Chapter 8
"Well, is there anything?" Gohan asked lowly, already confident that he knew the answer. Just as expected, the officer sighed as he dropped his car radio's microphone.
"We've still got our battleships, planes and tanks, but other than that, all we've got to work with is useless hand weapons."
"So only machines that work independently from base computers." Gohan sighed, rubbing his temples. "And that's enough for them. Tanks and battleships won't be able to touch the enemy and there's no way a jet a strong enough weapon to do any real damage to those ships."
"Their missiles probably could. But the jets will be blown out of the sky before they could do anything." Jake contributed, staring gravely into the air.
"The jets and warships might still be useful though." Rai muttered, resting his chin on his hand and frowning in thought as everyone else turned to him with raised eyebrows, wanting an explanation. When he turned to face them, Jake was a little unnerved that his most frequent partner in Guardian missions wasn't wearing his cocky smile. "The three of us have the best chance at doing damage, and other meta humans will no doubt fight back too."
"But there's far too many ships to take them on." Jake exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air for emphasis.
"True, that's where the military comes in." Rai nodded grimly, hesitating before continuing. "If every jet and ship we can get moving were to attack, it would distract the ships and possibly do some damage."
"And since we're smaller and harder to detect, we'd have a better shot at doing some real damage without every ship suddenly firing on us." Gohan continued as realisation dawned on him, getting a nod from Raimundo.
"But the biggest problem is that if we go about with this plan, large numbers are people are going to die." Rai added sadly. "And we probably will too."
"We've all gone into battle knowing that could happen before." Jake stated firmly, transforming in a flash of fire. "If there's even the slightest chance we can save the Earth, I'm willing to die trying."
"The military will already be jumping into action with everything they've got." The officer added, fingering his gun. "Those brave men and women feel the same way the dragon does. Hell, if I thought that it'd do any good, I'd aim my gun up at the sky."
"You have your own job." Gohan sighed, giving him a firm look. "You have to get any and all civilians as far away as possible. If we manage anything, debris will be flying down everywhere."
"Right. YOU HEARD HIM MEN! GET EVERYONE AWAY NOW!" The officer only stayed put long enough to inform the station of the required action before joining his men in rounding everyone up, leaving only the three teenage heroes where they stood.
"Well, it's been a pleasure working with you guys." Rai said solemnly, giving the others a small grin.
"Don't count us out yet." Gohan responded, giving Rai a confident smirk in return. "Blow as many ships up along the way as possible, but try to find the one bearing this Vilgax guy. If we find him, we may be able to force him to end the invasion."
"Right. Hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast and find their boss. Don't say die, just fight and fly." Jake shouted enthusiastically just as the first group of jets flew overhead. Taking that as their queue, they simultaneously took off into the air.
As predicted, the jets weren't able to do much. They kept a number of ships busy as they evaded the near constant laser fire and their missiles did manage to rock the enemy and leave a few holes in their ships, but it took multiple lucky shots from a least four jets to send even one invading ship down and even the best pilots could only survive the constant assault for so long before they were blown out of the sky.
"CREST OF THE CONDOR! BLADE OF THE NEBULA! SWORD OF THE STORM, WIND!" Pointing his blades out to his sides and spinning as fast as he could, Raimundo combined his power with all three magical items and created a tornado big enough to ensnare one of the invading warships. The ship never stopped firing its lasers as it was spun around and around so it was child's play for Raimundo to have it shoot down every other ship around it before tossing it at another, sending both crashing towards the ground.
Jake chose to take a different approach. Slinking through the enemy's fire, he flew right up the ship's lasers and breathed fire right into the opening they came from, blowing up the power source and everything it was connected to before flying off just as another ship prepared to fire on him, letting it do the rest for him.
Gohan was completely brutal. Backhanding or countering any laser shot his way, he shot straight at a ship and ploughed straight through the hull. Throwing energy blasts at every robot he found within, he punched straight through every wall until he found the main engine. Tossing a small energy ball at it, he smashed right through and out the roof as the engine blew up, taking the whole ship with it, and repeated the process with the next one, breaking in closer to the engine each time.
"Two Tone Tunic!" Rai jumped between a jet and a warship and took the blast meant to destroy the jet on the armour before shooting through the resulting smoke, straight in between two ships. Both ships followed him with laser fire and blasted each other in the process.
Flying alongside a jet as it turned, Jake knocked on the glass to get the pilot's attention before pointing at a battleship's booster. Nodding, the pilot locked on and fired a pair of missiles, blowing one of them apart. Jake used the opening to shoot a flamethrower into the ship, causing a huge explosion at the back of the ship and gave it a temporary boost of speed. The result was that it crashed straight through another, sending it and the two halves of its crash victim plummeting to the Earth, damaging two more along the way that became easy targets for the jets.
"Try this." Gohan shouted, flying above all of the ships and cupping his hands together. "KamehameHA!" His blue beam quickly shot down and grew to the size of Gohan's body before it blew right through the roof of a ship and struck the engine, blowing the whole thing up. The beam continued going down, though with a lot less strength, and blew up another ship's thrusters while debris from the first ship bombarded others, knocking them around and either shooting other ships or being left vulnerable to expert shooters within the jets.
