I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the rights to any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 17: Escape
"What the hell? You're back already?!" Vegeta growled as Trunks and I ran up towards them. He had managed to get back to the main path branch-off with his wife and the assistant, but I saw no sign of the aliens yet.
"The queen escaped somehow before we got there and went down a different path. I can only assume that it also leads up here. Did you guys see anything?" I asked.
"No, it's been very quiet," Bulma said as I took the lead into the main hallway leading to the entrance. A fresh musty smell entered my nose and soon I saw traces of slime on the ground and walls ahead.
"Ah shit, she's already ahead of us!" I pointed out.
"Impossible! Those things are not that fast!" Vegeta claimed.
"Well you three were hobbling around while we were much deeper in the tunnel, so she's had plenty of time with the other aliens to help her!" I said, drawing his anger some more.
"Well then super slick, maybe you should hurry up and head her off!" Vegeta suggested. That might leave them vulnerable though if there's more aliens around. But he does have a point.
"Fine, but don't lag too far behind! Come on Trunks!" I said as I dashed ahead. All of us were running at this point, though the decisively weakened Vegeta was hanging back at near human speed. I reached the exit to the temple first with Trunks only steps behind. I stopped for only a moment to scan around, though I didn't need to, I already saw the small cluster of aliens making a break for it.
"Let's go!" Trunks shouted as he ran down the steps. I had a different strategy and backed up just a bit before running hard and jumping high into the air. Combined with my forward momentum, I covered much more ground quickly and landed a good ways from the temple in the hardened snow, well ahead of Trunks and less than a hundred feet from the aliens. The aliens spun and hissed as I glared death at them. I couldn't detect any sign of the bigger queen alien, but I saw the large tracks in the snow; she had at least been here recently. I pulled out the ancient stone and felt for my Psi energy, triggering a quick reaction that turned into the blue sword. The aliens all backpedaled a bit once the blue blade formed in front of them. A loud screech sounded from the large tunnel, and the aliens marched towards me, though hesitantly, as if trying to buy as much time as possible for their queen. Well, at least she's still in the tunnel. I might be able to finish this without needing any more power if I act fast enough.
"Hey wait up for me!" Trunks shouted. I didn't bother waiting at all and sped towards the closest alien, slicing its head in half before it could budge. As it slumped to the ground, I spun and hacked through the midsections of two more. That left three, aside from the big one. They shifted position into a straight line from left to right, as if to act as a wall. I casually stepped over the remains of the first set and slowly walked towards the waiting trio, whom were all shifting nervously. Okay, which one will be the fodder first? The one in the middle didn't wait for me to attack and chose to take the initiative by jumping towards me. I sidestepped left and held out my right arm as it came down, hitting the sword instead. As chunks of its head and body severed and scattered to the ground, the remaining two took up positions to either side in my path to the tunnel. I stopped my advance and eyed them both carefully; neither was going to move first until I did. They might have been somewhat savage creatures, but they could hatch an attack plan quickly, and this one was obvious. While I attacked one, the other would attack me. I doubted it would be any more effective then anything else they had come up with recently, but I needed to get past the obstacle they presented.
"Here I come!" Trunks announced as he jumped towards the alien on the right with a flying kick. Timely distraction as always. The aliens weren't prepared for this, but chose to deal with Trunks first: their mistake. Trunks knocked the first one down easily, but was intercepted by the second just as quickly. As he was tussling for position, I grabbed the beast by its tail and swung it off of Trunks and into the nearest icy wall. I moved in to finish it off, but found that I didn't need to when it stayed where it was. There happened to be a nice, thick spike of ice sticking out, which impaled the alien through the chest and slowly melted apart as the alien died. As Trunks got to his feet, I stepped down on the neck of the alien he had knocked down, and stabbed it cleanly through the head before it could react. Death was instantaneous, and it stopped squirming after only a few seconds.
"Not fair!" Trunks whined.
"I'm sure you'll have your shot one of these days, but we don't have time to spare at the moment. Maybe I'll let you have the next one, if she survives long enough for you to attack that is," I grinned slightly as Trunks stuck out his tongue.
-
"I see he's quickly becoming a decent sword wielder," Bulma said as she walked by the piles of alien remains.
"Pathetic cretins shouldn't even get that close," Vegeta growled behind her.
