Chapter 3: Face Off

Lord Slug sat on his chair, elevated on top of his four-tiered pedestal. He overlooked his command room, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of his workers carrying out their duties. Monitors and screens displayed information on the progress of his terra-freezing operation. Everything had been going mostly as planned. The overlord reached out for his pills in the bowl right next to his chair. He grabbed a large handful, and one at a time stuffed them through his lips. He crunched down on them, enjoying the sensation of them popping in his mouth, releasing their contents. They had a very chalky texture, and a not so savory taste. He wore a large dark cloak that hung from his shoulders and reached all the way down to his feet. The cloaks hood covered his head, making his face hard to make out. The Namekian slowly rose from his chair and made his way steadily down the steps. Once at the base of the steps he walked over to the main control monitor, manned by a small, large-eyed, green creature.

"How much longer is it going to take?" Lord Slug inquired.

"From current estimates, I'd say at least three more days. If we could get that other pod up and running, we could cut the time by half a day. The team sent to repair it hasn't reported in for quite some time," the minion answered.

"Hmm…if they don't report in within the next hour, send out another unit to make sure everything is fine. I won't let some stupid hiccup like a downed pod slow this operation down."

"I will, my lord."

Bardock and his crew flew full speed towards the horizon, waiting for the next city to appear. Their power levels were raised to nearly full power, not caring if anyone sensed them, or knew if they were coming. None of them cared about being subtle, they just wanted a good fight. Bardock was hoping Lord Slug was as powerful as his minion had boasted. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt such excitement. He imagined the titanic battle they would have, testing all the limits of his body, mind, and spirit, and at the end standing on top of one of his greatest victories. The scarred warrior let out a small sigh, knowing that his wish probably wouldn't come true. His new enemy would just be all talk and no show, not even worthy to receive the death of a warrior. Suddenly their destination came into view. It resembled all the other destroyed cities they had seen on the planet.

"This must be it," Tora exclaimed.

Suddenly, the scouters started reading power levels nearby, giving an idea of the challenge that lay ahead.

"Their power levels are nothing," Shugesh paused. "Wait, one's over twenty thousand!"

Finally, someone who could challenge me, Bardock thought.

"He's mine," Bardock said quickly before anyone else could.

"Bardock, maybe we should work together. That's a huge power level," Tora said with concern.

"No, he's mine!" Bardock said as he twisted his body, looking back at Tora with a scowl.

"They're right ahead," Fasha said as the group started to fly over the massive city.

"That must be their ship," Borgos said as it came into view.

The ship was huge, large enough to fit hundreds of personnel. It was mostly purple, with a few areas black and grey. The ship had four huge legs, which it used for landing gear and keeping itself firmly dug into the ground. Outside the ship, hundreds of white-armored aliens were stationed. Most of them were attending to crab-like machines; each mechanical driller had a huge, grey hose protruding from it and was tunneling down into the planet.

"Borgos, Fasha, I want the two of you to flank from the left. Shugesh, smash them from the right. Tora, you're with me," Bardock commanded.

"Go!" Bardock ordered over his comm, as he and Tora launched themselves towards the mysterious ship.

Energy started to crackle and form around Bardock's hands, as he decided what he was going to blast to hell first. A few of the drilling machines caught his attention, and he let loose two long streams of energy towards their direction. Both blasts hit their attended targets, causing bodies to go flying everywhere. Tora soon started following Bardock's example, firing red hot blasts into the armored soldiers, trying to kill as many as possible. From his position, Bardock could see the rest of his men join the fray, each attacking from the flanks as ordered. Continuing the bombardment, Bardock led Tora closer to the encampment. The minions ran franticly from the explosions, tripping and stumbling over each other while desperately trying to escape the assault. Once out of harm's way they returned fire, each raising their arms up towards the Saiyans, firing yellow blasts at them in rapid succession. Bardock and Tora headed towards them, blocking and dodging their fire. They hit the ground together, generating a tidal wave of force sending troopers flying everywhere.