However, despite the fact that the ships were easier to destroy than expected, no matter how many times the trio blocked, countered or used their opponents' attacks, it still looked hopeless. The jets were being shot out of the sky just as quickly and few were left. On top of that, though this area was showing strong resistance, most others had little to none. And to top it all off, Gohan, Raimundo and Jake were putting everything they had into the battle, trying to do as much as possible while searching for the leader of the fleet, who may have decided to just ignore where the remaining Guardians were fighting. They were all fully aware that if they didn't find Vilgax soon, their strength would fade too far for them to be of any use at all and the Earth would fall, piece by piece.
"Are more still showing up?" Rai cried exasperatedly, puffing as he dodged another stream of laser fire. "I can't see any difference since we started and we've sent plenty to the scrap yard."
"No kidding Jake agreed as he shot by to a nearby ship, manually turning one of its lower lasers upward and making the ship shoot itself. "These ships aren't nearly as tough to break as I thought they'd be, but their numbers are unbelievable."
This is a losing battle Gohan thought with a grunt, throwing up an energy shield as five ships shot at him, groaning as he fought desperately to keep it up. If we can't turn this around, no one will be safe. Every innocent life will be destroyed. As the thought crossed his mind, Gohan's face changed from strained to infuriated. And I won't LET THAT HAPPEN! With a primal roar, the energy he was releasing tripled in size, the sudden dramatic increase of power causing his force field to expand as fast as lightning and crash into the front of the three nearest ships, blowing them out of the sky instantly. It didn't stop there though, as the force field exploded, the resulting wave of pure, incredibly strong energy blasting straight through every other ship within twenty meters of him.
Before anyone could register what they'd just seen, another primal roared escaped Gohan's lips and he released a barrage of gold blasts at the ships, his hands moving so fast that they were completely invisible and it appeared as if he was releasing twenty blasts simultaneously.
Jake and Raimundo hugged each other tightly and screamed in terror as they floated helplessly, surrounded by golden blasts that promised destruction all around them. In addition to the number of shots, each individual blast was capable of doing immense damage. If they were struck by even one, they'd die, if not from the blast itself, but by the help of the crash into the ground.
"SPHERE OF YUN!" Rai screamed, holding up the ball and sighing in relief as it surrounded them just before a stray blast would have hit them. "Phew, that was close." Rai sighed in relief, his legs giving out and his butt hitting the cushioned floor of the sphere.
"Where Gohan get all that from?" Jake cried incredulously, his eyes wide as he watched the golden meteor shower around them, its end nowhere in sight. "I know he's strong, but this is FAR beyond anything even he is capable of. He just suddenly exploded with power like nothing I've ever seen."
"I remember Namine muttering about an enormous amount of power sleeping within Gohan once." Rai said softly as more and more ships fell from the sky. "But I never thought that it could be this great. His power's beyond all imagination."
...
The same thought was passing through another's mind. Just outside Earth's orbit floated yet another ship. However, this one was much different to those attacking the Earth. It was much bigger and longer, the weapons were far more destructive and from just one look you could tell it would be much harder to damage. But it also had something else that no other invading vessel contained: a living creature.
Amidst the robots on board, a green humanoid creature. He was tall and muscular with green skin and tentacles coming from his chin. He was clad a black body suit with red and grey armour covering his chest and legs respectively, with a blue sword on his back and a yellow gauntlet bearing a very large crystal on his left hand that reached almost all of the way to his elbow. His demonic, red eyes were focused solely on a large monitor as it flicked through scenes on the planet.
Pictures of Japan revealed Goku and the Z Fighters laying waste to his forces while Masters Fung and Guan joined the remaining three Xiaolin Dragons and Dojo in messing with his forces in China. In America, the Plumbers' kids, the Possibles, the Fentons and many more had also joined the fight and were each proving surprisingly difficult to shoot down. And no matter what continent you went to, dragons and magic spells could be found decorating the air, alongside jet planes, and military ships of all sizes were firing wildly into the air.
But it was the display of a single child taking down countless numbers of ships that had Vilgax, conqueror of ten worlds, scowling.
"I was not aware that a power anywhere near that great even existed on Earth." He growled, stopping the monitor on Gohan's fight. "Even without him, the Earth's putting up a much better fight without Tennyson and his cohorts then I ever thought possible, especially with all of their most powerful weapons made useless. I should have brought my true fleet with me, not the lightly armoured throw away ships. No matter though. Defeating such a warrior should dampen their spirits." Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down, he turned to the robots at the flight controls. "Take us planet side, to the video feed's location." He ordered before turning back to see Gohan's attack finally slowing down. "I will deal with this one first. When he's defeated, I will head to the other side of the planet to destroy the rest of his kind and by then, this battle will have ended in my victory." A dark smile growing on his face, Vilgax took his seat and braced for entering Earth's orbit.
...
Gohan puffed heavily as he shot the last blast, fighting desperately to stay in the air. The enormous amount of power that had appeared out of nowhere had returned from whence it came and had left Gohan feeling completely exhausted, struggling to do so much as lift a finger.
"That should do it." He muttered drowsily, closing his eyes and letting his body descend towards the Earth. "This area should be pretty safe now. And if that doesn't draw out Vilgax, nothing will."
'Let's just hope you have enough time to recover." By the time the voice registered in his head as Jake's, red scaled arms had already slowed his decent and took him safely to the ground. "So why didn't you tell us you had so much power?" He asked while Rai and the last surviving jet used the remaining invaders' lasers to destroy each other.