"Let's get going, that queen is almost at the surface!" I stated, attempting to get them moving a little faster. The retrieval sled was not very big, but it looked like it could hold the five of us, if someone rode in front. I directed them to board the sled so that Vegeta and Bulma were on securely, with Trunks and Dr. Redwood towards the back. I held on to the very front and crouched down in a ready position, nodding to Bulma to set the sled to retrieve. A slight jolt hit as the sled began to reel itself in, pulling all of us towards the surface at a very quick rate. The disgusting scent of the queen alien invaded my sinuses, especially as we got closer to the snowy landscape.
"Don't slow down until you absolutely have to!" I yelled, getting a nod out of Bulma.
"I'll crash it if we have to; the snow should catch us pretty well!" she said. Then I saw it, the long and large tendrils of the queen just disappearing over the very top of the opening.
"Destroy that abomination boy!" Vegeta grunted his encouragement. I nodded as the end of the tunnel quickly arrived, and I grasped the ancient stone once again as I lowered my crouched position just a bit in preparation. The cable jerked just slightly and I jumped straight up. The sled came flying out and off to the side, while I locked onto the queen and summoned my sword once again as I soared towards her large form.
"Take this you bitch!" I shouted just as she spun around with a claw outstretched. I came down with an overhead slash, slicing clean through it, and leaving a slightly dripping but severed arm, plus a shrieking queen. She backpedaled a few steps while swinging her injury around, as if trying to shake off the pain.
"Don't worry; it'll be over soon," I said with a frown. The queen's tail shifted around, its needle-like ending now aimed right at me. She stabbed forward once it was in position, and I barely had the time to dodge it. I sidestepped right clumsily, giving her enough time to retract and reload. I readied the sword for the next stroke and even slid left just slightly to center myself again, trying to bait her in. It worked, and she struck slightly right this time, giving me the chance to dodge and then slice a great deal of the rough tail. Acid blood spilled out and splattered in several directions. I managed to avoid that as well, leaving an even angrier queen with very few methods of winning left. I held off my attack for a brief moment, letting the queen try something else before I ended things once and for all. This turned out to be a mistake when I heard the first cracking sound. It wasn't much, but when the light from my sword dimmed and then vanished completely, I figured out what was wrong. The stone was literally crumbling in my hands, cutting off my power completely since we were still so close to the temple. Great, figures this battle wasn't going to be that easy. Probably shouldn't have used that Psi storm earlier.
"Hey Trunks, it looks like I'll need that assist after all! Everyone else look for that Protoss device, but do not get too close to the fight!" I shouted as I backpedaled, trying to bait the queen into following. She hissed angrily and stomped in my direction. Trunks ran quickly towards her from the side, metal sword in hand as he jumped into the air. The queen still appeared to be locked on me, but suddenly stopped and shifted just slightly. My visual senses translated the movement, but not quite in time.
"Trunks watch out!" I shouted. Trunks kept pressing, but was caught in midair by the queen's good arm, which sent him flying, sword falling harmlessly to the side. Damnit, her senses are excellent. Fighting her is going to be a bit more difficult without energy. We gotta find that damn ki dampener. The queen had now turned around and set her sights on Trunks, who was still a bit stunned, lying in the snow.
"Hey bitch, over here!" I shouted at her. She barely acknowledged my presence now, still marching towards Trunks, who froze just a bit in surprise. I didn't bother waiting to see if he would recover and ran through the snow as best I could to take her by surprise. She swung with her dismembered arm, which sailed just short when I ducked out of the way. I rolled back when her good arm clawed at me, leaving a gaping hole around her large midsection. I jumped at the chance and landed a stiff punch there. I landed and watched her stumble backwards, but then recover and hiss back. Big shocker there, this one makes the others seem like nothing. I lowered into a guard stance as I back stepped cautiously, I didn't need to be making any careless mistakes now. Trunks had now recovered and was creeping up from behind, but was mimicking my action of staying on guard. The queen hissed at both of us, but hesitated on which to go after. She backed off a bit and turned slightly as we closed in to keep her guessing, eventually putting both of us in front of her to either side.
"How should we do this?" Trunks asked once he was close enough.
"Carefully. As you can see, she makes the others look extremely weak," I warned.