"Take out those machines," Bardock ordered with a quick finger pointing towards one of the drills.

"On it," Tora said as he flew off to carry out his orders.

Bardock charged a large group of soldiers that had already been making their way towards him. He unleashed a salvo of kicks and punches at the men, each landing on their marks, sending them to their graves. Troopers pouring out of the purple ship caught his attention for a second. An angry look gripped his face; he didn't want more peons to fight. He wanted their master, the real challenge. The huge group started spreading out, some headed towards his teammates, but most towards him. The lead soldier jumped up, trying to kick Bardock, and was stopped with a fierce upper cut that sent the soldier into the air. Bardock closelined the next two, ripping off their helmets, nearly taking their heads off with them. A few more men tried to overpower Bardock with sloppy punches and kicks, which the Saiyan easily blocked, and sent them to the ground with pinpoint punches. He knew taking these idiots out one or two at a time was going to take too long. He didn't have forever, and he just wanted to get to the real fight. He started to back up in a defensive position, allowing the troopers to surround him. Energy started to swirl and flicker as an aura began to form around the warrior. He brought his arms into his body and crouched down. His muscles flexed as tension started to grow. He closed his eyes, letting his Saiyan instincts take over, knowing they would let him know when to let loose his attack. He could hear the footsteps of the enemy moving around him, closing in.

Just a little longer, he thought to himself.

Finally the moment was right. Bardock quickly sprang upwards from his balled up position, throwing his arms up to the sky. He screamed, letting all the energy he had been building up go. A brilliant light came from Bardock, illuminating the entire battle field. He could feel all the energy he had been collecting being ignited from within his body, producing a hurricane of force and energy. A wall of blue energy erupted from Bardock's body, incinerating all the soldiers that had gathered around him.

Lord Slug stood at the zenith of his ship's ramp, observing the battle. A look of disapproval formed on his face. His men's numbers were dwindling down. He didn't care for the pointless lives of his weak soldiers that had died; his only true concern was himself and his ship. The old Namekian grumbled something to himself and began stumped down the ramp, intent on destroying the intruders.

Fasha and Borgos crushed and smashed their way through the few remaining lines of enemies. Their scouters went off, alerting them to the massive power level heading their way. Before they could react, a barrage of energy spheres came pouring down on top of them. Borgos took the brunt of the attack, shredding his armor and leaving him incapacitated. Fasha had jumped out of the way, avoiding the majority of the blast. Her eyes grew big as she frantically looked around for her attacker. A lightning fast punch came, striking the female Saiyan in the face. She shook off the blow and tried to counter with a strong kick to the hooded figure. He effortlessly blocked her kick and sent an upper cut to her stomach, cracking her armor and sending little bits falling to the ground. She hunched over and stumbled back a few steps. Slug advanced forward until he towered over her, and brought down his green fist down on her head, knocking her out.

Next, Shugesh fired a powerful wave of charged up energy towards Lord Slug. At the last second the energy caught the green commander's attention, allowing him to block the blast, sending it soaring off into the distance. Lord Slug ascended into the air, shooting two pulsating spheres at Shugesh. The heavy Saiyan threw his arms up, trying to block the energy, but was overcome by its power and it sent him hurling into the dirt. The Namek followed with a series of rapid blasts into Shugesh, taking him out of the battle.

Saiyans, Lord Slug thought to himself, glancing indifferently as the bodies on the ground. Then he searched for his next victim.

Tora and Bardock hovered a few feet over the ground farther off, surrounded by a graveyard of enemy troopers. Bardock turned on his scouter, searching for his prized fight. His device started going off in his ear, warning him of the huge power coming his way. The warning came too late. The scarred warrior took a quick blow to the head, sending him to frozen terrain.

"Bardock!" Tora exclaimed.

