Chapter 013 - Saving Goku and fighting her father
Gohan and Corset both stopped, Corset turning around to look back at Krillin whilst Gohan continued to watch the giant primate. "W-What is that?" He quivered.
"What's wrong, Krillin?" Corset asked.
"Just do it!" Krillin bellowed. "Get down to the ground - now!"
The trio headed towards the ground as fast as they could. Krillin's feet tapped the ground, Gohan and Corset landing either side of him. "Come on, we've gotta get moving. Stay close to the ground and try to keep as quiet as possible." He ordered.
"Right," Gohan nodded unsure what was going on but listening never-the-less.
Corset followed as the boys began to run, she was growing nervous once more. From down here that monkey-thing looked huge!
Something dashed out in front of the fighters, making them all scream. "Don't just go charging in!" It hollered. "Do you guys have any idea what that thing is? It's the Saiyan! I saw the whole thing!" The man blurted.
Corset calmed herself down quickly; a short stubby man with a sword stood between them and the monkey. She didn't recognise him at all. His eyes were tiny in comparison to the rest of his face.
"I know it's the Saiyan, Yajirobe." Krillin replied back sternly, "besides if we don't do anything then Goku's a goner!"
So Krillin knew this person... At least that was one relief.
"You moron, there's nothing we can do to help him!" the fat man barked irritated. "I hate to say it but the Saiyan's got us beat."
"Maybe but there is one way we can get him out of that form and weaken him," Krillin replied.
"T-T-That's the S-Saiyan?" Corset squawked in horror, shaking from the sight up ahead of them. That was one big monkey up close! Then it dawned on her. That was supposed to be her daddy? How was that even possible? She didn't understand.
"How do we weaken him then, smartass?" the man jeered rudely.
"We've gotta somehow cut off his tail; it's the only way," Krillin explained. "It worked whenever Goku transformed so it should work for Vegeta too! You guys go on ahead and try to attract his attention – I'm gonna try and cut his tail off."
"Right," Gohan nodded bravely.
"Hurry!" Krillin called, rushing off and teleporting from rock to rock, Gohan mimicking his movement in the opposite direction.
Corset felt a little hesitant to move. That monkey was at least a hundred times bigger than her!
"... He's crazy if he thinks I'm gonna go and distract that thing! Like I said, there's no way we can beat the Saiyan; it doesn't make a difference what we try!"
Yajirobe realised he was not alone, turning slightly to see Corset was still here. "Aren't you gonna go with them kid?"
Corset gasped as she was brought back to reality, eyes falling upon the taller, chubbier swordsman.
"... Aren't you gonna go too?" She asked, feeling the need to act brave all of a sudden.
The truth was she was torn; she was scared of their gigantic opponent's size but also anxious because this fighter was supposedly her father. She didn't want to hurt her dad even if he was an evil person. Family members weren't meant to hurt one another.
The fat man snorted. "I'm not stupid like Krillin and Gohan; I know when I'm beat! If you wanna go become a maniac and join them then be my guest. I'm outta here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a capsule, throwing it to the ground and waiting as the smoke appeared.
Corset smiled, "Hey, that's one of my grandfather's capsules!" She beamed suddenly feeling nostalgic. It had been too long since she'd been home. "Are you gonna drive towards the monster instead of run? Maybe that's why you're rounder than most people; you don't exercise enough..."
The fat man blushed and glared angrily at the small girl as he got into the car. "Shut up kid!" He snarled, slamming the door loudly. "I'm not going over there; I'm going away from here!" With a quick and rough push on the accelerator, he sped away from the scene.
Corset watched in confusion as the man left. Why'd be gotten so mad at her? '... Maybe I should go help Gohan and Krillin out,' she decided. The young girl broke into a run and began to teleport her way towards the giant Saiyan.
She ran through the complicated rocky terrain, glancing over her shoulder every-so-often to see where everyone else was.
"Where are you, I know someone's out there! Show yourself!"
Corset almost screamed and tripped over; the Saiyan's voice was horrendously loud! Had she been spotted? ... No, he wasn't looking in her direction... but that didn't mean she couldn't be sensed...
"I'm right here!"
That was Gohan's voice, although she could barely hear him. "You put my dad down right now!"
Corset was to the left of Vegeta and could just about see Gohan standing high above her on a tall ridge overlooking the canyon the giant monkey stood in. She hadn't meant to have gotten so close to their opponent but could just about make out Goku's feet between the giant monkey's hands. The sight made her blood freeze; he was easily crushing Gohan's father like a grape – this was the man who'd taken Nappa down like it was nothing!
