Dragon Ball Z
Gohan: Protector of Earth
Chapter 21:
The four walled prison disappeared in an instant. The once darkly lit sadistic chamber was now filled with the inextinguishable light of a mother's fury. The two guards lay broken on the ground, only a second away from committing a cardinal sin, they now lay afflicted from the act they planned to commit, unaware up until the final moments of what had transpired. With her child once more in her arms, with the shackles of her despair shattered with the prison, there was nothing to keep her prisoner. She slowly walked out of the hole in the wall where the large door once stood, her tail dragging behind her, and her brightly golden hair standing on end reaching for the sky. The cries of the baby halted immediately upon the embrace of his mother, calmed by the sense of her resolve and newfound strength. Alarms sounded all over the complex, causing the changeling guards to run frantically to and fro searching for the disturbance. Unaffected by the blaring signals, the mother with child in hand continued to walk down the lone hallway. One by one, the saiyan blasted every guard that crossed her path, in the process deflecting energy beams shot from all directions and keeping her child calm from the panic. Finally reaching the end of the hallway, she stood trying to decipher the location of a possible space ship to escape from this planetary hell.
"Stop, don't take another step or we will kill you and your child," yelled a guard. The guard shook at the sight of the saiyan, hoping she would give up but knowing he would not be so fortunate.
Ten meters away from him stood several more guards, all ready to take down the woman and her child. Slowly, she turned around, and eyed her obstacles.
"Do any of you know where I can get a space ship?" she calmly asked.
"Ha, that's the last thing you have to worry about now," yelled one of the guards arrogantly. There are plenty of ships outside but you will never get there in time. You have no chance of getting past us all. You are just a puny saiyan, and a female at that."
The saiyan lifted her arm and aimed her palm at the soldiers.
"Thanks for the help."
An energy beam emitted quickly from her hand, washing over the guards and erasing any evidence of their existence. Before they could blink, the guards were gone with half of the building, exposing the outside sky. It was the dead of night on the planet, the darkness and despair of it eerily similar to the feeling from inside of the dungeon. The saiyan scanned quickly for a ship or any other form of escape. The desert planet did not have much in the way of life, filled endlessly with rocks and sands. Hidden under a large boulder about a mile away the saiyan spotted a small space craft, probably that of a saiyans. She rushed there with child in hand and frantically started to push buttons hoping to get the craft to start. It was beaten and rusted from years of neglect, but it was also her only hope. The destruction she had caused moments earlier alerted the rest of the planet of her escape. Within a minute, every changeling would find her, but her worries were with him. He could not find her if she hoped to escape.
In a large office a mile away, he sat on his mock throne, sipping wine and relaxing from the events earlier in the day. He could hear the explosions and the chaos that was taking place, but he did not seem to take notice. Lair burst through the door quickly, interrupting the general's relaxation.
"General, it is the saiyan. She has somehow escaped from the chamber."
"Really, you do not say," replied the general indifferently.
"Yes, she has already killed many of the guards and soon she may be able to escape from the planet." Gasping for breath, Lair tried to continue but was interrupted.
"Amazing is it not. Just an hour ago she was basically dead, a walking corpse really. She had given up all hope and had resigned herself to death. And now, mere minutes later, she is killing one guard after another as if they were nothing. And not just any guards, but changeling elite at that."
"Sir, with all due respect, should you not be more concerned with her escape. All of our work will be for not if she is able to escape! She has the information we need."
"No Lair, that is where you are wrong. We have been given a golden opportunity. One which will put an end to this war once and for all and one which will place me at my rightful place as ruler of the universe."
"I…. I do not understand general."
"Do not worry Lair, everything will be clear shortly."
"10… 9… 8…" counted down the startup mechanism for the ship. The saiyan waited the longest ten seconds of her life for the ship to start, anxiously looking around for any signs of obstacles. Once the countdown had ended and the ship's engine had started, she gently placed her child down in the corner of the craft and input the coordinates to the only place she could think of. Moments later, the ship started its takeoff rising slowly from the ground and modifying its angle of ascent. The baby sat safely in the ship but its mother was still outside looking around nervously.
She could feel them coming. Dozens upon dozens of them surrounded her from all sides and approached. But this was as she had expected. Despite the power she had shown, she knew they would not allow her to escape, to finally be free once more. The changelings were not that kind of species. To admit another species was stronger would be a fate worse than death for them. That is why they congregated, tens upon tens, numbering nearly one hundred, all for the singular goal of destroying her, the woman, the saiyan, not just because of orders, but for pride as well. The ship continued its ascent, the saiyan kept her feet planted firmly in the desert soil, and the changelings marched quickly . Directly behind her, one of the guards made his move aiming a quick energy blast at her back. It hit her directly, forcing her forward a step. And then they all followed suit, hundreds of blasts hitting the saiyan knocking her back and forth like a rag doll, her blond hair flying wildly in the wind. Despite the beating she was taking, she felt a sense of relief. Every blast she took to her body allowed another split second for her baby and the ship. At this rate, she would meet her untimely fate, but her child would be given a chance for life. This was her plan, and it was working to perfection, for the time being.
