I was pleasantly surprised by the response of last chapter. Thanks to all who reviewed, it means a lot. Hopefully this chapter will bring about the same reaction.
Small columns of smoke wafted into the air from burning torches. Forming a straight path, the poles the burning lights sat on were placed across from each other. Behind the poles, a large gathering of Karanese were forcefully kneeling, their faces pressed right into the dirt, almost as if reinforcing the torches' path.
Standing in front of them with proud smirks on their faces were former soldiers of the Cold Army. Their armor gleaming in the sun as they stood confidently, almost as if they were gods among the downtrodden people.
At the end of the trail, a crude "throne" had been constructed. Its seat was at a normal height for someone to sit in, but the back of it stood at an obscene height; polished animal skulls with antlers sitting on top of it.
And on the seat of the throne was a lean purple alien, his bumpy head looking abnormally large. Black armor with dull yellow shoulder guards covered his torso as black spandex covered his legs. White gloves and boots covered his hands and feet, completing his outfit.
To say he thought much of himself would've been an understatement, at least from Gohan's eyes. He even held an arrogant look on his face as if he was the lord and master of the universe; obviously a sign that he had been part of the Cold Army.
Mai and Kail had led the saiyan and his human companions here, which is what he had wanted them to do. He had just wished that the people he was about to kill weren't so damn cocky. It got annoying since they would be sure to bring up the outcome of the Saiyo-Earthling War.
It was almost as if people were dying to mention that every time the opportunity came up.
"Well look what we have here," the purple alien announced, making all the Cold soldiers' smirks grow and the Karanese to shield away fearfully. "Looks like someone brought us back a couple runaways."
"He thinks we're bringing Mai and Kail back to them?" Videl asked rhetorically.
"Looks like," Gohan answered anyways.
"That guy has a pretty big head if he really thinks that."
"Which do you mean? Figuratively or literally?"
Taking a longer look at the smug alien, the Satan had no choice but to say "Now that you mention it, both."
Those comments, much to the little Karanese's dread, had been heard by the purple leader. "Watch your words, weaklings!" he shouted. "I am the Mighty Cui! Your heads will be mounted on my throne if you anger me further!"
"And why should we be careful of our words?" Gohan shot back. "I mean, you're nothing but Cold Army rejects from where I'm standing."
That caused all of Cui's men to growl in anger. Who did this guy think he was dealing with?!
"Videl, Tien, stand back," the saiyan said as he walked a few steps towards their opponents. "I'll deal with this quickly."
That was more than a couple of the soldiers could take as a burly humanoid alien and a thin purple reptilian one lunged at him, yelling war cries. As they drew closer to the insulting saiyan, the burly alien drew back his fist as the reptilian pulled his leg back.
And as the two soldiers threw their respective punch and kick, Gohan leapt into the air, avoiding the attacks. However, as the humanoid's punch merely flew through air, the purple alien's momentum from his kick caused him to continue with his attack, hitting his ally in the chest.
"Hey, watch it!" that burly alien shouted.
"If you weren't in the way, I wouldn't have to!" the reptilian alien shouted back. However, before either could continue their shouting match, a cry from the other Cold soldiers caused them to look up into the air just in time to see Gohan holding his hands over his head, his fingers straight and stiff, and land right in front of the purple alien, slamming both of his hands on his shoulders.
What happened next completely caught everyone by surprise, especially Gohan. His strike had merely been meant to stun his opponent so he could launch a combo attack at him. What he got though, was the purple alien collapsing at his feet, the whites of his eyes showing his failure.
Standing with his hands in midair, about where they had landed on the alien, Gohan blinked in astonishment. After awhile he said "You know, when I said you were all rejects, I had only meant that as an insult. I didn't think that was what you all actually were."
"Why you?!" the humanoid alien shouted as he charged up his energy and fired a ki blast at him. In response, the saiyan dropped one of his arms and raised the other, catching the beam easily.
"Really, you shouldn't bother trying," the Son boy criticized before pulling his arm back and throwing the captured ball of ki back at its creator. The ball exploded in the shocked man's face, sending him flying over the gasping crowd of Karanese and into a tree, his legs hanging limply out of it.
"Kill them all!" Cui shouted, causing his remaining five men to charge the saiyan. However, just as Gohan turned to meet them, Tien and Videl zoomed right past him on either side.
Swinging a fist, Tien nailed one of the Cold soldiers in his face, the force of the punch whipping his head back so violently that his neck broke. His lifeless body fell to the ground soon after.
Videl chose a different approach as she took on her first opponent, holding one of her arms out to her side and clotheslining her foe. As he fell behind her, Videl bent her arm, jutting out her elbow. Moving her other hand, she gripped her balled up hand and thrust her elbow down, ramming it right into her opponent's unguarded chest. When he hit the ground, he didn't get back up.
Not hesitating, the Satan girl caught sight of her next foe closing in on her, swinging a kick at her. Shifting her body, she dodged the blow and then latched her arms around the appendage. Using the alien's momentum, she swung him down, slamming into the ground.
Turning her body then, Videl swept her foe off the ground and threw him at a lunging alien, their bodies crashing into each other and dropping to the ground. Gathering her ki quickly, she held out her right arm and extended her index finger.
With a call of "Dodon Ray!" a thin bright beam fired from her finger and hit the two aliens, piercing their bodies with the attack.
Moving her head to aside, the Satan girl caught sight of Tien with the last soldier. He was behind the man with one of his arms wrapped around the alien's neck, his other arm making sure his opponent didn't break his lock. Then with a violent twist, he broke the man's neck, letting him drop to the ground harmlessly.