"Because I don't know how much power there is inside me." Gohan mumbled softly, forcing Jake to lean his head in close to hear it. "And I don't know how to use it either. It just happens."
"Guys, we've got a problem." Jake's head snapped back up at Rai's worried scream at the same time Gohan's eyes snapped wide open.
"What an amazing energy level." Gohan muttered in awe, as he followed everyone else's eyes to the sky. "This guy is a bit stronger than even my dad."
For miles around, everyone gasped or screamed in pure terror as another ship entered the scene. It was bigger, uglier and even from a distance you could tell that it could take and give out a greater beating than any of the previous ships. They were mere dingies and this was the warship.
"We've found our target." Jake deadpanned as Rai landed beside him, the brunette's face paling at the sight of the ship.
"Of all the times for it to show up." Rai gulped, turning to look down at Gohan. "Saiyaman's exhausted and this thing looks fifty times as tough as the other ships. We'll never get to it, let alone make it to the head honcho."
"And even if we did, I doubt we could do anything to stop him if Gohan's senses are right. He's stronger than any of us." Jake added, looking down desperately at the tired warrior in his arms. "Do we have any chance at all?"
...
"Why bother with my real fleet, these outdated rust buckets will be more than enough for a crippled, primitive planet like Earth." Albedo said sarcastically, snarling at the monitors as they showed jets, battle ships and every magical creature and hero from gryphons to Saiyans attack and destroying the ships, targeting weak points or having them destroy each other if they lacked the strength to break metal themselves. "Vilgax is an overconfident fool. He hasn't bothered to properly evaluate Earth's inhabitants and now our side's destruction rate is as great as our enemies. Well fortunately, I was prepared for this." Tapping away at the console, he brought up the world map again. A few seconds later, it was covered by the words missile target setting as he activated every missile on the planet. "Hahaha! In a few moments, every major city will be targeted and destroyed, along with every one of Earth's heroes. That does of course mean that Vilgax won't get many slaves out of this world, but who cares. The glory of taking this world will have to be enough."
Focusing solely on his plan and the screen before him, Albedo never noticed the pounding of feet on metal as they ran away from the bridge.
...
"Come on, come on!" A man clad in suit of an army General shouted furiously at his men, his pale and panicky face never leaving the sight of the missiles rising from their hatches.
"Sir, it's no use." A subordinate cried, completely lost to his fear. "This Albedo guy has completely removed every ounce of control we had over the situation. All we can do is pull manually shut the system down, but it's too late now. The missiles will fire before we even begin."
Despite how scary the situation was, and only promising to get worse, mothers still found the time to cover their children's ears as the General swore loud enough to heard for miles.
...
With the same situation happening at every military base throughout the planet, Albedo set the last few coordinates into the missile guiding systems located in France, a dark smile forever planted across his face.
"Goodbye, insignificant nuisances." He cackled, aiming his finger for the launch button. He was just about to reach it when suddenly, blue energy wrapped itself around his torso and flung him back, crashing into the far wall. Groaning as he slid down it, his face scrunched up in pain, he took a second to calm himself before looking up with a mix of shock and anger on his face as it met the face of Lucky Girl, dressed for battle and glaring right back, Namine close behind her, a dagger in hand.
"Hello grade A pain in the butt." Lucky Girl said smartly, raising her hand and pinning Albedo to the wall. " Sorry I took so long to arrive at our little play date, but I just woke up from a long nap. Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"
"Tennyson equalled me before, not you." Albedo snarled, struggling against the bonds of pure magic. "And now he and three of your little friends are dead, while two more are in comas and to top it off, Vilgax is about to kill your remaining three fellow Guardians. Face it sorceress, you've lost." Continuing to struggle, he smirked a Luck Girl as his hand managed to make it to his Omnitrix. Gwen's eyes went wide, but before she could stop him, he activated it and slammed it down, creating a flash of light much like Ben did. However, this flash was red.
'Chromastone!" Lucky Girl's magic served only to increase his strength as the crystalline figure rose effortlessly to his feet, looking smugly down at the sorceress. Gwen cut the magic off and jumped back, putting some distance between them as she glared at him. The only difference between Albedo and Ben's transformations was that Albedo's eyes and Omnitrix symbol was red instead of green and he had proven the first time he came to Earth that he was just as powerful as her cousin and twice as viscous in combat, with no care for others' lives to hold him back.
"So what are you going to do now Lucky Girl?" Albedo sneered, raising his glowing hand. "Your magic can be used in any number of ways, but the magic itself is just a type of pure energy. Up here in space, cut off from the elements and at risk of blowing a hole to the endless void of space, all you can use is spells that only require pure magic and we both know what happens if you use them." Throwing his fist out, he shot a beam of rainbow coloured energy, forcing her to put up shield. Lucky Girl groaned at the force she was having to hold back, barely keeping her shield in place.
Namine, you have to hurry. She thought, letting an eye flicker to the blond at the door.
On it, I'll just need a minute. Namine replied telepathically with a nod. Knowing subtlety wouldn't work here, she ran at the main console, bringing a growl from Albedo.
