Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z, or the characters of Akira Toriyama's creation. I do however, own the story, and the characters of my own creation.
Chapter 4
After Duke leaves his ship, he heads towards the bar that he saw Vulcan and Nappa fight in. When he gets there, he sits at the counter, and points his head at the rail.
"And what'll you have?" Says the bartender in a hearty mood.
"Um, what do you got besides ale and whiskey?" Duke says without raising his head.
"We got some of that new carbonated stuff, Vulcan likes that, and we got this stuff called "vodka" from Frieza's stores. It's pretty expensive though. I've not sold much of it yet."
"Give me some of that." Duke recalls back to when he was off planet training, and having vodka when he was trying to relax and ease his mind. The dry taste of martinis, and the soft taste of straight vodka. (Forgive me on the alcohol, I've never drank the stuff in my life, so if I'm wrong on how it would taste, I'm sorry. Maybe you can let me know in a review? Eh?) The bartender opens a bottle, and begins to pour it into a slightly grimy glass. Duke reacts without even lifting his head to see the glass. "No, not in that glass, it goes in a triangular shaped glass, one of the ones you don't use that often."
"Oh, uh, sorry. I'll put it in one of those." The bartender looks confusingly at Duke, but reaches down for one of the martini glasses Duke mentioned.
"And wash it out before you use it, I don't want to get sick before I put my plans into action," Duke says annoyed. He turns around and lifts his head up, and looks at all the Saiyans having a good time. Some are talking about recent missions, and how they single handedly murdered and conquered a planet by themselves, when in reality, they had a team that had been killed, and he was just lucky enough to deal with a small group. Some were tossing around their mates, and telling their friends how their kids were going to be the strongest Saiyans ever to walk the universe, while others talked about how they were soon going to be the strongest Saiyan themselves after all these missions Frieza had been sending them on.
Duke knew otherwise, and that Frieza has just been sending Saiyans out on all these missions in hope of ridding the universe of all the Saiyans without having to deal with them himself. Once again Duke begins to have a feeling that something bad is going to happen. He assumes that it has to do with his plan of killing the King. So he starts to go over his plan once more, and to smooth out any details that might get in the way. Just then the bartender put the martini glass down next to him, full to the brim with vodka.
"Here ya go buddy. Hope ya like it." The bartender looks at Duke with a smile, and holds out a hand for his payment.
"Took you long enough, I was able to listen in on five different conversations before you got me my drink." Duke turns and looks at the bartender with a scowl, and the bartender looks confused, as he had only taken 30 seconds to wash out the glass, and then pour the liquor into it. "Oh, sorry, forgot about my special skills. Time seems to go by so slowly when I'm spacing off. What do you have for food though?"
"Um, well, we've got some bovine meat, and some poultry. Raw, or cooked for a bit extra."
"Give me the chicken legs, and I'll cook them myself."
The bartender walks into the back, and then returns with the legs of meat. While he is in the back, Duke is struck in his head suddenly, as he sees something happening. He sees two Saiyans on a planet where they had just wiped out the inhabitants, approached from behind by Zarbon and Dodoria. He sees them call them by their names: Toral and Goral, and then attack them. Within a short amount of time, they kill the Saiyans, and take off. The bartender looks at Duke with concern. "Are you okay buddy? You look like you just saw a ghost."
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit of a headache."
"Oh, well, here ya go, eat your fill, I've got plenty in the back just waiting to be eaten."
"So this is old meat then?" Duke stares down the bartender, and the bartender backs up a couple of feet.
"Uh, I dunno, my assistants just keep it in the back." The bartender looks at him with a slight bit of fear in his eyes, but shrugs it off when Duke takes the meat off the counter, and uses his pyrokinetics to cook the leg. He rips his teeth into the leg, eating it quickly.
"It's good enough, give me a couple more, and I'll pay you." Duke downs his vodka, and turns to look at the bar scene again. In a few minutes, the tender returns with two more legs, and Duke repeats his pyro to cook them and eat them. He lays down the rest of Nappa's gold pouch, and walks out the door. "Keep the change, I'm sure Nappa's money is good enough in here." He says over his shoulder to the bartender.