"Yeah no kidding! For a second there I thought she broke a rib! But Dad still hits harder!" he said with a cocky grin.
"I'm sure, but don't get overconfident since we're not exactly in top form either. You go in on the right while I take the left, but only counter attack when the time is right; don't rush into it!" I ordered.
"Hey, I know how to fight! Just don't screw up your part and make me do all the work!" he snapped back. I rolled my eyes slightly at this; it wasn't entirely unexpected after all. The queen continued to hiss and screech as we closed in slowly, watching for any sudden movement. Trunks suddenly veered off before anything happened though.
"Trunks, where are you going?" I rasped at him.
"I'm gonna get my new sword back so I can slice off her head! You can hold her down!" Trunks said as he turned his back. The queen didn't even have to think about things and moved towards him swiftly. I ran after her as Trunks nearly reached the metal sword. He spun when he heard the massive beast coming and dodged her attack, which threw a large amount of snow up everywhere.
"Awww, where'd it go?" he cried out as he brushed the cold white off himself.
"Focus on the moment Trunks. We'll get your precious toy back later!" I yelled, getting the queen's attention again. She stomped in my direction, bearing down as I sunk back into stance. She swung with her good arm first, missing but throwing up even more snow to cloud the area. The white mist fogged up in front of me, enshrouding the beast.
"Hey Verto, I found it!" Trunks shouted. My eyes shifted by reaction, and that was enough to throw me off guard for the moment. The queen's tail came swinging in from the left, striking my side. I landed sideways in the snow before getting up in slight anger. Not at the beast, nor myself, but at Trunks for continuing to play this like a kid's game.
"I got you now freak show!" Trunks shouted as he charged with the sword in hand. The queen was surprisingly crouched down, with her left arm in the snow.
"Watch it Trunks!" I warned. The queen lifted up and a large amount of snow clouded the air once again, confusing Trunks when he got most of it in his face. Damn this thing is smart; clouding our senses helps against any counter attacks we make. Trunks was picked out of the air by a large claw, planting him into the snow again. The queen screeched before stomping away again.
"Oh man, that wasn't supposed to happen!" Trunks groaned as he recovered.
"No kidding, now quit acting like this is a game. We have to stop that thing here and now! Powers or not, I'm not going to be fighting off millions of her children!" I growled.
"Okay, Okay!" Trunks said, as he finally seemed to concentrate on the dire situation and re-sheathed his sword. I shook my head slightly; the ease of defeating her spawn before had led him into a false sense of security. The queen meanwhile was in hot pursuit of an incredibly frightened Dr. Redwood. Trunks and I started running after her, but with the deep snow and her apparent ground speed we were not going to catch up quickly enough. She roared and chased him down as he fled towards the large boat nearby. Just as she was only a few feet away, she stopped for some reason and glanced upwards. She went down hard when a small vehicle plowed into her, completely out of control. I looked over to see Vegeta standing there, holding his bad shoulder in pain. Even injured he makes an impact. The queen managed to move the ATV off before getting up and plaguing the air with her lack of language.
"You'll have to do a lot better than that to defeat us!" Vegeta roared with pride as he strode towards her large form. With Trunks and I closing in, this backed the queen up towards the ship, and also into a fleeing Dr. Redwood, whom she grabbed with her large hand. Trunks jumped to run to his aid, but I managed to grab his arm when I saw the queen's positioning. As Redwood struggled to maneuver out of her tight grip, she turned towards us and opened her mouth wide. Instead of piercing the air with sound again, that weird second set of jaws appeared again, right behind Redwood's head. He froze in fear when he felt the hot breath on the back of his neck.
"Back off Trunks!" I rasped as I did so.
"But why?"
"It's called a hostage, now shut up and do it!" The queen seemed satisfied once he stopped his advance and turned to Vegeta with the same threat. I knew Vegeta though, and at this point Redwood was as good as dead.
"You think I care about that measly human at all?" Vegeta growled as he continued marching on her. The jaws opened wide and slid forward just a bit, only inches away from his neck. Redwood visibly broke down, the amount of fear running through his head was overwhelming him and he began to pray to random beings.
"Go ahead and kill him, see if it matters! Your kind is still going to be wiped out today!" Vegeta cocked a grin.