"You think I'll just let you break my control?" He shouted, his shoulder beginning to glow. A beam shot from it straight at Namine, only for a blue energy bubble to appear around the blond as she worked, completely neutralising the blast. "What? She doesn't have that kind of power."
"No, I do." Albedo turned back to Lucky Girl just in time to realise his mistakes before a blue energy ball struck him in the head painfully, topping him over: he'd let both beams dye down in his shock and failed to pay Lucky Girl any attention. And as his body only absorbed energy like her magic when he willed it to, that was a potentially lethal error.
"Oh, and you made another error when you were naming my short comings." Lucky Girl smirked as her spell book floated before her, already open. "We still have air I can use to make wind and the water vapour in it could make mist. But in addition... your body is crystal, a type of stone." Albedo's eye widened to the size of a dinner plate as that realisation hit home. "Professo Kai!"
"AAAHHH!" Albedo screamed as his crystalline body started melting. The spell wasn't one hitting him with pure energy, but one that was intended to mix with his body and alter it on the molecular level from his solid form to a liquid. Panicking, he threw his hand onto his Omnitrix and saved himself with a flash of red, changing his form. "Brainstorm! No simplistic, earth molecular alteration spell will help you now witch. Now, remove your appendages from the computer system you battle inept simpleton!" Ripping his shell open, Albedo released a stream of yellow, wavelike energy from his exposed brain and ensnared Namine before Lucky Girl could stop him and flung her away from the consol.
"WHOA!" Namine screamed as she flew across the room like Albedo had moments before. Moving fast, Lucky Girl threw up her hand and caught her in a force bubble, gently dropping her on the floor.
Albedo took advantage of the distraction and quickly scampered to the main console. "Time to, as you humans say, release Armageddon on the Earth." Cackling, he hit the launch button with his pincer before going into a full maniacal laugh as 'missiles launched' crossed the main monitor. "Now the diverse variety of inferior, primitive organisms will face enormous, chemically created combustions that will either incinerate their biological makeup or mutate their biological structure in a way that will prohibit the functions an organic manifestation requires to survive."
"If you're done patting yourself on the back…" Namine started before losing control and giggling. "You might want to check out what you just blew up."
"What do mean? I know where I set- OH MY WORD!" Albedo jumped and spasmed like crazy as he noticed the coordinates and flight trails of the missiles. Half hadn't even fired and the rest were completely ignoring the cities he'd targeted them for. Instead… "They'll destroy uncountable numbers of our ships! But how?"
"Easy." Namine answered, calming her giggling fit down to a smile as Albedo jumped one eighty degrees to glare at her. "I use this computer all of the time. It was easy for me to use your open programs to shut down every missile that involves deadly radiation and redirect the others to where your ships are floating. Hey look, some have already made it to their targets."
Words escaped the normally talkative Cerebrocrustacean as monitors all around the room lit up with explosions and airborne debris and cheers of joy managed to mute even the biggest explosions.
"Funny, I didn't know we had audio." Namine said lightly, enjoying the fireworks.
Albedo's eye twitched as he watch the destruction, turning red with rage. How dare these inferior humans make a fool of me! I'm a Galvin! They will pay for this act of defiance against my will.
Whipping back around to the girls, Albedo opened his shell again, releasing streams of lightning right at the girls. However, Gwen had been ready for it since he'd taken on the electrokinetic form and was moving her hands up to create a shield even before he'd finished turning.
"Like the stormy elements?" Lucky Girl asked cockily, raising one hand over her head while the other kept the shield up against the constant streams of lightning. "Then you'll love this. Galeus Disruptus!"
"WHAA!" A fierce wind came out of nowhere and tore through the bridge, quite effectively ending Albedo's attack by blowing him away. Seeing him unable to rise, Gwen lowered her shield and let the wind slowly die as Namine headed back to the main console, freeing all military bases from the satellite's control.
"Ok, everything's released, now to just type one more command… password, ok and… I'm done." Namine cheered as the main monitor went blank. As Albedo looked up, all the other monitors followed it offline and the consoles quickly followed. Within thirty seconds, only the emergency lights and life support were active.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Albedo roared, his pincers sparking wildly in his rage as he got to his feet.
"Sent the satellite into emergency shutdown." Namine answered, tensing incase the need to dodge electricity arose. "It can't be activated for at least an hour after it's set into motion. The Satellite's useless to you now."
NO! Now I have no way of shutting the world defences back down. Albedo thought furiously. His body shook with rage beyond measure as he stared into the triumphant looks on the girls' faces, electricity fly from his brain in all directions, forcing Lucky Girl to place him in a bubble. Well so be it! If I can't use this floating crater to blow up the Earth, I'll use it to destroy these two instead. With that, he hit the Omnitrix again and when the green flash faded, a much more metallic alien was in Brainstorm's place.
"Lodestar!" Gwen's eyes went wide with fear as the magnet bodied alien appeared before them, throwing his claws at either side of him. Lucky Girl's power proved completely ineffective in stopping his as magnetic waves from his hands reached and ripped a console from a wall on one side and the door from the other before he flung his hands towards the girls, sending the chunks of metal hurtling right at them.
Lucky Girl threw her hands up in response, throwing a small energy blast from each palm, blowing both projectiles up, but the debris continued its course.
"ARGH!" The girls were blown right off their feet as the debris stuck, leaving bleeding gashes all over their bodies. But they had no time to recover as a large chunk of metal was ripped from the ceiling right above them and was coming down fast.