Lord Slug advanced quickly towards Tora, firing off a barrage of punches. Tora quickly blocked them and released his own bombardment of blows, but none of them reached their mark. Back and forth they exchanged blows, as the two worked their way down to the ground, both landing on their feet. The effort of keeping pace with the Namek rapidly took its toll. He could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead and his arms fatiguing. A fast blow hit Tora in the stomach and stunned him. Lord Slug raised his hands above his head and brought his fists together. He released a titanic blow on Tora's head, planting him into the ground.

"That was easy," the wrinkly-faced warrior said, as a smile of satisfaction found its way to his face.

Bardock laid in the dirt with his eyes closed, dazed by his attacker. His head throbbed with pain and blood slowly dripped down from the side of his face, making its way down his neck. He stumbled his way to his feet. In his hazy vision he saw his men scattered around, all incapacitated, with Lord Slug standing Tora.

"Get away from him!" Bardock screamed, trying to get his attention.

The Namek turned towards Bardock and started advancing towards him slowly.

"I thought you were dead, Saiyan," Slug said, looking into the Bardock's eyes. "I'm not sure why you've come, but I'm making sure you never leave."

"All you need to know is I'm here to end you!"

"You, end me? You must be joking; you're in no position to threaten me," The Namek said with a chuckle and a confident half-smile. His expression quickly became serious. "Your entire race is weak. You and your men are pathetic. How could you ever hope to challenge me?"

How dare you laugh at me? Bardock thought to himself as a scorching rage began to ignite within him.

"No one makes fun of me!" the Saiyan said as he clenched his fists and began to slowly power up.

Blue flares of energy began to engulf him as he could feel his rage fuel his power. A sense of excitement started to build in him, knowing he was finally going to get the battle he had been craving. Finally someone to test his limits.

"Power up all you want—in the end I'm going to break you," Lord Slug said, not in the least concerned with the threat the Saiyan posed.

"You can try!" Bardock shouted defiantly.

Bardock headed for Lord Slug at full speed, hoping to catch him off guard. A right arm came swinging at the green Namek's head. His fist came crashing into his large chin, shoving him back a few steps.

"Is that all you've got?" Slug said with a grin on his face. "Let me show you how it's done."

A barrage of punches and kicks came flying at Bardock. He blocked the first few attacks, but was overpowered and fell back after a couple of the attacks hit their mark. The Saiyan repositioned and came at him with a jump kick to the face, connecting and sending him sailing back into the ground. The scarred warrior jumped up into the sky and took up a position twenty yards over the Namek. He unleashed a volley of blue spheres down on his enemy. The armored warrior poured massive amounts of his energy into every blast, knowing they were all hitting their intended target. The Saiyan smiled as he witnessed the explosions on the ground. His confidence grew with every blast. He breathed heavily as he stopped his attack. He could feel fatigue start to set in, but not to the point where it concerned him. He hoped the attack was enough to do serious damage, but not enough to end the fight, as he wanted it to continue. From the dust a blurred object came soaring out, headed towards him. Bardock could feel excitement wash over him, happy that his opponent hadn't gone down so easily. The old fighter landed a quick knee to Bardock's stomach causing him to hunch over, exposing the back of his neck. A couple blows to the back of his head sent him falling down to the planet. A smirk formed on Lord Slug's face as he watched his opponent crash into the ground.

"That was a nice attack. I can feel the fire of youth in you," Lord Slug said as he made his way down towards the Saiyan and landed a good distance away from him.

Bardock slowly made his way to his hands and knees. His eyes slowly opened, revealing the hard, iced-over ground that had broken his fall. He brought his head up, focusing on the old Namekian.

"I'm just happy you're not a pushover like I thought you'd be. You're the first in a long time who's posed any real challenge, even though you're old as hell."

"I might be old, Saiyan, but I'm still going to erase you from existence."

"Well, I'm still here. So far it looks like you're failing!" Bardock shouted as he came to one knee and started to get up.

Lord Slug brought his hands together, palms facing his opponent and began to charge a ki blast.