"Vegeta!" Bulma shouted angrily from her position near the other vehicles.
"Shut up woman! The damned thing can't be reasoned with anyway!" he shouted back. And a timely spat, as always. As husband and wife bickered for a few moments, Redwood managed to slip free briefly, before the queen snatched him up again and hissed into his face. Then she leaned down towards his chest and stared at it in intrigue, before hissing again. Uh oh.
"She's realized I killed the one inside, let's go!" I shouted as I ran forward to stop her. The queen didn't pause this time, and a large splatter of red filled the air before coloring the snow with Redwood's insides. She had pierced right through his whole chest cavity, leaving a hole large enough to toss a Frisbee through. Trunks stopped in pure surprise to the scene, while his father shared an equally perplexed expression, in his own way. I didn't look over, but I had a pretty good idea what Bulma's facial features looked like. The muffled scream confirmed it. I stared at the ground as my fist shook a bit in frustration. I knew getting angry wasn't going to help, but that didn't stop the rage from building. There wasn't any power building from it either, thus there was no true advantage, but right now I just didn't care. It didn't help matters when the broken body landed at my feet a moment later, with the sound of a challenging screech filling the air. It did stop me from thinking through this logically.
"Trunks," I said softly.
"What is it, do you have a plan?" he asked.
"Yeah I do. Kill it!" I shouted as I charged forward.
-
I dashed in quickly, only to receive a nasty claw swipe to the face when my punch missed. I landed on a knee and jumped up to land a kick to the large alien's head. She stumbled but swung back, hitting me all over with a single hit. I winced as I crashed into the side of the ship, knowing what Trunks found out earlier, the hard way. Trunks took the opportunity to grab the alien's tail and attempt to swing her around. The queen curled it back and bashed Trunks in the body, putting him in the snow once again. She spun to see Vegeta's vicious right hand knock her down. He landed painfully as he continued to hold his left shoulder protectively, but stood his ground as the alien recovered. She stomped forward quickly and swiped at him, missing the first time when he jumped, but not the second when he couldn't protect his left side. Vegeta groaned loudly with pain that I didn't want to imagine.
I got back to my feet and stomped forward, stopping when I set my eyes on the fallen ATV. The queen had her back turned again on top of a taller snow bank, giving me the silent go signal. I stepped lightly and turned enough to line up with the queen and the vehicle, adjusting my aim while she hissed at the other two Saiyans. I grabbed the ATV by the rear part of the motor, trying not to break anything as I hoisted it off the ground while bent down next to it. The queen made no notice and I quickly spun and threw the broken vehicle straight at her. She turned as she likely sensed it through the air, but was unable to avoid it completely. It caught her in the side, putting her on the ground momentarily, but out of my sight. I ran up the small hill, only to stop in my tracks when the same ATV came flying back into my face. It struck and took me with it to the ground, but this time it fell apart partially, its durability wearing thin. I cringed slightly from the light pain before ripping one of the tires off and hurling that instead. She deflected the tire easily, but took a kick to the back from Trunks as result. When she managed to get him off, I tossed another tire. This time Vegeta jumped at the chance, but still she took the brunt of the assault without much visible effort. Man, it's like fighting a damn tank with your arms tied. I ripped out what was left of the axel and considered throwing the engine at her instead. When I literally saw its remnants crumbling, I growled angrily and threw it backwards towards the ship, accidentally taking out the boarding ramp instead.
"Hey! Watch where your throwing things! We want to be able to leave here ya know!" Bulma shouted at me. I ignored this for the most part and took the long pipe part of the axel with me towards the queen, who was fending off Trunks and Vegeta surprisingly well, though they were not attacking together. I charged in and leapt into the air just as she knocked them both away with her tail. She spun just in time to receive a pipe blow to the face. I spun and swung it into her backside next, sending her tail into a flailing frenzy as she crashed into the snow. I jumped on top and prepared the finishing blow for the back of her head. She shifted, throwing my balance off and I fell into the cold snow. I dropped the pipe in the process, but managed to get to my feet and grab the upper part of the tail, rather than the lower like Trunks had done earlier. She screeched and reached for my own leg, grabbing it and tugging hard. I lost my grip in surprise and was flung back towards the ship, crashing into the wall next to the battered ramp and vehicle.