"Twistas Hotina!" the metal glowed blue as the top half was twisted backwards. The pull of the bending metal also had an additional affect, turning the metal one eighty degrees, so all the girls had to do to avoid it was pull their legs up to their bodies.
However, Albedo only continued to get madder and ripped up the floor beneath their feet, the two only just managing to dive away before the chunk of floor rose and smashed into the ceiling.
"This is nuts! If he keeps this up the whole satellite will be destroyed." Namine cried as she got back to her feet. hearing something cutting through the air, she turned to where she came from just in time to see a jagged piece of metal flying at her. She had no time to dodge and she knew it. Screaming, she whipped up her dagger instinctively and much to her surprise, she managed not only to hit it, but sent it sailing at Albedo. She stared in amazement as it hit his head and knocked it to the floor with a cry of pain, his body following.
"Wow, how did I do that?" Namine asked incredulously, staring down at her dagger in wonder.
"Looks like hanging out with Gohan and Kim is having some benefits." Gwen commented with a smile as her book floated before her again, flipping as if on its own accord until a sigh of relief left Gwen's mouth at the same time a roar of rage pierced her ears as Albedo levitated to his feet, his claws already sending out magnetic waves towards the consoles. "Don't think so Albedo. Abeo Exorior!" Blue light exploded from her hands, creating an orb around the occupants of the room before they disappeared in blue, shimmering energy one by one. As Albedo, the last of them, left, the consoles he focused his powers on dropped to the floor, the resounding the last noise to come from the bridge.
...
"Tell me again, how this is a good idea?" Jake asked nervously, shaking in his seat. With Gohan needing time to rest and the others lacking the necessary strength to take on Vilgax's warship, the trio had retreated to their own ship, which had miraculously survived the invasion fleet's attack and destruction with only a few scratches in the paintjob, and had taken off on a direct course for the warship.
"Excluding Gohan, this ship has more force behind it than anything we've got. And it's speed and maneuverability is unequalled." Rai answered confidently from the controls, avoiding enemy fire with an unpredictable sequence of loops, banking, dives and barrel rolls. "It'll get to and into the ship, no problem."
"But it doesn't have any weapons!" Jake exclaimed before screaming as Rai spun the ship upside down to avoid a particularly deadly looking blast. "What are you planning to do, ram the ship?"
"In a word, yes." Rai replied cheerfully, bringing another scream from Jake.
"ARE YOU BRAINDEAD OR SOMETHING?" Jake screamed, looking at Rai in unadulterated terror. "The ship will blow up on impact. You'll kill us!"
"Trust me. I have a plan." Raimundo said reassuringly, though Jake only seemed to panic more as they got almost within spitting distance of the warship. Their conversation at an end, Rai focused solely on the ship before him, his carefree attitude turning into a very serious one as he banked a hard right to avoid the warship's main weapon, a giant and immensely powerful beam coming from the gap between the top and bottom parts of the front of the ship. Readjusting their flight so they were back on a collision course, he flicked a few switches and activated the ship's boosters, bringing the ship to full speed.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Jake screeched, throwing his hands before his face and squeezing his eyes shut while even Gohan started to panic as they came within seconds of colliding. Rai ignored the headache he had growing and held the ship steady until the very last moment. Letting go of the controls, he leapt from his seat, grabbed Gohan and dived at Jake, pulling an orb out of his pocket along the way.
The entire warship fell victim to a wave of tremors as the Guardians' plane crashed into it and exploded, leaving burnt debris scattering before fall from the sky as if it had been shot from a cannon.
...
"I don't believe it." Vilgax exclaimed, surprised and wide eyed as he stared at his screen. "Why would they kill themselves like that? What could they possibly hope to accomplish?"
"A hole in our ship sire." A robot responded, gaining Vilgax's attention as the emergency lights exploded to life, the siren wailing in his ears. "And three biological life forms have entered the ship sire."
"What? So they survived?" Vilgax cried incredulously, having the monitor display the point of impact. "They're more resourceful than I thought."
...
Multiple grunts echoed throughout the empty hallway of the warship as what looked like a giant ball shot out of the flames of the exploding ship and through the hole the impact created, bouncing and rolling around the room. It was covered in soot and the only way you could tell people were within it was due to the grunts, cries and thumps of heavy objects being thrown about.
"Sphere of Yun!" Rai called as the ball bounced again. The ball glowed gold in response to the call and opened before shrinking to the size of a tennis ball after releasing its load. Screaming, the boys crashed into the ground.
"Well, I told you I had a plan." Rai said with a hesitant grin as he looked up at where the others lay groaning. Having landed on his belly, when Jake raised his head from his face plant, he did not look amused.
"You're explaining how we lost the ship to Dr Possible and Bulma." Jake said lowly through gritted teeth. "And when they're done with you, I am going to kill you." Rai gulped nervously at that as he got to his feet and slowly backed away, shivering at the venomous glare the Chinese boy pierced him with.
"Leave your revenge for later." Gohan sighed, getting to his feet just as an enormous door slide open, revealing a large number of robots charging their way. "We have some house cleaning to do first." He added, dropping into an offensive stance. However, before he could do a thing, the other two stepped in front of him, Jake transforming into his dragon form mid step. "Huh?"
