies?"
After pulling the helmet off of his latest victim, Vegeta unceremoniously kicked the naked corpse at his feet into the lagoon. Shaking his head at the saiyan's disrespect for the dead, Tien slipped on the helmet in his hands and picked up the body at his feet. Levitating off the ground with the body slung across his back, the human warrior swiftly but silently flew over the middle of the lagoon and gently slid the body into the green water.
Suddenly, there was a large splash to Tien's left and glanced over to see one of the guards that still possessed their armor slowly sinking into the watery depths. Then out of the corner of his eye, Tien saw a green, lizard-like body fly overhead and crash into the water behind him. Turning his attention back towards the shore, the human warrior glared at the smirking saiyan before phasing out of sight and reappearing inches away from the saiyans face.
"Are you trying to get us caught?" hissed Tien.
Shrugging the prince replied, "Your way would have taken too long. Besides, they wouldn't have been able to hear a splash that small."
"For both our sakes, I hope you're right," said Tien. "Now let's get on with this."
Again getting a grunt as a response, Tien watched somewhat amusedly as the saiyan was somehow able to get his helmet on over his upright hair. Wondering where all of his hair was hidden underneath the helmet, which looked like a perfect fit, Tien followed Vegeta's example and slid the visor down over his face and they both flew to the top of the ship.
Upon arrival, the fighter from Earth was surprised to see that a small portion of the roof was actually retractable, allowing for easy access in and out of the ship. Glancing over at his disguised partner, Tien noticed that the saiyan had already landed at the edge of the half open roof and motioned for him to join him. Once the human had touched down, the saiyan leaped over the edge and down into the ship, with Tien following him shortly afterwards.
Once the duo had both landed at the bottom of the ship, Tien heard the saiyan whisper to him, "Right now, we are on the very first level of the ship. There's no doubt in my mind that Frieza will be keeping the Dragon Balls inside of his personal room, up at the top level. We'll have to make our way up there, and cause some sort of distraction to make Frieza leave the room."
"Why didn't we just stop at the top level on the way down here?" questioned Tien, probing to seem if Vegeta was attempting to set him up.
"Frieza doesn't want just anyone being able to get immediate access to his level, which were the top level soldiers such as Zarbon and Dodoria are quartered," answered Vegeta as he began to walk forward. "Hopefully, they haven't changed the access code since I was last here."
"And if they have?"
Vegeta stopped and pivoted on his heel to face the human behind him. Even with the dark visor covering his face, Tien could still see the smug smirk underneath it. "Then I guess we'll just have to go to Plan B." The saiyan chuckled before turning back around and heading down the curved hallway. With a sigh and a roll of the eyes, the warrior from Earth followed after his saiyan accomplice.
They traversed the purple walled and curved passageway without seeing a soul and Tien was surprised how few energy signatures he sensed inside of the ship. When Vegeta had described the ship to him before, the saiyan had mentioned that the ship could fight hundreds of men inside of it. Yet Tien could only sense a couple dozen other energy signatures besides Frieza's. Most of them seemed to be congregated together above them on the next level in what Tien guessed to be the mess hall. The number puzzled him. He didn't think he, Vegeta, and the various Nameks had killed that many of Frieza's men so far in their war against the sadistic space overlord.
There was only one viable answer to where all of those soldiers could be. They were out scouring the planet in search of the remaining Namekians and the three Dragon Balls they had hidden from Frieza's wrathful eyes. Tien only hoped that Guru wouldn't be found thanks to Frieza's shortage of scouters thanks to Moori. He was confident though that as long as Frieza himself didn't show up there, Nail would be able to handle any trouble that headed their way with easy. So far, the lone warrior of his people had been the strongest person Tien had fought while on Namek.
"Alright we're here," said Vegeta, bringing Tien out of his thoughts. The human warrior found that he and Vegeta were standing in front of the large white door. To the side of the door, was a keypad, which was marked with strange markings that Tien had never laid eyes on before. Besides the alien figures though, Tien was surprised how much alike this elevator was to the ones on Earth.