"Damnit!" I groaned by reaction as I held my aching head. It filled with a ringing sound as expected, but it sounded different than a typical massive migraine. I glanced over and saw a tiny set of blue flashing lights blinking at me from under the smashed ramp. No way, right under our noses? I dashed over and pulled the source out of the snow. It was a small and rounded off pylon crystal with machinery wired into it. I hadn't seen the devices that the Protoss had used before other than the ki collars, so I wasn't sure what to expect. There was also a large switch on it, marked with settings of "on" and "off". I flipped the switch and watched as the device whirred to sleep, shutting off the lighting in the process. My body jerked by reaction when I felt a flood of energy pouring back in, though it was a bit slow. It was my missing ki coming back, and I wasn't the only one who felt it. Vegeta was laughing as he got to his feet slowly, his aura shining brightly. Trunks was also on his feet, and was now sporting a golden hue. He looked furious, probably at his own mistakes during the fight. And he likely knew that Vegeta was going to chew him out for it later in training. His blood raging scream got the queen's attention as she stared down a Super Saiyan with a shining sword. He charged in quickly, overtaking the queen in less than a second and flooring her with a fist to the midsection. The queen bounced off the wasteland snow from the vicious attack, clearly feeling the difference in Trunks now. He chased her down and kicked her into the air and then intercepting the large alien and bashing her back into the surface. Trunks stayed in midair for a brief moment before his aura lit up the sky with channeled fury. The swirl of golden fury streaked towards the alien with murderous intent. The queen scrambled to her two feet, but it was already over. Trunks sliced clean right through her large head diagonally, leaving a unique looking scar as half of it fell off. The sword disintegrated from the acid blood, which only seemed to anger him more. He glided backwards for a brief moment before pulling his arms back above and behind his head, charging a mean blue colored attack.
"Buster Cannon!" he shouted as he brought it forward. The alien's remains vanished along with the snow with the explosion, leaving a brown but still somewhat frozen crater.
-
Trunks recovered slowly from his blast, but more likely due to transforming with an angry burst. As he landed and let the situation dawn on him, his mood quickly lightened.
"Yeah, take that! I saved the day! Oh yeah! I'm totally awesome!" he celebrated while Vegeta growled at him a bit.
"Well Mister totally awesome, perhaps you can fight every battle by yourself next time. I'm sure none of them will require our pathetic abilities!" Vegeta said smugly, silencing Trunks as I walked up.
"Well, here it is," I said as I allowed Vegeta to eyeball the modified Protoss technology as Bulma came closer.
"It's smaller than I thought it would be. Since its partially made with Earth technology, I assumed there would have been a large transmitter or something," Bulma noted.
"It matters not; destroy it!" Vegeta ordered. I nodded in approval, but Bulma grabbed it from my hands.
"Hold on there. We could examine this to better discover the mystery behind this whole ordeal. I'd like to know why we were left for dead after all," Bulma explained.
"I thought you said you already knew who was behind it?" Vegeta barked.
"Generally, it might not be as big of an operation as I originally thought. It may only involve a few key members of their organization. Patience Vegeta, this will require patience," she replied coolly.
"Whatever, fix this shoulder boy!" he ordered me.
"I can't yet. We're still too close to the temple; I still can't feel any Psi energy. That stone fell apart and I doubt it would have held up to a healing job anyway, that takes a lot of energy and it's a bit risky," I said.
"What do you mean by risky?" Bulma asked. I sighed; I still hadn't mentioned the possibility of mutations caused by my powers yet. It wasn't something I was very comfortable talking about, even though the warning from Old Kai was very real. I had already seen a change in Bulma, and it wasn't because she was finally over being pregnant again. It was like her age had partially reversed and she was back into her prime, not that she had really left it, but there was a difference. Vegeta noticed my hesitation, but only glared at me to answer.
"Old Kai mentioned that my powers might induce some sort of random mutation in those weaker than myself. He didn't specify, but I think at least a few people are already affected by it. That goes for Gohan too," I explained.
"What?" Vegeta shouted.
"Well are they good or bad effects?" Bulma asked nervously.
"Like I said, random. I just don't know, but when I cured Viro's virus, I think it kicked in. You mentioned that everyone's immune system kicked into overdrive right?" I asked.