"Gohan, just rest, conserve your strength." Jake told him, raising his claws.
"We can take these guys no problem. Besides, we'll need all the strength you can muster for Vilgax." Rai continued, raising his palms and mirroring Jake's stance. Sighing, Gohan nodded his consent and dropped his fists, taking a seat on the floor.
The looks on the two young heroes' faces would have had many living villains backtracking as they prepared for the oncoming enemy. They wait just long enough for the last of the robots to enter the room and into their range before jumping into action and soaring over their enemies' heads.
"Wudai Star Wind!" Stopping above the midpoint of the robot army, Rai threw his open palms right down at them, creating a powerful gale that slammed every robot below it into the ground before the wind bounced up and out from the ground like an explosion, blowing completed robots and severed parts everywhere.
Grabbing three of the lasers flying through the sky, two with his hands and the third with his tail, Jake let loose a barrage of constant fire in four directions, using his fire breath to blow up those ahead of him while the lasers handled those on either side and behind him.
Feeling a little drained himself, Rai followed Jake's lead and shot to the ground, kicking two robots' heads off and grabbing their laser guns as their bodies fell before laying waste on all those around him, spinning on the balls of his feet as he fired a beam from each laser. Between the two of them, the robots fell in no time at all, not managing to land even a single hit.
"Never send a bucket of bolts to a man's job." Jake smirked wrapping his tail around the last functional opponent and pile driving it into a wall.
"Don't get cocky." Gohan responded, joining Jake and Rai as they headed towards the door. "They were only sent to tire us out. One false move and Vilgax will annihilate us."
...
Out the door, up and down lifts and crossing four different, amazingly long hallways with doors leading to labs, armories and every other type of room known to man, the boys made their way quickly through the ship, following Gohan's senses to the location of Vilgax. In order to give them a little more time to regain their strength, particularly Gohan, they decided to head out on foot through the hallways rather than blasting through walls and possibly running into a trap. It turned out to be a better route anyway, as they were able to quickly and effortlessly take down small groups of robots along the way instead of letting them form another army. Nor were they blind sighted by any defense systems, able to scan every room and hallway for the secret hatches and moveable walls before actually entering them, making it easy to destroy every weapon.
It wasn't until they came to a door at the top of the ship that Gohan came a halt, clenching his fists as he scowled at it.
"He's in there." He said lowly, turning to the others. "It's now or never guys. Are you ready?"
"As ready as we're going to be before he blows up the Earth." Jake replied, blowing smoke from his nose. From Gohan's other side, Rai nodded with a glare, raising his wudia weapon to his chest height. Staring seriously at them for a moment, he took a deep breath and turned back to the door. Then, without warning, he threw his fist into the metal barrier, the impact busting a huge hole into it with a bang and sending debris right into a giant seat.
"Knock knock!" Gohan called sarcastically, his eye focusing sharply on the green, humanoid form noticeable around the seat. "Hope you don't mind us dropping by."
"On the contrary, you saved me the trouble of coming to you." Vilgax said smoothly, casually rising from his seat before turning to them, smirking cruelly as the teenage heroes scowled and tensed at his uncaring attitude. "You three are very impressive for such young warriors, at least as great as Tennyson, but this is where you meet your end."
"Aren't we cocky?" Rai growled, his knuckles going white around his blade. With a roar, he leapt into the air and right at Vilgax, bringing his blade back.
"Rai no!" Jake shouted.
"We have to do this together!" Gohan quickly followed.
Rai paid them no mind and swooped right at Vilgax' head. Unphased, Vilgax casually grabbed his sword and slashed at Rai, forcing him to rise out of the way. Growling lowly, Rai swung around behind Vilgax and targeted his back.
"Blade of the Nebula!" The sword's blade immediately turned into a long chain of wind that Rai swung as hard as he could, but before it even got halfway to its target, the three heroes gasped as Vilgax leapt and twisted his body in the air before bringing his spinning heel right into Rai's face.
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Rai's pained scream continued right through his bullet speed flight across the room before it was abruptly ended with an extremely loud bang. His eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk to tiny dots as he crashed into the wall and closed as he fell to the ground, not moving at all.
"No way." Jake paled, staring Rai's fallen form with wide eyes of his own. "No one has ever beaten Rai with just one shot. Do we stand any chance at all here?"
"Alone, not a chance in hell." Gohan replied, gritting his teeth as Vilgax turned to them, his cruel smirk never leaving his face. "Never take your eyes off of him and work in sync. It's our only chance."
"But we have no experience as a duo." Jake gulped, pulling his arms up protectively as Vilgax approached. "The only times we've ever fought together was with everyone else."
"We both figured it out with a few of the others, we'll figure it out together." Gohan responded, looking at Jake through the corner of his eye and giving him a small reassuring smile. "We can do this Jake. Trust me."
Gnawing his lip as he stared at the young warrior, Jake released a deep breath and nodded, growling fiercely at the squid man as he got within ten feet of them. Not letting him go any further, both boys shot into the air in a V formation. With a split second glance at Gohan, Jake knew exactly what he planned to do.
"Masenko HA!" Gohan thrust his palms down from above his head and shot a powerful, golden blast at Vilgax while Jake simultaneously took a deep breath and released a stream of fire. Smoke and sparks flew everywhere as the attacks hit their mark, completely blocking Vilgax from view.