As Tien looked over the elevator, Vegeta bent over and quickly entered a 10 digit code into the keypad. Watching in anticipation, the human warrior immediately knew their entire plan was in jeopardy when a red bar appeared above the keys. He heard the saiyan prince swear before quickly entering in the same code again, just to be sure he had put it in the right way. Again the red bar flashed.
"Damn it!" cursed the saiyan through his visor as he tried another, older code. The red bar once more appeared above the keypad and Vegeta slammed his fist into the wall in anger.
"So much for Plan A," lamented Tien. "So what's this Plan B you were talking about earlier?" The human warrior could almost feel the heat from the death glare he was receiving from the saiyan's onyx eyes behind his dark visor.
"We blast our way in!" snarled the saiyan as he pointed his hand at the door and began gathering energy in the palm of his hand.
"No!" exclaimed Tien as he leaped forward and grabbed the saiyan's arm and forced it away from the door. "You'll get us both killed!"
"Get your hands off of…"
"Shh!" hushed Tien raising his hand up to signal to Vegeta that they needed to be silent. The saiyan was still fuming and roughly jerked away out of the human's grip but he remained quiet none the less. An eerie silence hung over the two as they stood there listening, and the silence was shattered by the most unwelcomed sound imaginable at the time. Footsteps.
The sound of boots echoing off the marble floor of the passageway up ahead caused an involuntary shiver to run down Tien's spine. His muscles involuntarily tensed, anticipating a fight in case their disguises failed to fool their enemies. Stealing a glance at his partner, Tien could see the tension in the saiyan's muscles as the sound of footsteps approached the bend in the corridor rapidly. Both human and saiyan put their best game faces on and prepared to face the first true test of their charade.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of simply hearing the thud of boots against marble, three soldiers walked around the bend in the hallway. Two looked like exact mirrors of each other; they both wore greyish-blue breastplates along with tan shoulder spikes and thigh guards. Underneath their armor, they wore skin-tight, black undershirts and pants along with a white helmet similar to the ones Vegeta and Tien were currently wearing. The only difference between the two was the color of their faces beneath their uplifted visors, with one being pale skinned and the other dark skinned.
These two men flanked the third man, who seemed to be the leader of the three as the other two appeared to act as bodyguards for him. The man in the middle looked remarkably like a human to Tien, possessing white skin similar Tien's own and upright blonde hair which had been made into a flat-top. The leader wore a black breastplate as his armor with brown shoulder spikes and matching thigh protectors. Underneath his armor, he wore a similar undershirt as the ones his bodyguards possessed but instead of being colored black, it was a deep purple. Unlike his lackeys though, the leader only wore a purple speedo, instead of pants. Tien had to force down the urge to gag as the blonde man and his goons walked up to the duo.
"Well what do we have here?" asked the blond one mockingly as he and his flunkies closed in on the disguised human and saiyan. "What is this your first day on the job? You two should know not to just wander the halls."
Tien simply stood there, not knowing what to say to Frieza's soldier. Tien knew that he was far stronger than all three of the men in front of him combined but they had to maintain their disguises for as long as possible. However, he had no idea how to pretend to be one of Frieza's men. His only hope was that…
"Captain Namole," said the saiyan while distorting his voice by raising it slightly. "We were just on our way to the mess hall."
"You should already be in the mess hall," the man named Namole responded. "Unless you two are assigned to be on duty instead. Is that the case?"
"No," was all the response the saiyan gave the captain.
"What was that!" shouted the Captain. "I better hear a Sir in the next five seconds!" Tien stole a glance at the saiyan and saw that Vegeta's body was trembling in anger at being forced to grovel for this weakling.
"No sir," snarled Vegeta. Tien was afraid that the blonde captain wasn't going to accept that, but appeared that he did as he nodded.
"That's better," said Namole. "You two can use the lift after us. We have to go to the third level and I guarantee you don't have access to that level."