"Yeah, but I just figured that since the immune system is always overactive during and shortly after illness anyway, that all those other viral strains were nearly wiped out. That and Viro's little bug pretty much destroyed every cell in the body, including other bacteria and such. Are you saying your healing trick can cause adverse conditions?" she asked.
"Not just that. I think just being in my proximity can do it over time, and as I said, same thing for Gohan. I'm not sure who all has been affected other than that little change you mentioned, but I know you have been at least," I replied, pointing at Bulma.
"How so?" she asked, slightly alarmed along with Vegeta.
"Feeling a little younger?" I asked sharply, causing them both to gasp.
"That's what it was?" Bulma shrieked slightly as she glanced over her body.
Vegeta glanced over her briefly before turning back to me, "You say you don't know the extent of these mutations? Can it affect Saiyans as well?" he asked, looking a little distraught.
"I would imagine it's possible, have you noticed anything?" I asked. His gaze went to his injured shoulder, which he was no longer holding so protectively. He then ripped off the wrapping, revealing a still very battered and reddened shoulder, but nothing close to what I thought for an acid splash. Scar tissue had filled in, and there was just barely a hint of residual scarring and blisters left over. At worst I would have expected a few days of downtime out of what I now saw.
"It's barely touched compared to earlier! He was lucky it didn't melt his arm completely off, how the hell did it heal so fast?" Bulma asked. I sighed slightly, and Vegeta's question was also answered.
"It started on the way back from Planet Auir. It isn't anything like that regeneration we saw out of the Zerg infested Saiyans, but my wounds heal much faster than any Saiyan's should, especially the minor ones. Until you shut that thing off, it was dragging me down in that fight. Now that my energy has returned, the pain has lessened by quite a bit," Vegeta explained.
"Well, I can't complain! At least I'm keeping this body for a long while if I stick around you kid. I won't get any younger will I?" she asked, hopeful.
"I have no idea, its not like I can control it," I replied, staring at the ground slightly.
"Can't you just suppress your energy then?" Vegeta asked.
"Problem is when I might have to use it, and we don't actually know if suppressing it makes any difference. I would think yes, but again, I don't know," I said, exasperated.
"Hey, when do I get a cool new power?" Trunks piped up suddenly.
"Shut up boy!" Vegeta growled back.
"Well I suppose we better call the cleanup crew for this mess, no need to leave all this equipment out. Still, I'm curious about sticking around for a while longer," Bulma added.
"For what?" Vegeta grunted.
"Well, we never saw the other aliens that were mentioned down there. And Gates specifically said that it was their heat bloom that lured us here, so where are they?" she asked. Vegeta glanced towards me as I thought this over, but I knew less than he did about it.
"Well I know I never saw anything other than those statues down there. Maybe they just never arrived or something," I said.
"I'm not so sure, when I first detected the temple, a few proximity sensors went off from one of the satellites. It vanished only a few minutes afterwards and I still hadn't figured out what it was. Then I detected the heat bloom not long afterwards. Actually there were two, one in space and the other was here. The one in space vanished quickly though, that's why I didn't pay it any mind, probably just some solar debris or something," Bulma noted. I stared at her wide-eyed, alarmed at this.
"That wasn't anywhere near any close asteroids was it?" I asked.
"Maybe, but I think it was a little closer to one of them, but it was gone so quick that I don't recall," she replied. I sighed slightly, but kept silent on what might have happened. The second heat bloom was not something they would have caused; it was Gohan's fault. When I had been attempting to track a nearby asteroid for him to blow up, they must have gotten in the way somehow when he fired his blast. I guess I can always hope that the rest of their people assume the worst and never come back. Blowing up their temple would probably help. I needn't worry about that little detail; Vegeta was always up to the task of destroying property. With that thought safely tucked away, Bulma called her own employees to clean up the mass of equipment while Vegeta turned the temple into ashes with his Big Bang attack.
A/N: For those wondering what you "missed" that last part was it. Seems so blatantly obvious now doesn't it? I was never planning to bring the predators in, and if that's what everyone was hoping for, too bad! I'll let the AVP guys ruin both stories on their own, and that's quite a shame in and of itself since I love seeing different kinds of aliens trashing each other. Obviously that means I'm not doing anything with the AVP sequel either. This was specifically meant as an intro to the next series of events.