"His power hasn't moved an inch. How is he unharmed?" Gohan scowled, trying to find an answer to his senses through the smoke.
"That jewel on his wrist created a shield." Jake answered, glaring at the centre of the smoke. As it floated away, the yellow energy shield became visible to Gohan's eye, along with Vilgax' sneering face.
"You will have to do much better than that." Vilgax taunted, turning his gaze fixedly on Jake. "Let me show you just what you're up against." Jake was barely given enough time to gasp in terror as Vilgax's eyes glowed red and released two lethal red beams, one from each eye and moving far too fast for Jake to avoid.
However, Gohan was another story. Before the beams even left Vilgax's eyes, Gohan gathered his ki into his hand and directed an open palm thrust towards Jake. The move created an invisible pulse that travelled right through the air, straight at the dragon.
"Whoa!" Jake cried, crashing into the floor on his side before the beams could hit. However, a scream followed as he saw the beams suddenly pulled a sharp turn, coming right back at him. "Aww man!" He cried, rolling out of the line of fire only for the beam to follow his path along the floor.
"HIYA!" A blur shot over him a second later and when Jake looked up, it was to find Gohan standing between him and the beam, using his energy covered hands to hold the beam back.
"Fool, you broke your own rule." Gohan growled as Vilgax's shadow consumed him as he appeared beside them, his sword coming down for the kill. Moving fast, Jake jumped up, thrust his tail up as fast as he could and swung it into the top of the blade's handle, leaving Vilgax the one surprised for once as the sword spun through the air and out of his reach. Still caught in his stupor from Jake's move, he was unprepared as Gohan twisted his hands and redirected the beams right back at him.
"ARGH!" Vilgax screamed, flying back a good eight feet before hitting the ground. However, he was quick to get back on his feet, his smirk replaced with a scowl. "I see you are more impressive than I gave you credit for dragon." He stated, patting his wounded gut. "Few have ever removed my sword from my hands. I guess I should fight seriously with the two of you."
"That beam could've annihilated anyone and he doesn't even consider using it fighting seriously?" Jake exclaimed incredulously as Gohan tensed at his side. "What would be a serious move for him, a nuclear explosion?"
Not bothering with a reply, Vilgax charged forward, his fist drawn back. Gohan retaliated with a barrage of energy blasts, but Vilgax almost effortlessly avoided every one, only getting nicked in the shoulder as he got right in the Saiyan's face, throwing a right hook. Gohan arched his back to avoid it before pulling into a full back flip as Vilgax aimed a kick at his hips. Planting both feet into Vilgax's knee mid flip, he leapt into the air and left Vilgax screaming as he fell painfully to the ground.
Jake took advantage of his fall and flew as fast as he could towards the far side of the room, his eyes focused on only one thing.
"You think you can escape?" Vilgax shouted, shooting another pair of eye beams at the reptile. However, before it could reach him, he reached his target. His hands wrapping firmly around the handle, Jake spun around and swung Vilgax's sword defensively before his chest, deflecting the beams back at Vilgax. However, he was more prepared this time and shot into the air himself at the last second, leaving a wide eyed Gohan in the line of fire.
"AARRGGHH!" Vilgax laughed triumphantly as the beams smacked right into the Saiyan, the intensity of the blast sending him careening into and through the already damaged door, shattering the rest of it into tiny pieces before losing altitude and crashing into the ground with his arms held protectively over his chest and stomach as he groaned and whimpered.
"Uh-oh!" Jake muttered, fear and panic lacing his voice. "Sorry Saiyaman. I didn't know he could fly. Please tell me you can get back up."
"It's surprising that he's even still conscious." Vilgax retorted, swooping towards Jake. "Redirection won't work on me twice. Thinking that pathetically of me will cost you dearly."
Forcing the growing fear in him down, Jake leapt into a roll to his right, effectively avoiding Vilgax's roundhouse kick, before leaping back to his feet and into a two-seventy degree spin, lashing out with the sword and forcing Vilgax to jump back so as not to lose his head. Leaping into the air, he released a flamethrower straight at Vilgax, but the squid man merely reactivated the yellow crystal and blocked the flames as he flew at his target, the fire not slowing him down in the slightest in his bid to ram Jake. He smiled in victory as Jake ran out of breath, but before he could get within an inch of the dragon, a pair of hands clasped firmly around his leg and hammered him into the ground.
"I'm not dead yet." Gohan grunted, breathing deeply as he charged a ball of energy in his hand. Vilgax rolled to the side and leapt to his feet as Gohan threw it, leaving the blast to hit the ground as Vilgax launched a fist at Gohan with enough strength to crush his head. His injury and exhaustion taking their toll on him, Gohan didn't have enough speed left to the avoid the attack and shut his eyes tightly as he brought his arms up before his face, bracing for impact. But instead of feeling the immense pain of a fist, firm and carefully placed claws wrapping around his waist was the next sensation he experienced before being pushed close to a scaled chest and ripped from the ground.
"Huh?" He gasped, opening his eyes to find himself flying through the air under Jake's wings. "Phew. Thanks Jake, that was a close call.
"Hey, glad return the favour." Jake replied, landing on the far side of the room from Vilgax, tensing as he stalked towards them. "But seriously, how do we defeat this guy?"