Once out of the pub, Duke starts walking towards his ship. He goes over his plan one more time. He goes over how he will teleport inside the throne room, and then knock out all the guards with a psyche blast, and then attack the King. He goes over how if Vulcan or any of his team is inside, to have them chase him outside, and lead them to his ship just outside the city. There he will have Tarah and Vector ambush them. Also by then, S'kur should have located Asper, and eaten him so he could take on his form, and sneak into Vulcan's team, without him noticing. After Vulcan's team would have been taken care of, he would return to the throne room, and kill Vegeta.
In the event where the prince has returned, he would kill the King, and then if the prince posed a threat, or held thoughts similar to his father's, Duke would also kill him. In the event that Zarbon or Dodoria is inside the throne room, he would release his anger at them, and kill them with energy blasts. But the worst event would be if Frieza himself is in the king's chamber. He would have to teleport back to his ship, and retreat for the time being. If anyone else is in the throne room, he would either kill them, or knock them out with his psyche blast.
Just as he finalizes his plan, Duke has a strange feeling like someone had been following him. At first, he plans on just turning around and using a psychic blast at them and knocking them down so he could head back to his ship, but when he turns around, and is faced by a beautiful Saiyan woman with hair covering her face, he hesitates. Then he realizes that she knows something about his plan, but doesn't know how, til she opens her mouth.
"So there's another psychic, I was wondering who was trying to get into my brother's mind a few days ago." The woman looks at Duke, and takes a step forward. Duke just looks at her with surprise. "Oh, and I should give you some advice, you might want to close your mind off when you are going over a plan to overthrow the king in the middle of a crowded courtyard."
Duke looks at her with horror, realizing that he had given her easy access to his thoughts, and his plans. "Well, I must admit, I am surprised that you are psychic, I thought I was the only one."
"I thought that too, until a couple of days ago. I should have known it was you. I mean, I even looked at you, and you looked back." Tolan cracks her neck, and takes another step towards Duke. Duke steps back in reaction.
"Ah, well, from now on, I'll remember to keep my mind closed, I never know if there are other psychics around me." Duke raises up his arms, and tightens his gloves.
"What do you mean, 'from now on'? You're not going to be allowed to carry out your plan. I have no idea if you can even take the king, let alone replace him." Tolan raises concern in her voice, but also pushes her chest out in superiority.
"First, I know I can take the king, and second, I don't plan on taking over as king, I thought your brother or your mother would do that. Oh wait, it would have to be Vulcan." Duke's expression goes from focus, to sadness as he realizes an event that just happened on another planet.
"What do you mean, my brother? What do you know? Tell me dammit!" Tolan explodes with sudden concern for her mother.
"Well, you won't like it, but Zarbon and Dodoria just killed your parents on Hubon. Something I didn't foresee happening."
"And you can tell this? How?" Tolan erupts at Duke, and starts to charge at him.
"I saw it a few minutes ago in the bar. But I put it in the back of my mind, didn't think it would be important as I didn't expect to be here long enough to figure out the fate of the Saiyans, or to run into you."
"Well, are you sure they're dead?" Tolan asks.
"We shouldn't talk about this here, let's go to a less populated area, maybe just outside the city."
"Why, so you can just put off telling me what you know about my parents?" Tolan raises her energy level, and a few Saiyans begin to look at them in anticipation of a fight.
"Because I don't want to get into this here, too many ears that don't know exactly what I'm dealing with." Duke looks around at the Saiyans, and they step back a few feet. "Either that, or you let me go to the castle and kill the King like I have already planned to do."
"Fine, but you follow me." Tolan takes to the sky, and Duke follows shortly behind. They reach a plateau of dirt a few miles outside of the capital city. Duke lands first, and waits for Tolan to land.
"Okay, so we're here. About your parents, I'm sure because I was keeping an eye on them after my vision. I just sensed their energy drop to nothing, and Zarbon and Dodoria were nearby, so it was exactly as my vision had seen." Duke shifts his feet absently, subconsciously preparing for a fight.
"So you have visions? And you say my parents are dead, then prove it to me. Let me see this vision that you saw." Tolan loosens herself, and stares down Duke.
"I dunno, I'm not sure I can do that."
"Sure you can, just remember the vision, and then project your thoughts into my mind. I'll see it that way."