"Not bad," Gohan commented as he approached them, slightly amused. "But I do remember telling you two I'd take care of this."
"We couldn't let you have all the fun," Tien replied with a smirk, the same one appearing on Videl's lips.
At that point, all three turned their attention to Cui, who was now cowering on his throne, his eyes wide open with fear. "No…please…don't kill me…" he pleaded.
"Now he uses please," Videl said, putting both of her hands on her hips. "What do you think guys?"
"Well, he did ask nicely," Tien said, looking thoughtful.
That caused the Son boy to sigh a bit touchily. "You humans. You choose the strangest times to be nice."
"I take it the big, bad saiyan warrior wants to kill him," Videl said teasingly.
It was then that Cui spoke up. "A saiyan with humans? Didn't they beat your kind awhile—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a ki blast flew right into his head, incinerating it as well as making a nice circle in the back of his absurd chair. His decapitated body slumped in the seat as the neck smoldered.
Gohan's eye kept twitching even after he had blown the alien's head off, one of his hands still in midair. "Why, oh why, does everyone keep mentioning that?!" he shouted. "Everywhere I go, it's 'saiyans lost to humans, you must be cupcakes'. When will they get it through their heads that that doesn't matter!"
That was when two soft hands crawled onto the angry saiyan's arm, slowly lowering it. Once it was down, Videl moved in to stand next to him, looking at him in amusement. "Calm down Gohan, you know they're nobodies that can't think for themselves. You just have to make them learn the hard way is all."
Though still a bit peeved, Gohan looked down to the Satan girl and grumbled "I'm gonna have to run all over the universe to set the record straight for that damn detail to die."
"Well then, you're gonna have to do that after we bring Vegeta back," Videl replied before wrapping her arms around him, giving him a hug. "I'll even help you."
Gohan didn't answer, only moving one of his arms to wrap around the Satan girl. The two just stood in silence after that, not even noticing the bewildered looks the Karanese were giving them.
After a day's worth of maintenance and being treated as heroes, the group of saiyans and humans were leaving Karan with the blessings of its people. Though, it had been a bit difficult to get Erasa on the ship after she saw some of the Karanese children. She had carried on and on about how cute they were and wanted to know if she could keep a couple of them.
Fortunately, they managed to talk her out of it. A few mentions of having to care for them from Videl, mainly about a certain way of feeding and cleaning up after them, and the blonde had changed her mind. She wasn't too fond of using her assets for their intended use or seeing what came out their backsides. Of course, she never did realize that she didn't have to treat them like infants.
Who ever knew Erasa didn't have enough brains to make that connection?
Well, regardless if she did or didn't, the desired outcome had been achieved; they were back in space, childless, and making headway to the next location of the artifact they sought.
But that still didn't stop the discussion Gohan was forcing down Trunks and Goten's throats.
"You guys have had this more than I have," the older saiyan was saying, much to the distaste of the younger two. "But I've had all I can take about people calling the saiyan race pathetic."
"And what exactly are we suppose to do about it?" Trunks replied sarcastically. "It's not like we can change everybody's opinion about it."
"So you want to be badmouth every time the word 'saiyan' leaves our mouths? You want our pride to be rubbed in the dirt because we lost a war that we didn't even get to fight in?"
That had caught the oddly colored saiyan off guard. "That's not what—"
"You know, I'm tired of it too," Goten interrupted. "We're a great race and just because we lost one war, just one, we're the laughing stock of the universe! No one has received as much crap as we have for it."
Gohan smirked. Who knew his little brother would agree with him? He tended to not want to do much of anything if he didn't have to, that is outside of fighting. Even then, he lacked the motivation nowadays. Perhaps that period when they were struggling to survive back home had something to do with him even being active in the first place.
"Hey, I'm sick of it too, but what can we do?" Trunks tried to persuade. "Gather everyone in the galaxy and blast them to hell?"
A passing glance between the two Son boys made the last royal saiyan take back his statement. "Never mind, forget I said that."
"While I like that idea," Gohan began, slightly wistful, "we probably couldn't pull it off. What I did have in mind though, is that every time we get the chance to change that perception, we take it. If the humans want to go off saving everything that crawls, we go and help. That way we can prove our saiyan might and word will spread about it."
"That's a good idea," Goten agreed though there was a bit of reluctance in his eyes. Damn that laziness of his.
Trunks, however, seized on that feeling. "Why should we risk our necks for a bunch of people that can't even defend themselves? If they're not strong enough to do so, then they should be wiped out."
Gohan cocked an eyebrow. "Survival of the strongest, you mean?"
"Exactly."
"But if other races saw a saiyan backing down from a fight, then that whole wimp image would be attached even tighter," the older saiyan argued.
"That's true…" Trunks relented. "Fine, I'll help, but only until we get rid of that image. Then the universe can take care of its own butt."
"I can agree with that," Goten added.
"Fair enough," Gohan said. "Now go do whatever it is you two do."
The two teens didn't waste anytime taking that chance, heading down different hallways. While Gohan didn't know where Trunks was going, he was pretty sure Goten was heading towards the bedrooms. Probably to find Erasa, he assumed. His brother was becoming more and more of a sex fiend with every passing day.
Must've been the woman spell again. First himself and now Goten. Before anyone would know, every man would be under it, short of them being…well…interested in something other than women.
Perhaps those were the smart ones.