Chewing on his lip, Gohan held back his answer. Though they didn't say it, with Gohan so close to depletion, the previous battles had warn Jake and Rai out too and this battle would have been tough if they were all up and fighting at full strength. In his experienced opinion, he'd have to say that this fight was a lost one.
That is until a flash of red and white crossed the room behind Vilgax, aiming for the console. Catching Rai's smirk in his direction and a very clear hand movement through the corner of his eye, he grew a grin of his own and placed his hands together, forming a large energy sphere between them.
"We stall him." Gohan answered, not taking his eyes off Vilgax. Confused, Jake turned to Gohan and caught Rai past him, immediately understanding and nodding in agreement.
That was all Gohan needed to see and he immediately shot the blast at Vilgax, forcing him to raise his shield. Using the smoke as a cover, Jake flew right over Vilgax's head before shooting down and slamming his foot into the unsuspecting squid man's back, toppling him over. Grabbing Vilgax's leg, Jake landed on the ground and spun him around a full seven-twenty degrees .
"Roaring phoenix." Jake shouted, before tossing Vilgax into the air as hard as he could.
"Chinese monk style huh? Ok." Gohan grinned, raising both of his arms and one of his legs as a grunting Vilgax approached him. "Try this squid head, mantis kick!" Throwing up the leg he'd been standing on, he ploughed it as hard as he could into Vilgax's chin, sending him soaring upward with a roar of pain.
"AARRGGHH! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" Roaring at the top of his lungs, Vilgax pulled himself to an immediate halt in the air and fired blast after blast from his eyes, decorating the entire room with red flashes and explosions.
"Energy shield!" Gohan screamed, bending his arms upward as what looked like a gold lightning and his aura exploded from him and created a dome shaped force field more than twice the size as one of Gwen's, protecting him from the blasts though the force of the enemy attacks were still sufficient to force him to his knees.
Determined to prevent Vilgax from spotting Rai, Jake shot straight at the villain, leaning, gliding and twisting his body in a constant motion to avoid the attacks. However, before even his flames could have reached Vilgax, three blasts hit him, one right after another.
"Aaarrggh!" Jake's agonised scream was almost a whimper as he nosedived straight to the ground, smoke trailing from his back, shoulder and tail and more red, streaking promises of death following closely behind him.
"Jake, NO!" With a primal scream, Gohan's force field doubled in size, opening for half a second as it did to let Jake in. His rage only continuing to build as Jake flinched and whimpered, and with another primal scream, he thrust his hands up and to together, his aura whipping around him with the intensity of an explosion. His shield responded instantly, rising off of the ground and condensing as flew on its way to Vilgax, slowly, but completely impassable.
"What?" Vilgax gasped, staring wide eyed at the blast as it approached, completely unphased by his own shots. "But he's overtaxed and injured. How could he still have this much power?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, he threw up his arm and reactivated his crystal's shield just before the blast could hit him.
It did him little good though, as the blast's explosion took out half of the room, striking Vilgax with an albeit weaker intensity as it went around his shield. As the dust cleared, it revealed him battered and bruised, growling lowly as he pulled himself onto his hands and knees and stood up to find his ship's overly large control room in ruins.
"NNNOOO!" He roared, his eyes turning almost black in his rage as he stared from the smoking piles of scrap that had once been consoles to the boys before him as Rai helped carefully settle the now human Jake on Gohan's back. "Those consoles controlled every other ship in the invading fleet! Without them sending signals, the robots and the ships will become useless and plummet from the sky."
"Then let's hope that they are blown up, caught or don't land on anyone, but other than that, WHOO HOO!" Rai retorted, throwing a fist tauntingly into the air. "Looks like we just ended your invasion plans."
"Don't fool yourself brat." Vilgax shouted, glaring maliciously at the wind wielder. "This ship can still attack and though I don't know how you're still alive, you know full well of my strength."
"I'm still alive because my defeat was and act." Rai retorted, smirking triumphantly at the growing rage on Vilgax's face. "The bang and damage in the wall was a compressed burst of wind from one hand while I used the other to slow myself down. So when you got distracted, I could mess with your system. I promise you, you've lost."
"What? What did you do?" Vilgax cried, the first look of worry crossing his face.
"I set it to fly into space and had it selfdestruct in three minutes right before Gohan's not-so-little whammy destroyed the console. Now since we're rising and the three minutes is counting down fast, I'm gonna say goodbye." Waving mockingly, Rai pulled a large, reptilian tail out of his pocket. "Serpent's Tail!" Leaning the tail on Gohan and Jake's shoulders, Rai laughed merrily as they dropped through the ship's floor right as Vilgax charged for them. As they exited the bottom of the ship, Gohan's aura flared again as he grabbed Rai's arm and dived down as fast as he could while Rai threw his free hand back and released the strongest gale he could to speed them up. They had just made it close to the tops of the tallest buildings as an enormous bang filled their ears, followed by intense waves of heat. Looking up as they continued their decent, it was to find explosions coming from every inch of the warship before the whole thing went up in one colossal burst of flames.
"WHOO! Now that's a light show." Rai cheered, grinning smugly at his work. As tired and sore as the other two were, they still managed exchange rolling eyes at that before both of them bopped him on the head. "OOWW! What was that for?"