"Well, I'm still not sure it's the best idea. You just have to either trust me, or not. It's as simple as that."
"Fine, then I'll have to force it out of your mind." Tolan puts her right hand to her forehead, and closes her eyes. An aura forms around her, and she focuses on Duke's mind. Meanwhile, Duke is trying to prevent her from entering his mind, but she gets inside just before he reacts. Tolan dives into Duke, and she begins searching for the vision. She finds it shortly afterwards, knowing where to look for hidden thoughts in a mind. She herself hides many thoughts from time to time. But upon seeing the vision that Duke had, she falls to her knees. Duke rushes to her, feeling a sense of alien concern for her for some reason. Once he reaches her though, she bends backwards, and unleashes a burst of energy from her energy field. It knocks Duke back, and once he gains his footing again, Tolan is right on top of him.
She swings a right hand at his face, which connects, and sends Duke flying. He skids on the ground for a few hundred feet, til he reaches the cliff. Falling off, Duke smashes into the ground below. Duke rolls over as Tolan flies down after him, and smashes her feet into the ground, just where Duke was a moment ago. She then turns to face him, and pulls her hands back. Duke recognizes this, and puts his hands up. A pink shield suddenly appears, and deflects Tolan's energy blast. After the shield goes down, however, she flies in again and smashes her knee into Duke's stomach. He floats up a few feet, but stops himself just above her.
Duke aims his right hand at her, while reaching behind himself with his left, and fires two energy blasts. Tolan dodges the one aimed directly at her, and flies around him to unleash another barrage of attacks. But she collides with the second energy blast, and is hurled to the ground. Duke spins around, and puts both his hands together. A pink energy begins to form between them, and he then releases it at her. Tolan gets up just in time to see the blast before it hits her. Once it connects, a blinding pain starts at the impact location that soon reaches her entire body. After the psychic blast connected with Tolan, Duke flies up into the air, and reaches behind him as if he were grabbing a sword. Then a katana suddenly appears, one with a ¾ inch handle and cross stitching. The blade curves out 9 ft, and Duke holds it in an offensive stance.
Tolan then has recovered from the previous attack, and looks up at Duke. Seeing that he has summoned some sword, she tilts her head. Wondering to herself, 'Where did that thing come from?' Tolan throws off her scouter, and puts her right hand pointing at Duke. A ball of fire appears in front of it, and flies at Duke. Duke takes his katana, and focuses psychic energy around it. Once it is glowing pink, he swings at the ball of fire, hoping to bounce it back at her. But before the ball hits his katana, it transforms into a bird, and flies around the blade. Duke, shocked, is hit full force by it. Igniting in flames, he falls to the ground.
Tolan slowly walks over to him, and picks him up by his armor. She reaches for his katana, but Duke throws open his eyes, and Tolan is sent flying back. After Duke had flexed his energy, he levitates his katana up, grabs it with both hands, and pulls. The katana splits into two katanas, each possessing a four and a half foot blade. Tolan has sat up by this point, and sees Duke split his sword. She then charges in at him, and forces her energy at him. Duke only flinches at this, and then slashes at her chest with his left blade forming a down to up diagonal. Her armor easily shatters, and falls off in pieces. Following up his left blade with the right one, he makes a deep cut into her suit and chest.
Tolan flies back from the double slash, and smashes into the ground. Duke steps up to her, and looks down at her. She is just sitting up, when he points his left blade at her. Tolan stares at the point of the blade, and looks up it to his face. Duke smiles, and suddenly a burst of a fiery pink energy slams into Tolan. She is pushed into the ground, and a crater forms around her. Then the energy explodes. After the smoke clears, Tolan is laying unconscious at the bottom of the crater, armor shattered around her, her suit cut open, and a deep gash across her chest. Her jumpsuit is tattered and burned from the rebound attack from Duke, and still has cinders smoldering. Duke checks her energy level, and notes that she is just barely alive.
He considers healing her, but decides against it. He turns to his ship, and focuses on being next to it. He disappears in a flash of pink light.
------------------------------
:Sigh: Well, that's chapter four. Duke found one snag in his plan to take down King Vegeta, but he has managed to get past it without much problem. If you have any questions or concerns, email me or instant message me.