"This will erase you, boy," the old Namekian said, unleashing his charged-up energy.

The flare of yellow ripped through the air. Adrenaline filled Bardock's body at the sight of the massive blast. His Saiyan instincts forced him to stand his ground, knowing he could over power the blast, or at least thinking he could. He firmly planted his feet into the ground and started pouring energy into his arms, focusing the ki into his hands. He pushed his hands forward towards the Namek, unleashing a high-concentrated beam of blue energy. The two beams of energy collided with each other, bringing them to a halt. An energy wave moved out from the impact of the two streams destroying everything around the epicenter. Colors of blinding blue and yellow flashes lit up the battlefield. The two combatants continued to push their beams of energy into one another, each trying to overpower the other. Bardock clenched his teeth, trying to focus everything he could on this clash, knowing he had to win it. Sweat started to rain down from his head, and his body began to feel drained. His drive for victory pushed him on, overcoming any doubt of losing he had, giving him confidence and strength.

I'm going win this, Bardock thought to himself.

Lord Slug held back energy from his blast, planning to let the Saiyan wear himself out and to fool him into a false hope that he could win. As much as this scrappy Saiyan warrior wanted this battle to last, Lord Slug did too. He had no desire to completely over power him and end this now. It made him feel young again, something he hadn't felt in over a century. Knowing he was in control gave him a smug feeling that he loved, and knowing his enemy had no true hope of winning satisfied something dark inside of him.

The energy being pushed together began to swell, growing increasingly bigger in the center of the warrior's beam clash. Suddenly, the bulge of energy became unstable causing a violent explosion. Both aliens were hit with the force of the energy, causing them to fly back and land on the cold ground.

Bardock laid on his back; his entire body was in pain from the blast. He could feel his heart pumping hard, letting him know he was still alive. His ears rang as he started to get up to his feet. He was met with a strong punch to the face, sending him back into the ground. He rolled over on his back and saw the ancient Namek standing over him.

"You look a little roughed up. Are you able to continue, or should I just end this now?" The Namek said as he crossed his arms.

"It'll take more than that to beat me," he replied as he worked his way to his feet.

"Good," The Namek said with a huge smile, as he took a few steps back.

The Namek clenched his fists and crouched into a defensive stance. An aura escaped from his body and began to surround him. Slowly he began to grow. His limbs elongated, making him taller; his chest and shoulders expanded, making him thicker. Soon he was triple his size.

Bardock's eyes grew large, taking in the intimidating sight. Lord Slug continued to grow, reaching ten times his original size. The Saiyan's jaw started to sag down, in shock of this transformation. He now towered over Bardock, and by his estimates he was about as big as he was when he became an Oozaru. Stunned, Bardock could only watch as a fist bigger then he was crashed into him. The blow sent him skipping on the ground, like a flat, smooth stone on water, landing hard into a pile of rubble. The gigantic Namek sent several spheres of energy into the terrain, trying to break up the rocks and hopefully hit his adversary. Bardock broke free from the rocks, avoiding the attack, and headed towards the Namek. He fired off a storm of energy beams, all hitting the large figure in the chest, shoulder, and head. Smoke from the blast collected around the Namek, blocking Bardock's sight of him.

"Pathetic. You'll have to do better than that," a deep voice said through the mist.

The enlarged warrior busted through the smoke, landed next to the Saiyan, and snatched him up into his hands.

"Let's see how strong you really are," Lord Slug sneered, as a twisted smile crawled onto his face.

Bardock could feel the huge hands around him, enveloping his body. The green digits flexed, trying to get a good grip. He could feel the each finger putting pressure upon his body. The large Namek's smile morphed into an intense glare pointed at the scarred warrior. The massive hands began to squeeze, causing pain to shoot through Bardock's body. His legs pressed together; he could feel them bending and almost breaking under the stress. His shoulders and chest were peppered with pain. He could hear his joints cracking and popping from the pressure. Bardock lowered his head and clenched his teeth as he bared the pain.