Tien perked his head up at the blonde man's words. If they were going to the third level, he would be able to watch as Namole typed in the correct code and their problem would be solved. It seemed that Vegeta had come to the same conclusion, as he didn't retaliate when Namole and his thugs brushed past him. However, as the three passed through Tien and Vegeta, Namole looked back with a smirk on his face which quickly changed to one of confusion as his eyes drifted down to the floor.
"You," he said as quickly turned back to face them. The captain raised his hand and pointed at Tien. "What are those?" he demanded as his finger slowly lowered until it was pointing at Tien's shoes. The human looked down and realized that he was still wearing his normal, black boots with yellow laces that went with the clothes he had on underneath his stolen armor, not the standard issue, white PTO boots.
"These are my spare pair," Tien quickly lied. "I couldn't find my other ones. I'm sorry sir."
"Those boots aren't part of any standard uniform," said Namole as a suspicious look formed on his face. "I think you two need to follow me to…"
Out of the corner of his eye, Tien watched as Vegeta phased out of sight and then reappeared behind one of bodyguards. The saiyan moved faster than any of the three soldiers could follow and before any of them knew it, Vegeta's gloved hand was protruding out of their comrades' chest. Namole and his remaining bodyguard watched in shock and horror as their ally opened his mouth to scream but found that he could not, the saiyan having punctured a lung with his strike.
Cursing himself for his carelessness and the saiyan for his rashness, Tien sprung on the two remaining men before they regained their senses. A quick right hook to his temple took care of the one named Namole, who crumpled to the floor from the force of the blow. Spinning around, the human warrior delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of the other bodyguard's head. The brute was sent flying into the wall and Tien heard a sickening cracking sound as the man's head slammed into the wall. The lifeless body then slowly slid to the floor, a streak of blood smearing the wall as it went.
Looking over his shoulder, Tien saw that the saiyan was standing over the bodyguard he had killed. Dark red blood covered the saiyan's arm, standing out even more on the black undershirt and white glove that Vegeta wore. At his feet, a pool of blood was forming from where it had oozed out of the hole in the dead man's chest.
"You idiot!" snapped Vegeta. "Why didn't you change your damn boots? We had our way in and now it's ruined thanks to your idiocy!"
"I guess I just left them on since I have my normal clothes on underneath all this armor," said Tien to himself more than to the saiyan. "What about you!? Did you have to go and make such a mess!? There's no way we'll be able to clean up all of that blood! Even if we manage to hide the bodies, the next person that walks around the corner will see that giant pool of blood and sound the alarm!"
Snarling, the saiyan prince spat, "I should have known that no pathetic human could have been an adequate ally." Tien was about to shout back at the saiyan when, in his peripheral vision, he saw the blonde man move slightly as he let out a groggy groan.
"Look, you can't even finish off this weakling!" accused Vegeta. Raising his arm, the saiyan prepared to strike down the insignificant soldier.
"No!" exclaimed Tien as he jumped in and stopped the saiyan's attack before it could connect. "We need him alive."
"And I had thought you had gotten over your soft-heartedness," growled Vegeta before shaking off the human warrior.
"No, he's the one that knows the passcode to the third floor that we need," explained Tien. "We can't get that information from him if he's dead can we?"
The saiyan huffed, but Tien could sense his energy lower and he let out a sigh of relief. Walking over until he stood above the blonde humanoid, Tien delivered a quick punch to the disoriented man to again knock him unconscious. Grabbing the man and slinging him over his shoulders, the human warrior turned back around and nodded towards the two corpses beside him.
"Go ahead and grab those two," he ordered. "We may not be able to cover up the blood, but it might give them pause when there are no bodies lying around."
"I will not condescend to such grunt work," retorted the prince. "Just use your technique and you can carry all three."