Vegeta continued to make conversation with Gohan, Corset guessing he didn't know she was here. She dived between a couple of rocks, figuring Gohan was going to be ok by himself. She could see Krillin was charging up the same strange disc he'd fired at Nappa earlier, just before she'd attacked the Saiyan. This was it, it was all going well.
Krillin tossed the disc forward, aimed dead on for the Saiyan's tail...
Corset watched in shock as the monkey-like being suddenly jumped up. "He dodged it?" She cried, struck by terror as Gohan was now directly in the line of fire! The disc sliced straight through the block of rock he'd been standing on, thankfully Gohan didn't fall. She began to move, trying to get a better view.
The terrific thud of the Saiyan landing made her lose her grip, knocking Corset off the ledge she'd started to climb up and sending her crashing onto her back! Luckily she hadn't been too high up so she escaped with a couple of bruises and cuts. She was very relieved that she hadn't screamed, hopefully the Saiyan still didn't know she was here.
The oozaru hadn't appeared to have noticed her as he turned in the opposite direction. "Idiots! Did you really think I wouldn't know? As soon as I saw Kakarrot's boy, I knew you and the girl would be here!"
Corset gasped and gulped. 'He knows I'm here? Wow, I thought they needed those things on their faces to tell them that!'
"Too bad you didn't count on that," the monkey jeered. "Now your chances of trying to sneak up on me have disappeared! I warned you what would happen if you challenged me!"
Although Corset didn't know what was going on, she could hear something squeaking between the monkey's gloves.
"STOP IT!" Gohan was heard bellowing at the top of his lungs. "STOP IT, JUST STOP!"
"What, you want to go, kid?" The monkey asked, laughing loudly.
Corset rolled to a sitting position, noticing she had a good view of where the Saiyan's tail was. 'Krillin said we could beat him if we chopped his tail off!' She realised.
A blur shot across her vision.
Corset saw an orange blob make contact with the Saiyan's tail, the tail suddenly falling to the ground.
It was the fat man from earlier. He'd cut the Saiyan's tail off, the large limb landing with an almighty crash to the ground.
The Saiyan stood straight. "... A fourth one... I didn't count on there being a fourth person here..."
The Saiyan's body began to make strange noises, suddenly beginning to shrink in size!
"What's going on? Why is he doing that?" Corset wailed, suddenly growing fearful that she was so close to him and backing off into the wall of the nearby rock stack she'd been climbing before.
The monkey grew smaller and smaller...
Corset's eyes widened in shock. It was the Saiyan! He looked like how he had done before they'd left. She was sure she'd seen something drop to the ground as he'd shrunk but couldn't see what it was.
Vegeta looked exhausted, hunched over and gasping for breath. She couldn't see the expression on his face unlike Gohan and Krillin. It wasn't until he spoke that Corset could hazard a guess on what face he was pulling.
"... You... bastards!"
That didn't sound good to her! Corset gulped and backed into the wall as much as she could. The Saiyan was currently looking over to Krillin. "If you want to die so much then so be it!" He bellowed.
He suddenly turned quickly to glance up towards Gohan. The boy stood upon his raised outlook with fearful wide, stunned eyes.
A quick glance to his right caught the deer-in-headlights look young Corset shot him-
"Oh shit!" Krillin gasped loud enough for his voice to echo through the whole canyon. "RUN!"
Vegeta bolted towards Corset in the blink of an eye, catching the stunned girl by surprise and pinning her against the side of the large boulder behind her with a fist to her gut. Corset coughed, loose saliva knocked out of her mouth alongside the breath she'd held in her lungs. The pain was overwhelming, her breathing wrecked from the hit.
"What a useless fighter you are," Vegeta sneered, "can't even put up a lousy defence! To think I had plans for you... You can die along with the other scum on this planet; I have no use for a weakling coward like you!"
He pulled out his fist; Corset slowly slid down the rocky wall onto the floor in a heap, winded and trembling from the single attack.
Vegeta turned and glared back up towards Gohan, bolting off the ground and heading straight for him.
Krillin had managed to get to Corset within that split second, attention quickly turned towards Gohan, "GOHAN RUN!" He bellowed, lifting Corset up so she didn't slouch against the wall as much. Corset's breath was short and shallow. Was it because of the attack winding her... or was it because of what he'd just said to her had had so much of an emotional effect on her?
She sat fixated as Gohan was beaten down to the ground. Krillin shot off away from her just as Vegeta began to raise his fist – in a flash Krillin was sent flying into several rocks, crashing to the ground with a thump. She looked over to Krillin, body still shaking from earlier. Dazed she looked back to Gohan and Vegeta, not sure what she was seeing.
Corset blinked and seemed to become conscious once again, watching in horror as Gohan was thrown off the ledge towards the ground. The thought which'd run through her mind so many times since she'd asked Krillin that one question a while ago once again exploded to the surface: why was her father trying to kill them all?