I know there's a moon right above me. If there wasn't that stupid black cloud, I could transform and beat this guy, Bardock thought.

His head raised up to the sky, pupils dilated, looking and hoping desperately for a hole in the clouds. He was met with nothing but dense billows in the sky. Panic began to poison his mind, and he could feel the foreign sense of fear crawl into the crevices of his cognizance. He gave a loud scream, fighting himself internally and trying not to give in to defeat.

The pain in his body and mind became hard for him to bare. It was like a wave of water hitting him over and over, keeping him paralyzed and pinned to his doubt. He knew he had to do something or this would be the end of him. He closed his eyes and dug deep within himself. Ki started to seep out of his body. He channelled the energy into his muscles and began to push against the enormous hands. He poured all his effort and strength into breaking the iron grip of Lord Slug. The fingers started to slightly lose their grip. Inch by inch he pushed them back. Every part of his body was in pain, but he did what he could to numb it out, and focus on the task at hand. He grunted and let out another powerful scream, pushing the hand a little more apart. He had gained hope back, but his body began to fatigue. He and the massive hands were at a standstill; neither being able to gain an advantage.

No, I can't give up! I can't give in! he thought as the hands once again started to close on him.

He could feel his body being crushed once again. His aura began to fade as his reserves start to empty. He couldn't believe he was in this constricted situation, how could he let this old Namek over power him. He screamed with frustration as his options started to fade. He needed to think of something fast, before he completely ran out of time and energy. He could feel his body starting to break under the pressure, and knew that he would only last a few seconds longer.

"Bardock!" Tora cried out as he fired off a gigantic energy blast at the towering Namek.

The blast smashed into Slug, causing him to lose his grip on Bardock. The scarred Saiyan hit the ground, and quickly rolled away from the green overlord. Tora fired off more ki beams, all hitting their target, drawing the Namekian's attention. Tora's face turned to panic as his eyes took in the intimidating figure running right for him.

This is my chance! I need to think of something, Bardock thought as he watched Tora trying to fight off Lord Slug's attacks from the ground. He's not going to last long. What can I do?

"Damn it," Bardock said as he hit his fist to the ground in frustration. "If it wasn't for those damn clouds..."

Then he paused, glancing up again at the swirling, dark mass overhead.

I got it!

Bardock slowly staggered up to his feet, and gathered what little power he had left in his body. He looked up to the black sky and took off, speeding upwards towards the clouds.

The overlord threw Tora across the battlefield into a wall of rocks. He began to charge Tora's unconscious body, ready to kill him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the scarred Saiyan flying upwards, which caught his attention. In confusion he stopped his charge half way though, turned his body, and watched as Bardock flew into the dark clouds, disappearing from sight.

"Where are you going?" Lord Slug said puzzled.

He continued looking up towards the clouds, waiting for the Saiyan to re-emerge.

The dark dense clouds that Bardock had went into started to swirl and shift. Lord Slug could see something in the mist, but couldn't make out any of its dimensions. A large portion of the clouds started to make its way downward, surrounding and hiding the thing's slow descent. The vapors started to slowly break apart from the entity. He could begin to see furry bits and pieces of the now obviously massive creature. A pair of red, haunting eyes pierced through the blackness and a loud roar came bellowing out of the clouds, as the monster finally revealed itself: An Oozaru clad in expanded Saiyan armor.

Now for revenge, Bardock thought, as his massive new body began to make its rapid descent towards the old Namek.

Jason9000: Thanks for the input. Lord Slug is still old and slow, even though he's a super Namek I think at his advanced age Bardock woud stand a fair chance against him.

Treeger: Good point about Borgos being the silent type. I mostly gave him a few lines so everyone on Bardock's team talked, making the story not solely about Bardock. I've always been interested in Bardock's team and kind of wanted to give each of them a little more depth, even though it's nothing too deep in this story. Thanks for your feedback.