"You've already got blood all over you," reasoned Tien. "No reason for both of us to look guilty now is there." A string of muttered curses shortly followed Tien's statement, but he also heard the sound of the two bodyguards being thrown on to the saiyan's back. "Now we need to go somewhere we're we won't be found. Is there anywhere on the ship like that?"
For a few seconds there was no response, then the saiyan simply walked past Tien in the opposite direction they had come from. Figuring that was the only response he was going to get from the saiyan, Tien shrugged his shoulders, adjusted the unconscious man on his back, and began after Vegeta.
The two walked for a minute down the hallway, though it felt like an eternity for Tien. He was in constant fear that they would run into another one of Frieza's soldiers and because of the bodies they both carried on their backs, it would be difficult for them to stop him before he sounded the alarm. The three eyed warrior constantly kept sensing out exactly where every single energy signature on the ship was. Luckily for them, it seemed that no other men where on this level but Tien was still anxious until Vegeta finally stopped in front of a door on the inside wall of the ship.
After pressing a button on the wall, the metallic door slid open and the Vegeta walked into the room with Tien right behind him. As soon as he walked into the room, the saiyan dropped his cargo onto the floor where they landed with a thud. Looking over his unwilling partner, Tien saw that the saiyan was almost now completely covered in the blood of the two unfortunate guards to have crossed paths with them. The breastplate that the saiyan wore now had trails of the red liquid streaked across it and the gloves he wore were completely soaked in the blood of their victims. The sad thing for Tien was that he knew based from the saiyan's uncaring attitude about his blood-stained appearance that this was not the first time Vegeta had been covered in the blood of his enemies.
Looking around, the human warrior saw that the room Vegeta had led him to was decorated in the same fashion as the corridor, with purple colored walls and floors which were made out of a marble-like material. It seemed obvious to him that Frieza's favorite color had to be purple at this point. Along the left-hand side of the room was a wall that seemed to have storage units installed on it. In the middle of the room where several benches The right-hand side of the room had several sinks and a shelf of towels underneath each of them with a waste bin on the far right side of the room right before a gap in the wall which Tien guessed led to the a showering area.
The sound of gloves snapping caught Tien's attention and he saw that his partner had removed both of his blood stained gloves and he watched as Vegeta tossed them into the disposal bin. The saiyan then removed his helmet and set it on one of the benches before proceeding to begin removing his armor.
"What are you doing?" demanded Tien as he sat the unconscious Namole on one of the benches and took off his own helmet. "We don't have time to take showers Vegeta."
"You're the one that said I shouldn't be walking around covered in blood," replied Vegeta with a scowl. "So I'm changing into some non-bloody clothes if you don't mind. Just make sure he doesn't wake up and start screaming his head off."
This time it was Tien's turn to grunt as a response and he turned his back on the saiyan to give him a little privacy while he changed. Deciding to busy himself with finding something to restrain their captive, the human warrior began poking around the storage units. He found that they all contained spare suits of armor and full body spandex suits. Unfortunately, none of the units contained anything he could use to restrain Captain Namole with.
Walking back over to where the unconscious man lay, Tien thought back to his days as an assassin and he remembered a strange exotic technique that the Crane Hermit had once used. His former master had restrained the man they were torturing with ki ropes that he had created himself. That had always been Master Shen's greatest strength; while he may not have been very strong physically Tien had to admit he was excellent at ki manipulation.
Picturing his old master's technique in his mind, Tien used his ability of Mimicry to replicate the technique. He pointed at the unconscious soldier with two fingers, his pointer and middle fingers, and gathered energy in the tips. Then, after releasing the energy, six golden bands of energy shoot forth and latched themselves over Namole's prone body, hovering only a mere centimeter above the man's skin as not to burn the captive unless they tried to move. One was around his feet, another over his thighs, the third across the middle of Namole's chest, two went around each of his wrists, and the last latched itself around the captain's throat.
"Hum, that's a handy trick." Tien looked up to see that the saiyan prince had changed into a navy blue, full body spandex suit. Picking up a white breastplate with no shoulder spikes or thigh guards, the human watched as Vegeta slipped on his armor and then put on new white battle gloves.