Gohan had landed beside his father; it was only now Corset realised Goku was still alive... or so she thought. Despite her fatigue she was able to barely detect Goku's ki, he wasn't going to be much use in his condition. Was he even conscious? Who else would be able to stand up to the Saiyan? Krillin had been knocked out, Gohan didn't look as if he'd be getting up... She was the only one who probably could get to her feet.
The thought made her heart thump. She was the only one? She was the only one who could attempt to fight her father?
Mumbling from over where Gohan lay barely reached her ears. Corset rose to her feet and took a closer look; could she hear Gohan's dad?
"Alright, I've decided what I'm going to do!" Vegeta sneered. "First I'll kill Kakarrot, then Kakarrot's son, then the other little brat, then the bald guy, and finally the bastard who cut my tail off!"
Corset gulped, fear jumping into her ribcage once more.
She watched as the Saiyan jumped off the ledge, striking Gohan's father in the stomach with his knee. Each hit made her panic all-the-more. She couldn't watch any more of this but at the same time it was all she could do. Her legs had turned to jelly, her body cried for rest, her head told her to run yet her heart told her to fight. She was a mixture of fear and need; she wanted to help but she wanted to live.
Gohan suddenly screamed out, his ki rising rapidly as he fired off another Masenko; Vegeta jumping out of the way.
It wasn't fair; why'd it have to be him?
Corset was watching down below, body still shaking. This was her father attacking them all; at this rate she feared he would kill Gohan. She didn't want him to do that. She noticed Krillin limping over to Goku out of the corner of her eye, focus still staying with Vegeta and Gohan's fight.
She wanted to help. She didn't want to lose anyone else. She was scared. This was her father. He'd killed the man who was supposed to be his partner. He was incredibly horrible; it was clear he didn't care about her...
He didn't care about her. What kind of dad didn't care for his family?
Her family... her mother, grandfather and nana... all of them cared about her...
She cared about them.
She didn't want the Saiyan to blow up the Earth – her family would die.
All this man did was hurt people.
Without any second thoughts Corset took a step forward and left her hands beside her hips. Two blue balls of light began to form as she charged up her ki, eyes focused on Gohan and Vegeta. She couldn't let those she loved be hurt.
In a swift toss of her hands, Corset fired her Kentoka Flash straight for the Saiyan.
It hadn't gone unnoticed. Gohan was suddenly thrown backwards, Vegeta dodging Corset's attack, the beam shooting off into space. The Saiyan's attention switched to her.
Corset gulped and took a deep breath. "Stop hurting people!" She bellowed at the top of her lungs, hoping he would hear.
Vegeta guffawed in amusement. "Oh please don't hurt me, I'll do whatever you say! Get stuffed you little brat! No one can stop me, least of all you!"
Corset clenched her fists bravely and flew towards her father. "You're a horrible person!" She yelled, drawing one fist back.
She couldn't quite explain how she'd gone from being terrified of this man to being able to stand up to him but that's just how it was. With every attack she threw out, Vegeta either dodged or blocked, no successful hits coming through. Her mind and heart raced, her movement as swift as she could make it, fluid and accurate. Yet Vegeta seemed to be able to anticipate her attacks, 'one-step-ahead' as Piccolo would put it.
With no warning Corset was slammed down into the ground, bouncing slightly before falling face-first once more. Her forehead stung tremendously, loose tears had been knocked from her eyes. Stubborn and not wanting to give in, the shaky girl rose to her feet and looked back up. Gohan had intervened and was fighting... or was struggling a better word? Corset jumped up towards them and joined the fight; the two mini fighters giving the Saiyan everything they had.
In a flash it suddenly turned. Vegeta grabbed hold of Gohan and swung him into Corset, knocking the two children back down towards the ground. They landed in a heap on top of one another.
It took a moment before there was any movement.
"He's too strong..." Gohan grumbled, Corset finally getting off of him and allowing him to get back onto his feet. "Dad weakened him but he's still so strong..."
"Yeah... Ow..." Corset rubbed her stomach and looked up towards her dad. "... I thought dads were nice to their kids..." she mumbled quietly.
"If you won't attack me then I'll attack you both instead!"
Vegeta was heading straight at them.
Gohan was back on his feet and had fired off an attack. As Vegeta dodged and flew up, Corset sent out an attack straight in Vegeta's path-
The Saiyan vanished.
"MASENKO!" Gohan fired off an attack to where Vegeta had appeared; Vegeta once again teleporting out of harm's way.
"KENTOKA FLASH!" Corset cried, sending out yet another energy attack which again Vegeta teleported to avoid.
At this rate it was going to take a miracle to hit the man much less defeat him.