Out of the corner of his eye, a lowly guard was able to spot the ship leaving the atmosphere. A split second reaction caused him to divert his blast from the woman and change the trajectory of it so that it would hit the ship. It was happening again, just like in the dungeon her child was in peril. She could feel the blast going elsewhere, and she knew its destination. With a scream that could rival the mythical sirens, she aimed a singular blast directly above her head in blind faith. The sheer force of her blast forced the changeling's blast off course, causing it to miss by only a few feet. Her blast continued into space along a diverging path from her child. His spaceship was in tact, safe and free from this planet of terror. She looked down from the sky and into the faces of the beasts that had caused her pain unimaginable. Now that her child was safe, she could finally let loose her true emotions. With the burden of his life off her, she started to power up. Blast after blast continued to hit her directly, but her body stopped its jerk reactions to them. Their effect waned as her power increased. Frantically the guards, the general's soldiers unleashed everything they had at her, but to no avail. With one final scream, the saiyan warrior powered to her maximum unleashing a pure wave of energy from her body, shaking the planet to its very core. The planet of dust and sand remained just that, dust and sand. The changeling guards that had caused her so much pain were now a part of the planet. She fell to the ground; her power level fell to nothing, completely exhausted of all energy.
The look on Lair's face expressed his shock, sweat dripping down his face he turned to his master for an explanation. All the while this had happened, the general just continued to sit in his office, sipping wine with his feet resting on the table. When he finished the glass, he placed it calmly on the table and stood from his chair.
"Please recover her body for me," said the General as he walked towards the door. "I would like to have another talk with her when she wakes. Meanwhile, if you need me I will be meeting with some of the scientists. They have suddenly become very useful."
The ship hurled through space heading towards its destination. The baby on board cried uncontrollably, unaware of the circumstances but cognitive of the fact that his mother was not with him. As the ship flew to its unknown destination, the child's mother lay on the broken planet, barely alive, and once more at the mercy of her captors. Twenty four long hours after the launch had been set, the ship started to approach its destination, entering the atmosphere of a small planet on the other side of the galaxy. The ship fell through the atmosphere nearly breaking into flames as it hurdled towards the ground. It broke into the land with incredible impact, creating a mile wide crater. The planet was similar to the last the child had been on, desolate and seemingly void of life. A crowd started to gather around the crater moments after the impact. Hundreds upon hundreds of people exited tiny makeshift huts and approached the ship cautiously, with the supposed leader of these people walking up to it directly to investigate. He reached into the ship, which had opened upon impact, and pulled out the child, who screamed wildly from the man's strange presence.
"It is a child, a saiyan child."
Everyone that had gathered looked stun turning to their neighbors for an explanation.
"It couldn't be," thought the man who held up the baby. He should be dead. How is he not dead? And where is the mother? Where is Kala?"
"It is the child, it is his child. He is safe," screamed one saiyan woman who finally reached the conclusion everyone was too stunned to think of or too afraid to say.
The saiyans had gathered yesterday to discuss their future. They had become resigned to the fact their champion was gone but they gathered the will to fight without him. But now they were witnesses to his son, the boy everyone thought to be dead.
"We must leave this planet. Now!" screamed the man holding the child. Everyone, confused by his reaction, turned to him quickly for an explanation.
"The changelings may have followed this child. We must leave before they arrive. We are not yet ready to face them in battle!"
"But how could they have followed him here. They did not know of this planet. Only his mother could have known. She sent him here so that we would take care of him."
"This is not our space pod. This is one of the changeling's space crafts. It is almost certain that there is a tracker on this ship. They may have traced this child's path here without his mother even knowing."
"So what do you propose we do?"
"We either leave this planet now, all of us. Or we send this ship and this boy to another planet, far away from here before they arrive."
"But it would take too long to find another planet to go to."
"Then we send the boy away."
"But we cannot do that, abandon a child, one of our own" yelled a woman.
"His life is not worth more than the entire saiyan races. His sacrifice will benefit the future of his people."
The saiyans argued fervently over what to do, but without a consensus course of action. They knew they were not ready to battle the changelings but they also could not abandon one of their own. The heated argument continued on for a few more minutes before reaching a definitive halt, yielding the answer nobody had hoped for. Merely minutes after the boy's ship had landed, the sky lit up once more as hundreds upon hundreds of space ships slowly approached the planet. All the ships, similar in size and design to the one the boy arrived in, were peons compared to the mother ship, which was more than a mile wide as it approached from the front of the crane formation. The ship was painted a dark black so that it would blend in with the night sky. Between its color and its size, to any bystander it would seem as if the sky itself was approaching the planet. The only thing more menacing than the design of the ship was the passenger on board. His eyes burned in hunger, his heart could feel victory at hand. The general looked down in anticipation of his victory, over the saiyans and over any remaining resistance of his right to rule the universe.
"With the destruction of this planet," spoke the general softly, "Comes the destruction of resistance."