"Where do such a do-gooder as yourself learn such a technique," asked the saiyan mockingly as he walked over to the sink and grabbed a bucket underneath and then began to fill out up with water. Ignoring the saiyan, Tien sat down on the bench across from their innate prisoner as he mentally prepared himself for what they were about to do. He had thought this part of his life was behind, never would have imagined a situation where he would have to torture another creature again after he left the Crane Hermit.
Yet here he was, about to help one of the people he hated most in this universe torture information out of this Namole character. The thought revolted him, but he knew that this had to be done. No matter how disgusted and ashamed he was for doing it. As Vegeta walked over to Namole with the bowl of hot water in his hand, the only thought that entered through Tien's head was of how disappointed Goku and the rest of his friends would be if they knew about what was about to happen.
The sound of splashing water filled the room as the saiyan poured the hot water directly onto his victim's face. Tien watched as the water jarred the man awake, sputtering and coughing as he attempted to remove the water that had snuck into his throat and was being forced by gravity down his throat. Reacting as any person would after being suddenly woken up, Namole attempted to sit up but the ki restraints that Tien had formed around him held him back.
Bile rose in the human's mouth as his the smell of burning flesh penetrated his nose as his energy ropes began to sear the flesh of the captain as soon as his skin made contact with them. The man attempted to scream out in agony, but Vegeta was prepared for this and quickly thrust a rag into his mouth. Tien heard the man gag and then as his body jerked again because of the involuntarily reflex, he was again scorched by ki bonds that confined him to the bench. The muffled howl of suffering pierced Tien's ears like spears and nausea began to overtake him as he saw the burnt flesh on the captain's legs before averting his eyes away from the scene in front of him.
"Hello there Namole," said the saiyan as he towered over his prisoner. Tien could almost hear the excitement in the prince's voice at the prospect of getting to torment this poor soul. "You know who I am and you know that if you even twitch a muscle you'll be burned be these energy restraints that my associate created.
Muffled sounds of what Tien could imagine were pleas for mercy came from the bound and gagged man as Vegeta mocked him. Even when he had tortured people before for the Crane Hermit, he had never enjoyed it. It was sickening to him how his loathsome partner seemed to enjoy and derive amusement for the suffering of the man beneath him.
"All I want from you Namole is the passcode to the third level of the ship. If you give me I will make your death quick and painless," promised Vegeta. "So what's it going to be?" Tien prayed that the captain would give the saiyan the passcode for his sake as much as Namole's, but only the sound that could be heard now was the slight hum of the ki bonds that surrounded the stubborn soldier.
Shrugging, Vegeta casually said, "Fine have it your way."
A snapping sound caused the human warrior to look up from the spot in the floor he had been boring a hole in. Holding back the urge to vomit, Tien saw that the saiyan had kicked the man's elbow, causing his arm to break and the bone to stick out. Again, Namole's reflex to the pain betrayed him as his body contorted in reaction to the pain causing him to slam once again into the energy ropes. The shriek of pain from his arm being broken intensified as the captain was seared by Tien's technique.
Not satisfied with the grunt's current level of pain, Vegeta drove his elbow into the man's sternum, collapsing Namole's ribcage in the process. Namole's body jerked upward as his back was forced to arch itself in response to the saiyan's elbow being thrust into him. This action simply drove the ki bonds deeper into the man's body, actually slicing into the man's wrists, legs, and neck. When his body finally collapsed back into the bench, Tien could see that his restraints had actually sliced about an inch deep into Namole's body everywhere the energy ropes where except for the chest.
"So, are you ready to tell me the passcode now?" asked Vegeta with a sneer as he looked down at his burnt and broken captive. The exhausted prisoner weakly nodded, and he was rewarded for his cooperation with his chin being scorched by restraint around his bleeding neck. Tien watched with disgust as the saiyan reached down and plucked the gag out of the man's mouth.
Tien listened with relief as Namole hoarsely related the passcode to his saiyan accomplice. It sounded to the human warrior that the man's lungs had collapsed and every single breath was a struggle for the dying captain, much less speaking words. It appalled the distraught warrior that even as their captive relayed the information they wanted from him, he was still being tormented because of their actions. Forcing down his disgust with himself, Tien stood up and grabbed his helmet before saying.
"Alright Vegeta, we got what we needed, now end his suffering and…" Tien's sentence was cut short as suddenly a giant mass of energy entered within his sensory range. He grabbed his head in a vain attempt to stop the throbbing that was now occurring because of the sensory overload of the sudden introduction of the powerful energy.
"What is that!?" demanded Vegeta as he to felt the new energy.
"Maybe it's Goku," thought Tien aloud. "He is scheduled to arrive today."
"Kakarot!? There's no way that enormous power is that low level trash!"
Tien had his doubts about his guess as well. If that was so Goku, how did I get so strong? Bulma had informed him that he had been in the hospital until Yajirobe brought him a senzu bean and then he had immediately sent off for Namek. Now that the energy had gotten closer though, the human warrior was able to get a better picture of what he was dealing with.
"No it's not Goku," he informed Vegeta. "There are five of them."
Slowly, the saiyan's expression changed from one of confusion to one of terror.
"No…no not them!" the saiyan stammered in horror, surprising Tien. He had never seen the saiyan act like this.
"Who's them?" asked Tien apprehensively, not sure if he wanted to know who these people were that seemed to scare the hell out of the usually fearless warrior.
The sound of a raspy chuckle suddenly rang out in the room. Slowly turning to look behind him, the human warrior saw that it was Namole who was laughing. The man was barely clinging to life and yet he was holding on only so he could laugh in the face of his tormentors.
"It's the Ginyu's," he answered hoarsely, "and they're here to end both of your miserable existences." As he uttered the last syllable, a tremor ran up Namole's body and Tien watched still in shock from the announcement of this new threat as the soldier passed from this world.
Well there it is. I know this chapter was a bit dark and graphic, but I felt that it was necessary to help show differences between Tien and Goku and how much more internally conflicted Tien is with some of the choices he makes. I will let you know that their won't be many of those type of scenes except when I think it fits into the plot like it did in this chapter. I won't be putting any power levels in this chapter because Vegeta and Tien didn't really have to exert any real effort to beat the men they fought in this chapter.
Also, King Kakarotto and I have gotten Namole to be a real character! I was insipered by writing this chapter to get him added to the list of character s on the site and I and my fellow Neo Z Fighters were able to accomplish this goal. Good job everybody!
Now for an announcement. I have been asked to join forces with King Kakarotto 98 and The Forgotten Phoenix in order to help them bring to life their amazing story Sins of the Father. It's a great story about how Goku loses his memory again during the battle with Raditz and is brought back into the space with him and eventually about Gohan's epic quest to get his father back. If you have not read this story yet, I would strongly suggest that you do. It has legions of reviewers; we almost have 300 reviews with only 5 chapters! Not only because I am now a part of the team that writes this fic do I recommend it but because this is one of the truly great stories this site has to offer. I was merely a fan before I was offered to join the SotF team and I still would have recommended it to anyone looking for a great, original story. Now I know a lot of you are probably thinking that taking on this new project will keep me from this story but I swear to you it will not.
Due to this, EC has now become a weekly-updated story. I'm currently looking for a beta reader so that my grammatical and spelling mistakes will be corrected; I will also be hopefully updating Zarbon's Rebellion once every two weeks.
Now that I'm done with my shameless plug, thanks for reading and your continued support of me and this story. As always you guys are the best readers an author could ask for and I'd love to hear your feedback in a review. They are the only way I get to hear you, the readers', thoughts on the chapter and the story as a whole so I strongly encourage everyone that reads this to review. Again, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of the Earthling Chronicles. Until next time you guys!