The saiyans stood their ground in shock as ship after ship landed on the planet. The child, now in the hands of one of the saiyan women, cried uncontrollably as he could feel the presence of the beast from earlier. The saiyans quickly lined in a military formation on the planet they had thought was safe. The planet they had hoped to regroup on, in order to fight back against the disease that was the changeling race. Instead, this small empty planet would be the decider of theirs and the universe's fate. The old and young, man and woman stood alike in a combination of fear and anger. Fear from the fact that, for all intents and purposes, this would be their last day. Anger for what these enemies had caused, for what the changelings did to their people and to their way of life. As the last ship landed, and the last changeling exited from his respective vessel, the two sides formed the battle lines. The saiyans stood on one side of the crater, the changelings on the other. The last to exit the ship was the General, who took his time as he walked to the front lines alongside Lair. His heavy armor was barely visible underneath his giant cape, which he had covering his entire body from view. Thousands of Changeling warriors bowed to their knees in respect as he walked by them. The saiyans looked on in shock, familiar with his face, and his deeds. The saiyan who had spoke to the crowd earlier, the new de facto leader of their race, stood in the front lines as well. He kept his posture straight and relaxed, eyeing the general in hatred. Eventually the general stopped as he approached the very edge of the crater. He moved his arm, which had been at his side since he exited the ship, and revealed to everyone what it was that he was carrying. In a swift motion, he revealed the body of the saiyan woman from under his cape and held her up for the world to see. The saiyans' anger seethed as they watched to see what he would do with her. They recognized her instantly as the boy's mother, despite her broken appearance and barely detectable energy level. Her eyes were closed and her body appeared lifeless in his hand. Without much emphasis, as if it were nothing, the general dropped her body from his hand and let her hit the ground. Lair, seemingly on orders from the general, picked up her body and placed it under his arm. He then walked back to the ship he had just departed from. Silence ensued as both sides watched the other, waiting to see what the other would do.
The silent standoff was soon broken by the general, who cleared his throat and muttered only a single word, "die."
The general lifted his arm and pointed his finger directly at the saiyan leader, who continued to stare back emotionless. The general smiled and then quickly turned his arm and shot a paper thin death beam. The beam whizzed by the head of the saiyan and instead through the head of another, an elderly saiyan only feet away who fell to the ground quickly, dead from impact. The leader looked to his side in shock and turned back to eye the general whose sadistic smile erased any remaining doubt from his mind. He lifted both arms directly above him and in the manner of a traditional saiyan war cry, shouted with all his might to the heavens. Every saiyan behind him, man woman and child followed suit. Their screams pierced the heavens, their power levels rose to the absolute max, and their faces turned to those of the warrior, cold and emotionless. The leader stopped his shriek in an instant, and in unison he and every other able bodied saiyan on the planet charged straight at the heart of the changeling formation.
"In the name of our fathers I, Celero, shall have your head changeling!"
The saiyan shot directly at the general stopping a foot from him. The general made no motion during this time but continued to watch on in amusement. Celero immediately stuck his palm in front of the face of the general, so close that he could feel his breath, and unleashed an energy beam with all his might. The beam washed over the general and created enough of a disturbance that every warrior on the planet turned to see the outcome. After the smoke had cleared, as no surprise, the general continued standing with barely a scratch on him. The saiyans continued to fight the changelings, though the general's might lied heavy in the back of their minds
The saiyans fought with all the energy they had at their disposal. They went all out at the start, knowing these enemies could not be toyed with. Those that could transformed into super saiyans and fought the stronger of the chagelings. Those incapable of the feat, mainly children and most of the women, fought in groups hoping that by numbers they would be able to take out a more powerful changeling warrior. Although the saiyans were greater in numbers, the strength of the changelings greatly outmatched theirs and thus swung the tide of battle. Not even a minute into the battle, it was clear the changelings were in control.
Celero continued his onslaught of the general. Despite a lack of results he continued to thrash away with every last ounce of energy. The general continued to stand, barely flinching from every wild punch. The best the saiyans had to offer could barely scratch the changeling elite. The battle was over before it began, the surprise attack by the changelings, the display of the captured princess, and the death of the first saiyan by a single blast. There was nothing they could do. Bored by their feeble attempts to fight, the general decided to end the life of Celero, the last leader of the warrior race. The general quickly grabbed Celero's throat. Celero was too exhausted to mount any resistance to the general's strike. He held the saiyan high above him in another over the top display, and prepared to make his final point.
"I believe your life has come to an end."
The general swung a finishing blow at Celero that was sure to decapitate him, but stopped only centimeters from his neck. Celero looked on in surprise. Every individual battle stopped, no matter how close the outcome was to being seen. Everyone turned to the south and towards the direction of the mother ship. On top of the behemoth ship stood a warrior. His features were unrecognizable because of the distance but his aura was blinding. It was the dead of night but it appeared as if a renegade star was about to collide with the planet. His golden hair swung down his back and curved to his knees and around his battered saiyan armor. On his shoulder, resting, was the mother. Under his foot was the changeling, second in command Lair, lifeless from a single punch. The man needed no introduction, as his reputation was known from all over the universe, more so than even the general. But one woman, who was on the verge of death from her battle with a changeling, felt the need to say the obvious.
"Oh my god, it is him. It is Kakkarot."
